Away

Ok, in a few hours I'm leaving for France and England for three weeks! Expect no updates during this time. I spent this morning doing work on a forest area...I decided I was unhappy with the first one I made at the beginning of the building process, so I'm redoing it now. I may do this with several of the earlier areas in the mod...no hurry. :)

Cheerio!

Some Writing

I ended up getting a bit of writing done yesterday, as well as a teeny bit of scripting and miscellaneous design work (area clean-up, blueprint placement, etc.). Not a whole lot of progress though. Today I hope to assemble a big cutscene (the most significant in the campaign, possibly) before we leave Vermont.

A little bit of writing after all

So I ultimately did manage to get some dialogue work (~500 words, perhaps a little more) done this evening between dinner, dessert, and playing sardines with all the younger kids (I'm always the oldest). It was a good time. Anyhow, off to bed--I'm exhausted.

Nuthin'

Yesterday was spent driving and running. Today we have guests at the house (tomorrow as well), so I won't be able to get any work done on Moonshadows. On Monday we head back down to MA to pack, and on Tuesday we're headed to England for 3 weeks! Woohoo! :) I think I'll be bringing my laptop after all, but I'm not certain. In any event, I probably won't be doing any modding at all over the course of the next few weeks.

5 Miler & some dialogue

So today, I spent the morning out and about getting stuff done (haircut, etc.). Then, in the afternoon, I got some really good dialogue work done before heading off to an annual 5 mile roadrace in my hometown. This was the 3rd year I'd done it, and here are my times:

2005: 36-something

2006: 31:20

2007: 30:40

So I didn't improve quite as much, but that's because my training has been very inconsistent thus far this summer due to a variety of factors. Still, I was pretty happy with it. It's worth noting that last year I won the 17 and under agegroup, and that this year I was still 17 by 6 days so I was in it again...and this year I came in 2nd. To whom? A cross country buddy from high school who lives nearby! We both busted out the Andover singlets and ran to a brilliantly dominant 1-2 finish for the glory of the academy (which, ironically, neither of us run for any more! :D ). Still, it was really good, and while I won't win quite as much $$ this year with a 2nd place finish as I did last year with 1st, I should still get something, which is always welcome. ;) Here we are after the race, as well as one of me pigging out on ice cream minutes later, and then a sick soccer picture my mom took (and survived taking) before we left. ;)

Nothing!

I've got absolutely nothing to report today aside from a wee bit of dialogue work I did this morning before leaving VT for MA. While the rest of my day was exciting and enjoyable, it was nothing any of you folks would care about. Sorry! :)

Some dialogue, scripting, summer reading

Just a bit of dialogue and scripting work yesterday--I spent most of my time outside taking advantage of the nice weather (aka reading/tanning). I finished my fourth book since the start of June, The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and it was quite good, albeit a little bit obscure/"different." But yeah, I definitely enjoyed it. So far, I've read The Dante Club, It's Not News--It's FARK!, Chaos - Making a New Science, and The Club Dumas. I'm in a bit of a cycle, you could say--historical thriller, non-fiction humor, non-fiction academic. I think I might skip the humor this time around and go right to academic for my next one, though, as I have Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe queued up next. If I could find Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I would read that first, but I've been unable to locate it...but I'm going back to MA today, so it might be there.

In any event, reading goes well and the module does too. I'm wrapping up my big revision of a 2000+ word dialogue file, and that's just the first interaction with this character! It'll probably stretch to around 3000 by the time the convo is done. After that, I'm going to try to put together an introductory movie via conversation/displaying .tga's with timed fades/"next node" shifts programmed in--I should theoretically be able to simulate one of those .bik movies that I've in the past had to use PowerPoint and a screen capture program to create, all within the framework provided by the toolset! There's a lot more cool "stuff" like this .tga displaying capability provided in the Electron toolset; the VFX editor is a blast to play around with and quite intuitive, and I'm really just completely enamored with the toolset overall at this point. It's just so much more convenient and more powerful!

COOLNESS.

So today I had a very interesting day. First, it rained torrentially, during which I did a whole bunch of custom VFX work for Moonshadows (I want it to look special, particularly the climactic plot events/key plot elements). It's amazing what retexturing existing VFX's and editing which sounds play when can do... :)

Anyhow, aside from a little writing, that's all I got done because we had a HUGE lightning storm that lasted LITERALLY 2 hours!!! It was SO COOL--pitch black out, but the sky was lit up perpetually, like, every 2 seconds (no joke) by lightning! And it lasted FOREVER! So I took pictures! Here are the best ones (and a few "foils" to show how good the good ones really turned out)! :)

















Cool eh? :)

So Far, So Good!

In addition to going on an 8 mile run today after having been forced to take the day off yesterday (rain & town excursion), I had a very, very productive day as far as Moonshadows was concerned. I was a scripting madman--I wrote custom item activation powers for four different items (all of which I created, as well), and I wrote a bunch of new parameter-template-style scripts for use across the entire campaign. I spent a lot of time in the VFX plugin scouting out VFX's to use and creating a few new ones, and I did a bunch of area work. Wshew! And it's only 8:30! Oh, also, I wrote about 500 words of dialogue for a few cutscenes as well as scripted the cutscene content (after getting a little bit of help from my buddy and co-worker Challseus--thanks!). For the next 2-3 hours, I'll be doing more convo/cutscene work...but what I've already done is substantial, and I'm pleased with it!

I also did some Ossian stuff in tandem with Challseus, which I think came out very well, but I obviously can't talk about that.

Blah.

I know, a most descriptive and apt title. I'm sort of braindead right now. I managed to build an entire interior area which will prove extremely significant both in the middle and at the VERY end of the campaign...it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, I like the idea so much. :) Anyhow, I did that, and I did some minor flavor text writing stuff, and a little blueprint creation and area decoration/music-selection/lighting. Tomorrow is a main-quest clean-up day.

Re-Vamped module description etc.

So I gave a little bit of a makeover to the Moonshadows homepage; it now features a new module description. Nothing groundbreakingly different, just something a little more appropriate for how the campaign has actually turned out in terms of initial motivations.

I spent some time this morning doing some area design cleanup work--making sure surface walkmeshes are all tidy in exterior areas, for example. I also drew a trigger for the first cutscene I wanted to make...and then promptly forgot to write the cutscene. ;) I did place a few monsters down as well. I'm going to head out on a run soon, and then we're going on an excursion for the early evening...so I may or may not have time to do more work on Moonshadows when I get home tonight.

More Music & Blueprint & Area stuff

So it turns out combat tracks didn't work this morning, but I fixed it and went back through and specified them all in each area in the game. I also went through one area (the "baddie" area from this morning's post) and populated it with monsters, as well as changed all placeables to environmental objects (+ walkmesh cutter, as usual), as it seems I forgot to do that in this one area. I also placed loads of loot in this level on various objects, and made a few custom goodies that will hopefully spice things up a bit. Additionally, I added a few friendly creatures to the other area that needed some life in it. I'm not quite done with that "good" area yet though; it needs more creatures/stuff to do in it to justify its being there. ;)

Speaking of that "good" area, I deleted a huge number of trees in it to reduce lag and make it look less cramped as well as adjusted the sky and lighting--I'm pretty pleased with the end result, and I think I'll have to go through my other forest areas to make sure every tree is justified, so to speak. ;) I think I'll do that tonight before I go to bed, as it's pretty mindless work, which is always good for late at night!

It seems those cutscenes have been put off somewhat though. I'll try to write one of the convos/cutscenes tonight before going to bed in addition to dealing with those resource-sapping trees.

In terms of releasing, I've actually come to a decision, I think. I'm NOT going to release what I have yet. Instead, I'm just going to call this the end of the first module and move into a second .mod (or, in my case, module directory), which is not the same as calling the chapter over per se. I'm going to basically expand chapter 1. My reason for doing this is that chapter 1 currently consists largely of sidequests leading up to the beginning of the main quest, which is not really what I had in mind...if I were to release it at this "complete" stage, the main quest would really only barely get started, literally in the last area out of around 30. So I'm going to let the main quest figure a bit more prominently and then decide as I go along where a good stopping point might be.

Custom music galore & idle chatter

So today has been a music day so far, almost exclusively! I've spent from 9am to 3pm selecting tracks, getting them into the toolset/game, and going through EVERY SINGLE ONE of my areas and specifying a day, night, and combat track, as well as ambient sound effects. It took quite awhile (6 hours, to be exact :P ) but it was definitely worth it; the game has a lot more life now, and even just opening areas in the toolset and listening to their music and sound is fun. :)

I also did some lighting tweaks in three or so areas; still haven't gotten around to those few cutscenes/convos, but those are next. After that, I've got one "good" area to populate (NPC's) and one "bad" area to populate (nasties). Then...I'm done! Bwahaha!

I'm also considering releasing this first chapter when it's done after all as opposed to waiting for chapter 2 to be done first (and releasing both together)...I'm sort of flip-flopping as the days go by. I think I'll just release it as soon as it's bug-free, and while the testers are helping me to make it reach that status, I'll start on chapter 2 to get a bit of a head start. If anyone has any compelling arguments for waiting/not waiting, I'd be interested in hearing them...also, if anyone happens to be interested in beta testing, I'd like to hear from you as well (email me: alex(at)hugon.com ).

In any event, I'm excited that this thing's almost done! I've really been a machine these past few days, if I might say so myself. :) And while I won't be handing this over to testers until I've run through it a few times myself, it's still pretty exhilirating to think people'll get to play it soon! :) I wonder how long it'll be...

Productive day

I'll keep this one short & sweet, as I've done a ton of writing already today in various forms. I went through all the areas in the module and tweaked lighting to my satisfaction, as well as inserted point lighting when appropriate. I also did some area design work (I had to mess a bit with an exterior to ensure that a certain series of events are more likely to happen--pseudo-railroading, you could say ;) ) and some scripting and blueprint placing. Then, I went through and made sure area transitions were installed in all the more recent areas I made. So, minor things, but many minor things, and important minor things. I'm pleased.

Anyhow, I'm off to bed. Perhaps I'll get to the main quest cutscene/convo editing tomorrow...I have at least one conversation to write, and at least one cutscene and one (probably three) conversation(s) to tweak. Then I have to decide whether or not an enemy needs to be inserted at a certain location...we'll see how cruel I feel tomorrow... ;)

Good work done

I got a whole lot of stuff done this evening on Moonshadows to the point that I am now officially done with all sidequest content in the first chapter (I think). This is a big deal. Tomorrow it's on to main quest stuff, which is technically already written/designed...I just have to make sure everything works together nicely, since it was all done awhile ago. I also have a cutscene or two to design, which should go quickly...then, uh, I'm done? Because today, I did a TON of scripting, blueprint design & placement, I designed an entire area from scratch, and I wrote close to 2000 more words of dialogue. All that remains is to iron out the main plot & cutscenes, then to go through baking each area with appropriate area properties & music, then...I'm done. Wow. Cool. :)

Then it'll be on to Chapter 2! How exciting!

Happy Birthday, America.

So yesterday, after arriving in Vermont in the afternoon, I spent some time writing (about 600-700 words, I think), doing a good bit of scripting, and creating and placing various blueprints for creatures, triggers, waypoints, that kind of thing. Overall it was a decently productive day...nothing outstanding, but nothing too shabby either. This morning I did a little bit more of the same, though my focus was more on getting some scripting done.

Busy day

Woke up, drove down from VT to MA for the day. I hung out on campus with a friend interning at summer session--we went on a run, then I met up with another couple of friends and just sort of chilled for the afternoon. Blah blah blah, came home, dinner, a little scripting and writing, and I'm totally wiped.

Goodnight.

On a Roll!

I woke up at 9:00 this morning to discover that for the first time this vacation, it was not going to be a nice day to tan/be outside. So, resigned, I took a seat at my computer...now it is 10:00pm, and I am still here. I mean, I obviously got up for meals and stuff...but that's about it! Hahaha! I've spent basically every waking moment in the toolset today, which I'm sure all you faithful readers will be delighted to hear. I made SO much progress on Moonshadows it's ridiculous. It was basically a resurgence of my old NWN1 modding self who would blast through a whole campaign in like a week. It was awesome. :)

So let's see...I went through EVERY interior area in the game, converted placeables to environmental objects, and did walkmesh-cutting by placing triggers--extremely time-consuming, but it needed to get done, and it was pretty menial work. I also built and decorated two levels of crypt/ruins FROM SCRATCH, lighting and walkmesh and placeables and tiles and everything. I placed creatures in the biggest (and coolest) exterior area in the game...and, to top it off, I just whipped off 1200+ words of dialogue in the past hour or so. I was just totally on a roll. A couple more days like this and chapter one will definitely be finished. Of course, I won't be releasing it...but it'll be good to have it done so I can move onto chapter two.

Oh, a friend also contacted me on AIM and initiated me to the world's shortest (and yet still techincally complete) D&D adventure: The Orc and the Pie. It was hilarious. For like ten seconds (I opted to blow up the door with an empowered fireball, which killed the orc and singed the pie...luckily it was still edible, so I was able to complete the adventure!). Tee Hee. :)

Anyhow, no screenshots today, but hopefully I'll have some in the next week or so...? We'll see how things go.

EDIT: Also, I backed up and uploaded my stuff to my personal FTP server, which caused me to note the size of the files all put together...Chapter 1 currently weighs in at 578 MB uncompressed...heh. I wonder where that puts me in comparison to other mods on the Vault right now...too lazy to check. :) 'Night!