Ernie Noa's RPG Blog

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...

I back up my work every few hours, but that wasn't enough for me to avoid loosing approximately 2 hours of work. I had completed an the final 2 areas for my module, then it crashed while saving and poof my 240MB module was 90MB and nothing was contained within. I went back to my version from two hours (and two areas) ago. Oh well... I was extremely pleased with how the 2nd to last area looked, and more important that that was it for laying out areas, there is still tons of scripting and populating to do, but the layout and transitions were nearly ready for a run through. oh well.....

I am spending way to much time working on this module, if I don't shelf it soon for a while I'm going experience some burnout. I have to construct 5-8 more additional interior areas, depending upon how I break them up. I have been working furiously on area layout with some decoration. My plan is to go back through and add more decoration, set sounds, load screens, etc... in another pass. I'm going to get all of the essential dialog in place, which actually is 80% complete. Then I'll take a walk through and see if all the area transitions work and the dialog is ok. With that the main story will be in place and functional. (minus journal entires) After that... add the monsters and NPCs. Companions are already in and well developed. There are a fair number of tricks/traps in the game and they need to be scripted. I think I can salvage/borrow a lot of scripts from earlier NWN1 mods, but I'm not quite sure. Finally... polish and debugging. I suppose psycholo...

I got stuck yesterday, I had the toolset crash while saving. I had a finished area become corrupt and a resource of some sort. I was able to restore what was broken using a recent backup! I backed up and restored one area, for the resource I opened the module backup and grabbed a copy of the unpacked resource file from the temp folder created when the module is in the toolset. I opened the current/broken version, dropped in the valid file and POOF! I'm there. I did a ton of work on my last major exterior area last night. It needs a ton of polishing.

Screenshots from my current project! Hope you enjoy them. If you have time read my previous post, I'm still stuck... I finished a large interior area and this exterior. I'm pretty happy with it. :-)

I am interested in using a few visual effects from NWVault . Specifically, dripping water and some vines . I haven't tried the vines yet, but I have used the water. I placed the five files included botu_dropsfx.sef (this seems to be the main FX file) botu_dropsend.pfx (part of the fx file, the start point of the drop or particle emitter) botu_drops.pfx (I'm guessing the end point of the drop) botu_dropsend.tga botu_drops.tga I dropped all five files in the override with no effect. This closed thread on biowares forums was helpful. I put all of the contents in the temp file for the module. I was able to copy a place effect, and pick the drops from the list. Unfortunately autosave started throwing a terrible error. I experimented moving everythign but the .sef to the override and the module wouldn't open properly (no worries, I had a backup). It's exactly what I need, but I'm not sure how to safely install it for distribution and/or development. I'd also ...

I had a nice family vacation last weekend, but did a bit more dialog last night. I had a rough plot outline with all my locations to start, and now I'm plowing through the dialog. I'm hoping this works out like a movie script, where I only build the locations I need to tell the story. I've seen some other posts about folks who have built large areas that people may never see. I've done this in MANY of my modules, and I think that can lend to an open ended feel. Doing all the dialog first is a different approach for me and hopefully it will produce good results.

I wrote a pile o' dialog today. It's coming along nicely. I plan on writing most of the main dialog first to help flesh out the plot structure I've got. I'll build the areas I need to deliver the story after that.

With the custom music and custom henchmen conversation triggers behind me I am back to writing dialog. The story I am telling has an outline and I have envisioned the key scenes but I need to work on the dialog and fill in what are largely 1 sided scenes in my head. I see them unfolding one way but want to allow opportunities for role playing.

I had half a day off today and spent just over 2 hours playing with music in my new module. I had already prepared the music clips as MP3s. Today I converted them to BMU files and tried to make sense of the various tutorials I have found on the forums. Bottom line, although the music is listed in the toolset it does not play. Hmmm... ... rather frustrating. Here are links on the forum with more on my woes: Forum Link #1 Forum Link #2 Time to set this aside and work on something else.

I've been working on some major and minor NPCs that will require the use of a few hack packs. It looks like this will really crank up the ultimate download size a bit. I started grabbing bits of music I'd like to use an looking for instruction on including custom music. It was a little tricky for NWN1 and it looks like it's going to be even more complicated for NWN2. I have found many contradictory tutorials, some instructions would make your game non-updateable, others include the music in the game but not the toolset. YUCK. Hopefully it won't be too bad to sort out.

I tried to change the default death script at the end of Keep on the Borderlands with no luck and lots of frustration. It seems simple, but I didn't get it to work. I've been poking around scripts from modules I've played and still can't figure out what I am overlooking. I can't find a good/clear tutorial on the subject, but have some new scripts in place (untested). Hopefully they will work.

I did quite a bit of dialog for the opening conversation tonight. I'm going to try to focus on dialog and cut scenes for a while. It's not usually the order I do things in but perhaps it will help stave off burnout and I'll get the material I care about most into the mod.

I got a lot of knocks in Keep On the Borderlands regarding lighting. I have found a brief lighting tutorial which gives me some important bits of info I did not have. Anyone know of other lighting tutorials let me know. I posted on the bioware forums looking for help with making a character and NPC hug and or kiss in a cut scene. Perhaps there is something obvious but I haven't started digging yet. I know it was a pain in NWN1, and if you know of a good way to do this or a trick to accomplish it please let me know. Cheers!

I've got two fairly well developed ideas scrawlled on bits of paper. Both have been turned over and over in my head for 6 months, one of them for a year and half. The ideas are taking a bit of shape. I've elected to go with one of the two stories, the smaller easier one to build. I'm going to build key locations, and dialogs first, fleshing out the encounters and loot at the end. I am really going to try to pace myself, taking long breaks when I want or need to. For now here are three screen shots of an location I've had in my head for quite sometime. It still needs a few changes but it's a start. Enjoy! (Bruce your going to have to hit me even harder to get me to stop)