Episode 90: The Antagonists!

I decided to change focus from the area I was working on, Bloodstone College, and set my sights on trying to finish some other areas of Stage Two of the second module, Predestinated Days. This was done so that I might be in a position to allow testers to test the majority of this second stage not too far in the distant future. It involved dealing with some sinister bad guys! Read on to find out how things turned out with these antagonists...

Alpha Testing Update

This blog has come a week or two early this time around, and so the sixth alpha testing of the second stage has not quite been completed. All but one area has been finished, but what has been tested has proven pretty solid. That said, there were still a couple of conversations and journal entries that needed logic fixing, but this is because it was along a plot path that current testing had not tried until now. The two points in question have around eight potential outcomes, which is a lot to consider when each outcome can affect other areas of the game too. In fact, this leads me nicely to my next topic...

Story Making

Regular readers will likely recall that I am keen to build a campaign where player decisions matter. To the extent that not only is the player relatively free to find their own path through the campaign, but that each step they take can also have an impact on the outcome of the story they are effectively making. So, one player may visit one area one way before another player, and the two players experience different outcomes. Of course, this kind of design also makes for re-playability, and it is something that I have tried to expand a little more on in the second module from what I did in the first.

Such plot devices include the alignment selection of the heroes, the order of places visited, the decisions made at certain times and events, as well as differences in skills and abilities, and background options taken within conversations, of course. So the end result is that one party approaching by one means will have a totally different outcome compared to another party who have taken a different path and made other decisions. The only "downside" is that each new direction taken requires careful handling of the variables that manage such player decisions, and this is what is being tested to date. The end result, I hope, is that no matter which path you take, it will be clear of issues for you when your decisions are made.

Whatever way you end up playing, you can rest assured that it is quite possible that by the time you finish this campaign, there will likely be a number of differences to your adventure compared to a fellow player of The Scroll. Part of the enjoyment I have is watching my wife as she play tests it, and see how she makes her decisions in each time she tests it. It encourages me to keep moving this project forward, as does any feedback I receive.

The Bad Guys!

I just wanted to touch upon another area of the campaign design, that of trying to encourage an emotional involvement from the player, which, if achieved, I believe makes a game both more enjoyable and memorable. Now, as the campaign world opens up with the second module, I am able to call upon a larger scope of characters that I can now use to confront the heroes. 

For the first module, (where the heroes were stuck in their home village), I was able to introduce enemies from afar, in such a way that allowed a clear distinction between who they could perceive as the "good guys" and the "bad guys". That said, I was also able to introduce a couple of other antagonists that proved to be obstacles to the heroes, in the form of local village political types and those with personal grievances. However, with the second module, the world opens up... and small village squabbles give way to city threats from their most wanted men and women, as well as larger world scale politics and peace threatening organisations. If you thought the village life was difficult, life outside the village and in the cities of the surrounding lands is much worse, simply because it is higher up the echelons of perceived power!

This is what the heroes of New Edgeton village are heading towards at the start of the second module. Having left the sleepy village as the local heroes, the PCs will now come up against more notorious characters, those who know how to get power, and how to keep hold of it. The heroes have moved from a society of local problems and thugs, and are now heading towards political turmoil controlled by mighty powers with sinister plans... as well as their own breed of thugs. Then again, where would the work be for the heroes, if it wasn't for these nasty antagonists!

Stage Two Development

As I say in my intro, I parked finishing the Bloodstone College scenario for now, to allow me to work on some of the other areas of this second stage - and, thankfully, to much progress! You see, Bloodstone College is a complicated undertaking, which required some area building, which I am always slow with. So, when I switched to working on some conversations and cutscenes for some area encounters that are already completed, I was able to just stick to the main plot writing and allow my preferred building objectives to flow.

In the process, I was able to establish two new potential companions that can be encountered, as well as write the quests surrounding their own backgrounds. New details started to flow for me, and it was good to be able to put together the various cutscenes and outcomes that can come depending upon the player's actions for their party. Put plainly, I was able to do a reasonable amount of material this last few weeks after suspending work on the Bloodstone College scenario. Although, I hasten to add that I have finished the section I had been working on for that scenario, and that when I go back, it will be easier to complete. I just wanted to work on something different and which also had an impact on the Bloodstone College scenario anyway. The quest associations can be quite complicated to work through, and so switching back and forth is a good practice for me to build a cohesive outcome for the player.

There were two incidents I'll mention here, for the record: First, I remind myself that if I encounter two instances of a creature in my testing, it means I likely have two instances of the object with the same tag in the world and not one, as I first thought. Secondly, when the toolset points to not using a certain instance of a placeable object in the module (e.g. Runestone placeable object), then do not use it. When I inadvertently did so,  it caused my area to crash on a save, deleting the .GIT file which meant the area was wiped! Thankfully, I had a back-up from the night before, but it was still 2-3 hours to rebuild it.

Campaign Update

The latest campaign build, v1.21, was also released today. It is released as a "Strongly Recommended" as it also fixes the possibility of a player not reading a book or a scroll that has the potential of updating a journal entry. This would break the journal logical flow and may cause an undesirable outcome. That said, it is rare and unlikely to happen... but you never know. (It did happen to a tester.)

I also fixed a MP issue of an inventory item not showing its description when clicked upon. This is one of those frustrating issues that only happens in a MP game due to a timing issue where MP games requires a fraction of a second more to manage some events. I aim to have my wife test the campaign in a MP setup (albeit with just her controlling the party), but I hope that will help reveal any further issues for MP moving forward.

There has also been a fix to Holy Books, in that they now show the correct god's name. It's mostly a cosmetic fix, but I also fixed the drop object for these and Spell Books, which could sometimes break if not using the correct item.

Familiars and companions have also had some minor fixes,  and the missing "weasel" familiar has been fixed. It was caused by a loop terminating too soon! I also fixed temporary hit-points from being lost when a beetle was switched out.

There were a couple of other minor fixes, such as a description for the module, which was purely cosmetic, and I decided to restrain summons to the same durations as the NWN2 original, simply to redress some balancing. As a result, this months update also requires the TLK to be replaced, which comes with the campaign download as usual.

A Screenshot From Stage One.

A Screenshot From Stage Two.