Staying On Track & On Target

Since last week, it has become even more apparent that weekly updates are the overall preference for readers according to the poll results to date: hence, I bring you another update. This week I offer some general advise and some tips when designing a module and using the toolset.

Before I do that, however, I would like to report that I am continuing to write conversations and ensuring NPCs react in an appropriate manner depending on a PC's reaction to them. In Better The Demon, this process is over and above the normal different conversation responses available and also involves how an NPC might react to suddenly being attacked and the consequences with faction members. Thankfully, I have quite a few well-established systems in place now that help make this type of behavioural AI coding easier to do. That said, I still have to tweak the odd script here and there for any given situation. Anyway, now for the general advise and tips I mentioned earlier ...

Avoiding The Tangled Web

There is, without doubt, a risk of becoming too deeply involved with a campaign project and it seem to become never-ending. I refer you to Kamal's latest blog entry that raises the same question, "When is it Done?" I think every builder asks this question eventually, but I believe if one has set out clear design goals and sticks to main objectives, then a project does remain manageable. Self-discipline and sensible pacing are crucial attributes to possess if you want to prevent the project from turning into a tangled web with no clear end in sight.

Of course, avoiding the tangled web is the plan of every builder, me included. However, subject to personal circumstances, some people will aim to finish their project by a date deadline, while others will only say their project is complete when they are satisfied that their design goals have been met - and many builders will fall somewhere in between. Personally, I recognise I am unable to work on this project as much as I would like due to ill-health and, therefore, I have not set myself a deadline to work to. The upside to this is that I should be able to achieve a well-designed module, meeting all my personal needs by the time it's finished. The downside, of course, is that there may not be many people left around playing NWN2 to download and appreciate it by the time the module is done. My hope is that there will at least be a handful of patient people still around who will.

Avoiding The Black World Map

If you have ever tried to view a TGA or DDS world map image with the map editor, and you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, then the chances are you will only have seen an empty black image. I noticed this myself after I switched to using a Windows 7 computer instead of Windows XP. This is a problem, because you need to be able to see the map in the editor to place map icons on it in the correct place. Here is the workaround to be able to see the map in the editor:

1) Load the NWN Toolset. (Do NOT load the module yet.)

2) Load your world map in the editor. (You will still not see the map image yet.)

3) Reload the map image you are using into the map editor. (The image should now show.)

4) Load the module and continue working on it.

5) You will need to repeat this process each time you load a new map into the editor.

Working With Prefabs

Prefabs are a group of placeable objects grouped into one larger one. The idea is to make new, larger objects that can be moved around as a single placeable object. The problem is, if you have ever tried to make a prefab, you will probably have noticed just how awkward they are to work with. Here are a few useful prefab tips that I hope will prove useful to other builders. If you do not intend your prefabs to be interacted with, then you can ignore the first few tips referring to scripts:

1) Of all the objects you intend to group, ensure only one object (the easiest to interact with) is made useable with the useable flag ticked, and has the name and description set for the entire group. (Sometimes, it may be easier to add an "invisible" object placeable somewhere in the group of objects and make that the useable object for the group.)

2) Ensure you add any event scripts required to the same single object of the group (from 1 above) as it acts as the main object that will be interacted with for the entire group of objects.

3) Select each and every object either in turn or by drag selection (if enabled) and, once selected, right click on any of the currently selected objects and choose "Group" from the menu.

4) In the naming menu that appears, choose a name that describes the prefab and select OK when done. (Whatever you choose will also be the default name for the prefab file name when we come to saving it as a prefab.)

5) To make this group into a prefab that we can reuse whenever we need to, you now need to right click on the group of placeable objects (now a group) and select "Export Group". You will now be given the option to save the prefab (with the same default name when naming the group) as a .PFB file in the Toolset Prefab subdirectory. You could do this, but I would recommend changing the save directory to a sub-directory of your own project files. This is because when you reload your module at a later date, the prefab is not reloaded from the Toolset subdirectory. It is, however, reloaded from your module's files subdirectories. And since the idea is to reuse your prefab during building, you will need to ensure this PFB file is available to you from your module files.

That's all for this week. I hope the couple of tips I mention are useful to some of you, and I do hope to bring more playing/player information in the next post. But, if you have any personal interests regarding any aspect of Better The Demon that you would like to know about, then please leave a comment and I will see what I can do about it in a future post.

Alignments (New Era Mechanics) UPDATED 20/06/10

From the results of the Blog Update Poll so far, I can see there is still quite some interest in a weekly blog. Therefore, I will try to bring some information on a weekly basis, even if it means just giving an insight to some of the game mechanics that can be expected in the module. As it happens, I have been doing a little more work on the module in the way of conversations and monster allocations with respect to crafting materials. However, as this is material I cannot easily divulge, I will spend this week discussing the alignment arrangements for the module.

Before I go any further, I would like to point out that the blog entitled Alignments & Influence already covers a good deal about this topic. However, this week's blog goes into a little more depth about the specific role of alignments within the module in general.

Alignment Aspiration (Good or Evil)

One of the key aspects about alignment in Better The Demon, is that early in the game, the player has the opportunity to determine how they believe they will play the game with respect to being good or evil. (This early decision is governed by another gaming element that I will not comment on until the game is played.) To be clear, however, the player is given the opportunity to determine whether their PC (or party of PCs) are aspiring to play either an evil or good path in the game. Once this decision has been made, it is assumed the player will continue to play towards that aspiration, with consequences of going adrift. i.e. Good or evil actions that lead the PC(s) off their chosen alignment path will have consequences.

What About Law & Chaos?

I looked at the alternative axis of the alignment spectrum when considering the mechanics, and after comparing it with real life behaviour, came to the conclusion that the law-chaos axis was simply a sub-division of the good-evil one. Now, I know all the arguments for and against this additional axis within the game, and having examined the rule ever since the very early days of 1st edition "Pen and Paper" D&D, conclude such for the following reasons:

When examining the reason why someone obeys or ignores laws, it normally (insanity aside) falls down to the reason of a good or evil response again. For example, in all aspects of law/chaos, a good person would choose to obey (lawful) or disobey (chaotic) a law depending on how much they have faith in the law and how it is supposed to benefit everyone. On the other hand, an evil person is more likely to choose to obey (lawful) or disobey (chaotic) a law depending on how much it gains them. (Because they are selfish/evil.)

The bottom line is, however, alignment shifts will still occur on both the good-evil and the law-chaos axes. However, whereas the good-evil are shifted for more obvious reasons, the law-chaos shifts are shifted in the following way:

CHAOTIC: Behaviour that verges on the unsocial (evil) or insane (good or evil).
LAWFUL: Normally rewarded as a complementary shift of a good act that supported the law as well.

The important thing to remember when playing is that the actions you make with your PC(s) can have an impact on alignment. And if you are playing a class very much dependant on alignment (cleric or paladin), then you should be sure of your actions before carrying them out.

Alignment Mechanics In-Game

As stated in previous blogs, the players actions (for the PC in question) will be representative of a party response for the PCs. Therefore, a party will be expected to work as a party towards the alignment of good or evil that they chose to aspire to in the first place. It is not possible, nor would it be practical, for a player to play a party of mixed good-evil alignments. However, this is not the end of the matter. For just like in the real world, following every law does not make one good, and by definition, neither does breaking certain laws make one evil. Specific examples of this do not come easy, as it begins to encroach on what I am aiming at: a party conscience! And just like in real life, consciences are personal and are arguably open to personal interpretation of what is the right or wrong thing to do. (E.g.s Abortion. Homosexuality.)

This could easily become very complicated very quickly in trying to explain, but what it boils down to is having to include an absolute reference of good-evil to help govern all alignment movements in the game. And all of these "decisions" are of course going to be "governed" by my own interpretation of what a player decides to do in the game, based on my own experiences. Hopefully, however, most players (short of being sociopaths) will play along and agree with the decisions I make in the game with respect to the actions they play with their PC(s) and accept what I decide to be correct alignment shifts for said actions. At worst, even if they disagree, they will just have to accept that these are the "rules" of right and wrong for my world. ;)

Alignment Changes In Action

After reading the above, I can see players may raise the concern about not being able to have as much "fun" while playing due to their actions being against the alignment of their class. A player may want to bash down a door to a room or walk off with an item they find, only to find their alignment shifted due to what is considered a chaotic action (bashing a door) or an evil one (stealing an item). However, I must stress that these actions are only considered as such alignment shifts when in an organised society. For instance, bashing down a door to an abandoned dungeon (or needing to rescue someone inside the room beyond) would not be considered a chaotic action at all, and would not cause an alignment shift. There are even circumstances where a rogue may be asked to pick a lock or "acquire" an item for the good of all. The bottom line is, the party's actions will be based upon the reasons they are doing something and not specifically what they are doing. It is quite possible that picking a lock to a chest is considered evil in one set of circumstances, or quite normal in another!

If a player does not want to be "hampered" by having to role-play their party accordingly, then I would recommend playing an evil party, as they would not then have to worry about any of the consequences. (Apart from having to avoid a good path now and then.) After all, if stealing loot and bashing down doors is something you want to do as a matter of course (regardless of where you are), then it will soon become obvious that your party is a Chaotic Evil one. On the other hand, if you want to play a party that sticks within the rules of society wherever possible, and try to overcome issues by sticking within the law and not causing chaos, then it will soon become obvious that your party is one of Lawful Good.

The Neutral Zone

Finally, while it is possible to have shifts that will eventually bring you into a neutral zone, you will find this to become a disadvantage in the long run, as the gaming element I spoke of earlier requires a definite good or evil alignment standing one way or another to gain benefits. Furthermore, this is not a problem to those classes normally associated with neutrality (like druids), because in the Althéa Campaign, these classes are generally seen as neutral as an overall class as opposed to individuals, and that they can easily sway from good and evil, law or chaos over time, alluding to an overall neutral behaviour in a lifetime. In the Althéa Campaign, remaining permanently neutral is only possible by the god Vol. (See Soul Shaker.)

The Henchman

I have added this last section to the issue of alignment after Kamal's comment. (See comments.) I felt that he raised a point that I had not explained too well about the "party" aspect and decided I should give a highlight to it in within the main blog. He raises the question of a character "using" an opposed alignment party for their own benefits. In this, he also points out how the same character can become a part of the same group of PCs. However, I have tried to explain that the "party" is a defined group that reflects the aspirations of the player and that some characters that become attached to the party (as henchmen) do NOT qualify as a member of the party in this sense. By definition, a henchman is a NPC of its own mind that could betray the true "party" at any time. This will be when the DM takes control of the character and reveals their true nature and perform actions against the player's will. True "party" members cannot turn against their aspiration/alignment in this sense. I hope that helps explain the party alignment mechanics better and I thank Kamal for raising the issue.

Communcation Breakdown & Stuff! (POLL: Blog Updates)

I have come to the conclusion that the breakdown of communication has to be one of the top reasons for stress and pain in the world. (I probably knew this already actually.) Personally, in the past two weeks, I have encountered it in at least three forms: First, through misinterpretations (see last week's blog); secondly, through forgetfulness (my mother) and thirdly, through complete breakdown (Internet loss while on Skype). I could make further comment and start referring to biblical misinterpretations, but for now will leave it at that. However, ask yourself the last reason for any stress in your life, and I reckon there is a reasonable chance it boils down to a communication breakdown of sorts.

The Module

AREA DESIGN: Anyway, back to the module .... I did manage to do some design on an interior area this week. It's still a work in progress and much of it will depend on what I finally use it for. Hosa has also contacted me this week, showing me an update to his current work on an area map he is doing for me. From the shots I saw, I would say its at least 75% done. When I have access to that, I will be able to start the scripting for it and hopefully ask Hosa to design some other areas for it.

BOOK: I also put together another book the PCs can come across in the game. It goes into more background about the Life Magik Stream and is something that helps flesh out some of the main story.

SCRIPTING: Finally, I also managed to do a little scripting towards traps. I wanted to add more options for interacting with a trap's potential on/off switch and have begun work to this end. I also decided to rewrite the official Trap Projectile script because it was limited in options. My own script works with other alterations I have made with spells and allows greater flexibility in power of the trap/spell than the original. I have also coded in some more randomness.

Blog Update Feedback

Lastly, on the subject of communication, I would like to ask how often people like to have blog updates? At the moment, I write once a week. However, as much of the main coding is now in place and its a simple matter of writing the plot to fill out the game, I am not sure how much I will be able to reveal from week to week, without spoiling the module. Therefore, I am considering changing my updates to once a fortnight. However, it may be that readers prefer once a week just to hear the latest comments regardless of how much or little there is to report. If this is the case, then it may be that I will fill some weekly blogs with "gaming info" rather than actual module work updates. Please let me know your preference by voting in the new side poll, and do leave a comment if you have a preference on what you like to read/hear about.

Celebrations & Frustrations!

*** WARNING: CONTAINS A PERSONAL RANT ***

Nothing to report this week as it was my wife's 40th birthday and she has the week off, which meant spending time with her. I had hoped to do a little towards the project in the last couple of days, but once again I have had to spend what little time I have writing a letter to the FOS to complain about the way my company's Health Insurance people have rejected my claim for having to give up work due to ill-health.

*** RANT START ***

Would you believe they are trying to say that because I write a blog once a week (what you read now), that it as an indication of my health being good enough to do the duties I did when I worked: drive around in a car and get under desks to repair computers 32 hours a week! The irony is, I even told them that I wrote a blog and work on this module at the time of the claim, knowing full well this had nothing to do with the problems I struggle with when working.

I am, of course, hoping the FOS will see through the facade that this company (who will remain nameless) are putting forward as a excuse not to pay up and vote in my favour. It has been two and a half years now since I first put forward a claim for loss of earnings and I really want this to come to an end.

Get this: I spent more time writing the letter to the FOS than I do normally on my module. That puts this into perspective of just how much I manage to do normally. You guys know how long this thing is taking me and the problems I have had in the past (if you read regularly). It's just insulting to compare what I do now in my time with what I had to do for work.

*** RANT END ***

Hopefully, normal module work will resume next week.

Altars (New Era Mechanics)

This was another week of simply writing more conversations and debugging code. However, rather than leave it at that, I thought I would add a screenshot and talk about how altars will work in the game. I also thought I might use this as a start of a series of posts that touch on some of the gaming mechanics that will be available when playing. Subject to feedback, these mechanics may undergo minor alterations, but eventually will also be set aside as sections of the website ... when done.

Altars play an important role in the world of Althéa and there are three types that can be interacted with: good, evil and neutral. It is possible for a PC of any alignment to offer a sacrifice at any of the different aligned altars, but there are obvious reasons why they would not. For instance, although all altars reward the sacrificing PC with bonus HPs according to the value of the sacrifice they make, the party's alignment is also altered in accordance with the altar sacrificed at. (No alignment alteration for neutral altars.) In some cases, a shift in alignment may be what the PC desires (to help rectify a previous alignment shift made in error, or to deliberately alter their allegiance), but for some (clerics and paladins), this kind of shift would come at a price of being cast into disfavour with their god.

Therefore, the carefree fighter interacting with the altar simply to boost their HPs must think carefully before offering any sacrifice, as it could mean their fellow cleric will no longer be able to heal them. Note, the benefits for the sacrifice are given to the one making the sacrifice only, whereas alignment shifts affect the whole party simply because of the association with the one making the sacrifice. This will also help to reinforce character class associations and party relationships: no more evil clerics in the protection of a paladin ... or even a paladin being healed by the evil cleric in the party!

Along with a temporary boost to HPs (which are permanent until lost) and alignment shifts, certain sacrifices will also boost experience points. The idea is to give the player good reasons to want to make sacrifices in the first place and these three potential game play aspects should help encourage the player to make note of where the nearest altar of their alignment choice can be found for future interaction. Mind you, the item used to reward experience points has many other uses, and so a player must once again weigh up the odds of sacrificing an item that may be of better use elsewhere.

Not everything offered at an altar will be accepted. For instance, items of low value or those items deemed important pawn pieces in the unravelling of the fabric of time (plot items) will be rejected. I was also considering other specialised sacrifices, but that element remains unused at the moment and may be something I look into more at a later date, or for a later expansion of the the campaign.

Poll: Policy Ratio Preference

A reminder ... if you haven't voted in the poll yet (on the left hand side), then please do and feel free to comment.

Logical Flow

It's been one of those weeks where I have felt as though I am just writing and writing and getting nowhere fast. I write more to a conversation (giving what at the time feels like more options), just to see it fly past when testing. And all this addition is to ensure that the player experiences good logical flow when they play the module and speak to NPCs they encounter during a quest.

This week, therefore, has nothing fancy to show for itself. No module screenshots, no fancy bits of code, nothing but an update to say things are progressing. I had hoped to complete one of the side quests this week, which would be the first quest actually finished all the way through, but the arrival of a new plasma TV (Panasonic Z1 54") took up the day for me yesterday, so I was unable to finish it. That screen is a dream by the way. ;)

Subject to what I actually do over the coming weeks will determine if I do have anything more exciting to say or visual to show, other than "I did more work to the module". I will, of course, make reference to the poll when the time comes.

Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.)

Off topic, I was saddened to hear that Ronnie James Dio died last Sunday of stomach cancer at the age of 67. A great singer, heading such bands as Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Dio, I enjoyed much of his early work. I am still moved when I listen to Stargazer and A Light In The Black, which come on the Rainbow Rising album.

I feel Stargazer captures the futility of man very well and how dreams can come crashing down, but with the hope of a "rainbow rising" still pertinent in this great song, quickly followed up by the A Light In The Black, which talks about "coming home". As a Christian, these elements of death, a hopeful rainbow and a coming home are very powerful and emotive.

I hope Ronnie found his way home.

A Barrel Of ....

... Money? Not likely in the world of Althéa. In other campaigns, one might find some gold or the odd gem, but the chances of such in Better The Demon will be slim. I am not saying it will be impossible, but extremely unlikely. On the other hand, I hope to make the contents of barrels to be more useful in other ways. I have already coded two types that can be found: The exploding barrel and the oil barrel.















The atypical (yet quite typical in the fantasy world) exploding barrel, will be marked with the usual characteristic flaming emblem on its side. At the moment, its offers little more use than a potential threat to nearby enemies caught within its blast range than anything else, but it may be something I put to greater use in the future. The satisfaction of seeing one of these barrels blow up when attacked, however, is quite cathartic - even if it does take a couple of hits to break past its hardiness to resist such dangerous knocks or blows.












The oil barrel, however, may be of more use to the adventurer. This is because this campaign will be using an adaption of Amraphael's Alternative Handheld Light Sources Pack, which contains lanterns. Lanterns have a longer burn time than torches and can be refuelled with oil if purchased or located in barrels such as these. Oil barrels start off with a random number of "flasks" of oil that must be gathered in flasks, which in turn can be used with the lanterns available in the module. The player will know how much oil remains in the barrel when used.



I have made it that oil must be gathered via a a flask before used with a lantern because a flask of oil can used in other ways as well as refuelling lanterns. A flask of oil can also be used as an oil grenade, keep a campfire burning, as well as one or two other ideas I have in mind.





POLL: Gaming Policies

It's good to see that the latest poll has had a reasonable response already, after only one week. I have deliberately not gone into detail in my responses to date as I did not want to potentially bias other voters. However, when the poll is complete, I will make a more detailed analysis of the data then and add my own personal comments and preferences.

In the meanwhile, if you have not voted, please do so, and add a comment if you wish. Every comment and piece of feedback do help me to understand what a player likes or dislikes and does (however slightly) help me to write in such detail and game play that may appeal to more players.

Hidden Maps

An interesting point I managed to include among other things this week (in my opinion) was the ability to keep complete "open maps" hidden on the game map until the PC had moved closer to the area in question. It always frustrated me that a complete map of an area would be given to the player the moment they walked into the first chamber (unless blocked by a door). This, to me, seemed unrealistic, unfair and stole some of the "exploration" fun out of a game. So, by making use of a special "door blocker" object, I have now placed "doors" in hallways or passageways that would normally be open that means the player's map does not reveal that part of the map until the PC is close enough to the door, which then destroys it and allows the map to update. It's still a work in progress and does require a few more minutes placing these "doors" at build time, but the result (in my opinion) is quite good.

And Finally ...

Building continues in other areas. I am working on a new area, and Hosa has sent a couple of screenshots on his own work and hopes to do more this weekend. I am also working on conversations and general plot.

A Module Referendum (Poll: A Hung Module?)

For those that may not know, the election for the British Government took place yesterday and the results have been coming in all night. I watched some last night and have been watching other results come in throughout today. The result is a "Hung" parliament, where no single party holds a majority of seats. Talks will now start about whether a minority government will be formed by the Conservatives, or whether a coalition government might be formed.

But that's enough about politics ... However, the whole idea of percentages of control of power raised an interest in me about how a module should run. That is, how much should be combat oriented, how many puzzles, how much exploration and how many conversations? This question is not too dissimilar to the last poll I held, but I hope this poll will crystallize more of what I am trying to find out about players preferences. It also brings together some of my last blogs. Let me first look at the "policies" in question:

COMBAT: How much combat should there be in a module? A fight every area, or every other area? Should there be many minor uncommon creatures (e.g. goblins) or only the odd major monster in unusual circumstances (e.g. a vampire)?

PUZZLES: Should the player always have one or two puzzles to be solved between moving the story forward, or reserved only for minor non-essential situations. Puzzles should always make sense in the story or simply be added for fun?

EXPLORATION: Exploration and many areas is a core requirement to a module's longevity or does need not have many areas to enjoy? Exploration is about travelling to distance lands or searching the minutia?

CONVERSATIONS: Interacting with the world's NPCs is more important than exploring an abandoned dungeon? More conversations with minor comments is better than concentrating on important conversations only?

Poll: Policy Ratio Preference

This latest poll, however, is not so much about the differences between these "policies" (which I am still interested in your preferences by the way - please comment), but is more about the ratio of play between them. For example, do you prefer more combat (regardless of type) and conversations in a module compared to puzzles and exploration? Or would you prefer a module with more puzzles, combat and exploration but little conversations other than minimal requirements? Or, do you want a completely even split: A Hung Module? ;)

Look at the options available and choose the one closet to your own style of play. And if you get the time, please clarify your game choice by detailing your preferences of your choice by referring to the four "policy" descriptions above.

BLOG FLASH UPDATE: I thought this was an interesting chat going on between Robin Hobb and Sara Creasy about writing. I think every mod writier should have a read: Babel Clash

Campaign Flow

This week I spent some time reorganising the flow of the campaign. That is, I determined how the campaign was to play out and ended up dividing the campaign into three modules/parts. I don't think I am giving too much away with the current working titles for each part, so I will tell them now and allow me to describe work progress on each:

Part 1: Containment: This is the first module where the PCs start their adventure. This module is around 75% complete and is where most of the core scripts have been designed and will be used as campaign scripts for the other two modules.

Target: Around 10,000 XP bringing the PCs to around 5th level on average. (*)

Part 2: Spreading The Word: The second part sees the PCs making headway with the main quest. This part has had some maps prepared and uses some prefabs. Hopefully, Hosa will be creating one or two unique maps for this section of the campaign.

Target: Around 66,000 XP bringing the PCs to around 12th level on average. (*)

Part 3: Learning The Truth: The third and last part in the current module sees the PCs dealing with the situation as they see fit. This has had little work done on it to date. Hosa is currently creating areas for this part. Other prefabs are also being used.

Target: Around 105,000 XP bringing the PCs to around 15th level on average. (*)

(*) Actual XP value may vary according to quests played, the number of PCs in the party and some simple luck. Furthermore, these are projected targets and will require beta-testing to confirm actual results.

Please keep up the current polling flavour and cast your vote! And if you want to clarify your vote, please add a comment. (YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!)

Cook Bakes New Areas!

I am delighted to say that during my search for prefabs I came into contact with Marcin, who you may know better as Hosa, the creator of the Forgotten Village prefab. He has been away from the NWN2 scene for some time and has recently been putting a lot of work into his Fuel4Health blog, a site dedicated to offering recipes for healthy food. If you are into healthy eating, take a look at his blog as it is professionally presented and an excellent guide to those who like to cook.

In the past, Marcin has also contributed to the Polish persistent world, "Aeris", which has some stunning area designs and has received some great feedback to date. And so it was to my great delight that Marcin agreed to come back to the NWN2 scene and help design some areas for Better The Demon. If all goes to plan, I hope he will put together a good handful of areas that will help complement those prefabs and my own already included. It's early days yet, but we are discussing requirements now.

Having decided to use prefabs and now also having Marcin on board means the project has had a large boost towards its completion rate. Although I have not yet worked with the areas, the very fact they are now included adds a good 14% to the overall project. If all goes to plan, there is now a reasonable chance that the project might be completed by the end of the year ... or next year the latest. :)

With Marcin working on the areas that remain, I hope it will free my time to start working on the plot once more. Subject to what I do will determine what future blog posts will reveal. Hopefully, there may even be one or two screenshots from the new areas of Marcin as he builds them. Time will tell. For now, I would like to both thank and welcome Marcin aboard the project and hope our joint efforts will be a success for everyone.

POLL RESULTS



The poll, What Turns You Off A Module, is now finished and the final result (from the 19 results) suggest that at least 31% of the voters felt levels of interaction is a key element to what keeps them interested in a module. This would have been my own choice out of the ones listed as well, because I can live with most of the other issues as long as I am kept involved with the game with interesting interaction. From this perspective, I hope Better The Demon does offer the player plenty of interaction over and above the normal expected with a NWN module with its many additional systems (new GUI interactions) and style (offering a more realistic environment).

Unfortunately, I am unable to glean much more from the other results as the feedback was probably too low to represent a fair argument. Furthermore, some of these options were asking for feedback to help explain the choice made, which was not clear from the feedback I received. That said, I do appreciate all the feedback I did receive and am grateful to those who did vote as it does help guide me during my module development.

Prefab Research

Just a quick report this week to say I have been continuing my research into prefabs that I will be using with the module. I have continued to find other work by SGK73 that I will be using and hope to find other material as I continue to look around. Looking at these areas does help to encourage one into action.

Background: The Life Magik Stream

I have also started work on another concept this week. It helps form the basis of the main adventure and continues to develop the Life Magik system. Its idea is similar to the Realm of Shadow in play. Here is an introduction to the idea (that I hope to have in a game manual), which is also something the PC's will learn about as they continue their adventure:

The Life Magik Stream is the means by which all magik flows through the
different universes. It is a continuous invisible force that acts like a river
flowing with many tributaries into every area of life. Those with the knowledge,
can tap into its neverending source and are able to do both wonderful and
terrible things. Whether directly, or with divine help, there are those that
use its power either to create or destroy. Remnants of the stream, mere
droplets, can be found by those who know what to look for. These are known as the Life Essence.

I took my inspiration for the idea from two sources. The first was from the original System Shock's Cyberspace and the second from reading Robon Hobb's Farseer Trilogy. Mix the two ideas together, add a little Althéa campaign and you have the Life Magik stream. I hasten to add that this concept is NOT the same as these ideas, but like any idea, does share similarities. Another example of trying to express the concept is to recall the effect in the Lord of the Ring films when Frodo puts on the ring and enters the shadowy realm of the wraiths. Again, my idea has similarities to this, but is NOT the same.

Robin Hobb Blog

In my search for a link to show the work by Robin Hobb, I came across her own blog. I have added it to my list of blogs for anybody else interested in her work.

'P' Is For ...

... Progress

Although my wife has been taking some of my time over the last two weeks, I have still been able to make progress with the module. In particular, I have been able to come close to finishing a puzzle I had in mind and am very happy with the final product. Furthermore, I have been taking a closer look at some prefabs, because I have made the decision to include these where possible, simply to expedite the process of creation.

... Puzzle

Like most of my puzzles to date, I have made use of the ability to create GUIs in NWN2. Furthermore, I have taken on board the comments over the last couple of weeks and concentrated on a puzzle that only involved simple logic rather than anything too convoluted. I have also added a new feat as an option to aid in this type of puzzle as well as offer the player an alternative way to bypass the puzzle by buying and using "Decipher Devices".

This puzzle is actually supposed to represent a "Coded Mechanism", which can be deciphered by the player being able to decipher simple puzzles with their PC. Here is how the player will first be presented with the puzzle:

Notice that the player is given instructions and a warning that they are about to start a TIMED puzzle when they first encounter it.

When the player decides to start decoding the puzzle, the question is given according to a specified difficulty level and a TIMER is started (unless the PC has the Expert Decoder feat). Each question is randomly set according to its DC at each attempt.

The puzzle comes in 6 parts and the player must try to answer all parts, either by answering each question correctly or using a Decipher tool to bypass the current puzzle part.

The TIMER counts down in the CHAT window. The player may attempt the answer all the while they have time, even if they make a mistake. The TIMER varies in length according to the difficulty of question asked. The SUBMIT ANSWER button is disabled when the TIMER runs down.

If the PC has the new Althéa Expert Decoder feat, then the TIMER is disabled and they may take as long as they need. Here is what the Expert Decoder feat looks like.




















... Prefabs

I had hoped to avoid using prefabs if possible, for two reasons:

1) I was afraid they may be seen too often in modules and put people off playing if seen again.
2) I was hoping to be able to design all areas myself.

However, purely for practical reasons, it makes sense to make use of other people's work where possible. After all, I can still make tweaks and discard bits I don't want or need. Furthermore, I also reasoned that by the time these areas were encountered, the player will hopefully be too involved with the story and game to be put off by a repetition of a scene.

I am currently considering using all or part of the following prefabs, with the view to consider others in the future:

This is a scene from SGK73 "Just Add Encounters" prefab.

This is a scene from Hosa's "Forgotten Village" prefab

POLL: What Turns You Off A Module?

A reminder ... if you haven't voted in the poll yet (on the left hand side), then please do and feel free to comment. Only two weeks left!

Retro Inspiration On Windows 7

My wife has been off work this week (holiday) and so I have not been doing any work on the module as we have been spending the time doing a few things we wanted to do together. She is off next week as well, but I hope to get a little more time working on the module as she writes an assay she has to do for her study. However, while I have not had the chance to do any more module work, I have spent a little time looking at some of my older games and seeing if I can get them to work on Windows 7. I picked out a handful of games and managed to get every single one to work. I am hoping to look at/play them again and get some inspiration when it comes to quests and puzzles. Let's call it homework. ;)

Because others may also be interested in my results, I will post them here for reference. Furthermore, if anybody has any other older game that they have had problems with (and I have it), I will gladly see if I can get it to work on my own computer and see if any extra considerations need to be taken into account when installing. Anyway, here are the results of four classic games that I now have working just fine:

Heretic II

Wiki information on Heretic II found here.

- Install from the SETUP.EXE in SETUP directory rather than the root directory. (Patched to version 1.06)
- Use compatibility Mode Windows XP (SP3)
- If game fails to start (crashes to desktop), start the TUTORIAL GAME first, then escape to menu and start normal game.
- Any SAVES will work now without having to start the TUTORIAL.






Hexen II

Wiki information on Hexen II found here.

- Install as normal. (Patched to version 1.11)
- Compatibility Mode Windows XP (SP2)
- Delete "opengl32.dll" file from the Hexen II directory. (Allows modern video cards to work.)
- Make a shortcut with "C:\Hexen II\glh2.exe" -width 1280 -height 1024 -bpp 32 in the target.









Thief II - The Metal Age

Wiki information on Thief II found here.

- Install as normal. (Premiere collection version.)
- No compatibility changes.
- Set SOUND with hardware accelerator ON and 4 Channels only. (Other settings may randomly freeze the game.)
- Install Indeo Video 5 CODEC. (Required for ingame video to work.)







Will Rock

Wiki information on Will Rock found here.

- Install as normal. (Bundled software.)
- No compatibility changes.






All these games (except Thief II) can be played in a co-op multi-player as well. A friend and I are going to play some of these games again because we recall how much fun we had with them at the time. Many can still be purchased for only a few pounds and are worth it for the hours of fun that can still be had with them if you like this sort of thing. :)

POLL: What Turns You Off A Module?

And once again ... if you haven't voted in the poll yet (on the left hand side), then please do and feel free to comment.

Scotney Castle

Thank-you to everybody who responded to last week's blog with their own puzzle-related stories. I spent some time finishing off the puzzles coding this week. I still have a little more to do, but should finish it next week and will then start moving on with area design and general building of the module, which may mean the overall speed of progress will increase.

Database Issue

In the process of designing the puzzles, I came across a problem with the NWN database facility. Depending upon how you name your variables to store data, it can cause quite a serious problem. I made a post on the forums and if you ever use the database facility, you can read more about it here. I also provide a workaround for the problem in that thread.

Inspiration: Scotney Castle

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go out with my wife and her parents to visit Scotney Castle. I don't get out very often due to illness, but this day went reasonably well and I was able to take some photos of the visit. The buildings and grounds were a pleasure to see and their antiquity reminded me of some of the buildings in my own module. The first shot below, in particular, reminded me of the Borantan Church the PCs will have the chance to visit near the beginning of the adventure. The following pictures are just a sample of the many that can be seen from this link. (I soon discovered I was not allowed to use flash indoors and so the majority of the indoor shots are taken without flash and some suffer slight bluriness because of it.) I hope you enjoy them as much as I did and they help to inspire ....








If only my own area designs looked as good as these .... ;)

Puzzles (Tell Me Your Favourite Type!)

At the beginning of the week, I spent time going over a number of small problems that had crept into the code since I had introduced some new ideas and systems. In particular, I found myself fixing conversation triggers in the event of absent PCs; ensuring certain classes could not exploit the alignment system and fixing the spell system in the event of a cleric or wizard missing their holy or spell book. I also found myself looking over the rest system after reading Chaos Wielder's blog on the subject. For those interested in my own resting system (which must be one of the most comprehensive systems that will hit the gaming arena when I finally get it released), they can check past blog entries as follows:

• 17th February 2008: Resting & The Passage of Time
• 7th April 2008: The Hunger & Vigour System
• 7th April 2008: Vigour & Resting Charts
• 20th November 2009: A Room At The Inn (Economy & Rest Considerations.)

After finally sorting out that handful of problems, I was able to start looking at writing more towards a quest. In this case, it was a step forward on the main quest, and I thought I would start on a puzzle I had in mind. So, my topic this week is puzzles!

PUZZLES: Player v PC

One of the difficulties I find when designing a puzzle is the potential objection from players that their PC would know how better to solve it than they might themselves. In PnP D&D, this kind of play was easily managed by the DM who could offer clues to the player if need be, either directly or after a successful intelligence roll (or whatever attribute was being tested). In NWN, however, the same kind of opportunity to offer a clue is not so readily available, unless the game is being DM'd at the same time.

When I finally get to play my own module with my group I will be present as a guiding DM at the time of play, but I am interested in how others include puzzles where a DM may not be present? Do you even include puzzles? If you do, what considerations do you include when designing them? I would be interested in comments from both players and builders.

Agility of the Mind

The puzzle I am currently building, I have entitled an "agility of the mind" type puzzle. This is to avoid any direct connection with attributes a player may try to associate with their PC. Some may argue that this sounds like an intelligence based puzzle, but I beg to differ. After all, we can probably all recall the scatter-brained wizard. Such a wizard is extremely intelligent, but can often have moments of "slowness" over what may be considered simple things. In this way, I can design the puzzle to be reasonably simple to understand, but may require an agile mind to work out, especially if there is a given time limit.

In the process of designing this puzzle, I recognised another potential issue: If a timer was to be involved, what was there to stop the player from clicking on the pause button and taking as long as they liked to solve it? This left me stumped for some time, and I did not come up with a solution until later in the day. The answer: By using a GUI to offer a puzzle, I could force the SetPause function to keep the game un-paused all the while the GUI was open! For all other builders out there who like to use timers for puzzles, this is like a breakthrough. I felt like I had solved my own puzzle. ;)

So now, I can offer the puzzle I had in mind (using a GUI) and the player must solve the problem in a given time. Furthermore, I have considered giving bonus time based on some attributes (so maybe I will let the intelligent PC have more time). Lastly, it allows me to even have items available that will also offer bonus time to the PC/player to allow the a better chance at solving the puzzle.

Name Your Favourite Puzzle

I have a couple of puzzles now that make use of this facility. However, I would also like to know what have been your favourite puzzles in games? They can be one-off types, or regular types (like my combination chest puzzles). Whatever they be, give me some details of a puzzle that you enjoyed playing/solving and maybe I can use its style in my own module.

POLL: What Turns You Off A Module?

And once again ... if you haven't voted in the poll yet (on the left hand side), then please do and feel free to comment.

Alignments & Influence

There are some aspects of the D&D mechanics that take some effort to make work well in the game, but if handled carefully can add a great deal of depth and a dimension that can, hopefully, make it a memorable experience. In this, I include the gaming elements of alignments and influence. I have been working on these aspects since the start of the module's creation and would like to discuss them more in-depth now with a view of receiving comments from readers on any aspects that I may not have considered, or to simply comment. :)

Alignment

Of the two areas, alignment alterations probably have the largest impact on the player's game with respect to their character development. This is obviously noticeable if a player is playing a class heavily reliant on alignment changes, like a Paladin or a Druid. If the PC's alignment drifts too far off course then the player soon finds themselves having to take steps to remedy the situation or be unable to continue development in such classes. (See Alignment Synergies & Recovery below.)

Probably like many of you, I have read the arguments both for and against alignment changes in a module and have formed my own opinion of how much of an impact they should have in a game. For myself, I concluded that a module that supported decisions of a conscience added extra depth to role-playing, and especially to those character classes that were based on such. However, I also concluded that changes in alignment were most practical (in terms of game play) on the good-evil axis compared to the lawful-chaotic one. After all, determining whether an action is chaotic or lawful is sometimes difficult to ascertain and more subjective than determining if an action is good or evil. Of course, even determining when an action is "good" is subjective, but at least its reasoning is more intuitive than the former.

Clerics: Living The Faith

Before now, little emphasis has been placed on clerics keeping true to their faith. In PnP D&D, a cleric could quickly lose the support of their god and spoken prayers if they strayed too far from their chosen alignment. In Better The Demon, this requirement to stay true to the faith has been reinstated for clerics. In other words, if a good aligned cleric commits too many evil acts, thereby turning them evil, then support from their god will be withdrawn. In such a lost faith state, they must then either find a way to recover their faith ... or even switch to a different faith! Whatever the situation, a cleric must be sure to live their faith according to their belief if the party are to benefit from his or her healing and other such prayers.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

With all this in mind, I have designed a system to alter alignment mostly according to the PC's good or evil actions as they adventure. While lawful and chaotic shifts will still occur independently from any good or evil act, the significant alignment changes will come with their good or evil acts. As examples, acts of non-personal violence will be determined as chaotic behaviour and include anything from smashing chests or furniture belonging to others to bashing at doors where acquiring the correct key would suffice. On the other hand, activities that directly or indirectly harm others will be considered evil acts and include such actions as killing or stealing from the innocent, or supporting illegal activities. (UPDATE: Initial attack now affects alignment if made against some non-hostile innocents. Otherwise, further attacks alters Influence only. See next.)

There are exceptions to the above, already alluded to: For instance, for good aligned PCs, killing an evil soul (non innocent) or being authorised by a recognised good and lawful authority to acquire (steal) an item will not be considered evil acts. Indeed, in some circumstances, ridding the world of an evil soul can even help shift alignments towards good and lawful. For the evil aligned PC, however, any killing will always be considered a selfish and evil act, even if killing another evil aligned character. They cannot turn "good" this way, if that is ever their aim for any reason.

Alignment Synergies & Recovery

In Better The Demon, a PC can sacrifice items of value at altars to help offset any detrimental shifts in their intended alignment goal. There are three types of altars available (good, evil and neutral), but only the good and evil altars shift a PCs alignment with a valid sacrifice, although all altars offer other benefits regardless of the PC's current alignment. When used, associated lawful shifts are known to accompany good alignment changes, whereas sacrificing at an evil altar attracts chaotic alignment shifts. As far as play is concerned, the focus for the player is towards either a good or evil path, with law or chaos alterations as a secondary concern, subject to the class of the PC.

Influence

Where alignment choice is more to do with a single overall life path focus, influence alterations simply represent how a relationship with a certain creature (PC or NPC) are going at any given time. In this sense, you could be playing either a good or evil aligned PC, but depending upon the mood of your PC towards a character at any given encounter, both your response at the time and the resulting influence with said character may change - without affecting your alignment!

Again, there are exceptions to this. For instance, lying is not considered a "mood" choice, but a deliberate intention to deceive the listener. Such action would be considered evil (and possibly chaotic) and cause an alignment shift accordingly. However, simply being "blunt" rather than "polite" may affect its listener differently. Some characters may perceive a "blunt" response as honest, decisive and to the point and another the "polite" response as sycophantic. In such situations, the player must determine how best to treat the character and respond as they feel fit. There may be no right or wrong way to respond (from the perspective of alignment changes), but does allow the player to develop their PCs in a way they prefer. If the characters they speak to react adversely to this, then it is up to the player to decide how best to handle it.

In all this, I have had to consider a balance of when to apply or ignore some actions of the player that would affect alignments and influence scores. This is because it is impossible to judge the mind and reasons of every player for doing what they do. To this end, some actions that may be considered "evil" I have decided to alter influence only. In particular, an attack on a character does not affect alignment, but influence. (UPDATE: An initial attack on innocent non-evil creatures may now constitute an alignment change.) A character will not talk to you after you have attacked them, until some time has passed for them to cool down. However, if the attack leads to the death of the character, then subject to their alignment, the PC's own alignment is shifted accordingly. In particular, if a PC should kill an NPC of "good" alignment, then the PC's own alignment is shifted immediately to "evil". (In general, any killing is considered evil and so killing a "neutral" character also has a chance of shifting an alignment towards "evil". By contrast, only occasionally does killing an "evil" being shift an alignment towards "good".)

Party Wide

In Better The Demon, both alignment and influence shifts occur party-wide. Be it as a party of a companions in a single-player game, or a bunch of players and companions in a multi-player game, the action of one PC will affect the alignment of the party or influence of a character with the rest of the group. In this sense, the actions of every PC impacts on the rest of the party. So, do not be surprised if the paladin of your party reacts to the rest of the group if they allow the rogue in the party to steal from a chest. There will be repercussions for your activities and so careful consideration for your party's role in the game will be important and something to consider as you make your way through the game.

Larger Conversation GUI

On a different note, I was interested to read Chaos Wielder has opted to have larger NWN1 conversation GUI for the same reasons as myself: As the module has quite a bit of text, then I felt the SoZ overland style of conversation offered an overall better look and feel when reading text than the original. The only difference between this GUI and the normal overland map GUI is that the multiple PC option has been removed so that it behaves in the same manner as a NWN conversation GUI, operating for only a single player at a time. Below is a screenshot with it in use. Observant readers will note quite a few other changes to the norm in the main screen that will come with the module:


POLL: What Turns You Off A Module?

If you haven't voted in the poll yet (on the left hand side), then please do and feel free to comment.

Nothing Matters! (Dark Matter)

You may recall a few weeks ago that I was inspired to write about the topic of Infinity after watching a "Horizon" programme about the subject on TV. Today, after watching another "Horizon" programme, entitled, "Is Everything We Know About The Universe Wrong?" I have once again been inspired to write, but this time on the subject of Creation, which I hope will be as much of interest to fellow bloggers/builders as myself. After all, as builders, do we not have our own stories of creation for our own worlds? Much of my own world's creation and governing aspects are loosely based upon some of these ideas I share with you now. I would truly like to know what inspires the background to your own worlds and I ask a few questions at the end of this post. If this sort of thing bores you however, then please forgive my ramblings this week too. It will probably be the last such blog for a while, as I don't think there are any more Horizon programmes left to see this season. (Normal blogs will continue.)

Truly It Does!

Once again, I made the title of this blog deliberately ambiguous. Hopefully, it will be clear now that I meant the title to read in the sense that the consideration of what we call "nothing" does actually matter, as opposed to the sense that we should have no concern about anything.

Interestingly, this week's programme also supported my own argument that I made in my last blog that there is no such thing as nothing and that in "nothing" there is actually "something": Dark Matter! The maths and science gets rather complicated and is way outside my own ability to discuss, but I was encouraged to discover that even scientists have come to the same conclusion I had, myself having just giving it some thought. By the way, I have heard the term Dark Matter before, but I did not know the scientists had considered it as something that existed as a substitute for "nothing" (something even inside a vacuum).

The same programme also discussed other related topics such as Dark Energy and Dark Flow: two other ideas put forward by scientists to help explain why the universe behaves the way it does now. The problem for scientists is that the standard model they have for creation and the universe at the moment does not fit as smoothly as they had hoped, and so they have had to introduce these concepts to help explain their theoretical model. The point I find interesting, however, (and without trying to sound arrogant) is that it seems obvious to me that humanity would not yet have discovered everything there is to know about our universe. Go back only a few hundred years and our world did not even know about the gases that are around us today, which we all take for granted as common knowledge nowadays.

The Spiritual Equation

A point I am trying to make, however, is that we have already been told that there is more to the visible eye in the universe from such texts as the Bible. I don't just mean in the form of "invisible matter" but also in the form of the spiritual, which the Bible teaches us is "invisible". It seems to me that science simply appears to be making discoveries about something that the Bible has already taught us!

We could even apply biblical knowledge in a way that might help explain some of the problems that science is struggling to resolve. For instance, if we take the stand that God created the universe out of love, we can also believe that the universe is more than just a system of matter that follows specific laws of physics. I hasten to add that I am not saying the universe is on the back of a tortoise or something like that, but that a form of life flows through the universe in ways that we do not yet understand. And where there is life, we can also recognise organic behaviour such as growth and change. If we can believe that the universe is like this in some way, (especially in the areas that the scientists currently call Dark Matter, Dark Energy or even Dark Flow but the Christian would call the spiritual world), then changes in the speed of galactic expansion and even unexpected events can simply be interpreted as a change in motion of an organic entity, potentially stretching in all kinds of directions like a growing plant. Furthermore, if we believe in the spiritual realms and principalities of which the Bible speaks, then the impact they might have on our universe should not come as a surprise.

Not Ghosts!

I know how quickly one can start thinking about ghosts when talking about the spiritual, and so I wanted to quickly clarify my own belief on such matters. In this case, I believe in a spiritual world that can and does have an impact on our own physical world, but I do not believe in "ghosts" in the traditional sense. That said, I am not saying it is impossible for ghosts to exist, but I do not believe that any such manifestations are edifying of the true spiritual realm and, in fact, only serve to lead people away from the spiritual truth of the Bible. I won't say anything more on this subject as I do not want to possibly offend people. However, I am happy to continue a discussion of such in a blog comment if you wish.

The Canvas of Creation

For a long time now, science has held on to the Big Bang Theory as a working model of Creation, and even in the Horizon programme they touch on the point that prior to the Big Bang, the scientists believed there was/is nothing. It is only in the light of the recent "Dark" theories (if you pardon the pun) that they are beginning to revise the theory. I find it interesting to think that if the "Dark" concepts of science (or what I would refer to as spiritual) existed prior to the physical universe coming into existence, then, once again, the Bible has already told us this was the case: For, according to the Bible, God and the spiritual world existed before our world and the universe was created. Knowing this, I also have no problem in believing that something outside of the universe I know (God in my case) could have created it in the way I see it now without the dimension/involvement of time. In other words, I see it as quite possible that God could have fashioned the design of creation, like a painting on a blank canvas, with all the stars and galaxies the way we see them now and then set the whole thing in motion when He delivered His creation as the completed physical universe we know today. Furthermore, a design in thought can be completed and presented in an instant without the need to pass through a period of time in a sense of being created. For example, when I say think of a car, you do not draw the car into existence inside your mind as a slow process, but have created a full and complete car image in an instant. Not only that, you could also imagine many of them of different sizes and colours as quickly as just the one.

Continuing the analogy of a blank canvas, if we paint a picture of the night sky and asked a child to describe it to us, they may say the picture is one of stars only. Yet, we know we have used a dark colour to paint in the sky where there are no stars. Or, if we paint a picture of a snowy scene on a white background, is it not also possible that we may leave the canvas blank in those areas to give the effect of snow. These are obvious examples I mention where there is actually "something" in the "nothing" or where "emptiness" in the design is still actually part of the design! However, if we can consider this same concept in our own universe, but at a level far beyond our current understanding, then some of the references of the Bible start to make more sense, and even help to explain the scientific observations. Only belief separates acceptance of this knowledge or not.

From Beyond To Within

As I said at the start, these types of programmes, along with my own personal beliefs, do help me to think about life, the universe and everything! After all, aren't we all trying to work that out deep down? And when presented with a tool like D&D (or NWN), are we then not prone to think about these topics some more if we are to create a believable world of our own in which the adventures take place? I went through two campaign designs before I realised the importance of background and history for my third and final design of Althéa. Then, when I started to investigate the reasons for the way things are in our own world, I started to gain an appreciation for certain things.

For me, it was after I read The Silmarillion (source for The Lord of the Rings) that I realised the importance of having a good and solid historical background for my own world. Later, when I became a Christian, I also recognised the importance of differentiating between fantasy and reality and to ensure there was no confusion left to the player with respect to such and avoided real world references within my own fantasy world wherever and whenever possible. In situations that conflict, I have always tried to impress the difference between what I believe is truly fantasy and what may have historically occurred. (E.g. Resurrection.)

As module builders, I believe we have a responsibility to provide an entertaining game without offending people of any creed or race. Yet, as builders, we are also in the unique position to put forward ideas and suggestions in such a way that make people think a little more about those things that previously may have been taken for granted. I am not saying we should preach in any way, but I do believe we can share our ideas in such a way that is encouraging and possibly enlightening.

With that in mind, my questions this week are:

1) What inspired your world design or currently inspires you?
2) Do you have a specific world background? (Is this your own design or by a third party?)
3) Have you written your own World Creation for your world?
4) What is the main idea or concept you are trying to demonstrate or share?
5) Or, is this too involved for your game design?

POLL: What Turns You Off A Module?

If you haven't voted for last week's poll yet, then please do and feel free to comment.

Pet Hates (POLL: What Turns You Off A Module?)

After writing this blog, I realised that a lot of my time when designing Better The Demon is to try to either include interesting and unique ideas that would attract players, while at the same time avoid those aspects of a game that players do not like. A while ago, I addressed the question of what motivates the player, and in particular asked about certain rewards that excited the player. Today, I would like to know what turns you off a game. What are your "pet hates" that simply drive you away or make you put a game down sooner than another?

The Death System

One of my own personal concerns is the way death is handled in some modules. I recognise there needs to be some kind of penalty for dying, but at the same time can see the frustration of being metaphorically beaten down by something as simple as a slow response from the player or the computer. In other words, I do not like my PC being penalised for my lack of ability to press a combination of buttons at a given time, which ultimately leads to their death.

I have tried to address this issue in past gaming by introducing a couple of ideas, which Better The Demon continues to follow. Firstly, there is a new essence, called the Life Essence, which if found and carried can help to keep a PC alive longer than expected. (Concept first introduced in Soul Shaker.) Secondly, if the PC dies without a Life Essence, then an XP death penalty is applied to the PC instead, which must be repaid before they start to accrue further XP. In other words, the PC does not lose any XP or gold upon each death, but simply has a set amount (50 xp per level) set on them to be repaid with new XP gained before it can start to be added to their goal. (Concept first introduced in my PnP days to replace level draining.)

I have also made it that when a companion dies, they remain dead and require a raise dead (or resurrect) to be brought back to life. However, careful use of the Life Essence, along with an auto-pause combat option should help reduce sudden deaths for the careful and tactical player.

What About Your Dislikes?

The Death System was just one area that I wanted to make sure did not frustrate players, and I have tried to give as much thought to other parts of the module as this, but recognise other players may find other aspects of a module far more annoying. This is where you step in: tell me about your major dislikes. While the poll includes some ideas I am considering, please feel free to add your own personal frustrations and leave a comment.

Another Quest Underway

I managed to start work on another side quest this week and am pleased with the way it has come together, especially with the number of paths it has available to it. Whether playing a good or evil aligned PC, there are a number of solutions. In theory, once I have managed to write the initial quests and the player's PC has become more established in the module, the rest should become a lot easier and thereby speed up the overall progress. In the meanwhile, I do appreciate the patience of potential players who are still reading and waiting.

Be A Part Of The Design!

As many readers will know by now, area design is my weakest/slowest area to build. I manage to keep at a reasonable pace when it comes to scripting and conversations (just slow instead of painfully slow), but designing areas can almost grind to a stop and often be restarted. However, I recognise that there is a great deal of talent out there and am not too proud to ask if anybody is interested in helping design some of the areas I already have in mind. In other words, I am not asking for a person to have to come up with everything from scratch, but am asking for an area designed on a predetermined need. However, the final outcome of that design is very much in their hands.

If this interests you, then please let me know, as I am quite prepared to release this mod in both my name and theirs. I am looking for a level of quality and attention to detail as my own, but has the gift of an artist/designer to do a better job than I can. There is no immediate pressure to come up with x number of areas in x amount of time, but is something I would love to discuss with anybody who may be interested. I won't go into too many details just now, as I do not want to give too much of the module scope away. :)

This project is something I can eventually do on my own, but it would be finished that much sooner (and hopefully to a higher quality visually) if I do have somebody to work with. Rest assured, this project will be finished (God willing) and so any time invested by a volunteer will not be wasted, and at the end of it, I hope we would have something that is quite different to the norm ... for better or worse. ;)

Bring Back The Party Spirit! (The Trouble With Sharing.)

Without doubt, the most fun games I have ever played have to be when I have shared the experience with a fellow gamer in a co-operative style multi-player game: where players play out the same story and work together towards the same end, as opposed to a "capture the flag" style MP game where the players are usually pitted against each other and do not normally take place in the original story. While I am sure many players share individual gaming experiences with their fellow gamers, it is not the same as actually playing the same game and discovering the story at the same time. I also believe this is what made/makes PnP D&D the success it once was/is. I am vague on the tense I use here, as I am not sure the D&D game has the same appeal to modern day players as it once had when its attraction and success was based very much on the imaginations of the players compared to the senses-driven CRPG environment that players are so used to today. Before computer graphics, players had to rely solely on DM descriptions of their environment, with a few drawings and paintings to help inspire everybody's imaginations at best. Nowadays, an argument could be raised that says, "What is the point of a description when you can see and hear all the action onscreen!"

I believe, however, we are in danger of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater if we are not careful when designing an adventure in such an environment that NWN provides the computer aided D&D world. Why? Simply because while we are drawn in with the fantastic ability to have our creations come to life through computer technology, at the same time we are losing the importance of creating something that can be shared by others. I am not talking about the experience of the game itself, but the experience of playing the game and sharing the experience with another player at the same time. The baby in this sense is the shared experience, and ultimately means providing a game that can be played as a multi-player (MP) experience as much as single-player (SP). I want to quickly add that by multi-player, I do not mean creating a persistent world (PW), but, instead, a module where two or more players can enter and then enjoy the same story and experience together. I make the distinction between a PW and a MP one, because the former tends to only offer an environment with varying paths for advancement according to a preferred style of play, whereas the latter tends to be a more focused story with a distinctive final objective or ending. By their very definitions, a persistent world is persistent, whereas a module is a complete/closed environment. However, a module can be created to allow more than one player to play at the same time if the builder designs the module with MP in mind. The problem with designing a module to be MP is that it can change what at first appears to be a reasonably simple idea into an exceedingly complicated one. My aim in this post is to help remove some of the bigger obstacles that may have prevented a MP design from fellow builders in the past. By sharing two of the more important problems I had to overcome, I hope to present the solutions to them in such a way that will both encourage and inspire builders to take steps towards designing a MP module that might rekindle some of the party spirit in the style of a good old-fashioned D&D adventure where friends would gather around the table and play together. I hope to bring back the baby, hopefully not kicking and screaming, to be enjoyed as much as it once was by a group rather than just an individual.

To support my own belief in encouraging releases of co-operative MP modules, "Better The Demon" will be released supporting MP play as well as SP. In the past, I have often mentioned the added difficulties of catering for a MP environment, and again, only this week, I found myself having to revise two fundamental aspects of the module to ensure both rigidity and logical flow remain intact: transitions and conversations. It is these two aspects of module design I wish to cover now, which if handled correctly from the start of the design, will go a long way to ensuring a stable MP module. While, I have experimented with many different approaches to these problems over the last couple of years, I believe I have finally settled on a solution. Although I have divided this topic into two, you will see that I refer to both subjects within their own topic. This is because the two are closely related.

Transitions (Setting The Boundaries)

When playing PnP (pen and paper) D&D, it is very easy for one player to ask the DM to do something in one area, while another player may be doing something else in another. When translating this concept to a CRPG environment, it is very easy to be misled into trying to come up with a kind of "autonomous" design for each player, by allowing the players to venture into their own "areas" independent of each other. I will tell you of some of my own (failed) ideas before sharing the final solution I settled with and the reasons why.

DESIGN 1: At the very start, I was sorely tempted to set the module property to allow more than one party at a time. This had the advantages of appearing to solve both of the problems I am talking about in one go. By having separate parties, the different players could create their own individual "party" and all transitions and conversations would be handled for each party individually.

DESIGN 1 PROBLEM: The design reflected more of a persistent world (PW) approach, in that each party was too independent and each would quickly end up following their own individual path through the module. Different variables would be set for each player, causing a breakdown of consistency of a single story. As the module was designed to be a co-operative MP experience following a single storyline, then this multi-party approach failed.

DESIGN 2: My second approach (using a single party module setting) was to allow players to visit their own "area" with the PCs they controlled, as long as it did not involve long distance travel, which would separate the players significantly. E.g. Allow one player to go inside a tavern within a village, while another spoke to the man at the local market in the same village.

DESIGN 2 PROBLEM: I thought I had this working for a long period of time. Initially, I had encountered a number of NWN engine issues that caused game crashes when one player was trying to change areas while another player possessed a shared companion. However, even after I solved this problem, I came up against a problem with another design idea I had in place: In "Better The Demon", players control their own PCs. In other words, although players are within the same single party, each player is responsible for their own PCs within the party. E.g. The PCs will only rest when the player who controls them rests; the PCs follow the player that controls them and not the party leader (unless the player is the leader); and the PCs will only respond to the commands and shouts of the player that controls them. Unfortunately, however, whenever the party leader leaves an area, all companions, whether associated with another player or not, will leave the area with the leader. As I mention above, I resolved the crash this would cause if another player possessed a companion at the time by ensuring the said player was forced back to their main PC prior to the companion being zoned. However, it later became obvious that this could have dire consequences if the second player's main PC was dead, or if a player was in the middle of a conversation while using the possessed companion that was trying to be zoned via the party leader exiting.

DESIGN 3 (FINAL): Eventually, I reconsidered the original game design of allowing this autonomy for players to travel between different areas to each other and concluded that the idea was not actually required. For instance, even when playing PnP D&D, each player had to wait their turn before the DM could address their situation, irrespective of where they were in the game world. And in every situation, all players would have to sit through the discourse of the DM with another player until it was their own turn to speak of what actions they wanted their PCs carry out. In other words, all players were present at all events, regardless of where the PCs were and what events actually took place. Most of the time, every player was privy to their fellow players actions for their PCs and any events that came from the play was shared as an experience for the party as a whole.

To translate this idea into NWN (of being present in spirit even if not actually), we have to ensure that each player is actually present at each other's activities, which means ensuring every player's actions for their PCs take place in the same area as every other players. If this was not done, then even if we did manage to allow players to visit areas independently of each other, the players would have to stop play every now and then to keep each other updated of the events that they had done independently of each other. In this sense, the working together as a party experience would have been lost to individual information gathering. And although I do recognise there are times when being able to speak to different vendors in different areas could be useful, the potential loss to "surprise events" possibly encountered along the way is too great a risk to allow such autonomy to take place. In brief, the likelihood for players actually needing to be in two different places at once was too insignificant (or even potentially game spoiling) to allow. (See also Different Locations, Same Area below.)

To ensure the party do stick together, I have employed the Gather Your Party GUI for all area transitions. This GUI only shows in a multi-player game where more than one player could be involved in another activity within the same area as another player. Basically, if there is any risk of a player breaking an event of another player, this simple GUI ensures that all players are basically ready to leave together before the transition is accessible. For example, nobody likes to be zoned in the middle of a conversation.

Different Locations, Same Area

I should point out that an area can be designed with more than one location within it. E.g. A tavern may have an upstairs location and a downstairs location, which are designed within the same area. In such a situation, one player can easily control their own PCs to travel to one location independently of another player. This use of different locations within the same area allows the builder to offer some interesting situations to players who may then have to think tactically about which PCs to use and when.

Conversations (Sharing The Knowledge)

Knowing when to allow players to have conversations independently from each other is another difficult design area to get right when considering multi-player gaming. Many of the arguments about area transitions above can be used about conversations and, in particular, noting the point about ensuring every player in a MP game shares the same gaming experience. This is especially important with respect to the main story or other pertinent game background that is divulged through conversations. In my experience, there are two types of conversation: plot and casual. The main problems come when you have plot conversations that may also contain casual elements.

Plot Conversations

In my experience, I would say that it is essential that conversations divulging story background are set with the Multiplayer Cutscene property as TRUE so that every player gets to see the conversation taking place, even if they do not actually take part by clicking an option. A Multiplayer Cutscene conversation starts for every player in the same area, wherever they are and whatever they are doing, and can be displayed either as a NWN2 cutscene style conversation or the older NWN 1 conversation GUI. (This is the main reason why it is important for all players to be in the same area when playing, so they do not miss out on an important conversation.) All players are then able to see and discuss the choices available, even though only one player controls the input. (NB: The Party Chat property set as TRUE overrides the Multiplayer Cutscene setting. It prevents PCs beyond a certain range taking part in the conversation as determined by a setting in the Campaign Editor at build time. Those that are included in the conversation, however, can all have an input. UPDATE: The Party Chat will not be escapable with Multiplayer Cutscene enabled.) It is important to recognise that starting a Multiplayer Cutscene will abruptly end all other conversations going on elsewhere. E.g. If somebody is speaking to a vendor about something, the player will suddenly be dropped out of that conversation and brought into the cutscene one. As long as the abruptly ended conversation did not contain any unfinished "once only" nodes (especially with important variable settings on them), then it should not be an issue, apart from forcing the player to have to "replay" the original conversation after the cutscene one has ended.

Other examples of when to use Multiplayer Cutscene set as TRUE include:

1) Companion atmosphere speeches, where a member of the party addresses other members (i.e. all the players) about something they have observed. (Use sparingly, especially in areas that use different locations, as players may be separated and so logical flow could appear off.)

2) NPC triggered atmosphere speeches to give extra information to all players, while preventing the players from bypassing the speaker. (Force the players back.) Note the same issue as mentioned above.

3) When we want a Party Chat conversation to not be escapable at any time during its conversation.

Casual Conversations

By contrast, casual conversations are those that do not offer much to advance the story and better serve the individual needs of the player/PC speaking to the character with the conversation. Such conversations include those with vendors that give access to a store or allow a player's PC to do something that does not have to involve the whole party of players. Judging when to allow this is not easy, but there is a good way to handle it if in doubt. In every instance of any type of casual conversation, however, the Multiplayer Cutscene is always set to FALSE. UPDATE: Unless set as TRUE with Party Chat to prevent the player from escaping the conversation.

If a conversation is obviously casual, with absolutely nothing to be gained from a party perspective, then feel free to leave all properties as FALSE and only setting TRUE the one that determine if you want the conversation to be in a NWN1 (old conversation GUI) or FALSE if a NWN2 (cutscene) style.

If, however, there may be something useful to be gained by the party as a whole, but does not warrant a full-blown use of a party Multiplayer Cutscene setting, then make use of the Party Chat option by setting it to TRUE. Then, when a player starts a conversation with the NPC with the Party Chat enabled, all nearby players will be involved with the conversation, but also allows players further afield (maybe doing their own thing) to not become involved and/or forced out of a conversation they are already having. NB: If a player is within range of a Party Chat conversation, they will still be forced out of any conversation they are in to take part in the Party Chat one.

The order of priority for setting multi-player conversations is as follows:

1) Plot: Multiplayer Cutscene = TRUE. Party Chat = FALSE. (TRUE overrides Multiplayer Cutscene, but allows a Party Chat to not be escaped from.)

2) Casual (Important): Multiplayer Cutscene = FALSE. Party Chat = TRUE. (All nearby PCs involved.)

3) Casual (Unimportant): Multiplayer Cutscene = FALSE. Party Chat = FALSE. (One speaker only.)

The golden rule is: if in doubt about the casual conversation, set it with Party Chat as TRUE.

Useful Multi-Player Conversation Tips

1) Avoid using PLOT Multiplayer Cutscene = TRUE with NPCs who also have stores. Instead, consider implementing an alternative means to access the NPC's store while they are present. The latter made accessible after having given the first conversation.

2) Only use the "once only" option on a node of casual conversations if you are sure you can afford to lose the information and accompanying variables it may alter. This is because a plot conversation that employs the Multiplayer Cutscene property will cut short any other conversations running at the time if started. If you have any critical "actions" or "quests" in the paths that follow the "once only" node and you cannot get to them again, then you MUST make sure this conversation CANNOT be interrupted, either by upping its priority to a Multiplayer Cutscene or setting check variables, or even ensuring important variables are set if the conversation is "aborted" due to another conversation of higher priority being started. Doing this, however, could confuse the player who had their conversation aborted.

3) If you want to make even the Party Chat option include every PC in the area (like the Multiplayer Cutscene mode), then increase the value in the Campaign Editor to cover even the furthest distance apart. (I have not tested this myself yet, but it should work.)

Final Questions

BUILDERS: I believe I have covered the two most important issues when it comes to module builders considering designing a module to cater for MP play. However, if there are other reasons why you prefer not to design a module with MP in mind, then please let me know. Maybe I am missing something I should know about. :)

PLAYERS: Am I a dying breed? Does not a co-operative gaming style appeal to you more than a SP game only? Let me know what have been your most exciting gaming experiences and why? Do you prefer to play a D&D game in a party of real players or are you content with a party of your own?