Path of Evil progress update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.