Blueprints & Hasty Pudding
I spent a lot of time today designing a large number of blueprints for use in Moonshadows. I'm going through each area and creating a varied and logical set of critters to populate them; I have a feeling combat will be tough in the first few areas of the module, but then again, I haven't actually played NWN2 yet and I don't plan on doing so any time soon, so I'll let my playtesters be the judge of difficulty when that time comes. :) I'm taking ideas from some of my favorite games and blending them into the kind of adventure I would enjoy playing; combat should be rewarding both literally (loot & experience will be plentiful) and figuratively (the player will hopefully feel like they have accomplished something at the end of a quest or excursion).
One thing I liked about Dungeon Siege II, for example, was the fact that mini-bosses were fairly common. It was fun to fight monsters that differed from the standard fare of fodder--even if it was just a unique name, appearance and item set, it really added a level to the game for me, albeit a subtle one. So, I'm scattering "mini-bosses" of sorts throughout the game where they would make sense, so it's not just the player wading through nameless orcs. I feel that doing this will just make the combat more interesting; it takes a little more effort on my part, but hopefully it'll be worthwhile. :) It also gives me the opportunity to sprinkle all sorts of unique items into the mod outside of boring treasure chests.
So, outside of blueprints, I went out with the family to see Harvard's Hasty Pudding performance for this year, and I've gotta say, it was spectacular! It's like Monty Python, except cruder: it's all male actors, and the parts are equally spread between males and female roles, which makes for some interesting situations to say the least! So yeah, it was a lot of fun, even though the curtain got stuck in the middle of the second act and they had to entertain us for 15 minutes while they tried to fix it. Luckily, there's an ultra-talented student band that supports the play (it's a musical, after all), so they made the awkwardness seamless, really. It was basically a free jam session--some guys from the audience even came down and did some solos to keep the masses happy. :)
Anyhow, I've really got to do some writing tomorrow, as well as finish up a few blueprints. More info tomorrow.
One thing I liked about Dungeon Siege II, for example, was the fact that mini-bosses were fairly common. It was fun to fight monsters that differed from the standard fare of fodder--even if it was just a unique name, appearance and item set, it really added a level to the game for me, albeit a subtle one. So, I'm scattering "mini-bosses" of sorts throughout the game where they would make sense, so it's not just the player wading through nameless orcs. I feel that doing this will just make the combat more interesting; it takes a little more effort on my part, but hopefully it'll be worthwhile. :) It also gives me the opportunity to sprinkle all sorts of unique items into the mod outside of boring treasure chests.
So, outside of blueprints, I went out with the family to see Harvard's Hasty Pudding performance for this year, and I've gotta say, it was spectacular! It's like Monty Python, except cruder: it's all male actors, and the parts are equally spread between males and female roles, which makes for some interesting situations to say the least! So yeah, it was a lot of fun, even though the curtain got stuck in the middle of the second act and they had to entertain us for 15 minutes while they tried to fix it. Luckily, there's an ultra-talented student band that supports the play (it's a musical, after all), so they made the awkwardness seamless, really. It was basically a free jam session--some guys from the audience even came down and did some solos to keep the masses happy. :)
Anyhow, I've really got to do some writing tomorrow, as well as finish up a few blueprints. More info tomorrow.
Labels: Moonshadows
posted by Alex | 11:01 PM
2 Comments:
I'm doing the mini-boss thing too. I picked it up from TQ, though, not Dungeon Siege. My favorite mini-boss so far is Lazy Drogo, a fast little kobold.
I get the feeling TQ and DS are pretty similar in style though, judging from what I read on your blog recently. :) Mini-bosses keep the combat relatively interesting, that's for sure!
I unfortunately had to steer clear of kobolds or goblins because the player is a bit too high level for those; it's orcs, gnolls, ogres, and a slew of aberrations and undead for my mod. :)
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