Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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.







Thursday, March 26, 2009

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!



Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

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!




Tuesday, March 10, 2009

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.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

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.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Hehee~

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