Clarifying why updates are slow, and why I created this blogger.com page

This is a bit embarrassing, but hey, it's part of the modding experience! When I first created this blog, I did it with the intent of initially setting it to offline mode so I could tinker with blogger.com. I knew I eventually needed a blog or website, but at the time, all I had was my story script and character biographies, meaning I had nothing substantial to share. Regardless, I was excited to create one. I thought, "No problem. I'll create the blog, then set it offline as I continue developing my script."

I created the blog, then something unexpected happened -- I couldn't find a way to set the blog offline! Sure, I could have deleted it, but I had already spent several hours on it. My solution was I'll avoid mentioning the blog! Surely no one will find an unannounced blog page for a video game over 10+ years old! Well, we know how that turned out! I believe the floodgate opened up from my avatar link on Demonheart's "followers" page, but let me know if you all found the blog elsewhere.

At this point, my mod's development took a sharp turn. In an effort to provide blog content, I embraced the opened blog and switched from less story scripting to more visually oriented content. This is a dangerous practice. After all, you shouldn't start directing a movie without a complete script, just like a modder shouldn't mod without a finished story. I began providing content for a blog that wasn't ready!

So this is where we stand: I'm sitting on a huge script that continues to grow, but I'm paranoid at transferring most of it to NWN because of what might change. At the same time, I want to provide you guys with updates. What I'm thinking is providing more updates on my ideas or approach to the mod. Then as I work my way up to incorporating more of my script into NWN, I'll start sharing more juicier content. I know seeing blog posts without screenshots is boring, but I'm realizing now it's better than not posting any updates at all.

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.

Migrated to an SSD. Finally adding scenes from script.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! It's been a while -- time for an update.

First, I acquired my first Solid State Drive (SSD) for Christmas. I had to backup and migrate my old data to the SSD. Everything went well and the SSD runs great. It's a Samsung 840 EVO ~750GB. The data transfer speeds are insane compared to my old spin drive. The data below is my spin drive. The data above is my SSD. I'm not 100% sure what the numbers in this benchmark screenshot mean, but the graph indicates huge improvements! Judging by my speeds in the NWN Aurora toolset, this means less painful load times and faster modding.

Since the last update, I've mostly been implementing additional resource files. I have all the portraits settled on and installed, including new characters I haven't mentioned yet. I'm writing some in-game books for lore purposes. I also added custom loading screens and increased the number of playable classes, so you can now play as a Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian, or Paladin, as opposed to only Paladin. Finally, I think I've settled on a soundtrack. Depending if NWN Vault accepts the mod with this soundtrack, I may have to release two versions of my mod -- one with the soundtrack and the other without. I know for a fact the Nexus won't accept this, as they're anal on copyrights. I tried uploading a Skyrim anime Berserk soundtrack mod to the Nexus, which didn't work out, lol. Anyways, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'm keeping the soundtrack a secret until release.

I'm finally taking some of my script and creating scenes. Until now, all my in-game content pertained to resources, so it's nice finally seeing things fleshed out. I must stress it's important I nail down the script and resources first, because working with the Aurora conversation editor is cumbersome. I'm waiting for it to grow on me, but it hasn't, lol.

As I expand my script, I am concerned about a promise I originally made in my FAQ I may backtrack from, especially since I'm a one man crew. I said, "I'm striving for a Japanese visual novel approach. Unlike most western games offering a huge decision near the end (ex. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), the Japanese visual novel approach provides major decisions near the middle of the story. Each route branch caters to a specific in-game character based on your past decisions." There's a problem with this I didn't account for: Japanese visual novels typically aren't detective stories. For a good detective story to work, it needs a strong conclusion. Ultimately, only one path will truly satisfy the player, as it is the only path where you discover the main culprit.

I think this is how the endings will work: One path is the true ending. This ending further branches into extended segments with whoever your romance option is. Your romance option is decided by choices you've made and scenes you're witnessed unique to your romance. Any other endings are "bad endings," generally involving rape, sexual slavery, etc. The problem with the true ending approach segmenting off into these romance endings is I must put it near the end of my mod and not the middle, because once the culprit is captured, all sense of suspense is lost, and I want to avoid degenerating the mod into a sappy love story. Romance is definitely a strong theme, but my hierarchy of importance is still mystery > sex > romance. I'll create a flow chart for those interested in seeing all the endings.

Hopefully, I can keep this blog more updated. I work a full-time job, so I'm trying to juggle this behemoth of a project while I can. Part of me wonders if I should have quit a long time ago, but I'm too deep into it now and I'm excited to know what you all will think of it upon its release.

Mystery writing is tough, hah!

I'm finding I have a strict habit of revising many of my mod's mystery elements. Ideas I initially thought were good, turn out to be "okay" at best. Every transpiring day, I'm thinking about the mod in some way, and the constant shuffling of ideas is difficult. I'm having a stronger respect for people who write mystery novels. It's definitely tougher than I thought!

To mentally prepare myself, I've been grinding through hundreds of episodes from Detective Conan (aka Case Closed) for inspiration. As an Inquisitor, many of the mysteries you solve are short and concise, similar to the scope of a Detective Conan episode. Others will be mysteries lingering over the duration of your adventure, casting a perceived shadow over the cast of characters. These lingering mysteries generate doubt and turmoil amongst the cast, and you may find yourself having to pick sides. Everyone can be a potential suspect in the mod, including yourself, so be prepared to defend your own interests from characters who doubt your intentions.

Of course, if this was all the mod had, I think it would be boring. This is still a sex mod with dark mature themes, but it's that very reason I feel the mod has something special to offer, otherwise I wouldn't have started this project. What will be interesting is whether I can balance seemingly mindless sex with mentally taxing mysteries. Get that on-and-off switch ready!

Characters section and script development updates.

http://darkpaladinsofknox.blogspot.com/p/characters.html

I've updated the characters section with a massive list of characters I feel are locked in. Much of my script involves most of these characters, so I'm confident they won't change much, if any, hence I'm sharing them. I may add more characters as I finalize them, but I'm taking a cautious approach, because my mod has several murder mystery elements, so I must be careful not to trap myself in plot holes.

You may notice a major trend with some of my characters are dark ones with questionable motivations. This is not a coincidence, as I was inspired by Demonheart. I enjoy characters the protagonist can't fully trust. To achieve trust in a character makes them boring. I want characters who make the protagonist uncomfortable, so if they unsettle you, mission accomplished.

As I continue to expand the script, I'm now up to 32,000 words and counting. In comparison, that's about half the length of Demonheart chapter 1 (69,000 words), so if I use that as a reference, then I have a rough idea where I need to cut my mod short to break it up into a second part. I feel like I'm nowhere even close to telling the full story, which is good because I want to provide as much content to you all as possible.

My script is getting to the point where I'm going to start developing some of the actual mod now. I have a few random scenes I've created for testing purposes, which work flawlessly, but it's time to start taking advantage of the script and providing some in-game screenshots.

Ideas galore.

Creating a mod catering to a mystery genre is daunting. The deeper I finalize all my characters and scripts, the more problematic it becomes avoiding plot holes and other minor discrepancies. I find myself revisiting old scenes I once thought finalized and tweaking minor details. For this reason, I'm still hesitant to release more character info, simply because I'm tweaking them so damn much, but I'll still try to release it soon. As I add more content, it's also becoming increasingly likely I may have to break this mod up into separate chapters/modules, but we'll see.

On a side-note, I recently picked up Divinity: Original Sin (aka DOS) for the PC. It's interesting to play a modern day top-down RPG, and I had hoped to gleam some inspiration from it for my mod. DOS draws some parallels with my mod, although this was purely coincidental. Your characters are templars who hunt magic users called sourcerers (I swear I didn't misspell that), similar to my mod's inquisitors who hunt heretic magic-users. One of the very first DOS quests involves a murder-case. I love murder mystery elements in RPG's, but I always wish they'd push the envelope more, hence one reason for my mod. Of course, I also wished more games would explore dark adult themes, but you know the way the ESRB rating board is. That's the beauty of modding--uninhibited creative freedom for my characters to say and do whatever they want.

I'm also pounding through the popular Persona 4: Golden PSP Vita game. Its major theme includes a murder-mystery, involving a serial killer, leading to an epic "who dun it" confrontation with the culprit. If I had known a murder mystery was the game's central theme, I would have played the original a long time ago!

You could say playing these games is detracting from my modding time, but as a graphic designer, I also know the importance of research and inspiration into my target audience, and I'm convinced my mod is improving daily from these sources. I'm regularly getting struck with "eureka" moments, where I find myself picking up a pencil and jotting down quick notes of epic scenes.