Ok since moderators apparently don't reply I have to restart this thread. I'll fill in the info here as I find it all for the first post overview.
The newly formed city of Felgore's reach needs champions. The Tournament of Crowns will allow participants to win citizenship in this closed society, and will help anoint a ruler of the city, from the participating council of four. The council are the sponsors of the tournament.
Level Start: 1
Level End: 9
Party Info: 6 player made characters
Every Bit Counts!
or "Freshness That Would Make Downey Blush"
Ok I will let you guys struggle to figure out both of those metaphorical titles. (well one is a metaphor). I am not going to bother rehashing the little discussion on sub level 1 combat and equipment that existed in my old thread just going to keep moving forward.
As you will already know if you've ever heard me post about modules, the number 1 thing I need them to be (my own work included) is fresh as this stage. New CC generally fills that role. But I think people overlook a lot of areas commonly seen that rarely get touched. User interface is a huge one.
My campaign will be rife with new content thanks to the cornucopia project, but I decided to also focus on an area that's sure to be giving people red eyes after all this time. Icons! Found runnerducks icon pack to be pretty useful. Here is a sample in game:
I am really enjoying coming up with custom gems to give the player as a store of value, rather than just thrumping down 800 gold pieces after a dragon dies. As you can see I have a set value in mind for a lot of them (see description), and although I won't paint it out in the description of every one, I will know their value as I become familiar with my creations. Then I can give the player a corpse full of colourful riches to loot instead of the mundane.
The caveat here is that selling these gems to a greasy vendor could net you less than you could get at most vendors, but that is part of the game. I will be setting their sell value higher than what is stated, so that including vendor buy back prices, they will still get the value I intended for the player.
In my campaign these and most gems aren't used for player crafting and I will state as such. So you can just enjoy the riches.
There's even a few gold pile icons I forgot to include in the picture, to represent higher piles of gold for when I do give them.
I am easily able to edit colours and gems myself where needed (merchants tear above started out red like a ruby with no middle colouration where I have the yellow) thanks to my experience in texture programs due to project fatty.
I am also thinking of doing a tiering system that the player would easily be able to catch on with. Flawed, rough, smooth, perfect gems.
Hammer Time
or a "Perpetual Carrot"
The time I have spent on this project which isn't in great supply currently was focused on getting this wack-a-mole game I had in mind working. I've built this script with re-use in mind so I don't mind that it took 2 sessions to do it right. Include in that time I built custom mole hill creatures so the player could have something to smash and of course, they need a proper custom weapon for the task.
As you can see from the image there are the molehill objects in the background. They pop up and disappear rapidly (yes, much faster than the 6 second hb) as I try to inject a little arcade style fun into the adventure. I already have a new use for the script in mind, and not just for re-visits to flattening small animals. It would also be quite useful as a boss combat script, for example a sea monster with multiple tentacles that pop up as separate creature models.
It was built in such a way that there need be no copying or modifications to use it in that way or a variety of ways. Simply set the flag variables as needed on the parent creature (in this scene, the NPC who gives you the quest) and it interprets what to do.You set a death flag on the creatures themselves in their On_death script so that the hb script knows to reduce the number of creatures popping up. Any scene where you need 1 to many creatures of the same ilk to pop up and duck back down over a series of waypoints will work with this. I'm entertaining any ideas from the peanut gallery on how else this could be used.
I wanted to make just a periodic update so this is known to be active.
A lot of you know the fatty project is my 100% focus until it's done. It will absolutely be in Tournament of Crowns. But I accomplish more with single minded intensity so this will get out there to the masses, and then I am back here.
But, unfortunately I am going to need to make or modify content very early in my campaign. Basically some in the second area and then quite a bit for the third (the areas of the main city, Felgore's Reach). I need to make a lot of elven style building pieces.
There's a danger here I am all to familiar with... great grand ideas that started with so much custom content that the author abandoned it before actually creating any campaign. I'll try and keep it in balance best I can, but the community is really lacking in elven custom content, so for the most part it has to be built. I also need to get the concept I have with a lot of over sized vines and greenery down in some kind of diagram form. I am having trouble picturing it exactly, but think of giant bright green leafed plants growing around and neatly coexisting with the buildings. It's a nature loving type of town.
So I can easily picture a giant leafed vine wrapping around a marble pillar for example, but having more difficulty figuring out the rest. Could a huge beanstalk support a hut or cabin on top? Or is that over the top. And I am really trying to get ideas on how they can exist with the buildings.I want them to look they were built with them in mind as opposed to just growing over things uncontrollably.
It may seem pretty abstract but if by some lottery winning chance anyone knows what I am going for and has visual or verbal ideas let me know. ( I don't expect any).
So this will be my next line of custom content in about January. Elven city.
Could a huge beanstalk support a hut or cabin on top? Or is that over the top.
Anything built in a tree needs to be able to withstand the twisting and swaying that happens in a tree.
Or do they??
I guess I should admit these are very inspired by this famous fairy tale. But I hope to do more with them than just have giant 3 mile tall ones going straight up in the air. Or something different, more accurately.
Guest_Iveforgotmypassword_*
There are placeable trees that you can mess around with the scale on if you want to stick houses in them and also kamal came up with a way of stopping trees moving about. Also there are quite a lot of "vineish" trees ( shrubs I think ) that can go around pillars.
How about going mad on tree scale so there are lots of trunks about then making a transition ladder that brings you up to above the tree canopy onto the raised walkmesh ( or left as it was when you started with the transition bit lowered which is probably easier ) so the player can stroll about and look down on trees.
Guest_Iveforgotmypassword_*
A bit like the Witcher 2 ? Maybe you could "borrow" it's placeables.
A bit like this perhaps? A similar look could be achieved using the various vine tree types (one of the expansions introduced lots of variants), much like my vine-covered trees.
The vines will sway slightly though. It wasn't a problem for me as the trees inside them were also swaying, but it might be noticeable with a static placeable like a column.
A bit like this perhaps? A similar look could be achieved using the various vine tree types (one of the expansions introduced lots of variants), much like my vine-covered trees.
The vines will sway slightly though. It wasn't a problem for me as the trees inside them were also swaying, but it might be noticeable with a static placeable like a column.
My non swaying trees trick with the .ini file will take care of any swaying vines as well.
My non swaying trees trick with the .ini file will take care of any swaying vines as well.
That would paralyse every tree in the campaign though. Personally, I consider swaying to be one of the big drawcards of the speedtree format. I'd hate to see them all stilled.
A better approach would be to hack into the individual speedtree files and turn off swaying selectively. It might be possible with a hex editor, provided you know which sections of the file to target. Or you could spend hundreds of dollars buying the proper speedtree editing software. 
I see they're now creating tree stumps, which I'd like to assume wouldn't sway.
That would paralyse every tree in the campaign though. Personally, I consider swaying to be one of the big drawcards of the speedtree format. I'd hate to see them all stilled.
A better approach would be to hack into the individual speedtree files and turn off swaying selectively. It might be possible with a hex editor, provided you know which sections of the file to target. Or you could spend hundreds of dollars buying the proper speedtree editing software.
I see they're now creating tree stumps, which I'd like to assume wouldn't sway.
The ini file works at the module level if you put it there.
There are non-sway speedtrees as well, that can be used side by side with sway trees. It's on the vault, can't find it right now. Those have swaying leaves, it sometimes looks funny. I used these in Crimmor because I hate how much the stock trees sway.
Was there not a way to set the branches to sway more than the trunk? That was my issue with Nwn2... Trunks should barely move.
The ini file had places to adjust a lot of things separately, you'd have to look and experiment.
Equipment Ideas
Since I have no toolset access right now but I am not doing anything much modelling or modding on just a laptop, I thought I would put forth a few cool weapon ideas I have. And others can feel free to add some or modify the ones I have.
First, I have an existing weapon from Islander that I really liked. It is based on a scripted weapon, which I try to avoid since they don't port around so well, but more recently I am thinking who cares. They are for my campaign. The name escapes me but we'll call it bard sword +2 for now.
Bard Sword +2
Short Sword 1d6
On hit:
10% healing aloe leaves (large falling leaf graphic) heals the wielder 1d4.
10% chance stun 1 round (prismatic spray graphic)
10% chance to spawn 3 frantic chickens... mildly distracting to the targer (-2 attack for 2 rounds)
On each special attack hit it shows a few poker card graphics spinning and flashing by the wielder rather impressively. It's kind of a blade of chance. I forge the description but it all was pretty cool.
Ok and I came up with this new one today when I was trying to think of a convoluted name on purpose with at least 3 words.
Fractured Blade of Dissonance +2
Bastard Sword 1d10
Sonic damage +2
Will Saves +3
This jagged blade appears to have been split along it's side, the cause unclear. A voiceless howl bursts from the tip of the blade on impact. This unnatural tone is quite jarring, leaving the wielder more likely to shake off magical influences.
I thought of this being a long sword initially but I think it's a little too good to be a standard weapon.
Speaking of that I would like to say, philosophically, I feel like it is the author's duty to ensure that magical 2h weapons should continue to compensate for, and thus justify their exclusion of a shield or offhand weapon. The weapon itself has the extra damage at low level, which justifies things just fine (1d12 vs 1d8... seems reasonable). But this quickly becomes an unfair trade if the author creates both of their magical variants with 1d6 fire, cold, elec damage like the OC. What idiot would give up a shield to gain 1d4 when they have 30 some damage potential as a base either way?
So I believe you make this worth while with your 2 handers much like the infinity games (Carsomyr anyone?). But I extend that rule to exotics... the character spent a feat on exotics, handing them a bastard sword that has only a 1d2 advantage over a long sword and is otherwise unremarkable, is unbalanced. Again at first it's fine, but as 1d2 trivializes, you need to beef up the magical portion as well. I still reserve even more power for a 2h than a simply exotic of course. When in doubt I try to keep the proportion similar in percentage to the base damage dealt out.
Speaking of these 2 handers, I really want to add a kind of 2 hand hammer to my campaign. More like a giant mallet, in terms of the graphic model I will make for it. But it will be like a spiritual 2h war hammer. I noticed there actually are two handed maces, but not war hammers.
What is the cleanest way to go about this without redoing multiple 2das? Is war mace the best fit, and just change to a new custom model for the look? Is there some way to force a warhammer to be wielded with 2 hands? Whats a clean way for this to work?
I am really going to impress the need for switching between blunt and non blunt for different enemies in this campaign, so I want to nail this down as a 2h option for blunt damage. I generally discourage (in the intro room) and balance without weapon focus, specialization etc in my campaigns. I like the player to stay open to switching styles over the campaign. They should not be missing out on a great weapon because he guessed wrong and used feats in weapon skills he or she feels they have to stick with now.
Would be nice if you make custom cactus leaves for that aloe effect. I agree that it doesn't matter if your scripted weapon doesn't work in other modules, as long as it's not something given as a quest reward after all the fighting's done.
Correction for your description:
This jagged blade appears to have been split along its side
Also agreed that 2-handers should compensate for the shield.
I've always thought that bonus elemental damage should scale with the weapon base damage. Having both a dagger and a greatsword do the same amount of fire damage, for instance, doesn't make much sense. The greatsword has a lot more surface area, so if the blade is supernaturally hot them it should be doing a lot more fire damage.
Perhaps the maximum amount of bonus elemental damage should be determined by XdY, whereby 'X' is the enhancement bonus and 'Y' is the maximum base damage? That way a +2 dagger would max out at 2d4 elemental damage, while a +3 greatsword could do up to 3d12 damage.
Quest Central
(click to view larger image)
Well I will just pretend this post is conspicuously far between and act like nothing has happened.
I have figured out though, even if I plan to build in small modular quest stages that can end whenever I want, I do need to put in some work to make a proper city base
the suits my vision.
What I am looking for is a lot of white, closer to whitish polished granite and near white walls and walkways where it is not. Then gold coloured accents. That's the general flair I am going for. It should be a grand city that might seem like one you'd see in an elven but not entirely elven influence.
I believe I am using the medieval city haf fortification walls ( I am sure a lot of you will know it once you see it here):
Does anyone know the texture files I might override without destroying this hak? I think a retextured based colour that was closer to white and a smoothed out brick would do wonders for my goal. I am open to any suggestions to further this theme. Think of Tir Na Nog possibly. White on gold, plants intermingled with stone, etc.
I have looked at re texturing the city hak before and there are issues which you will need to resolve I think. Primarily some of the models call several texture files and mdb cloner will not give you them all so you will need to look at the models them selves in blender to get the file names. You will have to take them out of the hak or create new models but you know all that I think:
You could try this light swirl marble texture:
http://www.spiralgra...arble/index.htm
and create a marble block wall that might suit your theme? Or perhaps the rough Egyptian?
Also simbolic city wall pack is easier to work with than the city hak and the turret models might suit you theme better? When you re texture simbolic you will find the textures are applied oddly and the blocks are offset at each texture break. Again I think that you are better placed to fix that than me, I have had to manange but it does not look so bad in sandstone that I have used.
House 1 2 and 3 in the stock set come to mind when I try to picture what you are trying to do and a re-textured dock set perhaps?
The clean bridge in RJS's city pack and the turreted bridge would look good with the look you are describing as well i think. Especially the turreted bridge with the texture paled down?
That's what comes to mind for me
PJ
so you dont think I can find the textures to change? Is it perhaps simply better for me to make the model myself if we consider making geometric shapes like that fairly quick rather than cross reference a bunch of junk?
I was kind of anticipating singular textures. But perhaps I should actually make my own elven walls and turrets and of course add them to the 'copia?
One way to learn all the texture names of a multi-part model is to copy the MDB file into a folder by itself, along with an unrelated DDS texture, and try to open the model in the MDB Model Viewer. It will then prompt you for each missing texture, which will reveal their names. At each prompt you can select the unrelated texture as a replacement, and it will then continue to the next missing texture.
You can also use the MDB Model Viewer to replace every diffuse texture with new ones, and save the result with a new model name. It doesn't give you the option of changing the tint maps or normal maps though.
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