So, I have been working on main quest number 2. I estimate I'm on about 25% right now, since the scope of this quest has expanded a bit. I've cut up the module into three submodules now and organised everything under a campaign. First time for me. So now I can use all these campaign goodies such as world maps, yay!

1 down, 4 to go

I have finished the first of the major quests of part 2 of the mod. As per my design, I have 4 more to go. And then, there will be several sidequests, companions and NPCs who need development, et cetera. Progress is slow, as always, but I haven't lost hope yet ;-).

This module is getting pretty big. After I have finished all the quests, I have to pay some attention to making the overall story arc explicit. After all, we're in Everlund for a reason. Even more so, because I am thinking of releasing the mod in parts. If players have to wait for the next part to be released, it should be clear what they are waiting for.

Silver lining

So, I have been sick for the last couple of days. Headache, nausea, sore throat, weakness. The whole shebang. On the up side, it gave me some free time to devote to modding. I have made a bit of progress again :-)

Sunday Mornings

I have been concentrating on side quests for part 2 of my module. Progress is, of course, slow. Life is busy, work, hobbies and family regularly take away time that I would otherwise devote to modding. But at least there is still some progress, usually on sunday mornings when the rest of the world is still asleep.

I hear that a new Neverwinter game will come out later this year, I don´t know how this will affect my current project. I might try to convert everything to the new version if it is cool enough, essentially starting all over.

What can I say. I´m not in this for money or glory, it´s just a hobby. A very rewarding hobby of course, but nothing to stress about. The opposite, in fact.

Slow but steady

Even though things have been quiet from my side for the past two months, I have made quite some progress. For part 2 of my mod, I have recently focused on area building. I have created (and "borrowed" from my unpublished mods) about 15 areas by now. Mainly Everlund and its surroundings. After I'm done with the area building (only a few more to go), I'll start the actual dialogue and main storyline.

Working on Part 2

I've started work on part 2 of my mod. As of yet, I'm busy with area design. Not something I excel in, but I do enjoy trying to visualize what my areas should look like, and fiddling around with the toolset until I'm happy. The main setting of part 2 will be Everlund, and I've tried to be as true to the source material as possible. It's about 40% done, I would say.

I've never worked on a city before, usually my mods take place in a rural setting. It's kind of cool what ideas you come up with when you have a more extensive area at your disposal, there are so many possibilities for non-trivial sidequests.

Wizards rule!

I just finished testing part 1 with a wizard. Before this I have always used a fighter. I expected a wizard to not last that long, but actually it was way easier. Part of this is the 'Sleep' spell, this is because the mod is set for low-level characters, and using Sleep, you can kind of wade right through low-level monsters.

For now, I am quite happy with the result. Can´t wait to get to work on part 2!

Part 1 almost done

So, I've almost finished part 1 of my new four part mod. The function of this bit is to establish the main characters and the context of the storyline. It all runs, but I'll need to do some tweaking to adjust the balance. I guess I have a tendency to make the encounters too difficult.

Another thing I'll have to do is test it with a couple of classes, I've only tested it with a fighter until now. It might be that I'll have to tweak some more after that.

And then: towards part 2! I have some ideas of adding content from my last mod that I didn't publish but is still usable.

Good news and bad news

I am still modding. Last year I was very busy for a while, but not in a bad way. Didn't have a lot of time to finish the mod I was working on. Now, I had been working on that mod for a long time and I think it had some pretty good aspects. But after things started to settle down a bit in my day-to-day life, I just didn't have any inspiration to wrap it up. Not that I didn't have any ideas, they were just not suited to the mod. Not that particular mod.

So I wasn't having fun working on it. And since I do this to have fun, I decided to cancel that project and start a new one. I know it seems half-assed to quit working on a project that is almost finished, and maybe it is, but it was becoming a chore and there are already plenty of those in my life.

The mod I'm working on right now will be consisting of four acts, and will be set in the Silver Marches. The mod will start out near Jalanthar, and Jalanthar will be in big trouble. There will be four companions, and they're all mandatory for story purposes. I've tried the pick-and-choose method in my newly cancelled mod, and I just didn't like the fact that you can't really flesh out your NPCs that well in the limited time I can give to any mod.

Why four acts? Well, this mod will focus on the coming of age of a villain, and I for this individual I had four stages in my head - changing his morals a bit every time the story advances.

The title of this mod will be "Mara's Pride".

Project on hold, not cancelled

Hi all,

As you might have guessed, I've put the new mod on hold for a while. There is too much going on in my life (not all of it bad, don't worry) to work on it with the amount of attention that I want to give it. When (not if) I have more time to devote to it, I will continue my work. I am sorry to disappoint you.

Best,

Rasvar

I'm not quite dead!

Argh. I see it has been almost two months since my last update. In those two months, I regret to say there has been a neglible amount of modding. My job swallowed almost all of my time. So I'm basically at the same point as at my last post.

The good news is that I have a two-week break now, and I'm going to try to pick up where I left off. The bad news... well, actually there is no bad news :-)

Inspiration onslaught

While I thought I would just wrap Chapter 1 up nicely as planned, I couldn't help getting lots of inspiration as I worked on this bit. I decided to add 3 extra areas, plus a couple of sidequests. The main story is complete now, there are two major dialogues to write and all of the companion dialogue. Plus lots of smaller ideas, a worldmap, history feats and lots more.

Not to spoil anything, but I like the end areas. They give me a good Buffy feeling.

I will probably release chapter 1 separately from the later chapters, because those will cost lots of time too. So I inadvertantly started a series again. This one, however, will actually consist of multiple parts, unlike my previous attempt (being Azaelus).

Mysteries of Westgate

Just finished Mysteries of Westgate. I'm currently sick, so I had some time to spare. While I enjoyed it very much, for those in the know it will be no surprise that this means that Rose and Blood will have a lot to live up to. The comparison is almost unavoidable...

Mysteries of Westgate was very well done. The area design was superb, dialogues were witty, lots of plot twists, etc. etc. etc. Still, there are some aspects about Rose and Blood that I still think are cool . I just hope I'll be able to polish it to a level that the comparison won´t put people off, which is a risk.

Back to bed now.

Cutscenes for Chapter 1

After testing the first half of this chapter, I have set to work on the second half. This includes making cutscenes to tie the story together. Since I've been having a fair load of complaints about the storyline for Howls in the Dark, it seemed like a good idea to make what's happening clearer.

Furthermore, it also helps me to see where I want to go with this story, and adds character to the antagonists. And on top of that, it's nice and easy. No wondering about dialogue trees, checking whether available responses cover the entire range of player styles, none of that. Everything is under my control, bwahahahaha! Errm, forget that last bit, it's late and I should probably go to bed soon.

I've made about six of these cutscenes now, and I think they work well. When I'm done, I'll work some more on the buildup to the conclusion for Chapter 1, and after that it's time for my favorite chore: the fleshing out of the player's companions.

Working on part 2 of Chapter 1

Finally, I ironed out all the bugs I found in my first test round. Undoubtedly there are many more, but wel'll leave that until round 2. Today I had an entire day to devote to modding, a rare treat for me. The last time I had this much to work with has to be years ago.

Made some good progress, too. The first round of testing gave me many ideas to build up to chapter 2, which works quite nicely. Worked on a couple of cutscenes today, that turned out to be nice and dramatic. I'm pretty happy with the result :-)

It's interesting how some characters start to live their own lives in my head. Sometimes they just develop all by themselves, without much effort on my part. Hopefully you'll know what I'm talking about if I ever get this baby done ;-)

That's all for now.

Testing part 1 of Chapter 1: Finished

Completed testing of part 1 of chapter 1. I've got a couple of pages of improvements, bug fixes et cetera to do. Most of them have to do with oversights, balance issues, toning down treasure (I have a Monty Haul mindset) and improvements to areas, dialogues and all that. So the next couple of days (weeks?) I'll be fixing those issues. After that, it's time for part 2 of chapter 1 :-)

Testing part 1 of Chapter 1

Currently I am testing if everything works as I have planned it. I'm half done, and so far I've been playing for about four hours. And, of course, I have accumulated about three pages of bugs that need to be fixed, lots of new ideas and many other improvements.

This is my most expansive module yet, I must say it's fun to test in this way. Parts of the mod I hadn't seen in months, and I encountered some bugs that I thought I'd fixed a long time ago.

Somehow seeing everything come together gives me loads of new ideas, some to improve the part that's already done, some for the next part and even some for chapter 2. I still have far to go until it's complete, but at least there is a lot of stuff in the mod that I'm happy with right now.

Added a treat for the Discworld fans

First post: Rose and Blood

It's been about a year now since I've uploaded Howls in the Dark, and I've been working on a new module off and on now. Since I won't be able to finish it anytime soon, I thought I'd start a development blog so that those of you who are interested can get regular updates on my progress.

The new module, which goes by the working title of "Rose and Blood" will take quite some time to finish. This has two reasons:

1. I am pretty busy with non-mod related things too. I have a demanding job, I am working hard to be able to get my shodan in aikido within a year (after about six years of training), and I reserve time for my girlfriend.
2. Rose and Blood will be a fairly complicated mod. I am planning for two chapters and a prelude, about six companions to choose from (all of whom will have specific likes and dislikes), scripted combat (like vampires using their gaseous form ability to be better able to annoy you), custom content and an engaging storyline.

Right now I'm working on the second half of chapter 1. What I'm trying to do is put up the whole module skeleton first, and devote time to flesh out characters, design cutscenes, touch up dialogue and insert random ideas at a later stage.

So, since I don't want to give away too much, I'll end on this note. I've put up some screenshots for your viewing pleasure, and when I have passed a significant milestone I'll let you all know.