Progress on Chapter 2

When Chapter 1 was released, I said I didn't know when the next one was going to be finished, but some people still asked for an estimated time, so I said "this year". Along the way, I made the module a little more complicated than I initially meant it to be - there used to be a time when I meant to release it merged with Chapter 1 and it was supposed to be very short. Well, it's still kind of short, but with some alternate paths that have proven time-consuming to implement. Also, I wasn't counting on the possibility of having a few months of very slow progress (which happened this summer) and playing other games.

Around the middle of October, I decided to try to finish the "main plot" (if it can be called that) by the end of November, and then test and bugfix the module and finish everything else in December.

And the results... well, I kind of knew I was lying to myself, so I'm not disappointed. I actually worked on the module almost every day, when I wasn't sidetracking by developing some handy tool related to proofreading NWN modules. (If those tools were 100% neat, I'd publish them, too, but they are only good enough for me.)

The module isn't fully functional, but I was able to begin the first ceremonial testing, starting at the beginning and trying to get to the end, or as far as possible, since I didn't make an end. :D

So, when will it be finished? Depends how much I slave away on it. :) End of December or end of January, or who knows.

Behold the spawn of hell and my decent black armor. :P

I can't wait to get to Chapter 3... All that is left to do for Chapter 2 can be categorized as "unpleasant tasks" - finish some conversations that I started and then lost inspiration, or something that connects two parts of the module but isn't very fun to make, or was planned a long time ago but I have been avoiding it... It's a lot of work.

I finally printed out a plan for the entire series' plot. There used to be a murky part around the middle, where I planned to add some characters and events, but I saw no way to connect everything together. As you can guess, that part is out. There should be 4 chapters in total.

Testing during development. This might change a little.

Regarding Brash's reaction to the demonheart girl and the influence/approval system, there has been a change. I decided not to trust the variable tracking system from Chapter 1 *that* much, so there will always be a possibility to keep Brash as an ally, unless you set him on fire earlier. But what you'll have to do in order to keep him depends on those variables and, in one case, your talking skills. There are still three and a half different ways he can act when you come face to face with each other... Yep, that's too many possibilities for that guy, whom around 50% people will just off the first chance they get, but that content is finished...

I didn't want Brash to be a fluffy carebear. Some people - or their demonheart girls - despise him or are just indifferent, and Brash wouldn't react nicely to that. But the variable tracking system can't really read your mind, so what if I'm wrong? You will be given an opportunity to set things right. And if you messed it up *that* much... then sorry, guess he just hates you. :D

I still need to sort out what happens with Raze and Arana and how they can be romanced. Sure, there are many conversations with them already, but they aren't romance-specific. It kinda sucks that another romance interest already had sex with the girl, so the others are at a disadvantage. If they act quickly, they are shallow or uncaring like him. If they don't act, the girl can go around the whole harbor. Yep, btw, most of the romance interests here will not appreciate you sleeping around.

As for the adult content poll, the encounters written/planned for Chapter 2 will be there, but I'm not sure how much of it there is going to be in the later parts. Things have to make sense. I don't like the idea of a world of frustrated horndogs who were only waiting for the demonheart girl because other women don't exist. Or solving every quest with sex. Seriously?

Of course, the main characters will get their share, some sooner than others.

Prelude and Chapter 1 version 2.00

OK, I'm going to be irresponsible and not fully test them, because I've been doing it for the past few days and I can't do it anymore... I will upload the modules on the old vault soon, if it's working correctly.

I guess we will know if things are OK when the bug reports arrive.

Hope this works now...

Removing some content

It has come to that again. During the past few months, I have been concerned with seeing the main plot through to the end and had to remind myself to stop making masochistic plot branches.

There was an unfinished sub-plot in Chapter 2, reachable only if PC goes around with random sailors, where PC would be kidnapped and put on a ship - unless she fights back. With the main plot being as it is, I absolutely couldn't allow the girl to use sea travel to reach any meaningful place where she could stay (or I'd have to make a completely new part of the game to cover that). That means the ship had to crash right after leaving Ravage, so the girl would have to return on foot. This walking in circles didn't seem like a good plot, though the nasty-content lovers would have appreciated the ship's crew. Also, same as many other unfinished things, this one was/is giving me a headache. Maybe it will be used later, maybe it will go to garbage. Not everything I ever write fits in nicely in the end.

Right now, my main concern is to finally finish the second chapter so that it can be played from the beginning to the character export part. I can't wait to finally make it there, but the amount of work required is still scary.

I know everyone wishes for whole new worlds of content... but sometimes I think there's no need, if the new content is something we have already seen before.

I'm kind of against the idea of releasing a skeleton game first and then updating with major changes, but who knows...

Publishing this gives me more resolve to say farewell to the ship. :( Yes, the modules are going to be short, but it takes me a lot of time to finish them even so.

What am I doing?

Last night, as I was working on one of my favorite scenes from Chapter 2 and chatting with a friend, it occurred to me that some players are going to be unhappy about a certain lack of choice... again. Similarly to how Brash was "overprotected" in Chapter 1, now we have someone else. So the friend asked what the players complained about in Chapter 1 and I told her about Brash, and then after a discussion, I suddenly got inspired to make another change in the old module. True, it leads to nothing new in the long run, but she convinced me that the illusion of choice is important. So I have been working on the old module instead of the new one. Don't throw stones at me. :D

To sum up the new content, here is a draft of what Brash will be saying in the end:

"Tell me, you little fuck. Do you wanna walk on your own, or should I carry you like a pig all the way? If I stuff an apple in your mouth, we could hide you in the witch's food storage, for a surprise kill after dinner."

But if you do manage to escape, you will be rewarded with a game over. (OK, Lamb is having an evil moment. xD)

This doesn't really help the situation with the other character, in Chapter 2. If he is completely indestructible - regenerates very quickly and nothing can do permanent damage - would you still want to attack him? I've been thinking of, and half-implemented, an option to tell him to stop bothering you. He would probably obey but still talk to you if there is something important. But if he really makes you mad at some point, what is there to do?

I am talking about Raze, of course. You are supposed to be very special allies and he should practically be the main character (after you), but what if the player doesn't think like me at all? :/

As I may have said somewhere, there will be an option to get rid of him, but not yet. For now, he is too important, because, well, this is the story I am telling. I don't have one about random pirates and completely new characters. And yes, it's not supposed to be a linear "story", but if you knew how difficult it is to handle the consequences of each branching, and so early on... In the end, I think I only tend to branch the plot if both branches seem interesting and doable to me. By "doable", I mean that I wouldn't have to make 5 completely new modules the size of Chap.1 to cover for the newly introduced choice.

If I remove the main characters, there will be nothing left. Someone suggested an alternative to Brash, who isn't even as important as Raze - another, more agreeable NPC who would practically do the same in the end, minus the rude stuff. Well, after Brash fulfills his initial role, he stops being important, but I can't invent an alternative character in a few days. It took me 8 years or so to invent Brash. LOL

Still working on it

As I posted on the download page of C1, I'm preparing to update it with the following changes:

Gaining a small XP bonus for successful use of stealth. 

An extra choice for those who hated a certain companion. 

Some minor variables that I forgot to track. 

Anything else I might come up with after replaying.

But I'd rather do that when C2 is finished, when I have a clearer picture of things.

For now, here are some screenshots made while I was making and testing stuff. These are just characters posing for the camera.

Sinallion got persuaded into helping the DH girl with something

Perfect enemies (awww)

P. S. I saw that Celeritas Eos (beta) is available for download.

Still working on Chapter 2

Since a long time has passed since my last post, I wanted to say that I'm still working on Demonheart, though I've had some delays.

Chapter 2 has to end with our heroine leaving her current location or arriving somewhere else. Initially, there was only supposed to be one way to do it, but then I decided to add an alternative (Sinallion), and recently I've been considering even more alternatives, but with the limitations of still having to meet certain characters - which means your path will be similar no matter who you work for. I don't know how this will be received, but I have to move on with the story.

Lord Rango is writing some sidequests to make the city more alive. In the meantime, I'm working on the inevitable questline (with its variations)... rather slowly.

Not everyone wants to have sex with you.

Progress on Chapter 2

It seems like Chapter 2 will have more content and take more work to finish, but it might also be shorter than the previous module. How is this possible? I'm not even sure. It's catching up on C1 in word count, and the conversations aren't even finished yet. (Though some of these conversations will find themselves in the next module or deleted.)

There are PC-initiated conversations that you are only supposed to start if you feel they are in character (like telling your "friends" about your personal fortune reading, or a dream), but it would be a pity not to see what the NPCs have to say, so there shouldn't be any terrible consequences if you tell them too much.

BTW, I caught myself writing "doom" in the oracle's conversation in the end... I replaced it with "death", which should be slightly less cliche. Right? -.-

Random screenshot...

Working on Chapter 2

After evaluating what needs to be done for the next module and what is already done, I have come to the conclusion that there is a LOT of work left. I'm going to have to slave away on this thing if I want it done in a few months (it's safe to assume that it will take another 2 months to release it after I deem it "almost done"). Some things that I wanted to stuff in Ravage but are around 0% completed, I will have to move to another city, and even so, there is a lot to do for what seems like a short module.

Back when I thought about releasing chapters 1&2 together, I guess C2 was supposed to have less content. It definitely takes more than a year for me to finish making one of these chapters if I start from nothing, but a lot of things are already half-done, so the wait for C2 shouldn't be *that* big, but then again, who knows.

Not to ask for any Valine comparison, but I always found it fascinating how she made those huge modules in less than a lifetime. o.o I wouldn't want to make any big updates content-wise, unless it's something I've written before and forgotten to add in.

I also want to play other modules, but feel like it's no time to play when I should be creating.

Now, if I keep posting spoilers, there will be nothing left in C2 to see, so no screenshot. :)

Brash and Sin... [C1 spoilers!]

*** This post is full of spoilers if you haven't played Chapter 1. ***


I'm still not back home, but after some more work on the second chapter and an argument with my boyfriend who says Raze is completely despicable and that the players will hate him even more than they hate Brash (lol), I decided to move some things around. (Boyfriend has only read Raze's dialogs from the released module, btw.) Men!!!

I'm not changing Raze's personality, but instead, adding an alternative to the main quest of Chapter 2, the old version of which involves the abominable, corrupt, perverted cultists whom not all players will find so adorable. (I need to consult with Good aligned people more often before developing...) As for Raze, I will *consider* implementing PC options to send him to hell every once in a while, after which he wouldn't feel so inclined to talk to the girl again. Maybe.

Anyway, I have a big announcement to make... Sinallion the bard will make an appearance in Chapter 2!

Behold his booties!

Could it be possible for the heroine to finally meet a nice man, for a change? It remains to be seen, but if she does, I guess the bandits and farmers (the most popular "romance" option!) will have to try even harder...

I think developing Chapter 2 will be a lot more fun for me now. I have to change things once in a while, or come up with something new to keep me going.

Now, as you may know, I have been meditating on the saved variables from Chapter1.

I want to give the player a choice when it comes to keeping or killing any companion, but I decided to make the available choices correspond to the player's previous behavior. Except you should be able to stab any companion for no reason at all, but not at any time (some railroading has to be there). And by the way, the demonspawn will be stuck with you for a while... take it or leave it.

Only one character has had enough time with the demonheart girl in Chapter 1 to have the relationship tracked reliably. The most important decisions about Arana and Raze relationships have yet to happen.

**** Brash spoilers!!! ****

Since I listed him as one of the main "romances" and everyone expects to see him again, I suppose it's not a huge spoiler to say they will meet again, though it's not certain when.

I decided that if you treated him like trash (in his opinion!) he won't blindly fight all the other characters for your attention, and might want to fight you, instead... violently. I have a set of different possible outcomes planned. Some of you might be surprised with Brash's reaction to your character.

In addition to the characters sent to me, I playtested the relationship with 2 very different characters who were not all over him, but who I imagined liked him a lot. (I played both of them in ways that I knew wouldn't irritate Brash, though!) I don't want any of the demonheart girls who really liked him to fail the relationship check, but I want a different outcome if she hated the guy. Avoiding to talk to him counts as being disinterested, btw, since the conversations are where you get the relationship points.

******** /Brash spoilers ********

Updated Chapter 1

I uploaded the new version to the old vault (tried to update on the new vault too, but was having connectivity problems).

It's on the same address, just without the "beta" in its name when you open it. v1.00: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=6392  (The changes are listed in a txt file there.)

* Old beta version 0.767 is still here: http://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/demonheart-chapter-i

It would be nice if someone confirmed that the module v1.00 is playable. It requires an updated hak from the haks page, so take care. I played 2 days ago, but have made new changes since and only partially tested (it turns out I am a slowpoke, I need more than 5 hours for the entire module o.O).

I'm preparing for a holiday and won't be updating in a while.

I probably couldn't remember to list everything. There isn't any special new content, only that some things that didn't work before should now work, and the characters sometimes say something slightly different (you'd need a looking glass to find it, except Raze probably says 3 whole new sentences :P).

Edit: The variables on the exported characters are working, so I'll be taking the information received until now with me on holiday to study in detail. o.O

Call for Help :)

I've been working on the character relationships in the modules and decided that I need to play Chapter 1 with at least 3 different characters now (I'm testing my bug corrections)... and it might take a while and still not be enough information. I've played the module many times and don't find it quite as fun anymore. :/

As you may know, I would like to be able to predict whether your character liked an NPC from those variables tracked, so a non-rapist character could decide to make a move on PC or not. I don't know if it's going to work or if I should even try, since my main character would be playing hard to get all the time. Still, I am interested in those variable values.

So, I'll ask you to mail me your characters exported from the end of Chapter 1, if you want. They are in the folder localvault and you probably have more than one character with the same name, since the game automatically saves them when you create them, so try to send me the right ones or all of them, and I'll figure it out. Send a description including the character's name (if you send more than one) and how she felt about Brash, Arana and Raze. (Liked someone, but she was shy? Liked someone and tried to jump all over him/her? Was she respectful or rude to them?) Then I can take those characters and extract their variables from their special inventory item, which I hope saved correctly. o.O

demonheartlamb @ gmail . com  (without spaces)

By the way, I have been working on chapters 1, 2 and 3, a little bit of each.

Chapter 2 Update

I'm working on the character interactions in C2, mostly just writing dialogs and taking a break from scripting. It bugs me that I didn't make a final version of C1, so it's still the beta with some issues, but it's better to see if I didn't forget something that will be important for C2, first.

In C2, I added a fortune teller. I hope she's being vague enough and that she doesn't spoil too much. :D Below is the (romanced) demonspawn's reaction if you tell him about your reading (you don't have to).

Censored his name for those who haven't played Chapter 1!

The red woman in the shack is the fortune teller. :)

Vault trouble

I was going to post an update on Chapter 2, but still need a screenshot, which I will get only after scripting something in-game.

The old NWN Vault seems to be down, but there is a backup and some modules are already available at the new Vault.

My modules are also there now:
Demonheart - Prelude
Demonheart - Chapter 1 (new version, but main fight bug still there)

Please tell me if I missed uploading something.

Future Plans

I haven't exactly been able to work on the next module, but I did take the old version in which it was merged with Chapter 1 and clean it of come C1 content. I've been arranging my 200 text notes with ideas for future conversations and sorting out what goes in the next module and what is for later.

I've decided to keep the modules small, so the next part will be only C2 (mostly Ravage). C3 (Suntown) will come later, for my convenience and other incredibly evil purposes...

C1 is still in "beta". I'm too tired of that one to work on correcting bugs right now.

One interesting thing I've done... I've made a table of romance conflicts - which characters can be romanced at the same time and which can't. Basically, no one will be very thrilled to share the demonheart girl with someone else, but some characters can be cheated on (and the one you cheat with knows you are doing it). I've been writing these evil conversation snippets where you cheat on someone and things get complicated... That's probably not for C2, but it will be needed.

** Someone asked me if Arana's presence would destroy or somehow lessen the demonspawn romance. It won't. I just don't want to force Arana on the player. 

Beta

Edit: If your bug reports contain spoilers, you can mail them to me:  demonheartlamb @ gmail . com (no spaces). Or warn other people about spoilers in big letters and stuff. :)

I will now submit the first public beta version of Chapter 1 and go to sleep. (Only on the old NWN Vault for now. I'm considering other sites, too, but as long as it's available over there and people can get it, I'm too lazy to adapt to another site.)

This is not an invitation to play the module immediately. I'm pretty sure some terrible issue will arise. But if you want to test, then do - especially if you're willing to play it twice. To people like me who don't have the time, I'd suggest waiting for a safer release.

Also, I am very tired, so if there is something wrong with the upload... then it will be tomorrow.

And if they don't approve it immediately, there will be an even better version tomorrow. :)

Edit: Here it is - module page.

Update

I said that the module was supposed to be released "any day now" because it needs just a few more (whole) days of work. But I wasn't working on it in a while. Apart from all the real life stuff I had to do, I got overworked on the module with all that finishing up, because it took over a week of working on it every day, thinking it would be done soon, and I still couldn't finish it. There won't be any guesses about the next part's release, as I thought I had given myself enough time with this, and it turned out wrong. It would have been right if I had worked on it every day of my life, but I couldn't.

There is no need to check the blog every 2 hours, I'm working on it now and there are still things to add and test, so it won't be released for at least 2 days.

Progress

I'm still working on it, and there is much to do at this stage. Exiting the "dungeon" is a difficult part to make and something I've delayed for a long time, and now that I've returned to it after a few months, I no longer know what works and what doesn't. I was about to make a certain feature (some little warning messages) and then discovered that I already made that a long time ago. All of my choices are predestined... -.-

Edit: Since March is ending, Chapter 1 will be released in April (5th April or later).

Portrait modifications...

 My super awesome friend, DeadlyNinja, has helped me with Sir Brash's portrait (since my portraits are never officially finished).

Edit: I slightly modified Arana, but I'm not quite satisfied...

P. S. When are Gladiatrix 3 and Celeritas Eos coming out?

Back from a break

As I may or may not have mentioned, I had some exams to take care of because I am a student. That is over with, so I should officially be back. All I need to do on the module is a ton of polishing and implementing talks that are for the most part already written, so I don't have much to show here. Scripting everything will be a pain - not writing scripts, but thinking about all the possible bugs that come with scripted talks and covering different player behaviors.

The rest of my January "work"

I took a week or so off. I have to play some games too, you know :( else I will forget what a fun game is supposed to be like. Cicero is the coolest TES character ever, waaah... Not that I've played all the Elder Scrolls...

I wanted to make this screenshot earlier. There isn't much to post now (even when I'm working on the module), so I will probably not update weekly, at least for a while.

Week 2 of January

I haven't done much apart from trying to fix some issues in the prelude and separating the first chapter from the second. As you may know, the first two chapters were supposed to be released together, but the prelude gave me a taste of what testing will be like, so I changed my mind.

Chapter 1 will for the most part take place in the Golden Forest with Sir Brash and "friends". That means there will be no sexy sailors that I've been promising - they're waiting for you in Ravage.

Nothing new. Sir Brash's stats are subject to change.

Could someone test the classes?

I haven't had much time to test how the modified classes behave on different levels.

Levels 1-10 would be important for the Demonheart modules. How the classes are supposed to be different than usual is described in the prelude's readme. Does it really work that way, or have I missed something? Bard seems to get 0 spells on each level, but the spell selection still appears. While trying to correct this, I managed to make bard unplayable. Hopefully, that is fixed.

* I should give bards more sneak attack if the player will be able to reach level 8.

I don't know if the classes will work if you just make a character in Demonheart and export it and use it in a leveler module. You can always add the haks to a normal leveler module.

If anyone wants to meddle with this, I'm interested in the results. Else, I guess I'll have to do it all myself. -.-

Prelude

OK, it's out on Neverwinter Vault now. Link of Doom

While I may be obsessive-compulsive when it comes to my modules, there might still be bugs or not-very-smart NPC behaviors, so be nice...

...

The module comes with an intro movie and a ReadMe concerning the whole series. Since it's not entirely certain what quests we might come up with for the other modules, the skill recommendations in the ReadMe are the best I could do for now.

Debugging the prelude was more work than the small module is worth. :D I can only hope the following modules won't be more work than that, because I added some needlessly complicated things to the prelude (like the game has to keep an account of what Bold is doing, whether prisoners are released, did you fail Thayn's quest *after finishing* Thayn's quest...). It's also heavily scripted, so don't run around too much.

Always accepting bug reports.

You need to play on a computer that won't suffer in placeable-heavy and creature-heavy areas.

CEP 2.3/2.4 is needed to play.

Don't forget to read the ReadMe, at least the parts about character creation and known issues.