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I decided to break out the ghost ship for Hal...
October 31, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I decided to break out the ghost ship for Halloween. It seemed appropriate to the season, and that particular module needed a bunch of work. I've mostly been focused on finishing the module before getting back to serious QA work, but this one was bugging me so I took some time last night and this morning to get everything working properly.
Yesterday I worked on writing for the ending some more. My plan is to basically tally up all your actions and show the various effects of what you did. Mostly your impact is positive, but there are a few cases where you could have caused quite a bit of havoc, and I'm trying to reflect that as well.
I still have to get the new voice recording into the game, hopefully something I can do today. There's also supposedly a Halloween-themed module being released today which has a tiny area I created in there. I'll post a link when I know what it is.
Update: It looks like the Halloween module was posted. It requires the MotB expansion. For those of you who just want to play my tiny module, or don't have MotB, here's a link to just my module. It's extremely small, so don't expect more than 5 minutes of entertainment.
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I've been doing all sorts of odd things today
October 30, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been doing all sorts of odd things today. I did a first pass on the critical endgame dialog, and am reasonably happy with the results. Guy Incognito also sent along some more voice recording, which hopefully I can work on tomorrow.
My daughter announced this evening that she wanted to play "the drippy eye game". After awhile, I figured out she meant Neverwinter Nights. She did some testing of the Isle of Flesh for me, discovering a bug along the way. If only I could recruit my wife, I could get my whole family working on my next project.
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I've been slowly working away today, coordina...
October 28, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I've been slowly working away today, coordinating voice actors and writing new dialog. Along the way I created a new full build, clocking in at slightly over 500 MB. I'm amazed at how much stuff is in the campaign, from music to voice files, to all the areas. Whew.
I'm still trying hard to get the end feature complete so that I can get to testing in earnest. Hopefully it won't be too much longer.
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Yesterday was one of the more productive days...
October 27, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Yesterday was one of the more productive days that I've had in a good long while.
It started with debugging the ending some more. It's still not finished, but I managed to get things moving somewhat more smoothly.
I started in on the load screens, which involved going into every module and fiddling with the area parameters to get a nice looking graphic. Those all got turned into tga files, I updated a 2da, and then I proceeded to edit every area in the game in order to get the right load screen set.
Not feeling quite done yet, I fixed a bug that made it impossible to leave the Isle of Insanity, cleaned up the walkmesh, and added a couple hidden treasures. Back in Port Brighton, Monroe got a new treasure map to sell, something that I'd like to add a lot more of.
As for today, I might even manage to start in on bug lists, or perhaps add in a few more treasure maps for sale. They're relatively easy to add and there's a bunch of islands with out-of-the-way areas. I might also start in on the walkthrough for the game, which is another of those things that's handy to finish before seriously getting into the QA phase.
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Work continues
October 26, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Work continues. This morning I got up before 5 am and started in on the final scripting. I still need to tweak one of the more significant battles in the game, but at least it's too easy rather than too hard. Before, I couldn't progress to test out further areas. Now I breeze through, though I'll need to increase the challenge later on.
I have to keep reminding myself that the hard part of debugging is about to continue, but it does increasingly feel like the end of this epic campaign is near.
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I've been working on getting the Guy's sound ...
October 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I've been working on getting the Guy's sound clips chopped up and put into the game. He's done a great job, including keeping a straight face while voicing one of the most hysterical lines in the entire game. He had a bit of fun improvising the Hanged Man's lines, as you can listen to here.
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I think yesterday's posting about Guy's work ...
October 24, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I think yesterday's posting about Guy's work got folks a little excited. I've had another voice actor offering his services, and Chris letting me know he's going to be gearing up to get ready. The woman who voices Heather is still in Africa, but she and her husband will hopefully be around starting in November. I'm not quite ready to get all geared up for voice acting, but I don't think it'll take too long.
I spent some time debugging yesterday, but mostly I spent a bunch of time working on a super secret project. It was frustrating and satisfying and very different from the usual sort of thing I do.
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I got a tremendous amount of work done yesterday
October 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I got a tremendous amount of work done yesterday. For starters, I had a new voice actor volunteer his time, so I went through some of the unvoiced NPCs and he very quickly got the recordings to me. I chopped them up and got them in the game by the end of the day. Here's a quick sample of Guy Incognito's voice, which seemed appropriate to the season.
I also worked on scripting for the final area. I spent nearly an hour trying to figure out why my two NPCs weren't fighting. I eventually came to the conclusion that the tileset was at fault. I'm guessing that you can't properly target creatures when they're below the 0 z-axis. In any case, I had them run up a flight of stairs and they immediately began fighting.
This morning I worked on connecting the various pieces of the ending together. There's still lots to do, but it feels like things are coming together nicely. Soon the plan is to move into bug fixing and polish mode, as well as working to get as many NPCs voiced as possible.
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I've been making dark sacrifices to the marke...
October 22, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I've been making dark sacrifices to the marketing and PR gods, but to no avail. Soon I can speak of that forbidden time, in a land beyond sanity and hope.
In the meantime, I've been a diligent modder, writing lots and lots of dialog. Endings are often a wordy affair, with farewells and threats and exclaimations of dispair. It's been fun getting the characters and plots wrapped up, a culmination of the years of events that came before them.
As for today, hopefully I can manage more of the same. Slowly getting there.
Update: I can finally talk about it! The world builder newsletter went out with news of the event.
About a month ago, Jay from Bioware dropped me an e-mail, inviting me to see the new Dragon Age toolset and hang out with the Bioware folks and other community members. I rushed to get my passport together and traveled to Edmonton for a couple days.
While I still can't talk about the toolset, I can say that I had a great time hanging out with everyone. It was wonderful meeting some of the folks on the forums I've talked with over the years, along with the Bioware crew.
The tour of the Bioware offices were great fun, though sadly there was no western themed lobby with stuffed prarie dogs (so much for my prophetic dreams). One high point was our group being pinned down by automatic Nerf gun fire.
I'm still pondering Dragon Age plans, but rest assured that I will finish Dark Waters regardless of what I do. Things are getting close to done and it'll be very satisfying to see things come to a conclusion after so many years.
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I'm back
October 20, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I'm back. Theoretically I'll be able to actually talk about what I did on Monday sometime.
On the plane ride back I managed a bit more writing, and more again today. With luck I can start getting the new dialog in the game shortly.
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I made it safe and sound to Edmonton yesterday
October 16, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I made it safe and sound to Edmonton yesterday. The Canadian immigration folks grilled me for awhile. Due to a freak happenstance I was born in Canada, so they were really pushing that I apply for Canadian citizenship. It might be fun to have a country to flee to after the American economy collapses.
I managed a fair bit of writing yesterday. I still have a lot to write, but the pieces are slowly coming together.
As for my events today, I'm sworn to secrecy. I had a dream last night that we were being shown the Bioware offices. The lobby was Western themed, with stuffed gophers perched on log fences. They took us behind an elaborate metal door and gave a presentation involving toys, maps, and greeting cards. We'll see if my vision was prophetic.
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I'm off to the airport shortly, hauling along...
October 15, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm off to the airport shortly, hauling along a laptop and notepad in hopes of getting in some writing. Yesterday I managed even more testing, pulling my hair out over getting two NPCs to fight each other. For some odd reason, they just want to be nice to each other, despite all my scripting tricks. I may just switch one NPC to the Hostile faction and be done with it.
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Today is my last day before heading up to Canada
October 14, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Today is my last day before heading up to Canada. I'm very much looking forward to hanging out with fellow module builders and the Bioware folks. As usual, I'm going to try to work on writing during the long trek. I still have quite a bit to go.
I typed up some of my scribbled dialog and worked it into the game yesterday. Next I added the necessary scripting and tested it out. So far I'm generally happy with the pace of the final module, with appropriately witty dialog, and a mix of puzzles and combat. More polish is always needed, but I feel like I'm slowly getting there.
Once I get the bulk of the final act in place, the plan is to package up the entire campaign and work on polishing everything until my testers declare it good. The testing phase is always the most grueling, but I've learned over the years that it's far better to test for the necessary months rather than release early and frustrate a lot of people.
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If you look closely at the picture, you'll se...
October 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 If you look closely at the picture, you'll see that the entire party is floating above the water by a few feet. One part of the Vault involves the floor collapsing, but I neglected to make the area unwalkable afterwards.
Yesterday I fixed quite a few bugs, from the silly to the serious. While my sister was visiting, I had her sit down in front of the microphone for a few quick lines. I still have a ton of writing to do. Maybe when I head off to Canada in a couple days, the long flights will be condusive to scribbling prose.
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I made some good progress yesterday, fixing b...
October 12, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I made some good progress yesterday, fixing bugs, writing dialog, and adding scripting. You can't quite make it all the way through, but you can get further than before. It felt good to finally have a chance to hunker down and get things done.
My sister is in town for the day, so I may see if I can get her to voice some dialog. Fun, fun.
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Nothing too exciting
October 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Nothing too exciting. I keep working away at the Vault. I got a secret door working the way I wanted. The entire place is getting a lot more density of stuff, making it look less stark and more a place where the riches of the world are stored.
I did a little writing, but there's still a bunch of dialog I need to work on. Busy, busy.
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Unfortunately I didn't manage a single word o...
October 10, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Unfortunately I didn't manage a single word of writing when off on my business trip. It was admittedly frustrating, the result of way too much team building and not much time to myself. Hopefully I can remedy that shortly.
I'm back to the Vault, trying hard to finalize things. Yesterday I got my daughter to record some more Lucy dialog. Today I want to get some of the Drake dialog and scripting together. At this point, I basically know what needs to be done to finish the game. Now I just need to hunker down and do it.
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At least the bugs I'm experiencing these days...
October 06, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 At least the bugs I'm experiencing these days are rather flashy. In this case, I find myself trapped in an area with lightning flashing all about. In another case, I had flaming villagers running about. Good times.
I'm off on a trip later today, though I think I'll have Internet access. My plan is to write as much as possible, finishing up the various endings. If I'm able, I'd like to start in on the companion dialog. At the moment, the romance aspect of this final act is a little light.
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I actually got a chance to do some debugging ...
October 03, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I actually got a chance to do some debugging yesterday. PJJ had gone through an extremely rough version of the final Act, finding all sorts of bugs. I think most of them were rooted in an accidental time travel problem. There are two versions of the Port Brighton module. The new one from the third act accidentally led to the high seas module from the second act. This caused all sorts of new content to vanish and things to look weird. Fortunately it was easy to fix.
I continue to work away at the final module. Players can now trigger the currently unfinished denouement. I have some of the post climax story written, but I need to add yet more to cover everything the player impacted over the course of the campaign.
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I added a small easter egg to the game yesterday
October 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I added a small easter egg to the game yesterday. At the very end, the player can choose to end the game, or instead look around for awhile. I added a number of amusing magical objects that had been stored in the Vault. People can go around and examine things if they'd like.
I also added yet more scripting, the "glue" that ties everything together. At this point the final module feels like a puzzle that's slowly coming together. I'll add a piece here, then jump to another section and add it somewhere else. Hopefully when it's completed I'll have something that makes sense and is fun to play. Wish me luck.
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I have the gargoyle properly spawning now
October 01, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I have the gargoyle properly spawning now. I even added some fun little visual effects during the transformation. Yesterday I created two new item sets, small but fun. I should have all the creatures in place, along with the new set items being dropped.
I still have some more things to put in place for this area, but it's getting closer by the minute.
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Links
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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.
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