Want your opinions

[Tale]

So, I'm starting the module over that I've been working on since NWN2 was released. Not a big loss, I haven't actually worked on it in quite some time and not much was done. But, I was unsatisfied by the lack of cohesion in it. The dialogue writing was poor and I felt I hadn't paid enough attention to making the opening logical. That said, I'm going to hopefully rectify these in time for its release date of NEVER.

 

I'm putting together a quick little description of the module, now. One to incite interest and keep people waiting for something that will likely never appear. Further, I'd like feedback on my overall design as I lay it out for you. I'm asking for opinions here first because this is probably my most visited forum lately. The name of the world is currently up in the air, so if you think of anything, let me know. Also, this description is heavy in spoilers because I feel that it'll take me a while. Spoilers now don't translate into spoilers later because people will forget, I'll change things, and as I get closer to release (if that ever happens) I'll just start lying to confuse things more.

 

The adventure starts as many do. Our hero meets a girl

she's actually a demon

. Now this girl is interesting, she's going to be central to the adventure. She'll travel with him, respond to him, grow with him

she's manipulating him

. The impetus for their travels is the destruction of a small rest stop on the edge of a magical desert. They must chase after the villain

he's innocent

who seeks to finish his work and kill the female companion

she's not

.

 

Along their journey they will meet a wide cast of personalities, such as the heroic ranger

he's conning you

and his druid buddy

it's a two man job

, the dashing rogue

dashing my foot, he's a nerd

, the wize old sage

just don't take his advice, EVER

, a powerful Warlock

he's 2 feet tall and steals all your good loot

, a woman out to avenge her father

"I don't know that old man, I swear, KEEP WALKING"

, the sheriff

drinker

, a servant of the god of death

he likes John Keats

, and a Paladin

even I can't make that interesting

.

 

Take these heroes and adventurers

liars and incompetents

with you as you visit 4-5 cities across 2-3 continents. Uncover ancient mysteries, travel to the realms of the dead

if I can get away with it, you'll BE a talking sword for a while

, fight a war against an army led by a Blackguard and Lich

your side started it

, and head to an eventual showdown with the mastermind behind it all

like I'd let that go well

.

 

There will be many paths and motivations supported

but they will all lead to the game arbitrarily kicking you between the legs

.

 

 

The point of an adventure is to see what's around the next corner. To see what happens next.

 

 

 

submarine

 

Edited November 21, 2007 by Tale

[Big Bottom]

Sounds good, I'm with you fellas.

[Tale]

If it's ever completed, it will be known as the module created by a jerk.

 

I'm creating a female character that is adaptive and will make my best damned attempt to be the perfect companion (romantic or otherwise) for a wide range of characters. Her personality will change drastically based on the PC's past actions to try to imitate or supplement. And I'm going to kill her. And what she dies for will try to kill the PC.

 

I'm going to have few magic items. Except for one custom magic weapon with immense powers that is said will be capable of defeating the ancient evil that you will lose before you even get to fight him. There will also be a side dungeon with tons of loot that the Gnome Warlock will force himself into the group whenever you're in and steal all the good loot to use for himself (it'll be WoW themed).

 

For female characters there will be a few archetype male characters for them to romance that will either be blatantly toying with them, outright killed, or gay. Males will have have options for romance aside from the designed female companion, but some point, they'll all move on to new boyfriends that they consider far more interesting than the PC ever was.

[Big Bottom]

 

I like the sound of this, do you plan on finishing this module at any point?

[Tale]

Don't know. In some ways my game sounds more ambitious than team built works. On the other hand, I'll probably half ass most of the areas.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Tale

[Kelverin]

I'll probably half ass most of the areas.

Sold!

 

Can't wait for this.

[Nick_i_am]

If it doesn't have lesbian encounters i'm not buying it, Mass Effect has set a new benchmark by which all games should be judged.

[Rhomal]

Sounds VERY interesting!

 

On a side note, is it possible to have the actions/dialog choices of a PC be recorded and carry over from one module to another in nwn2?

[Tale]

Sounds VERY interesting!

 

On a side note, is it possible to have the actions/dialog choices of a PC be recorded and carry over from one module to another in nwn2?

Depends on how you do it. If you build it as a campaign, you can do it very easily. If you build multiple modules, I think you'll have to include something that records those actions or choices. You can put tokens into the PC's inventory that keep track of this (the original NWN OC did this for the henchmen quests), you may even be able attach values to tokens that carry over (I don't remember for certain), and there's also the option of using history feats (which may require some extra workarounds because I don't know if you yet if you can create custom ones, you may just have to hijack existing ones).

 

I should hope Obsidian has included a way to create custom history feats. They appear too often in the OC and Expansion to not be able to make specific ones for player made modules.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Tale

[Rhomal]

Sounds VERY interesting!

 

On a side note, is it possible to have the actions/dialog choices of a PC be recorded and carry over from one module to another in nwn2?

Depends on how you do it. If you build it as a campaign, you can do it very easily. If you build multiple modules, I think you'll have to include something that records those actions or choices. You can put tokens into the PC's inventory that keep track of this (the original NWN OC did this for the henchmen quests), you may even be able attach values to tokens that carry over (I don't remember for certain), and there's also the option of using history feats (which may require some extra workarounds because I don't know if you yet if you can create custom ones, you may just have to hijack existing ones).

 

I should hope Obsidian has included a way to create custom history feats. They appear too often in the OC and Expansion to not be able to make specific ones for player made modules.

 

In my case it would be a storyline broken up via several modules thus why I am asking how to handle such.

[Tale]

Well, a campaign is indeed several modules. But, they're able to do all the important things you would want from a single module, such as storing information on past events, across module changes and even jump back and forth between modules.

 

I don't recall if local variables assigned to a character or inventory object survive exporting-importing as I've never tested it. You'll encounter a problem with characters that must be imported into new modules (as opposed to simply crossing between modules with a campaign) if you're wanting to retain information from previous modules whatever technique you use. You'll have to account for if players choose to use a new characters instead of bringing in their old characters. The data simply won't be there no matter how you do it. This is something you don't have to worry about with a campaign. However, the flaw with campaigns is that you can't release them in chunks over time. Also, ever growing player save files with campaigns.

 

Note: Don't trust anything I say too heavily. My experience with the toolset may be more than your average player, but I'm no accomplished builder.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Tale

[Tale]

The main problem I'm having trying to put this module together is to make the beginning of the game interesting. There's a lot you can't get away with that the OC could get away with. The entire fair scene in the OC? Yeah, don't even try that in a amateur module. You don't have voice acting, which means that you'll have even fewer people paying attention to dialogue than would pay attention to an official campaign.

 

You have a challenge to make the starting interesting, but you have less resources to do it with. So, if you start a campaign with a character who is level 1, you have to try extra hard, and the start of the module is probably the point that is most critical to getting their attention. I know I'm trying to build the module like a jerk, doing everything that people hate for module designers to do to their character, but I've still got to make it seem interesting. I just need something that's interesting enough to cause most of the players to give it a chance long enough to try to hook them with the beginning of the real plot.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Tale