Episode 54: Adventuring Forth!

Writing of module two continues alongside module one MP testing. I have covered quite a few various aspects over the last few weeks, from fixing of code to writing new material. It's been a mixed bag, which has helped move the overall project forward. Read on ...

General Improvements

While writing new material, readers of this blog will recall I have also been play-testing the MP environment. This is when I discovered area load times needed addressing, and some conversations required fixing. All these have now been done for both module one and two, and although not all areas are completed with the second module, I now have a target load time to work to. Furthermore, all conversations for the campaign now start as if from a SP environment and move to a MP conversation only as required; so no more interruptions for players in a MP environment unless expected.

Combat in a MP environment has also undergone some heavy testing, especially the TB-Combat system, which has been greatly improved to ensure queued actions are  no longer cleared on any broadcast commands. A few timings for combat starting shortly after arriving in an area have also been improved to avoid leaving a player in a black screen if using the auto-pause option.

The map fast-travel system has also had its overall speed capabilities quadrupled to allow me to ensure encumbered PCs can keep up with any doubled run rates of unencumbered ones. I did notice one or two side-effects of this system, which I am currently in the process of addressing. It seems any cutscene environment does not recognise the movement rate factor function, which means a PC in a cutscene can move very fast as a consequence. I am currently weighing up the pros and cons of the system with respect to this and subject to play testing may tweak the system some more prior release.

Once all the testing is done, module one v1.50E will be uploaded.

Module Two Specific

A side quest I started on a few weeks back took a slight turn in direction in the last few days, leading me to not only introduce a new monster, but another area too! Thankfully, I was able to find a version of the creature I had in mind on the Vault (not exactly as I first imagined, but it works well with the way the side-quest will work out now), and set about using a new crypt tileset to design the area I had in mind. Again, sorry about not going into spoiler details, but suffice to say, this is my current focus.

Previous to working on this area, I had continued to work on conversations for NPCs of a city the heroes will find themselves in, including eventual conversational links to the above side-quest. As I have stated in an earlier blog post, many of the way these side-quests work now is that they will (hopefully) appear as seamless objectives to cover as the players progress the main quest. It means conversations are more complicated to put together, especially when I am trying to avoid duplicated or superfluous conversation nodes, and am catering for a MP environment.

The Random Factor

Much of my latest coding (apart from addressing minor fixes in the campign files as a whole), is to try to introduce more random factors in a quest. I find this side of coding and gaming interesting for me not only as a builder, but as a player too. The kind of thing I mean is to introduce some quest elements that may slightly differ with each gameplay so even the builder does not know the answer, and makes it more interesting for me if I ever wanted to play my own module. I believe the elements I have already included in my first module are what encourage my wife to replay the module the many times she has done so already. Even the above quest has this kind of random element added to it ... or will have by the time it's finished.

The Murder Mystery

Much to my wife's delight, and hopefully to readers of this blog too, I have also included another murder mystery side quest that I started on a few weeks back. It is an extremely complicated piece of writing to get right, however, and so I am taking my time with it to ensure logical flow to be correct whichever way the player approaches the quest. This week's screenshot is with respect to that side-quest.

The bottom line is, I am continuing to write across a number of side-quests, and coding random elements in them to encourage replay.

The Captain Investigates A Murder Scene

Episode 53: Streamlining Gameplay

I have been slowly picking up the the pace again for module two as I rewrite some old scripts and conversations that were originally found in module one. I admit that this is not completely new material, in that the concepts are from the first module, but these are, however, new renditions of aspects of play that I hope will work better for players moving forward.For more information on what I am talking about, and other news, read on ...

The Sepia Images

I mentioned a few months back that I am starting to introduce the "sepia" image artwork into my modules as a DM information point, or, as I have now, a gaming aspect. Two such gameplay aspects that have now received this treatment (ignoring the informative area load screens), are the "Repair Bench" and the "Bookcase". Previously, players had to interact through some long-winded conversations and make some potentially confusing choices. Now, with the new artwork to support the actions taking place, I hope the player will be able to more easily accomplish what they are trying to do.

A) The Repair Bench

In the Althéa Campaign, some weapons are called "dead" weapons (as opposed to "living" ones), and can degrade over time. However, a PC with the correct skills can repair their weapons at one of these benches either for themselves or other party members. The beauty of the new interface is that managing this task is made much simpler. The moment a valid weapon is placed on the bench, the player is presented the new interface and options are simple. A repaired weapon in a matter of only a few clicks and a little cost in gold.

B) The Bookcase

Another gaming aspect to see a big improvement with ease of play is the bookcase. In the Althéa Campaign, a bookcase can often hide a valuable piece of written text for those who know what to look for. In the previous method to play this, a player had to switch between their PCs trying to work out which had the best chance of finding the text. Now, the player simply clicks through the shorter conversation lines and allows the game to put forward the PC most likely to find the treasure.

The bottom line is, these two conversations have been replaced with the new sepia image types, an immediate indication to the player on what to expect in play. Take a look at the two images I am going to use for these two gaming aspects below. Hopefully, as I add more gaming aspects, I will continue to apply this approach to any other gaming aspects where this will work. Furthermore, these new images and aspects of gameplay will be made backward focussed with v1.50E of module one too!

The Repair Bench Sepia Image Upon Usage

The Bookcase Sepia Image Upon Usage

Area Redesigns

As in previous weeks, I have continued to spend some time redesigning areas to work better with multi-player gaming. With my latest understanding of area load times, I have been able to reduce many of the loading times to around 10-20 seconds for module one, with only around 3-4 ranging up to a minute. Module two is probably the hardest for me to streamline, as it has some larger, more involved areas that cannot be broken down without losing the atmosphere and strengths their current designs use. However, even these I have reduced (when applying the latest knowledge), and I am hoping that the largest will not be any more than 60 seconds, much like the largest areas in module one. Furthermore, these areas are designed in such a way that when you are within them, there is a lot to do anyway. A reminder: these load times only affect MP games.

On the back of streamlining these load times, I also added a load screen timer to keep the players informed on the time remaining until loaded. It sits just below the hint comment and keeps the players updated with every second remaining, helping to alleviate the "what's happening" feeling. Check out the screenshot below .... This is from one of the largest load time areas and the seconds colour changes as it gets closer to finishing.

The New Style Load screen v1.50E With MP Area Load Timer

Module One v1.50E News

Multi-player testing has helped me find a number of minor issues with some areas of the code. They are mostly (if not all) "minor", but are a significant number to make a difference. And while quite a few are MP related only, some also address SP issues, such as a trigger not clearing down if a player approaches an area from a certain direction. It keeps forcing a conversation, which while not game-breaking is frustrating. Also, I have spent a lot of time reworking the conversations, including adding lip-flappers and animations. I had to rework them for the SP/MP shift anyway, and while I was at it, I fixed a number of typos and some logical flow. All this is being tested before the next release. As another example of a minor fix, I noticed an item in inventory would not be "compared" with a shop item if it had not yet been looked at itself. It was an extremely rare event, but did happen to me as I had equipped a sling and was now trying to compare at a store. Now, a warning comes in to say click on the shop item again and it updates. As far as any release date for this, it all depends upon how well the MP testing proceeds .. and then some more SP testing. Hopefully, I will have some more information in my next blog.

Module Two Specific

As far as module two specifically, I have continued to work on some large areas (on the back of the area redesigns), where some of the later quests take place. My next step is to redress all the module two conversations that require the SP/MP fix. I had hoped to have this done by now, but some of these conversations are very large (due to the number of quest variations) and I need to be at my most focussed when doing them. Hopefully, now I have experienced doing them for module one (which as only two left to do - and need doing prior v1.50E release), I will be more confident to manage the larger conversations of module two. I have also seen a couple of new puzzle designs that I like the look of, and am toying with including. However, they will involve XML coding, and I have to be in the right frame of mind for that too!