delays delays
April 2nd, 2009
I’m sorry I haven’t been able to update in a long while. Mod work was delayed indefinitely a while back. I’ll see if I can pick it back up after I return from vacation in a few weeks.
dialogue editors
February 23rd, 2009
Okay, there are a lot of things in NWN2 for which Obsidian can be justly criticized. I gotta say that I don’t think the dialogue editor is one of them. With very, very few arguable exceptions, I don’t think there’s an enduser dialogue editor available that’s better than the one found in NWN2. Yeah, setting up cinematic conversations is obnoxious, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of just writing nodes, linking to replies, and knocking off basic (and advanced) scripted conditions and actions, the editor’s pretty great.
I was expanding Salea of Elventree’s dialogue tonight, adding a variety of conditionals, color-coding responses, linking back into the master node — and it was all pretty easy. As long as you make a proper outline of what you’re doing ahead of time (as you always should when writing tree-based dialogues), it’s a piece of cake. And since I’m not using any cinematic conversations, I don’t really give a rat’s ass about that system’s various and myriad shortcomings.
Really with the NWN2 dialogue system, the biggest errors a builder can make are a) not developing an outline for each conversation before writing starts and b) not tracking actions, conditionals, and associated variables throughout the conversation. So don’t make those mistakes, builders.
regular work interferes
January 25th, 2009
A bit of crunch popped up over the next few weeks at work. Please look for a fresh update in another week or so. Thanks for reading.
classes
January 22nd, 2009
Much better.
get out
This is the revolver theory of classes: if you can’t get the job done in six shots, more bullets is the last thing you need.
3E and 3.5 had a bunch of problems. The bad multiclassing of spellcasters was one of the major issues. They introduced prestige classes like the eldritch knight and mystic theurge to rectify this. Except that it doesn’t really solve the problem.
When an issue this fundamental appears, it should be fixed, not worked around.
armor as damage reduction
January 21st, 2009
Due to my weapon proficiency post, some folks have asked about armor. Because I love armor as damage reduction, I’m doing it. I won’t go through a huge speech here, but basically heavier armor is better at protecting you from damage. It’s a little more complicated than that, and there are trade-offs both between armor categories (light, medium, heavy) and within the armor of a category (plate vs. banded, for example), but that’s essentially how it works.
Each suit of armor resists one type of damage well and the other two types of damage less well (sometimes both equal to each other, sometimes not). So here’s an example below:
This combat log might be hard to read if you're a huge freakin' n00blord.
So, this fine fellow is wearing plate mail. Don’t pay attention to all of the goofy item stats below the first three lines of description text: reduces 6 points of slashing, 4 points of bludgeoning, 2 points of piercing. Booyah. Three goblins are attacking me. All have 16 strength. One is armed with a morningstar (BLUDG GOBO), one with a battleaxe (SLASH GOBO), and one with a spear (PIERCE GOBO, using it two-handed). As you can see, in some cases the armor totally absorbs the damage (SLASH GOBO hits in the middle and the armor takes it all). In other cases, some of the damage gets through.
Yeah, yeah I know there are a lot of balance issues around this. I’ve got it under control. Armor as DR roolz, any other armor system droolz. Peace.
trees, trees, trees
January 20th, 2009
Today I started doing basic layout for Arch Wood, a module in Archendale. This is the area where I am going to experiment with seasonal tree replacement. The idea is that I take a number of Speedtree-generated trees in spring/summer/autumn/winter states, export them for use as placeables, tag the game object in a certain way, and then use a module script to swap out trees based on the time of year. Obviously there are a few issues with this. First, placeables created from Speedtrees do not sway like ordinary trees. Second, the real Speedtrees will not change. But that’s okay, because honestly it doesn’t look that weird to have a few trees that don’t move in a sea of ones that do.
The net effect will be progressive tree changes throughout an area based on time of year. So while some trees will remain green year-round, others will change color and lose their leaves. Technically speaking, it should not be difficult to set up. However I may have to wait a while to get the tree placeables. We’ll see.
feats don’t fail me now
January 18th, 2009
I decided to do some feat work today. I’ve had trouble working on the project this week due to a variety of small things that have come up. Thankfully, most of today’s work went by pretty uneventfully. I wanted to integrate my “proper” feat changes into the class tables and character creation. One of the bigger changes I’m making to feats is the re-organization of weapons. I always thought 3E’s categorization of weapons was pretty bad. There were a few good weapons and a load of garbage. E.g.: the humble greatclub. I reorganized the weapons into the following categories:
* Basic - Wide variety of ranged and melee weapons of different damage types. Lack the “special features” and damage potential of advanced weapons.
* Advanced Crushing - Melee crushing weapons. Average damage range and critical hit damage.
* Advanced Piercing - Melee piercing weapons. Low damage range and high critical hit damage.
* Advanced Slashing - Melee slashing weapons. High damage range and low critical hit damage.
* Advanced Ranged - Ranged weapons.
* Advanced Unarmed - Hand-to-hand.
In addition to this re-categorization, all of the weapons have been re-balanced for the Black Hound. Some weapons have been removed, some have been replaced, and a few have even been added (e.g. stilletos and sabres). There’s a direct trade-off with each weapon between the damage it does and the critical range it has. There’s also a direct trade-off with each category between the damage it does and the critical multiplier it has.
E.g. Mauls do 1-10 points of damage and have a x3 crit on 20. Warhammers do 1-6 points of damage and have a x3 crit on 18-20. By comparison, the most damage slashing weapon, the great sword, does 1-12 points of damage and has a x2 crit on 20. The least damaging slashing weapon, the short sword, does 1-8 points of damage and has a x2 crit on 18-20. I think the changes will be for the better, though playtesting will help prove/disprove that.
Instead of the deluge of proficiencies that are normally vomited forth into the NWN2 character creation/level-up windows, this new scheme displays only a few at a time.
outdated files
January 12th, 2009
Though I only had a chance to work for two hours tonight, it was two hours of wasting time. I tried to integrate my new feats with the new SoZ feat.2DA file and kept running into bizarre errors. They wouldn’t show up at all at first. Then after some research I realized the problem: the formatting of the new .2DA is totally different. Columns moved around, leaving the “removed” field checked for all of my feats. And then they would “work” in game (being granted) but wouldn’t show up in the UI. It turns out the order of a lot of columns changed, so when I pasted in my custom data, a lot of columns were set improperly. It’s all fixed now, but I hate nights like this: you spend a few hours busting ass and wind up barely making any headway.
overland map progress
January 11th, 2009
I haven’t been working on the aesthetics of the overland map much, just the core functionality. It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to do module transitions between the overland map module and the White Ford module. So I can do all sorts of happy-go-lucky transitions from area to area without much issue.
this is the quality of dialogue you can expect
I also did some work today on White Ford itself. I moved around the entrances and exits to support traveling to and from the overland map as well as Shepherds’ Glen, an area to the south of the village. I also goofed around with the conversations in the area a bit, trying out the more narrative style for Salea of Elventree, a seasonal merchant who appears in Market Square from time to time.
WORDS: THE GAME
With the exception of the exterior (which is about 50% done in terms of object placement), the rest of White Ford is all built out, but un-propped and unlit. That will probably be my next task to tackle. I’ve decided that I’m going to finish White Ford before I even bother starting on any other modules. There are certain things I want to do with scheduling and timetables in-game that I want to throughly prove out before moving on.
how to be a douchebag