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...