[Release] Halloween in Candle Cove -- a holiday-themed expansion

[Tchos]

As I've mentioned here and there, I've been putting together a small quest pack for Halloween as an expansion for my module. From the beginning, I built my campaign in a way that would accommodate adding new quests and areas to it which players can experience without having to start a new game. For that reason, I recommend players of The Black Scourge of Candle Cove keep a saved game on hand if they want to play any new content I put out for it without having to start over.

 

As it stands, I have two completed Halloween-themed quests in two new areas, and 10 days remaining before Halloween. I think I'll try to put in one more quest and get it out with a few days to spare before Halloween.

 

This thread will serve as a development diary as I finish working on the module, and when it's ready I'll update this first post with the download link. [Done]

 

As usual, expect interactivity with objects in the environment in these quests.

 

Some new custom content in this one includes some Witcher placeables that I converted for this purpose which haven't been released yet, as well as several new visual effects to create some classic Halloween-style decorations, and also a variety of jack o' lanterns and a wieldable broomstick.

 

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Downloads

 

Halloween in Candle Cove campaign expansion

• Nexus
• Vault

The Black Scourge of Candle Cove (v1.4 required to run Halloween expansion)

• Nexus
• Vault

[Tchos]

It turns out I don't have time to add the third quest after all, mainly because it involves too many new areas, and I only finished one of them. A shame, but I can always add it later, and the area that I finished can serve for other non-Halloween quests to be added later as well. The quest would have involved a haunted prison.

 

A couple of members here (not sure if they want to be named) helped me out by testing an early location, but the actual location is elsewhere because the exterior didn't fit it properly.

 

Since this expansion must work with saved games in progress, I had to add certain area transitions to the new locations by script. This was an opportunity to try out the findings from one of my recent experiments, where I determined that static objects can be targeted and destroyed via script, to be replaced by functional versions. I wasn't sure it would work on a static door as it does on a placeable, but it does. I picked out one of the un-enterable buildings in town that matched the new interior, and spawned a new map note/teleport waypoint in front of it, destroyed the static door, and replaced it with a new one that leads to the new interior.

 

So, with only two quests, I'm just wrapping up the questgiver's dialogue and creating the reward item, and that should be it. Tomorrow's a very busy day, but I hope to release it either late tomorrow or early the next day.

[Originally posted 27 October 2014 - 07:45 PM]

[Tchos]

There were some bugs discovered in the last playtest (I had a playtester on hand), but I've fixed them all, or at least in one case patched it so that it doesn't show up, even if it's not the ideal solution. How exactly do you get a non-companion NPC who's flagged as a campaign NPC and is in the party as a henchman to persist in the party across modules? I thought flagging it as a campaign NPC would do the trick.

 

Anyway, just packaging it up now, and updating the main campaign with patch 1.4, then it'll be uploaded.

[Originally posted 29 October 2014 - 05:22 PM]

[Tchos]

I think just using candle cove the town is enough. Really not necessary to make it an add in that works with saved games. I beat the campaign so I don't and, most don't keep our old characters. sequels from an author are almost unheard of and if they are usually years between

 

Right, except I've mentioned over and over that I built this thing for expansions, and that people should keep a save if they want to play the new quests I said I'd add, and am adding, without starting over. It's not necessary to keep one, of course, if you don't mind picking up companions again.

 

campaignNPC is just whether or not a Companion (that's already on the Roster) appears to the player in the RosterList (ie. silly function-name)

- probly have to store & retrieve a true-henchman using the database. StoreCampaignObject() eg. See AlanC9's Universal Companions scripts for ideas

 

I suppose an additional confusion is that the script ga_roster_campaignnpc claims that its purpose is to allow roster members to be preserved across modules without being manually added or removed from the party by the player. Possibly the problem is that I failed to add the henchman to the roster?

//This function flags a Roster Member as being a Campaign NPC
//Campaign NPCs are NPCs that are saved to the roster to make them
//persist across modules, but will not appear on the Roster Member
//Select Screen on clients as NPCs available for adding to the party.

[Tchos]

I think that that description is just badly worded. It should be like "Campaign NPCs are Roster NPCs that are ...." Am pretty sure that whenever i've seen a creature flagged as Campaign in the OC + expansions, it was added manually to the roster already.

 

imo the flag should be called: isVisibleRosterMember()

 

as to henchman vs. Companion. Heck i've never tried to make a creature both! That is, I think of companions as companions with all the benefits; henchmen are just lackeys that happen to get added to the party for quest or plot reasons (no inventory, sub-par AI, etc). But as far as i'm aware there's no mechanic that says you couldn't add an NPC as a CampaignNPC companion, so that it's invisible on the Roster, and then add the same NPC to the party using AddHenchman() ....

 

then i assume it would indeed get saved out using SaveRosterLoadModule(), ready to be re-spawned and re-added as a Henchman in the next module

 

Exactly, this NPC is a quest-related non-combat NPC that just follows the PC and doesn't have an inventory or anything else, so I figured the henchman status would be ideal. And it is, for the most part. The way I have it set up currently, the NPC does not need to persist across modules, but I may want to do something like that in the future. Not too important right now, but something I'll toy around with when I have more time.

[Tchos]

//This function flags a Roster Member as being a Campaign NPC
//Campaign NPCs are NPCs that are saved to the roster to make them
//persist across modules, but will not appear on the Roster Member
//Select Screen on clients as NPCs available for adding to the party.

I am sure that what this means is store their status. Level etc. How do you load the new module? One should call SaveRosterLoadModule. And what KevL said is true. Flagged creatures have already been added to the roster.

 

The new module is loaded with SaveRosterLoadModule(); Normal companions transition fine, but this one that I added with the ga_ henchman script plus the ga_roster_campaignnpc didn't.

 

Anyway, the new version of the main campaign is uploaded on the Vault and Nexus now, which is required to run the Halloween expansion. You can either install the 1.4 patch if you already have an older version of the campaign installed (any version), or just install the new complete 1.4. The Halloween expansion upload is next, and then I'll update the project descriptions.

[Tchos]

And it's released. As a sort of "post-mortem" development report (never really liked that term, but oh well...), some thoughts on the module.

 

Obviously, I'm disappointed that I couldn't add the prison quest. Everything else I think worked out nicely, including the quest rewards. I went with XP plus some treats. No super-items, just some toys to amuse you.

 

I didn't add any special companion dialogue or interjections to these quests. I would have if I'd had more time. I did try to provide a decent assortment of dialogue options. I even offered consequences for refusing the first quest offered, though once you'd accepted, you were unable to refuse the connected quest, which might be out of character for some.

 

I perhaps spent more time than I should have on the special effects for the witch's cauldron, to give it the kind of look that I associate with Halloween, but I got it looking the way I wanted it.

 

The mechanics of the graveyard quest involve some randomness, which means some people will be at it longer than others, depending on their luck. I adjusted the odds for better success after my first playtest.

 

This quest uses a new addition to my quest helper/tracker scripts, a collection of scripts and systems I wrote over the course of BSoCC to make it faster to implement the common quest archetypes, as compiled by Kamal, Elysius, and others.

[Originally posted 29 October 2014 - 10:46 PM]

[Tchos]

Good work on getting the module out Tchos. It's always hard when you set a time time limit. Content will be what suffers most of the time, that or your marriage.

 

Getting a little done to the quality you like is better in my opinion, than getting it all in but buggy or out of sync with the rest of the content. Perhaps the prison could be next halloweens expansion

 

I considered an expandable core before striding off into my next story led Behemoth. It's good to see the concept working. If I get to this project I will start with your for tips.

PJ

 

It's a good idea coming out with Halloween-themed mods. The day seems especially suited to implementation in a fantasy cRPG.

 

What about a Father Xmas stole my bag of holding quest in a couple of months... Or just a red armour wearing dwarf with a white beard and lots of gnome helpers ?

 

Somebody would need to build an elf hat...

 

I actually do want to make a X-mas themed quest addition as well, but not with Father X-mas himself. I could put in some festively-wrapped gifts, though.

[Tchos]

Rudolph the red nosed dragon who is using evil goblins to steal all the presents from the children.

 

The Church of Ilmater seems to be the closest religion to Christianity in the Forgotten Realms, although according to the WIKI; "The clergy observed no annual holy days and celebrated no regular festivities".

 

Perhaps an Ilmatari priest could discover an ancient text about a long-forgotten Ilmatari holiday (Ilmatermas), involving the giving of gifts around the time of the winter solstice. He could be accused of heresy and arrested, requiring a party of adventurers to help the church elders find their "Ilmatermas spirit" via a quest to retrieve "gifts" of holy artefacts long thought lost. They could consist of something gold, and two types of incense (frankincense and myrrh).

 

Is there a fat guy somewhere in game we can put a beard and hat on??

 

Not opposed to any of those ideas, but I have more of a Hans Christian Andersen / Charles Dickens sort of X-mas thing in mind. You know in Victorian times, it was a tradition to tell ghost stories around X-mas? Not that I'm planning on a ghost story, just interesting.

[Tchos]

One of the cloth armours is quite a fat body shape, bright red tints, throw in a cloak and hat and you're laughing... Ho ho ho of course.

 

Maybe there's an actual fat guy we could use some where in game besides the lame pregnancy suit cloth armor

 

Change the scale on them all and play hunt the real Father Xmas !

Or a follow the willow the wisp ( star ) quest, bring along your three gifts to find something in some stables then crucify it ( strictly for evil players of course )!

 

A heated dispute has arisen between the furry elves and the bearded gnomes over who should receive the proper credit for an ingenious new toy invention, the iScry. The elves claim it was their incredible arcane knowledge that led to the discovery, while the gnomes believe it is all due to their amazing ingenuity. Even Santa has been unable to settle the dispute, and in frustration has taken to drowning his sorrows with a bottomless mug of Sylvan Swirls down at the local Mushroom and Boot pub. It is up to the party to rescue the situation and save the annual Holy Handouts day.

 

Every child deserves a gift at Christmas if they're good. But what do you do when the parents/guardians are super evil? The party is approached by a mysterious hooded figure in red who introduce themselves as San-Ta. San-Ta wants the party to deliver a package to a house in the town. The owners are worshipers of the gods of disease and death, the child is just a five year old girl who thinks the purple clawed hand on the wall of her bedroom looks pretty. The parents are paranoid about not being found out so their house is a mass of traps and guardians.

 

The party must get to the child's bedroom drop off the present and get out without killing the parents (counter productive, if tempting) and without waking the child.

 

that sure is a heavy package. or what do you need a party for?

 

These are getting pretty good!