Another day dedicated to testing.

Well, I spent all of yesterday testing. I'm not exagerrating. All day. All of it. It was glorious. Best part is I made it to the end of the game (before a mixup with a two triggers--they each did what the other was supposed to :P ) screwed me over and didn't let me make it to the VERY end (climax) of the module. Bah. In any event, I took a few a bunch of screenshots for your enjoyment--here are two of them.

In any event, I will be leaving today for a one-week backpacking preorientation trip for Harvard with my new classmates. :) I'll be arriving back in Cambridge on the 8th, so until then, it goes without saying that I won't be able to update this. Let me just say that I could not have picked a worse week to not have access to a computer. It's going to be a very, very, very exciting week...but how can that possibly be without your blog posts to rely on, Alex? you might ask. Well, I'm not going to answer that. Use your imagination.

And on that wonderful cliffhanger of a note, adieu until the 8th. Oh, what a different world it shall be when I return... ;)

September!

It's September, and Moonshadows Chapter 1 is looking great. :) Yesterday I spent all day testing, and I'm now done testing High Forest quests. One of them went really smoothly--the other had some complicated scripts (a "listener", for example, for those scripters among you--though that part I actually had working on my first try! :) ) in place. You know, it's happened to me a few times, but I almost feel like I'm playing Morrowind when I play this game. There's something about the inventory screen/icons, the looks of the environments (though Morrowind's graphics were better and crisper)...they just remind me of that Elder Scrolls masterpiece, which is a good thing.

In any event, I spent yesterday testing and fixing a whole slew of bugs, from writing to scripting, to combat balance to loot balance. I still have to rename a few placeables and finish going through this last High Forest sidequest before I can truly move on into the Star Mounts...but it's definitely looking good.

Oh, another thing. I decided at around 11:30 last night that I didn't like the way The Sisters looked compared to the rest of my module. See, it looked nice...it was an area I made before I got good with textures and terrain and stuff, but it was good enough that I didn't scrap it when I re-did all my other areas...but at this point, I knew I could do SO much better. And so, I did. :) The Sisters now truly lives up to its reputation as one of the prettiest, lushest, most scenic/picturesque locations in the Realms, I think. :) It makes much better use of trees, grass, and placeables, as well as changes in elevation and even water! Overall I think it's a huge improvement, and I'm glad I took the time to redo it. I'll have to update The Sisters' screenshots (I believe there's one in the gallery right now from the old area)...

Anyhow, today I'm going to go on a run in the morning and then come back and finish testing this last quest. Then I'll either run through all the High Forest quests or jump into the Star Mounts. Regardless of what I choose to do, hopefully this (see picture above) won't happen all that often... ;)

Insane testing

Wow. I spent so long testing yesterday, it's ridiculous. I took a bunch of screenshots too, but none of them are worth sharing. :P In any event, I think I FINALLY sorted out all the issues I encountered by the time I turned in for bed...I still have four sidequests to test and the latter half of the main quest, and I think I have about five to six hours of playtime thus far...so Chapter 1 should hopefully weigh in around 10+? We shall see. :)

About to head back in-game for some more testing, and hopefully for some screenshot-taking too!

More Testing, More Fixing, More Screenshots.

Well, I spent ALL DAY (apart from a quick run) playtesting a second sidequest and a good chunk of the main quest for Moonshadows. At this point everything on my list is "checked off", so it'll be onward and upward (literally--into the Star Mounts ;) ) tomorrow. A few more screenies for your enjoyment...

I personally am a big fan of both of these screenshots. I think they do a good job of conveying some nice action scenes/visuals of the mod.

Anyhow, that's it for today! More to come tomorrow. :)

Testing, Fixing, Developing--Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

The title says it all. Today was a testing day for Moonshadows, during which I found a bunch of issues (several of them show-stoppers); I'm in the process of fixing them right now, as well as designing new content for Chapter 2! :) Here are a few screenies for your enjoyment.

Testinggggggg...and a few new screenies

A long morning and afternoon of testing--all issues encountered (and there were plenty, especially related to a few troublesome doors with scripts...) have been resolved, except for one "note to self" that I plan on adding tomorrow morning; it's more of an "improvement"/feature addition than a fix, but I think it's pretty necessary. Anyhow, I'm enjoying myself despite the handful of bugs! The combat is hard, but that's just because I'm not very good and my builds need work. ;) Oh, and I don't use potions. Yeah....about that. I'll probably disable the pesky death script I have in place...did I mention that there is no respawn in Moonshadows? Yeah, well, there isn't. You die, you're dead. At least for the moment. I may make a last-minute change to implement a sort of deity-specific system for appropriate classes (clerics, paladins, druids, etc.), but that is unlikely at this point; I rather like the harshness of my death script. ;) Anyhow, a few screenshots for your amusement!

Testing, fixing, frisbeeing

Today I spent a bunch of time doing a first round of testing with the "finished" game; let's just say lots of the stuff I hadn't tried before was...rough. But I have two columns of notes ("bugs" and "suggested improvements") which have all been crossed off, so everything I encountered should theoretically be taken care of at this point. Tomorrow I'll probably jump right into testing and see how far I get this time around. Oh, also, I took a few screenshots in-game of some not-yet-seen areas; this one is the one I like best:


For anyone who's interested, I was playing with my level 8 dwarven fighter today, and while some of the combat was easy, other fights were exceedingly difficult...it's easy to get mobbed as a single melee man. Characters able to take on multiple enemies at once more effectively, like casters, may end up having a significantly easier time in this module...I'll have to see. In any event, it certainly looks like my starting level prediction of 7-8 is going to be the final word; you'll have a chance to adjust your character's level to 8 at the start of the module if you don't bring in an appropriately-experienced character.