Placeable Hit Points Matter!

Thankfully, all matters pertaining to the database issues have now been sorted, and I have been able to return to adding to the module content in general. This has included more conversations, decorating some areas and basically adding content in different areas as I decide to do it. And it was as I was adding one piece of content involving a placeable object, I made a discovery regarding hitpoints of objects: If a placeable is not given any hitpoints, then it can have a different reaction with script.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I designed a placeable object that presents the player a GUI when they click on it. However, I discovered (after comparing another placeable object to this one), that where the new object had zero hitpoints (HPs) assigned to it, a PC would not move up to the object (as if interacting with it) before presenting the GUI. On the other hand, if the same placeable was assigned a few HPs, then the PC would run up to the object as if interacting with it just fine.

What Shall I do?

Furthermore, I discovered that a placeable with or without HPs will also elicit a different response from the script attached to it. This is a little hard to explain, but it's as if a placeable without any HPs is treated as a "non-responsive" object compared to one that does have HPs. Now, this may be obvious to some builders (and already known by them), but I had no idea that this distinction of HPs for placeables had, and is why I am now mentioning it in case others did not know either. For instance, in the same test, the placeable with no HPs would not fire another script attached to it when certain variables are met, compared to the placeable that did have HPs associated with it!

The Script Function

The function involved in the initial script I was using is GetPlaceableLastClickedBy. Whether the responses I was having are restricted to this single function or not, I do not know. However, if you do use it, or have found PCs not responding to placeables in the way you might expect, then check the placeable's HPs, as it makes a difference as to whether they have any or not!

New Area Design

On another point, I am pleased to report that Ryan of Eguintir's Ecologies is hard at work finishing off/designing a couple of interior areas for me. Ryan has already designed some areas for The Scroll (Pt 2), but these latest additions will be used in The Scroll (Pt 1). When these two interior areas have been finished, only one or two minor interiors remain, requiring minimal work.

I thank my readers again for their patience with me on this project, and I hope their patience will be rewarded with an exciting module to play. The amount of time to develop a module does not guarantee such of course, but I do hope the wait will be worth it one way or another.

Database Debacle: Transition Crashes!

It came somewhat as a surprise when as I was testing my module it came crashing to the desktop. I had just created an entrance to a small cave area I required and was testing the transition between it and the outside area when this happened:

What had gone wrong? I had not changed any of my scripting and was unaware of any corruption in my files, and so I was somewhat dismayed when I could reliably repeat the crash every time I tested the new transition. I then tested an older transition and all seemed fine, until that was, I tested it a number of times, and then, sure enough, it would crash to the desktop. More investigation was required ...

Deadly Database

I have often heard of the problems people claimed that the inbuilt database functions caused the game, but had never encountered anything specifically wrong with using them before. However, after some investigation, it turned out that the transition crashes were occurring after a database call had been made by one of these functions. Yet, as it turned out, it was not specifically this, but only if the database reference was new. That is, if the database reference already existed in the database, then any call to it did not lead the game to crash. However, if a database line was added to the database during the game, then the game was likely to crash at the next area transition, especially if either of the areas were large. (Larger areas appear to expedite the chance of a crash after the new database call occurs.) Even if you were lucky to get away with one transition, the game would crash at a transition soon after.

The Solution

As The Scroll makes good use of these database functions I needed to find a resolution, or all my efforts to date with them would have been for nothing! Astute readers will have probably already guessed at the solution I finally came up with: Make sure the database is established (initialised) before the player plays the game. So when a player starts The Scroll for the first time, they will now be presented with the following GUI screen:

Hopefully, players will recognise this as a minor inconvenience to help provide a crash free game session thereafter. (That is the plan at least.) Depending upon how one has used the campaign database functions will also determine how you go about setting up your function to set up the database. For myself, there were one or two simple single lines to add a single row reference, and in other instances I was able to use a loop to set aside all the rows (for objects) that I needed. For added security, I added the variable holder reference to the object in question as a local string to refer to when the database variable holder was required. This was just to make sure there was no change in variable holder name between me setting the database up and the time I needed to refer to it.

Conclusion

It may be that you have had some strange transition crashes in the past and wondered what caused them. Hopefully, having read this you will be armed with another potential method to overcome them. I also discovered that Runtime Errors (especially on exiting the toolset) are caused by misuse of Include files. i.e. Different scripts may be calling the same Include that is already included in another Include associated with them (if you see what I mean).

So, if you have any information on what causes a game (or toolset) to crash, which may not be obvious at first glance, then please respond in a comment. Shared info like this is definitely a "prevention is better than a cure".

Althéa: Party Creation Rules (Manual Entry)

I have been continuing with conversations and the quest journal entries associated with them. It is the crux of the story and so is not something I can go into much detail about, apart to say that it is coming along slowly but surely. So, to give you something to read this week, I decided to show you another page from the manual that I hope to ship with the module. This week, a little more information about Party Creation and how multi-player games affect it. As I said last time, if you have any questions about the module or just wish to leave a comment, please do.

Party Creation

Before the player is finally released to explore the World of Althéa, they are offered the chance to add some more PCs to their Main PC to make a party of up to four characters. The following information screen pops up prior to the main creation screen. As it says, party creation is not required, as their are companions that can found and added instead. However, the player can choose to add some PCs now and add others as companions later when they come across them if they so wish. Once the player presses "OK" to this screen, they will be presented with the standard SoZ style party creation screen, where they can continue to create their party of up to four, or choose "cancel" to play alone.

MP Considerations: When it comes to Party Creation, the players that are playing the game count as "non-player" created PCs already. Furthermore, if the host player uses all three empty PC slots to create a party of four, then later players entering the game will not be able to add any more created PCs at all. E.g. If two players play the module as a MP game, then each player could add another PC at the party creation screen to their specifications, to make a total party size of four. i.e. Two real players, and two created PCs. Alternatively, if a group of players entered one at a time, then the fourth player to enter would fill the last fourth slot and be unable to create any party PCs. Practical usage will demonstrate how this works.

Althéa: A Unique World (Manual Entries)

This week's post covers a couple more pages from the manual that I hope will be completed and accompany the module by the time of its release. For as much of what I am doing at the moment is simply writing conversation lines for the NPCs, there is not much more to say that may otherwise give away spoilers. However, if there is anything more you would like me to discuss about the module, then please ask me in a comment. In the meantime, here is some general information from the manual, which I welcome comments or questions on as ever:

A Unique World

Althéa is a unique world, designed by myself and set within its own cosmology. It has nothing to do with Faerun, or any of the official campaigns that are available to buy (or download) and play. Therefore, there are some restrictions and differences that are immediately enforced, even before the player builds or imports their PC to play. For a start, the following seven classes are not found within the World of Althéa and are not allowed entry:

Furthermore, the following "named" spells have had their names removed throughout the game, and will be referred to without their "name":

The Gods of Althéa

New Gods: With a new world, comes new gods. Some gods (especially for the non-human races) may remain unchanged. (They were kept as such within the Althéa Campaign.) However, all the human gods will be different - and subject to which god your PC has when they enter the world, they may find the god changed to one appropriate to Althéa, or have their deity name labeled as "Uncertain/Searching". If you are creating the PC from new, then you will be given a choice of valid gods from which to to choose. (See an example of some in the image below.) If the PC is imported, however, then a check is made to ensure no invalid faith enters the world. If you are playing a cleric, the game ensures you enter with a valid faith (rather than "Uncertain/Searching") and provides you with an appropriate holy book, which is required to learn spells when resting.

MP Alignment Restrictions: If a MP game is already underway, then it is possible that the current party of players has already committed themselves to either a good or evil alignment. If this is the case, then the newly entering PC will have their alignment changed to that of the party, which may mean clerics being out of favour with their god and unable to pray for spells. Therefore, make sure your PC’s alignment matches that of the party leader in a MP game to be sure of having access to spells.

Better The ... Economy (A Manual Entry)

The World of Althéa has a long history and has undergone a number of cataclysmic changes during its time. Part of this adventure will be to learn how the world has changed yet again, and how this change has had an impact on its people and your own characters. As such, your PC’s learning curve will reflect your own when it comes to certain aspects of the game. However, there is some world knowledge that can be shared now as it differs from standard NWN games you will have played before. This is not exactly game "mechanics", which is explained in the next section of the manual, but a continuation of describing the "flavour" of Althéa.

Althéa Economy

As Althéa is considered a "low magik" world, there is little need for the huge amounts of gold that are often used in other game worlds. A high gold economy problem arises because each "better" magik item that enters the market forces a higher price to be needed for its acquisition, which quickly becomes ridiculously high, skewing many other price factors and forcing builders to "fudge" other costs. While fudging costs this way may fix some results, it often leaves many other items greatly out of proportion. E.g. Often, the costs of components to create an item are considerably higher than it would be to buy the product already made. Such an economy only serves to devalue any crafting skills a PC may have.

To this end, many of the game’s 2da files relating to the costs of items have been recalculated and reworked to reflect an economy geared around the cost to cast spells at a given level, and then all other cost factors were arranged around these figures. (See the table below for the calculated costs of each spell.)

As a result, many of the more expensive items plummeted in cost, to around a tenth of their original value. This, however, fitted more closely with Althéa’s economy where 1 gold piece (gp) was an average day’s wage; meaning it would not be unreasonable for an average NPC to be able to afford the cheapest potions after saving for a short time.

Further consequences of this lower priced economy means the cost to craft or enchant items has greatly reduced, but continues to reflect a more realistic scale of costs where the items can be found in the first place. More importantly, PCs who can craft will now economically gain from doing so.

What's In A Name?

I have been giving the name of the modules for the campaign some thought in the last two weeks and, to date, I am preferring "The Scroll!". But, why am I mentioning this now? Well, the "Better The Demon" name has always been (and will remain) the module's working title. However, as I am beginning to bring the story arc together and think about the different backgrounds from which the player can start, I wanted to have a story name that fulfilled the overall reason for the module's existence. As time has gone by and I have given this campaign more thought, I have swayed one way and another, and even now I am not 100% certain. But, what this also means is that the module is coming closer to completion because of the naming. It's strange how someone can work on a project for a number of years, know the story, and yet not know why it exists! OK, let me stop there before I get too philosophical. The bottom line is, I believe my reaching the end of this module is becoming more of a reality every day. That's why I felt it important to let you know that the module has finally yielded its name to me ... or is very close at any rate. For if I do not receive any more inspiration regarding the title, it will remain "The Scroll!" (Part 1 for the first module).

Poll Results: Lighting

The results of the last poll for lighting preferences are shown in the image below. There was a clear 3 to 1 preference for the lighting to remain true to the environment rather than fiddle with the lighting to allow the player to see regardless. The two "other" comments touched on something which I also agree with though, which is to sometimes adjust lighting from what would be a completely dark environment (in reality) to one filled with some unusual light settings for a fantasy environment.

So, the bottom line here is that a player will have to ensure their PCs have some means of lighting some environments where it is otherwise completely dark. Of course, PCs with Darkvision will be OK, but other PCs may require torches, lanterns, light spells, or magik items with light to be able to make any progress in a dark area.

General Progress

This post is more straightforward than usual because I have not been doing much more than filling in blanks and empty templates of sections that needed doing. That has included writing some conversations, doing a little scripting, and thinking about the module in general. I have also sent some area information to Eguintir Eligard, who has generously offered to help design it for me, and save me from a task I am not very good at at the best of times.

I will keep plugging away at this all the while my health permits, and will, of course, keep you updated here in future posts.

Development Still At 85%?

Regular readers will have noticed that the module has not progressed beyond 85% for quite some time now, and I feel I owe an explanation for this. I may have already explained it once, but would like to explain the apparent "inactivity" it would suggest.

First and foremost, I do have to explain that my illness does prevent me from working on this project as quickly as I would like. Although, I don't want this to come across as an "excuse" for being so slow, but it obviously does affect the rate quite dramatically. That said, because my illness impacts everything I do, I rarely find myself in a position where I can do much else anyway, and so I end up doing what I can on the module just to keep myself from going insane.

Anything on the notice board regarding when this module will be completed?

Now, one of the main reasons this figure has not moved much in the past few months, is because I recognised that after breaking the campaign into three parts, and determining to release the first part as soon as it was finished, that the first part (by itself) would be rather lacking in design/depth - and so would need extra material. That is, much of my earlier work (as I worked on all three parts at the same time), had to be sidelined to a later date and until after I have released the first part.

It was at this time, that I decided to add a new exterior area (whose screen shots I added a few months ago) and to work on the adventures around this new section of part one. And rather than recalculate the amount of work I had already done towards part one (and which would have appeared to result in a backward negative movement in its development), I decided to leave its percentage score alone until I had caught up with its calculation.

Since that time, I have been working on both the new area and its associated interior areas and the adventures that go with it. At the same time, I have been tying in the existing material that I have been working with previously for part one. I am excited by the results, as the module does now feel much more rounded and will make for a great first part. Yet, the addition has meant the module's overall development score has been left untouched as I work out just how much the overall position for part one is.

In a very rough calculation, I would say that part one is probably around 65% complete, but this would not necessarily be an accurate figure representing time remaining because the parts that remain to do are much simpler than previous parts. However, I am reluctant to suggest how long these remaining parts will take me, as they are the "fluid" sections of the design that will increase or decrease in length according to how the story develops in my own mind. i.e. If the related story/quests are straight forward (which is my aim), then a figure of around 85% is about right. However, I have found that some of the latest developments have taken longer than I first thought they would, and so I have not yet been able to increase this development figure either.

What I can say is:-

1) One interior area still needs its design finished.
2) A handful of interior areas still need some contents/placeables adding.
3) Four quests need finishing (as far as journal entries appear to go).
4) A few creature stats and placements remain for a few areas.
5) Only 2-3 main conversations remain to be written.
6) Some spell scripts need editing to be compatible with a couple of my systems.

I am currently working on parts 3, 4, and 5, as I find these parts the easiest to manage . Parts one and two I will only be able to tackle when I am feeling at my best, which I am unable to predict. Part 6 is something I can work on at a later time as and when required.

I do thank you all for being patient with me, and the encouragement I still receive from you helping me to persevere with it. And I certainly do appreciate the help and offers I receive about helping me out with the latter parts (modules 2 and 3), which I would welcome if people are still up for it.

Time To Talk (Again)

No pictures, only text this week ... and that reflects the theme for this week's post: Conversations! I have posted on conversations before, which touched upon styles, but as I have been writing more conversations for NPCs since my last post, I thought I would touch on the topic again.

Observing Boundaries: Protocol

There is no doubt about it, next to area design, writing conversations must be one of the hardest parts of creating a module for me. That's because I like a module to reflect a depth of realism about it with respect to character (NPC) boundaries. i.e. An NPC would not normally allow a PC to wonder around a building (or personal space) without paying them some sort of interest if the PC is not normally expected to be there. So, if the PC is spotted, and the NPC's immediate response is not to attack them on sight as an intruder, then isn't the next normal response to speak with them?

Of course, there are some circumstances where this would not be the case, such as a PC wondering into a public area like a tavern or a shop, but unless a PC has been acknowledged as a guest in some way, then, in my opinion, an NPC ought to confront the PC and ask them why they are there.

I have come across this issue when designing the NPCs and events/conversations possible at a Guildhall (designed by Matthew Rieder by the way). As a public building, my first thought was that such conversations would run their course quite naturally, but then I considered the organisational structure of the building and recognised that boundaries had to be set in place to conform to real expectations. e.g. A PC could not expect to simply wonder through the building to meet the head man simply because they wanted to. Protocol had to be met.

Protocol In Practice

So what started out to be a design choice of one NPC and a conversation, has turned into a number of NPCs and all their associated conversations too. The upside is an expanded adventure with a more realistic challenge. The downside is it takes more time.

The design parameter of maintaining good protocol is closely related to logical flow, and regular readers of this blog will know how much of a prime goal that is of mine regarding adventures that I write. As always, the trick is achieving this goal without damaging the flow and pace of the story as a whole. And to get the balance right between meeting sufficient levels of realism as opposed to putting the player through unnecessary steps.

When the time comes for Beta testers to check over this module, conversations will be the most important area that I would like feedback on, as I believe it can make or break a module.

Better The .... Items (Bane/Boon)

This week, I continue to write about some of those gaming aspects that you can expect to find in Better The Demon. This week covers those items certain PCs may like, while other may not: The Bane or Boon item! And because I cannot show you any pictures of such items (so as not to give "spoilers"), I will also touch upon something I am working on, so there will be at least one image in this week's blog. After all, we all like pictures!

The Bane/Boon Item

When it comes to cursed items, I decided I wanted to take a different slant to normal. For while I accept that there may be certain items that are simply cursed for everybody, I also wanted to consider items that may be a curse (bane) to some creatures, while being a boon to another. Hence, the introduction of the bane/boon item.

The governing factor on whether an item is a boon or a bane for a PC is based according to an item's alignment compared to the alignment of the PC who acquires it: If a "good" aligned PC picks up an "evil" object, they may well find the item a bane to them, and act as a cursed item; whereas an "evil" aligned PC can pick up the same item and find it a boon to them in some way. Therefore, a player may wish to think twice before picking up a Holy Dagger of Slaying if they are playing a PC with an evil alignment.

But, what value does a bane item have in an environment where a player can just reload a game and ignore the bane item and never pick it up in the first place? The answer (and I am sure many of my regular readers will know where this is leading to) is that even reloading will NOT remove the cursed bane item from a PC. Here is what the item description has to say about a bane item: "Cursed items have been known to travel time to become bound with a person they were destined to be with. (i.e. Reloading won't help you.)" In other words, if you have picked up the item and it is a bane to you, the cursed item will remain with you (even between reloads) until the curse is properly removed. Here is what the item description says about removing a cursed item: "Cursed items bond with its carrier and require a "Remove Curse" cast directly onto the item or the application of some "Oil of Unbinding" to enable it to be removed." You have been warned! UPDATE: To clarify this point, a bane item does not return to a PC on a reload if it has been properly removed within the game.

The Sequence Puzzle

This is where I give an excuse to post an image. I have been working on another puzzle, which involves memorising a simple sequence. It's a straight forward enough puzzle that does not require any real explanation, but I have used it and the player's interaction with it in such a way that gives it a different twist. I won't go into more details, but you can discover it when you play it. (Although eagle-eyed readers will spot a clue.) Here is an image of an instance of the puzzle in play:

POLL RESULTS: Predestination v Freewill

The final results to this poll are now in, and I include them here for the record. I have to confess that I am surprised that the "freewill" option took the final lead. However, one thing I realised about my own definition during the time this poll was up, is that it is easy to confuse the concept of having a "will" (in general) with the term "freewill", as if the two meant the same thing, which, of course, they do not. i.e. We all have a "will", but, personally, I do not believe that will is "free" in the context of life. Therefore, by deduction, I believe in predestination. Furthermore, I would be interested to hear how people "qualify" freewill with respect to the laws of physics and such things as "cause and effect". Anyway, that's just me, and I leave this discussion for now ... unless somebody wishes to continue it further.

Scripting Away

Lastly, just a quick note to say that I am continuing to tidy scripts and conversations. I have managed to tighten some of the code by moving functions into more include files. Along the way, I found some things I cannot do as I hoped (broken OC functions), but, overall, I am making progress, even if it is slow due to health issues. If you can keep your patience waiting for this module, then I hope it will be worth the wait.

Better The .... Treasure (Appraise Skill)

This week I want to introduce one of the ways I am expanding the skills for the game. In the past, whenever I have played a game, be it from my pen and paper days through to gaming on the computer, there have always been some skills that seem a little underplayed compared to others, and they tend to be forgotten by most players ... or categorised at not very useful. I hope to redress some of the balance, and while I may not succeed, I hope some of the alterations I have made will make the game a little more entertaining at least. When I have made an alteration (or addition) to a skill usage, I have tried to keep as close to the original rules and intentions as possible. This week, I would like to talk about the Appraise skill.

Junk or Treasure?

You know what it's like ... You wonder into some "deserted room" and you happen to stumble upon a gaudy piece of artwork and you begin to wonder .... is it just junk or some priceless piece? After all, what's the point of dragging something around with you, weighing you down, if, when you eventually get to sell it, it was not worth anything like what you expected.

Knowing how much something might be worth could be the difference between carrying one piece of artwork out of a building compared to another. Having an ability to tell the worth of something is what the appraise skill gives you.

Appraising In Action

First and foremost, if you do not have at least one rank in the skill, you will not recognise a valuable piece of art from a piece of tat! Although, at the very least, you suspect it may be worth something. So, unless you are strong enough to be able to carry every potential treasure item you find with you, then you will have to be a little more discerning in your choice of carried items. Or, if weight issues are not a problem to you, then simply knowing how much something may be worth to an interested party is worth knowing in itself. NB: Using the appraise skill this way only applies to larger objects of art and miscellaneous items. It does not apply to general smaller items, such as gems or jewellery. (Unless the gem or jewellery is a unique item and considered an art piece itself.)


Appraising an item is an automatic process for anybody with the skill. The moment a PC picks up an item (where the PC is said to be examining it more closely), the weight, the general quality, and gold to Weight Value are instantly calculated (appraised) by the carrier. Accuracy of the gold to weight value is calculated by the DC of the item to appraise against the PC's appraisal skill score. If the PC makes the skill roll, then the appraised value is more accurate than if they had failed.

Within a few seconds of appraising the item, the PC will give their estimated gold value for the item, along with their level of confidence. The additional feedback at the time of appraising can be Confident, Uncertain or Unconfident, which gives the player some indication of how accurately the PC has appraised the item in question. (All calculations are based on the 3e rules.) Note, however, the item in question can then be given to another PC in the party (if they have a higher appraisal skill score) and another appraisal attempt will be made. Simply dropping the item from the current PC inventory onto another PC will give new appraised feedback about the item without having to change PC to enable it. This is useful if the second PC has a higher appraisal skill than the former and is more likely to give a more confident valuation. (See the expanded chat window in the image to see the differences in appraising between the PCs.)


In the example here, the item had originally been appraised with a gold to Weight Value of 34%, but was then passed onto another PC (with a higher appraise skill) who appraised it at a higher value, reflected in the 50% WV and their valuation was an uncertain 388 gp. The same item was then handed over to yet another PC, who had the highest appraisal skill in the party, who calculated a 37% WV value, which equates to 293 gp value, and with which the PC was confident with their appraisal. A couple of things must be noted here: 1) The first PC who picked up the item (whose appraisal skill was the lowest in the group) was actually closer to the mark with their 34% WV estimate than the PC (with a higher appraisal skill) who checked it after them. This shows that there is a degree of luck when making such valuations, although generally, someone with a better appraisal skill will be more accurate (reflected in confidence level) than one with less. 2) Recognise that a higher confidence is the preferred result for valuation accuracy.

What Is Weight Value?

One of the most important benefits of knowing how much something is worth, is whether it is worth carrying it along with you due to its weight. After all, if something is worth 20 gp, but weighs 20 lb, it may not be worth the encumbrance to carry along. Each player will decide their own criteria of whether it is worth it or not, but knowing the weight value is where this can help a player decide. Basically, the percentage value given for a Weight Value (WV) is its comparative worth in gold against a bag of 500 gold coins weighing 10 lb. E.g. If a treasure item weighed 10 lb, and was estimated to be worth 500 gp, then the WV value would be 100%, because it was "worth its weight in gold!"

There are two things worth noting here though: 1) The valuation is based upon the appraisal skill of the PC and so the WV is only as accurate as their confidence in such. 2) Not every merchant will give you its total worth in gold, even if they are interested in such items in the first place. Therefore, a truly worthwhile treasure is one that calculates to at least around 120% WV, which estimation is more likely to recover its equivalent weight worth in gold.

It should be noted, however, not to quickly dismiss a treasure simply because it scores a low WV, because it may still be worth quite a bit of gold, but will require humping around with you until you can sell it to retrieve what it's worth. And if general worth is all that interests you, a player should keep an eye open for an item's appraised quality, which can be any of the following: Poor; Mediocre; Reasonable; Good; Grand or Exceptional. It should not take too long before a player recognises what kind of reward they can expect from each category.

For ease of play, all such information about each treasure item (which shares the same in game icon for ease of recognition) will contain important information within its name that can be accessed simply by hovering over the item in the PC's inventory. At-a-glance information includes the important WV information along with the weight, so a player can instantly do a mental sum in their head to recognise its worth. I know I could have given the gold value as well, but I did not want to include this as it may be misleading. Instead, if the player examines the item in question, they can see the estimated gold value there alongside the confidence level of this estimate.

Exploit Protected

As regular readers of this blog will know, I like to include a degree of exploit protection with respect to certain items and actions to give them a degree of permanency. As these treasure items can be randomly generated, I decided to include them within this remit. What this basically means is, if a player saved a game just prior to picking up the treasure and the game handed them a poor quality item, reloading the game to try to gain a more valuable item will not help the player, as the same value item (and weight thereof) will be returned. There will be no advantage to reloading a game, except for one reason: They get to reappraise the item. If they want to reload the game for this, then so be it. :)

Your Comments

Lastly, please leave comments on your opinions about including such additions to the game, and let me know if there are other skills you have already altered, or would like to see altered to imrove the game. I am not talking about complete skill system rebuilds, but maybe some odd tweak or such that might improve the game for you.

Don't forget to vote on either/both of the two polls currently running if you have not done so already!

Atmosphere And Lighting (POLL)

I am continuing to write material for the first module called, Better The Demon, and hope to finish this year! Last year, I had hoped that I would finish it, but this time, I feel more confident. This is because I have decided to not be so worried about some details that may easily be overlooked by some players anyway. On occasion, I play an RPG game to relax, and I have noticed that many do not have the same detail, and I do not feel it detracts that much. Now, I am going to concentrate on the remaining conversations, creatures and encounters. I will still continue to write quests, but I believe I have them all accounted for now, and all that remains is to join the dots.

True Darkness

Now, to the main point of this post: How important is atmosphere and lighting to most of you? Now, on the surface of it, the obvious answer would be "utmost", but I am asking it from the point of view of "realism". i.e. Should an eerie underground complex have "ambient" lighting to help complement the existing lighting to enhance "atmosphere" or should just the existing lighting do all the work?

Now, in my designs, I have opted for a combination of priorities, subject to my own preferences for the area in question. However, I would be interested how you might consider this aspect of game play. i.e. If I need light, then I should find it .... or .... I wish the design made it so I could see. Which best describes you?

An eerie altar looms out of the darkness ahead!

In the above example, I have removed all ambient lighting because I wanted the altar to stand within existing lighting only, but it may be better realised with additional lighting? Is the scene too dark? Yet, if the PC is using their own light source (via torch or spell), then this will contribute towards the overall lighting of the scene anyway. The point is, what do you think works best for your general gaming experience? Should I add additional lighting to areas to enable a "clearer view" or leave them to existing light only to be more true to the scene? I have started a second poll, called "Atmosphere & Lighting" for you to vote, and leave comments as required.

Readable Books (Improved Image System)

This is just a quick post to say that I have improved the way images can be incorporated into the Readable Books system of mine. Note, I have NOT updated the Vault code because I do not want to upset other people's usage of the code to date. However, I will be incorporating images into books this way in the future, as it maintains the "image consistency" of the book and allows for text to be placed on a page next to an image, which it could not do before.

This was something I looked at doing a long while ago, but time was always against me with other priorities. However, I finally decided to do it and I am pleased with the results. For those that want a heads up on the scripting involved, I simply saved a separate background image that was the same size as the original, but with the new image on it, and then held the name of the TGA file in a global variable and updated the background GUI image whenever the page was referenced, deleting the global storage between references. It worked a treat and removes the need to rely on a rather complicated bit of scripting to reference different conversation files and keep track of various tokens. i.e It's a MUCH SIMPLER system!

However, as some people may also like the "zoomed in" feel when looking at images, I have not removed any of my original code, so that the two systems can, in theory, be used side by side. Below is a screenshot of the new book images in action.


Meanwhile,I am continuing to plug away at the conversations and scripts remaining in the mod, and while there are still a few areas left to do, I am definitely on the home straight now.

And while, personally, I do not celebrate the Xmas festivals (due to them stemming from a pagan background), I do, however, wish everybody a Happy New Year if I do not post again before then. (If anybody wants to hear more about the histories of such, or simply wants to chat, I am happy to do so via emails.)

And please, do vote on the poll and leave comments as you like!

Better The .... Gods (Manual Entry)

This week I am continuing to talk about the Althéa Campaign in general and the Better The Demon series of mods in particular. As some of you may be aware, this campaign is the continuing adventure of my D&D days, from its original idea in 1989. Therefore much of what I have written below is simply a moving of pen and paper material into the NWN2 format. If you don't mind seeing a website that is still very much in development, then you can find additional information to what I am about to write at this site: The World of Althéa. (Click on each of the books at the top of the page to navigate to the different sections.) Please bear in mind that the site does not receive much attention compared to this blog, and so will only be updated when I have more time. The material that is currently there is mostly copied and pasted material from my pen and paper days that may need editing. However, there are one or two new bits that I have added to test that I had it working.

Without further preamble, this week I show you the manual entry relating to the gods of Althéa and how the players can expect their relationship to them to work when they enter the game world. Please leave any comments relating to this topic or any other you may read in your travels, and I will answer when I can.

The Gods of Althéa

New Gods: With a new world, comes new gods. Some gods (especially for the non-human races) may remain unchanged. (They were kept as such within the Althéa Campaign.) However, all the human gods will be different - and subject to which god your PC has when they enter the world, they may find the god changed to one appropriate to Althéa, or have their deity name labeled as “Uncertain/Searching”. If you are creating the PC from new, then you will be given a choice of valid gods from which to to choose. (See an example of some in the image below.) If the PC is imported, however, then a check is made to ensure no invalid faith enters the world. If you are playing a cleric, the game ensures you enter with a valid faith (rather than "Uncertain/Searching”) and provides you with an appropriate holy book, which is required to learn spells when resting.

MP Alignment Restrictions: If a MP game is underway, then it is possible that the current party of players has already committed themselves to either a good or evil alignment. If this is the case, then the newly entering PC will have their alignment changed to that of the party, which may mean clerics being out of favour with their god and unable to pray for spells. Therefore, make sure your PC’s alignment matches that of the party leader in a MP game to be sure of having access to spells.

POLL: Freewill v Predestination

And while we are on such a topic, why not give your vote on the latest poll; bearing in mind that some may think they had a choice, and others not. ;)

Very basically, the poll is asking whether you believe if everything follows a predestined and determined path - whether because of the laws of nature or an intelligent design or whether the universe is purely chaotic in nature where man is free to make a choice.

Better The .... Items (The Chameleon Stone)

I thought it was about time that I started to share some information with you about the campaign play itself. From now, and in the coming weeks, I hope I may be able to talk about some of the items that you would be familiar with in the campaign world of Althéa, and some of the gaming mechanics (rules) from the manual I am trying to write. At least this way, any writing I do for the manual will act as a blog post as well, so I am not overdoing it. Subject to how much of a spoiler I determine an item (or placeable) to be, will determine how much detail I give, or whether I discuss it at all. ;)

The Chameleon Stone

For this week, I introduce to you the Chameleon Stone ... A small magikal stone that has the ability to transform into the object which it hides. Check out the description of the item as it will appear in the game, along with an example of its GUI upon its activation.
This is just one example of a new item that the players will find in the world. Hopefully, the sporadic placement of such items will help make Althéa an interesting place to explore and discover.

NEW POLL: Freewill v Predestination

As a quick aside, I wanted to take another poll on how people think/believe. It comes from some of my other blogs that talk about the nature of reality and beliefs. (Search this blog for them.) If you have a minute, just give me your response, and feel free to give your reasoning in a comment.

Very basically, the poll is asking whether you believe if everything follows a predestined and determined path - whether because of the laws of nature or an intelligent design or whether the universe is purely chaotic in nature where man is free to make a choice.

Exciting Progress

I know some of my latest blogs have been more vague about module content than usual, but that's because I do not want to give too much away in the way of spoilers. Sometimes it's really hard not to blurt out the ideas one is having for a quest. Having gone through a period of "writer's block", I believe I have made some exciting progress since. Having some fresh areas to work with from Kamal really helped.

PC Is Confronted By A Combination Locked Door!

So, what can I say ... Well, I can say that the latest quest that I am writing at the moment is a little different from others I have done to date. It's one that some players may not even discover if they are not the curious adventuring type ... and if they do, they may wish they had not discovered it after all. ;) However, for the party of heroes that persevere, the rewards are, hopefully, worthwhile.

PC IS Confronted By A Rune Puzzle Locked Door

In this quest, I have managed to bring together a number of those pieces of puzzle coding that I have written over the last few years: rune puzzles, password puzzles, combination puzzles, visual puzzles ... etc. It also makes use of "real" secret doors, new creatures, readable books and scrolls. I also hope to introduce one or two neat ideas for new GUI concepts.

All in all, I feel that it is the first side-quest that will stand alone as a complete mini-adventure that will challenge the survival instincts and abilities of the characters more than any other I have written to date. To me, it feels like an old fashioned D&D adventure more than most, because of its requirement of emotional and intellectual input from the player. Whether that will appeal to many of today's modern NWN players, only time will tell. However, by the time this module is released, I suspect only the hardened traditional D&D players will remain to download and play it anyway. ;)

Companion Interaction

Just a quick update to say that I am managing to open the toolset a little more this week than I have for the last few weeks. The issues I mentioned in the last post still remain, but in a lesser capacity. Even Daisy is becoming more accommodating when it comes to taking her medicine.

I had the opportunity to take a closer look at some of Kamal's area work, which was encouraging. He has been hard at work coming up with some more great interior designs, which he kindly said I could adapt to use. As there are one or two interior areas that still need doing, this has saved me some time and meant I could look at some other parts of the module that needed doing ... including adding background to potential party members.

Companion Conversations

My goal has always been to allow six main characters within the party. (Henchmen, animal companions and summoned creatures can be added to this number.) The six main characters are made from players, created PCs or companions. However, I also wanted to design a system that had created PCs or companions both react in a similar way with respect to any dialogue they may be offered throughout play. This involved writing a script or two to help determine which type of character was being played (created PC or added companion) and used in such a way that the commentary appeared normal and seamless irrespective of what type of character a player was using. This meant that while there is more flexibility for the player regarding what type of PC they chose to play with, I have to take care when writing specific dialogue for companions in particular. Last week I took my first steps at writing some character background for a companion that the players can find, called Threska.

Is Threska Somebody You Can Work With?

Threska is not the first companion I have written some background for, but is, hopefully, a sign that some of the final conversation scripts needed are coming together at last. (I needed quite a bit of the module to be written before I can start to add companion/PC commentary.) I am trying to include some interesting background for every companion that might encourage players to consider using them alongside (or instead of) any created PCs they might be using.

Player Leadership

I have also designed an influence system that monitors the player's actions against the created PC/companion's own alignment and beliefs. A clever player will be able to work around potential party conflicts, but in the end, what the player does can and will affect their relationship with other members of the party. So, if a player does not lead as they give the impression they will, then they can expect some rebuking from other party members and eventually abandonment if the player still ignores their party members' pleas.

Difficult Times

Daisy When Her Eye Was Good (Only a few weeks ago.)

Every now and then, events in life mount up against you and make things more difficult or stressful than usual. When such times occur, they seem to dominate a lot of your time and thinking, and virtual worlds have to take a back seat, especially if one is not feeling that well themselves. The last few weeks have been like that!

I apologise in advance, but this post will be a little rare on news regarding the module. I have been dropping into the toolset on moments of rare respite, but will now simply explain what has kept me from doing it as much as I would have liked:-

1) First and foremost, Daisy, another one of our pet rabbits has been taken ill. I noticed a small discolouration in her eye about 10 days ago, and since taking her to the vets, I have found out that it may be to do with the Encephalitozzon Cuniculi parasite, which had also given Honey, another one of our rabbits a health problem as well (but had not affected the eye in her case). This time, however, even with treatment, there is a possibility that Daisy might have to have her eye removed, which is a dangerous operation for rabbits. Daisy is a feisty young female rabbit and administering the treatment has not been easy - and is stressful for everybody involved, even when I try to be as quick and straightforward as possible. Time will tell how well the treatment works for her.

2) Both my wife and I have been suffering from "colds". Although while she still manages to get into work, I have been restricted to laying in bed some days. (Having M.E. makes these sorts of things more difficult to cope with.) As you can imagine, trying to cope with a sick rabbit while more sick than usual yourself is not easy.

3) Personal circumstances involving a neighbour have added to the stress levels of late. To be clear, my wife and I get along with the neighbours fine, but (without going into details), their current personal situation has indirectly involved us (as neighbours) and is taking some of my attention to help resolve. Not being well at the best of times means dealing with such situations prevents me from dealing with much else, including my hobby.

4) Lastly, with everything else going on, I have had little or no time to be creative, and so instead have tried to finish reading a book entitled, "Does God Believe In Atheists?" by John Blanchard. This, in turn, added to my interests in understanding more about God's plan of Predestination and Man's Freewill. So, in the little time I have had between dealing with sickness (personal and with Daisy), my head has been spinning with that issue .... unable to think about the module due to everything else going on. Isn't it strange how your mind latches onto certain topics when you are unwell.

At the moment, I am still suffering and taking over-the-counter remedies to help bring relief. Some days are better than others, but I am still not well enough to cope with the other aspects going on in my life at the moment and so (probably) not much work will be done on the module until at least one or two of the above situations is resolved. I think if I saw definite improvements in Daisy, and my wife and I could be rid of our current infections, then coping with other issues will become easier and I should be able to get back into a slow-paced, but steady approach to continue chipping away at it again.

In brief ... I'm sicker than usual ... coping strategies are compromised ... external situations are testing those strategies to the limit ... nothing left in me to do much else ... even if I want to. :(

Monster AI: Supernatural Abilities v Item Immunities

Over the past few days I have been coding some AI (artificial intelligence) for a creature that the heroes can encounter. As the creature I had in mind was not already included in the game, I decided to script the creature's special abilities myself. In the process of doing this, I realised that my own understanding of the "supernatural rule" with respect to "immunities" may be wrong.

What Is Immunity?

When referring to the 3E core rules, supernatural abilities of creatures are those magical abilities that go away in an anti-magic field, but are not subject to spell resistance. Yet, the rules are a little more vague when it comes to the meaning of "immunity" in general, with respect to either of these other two terms. For instance, according to 3E rules, an elf is immune to sleep. I understand this to mean that an elf will not be subject to any form of magic that will cause it to sleep: whether by spells or supernatural effects!

In NWN, a PC can acquire items that offer various forms of "immunity". However, I am beginning to think that using the term "immunity" in this sense is a bit of a misnomer. The reason I say this, is because when checking scripts of supernatural effects, they do NOT check for items that offer immunity against them. Therefore, this would suggest that the term "immunity" in this sense is better translated as "a 100% spell resistance to a certain spell or type of spell". e.g. Immunity to "death" means a 100% spell resistance to spells and spell-like abilities that result in instant death, as opposed to instant death caused by a supernatural gaze attack. Therefore, an item "immunity" does not mean the same thing as an elf's "immunity to sleep".

Immunities In Play

Having given this some thought, I believe I am going to change the description of an item offering "Immunity" to something like "100% Spell Resistance to xxxx" to help avoid any confusion. Or, maybe try to make it clear that supernatural effects are not counted as those effects covered by immunities.

UPDATE: I believe I have all the information regarding the way immunities handle supernatural effects and have decided to make being immune to something, immune to everything that fits the description, including supernatural sources.

My conclusions are simply that a spell (or effect or special ability) script called from an ExecuteScript function does not allow the immunity check functions to work properly if it uses them. Therefore, any scripts that require immunity checking called via ExecuteScript require their own custom immunity checks added to the code. If the same scripts are called as a "spell" using their (if added) spells.2da row number, then the OC immunity check functions appear to work fine.

Invisibility

I know it was only a short while ago I spoke about the same topic of invisibility, but as I have been working on this in the toolset again, I thought I would blog about it again too. I felt this ability required special attention as it affected the way a PC could interact with the environment more than most other effects. Furthermore, as I have increased the duration of the invisibility spell to 10 minutes per level from its original 1 minute per level, there is a greater chance of its impact during play. (NB: Spells that last 10 minutes per level, like invisibility, are subject to game time warping. i.e. Time passes in game time amounts when lasting longer than ten minutes.)

The idea I have in mind is to try to allow invisibility to make more of an impact in some situations if used by the player. I imagine most players will prefer the direct approach and confrontation to problems in a game, but there may be a few who like the idea of playing more stealthily in some situations if possible. That's the idea anyway, and to this end I have set some "safety-nets" in place. These safety-nets have primarily been set in conversations, where a PC is protected from automatically becoming visible when given the choice to talk to an NPC. I have had to make some amendments to this code, such as allowing a PC to be able to talk to another player or inanimate object, but overall, the tests appear to be quite playable to date.

GetNearestCreature(NOT_MY_PC)

On a side note, I discovered that using the GetNearestCreature with the parameter to not return a PC (NOT_PC), will still return a companion. (i.e. A PC not currently controlled by the player.) I thought this was a little misleading, so mention it now. I had to make my own function in the end to ensure the nearest creature was an NPC rather than a companion. I then checked over all my other scripts that had made the same assumption and corrected those.

Playing Poll Results

The latest poll ended last week and here are the results from 25 voters:

I was most encouraged to see that 40% of the voters will be playing the module as a multi-player game. As regular readers of this blog will know, Better The Demon (and other modules I make) are designed MP from the base up. This is not a SP to MP conversion, but all systems are designed with MP in mind from the very start. I have to say that I have slipped up on occasion. However, as all testing I do involves a MP test every now and then (using two computers), any MP issues that do appear are addressed as soon as they are brought to my attention.

I am also pleased to see that 16% of players will be trying an "evil" approach to the game. It will be interesting to see if any others change their style during play - simply because the "evil" path is easier to play than the "good" path. Also, if their are players who try both "good" and "evil", I will be interested to see what options they take in each case.

Very encouraging is to see players who will play the game more than once - assuming they are pleased with the module in the first place. In these cases, I will be interested to hear if their different experiences were due to playing different alignments or during SP and MP gaming.

In all, the results were very interesting to me and I look forward to getting this beast out (at least this first part) as soon as I can to start receiving some feedback.

Focus & Return (GUIs)

I continue to thrash out the story for Better The Demon, which is slowly coming along in the way of added conversations. However, I have also been looking at some minor issues to do with the new GUIs that will be available in the game. In particular, there are some GUIs that are presented to the player which require a text input. Previously, the player had to click in the text input box and then type what they wanted to say, followed by clicking on another button. This all worked well enough, but I found during testing that it was more natural for me to want to type in information the moment the GUI appeared and then simply hit the Return key to enter my input. To this end, I did a little checking over some OC files to see how it was done ...

Focus & Return In GUIs

In my searching, I discovered that to make the cursor appear in an input box the moment the GUI opened, I needed to add the following parameter to the UISCENE:

OnAdd=UIScene_OnAdd_SetFocus(TextNameInput) where TextNameInput is the name of the UIText box requiring the input.

Then to make it so the Return key worked with this textbox, I needed to ensure the following two parameters were added to the same UIText box:

multiline="false" returnrestricted="true"

Once these two parameters were added, I found I could then add a simple OnReturn section to the same UIText like this:

OnReturn=UIObject_Misc_ExecuteServerScript("gui_textinput",local:0)

This OnReturn does exactly the same thing as if the player clicks on the button which has the same command line, but uses OnLeftClick instead of OnReturn.

The good news with all this is that it makes the game flow more intuitively. And there are also some GUI text input windows where this kind of input is almost essential due to time factors involved.

And so the module continues to be written ....