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I shook off the Oblivion habit and managed to...
March 31, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I shook off the Oblivion habit and managed to start typing up the dialog I wrote over my vacation. Of course, I never simply type it, but find I do a lot of editing and additions along the way. So far I've just added in the ending dialog for the main quest. I still have another big sidequest to put together.
I'm hopeful that by the middle of April I can get QA in full swing. There's a lot of pieces that can go horribly wrong, so it may take awhile.
Today's the last day of the writing contest. I also managed to test the deluxe Firestarter version. It's a fortunate thing, too, as I had a fair amount of fixing and last minute fiddling. Hopefully it'll all turn out relatively well. I also added a few hints that should point people in the right direction if they get off track.
Marque Pierre dropped me a note yesterday and said he's ready to start texturing some ships. That's been our biggest talent gap, so I have high hopes we'll see something soon.
I'll see if I can get more dialog in today, as well as starting to script things out. Busy, busy.
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I'm not dead yet
March 30, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I'm not dead yet.
I've returned from the beach where I managed a bit of writing. I've been struggling with an Oblivion addiction and decided the best way to get over it was to finish the thing. It's hard to take off my game designer's hat while playing RPGs these days, thinking of the things that are fun and not fun. A lot of the tedium of Morrowind seems to be gone, while keeping the sense of exploring a huge world.
In terms of what effect Oblivion may have on Dark Waters, I think it's emphasized a few points. Exploring ruins is fun. Interesting quests are fun. Finding unique items and using them to vanquish your enemies is fun. We'll see how much will transfer over. Oblivion has a few weak points, such as occasionally unbalanced encounters, mostly due to the open nature of the game. I also succumbed to casting a spell over and over to build up my skills, the C key weighted down with a screwdriver.
In terms of the project, I did a bunch of writing over the last few days. Hopefully I can find some time to type it up.
Finally, there's a couple more days of voting on the Bioware Writing contest over at the Vault. My module, Firestarter, snuck into the #1 place a few days ago and it looks like it might actually hold it. I'm going to try hard to polish up the deluxe version with bugfixes and voice acting and get it on the Vault after the contest is over, hopefully with a bit of fanfare as well.
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I'll be heading off to the beach in a few hours
March 24, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I'll be heading off to the beach in a few hours. I wrote a bunch of dialog for my little sidequest, though it needs even more before I'm done. There's some scripting it needs as well, though it's not too complicated. Hopefully I can flesh out the writing while I'm stuck in the car for a couple hours.
I also started playing Oblivion yesterday and it's most excellent. The outdoor areas look very good and I'm hopeful that NWN2 matches its excellence. Already I've found myself doing odd things, such as going around and picking the various flowers in hopes of making new and interesting potions. Hopefully it won't impact the project too badly.
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The Black Spot is one of my favorite side are...
March 23, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The Black Spot is one of my favorite side areas in the module. Every pirate story needs to have a seedy bar where all sorts of things may happen. The Pirate Card game is big there, though I spent some time working in a rather interesting encounter that may lead to romance or a duel, depending on how things go. It's rather fun to write.
With Oblivion appearing on my doorstep soon, as well as a beach trip coming up, my NWN development effort may be slightly lessened. I typically find time to write on these long car drives, so it's likely not all is lost.
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Testing and cleanup continue
March 22, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
Testing and cleanup continue. I think I've sorted out most of the issues with the Dominator quest. It has some nice options for law or chaos that I appreciate. I won't spoil anything too badly, but it's an opportunity for even the most lawful characters to run afoul of the law.
The journal entries are in place now and I've worked through enough balance issues so that it seems reasonable that a third level party can survive the experience. It's still the toughest required fight in the module. The other main quests don't require combat at all, strangely enough.
I have lots more to do, mostly little things, as well as polishing the main quests. There's yet more dialog to add, more journal entries, and the like. The Woodhaven quest needs the most work, as well as getting the transition to the next module all in place.
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I had some more fun this morning and last nig...
March 21, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I had some more fun this morning and last night going through some main quests and making sure they worked. I had "finished" the Dominator quest some time ago, but it was basically horribly broken and unworkable. It's still badly broken and unworkable, but I'm getting closer to having it be functional.
I threw in some more dialog, one as a transition between the early part of the game and Port Brighton, and another for a quest I hadn't finished.
Today I'd like to work more on cleaning up this quest, perhaps adding in some journal entries. I have another side quest that's on my "really want to have" list. Though there's lots to do, I'm having fun working on all the little pieces.
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After over a month working on High Seas, it f...
March 20, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
After over a month working on High Seas, it feels like its time to return to the main campaign. High Seas isn't quite finished, but the basics are there, which is good enough for the moment.
I spent time yesterday and this morning simply playing the module, making note of bugs and enjoying the ride. True, there were some fairly horrible bugs I ran into, but the good news is that I actually had a good time playing.
It also seems like the module itself is starting to be wrapped up. I've got to write some finishing dialog for the two main quest givers, whip up some journal entries, and do a tremendous amount of bug fixing. Still, it's nice to be moving in that direction.
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The ship of the day is the dhow
March 19, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The ship of the day is the dhow. I applied a very simple texture and threw it into the prototype. I also had to strip off a fair amount of interesting geometry to avoid crashing the game, so it ended up looking rather plain. Still, it's nice to have the variety, which I think is currently good enough for at least this part of the campaign. There's actually a couple ship models in there that I'm unlikely to use quite yet.
I started work on Brighton underground, getting the smuggler section in place. The theory is that this is the place where you sell your illicit cargo. The risks are higher, but so are the rewards.
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Well, I fixed the skull flag issue, though li...
March 18, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, I fixed the skull flag issue, though like the cow vortex, I was tempted to leave it in as a "feature".
I have a double image for the day. The first is the new boat added to the mix. This one is a lowly fishing boat, which might be the only thing the player can afford at the beginning of the game. It's slow, has very little room for crew or cargo, but at least lets the player go from island to island. For those players who don't want to bother with the High Seas mini-game, it's ideal transportation.
Wisdomknight finished the base mesh for the dolphin as well, so that's coming along nicely. Next up is the mysterious Tritonian, terror of the deep.
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I'm busy integrating the High Seas game into ...
March 17, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm busy integrating the High Seas game into the real module and discovering all sorts of issues. The latest amusing bug was that the flag put on the player when they're polymorphed as a ship still sticks around after they've docked and turned back into a person. I'm pretty sure I know how to fix it, though I haven't found the time yet.
Speaking of which, I'm feeling far busier than usual these days. I haven't been able to work on the module nearly as much as I'm used to. I also have a bunch of pending "to do" items with my team that I'm feeling bad about not getting to. With luck I can get to things today, working on the world map and some of the dialog surrounding going from place to place.
You can currently trade between Port Brighton and Woodhaven, with two fully functional "dock masters" there. The next big one to add is the one in the smuggler's area, and then some assorted supporting islands.
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It was far crazier than I would have liked as...
March 16, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
It was far crazier than I would have liked as of late, with sick kids, work being crazy, and so on. I did manage a bit of work around the integration of High Seas. I fixed the custom content problems and started working on updating dialog. I'm actually at the fun part, creating a map of the world, but simply haven't had a moment to spare lately.
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The integration went a bit slower than I thought
March 15, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The integration went a bit slower than I thought. It took me nearly a half an hour of repeated crashes before I discovered I'd left out a single hak pack from the mix. The game now loads, which is a good sign, though I think I still have a few bugs to work out. Evidently there's some model conflicts which are causing the giant ships on the world map.
Hopefully I can get some of these bugs ironed out today and get the system working properly. I think I've got some hak pack work to do, along with integrating dialog, moving waypoints around, and adding in some new islands. Busy, busy.
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Razvan took our meeting conversation about un...
March 14, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Razvan took our meeting conversation about undersea adventures to heart and came up with a gnomish submersible. It's a cute little thing, quite stylish, and of course I must find a way for the player to use it. I've already got a quest in the third module that I've earmarked for underwater exploration. Coupled with the sea creatures that wisdomknight is putting together, it could be really fun.
I worked more on High Seas, as I always do, testing out the latest smuggling functions. Smugglers who can't pay the fine will now have their ships confiscated and dropped off at a nearby port.
I'm going to try again today to see if I can start building the "real" world map in the second module. As the campaign progresses, there will likely be a bigger and bigger map of the world they can explore.
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I've been a bit sick this weekend, so I'll ke...
March 13, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I've been a bit sick this weekend, so I'll keep things short. We had a good team meeting, with wisdomknight getting me excited about sea creatures again. I was stuck in the car with my napping daughter, so I wrote some dialog and reviewed the entire campaign. I'm changing gears and splitting the second module back into two more smaller parts. That means that I'm actually pretty close to finishing the second module, which is nice. There's tons of polishing to do yet, not to mention finishing the High Seas part of the campaign.
Speaking of which, I worked in the concept of illegal and immoral trade. There seemed to be little reason to smuggle anything without it. Trading in laudanum will move a player towards chaotic, while trading in slaves will slowly erode away your soul.
Finally, I have specialty crew types now. If you hire a navigator, you will move slightly more quickly. Gunners improve accuracy. Doctors reduce crew damage, while carpenters reduce hull damage. If you have a smuggler onboard, it improves your chances of evading patrols. It's all untested for the moment, but the basics are there.
If I get some time today, I might start looking at integrating everything into the second module. It's getting close enough for final testing and I'd like to be able to sail from place to place rather than teleporting with the magical QA item.
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I'm going to type fast as I've got a team mee...
March 11, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm going to type fast as I've got a team meeting in a few minutes. I made some fairly major graphics changes, making all the ships, flags, and islands in the prototype twice as big. I was getting frustrated at not being able to see all the detail, plus things felt a bit too fast as tiny ships zipped along. I'm pretty happy with how it looks and it didn't take too long to do.
I also got Raz's Junk into the prototype, even though it's untextured. I wanted some ship variety and it seemed a fairly easy option to do.
This morning I worked on ship dialog a bit more and tweaked the worldmap ship AI. Patrol ships now come up to you and inspect your cargo, letting you go freely if you don't find anything. Theoretically you can bluff your way out of pirate encounters or persuade them to take your cargo and leave you alone, but I've yet to test such things.
I also put in some code to let you control the encounter distance. A savvy pirate can bluff their way close to a ship, allowing for a quick boarding action with few shots fired. There's still lots of work to be done, but it feels good to slowly get things finished.
I also got the last of the voice work for Firestarter, which continues to do well in the Bioware writing contest. Hopefully we can do some QA work and show off some of the voice work the actors have done.
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I made a few different flags yesterday, as we...
March 10, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I made a few different flags yesterday, as well as putting in some code that sets the flag for various ships and such. It's not completely finished yet, but I'm slowly getting there.
It does make it much easier to pick out targets if you're a maurading pirate or a do-gooder enforcing the law.
There's still more bugs to fix (I took care of another one when the player engages in boarding actions while invisible). Still, maybe I can start putting in some captain-specific dialog today. I'd like to see patrol boats checking for contraband, negotiations with pirates, merchant captains offering trades and advice, and so on.
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I mostly spent my time debugging problems wit...
March 09, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I mostly spent my time debugging problems with High Seas this morning. There's a lot of them to find, some of which have been nerve-wrackingly difficult to troubleshoot. I also looked more closely at the navigation code, which now gets a "fairly good" rating. It sometimes does odd things, but it generally is pretty good. When trying to sink the opponent, for example, it will flee to the extreme range of its weapon and fire away. Boarding is also something that's hard to do if the opposing ship isn't playing along.
I snuck in the beginnings of specialized crew members, such as a gunner, navigator, and the like. The theory is that they provide bonuses during combat, though not necessarily boarding actions.
The big graphic upgrade was the addition of flags. So far, there's only one, though the plan is to have one for each faction. There's some obvious bugs, and it seems a little silly to add it to the prototype, but it helps immensely when trying to sort out which ships are mine and which are the enemy's.
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Wisdomknight sent along a final pre-normal ma...
March 08, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Wisdomknight sent along a final pre-normal mapped version of the Pirahanadon. I'm very much hoping that we get to see a fair number of sea creatures in the campaign and will likely create some specific side quests specifically for showing off whatever content I can get my hands on. He'll be working on a dolphin next, which is a mainstay of sea adventures.
High Seas continues to go well. I hunkered down and did the math for the "move to target" script. It took awhile to figure out how to use arctan appropriately. It's scary to think that it's been twenty years since my last trig class.
After simplifying factions, it now works properly. Ships on the world map now will seek out or run away from player ships, depending on their previous actions. I finally got the spawn system working properly. Elven traders now have elven crew, patrol ships have better trained sailors, and so on.
Slowly but surely, the game is coming together and it no longer feels like a series of crazy scripting systems cobbled together. There's still some fairly major bugs that pop up and I want to continue to polish things. I'm still not sure the AI is being smart about navigation. I also want to introduce some different crew types that add special bonuses. Busy, busy . . .
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The sea creature for the day is a Pirahanadon...
March 07, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The sea creature for the day is a Pirahanadon, again by wisdomknight. He's been accepted as a team member over at DLA, though perhaps Robert would be so kind as to lend him to me from time to time. I actually encouraged wisdomknight to move in that direction, as DLA has been fairly successful in getting folks jobs, while all I can offer is empty promises of free grog and loose women.
I spent more time with High Seas, of course. The bounty system seems to work, rewarding players who simply decide to go out and sink some ships. The faction system . . . not so much. I'm still trying to figure out the cause of the problem. It may have to do with a weird process by which I adjust enemy/ally faction as well.
I also wrapped up as much of Daniel's romance as I'm going to do in this module. I have a tentative romance planned for Heather as well (assuming the player doesn't romance her). One of the things I've learned is that most players want their adventure with a dash of romance. Of course, this is all completely optional and people can choose to power through the main quest, cold hearted and alone.
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I thought I'd showcase the beginnings of some...
March 06, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I thought I'd showcase the beginnings of some of wisdomknight's work. He's volunteered to do some sea creatures and started in on this eel-like creature. This is before texturing, normal mapping, or animation, but gives a good basis for the foundation of the creature. Even better, he whipped it up in a very short period of time.
I spent some more time working on High Seas. You can theoretically sink ships and collect money from their enemies. Allies now frown on you sinking ships from friendly islands. I fixed a few bugs where you got the option to board a ship after you'd sunk it.
There's still plenty of bugs to fix and things to balance. Sail damage is currently far too big of a hassle. After a few hits, nearly any ship can outrun me. It makes testing a bit of a challenge. I also want to get some surrender code in place. The other day I killed the entire crew of the enemy ship, went to a boarding action, and it took me awhile to figure out why it instantly ended.
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Somehow I managed a bit of coding time in bet...
March 05, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
Somehow I managed a bit of coding time in between the various kid activities. When capturing a ship, it now properly follows the player's ship around, as it should be. I added a "Flee!" dialog option that lets you return to the world map if you're far away from your enemy. I finally got around to fixing the AI navigation. It now seems to make decisions about turning, though I haven't investigated carefully to make sure it's making smart choices.
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I threw in a new power supply and my computer...
March 04, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I threw in a new power supply and my computer fired right up again. That means I could work on High Seas where I left off, and found some time this morning to polish up the boarding process. The good news is that it actually works, and this latest picture is me with a captured ship in tow.
There are a few bugs yet, but I think I got the really major ones. It turns out the boarding actions had massive number of men simply because I had coded it that way. I dropped it down to a more reasonable number of fifteen, which the game engine had a much easier time with.
That's not to say I'm done with High Seas completely. There's some debugging, balancing, and polishing to do. The most serious bug remains, where the AI ship simply sails in a straight line regardless of the strategy I've chosen. I need to implement factions, better spawning, and flesh out the world map dialog. I'd like it so you can chat with other sea captains, bluff your way straight to a boarding action, persuade patrol ships to set you free, and so on.
While I was busy waiting to work on High Seas, I managed some more dialog in the second module. It was mostly romance dialog, specifically there for your companion. It's completely optional, but lets you take on the role of one of your friends, romancing one of the island girls. It was fun to write, especially the part where they can talk badly about their captain, the player.
I have the kids all weekend, so I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend on the campaign. Perhaps I can scribble down some dialog while coordinating playdough activities.
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I got the ghost ship into High Seas
March 03, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I got the ghost ship into High Seas. It's the cute and little version, which I suppose makes it hard to strike fear into the hearts of mortals. I have plans for a big version too, so that people can ooh and aah over it in all it's haunted glory.
I was a little inspired by Raz's latest work and did some preliminary fiddling with one of his other models. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to texture the whole thing, but I had a few minutes to kill and wanted to make sure my skills weren't completely rusty. It's amazing how time consuming texture work can be.
In terms of the campaign itself, I worked on dialog for the second module. My least favorite part of writing dialog is the "getting to know you" phase, where introductions must be made and the character explains their place in the world. Still, I try to throw in a few tricks to make it interesting, so we'll hope for the best.
With luck, I'm getting a new power supply off a coworker this morning, so my computer woes might be better by tonight. This weekend probably won't be terribly productive as I've got both kids to myself as my wife goes off to the beach. I'll have to satisfy myself with dreams of virtual oceans.
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I slaved away over High Seas again, putting i...
March 02, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I slaved away over High Seas again, putting in the boarding code and the start of a bounty system for sinking enemy ships. Of course, when I went home to test it, it ended up spawning in a tremendous number of crew, all of whom wanted to see my poor little PC dead. Fortunately my test character was able to mop the floor with them, being level 13 and all.
The big shock came this morning when I went to turn on my main computer and nothing happened. After a bit of fiddling, I decided the problem was with the power supply, so I've got to order one today. Deciding that fate was conspiring against me, I switched over to working on Raz's ghost ship model. The import flipped some of the normals over, so I carefully flipped them back. I then did some serious polygon reduction so that it wouldn't crash NWN and mostly got it into the prototype. I have some more fiddling to do, but hopefully it'll get in the game shortly.
In the meantime, I'm thinking of switching to other things while a power supply gets to me. A new team member has proposed some coding optimizations that I'd like to look at. There's dialog in the second module I need to update. I'd like to fiddle more with the ghost ship. No rest for the weary.
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Raz finished up the texture for the ghost shi...
March 01, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Raz finished up the texture for the ghost ship, which is pretty amazing looking. I need to do some fiddling on my end to get it in the prototype, but can't wait to see it in combat. He's doing a whaling boat next, having finished up the UV map this morning. I think he's developed quite the talent for shipmaking over this last year.
I've been working on High Seas, as usual. Crew damage is in. Factions are in. You now have a captain's log that tracks your exploits. I fixed a number of bugs, such as getting a free shot with your weapons. When going to the world map, it now spawns an appropriate number of ships, rather than an endless horde that slowly takes over the ocean. I still have a bad AI navigation bug that I've been diligently ignoring. It's actually handy to have the ships move in a straight line while I do horrible things to it in the name of testing. If it tried to run away, I might have to actually plan my attack.
Today is all about setting up the boarding action. I'm reviewing ship deck tilesets and think I have a single option rather than building my own. Heed's Ship decks are okay, a bit abstract, but something that should function fine for a prototype. For the NWN2 version, I'm hoping we can make something a bit more flashy, perhaps incorporating the ship models we're putting together.
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About Me
I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000.
In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
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