[WIP] The Black Marshes

[VikingofTamriel]

I don't have much knowledge about making quests, but have amassed quite a bit of knowledge With the Construction kit - so if you need anyone to check on spelling, clean up NPC inventories, etc, I could probably give it a go.

[Ibsen3]

Thank you, VikingofTamriel!

 

I don't think we'll need those skills at the moment but the offer is much appreciated. We will be looking for playtesters shortly but we're also going to have to insist on experienced playtesters, purely in order to accelerate the pace of development. We'll get there eventually.

[AndalayBay]

Another update. With shadeMe's assistance, I was able to create a Coda script to fix the floating trees in the eastern regions, which is an artefact of the region generation process. When I asked Ibsen if he would like me to proceed with running this script, he replied:

 

Wow! You're kidding me!?!

So you're asking me, "would you like me to automatically position all of those trees so as to eliminate all such floating items in one fell swoop without painstakingly adjusting every single one as I have been doing since time immemorial as BM leader?" Bearing in mind that such things are precisely what persuaded me that a full, non-beta version of BM would be impossible because I might just force my face through a grinder in the mere consideration of such mind-numbing tedium.

Is the Pope Catholic? Does the Earth revolve around the sun? Do I enjoy food, health, spare time and happiness? If the answer is yes, MAKE IT SO!!!

Such a script almost instantly solves all landscaping worries and burns a hole in my brain, prompting me to think that if this is possible then I can sort out almost every single region for the beta without too much hassle at all (except perhaps the Mangroves that add need to be hand-placed and perhaps some aspects of Murkwood).

That has to be the best response ever! :laugh:

What does that mean? Now all of Black Marsh will be playable, instead of just the western portion of the province. We won't have much content in the east, but there will be a few things and there are wilderness critters who will be awaiting your arrival. :wink:

[Lanceor]

Yay! If only I had that tool available when I was making big wordspaces. :smile:

[Ibsen3]

With about a month since any update, people must be wondering what's going on. Well, with moving into a new house besides working full-time in RL, my own work on the mod has been super-minimal but that hasn't stopped AndalayBay and others polishing off the landscape in readiness. She's also been tweaking the scripting on the quests and fixing various errors.

 

Talking of which, we'll be going into ALPHA phase in about two weeks. Our committed Russian testing team are anxious to get hold of things for checking.
Error-checking isn't exciting to report on but strictly-speaking, it's the final big phase before a release so for anyone waiting with baited breath, it's much closer now.

 

In the meantime, I have managed to write up another quest this week for our criminal syndicate Faction questline (the Sotho Tren) which, sadly, will not include the Sload model as yet (at least until we can bring in another member to animate it and polish it off).

Edited November 17, 2013 by Ibsen3

[lonewolfkai]

Thanks for the continued development!!

[Ibsen3]

And thanks for your support! :thumbsup:

[AndalayBay]

Another update:

 

If you missed the announcement earlier, we're working towards releasing an alpha by the end of the month. I'm still working towards that goal and hope to meet the deadline.

 

I've just finished getting our ridable mounts working. There are no horses in Black Marsh, but that doesn't mean you'll be walking or running everywhere. The mounts will be free for the taking in the alpha, but they'll be for sale in the beta. In addition to critters for you to ride, we have a travel network (courtesy of Arthmoor) that will take you to the major cities for a fee.

 

We'll post details about the alpha and how to sign up to participate once it's released.

[AndalayBay]

A bit of bad news: I won't be able to release the alpha this weekend. I have made good progress, but I've had a lot of fixes to do. I'll post another update once I have a better feel for how much longer I think it's going to be. I'd like to say a week at most, but it's already taken a little longer than I expected. I'm terrible at giving estimates!

 

Here is the scope of the alpha:

• Six quests. First two quests in main quest line, first quest in Hist Tribes quest line, first quest in Shadowscales quest line, first quest in Trillium Magnata quest line, first miscellaneous quest.
• Entire province to explore. There are nasty creatures to be found throughout entire province.
• Western cities fully populated. Lilmoth exists but doesn't have any interiors and the only NPC's will be a couple of guards. Soulrest needs a few interiors as well. Those will come in the beta.
• Travel network to take you to the major cities for a fee.
• Free mounts for you to ride.
• Inn rooms for rent if I have time to code up the quest. If not, I'll make one or two inn rooms available for free.

In addition to that, David Brasher has already coded up five more quests, but I haven't had a chance to check them and merge them into the master. That will probably have to wait for the beta.

 

So the alpha is more about missing content than game breaking bugs. :) In fact there shouldn't be any game breaking bugs at all. I have been running with Black Marsh in my load order for quite a while. Most of the bugs are cosmetic. There are a lot of NPC's that need to have their AI packages fixed, so they aren't going about their daily routines. We're still fiddling with the monsters too and not all of our nasties have been added to the game world yet.

 

I'll post the details on how you can participate in the alpha once I've released it.

[AndalayBay]

I had a family emergency this past week which has meant that I've done very little modding. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to work next week.

 

I am pleased to report that Deeza has returned and has begun work on Archon and Thorn. These are two eastern towns that haven't been developed yet. They probably won't be in the alpha, but they should be in the beta.