Done, Doing, To Be Done

[Domi]

As of now, I have Phase I written and coded for six core NPCs. Numerically it boils down to each NPC initiating 2 or more conversations with every other NPC, and 9 or 10 chats with Player 1. In total, I have about 140 dialogues integrated into the game, and 155 written so far. I will add Prachi’s (the sevenths' character) dialogues as soon as I am done writing her.

 

I have a positive test on the banters showing up in the game:

 

My tasks right now are testing and adding two important things: Soundsets and a script required for Hildury’s story arc. ANd, of course, looking for Help!

[Domi]

It's been exciting time, with the first testing and reproducing a few of BG2 functions that were abscent in IWD2. So far nothing had to be droped because of the unsurmountable scripting problems - which is a very pleasent surprise!

 

Phase I

 

All NPC-NPC banter for Prachi and her PC dialogues through #6 are written.

 

A whole bunch of issues were worked out with the help of Avenger and Cirerrek: soundsets assignment, banter attuned to resting periods and banter in the particular areas. Also, worked out the limitations of adding interjections in IWD2.

 

I am working on:

 

-finishing Prachi,

-researching area#### for all areas in the game so I can introduce a proper check for Foresty, Outdoorsy and City areas,

-adding soundsets properly for pre-made party (when you import chars one-by-one the game prompts you to select the soundset manually no matter what)

 

The last big, non-standard issue remaining in Phase I are custom spells for Hildury's cute story-arc in the end of the game. The rest is working with QA/QC team on dialogue quality and the nothing- to- write- home- about coding for Prachi.

 

Phase II

 

-Done Interjections in Targos Docks for all 7 chars, while researching coding options. Not much, I know, but it's a start.

[Domi]

Phase I

 

It's absolutely incredible, but almost everything went through the QA/QC first edit!

 

I finished all of Prachi's Phase I content (she ended up with a very standard set - 4 dialogues with every other character and 10 with Player 1). Overoll, the distribution of banter is pretty even, and the whole batch for Phase I is 167 dialogues. Involvment Index (number of dialogues per NPC initiated by or initiated with) vary between 44 (Nikosh) and 52 (Jaemal).

 

A number of codes were rehashed, soundsets settled and all that.

 

I'm working on coding Prachi to have Alpha 2 ready for testing.

 

Phase II

 

Wrote Prologue/Chapter 1 full dialogues with PC for Nord and Salomeya.

[Domi]

Phase I

 

The most exciting news that Avenger stopped by and made a bunch of custom items for the NPCs

 

A lot of testing the limits, templates, rebalancing etc was done, and a bunch of stuff was edited (soundsets, scripts)

 

Therla was repalced by Valeero in the secondary set of characters.

 

first Rizdaer's-related text was done, Nord's dialogues for the very beginning of the game were suggested and written, and finally some banter for Peony got added in

 

Phase II

 

Wrote a couple of scenery dialogues - Salomeya's in Chapter 5 and Diriel's in Chapter 3.

[Domi]

Phase I

 

I think every character is now have starting items and overoll is ready to go adventuring! It took much longer than anticipated, but hey! It's back to the dialogue work now, and hopefully it is going to go much faster from now on.

 

Peony's, Valeero's and Rizdaer's voice sets were written, edited and sent to the voice actors.

 

Peony's voice set got recorded - great thanks to Noctalys!

 

And seeing how you just did not get enough Peony's news, half of her NPC-NPC banter had been written. I know that I should have worked on Rizdaer first, but I wanted to work on a more comic charcater before switching back to the serious ones.

 

Phase II

 

Heh, I should be able to finish all the Prologue scenery dialogues and reactions any day now.

[Domi]

Phase I

 

Well, this is truly the release that was made possible by the great work of the QA/QC folk! In short - all files were edited once and re-integrated into the mod, so hopefully it will look much better from now on.

 

Also the installer was updated to WeiDU 196 - thanks to The Bigg's tireless work on the favorite tool.

 

Bugs reported so far well, hopefully, fixed, and I think that if a couple of issues got corrected for Alpha 5, next version will have Phase I in beta pretty much.

 

Oh, and for all of you who hoped for more Peony's news - all her NPC-NPC banter was written and integrated. At this stage I am not planning to add PC-NPC talks for her, instead I will slowly write NPC-NPC banter for the remaining bonus NPCs so by the time the first public release rolls along, their characters had some character so to speak.

 

Phase II

 

I finished all the Prologue scenery dialogues and reactions for 7 main characters and sort of started writing Salomeya's Chapter Talk for Ch2, when the wave of Real Life crashed over me, but well, seeing now how I have marked Phase II writing as the priority, the bard should sing in no time.

[Domi]

I'd like to share my gratitude and excitment regarding the new sets of the voices that got recorded: Valeero's and Jaemal's. Hurray and huge thanks to the voice actors!

[Domi]

Phase I

 

-wrote three or four trial banters for Rizdaer-Diriel, subject to revision, trying to get Rizdaer's character voice/character set-up.

 

Phase II

 

-all Salomeya's Chapter talks added (1 through 6)

-Nikosh', Hildury's and Diriel's Chapter 1 talks are added

-Scenery dialogue for Chapter 1 up to Shaengarne Ford are added for 7 main characters.

-all above Phase II material edited - thank you guys!

[Domi]

Rizdaer's voice set got recorded - great thanks to the Wizard!

[Domi]

Yay! Diriel's voice set got recorded, great thanks to Matt and Berelinde! He sounds the part, that's for sure! So, wow, wow, only Nord's set is to be finished now!

 

I was writing a bit more for Rizdaer and I think he's got a definite personality now. His banters with Diriel are pretty cute and helped me figure out the Diriel vs Drow concept. I did not have time to code&test, but all in good time.

[Domi]

Back to regular updates (hopefully)!

 

Phase I

 

-continue writing Rizdaer's NPC-NPC banter set and wrote 1 banter for Valeero

-working on the topics for PC-NPC dialogues for the three bonus NPCs.

 

Phase II

 

-all Chapter 1 interjection and talks are now added to the game.

 

Phase III

 

-dusted off the romantic dialogue topics

-gearing ut to check out the Bigg's code for introducing the Player-initiated flirts in

[Domi]

Phase I

 

-Rizdaer's NPC-NPC banter set all done with the excption of his banters with Valeero. So, I'll say I am starting to work on Valeero's set.

-working on implementing Player-Initiated dialogues to actually do something meaningful - advance the timers for every particular NPC for the players who want to see content sooner in the chapter.

 

Phase II

 

-all Chapter 2 interjection and talks are now added to the game.

-restored and added a couple of extra options in dealing with Andora and Sherincal

 

Phase III

 

-have preliminary break-downs for three characters

[Domi]

ARRGH! Chapter 3 - and the NPC's override scripts died. I am not sure what killing them, but I have to introduce redundancy and duplicate every bit of code in DPLAYER3, which still works. (Sigh) Plus working more on fine-tuning Player-Initiated dialgues. So, unfortuanetley, Ch3 Phase II is on hold untill I sort this out....

[Avenger]

maybe something overwrote them?

[Domi]

Probably busy areal scripts, I am not sure. Copying and adjusting scripts to DPLAYER3 fixed the problem. So, I'll just have to versions of every script, introducing redundancy, but being on the safe side.

 

On the bright side the Player Initiated talks work just like I want them now, fine-tuned for every character. Now the player can force next talk with the NPC, providing all the appropriate conditions met any time s/he wants.

 

I also added Nord's subplot trigger into the Player-Initiated talks for the players who do not have Salomeya in the Party.

 

The latest thing I was working on - again, related to the Player-Initiated talks- was arranging a non-spoilerish short-cut through Fell Wood epic wandering. A player who has Diriel in the party would have an option of making this portion of the game way less troublesome

 

And that's where I were when I remembered that my in-laws are coming tomorrow to meet their first grandchild, so I switched to cleaning the house.... Poor, unfortunate Chapter 3!