Episode 25: Nice New Gameplay!

Writing continues on module two at a better rate than previous weeks as v1.12E of The Scroll has proven to be the most stable release of the campaign to date. (UPDATE: As of 03/03/20, we are now on v1.18E) As this version has continued to be fault free in my wife's own latest play through (since updating), it has meant I have not been diverted from writing new material to sort out any further issues. With nearly 15 hours under her belt of fault free play, then unless she discovers anything else, v1.12E v1.18E may well be the final release of the campaign until module two is done. Talking of module two ... Read on ...

BACKGROUND ROLE-PLAY

So what's new? Well, it's hard to talk about anything too specific again, as much of the latest material is just a continuation of simply writing the whole thing! This includes continuing conversations, journal entries, scripts, etc. However, more specifically, I can say that I am starting to find an efficient way to include more background conversation nodes for players who do end up choosing to role-play a PC background. E.g. Bully or Lady's Man, etc.

I have even altered the script now to allow a Main PC (who are the only PCs that can have such backgrounds) to interject with their background node option, even if the player had started the conversation with a companion. Knowing the conversation node options will always be an option to the player has encouraged me to make the best use of them where possible, and it has been fun doing so.  

UPDATE: As these backgrounds are simply added feats, then (in theory) any PC could have a background, including companions. Therefore, I have reverted to the PC speaking as the PC applying their background comment, with a caveat that if no background has been set (either by the builder as a feat on the companion or as a feat applied as a background trait by the player when creating a PC), then if the Main PC has one set, then that will be offered if there is none other available.

JOURNAL NOTE SYSTEM

Another aspect of play that I have been having fun making more use of since I have it working now, is the ability to add additional notes to the player's journal. This is in addition to the normal journal quest entries, and are added alongside the notes a player can also add to the journal note section. Just like any player added note, they can be deleted by the player at any time, but are added as useful bits of information that help highlight those aspects that may be important when it comes to playing. For example, those players playing module one already may have noticed a note is added if and when a PC learns how to manage weapon repairs at a Repair Bench. This is one of the few notes that module one adds, but module two will make much better usage of this game mechanic to highlight not just game mechanic notes, but possible plot notes too.

NEW AREA MUSIC

I am also playing around with some new music files that I found, which I have managed to convert and add to areas. My test addition worked, and it currently sits as the music for an area I am currently working on. It's a minor new addition, but I hope, along with those I mention above, will be some of those differences that will benefit the next module.

THE MEGA MECHANICS

If you may recall, I have mentioned in the past that there will (also) be a mega-dungeon design in module two, which I hope will be well received. I have taken time and effort to develop a system of new mechanics that complements the overall design of the mega-dungeon to give a completely new experience to sit alongside the normal NWN2 gameplay. i.e. In much the same way players can currently experience new GUIs for puzzles and gameplay in the first module, the new GUI arrangements for module two I believe offer a whole new variety of gameplay to experience!

This week I have also been scripting aspects of this new gaming design to ensure it runs as smoothly and intuitively as possible. One thing I learned during this time is that you cannot get the gold piece value of ammo (bullets, arrows and bolts) like you can with other items. This meant I had to improvise a new way of doing so, which while quite boring to do, does mean I now have the system in place ready to work with some more code. All in all, this whole side of the gaming mechanics is gradually coming together ... right alongside the additional Readable Books I have written to complement such systems in the game and to give the player greater depth to the story. I have found the writing quite rewarding as I have brought the overall campaign story arc together.

That's all for now, as there's not much more I can say without giving spoilers ... Dare I say, I was even reluctant to use this week's screenshot in case it spoiled anything .. but I decided I was just being over cautious, so here it is ....

We Have Found A Tomb!

Episode 24: Continued Development.

I write with mixed feelings today, as I have just discovered I introduced a module one game breaking bug back in v1.06E (27th December 2019), which I only just discovered while testing something else today. It is so frustrating when something like this happens, especially when I am doing so little with scripts that may affect that module now. (This has now been fixed in the latest version available.) On a more positive note, I have been making reasonable progress on module two of the campaign, including making another home-brew placeable that the PCs will discover. (Included as this week's screen shot, as it is only a minor spoiler at most.) Read on ...

SCRIPTS LOCKDOWN

From today, I am forcing myself to make sure I add another line of code to critical scripts to ensure I do not break existing code that module one relies upon. This should, in theory, mean there should be no further "breaking" of module one. I know I have said this kind of thing before, but sometimes I thought the change I was making was insignificant. How wrong I can be! As a lesson learned, adding any new code to existing scripts will now be properly segregated from module one.

AREA DEVELOPMENT

Much of the last fortnight has been to do with continued area building for the module two, especially for those areas related to the main quest. It was during this time when I discovered an issue with "rope" in the game. Rope is used for some situations and so has extra associated scripts. However, it also has an "item placeable" object associated with it, which means a new placeable is created when it is dropped. The problem was, however, is that once dropped, I could no longer pick it up. This led me to a fix for v1.10E. When I went to test the rope fix in module one, that is when I discovered the On Area Enter issue ... which led to the essential update I speak of in the introduction.

It was during this time that I also discovered playing more than one sound at the same time could potentially cause an issue by only playing one of the sounds. This was also fixed in the latest campaign release.

NEW PLACEABLE BOARD

During my area building, I was reminded of some games that show a profile map of an environment, where the different vertical levels of said environment are shown in relationship to one another. I think of games System Shock 2 and more lately, Prey. As the layout of the environment I am currently working on is a bit different to the standard "one level directly on top of another", I thought I would also provide a map showing the unusual vertical layout for the player.

My first attempt was to use the "painting" model, which I am familiar with already. However, the model was too small to present the picture I had prepared. Therefore, I decided to look for another existing model that was bigger to do the job. I eventually opted for the arcane chalk board, but transferring my image to that turned out to be more tricky than I thought it would be.

On my first attempt, the image wrapped around so that it did not show correctly. Eventually, I was able to see that the original image did the same, and that if I wanted to present an image unwrapped, then it needed some alterations, which finally worked after some experimentation. However, this led to a second issue ... the text was mirrored and on the wrong side. Thankfully, simply inverting all the images related to the arcane board and the text in my own image sorted the issue. The screen shot of the final result is this weeks screen shot.

PC BACKGROUND CONVERSATION NODES

I also worked on more conversations, and was reminded how each main PC in a game could potentially come with a character background feat/trait. For example, you have the bully, or the lady's man, etc. Not every player may select one, but for those that did, I thought it would be good to try to include some conversation options that helped to reflect their PC background choice. These conversation options would sit alongside any others that the conversation required and I hope would add flavour and encourage the player to play their role-play their PC character background role more. I ended up having to write a new script for the conversation node checks, and discovered the farmer trait to be incorrectly present in the official nwscript file. It has been fixed with my own script that simply uses basic number integers.

A Profile Map of the Citadel