Writing dialog

A furious sandstorm rages, visibility is down to a few camel lengths and progress is difficult against the hot blown sands. You have been awake for more than a day, afraid to make camp for fear of being buried in your sleep. El Jebel Tuwaiq said he would send wasa-ey to Ermal Sheqyeqh to prepare and placate her for your arrival. Considering you are still alive in the midst of the sandstorm, this is placated.

Daynight transition setting

I figured out a way to have my standard "intro with the DM" be in character. It's written, and more importantly, scripted. I hadn't scripted the sort of thing I'm doing for the intro.before, but the folks on the forums got me going in the right direction. As a bonus I realized when working on the scripting that I could use this elsewhere in the campaign to solve a plot problem I was having difficulty working out.


I also fixed my daynight settings for the "transition" time. Things were too orangish red. Now I have a coloration calculated as the average of moonset and sunrise.

Dead video card

Well, my video card decided yesterday it didn't want to see 2015. Fortunately I had the foresight back when I put this computer together to get a motherboard with basic built in video capability. I can't run the toolset on motherboard video (or do any other gaming, or even use the full resolution of my monitor), so the toolset will have to remain closed until the replacement card gets here sometime next week. I guess I'll be jotting down ideas in notepad and maybe working on conversations via the flamewind conversation editor until the new video card arrives.

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.

A Bedine Update

I've worked out the plot for two sidequest areas, written the dialog and done the testing for them in my test areas. I still have to finish the maps, do all the blueprints, and such. But the scripts, conversations etc are written and the quests tested. Since the setting is a desert, I'm making fewer sidequests areas that are more involved than the Storm of Zehir overland map where small areas are common. They are closer in length to to the town in SoZ north of Neverwinter that the Luskan's have taken over.

For one of the sidequests I've had to do three custom maps as I couldn't find any prefabs that looked like they would fit. These are partially made, I know where things will go and the maps are partially decorated. For the other I was able to find a prefab map that I could retexture to use as one of the maps. The second map I've placed all the tiles for and know what happens where, and the third map I haven't decided on yet other than knowing what will take place there.

Desert placeables for all!

http://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/model/kamals-tints-and-reskins
Arid/desert placeables for all. As well as very desaturated placeables to allow a wider range of tint options. The pack includes versions of most of the stock placeables, and includes multiple options for things like rock faces/boulders, stone walls, etc. With this finally done, I can get back to Bedine.

Placeables, placeables everywhere.

Not feeling particularly inspired for building, I turned to reskinning existing placeables to give people alternate versions and make arid terrain themed objects. Most of the buildings are now available with an arid theme, as well as many placeables such as the stock statues in a sandstone texture. You can see more in this thread on the forums. Not all these will get used for Bedine, but I'm enjoying doingg it and it seems to be very popular.