: : Saturday, August 31, 2002

Noticed I'm still missing half-a-dozen maps. *sigh*

Bug-tested the first two "quests" and appropriate dialogue tonight - and it was hopelessly fudged. Luckily, I have managed to fix all of that up. It should now work appropriately. In fact, there is some of the cooler scripting now going on - such as you can now get a henchman (though they can't actually do anything yet, and run through the first parts of the dialogue and pick up a few quests. There's a lot of scripting to go, however. I get the feeling the henchman scripting will be the hardest, but I plan on ripping of stuff that other people have written make sure it works.

Having never used C++ before it's a little awkward - but having done so much ASP and other shit, it all comes down to simple language recognition, translation and writing. Interestingly, my father knew about a dozen languages - he would of made a mad coder.

: : Thursday, August 29, 2002

I've been scripting away. You can now probably play out the first two quests successfully, then things will start to break down. But hey, it's a start.

Once I've finished the dialogue and quest scripting, I'll need to do a lot of movement scripting, random effects and "alignment" scripting. That'll probably take the most time, as the quest scripting seems to be mainly cut'n'paste and dialogue writing. I'm probably through about 20-25% of that, maybe even a little less. I haven't even tried testing it. I probably should.

: : Wednesday, August 28, 2002

All but about 4 maps are done now, all the important NPCs, almost all the important items. For the most part it's dialogue and scripting from here on in.

I'm also considering combining all three modules into one. This will delay issue by a LOT; however, I'm not sure the module has enough gameplay in it yet to justify not combining it all. I'll have to think hard about it - there's a lot of repurcussions if I do go for it.

: : Saturday, August 24, 2002

It's got to the point that I need to create the NPCs.

This is a good sign.

Did a lot of work tonight. Finished the houses in the village, all the doors in the keep, and all but one of the houses in the keep (phew!). Created a few monsters in the Orc areas and in the Manor house grounds, and completely redid the old keep. Changed some of the base look/feel of the keep-guards, added in an NPC, and some other minor bits and pieces. I've also started to create a pecking order for the various quests. Here's how it's going at the moment... 1. Wild dogs in Tibert East. 2. Settle farm dispute in Tibert West (will help boost player to 2nd level) 3. Solve what's happening at the Manor House (goblins & orcs - will get player close to or at third level). 4. Start investigations into Rebel movement. 5. Investigate the half-orc Butcher. 6. Remove orcs from the Thimbleful forrest (will get close to Fourth level). 7. Investigate the Fletcher. 8. Investigate the Ranger. (by this time, Level 4 should be achieved) 9. Remove troll threat from the Deep Marshes. (definately level 5 now). 10. Return to prison interrogation 11. Arrest the Blacksmith. 12. Save the Miller's Daughter (side-quest) 13. Investigate the Gnome's Apprentice. 14. Break up meeting of rebels at rebel house. 15. Track them through the Whistlestop Alps (level 6 somewhere here) 16. Be presented with options - join Rebels or stay with Keep Guard. 17. Return to keep either as attacker or defender. 18. Finale of Act I. Obviously there's a lot of plot happening here that I won't reveal just yet...

: : Friday, August 23, 2002

Added a couple of maps, but then went through about half of the already-existing maps and added in ambient sounds. They are a lot more real now - though I will have to go through and add containers at some point.

: : Thursday, August 22, 2002

I downloaded the Pools of Radiance module, and I've been playing that to see what it's like - it plays fairly slow at the moment, but I can see why - starting off at Level 1 is a bitch - I'll have to review if I want that for my module.

I then opened the module up using the toolset and realised I had a loooooooooong way to go before I'll be done. But I'm not overdoing things, at least.

: : Monday, August 19, 2002

I've added a lot more again today - finished the above-ground cemetary, made a couple of places in the courtyard and another village house. Soooo much to go. Too much, it feels sometimes. Over 40 maps now. Gah.

Realised today that whoever ran through this would be no-where near 5 level by the time they finished unless I added in some more decent hack'n'slash areas - thus the Eastern Sewer System is born. The western sewer system will be used in Part III for returning to the Keep from the Old Keep.

: : Sunday, August 18, 2002

I've continued making maps and started adding in NPCs. You can now visit Farmer Brown and Farmer McDonald (heh). The number of houses in the village at first frustrated me - I wondered if I really needed that many. Then I decided that hey, one of the things that pissed me off in the main module was that the village of wherever wasn't really a village at all - in fact, there were few residential houses (if any). I want this to be a little bit more realistic (which is most npc armour/weapons will be droppable, and where appropriate pick-pocketable). I like realism in my games, plus uniqueness. One thing I will need to do is go through all the maps and give each house a flavour - they're starting to look a little samey, despite my attempts to make each on distinuishable from the others.

: : Thursday, August 15, 2002

Okay, based on my theory of map -> npcs -> journal -> conversations -> scripts, I've created a lot more maps this evening. You can now travel through the marshes, most of the village, through the mountains of the east and forrest of the north east. Still to do - southern forrests, graveyard (and all that that entails), old keep and underworld. However, if I break up the modules the way I want, the old keep and underworld don't really need to be done for this module, so they might wait another day, after the graveyard and remaining parts of the village are done. Oh, and I guess I need to do the deep marshes too (damn trolls!). It's uploaded, but from next time I'm zipping the file as I'm pushing 2mb.

Mapped out half the village last night. I've got a method now: do maps, do npcs, do journal entries, do conversations, write the scripts to tie it all together. Maps are easy (though they'll need touching up before release), npcs are too. The journal entries and conversations are harder because all of a sudden you have to create an experience. But the hardest is scripting, because you have to create life.

: : Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Have discovered how to do plots properly. Some conversation scripting is still a pain in the butt (especially one of the main plot points in this story). Have uploaded the latest version, but it's midnight and I have a self-imposed curfew. Til tomorrow...

: : Monday, August 12, 2002

Having a prick of a problem scripting plots. Once I've got that down pat, though, everything should be peachy.

Trying to script my first journal entry tonight. Hard shit.

: : Thursday, August 08, 2002

Changed the docks area and returned the starting position back to the village. Also started on graveyard, but you can't get to it yet.

Most importantly, downloaded the camera hack. This makes the game SOOOOO much more playable. WOW.

: : Wednesday, August 07, 2002

Created many, many new areas today. Most of the keep is done, Tibert East and West exist (not south though yet), the Marshes have been started, and there are now some docks. It is simply amazing how much you can do quickly - it's hard, though, not to be repetitive. The docks map is probably the worst as I didn't have a clear idea in mind about what I wanted it to look like when I started. Today's version has been uploaded - almopst 1mb now.

I was reminded by someone and ended up remembering I wrote the Infinity Script site for BGI & II. Ahhh, fun days. Unfortunately the code base is completely different for NWN, but the concept is the same. At least in NWN you can define your own variables!

: : Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Yes, this page badly needs a design. It will come.

Okay, I've got a plot, a plan, a theme, and now a .mod set up. You can always download the latest version using the link below.

So... this blog is to document the progress of the .mod, from start to finish. So far I've created two central areas and a joining map, a couple of NPCs and a single house.

Try it out, feedback welcome.