After my few months hiatus to allow me the time to deal with moving
home and settling in, I can now report that I have now managed to pick
up the NWN2 toolset for the first time in months to allow me to return
to building module two of the Althéa Campaign! I must confess that
finding my feet again was difficult - not so much on how to work with
the toolset, but how to get back into the story. Read on to hear of my
return to the build ...
Where To Begin?
The hardest part for me to do, after simply loading the campaign, was to remind myself exactly where I could jump back in. As I have stated in the past, returning to a build after leaving it for some time is difficult, and after a life-changing event like I experienced, this has been even more difficult. So, without a doubt, this first session back has been slow and involved more to do with reminding myself of the various plot lines as much as anything else.
However, here are some tips I can offer other builders that may be helpful, as they helped me: If you have kept track of plot lines via the journal, then open that and start to read over those quests and plot lines that will help to give the overall feel for the various plots and design. Secondly, hopefully you will have some paper notes to refer to as well (like I have) and browsing over those at the same time will start to help refamiliarise you with the module again.
A final tip that I found very useful is to load up one of the latest test saves and jump straight into simply playing the game from where you were last working. After a few conversations or running around the latest area, you start to notice aspects of the game that need some work, and before you know it, you are tinkering with the first minor aspects of the module, which gradually unravel and lead you into the code and conversations that need addressing.
What Did I End Up Working On?
Let me confess that upon initial return I did not follow my own tips above and thought that just jumping into a smaller area to start again would suffice. Simply put, this did not work! I found myself at a loose end not knowing at what stage the player was supposed to be, and how the area fitted into the overall story arc. However, after I applied those steps above, I found myself wandering back to an area of the mega-dungeon I had started work on a few months back.
Yet, I did not jump into area design (as I first thought I would do), but went to finish off a script I traced I had been working on, and to fixing other sections of code that I discovered had some conflicting tokens. By the time I started addressing this area of the module, I began to find my pace again, and although still stilted initially, it became easier as I slowly started to become familiar with the various aspects of the system I had designed for the mega-dungeon.
Small Steps
It's the first small steps I have taken in a while, but I hope as the days go on, and my wife and I become more settled in our new home, that I may be able to achieve a better pace, where I can start to finish off various areas and move ever closer to making the second module release a possibility. Even in the small sections I did manage, I was reminded how much I am looking forward to this module's release. I hope it will be better than my first, simply because my skills are better than when I first started. Furthermore, I am excited about some of the new mechanics I have set out for it.
Anyway, the toolset has now been
re-opened ... I have started to find my way around the module again ...
and I hope that all being well, more progress will now begin to take
place. And for those that like a screenshot, here is one from the area
and an object I was working on today ...
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| A Strange Rotating Black Crystal! |
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