144 réponses à ce sujet

[M. Rieder]

Great news!  I have just opened up the toolset and am starting the sequel!  Okay, just kidding. I've been working on it for several months, but it *feels* like I just started.  I had originally hoped to release in Feb/March 2011, but I think that summer will be a more realistic estimate. 

It's a little slower than I expected because I am putting more puzzles and non-combat types of quests which are a little scripting-intensive and therefore require more time (and more cries of help to the community experts).  Things are progressing steadily and in a few weeks I will post some screenshots.

You can expect more dialogue in TWA II.  I have decided to try to give each NPC their own conversation and a little more history.  In TWA each villager just responded with a random canned phrase.  In the sequel, everyone has something to say.  I am also going to focus more time on visual effects.  NWN2 comes with so many great effects that it would be a shame to leave them out.  I'm hoping to make TWA II a little flashier than the first one.  I have the plot set down and it looks like this one will be longer than the first, probably by about 50%.  There is a companion to adventure with which is a change from the first.  There may be a second companion that I add toward the end of the game. 

As my skill with the toolset improves, my area design is improving.  I expect the area design in TWA II to overshadow TWA I.  There are going to be more skill checks in conversations and, as mentioned above, more non-combat use of magic to solve puzzles and other challenges.  I have some other neat things in mind, but I don't know if I will be able to do them yet, so I won't allude to them until I know they are posslbe for sure. 

I'll be updating this topic from time to time as new information arises.

Cheers,

Matt

[Arkalezth]

Another one for my playlist. The delay makes me sad, but it's good to hear some news.

What about skills? There wasn't much skill checks in the first, which is a shame since Wizards have lots of skill points.

Modifié par Arkalezth, 04 décembre 2010 - 06:43 .

[PJ156]

M. Rieder wrote...

In the sequel, everyone has something to say. 

Matt

That's interesting, in The Last Days of the Raven I have gone the other way on the basis that, when you have a lot of npc's, as Riverbend and Thunder Bay do, lots of non plot focused convo could be distracting and perhaps boring if not handled right. I am thinking you could end up with "so who do I talk to?" complaints.

I am putting floaters in but I am making them relevant to the status of the game I thought that a happy compromise.

Regardless I am looking forward to playing this especially with npc's. I like party based tactics and npcs you can have a chat with.

Good luck,

PJ

[PJ156]

I can see how you can work round this. I may have another think. I did do a lot of non-central convo in S&S and used NWN1 for the lower importance convos and cutscenes for the more so.

I think part of my reason for stepping back from this is that it takes a lot of time. If you get lazy with it then the convos become less interesting and you get to the boring stage that I mentioned ... When I was doing Sheep and Stone, I struggled with some of the convos and introduced bugs and typos which, as they were not plot relevant, could have been avoided.
,
I agree it's good for immersion though, perhaps there is a balance to be struck. My thinking is that too much of plot convo could be tedious if not handled right.

In reply to your question CW, I thought everybody knew what bears do in the woods

Cheers,

PJ

Sorry for hijacking your thread Matt

Modifié par PJ156, 04 décembre 2010 - 09:16 .

[M. Rieder]

Arkalezth wrote...

Another one for my playlist. The delay makes me sad, but it's good to hear some news.

What about skills? There wasn't much skill checks in the first, which is a shame since Wizards have lots of skill points.

Yep.  I'm going to focus on getting more skills in there.  TWA was my first mod and I was just trying things out.  In the sequel I hope to be able to focus on things that people have been asking for, and more skill checks is one of them.

[M. Rieder]

PJ156 wrote...

I can see how you can work round this. I may have another think. I did do a lot of non-central convo in S&S and used NWN1 for the lower importance convos and cutscenes for the more so.

I think part of my reason for stepping back from this is that it takes a lot of time. If you get lazy with it then the convos become less interesting and you get to the boring stage that I mentioned ... When I was doing Sheep and Stone, I struggled with some of the convos and introduced bugs and typos which, as they were not plot relevant, could have been avoided.
,
I agree it's good for immersion though, perhaps there is a balance to be struck. My thinking is that too much of plot convo could be tedious if not handled right.

In reply to your question CW, I thought everybody knew what bears do in the woods

Cheers,

PJ

Sorry for hijacking your thread Matt

The additional dialogues in TWA II will focus mainly on poor jokes that refer to basic bodily functions.  Would you consider that to be handling it "right"?

[PJ156]

I think you might run out of jokes

[MorbidGorilla]

there is never an end to bodily function jokes!!



Nice I cant wait for the reliese!

Had a blast with the first one

[M. Rieder]

PJ156 wrote...

I think you might run out of jokes

I'm working on the premise that body function jokes never get old, so I'm just going to use the same ones over and over.  I may throw in an underwear joke for variety here and there, but mainly I'll stick to the classics. 


Server: PC casts "Stinking Cloud"
Companions: he-he.... stinking cloud.....classic!
PC: the fun never ends!

[M. Rieder]

MorbidGorilla wrote...

there is never an end to bodily function jokes!!

Nice I cant wait for the reliese!
Had a blast with the first one

Great! Glad you liked it.  If you have anything in particular that you  want to see more of, let me know and I'll try to get it in there.

Cheers,

Matt

[Arkalezth]

M. Rieder wrote...

Yep. I'm going to focus on getting more skills in there. TWA was my first mod and I was just trying things out. In the sequel I hope to be able to focus on things that people have been asking for, and more skill checks is one of them.

If you're open to suggestions, I have some.

Regarding skills: Have you played "Harp & Chrysantemum"? In that module, ranks in Survival would reveal points of interest in the map. Mages can't take max ranks in Survival, but in the first module there were a couple places that were somewhat hard to find. That system (or something similar) would be helpful in those situations.

Or maybe even spell checks in conversations. It'd help more "mage feeling" to the module. I think I've only seen that in "The Maimed God's Saga" (Cleric module), and it was pretty cool.

Also, in the first module, the player had a map in the inventory. You could add a fast travelling system to it. Less backtrack, and all that.

Modifié par Arkalezth, 06 décembre 2010 - 12:00 .

[dunniteowl]

And if you're going to be using crafting for alchemy *(potions and such) then making components spottable based on Lore and Magecraft skills, as well as Spot and Survival combos to sort of create specialty skill synergies would open up possibility of only knowing how to craft certain kinds of potions based on your Lore/Survival, Lore/Spot, Magecraft/Lore, Magecraft/Spot, etc, so that, depending on where you focus your skills (or if you decide you need to spend them there instead of on stupid things like Silent Spell or something else useless like Craft Weapon, or even more useless like Increased INT scores ) then you could become a potions and cures master and find all kinds of useful junk laying around in the woods.

Just a thought if you don't have any other things to make you tear your hair out while developing.



dunniteowl

[MorbidGorilla]

make wands and scrolls cheaper to craft.......OR

go old school, and remove the gold requirement, and instead have "useless" random or just plain odd items, be combineable into magic items!

example

1 Large earthworm+troll balls+aloe roots=ring of regeneration

OR

a ruby+a hellhound tooth+a burnt branch=wand of wire

I dont know the logistics for the scripting but I could think of some nifty combos

[M. Rieder]

MorbidGorilla wrote...

make wands and scrolls cheaper to craft.......OR
go old school, and remove the gold requirement, and instead have "useless" random or just plain odd items, be combineable into magic items!
example
1 Large earthworm+troll balls+aloe roots=ring of regeneration
OR
a ruby+a hellhound tooth+a burnt branch=wand of wire
I dont know the logistics for the scripting but I could think of some nifty combos

Crafting, eh?  Well, I had some crafting in the first one (if you found the sylph's den) and it really isn't very hard to script.  I think this can be arranged.

Modifié par M. Rieder, 07 décembre 2010 - 01:31 .

[M. Rieder]

dunniteowl wrote...

And if you're going to be using crafting for alchemy *(potions and such) then making components spottable based on Lore and Magecraft skills, as well as Spot and Survival combos to sort of create specialty skill synergies would open up possibility of only knowing how to craft certain kinds of potions based on your Lore/Survival, Lore/Spot, Magecraft/Lore, Magecraft/Spot, etc, so that, depending on where you focus your skills (or if you decide you need to spend them there instead of on stupid things like Silent Spell or something else useless like Craft Weapon, or even more useless like Increased INT scores ) then you could become a potions and cures master and find all kinds of useful junk laying around in the woods.
Just a thought if you don't have any other things to make you tear your hair out while developing.

dunniteowl

First off, I always shave my head before starting with the toolset.  That way, instead of pulling my hair out,  I just end up giving myself a nice scalp massage which helps with the scripting migraines. (why on earth do they have a function "SetFlagUnlocked()" and "ActionUnlockDoor()"?  I spent hours on a script before checking an old script and remembering the other one! The bastards!).


Second off, that is an excellent iea.  One of the challenges I face is that when I play a mage, I mainly want to sneak around and blow stuff up. End of story.  It is hard for me to put myself in the shoes of a roleplayer.  So advice like this is really helpful.  If you think of anything like it or more of the same, I am all ears! 

[M. Rieder]

M. Rieder wrote...

MorbidGorilla wrote...

make wands and scrolls cheaper to craft.......OR
go old school, and remove the gold requirement, and instead have "useless" random or just plain odd items, be combineable into magic items!
example
1 Large earthworm+troll balls+aloe roots=ring of regeneration
OR
a ruby+a hellhound tooth+a burnt branch=wand of wire
I dont know the logistics for the scripting but I could think of some nifty combos

Crafting, eh?  Well, I had some crafting in the first one (if you found the sylph's den) and it really isn't very hard to script.  I think this can be arranged.

heh.....troll balls!

[M. Rieder]

Arkalezth wrote...

M. Rieder wrote...

Yep. I'm going to focus on getting more skills in there. TWA was my first mod and I was just trying things out. In the sequel I hope to be able to focus on things that people have been asking for, and more skill checks is one of them.

If you're open to suggestions, I have some.

Regarding skills: Have you played "Harp & Chrysantemum"? In that module, ranks in Survival would reveal points of interest in the map. Mages can't take max ranks in Survival, but in the first module there were a couple places that were somewhat hard to find. That system (or something similar) would be helpful in those situations.

Or maybe even spell checks in conversations. It'd help more "mage feeling" to the module. I think I've only seen that in "The Maimed God's Saga" (Cleric module), and it was pretty cool.

Also, in the first module, the player had a map in the inventory. You could add a fast travelling system to it. Less backtrack, and all that.

Do you mean spell checks to see if the PC has certain spells memorized, or certain spells in the grimoire, or something like that, or something more basic like spellcraft skill slots?

[Arkalezth]

In the module I mentioned, there were memorized spells checks, but known spells would be ok too, if possible.

For example, you could use Charm Person instead of Diplomacy, or Gust of Wind to throw an enemy off of a cliff, or Enlarge Person on yourself to intimidate someone (Gandalf does that in the Lord of the Rings movie)...

Modifié par Arkalezth, 07 décembre 2010 - 02:19 .

[MorbidGorilla]

sylph's den?



uh oh me thinks i must replay the first one

[M. Rieder]

Yeah, lots of people missed it, apparently. I guess I need to make some of the secret areas a little less secret. Maybe putting in a spot/survival skill check to give a little bit of help. Also make sure you found the riverwizard, too. That is an important quest, especially if you plan on playing the sequel. If you can't find it, post a note on the thread in this forum, on the vault, or PM me here and I'll help out.



Do you think that I should enclose a little walkthough with the next module so people can check to make sure they found everything? I was thinking of doing it.

[kamalpoe]

Having just played this module, I would expect the pc would know about the sylphs den since it's in the Master's Forest area, which the pc should be familiar with, so there could/should be a mapnote for it. I saw it with some z key highlighting, never did do the quest, only the haverdugs part.

[M. Rieder]

Ok, so a walkthrough it is. I think the "previously on TWA" could probably be summed up effectively in a succinct journal entry (although a cutscene depicting the PC acting out pivotal moments of each quest would be fun, I think it would be a little long).



@ Kamal:



Thanks for the imput. That makes sense. I will put it in the next version update.

[M. Rieder]

Screenshots:


Now don't touch him, or the mother won't take him back...

400x300http://lh3.ggpht.com/_9ocWRSkzdqs/TQbVCJfEuqI/AAAAAAAAADc/k6RS4nP79-c/Fullscreen%20capture%2012132010%2091657%20PM.jpg[/IMG]



The town of Sundsvenall from the dock...


400x300http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9ocWRSkzdqs/TQbVOfbSibI/AAAAAAAAADg/sITb4YvOrbw/Fullscreen%20capture%2012132010%2090802%20PM.jpg[/IMG]


...and from atop the lighthouse.



400x300http://lh4.ggpht.com/_9ocWRSkzdqs/TQbVO1HO4SI/AAAAAAAAADk/5DE-HAMzshU/Fullscreen%20capture%2012132010%2090942%20PM.jpg[/IMG]

Modifié par M. Rieder, 14 décembre 2010 - 02:37 .