Episode 107: Join Me In A Game! (MP Updated)

Before I get into the main blog this month, I wanted to quickly recognise that in this 100th blog post, I had hoped to be nearing completion by the middle of this month. Well, although I don't think I will hit that estimated target, I do think I have come that much closer over the last month. Furthermore, while I cannot yet post "The End is in Sight" post, I think I can say that I am about to reach the crest of the hill and start the final stages. Other than this, I have also something more to report in general, especially for a MP gamer, who like to play with a friend or two. Read on to find out more...

Proper Co-op MP Testing 

To begin this months post, I want to tell you that I managed to setup my wife's laptop with a third copy of NWN2, so that she is now able to play two Main PCs (as if two players) from two different computers to properly test the Co-op MP operation (gameplay) of this campaign. This now provides a significant improvement for testing a co-op environment. All such previous co-op testing was being done more intermittently and usually when I was able to use my wife's computer when she was not.

There was some other basic MP testing previously, but only where my wife would play as the only connected client and there were no other players present. While this did help to spot many potential MP code issues, it could not, of course, represent a true MP environment where the scripts could be checked when other players were also present. This latest change means that moving forward co-op testing should be more straightforward and directly accessible than it has ever been before.

Already with this latest setup, my wife and I were able to pinpoint a few MP issues. Some were to do with another client connection, another with item handling between clients, and even another to do with the amount of gold a client would receive on a gold find! These have all been quickly addressed and included in the latest v1.43 release. Furthermore, now that my wife has played a significant section of the first module in this setup, I am hoping that all such MP errors will have been squashed now. However, if any more show up between now and when the module is fully played, I will update as required.

There were a couple of minor issues that I also addressed that would affect the SP game as well, such as a journal entry not closing or some quality of play adjustments. However, all in all, the first module is stable and makes a good foundation for moving onto the second module, Predestinated Days. Speaking of which...

So Where Am I Up To Now?

In short, I had a relatively good month last month and managed to finish a number of aspects that needed doing, including all the final areas main designs, and a few conversations. The conversations I have not yet finished, I have placed templates ready to complete.

I did a lot of pre-design work, which was basically copying the areas involved into an art package to make notes of what was happening where and how the story could unfold and the PCs  develop within the areas involved. With these "maps" and notes added, I was then able to start managing the quests, conversations and mechanics involved... which is probably one of the more complex stages of this second module. I had wanted to show all these area maps to you in images, but that would have clearly been a massive spoiler, and so you will just have to wait until they are likely to appear in a walk-through if I ever get to that stage.

Today, I will mark the module as being 90% complete, but bear in mind that 95% means complete all except Alpha testing. Therefore, when you see me report 95% complete, we are only waiting for the alpha testers to complete their game before I open up to any potential beta testers for very final testing. If, by the way, being a beta tester interests you, then let me know in this forum post. If I can keep at my current rate of building, I am hoping that next month's blog post will be the one that reports the end being in sight. However, I also just remembered that I also have to finish off some load-screen images, and so that also has to be considered in the timescale. All in all though, I am very excited about reaching this point, as it feels like a significant step for me.

Finally, I just want to leave you with a couple of screenshots from areas I have been working on, which I hope do not give away too much detail. Until next month, please keep me updated with any ideas, requests or questions you may have and I hope to have some exciting news for you then.

Strange Words From An Even Stranger Situation!

I need to Get Across There!

Episode 106: Avoiding The Gaps!

I was having a discussion about D&D and other RPGs with one of my long-time D&D players and how pen and paper (PnP) differs from the modern computer based role-playing games we have today. It led to a discussion about design and mechanics for both formats, and we both came to the same conclusion... Read on to hear what we concluded and why it has an impact on the design of my NWN2 modules that are based upon my PnP campaign, and especially the latest Predestinated Days...

The Discussion!

It was while my friend and I were looking over the original "Temple of Elemental Evil" PnP module, when we both observed that the module had maps showing three levels of an inn. We both recognised that neither of us (as DMs) would have made our players role-play every "room" as laid out within the module... and I guess no other DM would do so either. Arguably, there was too much detail of "emptiness" that would not make for exciting gameplay. To their defence, PnP modules are designed in such a way to give the DM an overall picture for them to work with in relation to any events and actions that the players may take during a gaming session. Therefore, a DM only takes what they need from the module design, and only plays the parts the players are interested in. This is a major difference compared to a computer game! While playing PnP, the story remains focussed on the player's actions rather than what the players are being "forced" to work through within a computer designed module maps or setup. Consider this...

In PnP, maps and module details are used to setup an environment for the players to explore and play their story in their own way, at their own pace, and they can ignore parts that serve no immediate purpose. E.g. If an inn has 20 rooms, and the players explore one, the DM can describe one such room, and, if need be, add that exploring the other 19 gave the same result (taking next to no time and so not disrupting the flow of the game)... unless the DM had other plans for one of the rooms, of course.

Within a computer environment, however, such reinterpreted maps and module details can overcrowd its design with potential "emptiness" that can quickly affect the pace and enjoyment of an equivalent game. There is no DM to inform the players that the remaining rooms are "the same as the first explored" and so a PC gamer would have to explore every "empty" room just to reach the conclusion that there is nothing else to be found. This is a forced "gap" or "break" in the flow of the gameplay that a player should not have to experience in a story based RPG. 

This fundamental difference between the two formats means that when designing an area in a computer environment, I believe designers should not have the same leeway or feel the need to include the "empty" spaces to anywhere near the same extent as any PnP module does, which has been prepared and provided for different gaming possibilities. If, for example, we designed an inn similar to the one above for a computer game, with three levels and 90% of it was empty, my friend and I concluded that it would make for rather boring play: to simply go through every room and find nothing after ten minutes of searching. 

If it is not clear from above, my friend and I concluded that 

• Modules and campaigns designed for PnP worked because a DM could manage the module material to work according to the player's story expectations, and avoid repetitive boredom.

• Computer designed story-based modules and campaigns are weakened if incorporating "empty" spaces originally designed to "flesh out" the game, and can create boredom. If left out, the pace of the story would improve, and focus the gameplay on what matters for the story. 

Removing The Unwarranted Gaps! 

The problem is, I believe some computer RPGs (even some mainstream ones) have suffered from this kind of "empty" design because of trying to imitate historical PnP designs in an attempt to replicate the same gaming experience as PnP provides. Large open world designs have been built to allow a player to explore and find quests, but as these worlds have grown in size, they have become less story focussed or had their pace affected due to such areas of "emptiness". I have found myself playing such games, which had sounded excellent when reading about them, but later found myself somewhat deflated and even bored when running all over the world with little focus or only to find yet another item that just gets heaped in with the rest to sell.

I am reasonably certain that not everyone will agree with my conclusion about "empty" spaces, and I do agree that some "emptiness" is not unreasonable and sometimes can be expected. Personally, however, I believe such a design is probably more suited to a "sandbox" type environment rather than a story focussed campaign. However, if what I describe above about "emptiness" sounds familiar to you, then I hope to reassure you that I am doing my best to ensure no such large "gaps" will remain within my campaign. To be clear: exploration and secrets remain, but traversing over large landscapes (or walking through empty buildings) trying to locate a certain path or item will not be time-consuming... for the player at least. Furthermore, my aim is to fill any gaps that might otherwise appear somewhat eventless and/or serve little purpose within my areas. I am not saying every corridor, nook and cranny will have something to do within it, but I am saying I am trying to avoid the "empty" spaces that are often added just because a place is expected to exist. E.g. A city has many dwellings and potential places to visit, but you will not be expected to enter and explore every building, but may be directed to a specific building in the course of an adventure instead.

My D&D design goal, if I can achieve it, is to keep the player focussed on one area of the story at a time. Note, the player will still be able to hear of and pick up a number of leads to various tasks at any time, but my goal is to hopefully encourage the player to focus on just one such quest to investigate, and then see it through to its end, wherever possible. In this sense, my quests or tasks are not designed in the "sandbox" style, (only to be handled as they are found or become accessible), but, instead, work as solid leads to an adventure that the player can do there and then. The decision of which lead to follow (of a potential few), is left to the player to make... where opting to follow one path instead of another may possibly affect the remaining quests.

My aim is to initiate a task or quest that offers something immediately available to the player and, wherever possible, provide an "on the spot" objective as a current goal. Such tasks or quests can vary in length, of course, but the aim is to allow the player to achieve something by following the task without having to park it as a "to do" quest: one that is only available if and when the heroes happen to discover its location. I believe this is what sets a NWN story adventure aside from other RPGs as they try to remain focussed on a particular story line, leading from one quest to another as the story unfolds. That said, it is not unreasonable for rumours of a place, or an event, or even an item that can be discovered to be added as quests set in the near future. However, I would suggest that such quests are not too far removed from the main story and are not of little substance, such as finding a hidden item that is just going to be sold at the next vendor's establishment! In my own gaming experience, such unfocussed "quests" can have a detrimental affect on the pace of the game. I also believe such incidental "quests" should not be given the status of a "quest" at all, as they distract from the game at hand.

Older Areas Revised!

In latest build news, I am continuing to optimise some of my original area designs being used for this final stage of the module; to consider a multi-player (MP) co-op environment as well as a single-player (SP) one. The areas I am talking about were originally designed many years ago, prior this post I made in September 2021, which mentions when I learned more about area load times for a MP game.

Basically, prior this date, I designed areas with no real thought about how an area's contents may affect its loading time, especially when playing a MP game. All my area designs and testing prior this date were mostly done in a SP environment, which, when compared to a MP game, load much faster (up to ten times faster) subject to the area content involved. Note, I am not talking about loading times based upon just an area's size, but more about its actual content, such as lights, visual effects, useable objects, creatures, etc. As an example, a designed area may load in 5 seconds for a SP game (not too long), but that can be closer to 50 seconds in a MP gamer if care is not given to the area contents included. 

When I released my first module, I did notice a couple of its areas were taking longer to load than others, but lack of MP testing at the time did not highlight this issue sufficiently compared to when I was working and testing larger areas (with more content) of the second module. This is what led to the post I made above, and I started making a conscious effort from that time to optimise areas as required to try to keep loading times to below 30 seconds for a MP game, if possible. Such redesigns have included breaking a single area into two, to reconsider lighting and visual effects, and generally trying to design areas more "intelligently" with respect to interactable objects. 

Other Updates

Alongside reworking the areas, I have also been writing conversations that move the main quest forward. I had to look back over other conversations related to the same quest to ensure every worked logically, and was able to finish off some of these others too. It concluded a quest line that I am glad to finish as it was preventing me from focussing on events later in the adventure. It was a matter of three areas of the module (conversations, area designs and items) that I needed to work on at once to complete the quest state and refocus my attention on a later stage.

I still have some areas that need optimising, but I hope to address these as I move to them with each remaining quest I finish. Currently, I believe I have only around two side quests to complete (although there is a slim possibility this can increase), and then just the final quest for the main story.

I also have around three areas to finish, with one that currently only has one room! Two other areas have the rooms outlined (nothing else at all yet), and the "purpose" of them and what the PCs are to gain from exploring them is yet to be finalised. Once fully furnished, they need to go under the "gap" test (not boring to play) before I am satisfied with them for the final testing.

I am not quite at the point of saying "the end is in sight", but I do feel I have taken a large step forward over the last month. Look out for the blog title when I make such a claim, as it may well be closer to final testing and release by then. In the meantime, here are some screenshots from the new area and an area my wife recently play tested from stage 2. For the record, my wife is currently replaying module one again, and helping to find any last minute points that need addressing there. This is why there has been a v1.42 update for this April. I am hoping she will finish her latest play through this month and any last minute changes required will come in May if necessary.

A Stage 2 Encounter!

 

Stage 3 Area Testing!

More Stage 3 Area Testing!

Episode 105: The Secret of the Kiri-Dor Crystals!

For the last month or so I have been continuing to work on the third stage of my second module, Predestinated days. I have to admit that after a month's hiatus, restarting was harder than I thought it would be. However, it turned out the problem was as much to do with my own dissatisfaction of the current design of the area I had returned to working on more than anything else. Once I decided a redesign was in order, things started to fall into place. Read on to hear more about this and other news...

Area Redesign 

So, as my introduction points out, I found myself returning to building an area that is to be played in stage three of the module. However, I was struggling to find satisfaction in what I was continuing to add to its design. Put bluntly, I was finding the area to be somewhat plain and lacking character. In all fairness, this was the first time I had returned to working on this particular area in years, and I have had a lot of experience of working on other areas since then. Initially, when I came back to continue working with this area, I found myself struggling to be happy with the additions I was making and could not see why. I liked the ideas I was adding to the area, but something still felt wrong about it. It was only after I made the decision to remove and/or redesign some of the rooms within the area and change the way some of its transitions worked that "unlocked" the stagnation of design for me.

Now, alongside the new gaming mechanic system I mention next, I am having a much more enjoyable time putting the area together, which I hope will translate to an equally enjoyable experience for the player. Hopefully, by next month, I will have some new screenshots of this stage three area and/or maybe other areas to show you. In the meantime, here is a little "secret" for you...

A Secret Revealed

As this month's title alludes to, I want to "reveal a secret" with respect to a new gameplay mechanic that I have designed to work in this third stage of the module. It is to do with a citadel called Kiri-Dor, (a main bastion the heroes find themselves exploring on the isle of Tarn-Kiri), and some crystals that can be found here.

I had this new gameplay mechanic idea (and started work on it) years ago, but have only now just returned to finalise it. It involves some careful handling as it enables a whole new layer of gaming choices for the player, allowing them to choose how they would like to develop new abilities, and enable them to move forward in their quest. I will provide a couple of screenshots of the new mechanic, which I hope will help present the idea more clearly. This could be considered a minor spoiler, I guess, but I have done my best not to give-away too many details, but, hopefully, just enough to whet the appetite...

The Secret of the Crystals 

The new gaming mechanic relies upon the PCs learning of unique powers locked away in some special crystals that can be acquired within the areas of Kiri-Dor. Once acquired, the PC can activate them to unlock the potential of the powers that they can bestow upon the heroes. The heroes first have to unlock the BASIC path, which when completed, unlocks the ADVANCED path. Both paths require working with crystals of four different colours: white, green, blue and red:-

Heroes Begin To Unlock The Secret of The Crystals!

Eventually, as the heroes continue to make progress in their acquisition and study of the crystals, they can unlock the ADVANCED powers, which will, hopefully, aid them in overcoming the problems they currently face while within Kiri-Dor:- 

Heroes Have Managed To Reach Advanced Crystal Usage!

As you can see from the edited screenshots above, once the player has unlocked the ADVANCED stage, their choice of abilities opens before them in a tree-like structure. They can choose to concentrate on one particular colour branch of crystal study, or maybe spread their knowledge, bearing in mind how the adventure opens up before them.

As I say, I hope it will add an exciting new level of gameplay for the player, but I still need to address balancing and practicality of the system before I can be happy it is a working gaming option. So far, I have made reasonable progress developing the system, but it will still require some alpha testing before I know for sure.

I like to believe that The Scroll is probably one of the most heavily modded modules in NWN2, with extra care and attention given to a whole host of new XML GUIs and gameplay mechanics that serves to keep it a new and fresh experience for anyone wanting to play a NWN2 module, while staying within the gaming experience they know and love.

Latest Campaign

Meanwhile,  I also released v1.41 today, which addresses some minor issues, but I still believe is worth updating if you are on anything older. It improves maintaining variables on split stacks, fixes a minor Vigour glitch, and a Mapping fix among other things.

Episode 104: The Path Less Travelled

First, a heads up: There will not be a February blog post, as I am taking a month's hiatus. However, before I take the break, I am leaving you with the very latest v1.40 module and campaign files ready to use, after my wife did another test run of the first module using the latest build. A couple of minor issues came to light, but the updated Examine and Hardness systems, which I have now finished, are working well. Read on for more information...

Unconventional?

Regular readers (or players of my campaign) will note that my approach to design for both mechanics and quests does not sit within "normal" expectations for NWN. Instead, I believe my own design sits more closely to the table-top D&D game experience. Or, if we were to place the range of NWN modules available on its own spectrum, The Scroll Campaign (a.k.a. The Althéa Campaign), would probably be considered an extreme "conservative" style, or one that I would suggest plays more akin to a "Traditional" D&D table-top game. Your choice of how you play the module can alter this experience, but the underlying design principal is based upon trying to replicate the table-top experience, whether you choose to play the campaign solo or with a friend or two.

Whether this approach wins the approval of the majority of NWN players or not, I cannot say. However, for those players who like to dive deeply into a traditional style D&D game, with unique lore, quests and gameplay, alongside convenient traditional gameplay mechanics, then I hope the campaign will hit a sweet spot for them. Imagine a table-top session, and then translate that experience to a computer environment, along with all those elements that come with the former: combats, puzzles, crafting, varying NPC conversations and scenarios... and even creating bonds with fellow players as you travel your chosen path within Althéa!

The Trend Continues

This may surprise some, but when I first started writing the campaign using the NWN toolset, I had not planned to release it to the general public. This was because the campaign I was writing with the toolset was already a few years underway from a pen and paper (PnP) table-top campaign. Initially, I did not see any way to introduce years of material to new players when I was trying to continue the existing story for my PnP players. However, because I wanted to bring the campaign to new players, I found a way, by taking the first unconventional step to introduce a "background selection" that allowed new players to start the campaign afresh as if having never experienced the campaign before. As you can imagine, this introduced a lot of additional work, as I had to cater for both items and knowledge that the entering player had of the campaign world, and how their experience differed from someone who had never experienced the campaign before.

This difference of gameplay experience only finally becomes resolved within the second module, which is now nearing completion itself. What I am trying to say is, while it has taken me a long time to ensure a new audience is accommodated for, this first single unconventional approach I took, while prolonging the build, has, I hope, been worth the effort to bring the campaign to more players. Effectively, by the time both old and new players have played the second module, both groups will now be in the same position of background knowledge serving them to complete the campaign within the third module.

The choice of campaign background was, however, just the first of many design decisions I would end up making to help bring the table-top experience to the player. My main focus from the start was then also to support PnP home-brew rules that were familiar to my own group of players, but also incorporate them in such a way that I hoped would not alienate new players not familiar with them. So, over the years that followed, new systems were added and altered until a balance between the more traditional and modern could be accommodated, including: a proper time system with attrition, fog of war, crafting, and various death systems alongside the Life Essence system, to name just a few.

To say this was a big undertaking would be an understatement, but ignorance of this fact at the time helped me to bring you the campaign that you have available to play today. The second module is now only a few months off completion (I believe) with only the third stage (of three) to complete. However, even with this last stage, I am "bucking the trend" in an attempt to bring the player new experiences when playing this D&D adventure. Like all new ideas and additions, however, they take time to implement, but I hope the time spent will be worth it, especially if the player does have a new enjoyable gaming experience.

Stage Three Development!

I have spent the last month going through more optimisation of the new areas of stage three, improving lighting, atmosphere, and general interaction, including the walk path. I have also been going through NPC interaction and conversations, improving lip-synch and animations where required. It was during these general improvements when I decided to also improve the Examine and Hardness interactions of which I speak above, as the new areas required it. I have also gone through the various NPC interactions to remind myself of the course of actions available to the player and been updating/correcting those that need it.

My tester, Dustin Offal (who has my greatest respect and thanks for all his work and feedback over the last couple of years or so), has also finished another play test of the second module (stages one and two), coming in at around 70 hours of gameplay. (This suggests completion of all three stages of the second module will take around 100 hours to complete, subject to gaming style.)  Also, from his feedback, I spent some time focussing on ensuring plot items could be dropped by the PCs when they were no longer required. I began work on this last month, but managed to finish it for both modules in the latest release.

The third stage of the second module is now in a good position for me to continue with it come February.

Latest Campaign & Module

This new year brings both new v1.40 campaign files and new module files. Alongside some minor quest and animation fixes, I also took the plunge to deal with two areas of the campaign files where the code was over 15 years old and required updating to work more smoothly. This new code has also been tested with the first module again to ensure it works as expected. The two areas that have been updated were the Examine GUI code and the Hardness of objects with respect to bashing them.

Prior this latest v1.40, the Examine GUI employed a "mask" to ensure unused official code (OC) was not displayed when not required. However, this mask had a tendency to go out of synch (especially when related to creatures) and could sometimes cover text when not required to do so. It was frustrating me and so I got rid of the official XML entry altogether and updated module creatures with any examine text they required. I suspect many players do not use the Examine GUI anyway, (although I have made it a more useful tool now), and so only those who do use this GUI frequently are likely to notice the changes. The Examine GUI is now "clipped" to show only the information my campaign requires, so that erroneous OC information (faction or incorrect challenge rating) is no longer displayed at all. NB: If you are playing with an older module prior the one released 1st January, this new year, then some creatures will fail to have any description at all if examined.

The latest v1.40 campaign also updates some of my own very old code that handled the broken official hardness code. My old code was convoluted and much was not required. In the worse case, it could misreport when an object was fully bashed and not "clear" the way head. (Another bash would fix this, but it could look "odd" if not done so.) The new replacement code is much more streamlined and works well. NB: If you are updating an existing game (as opposed to starting afresh), then any areas already previously entered having any objects that could still be bashed, will have their hardness changed and will break on the first bash. (A minimal consequence for these levels only for a game that was patched as opposed to a new game where all work as expected.)

Lastly, there were a few very rare bugs that I squashed for this release, related to additional PC creations and/or a player not using the "Companion Protector" feat. They are so rare, I will just point to a description on the download page for more information.

There was one other final "game crash" bug, which is only likely to occur at higher levels, and so was discovered while testing the second module: If a summoned creature was killed (or dispelled) within 1.2 seconds of being summoned, it could crash the game. I believe this bug has also been squashed now.

Next Blog Coming In March!

As I said at the start of this month's blog. There will be no February blog, as I take a month's hiatus. The module and campaign files are in a place to continue with them in February, at the end of which, I will write the March blog to bring you up to date.

In the meantime, I leave you with a few screenshots I took as I was testing some points of the second module:

Discovery of A Secret Chamber!

 

Something Approaches from Behind!

Surprised By Skeletons!