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| Home | |
| Downloads | |
| Demon: | |
| Introduction | |
| Dreamcatcher: | |
| Introduction | |
| Skyfall | |
| Ocean Dreams | |
| Pit of Stars | |
| Evermeet | |
| Shadowlords: | |
| Introduction | |
| The Message | |
| Hill's Edge | |
| Skull Gorge | |
| The Bone Miners | |
| Enter the Shadow | |
| 12-8-02 |
Somehow, I'm managing to continue working on the game in between chasing my four-year-old and taking care of my
wife who continues to have morning sickness. I finished the next to the last area in a way that was most satisfactory.
It had the potential for being boring, but I managed to "spiff it up" to the point where you have many choices
and the chance to find one of the more interesting weapons in the game. I also did some bug testing this morning
and squashed a few more of them. The weirdest was one where you'd jump to a cutscene, but upon your return to the game
your henchman would be missing. My solution was to remove and rejoin the henchman, but during testing it ended up
having wacky results. The closest NPC would join you when you returned, much to my surprise. Fortunately, it was easy
to fix that one and the transition works much better now.
I've had fun incorporating some of the oriental weapons into the game, hopefully giving it a bit of flavor. I've got one more area to finish up, as well as a final cutscene. Then there's the general henchmen dialog to put in, though I've already got it in during key points in the game. And then testing. Lots of testing. On another note, I'm a few hundred downloads away from the first Shadowlords module having a chance at the Hall of Fame. Ten thousand downloads are amazing to me, and I'd like to thank all of you who helped out. Sam just found me and is demanding to play Jedi Knight, so I'm signing off for now.  |
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| 12-3-02 |
Progress continues. I have two or three main areas to script, with about 2/3 (or more) already done. I put in
the main NPCs yesterday, making sure their portraits were in the hak pack and their skills, gear, and stats were
all appropriate for level 8. The three faces of Nooble are still in (good, evil, and clueless), with the evil
Nooble being the most fun to write for. I still have lots of dialog and flavor text to put in, even after all
of the main area scripting. It's amazing to me how little generic combat is in the game. There's combat alright,
but it's more of an alternative problem solving technique than a required activity. While I'm not sure you could
go the entire module without any combat, it may be possible to avoid large portions of it. That's not to say that
this module is boring. There are definately moments of surprise and awe. There are still a few things that I
enjoy running through a second time just to see what it looks like.
As for putting an estimate on when I'll be done, it's hard to say. I'm leaning towards the end of this month, though it depends a bit on scheduling the testers around the holidays. We'll see. |
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| 11-29-02 |
I'm embarrased to say that I'm spending much of my Thanksgiving vacation working on the new campaign. Virtually
every encounter is scripted, making it very time consuming to build and test. I'm really pushing the boundaries
of what's possible, which makes things difficult as well. Still, there are many really cool events that happen,
hopefully making for an exceptionally cool story. I've tried to put in much roleplaying as well, with the evil
options being quite well developed. Without resorting to spoilers, there's one completely optional thing that you can
get that makes playing evil quite a bit of fun.
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| 11-24-02 |
After two full years of planning and building, the Shadowlords campaign is complete. Check the download section to pick it up.
People are already posting comments on the Neverwinter Vault boards, mostly positive (though the criticism is all quite
useful and constructive). It's somewhat of a relief to have it all be over, though for some reason I still have a compulsion
to keep building.
I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the new campaign. What I thought was going to be a fairly small area of Waterdeep is turning into a "feature rich" initial area. I've been using Raflar's Waterdeep site as a key reference for people and areas. He's got quite a bit of good information there. I've also been playing with modeling, fixing hakpack data that others have posted, and creating a few placeables of my own. I'm trying hard to keep the hak pack under 10 MB, as I don't want to penalize modem users too badly (though it's still an overnight download for some). As always, I try hard to push the limits of the toolset and create some interesting and unique items. I spent a day working on a single encounter and magic item, trying to get it right. Hopefully it'll make a few people say "cool" and be worth it all. |
|
| 11-16-02 |
I hit a milestone this morning. I played all the way through the module, taking about 2 1/2 hours and making fixes as I
went. There were lots of minor issues, but the main quest was complete. The final battle is really challenging - you'll
need to make good use of all those magic items you collected along the way. I've also scheduled a multiplayer test for
this Thursday, so I'm working frantically to get all the pieces together. Both end movies are complete, a good amount
of henchmen dialog is in there, and now it's just bug testing.
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|
| 11-15-02 |
I woke up early again, though only 5 am or so. I finished the final battles - good and evil versions. It's pretty tough,
so I hope everyone stocks up on their magic potions and all. It's hard to overcome without dying once or twice. Balance
is quite difficult, as different versions of the enemy spawn in depending on the party's level. Hopefully it'll all work
out well enough. I even watched the end movie play after the module, which worked out nicely and turned out better than
I thought. The evil version should be done today as well. Getting closer.
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|
| 11-14-02 |
I woke up at four in the morning today. I've been waking up early all this week, probably because of my cold. I ended up
working on the module for two hours, getting the final battle in place. Balance is really hard. I've put in scripts to
detect the party's level and adjust your henchmen and NPCs accordingly. Tricky. The module is approaching completion, as
I have the final battle to finish, as well as additional henchmen dialog to put in for "flavor". Then lots of testing.
The end movies are slowly coming along. I'm using quite a bit of CPU time doing some rendering. It should look nice, though certainly nothing that matches true professional quality. Hopefully it's a nice bonus for people who can download it. I continue to plan and research the next series of modules. I'm hoping for a smaller, tighter series. Right now I'm leaning towards three modules with clear goals and a sense of completion between each one. I'd also like to hand out xp solely for quests, which encourages non-combat solutions. Expect the return of your henchmen, which I still feel is the big selling point of the Shadowlords campaign. |
|
| 11-13-02 |
I've been slaving away, trying to finish things up. Yesterday I completed the good version of the Nooble quest. This morning I got the introduction in place, as well as a nice visual
reminder of how you're doing on the good/evil path to complete the module. It's kinda cool looking. I've got the finale to put in, as well as lots of testing. Since this is the most
complex of all modules I've done, there are lots of things that are bound to break.
I spent some time yesterday trying to put some movies together that play after the module is finished. I'd like to do a "good" and "evil" version as well. I put a couple things together that look good, and I'll probably reuse some of the same technology for the introduction movies to Dreamcatcher. |
|
| 11-11-02 |
I put in a bunch of work over the weekend. I have almost all the henchmen quests completed. I also put in all the flavor
text and map notes, as well as testing the three key quests. On my "to do" list is to put in more henchmen dialog, as well
as the intro scene and finale. I'm hoping it'll only take a couple more weeks, but my family is sick (myself included), so
we'll see how much energy we really have.
I also had a flash of insight over the weekend and have seriously started on the next campaign. It has a working title of Dreamcatcher, and is much more heavily scripted and cinematic than previous ones. I've pulled out some tricks where "cinematic interludes" can actually take place (done by polymorphing the character so that they're invisible). It's looking quite good so far. I'm also using a hak pack, that may end up being a bit on the large side. If I include movies and such, the download could end up being 10+ MB in size. Sorry all you modem users. |
|
| 11-7-02 |
I've been updating the existing modules. They've all have a version bump in the last couple days. I'm working on another
one that deals with henchmen death, hopefully for the better. As an added bonus, I've posted the intro movies for the
modules. Take a look at the download section.
|
|
| 11-2-02 |
I'm well into the fifth module. The mapping is complete, as is the dialog, and now I'm working on getting all the scripting and creatures in there. It's a huge amount of work, as there are a huge number of scripted events, puzzles, and traps. I've also put in a lot of work on the special effects, with some really interesting things that I snuck in there. It's been a learning experience these last few months, and I now feel fairly proficient with the toolset.
I think this last one may be the biggest of all the modules. Having three distinct areas with significant quests is a bit overwhelming. Plus all the henchman quests come to a conclusion of sorts. I still think it'll be a few more weeks until it's released. Hopefully sometime late November or early December, depending on how hard I push myself. I'm already thinking about a new campaign, possibly using more custom models and such. |
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| 10-27-02 |
I've posted the fourth module! The playtest Friday went fairly well, though the group skipped a bunch of the side quests.
We also had some faction issues, as one of the players decided to play a quest using the evil side, and everyone kept
attacking them. I've toned down that particular quest, and the faction hit shouldn't happen unless they're evil and stupid.
Anyway, head to the download page and pick it up. |
|
| 10-21-02 |
Well, we never made it to the coast. Jamie's morning sickness was got pretty bad and we decided to bag the trip. I ended
up watching Sam, my three-year-old, for most of the weekend. The good news is that he discovered the single player part
of Jedi Knight II and left me time to work on the module (as long as I assisted with the jumping puzzles). The fourth module
feels fairly finished, and the group at work is ready to play through it this Friday.
I also started mapping and connecting the areas for the final module. I had lots of fun with special effects, to the point where I ran through a little section a few times just oohing and aahing. That EffectBeam function sure is fun. I'm still keeping myself to the single hak pack, but I'd love to dig through some of the new material that people are coming up with and build me some modules. |
|
| 10-17-02 |
Just a quick update. It looks like we're going to the beach this weekend, so no Friday Night Fights to test the fourth
module. Which is a good thing - really. I've been polishing up the finale and I'm starting to like it much better.
I tend to get a lot of NWN "work" done at the beach, as there are relatives there to watch the boy, and no house projects
calling out to me. I'm hoping to get all my testing done, as well as start in on the mapping for the final module.
On a personal note, we've started announcing that my wife is pregnant again. For those of you who don't follow the site, she miscarried early this year. It's been tumultuous, and probably affected some of my writing. Lots of life and death issues worked their way into the campaign. So, wish us luck - at the moment, she has morning sickness pretty bad. |
|
| 10-10-02 |
The third module has been posted for awhile - check the Downloads page for the latest. I'm also approaching completion
on the fourth. The "critical path" is completable. I've got all the henchmen dialog and comments in place. I still want
to tweak the final battle a bit, although I had some fun with the EffectBeam functions last weekend. Hopefully I can get
it polished up by next Friday, then play through with the work group. If all goes well, I'll have it posted soon afterwards.
It's hard to believe that there's only one module left. It's only barely started, though I'll hopefully get some of the dialog in there shortly. It's been a huge amount of work, though I'm proud to have done it. I've been playing around with making some movies. When I'm completely done, it would be fun to package all the modules up, add movies, and perhaps add some new creatures with hak packs. We'll see. |
|
| 9-30-02 |
Our group finished playing the third module last Friday, and it went really well. No network problems and they finished up
the rest in about an hour. I finished cleaning up what bugs that had been uncovered and posted it to Neverwinter Vault.
As always, feel free to e-mail if you run into any issues, typos, and the like.
I've got to hunker down and finish up the fourth one. I've got a climactic battle to script, as well as a number of smaller details. Lots of quests to debug too. I'm hoping that I can finish up in a couple weeks, but it's hard to say. I unfortunately spent a bunch of time this weekend fiddling with my computers - it seems like something's blocking my external ports and I'm starting to suspect my ISP. We'll see. |
|
| 9-17-02 |
I had a burst of energy and updated the first Shadowlords module. There was one significant bug (the area transition from the stump),
and a few small ones. The reviewers also requested some additions and changes, which seemed reasonable and easy to do.
I'm also working on the third one, fixing problems that the multiplayer test uncovered. We'll probably regroup in a couple weeks
to finish playing and clean up any remaining things.
In the meantime, I'm trying to populate the town of Stonemeet. Some of the dialog is fun, so that part is enjoyable. I'm also hoping to get a big block of time to work on it this weekend, as we'll be away (and I'm taking the computer). |
|
| 9-16-02 |
Well, we had lots of excitement Friday night, though not all of it good. We had a big problem with lag, and lost one
character completely. The group also only made it through about 75% of the module, so we called it quits to reschedule
again. A few really weird bugs popped up, some of them mine and some of them Bioware's. At one point, one of the players
started controlling the NPC, which was bizarre. So, I'll probably need to wait until the multiplayer testing is complete
before I release it to the world.
The weekend otherwise was a bit shot. I was sick, and watched my son for most of it. We ended up playing tons of Grand Theft Auto III, doing insane jumps and careening through the streets. Putting a three-year-old behind the wheel of a crazy-fast sports car is not a good idea in real life, but he seemed to enjoy himself immensely in the game. |
|
| 9-13-02 |
The first module is up for voting at the Neverwinter Vault, using their new voting system. Hopefully it'll
get more recognition for the campaign, as I'd like to see more people playing it.
Tonight is another run of the Friday Night Fights, this time with the third module. My fingers fell off testing it over and over again last week, so it should hopefully be ready. I'm actually well into development of the fourth module, and enjoying it quite a bit. The setting and NPCs are a bit on the different side. I'm working hard on making the main town of Stonemeet a living place with interesting people. Challenging, to say the least. |
|
| 9-01-02 |
The second module done and posted. Take a look at the download section to pick it up. As always, please
send me any problems or bugs you run into.
I had a group of four run through for testing. It generally worked pretty well, with the exception of a faction bug where two NPCs killed each other off. Most importantly everyone had a really good time, with less of the issues and confusion of last time. Hope everyone likes it. The third module is at the "polish" stage. Basically, I've got to go through it over and over picking up the little bugs and fixing it. Unfortunately, I misplaced the most current version, so I'm fixing the same bugs for a second time. Vaguely annoying, but at least I know where they are. |
|
| 8-23-02 |
The second module is nearing completion. It's been tested by a single tester, and we have our multiplayer session next Friday.
There's some cooperative multiplayer aspects, so I'm hoping we get a chance to test it out (and I hope they work). The third
module is also coming along nicely, and I started a tiny bit on the fourth as well. I've been amazed at how long the development
cycle is, even with a detailed design document and most of the dialog written. I have a newfound respect for real game designers.
|
|
| 8-13-02 |
I've been quiet again, though not because I'm not slaving away endlessly on the campaign. I've been dividing my time between
bug fixes and general improvements for the first module, and wrapping up the second one. There was a change that the patch made
that invalidated an important part of the module (the one where the creature slots became off-limits to PCs). So, I had to create
a workaround, as well as a workaround for a bug that I discovered. Sigh. Still, it works relatively well now.
I think the second one should be ready for serious testing later this week. I have a friend who's going to be my beta tester. Hopefully he'll catch most of the major bugs, typos, and such before I release it to the world. After that, I'll work on finishing the third one. The third module is coming along nicely, with lots of devious traps, interesting magic items, and interesting developments with the henchmen. The maps are done, with about half the scripting finished. The endgame is going to be the most challenging, as the complex dialog and scripting may cause me to go insane. We'll see how it pans out. |
|
| 8-5-02 |
Well, the first of the modules is complete! You can download it here - make sure you grab the hack
pack too. I play tested it on Friday, did a bunch of cleanup over the weekend, and posted it early Sunday morning. The
play test was . . . enlightening. There were many bugs that were uncovered, as well as some things that seemed obvious to me
that weren't obvious to the group. At times it seemed too hard, and at other times too easy. It also took a lot longer to finish
than I thought. Still, it was a learning experience, and my first time DMing.
Already I'm getting people e-mailing about the module. So far, so good, though I did get some reported bugs. I suspect I'll need to do some additional fixes as time goes on, though I'd really like to work on the new stuff too. The second module is approaching completion. I have lots of bug testing to do, especially around how the henchmen work. Since you start "bonding" with them during this module, it's important that all those scripts work really well. Of course, when they do, it's really cool to watch. Quite an improvement over the official campaign, in my opinion. I've actually started work on the third module as well, though little more than finishing the map is done at this point. We may be going to the coast next weekend, which would give me some time to write more dialog for the NPCs. Since Nooble and Teira were added recently, only the first couple modules have dialog for them. I know their general "path" that each will take, but I've still got to do the nitty-gritty stuff. |
|
| 7-29-02 |
I've been a little quiet lately, though it's not because I haven't been working. In fact, I've been working way too hard
on the modules. I've gotten quite of the way through finishing the second one, though I have lots of polish and testing to do.
I'm glad I haven't released the first one yet, as I keep finding issues with the way things work.
For example, I have lots of triggered dialog with henchmen. Unfortunately, if I use the BeginConversation command, and the player clicks anywhere on the screen before dialog begins, it's completely ignored. Really annoying. So, I had to do a complicated workaround where the name of the dialog is stored in a local variable on the henchman, then a heartbeat script keeps checking to see if they're supposed to start up a conversation with their master. Very complicated. I'm glad I made the change, though, as it works much better. I have a similar situation with a guard - if you ignored him, he was fine with that. Now he chases you down until you talk to him. The group at work is getting ready to go. We're doing connectivity testing today and tomorrow (e.g. just to make sure they can talk to the server). Hopefully this Friday will go well and I'll post the module soon after. I'm starting to get pretty excited to see it all in action after way too many months developing this thing. Whew! |
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| 7-19-02 |
In theory, the first module is complete. There's a few areas that I'd like to polish up, as well as running an actual
party through it. I'm a little nervous about some of the party-based scripts, such as the teleportation, rewards that
scale, and NPCs that are buffed depending on the level. The next step will be to find a place to host the module, which
seems to be around 4-5 MB in size, including the hak pack for portraits. I learned my lesson around 10 years ago
when an X-Files theme I put together for fun was discovered by one of the main theme sites, absolutely killing my friend's server.
Hopefully the webmaster of the Neverwinter Vault will be kind enough to do so.
|
|
| 7-1-02 |
Well, I've been incredibly busy. For starters, I've been playing the game itself, which is exactly what I wanted. The
story lines and creative things that happen are all good. The character development is great. The minor issues tend
to be just that - minor.
As for the module, I've been incredibly busy there too. The hardest part is probably the testing, as many of the scripts don't work quite exactly the way I'd planned. Part if it is that people are trying out how to make the toolset work too, though it's incredible the amount of creativity people have. I've seen three new tilesets in the last week alone. As for progress, I have the entire "The Walk" area done. Minor tweaking and testing ensues. I have Eureka and the caves built, though there is lots of testing to do there. They're more combat oriented, which is much easier. The Walk has tons of dialog and sidequests. The only major tweaks at this point is the mixing up of NPCs. In my current game, I find the rogue henchman so useful that I feel the need to put one in from the beginning. So, I've got some sneaky plot twists in mind. During my vacation next week, when I'm away from my computer, my hope is to do some additional writing for the new NPC. Loads of fun. |
|
| 6-19-02 |
Today's the big day. I'm picking up the game right after work.
I'm continuing to find ways to incorporate art that doesn't have copyright restrictions. I discovered a great source of portraits and other fine art at the web gallery of art. The copyright notice declares that it's free to use for non-commercial use, so I think I'm good to go. The actual art was created hundreds of years ago, so I'm fine there. To top it off, these are the finest painters who have created portraits of people in period dress, so they look pretty cool. I've converted a couple dozen over to the 128 X 400 Targa format. I've only gone through a small fraction of the total catalog, so I've got many to go. At this point, I think I have the transition images and portraits covered. I may just pass on music, as they end up making the hak packs pretty large. I'll want to include new models as well, though there are only a handful that have been made yet. Today's project is to document every NPC in the game so that I can start matching up portraits to names. Hopefully I can finalize the portraits for the first module within a few days. |
|
| 6-17-02 |
Neverwinter Nights is scheduled to come out tomorrow. I have my preorder ready to go.
I continue to plug away at the campaign. Over the weekend, I discovered a great source of images - the library of congress. I ran across a number of hand-colored black and white photos taken between 1890 and 1900. They're of scenes around the world, from natural wonders to architecturally amazing buildings. I've been looking for images to be used during area transitions, and I think these are the ones. |
|
| 6-13-02 |
Neverwinter Nights went gold a couple days ago. That means that it'll only be a handful of days until the game is in my
hot little hands. I've been a scripting fiend, and I just finished the second module. It does get easier as I go,
and I've been creating utility scripts for the most common functions. There's a lot of things that I'd like to get done
fairly soon, as well. I'm leaning towards having two or three recurring NPCs, rather than the "surprise guest" approach
I'm currently taking (e.g. every town has a few that could be hired).
I've also decided that a hak pack will be required. At the minimum, it'll have portraits for key NPCs, as well as some additional models. I'd also like to include some area transitions and possibly some music. I'm shooting for the total to be under 10 MB, but we'll see . . . |
|
| 6-4-02 |
Today is a pretty momentous day. I've finished adding every script to the first module of the campaign. Now, all the
dialog, journal entries, triggers, actions, and conditionals are finished. I've tested the vast majority in the beta
toolset, making sure they compile properly. The reality is that they will still be tons of work to do post-release, such
as creating the maps, items, monsters, and so on. Fortunately, I have all of the specifications written out (down to the
tag level). Plus all the actual debugging, as I'm sure that while the scripts compile, they do goofy things.
Finally, there are four other modules to do, though they should hopefully go faster.
I keep wondering about hack packs and whether or not to include them in my module. I've been poking around the web trying to find good material (or make some from scratch). There are some good new models coming out, plus some songs freely available from FilePlanet. It could potentially make the download quite a bit larger, which I hesitate for the modem people. Still, perhaps a lite and supersized version of the campaign is possible. It's looking like a gaming party is gathering here at work. I'm hoping they'll act as my beta testers for the module too. |
|
| 5-28-02 |
Well, my fingers are going to start bleeding any time. I just finished with the scripting for the first area of the
first module. It's a pretty "dense" area, so I'm hoping that the others will be much easier. I probably have several
dozen scripts used in conversations, triggers, and actions caused during conversation. I've been using the toolset
to test compiles, which is handy. I find myself with the usual issues around missing semi-colons and parenthesis.
I'm hopeful that I'll get the scripting finished for the first module in time for release. I'd like to be able to give myself lots of time for the graphical parts - map, item, and creature building. Testing is also going to be important, especially in the areas with lots of complex scripting. I'm hoping my goal of a module every month or two isn't too optimistic. We'll see. |
|
| 5-20-02 |
Finally the Beta toolset is out. I figure there's at least a month before the final release, so I spent quite a bit
of time over the weekend playing with it. My main goal is to get familiar with it, so that I can jump right in when
the release version is done. I'd also like to start building some of the modules themselves. I'm nervous that things
created in the beta tool won't be transferrable into the retail version, so I don't think I'll get really gung-ho. There's
also a ton of content missing from the beta version.
I think I'll focus on dialog and scripts, and perhaps some items. There's a ton of details that go into building a good module. To be honest, it's a bit overwhelming, and I've been following the development for a couple years now. Having conditional dialog or actions taken depending on the branch chosen requires scripting. Sure, there are script wizards, but that only helps to a small degree. Like most computer things, any complex task is really a programming task. |
|
| 5-3-02 |
Just in the last week, there's been a ton of activity around scripting. The NWVault
scripting board has become my favorite resource lately. David Gaider from Bioware has been posting mini-lessons on
how nwscript works. Because of this, I've been putting in lots of scripting lately. Hopefully I'll get the majority
of scripts written before the game is even released (though certainly not tested).
The other big news is that a beta version of the toolset is going to be released before the game. I'm hoping this is in a week or two, as it would give me an opportunity to create big chunks of the game. Because it's only 2 tilesets, 25 creatures, and a handful of items, I won't be able to do the full game. Still, I can probably enter all the dialog, lay out some areas, and put in much of the scripting. It should help immensely. I'm still trying to get my hands on Morrowind. I enjoyed the beauty of Dungeon Siege, but the game was definately light on story. The Shadowlord modules are fairly linear (with lots of side quests), but much more RPGish than DS even was. In fact, I may need to put in some additional combat-oriented areas in a few of my modules. Sometimes people just want to hack and slash a bit. |
|
| 4-23-02 |
The game slowly approaches. I've been playing Dungeon Siege - interesting, but very light on plot. I suspect this campaign
with have quite a bit less combat and much more dialog. I also signed up for the beta test. I doubt I'll be chosen, but
it would give me an opportunity to begin the module building early, as well as learn a bit of scripting.
The modules themselves have been fairly close to complete for quite some time. I'll probably do a pass through the dialog again. At the moment, I'm exploring "hack pack" options. I'm finding it's hard to find good copyright-free music and art that I can use as part of my modules. I've got a couple months left, so I may find a few things of interest. |
|
| 3-26-02 |
I've decided to pass on the low-intelligence dialog options. It's simply too much work for a small number of characters.
Instead, I've been spiffing up some of the existing dialog. One of the key NPCs in the first module was a bit terse
in his dialog, so I've added a number of options, includuing some involving persuasion.
A huge number of games will be coming out shortly. Jedi Knight II should arrive later this week, with Dungeon Siege soon afterwards. A month later, it's Morrowind, then in June we'll hopefully see Neverwinter Nights. It's been a long road, with this campaign over a year in the making. I'm hoping it's all worthwhile. |
|
| 2-20-02 |
I've been going through the dialog again, adding options for low intelligence characters. It certainly makes
life difficult for the player, and some quests will play out very differently. It's a lot of work for a small
percentage of players, though. I haven't decided if it's really worth it.
I have some people at work excited about Neverwinter Nights in general. I think I may end up with a weekly game with some coworkers, which should be fun. I'm also hoping I can sucker them into play testing the modules once I'm finished. |
|
| 2-12-02 |
Script information is starting to trickle out. I've begun adding scripts where I'm able. At the moment,
there's not much too it, and lots of gaps. I have one scene where the PCs are frozen and moved about, and
there was mention of script to do just that. I even had the opportunity to add some fancy effects (I think
it's the same as a fireball effect). In another case, I added some item manupulation code. Now when someone
uses one of the special puzzle items, it pops up some dialog to let the user do things with it (like combine
items to form a new item).
It's all very exciting, and I hope that with the new publisher we'll start seeing better game information. |
|
| 2-4-02 |
Happily, the legal troubles around NWN are resolved. I'm continuing to polish the game, though I don't expect
a lot of development by myself until the game is released. I'll probably work on dialog periodically, or tweak
items here and there. There are also some very good RPGs coming out next month. I hope to pick up Morrowind once
it hits the shelves.
On a sadder note, it looks like I won't be a new dad in August, as my wife miscarried. We're doing well and are of the mindset that this is just a delay. An amazing number of people have come out of the woodwork to talk about their own experiences. Although I didn't know this, somewhere between a third and a half of pregnancies end in miscarriage. It's strange working on a campaign so focused on death and having such issues in my life. My coworker died late last year (just a few days before September 11th), making the end of last year pretty tough. Yet I've tried to make give this campaign strong elements of humor and romance. The more I do these kind of things, the more respect I have for real writers. I'm just hoping it's enjoyable to play through. |
|
| 1-4-02 |
I'm still worrying about the legal issues surrounding NWN. My hope is that it will still be released by March,
but I'm not holding my breath. I'm adding more class-specific items. So, if you're a Barbarian, you'll find
some items with a bonus for just Barbarians. I also like the idea of pseudo-crafted items. You'll be able to
find some hidden things and assemble them to create interesting magic items. There are a few class-specific
dialog choices and mini-quests that pop up, but I'm focusing most of my time on putting content in for all
classes to enjoy. I'm also putting in a "hack and slash" option, that should allow the killing of most NPCs
without destroying the game. There will still be a few unkillable NPCs, but that should be limited.
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|
| 12-13-01 |
Big news all around. It looks like I'm going to be a dad again next year. I'm crossing my fingers
and hoping I'll have time to complete the campaign before the August deadline. Wish me luck.
It also turns out that there are going to be some hard limits as to the number of followers any individual may have in NWN. That may complicate things, as I have a number of followers available to players. Some of the NPCs may move into a "support" role, only occasionally showing up and assisting in combat. We'll see. |
|
| 11-5-01 |
Today marks the day when I have formally finished the first rough draft of the campaign.
The last module was tough and pretty large in size. I'm guessing each of the other modules
will take an hour or two to finish, but the last one may take three or four.
There's still lots of extras I want to start putting in. Some of the "disposible" henchmen need to be spruced up with their own dialogs and personality. I'd also like to put in some class-specific extras: druids who can talk to animals, clerics speaking with spirts, rangers tracking, mages reading magical auras, and the like. I don't want to put in too much content that only a fraction of players will see, but I still want enough to give the players a sense of character type. I'm still considering an "epilog" module, this one focusing on the main romance. In part, it depends on how comfortable I feel with writing a module that has romance as a central topic. I don't consider myself a writer. I'm not especially into romances. I'm happily married with a family. So, it's a bit weird. We'll see. |
|
| 10-5-01 |
Plugging away at the dialog for the last module. I've got two of the main three areas finished.
I've got much of the main quests done, but have yet to add sidequests, henchmen, romance dialog,
and a good dose of humor that will hopefully make these modules stand apart.
I can also see how I'll need to do yet more editing passes through each of the modules. Revising and adding to the dialog will be key. I'd also like to interject some strategic components into the combat pieces of the game. This is a bit tricky without the actual editor in front of me, but I can at least get started. Finally, I'd like to work on some of the scripts when I can. The NPC scripts, especially for Anera, will get quite complicated. I want to make sure that Anera will stick close to the character she's romantic with, even though one or the other might die. Speaking of death, I will have points where players (and some NPCs) are instantly resurrected when they die. There is a small xp cost, and they may have to backtrack a bit, so it's not "free". Still, I wanted the play experience to avoid being frustrating for most players. I'm even working on a backstory to explain why it's happening, as it's not necessarily "normal" for the Forgotten Realms. Basically, there are some heavy players behind some of the action in the campaign. |
|
| 9-4-01 |
I picked up Arcanum a few weeks ago. Though the graphics are dated, the core game is an excellent
RPG. I really like the atmosphere, story line, and endless options when solving quests. Many paths,
from good to evil, brain versus brawn, or clever applications of particular skills. Elements of the environment
matches one area of the last module nicely, so I'm picking up ideas when possible.
I continue to make progress on the modules, most of them not visible from this site. There's a huge amount of dialog to write and revise. Moving towards a dialog tree method from a keyword detection method is much more time consuming, but produces a better result (in my opinion). Even though it looks like the game won't be out for another five or six months, I think I'll need all the time to polish things up. I'm starting to look towards a sixth and final module, one to wrap up the romance thread that runs through Shadow Lords. The working title is "Star Crossed". I'm hoping to work in some of Anera's family, which has considerably potential to be interesting. This one will have a single-player focus, though larger groups can certainly run through it. |
|
| 8-8-01 |
It's interesting how a particular media experience will affect my writing style.
I've become a Farscape fan, watching every episode there is in the last three weeks.
The mix of dark themes, romance, and hilarity is wonderful, and I've been trying
to incorporate a sense of that into the modules. I've been sprinkling one-liners
throughout the modules. I'm hoping most aren't too cheezy.
I've finished up the dialog and rough scripting for the first four modules now. I'd like to put a lot of attention to the final one, as the climax of a story is the most critical. I'm trying to make the choices involved much more murky philosophically. If I were to summarize the main theme of the campaign, it would be the ethics of death. It's especially poignant these days, as a coworker of mine has a serious form of cancer. I've been trying to answer some of the questions in my own mind as I type out these pages. The romance dialog is becoming more fun to write as I start to get a better sense of the characters. I'm introducing much more humor, as Anera was originally a fairly stern paladin. I've come to find I like my paladins three dimentional. While she serves the god of death, I've strived to minimize the grimmer emotions and focus instead on the joy of life. Plus, more funny. Hard to beat more funny. |
|
| 7-23-01 |
Although I haven't posted any new news items here in awhile, I've still been
slaving away. I've put in all the dialog for the first three modules,
using the new branching dialog structure. Pretty exhausting work, and a it
added considerably to the number of words. Should making putting the
modules together much easier when the toolset is finally released.
I'm also getting Anera integrated in with the plotline. It's gone better than I thought, and I've been able to let her words convey a number of plot details that the players might not pick up on. I'm finding the romance dialog difficult to write, but hopefully it won't be too personally embarrassing. It's not really nessary to do, and might actually be quite a challenge to "complete". |
|
| 6-28-01 |
The expansion to Baldur's Gate 2 came out, and I've been happily playing it. I've really
enjoyed how the romances have played out, as well as the other NPC characters. Because
I want to have the campaign played either single-player or with a small group, I'm starting
to add companions to each of the modules. Most of these are essentially hirelings or
short-time companions, but I wanted to include at least one recurring NPC with the potential
for romance. To accomplish this, I've added Anera.
I'm trying hard to minimize "cheeziness" and instead work on long-term
character development over the five modules. So far, her back story is interesting
though it's secondary to the main story arc. I may have to do a sixth module simply
centered around Anera. We'll see how much time I really have.
|
|
| 6-19-01 |
I've been making some massive updates to the DM information. Lots and lots of dialog being
added. I gave up on the database approach and have simply been using indented text. Works
fairly well. I'm also adding flags and skill checks for dialog purposes. For example, I went
through the first module and made sure you can actually use the Persuade skill during several
important junctures.
|
|
| 6-13-01 |
I made the mistake of picking up Everquest. Bad, bad. It's been sucking up my time, though
it does provide some ideas from time to time. The series of modules is mostly finished in rough
form, though there's certainly a lot of polishing to go. I may have to do some serious editing of the last
one, as it's getting a bit large for a two hour session. Playtesting will tell.
E3 came and went, and I was paying particular attention to NWN. It looks like their dialog system is mostly in place. A nice, branching dialog structure. Hard work, so I'll try to flesh out as much of the writing beforehand as possible. Still six months or more to go, so I may actually get this all finished. |
|
| 5-8-01 |
Long time since I've last written. I'm still plugging away at the last module. More details
about the game are coming out. There was an interesting post about the incredible flexability
of the item creation process. I'll probably need to revisit it once more information appears.
E3 is coming up in a few weeks, so I'm hoping that we find out more goodies then.
Dialog is still my downfall. I haven't decided on a keyword or dialog structure. The later looks much nicer, but requires a lot more work to implement. Also, I don't really know how it will work, so it's hard to design for. |
|
| 3-30-01 |
Started work on the final module. I visited the official D&D site and used one of the maps
for inspiration. Enter the Shadow is broken into three main areas and I've done about half
of the first one.
On a vaguely related note, there's a Neverwinter Nights Creation Guide up at Gamespy. Fairly bland, but future ones might be more interesting. |
|
| 3-20-01 |
I roughed out the final parts of the Stonemeet module. Nothing fancy, and I'm sure I'll need
to go over it again. The dialog has been the hardest part to integrate since I'm not sure how
it will work yet. Still, I look forward to working on the final module. It's by far the most
challenging from a writing perspective. I've got to link the abstract to the concrete in
an interesting way.
|
|
| 3-2-01 |
Well, I drank a lot of coffee and worked on Stonemeet some more. Still have a bit of
writer's block. I've been watching a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for inspiration,
trying to get the witty dialog down. I'm also having fun with the various factions,
though I suspect a human DM will be required to really pull it off. Rumors of a beta
test are popping up on the NWN board - it would be great to get my hands on it to get
a better feel for how it all works, especially the scripting engine.
|
|
| 2-16-01 |
For some reason, work on Stonemeet has been a bit slow. I finished up the town itself, and am
now turning to the outlying caverns. It's a fascinating place, with several factions vying for
power. It's also a very treasure-rich environment, as the equipment of thousands of men
are mined by the Bone Miners and taken to town to sell. Most of these will be for sale,
but there will be a variety of ways for the crafty or brave to obtain a bit of booty themselves.
|
|
| 2-6-01 | I've been stalling for a bit. I whipped up a tileset for the NWMap utility. I'll probably use it to lay out Stonemeet when I have a chance. I've also been struggling with dialog. I'd like to support dialog trees, but there are significant issues with managing all the data associated with it. Being a database guy, I made a database, but I haven't been too happy with the results yet. Still testing. | |
| 1-19-01 |
I'm going through and balancing the first three modules using the DM recommendations
for treasure and looking closely at the challenge rating (CR) for each monster.
I was pretty amazed at what I found. With a recommended treasure reward of 900 gp
per player for first level, that eliminates most magical items. Instead of +1 weapons,
I've replaced them with masterwork weapons, which are a fraction of the value.
I found I had to tone down a bunch of the monsters as well, as I was throwing in monsters with CRs a bit too much. In the first module, I suspect I'm going to have to rework an entire section, instead putting in a completely different class of creature. It's almost a good thing this game won't be out until later this year. |
|
| 1-16-01 |
There was an update to the official
NWN FAQ the other day. The big thing that I noticed was that communication with
NPCs is now based around pre-defined responses rather than keywords (at least in the official campaign).
Unfortunately, it puts me in a bit of a bind. I think my preference as a gamer and storyteller
is to have predefined responses for each NPCs. Since my goal is to allow the campaign
to be played without a DM, having to guess the right keyword can be pretty frustrating.
On the other hand, it would mean quite a bit of rework to go through and write a bunch of dialog for each NPC interaction. Still, I think it's worth it. My guess is that I'll start putting in dialog trees from this point on, then go back and rework the previous modules. If anyone out there has some opinions, chime in. Oh, as an aside, I got my name on VoodooExtreme by letting them know that the FAQ had been updated. There were no dates on the NWN site, so I sure hope I didn't steer them wrong . . . |
|
| 1-10-01 |
I forgot to mention last time, but I got a job offer over the Internet to review
NWN mods when they come out. I turned them down. I wanted to focus on module building, as I can see that
eating my time for quite a few months. So, you'll see my modules but not my reviews (for now).
I've also been going through some pain with the Skull Gorge module. I scrapped my original map, as I realized it was simply too small. The new map expands on the core elements and should be much more interesting to play. I'm going for a "dungeon crawl" feel rather than the previous module which takes place primarily in an urbal setting. The first two modules have lots of dialog, while this currently has less. I currently have five "speaking" NPCs, though I'll probably expand it to eight or so. Hard to justify a lot of people hanging out in an orc-infested temple dedicated to a forgotten god. Go figure. I'm still going overboard with the quality of the maps. If I have the time, I may end up releasing both a NWN and a general D&D module. We'll see. |
|
| 1-3-01 |
I'm almost done with my second pass of the second module.
My approach has been to first pencil it out, then go over a second time filling in details
such as maps and dialog and transferring it to HTML. The next step will be to add the
scripting details once they're released (e.g. global variables, NPC scripts, etc.).
After that is actually creating it in the editor. Finally a beta test and code release.
Whew!
I got a little carried away with the quality of my DM notes, spending hours in Photoshop. A bit silly when no one will ever see it. Still, they look pretty good. It's a bit ironic that 80% of this site isn't easily accessible to the public. Still trying to add the little touches. I'm trying to avoid forcing the player through the main plotline. My philosophy is that each module should have interesting side areas that support the story, but not critical to the story. For those that search about, they'll be rewarded with extra goodies and amusing dialog. |
|
| 12-18-00 |
I'm finally linked up to the NWN webring (links at the bottom of this page). I've also
made detailed DM notes for myself. They're on the site, but not readily available, as I
don't want people to spoil their fun when the modules are released. I'm still waiting
for Bioware to release their scripting specifications, as I'd like to start documenting
the actual scripting commands as well.
The last module is still at the conceptual stage, though I'm hoping to put more details on paper over the Christmas holiday. I've been playing No One Lives Forever and the style of dialog has influenced me a bit. I found myself enjoying the dry wit of the dialog writers considerably, and some of that essence has snuck into the campaign. Another thing I'm discovering is that city areas are much more complicated that wilderness or dungeon environments. I've tried to make the city of Scornubel quite lively, even though only a few blocks are actually in the module. Still, it's probably the toughest part of the module in terms of the scripting I'll need to do. |
|
| 12-07-00 |
The site is fairly well polished at this point, and I've started linking
it into the Internet at large.
I'm making my second design pass through modules 1-4. I recently read Warren Spector's Rules of Roleplaying and was quite impressed. Many areas are getting more depth and I'm looking at multiple solutions to problems. Tension is a wonderful element in any module and I'm looking for opportunities to sneak in fear and moral choices. The final module is being fun to conceptualize, as the progression of the series moves from concrete to quite abstract. In Enter the Shadow, the party will be confronted with primarily moral issues. Their decisions will have a very real affect on how the series resolves. I suspect the party will finish the module muttering to themselves, "Man, did I do that?" |
|
| 11-26-00 |
I've put most of the site together, though it isn't linked in anywhere yet. I have much of modules 1-4 penciled out
and the core ideas for the final module are forming in my head. I've been tending to work on this in spurts, giving
my creative juices a couple weeks to percolate between writing.
I actually started this several months ago, but rewrote much of the storyline. I suspect many of the minor details will change as I go over the modules again. The good news is that the main story arc is complete. I'm hoping that at the end of the series, the party will have reached somewhere between levels 5 and 7. I'll have to playtest the entire thing at some point too. |
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