Ernie Noa's RPG Blog

I was testing Tomoachan in v1.10 tonight and ran into some bright red walls in the dungeon. Anyone aware of this or how to fix it? I'll go post and check over at the forums, I don't have much time but wanted to get a jump on this.

Tomoachan has been out nearly one week. I've got nearly 700 downloads and a ton of great feedback. People seem to be enjoying it, particularly the original part of the mod, and I'm very happy. ** WHAT'S NEXT ** I've retired from mod writing again. The same way I do after every module...but... there are two or three things running around my brain for the future. I'd love to do Expedition Barrier Peaks, but I'm missing a few things. I don't have a clear cut backstory as interesting as this. Perhaps if the d20 modern produces the right content. I thought I had seen a modern NWN2 mod around the vault but I can't find it. 2nd, I need something in between Barrier Peaks and Tomoachan to bridge the PC levels together. I have my own totally unique campaign idea in my head, that has what I hope will be a few interesting characters and interesting dilemmas but it's a crapload of dialog and scripting. Finally if there is ever an airship model I'd conside...

Tomoachan made the NWVault Spotlight. You can read about it here . I am very pleased with the reception the module has recieved. One of my favorite posts suggested I build more mods, and listed a few PnP classics. Toward the end of the post Tauchitz said "So stop all this talk on your blog about "breaks" and "burnout", get rid of your life, and start building ;-))" I thought that was great. I have been playing Star Trek Legacy and hanging out with my kids with my free time. The Star Trek game is ok but entertaining.

A few quick fixes Fixes in 1.0.1 include: * Start Area now labeled ‘Prologue’ * Elora’s voice changed to ‘Female, Healer’, I was using Elanee's voice - so mentions of the Mere and Meredelain were a little odd * Adjusted a few camera settings in conversations. * Fixed a typo in a conversation with Navio. * Tathli now has a glittering necklace to add light and enhance cutscenes if encountered at night time. * Transition in land of the dead renamed ‘trapdoor’. * The name for Elora’s bedroom, now reads ‘Elora’s Bedroom’ instead of area 3. * Re-balanced ship attack. With 5th level characters the battle was over before the area finished loading. * Fire memphit text should only appear once, it was firing multiple times. * The metal bird would spawn multiple times. This should only fire once now. * Increased difficulty of a several encounters. * Increased hit points of some monsters * Made some doors in maztican village static

It's up on the vault. Enjoy! Download Tomoachan here !

Thank you Darmok. The module worked on another machine so I submitted the request to NWVault. I also contact the site admin about uploading the files which are all over 25MB. When I get authorization to transfer via FTP I will upload the module. Very soon folks! Then I'm done. Other than bug fixing I'm retiring from module writing forever. Just like I do after every module I write. :-)

I'm done. It's prepped for upload and burned to a CD. I'll take a CD to a friends house (Bruce, aka Darmok). When he's got a few he'll make sure it loads up and I have not overlooked anything. Then I'll post on the Vault. I am going to play Battlefront with my eldest son, and if there is time, I'll load up a Star Trek game I got for my birthday. There are some NWN2 mods I'd like to play but for very understandable reasons, I'm going to take a break. I KNOW there will be bugs and issues after I release the mod, their always are, but I'll work on cleaning them up. Hopefully folks will be just as understanding and patient as they have in the past. * whew *

I've taken care of all the bugs on my list, including the big nasty ones. I think the module is clean. That leaves two test passes. Once checking for bugs and one checking game balance. Then I pack it up and deliver it to a friend (probably Monday) for testing on another machine. If that looks good. The mod is done. CROSSING FINGERS!

I've slowly knocked a few bugs out this week, but haven't had much time to work on this. I took care of a henchmen related bug that was very important. I have one important bug remaining. The others I can always go around, or just change things if I'm really stuck. I have a critical encounter that ends either with the death of an NPC or through dialog. When both of these events occur I call a jump the party to a new area, the same area. Then an on enter script fires and a dialog starts. This dialog starts if the NPC dies but not if they jump occurs through dialog. I'm not sure what's up. Very puzzling, but I am not out of tricks quite yet. Another stubborn but non important bug involve using and item to spawn a creature. This is not a critical encounter, and I finally just laid a encounter trigger around the object and would have the creature spawn when you approached it. That doesn't work either. It's active... got a valid number of creatures......

I've was able to test for 2 hours tonight. I got a few things fixed, including one or two major items. I won't be able to work on the mod until Saturday and then only for part of the day. Then it will be next week or weekend after next before I get serious time in. Too bad as I am very close. I found replacement music that I like. I'm bummed about dropping what I thought was PERFECT, but I am very VERY happy with the new music. So... what's left. * One trigger/trap involving a stone block. I'm probably going to simplify this. * One heavily scripted trap. I ported the script exactly as it was from NWN1, now it doesn't work very well. * I need to retest a critical companion driven event. This seemed to work on the last test, but I screwed something up, and think the test is invalid. * I need to retest the final 'scene'. * I need to figure out why the epilogue cutscene stopped firing. I suspect it's because I added a tga to the first node, but t...

I have now moved through the entire module from start to finish in one sitting. It's possible and although there are many things to fix, the list is gradually shrinking. I feel closer having reached this new point, and I will switch gears shortly. I will fix my current bug list, backup the mod and then play with load screens and including a few tga's in a conversation. If I get that in and working, there is nothing left but testing. That light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger all the time. I feel energized by this progress.

I spent a lot of the day testing and debugging Tomoachan, except for some time with the kids, and watching the Illinois Football Game. Go Illini! It's slow going but good progress. My stuff, my original stuff preceding the 'dungeon' is very stable and good enough to be called done. The dungeon is slowly improving. I have progressed half way through, with luck I'll be able to slug through the whole thing. I'm presently testing with the beginning of the dungeon moving forward only. If I can get through the whole thing I'll switch from testing to adding loadscreens. Being able to get through the whole thing will be another milestone in a sense. The stuff that is vexing me was not a problem in Keep on the Borderlands. Fetching items from placeables, making placeable bashable, talking to placeables, I'll figure it all out, it's not awful, but less is working than I would like at this point. I'm officially feeling pangs of burnout. I want to releas...

I have a long weekend ahead of me and I'd like to really hammer on this mod and get it close to done or with a bit of obsessive work... done completely. The initial stumbling blocks with the speak trigger stuff has been solved. I'm hitting show stoppers here and there, but nothing insurmountable. I am very pleased with my rate of progress. More over I am pleased with how the characters seem to play out. I find after all this testing I am still interested in trying to push a relationship with a character this way or that. Hopefully that's a good sign and others will enjoy this aspect of the game too. Excellent Excellent start to debugging.

I have run a spell checker on the mod and have started testing. I am able to move through the module ok (I've only testing 1/4). Most of it is working ok for a first pass. It's going to take a while, but I'm underway. I appear to have two major problems. 1) My alternate speak trigger is not working. I posted code earlier that I was using instead of a speak trigger. I tested the wazoo out of it before doing much building and I couldn't break. Now it works most of the time, but I have found ways to break it. This code has to be rock solid or the module won't work. So... this is a big issue. I'll post on the forums for help and if anyone here has a suggestion let me know. Maerduin replyed to my earlier post and said: I'm still curious about the speaktrigger issue you mention because I've never encountered it. I have a speaktrigger in one of my forest areas, for instance, that triggers a conversation with a companion who is not present in the are...

Lariam asked a question in response to my last post. My response was so long I decided to copy it and make it a full/formal post. You've got it. The starting level is around 4 or 5. There are a few very unusual things (for me) about this module. 1) The module does reference the Forgotten Realms. My modules are often 'general' and can fit in anywhere. I do reference Maztica somewhat frequently, and there is at least one reference to the Sword Coast. I think this helped with the story a bit to put it in a more concrete context. 2) All alignments are supported, but in general I recommend good or neutral. 3) This is not a sequel to Keep on the Borderlands, but picks up right where you character would leave off from an xp/level standpoint. Most characters can be carried over. 4) There is a 'romance' element that factors into the main plot, and thus I'm strongly recommending a male character. Some of the dialog indicates a the player is a male. If a player do...

I am nearly ready for beta testing. All the dialog is done. All the scripting is done. All the layout is done. I need to run a spell checker first (mentally I'm considering this testing and debugging). I also need load screens and a few in conversations tga files. I plan to grab the screen shots I need during my first few test passes then add them in. I have reached the testing phase. I'm sure there is more broken than working but this is a huge step. I've mentioned before this is an adaptation of the PnP rather than a straight conversion. I'm thinking of releasing it with the title. "Tamoachan" rather than "C1: The Hidden Shrine of Taomoachan" to reflect this. * whew * Time to put the kiddies to bed and rest.

I have hit a major milestone today. I have finished building the dungeon with two exceptions sound and loadscreens. It is untested, but the dungeon represents the converstion or adaptation of the original Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan. My 'wrapper' goes around it and is interspersed with in it. My to do list before I begin testing is as follows: Write the end scene/battle. (It's finished in my head) Write the epilogue, with 2-3 different outcomes (Also in my head) Set up battles encounters for the wrapper (dialog and area transitions are done, just need the bad guys). Pick load screens for each area. Place sounds for each area. I may wait and take screen captures during a test run and turn them into load screens. It is possible I could be ready to be testing by the end of the weekend. If not by the end of the week is very likely. I have a lot of varied scripting to check so testing could take a while, but that light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger. Burnout is ...

I have 34 rooms in the conversion/adaptation of Hidden Shrine done and 20 to go. Tons of progress, very little testing. My story and areas that largely 'wrap around' the original dungeon remain nearly complete. I need a break and will try to remain disciplined enough to take one. I am greatly enjoying the work but I want it to be finished. Not so much burnout but definitely excitement and impatience to complete it and share it with people. When... I don't know. It depends on how much and how often I can work and how long testing and debugging takes. I'm hoping this module is as stable as Keep on the Borderlands. I think Keep was a pretty simple hack and slash mod but it was stable and I was proud of that. Once again I'm going to say what I always say. This is it. This is the last mod and I'm quitting and giving it up. Maybe I can break the toolset after I release this mod. I'm retiring from mod writing... again... the same way I do after each mod...

I wrote my most complicated NWN2 script so far, complicated for me anyway. I usually try to keep things as simple as possible. I used the getPosition function to grab the vectors of objects and compare their relative positions. I knew there y and z would be constant and only had to deal with the x. Depending upon where the player is in relation to an object the object will move in north or south (by being destroyed and created). It's a lot of work for relatively minor and insignificant bit, but it was interesting to try and write. I also made a willow-the-wisp using the 'invisible man' model and the will-o-wisp effect. It looks pretty good.

I tested the first chunk of my module, not exhaustively but enough to find the big issue and figure out what I was doing that was working and what was failing miserably. I'll do a little debugging, probably no additional serious (for now) then move on to the next chunk. * Edit 4:16pm * Editing and debugging complete. Two things I'm not sure off. 1) I've got guys who are supposed to be in a diaorama. The are 1/4 scale, and I can get them to freeze and look like stone. No problem. I want to place them on an object with dynamic collision on and not have them pop off to the side. I just set height and position lock but haven't tested this. It indicates this will hold them in the toolset (which I assume means not in the game). 2) I have a few extra factions. What's the best way to make someone non-hostile then have them go hostile against you and companions after the conversation. I can get them to attack, but they don't engage my companions, at least not ...