Play Testing

With the first play through done I found 2 major bugs. One was game breaking badness and the other prevented the PC from completing several puzzles to free the necromancer companion.



The 2nd is fixed and the companion will join. Had an issue of a script looking for a blank tag, then a wrong tag and then I had a trigger destroy itself before the other conditions for the script to work would fire.



The final issue is a little bit of a puzzle but I'm sure I'll get it over the next few days. As promised here are several screen shots from testing. The best I am keeping to modify and make load screens.

What is wrong with the below screen?

Several hill giants throwing boulders and the unfortunate companions about to be smashed.



A random cave litter with dead bodies. I used the cave tile set then the dead end placeable to create the stone walls.

Once I get the last bug or bugs (since it was a game breaker and I could go any further) worked out I will be looking for play testers. As a playtester not only will you be the first to play Risen Hero you will also get to submit a blueprint to be added the meditating monastery monks. You will need to wear the default monk robes but the rest is customizable.

QUICK UPDATE

Testing has begun!

The other day the last static camera was placed and all the initially grammar checks were completed.

Tonight I will begin my play-through for any major bugs. Modules 1-3 have been play tested and only mod 4 needs to be checked for game breaking bugs. Once that is done I will move onto community testing.

Screen shots of testing will be posted soon!

Good News

In 4 sittings I was able to script the conversations that took me months to write. The final areas have been finished off and the all conversations as well as everything else has been spell checked (thanks to spellplug).



What does that leave:

Static camera placement and grammar checking the conversations for this last series of I've been working on.

I need to update my 2das to be compatible with Kaedrin's most recent PrC Pack then finish off packaging my HAKS.

That will leave me to playthrough to make sure everything works and there are no problems. Then it will be time to recruit some playtesters (I will announce here and on the bioware board)

Exciting stuff!

-After my play through I will also post more screen shots to make up for my past few text only post.-

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....