Play Testing is Starting

The game has been uploaded and anyone interested in play testing send me a message.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly with no big issues.

Damn You Party Conversations

That is how I spent the other day play testing.

I learned a important thing about party conversations and how starting them differs from other conversations. This issue I had was there were four items that would start a conversation when the player when used. The conversation would start but only the first line would appear as a speak string. Before switch to party conversations, one of the items used a nwn1 convo style and worked fine. On the use script I had the user start a convo with themselves. This however doesn't work with party conversations. If a companion used the item the conversation start but that companion wasn't part of the conversation. So I figured ok a player can't start a conversation with themselves with a party conversation, I could live with that. My next solution was to use an ipoint in the area, and since the conversation could be started anywhere in the area I have the script ignore start distance. With this I discovered that start distance and involved distance (I just made that term up) are different. Again the conversation would start but drop out after the first line since the player and companions were too far from the ipoint. At this point it was time to take a break and work on something else. When I returned I had the script destroy an ipoint with a certain tag then create a new ipoint at the users location giving it the same tag as the destroyed one. This worked. The conversation could now be in initiated anywhere and multiple times.

So don't know if my self taught scripting methods caught up with me or if this is an issue that others have run into as well. Regardless I figured I would share and maybe save someone some time.

Other then this play testing is going well, it is taking a little longer then I thought but nothing real earth shattering. My wife will be doing one play through now that I fixed all I can find. Then it will be going out to beta testers. If your interested let me know.

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.