Kamal's NWN2 blog

Progress Update

2012-01-27T07:20:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted much in a few months on what progress has been happening with Crimmor.

Wyrin's foraging placeables have been added. I didn't say the full wyrin system because I rewrote his script into a general forage script that checks skills party-wide to allow party cooperation in harvesting. (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Scripts.Detail&id=395). Crimmor is getting a modified version of my posted version of the generic forage script. The posted script preserves Wyrin's forage system, but for Crimmor I wanted to alter things.

Wyrin's stuff requires the pc have some survival skills to have a realistic chance, since survival is a skill always checked in his system and the survival DC goes up to about 20 or so. Crimmor is an urban environment, so finding the plant among all the things in the forest (survival) isn't needed. I removed survival checking, as I figured someone skilled in alchemy (the other skill wyrin checks) would be able to recognize the alchemical plants they can work with, even if they didn't have general plant knowledge from the survival skill. So survival checks are out except for the two plants, reeds and the retch plant, where the description of the forage process in the placeable description implies it's pretty much entirely survival skill. Those two still use survival. The craft alchemy check is made much harder (mostly over DC 20) now though to compensate, and make the foraging a reward for those that pursue the craft alchemy skill. Additionally, you must also have base skill points in survival or craft alchemy, it didn't make sense that the untrained person could harvest extracts, or even know that they could.

Several small fetch quests were added to fill out the world and give a purpose to some areas that were entirely for flavor previously. Hopefully people will find these better rationalized than NPC "I need some firewood", Player thinking to themselves: "There's an axe and a woodpile right next to you, you're able bodied and there are no monsters around." I don't like it when there's no rationale for why the npc isn't taking care of the task themselves. In Crimmor these often function as exploration quests, as the npc doesn't generally know where what they are looking for can be found. For example one npc is looking to find a particular kind of wood to have a lute made, as he's a hobbyist lute player in his spare time. He hasn't found anywhere that sells that kind of wood yet.

The scripting of some of the generic commoner things has started, to cover things like people in taverns sitting and drinking, bards playing. I found some useful scripts out there I can use.

A prefab area had all it's trees replaced. Crimmor doesn't have a perpetual windstorm like the Sword Coast, Chult, and Rashemen apparently do. A community member gave me access to redone tree spt files, that eliminates the trunk/branch swaying (the leaves still sway).

A number of placeholder conversations have been filled in. Tip for other builders, putting {placeholder} into a conversation allows you to search for "placeholder" in the toolset and find all these placeholders, but since it's inside the {}, it won't show up in ingame testing. This allows you to write out your conversations quickly if you're stuck on finding the right conversation lines for your characters, so you can add in scripts etc and test things even if you're having a bit of writers block.

Density and the Open World

2012-01-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

No, this post isn't just about Skyrim. :-) Path of Evil was an open world on the scale of Faerun, and Crimmor is an open world on the scale of the city.

Open world games have something to keep in mind that more linear games do not, the density of points of interest in the world. Think of the overland maps in SoZ, and imagine if there were only 3-4 places you could go on them. That would create two problems. First, it would be boring, and second, you'd spend lots of time just walking from between place. Now imagine the opposite, several hundred of places you could go jammed into the overland maps. That creates two problems as well. First, there's a logic problem, "You mean there's a dungeon/cave/ruin every 2 meters between here and the next place I need to go?", and second, the player may very well explore all those places on their way to the destination, with the "saving the world waits for me!" problem.

There's a happy median to be found somewhere in there. Open world games need to provide plenty of points of interest on the main land map, but not pack them together so tightly that they run into the problems from that.

In Path of Evil, the points of interest outside the cities weren't always as interesting as they could have been. Most of the quests centered around cities, or areas you could travel to from a city without needing to move to the world map. There were a few quests you could wander into on the world map, but for the most part the world map locations were just random dungeons of no particular interest to the player other than for what loot could be gotten. I think ultimately the campaign suffered some for that. I'm not sure what readers might think of the density of locations on the campaign world map, but I think the density of interesting locations was too low.

Naturally, this perceived weakness is something I'm trying to improve in Crimmor. It's making a lot of work in order to fill out the gameworld with enough to do. Currently things are going relatively slow. I've been playing some other games (sacrilege!) and not been super motivated (this is normal in the middle of winter for me). I havnt posted to the Bioware Social thread for Crimmor because there hasn't been anything worth showing, just some minor sidequests in existing areas, and some frustrating work on my commoner ai project that seemed to go nowhere. I'm considering redoing much of the work on that and getting a cleaner start based on what I know now.

Everyone else is talking about Skyrim, so I will too.

2011-12-29T10:39:00.005-05:00

I've been taking some time away from the toolset to play Skyrim. Let me get this out of the way; it's great and the money was well spent. They fixed essentially everything that was wrong with Oblivion. I've played for some 40 hours and totally ignored the main plot in favor of pursuing the backstory I came up with for my character. Also, I'd buy Morrowind again if they remade Morrowind with this engine.

Now, on to the nitpicking. (If you just want to read something very cool, skip down to the last two paragraphs.)

Logic:

Being told that there's a big conflict between some rebels and the Empire I took a logical (for an adventurer) tack and head for the border. That's where the conflict should be sharp right? Nope. I followed a path and found a border to the empire, and there was a gate marking the end of the gameworld. The gate was unmarked on the main map, meaning it was unimportant. It was also unmanned, I thought there was conflict? Right next to the unimportant, unmanned gate to the empire, and five feet from the road, valuable ore (gold iirc). Was that ore just ignored when they built the gate?

Later I found a map showing where the forces were, and found a number of camps from both sides. The empire's invading force was not near the border with the empire, instead they are all as far away from the border as they can be. The rebels? Close to the border. Shouldn't that be reversed?

I found two dungeons where I could turn off a few of the torches. Presumably this would improve my sneaking. Unfortunately, these were the only dungeons I could do so in the 40-50 I've been in. Either let me turn them off, or don't.

Lighting:

500 feet underground and it's light as day. Everything natural apparently glows in the world of Skyrim, water, fog etc. The natural world underground is actually brighter than the dungeons. Yes, I know, gameplay reasons... If you look up, many of those "light beams from the sky" are coming from hard rock. Not all of them though, some come from actual holes in the ceiling, so I know the maps can have holes in the ceiling.

I've entered a number of places where no living creature has been for centuries, and there are torches and candles everywhere lighting the place up? Apparently torches and candles last for hundreds of years in Skyrim, or maybe zombies like them? Also, dust in the air, hundreds of years and it didn't settle.

The sunlight in the various grottoes on the world map does not match the high mountains surrounding them, instead the areas are lit as if there were no mountains, or much lower ones. Daylight reaching the ground in some of these should be an hour long, at best. Some grottoes do not have a day/night cycle, despite even large openings to the surface.

Gameplay:

The "cleared" notification for dungeons is a great idea. The game tracks it as a stat. There's a Steam achievement for clearing enough places. So why aren't some places clearable? I'm positive I've emptied out a number of places (Skrim's levels are almost entirely linear), yet not received "cleared" or a notification that a place isn't clearable for some reason. It would also be nice if I got an information message of cleared instead of having to look at my map, though maybe I've just missed that.

Dragons are awesome, except when they stink. The tutorial dragon wrecks an entire town. So when I found my first dragon I thought, "This is going to be epic!" Nope. Three hits and it was dead. It didn't even get a chance to use it's breath on me. Perhaps the game should take note of it being the first time you fight a dragon, and make sure it's difficult.

The random "superboss" mob member. In one area I fought a boss, a master level wizard opponent using ice magic, and learned one of the dragon shouts for my trouble. The level of difficulty was such that I could take 5-6 hits before dying. 15 minutes later I was in another area fighting mobs, and one generic mob member, who also happened to be an ice wizard like the boss I'd just recently fought, kills me in two hits. Repeatedly.

This is a Steam one, and maybe the Xbox/PS3 as well since it's an achievement thing. The "Master Criminal" achievement is when you've got a high bounty everywhere. That's not a "Master Criminal", that's a bad criminal, the good crooks get away with it. Wanted Outlaw maybe, Scourge of Skyrim perhaps?

Armor/Weapons:

Dwemer armor is quite valuable, so naturally dwemer scrap (used to make the armor) is fairly valuable too, right? Nope. It's seems to be least valuable type of "ore" for smithing, and it's value to weight ratio is worse that virtually any useful item, even the lowly iron dagger.

Light armor versus heavy armor. The light armors elven, glass, and dragonscale all have a hard plate armor look. This visually groups them with the "heavy" armors. It also would mean in practice that the usage would be more akin to "heavy armor" usage, the hard plates deflecting blows. Except light and heavy armor are different skill trees. I've purposely avoided "upgrading" to these armors just from the look. I'm not playing a melee fighter, I don't want to look like one.

Falmer are blind, so their helmets have no eyeholes. When the player wears a falmer helmet, they can apparently still see despite wearing a helmet with no eyeholes. I know npc's can be blind, see the infamous bucket stealing trick.

Some non-realistic looking weapons. I was granted a unique ghostly sword for completing a quest. That was pretty cool, everything else in skyrim goes for a realistic if sometimes stylized look. So I liked the sword even though I'm not playing a swordsman. Shortly thereafter, I found a dungeon full of lootable ghost weapons. So much for the uniqueness of my quest reward, and the ghost weapons are out of the "look" of the rest of the game.

Other:

Oddly inconsistent texture work. The texture work is mostly great, but in a few places it's not nearly the same quality/resolution. Fast travel to the mage college and look at the snowy bridge for an example.

All the jarls have the same "bored slouch" pose, even the ones that take an active interest in things.

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Best moment ingame: Fairly early on, I wandered into an archery trainer, who has the player complete several ingame archery tests for training. She gave me a bow for completing them. It was about the same as the bow I already had, but I started to use it anyway since I quite enjoyed the ingame tutorial. I kept using the bow even as I got better one, until I got one that was much better. I still kept the bow out of fondness for the training/trainer, and carried it around since I didn't have a home or anywhere to store it. It even meant having to leave loot in dungeons sometimes.

Much later ingame, I wound up against a boss enemy, who used it's dragonshouts to disarm me of the bow I was using. So I pulled out another bow from my inventory that I'd picked up in order to sell. That too got disarmed. Now what? I looked through my inventory and there it was, the bow from the archery trainer I'd met in the middle of nowhere, and carried around solely because of my fondness for the training. That bow, "obsolete" and carried around solely because of my character's fond memories, saved my character's life. That's a gaming moment that will last.

The Dark Host pseudo prc

2011-12-17T13:04:00.002-05:00

By making an in-game bargain with an lower plane power, you can gain access to the Dark Host pseudo prc. In return for a significant stat boost (but random as to whether physical or mental stats are boosted) and forced alignment change towards evil, the player loses some control over the pc due to the influence of the being they host. The idea is similar in concept to the story of one community member's adventure (I won't say who since it would kind of spoil if for players of that person's adventure), at least I can say I had the idea independently.

This is an entirely optional bargain, it is not necessary to complete anything in the game, it is not given anywhere the player must go, and the player is warned in-game of the unpredictable nature of the bargain. Lance Botelle has a poll up now on predestination versus free will. Is your pc's answer to the lines below predestined, or free will?

PC: So I become just an empty shell for something. Somehow, that does not sound appealing.
Lower plane power: You do not become an empty shell. You... share, though of course you are strong enough to remain in control.
PC: Of course. Somehow I doubt you are entirely telling the truth.
Lower plane power: How much is truth and how much is lies is for you to decide...

Here are some examples of the loss of control: one quest has the player try to convince some local ruffians to take care of something so the player doesn't. A normal player can use appraise, bluff, or taunt. The Dark Host forces the player to use intimidate, as the being they host overrides the pc and speaks through the character. Another quest sees the Dark Host forcing the player into a fight they'd most likely avoid otherwise. It's not all bad consequences, a murder investigation the player is asked to undertake is instantly solved because the Dark Host "sees" the evil of the murderer, allowing the pc to instantly identify them.

There are currently around 20-25 planned spots for the Dark Host to influence things, eight are implemented so far. Players will generally be given the Dark Host option late in the game, so they probably won't see them all. Exactly how many a player sees will depend on whether they get the physical Dark Host, or the mental one, as the respective beings have different approaches to their evilness. The physical one is more of an intimidating brute personality, while the mental one is more of a conniving knowledge dealer. The Dark Host dialog options are unique, so if a non Dark Host player can use intimidation during conversation, the Dark Host intimidation the player must choose has a different line. The Dark Host dialog lines are umm, appropriate to what happened to the pc. People may not like their lines, but they did make the choice that allowed it. I had complaints about how you could do and say evil things in Path of Evil (yes, I know, I warned people of that in the campaign description, I still had complaints), and Dark Host is worse

I'm torn about giving the player an opportunity to cure themselves of this state. One possibility, the player tries, but the cure automatically fails (predestination!), and the player is stuck with it.

Loadscreens for Crimmor

2011-12-11T16:31:00.001-05:00

In Path of Evil, I used GIMP to add a painted effect to area screenshots. For Crimmor, I wanted a more personal feeling. I elected to use unedited screenshots, generally from viewing angles the character would have. I added area name to them since the character is a local to the city and would know the name of the area, assuming there is a unique name.

For the text, in GIMP, add a text box. The font I picked is called killigraphy, a freely downloadable font. You can get it from http://www.dafont.com/killigraphy.font among other places. You can see from the font map the letters have a sharp look, reminding me of a rogues' typical weaponry. A number of letters have a particularly "weaponlike" look, particularly f, j, and t. It doesn't have capital letters. I used 72 point, centered. To give the written text a more 3d effect of still liquid ink (fluid, smooth, changeable, like a good rogue), after typing in your text, select Filter -> Decor -> Bevel from the GIMP menu. I used default bevel settings.

For the curious, the Auric Commorancy is a the name of the city's temple to Waukeen. I used a thesaurus to come up with some interesting sounding words, auric means pertaining to gold (Bond fans might remember the villain Auric Goldfinger), and commorancy is a dwelling or residence. So it's just a fancy name for "Gold House", fitting for a temple to Waukeen. Most named buildings have their named taken from the Dragon magazine article on Crimmor, written by Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms setting) himself.

Obsidian's next game is South Park?

2011-12-02T09:51:00.000-05:00

CNN is reporting on their website that there is going to be a South Park RPG, and it's being developed by Obsidian. That's... unexpected.

I guess I should have seen the parallel between The Nameless One and Kenny. :)

More games with SLS

2011-11-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

Since SLS lets you control lights, I've built up several script systems and a trigger based around lighting that uses SLS functionality. First, I've added the ability to turn lights on/off by doing appropriate damage to the light source. Normally this is fire for on, and ice for off, but "cold lights" would just be a matter of a quick script edit. You can also turn lights on/off via a number of non-damaging spells. Gust of Wind or Darkness etc will turn off a torch for instance. Magical lights are not able to be turned off via gust of wind, but can be dispelled. A variable on the light records the level of the creature that enchanted the light, and the dispel line of spells are very straightforward to implement. And of course some light sources can simply be used to turn them on/off.

So what? Well this is where my trigger comes in. I have a trigger for the lightsphere of a lightsource. The trigger reduces the hide skill of pc's that enter (not npc's as the ai can't deal with that, a sneaky npc doesn't stick to shadows), and restores it on exiting the trigger. But the trigger is also aware of the status of the light, if the light is off, the pc gets no bonus entering the trigger. The scripts that allow turning on and off lights also are aware of the trigger assigned to them, and adjust the hide skill accordingly, so for instance if the player is in the trigger when the light goes on, the hide bonus is immediately removed. This is demonstrated in this trigger awareness video .

Finally, the trigger looks for a local variable named guards_lights on anything that enters, and keeps track of if a guard can use the light source (a variable on the light source). Npc's with the guards_lights variable will move to a light source and turn the light back on if it's off and they can use it. Your average castle guard can light a torch, but not turn on a magical light.

In this youtube video you can see the guarded light function in action. link The pc hits the torch with an ice arrow at the very beginning of the video. You can see the guard enter the trigger (marked by the mushrooms for the demo). As he enters the trigger he notices the light is out, has a speakstring that plays "darn light!", moves to the lightsource, plays a use animation (it should loop until the light turns on but doesn't in this demo video), the light comes back on, and he then continues on his patrol path.

Fixing the SLS, light tag bug

2011-11-01T06:58:00.000-04:00

Problem: The SLS lighting system relies on the tags of lights. However, saving and reloading the game causes lights to lose their tags, breaking SLS.

Solution: change of the SLS' ginc_sls2 script to reset the tag of the nearest light object when the action to handle placeable lights is called. Solution a bit below.

potential issue: assumes the nearest light object is the one to be used. This is normally the case, but you may want to make a copy of the scripts and use the altered script where you know the closest light will be the right one, such as for usable placeables like torches.

in ginc_sls2, line 352 is:
string sLightTag = GetLocalString(oFitting,"lightTag");

comment that out and replace it with
            //work around tag bug. kamal
            object oLight = GetNearestObject(OBJECT_TYPE_LIGHT, oFitting, 1);
            string sLightTag = GetLocalString(oFitting,"lightTag");
            SetTag(oLight, sLightTag);

This will change the script that controls turning the light on and off, so that it resets the light's tag automatically when the light is used, and then proceeds normally through the script. It does assume the light you want to turn on is the nearest light, but I believe that will be the case in almost all cases.

As an added bonus: If you make this change to ginc_sls2, and save ginc_sls2 to your override folder, it should fix the problem in every single player module that uses the SLS, thanks to the priority of the override (PWs can ignore the override folder).

Testing the main path

2011-10-27T19:55:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my test module, I've got the main paths players can proceed through the module fairly well tested. I've succeeded in two paths. There's the test area in the first screenshot.

Still rebuilding things though. Like getting the pickpocket code working again. Rebuilding script systems is a tough slog.

:\ Some rebuilding required

2011-10-01T16:36:00.002-04:00

Somehow my campaign folder got messed up, and the messed up copy was uploaded to my offsite backup before I'd realized. I had to resort to an old archive backup. This has meant spending time recreating campaign level things. It's both annoying and time consuming. While most of my stuff was module level, some key scripts, my journals and many creatures and items were campaign level assets.

Yes, the streetlights in two of these screenshots are not turned on when they should be. Silly bug where lights lose their tag on save/reload, and I'm using SLS, which uses tags. I've already rewritten the portion of SLS that handles that to just use nearest light object. Just don't have screenshots showing that.

I'd like to post some shots of people speaking in Cant, but it's hard to find any that are not spoilerish.

Walk around Crimmor for yourself

2011-08-28T02:12:00.008-04:00

Since the last post generated a lot of excitement. Here is the full thing as it stands in it's incomplete and little tested form.

edited I regularly back up to these locations. Lots of bug fixes, and many placeholder areas now finished/rebuilt. Same links as always

campaign
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/campaign.7z

module
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/shadow.7z
hak file
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/sh_crimmor_hak.7z

You can walk around most of the city by default, all the external areas are open by default and many internal areas are either open or a set of lockpicks away, or just open it in toolset. Some aren't complete, but most are. Most conversations are in place, even if they are relatively linear at this point and there's some placeholders. If you're interested in the plot, just talk to the guy you spawn in front of and you can be on your merry way. It will break on you a couple hours in, but should give you a taste for the gameplay.

Don't bother to report any bugs you find. This isn't a beta or anything like that, just a release of a pre-alpha so interested people can do what I said above, walk around and look around. Some quests already work, some don't, most areas have no sound (I plan on doing custom sound). Commoner npc's just stand there (their ai is disabled while it's being tested). If you open it in toolset there's some extra areas (those not named sh_ or shadow_).

Back online

2011-08-20T21:44:00.000-04:00

Since I figured out how to run the toolset when Steam can't connect. I've got screenshots. Sans distraction from the internet for several weeks, I moved a good chunk of stuff from "needs to be implemented" to "complete". The list of "complete" stuff is now longer than the list of "needs to be implemented", yay! Doesn't mean tested or anything.

So much for Steam offline mode and nwn2

2011-08-08T13:55:00.002-04:00

My Internet is currently down, and will be for 10 days, thanks to the incompetence of ATT. Unfortunately Steam will not let me launch the toolset or game when Steam starts in offline mode, it thinks it needs to update (ie download more ads as I have no games with updates), so Steam does not launch and generates an error.

At least I can use the flamewind conversation editor to do some writing.

Edit: I discovered that if you launch nwn2toolsetlauncher.exe you can start the toolset without Steam trying to launch. Still can't start the game (including via the toolset), so there's no way to test your toolset work, but you can at least work on things.

The community's worst news in a while.

2011-08-03T21:14:00.004-04:00

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/172/index/7590413/5#8031598

Hellfire is retiring from NWN2 projects. It was bound to happen eventually, but still.

Walk through Crimmor

2011-07-17T20:29:00.003-04:00

Purse Ward

Purse Ward

Alandor Gate

Alandor Gate

Alandor Gate

Docks Ward

Docks Ward

Docks Ward

Drover's Gate

Drover's Gate

Wheel Ward

Wheel Ward (yes, I know an extraneous placeable is visible in this one.)

Wheel Ward

Wheel Ward

Commoner AI Project

2011-07-10T17:04:00.001-04:00

Crimmor needs to feel like a big city. And that means not just buildings, but commoners, lots of commoners, behaving in natural ways. Definitely an AI challenge. What I've been doing is combining Uncle FB's npc control scripts with ones used by Lugaid of the Red Stripes in Danaan Unvanquished, and added in my own code.

The goal is to provide an advanced AI for those "unimportant nameless npc" groups that fill out game worlds, while keeping things simple for builders to implement by minimizing the need for things like local variables. This AI is not for any npc that you want to behave in a specific way. The builder places an npc with this AI in their heartbeat, and they will eventually behave depending on their creature tag using substring detection to catch "classes" such as commoner, merchant, noble, bard etc.

Day/Night schedules happen automatically depending on waypoints placed in the area by builder. The schedules have randomization built in, with the randomization controlled via script variables. Common actions such as farming, shopping etc are predefined for builders, so commoners that spawn and move towards waypoints indicating these behaviors will automatically adopt them. For example a builder can place a "farming" waypoint and any commoners who are directed to that area will automatically play farming type animations.

As this is a project for the benefit of the community, feel free to take, fix, and improve, as long as you contribute back so others can benefit.

Bioware Social Project Page

Social Thread.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/ai_test.7z

Hacking trap code

2011-07-04T20:51:00.000-04:00

I've located the default code that handles traps (in traps.zip go figure...). Now that I can access the trap code I can inject my own code into the trap process and package that up into the campaign. This allows me to do all kinds of fun things, like make non-conductive thieves tools to avoid electric damage and extra long tools so the rogue can work at a distance and avoid spike traps. This allows me to create a new category of item, thieves tools specialized for handling specific trap types. Since the tools still get used up it allows a one time "bypass" if the rogue has a set that matches the trap type. Tools that do not get used up versus traps are also now doable, so our rogues can now have a favorite set of tools instead of the disposables. This makes the thieves tool a much more significant item, both from a gameplay standpoint and from a role playing standpoint since you can now invest time in giving a set a story. ("You found the personal tool set of the Guildmaster!") Purposed tool sets are now also possible, such as a set that is +5, but only versus fire traps.

The other good thing about finding the trap code is that I can now use it in conjunction with the pickpocket system I have, so npcs will be able to trap their pockets to guard against thieves. Theoretically, the system could also be used to allow a pc to trap their own pockets for multiplayer or a PW, but I don't need that functionality for Crimmor.

I can't say I've done anything with the trap code yet. I've been working on another unrelated scripting project for Crimmor that's much more complicated but promises far greater results.

Powering up pickpocket

2011-06-27T13:09:00.003-04:00

Ok, I'm old school. I think pickpocket instead of "sleight of hand". Anyway, sleight of hand in NWN2 is pretty much useless. The amount of times it can be used in most content is generally around zero, and it's not really any fun when you can.

I'm trying to fix that. Crimmor is getting a custom pickpocket loot system to handle pickpocketing the random commoners, nobles etc you see in the city. Instead of just giving a few npcs bits of loot marked as pp-able, I'm overwriting the default OnInventoryDisturbed code for npcs. What is happening is that it will look at the npc tag and if the subtag matches one of the categories I define (commoner,merchant etc), the player will pp something from a random loot table. As it currently stands you can pp a useless item, a random amount of gold, or a useful item from a loot table. Since things are categorized I alter the percent chance of each outcome for each group. Commoners have the greatest chance of the pp result being something useless, and the player will get the least gold off them, plus only 1 in 100 will have a useful item. Merchants have fewer useless items, more likelihood of gold (and more gold), and a 5% useful item chance. Nobles have the most gold and a 10% useful chance. Npcs are marked on successful pickpocket, so you can't just repeatedly pp the same npc. One success per npc.

I plan on implementing trapped pockets as well, to add some risk to things. There will be a random chance that the victim has somehow trapped/locked his pocket. A sensible precaution in a time when thieves ply their trades so openly! Standard trap picking chances will be applied automatically, with the trap type and strength being determined via percentages. I hope to expand things to cause the thief other problems, like auto-summoning the guard (after all, someones bag just exploded in flames). Presumably the use of trapped pockets would mean using traps designed to function away from their owner, so the owner will not be damaged by their own trap.

For useless items I just give the player a text string popup "You have stolen a copy of 'Mobile Vegetable Peddling' by Jan Jansen." these strings draw from over a hundred useless items. The player doesn't actually receive a junk item. Gold is also done randomly, with a chance for greater or lesser amounts. And useful items draw from over 400 low level useful items. You might get one of the non magical books that comes with the toolset, you might get a bit of crafting material, or a potion, minor magic item (typically less than 1000gp full value) or scroll up to level 3.

Like all my custom work, I plan on making this available to the community at release time.

Wheel Ward

2011-06-11T21:38:00.001-04:00

The only thing remaining in this external area is placing sounds and connecting any new areas. The monastery of Naw Bahar can be seen to the right in the first shot, with the Cowled Wizard Enclave in the background. In the second we look from the Enclave back towards the monastery, Getting this detail level in a city takes lots of time.

More infilling

2011-05-29T15:47:00.003-04:00

After a good period of putting in things via placeholder, working out quest states ans such, I needed to fill in things I'd been doing to allow Crimmor to take on more life of it's own, and match the visions I had for these areas and quests.

Screenshots of conversations aren't exactly interesting, but people always like area screens. Here in the first screenshot is one of the things I've been experimenting with, non-square areas. In the second we see Barmy Ben's Barreltorium, famous Crimmor-wide, one guess what Barmy Ben sells :-) . In the third is see some preliminary work I'm doing in one of the city Wards, dramatically lit at sunset. And finally a warehouse (every good rogue needs to sneak around in one, avoiding guards :-) ).

One of my Crimmor systems is a trigger that reduces hide in shadows skill while you are in it, placed where things are lit. So those lights in the warehouse a functional ingame purpose. I hope to get it expanded to allow a rogue to put out lights where relevant in order to preserve their ability to hide, but haven't done any work towards this yet.

Dwarves: Inveterate Beekeepers

2011-05-08T19:35:00.001-04:00

I had these in as placeholder areas before, but now they are fleshed out.

The first screen is Naw Bahar monastery. Depending on your choices, it may be a main plot location, or it may not.

The second screen is Rinif Honey and Pollen. Bet you didn't know dwarves are inveterate beekeepers, did you? Well they are. Honey is the main ingredient in mead. Visit Rinif and learn all about apiary.

Toolset open again

2011-04-30T11:39:00.005-04:00

I finally started opening up the toolset the other day after having it closed for the better part of two months. This work was done before I closed the toolset a while back. Right now I'm working on filling in the main plot. Since I had initially made Crimmor a smaller concept module I had to expand the plot.

Initially it was just a "find and get the item" plot, without explaining why you would want it. A fairly straightforward plot designed to drive something that was just a proof of the gameplay concepts.

Developing the reasoning behind things and expanding the plot proved a challenge.

As an urban module, many of the traditional villains one might find in an adventure were out. No orc tribes, drow, dragons etc. No imposing temples of evil dominating the landscape either. With the player being an employee of the Shadow Thieves, I wanted to play up the intrigue that the Shadow Thieves are known for, but of course couldn't use a thieves guild as an enemy, since the Shadow Thieves already run things and you work for them.

Don't worry, I found some things. ;-)

RL the game

2011-03-21T14:38:00.000-04:00

After 10 years of co-op, my game of RL is going back to single player. :-(

My caption speaks for itself

2011-03-05T10:45:00.001-05:00

Crimmor: Hidden Weaponry

2011-03-01T18:06:00.001-05:00

I put a stop to writing, area and quest design until I got some lower level systems things done and troubleshot. It's still building the module, but doing the under the hood things that go on behind the scenes.

Hidden weapons: If you played Assassin's Creed you'll know what I mean. The player has instant access to a weapon that the npc's do not see, like the Assassin's Creed pc had the daggers that popped out.

In the first picture you can see the hidden weapon system in action. Our intrepid thief has picked up a hidden weapon, equipped and been caught pickpocketing. The weapon is visible to the player, but the npc simply does not "see" the weapon. Our player only takes the standard reputation penalty of -20, as if he was unarmed.

Then he picks up a spear, equips it, and tries again. Caught this time, the npc can "see" the weapon, and so thinks they are getting mugged. As a result, the player takes the -20 rep penalty for pickpocketing, and an extra -20 for using a weapon! What about dual wielding? The system catches that too. It doesn't identify two visible weapons as more threatening than one (I don't think it should), but if you have a hidden weapon in your main hand, and a visible one in the left, the npc sees the weapon in the left hand. So no tricking the system.

In addition to the custom hidden weaponry, some weapon types are always considered to be hidden, as they are designed to be hidden on the body for surprise use anyway, or unanticipated weapons. So darts and shuriken are "hidden", and unarmed and torches also qualify since they are unexpected.

The same weapon detection code is going to run when you talk to npc's. They will not be friendly if you're pointing a weapon they can see at them, in fact you will lose a few points of reputation with them, Crimmor is civilized!

The system relies on detecting substrings of weapon tags and item types, and comparing the substring with the predefined prefix for the tags for all hidden weaponry then comparing the weapon type for the weapon types that are "hideable by definition" like shuriken. So for me, the code detects if the tag begins "sh_hidden_", the remainder of the tag does not matter.

I had to get this code down and set, as substring detection forms the basis not only of weapon detection, but several other system things I'm putting in place such as clothing with hidden pockets.

Crimmor: From Proof to Depth

2011-02-23T16:32:00.000-05:00

As I developed Shadow Thief Crimmor I began to like it more and more as a setting. The main city area took on more and more flavor and developed a personality of it's own, a large city, gritty and urban. Climb up on the roofs and look around and it feels bigger than Neverwinter, city as far as you can see.

One of the things I needed to do to get the proper rogue feel was get the city lights to turn on at night and off during the day, and give our rogue a penalty to hide if he was standing in the light. This meant scripting the lights.

I also wanted to put in disguises. Which meant customizing some npc perception scripts. If you're not disguised, they're hostile. Wear your disguise, and people will assume you're one of them.

The I needed to make pickpocketing interesting. So I added in Vendalus' PRR system. No more trying to pick the lock with the merchant standing right there, at least not without potential consequences.

Then I got ahold of the lockpicking minigame from RWS. Makes roguery so much more interesting. Then I added Uncle FB's npc control system to get my npc's keeping daily schedules.

With all the things needing to go in to make a proper rogue module from a gameplay perspective, and liking the city more and more, I decided to make Crimmor a more proper module, and have added the second goal of bringing the city of Crimmor alive.

Shadow Thief: Crimmor as a proof of concept version was complete and releasable several weeks ago. It had generically named cities and just used place and npc names from the prefabs I'd picked.

Now it has custom npc perception scripting with npc's that will refuse to talk to you if they can see a weapon equipped, a customized weapon equipping system that adds a delay to equipping and switching weapons unless you use custom weaponry for advantage. If you're caught pickpocketing, there's a worse penalty if you have a weapon visible because the npc thinks you're mugging them. Hidden weaponry that you can have equipped but npc's will ignore because they can't see it (think of Altair's wrist daggers from Assassin's Creed). Customized scripted buying and selling from the stores. Custom "pseudo" feats and PRC's. And things like lead lined clothing with hidden pockets, so you can hide stuff on yourself and not have it magically detected.

Another word on pseudo feats and PRC's. These are gotten by getting special training doing other special things. They don't take feat/class slots but provide feat/classlike benefits and come with pre-requisites like normal feats/PRC's.

The Hidden Theurge PRC lets you cast hostile spells on npc's during conversation without them realizing via skillcheck. The Master of Masks can craft a number of masks (obviously) giving her different bonuses allowing her to take on aspects of different classes, and can be immune to alignment detection. The Merchant Intimidation pseudo feat allows you to use Intimidate instead of Appraise for shop pricing.

This is turning into a very interesting module.

Crimmor's filled to the lip with goblin bashers.

2011-02-15T19:58:00.001-05:00

PC: "Crimmor's filled to the lip with goblin bashers. Heard any bone boxes rattlin'?"

NPC: "Some flesh tinker on about a Talisman. But really, any prime score turns up, the Cowled Wizards are going to make it their ken. And you know the flash tellers get what they want."
--------------------------------------------------------
NPC: "Two guardswords at the Alandor Gate is new. Don't know the score yet, might even be culls. Give 'em an oration on account a more beneficial arrangement. Here be some yellow tin ta make amends."
--------------------------------------------------------
NPC: "Been havin' a disputed point recently. A cove and his mot that I puzzled are Harpers came to Crimmor. Been givin' me tha skip when I drag 'em lookin' fer their dive. Puzzle their dive and lead 'em out. Keep it smooth, no need ta have a chat with 'em."
---------------------------------------------------------

Ah the joys of thieves cant, Planar cant, and a good old thesaurus.

Shadow Thief: Crimmor screenshots

2011-02-03T22:10:00.003-05:00

Shadow Thief: Crimmor

2011-01-29T20:23:00.000-05:00

Shadow Thief: Crimmor will provide typically 3 hours of gameplay focused on solo non-combat rogue play. The module is completable without any combat and face to face combat is purposely made extremely difficult to impossible. No xp is awarded for combat, only quest completion and exploration.

Use your skills as a Shadow Thief in the streets of the Amnian caravan capital of Crimmor. The module assumes you are a Shadow Thief, but would play fine if you wanted to pretend you were a Harper Agent infiltrating them. Players start at level 8 (may change). You can level up ingame. Rogue class is not forced but the game will likely be uncompletable if you are not at least primarily a rogue class as the module is all about skill usage.

The lockpicking GUI is courtesy Hellfire and KC of RWS. PRR controls chest ownership and pickpocketing.

As a proof of the concept of non-combat play and rogue play, Shadow Thief: Crimmor is almost entirely composed of prefabs and recycles some quests from my Path of Evil campaign. Because of this, it's already reached internal testing.

Patching

2011-01-14T18:37:00.000-05:00

The "patch hak" is working wonderfully. So thanks to Lance Botelle and Shaughn for that. I'm mostly focused on doing the support for the release right now, answering questions and of course fixing those pesky post-release bugs. Eventually I might write up all the little easter eggs I stuck in the game.

Path of Evil: Released

2010-12-30T20:27:00.000-05:00

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=466

To celebrate, a selection of some of my favorite non spoiler screenshots.

Story: You are the villain of the story. This means it's up to you to decide what needs to be done. No Aldanon rambling on, no Nasher to give specific instructions. One companion will provide a very general framework for you, but it's up to you to figure out where to go and what to do. Did anyone tell Ammon Jerro how to defeat the King of Shadows? No, he figured things out himself. You may be told you are looking for an item in a city, and it's up to you to find it.

Because of this, Path of Evil comes off as being "story-lite", that's because you're making the story as you go, becoming the villain. Path of Evil is about the history of a villain before they "threaten the Realms". Once you leave Neverwinter, Path of Evil has an open world.

You are not required to agree with every evil thing in Faerun. For example you can tell people your personal code means people should be free and refuse slaving quests. Similarly, companions can and do have "non evil" traits such as caring for their family. They're not all homocidal maniacs, and you don't have to be either.

30+ hours of gameplay. 11 possible companions. 160+ quests. Your own stronghold a la Crossroads Keep. Nearly 300 areas.

Barring gotchas: Release in 2010

2010-12-21T20:14:00.000-05:00

I've rolled up all the fixes since the RC (using the same links as that post, and dropbox will finish uploading in another couple hours). There are a few specific things I want to do more testing on, mostly giving endgame stuff a few more runthroughs trying to break stuff. I'd hate to see a bad bug for someone that far in. I beat my last playthrough with a level 14 party. The bugs coming out of that were almost all inconsistencies, spellings and such things, which was good because I was purposely trying to break things.

Fingers crossed a last run continues to turn up a clean campaign with no broken quests. If all goes well, you should see the release this year.

Release Candidate

2010-12-05T19:26:00.001-05:00

You can get them from here
http://pathofevil.wikia.com/wiki/Path_of_Evil_Neverwinter_Nights_2_campaign_Wiki

Or directly from Dropbox

FAQ
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/POE%20release%20candidate.txt

Files other than modules
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/Path%20of%20Evil%20other.7z

Modules
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/Path%20of%20Evil%20modules.7z

Total size of the files is roughly 1 gig of download. Hopefully everything else you might want to know is in the FAQ :-) .

November Update

2010-11-23T15:32:00.000-05:00

Someone on the Social forums was wondering about updates since I hadn't posted on the thread for PoE for awhile. I'm still tweaking things in the stronghold to address the tester concerns from the previous posts. Now mostly fixing bugs with the content I added. Not much worth talking about unless you like to hear the details of bugs I found. So here are some screenshots. Not all from the stronghold module. You've probably seen some of these, or similar shots from the same areas, already. But it's all I have to show right now, unless you want to see screenshots of things that were bugged or a series showing companion conversation.

What's taking so long?

2010-10-30T19:54:00.001-04:00

I'm implementing player feedback and getting rid of some larger bugs (see a few posts down). Plus I'm mostly done with my own playthrough and the bugfixing coming from that, having only the stronghold module and the endgame to go.

I've worked through most of the major bugs I listed below. SoZ death is working properly now. That was a biggee, so thanks to Elfinmad whose solution was spot on. Bug 4 on group stuff is 3/4 solved. I have the script working for making a bunch of placeables with the same tag disappear, and the npc's appearing is similar but not quite working yet. Thanks to thurgood and kanbyen from irc, they essentially wrote the script. The tileset issue I was forced to "fix" by just going back to the default texture for the tileset. It doesn't look as good but oh well. The movie issue I havn't looked further into yet.

Building things for the stronghold proved to require a workaround as well. The time units functionality of the OC scripting was apparently not integrating properly with other scripting meant to control when a building upgrade was "finished", this meant that the architect's crew would never finish a building upgrade, so you couldn't enter the building you built, and you couldn't reassign the crew elsewhere. The problem didn't seem fixable, as manually advancing the time units with the debugger wasn't solving the issue when the time units is supposed to control just that. I went back to the stronghold demo I'd released on the Vault and ran into the same problem in that. No idea, the demo worked perfectly when I released it and I don't have anything in the override that would affect its scripting. I worked around it with the good ol' fashioned "pay to unlock doors". Definitely less elegant, but easy to implement.

For implementing feedback, the stronghold and it's module is getting a major makeover to better integrate it. You now are specifically told about it, where it is, and why the city it's in might be important (though not exactly of course) while still in Neverwinter at the beginning of the game. You also get a journal telling you to go there. It's presented as an alternative to going off to the other suggested destination. A few things will be changed to make it easier to get the stronghold. The stronghold itself is no longer "offset" from the city, requiring you to travel through a fairly empty upperclass area and shortening travel. So you exit from the stronghold directly into the main city area. This requires a reworking of the main city map and the upperclass area map. Merchants in the city are getting upgraded to encourage the player to return, and a "recall" item will get implemented to allow the player to teleport back to the city from anywhere, saving travel time.

Additionally, because the player is more likely to reach the city at a lower level, lower level content will get added and some of the higher difficulty content already there will be hidden until the player completes some lesser difficulty content. Also to be added is more content directly related to the stronghold. More visiting "dignitaries" (Shaughn found the previous one), more content that will open up via the stronghold. Basically, use of the stronghold will open more content, ideally encouraging the player to use it more.

Also being considered is moving where the city is in Faerun. It's currently between Chessenta and Turmish, north of the Akanapeaks. I picked that as it was a location that was both remote and near the center of Faerun. I might relocate it to the western Border Kingdoms area. There are pluses and minuses to this. The player is certainly more likely to go there earlier in the game as it would be on the first overland map the player sees and on the path towards another goal on that map. The minus (aside from rewriting/renaming things to reflect this change which is not too large a task) would be that it would make the eastern half of Faerun relatively empty and put most of the campaign content onto the first overland map.

So there is major construction going on in one module. Since this is the first OC style stronghold I'm aware of in a community module, I want it to not be a throwaway. Never be afraid to fix things after playtesting.

How many bugs have you squashed?

2010-10-18T20:15:00.001-04:00

Shaughn78 (go play his Risen Hero if you haven't already) completed his playtest of Path of Evil. A surprising amount of things went wrong somewhere near the end. These were things I'd already tested. I guess I need better version control. As a result I've started another playthrough of my own. I've already racked up 30 or so bugs and things in the first module, from extra spaces in conversations, actions not be properly identified with colors during conversation, to an infinite gold exploit. Fixing things is never done (Bliizard is still patching Starcraft 1 and Diablo 2 aren't they?), and the larger the mod the more testing required. In fact PoE has been mostly testing for the past 6-8 months. How many bugs do you think you've squashed in your own work?

Fixing Bugs

2010-10-13T16:44:00.000-04:00

Since the playtest release, over 400 bugs reported by testers have been fixed. Mostly smaller bugs. The most common one has been that speaktriggers are not properly respecting their OnceOnly setting, so they trigger constantly as companions are entering the triggers. Fairly few quest breaking things, and only two game breakers so far. At least one playtester is pretty close to being done, and he is doing an excellent job of both doing everything that can be done in the game and in being picky (I mean that in the best possible way, playtesters SHOULD be picky!).

Mostly remaining are larger bugs that are more serious and I post them in hopes that someone reading this has encountered and solved them:
     1) Dead party memebers are raised with one hp by any area transition. This happens inside modules, between areas that do not have area entry scripts. I am using SoZ death scripts after the first module, and OC death scripts in the first module. I suspect that has something to do with it, but I have put the scripts in the module folders, not the campaign folder. Party members properly die and stay dead with the "death" avatar as long as I stay in an area. Any area transition raises them.
   2) Probably related, resting does not heal party members who are unconscious but stabilized.
     3) Movies don't play. My opening movie doesn't play when I launch the campaign, only when I launch the first module separately. I've looked at some other campaigns, and haven't seen a difference with how I'm doing it yet. Ending movie doesn't play either.
     4) I want to make a number of npc's with the same tag appear. Similarly, I want to make a number of placeables with the same tag disappear. I expect this is very easy, but my scripting skills stink.
     5) a tile/texture combination renders in the toolset, but not ingame. As a result, ingame everything in the area is neon colored. neon! :-) . The area is spectacular, feedback on the official forums for the area was outstanding, I don't want to redo it.
     6) Building things for your stronghold is not working correctly. The doors don't fire their conversations even though everything should be as it is in the sample stronghold I extracted from the OC, where it works. I expect I'll have to figure this one out myself since I don't think anyone else is using an OC style stronghold. One tester had the upgraded buildings appear, which isn't supposed to happen at all in my campaign, and doesn't happen when I test.

One bug I sorted out would be of serious interest to other modders, I implemented the appearances.2da from Pain's Monster Pack. This broke the appearance of a number of npc's, giving them the n_human (null human) appearance, with strange results. Some npc's insisted on a female appearance, despite manually setting them to male, these I had to delete and replace. Others developed strange appearance bugs (invisible with odd "rays of appearance" stretching off towards other npcs) that made them virtually unselectable in the toolset. Tracking this down it only happened with the some of the halfling appearance models. I have been using scaled up halflings to expand the palette of human faces, and Storyteller's Desert NPC's and the Seahorse Cove prefab area does this as well.

For modders, if you are interested you can see my list of bugs here:
http://pathofevil.wikia.com/wiki/Fixed_bugs_and_release_date_of_fix
It doesn't include the thousand or so I fixed before making the wiki.

Ex Scientia Vera 2

2010-09-29T20:24:00.002-04:00

More pictures from Ex Scientia Vera areas I've done. First we have "The Frozen Path", a larger encounter area. I'm quite pleased with it. For some reason it reminds me of a Tibetan monastery even more than one area in Path of Evil that was specifically inspired by a Tibetan monastery.

Below the three shots of "The Frozen Path" are a selection of more of the small random encounter areas. Many of the random encounter areas are just generic areas for theme such as large lake, river etc and aren't particularly notable for anything in particular. Since these areas are 4x8 and purposely generic, I can turn them out quickly. Of course deep jungle and deep forest do look pretty good if I say so myself.

As these areas are built for a PW, there are few placeables, the areas are focused on "feel". Even deep jungle only has about 20 placeables and no trees (everything outside the walkmesh is converted to environmental, those are placeable trees). The biggest thing affecting performance in any of these areas is the trees., but there are less than 10 seeds in any of them.

Ex Scientia Vera

2010-09-29T20:10:00.000-04:00

I've been busy while waiting for the bugs to roll in of Path of Evil from my gracious testers. As I've posted before of Social, I was going to do some work on others projects I found interesting. In this case specifically a Lovecraft/Cthulhu PW. It caught my eye a while back because it completely rewrites the DnD ruleset as well as presents a very different world from the standard fantasy world NWN2 operates in. Much of the technical work has been done, though one of the technical people became a daddy recently and dropped off the PW, so they need another scripter type. You can find Zedicius on the irc channel regularly. He hopes for a beta in December.

http://exscientia.twisted-crypts.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_qdAfv8mws

This map was yatt + L3DT generated. I cleaned things up, made it look proper for it's purpose and reduced it to a usable for PW size. I actually cut it down to nearly a quarter of it's original size while not losing any significant playable area.

These two pics of a snowy fortress are a rough for a specific area by request. We ended up changing it significantly into more of a town, which I don't have pics of.

The rest of the pics are from filling out random encounter areas. Those 4x8 areas you drop into from the overland or for a quick DM encounter. A few things got dropped, like the giant stuff in the dark forest (it didn't fit the lore).

At some point I will pack all these up and release to the Vault.

Path of Evil: Playtest release

2010-09-15T20:38:00.000-04:00

Me: Builder of an evil campaign.
You: Opinionated back seat driver with the balance sense of a Russian ballerina. Preferably picky. Must be willing to kick puppies.

Know the secrets of Edinmoor? No longer a mere Wizard's Apprentice? Now a Risen Hero? Turned White Plume Mountain into White Plume Molehill? Well the baddest, evilest, most puppy kickingest campaign on the block needs playtesters.

More Info here.

What has Ol' Kamal been up to?

2010-09-08T15:14:00.002-04:00

So what do you do after you module is 100% complete but you don't want to release to testers just yet? Why you add evil ^H^H^H^ I mean you add depth. :-)

I've gone back through all the dialogs adding more race/class/diety specific conversation options. For instance one merchant will give you a discount and has a completely seperate dialog if you are the same race as him. Another npc will only speak his language and refuse to speak common if you're the same race as him (translated with subtitles, see below). Going individually through all the dialogs also turned up some typos and coloring mistakes (if an action is described via conersation, I highlight it with color tags). Even 2 or 3 actual quest bugs turned up, where conversations didn't advance a quest, or accepting it in a certain way didn't start it. It also identified all the merchants where one companion did not have the option to steal from them, there were a fair number of those.

Translation with subtitles. In one place, you can be disguised and among a population that does not speak common. I've used an online source to translate that entire section (probably 1-2 hours of gameplay). So players get the "original", with a common translation below. It's a detail that will hopefully delight players.

More custom items. There are some in every town now. The fanciest one gives the player faux psionics via a "psionic focuser" item that allows them to cast some illusion school spells once or twice a day. They can train with the npc that grants the focuser to achieve new "abilities". However this has a non-monetary evil cost, innocent npcs will die, and unlocking the full power requires the death of important ally npc's including player minions. I don't know how many people will find this during a game though since the player must do a number of things to get this. While there is a logical chain to get it, you have to do about 5-6 different things to get it over the course of probably 5-6 levels for the player, you're not told you are going to get it, and it's not offered to you, you have to ask. I'll probably put info on it in a walkthrough for the campaign. Anyway the "psionic focuser" item allows the player to be one of the many villain stereotypes.

Reworking on things I was not happy with. The player stronghold I had felt was underdeveloped. Now you can receive emmisaries (who depends on what you do elsewhere, it's possible to receive none), it has several ways to do research on the overarching game goal, and you can have minions carry out some orders. In fact, with a sargent to lead them, you can now have your minions do the entire item collecting main plot. Yes you read that right, you can have your minions carry out 80% of the entire plot without you. After all, once you have a stronghold, you are an evil overlord, so now you can act like one and have minions carry out your wishes. You can now have your soldiers standing guard and patrolling the local area. Lastly, you can now buy slaves for the stronghold, they don't serve any game purpose but just provide fluff detail. I also changed the location of a few things in the stronghold module to be more logical. There's a bit left to do here to flesh out the stronghold module, but nothing major.

Feat buying. You can now pay to receive various feats. For example, you can pay a blacksmith to temporarily shut down his shop and train you. In return you receive Skill Focus: Armor Crafting or Skill Focus: Weapon Crafting, depending on which you paid him for. I know this makes a character illegal to use elsewhere, since they will have too many feats, but the villain of the story is always exceptional, and Path of Evil has you as the "villain". Some more exotic feats can be aquired, including racial feats, which of course have exotic ways of getting them. You can also buy feats for your companions. I put in checks to make sure the player/companions have the normal prereqs if the feat has them, so no buying "Craft Wonderous Items" for fighters. Not all feats can be aquired (of course not, there are more than a thousand), and not all can be purchased for gold.

"Holy poop Kamal, that all sounds awesome!" I think so too :-) I can hardly wait to make the official call for testers.

There's not much left to add, just a few feat trainers and a bit more detail in the stronghold module. Then to test the new stuff. Don't want to ask for testers with anything not having received at least some testing. The official call for testers will probably go out sometime in the next two weeks.

On heroes determining monster CR.

2010-09-02T09:29:00.000-04:00

Our intrepid heroes are in a dungeon, when they enounter a giant alien blob from the Outer Planes, something they've never seen before. The player clicks to examine the blob and discovers "Ahah! It's only a moderate threat!"

Tell me again how the heroes knew a giant blob from another plane was only a moderate threat? The accuracy of the CR information is a situation where there can be a lot of work can done. Getting the CR info could include some familiarity/skill checking.

Our heroes are probably able to make a fair gauge of the threat of creatures that are similar to them, but probably less so for alien blobs. So one aspect of the difficulty of getting accurate CR information should be the similarity of the monster to the player racial type, outsiders are going to be difficult to determine if the party is human/elven etc, humanoid monsters our heroes would likely have less difficulty with, and plain old humans the heroes should be pretty accurate on for this aspect.

Skills can play an aspect here as well. Spot, survival would be pretty obvious. Maybe spellcraft for more exotic creatures where it might be relevant (nishruu, monsters that can be summoned). Craft alchemy ("Hmmm, that smells like a terrible acid!"). A lot of skills could grant insight into different types of creatures.

I could see a system where the player can get multiple levels of information about a monster's CR when they click examine the monster.
None: the creature is too strange for the hero to make a determination.
Some: "dangerous/non dangerous". The hero is able to make a determination, but it may not be that accurate.
Normal: As it works now ingame.

Stat checks are useless

2010-08-29T11:12:00.000-04:00

Let's just call them build checks and be done with it. They make sense from a game perspective, but the 3E/3.5E point buy rules make them useless as stat checks.

Let's say I have a puzzle. I want an intelligent character to be able to figure out this puzzle in-game without the the player needing to resort to player knowledge instead of character knowledge. Also, I don't want a level 1 wizard to be able to do it. Even lowly hedge wizards are going to have 14/15 intelligence; however a sorcerer never will. Other than wizard, only a rogue has a realistic chance as they may have put some points into intelligence to get more skills. So you either have to make the check so low anyone can succeed, or so high only specific classes/builds can. Has anyone in history ever made a 15 intelligence fighter, or paladin?

Did you know adult dragons start at 23 strength (adult black and brass)? That's right, your fighter is stronger than an adult dragon! That should be impossible.

Similarly, why are 1st level neophyte clerics wiser than grizzled epic rogues who have 20+ levels of experience to draw on? Maybe classes should get a wisdom bonus as they advance in levels.

Anyway I do see a way around it. Limit character abilities to an unmodified 16 to 18 pre-epic. That way people would throw some points into alternate stats. Then we'd occasionally see a smart paladin.

Path of Evil: 100% complete

2010-08-22T21:15:00.001-04:00

Since the 98% post, all the rest has been completed. The companion conversations were the biggie, somewhere around 15,000 to 20,000 words combined. They're complete fluff (irrelevant to gameplay but good "color") but they were important for me. The areas I added still need testing, but they are straightforward dungeon crawling you can do once you have your stronghold.

Other than the fact I'd like to test those new areas a bit, I could give the old "TESTERS, ASSEMBLE!!!" anytime now. Someone posted a two bugs the other day on the wiki. It showed that they had gotten through the entirety of two modules with just two bugs. I knew my months of bugtesting and fixing time had been paying dividends. :-)

Anyway, why not give the ol' "TESTERS, ASSEMBLE!!!" ? In case you've been living under a brick, The Maimed God's Saga and The Wizard's Apprentice were just released, and White Plume Mountain is supposed to be on the Vault by the end of the month. I wouldn't want to compete with them for attention. The community doesn't have so many adventures coming out that we should compete for players attention with releases very close together.

There are still things I'd like to add, but they are fluff. The joke items I talked about a few posts ago. Add unique descriptions to some generic items in stores so they're not selling so many "This is a +1 sword" weapons. More joke graves in the old Black Isle tradition. More alternate ways to say the same thing, to give the player the ability to give more personality to their pc. But since everyone should be busy enjoying Maimed God's Saga, The Wizard's Apprentice, and White Plume Mountain for the next couple of weeks, I can take some extra time to add some of this fluff/polish to a project that is "100% complete". Besides, everyone complains when a game gets rushed out the door, I can always look for more bugs.

If you're reading this and you'd like to test, or just a builder who'd like to look around.
Wiki with file downloads

Builders, you might find this a good laugh. The list of bugs that have been fixed. There were about a thousand fixed before this list was even started. Obviously this can be spoiler full.
Fixed bug list

Path of Evil does Youtube, part 2.

2010-08-21T09:45:00.012-04:00

The following three areas are based on prefabs I've altered, extensively. Sometimes you'll be fighting the elements as much as the monsters.
sandstorm
blizzard
desert town

The following are my own.
unusual town
Temple of Old Night
Calimport Muzad

Baranthyr:
vid 1
vid 2
vid 3
vid 4
vid 5

Not going to be able to get much work done this weekend, as the air conditioning is dead and the repairguy can only be back with the necessary part Monday. The weather today is supposed to be 90 (that's 32C for everyone else in the world) and thunderstorms so very humid as well. Not conducive to putting work in. Probably going to go find somewhere with air conditioning.

Path of Evil does youtube

2010-08-13T09:12:00.002-04:00

Near final video from the area I've been showing on the official forums. (there's a tile that doesn't quite match, I know). It's in multiple parts because fraps on my pc is limited to 30 seconds. I should buy the full version I guess. Youtube uploads are incredibly slow for me for some reason, I stuck the same clips on dropbox in about 5 miutes, but had to let the youtube uploader run overnight.

dungeon

part 2

part 3

a different dungeon

Path of Evil now 98% complete

2010-08-12T10:45:00.000-04:00

An estimate. Really there's not a whole lot left to be done. I have two interiors to finish (see one to the right). I have to finish the companion's ability to comment on quest. I have to make a few more loadscreens for some areas I added to flesh out one module (including the one for the rest of the screenshots, which is not related to the first shot). Get the companion hangouts working. A couple more weekends I think. Probably not much longer than that since I'm being laid off and will suddenly have lots of modding time :-) .

Virtually everything has been fully tested already. I've been testing and fixing since January. I'm not saying there are zero bugs. But you should find very few. I've fixed around 2000.

There are of course some color things I'd like to add, like the joke items from my previous post, but those can be done after the playtest release.

Yes, the building in the screenshots floats in the air.

Joke Items

2010-08-06T10:42:00.001-04:00

One of the more popular throw away details in the Path of Evil Module was a bunch of gag items sold by a merchant. These were knockoffs of well known magic items of Faerun, like a fake Holy Avenger and a fake Aribeth's Ring. The idea was that famous heroes would be celebrities and there would be those who looked to them for style advice and collected their memorabilia, just like real life with celebrities.

Recognizable for their poor construction quality, when the gag items did have enchantments, any positive enchantments were far outweighed by negative effects. For example there were the "Boots of Butt Kicking", whose description indicated they were patterned after the fashion of a famous ranger from Rashemar. The boots gave a bonus +1 to Charisma (eveyone loves you), but -4 to both intelligence and wisdom. The fake Holy Avenger was a greatsword so poorly made it had a -4 hit and damage penalty.

Anyway, with their popularity I decided to expand the selection of gag items in the campaign. Here is a selection:

Huulf's Mirror Shield: Faithfully recreated by the blind smith Huulf of the Ten Towns from descriptions given to him by adventurers, this shield is polished to a mirror shine on one side. Fortunately for basilisks everywhere, it is polished on the inside. This makes the shield a favorite of vain adventurers. No special bonuses, light shield

Huulf's Helm: Forged by the blind smith Huulf of the Ten Towns, this helmet has no place to see through, and looks like you put a pot over your head. Blindness self

Boots of Spud: Fashioned (no doubt by a gnome) out of a pair of dried old potatoes, the boots of spud are uncomfortable and look out of place anywhere but the most remote farm where one is not likely to be seen by anyone. If anyone does see them, they may get the urge to laugh uncontrollably. Wearer affected by slow. Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter 2x/day

Edna's Cloak: Designed by the famous female dwarf taylor Edna Mode, the cloak is incredibly stylish. It has an annoying tendency to get caught in things. +2 charisma -2 Dexterity, -10 Tumble

Notso: "Makes a great club", Thundarr the barbarian. The axehead of this greataxe is only loosely attached, sometimes causing it to fall off in combat. Fortunately, it can still be used as a club. -2 damage.

Named Bullets: Though not magical, these bullets have various names carved into them. Among the various names, one says "[pcname]", a name you haven't heard of before and aren't sure quite how to pronounce.

Saemon's sword: So named by the Bhaalspawn who occaisionally had dealings with Saemon Havarian, this rapier is not believed to actually be Saemon's, but rather named for his penchant of running away when things got even the least bit difficult. Fear on hit, dc-20 user.

And now some screenshots:

A lighting and tile texturing experiment, not meant as a playable area, you can see the tiles don't match for instance.

Beach ruins. The Death God's Vault placeable is nifty and detailed, but so specific you really have to build around it. Some oversized jungle ruins let me hide most of the placeable, keeping the only thing I wanted, the 4 armed skeleton. This area is not fully polished.

This shot used to be Kazatharsis by Raith Veldrin (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=233), It still is, only it's no longer a bone dry desert. Replacing ground textures, adding water and trees, and changing the daynight settings has turned it into a ruins in the forest. Sometimes you find a good prefab, only it needs a change of setting for your use. As you can see if you look at the original, you can get a vastly different look with only a few changes. This is a non polished shot, the texturing has changed some to make the walking paths more overgrouwn etc.

More conversation snippets. Hopefully not one dimensional.

2010-07-29T21:18:00.001-04:00

The first got some positive feedback, so here are snippets from two other companions.

The first is from Mu'tasin, a half orc cleric who works as a bodyguard. Mu'tasin likes gold and women. He's quite straightforward, prone to plain speaking. He does have an honor code that's the result of his clan upbringing.

The second is from The Tortured King. I can't reveal more than he is a fighter companion without spoiling things with him, but he's awesome to write for.

From the previous snippets, the first was from Carcarin, a Calishite (from Calimshan) human wizard. Like most Calishites, she's haughty and very politically minded. She's also highly educated and often condescending, which tends to show in her conversations (see the second one from her for instance).

The second one from the previous post was Kvas, the gnome rogue who is your childhood friend and first companion. Kvas enjoys others pain and misfortune. He has a bloodthirsty streak and enjoys taunting others if you let him speak. Despite all this, he cares very much for his mother (who is neutral at worst) and sister (who is innocent and obviously good aligned), whom you meet in Neverwinter. You can see that he cares in the last snippet of his.

Some of the companions are pretty much pure evil and fairly one dimensional. But I've tried to give others more depth. It was a conscious decision to not have influence systems nor will anyone leave you because they disapprove of something. But if you ask them they may not be happy with things you do and will voice their displeasure. Just as the player is given the opportunity to say they don't believe in something like slavery and refuse to do quests related to that, some companions have evil things they do not like and do not want to participate in. Being evil doesn't mean you can't have an ethical code or other objections to things. Carcarin, for instance, hates it if you work with an npc that lives in a sewer among rats, it's disgusting and unsanitary.

Conversation snippets

2010-07-27T11:52:00.000-04:00

One of the features of PoE is the ability to ask your companions their opinions about each other and any quest in the game and get a line or two of their opinion depending on the quest status. This is entirely for flavor and is to help give them personality. Here are some samples from two of the possible companions (there are no real spoilers). This isn't enabled in the downloadable campaign yet, it probably will be in my next update.

Each companion has a couple thousand words of convo depending on how "wordy" they are. While the majority of the conversations are written, getting them matched up with the conditionals required is time consuming even working from a skeleton convo that has most conditionals already in it.

You have to actually right-click talk to them for this. So if you prefer silent companions you don't have to engage in conversation. Companions will sometimes interrupt regular conversations you have, and you can let them speak for you at times. They also have barkstring one liners for flavor as you explore.

Looks like another short break

2010-07-12T09:15:00.001-04:00

My wife, who has been ill and in her home country for treatments the past few months, indicated she is going to be there indefinitely for treatment as there has been little improvement. Her illness is very tough on me and leaves me exhausted. So another break until my mood improves and I get more energy. When I get down I just feel like sleeping constantly.

In good news, the Eastern Faerun OM module is virtually finished. Just need to add some more "flavor text" and make sure the content I added there works since I added two quests to it. Western Faerun just needs some content added, but all the areas are in place. And the stronghold needs a bit more filling out. That's pretty much it for the campaign though. Everything else is all tested and final and ready. For anyone interersted, everything's up on the wiki, or at least will be later today when the upload finishes (my home internet has been incredibly slow for some reason).

wiki:
http://pathofevil.wikia.com/wiki/Path_of_Evil_Neverwinter_Nights_2_campaign_Wiki

I think that guy is mad.

2010-06-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

Doesn't he look mad?

I've nearly finished polishing the companion quests. The screenshot is from one, and features one very oversized hezrou, using a sgk prefab (sgk is awesome). Just one companion sidequest remaining: the undead aren't attacking everything along their waypoints like they should. They just walk them and ignore the villager attacking them instead of attacking them. Hmmm, the factions are correct, the undead are hostile to all but themselves and player, and have the default ai. I thought critters would stop walking waypoint sets to attack something they are hostile to? Guess not.

I think my half orc companion's quest is my favorite quest for the entire game. A fun reversal of a common quest. I hope there will be lots of "MUAHAHAHA!" if players do it. I was doing my best "evil laugh" in testing.

Oh yeah, finished polishing up another city too. No quest bugs, only polish type bugs. So that made things pretty quick on the fixing. This month has been extremely productive in terms of numbers of bugs fixed and getting different modules finalized. Maybe because most quest related bugs had already been ironed out, those take longer than giving a guard a post waypoint or highlighting something in a conversation.

Reading Wyrin's thread on the forums for White Plume Mountain and hearing the bugs people are posting for a well known author makes me feel better about my own bugs. I'm nearing number 2,000 :-)

When is it "Done"?

2010-06-21T16:29:00.000-04:00

So 6 of the 12 modules in my campaign I consider "done". These include the majority of quest content, since four of them are city centered modules and these are where most of the quest action takes place. The rest is for the overland maps (2 modules), two more city centered modules, and small modules for the endgame (four areas) and companion quests (10-12 areas).

The two remaining city centered modules need a few more trips through them trying to break stuff and catching those small things like typos or putting [] instead of <> in a conversation node so it doesn't show in the right color. The endgame module should be all done but for balancing, but I want another pass through to check for bugs. The companion sidequests are relatively straightforward, but the least tested. Everywhere I've put on the overland map functions fine, but the overland maps are sparser than I'd like.

So, fellow builders, when do you consider something "done"? There's the temptation to keep adding, whether more locations and quests to a sandbox style adventure, or more depth in systems (I'm loooking at you Lance Botelle :-) ). Then you start wanting to go back to stuff you worked on early in the adventure and bring it up to your later standards. If you let it, it never ends.

Let's Destroy Faerun

2010-06-10T16:55:00.000-04:00

I've been kicking this idea around for awhile since doing some research on Faerun lore for Path of Evil.

According to the Faerun wiki, one of the demon/devil lords plots involves bringing Abeir-Toril into the Hells. Sounds like the beginnings of a solid plot right, to stop them from doing so? Well yeah, if you want something easy to accomplish.

No, instead our plot starts after Abier-Toril has already been brought into the Hells. With chaos everywhere, the Lords of Waterdeep have sent out a call to anyone willing to aid them. Their goal is to collect various artifacts (or activate them or whatever) that will be used to bring Toril back into the Prime. The Lords have a portal the players can use to get where they need to go to collect/activate etc. Even evil aligned players would have an incentive to do this, since being in the Hells probably interferes with their own evil plans.

So what you'd have is a central base with portals anywhere a designer would want to go, and carte blanche to do whatever to the location thanks to the shift to the Hells. Obviously this would be a high/epic level adventure.

June update: screenshots!

2010-05-31T17:10:00.002-04:00

Ok, this is what people probably want to see, the Stronghold ingame. The player has just gotten it.

Here you can see a small village lying outside a larger city. Also visible is the irrigation canal on the left. Part of the stronghold's lands, this area doesn't have much of a purpose beyond you being able to wander around in it. I always wanted to wander the lands around Crossroads Keep. It didn't feel like you really ruled any lands, but more of an isolated keep.

Another view of the farmlands. The fields are flooded for rice growing.

In the town,this is the upperclass district (you may remember another very similar shot from a previous blog post).

A strange location.

Another strange location.

Finally, a loadscreen I like.

My depression seems to have broken, so I've been able to do some testing of my own and not just fix the bugs sumguy reported. As always, you can download, playtest and report (and see the) bugs here:

http://pathofevil.wikia.com/wiki/Path_of_Evil_Neverwinter_Nights_2_campaign_Wiki

(A new version of the files is currently uploading, should be available June 1.)

Current status: Only a few remaining "placeholders" I'm aware of. There should be no showstopper bugs (I think sumguy found them all :-) ). The only large remaining feature to add is companion conversations when you right-click talk to them, but these are just for color and have no game consequence.

In praise of the tester!

2010-05-09T18:29:00.000-04:00

Over half of the fixed bugs since I first put it out there for testing, and virtually every bug for the past month, have been reported by some guy who calls himself Sumguy. Thank you Sumguy! With all those reports, things are really coming together in many areas. I haven't had much time to test myself.

Campaign Bugtesting Wiki

Stuff NWN2 could use....

2010-04-16T13:54:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't it be nice to have all those floors pictured on the right? You'd enable a ton of new interior styles/themes. They are in a NWN1 hak. The hak's original author hasn't signed in to the Vault for 3 years so it's probably abandoned.
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=40282&id=6101
That's not the only NWN1 content that could use converting. There's a far chunk of other placeable content, but floor content is flat, so it hopefully shouldn't take a lot of remodelling, just apply these textures to some of the floors already present. Skydome's would be another conversion that would seem to be relatively simple.

A hot lava ground texture and a volcano plume placeable card. You've seen the photos from Iceland. The NWN2 lava placeable is fine, but can only flow horizontally, a ground texture could flow vertically. A smoothed cooled lava ground texture would be good too. A volcano plume placeable card is necessary for when you're not actually on the volcano, it's off in the distance. Placeable cards in general is an area that could use filling in, some cities or other structures in the distance, mountains.

Proper, defined clouds as placeables. Area fogs and smoke don't cut it. I want some poofy clouds to put around floating cities, or underfoot while the players are on high bridges. Cumulus and stratus please. Cumulonimbus would be great as a card placeable.

Actually loud waterfall sounds. I can barely hear "large waterfall" even after I've turned the sound placeable up to max in the toolset. Large waterfalls are loud, they have a roaring sound, they should drown out most everything if you're near the base.

Ability to change some tilesets floor/wall/ceiling textures. RWS Deep Halls comes to mind (Sorry you guys). One or two of the Obsidian tilesets has the same lack of ability to have the textures changed (Shadow Fortress) . I bet Deep Halls would look spectacular with the clean/smooth Sunken Ruins textures on it (good for Drow interiors I'd imagine) instead of the chunky roughhewn look they have now.

When do you toss out an area?

2010-04-05T14:50:00.000-04:00

So at what point are you willing to toss out an area and start over? This screnshot is from the rebuilt town of the player stronghold. I tossed out the old town exterior over the weekend and rebuilt everything. The old town just wasn't that good, which is odd because it's one of my most recently built areas.

The town was plain, it had a lot of buildings that were just there taking up space, and I'd made it 32x32 to incorporate some things, so performance was poor. Bad builder, bad. Here's an overhead screenshot. It did extend a bit farther at the bottom outside the walls, those two herizontal paths at the bottom were the borders of walkable space.

I started by making the decision to split the town into two areas. The old town had a stream that seperated the rest of the town from the upper class/stronghold area. I kept the stream, but made it the boundary between the two areas. In the "main town", I kept the church you see at the center, in the center of the new "main town" for two reasons. First the town church is at the geographic center of many historical towns, and second was a plot reason.

I kept the general geographic layout, with the stream running diagonally. But I eliminated the houses between the church and stream. There were plenty of houses that were doing nothing already, they were just there. Then I divided the area around the church into three "districts", merchants to the SE, general housing to the SW, and some buildings the player can unlock to the NW.

It's a tighter, more SoZ style: all buildings have some game purpose and can be entered. It's a contrast from a more realistic style where not every building has something of interest to the player. The main town is now 12x12, and not all of that is used because of the diagonal stream, so it's closer to 12x10. To do this the cliffside gladiator pit had to go, but I didn't have gladiator combat. I still have a spot where I could make a transition to a new gladiator pit area and keep it inside city walls (or just put the pit outside the walls). With the smaller area, I was also freed up to put in more detail with placeables and the like while keeping acceptable performance.

I also built the basics of the other area in even though the player can't reach them. Terracoppa is your friend :-) This allows the adjacent areas to be consistent. Of course once I'd copied the area into the new area I made sure that all the objects from the other area got turned into environmental objects to improve performance.

In the upperclass/stronghold area (East and North of the stream), the upperclass area got compacted so there are no more general buildings that are just there. The stronghold got it's whole area though, since the stronghold is a prize for the player and I wanted to keep the ability of the player to walk around and admire the grounds and the view. I did make the stronghold entrance closer to the upperclass area, but still gave it some seperation with the "forest grounds" you see. The area wound up 16x20 or so.

Fun with VFX:

Old stuff I never blogged: These screenshots came out of a request on the official forums to see about having custom weapon fx. The idea was to see if it would be possible to put rings on a weapon to make some martial arts weapons that have rings. Actual weapons with rings is basically impossible. Ring vfx would be pretty close to it as well, since you'd need very tight sync between the weapon location and the vfx location.

In our first shot, I applied the force field effect to the weapon. Totally useless, it doesn't make a actual force field that blocks monsters for instance. But this is kind of interesting. If you unequip the weapon (second shot), the effect remains in the place it was when you unequipped it. Turns out all area vfx do this. The force field effect scores a 0/10 for practicality, it's huge, jumps around lots when weilded so it's visually distracting, and doesn't actually make a "blocking effect" like you'd expect from a force field. When re-equipped, the "placed" vfx disappears and the vfx goes back to the weapon location.

Here we have a leaf effect on the weapon. Look closely and you can see the leaves dropping from it, making a trail as the player runs. Good for a druidic weapon I bet. 9/10. Not distracting, gives an indication of weapon use, high on role playing goodness. Druids and other nature lovers might not like the implication of falling leaves though. Maybe leaves in place "growing out of the weapon" would be better.

Close up of the leaves effect.

The mind flayer come effect on a weapon. This follows the weapon around. It looks pretty strange in motion as the effect itself is animated. Not very practical as an effect on a player weapon, it jumps all around when the player is in motion and is distracting. Maybe for an undroppable boss weapon combined with some mind effects OnHit. 3/10

Priests of Auril rejoice! The snow mace! When equipped, it snows. Kind of hard to see in the shot. This is the standard snow vfx, placed on a weapon. An area fx, the snow stays in place when the item is unequipped. 5/10. Better than the force field since it's not very distracting, also it has fairly obvious role playing signifcance. You could probably script this weapon to have some kind of mild aoe cold effect when weilded. People who want cold damage will likely go for the default cold vfx though. And the snow vfx remaining in place would be bad for performance.

This one didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. It's an invisible or shadow vfx (I can't remember which) effect on the mace. I was hoping to make a semi-transparent "shadow weapon". I tried several similar vfx. But no go. 7/10. It looks good, just not what I was trying to achieve. Not visually distracting (when not moving, the vfx is essentially invisible).

I didn't explore using odd vfx on weapons further. It was simply done as an experiment.

Time for more guinea^H^H^H I mean testers

2010-03-29T08:47:00.000-04:00

As promised, for those interested in testing, a new version fixing all known bugs (except for the intro movie not playing). Thanks to wyrin and _Knightmare_, the bugs that somehow slipped into the overland map are now squashed.

module files
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/Path%20of%20Evil%20modules.7z

files other than the modules (if you previously downloaded this, you don't really need to do it again, there are some fixes to typos in the tlk file)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/Path%20of%20Evil%20other.7z

The handy dandy bug reporting wiki
http://pathofevil.wikia.com/wiki/Bugs_to_Reports_%28broken_stuff%29

Feeling stabby again

2010-03-23T13:42:00.000-04:00

Well, if just posting about a frustration is going to get me answers as quickly as my last post:

Another one of those problems that just appeared out of seemingly nowhere. This is seperate from the barkstring conversation issue I posted.

New area transition triggers for module transition in my campaign have broken (ie: they used to work, now they don't). They either:
a) don't work at all. They player enters them and nothing happens, or the transition autosave happens but they don't transition.
b) work, but send the player to the module start point, not the designated waypoint.

I've tried several versions of area transitions. I've used the standard new area transition trigger, as well as generic triggers with the ga_olmap_load script and the ga_load_mod script.

The destination waypoints exist and I have confirmed their tag names as well as the module names being referenced.

Has anyone else run across this? Wyrin commented to my previous post that he's started to see some of this behavior. This issue is preventing me from releasing an updated test version of Path of Evil.

Feeling All Stabby

2010-03-21T19:31:00.000-04:00

Like this guy from Futurama ---------------------->

You see, I had a perfectly working overland map. I could go anywhere in the game world. I'd tested it multiple times. The only problem was that the OM module had too many areas in it, making transitions to the OM slow as NWN2 loaded them all. So I split the OM module into two, one for eastern Faerun and one for western, and updated all the map triggers. Rebaked all the areas.

Simple right?

No. Now things are completely borked. See that placeable conversation? That's not a barkstring, and there are no conditionals on the responses. And the area to transition to is in that same module. I had one placeable conversation that did pop up correctly, but disappeared after a tiny fraction of a second. I couldn't even tell it had occurred except that it showed up in the log (as a barkstring). Then sometimes they work.

Except when they don't. I can close and reload and the behavior will change. Generally, I can't transition to new modules from my OM. On the occasions when I can, I can't go transition back.

Except when I can. I tested transitioning from a module back to the OM module, and either it doesn't work (nothing happens), or the transition works, but deposits me at the start point for the module instead of the destination waypoint.

I'm using Obsidian scripts and naming conventions.

So I'm going to ask for help from a kind soul out there to help me figure this out. I've reduced one of my OM modules to a few area and packaged it for someone out there to look at. Critters removed for tester safety, loadscreen hak removed etc, areas moved right together to test, but scripts kept. You can get it here.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/poe_overland_west_backup.7z

Someone tell me what's wrong? Or do things just work for you?

On the other hand, the custom loadscreens and tips are still working just fine (that area is a prefab by sgk73).

Get your Evil here (Path of Evil external testing)

2010-03-03T19:52:00.007-05:00

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/path%20of%20evil.7z

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/Path_of_Evil_other.7z

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/poe_intro.7z
(updated version of the first module, March 13, fixes 50 bugs specific to Neverwinter, adds "flavor" text and other improvements that were only in later modules.)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3879894/March_14.7z
(fixes a gamebreaking bug with the first area after leaving Neverwinter, leaving players stuck and unable to progress...)

Bugreporting wiki:
http://pathofevil.wikia.com/wiki/Bugs_to_Reports_%28broken_stuff%29

I've made a thread for feedback here: http://www.hiddentales.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=207 and tried to anticipate questions people might have. You can always PM me on the official forums and I'll send you my email address if you prefer to give feedback that way.

-------------------------------------------------
PoE is "complete" and needs fresh brains for food.... I mean feedback... (Complete except for a few minor things, the stronghold town and the endgame, those two areas are still alpha/beta quality.)

I wouldn't worry about things to do ingame though, there's plenty of stealin', intimidatin', muahaha-in' and paladin smackin' to go round.

Testers reward: choose either a gravestone with an epithet of your choice (a Bioware tradition), or be a purchaseable slave for the stronghold (with barkstring/convo of your choice).

If anyone does decide to help playtest, my current testers are playing a mage and a priest. Since the initial ten quests (a few hours of game time) of the campaign are completely different depending on your class, I would request you try a melee type or rogue for the part set in Neverwinter, but anything you want is fine, the more testers the better. I've been through the paths enough that my eyes glaze over, the two testers have already pointed out several logical errors that I missed because as the builder I "just know".

Since I figure this blog is probably read more by builders than players I'll lay things out from a builder perspective:

How one handles plot for a villainous pc is the experimental part of the campaign. Your typical heroes are told where to go and what to do, generally in very specific terms. "I seen the necromancer threatening the town and some zombies coming out of the cemetary!" Bam, there's a quest. As a player, you know you need to head to the cemetary, and the necromancer is going to try to kill you. Motivations are built in, players are expected to be good and to help those in need. "Evil" is typically restricted to demanding money to do the task. At best the evil player is given an alternate route that accomplishes the same task (working for the Thieves in the OC). Any larger quest, such as defeating the OC villain, is broken down into a neat series of subquests that are all direct and specific.

Path of Evil sets up a large quest goal for the player (without spoilers, this is nothing groundbreaking, just an item accumulation quest). However, it tries to leave as much as possible up to the player in how they want to accomplish the quest. They are not told directly where to go to find the items or what to do. One companion will make a suggestion on where to go to find out more information. Even if they go there the information they wind up getting is vague. The player might figure out that what they are looking for is in a city. And the item is there.... somewhere. The towns of Path of Evil have main quest lines, but these can be unrelated to what the player is looking for. The item might turn up in what you thought was a sidequest. It might even be unexpectedly easy to reach.

Basically, the pc is on the path to being the villain of traditional modules. Except we're seeing the villain before he/she has achieved power. The villain is still questing to achieve power, not yet wielding it to try to smite the forces of good. The questing villain has to operate quietly, they can't go about asking for help; good won't help, and evil would use the knowledge against our villanous player.

So Path of Evil winds up very much a sandbox. The player will find that plot, as normal modules handle it, is almost non-existant. Not that there aren't quests to do (there are plenty, around 150), dungeons to explore, etc. But direction is something the player will have to find and decide for themselves.

Handling evil players also means having to plan for them doing things that would be unexpected in most modules. Evil players can be in character while trying to doublecross a questgiver, ransoming an item for more money than was agreed upon, lying, etc. This means I'm looking for lots of feedback on alternate ways to complete quests.

How are you using skill checks?

2010-02-25T14:28:00.000-05:00

Hoegbo's Demon's Melody promises

"-skill checks galore , finally you can use perform to get away from those pesky guards. and much more. "

I've done a lot of integration of skill checks as well. So here are some examples to give people ideas and stir conversation. I'll skip over the "traditional" skills like Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate since there are plenty examples of those in the official campaigns, how you could use those is pretty well defined.

Appraise: I use this regularly to allow the player to haggle the price of doing a quest. Failure means the questgiver will only offer a lower price than they would otherwise.

Concentration: I used this in a few places in combination with Dex checks for things like forgery, since the player must both remain focused and have a steady hand to produce a good forgery. Anytime the player has to do something while potentially distracted.

Craft x: I assume crafting skills grant knowledge of that area, whether weapons, armor, etc. Sometimes a player might be able to complement an npc on a particularly fancy sword or armor, gaining favor. Other times they can talk about the npc's equipment as a distraction. I've used it in murder investigations as well, when the murder weapon was supposedly one type of weapon, but during examination of the body a player with craft weapons will recognize that the damage couldn't have been that weapon type, it must have been a different type (aha! a clue!).

Craft alchemy: I've used this to allow a player to recognize substances an npc might be carrying. In my released module, a thief can use it in conversation to identify that a guard is carrying a drug, and blackmail them. I've also used it occaisionally to allow the player to concoct on the spot poisons (the player doesn't have any poison inventory, but they are allowed to use one anyway).

Disable device: The player is knowledgable about mechanical items, much like a tinkerer. It makes sense, a player skilled in disabling traps would have had to study their mechanical workings. In one spot the player is presented with a puzzle testing knowledge of hunting, disable device allows them to identify barely worn grooves in the puzzle, allowing them to work the puzzle properly without hunting knowledge.

Heal: Examples are covered pretty well in official content. I've used it to include medical knowledge. I've also used it as a proxy for torture (effectively harm), since the player would know what would cause pain. You might also use it to identify what the murder weapon was based on the wounds on the victim.

Hide: Not only hide yourself, but hide things on yourself, in case those pesky guards want to pat you down looking for that gem you stole. Hide can also function as a proxy for disguise (hide identity).

Listen: It's the sense motive skill. You are adept at picking up subtle clues in conversation. At high skill levels you could be a veritable lie detector, picking up on stress in the speaker's voice. Sometimes I use it in a trigger near baddies to give a popup giving a clue that a baddie is nearby and what kind of baddie.

Lore: The general knowledge skill, includes heraldry. You may use lore to recognize the badge on an npc's clothing as representing their membership in an organization. The player may also gain extra insight into motives of npc's based on their organizational membership.

Move silently: The npc is unaware of the player, whether distracted with something else, facing the wrong direction, or otherwise occupied. Move silently can guarantee initiative in combat.

Open lock: functions much like disable device.

Parry: The player is talking to an npc when they suddenly and unexpectedly make an attack on the player. Parry allows the player to avoid taking some damage from this sudden strike. Functions much like a "quicktime event" or reflex save.

Perform: Yep, distract guards like Hoegbo mentions. I've also used it to get a good reaction from an npc ("I will now sing a song in your honor!"), or distract them while a companion does something. I've even used it as a torture option, with a "failed" perform check being the preferred outcome. :-)

Search: I've used this to implement hidden compartments in items. The item is given a conversation, and a hidden search check determines if the player sees generic information about the item or discovers a hidden compartment. I've also made secret doors this way.

Set trap: another "tinkerer" skill.

Sleigh of hand: Use it to assassinate an npc in conversation. In one spot the player is tasked with killing the leader of an opposing faction. Since that faction is not hostile to the player, the player can freely approach their leader and engage them in conversation. Sleigh of hand functions as a proxy for using a small assassin weapon like a courtesan blade. A successful check deals massive damage to the target.

Spellcraft: a proxy for arcane knowledge. I've used it to give a player more conversation options.

Spot: like search, find hidden compartments. Search and spot can also be used as investigative skills. For instance if investigating a murder, when they examine the body they might find some clue.

Survival: Functions as a proxy for wilderness knowledge such as hunting, so it might open up new conversation options with a ranger npc for instance since you can "talk the talk".

Taunt: If an npc has poor impulse control, you can insult an answer you want out of them. The equivalent of getting the criminal to blurt out "I did it!" in court.

Tumble: Makes a good proxy for "quicktime events" like a reflex save. I've also used it as the opposite of sleigh of hand conditions, to survive damage from unexpected npc assassins (see my example above). I even used it once as an assassination attempt, the player can "fall awkwardly" onto a sitting npc, breaking their neck.

Use magic device: Mulitple uses. First as a specialized Lore skill. Let's say a player comes across a magical door lock that can't be otherwise picked (like in Trinity) that would otherwise require the player to go do something else before getting entry. UMD works like a lockpick for these otherwise "unpassable" doors. The player just naturally understands it's operation.

Second, UMD is a limited bluff, but the player is not actually bluffing, they know what they are talking about. UMD is a proxy for specialized class or racial knowledge, since UMD allows use of items with class/race/alignment restrictions, allowing a player with UMD to fake being a member of a class. You can discuss the fine points of "five finger open palm technique" with a high level monk. You can't actually demonstrate the technique, but you can certainly talk about it knowledgably. Thus, the player can "bluff" otherwise unbluffable npcs. It doesn't allow the player to actually speak elvish if they are faking being elvish.

Temporary stoppage due to depression

2010-02-09T12:05:00.000-05:00

I have suffered from depression for the past 5-6 years. Alas, another depression episode has come upon me. My shrink had allowed me to stop medication after doing quite well for a significant period of time. So it is time for me to go back on medication. I should be back towards normal in a few weeks (the medications take that long). For the past few day I have barely been able to stay awake, a sure depression sign for me.

Work on Path of Evil (it's almost ready for others to look at, a few more bugs and the module transitions are needed) will continue full speed once I feel better, probably in a few weeks. Since the campaign has kept me motivated and goal driven (something I struggle with under depression), be assured that it is not being abandoned. Work will continue in the meantime, but because my depression manifests itself as exhaustion and sleep I expect progress will be slow indeed. Like I said, this should just be a few weeks.

Bug squashing, now at 1000 and counting....

2010-02-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

Last night I squashed bug number one thousand! I also opened up my last module to bugtesting. So actually I'm running under the 1300 bugs I'd estimated when I started testing. I may catch up though, I've come to the conclusion that to strengthen the story I'll need to add about a half modules worth of areas and do some more writing/scripting.

Anyways, new areas open for testing, that means new screenshots to share. The "look" is still being polished, but I like it anyway.

The Path of Evil "Overland" Map

2010-01-29T10:47:00.003-05:00

Technically, it's not one anymore... The overland map scripts from Obsidian slow down the player on the map tremendously. While it's more realistic over the regional map scale used in SoZ, it is just not "fun" over a Faerun map unless you want to put literally hundreds of regular map areas in tied to it. Otherwise it's an interminable length of time moving slowly overland.

This works much better for me. I've actually removed the Overland Map scripts. Our intrepid player is now full size on the map and moves at full speed with an unlocked camera. Because I'm using a projection map the abstraction of the players size is not jarring like it would be if they were on the standard Overland Map. Everything on this map becomes symbolic.

With the unlocked camera, tilting the map is now possible, allowing the player to see farther. The sense of scale is greatly increased. Distant areas look distant. The arbitrary inability to see as far south of the player as they can see north is removed. Look how distant those glacial lands look.

Of course there are some minor drawbacks to this. Many of the overland map placables from SoZ are designed specifically for the locked camera. They have things like missing backs, 2D parts etc. This makes them useless for me. Also odd things happen to the camea if the map placeables are set to walkable as Obsidian recommends. The camera takes a view under the player and map. So I'll have to be turning off the walkable settings for overland map placeables.

Also, now that the player can see the sky, they can see that they can apparently run the length of Faerun in a day. I know SoZ had faster day/night cycling, so I'll be looking into it.

Fortunately, there is plenty of solid prefab work available to fill in our overland map. So at the bottom are two screenshots from nice areas.

Misery Stone is perfect, but there are a few tiny Bouncy Bugs

2010-01-23T23:16:00.005-05:00

Misery Stone. I don't think it's toppable. I played straight through and couldn't step away except for the bathroom. I even ate at my computer. But there are a very, very few bugs.

A walkmesh issue by the shambling mound, you can walk into a corner of the wall. A walkmesh issue with the two giant statues in Castle Firglore library (can walk right through them).

Typos and description problems. The artifacts of Firglore have as their description "There is nothing special about this object.". As artifacts, there should be some sort of description. A minotaur whose description is a gargoyle. The quarterstaff shovel. Hand drawn picture keys. "Machince", and "stready". The incomplete description of "This chair".

Finally there was a broken journal entry. Though this may be related to my overrides, I got the same broken empty journal with Trinity. I'm using Tony K's ai and Kaedrin's prc pack.

edit: More bugs:

One female companion is a Vistani gypsy and native the Firglore. The other female companion talks about the Vistani. We never find any other evidence the Vistani exist even though we travel the length and breadth of Firglore.

A red dragon, what was that doing there? Make it a white please. There's one on the Vault.

Dynamic journal failure. The journal keeps track of your good/evil deeds. This only worked for the very first deed, in the inn with the sleeping guard. After that I was stuck on 1 good/0 evil the rest of the game even when I did some definitely good deeds (the Misfield children).

Journal failure: Giving a female companion the items for her quest would update her journal. The update made no changes to it. I only did this after I had completed her quest.

Duplicate npcs: In the basement of the asylum, there were duplicate liches. The second one did not go hostile, but did attack until I'd killed the first. Once I killed the first I could talk to the second again and get the same conversation as the first. I couldn't attack it again though, it would not go hostile.

Finally, a preference. There are several item accumulation quests. It would be nice if the items were removed from the player inventory after they are no longer needed. I was walking around with a number of keys.

Custom Loading Screen Samples

2010-01-22T11:40:00.001-05:00

To get this effect I take the screenshots and loaded them into GIMP. First I applied the Oilify filter (Filter -> Artistic -> Oilify) using the default settings. The border was done by using the Fuzzy Border filter (Filter -> Decor -> Fuzzy Border) with a 32 pixel black border.

Oilify works well when there's significant color contrast or strong colors.

Here are some prefab areas from the Vault given this treatment.

And here are some of my own areas.

More testing, More screenshots.

2010-01-19T21:06:00.007-05:00

Well, these are certainly some nice prefabs....

Allyndyn's city
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=10762&id=331

Surague Escarpment
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=311

I have to relight everything.....

iirc From the Baldur's Gate areas prefab
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=340

Our player is being a smartypants...

More testing, More screenshots.

2010-01-17T21:04:00.004-05:00

Where does this lead?

A new module opens as testing for the old one finishes....

Let's build something, shall we?

These people could use some help.

A dingy inn.

This shot just looks awesome.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

More testing, More screenshots.

2010-01-14T21:56:00.004-05:00

Some skills are useful outside of combat. I need to add more of this though.

More "flavor text".

Sometimes flavor text is used to give game relevant information. Here the player is told they are unable to rest in the area.

Just some pretty shots:
Temple of the Old Night, Calimport Muzad

A pretty prefab area.

More testing, More screenshots.

2010-01-13T17:53:00.002-05:00

Hmmm, where are we?

Oh, there we are (and an example of my "flavor text" system)

Surprisingly, not hostile.

What trip there would be complete without these folks (another example of "flavor text")?

Haha, a pictorial example of broken doors.

Commoners randomly spout quotes that are thematically related to the area they are in.

Custom work by request from the official forums

2010-01-12T10:26:00.006-05:00

Eguintir Eligard asked for a 2x2 room inside a tree for a druidic interior for Islander. I did it by rescaling some SoZ trees for the walls and using planks for the floor. The decorating is up to Eguintir.

Another shot inside the room.

MoktahTGS wanted a rescaled and recolored Evard's Tentacle. This shot shows the purple original next to the version I made.

Not shown is another tga that handles some of the Evard's effects.

Finally CyborgWolf wanted help with a huge red sun. Huge enough?

This sun casts a glaring light as well.

Come see the Calimport Muzad...

2010-01-10T16:54:00.002-05:00

MOAR SCREENSHOTS :-)

Come see the Calimport Muzad...

2010-01-10T15:48:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Calimport Muzad: the undercity under Calimport.

I really like this shot ---->

I'm torn on the fog though. This fog looks pretty cool, but realistically it should be black fog since the Muzad is underground. What do people think?

The Temple of Old Night stands off to the left, dominating the Muzad.

What kind of house is that in the background?

The Muzad was created as Calimport simply built over old areas. Many ruins line the streets.

Some cultivate light giving plants and mushrooms in the darkness.

Outside the Temple of Old Night is a large market. You might not walk away with all your fingers if you're not careful. (incidentally I removed that large tent, it interferes too much with the ingame camera.)

Custom vfx, falling cherry blossoms and driving blizzard

2010-01-07T11:01:00.007-05:00

Banshe on the official forums said he wanted to have falling cherry blossoms for an asian themed mod. So I whipped some up.

Cherry petals version. In this version the petals slowly fall straight down. As a response to Banshe's request for this behavior.

Also a driving blizzard effect, which is hard on video cards, but combined with a short distance white fog makes a convincing blizzard. It takes the Thaymount Dust and replaces the default tga for it with the snow tga.

Our friend the blade golem provides a sense of the fog range in the second picture. The short fog distance helps the video card too.

Both the flowers, petals, and blizzard are tintable. Here is a "cherry storm"

"Cherry blizzard" test shots. Let's just say this does bad things to your video card....

Ever more screenshots. You know, because people like them.

2010-01-05T10:41:00.004-05:00

The Calim desert can be viciously bright during the day.

Winds kick up the dust, making sunrise and sunset pretty interesting. (this area adapted from the Solvheil:Tahamman prefab and redone to my needs)

Nighttime in the desert.

Closeup shot in the desert town.

Overhead shot in the desert.

More prettiness in the desert.

Desert Ruins (the Solvheil: Solvheil Ruins prefab, once again adapted)

Also in the ruins (the elementals are high level because they spawn as encounters and I'm using an overpowered testing pc).

More testing, More screenshots.

2010-01-02T17:25:00.002-05:00

More completed testing brings more screenshots. Two small modules and the module covering the city of Murann and it's related areas are all bugfixed. Over 350 "bugs", though many of these are things like making some conversations into NWN1 format or removing the ability to use certain things that are usable in prefab.

Here is our villain (that would be you btw) exploring a prefab area.

Same area, with a companion backlit by the sun rising.
The prefab is http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=401

Sahagun Monastery, one of my areas I've released as a
Vault prefab.

Burj al-Kadar, a government building in Calimshan.

A random house in Calimshan.

Temple of Umberlee, Murann. She rules over the flooded city.

Another shot of the Temple of Umberlee, from the toolset (some water is not rendering here for whatever reason).

Path of Evil now in internal testing! Screenshots!

2009-12-28T22:00:00.010-05:00

Yay for me! To celebrate here are some screenshots from where I'm currently testing.

The Tortured King, one of the companions.

A mountain pass (a prefab)

Inside, infravision can be most useful....

Otherwise things look like this (and this area is "lit"), many dungeon areas are pitch black.

Like this.... (those glowing eyes belong to the Tortured King)

Exteriors are dark at night too.

Just in case you thought everything was pitch black....
it can be pretty during the day.

Dorateen's gonna hate me....

2009-12-08T14:51:00.003-05:00

I'll keep that title since the last update was just yesterday and a catchy title makes for more readers according to Azenn....

A few areas weren't really filled in as much as I'd liked even though they were "done". Sadly, I got stuck at work the weekend after Thanksgiving since the company voicemail system crashed. In good news for those of you who might enjoy my work, I had a creative blast (brought on by long work hours and exhaustion I think...) and wrote down a bunch of new quest ideas while waiting for things with the voicemail system.

Then I used some downtime during the regular workweek to crank out the conversations related to a lot of the quests. So one city got a related set of 9 quests working for a mysterious employer, and another got a quest that stretches out into 8-9 parts. These only required my adding one new area, which is another reason they were quick to add. That's a little more than 1/2 of what I came up with while zombified working on the voicemail. The rest of the ideas I came up with should also go relatively quickly as they are adding in to existing areas for the most part.

Dorateen's going to be mad at me....

2009-12-07T21:23:00.002-05:00

Dorateen's going to be mad at me. I made a fire giant encampment. The fire giant description says they look like oversized, ugly dwarves.... so I used recolored dwarves for my fire giants so they can have more variety than the single fire giant NWN2 provides. I should even make one say Harumph! (Hi Dorateen).... If you want giant size items I found that a 2.4,2.4,2.4 scale works very well. It's what you see in the screenshot here.

Also, I thought this screenshot was hysterical. There is Joe the Generic Adventurer. He is at normal scale. The fire giants are doing laundry.....

Special for Nacaal

2009-11-15T12:18:00.008-05:00

Seahorse Cove Prefab slum area, default lighting: nighttime
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=10762&id=331

Same area, relit using "Exquisite Lighting" daynightset, made darker at nighttime and using soft windowlights. The lights are SLS "3 Candles" with lerp off. For small windows the "3 candles" radius is reduced to 2. Notice the window glow at top right.

Same area, another view. Notice the glow near the windows from the 3 Candles light, especially visible in the two larger windows near the center of the picture.

Same area, relit using "Exquisite Lighting" daynightset, made darker at moonset and using soft windowlights.

For reference, the same area, using "Exquisite Lighting" daynightset, daytime.

For reference, the same area, default light

Same area, default moonset.

Polishing

2009-11-12T15:45:00.004-05:00

One thing I'm doing in my polishing is changing the lighting. Here is the prefab of Riverbridge before went to work, the time of day is set to moonset.

And here it is after, still at moonset. Building windows with lights in them actually light. The lighting actually looks like it's nighttime. The lightset is based on the "exquisite" set on the Vault, but darker during the night.

The other main thing that get the once over during the polishing pass are conversations. I'm going through the conversations to make sure placeholders are filled in and journal updating looks right (and making the journals multiplayer friendly). Companion interjection and greater pc dialog choice also happen during the polishing phase.

Areas also get some extra work if they need it, for instance the prefab that is serving as Murann was much too "clean" for a city under control of a goblinoid army. It got extensively scrubbed with dirt and irregularity. Now it looks more natural and more like an occupied city.

I am also checking area names, music (most areas have none), making sure areas connect to the overland map, things of that sort. It's an effort to giving everything a "final" look and bring the areas into a state where only bugfixing is needed. Ideallly, after polishing no one will look at an area and say "hey, it really seems like this area is missing an oxcart".

Companion teamwork

2009-11-02T20:24:00.003-05:00

Path of Evil has two types of ways you can team with your companions. Here is an example of each.

A particular companion is in the party: Your companions have particular skills that you can access by asking them. One companion is a skilled forger for instance. So in a quest involving forgery, if the companion is in the party you can simply ask them to do it. You can try your hand at forgery yourself if you'd like, but there are skill checks involved. The companion automatically succeeds.

This type of teamwork requires you be able to talk to the companion, typically without anyone who would find the action hostile being there to notice. You can't have your companion forge something if the NPC's are standing there.

Friendship teamwork: The companion Kvas is your best friend from childhood. Because of this, you have teamwork options with him that you can carry out even if you're being watched. For example, you can distract someone while Kvas steals from them.

Friendship teamwork involves a skillcheck, but not one for the action being attempted, rather it's a check to see if you distracted the NPC sufficiently for Kvas to perform an action. For example, there is a quest that involves putting poison in someone's drink. You can try this yourself with a sleight of hand or Dexterity check. If Kvas is in the party, you can check Craft Weapon and make small talk about the NPC's scimitar, or try a Perform check and sing a quick song in the NPC's honor. A successful check distracts the NPC enough for Kvas to put the poison in the drink. Kvas's success is dependent on your skill.

Custom loading screen Screenshots

2009-10-26T12:52:00.011-04:00

As with the first module, there are custom load screens for each area. Here are some before and after shots. The first three pictures are taken in the toolset.

And here they are as loadscreens. To get this effect I take the screenshots and loaded them into GIMP. First I applied the Oilify filter (Filter -> Artistic -> Oilify) using the default settings. The border was done by using the Fuzzy Border filter (Filter -> Decor -> Fuzzy Border) with a 32 pixel black border.

Oilify works well when there's significant color contrast or strong colors.

The middle picture in each set is the Solvheil Ruins prefab (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=363)

Stronghold screenshots

2009-10-06T21:26:00.003-04:00

In Path of Evil, you will be able to rule a stronghold. And here's some screenshots.

Your throne room:

A merchant you can hire: (yesssss, he'sssss a yuan-ti)

Path of Evil progress update

2009-09-29T15:03:00.002-04:00

Since I didn't feel like too much writing and scripting this past week, I focused on filling in the random overland map areas the party can visit. With all these being prefabs, the only work needed was placing monsters/treasure and the like. As a result, most are now ready for exploration, hacking and slashing. A few small sidequests in there as well. Think of them like the areas off the main path in BG.

A few prefabbed areas came prelinked/thematically related, and their design suggested some quests ideas that I haven't fleshed out yet. So those two areas are on the overland map and can be entered, but currently are empty.

Still to do:
a remote desert oasis town on the edge of faerun needs more population besides it's current lone merchant. ditto for a town in the far north. Both these areas are just quick stops on the overland map, so they don't need to be extensively filled in, a few more merchants and some random commoners would do. They are just pit stops for players to sell loot or restock.

The town where the players stronghold is needs to be developed. There will be 3-4 quests here as well involving the players interaction with the current powers of the town. The stronghold itself is built but needs to be filled in more, and the generic stronghold system conversations need to be converted to campaign specific ones.

Another town is complete, but was a prefab set outside faerun. The lore and conversations needs to be converted to Faerun lore/conversations. As it's the location of one quest mcguffin, it needs to have more quests put into place other than the single current quest leading to the mcguffin. Fortunately, the built in conversations for the area suggest several quest hooks, so I only have to fill them in and give them an evil spin.

Companion conversations about quests are almost all written (8 companions x the number of quests, plus many have different things to say depending on the quest state = lots of work). They still need to be able to say what they think of each other and important npc's. Then the conversations need to be moved into the toolset. Their interjections into pc conversations need to be added in many cases, and their "flavor" conversations for different areas have to be done. Currently they are silent SoZ party creation type companions.

Seems like a lot remains, but filling out the overland areas seems like a hilltop and completion and the beginning of testing now seems downhill.

New and Redone Creatures

2009-09-20T19:27:00.008-04:00

Meet a few new or redone creatures.

The ghost of an ogre mage.

A phase spider, out of phase.

A rime skeleton from the frozen north, rime skeletons are internally lit by the sheer cold that exudes from them. I should add that rime skeletons are a redo of the Hellfire skeletons on the Vault already, subbing cold effects for fire effects, so while new, they aren't "new".

Overland Map Experiment

2009-09-05T16:46:00.002-04:00

Yes, you can transition directly from one overland map to another.

And here is a second pic showing the results with a little more work. The minimap is now displaying properly and you can see how the water and basic texturing such as the dirt road show through the billboard effect map. Some more detail work needed on cleaning up the map, but progressing nicely I think.

Calimport Muzad

2009-09-03T09:55:00.005-04:00

Taken from: http://www.talesin.us/rpg/calim/glossary.htm

Known by a multitude of names from the Muzhajaarnadah to Calimport Below, Dark Calimport, and most often just the Muzad, the deeper city beneath the streets of Calimport is just as exciting, lively and dangerous as the sunlit metropolis above its stony ceilings. The Undercity of Calimport is more than just a series of sewers and waterways- there are whole streets, buildings, courtyards and great halls, and other areas long buried and forgotten. With the many series of disasters to strike the city over the centuries, it is not hard to believe the rubble was often simply built over after great destruction and whatever fell beneath the rubble was considered gone.

Since it encompasses the sewers and areas beneath, the Undercity ranges from 20 feet beneath the raised streets of Palace, Grand, and Emerald Wards to nearly a half-mile beneath Calimport’s sewers. There are so many mysteries hidden in the depths and the darkness of Calimport Muzad that they compare equally to the ruined wonders of Shoonach, Myth Drannor and the horrors of Undermountain beneath Waterdeep. There are a number of regions defined among the shadows, and what little there is to know is far more than most are willing to learn of the darkness beneath them. Calimpanni often quote, “ Enter the Muzad with caution, for as the Pashas do not walk below their station on the unexalted ground, one does not easily walk below without sharing the shadows in station, mind and heart .”

So a progress update

2009-08-30T10:47:00.002-04:00

About 70-80 quests are complete, this is about 2-3 times the amount of quests in the entire Path of Evil intro module (all four questpaths through that).

Four modules are complete. These include three major areas and one smaller area. Three more modules are in various stages of progress: a very short one that starts the campaign (half complete), the companion sidequests (85-90% complete), the Stronghold (player controlled stronghold mechanics complete, otherwise still working on area design).

Two more modules are needed but not started yet. One of which should go relatively quickly.

Nine modules? Well, some are quite small, only 3-4 areas. Others are 20+ areas. I have a logic to it's organization, and since it's a campaign no reason I can't have lots of modules. Also I figured smaller modules would make providing bugfixes for people quicker since I'd just have to upload smaller chunks instead of a whole campaign. The OC's Skymirror area was a module by itself iirc.

Then comes going back over everything to add flavor, companion flavor/conversation/options, and polish. Overall, the campaign is somewhere greater than 50% complete, but it is not playable to completion.

What's taking so long? Well, there's the player controlled stronghold for one. It's never been done that I've seen outside the OC. And there's eight possible companions. All of which have their own sidequests, interactions and you can ask about any quest in the game. Plus I'm a lone author, poor scripter, and slow writer. :-)

Two of the modules would be releasable as separate modules of 20 or so quests each, since they're virtually all sidequests. Players could just do random jobs without a big overarching story or having some untied up story bits (ie finding campaign items whose reason for being there is given in another module). Another section of the companion sidequests would be releasable as a 15 minute all action no story hackfest.

Exotic Inn, complete

2009-08-22T12:37:00.014-04:00

So here's a bunch of toolset screenshots from the exotic inn.

Pic 1: reading area

Pic 2: upper hallway

Pic 3: basement level

Pic 4: basement level another angle (crafting and merchants in the back of pic)

Pic 5: main floor

Pic 6: main floor second angle

Pic 7: The drink deliverator

Pic 8: Stairs to basement (note the ode to NWN2/MotB/Soz)

Pic 9: Feature alcoves

Exotic Inn

2009-08-20T15:33:00.002-04:00

Here is an inn from the feature area I've already put up pictures of. The innkeeper has a few pets. It's just the first pass, there's still more to do.

generic stronghold needs beta testing

2009-08-19T16:09:00.009-04:00

ERF format
module format

There is no story or point in doing anything in the generic stronghold. When the pc spawns, he can talk to the debugger, who will grant him 1,000,000 gold, sufficient for doing anything in the demo. Any pc of any level may be used for testing.

At this point it contains everything Crossroads Keep stronghold is capable of, and that is what needs testing. Only base NWN2 is needed.

Picture 1: I named my keep what?

Picture 2: The architect can build for you.

Pic 3 and 4: Now you don't see wall upgrades, now you do!

hah I borked it!

2009-08-16T14:56:00.002-04:00

Somewhere along the lines in generalizing the stronghold, I busted the timekeeping feature, breaking everything and forcing me to start over. Which stinks, since I had pretty much everything working.

Fortunately redoing it will be much quicker as I already know what scripts etc I need.

Stronghold proof of concept progress

2009-08-09T19:44:00.005-04:00

Thanks to wholesale taking of scripts from the OC, I now have the basics of a OC style stronghold. I'm also abstracting the stronghold terms and re-commenting the scripts so others will be able to make their own strongholds when I'm done.

What works:
The architect (Veedle in the OC) can upgrade buildings.

The architect can upgrade roads/towers ala the OC.

Interior upgrades: in the OC you can have Veedle open up some areas by destroying placeables. This was surprisingly difficult to adapt the OC scripting for, since the scripting was almost entirely driven OC event checking.

Majordomo to give you updates on your lands: this was simply a matter of copying over a script from the OC. The script handles the display of the status items like number of merchants/soldiers,/civility/road status etc

Armorer/Weaponmaker: removed the ore checks, now you pay gold. You could reimplement a secondary resource check if you wanted.

soldiers: the abstracted Greycloaks. They can recruit more troops and be sent on road/land guard duties. Special missions are event/sargent driven in the OC, I've not implemented them yet.

What doesn't:
The OC uses multiple interiors for the same building, jumping you to the relevant waypoint depending on whether you've built the church or the monastery for instance. Even with the same scripts, this is not working. The scripts for this are on the door, they are just not returning info and unlocking the door. (I tagged the waypoints and door the same as the OC just in case.)

Secondary upgrade: the architect can upgrade a building further ruined church -> church -> upgraded church. The OC only does one upgrade. The second level upgrade isn't working yet. Odd because the multi-level upgrades of the towers/roads work fine, but maybe they work because those are "invisible", at a given upgrade level there is a building or not, no "upgrade" buildings.

Not attempted yet:
Sargents: such as Bevil and Light of Heavens.

Special troop missions ala the OC.

What I've learned:
If you're going to "build" buildings , the area it's being placed needs to be unwalkable before the building is placed. Otherwise you can walk right through the building (the area already has marked that area as walkable. Basically unless most of the building is hidden in a cliff or otherwise unwalkable area, you can only upgrade with a building of the same footprint. So no guard tower -> Crossroad Keep upgrading.

edit: more stuff is working now, so I've edited as appropriate.

"Shut up dwarf."

2009-08-04T21:44:00.003-04:00

"I can barely see your head over the table anyway. "

A dialog snippet from the Path of Evil campaign. Spoiler free.

Mysterious Church screenies - ooooohhhh mysterious!

2009-07-27T21:42:00.008-04:00

RWS Pocket Cathedrals is the tileset show, and it is great :-)

Here are five screenshots from the area I'm working on, a church interior. In the last you can see our intrepid game testing drow for scale. I've got to fix some things, the lighting isn't showing up ingame like the toolset shows. Maybe because there's a metric ton of lights and effects in the area.

(Yes, the ship is floating on purpose)

A feature area is complete.

2009-07-26T19:09:00.007-04:00

It is going up on the vault as well (I just submitted it). What are the Red Wizards doing in Samarach? Well, there's only so many non western european style buildings available. This area is neither in Thay nor in Samarach. So when you want an exotic city in NWN2 you're pretty limited. The game really needs a greater variety of unusual building placables that aren't ruins.

Anyway I'd like to encourage other builders to release their areas as prefabs. You know how long area building takes, this area took something like 15-20 hours to make. When my campagin is complete I plan on releasing all the areas I designed in a pack onto the vault. I've already released somewhere between 15-20 (my arabic town prefab contains over something like 10-15 areas by itself).

Anway, releasing areas as prefabs does two things. First it helps promote your module work and promotes you in general in the community (just look at SGK73's abundant excellent work). The second thing is it makes it easier for new builders to get in the game. Having a stock of quality areas makes it easy for new module builders to concentrate on their story. The more prefab solutions (areas, scripts etc) out there the easier it becomes for new builders. And that means more modules for us to enjoy.

City in the Trees

2009-07-17T20:24:00.002-04:00

Holy Cow!

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabAreas.Detail&id=491