The Black Scourge of Candle Cove -- Tchos' development diary

[Tchos]

I think I'll be blowing the dust out more frequently after this, too. I had no idea that dust could cause the fan to break down!

 

And I'm glad you enjoy the read. I hope it can provide some useful information as well as entertainment. :)

 

[Tchos]

I created some more treasure items for quest rewards, and added them to the item that will deliver them. I browsed through the sounds.zip file in the data folder again to find a suitable sound effect for the delivery, and came across some sounds that I don't think I've ever heard in the actual game. For instance, there's a file called gui_quest_done.wav, which plays a little tune, clearly meant for the final journal update at the end of a quest, but in the actual game all we get is the same "ding / scribble" sound as any other journal update. I wish they had left that in, and I can't see why they didn't! But I can remedy that for my module.

 

There's also an eating sound effect, called gui_eating1.wav, which sounds like someone eating an apple or similar crisp item. I don't recall any actual edible food in the game, but I could be forgetting something. There's also gallop.wav, despite no ridable horses before mods. And hilariously, a file called wilhelm_scream.wav, which contains...the Wilhelm scream.

 

I also went through the longest of the side quests from beginning to end, to make sure everything worked. Before, most of my tests had skipped to particular stages. I found one conversation error, but it was at the very end, when the player can offer some parting words to sum up the party's feelings on things, after the rewards have been distributed. But there was another list full of things to fix that I found along the way, not directly related to the quest.

[Tchos]

There didn't seem to be an easy way to set an ipoint to use low-level AI when the PC's not in the area, like an NPC can. I should be able to do the check manually, but in the meantime I've settled on the solution of destroying the ipoint after the quest that involves it is over. I'm not sure if setting it initially to "script hidden" would prevent its heartbeat execution until I unhide it when the player takes the quest.

 

I tried out the spawn waypoints for the purpose I mentioned yesterday, and use them to create three new encounters with well-balanced (in my opinion) parties of enemies, which was a lot more fun in my playtest than the boss+minions type encounters I had put in so far, and more importantly, it actually presented a good challenge to my party! After each fight, my party was pretty beaten up, as they should be, though I think I could have gone through all three without resting if I would have taken the time to have my healer patch everyone up. So, it seems pretty well-balanced to me. There should always be a chance of dying in encounters like this if you play with my recommended party level, but if played intelligently, you should be able to get through without any deaths (unless you get some unlucky dice rolls).

 

Speaking of healing, though, I couldn't see any evidence that the enemy healers I had placed in the encounters were actually doing the jobs I wanted them to do (healing their allies), or if they were attacking my party instead. Is there a way to force an NPC to perform only a support role, and stay out of the way until someone needs healing?

 

I'm going by the book on what kind of equipment the party should have at this level. Each party member is expected to have a total worth of 49000 gp at level 10 which they would have acquired in past adventuring, which means each character should have good class-relevant equipment worth about that much gold. I've done my best to make good equipment for every class available for purchase in town, so if you're starting off with a new level 10 character with something like Vordan's Hero Creator, I'd recommend setting up with the default expected gold and making your purchases in my module instead of in the character creator module.

 

I just have to say, some days I really, really love this game and toolset. This game occupies a very privileged niche alongside such luminaries as the Infinity Engine games, Arcanum, and the Temple of Elemental Evil. I've tried many others, and I really don't think there's anything better.

 

I discovered a mistake that I had made near the beginning, before I understood that GetFirstPC() is a "last resort" method of referencing the PC, and not even the best method. I read through a thread pointing out that almost every event that can fire a script has its own optimal means of referencing the PC, but before I knew any of that I had used GetFirstPC() for the hearthstone script, and it was for that reason that no matter who used it, the first PC in the party would perform the animations and effects of it. Now that I know a little more, I changed it to GetItemActivator(), and that fixed the problem.

 

I fixed up the rest of the problems I had put on my list, and moved on to start the 2nd level of the lighthouse. In the original module, there were 4 levels total, including the loft. I'm cutting it down to 3, because there would have been nothing really interesting in terms of gameplay on the 2nd level, and the few interesting atmospheric bits can be merged with what was originally the 3rd level, along with my embellishments. I don't know about others here, but I hate unnecessarily large areas that have nothing to do and nothing interesting to see in them.

 

I also had to attach a conversation to the door on this floor to allow the player to select going upstairs or downstairs.

[Tchos]

Aside from the normal P&P session, I also took another little break to play some other things, including the recently released Fanglewood.

 

Now, where was I?

 

To make sure it's a reasonable challenge, I just did another playtest of the forest area after optimising the spell selection of the spellcasting enemies, and setting them to buff themselves when the player's party approaches, using the bitwise variables in NW_GENERIC_MASTER to set the spawn flags, and likewise set the enemy rogues to stealth and search mode.

 

Using a party of 5 characters, all level 10 except for the barbarian who was level 9, I was able to beat every encounter in the area on the hardest game difficulty, without resting, and without specifically bringing equipment and items tuned to these particular encounters. It was tough, for certain, and I did have a character fall down bleeding 2 or 3 times (SoZ death and bleeding system), but I was always able to bring them back into action with healing, and without needing to raise the dead. The party consisted of a fighter, a barbarian, a bow-wielding ranger, a caster druid, and a buffing/healing cleric. Between encounters I used up many of the healing potions I had in my inventory, and during the battles my cleric used up all her healing kits (I think I had about 10 low-level ones) and spells.

 

Since the player does have the option of resting, as well as going back to town for supplies if needed (healing potions and healing kits are available in unlimited supply at the temple), and can also set the game difficulty lower if needed, I'd say it's at a good level of challenge. Tough enough for those who want it to be tough, and still doable for those who don't.

 

Okay, now back to level 2 of the lighthouse.

[Tchos]

I created several rooms of the second lighthouse level. This is where you have some quest advancement, and fortunately the quest conversation is already mostly taken care of from before (you may recall the caged people in an early screenshot). This level has been heavily damaged from the ogrish occupants, who have wrecked most of the furniture and set up a shrine to their god Vaprak, and repurposed a hazardous equipment locker into a tiny jail cell for the lighthouse keepers.

 

Consequently, the barrels and flasks of lamp fuel are all freely accessible if you want to pick some up for later, or cause an explosion that kills everyone on the level, including you.

 

I hope to finish building and populating this level in one more day, then it's off to the loft, with the boss and the lamp.

[Tchos]

I checked the wiki for reserved ranges, and didn't see any reservations for the restsys_wm_tables.2da, so I hope it's safe to assume no one is putting that file in their override folders. The only reason I can think of that someone would is if they're playing MotB and they want to change or disable wandering monsters in the resting system. At any rate, I'm just modifying the existing spawns in it.

 

I again ran into a lack of certain shapes of objects that I could use to create the placeables I needed for this module. In this case, I was looking for a cylindrical object that I could use as a metal cistern for holding lamp fuel. I tried the bedroll, but it was too organic and soft-looking for the purpose. I settled on this large bowl with a lid, but I need to add pipes to it, so I'll have to install one of the custom content packs that include pipes, whether it be the MoW placeables or Amraphael's placeables pack. I'm thinking the latter, since it also includes a nice trapdoor and lantern.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oMq0gM38oMk/UEFNogKE-KI/AAAAAAAADoQ/XHo7KeXEJ4w/s320/bcocc%2Blighthouse2%2Bcistern.jpg

 

The conversation on the door didn't work with the usual talk-to-placeable script, but I found a script called gp_talk_door that says it starts a conversation with a door. The comments don't say which event it's supposed to be attached to, though. Open? Use? Click? I put it in all three.

 

I'm very, very glad that the walkmesh didn't give me any trouble this time.

 

I've finished the area, except for the pipes, and a new list of things I noticed need fixing. For one thing, while preparing these screenshots, I noticed that I forgot to change the area's display name to "level 2". I also capitalised the word "ogre" in a description for some reason.

 

That's something to mention -- everything that's interactive has a description that tells you something about it if you examine it before you decide whether you want to "use" it, because, clearly, there is something special about those objects.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5kY9DEzgQQM/UEFNpT8jCSI/AAAAAAAADoo/Iqj_Y-zV35k/s320/bcocc%2Blighthouse2%2Bshrine.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WyNhUL6sE5c/UEFNpKKXGGI/AAAAAAAADoc/jxb55TEUL5M/s320/bcocc%2Blighthouse2%2Bbedroom.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqizNYsWGNk/UEFNp2rXAbI/AAAAAAAADo0/2V1pxVj3xbo/s320/bcocc%2Blighthouse2%2Bsand%2Bstorage.jpg

[Tchos]

I set up the wandering monsters for this level, so resting will be a bit risky.

 

I designed a better cistern, using Amraphael's pipes and some other placeables I found in the toolset. I'm much happier with this, than with the bowl from yesterday. It's sort of a cross between a cistern and a boiler. (Lightened up the screenshot a bit for easier viewing.)

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QkOfR416_TQ/UEKxVrgAhhI/AAAAAAAADqY/s5L0O3UWe10/s320/bcocc%2Bcisterns2.jpg

 

The door conversation still didn't work, even with the script on all three of those events. I fixed it by defining the door model as a placeable in the placeables.2da, which I learned from Crystal Violet's door placeables, to deal with the problem. This door doesn't need to open, and I can get conversations to work fine on placeables.

 

I went back and looked over a script I had started near the beginning, while I never got to work, which would handle situations in which the player attacks a non-hostile creature. Looking at it now, I could easily see the mistakes I had made that had caused it not to work. Very silly mistakes, like getting the target creature from a tag that doesn't exist instead of OBJECT_SELF. It'll still take a bit of work before it'll do what I want it to, though.

 

For now, I'll just have it automatically turn the creature hostile, but ideally I'd like it to check several things, such as alignment, level comparison, set variables from earlier encounters, etc., and use that to determine several outcomes. One would be automatic hostility, but others would include issuing warnings before attacking, or fleeing and getting help from the City Watch, and ultimately either healing themselves with their own inventories or powers, or going to the temple to get healed if they're no longer in combat, and eventually reset their hostility and allow the player to make amends.

 

I'm still having trouble with Commoner-faction NPCs suicidally running to join combat that happens near them. I want them to stay out of the fights.

[Tchos]

Today I worked on the last level of the lighthouse -- the loft with the lamp and wall-to-wall windows. Since this level is all one big room, and it's at the top of the lighthouse, I made the room slightly smaller than the base of the previous two levels. The stairwell ends just below the floor here, and the loft is accessed via a trapdoor. This trapdoor is the one from Amraphael's placeable pack, and it's animated to open and close. I'm going to replace the crate-as-trapdoor in the magic shop with this one.

 

I have the lamp, the windows, and the trapdoor set up, but I need to consult some reference to see what the rest of a loft like this should look like.

 

By the way, try not to let your companions cast area of effect spells in the fuel depository, like what happened in my last playtest of the area (to test a conversation). At least, not when she's standing in it. It would be bad.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NGRsJO--p4k/UEPg3-y1ahI/AAAAAAAADrA/eyMMbcFOQ2M/s320/bcocc%2Bboom.jpg

[Tchos]

I found a pretty wide variety of images of lighthouse interiors showing the loft with the big lamp/lantern. Most of them were very small rooms, with just enough room to walk around it, probably for maintenance reasons, but there were some that had larger rooms. I'm definitely going with a larger room, since there's a fight to be had up here, and you need more room than a little walkway for that.

 

I also saw quite a variety of lamp styles, so I think the version I managed to cobble together from various placeable parts should be of a plausible design.

 

The main thing that will require a suspension of disbelief is that the windows are of the frosted, non-transparent kind that we generally have to use in these games, because the outside would be a lot to render, and I don't think I could believeably use a backdrop to simulate it due to the freedom of the camera.

 

Here's a peek at the unfinished loft. The lighting is not final, and there's almost no set dressing. The human is included for scale. I could have made the lamp look more interesting if it were using magic or magitech, but it's a flame-based lamp. I'm not sure if the lamp reflectors look properly capable of rotation as it needs to, for the beacon. Opinions?

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4cBRuxUxlYE/UEUlfe4EFQI/AAAAAAAADts/G_uiKpRynls/s320/bcocc%2Blighthouse%2Bloft.jpg

 

I've decided to use version numbers for my NPCs, putting the number in the NPC's comment field or in braces in its name, so that if I pick up a placed instance, I know whether or not it's the latest edit from the blueprints.

 

I had to divert some time from this module to get a new version of my HD UI mod ready for release, after Arkalezth reported a problem. I had accumulated several other additions and fixes to it since the last version as well, so this is as good a time as any to release them.

[Tchos]

No opinions, I see. Well, here's another silly mistake that had me troubleshooting unnecessarily for a while. I was fixing a script's method of playing a sound, and went to place the items into Questland to test them out, but when I tried, I clicked, and nothing appeared in the world. The loot bag was there in my cursor, but I clicked and clicked, and nothing was placed. I thought maybe I may have hit a limit with a number of objects placed in the area, so I tried deleting some, but it still wouldn't work.

 

Then I thought to check the area contents, and I found that there were in fact several copies of the items placed in the spots where I had clicked, but they were invisible. So my next thought was that I had messed something up in the placeables.2da file during one of my recent additions. Seeming to support this hypothesis was that the items had nothing listed in their Appearance field.

 

But I didn't see anything wrong in the placeables.2da file, and custom items that appeared late in the file showed up fine in other areas. While I was in one of those other areas, I tried placing the item again, and this time it placed! Was it because I had restarted the toolset, I wondered?

 

I went back to Questland and placed it again. Still nothing! I found a nearby invisible placed smith hammer and placed a new copy of the smith hammer -- also invisible.

 

That's when another thing occured to me to check. It was the Show/Hide control. Items were set not to display, thanks to an earlier attempt at loading this large area without crashing.

 

So that was the silly mistake.

 

The thing I was fixing was that I had an item that was supposed to play a sound when you activate it (amongst other things), and the sound wasn't working. I saw a tip from Morbane today that explained that inventory items can't play sounds, which explains why this item was silent. I assigned the command to the PC, and it worked after that.