Ambient Life

The project continues as always with quick pieces and slow pieces. Recently, I have been working on some slow pieces. I have decided to move on ahead a little ways with a module that I knew was going to take a long time. While the player is not set to travel here, yet, this is the direction in which they are heading.

This is another cultivated precinct. It's far more advanced and populated than the small village I started out with. Given this, I have been deeply involved in creating realistic ambient life. This seems to be my weak-point, but I'm learning quickly with it.

I would like to give credit to Jeff Husges, a designer at Obsidian, for a counsel on a commonsensical way to create a "slumbering" npc.

Bug Fixed

Well, tonight I fixed a bug that was causing the game to crash when a certain conversation was started. It was a simple fix, but it took a while I figure out what was actually causing the error. I had set the conversation to use different dialogue depending on how far along the game was. I had placed one variable, but forgot to place the second one. That would be like someone telling you, "If the door is open, clap your hands. If the door is closed." I actually discovered the bug on accident. I don't know when I would have noticed if I hadn't stumbled upon it.

Rough Night

Rough night. I have definately earned myself a beer. Very early on in the developement, I worked out an answer to a question that I had about how to get companion non-player characters to join the player. I was unsure of how to do this, because I knew that this newer engine did not use the same system as the previous one. I figured out how I was gonna do it for a single-classed character, but put off working out a system for a multi-classed character.

I decided that while I was writing the script for the latest non-player companion and had some time to fully play-test this, I was gonna work out a multi-class system. More or less, I just wanted to see if it was possible. If it was not possible, I had a “work-around” in mind that should have taken care of it from a game play stand point.

So if the player is 2^nd level and a non-player joins the group, the non-player will automatically level up to level 2. That wasn't a problem with a single-classed character. The problem, however, lied in the multi-classed. I set up a non-player to be a rogue/cleric, both 1^st level. When the non-player joined the 2^ndnd class rogue. The secondary class was completely ignored. level player, they leveled to a 2

That would pose a problem when the player joins up with a monk/blackguard/warlock later on in the game. This non-player is part of the storyline, so having all three classes is of major importance.

After playing around with a number of different options, I found the final solution to be really simple. The reason the non-player was switching to a single was because of their “Starting Package”. This is basically a blueprint of how future leveling will occur. If I simply remove the starting package, the code that planned future leveling does not fire and the initial level in classes remains untouched. The non-player is then leveled in the standard fashion.

The most amazing part about this is that the engine does not crash when it fails to find a script that it expects. That was worrying me and was the main reason I did not think of trying this earlier.

I'm so lucky

I am so glad I started backing up my work at least every 30 minutes. I was trying to load a module for a play-test and the engine crashed. My 171mb data file went to 43mb. Thats a lot of missing data. Luckily, I was able to load a previous back-up and carry on.

Weather Effects

For whatever reason, weather effects are not the easiest thing in the world to input. On the previous engine I worked with, there was a setting for “Weather Effects.” You would change Rain FALSE to Rain TRUE. Simple enough. This engine doesn't make it easy. I was able to write a script for WEATHER_TYPE_RAIN OnEnter. It makes sense, because I could create a similar script to start rain, snow, or lightning when the player reaches a certain point. It boggled me at first, but I think I can get used to that method of weather effects.

Wooden Area Complete

I completed the exterior forest area in just over four hours. I will add the sound effects and encounters tomorrow. A battle will take place in this heavily wooded area. I am sure that it will be chaotic in the darkness and rain.

New Area, New Zone

Another day of development has passed on by. I started constructing a new area that will signify one of the last missions for this zone. I created the blueprint for a semi-playable non-player character. I won't give too much detail, but this character will follow the storyline into the next area and appear later on in the game. The current area will include an exterior grid involving a “game of cat and mouse” in the darkness and rain, followed by a lengthly multi-level interior. This interior will include the newest non-player and an uncommon boss. This boss will also reveal a little more of the storyline and deepen the plot. I have been taking it slow this week. I've been putting in an average of 35 hours a week so far, so I have spent a portion of my time just sitting here in my chair this week.