Sunday, December 7, 2014

Bedine Update


Sidequest chains for two places are in and tested. The areas for these are mostly complete, needing primarily a polish pass. And a sound object pass, I always do that last in my area building workflow for whatever reason, probably because I don't have a good ear for that. These two quest chains have been my primary building focus since my last update (along with non-Bedine stuff like retexturing the undead for the community to use).

One additional area is also complete, which took a lot of time to figure out how to build, but does something hopefully not seen before in nwn2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OEP2IT2Zs&list=UUTB3It7cV5bt9luZ4hFSlCw (link is external) The questline involving that area is mostly and tested as well. Like the main quest, I haven't quite figured out how I want to handle the end of it. I've fleshed out the story for the Gem Mines of Amazandar area I showed a picture of.

The main questline is all tested up to the endgame area. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do with that yet. Storywise of course I know what the bad guys are up to and what they're trying to accomplish in the endgame section, I just haven't figured out what I want to do with it from a game perspective. For a Storm of Zehir comparison, it would be like knowing you're going to have the party confront the avatar of the bad guy, but havn't yet decided what you want to do for the temple where you decided the confrontation happens.

I have one section of the Anauroch I'm trying to get ideas for so it's not just empty area with wandering monsters. The problem I'd been having is that nothing from the official lorebooks that seemed like it could make for an interesting questchain also seems doable in the toolset. It's taken some time, but I think I've got a working idea for this part of the Anauroch.

So... with all this talk about completing quest chain testing, how close is Bedine to release? Well, further away than it would seem. Previously, I've done all the writing, area building, adding "life and color", etc first, testing quests and such was the last part of work before release. This time I have been adopting my own advice on getting things working first, then worrying about the exact details later. Of course I have also been working on things as I feel like it, so my area building is fairly far along as I generally like doing area building.

Oh yeah, I figured out how to make something that looks like flying carpets awhile back, don't think I mentioned that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SufCOzAHsX0&list=UUTB3It7cV5bt9luZ4hFSlCw (link is external)  Bedine won't actually have flying carpets.