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.

Whole day wasted - almost.

So, I've pretty much spent the whole day trying toget some custom city placeables to work with SoZ. To be precise, this hak: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2HakpaksOriginal.Detail&id=299 - Tupoun's City Hak. Basically TES III: Oblivion models ported to NWN2. They're awesome!

So, I finally got them working, but it's almost 3am here so I really, really have to stop. Even though I'm very eager to see what I can make with the new placeables. The default NWN2 houses don't really look like a city to me. These do and oh boy, oh boy... Well,  look at these screens and marvel at the new stuff!

Edit: Ehum, the screens don't work.. So.. click on the slideshow and you'll get to the gallery if you want to see the screenshots.

Progress Update on CotL #1

As I promised, I've finished the first part of the story. The first module isn't nearly complete however, I still need to add filler NPCs and a few interior areas and side quests. Still, I've created the next module and started my work on the first area in the second part of the story. Thanks to some friendly help I now know how to make two-leveled areas with Sunken Ruins and Shadow Fortress -tilesets.

It's been a bit rough learning how to use them and to understand the limitations (especially with the walkmeshes). And these areas require significantly more hardware power. While playtesting the new area, the frame rate dropped a few times when I was on the other end of the map and looked at the direction of the other. It will make the area a lot more interesting and it looks more the way I wanted it to look than it would have without two-leveled tiles. The lack of placeables are a bit of consern though, it will be hard decorating the area, but on the other hand it wouldn't make much sense if it were full of stuff. Not that the chests (some of them require some searching!) containing goodies make any sense either, I just felt like doing them. Also, the music track I've had in mind fits it perfectly!

Take a look!

Questing for variety!

What I think Hearts of Endia was lacking is variety of side quests, roleplay choices and skill checks. I've been working hard not to repeat the same mistake here. I've only worked on the mod for a small time, but I have six complete quests implemented. Though four of them are compulsory, they include various choices you can make and some have different outcomes or will affect the story later. After one of the quests  you could say 'the cat's out of the bag' and not speak with metaphors.

I've created the two first companions in the game. Meet Henrik and Mina, both are your childhood friends. Oh, and depending on your sex, you can romance either one of them in the final version! That was another thing HoE was missing.

Here's a screenie of my char(the one that looks tallest) and Henrik and Mina!

I have way too little time to work on the mod! I have so many ideas and I constantly have the urge to do something with the toolset. But alas, I need to work and study too. Thursday night is reserved for building though - it's been a long time I've had that much time to work on a mod. I'm hoping on finishing the first part of the mod and story during the next week. I will be adding more side quests and filler NPCs later on though.

I've also finally decided on the name for the campaign! The name can give you a clue what you're going to do and experience in the campaign, heh.

Behold, the name is!:

Crystals of The Lost

A small break.

I'll be gone 'till Saturday evening and I already miss the toolset. Hrm, this will be hard, I've gotten too excited about the campaign I'm working on. Today I already created three interiors and made a side quest with three possible solutions - one of them is pretty hilarious. Oh, also made a nice winter gear for the PC!

I should be in bed right now, but I felt I had to finish the rough design of the next exterior area! Also waiting for a reply from Beyond The Pale

about the Hearts of Endia. The download link worked on 3/8/09, but

has been broken since. Grr, it's starting to piss me off :D The download

link has been not working for about a week soon. I wish today was the

last time I had to upload the 1.1 version of HoE.

Anyways, here's some screens of the new area!

Exteriors taking shape.

I've been mostly designing the exteriors for the future projects. So far I have two ready for the short module and only for the longer campaign. I really like how the snowy area is turning out - was well worth the hours spent on it. Take a look!

Module exterior nr 1:

Campaign exterior nr 1:

Now I should start worrying about the conversations and quests for the first areas. When I made Hearts of Endia, I made all areas first and then started working on the conversations and scripts - this turned out to be a mistake, I got extremely sick of writing thousands of words and felt like ditching the whole project at times. This time I'll try to create an area, create some basic NPCs there and maybe a quest or two. Should make things more interesting.

Updated Hearts of Endia!

So, just so you all know, I'm uploading the updated version of HoE (actually for the second time, the last file has been there for 48 hours soon so I thought it was safe to upload another one and delete the old file). It will contain a few important fixes that will help in not breaking the game.

- The crypts' door should now open properly after the combat.

- The quest with the wolves is funcioning properly now, I hope.

- I've tried to adjust the bosses' difficulty to harder.

- The investigator conversation should work properly now, it shouldn't interrupt anymore when the NPCs exit the area.

- Added a ClearAllActions to the pilgrim so that the conversation should fire properly.

- The conversation in the ruins won't interrut anymore, thus the monsters will always be hostile now.

- The final conversation fires only once.

- Remade the broken potion of Ultimatum.

- Fixed some reported typos here and there.

Also, I've begun my work on the new modules. So far I've only been designing the opening exterior areas - which is what I enjoy the most. I must say they're coming up nicely and will look good!

Here's a glimpse of the first exterior area of my next campaign (the other project is only one module). Remember, WIP.

Hehee~

I suggest you all check the NWN2 Vault's new modules later today, you might get a surprise!

Bug squashing

I did a little beta testing of my own and found a huge amount of bugs and things that didn't exactly go as I had planned in the scripts, oops. I've spent the last few days squashing these bugs, fixing conversations, adding block scripts to areas and just making sure the mod works fine overall.

Yesterday was actually the first time I tested the mod as a campaign. Good news is that it worked fine, I could transition between the two mod files. Bad news is that indeed I found a lot of bugs. But I think I solved the few major ones already. Just some stupid small mistakes that could break the whole game/experience. Especially the ga_move action in the conversations is giving me a headache... Sometimes the PC moves when I use it on the PC node, sometimes the PC just stands still. I don't see the logic.

Also I've come to the conclusion that I've tried to do too much in the mod. I mean I've got murder mystery, hack 'n' slash, side quests, three companions etc. On my next project I will try to consentrate on one area and maybe spice the things up with hints from some other elements. Still, I think the community might enjoy the mod - except the ones that don't like slow starts, as the murder mystery kinda takes a while to solve... Maybe. Depends if you want to solve it right, or just blame whoever you want. In any case, some evidence must be gathered before you can accuse anyone.

Well, I should be leaving to work now. Enjoy this screenie while I'm gone!

Beta closing in - any willing testers?

There are times when I hate the toolset and just stop working with it. Yesterday it was quite the opposite! Somehow everything just clicked, the conversations flowed with ease, the annoying red cross error is fixed and I have custom items now, yay!

I added lots of items to areas, some you need to explore to get to them. Finished up a couple of areas and some quests. The mod is starting to feel like it's complete soon. Though I think it will be late from the deadline for a few weeks - I haven't had much time to work on it during the past two weeks. Too much work and real life stuff. But I should be able to work on it tomorrow and on Monday again.

So hope remains that this mod, which is turning out to be awesome by the way (hehe, at least I love making and playing it), will be released soon. I might need a couple of testers before I release it to the public though... I wonder where I could store something that big. Rapidshare? Possible?

Any volunteers for some beta testing in the beginning of March?

- Leave a comment and ways to contact you or send me an e-mail to mazena86@gmail.com

-If  you want to test the mod, I also expect you to comment on it, report the possible bugs you've ran into etc. Feedback on how to improve it is welcome too.

-And everything in the mod is copyrighted to MEE - except the custom content from the vault, aaand the music isn't mine either, heh. :))

Back on the saddle! (and a toolset error!)

Last weekend (and monday, tuesday and wednesday) was very unproductive considering Hearts of Endia. I had to work the whole weekend and my girlfriend is trying to take away my free time - don't worry, I'm fighting back! I've even made some progress last evening and today.

One could say that the opening part of Hearts of Endia is complete. That means only the main conversations of course. But it's a huge step, one part was taking forever to complete and now the conversations' word count has gone up to about 27 000. I'd say it's a pretty sick number as I still have the companion dialogues and some quests totally unwritten. Luckily for the players who don't like reading, most of that massive amount of dialogue is totally optional. It's up to you whether you want to talk to everyone you see or not, but most of the NPCs have a unique line or two.

I was getting worried of the limited choices in my module, so I started to use some more creativity in the quests and dialogues. The results are more fun, but take a lot longer to finish and require a lot of planning ahead. And I usually don't plan ahead much, I just sort of feel my way to the end. Hm, I hope it doesn't show, hehe.

Also I've ran into an annoying error in my toolset. Seems like I can't create some custom items anymore - the toolset gives me an error when I try to change the blueprint's Base Item. Well, some base items work well, but some don't. And damn, I want to make custom rings and amulets. I posted a thread about it to the bioware forums, take a look and help if you can! Should the problem solve, it will save so much time. Otherwise I might have to reinstall everything and I'm worried wheter everything will still work the same way after a clean install.

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/myviewtopic.html?topic=666764&forum=113

Now I need to go to bed, will continue with the module tomorrow evening again. Then it's time to do some serious quest implementing!

Edit: I hope you people have patience, I'm starting to think that the release at the end of February is not going to happen if I don't get these errors fixed...

Deadline approaches - module keeps growing

I'm having a hard time controlling myself. I've created two big new dungeons just because I wanted to make two quests involving with a bit of dungeon combat. I have to make sure I won't create any more areas just for a quest.  Well, I shouldn't complain, the quests became pretty interesting and the other area looks a-w-e-s-o-m-e. Seems like I have a thing for underwater/flooded stuff. Added a picture of the caves to the picasa folder - click the slideshow to see it, the slideshow takes its time to update.

Now I should write conversations again... *sigh* Damn, I have too many characters, hah. So much to write - I see nightmares of NWN2 convo editor. No, really I see nightmares that are a mix of Omen and [REC]. Those are so horrible when combined. Well, at least [REC] is. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it NOW! It's a spanish film, but hey, it just adds to the atmosphere!

http://www.recmovie.co.uk/flash/#/rec/

Also I'm trying to think what's a good level scale for my module... I like low level modules, but then again the combat is sooo slow in them that I usually bang my head on the wall when my rogue is fighting five or more monsters at a time - they miss/dodge well, but not so skilled on the hitting. I'm thinking it should start at 8-10 or so, but it may change.

Oh yeah, due to my extra creative acts of adding more content - and more real life work coming - I'm getting pressures of the beta release, hehe.. It's still a month away, but still I'm having doubts. Writing a good dialogue takes time and I have a whole lot left. And then there's the scripting hell, I'm seriously a poor scripter. I usually have to write a script about 10 times before it works well or I give up.

I'm off to the toolset again, gotta get this thing done, damnit.

A whole new area!

It was a pretty lazy weekend, just spent some time without the Toolset. But before that I created a new area to the city of Endia. It was made on the spur of the moment, sorta, but now is an important link in the story - it gives important background information and hints of the future.

Otherwise the area isn't anything special :( Just a few encounters, a couple of new items and some testing with a more creepier mood. Who could have quessed purple works so well on walls in the right lighting. Well, creating the area took my mind off the somewhat monotonous dialogue writing.

Today I've written the dialogue of 3 non-major NPCs that act as servants in the Four Houses. Each has unique topics and personality. The last one was a blast to write. Now it's time to finish the dialogues for the four Magicas. Then I need to write several quests and journals...finally do the companion dialogues! After those, all I have to do is testing, tweaking, adding some more monsters and designing the final battle! I only wonder if there's a way to disable the player's ability to pause... If there is, the finale will be pretty much candy for the eyes and the ears.

If not, maybe it will just be challenging.

Writing like there's no tomorrow.

I decided to count the words in my module's dialogue so far - for fun. Well, the result was over 13400 words so far. And I wasn't even counting my massive journal entries, sheesh. Players are to expect a lot of reading and cutscenes then! I have propably written only a quarter of the full amount of dialogue - unless I get lazy and skip something, hehe. Well, I'll try not to since I've made it this far.

It's fun to see the world coming more and more alive as you build it. So I spent a whole lot of time playing and testing things today - and of course I wrote about 3000 words. I'm ready to drop now. Time to go to bed.

Also, the view to House of Water during the night!

Away from home, bored and with too many ideas.

I said I wouldn't update before Monday, but... I'm bored at the moment since I'm staying at my GF's place and got nothing to do while she's getting ready. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the mod. Bad thing is that I've come up with so many ideas that'll propably have to wait 'till another project. And I still have holes and gaps in the story of my current mod, I'm seriously in trouble with one major part of the story.

It will occur very early in the mod and will give the motive for the protagonist and the reason for a Magica to give him a mission he wouldn't trust just anybody with. The player will need to use wit, logic and examine things carefully. Yes, a crime has happened, and your character will indeed want to solve it. Normally it would be a matter only for the House of Fire, but luckily you'll have someone to speak you in the investigations.

The details of the crime are still in the works and are giving me the worst headaches at the moment. The motive? Committer(s)? When? How?

Holy...I just came up with an idea about the crime that would greatly add to the overall story. But that scenario wouldn't be enough for the Magica to trust the protagonist. So I'm back where I left again. Time to read some crime novels...

Bug fixed and lots of small role NPCs' dialogue written.

Phew, got the annoying bug fixed! It was a result of some hostile creatures attacking my commoner-faction NPCs. It took long for me to figure it out - had no idea they would attack each other while I was in another zone. I created a new faction for the NPCs and all is fine now, I was getting worried before. Now everything is just dandy again.

I wrote loads of one-liners for some small part NPCs and some companion dialogue. I also finished the interior design for all the Four Houses. I must say I'm pretty happy about how they turned out - each House has a distinct atmosphere even though they're almost identical when it comes to architectural planning. The different feel is mainly thanks to the lobbies of each House, they were damn fun to create too.

Even though I'm writing lots of dialogue, designing areas and creating NPCs, I'm worried about the date I set. I just see more and more content I need to work on - such a huge load of stuff for one person. And I will be gone until Monday, so that's three days I won't be able to mod. I think I should quit my job and just do this. Don't you think so too?

Next update on Monday, promise! ♥

Lore, and an annoying bug!

Time to reveal some Endia lore to the public! Also in program today, introduction to a bug that's pretty much driving me crazy. So join us in this exciting entry of the mod Hearts of Endia!

As the main character you've travelled to Endia from Sileon for you've received a letter from your oldest friend, Jasper. He promises you a better life and you decide to ditch your old mediocre life for a brighter future in Endia. The protagonist's desire to believe Jasper can be explained by the fact that Endia has been said to be a land where all three races - humans, elves and dwarves -  can live peacefully.

Outside the borders of Endia things are not so well. Humans and elves have waged wars against each other as long as anyone can remember. Dwarves have mainly been a neutral party, refusing to side with either race. They only consentrate on living in their own community and profiting from the war, they provide dwarven weapons and armor to each side of the wars.

The peace and co-operation between the races in Endia is the result of four powerful forces joining and founding the city of Endia. Endia is now ruled by the descendants of the four founders, they're called the Four Houses. Each House has a different duty in Endia. While one House takes care of the diplomacy, one keeps the city guard in shape, etc. The Houses are Water, Fire, Earth and Death (bet you expected Wind or Air, hah!).

Even after after generations worth of hard work, the peace between humans and elves is shaky and requires constant observation. The dwarves have also recognized Endia as they have agreed to work with them. They mine the mines of N'ir near the city of Endia. They have agreed to mine a precious magical stone the Four Houses need, and in return the dwarves are allowed to keep any other resources they are able to mine and they are paid a fair sum of gold each passing month.

But what has kept Endia so safe from the harms such as bandits, wild animals, neighbour wars? I'm afraid you'll have to play the module to find out the answer to that question. If I can just get rid of this new bug, you beta testers shouldn't have to wait for long... Now, the BUG!

FFS, I haven't read of a bug like this anywhere and I've never encountered it before. I'm totally clueless. There's this waypoint in an early area in the game. The mod keeps jumping the PC to the waypoint from other areas (I don't usually have time to run there, I only know that it happens in other areas as I've placed the Starting Location there sometimes too). After the jump, the mouse is completely disabled besides from moving the cursor around. Keyboard still works as usual, you can move the character, open the menu and all that jazz. So what the heck is going on? First I thought I must have had a heartbeat script on an area/module that somehow did it by accident, but seems like they all lack the means to jump my player anywhere. So frustrating...

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Now, some new screens to tease you all:

Blog created! First peek at HoE.

I decided it was finally time to create a blog to keep a track of what I'm doing with the toolset. And in case someone doesn't know, I'm talking about Neverwinter Nights 2's Toolset, Aurora 2 or something. I've been a big fan of NWN franchise ever since the original NWN. I have never released a single mod, but I'm about to correct that soon.

Learning to use the toolset has been quite a challenge, but it has been rewarding too. Can't say the same about scriptint, it's still pretty much hieroglyphs to me. Sure, I know how to make some basic scripts, but I'm still a big fan of Lilac Soul's Script Generator for the original NWN (will refer to it as LSSG from now on). Also the texturizing and implementing something new hasn't been easy as I'm completely new to any kind of modding.

I could bore you all day and night with talking about myself and my struggles, but I think it's time to tell you guys what I'm working on. I'm working on a single player focused module, called Hearts of Endia. It's set into a different realm than NWN (or any other game/book for that matter), but I've taken ideas and inspiration from here and there - as I'm sure many of you will notice as you play through my mod once it's finished. I even thought about adding a character for a small part from the book series The Death Gate Cycle. Read the books!

At the moment, the module consists of 10 exteriors and 13 interiors, all 100% my design. I'm still uncertain whether or not I should add a few more areas. I think I will save those for my next project so that I'll finish this one some day. I'm hoping I will get alpha or beta version out by the end of February. But no promises, I cannot predict what future might bring. I might not have enough time to write/polish/script.

Here's a few screenshots just to show what to expect. Also expext a better quality in-game since these are TS screens. More polish to come before release too (:

Next time I will be covering some of the lore and story. Also, if there's a scripting wiz reading this, feel free to e-mail me, as I'm in dire need of experienced scripting help. Any help will speed up the release of this mod and I will give credit to those who deserve it (: So far I've only used Cleitanous' Prefabs here and there, no other custom content.