Yet more scripting and dialog work for the ke...

April 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more scripting and dialog work for the keep area. You can now scout out positions and pelt them with the catapult, which is always a lot of fun. Now the enemy fights back with their catapult as well. Only a fool marches through the center of the battlefield in clear sight, as they're likely to be made suddenly quite flat by very large rocks.

I have one more "assault" wave that I want to do next. There's also some assorted bug issues with any effort this big - the elves don't seem to get reinforcements, for example. That can't be good. I'm also trying to get the various catapult explosion types working - flying masonry when it hits the castle versus flying dirt on the ground.

The extreme business of life continues. Probably not a lot of work today. I'm hoping that during our two-day educational seminars, I can daydream about the final act some more. It's starting to gel together. The hard part is trying to avoid all the standard "end game" clichés while still making it satisfying.

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Well, I finally got around to putting up a pa...

April 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I finally got around to putting up a page for the next Dreamcatcher module. Basically it's just a placeholder and a map, as people kept e-mailing asking when it's going to be done (late May, early June is my guess).

Life has been busy lately, so I haven't been able to do much work as of late. I placed the enemy siege equipment and started putting together the scripts to support it. I just started on the new catapult scripts for the keep, which should provide entertainment for some.

I also finished up Bone Kenning last night. Lots of good things about it, from the "Thrull" concept to the interesting keep. I did have a few problems, as many of these heavily-scripted modules have (mine included). I ended up getting infinite experience when killing a certain shadow. After leveling up to 10 or so, I realized this couldn't possibly be part of the story. I also had several cases where my thrulls become unselectable and untargetable, so I basically lost all their components. Problems aside, it was a truly fun module.

I find myself thinking more and more about modules after Dreamcatcher. It's a bad habit to get in, as this one must be done first. Still, I'm writing down notes when they come to me. If some of the ideas pan out, it could end up being lots of fun.

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I've been happily placing trees throughout th...

April 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been happily placing trees throughout the levels. Those and the flowers should make Evermeet look more like the isle of beauty I imagined. I also put some work into testing the scripting for the battlefield. So far, so good. I could leave the elves and attackers alone and they'd merrily battle it out for all eternity. Nothing fancy - just some respawn action to keep it interesting.

I played a bit more Bone Kenning last night. I think I'm approaching the end (though I could certainly be mistaken). There's a number of things I really enjoyed about it. The concept of a personal dwelling for the player turned out quite nicely and was integral to the story rather than just a cool place to hang out. There are some elements there that I've been tossing around for my next project. Seeing some of them in action has certainly helped solidify some ideas.

As for today, I'm hoping to get more battlefield scripting done. There are some quests that need solidifying for that entire battle sequence. Next is the actual assault piece. I got a working door in the barracks roof, which makes one of the centerpiece buildings much more effective.

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Martin E released an update to his tree pack,...

April 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Martin E released an update to his tree pack, which I just finished incorporating into the Dreamcatcher hak pack. It looks amazing, really adding life to some of the core areas. It was somewhat unexpected, but I really enjoy the ivy placeables. Seems to make a huge difference. See if you can spot the secret castle door hidden in this latest screenshot.

Sam wanted to play Star Wars with me yet again, but I convinced him to play Neverwinter Nights with me. We picked up Bone Kenning and I was really impressed. The unique gameplay with the creation of "thrulls" is quite interesting. The dialog is also extremely well done and suits the creepy mood - I feel bad that I'm forced to skim because of a four-year-olds patience. He should wander down in a bit this morning, so hopefully we finish it up before breakfast.

I had a rare moment yesterday where I was alone in the house and could work on my module in peace. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no motivation to do so. After playing the first bit of Bone Kenning, I became reinvigorated, working on more dialog after I tucked Sam into bed. It's nice to remember why I'm doing this. I'm a sucker for a good story.

Hopefully I can work on the general battlefield area near Lakeside Keep. I need to script some patrolling enemies, as well as some "reinforcement" scripts for the elven defenders. I don't want to put too many on the walls at once (polygon issues), but I need to keep them defended. I'll probably keep a count of those lost and have it make a difference later in the module, just so the players have some motivation to hurry up with their business.

On a final note, I got an e-mail from Manbo, a Japanese NWN player. He's translated the first of the Shadowlords modules into Japanese, which I thought was quite cool. You can visit his site, but it's mostly unreadable for an English speaker like me.

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I got a tremendous amount of work done yester...

April 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a tremendous amount of work done yesterday, putting in all the dialog and scripting required for the Two Towers area. I'd still like to polish it up a bit, add some extra magical contraptions to each tower. We'll see how the time goes.

I started work on the Lakeside Keep area, and came to the conclusion that I was yet again crazy for making the attempt. I spent an hour this morning scripting and testing a tiny event that should take about five seconds in game time. It's fairly cool, but boy are some things time consuming.

On a related note, it's officially one month away from Emma's due date. Will I finish Dreamcatcher in time? If I had a magic 8 ball, the answer would be "probably not". I'm guessing I'll have all the areas finished and scripted by then, but I bet I'll need a couple weeks of testing for a module this size. Maybe I can hold Emma with one arm while testing with the other. Hmm . . .

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Today we have the matching pair to yesterday'...

April 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Today we have the matching pair to yesterday's image. I'm slowly finishing up the final parts of my Two Towers area. It's the biggest of the "trek across Evermeet" areas, with four subareas off of it. I'm hoping it's an interesting little distraction along the way.

I still have lots to do with the module, which is already quite large. I've got just about everything planned out in detail except the final end. I'm doing some technical tests on the side, which may end up being quite complex. In theory, it looks good, but I have to decide whether to take a certain model in the placeable or creature direction. The big problem with placeables is that they only have three animations. We'll see how it goes.

I'm hoping to write more dialog today, getting the main Two Towers quest areas complete. We'll see how far I get.

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Life was crazy busy yesterday, so I didn't ge...

April 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Life was crazy busy yesterday, so I didn't get much done. I ended up writing some dialog, however, so I felt I made a little progress. Dialog is one of those things that seems to take huge amounts of time, and I have to be somehow inspired to actually do it. My favorite dialog writing time is early in the morning after I've had a mocha. For some reason, the ideas seem to simply flow.

Martin E finished his update to his tree hak and should be releasing it in a day or two. Some of those trees will definately make it into Dreamcatcher 4, as they add great atmosphere to the game. The latest size of the hak pack was around 8 MB. I'm hoping to save some room at the end for some of the final act custom content, though that's still a bit fuzzy.

I'm feeling good about how progress is coming along, though finishing it all in a month seems a bit optimistic. It all depends on when the baby actually comes too, as I suspect it will cut into development time a bit.

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Pity the guys in the red shirt

April 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Pity the guys in the red shirt.

When I used to watch Star Trek as a kid, I used to get excited when security would go down with them, wearing their red uniforms. I could tell that a particularly horrific death awaited my eager eyes. I'm sure it was because the writers needed a way to express the danger the crew was in, though they couldn't actually kill off a main character.

I've done the same for my module, making certain defenders of the lakeside keep "red shirt guys". Their fate in life is to suffer the various assaults in vivid detail. Unfortunately, it does get a bit comical. I was testing out the catapult boulder attack and this poor elf kept flipping off the castle wall over and over. I wanted to hold up a "10" sign rating his gymnastic skills. After several hours working on it yesterday, I think I'm done with the necessary modeling. Now I've just got to script the whole thing.

I got a note from Raflar, who put together a bunch of material I used for Dreamcatcher 1 (the Dancing Cyclops in particular). He was enthusiastic, though putting off playing the module until he finished Shadowlords.

I also had someone from Japan e-mail me about translating Shadowlords into Japanese. I wish him the best of luck, as the amount of dialog, item descriptions, script-related text, and journal entries are a bit daunting. It is amazing how many people around the world have played my modules. I got an e-mail from someone in Ukraine yesterday. Almost half the e-mail I get is from outside the country. Pretty neat.

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I've been slogging through details this morni...

April 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been slogging through details this morning, things like getting the dialog and scripts for this snake altar together. I also worked on creature placement and general testing. Sometimes it's hard to summon the energy to manage all the little details. I'm hoping to finish up the trek across Evermeet sections fairly soon. I have one more area with some complex scripting that I've been putting off, though I probably can't wait too long.

I started in on a secret project last night, then came to the conclusion that I was probably insane for even trying. The polycounts were huge - in the 3000+ range. I may end up rethinking things, though we'll see how it goes.

I'd also like to create some elf models for the keep defense scene that react appropriately to the incoming ballista bolts, catapult boulders, and so on. That means I need to decide if I want to make placeables or full-fledged creatures for the custom animations. Unfortunately, placeables can only have a few animations, but it may be enough.

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Hmm

April 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Hmm. Hard to get through to my own web site. Makes posting news tricky. One of these days I'll have to do something about it . . .

It was pretty busy yesterday, so not much time to work on the game. I did manage to get my catapult effect perfected. It now has a different look when hitting dirt versus the castle wall. The latter sends bricks flying along with a huge dust plume. Should be entertaining.

I also worked on yet more dialog as well as fixing some scripting issues. You can now purchase and use certain holy items, but only if your deity field matches what's appropriate for the item. If not, your hand is burned and you drop it.

I've also finally mapped out the entire "advancing" section of the game. It's the biggest, with many varied environments to explore and obstacles to overcome. I'm hoping it's a nice change of pace to the beginning and ending of the module, which tends to be more roleplaying heavy.

That's not to say that they all work right. This morning I spent a frustrating half hour trying to get my scout to run back and warn the other troops. No luck. I also need to get started on the keep defense area, which could be the most complex area of any I've made.

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As suspected, I didn't get much done yesterda...

April 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As suspected, I didn't get much done yesterday or this morning. I worked a little on the explosion, resizing and retexturing the bricks to make it more realistic. They no longer float in the air, as I fixed the simple model issue.

I was actually all ready to do a little work last night, but ended up answering e-mails. I don't particularly like turning people's requests for help down, but I'm finding it necessary these days if I'm going to ever finish this. I might have a little time this morning, depending on how the server upgrade goes and when the boy wakes up. Easter eggs await!

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Though I have much to do, I still accomplishe...

April 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Though I have much to do, I still accomplished quite a bit yesterday. All the doors in the keep now interconnect. I added ladders to reach the trapdoor in the tower roof. I also wrote more of the endlessly growing dialog.

This morning I worked on some appropriate placeables for my evil ophidian temple. Much of the middle part of the game is geared around exploration and combat, in contrast to the dream sequence which is dialog heavy. I'm hoping it flows smoothly, though I do worry a bit about going to far in any one direction.

I'm not sure how much work I'll be able to put into the module this weekend. Today is filled with family things, and a server upgrade extending from tonight through tomorrow. Yippie.

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Lots of stuff done yesterday

April 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of stuff done yesterday. I worked up a new creature, modifying a salamander with an excellent tail animation with a green slaad to make a passable Yuan-ti. It should do well in my final area before the Lakeshore Keep.

I've also been working on a new "exploding masonry" visual effect for use in the keep defense. It doesn't quite look right, the brick and stone hang in the air after flying outward, so I'll have to spend some time working on it.

I came to the conclusion that I must have siege equipment for the players to use at the castle. Initially, I was going to have it mostly in the hands of the enemy, but then I came to my senses. It's simply too much fun to throw boulders, dump boiling oil, and impale those who would bring ruin to the world. The typical hack and slash gets old after awhile.

I also put in a tremendous amount of dialog and items yesterday. I have even more to do today, along with the necessary scripting to do the quests. Should keep me busy.

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Well, I finally got my ambush code working th...

April 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I finally got my ambush code working this morning, though it took a huge amount of time. My solution wasn't completely elegant, but it'll work okay. It's also important to get the player out of the way of the advancing troops, as it's likely they don't have the same skill of concealment as the elves.

I made more items for the shops yesterday, though I need to make even more. To save time, I admit to throwing in some of the standard, boring weapons along with the highly cool ones. I also made a couple of the "uber" weapons, testing out their effects in the game. Placing very powerful weapons is a tricky thing. You don't want it to early in the game, otherwise players will simply stomp all over anything that opposes them. Too late and they don't get to play with it much.

I think I'm finally winding down the "trek across Evermeet" part of the module. It's probably the longest, time-wise, and has a fair amount of combat. Still, there's a couple areas with moral choices that should appease the roleplaying crowd. I'd personally like to start focusing on a couple of the castle scenes. They promise to be quite interesting.

Oh, and it looks like David Gaider, one of the Bioware folks, played Dreamcatcher 3. Always nice to see the attention.

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I got a tremendous amount of things done yest...

April 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a tremendous amount of things done yesterday, most of it the boring, necessary parts. I mapped out quite a few areas, including one of the more complex and involved ones. I think that alone had six maps with a half-dozen area transitions. I also made up some of the locals, though there is much scripting to put in place. Finally, I had a need of a merchant, as the players will have been on quite a long trek at this point without being able to resupply. I think I have a clever excuse why there might be some here.

I've begun making a long list of the custom content I'll need for my castle scene. I may pass on actually modifying the tiles themselves, but I certainly want some "destruction" effects, such as falling rubble and flying masonry. I think I'll modify the critical-hit "gib" animation and replace the body parts with chunks of rocks. Hopefully it'll work.

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I finished up my flower fest yesterday, creat...

April 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finished up my flower fest yesterday, creating some flower boxes and placing them around the module. I think I'm basically done with my little side project, as it's time to focus in on the module itself.

I added the castle walls and got some initial layout of the keep. I'm not sure I'll keep it that way. I'll need to start putting together some "scripts" for how the battle will play out.

There's also an area that I mapped out earlier, but it has no scripting or dialog written for it. It's one of the less important "journey" areas, but it still has a fairly high cool potential.

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Okay, okay, I got distracted

April 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, okay, I got distracted. I was reading the custom content forum and someone mentioned the lack of flowers and such. I spent parts of Sunday and this morning putting these together. They're low-polycounts and can be liberally sprinkled about. I sort of have a need for this later in the module, but I admit I did it as a bit of a break from the usual. You can see a bigger picture here

I do like the way they turned out. They'll make a nice "flavor" addition to the hills and forests of Evermeet, I think. It's supposed to be one of the more beautiful places on Toril, even though it's been overrun by the forces of evil.

I'm hoping to get more dialog in today. Endless dialog seems to be required for any significant module. I'd also like to start working on getting the castle walls into the module, perhaps laying out some maps. We'll see how it goes.

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Well, my eyes have gotten all blurry, but I t...

April 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, my eyes have gotten all blurry, but I think I'm pretty close to done with my castle gate. It's nothing fancy, but it works. I may have some pathing issues, funny shadows, and such to carefully look at, but for now I'm taking a break. Ironically, I found out yesterday that someone else was working on a castle tileset. Still, the one I've got suits my need well enough and the more variety, the better.

I tested out my scripting yesterday. The catapult code worked well after some minor tweaks. If the rocks start falling, it's best to run away immediately. As for the ambush code, it still needs some work. The troops hide behind trees, but their default AI still takes over and they immediately attack the advancing enemy. It makes an ambush somewhat useless.

Sam and I started playing the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh last night before bed. I've decided that a half-orc barbarian backed up with a cleric is the basis for an unstoppable juggernaut. The biggest problem we faced was continually falling through the floor in one section. There were some scripting issues that my critical eye picked up, but we've been having fun so far. Even though there's no hak packs included, the author used placeables in a fairly creative way to give the illusion of a big mansion and such. We'll probably finish it up before breakfast this morning.

I also noticed that a huge number of the top rated modules are single player only. From a developers standpoint, I can understand why - supporting multiplayer is very time consuming and it makes creating a story around a single character impossible. I've tried to focus on the overall story and the relationship between the PC and henchmen/women. I'm starting to move in the direction of drawing the PC specifically into the storyline, though that'll have to wait for the campaign after Dreamcatcher. We'll see if my ideas really pan out.

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I spent a huge amount of time on the simpler ...

April 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent a huge amount of time on the simpler of the two tiles that I needed for the castle project, but I finally got it done. I can now put a doorway in the wall, allowing PCs to get to the top of the walls via the towers. It's not the most elegant solution, but it's good enough for what I need. Ramps would be ideal, but that may not be possible.

I also put in some time yesterday fleshing out some of the areas I'd mapped over the last week, as well as writing some of Teira's dialog. Dialog is tricky at this stage of the game, as there are romance and non-romance options for each, as well as the good/evil/neutral for Nooble. In future campaigns, I'm going to have to simplify things a bit, otherwise I'll be writing endlessly.

Hopefully this weekend I can test out some of the things I've put in place. There's an ambush scene that is scripted, but some of the things I'm trying are very complex, so it probably won't work the first time. I also want to test out the enemy catapult AI. Endless things to do.

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Well, I bit the bullet and started work on th...

April 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I bit the bullet and started work on the castle. I dusted off Danmar's unfinished castle tiles and integrated them with the mountain tileset. All the relevant tiles have been added to the .SET and .ITP files. I created two new tiles to allow the castle wall to merge with the mountainside. I also made the doors in the tower tiles workable.

Unfortunately, that's just the easy part. I have two major tiles I need to create before the set is actually workable: a doorway out from the castle wall and a main castle gate. The doorway in the castle wall is critical, as there's no external way to get from the courtyard to the wall. So, I'll put in a stairway in the towers to take care of that. The main castle door is tougher - I need to decide if it'll be like the Guardhouse tile in the official set (e.g. a gate people can pass through, but not over), or more like the GoodCastle entrance, which is a normal door. I really like the idea of a big gate, but the downside is that bridges aren't allowed - no walking over and under. I'll probably think about it today and do the modeling this weekend.

Oh - I messed around with walkmeshes and pathfinding for the castle tileset for about an hour yesterday. The same problems continued. I could pathfind down the ramp, but not up. I've given up on the ramp and I'm now resigned to doorways in the tower.

As for the module itself, I scripted, but haven't tested, the enemy catapult AI. Basically, if you wander in unprepared, bring a really big umbrella.

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Well, I had so much fun with the catapult, I ...

April 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I had so much fun with the catapult, I ended up making a ballista too. It's fully animated, but not scripted, and I sadly don't even have a place to put it yet. Danmar thinks he has a solution to the castle wall pathing problem, but his time is even more limited than my own, so that may not be happening any time soon. Still, a "defend the castle scene" is still something I'd really like to see.

I did some bug testing last night, finding out that a particular battle was way too hard. Plus my evil zombies turned on their master when I realized that I had set their faction to "Defender". Still, every one of my elven troops died during the fight. I ended up toning down his defenses a bit.

Life is still quite busy. Work is frantic for some odd reason. A little over a month until the baby is born. My stepfather made his trip to Chicago to see his family one last time. He's back in town since yesterday, though I'm not sure how much company he wants after several weeks of nonstop visitors.

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Yesterday was pretty busy, but I still manage...

April 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was pretty busy, but I still managed to do a few tweaks here and there. I cleaned up the mountain tileset more yesterday, fixing the minimap and putting in a new crypt entrance tile. I wish I had that for Shadowlords 2, as it would have been perfect.

I put some more work into the actual module as well, getting the catapult sounds perfected. I'm going to have to move on to other things soon, but it's just one of those fun highlights of the game. Anything that I can do over and over and still enjoy is probably going to be fun for lots of people.

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I put in a bunch of time on my catapult the l...

April 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in a bunch of time on my catapult the last couple days. Though it's really just a minute's worth of coolness within the game, it was satisfying getting it in place. It's almost fully functional. I just need to script having the PC's pelted from afar if things go wrong. Still, there are few things as satisfying as dropping large rocks on your enemy.

I mapped out some more areas in the game, putting in placeable water so that I could turn the forest pits into a river. I've got to test out my ambush code as well, which is written but probably doesn't work (knowing how these things go).

The more I work on this module, the bigger it seems to get. I can envision the whole thing in my mind now and I suspect it'll be almost twice as big as the previous modules. Hopefully that'll make folks happy.

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I got a lot done over the weekend

April 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a lot done over the weekend. Most of it involved the creation of custom content, though I did a little scripting and bug fixing as well. Some of the events in the story are coming together for me as well. Hopefully it'll be suitably entertaining.

Here's a screenshot of my mystery project. Nothing too dramatic, though it is a "mini-tileset" of sorts (with all of two tiles). I also worked a bit on an animated catapult this morning, which has turned out to be fairly complex. None of the scripting is done, but it should be a fun little thing for the players to use (and be used against them).

Hopefully I can flesh out the Grove area a bit more. I have the two main characters, but they each need their "support staff" as it were.

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I got a fair amount done yesterday, debugging...

April 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a fair amount done yesterday, debugging some areas, integrating the mountain tileset, and working on my castle on the lake. I wanted a central building where I could put someone on the roof and ended up modifying the walkmesh for the barracks. It took a good two hours, but the results seemed pretty good. Of course, I've got to get people up there, but there's a little alcove where someone obviously was planning on putting a doorway. The secret door placeable should work nicely there.

I also spent some time working on another project I hope to keep as a surprise. I've been thinking about "moveable terrain". Now, the concept doesn't exist in the game, but I've been able to get around it using various tricks. Dreamcatcher 2 had this, with the moveable boats that you could walk on. I have another thing I'm trying here. We'll see.

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Well, I cleaned up my castle wall a bit yesterday

April 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I cleaned up my castle wall a bit yesterday. It now looks much better for the assault that's going to happen later on. I actually got a lot of work done yesterday, though mostly dialog and the scripting that goes with it. I think the basics of the Grove area are in place. Any significant quest or dialog takes about a day to write, with all the various branches, vow options, rewards, and so on. Still, it's what makes the adventure fun, so I plan on having much more.

I'm also testing and finding bugs. The funniest so far was when we were attacked and Anera began casting area of effect damage spells, catching many of the elven troops. Well, I have a check that let's PCs get away with it (making them friendly again afterwards). Sadly, Anera doesn't have the same protection. They were upon her in seconds. I took out her area of effect spells and replaced them with metamagiced versions of direct damage spells. Should work out better.

On another note, I finally released the mountain tileset. You can get the direct link here, though hopefully it'll show up on the Vault with a nice discussion board in a day or two. I'll post it in the downloads section then.

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There's a scene later in the module where the...

April 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

There's a scene later in the module where the players assault a lake fortress. I wanted to have some variety in the wall itself, so I took the elevated towers and started to merge them with the "elevated wall against water" tiles. I didn't get it quite done this morning, but a few more nips and tucks should give me a couple workable tiles.

I ran into some frustration yesterday, wanting to have my elven troops respond to the voice chat commands like a henchman. I could get them to respond to typed commands (e.g. "retreat"), but nothing from the voice chats. I'm guessing it's a hardcoded mechanism, which makes it hard to work with.

More dialog yesterday, though not much. I gave each troop a short background speech, just for flavor. How many players will really chat it up with Calyng the scout or Selia the healer, I don't know, but at least they'll have a ready answer as to why they're doing what they're doing.

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Life again was far too busy yesterday

April 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Life again was far too busy yesterday. I did manage to work more on the mountain tileset after sending out a version for some of the other custom content developers to look at. Based on feedback, I've added walls that go up to the mountainside. As Danmar pointed out, this allows for guarded mountain passes.

I'm still tweaking my "Old Forest Road" area, trying to get the traps adjusted the way I want. It's now possible to trigger a trap, lure the enemy in, and sneak around the other way, avoiding combat completely. Now I just need a way to disarm the other set of traps without turning them into "true" Bioware traps.

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Life has become extremely busy, so it's been ...

April 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Life has become extremely busy, so it's been hard to get NWN things done. I finished off the edge tiles for the mountain tileset yesterday. I think it's actually to the point where I'll release it as a stand-alone tileset on the NWVault. I want to send it out to some other people today to get their thoughts.

Dreamcatcher 4 slowly moves ahead. I did more testing of my forest area today, trying to get the traps right. This particular screenshot is of a bear trap, which is both painful and immobilizing. Ouch.

I also started in on my "Grove" area which should have some interesting moral decisions. These involve law and chaos, while hopefully not tilting much towards the good or evil path. It's actually quite hard to do, as most "lawful" options tend to be seen as "good" as well. Let's hope I can pull it off.

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Real life has become quite busy the last few ...

April 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Real life has become quite busy the last few days, but I managed to put in some more work. I created a new creature yesterday, a special zombie variant that will be used in a particular area of the module. I'm hoping it proves to be interesting.

I also mapped out and scripted another area for Act III. This one was much more simple than the others so far, so it wasn't too hard to put together. I do have a couple custom traps that I carefully placed, so it shouldn't be boring. I have a far more complex area to work on today, with dialog, scripting, and custom creatures.

Act III in many ways is the "fun" part of the module. I've set it up so that unexpected places and encounters are the norm. If a new idea hits me, I can tie it in quite easily as well. Having that sort of freedom to expand is quite handy.

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About Me

I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000. In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.