10109 Words

The conversations are complete.

In theory all the conversations from beginning to end should be done. Hitting that save and backing up the 4th module after reaching the end point of that final conversation was a nice feeling. There still is a fair amount of work but hardest part for me is done. My estimate for the third path of 10,000 was pretty much right on as well.

I was able to cut back on some of the word count by using the party conversation in several points. This cut down on their interjections since they were the speakers. In the stealth path i used cutscene conversations to scan the fort from the various hiding points. Points of interest are discovered in these conversations. The player will make skill checks to find them if they fail depending on which companions are in the party and what point of interest is being looked at they will interject with skill checks. When the point of interest is discovered an item is given to the player. That item will represent the point of interest and allow the player to interact with it using the party conversation. This will prevent having the points of interest glow blue and give them away and the player can interact with them from a distance since they may be surrounded by enemies.

So now onto scripting the champion fighting, sneaking and talking paths through the fort, and then onto the final battle scripts.

I Need to Stop Estimating

Not much time has been spent on the toolset since my last post. The summer is approaching and sitting in front of a computer just isn't all that appealing. Been doing lots yard work and wrapping up some of the exterior stuff from the remodel last fall. I even put in a garden this spring and have several hop plants growing.

For a while I have had a plan for a master brewer NPC to chat with the player. Someone in the basement of a tavern or inn, surrounded with barrels of fermenting ale. He would tell the player his opinion about the best grains and hops to make a truly good ale, not some watered down flavorless thing that most of the taverns carry. But he never quite fit in with the areas. I almost placed him in the monastery as a brew master monk but it wasn't quite right. Maybe sometime I'll find a place for him but until then he'll just have to wait and drink his ale alone.

But back on topic, my estimate of 10,000 words may have been a bit low unfortunately. There will be 5 stages or points while sneaking through the fortification. The first point is in excess of 4,000 words. Granted this should be the largest of the 5 it is still is a lot more words then I thought it would be. Once I start typing and adding companion interjections it just seems to grow. I have started on the second point and I'm still under a thousand words but we'll see what happens...

So I guess that is really it for now. I'm still working these conversations and dealing with very opinionated companions who like to put their 2 cents in based on the player's choices or other companion interjections. There still is a bit too do once these conversations are done but they are the bulk of the work left.

That Much Closer

Wrapped up another series of conversations. A player can now talk their way through the final fortification to to the final battle using either bluff or diplomacy with the occasional perform thrown in there for good cause.

Two of the three paths now have completed conversations and I have started the final path. The end game conversation is also written. So I estimate probably only another 5000-7500 words left for that last path, unless the companions start throwing in all sorts of interjections. At the most it shouldn't be more then another 10,000 words. The majority of the scripting still needs to be done, inlcuding the conversation switches for all the three paths. I have a script outlined and mostly created for the sneak path with a pseudo heartbeat checking if the player and the party is found; it needs a little more tweaking but not much. The base area design is done. The fortifications need to have NPC placed throughout, all the unique NPC already have blueprints created. In the sneak path all the usable placeables need to be added and scripted and several still need to be discovered or figured out. Currently there are 2 out of about 6 conversation/distraction points that still need a bit more inspiration. Right now they are at this point something should happen.....

So once all that is done and a character can play through the 3 paths I will move onto spelling (spellplug) and grammar checking. Exciting stuff.

So this is just a short post of what is happening, no screenshots. The conversation editor just isn't exciting enough.

In the words of gold five "Stay on Target"

So here it is:

All the conversations for one path for the fort infiltration have been completed. You can now taunt and jeer goblin, orc and ogre champions into single combat. At least in theory. The conversations are done but I am holding off scripting until the conversations for all three paths are done. I know once Is start scripting I will go and complete all three paths and still have no other conversations completed.I have to thank the bioware forum members who threw in ideas for taunts and intimidation lines. This set of conversations actually went a lot faster then I thought it would.

With the combat path complete I am trying to get into the dialog path (bluff and diplomacy). The 1st out of 4 conversations is about 3/4 complete. Having 7 companions with a party of 4 (3 companions and the PC) is quite the undertaking. The number of drop throughs to allow almost all different combinations without redundant lines is time consuming. I am trying to create a little bit of banter between the companions and allowing the PC multiple options with these conversations has quickly become a web of drop throughs, links and whatnots.

The 1st conversation set went fairly fast, the second is much slower. I keep finding myself doing different things in the toolset instead of writing conversations. I have put a stop to all new load screens until I send out the Beta for testing. But then I went and started finding custom portraits for the companions and larger role NPC. -If anyone has a good picture of a bald female half-fiend with horns and flaming halo let me know... See previous screens shots; she must be there somewhere. - I also got sucked into creating blueprints. Artechoke's doppelganger and gibberling both needed some blueprints in my toolset even though I have no current plans to use them (and all the areas have been created). Once I was one the blueprint kick I started creating demon blueprints from the fiendish codex. The trolloc models on the vault make a great demon, I just now need some boot models to make humans and tieflings have hooves. but then again none of this has anything to do with conversations....

Items and a Touch of Evilness

MAGIC ITEMS

Magic Stuff is Just Cool
As a builder I enjoy creating magic items. I have a ton of these sitting in my toolset, some have been placed in Risen Hero and others just sit there. So far I have only placed a few +1 items here and there. Instead almost every magic item found has a unique description and I have tried to make the properties generally tie into the description.

So is there too many magic items to be found lost in hidden caves or horded by evil critters.

Maybe. So I have made attempts to add some balance and limitations to magic items.

How to Balance?
One approach I have done is to make an item have both bonuses and penalties. Now a player must choose to sacrifice something to gain something. I try to relate these weakness to the description and the other properties. Some examples would be a massive hammer or warwace with an over weighted end. There would be a massive critical property or a Daze effect on hit but the attack bonus would be decreased because it is an unbalanced and clumsy weapon. Also with the above example an on equip script may be used to sure a player has a minimum strength the be able to lift and swing the weapon. Anther example of the bonus/penalty would also be a fire amulet. The wearer would be protected from fire attacks but vulnerable to cold attacks.

The more powerful items are often not found along the normal plot line. A player must find them through exploration and finding secrets, solving puzzles or completing side quest. The more powerful items are also possessed by more powerful creatures. These battles are often optional and the items are often used against the player before they gain them.

+1 is Just Dumb
As a player I have always enjoyed finding those unique items that have a back story in their description and unique properties. The standard +1 or +whatever are boring weapons. The only generic +something items to be bought will be ammunition and most of the + items found are from the global random treasure scripts. Currently only one store will sell magic weapons and it's stock is mostly just ammunition with maybe 1 or 2 unique items. The main black smith will not sell any magic items, just masterwork and standard weapons made with different materials. That smith is able to work with more unique materials as well that are beyond the players crafting skills. A small number of different items have been placed or planned that the player can bring to him to make unique weapons with. The different items can be made into a small number of different weapon/armor types and once done can't be undone.

EVILNESS

Item Stealing and Destroying
In the previous post I mentioned some oozes. I have a number of blueprints and will likely release these once all the testing is done. But in regards to items I have 4 oozes that dissolve weapons. Two are below CR5 that can destroy mundane weapons and armor and 2 are above CR5 that can destroy most any items. Only plot items and items that have an acid immune local variable are safe from their attacks. My mimic blueprint will steal a weapon but allow a player to retrieve it after the battle. This is an area I want to continue to explore as the game progress. Forcing the player to rely on their character and their skills opposed to having the biggest nastiest greatsword ever made.

Curses What I Have Been Doing Up Until Now
The curse flag in NWN2 is lame.

I have been using equip and unequip scripts for the few curse items I have placed. They have both bonus and penalties. One example would be a ring that increases combat abilities but significantly reduces social abilities. The curse is to prevent a player from equipping the ring during battle then removing it after to remove the penalties. When the item is equipped the the curse flag will be made true. While the flag is true the unequip script will re-equip the item. A remove curse spell turns the flag to false and the item can be unequipped but should it be re-equipped the curse will be activated again.


LET THE EVILNESS BEGIN

That has been the curse system I have been using and there are a couple of items using it, but feeling a little evilier then usual one day I put together a new curse include script that I will be using from here out.

It takes a copy of a normal item with an on acquire and equip script. The item can be anything an on acquire script will run with 2 lore checks. A a higher check will return that the item is cursed and a lower check will return that there is something peculiar about the item. When the item is equipped it is destroyed and a new evil item is created in the slot and is flagged cursed and can't be removed until the curse flag is removed.

The new item can simply be an opposite item, a ring of protect +2 will chance to -2. Or it can be truly evil and be a item with no properties but an on equip script. A fortitude save or turn to stone or even a save vs death. This script really makes most any evil idea possible and adds a bit of risk to equipping random items found in dark dungeons. These items will be rarer then other magic items but they will be included to help off set the other treasure found.

So there it is: magic items, weapon stealing and evil curses.

Wrapping up the areas

Wrapped up another area today. Just need to add 2 encounters with RWS oozes, to call it complete. At this point almost all the area design is wrapped up. The fortifications may need a little added here and there but other then that I think it's good. There are a number of conversations and scripts that need to be put together, but a player can now travel through fun scenic areas from start to finish. This leaves 4 areas to write conversations for and script up.

The latest area completed is the ooze cave. There the player will get to fight acid blobs, a black pudding and one of my least favorite oozes from Baulder's Gate the Mustard Jelly. I found a script from NWN1 that seems to be working to make them split with piercing and slashing weapons. I have written up a rather nasty acid attack and damage script for the acid blobs and the pudding. These acid scripts will destroy armor on attack and weapons on damage. The blobs being a lower level ooze will destroy mundane items while the pudding will destroy everything but plot items. When the ooze attacks it first goes after any shield and once that is destoryed it will try to disolve the players armor. When attacked it will go after the main weapon while ignoring the off hand weapon. These will be optional battles so those who can't stomach the risk can avoid it but the spoils of the battle will offer the player some unique items and stuff.

The scripts use a a reflex save to avoid the corrosive acid. Each ooze has a different DC. Higher level oozes obviously have harder DCs. If the player fails the the reflex save their weapon if they attacked or their armor if the ooze attacked will have to make a save or melt away. The more powerful the weapon the better chances it will have not to be destroyed. I loop through the item properties adding +1 for each property. In the items properties there is a variable for how many times the weapon has been exposed to the acid (failed reflex save but didn't get destroy).

The save is d20+#of item properties vs ooze DC + number or exposures.

So eventually if a player has very bad reflex saves they will add so many exposures (weaken the metal) that the save will be impossible and the weapon or armor will be destroyed.

One thing I have been thinking about is the current system doesn't take into account what the enchantments are. A +1 sword and a +5 sword will have the same chances with the current script. Next time at the toolset I will likely look at the item cost and set up different multipliers so that more a power enchantment or combination of enchantments will have a increased chance of standing up to an acid exposure.

The next focus of modding will be the conversations for the champion battles and the Bluff/Diplomacy routes through the fortification then the conversations for the sneak route. I am trying to focus on the conversations as this is the most time consuming and most dreaded part of modding. Once those are done Scripting should move fairly fast. Now time for the screen shots, these are from the ooze caves. The hope is that the lighting looks like it is from a green phosphorescent moss. The area lights are all set to 0 intensity so it is pitch black. The light points are randomly placed throughout the area ,all a different heights and have a very slow flicker with a low variation. The bloom is set so it emphasizes any color but doesn't cause any substantial blurring/distortion effect.

This uses the cave tile 05. The light green on the floor is normally a light grey/tan stone

The mushroom here is a liberty cap from Wyrin's foraging system and the trapped thing on the left side is a brown mold.

Another Section Done

The monastery is complete and I'm one huge step closer to the end.

That area was an extensive area and took way too long to complete. Granted I did do a kitchen and dinning room remodel, make a hide system for the kobold cave and create a small module for the holiday SOZ expansion. There were also numerous other distractions including editing 2das, creating visual effects, load screens and anything else that didn't involve writing conversations. The conversations were the largest task to complete with this area. There are a number of NPCs most offer plot information. Each of the companions have different conversation trees while in this area and I also introduced two more companions. A dwarven cleric and the ever popular power hungry necromancer. I still need to do the final grammar checks and little more editing but the bulk of the work is done.

I have moved onto the final areas, a large fortification and center hall with the end boss. The area design for the exterior is probably about 75% complete, that is just a random guess on my part. This area like every other part of the game has grown in scope. Initially I was going to have a deserter guide you through a secret entrance and after a number of battles you'd reach the boss and then done. However, the more I thought of it the more I didn't like that approach. A group of four people should not be able to take out an army and it only allowed for a limited approach and didn't make full use of the player's character or the companions. So now there will be three paths through the fortification. The party may try to sneak through the fort and create diversions to avoid notice. Failure will be death, once you are discovered the army will swarm and kill you. The second path is bluffing your way through. Trying to convince them that you are mercenaries to join their cause or foreign embassies trying to bribe them not to attack your land. And then the final choice if you don't feel comfortable sneaking and lying you can challenge the army's champions to single combat until you gain an audience with the final boss. The companions you choose will make a big difference with each approach. The half-fiend bard companion will be able to help you bluff while the half-orc taunting barbarian will ruin any chances at bluffing.

Closing in on the heart of the fort.

The placed creatures are currently set to a non-hostile faction while the area is being created, later on they will kill you.

This hill giant is a captive of the army. He is chained outside the slave pen to make sure that no one tries to free or eat the slaves.

The chain is a beam effect that attaches to his back and he is set to immobile and stuck in front of the door.