Choose Your Language

Friday 5 June 2009

A Beginning ... (Part Two)

I feel like I am back to the point I was when I wrote A Beginning ... last March. Once again I have just finished doing some decorating this week and feel like I can finally get back to the module ... and again, at the point of actually writing the plot! To this end, I have made a design decision to stop working on other ideas (i.e. Holy Books) and get back to the side-quests themselves. After all, it's all well and good having an "interactive" world, but no good if there is not much to actually do in it in the way of a story. And considering the results of the poll are starting to shift in the direction of "action" over "reading", then I thought I would go with the flow. ;) Don't worry, I intend to keep the conversations and reading material in place, but simply decided to start coding for the quests for now rather than any more books that can be found.

Basically, the campaign journal and conversations are starting to get more attention, and I have currently picked out one path that the player will be playing at the start of the game that helps determine the background to which they approach the module (which is also why the plot progress has increased to 3%). As regular readers may recall, the player has a choice of backgrounds at the start of the game: Do they start as if familiar with the story so far (if they played Soul Shaker) or are they starting completely afresh? Each path requires careful attention in the early conversations to ensure the player is made familiar with the story without implying the wrong background. Hopefully, once the start of the game has been done, the conversation paths should get a little easier as the choice of path becomes less intrusive to the new plot.

The Current Poll

The poll still has 17 days to run and I am still interested in any outstanding results and comments. The "action" choice currently leads roughly 58% to 42% (in one translation), and even this result has helped me to reconsider not spending too much time on creating "books" that take quite some time to do if they are not going to serve much purpose in game. I am trying to be careful what I say here, because I do not want to suggest that those who like books will be disappointed, because I hope they won't be. I have simply decided that I will concentrate on placing reading material that may be of benefit to everyone rather than one or two players, and will instead be designed to appeal in other ways.

Real Life Interaction

On a final note, I have finished the code that handles "bashing" of doors when there are witnesses around. Witnesses can be those NPCs in earshot as well as visual range. Of course, if players have the ability to cast silence on the area and are out of sight of witnesses, then they can still bash the door. :) Some doors bashed this way will move the party one point towards chaotic, and so those who prefer to stay within the law will prefer to find alternative ways to get past a door, even if it is as simple as getting permission. ;)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oops! I didn't know there was a previous module in NWN. And I can't play it because I don't have HotU. But good to know you're making progress.

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Anon,

Yes, I was very graciously awarded a Golden Dragon award for Debut Author for that one. :)

My follow up, "Better The Demon" is set in a more traditional D&D style with some of the same gaming elements from Soul Shaker.

I hope BTD will appeal to more playing styles as it will play more like a D&D game rather than be affected by the strange alien environment that some people may not have liked in Soul Shaker.

At the same time, I will add some elements to BTD that will appeal to those players who also liked the difference SS offered. :)

Lance.

Anonymous said...

Hey, that bashing door system seems interesting. Have you considered releasing it?--*puppy eyes*

In any case, glad to hear you're working on the mod again. Side projects are almost too fun(I have a penchant for visual effect making).


Also, I voted 'other' in the poll. Then again, I'm kinda weird--I tend to think that a game built with the NWN(2) engine should have a "real" feel to it, supported throughy dialogue, and that the combat ought to be very interesting. I can enjoy both sorts, and think they should work together.

Cheers,
-Chaos Wielder

Anonymous said...

Hi Lance Botelle,

I would like to make you know that your work look amazing!!
I hope to see this module released some day but take your time. I know it will be wonderfull! Thanks sooooooooooo much for all this :)

Sorry for my bad english but I'm not native :(

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Chaos Wielder,

The "bashing door" system is currently a simple one script attached to a door's On Melee Attacked hook. :) It is in its early stages, but may not alter much more than it already is, as I like to keep things simple. ;)

I would have shown it as a script in my blog, but it contains a couple of custom functions, but here is the basic running of it if you like. (Obviously, you can take what you like after it is released.)

On Attacked:

1) Find nearest living creature that is not a member of the party. (The witness!)

2) Is witness within 20 meters? (The distance I considered would draw attention or could be heard.)

3) If the witness is within 20 meters and the basher is not silenced, then simply prevent the basher from their attack of the door with a message saying there are witnesses nearby who would prevent such actions.

There are a few points to note here:

1) The plot flag must be set on the door with each attack if the witness is available and delay remove after 6 seconds.

2) I use a custom function to ensure the witness is not a member of the party in any way.

3) I use a custom function to add one point of chaos to every party member alignment when bashing the door for the first time only.

That's all there currently is to it. I may need to add some extra code for different conditions, but as the script is only attached to doors that might require "witness protection", then I do not need to do many, if any.

0 ----- 0

Hi Anon,

Thank you for your kind words. :)

I understood your English OK, and I am glad you are able to understand my blog OK. :)

I hope this module will give you many hours of pleasure when I finally finish it. Be sure to add comments to help me develop it as time goes by.

Thanks again for commenting.

Lance.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the explanation on the script! and for all the other good work! ;-)

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Nacaal,

Thanks for the compliment. :)

I hope you enjoy any more work I am able to release over time.

Lance.