675 replies to this topic

[andysks]

It's been a very long time since I posted screenshots, and so here are some of my latest areas. High level.

 

Spooky place. One of the main PC's dreams. Trying to find out why they occur. There is no guarantee that you will have these dreams except if you are really thorough. Of course there are plot ones that will happen anyway.

 

Here I think I captured the desert feeling quite well.

 

A portal back to the material plane.

 

These stones exist throughout the planes. Using them will give some permanent bonus to a skill or main attribute, but they are heavily guarded of course.

 

Filling these walls with books might have been one of the most boring work I've done for Return of the Exile. But I think it was worth it. The place has now the feel of an extraplanar library of infinite knowledge.

 

A while ago we talked about rays and beams and how the scripts work to direct them where I want. This is the complete result. Solving riddles, and rays appear centered on a spot.

 

Another spooky area with a very high level battle. Close to answers now.

[sirchet]

Wow, just wow!

I can only imagine what these areas feel like with the ambient sound and music.

[andysks]

Hi all. Long time no update since time was limited here. Lately I have been scripting some boss fights. I got inspired by games which do this well, in a big fight arena with many things to do instead of just hitting the evil guy. Over the past days I was creating one of these fights with KevL, and since he asked me to post some screenshots... here they are . Without spoiling too much hopefully. The idea is that when the boss reaches a certain threshold of lost HP, since he is a druid, he will call upon the 4 elements. During this time the party needs to either find shelter or destroy his source of power.

 

The talk before the battle... these pillars will play some role later on.

 

Failing to interrupt the earth element...

 

or water

 

Time to run or act against an element.

 

 

On the technical aspect, I am using again the ginc_reflection from MotB for these beams and a way to count seconds elapsed created by KevL. I chose against HB because it would be a little bit off by a second or so for this, and I wanted full control. Area is from the pestilent lands pack of SGK.

 

A question came from KevL at some point during the coding. What if a player heals the boss? Then the % of his HP will go to a previous state. Do you people do such a thing ?

[kevL]

yes. lol

setting looks great,

[kamal_]

 

A question came from KevL at some point during the coding. What if a player heals the boss? Then the % of his HP will go to a previous state. Do you people do such a thing ?

Check local int on whether phase x ran == 1 before starting phase x, set local int to 1 when the phase runs. Results: phase x only runs once. Otherwise it could be a problem if the boss heals itself via spell/regen.

[kevL]

already done, kam_

[OfficerDonNZ]

Looking good andysks, I'd love to know when this will be avaible to download and play.

[andysks]

Hi OfficerDonNZ. A few posts up I mention that by current calculations Q1 2017 looks possible. In fact, if this was my main job it would be a certainty. Plan is to finish remaining areas and final fights during the summer and take autumn and Christmas holiday for testing, trimming down the campaign folder size and adding the transitions between chapter changes as well as the hand drawn intro sequence. I will not optimize any more. I thought that I will release it and keep carrying for the project after the release with possible optimizations and extra flavor here and there depending on possible feedback from the players.

[OfficerDonNZ]

Holy heck just how big is this thing anyway? You started this way back in 2013 (that's scary to say)

[andysks]

Tough to say, lol . The first chapter (after prologue) is the biggest and the one that needed the most work. Because there is where the world opens and many different side quests come to play.The last time I had a player test the events until the end of chapter 2 (out of 5) she said that she played 40 hours on the about. Now, chapter get progressively smaller near the end of the game, so by my current estimations it's about 60-70 hours. One could rush it in less of course. But the complete experience of 60-70 hours reflects how big it is .

 

In numbers, and to recap perhaps:

About 120 areas, 10 companions, 50 or so side quests, 4 cities, about 150.000 words of dialogue last time I counted.

 

2013 sounds too far back in the past . Problem is that due to inexperience, the first year was getting to know how to code and build areas. After that, add a year for correcting all the mistakes that happened due to learning phase. So the real progress happens on the past 1-2 years I would say. Still, a lot of time for a big project.

[OfficerDonNZ]

Wow, I'm impressed. Looking forward to the finished product. What's the level range?

[andysks]

Starting at 1 and by calculations one can reach about 14-15.  I say calculations because while I can say with certainty how much xp all quests add up to, with all battles it is tough to calculate exactly. It could be more than 15 but certainly not less. When I first started this blog I was talking about epic levels but that's not going to happen. If I wanted to do so, then I would have to reward ridiculous amounts of xp and it would break the experience I thought. Also, I hear people don't really enjoy the epic levels so much. Will see. Perhaps on some expansion . Then endings allow possibilities for a further project.

[Tchos]

I may have mentioned something like that at some point, but it's not that I don't enjoy playing epic levels, it's just that epic levels demand a certain kind of story if you're going to have relative challenge, since by that level you've grown in power beyond superheroes and become as powerful as gods.  There aren't many situations that can sustain such a challenge that are personally engaging and fresh, and it takes a special kind of skill to execute them well.

 

As for the XP rewards you mention, I agree.  I was, and still am, critical of some of the excessively large XP dumps that Planescape: Torment granted to the player for certain trivial actions or discoveries late in the game when it seemed like they had run out of development time or money.

[andysks]

I think it was someone else (KevL probably) who said that after level 12-15 or something, which is a level that one can get most out of a class + prestige class, that the character development becomes a bit boring. Like leveling up doesn't offer the joy of getting from 6 to 7 or so. 

 

But you are also fully right. Epic levels = epic story and it really needs to fit. The spirit eater for example.

 

About the nameless one getting a couple million xp points for triggering a memory or just picking a dialogue option toward the end, I also found it weird at first. But for a player who plays the game for the first time I welcomed it because I needed these last points on wisdom and intelligence (I chose to play him as a fighter). On my second run, I started with high wisdom and intelligence and these last points ended up going to dexterity without much thought around it. So yes, I can understand why they did it. The nameless one needs the points . But at the same time is weird. I guess they knew it is a kind of lose-lose situation. Give immense amounts of xp, or let a player down not having enough points to get all possible options on the last conversations... and they picked the first.

[kevL]

not me

I'd say a character starts coming into his/her own at level 9. when buffs can be profitably extended ...


If i ever do an epic campaign it would be against the Witchking of Angmar.

[Tchos]

It's true that the leveling experience becomes less rewarding past a certain point if you already have everything you really wanted and don't really need to get any new abilities, but I never took note of exactly where that point is, though it's probably different for different classes.

 

My assumption for those XP dumps was that they had planned out the XP progression and developed encounters at the end that required a certain level, but were not able to finish all of the intended content that would have more reasonably granted XP to build up to that level, and so rather than attempting to rework the final encounters for a lower level, they awarded the XP anyway despite not really deserving it (consider how early in the game you accomplish much more impressive things in dialogue, such as remembering how to raise the dead).  It's just a guess based on knowing that they had to cut a lot of content near the end, though.

 

We may never know just how powerful you'd need to be to take on the Witchking, considering the fatal vulnerability, at least as shown in the movie, is that to kill him you just need to not be a man.

[kevL]

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Glorfindel

Do not pursue him! He will not return to this land. Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man will he fall.

[andysks]

I couldn't believe it when this baked .

 

 

 

 

 

I still have to add some fog underneath and place these rocks or walls more carefully to hide the transparent tile edges... but still. It baked... .

[rjshae]

Congratulations, your baking skills are pierless... so to speak.

[andysks]

Heh, thanks. I know a lot of people have trouble baking connected ramps and dock pieces so perhaps I get lucky. Who knows. Turning C2 on helps quite a bit sometimes. At first I wanted to use these platforms I requested from you a while back but I don't think PJ has included them in Cornucopia yet. So I chose the next best thing .

[andysks]

Journal Update

 

Hi all. Small update to say that everything goes as planned. I benefit a lot from the free time I have lately and all that is left to do now is a couple of areas, two big fights and some companion filler conversations. The whole material plane is done basically. The plan now is to have a stable version until the end of October. When I say stable I also mean with all content that will make it to final product. After that, intense testing on which time there will be no additions. So if I think that it would be nice if a companion barked something somewhere I won't add it. I also have to say that things move so fast and smooth because KevL has been a great scripting help. The way this campaign developed over the years... I think if he doesn't mind I'll have to add him as a scripter on the credits . It usually goes like that. I need to script a battle where some strategy is needed. I have the idea, and perhaps the code and ask KevL if it's possible. He comes back with an optimized code. So big thanks to him and a lot of respect.

[kamal_]

 

We may never know just how powerful you'd need to be to take on the Witchking, considering the fatal vulnerability, at least as shown in the movie, is that to kill him you just need to not be a man.

I don't know, I'd say not actually that powerful, just has one really good trick, DR50 vs man.

 

He's served up to Eowyn by a dagger sneak attack by at best a low level low STR thief, and since I think he's undead he probably didn't even take any sneak damage, so a basic dagger attack was enough damage to force him into a Con check for shock (which he fails) and thus stuns him. Stunned by that, Eowyn gives him the sword to the face. Basically he's not more powerful than a good warrior, he doesn't have a bunch of hit points (the dagger does enough of his HP in one shot to cause a Con check) and doesn't have too high of an AB bonus either. He misses Eowyn a bunch, and since she's disguised as a regular soldier she doesn't have any special arms or armor, and the armor limits whatever dex bonus she might have, so her AC is probably 16-17 tops (base 10 + chain mail + shield), The Witchking he does appear to have a high STR score, his weapon is really big.

 

He's a one trick pony, it's just a really good trick for the campaign world. Not even that great for most DnD adventuring I'd guess, what with all the non-humans in most campaigns. But as Middle Earth is mostly humans it's a great trick, but a few orcs could kill him (if they weren't scared of him and would attack him).

[kevL]

i don't know about you guys, but I don't view the WitchKing as a Peter Jackson stand-in

nice scenery tho.

[Tchos]

I couldn't say.  I don't know what a Peter Jackson stand-in is.

[kevL]

then neither could i

/shrug