Deities & Holy Books

I have been involved with some decorating this week, which has tired me out somewhat and caused me to have little to do with the toolset. However, the little I have done has had me involved with looking again at the deities and creation of their Holy Books for my world. This was one of those areas I was not going to go into so much detail, but as the results of the current poll (at the moment) suggest around 50% quite like reading and background, then I thought adding a little more depth about the deities in the form of Holy Books might be worthwhile. Furthermore, as these are the same books that clerics use to study for their prayers, then players can determine for themselves just how much they want to pay attention to them.

(POLL: 24 days to go. Please keep your votes and comments coming!)

I have also added a new dimension to the current method of displaying pictures in my Readable Books by making the background texture have pictures already embedded, which means players will be able to see the deity icons inside the books. The picture below shows what I mean, although I have not added any text beyond the god name at this stage. I have also been editing the nwn2_deities.2da to ensure only the correct gods and/or alignment choices are available that match my world's ethos. For instance, clerics must follow a path of good or evil. Only non-clerics (or druids in particular) can choose one of the neutral aligned deities available.

You may also see in the picture above that a player can have their PC start to follow the faith of a new book they find. Taking up a faith (or possibly changing in rare circumstances) means more to a cleric than any other class and is governed by their alignment and so players of clerics should make sure they find a faith and stick to it if they want to keep their cleric's prayers being answered. However, I am also considering what following a certain faith means to classes other than clerics. And this is where you, the reader, can have some input if you like: If you can think of any benefits that a PC could have when following a faith, then let me know. It cannot be anything too extravagant, but something that may add a small benefit of some kind that would make you want to consider taking up a faith. Please comment.

Hey You!

I have also been working more on some of the Real Life responses that will come in the game. Regular readers will know that this system is my attempt to try to make the world feel as though a PCs actions bring about real responses from surrounding NPCs. Not every action is easily coded for, but my latest idea was to ensure PCs cannot simply bash down doors if other NPCs are nearby and act as witnesses to the PCs chaotic actions. And yes, bashing down a door does move a PC 1 point towards chaotic. :) Like trying to open a chest without permission of the owner, the PC will now have to consider the responses of nearby locals before they simply try to knock down the door to "Ye Old Curiosity Shoppe of Magick". Of course, if there are no witnesses nearby that can see or hear the PC's actions, then they can continue to bash away at the door to their heart's content.

My wife goes back to work next week and I should be able to get back to more coding then, and hopefully back to some of the conversations of NPCs that I have been trying to get down for the last month or so. ;)