Well, almost there. I'm talking about Craggy Island, of course.
The past week was a bit unsettling because of all the various ways the game decided to test our conviction that the module was ready for release. B2B area loads didn't work, quests working in one build didn't work on another, plot actions that had been working for a long time were suddenly breaking - it was like a pre-go-live crunch period, which in a way, it was, I guess.

After numerous exchanges of full and incremental B2Bs, we finally decided to take the big step of wiping out the database on Paul's side and loading everything from scratch from a B2B on my machine - which had a bigger percentage of the anomalies working correctly. Things finally started going in the right direction yesterday though Paul had to spend some hours renaming the VO files - I always import B2Bs with 'Create New Strings' checked.

Don't worry, son; you are almost there

Still, what's done is done. We are currently testing the B2P package on both our machines and while some snags are hit, they are being speedily resolved as we encounter them. So, Paul's stated release date of 16th looks like being the D-Day for sure!

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Past few days have have seen a lot of behind-the-scenes work, both on Blood and Lyrium and Craggy Island and mostly on Skype.

I think I've mentioned this before, DahliaLynn is working on an important cutscene for BaL and so far, it's looking absolutely terrific! We've been going back and forth over it but it is mostly complete now except for some fine-tuning. Today, we got the revised voice samples for that scene and will be integrated into the conversation shortly. After this is done, I hope to retain her services for a few more cut-scenes; frankly, the ones I've done so far are not good. Of course, I've received a lot of suggestions and advice on cinematics from her but going back and re-doing them will not be a quick task and with the amount of things still left to be done, they will have to wait.

How do you know this is from the Toolset?

The good news on the progress side of things is that the Evermist re-work is complete (well, except for the final polish but that's true for all my levels) and I've started integrating the area work done previously. There is also an extremely cool side-quest in that area, if I do say so myself. One that's innovative in it's use of the game resources; I got caught up in implementing it and while it's not working as intended currently, it's just a question of hacking away at it because that's primarily what it is ;)

I also fixed most of the big issues with Craggy Island, including that auto-level up templates for companions. I was kicking myself for not double-checking everything after finding the causes - the character template had a min-level and preset abilities that was screwing up the final output. I was calculating the XP needed to level from Level 1 to 7 and the min-level was already set to 5. So, what happens? The game bumps her up to level 9. I tell you, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure this out.

In addition to the fixes, some more cool VFX effects have been implemented that gives the scene that authentic touch. I know I said this previously too but these ones are way better, trust me! One more day will be dedicated to CI to code in the character pre-set and fix some niggling issues but after that, it will be time to beta!

For those out there wondering, I have not completely succumbed to the temptations of WoW...yet! But the pull is strong! :p

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As mentioned in the last update, I've been working on two things primarily - finishing up the scripting for Craggy Island and reworking the Evermist level.

The work on Craggy Island is almost done. We've added some VFX to the final area to make things seem a little more coherent. The actual VFX that was to be implemented is not present in the default VFX_base worksheet. For now, a similar VFX has been added and while it does look fine, I think the original one (fxe_mist_p) had a 'blowing-out' animation that's missing from this one. In the end, we might just have to extend VFX_base and use the VFX that was originally intended to be in the area.
There is also an annoying issue with the auto-level up template for the companions - just doesn't seem to work. I'll have to spend some time tomorrow going over that and trying to fix it.

This weekend, I spent a considerable amount of time on the Evermist level. Even if I do say so myself, it is starting to look much more like a proper village than a random collection of houses on elevated ground. I've taken pains to bring in some distinction to the various areas within the level - for example, rich farmers will have shingled roofs on their houses and the immediate area around them will look better with cobbled pathways and bigger houses, the poorer sections will have thatch roofs, closer-spaced houses, patch-worked walls.

I had planned to take some before/after close-up shots to show the difference but didn't have time yesterday night. Maybe in the next post :)
Here is a screenie of one of the streets that is near the entrance; still need to add a few more props but I also have to make sure not to overdo it. As it is, the level is prop-heavy due to all the constructed structures!

Oh, and I managed to spend only a few hours on WoW - enough to advance my gnome by about 7 levels. Reading about the latest patch on the WoW forums, it appears that the initial leveling process has been made faster ;)

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That's right! THE drug, going by what I've read and I must say, it's true to an extent!

I saw a BF deal for a free monthly pass for WoW and decided I'll give it a shot. I got one of those 10-day trial invites so I can decide whether to sell that pass or not and it looks like I *might* subscribe instead. I should have taken a screenshot of the first time I entered Eitrigg. I guess it was a busy time in the realm - there were scores of characters around! That first glimpse sucked me right in though I couldn't log on to that realm after that (almost always full!)
Instead I created a gnome mage in Norgannon and it's been a blast playing that little 'un. I don't know about others but I find the graphics extremely appealing. It's so colourful and lively, compared to DA.

The starting area for a gnome character

The other thing I noticed was that even for unimportant quests - simply to go to another place, for example - you get a detailed reason. Far more detailed than any of those Chanter's Board/Blackstone Irregulars/many other side-quests in DA. I really liked that there is a story behind all these fights against the Troggs, Rockjaws and Frostmanes.
The other important distinction from DA that I immediately noticed were the ambient animations. Here is a screenshot (badly taken) of a guy carrying another. He actually goes and lays the guy down on a makeshift bed and goes back and waits for another survivor!

Anyway, as much as I am enjoying this game, I am making a conscious effort not to play for extended lengths of time. I still have a module to finish; make it two actually. I am in final stages of scripting for Craggy Island and after that, it's just going to be bug-fixing (which we've already done a lot) and polishing. Hopefully, it gets out around Christmas; last I heard, VO is in progress.

Meanwhile, while re-working my Evermist level, I've also been taking breaks on and off (it feels like I've been working in the level editor most of the time!) and re-working dialogues to change references to the locations that have moved. I'm also working on fleshing out the setting with a lot of ambient dialogues during these breaks so it doesn't get boring - which is quite easy when re-working a level as huge as this one. I'm also making sure some of the buildings fit more into a village setting; an example is the marketplace which was very big and spacious under a huge tent-like awning previously. Now, the shops are more closely-packed and cluttered with make-shift roofs.

Re-worked market

Once I finish this, I have around 4 cutscenes I need to create in this area. That will definitely take some time! Till later...

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Things just got a little more exciting and a little more hectic! I've taken over a new role at work, managing the projects we are working on and with it comes a ton of admin activities. Being an individual contributor till now, I've never really appreciated the amount of work that actually goes into managing a large scale project such as ours and this was sort of a rude awakening. Still, I've jumped in with both feet and I've got to make this work!

On the BaL front, things are progressing slowly but steadily. The important cutscene Dahlia is working on is expected to be completed this week and I am recruiting a VO artist for the lines required for this cutscene. This will help in the visualization, I am told ( I tell you, I am a noob at cinematics!) and it will also give me a chance to get the whole voice-over related activities into my build workflow.

Are you the one I am looking for?

Currently, I am working on populating the different areas with ambient NPCs. Leeward, in particular, has this big campsite party that will have quite a few ambient NPCs and I am trying to find varied animations for them so they don't all appear as clones. This does involve creating new ambient patterns and I am trawling through the ANIM_base worksheet to see what I can cook up. After that, I have a couple more cutscenes to create (nothing complex but since I will be doing them, anything can happen!).

Then, comes the big activity - packaging and play-testing the alpha. I plan to do this on another computer to simulate a user playing it so that it's easier to identify missing resources, etc. This will also free up my desktop to tweak and run the lightmapping on the levels that need it - parallelism all the way! Now, if only I had 48 hours a day...

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Of course, I wasn't away from the Toolset for that long that I need a break-in time to get back into the groove. In fact, I didn't even manage to keep my word that I'll not touch the Toolset till Thursday! We identified the pesky bug at work and while fixing it will take some time, we at least have the damn thing in our sights.

I spent a day brain-storming the talents and talent trees for one of the new classes for the companions. While the basic idea behind this class was established a long time back, it was time to go into the details -> finalize the ability names, what each ability will do, the various other information associated with abilities and most important, the specializations. I am extremely happy with the way the specializations have turned out - rooted in lore and distinct from what is currently offered in DA.
I am planning on having a separate page soon with all the new classes, abilities and trees so folks reading this blog can have a sneak peek at what's in store for them come February :)

WIP Shot

I've also started collaborating with DahilaLynn on cutscenes and we've been having a lot of discussions over IM on this one important cutscene (for now!) that she's directing for me. I must say, those chats have been extremely useful - showed me I still needed to go a-ways in the cutscene department (for example, she was talking about adjusting dof and I had to google it!). For those who haven't, check out her Alistair's Royal Wedding over on DragonAge Nexus - that should give an indication of her directing expertise.
...which reminds me, I need to do some lighting and stage work in the area where the cutscene is taking place and send it to her.

Till later...

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The weekend started off pretty quietly - for the whole of Saturday, I was not able to work on BaL though I wanted to.  Sunday looked to be turning that way - we had the daylight savings kick in and I realized I actually hadn't gotten up early :)

Still, I managed to finish the level I was working on - it is a fairly small level and will be used in one of the area transition encounters. It resembles a small clearing in a forest with a path winding through it - the sort of area where you'd stop to camp. It's so hard to create the illusion of a forest though, especially one around the rim of the clearing. For one, there is no terrain darkening tool and I wasn't able to find a suitable texture to substitute for that. Second, there is, as far as I was able to determine, no way to remove light from a particular area. This is very significant for forests as trees in Dragon Age do not cast shadows.

The view from near the entrance to the area

For now, the level has been marked complete which means it is 90% done. I will probably do the shadows later when I have time. I also tried using negative lights for this purpose but apparently, they have some other purpose.

I also managed to finish (read: 90%) an important cutscene that sets the stage for the plot beyond the first couple of areas. It is still a little rough around the edges at certain points but it's functionally complete and that's all that matters for now.

Till later...

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So, it turned out to be not so bad after all.

I managed to finish the scripting required for Craggy Island on Sunday morning. There is still a niggling issue where a particular item is not getting added to the player's inventory - there is no fancy code in the back end, just a simple call to UT_AddItemToInventory. It is working in other places so I am not sure why it is not working here. The only difference is that this is an equippable item and the initial testing was with an uninitialized character (Jaden). However, even after generating the correct player character, it is not working. Not a really big deal but I am curious to find out why it is not working in this case.

Out of the 2 cutscenes I had planned to finish, I managed to finish only one. I don't know whether to call it fairly short or lengthy since it is only 20 seconds but it is lengthiest one I've created so far and also the most complex. It has around 9 characters and 2 creatures and a bunch of VFXs. The hardest part was finding the animations for the bears and in the end, I couldn't find anything suitable. I had to resort to taking a small portion of an existing animation and repeating it a few times.

The doors can only be opened by the bears!

In the end, it didn't turn out all that bad. I figure I still have some tweaking left to do with the weights and transitions but I am happy for now! I also have to start investigating the facial expressions for the characters as, right now, they are a little bland and static.

I tried to use Sunjammer's new tool - the Cutscene Companion - but I wasn't able to capture anything. Then, I tried to use Fraps but in-game, the cutscene was playing at location (0,0,0) in spite of having a stage assigned to it. I was hoping to generate a movie and club it with some other shots and create a sort of trailer but I guess it will have to wait for another day.

The target for this week is to complete the remaining cutscenes while I still have that directing bug and create/modify some VFXs for my custom classes and integrate all that into the module. A big task, I admit, but it has to be done at some point and the sooner the better.

Till later....

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In my earlier post,I had mentioned that I would be able to get the level I submitted for the contest tweaked and ready by the weekend. Well, that didn't happen. In spite of the long list of ideas I had on Friday, the weekend for the most part was a complete bust. I had to work on a production-critical demand issue and after spending almost an entire day on it, I was drained. I did open the toolset but I couldn't even get myself to write a simple trigger script - completely blanked out! Towards the of the weekend, I finally wrung out some energy to fix some of the glaring omissions in the level - floating buildings. I also went through the level in-game, both in tactical camera mode and third-person view to find anything else that was amiss and I recalled Mike's comments about the carts balancing on wheels and went about fixing those.

Where are those invisible oxen?!

I did manage to have a long conversation with Daeltaja on Sunday evening and have a list of things I need to complete for Craggy Island - minor scripting stuff for the most part. The one important thing I'm overdue on is getting a play-through done so I can get a feel for the current state of things. I plan to get that done with today so I can finish the work required from my side - after all, I volunteered for this so I definitely don't want to be the one holding things up!

On the Shadow Magic front, two of my first round games were won successfully and the last one is in progress. I want to win this too so I can be assured of a second round slot - with the modified swiss sytem we are using, two wins might not cut it if the opponents don't get many points. I would probably need to spend some time preparing for the second round once the map is announced and that will likely happen toward end of this month.

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One of the good things with the level building contest was getting feedback from the judges. Mike and Semper have given some valuable feedback, including a tip about ambient animations that will go a long way toward polishing my level-building skills. So, that's what I've started doing now - fixing up the contest entry to remove some of the obvious mistakes - there were two floating buildings a small distance off the ground that I am really ashamed of as I went through the level specifically looking for that! I will also start addressing some of the things I wrote down in my earlier post and hopefully, get the level finished this weekend.

In the meantime, I've started dabbling in 3ds max when I get time so I can do some basic stuff. One of the first things I wanted to do was to get the fence prop with a relatively straighter upper post so it would look better when placed in a chain. I was able to do it though the end result wasn't that good - I just pulled all the vertices up and exported it, which I guess is not the way to do it :)

There is also a scripting contest coming up and I've already got ideas for 3 possible mini-games. All of those would fit in nicely with BaL though the 2 mini-games/puzzles I had planned for BaL won't be entered in the contest - I need to keep some original stuff for my module as well! I also have a cool idea for the setup for one of the games that would involve some new models but after going through some video tutorials yesterday night on 3ds max, I think it should be pretty simple (the available options to create models are staggering!)

Now that the contest is over, I'm also spending more time working on Craggy Island to get the scripts written as and when Daeltaja finishes writing a particular sequence and so far, there haven't been any real hurdles there. I might have to write a custom placeable script to strip out some of the features in placeable_core but again, the core functionality isn't being changed so that should be relatively simple.

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I know...you think it's not really that big of a deal since a lot of people managed to submit some exceptional work for the contest. For me, however, the contest set a couple of important milestones with respect to level building.

A bird's eye view of Evermist

1. This is the biggest level I've created till date. To be honest, this dwarfs the other 3 exterior levels I created. The size of this level is 224 x 288 and the playable area is 160 x 224 (or 5 x 7 using the default chunk size)
2. This is also the quickest I've created any exterior level - it took a little over 10 days to complete this monster (well, it's still got a few tweaks that have to go into it but it is playable right now!)

Again, the above might not seem like major things but keeping in mind that every exterior level I have right now requires additional work (floating trees, night version to be created, more props), it was a very good effort, even if I do say so myself. The contest provided an end date to the work that I really didn't have before - I could create the other resources required for BaL and still be working on the module. Not so here.

Evermist - a view from the Chantry balcony

As I said above, there are still a few tweaks that have to go into the level -

• I need to put in more fencing around a couple of raised up areas
• More props need to be added to the houses
• Some texture rework is required (I was not even sure whether I had utilized one particular texture in more than one area and some areas are still a little bland)
• I need to cut down on the grass in the fields  - I think I have nearly 2000 trees in the level and about a quarter of them have High draw distance. Not a good one for lower-end machines
• Some custom props have to be designed to replace tons of replicated props
• Put in the mist that gives the village it's name :)

Given how I've handled these things before, they'll likely be pushed out till I get the level building bug again - and I'm praying it's not for some time yet. I literally haven't done anything else except level building over the past 10 days and man, do I need a break from that!!

To give you an idea, I was building the final toolset export today morning and I hit an error with the SpeedTree capture for a particular tree (condsn_a, I think). So, I deleted the files in the trees folder, did a post trees alone and it was successful. Just to make sure, I load the area layout in a test area and damn, all the trees except the 'wall' trees were missing their leaves!! I was in panic mode! I did a full post again, same error with the same tree, removed the textures from the SpeedTree temporary folder and another full post, which was finally successful. I go back in and same issue!!
Thankfully, I noticed that the trees closer to the camera were fading in and out as I went near...and then realized Fade Cutaway was selected!!!

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I've been really busy with the Settlement Level contest and pretty much devoting all my time to it. One good thing is, as I'm molding the terrain and putting in props, ideas keep coming up. Not all of these are game-play related ideas though. Many are logical ones - lot of fields and a bakery in the market, maybe add a windmill to grind grain into flour? or a prominent fish-selling meat market gave the idea for a stream through the village, etc.
Also, lots of ambient conversations just write themselves in my head when I am doing prop work. I must admit, most are just explanations for why things are in a particular way but I think even these complete the area as a whole.

Anyway, enough rambling...here is a screenie for your consumption and I'm off to spend more time with the level editor - need to finish prop placement, texturing, more fields/orchard planting, vistas and getting the water to look right.

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Yep, in plural!

I had been toying with the idea of submitting the Leeward level to the Community Contest. However, it is not *technically* a finished level since the village is not complete. The incomplete areas are not accessible in Blood and Lyrium but that wouldn't be enough reason to make that entry a valid one according to the contest rules.
I had started design work on the next big area in BaL, a village called Evermist. This would be a crucial area in BaL so I had spent some considerable time to make sure that all I needed could be presented properly.

Design on Paper

Given that I had the design work complete around middle of last week, I decided to take the plunge to try and finish it before the contest deadline. It is a fairly large level (192 x 288) and I've decided to use a lot of elevations and custom-built houses which makes it even more time-consuming.
At this point, the initial prototyping is done and it is looking pretty good - by my own low standards :)
The contest deadline is just 6 days away so I will be slaving away at it whenever I get some free time. I would love to hear any suggestions or feedback on the posted images either here or at DANexus or in my project feedback thread so feel free to share your thoughts on the level.

The view from the Chantry

The other contest, rather competition, that I am participating in is the Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic PBEM 1vs1 Tourney. Historically, though I've been a Singles Champion, I've never been able to see a 1vs1 competition through to the end. These tourneys typically go on for about 5-6 months and in both competitions held in the past, I've been forced to forfeit due to RL delays. Hopefully, this time, I can play till the end.
Of course, I haven't had much practice since I haven't been playing PBEM for nearly 9 months now but as luck would have it, my first round is relatively easy and I hope to go through to the final 16 without any major hiccups. Here's hoping!
Being on the forum staff, I'll also be helping out with the organization (setting up threads, resolving any disputes, etc) a bit so that is going to cut into the time I can spend on DA.

Too many things going on!
Till later...

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I finished the area (Leeward) I was working on for Blood and Lyrium a couple of days back - finished as in, the required NPCs for the various quests are in place and their dialogue is written and plots and associated scripts are done. Technically, that means I can play through till this area and the story will progress accordingly. Of course, there is some additional play-testing to do to make sure everything is alright. I can't speak for other module-makers but for me, it is very difficult to do more than one or two runthroughs of an area if I haven't added something new to test. I know there are alternate options to choose and different approaches to the same goals (well, most of the time at least) but I just can't seem to muster the willpower to do it. I don't know - is it that the content is not interesting enough or is it just my psyche?

Anyway, the good news is, as I was play-testing, I got a very good idea for a quest at the beginning of the game. Now, some players might not like having to answer lore questions to progress through a main quest line. I even thought of adding in an alternative way to do it but then, ditched the idea. After all, Blood and Lyrium is about a Dalish protagonist and I didn't want to dilute the experience right at the start. I just made sure that the player can find the required answers either through conversations or codex entries before starting the quest.

New Quest - The camera needs a bit of adjustment still

A few posts back, I was talking about Craggy Island and how the island itself was looking beautiful. As it turns out, Daeltaja was looking for some help with scripting and I've decided to set aside some time to do just that. This last week, we went through a few hurdles getting B2B to work right but after the initial hiccups, managed to complete the initial plot and associated scripting. The module is not planned to be very lengthy so I expect, if we keep up the kind of communication we had going last week, to be done with the scripting front by end of this month. I hate to put an end date on things still in development (I've already revised BaL's release date twice!) but I reckon I will take a chance with this; especially as the main developer (Daeltaja) will have a couple of weeks vacation this month.

Till later...

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During my weekly visit to Gamespot, I came across this video article talking about DLCs as the future of gaming. DLC, as most gamers are aware, refers to DownLoadable Content and this is a topic I (and many others, it would seem) have strong opinions on.
When I started playing games - which was pretty late, in my late teens - the additional stuff was always free; primarily because almost all of them were community content done by fans. Map packs, custom clothing/armor, total conversions, unofficial patches, new creatures, etc. All free.

Quake TC for Doom 3 - FREE!

I guess it was just a matter of time before someone in Corporate noticed the demand for these extras and decided that this was a good money-making opportunity. That's a perfectly good capitalist thought and it was a win-win scenario for both parties - more content, polished and with the official seal of compatibility for players and more revenue for the studios. The fallout of this model, at least in my eyes, is the death of the expansion pack. Games hardly have expansion packs nowadays - it's just more DLC to bridge the gap between sequels.

Civilization 4 - Fall from Heaven 2 - Better than most DLCs and free!

In the past couple of years though, the DLC scene has come to signify corporate greed and an utter lack of principles on the part of the publishers/studios. That's not to say all DLCs are bad - some rare ones are good but many of them don't justify the price tag. For example, the Bioshock 2 MP DLC - Sinclair Solutions - was already on the disk and the $5 price for the DLC was to get an unlock code. The reason behind the decision - players need to have exactly the same content to play online (btw, when has this ever been different?) and the DLC potentially is tied to engine updates and such that it had to be included in the disc. Then, there was the infamous Versus Mode DLC for RE5, a fiasco if ever there was one - a 1MB download for playing online, which made it so obvious the content was already there.

...and now, Dragon Age.
Admittedly, we know that the teams that do DLCs are separate from the 'main' development team. However, with the core development team concentrating on DA2 for quite some time now and the game and the toolset in desperate need of some patchwork, does it make sense to keep churning out additional DLCs? I swear the Feastday Gifts/Pranks was one of the worst ideas EVER - when players were still experiencing game-breaking glitches. And what do we get in the patch? Compatibility files for Awakening for the most part.
Why can't this DLC team work on fixing the bugs in the game? Most of these bugs are in the same category as content creation - they can be fixed with a toolset. Why can't some of these guys move over to DA2 development and free up one or two resources in the 'core' dev team to patch the toolset/engine? What's even more frustrating is that these bugs are acknowledged by Bioware. A couple of these (that I know of; maybe more), related to the chargen process, have even been fixed but apparently, there is no time to test and include the fixes in a build. Isn't that sad?

As I said, not all DLCs are bad. I am looking forward to The Witch Hunt for I know it will be good! Why? One word - Morrigan. Bioware knows that if they screwed up her story, it will be their worst debacle yet, bar none. I mean, they can't create a character such as Morrigan, give her the great build-up as in Origins and just let her fade away in a quick adventure, can they? I hope not.

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This past weekend was spent mainly in adding props to the existing levels to flesh them out and playing around with the textures.

It is embarrassing to admit but I only recently discovered the UVTile setting in the terrain mesh properties. I had been going back and forth between my levels and the official ones to figure out why my terrain looked so blotchy, for lack of a better word. I had just decided to post in the BSN forums for help when Eguintir Eligard created a thread about the very same thing last week. After setting the UVTile to a higher number for the levels, the effect was instant. If only everything else in the toolset was so simple to fix!!

I also went in and played around with the atmosphere settings and lighting to get that misty morning effect since the area the players start out in is at the top of a mountain. I might add some fog effects on the ground later too to firm in the idea of a Misty Mountain...then, all we need is Bilbo to complete the picture.

Below are a couple of screenshots before and after the texture and prop/vegetation work done this weekend (you can open the images in a new window to see the full-sized image).

Camp Before

Camp After

Start area - Before

Start area - After

I am really pleased with the effect and have exported the atmosphere settings to maintain some semblance of consistency between the immediate areas the player can transition to. Obviously, there will be certain areas that will have a both day and night version (including the start area) so the time frame of the transition should also be taken into account.

All in all, a good weekend's worth of work given that I was tied up with RL (Woodbury Days took up almost an entire day and I was too tired after that to do any work) and Divinity 2 (still haven't finished it but am close)

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This weekend was a good one. In-game testing revealed that the level I had termed as 'functionally complete' in my mind (the one mentioned in the last post) had some issues that had to be ironed out. One major problem was that the important interactions and areas were all in one side of the area - which means there was no reason to have the rest of the level. I spent some time reworking the structures and adding a small sub-quest to the area to accommodate that.

The other issue was that the level almost extended to the edge of the level grid - which meant I needed to have some way to block the player from going past the green box without it being too obvious. One simple option was to place an area transition there but it didn't make sense. I ended up with a solution that, if I say so myself, makes me quite happy! It is one of those instances that go against the player mentality when playing games like these. I am throwing around ideas to see if I could tie this in later with subsequent plot points but that's undecided at this point.

Here is a screenshot of the level - it is now officially complete except for texturing and additional vegetation work. Comments welcome!

Leeward, as you see it when you enter it

Next up is to do 3 more cutscenes in this area. Now that I am relatively comfortable with the cutscene editor, things should go along pretty smoothly. One of those will be a very complex scene and I am not even sure if the animations exist for those. If not, I might have to get creative with the camera angles but I will be asking for help in the BSN forums before I go that route!

Till later...

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In the last post, I had set a target for myself to complete the exterior level I had started earlier by the past weekend. Unfortunately, that didn't happen due to a variety of reasons. One thing I realized after putting all the structures in was that some of the interiors didn't match the exterior portrayed in the level. This may be a minor thing but once I saw the discrepancy, it just became a niggling thought that just wouldn't die!! Below is an example of what I mean -

The interior shot of the room

The exterior of the same room

(Sorry about the exterior shot but that's the best I could salvage from an earlier screenshot I had taken - all my 5 backup saves have the updated design)
If you look at the exterior shot closely (you can enlarge it), you would see that the door is set in a small alcove and there are two corners were the edges are not perpendicular and instead have another wall at around a 120-degree angle between them. Neither of those were reflected in the interior area.The other minor thing was the windows' placement but that really was a very minor difference.

Changing the interior level would have meant reworking a lot of things - more/less space which I would have needed to fill/empty, rearrange NPCs and tables and most important, rework a cutscene that takes place inside. Changing the exterior meant using different models in the same space - I had been too lazy before and just put together two house models back-to-back. Instead, I just put together the walls and windows as in the interior - didn't take too long to do that either :)

As I am writing this, I *think* I could have got away with the cutscene if I had just enlarged the interior to accommodate the differences but oh well, what's done is done and I did have to rework more than that one structure anyway. The level is close to completion now; I need to fill out the level with more props and do the lighting but at least all the required pieces are now present to test in-game.

Alongside this, I have also been working on dialogues and one big cutscene in the interior area shown above. I had mentioned earlier that the module will require a Dalish Elf player and the cutscene should help set the tone on how certain NPCs within Orlesian-occupied Ferelden react to Dalish - keeping in mind the historical tensions between Orlesians and Dalish.

Till tomorrow...

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After a weekend spent in rewriting and polishing up the first act-and-a-half, I decided to take a break and do some level building. There is still a fair amount of work to be done on the story though. To give you some background, when I initially started writing this story, I had a clear idea on what the end-game should be - the setting, the areas, the story-arcs in those areas and even a few quest lines were already semi-finalized.

The problem was - getting the player to the end-game. For reasons that will be clear when BaL is released, I couldn't just ask the player to go to the end-game areas via direct questing because that is not possible given the setting. Instead, I came up with various story arcs that would eventually lead the player there and these are driven by different factions each having their own agendas - with one manipulating the other, sometimes unwittingly; some with common ends but different means to get there, etc.

So, at this point, I have a very well-defined start and a semi-finalized end-game. The details on the transition between the two are being worked on as I find time - this will be the point in the game where some factions' lives are ended and other factions gain notoriety. Or something like that.

This week has seen the re-emergence of the level editor in my 'Frequently Used Tools' list. I've been working on the exterior village level that I started before going on vacation. I hope to finish it by this weekend and get it into a state that can be submitted for Community Contest #1. I've also been tweaking some of my earlier levels as I play through them and identify mistakes...like the one in the screenshot below with the tree prop stopping short of the ceiling.

The tree prop has been neatly sawed off to prevent structural damage :)

The second one to enter the 'Frequently Used Tools' list after a long time is the conversation editor. I went back and modified all the earlier conversations to use my own plots for skill/stats checks, generic functions, etc. As part of the story update, I also fleshed out all the interactions in the first half of Act 2 which has resulted in a lot of conversations penning themselves. I still have to put them into the toolset though *sigh*

In between, I have also been playing Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, the sequel to Divine Divinity (I really didn't like Beyond Divinity that much). It's been a fantastic ride so far and I am close to unlocking my dragon form which should make it even more enjoyable. Really, there is nothing like a hack 'n' slash to kill an hour or so of free time and Divinity 2 is doing great in that regard!

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In my previous post, I had mentioned how certain skills were unusable given the current design of Blood and Lyrium where the player will take on the role of a Dalish Elf ruin-raider. For those that aren't familiar with Dragon Age lore (are there any readers of this blog who aren't? but anyway...), the Dalish live in isolation as much as possible. They do not live among humans or dwarves, they do not undergo military training alongside them and they most certainly do not learn magic in the Circle of Magi.

                           The same classes for races that pretty much live in isolation

Given this, I did not want my Dalish Elves to follow the same Warrior/Rogue/Mage classes that have been established. I understand Bioware did this since they had to cater to each origin and having race-specific classes would have added a big overhead (though that would have made the UI more flexible at least). But hey, us module makers have the freedom to do that! Players in BaL will have the option of choosing one of the two new classes for playing - and only one of those two.

The custom classes to be added in BaL do not have a rogue flavor. This meant that the core rogue skills - disarming traps and lockpicking - had to be factored in as skills so that the player will have access to them. That was another reason for the redesign of the skills system.


On to level design...
I finally decided to buy a replacement RAM kit since the RMA was taking too much time (and this will put me in a position to get up to 8 gigs when it does come). I finished up one more interior level and will be working on filling it out with NPCs, dialog and quests this week.

                                               The Lucky Horse Tavern

This area will feature a lot of ambient behaviour on the NPCs and will probably require a few scans through Beerfish's excel utilities to pin down the animations required. This will the first time I am going to do extensive ambient behaviour set up so it should be interesting.

Till later...

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