|
|
I posted a fairly long post over in our publi...
June 30, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I posted a fairly long post over in our public forums. You'll also see a link to them on the upper right in case you want to visit later. Raz has some great high resolution pictures of the new tower and ghost ship. The ghost ship is especially amazing, in my opinion.
The team continues to slave away, like any good pirate crew. PJJ has cranked out several pages of notes for me to review. It looks like I'll be adding some new dialog and features to fill in missing gaps, in addition to the typical bug fixes. Allyndyn has retured from Africa and hopes to rally the voice actors soon. Wisdomknight hopes to finish up texturing the sub this weekend.
As for me, I worked some more on my current quest. I'm having lots of fun writing dialog for my automaton, which tends to be overly complex and obtuse. I also worked on the battle scene, which will hopefully cause many fearful yelps from players who take the violent path.
|
permalink| comment
|
I was a very good boy yesterday, fixing a num...
June 29, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I was a very good boy yesterday, fixing a number of odd bugs PJJ found in the module. I also found a bunch of places where I hadn't quite finished a dialog or the necessary scripts to make it work properly. Unfortunately wishful thinking doesn't make code magically appear. I also had fun adding a few more journal entries, and will likely need more before testing is finished.
I even had a little time to work on the third module, starting in on the second "boss fight". It's a little different than your typical fights, so I'm hoping it's not too confusing for players. In any case, I'm hoping to include a number of non-combat options as well as choosing which of two enemies to fight. Hopefully I can work on that a little more today.
|
permalink| comment
|
Razvan has been working on architecture, a ni...
June 28, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Razvan has been working on architecture, a nice looking fantasy tower in this case. He's even mostly textured it, something that looks rather nice for someone who claims not to be a texture artist.
PJJ has begun testing in earnest. He's given me a lengthy list of things to work on from his early testing. I suspect it's time to start pausing my work on the third module and work on the broken dialogs, missing journal entries, and fun other bugs out there. The good news is that this is why we have a prototype - get the bugs out before NWN2 is even released.
I actually had a less than productive day yesterday, module wise. I mostly did housekeeping/communication stuff and poked around at the Sigil tileset. The main issue is that the textures are fairly low resolution and retexturing everything is a major undertaking. We'll see how brave I end up being down the road.
|
permalink| comment
|
Of all the pages on my personal site, this on...
June 27, 2006 by Adam in NWN1
 Of all the pages on my personal site, this one is clearly the most popular. At the moment, searching for "Adam Miller" on Google has this as the top hit.
Still, this section is pretty ancient, and my latest Neverwinter Nights entries are over on my NWN2 section. That's where you'll find my current work on Dark Waters, a pirate-themed campaign.
For those of you who are just discovering the Shadowlords, Dreamcatcher, and Demon campaigns for classic Neverwinter Nights, enjoy yourselves. There's links to downloads on the left as well as lengthy comments about the development process if you click "display old news items" at the bottom of the page. It's strange to think that this little hobby of mine started over six years ago and has grown to what it is today.
|
permalink| comment
|
I think the secret to my success is just doin...
June 27, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I think the secret to my success is just doing what I can each day. I scribbled out some more dialog and spent this morning working on a little boss fight.
I'm still reeling from being back at work from a long vacation, so I'm falling behind on my correspondences again. Hopefully today I can catch up and I can spend some time on the current quest some more. I'm not even close to finished and after that I'll need to do some polishing passes. Busy, busy.
|
permalink| comment
|
I've been mostly writing the last few days
June 26, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been mostly writing the last few days. I started on a short backstory for the next module and ended up practially writing an entire chapter. Last night I was working on dialog, getting inspired after playing a bit of Planescape: Torment. I have high hopes for the writing in NWN2, as Chris Avellone is doing much of the writing.
I also worked on a little trap/puzzle combo, along with planning out my various "boss battles" for the area. People don't remember the countless creatures thrown at the player, instead it's the big fights that stand out in people's minds. I'm trying hard to make them as memorable as possible.
|
permalink| comment
|
Progress has been a little slow as of late
June 24, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Progress has been a little slow as of late. I've added another room and some dialog to the latest quest. I'm trying to make this a fairly combat heavy area, though with extra options for players who want to be sneaky. It's hard for me to make a purely combat area any more.
My experimentations with the old Sigil placeables continues. This time I worked up a chalkboard with a funny little head and improved it. It's almost relaxing, like crossword puzzles. There's not much artistic talent required, just various technical skills with Photoshop and max. It's like paint-by-numbers, with models.
|
permalink| comment
|
My little experiments with some of the old Si...
June 23, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 My little experiments with some of the old Sigil tilesets and placeables continue. I think with a bit of fiddling we'll be able to salvage some of it for NWN2. There's a certain style that appeals to me, making me want to put in the effort. This morning I did some tests with specular and normal maps, as well as comparing the high and low poly version. So far, so good. I have a Saving Sigil thread over on the NWCitadel boards with a bit more detail.
I've had a bit of a cold and/or allergies since yesterday, so I've been dragging a bit. I did manage to turn a kid's game into a very minor side quest. One of your companions can spot something and will tell you if you're getting warmer or colder until you find it. A little silly, perhaps, but a nice distraction from the normal combat grind.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, I discovered a café near where we were ...
June 22, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, I discovered a café near where we were staying, but only a couple hours before we were heading home. I feel completly behind, with new screenshots and NWN2 tidbits showing up while I was out. NWN Citadel is up and live, for example. There's also been
I spent a fair amount of time on the module. I figure I'm about halfway through the second main quest. There's a lot of fun little things I've added. There's a puzzle section with lots of misbehaving automata. I've tried hard to give lots of ways to solve the puzzles so as not to frustrate anyone.
I also added in a programmable automaton this morning. It's completely optional, so non-programmers don't have to feel frustrated. Still, for those folks who want to string together a few simple commands, they can have a little construct following them around, picking up items, jumping into combat, or whatever they'd like.
I'm feeling pretty behind, but hopefully I can catch up over the next few days. I'm still "on vacation", with a fair amount of kid watching duties, but I imagine I can sneak some NWN2 time in on occasion.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, I've spent way too much time this morni...
June 16, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, I've spent way too much time this morning staring at crates. It seems almost required these days to make a crate puzzle, so I decided to toss one in for nostalgia's sake. I suppose it's entertaining in a way, thwarting a really dumb automaton who's just trying to do its job. Currently there are two different ways to solve the puzzle and I might add another. We'll see how it goes.
I'm off for a week or so, including a three hour drive that starts today. I'm packing pen and paper, along with my computer, so it should hopefully be a productive trip. With luck, I'll even have Internet access and keep these postings going.
|
permalink| comment
|
Yesterday was far busier than I would have li...
June 15, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Yesterday was far busier than I would have liked, but I did manage a bit of scripting for the new quest. It was fun, if simple. Right now there's only one way to solve the "puzzle" and I'd like to add some alternative angles. We'll see how much I can manage today.
I've been having a lengthy discussion about the old Planescape tiles and models the CODI team put together. It's looking like a number of them can be recreated for NWN2. In part, I'd do the work simply because I love the look and feel of Sigil and the Planescape setting. On a more practical note, the "Dead Men Tell No Tales" module would greatly benefit from a unique looking city. I think this one might fit the bill perfectly.
I'm going to be going on a week-long vacation starting tomorrow, so my Internet access may be spotty. It depends, in part, on whether or not we have wireless Internet access where we're staying. On the plus side, I usually am very productive on vacation, with two three-hour drives and many of the usual distractions will be absent.
|
permalink| comment
|
I had a cup of tea yesterday afternoon, which...
June 14, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I had a cup of tea yesterday afternoon, which somehow kicked my creativity into high gear. I frantically scribbled down maps, notes, and pseudocode on a couple pieces of paper. I think I have the basics for the second main quest of the third module. There's some fun puzzles and custom AI that hopefully people will enjoy. I had some wacky ideas for custom content that might pan out. Later that night, I started building out some areas. So far, so good.
|
permalink| comment
|
My Sigil experiments continue
June 13, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 My Sigil experiments continue. My latest thinking is to use the NWN Sigil models as the low-poly version that's shown at a distance. As the player gets close, a new higher-poly version will be displayed. I've been having fun making higher poly versions. The Sigil tileset looks great at higher poly counts. The most noticeable difference is that curves are smoother. For a city of spires and spikes, it really makes a difference.
What does this have to do with my current mod? Well, there's some unusual locations in the game that would benefit from some unique architecture. I'm not sure I can convert the entire tileset and all placeables over, but there's quite a few that would add to the ambiance.
In terms of the campaign, I've been working on the transition between the second and third modules. It's extremely challenging and I've been working extensively with the database functions to pull it off. The humorous bug of the day was my henchmen deciding to battle to the death with some NPCs in the holding area. No idea why.
|
permalink| comment
|
It was a fairly productive weekend
June 12, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 It was a fairly productive weekend. I think the main quest I've been slaving away on is essentially done. There's a pretty big and fun battle that happens towards the end. I also wrote in some more henchmen dialog, advancing the romance and adding a touch of humor.
I've been hatching a wild scheme to try to save the old Sigil tileset. Basically I'd take the buildings and turn them into placeables for NWN2. I might tweak the geometry a bit, adding in extra details. I'm also hoping that I can dig up some of the higher resolution textures that was made for the game. It's a beautiful tileset and it would be a shame to have it fade away.
|
permalink| comment
|
I was bouncing around quite a bit yesterday
June 10, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I was bouncing around quite a bit yesterday. I spent some time rallying the troops and generally getting organized. I went back to the voice acting for the first module, cleaning up the Proctor dialog and making a list of the things I wanted to re-record. It's looking like the sound hak pack is going to be 150 MB or so, compressed with RAR. I think I'll end up having a core module that everyone installs, and then have a separate download for music and another for voice. That lets me update the module regularly without people having to re-download an incredibly massive full version every time I make a change.
I'm plugging away at the last module, doing some playtesting and bug fixing. I think I have one more dialog to write and some kinks to work out, then I can call it done.
My next big effort will be to create the skeleton of the third module. It's a weird sort of thing, because I need to carry over so much from the second module. Certain areas will be blocked off and changed, but much will remain the same. I'm hoping to evolve the world to some degree, depending on the choices the player made in the second module. Tricky, but fun.
|
permalink| comment
|
Raz has been showing off his sub on the new p...
June 09, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Raz has been showing off his sub on the new public forums. There's lots of good shots from various angles, along with some commentary. Though he claims not to be a texture artist, I think he does remarkably well. I'm already scheming on various ways to incorporate the sub into the game.
In terms of the module itself, I have all but one of the dialogs finished for my current quest. My favorite part is giving the player choices of a reward, some of which are non-material and interesting.
|
permalink| comment
|
It's been an incredibly busy day today
June 07, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 It's been an incredibly busy day today. I spent a fair amount of time chatting with developers and getting assorted ducks in a row. It's looking like our current project manager, Elizabeth, is having to step down. She's in school, recently married, and expecting a baby, so I'm bidding her a sad farewell.
I've also been working with Papermonk, trying to put together some public forums for this site. Here's a very early version. Ideally we'll get an image gallery, developer forums, and so on. We'll see how it goes.
In terms of the module itself, I spent a bunch of time last night and this morning getting the first half of the big fight working properly. I need to polish up a conversation and start in on the second half of the fight. Hopefully someone will get the Star Trek reference I slipped in there ("My crew! My ship!"). Good times.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm in a fun position, watching two of the mo...
June 06, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm in a fun position, watching two of the modelers on the team work on two different sub models. It's sort of like dueling banjos, only with 3D modeling programs. Today I'm showing off Raz's work, who is going for a "mostly brass" look. I'm a fan of rivets, which this one has in spades. They're also fun to make normal maps for, all nice and bumpy.
I was also a good boy and did my part to support the QA team. PJJ is rolling up his sleves and getting ready to dive back into QA work. The Quality Assurance folks are the unsung heroes of module development. Without them, I'd be releasing large piles of garbage.
As for the module itself, I spent a little time working on the pirate AI for the Sketch Artist quest. It's fun to work on, especially when they stagger around and complain about the loss of their grog.
|
permalink| comment
|
Periodically I find myself having to write ro...
June 05, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Periodically I find myself having to write romance dialog. I try hard to steer away from heaving busoms and the like, instead focusing on the more amusing aspects of love. Occasionally I get on a roll and crank out line after line of hopefully quality stuff. That's what I did most of last night, staying up far too late to work on one of the dialogs.
I also got the scripting more polished, so I'm pretty close to done with the middle part. I think all that's left is a few triggers and statements, then work on the exciting conclusion.
|
permalink| comment
|
There was some great new concept art posted o...
June 04, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 There was some great new concept art posted over at the nwn2wiki today. There's a couple sea-side paintings that look completely stunning. If they can manage to pull this off in-game, I'll be quite happy.
I spent yesterday trying to convince myself I can introduce teleportation without breaking anything. I tweaked the power a bit, making it shorter range and putting in a fair number of caveats. I think it's currently useful and fun, but not too over powered.
I still need to work on the middle section of this first quest, but pretty soon I think I can leap into the exciting conclusion. The second module is relatively light on combat, so I find myself balancing by focusing on it quite a bit with this one.
|
permalink| comment
|
I continue to hunker down and work on the thi...
June 03, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I continue to hunker down and work on the third module. So far, I'm pretty happy with the way things are progressing, though I've still got quite a bit of work to do yet. The areas are built, but that's the easy part. I've got dialog to write and a ton of scripting.
I'm a little nervous about introducing my next psionic power, teleportation. Because it lets players jump from place to place, there's a good chance they might leap over critical triggers, switch places with a villian and leave them stranded in some odd place, or otherwise cause havoc with my carefully planned module.
On the other hand, teleporting around is super cool. For some reason, I feel like I'm being incredibly sneaky every time I jump about.
|
permalink| comment
|
I finished up some coordination, getting the ...
June 02, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I finished up some coordination, getting the first two modules packaged up nicely and ready for testing. The second one is bound to have a host of issues, but I'm staying away for a few days to let the testers do their thing.
The third module is well underway. I'm having fun with my current quest, which is fairly combat oriented, though there are certainly some puzzle-like things to do as well. I enjoy giving players the opportunity to take the easy way out and miss out on a reward, or tough it out and get a little extra loot for their efforts.
|
permalink| comment
|
I finished spellchecking the second module ye...
June 01, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I finished spellchecking the second module yesterday, and while there's always a little here or there I'd like to work on, I decided I was done enough to send it of to the QA folks. Be gentle with it, guys.
It's looking like the Lite version of the first module is 17 MB and the Lite version of the second is 15 MB. Of course, if you add in music and voice over, that swells to nearly 300 MB for the first module. It's going to be interesting distributing this monstrosity.
Razvan is finished with exams and back to his wily ways. He whipped up a new submersible/sailboat combination. I'm scheming as to what to do with it and the other submersible. A little seafloor exploration looks like it's more and more likely.
Finally, I did some writing for the third module. Hopefully today I can take some of my paper scribblings and get them in the game. The first quest of the third module is shaping up to be both fun and piratey, so I'm eager to really get into it.
|
permalink| comment
|
Older Posts
|
Links
Dragon Age
Dragon Age Central
Interviews, etc.
Why We Fight
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.
|