Just a progress check

Yep, just reporting on how the beach area is turning out! Also tested a few of the earlier areas and had fun&giggles - even though I know it's lame to laugh at one's own jokes :( Well, I'm tired, not paying attention to my lecture at the moment and can't find anything clever to say. So, look, pretty pictures!

Hoorray! Time to advance!

Yes, I'm finally finished the overland map design! I will get back to scripting & populating it later, I have more urgent areas to focus on - such as this one nice shipwreck beach. Feels nice to design an area that's not in a miniature size. Of course, I'm having a wee bit hard time since I haven't designed a beach before. What makes a good, beautiful and natural beach? They're usually mostly sand...

But plain sand is boring! I looked at Storm of Zehir's shipwreck area, but that didn't help too much since the idea was too different and the actual beach was...well, pretty much empty. I need to think of something, the area is supposed to be nice and relaxed and fun to explore and talk to NPCs. Oh and the ship will be a part of a "quest" that will NOT appear in the player's journal. It's sort of a mystery that the player will have to solve without relying to journal entries telling them every little thing they need to do. I won't make it too hard though, I promise!

Still working on the overland map

The overland map is taking more time than I thought it would...on the other hand I haven't had much time to work on it. At least I'm starting to develop some kind of routines now that I'm getting used to school again. Which means I should start having more time for modding - I'm also thinking of quitting my stressful part-time job to have more time for this and rest of my life! (:

Anyways, here's what's happened since the last picture upload. I've pretty much finished the texturing on the map, but I still need to make finishing touches once all the placeables are in place. Also, 90% of the map is grassed and shaded. As you can see, there are plenty of forests, jungle and mountains to explore! I'm getting restless while working on the overland map when I have so many good areas waiting to be created on the map (such as Witch's hut and Aboriginals' camp). Both will be "optional" areas that won't be directly integrated into the main quest actually.

Look forward to the finished overland map at the end of this week or in the beginning of the next one! But hey, here's a new picture - you didn't read any of that anyways, so just marvel at it.

Back in business!

Sorry for the long absence. I had a lot going on in personal life and virtual life also. I found my lost love for EverQuest private server called Shards of Dalaya. Pretty awesome MMORPG considering it's completely free - actually it beats most of the commercial MMOs out there. But now that I started college and moved to another city, I won't have enough time to concentrate on my characters. So, yesterday I grabbed my mouse and opened the Toolset...

And whoa, it was a bit confusing - I confess I had been modding Left 4 Dead a bit and going back to the Toolset controls was preeeeetty hard. But I'm all used to it again. I played through what I had created of CotL so far and I was pleasantly surprised, it all worked pretty well and looked nice. Of course I found some odd dialogue that I'm determined to change the next time I have the time to focus on it.

I should have an internet connection on 10th of September, so look for an update after that date. Right now I'm at school so I can't post any screenshots, and I really don't remember much of what progress I did yesterday. But...

It's good to be back!

Future work > Epic

Just to show that I'm not just sitting around idly, I'm going to finally post some new shots! This time they're from the overland map that I'm creating. Only been doing it for a few hours now and it's rather different from designing the regular areas. I have to plan things a lot more carefully to avoid any stress later on. At the same time I can relax a bit with the visuals, since the player can't rotate the camera, bwahaha. Still, getting used to scaling everything takes some time.

I've also created a very important interior area in Bellbay! The player will be going there a lot, it will be the base of operations so to speak. Every possible companion will be staying there as well...okay, not every companion, but most of them. Also I have 9 possible companions (actually 2 companions and 7 henchmen/cohorts) for the player at the moment. Wow, the figure sounds so big when I see it as a number. Maybe I'm overdoing it...but then again, only 5 of them will have any real major parts in the story.

I'm curious, what do you people think is a good amount of sidequests in a user-made campaign? I already have several ready in the first part, but will ignore those, they're just 'fillers' to add some background and fun :) Anyway, here are the screens of the early overland map.

Long time no see.

I'm back!

Yes, sorry for the one month long absence. I've been working and studying and bunch of other stuff. Also had a minor loss of inspiration and motivation - the amount of work needed compared to the gains. I should probably join a mod-making team as a story and level designer. That way I could get the most out of modding, those are the things I enjoy the most. Writing the conversations and figuring out the scripts...not so much.

But I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish at least this module before I consider joining a group. Also foil- from bioware forums has offered help in writing. Now I have someone to write for me and someone to proof-read my dialogue. Sweet. I'll just have to think of something for foil- to write. Easier said than done.

But on to the progress of the module. The whole month has been quiet. I've finished hree interiors and created a new one - with a nice 'secret' room. I started working on another side quest too. I'm getting the feeling it won't turn out as fun as I thought it would be, but I guess it won't hurt to add it either, it's not that bad.

I'm holding the creation of Bellbay and the rest of the world of Tarein for now. I decided I should finish the first part of the mod first. There isn't much left anyway. Only a couple more side quests and tweaking and fixing the existing quests. I must say the opening is a whole lot better than in Hearts of Endia. HoE's opening was a bit too vague. This time you will find out a great deal of yourself and the place you've grown up in. Or at least this time the background for the mod is more solid and plausible.

More screenshots coming when I return to the world of Tarein. Next up, Bellbay interiors and the overland world map!

Beautiful town of Bellbay

This area has been a real test for me in both design and technical ways... The walkmesh really hasn't been behaving nicely. It took me propably 12 hours to make all intended places walkable and I had to redesign some  parts of the town. But it was worth it. I think the town is pretty much complete, it's still missing all NPCs - apart from a little girl I used to test wether I could make her sit on the side of a sidewalk (see the pictures below). It turned out great and I've really wanted something like that in my areas - children sitting on crates, barrels, everywhere they can get.

It needed a bit of tweaking with walkmeshes also, but I think the next times will be a lot easier. But now it's time to write some story advancement. Time for another important turning point in the story, the player will meet several new possible henchmen (I only have 2 companion characters, the rest are henchmen) and will be introduced the main aspects of the module.

Good times.

Oh yeah, if you (yeah, you! the one reading this right now!) are a good/decent writer in your opinion and would like to write some fresh, fun and catchy dialogue and descriptions etc, please contact me at mazena86@gmail.com or PM me at NWN 2 forums, my nick is Mazena86. I know I will be struggling with the insane amount of conversations if I were to write it all by myself. I promise you will get to share the fame and glory! :D

Now, enjoy some shots.