I cannot believe almost another month has passed since I last posted. I must be caught in some kind of time vortex, sucking life faster than I realise ... and talking about sucking life, (please forgive my awful textual segue), I now bring you the latest news for the campaign, which includes vampires! Read on...
VAMPIRES!
First mentioned a year ago, in this post, I recently revisited a vampire quest I am working on ... a nightmare side attraction for those that hate these undead in particular. Like all the quests designed for the next module, Predestinated Days, (the second module of The Scroll for the Althéa Campaign), I have tried to make this undead adventure more involved than the player may have initially thought it was going to be. By this, I mean including more steps to the quest as a whole, rather than a simple discovery and resolve. i.e. A backstory with repercussions that have affected the world environment beyond the player's normal expectations. Whether I pull this off or not remains to be seen. At the very least, I hope it will be one of those quests that stands out according to its own story and merit.
COFFIN SEPIA
I have also updated the original basic GUI regarding the vampire coffin information to be replaced by a new sepia style conversation. (See screenshot below.) As I have reported in the past, I have added a number of sepia style conversations that may serve to act as a means of interaction with the environment in a more "pen and paper" style interaction. The vampire coffin is the latest addition. Results can range from a peaceful backing off, an instant slaying, or a dreaded encounter!
LOOK THIS WAY PLEASE
I recently had a long struggle when trying to use a function, SetFacingPoint, to make party members face a certain way during a conversation. It turned out that any member that is "bumped" into as the conversation starts can fail to turn to face a direction when this function is called. I finally resolved the issue by ensuring another facing function was called just prior the line I needed to make the members face a direction. Here are the lines in the order required for it to work ... NOTE: The home brew NowFace function is the one that calls the SetFacingPoint function, and oNearestWP is the object to face. I post it here to help others and to remind myself should I forget.
// MUST USE SETFACING TO "UNLOCK" STUCK PCS BEFORE USING A DELAYED FACE TARGETMOVING FORWARD
DelayCommand(fDelay, AssignCommand(oFM, ClearAllActions(TRUE)));
DelayCommand(fDelay, AssignCommand(oFM, SetFacing(GetFacing(oNearestWP)+ iALLFACTIONCORRECTION, FALSE)));
DelayCommand(fDelay+0.1, AssignCommand(oFM, NowFace(oFM, vTarget)));
I cannot deny that sometimes there feels like a lot left still to do. Arguably, this module should, perhaps, have been broken down into two or more, but the structure of the quests and their execution makes doing so extremely difficult. That is, the events of the story at this stage of the campaign require the diversity of quests and their interaction with one another to give the module the depth I am seeking to achieve.
I believe it is working out as I hoped, however, because while I feel almost overwhelmed with what remains to be done, I also reflect upon what I can only call the "fullness" of the experience I feel the module, I hope, will deliver. Considering there are only a handful of key quests compared to (perhaps) many modules available, the overall depth of the module still feels satisfying to me.
This is because I am including a world map with various places to travel between and explore. Some places will not be available until a player uncovers certain paths, but even this varies according to player decisions. However, from these various world map places, areas uncover to reveal further details and plot developments. Finally, these areas break down into further events and adventures, each with unique characters and various special qualities to help them feel new. I know I could sound like I am just explaining the game in general, but I hope I have included enough new game-play mechanics, improved conversations styles, and general control improvements that will make the whole experience an exciting one.
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| A Vampire Coffin! |
