Examining Objects. Potential Prelude Chapter.

Here's some greater detail from my last post when I mentioned 80% of the mod's objects are interactive. Clicking on almost anything results in pop-up text above your character, giving insight into your character's thoughts. This includes even mundane objects, that may or may not be related to investigations. (Note: If items are in your inventory, you must right-click them and select "examine.") I could have adopted the lazy route of forcing players to right-click, and then click again to "examine" for all objects even outside the player's inventory, but that's an inconvenience. Instead, by simply single-clicking objects, it makes an otherwise tedious process more stream-lined. All of this interactivity was inspired from Phoenix Wright, where I fondly remember the series having a running gag over the discussion of mundane ladders.

You'll know an object's interactive by hovering your mouse over it and seeing a blue silhouette. To make things easier, I recommend mapping a key to the "Tool Tip" command in the "Misc" section in-game. When you hold that key down, all interactive objects become highlighted. I don't remember what the default key is, but whatever it was, I hated it, so I recommend mapping it close to W,A,S,D.

All of these single-clicked objects come with a technical price: Each object requires a unique script. This likely increases area load times, but I have a fairly strong PC with my new SSD, so the load times seem fine to me; therefore, I'm not the ideal candidate to test this mod's specification requirements. I think what I'll do is release a "prelude" chapter, serving as a technical demo. This prelude would span the introduction, and finish the first investigation. It would take maybe 1-2 hours for a player to finish, but it would provide me valuable info, including whether the load times are acceptable, if the mod's dependencies on other mods are working, general feedback, and whether the mod simply works. It would also give everyone an idea whether this mod is right for them or not, because again I have to caution there are adult and evil/dark themes.

Even though it's a prelude, I do plan to have decisions, meaning I'll have to worry about carrying the decisions you've made over to the next chapter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if someone were to finish the prelude mod, only for me to build upon that mod and turn it into a "chapter 1," they'd have to restart the mod from the beginning, since their saves would no longer be compatible. I won't allow that to happen. That's akin to punishing players for play-testing.

AAA - Areas, Armors, and Animations

Long time no see! I know I haven't been updating much, but I have been working on the mod nonetheless. I've been jumping around on creating many things. I have typed out enough of the script where I know for a fact what will be in the mod, so I've finally begun settling on things, otherwise this mod will never get finished!

I've adopted an arsenal of programming code using past mods for inspiration. The one I'm most proud of is the sex animations (obviously). I'd show an image, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to do that here, even though I did flag this blog for being "adult only." The animation was harder than I thought, involving locking the player to the ground to keep them from moving, equipping nude "armors," and getting animations to line up. I'll also occasionally employ standard fade-to-blacks used in nearly every other adult NWN mod, if I lack the animations for what I'm wanting.

I'm also creating a lot of the areas. Ironically, I thought level design would be easy and boring, but it's actually immensely challenging and fun. I have to ask myself if placing each and every item makes sense in the grand scheme of things. For example, the shopkeeper, Tyrus Amerigo, is obsessive-compulsive over security and lock-picking, so his shop and bedroom is tailored to fit his persona. Kraus is a scientist and inventor, so his place is a junkyard of various technologies. Each of the main characters has their own room in the Church, so every character is getting similar level design treatment. This was inspired from Dangan Ronpa for the PSP/Vita (very fun mystery-solving game).

The Church of Knox is the main hub for your character in-between missions. The ground floor, in particular, is visited several times, with each visit changing NPC conversation patterns and NPC locations. Think of it like a town in Diablo, only the NPC's aren't always in the same place and I spice things up each visit. These are great opportunities to delve into the minds of characters, although most of it's optional. The ground floor is divided into a cafeteria, training room, merchant store, library, laboratory, private meeting chamber, and military training ground. You'll see how all these areas play a part in the story as you progress. (Note: Not all areas I mentioned are in the image. That's because some of those areas you'll rarely visit, so I don't want the player to load them into memory again and again and again...)

Starting armors you can select

The merchant store, operated by Tyrus, sells equipment sanctioned for use by your Archbishop, Malakai. The problem is Malakai's an asshole, so Tyrus is contractually required to only provide armors Malakai deems you fit to wear. This, of course, means sexually suggestive attire. The armors are provided by the Church, meaning it's all free. Feel free to grab all the armors! I'm a fan of options, and unfortunately NWN doesn't provide a character armor preview feature, so I just said, "To hell with it." He also sells free color dyes to further personalize your armor's colors. (Note: Everything else costs gold, including potions and the option to enchant your armors.) I'll feature extensive use of the enchantment option, so you can scale your favorite armors later into the game. Eventually, you may have to swap these out for a different selection of heavier armors you'll find later in the game, but I'll be sure to have these heavier armors cost the same as enchantment stacking the depicted lighter armors. I'm doing all this because nothing pisses me off more than finding an awesome looking armor, only to discover it has garbage stats.

Speaking of items, as an Inquisitor, you'll use items to convict others of heresy. The overall experience is similar to the DS/3DS Phoenix Wright games, where you present a piece of evidence contradicting a statement and catching someone in a lie. This means exploring your environment for clues. About 80% of all the objects in this mod can be clicked on, displaying a pop-up text above your character's head. If they're in your inventory, instead, you may right-click and "examine" them. I've swapped out many mundane item descriptions to tailor the mod to investigations.

These investigations are fairly small in length, and are not all you'll be tasked in doing. To keep things from getting repetitive, you will enter combat, and many heretics will not die quietly! Of course, romance is present, with certain characters operating differently to extort what they want from you. In particular, one powerful character who I have yet to introduce will blackmail you, forcing you into making payments, otherwise...

That's all! I have more to share, but this post is long enough as it is, so I'll save it for next week.