19 March 2009

Great Characters..

Prologue: Fact Finding

The young Tymoran priest lay unconscious on his side, bound hand and foot with thick hemp rope. A purple bruise was already beginning to form around his left eye. Vraggen eyed him coldly.

"Get him up," Vraggen ordered his agents.

Dolgan, the big Cormyrean, slung his axe and kneeled at the captive's side. He took the priest's face in his ham hand and squeezed.

"Awaken," Dolgan said.

The priest groaned, but did not open his eyes.

"Well done," taunted Azriim. He stood beside Vraggen with a smirk on his dusky-skinned face. "Very creative."

Dolgan looked at the half-drow with his typically thick expression and grunted, "Huh?"

Azriim, dressed in the green finery and high boots that he favored, flashed a smile at Vraggen. "He never gets the joke, does he?"

Vraggen made no reply. To Azriim, everything was a joke.

"I don't?" Dolgan asked, still dumbfounded.

"Wake him up," Vraggen said to the Cormyrean warrior.

"And try not break him," Azriim added. "We need him capable of speech."

Dolgan nodded, turned back to the captive, shook him by the shoulders, and said, "Wake up! Wake up!"

The young priest groaned again. Dolgan lightly tapped his cheeks, and after a moment, the priest's eyes fluttered open.

"There," Dolgan said. He stood and backed away a few steps to stand beside Azriim and Vraggen.

The priest's bleary eyes cleared the moment his situation registered. He struggled against his bonds, but only for a moment. Vraggen waited until he saw resignation in the Tymoran's eyes before he spoke.

"What is the last thing you remember?"

...

Wizards has made a pdf version of Twilight Falling, book one of The Erevis Cale Trilogy, available as a free download. The whole novel. So why not go grab it, maybe send it to a friend who's never heard of Erevis Cale? There's nothing to lose. It's friggin' free. And speaking of free, do feel free to spread the word.

I actually suggested this to my editor at Wizards twelve months ago. Yes, indeed, the wheels of publishing turn slowly.

Obviously, the print version of Twilight Falling is available, too, but alas not free.

-Paul S Kemp

Now, I have every book centered on this character(save the most recent one) in print, on my bookshelf, but damned if this isn't a great opportunity for me (as a fan) to shove things I like down other peoples throats.

Like the man say's, its free, nothing to lose.

12 February 2009

The Winter Wastes

The history of the north is really a rather simple one.  It was occupied first by the prisoners, the unwanted, who had little care for the cold: Dwarves.  Predictably, they were the first to explore the mountains, and as dwarves are want to do, burrow into it.  Claiming the tunnels was by no means an easy task, and at first it was scatterings of dwarves, singular brawlers, and handful's of the little diggers who took caves near the surface as their homes.

As time progressed, they began trading with the other small outposts, and more infrequently, joining forces with each other to dig in deeper.  Eventually, small groups of dwarves returned south to the then burgeoning city of Haven(which has become Nefir Ryjah) to trade. Time passed and the dwarves fought tooth and nail to keep their holdings, but they were eventually driven out of the mountains by the sheer speed with which competition would out breed them.

Most of the dwarven clans, and clusters headed north, feeling certain they'd find another range, and that they'd learned from the failures since arriving in this new world.  They failed, but not entirely.  A number of the clans banded together, and settled in to the North east of the range.



They dug in and thus, the makings of the first northern city were carved into the stone. As years passed, more and more of the Brawlers, the trouble makers, the fierce, the problems, of the south, were taken up over the mountains and left in the wilds, to live, or die as chance had.   At first the dwarves took advantage of this, offering shelter and food in exchange for sword work to secure their new homes.

As time progressed, they dug deeper and deeper, fortifying as they went, and as the need for additional swords was outgrown, but as a charity of sorts, the dwarves allowed the cast offs to settled outside their hold. The dwarves took the small cave they began with and dug.  Generations later, they've all but built their own mountain atop the clanhold, and fortified it to withstand any foe they could imagine.

The North progressed from this to a more civilized region during the foundation and reign of the empire, however, the rough nature of the settlers hasn't changed a hair. Order in the North is strictly maintained by the military, and both of the cities have two companies of standing soldiers assigned to ensure neither safety, nor civil order are threatened.

To this day, the northern spirit is still that of brash fighters ready to cross blades at a perceived insult. As a society the north is a constant struggle between the argumentative nature of its citizens, and the harshness of the northern justice. It's been said that the northern army could conquer the west if not for the likelihood such would invite a southern advance.

11 February 2009

The Western Wilds

To detail what occurred in this region, simply put, the empire never truly conquered it. That is to say that with all manner of odd native beasts as well as the results of spells and experiments gone awry, while the empire could secure a large portion of the continent, between the magical cataclysm, and the disadvantage of trying to hold ground from roaming predators, and tribes of humanoids, the empire could never truly chase every foe to extinction, while securing already "cleared" lands.

To explain the west, we must first realize that while things were at their most peaceful, the underground regions were at the most dangerous, but like many, trust and faith in the ruling body was easy enough and people became complacent in trusting the emperor and his children would keep the roads safe, the marauders away from civilization, and the land peaceful. There were from time to time temporary problems, but that was to be expected, and it was understood they didn't last long.

That is until the Emperor's demise.  Mardak immediately recalled all troops as the predictable first step to settling and trying to ensure this was a temporary set back, not a disaster.  Corthyra mean-while perceived this as the likely first step towards military law through out the empire, and sought out those least pleased with Mardak, and began making provisions to keep the South she knew and loved safe.

While her concern was mostly making sure there were troops to reassure the people, Mardak took it as a secession from the empire, as well as a direct challenge to his authority.  As Corthyra was not likely to rule the empire, despite being the older sister, Mardak felt she overstepped her authority by arranging the patrols in the south.  This however is tangential to our discussion of the Western wilds.

Neither sibling showed any care for the west, beyond Mardaks failed attempt to take the capital by force.

A land of mostly rolling plains, and country retreats, the west went untended, as it was neither contested land, nor particularly dangerous at the onset of the conflict.  As the years passed, the assorted creatures and savages driven underground began to find returning to the surface wasn't a quick death the way it use to be, and in an unsurprising turn, the creatures nearest the surface began to ascend and spread.

I mentioned earlier they were forced underground, and this created the predictable problem of space.  as more and more savages and predators were forced off the surface, the warring and conflicts below grew more and more violent and brief.  This in turn lead to each tribe, and pack, and group of creatures to fight meaner and meaner, as only the toughest nastiest sort would survive long.  When these sharpened, almost feral beings returned to the surface, to find space, game, and the civilized settlers, things again took the predictable turn.

Retired soldiers, pompous nobles, serving maids, and expert butlers proved little enough resistance to these bred killers from below, and in short order the empire was again forced to confront the results of its complacency.  Few of the retreats, and summer homes survived til the first winter, those few that can still be found in the west, have learned to live as if besieged, universally these have been situated at the few manse's which were built with walls around when originally constructed.  Such dwellings were usually built by retired officers, or paranoid nobles who staffed their homes primarily with retired soldiers.

The west as it stands is known to be dangerous, and its said to be second only to descending into the earth.

02 February 2009

Introduction

Run, it's Morim the dwarf!

Yes, some of you might recognize me from the dwarf I used to play. Since dwarves rule, I'm going to keep the name and make you remember it. Right now I've finally kicked into gear Project Black Book with Mask, and things are getting done now... I like to say mostly because of me, since I'm the moral support.

I've never DMed nor do I really plan to, but I can write a good story and am capable and willing to learn how to script and build. I've done work REALbasic before, and have taken a couple HTML classes which I passed with flying colors. All in all, once I get the hang of Aurora, I'll be able to do more than just write story and "pretty" the areas up.

On a different side note, if all goes well I will be going to New York Comic Con and check out what they have. BioWare is having a booth open during the convention, and will be having a dinner for player's afterward. They're mainly promoting Dragon Age: Origins, but I reckon most of the question will be about Baldur's Gate or NWN.

Until next time,

LOVE and PEACE.

01 February 2009

Well, I got something done recently...

In addition to working on a quest system(remind me to come back to this) I dropped several years ago.. I also conned a new fellow into semi-active work. His name is Morim, and he's a tool. Alright, alright, maybe I shouldn't slander him on his first day...


Then again, I better get him use to it right?

So in addition to getting him to sell me his soul, I also(you may have noticed) moved to a different webhost a while ago, and as of yesterday.. I put up, and semi-organized a new and better forum system. Now to be fair.. runboard was fine, (and will continue to be up while I cull useful data off it) and its good for entry level putting up a free forum for your non-profit whatever, when you know absolutely nothing.

Its simple, easy, and more a less difficult to screw it up without actively trying. However the admin panel on that thing is simply atrocious, and that makes any changing to the actual board's setup, layout, and permissions, a chore and a half.

No thanks. However, I also has standards, so PHPBB can crawl in a hole, die, and reanimate as a zombie before I think its worth the effort to seriously examine, much less use. I went with SMF, they call it "Simple Machines Forums" but me being me.. I tend to think of it as "Smurf Made Forums".

That's because its a bit cartoony, but its also easy, clear, and simple. Runboard at its best, is simplistic. And I don't say that in a positive light. So now that I'm actively putting some occasional effort into this.. it seemed time to get a nicer forums set up, and get things kicking.

I'd give you an estimate when the runboard forum will no longer be linked, but as soon as I pick a date, I'm almost sure to miss it. We'll say "Pre-2010" ok?

25 January 2009

Script Monkeys can't decorate..


Seems like I'm working all by my lonesome again. Oh well. It happens. In related news, I've gotten to work on decorating up the north.. As you can see, the plain area(as seen in toolset) is pretty cut and dried for a lot of the northern plains. Its both unappealing, and tediously blank.



Hence, we get into adding some character.. Believe it or not These tree's were all created by a script I wrote some time(Months?) ago, which is in itself a variant of my traps placement code. This combined with a little known, or at least little fact of the game.. yields me some pre-populate area's.



You see, one can quite easily open a save game in the toolset to edit it. It handles .sav files just like .mod, so its really quite easy to load a save game up and make an Encapsulated Resource File(ERF) out of the saved map.



Back to interesting stuff now. I took the liberty of "Tree-ing" up the north At least A and B rows, and this is about the final difference when all is said and done.



Not bad for a script monkey made area.

12 December 2007

Daily Debriefing

Download page updated

Struck full on by the brutal, methodical power of.......... Whimsy?

Minor site update, added music players on a fit of Whimsy. Home, Forums, Worldmap, and Blog are all effected. Also note, Bringing the world map in to any Quadrant will cause it to play tracks more fitting to Northern/Southern style.

01 November 2007

Daily Debriefing

Alright, last night Linda and I worked off and finished up Southern Sentinel.

I haven't put it up for testing yet, but no one seemed to bother last time I did(Post here if you want me to put it up). I've also written up the long and short of Juggernaut of War. Hopefully motivation will come, or I'll talk Linda into doing it for me.

Personally, I'm hoping on the latter, but its a lot of active feats so it would count as good practice I think.

26 October 2007

Back in the Saddle.

I've taken a good long while off, Screwed with this that and the next, Tried modding SupCom a bit, and yet, I still come back to old favorites.


Also of Note, I've taken on an apprentice of sorts in teaching how to make a class with Tabular framework. Frankly, its helping her just as much as its helping me, as the tutorial bit to date has been doing Southern Sentinel which has been one of those "I should do it, but I don't really want to" issues. Using it as a teaching tool has removed that, because while I don't really want to do it, I'm doing it and getting more than just the person gain of "Its done I'm happy".


I can look at it as actively producing some result, even if it is someone else using it for their own ends, and my list remaining much the same.

10 September 2007

Showcasing Imp

Imp's been mostly off on his own series of adventures, Despite that he's checked in a few times and left tidbits here and there, including screenshots of his work.

As I haven't done much of anything lately, and it seems everyone in general has wound-down a bit so to speak.. I'm going to shamelessly put up imp's assorted explanations, Screenshots, and images o showoff what he's done in the vague hope that the pretty pictures will distract you and You'll forget ever having read this.






Image



This proposed map shows the borders of the Underworld's six regions, and access tunnels that connect them, and two access shafts.



To clarify:

Underworld Region: A section of the Underworld where the underground areas are relatively easy to traverse in, though not quite to the degree of freedom found on the surface. Inside the region's borders, areas tend to conform to a certain style, due to the region's environment and conditions. Most space found outside the regions shown is solid rock, or, due to the ocean, open water. Besides that are isolated caves, and the access tunnels. I shall explain the different regions shortly.



Access Tunnel: A relatively straight and easy path from one region to another. An access tunnel could be an artificial tunnel, such as a mine tunnel, burrowed tunnel, (by, say, a giganto-mole), a bridge across a large gorge, or an underground structure found between the two regions, like an Orcish Stronghold, or an abandoned dungeon. A natural example of such would be like a simple cave, underground river, or whatever.



Access Shaft: An access point connecting the surface and the Underworld. I marked two proposed ones on the map, found in region three in the swamp, and region four on the volcano. One being a swampy cave that descends into a fetid pit of fungus and gigantic insects, the other a volcanic shaft leading to a fiery pit of molten rock and lakes of fire, (unless the only way to get to the volcano is through the Underworld.. then I guess it'd be a shaft leading -from- a fiery pit of molten rock and lakes of fire.) Other examples of an access shaft would be like an abandoned mine, with a mine shaft leading deep underground, a river that waterfalls into a large hole leading underground, a dwarven citadel, (which tends to expand downward, rather than outward), or a cave system.



Yes, it seems complex, but its a system, a way things work.. and most importantly, a look at how its going to happen, and work.



Now, to explain the regions themselves, which I have not named.



1.) Abyssal/Bone Region: A cold region that lies beneath the northern snows. This region is unique for its large amount of abysses, (basically, an abyss is a bottomless pit), a remnant of the shifting movements that created the northern mountain ranges. It's also a region famous for the sheer amount of skeletal remains of creatures in its dark caverns. And it's not an uncommon sight to see shallow pits filled to the brim with the skeletons of less fortunate adventurers, and lesser creatures. Its for these reasons that the region is a favored home to flying and climbing creatures that use the area's lack of flooring to their advantage in survival. The region also attracts necromancers fond of animating skeletons, due to the abundance of skeletal dead.



2.)Frozen Region: This region is a world of frozen caverns and deathly cold water, found beneath the northeastern snows and the nearby islands. This region is known for its beautiful caves of frozen water that flows from the above ocean. This region is populated by hardy creatures that are able to ignore the area's piercing cold.



3.)Fungal Region: This region lays beneath the western woodlands and swamps, and is home to a multitude of fungi, insects and disease. The region's caverns are often likened to the swamps that exsist above, as there are no other caves as stench-ridden, muddy, and insect-infested as those that exsist here. Fortunately, the cave's conditions improve, (relatively) as travelers move away from the surface swamps, as the region transforms into sprawling underground forests of mushrooms. This region is also home to giant insect hives.



4.)Volcanic Region: This region lays beneath the central island volcano, and could be considered part of the volcano itself, featuring rivers of flame, lakes of fire, and massive lava flows. The region is home to creatures that can take the massive heat and unpredictable movements of the volcanic region, though some intelligent creatures have moved in, in an attempt to harness the area's heat, seeking to create massive weapon forges.



5.)Cavern Region: This region lays beneath the eastern forest and the edge of the central desert. Though this region lacks the unique hazardous conditions of the others, the region is dangerous due to reasons of its own. This region is a region of caves rich with precious metals and minerals, and, because of how resource-rich it is, the most artificially altered, with scattered mines, refineries, and underground quarries, created by all kinds of races, though many are now abandoned, having been originally constructed and stripped clean years ago. The region's natural inhabitants, consisting of many creatures, often pale in comparison to the greedy sentient races willing to protect their stakeout with their life. This region also contains an underground river, (which I forgot to place on the map), which leads from the frozen region, to the flooded region.



6.)Flooded Region: This region lays mostly beneath the southern oceans. This area is often compared to the frozen region, because it also has water that seeps down into the caves beneath. However, it lacks the cold that would freeze this water, resulting in vast flooded caverns, quick-flowing underground rivers, fully submerged cave systems, and large subterranean lakes. This area is populated by water-dwelling creatures, and by creatures that prey on the fish of the underground water system from the shores.


With all that explained, its a lot more thought out than the normal generic "Oh well there is monster X here because they live here." which is sadly, something of the norm in world design with NWN.



Made some Underworld concept shots; detailed screenies showing regions of the Underworld as they might appear.





Image



Abyssal Region (1): A pit filled with bones and ice. While not an uncommon sight for this region, this one is notably different for its apparant use as a sacrificial pit, with carved ledges on the sides of the pit, an altar inside the pit, and a recent victim, not yet picked clean by predators, who was left to die of cold and hunger.



Image



Abyssal Region (1): An old bridge travels through the rocky cliffs of the Abyssal Region. The cliffs are littered with the common skeletal remains and ice, but also offer a hint of another time: remains of sea life from warmer regions, dead trees, and the ruins of what could almost be seen as an old park.



Image



Volcanic Region (4): A passage deep in the Volcanic Region. A shrine to some unknown being of fire, dragon, or perhaps to the raw power of the inferno itself? It appears to still be in use, if the offerings of gold on the carved altars in the passage are anything to go by. Perhaps they are friendly but, let's be honest, how often do you meet someone in a volcano that ever is?



Image



Cavern Region (5): A salvager camp in an abandoned mine. There is money to be made in salvaging the equipment and supplies left behind in the scattered abandoned mines in the Cavern Region. Adventurers beware, though, not all salvagers welcome company. This camp seems to be enjoying sucess, with plenty of findings boxed and ready to be carted out of the mine and into the markets. They are wary, however, because the mine isn't completely empty, and they have built a barrier out of broken furniture and brought a ballista to cover the entrance.



Image



Fungal Region (3): A forest of mushrooms and underground plant life, the fungal region is a place of twisting plants and disease. This forest thrives on the water that seeps through the muddy cave walls from the swamps above, creating a strange underworld garden.



Image



Flooded Region (6): A waterside shrine nestled in the Flooded Region, the Underworld Region beneath the ocean. Though the residents are peaceful, they are still able to defend themselves. They are living underground, after all. They allow travelers to use the dock in the background, if they behave themselves.



Image



Frozen Region (2): A monument buried in the snow and ice of the Frozen Region, overlooking a cold canyon. Flakes of snow blow through the caves from the surface, carried by chill wind that flows through the frozen region's tunnels, slowly burying the monument, and countless other secrets.
I'll probably reorder all of this, and or turn the source bit into an addition to the main Blackbook site as the first real piece on setting specific stuff, but That will take a while.

It will also mandate larger images which IMO is ideal. To fit them into this little frame, way too much detail was sacrificed.

06 September 2007

Jasspere's AI Spawn In

Been working on JAI(Jasspere's AI) today in leaps and bounds Most notably, the spawn in event.

Ya see, way back when I tried to do some additional options all tied into the onspawn and checking for variables on the creature being spawned. This met with as much success as someone trying to convince Bill Clinton to try celibacy and I never figured out why it wouldn't work. Sure I had an idea, but testing it would take time, and still be 'hit or miss'.

And on the fourth day, Mask tested...

Long story short, I don't know that my theory was right, but the possible solution I cooked up seems to work so.. Who cares if my theory was right, wrong, or neon purple. It works now, that's what matters.

Essentially, my best guess was that the onspawn script was firing before the creature was considered a "Valid Object" either for terms of checking flags, or in terms of setting flags. Doesn't matter.

What I did was to make a new spawn in script which is so simple, even an untrained monkey could work it.
void main()
{ DelayCommand(1.0f, ExecuteScript("j_ai_onspawn", OBJECT_SELF)); }

j_ai_onspawn of course being the AI script that use to fire instantly. I delayed it a second, a massive change. Or so I'd like you to think....

At any rate with this now reading variables set on the creature, I've gone about adding in first.. my own custom spawn in flags.


Variable If unset Whatssit do.

SS_ATK_COUNT No Modification 1-6 Force set's attacks per round
SS_VFX N/M Allows creater to set a VFX to be applied to the NPC(This will be removed when NPC dies.)

The following all share a similiar implementation:
If: Variable is Greater Than or Equal To 1d100
Effect stated is applied So setting variables as:
101 = ALWAYS apply 0 = NEVER apply
SS_VS_KD N/M Allows creater to set a probability chance of Creature being Knockdown immune.
SS_VS_FEAR N/M See above, but with fear Immunity
SS_VS_CRIT N/M See above, but with Critical Hit Immunity
SS_VS_SNEAK N/M See above, but with Sneak Attack Immunity
SS_VS_DEATH N/M See above, but with Death Magic Immunity
SS_VS_ULTRA N/M % chance as above. Adds Ultravision to the NPC
SS_VS_S_INVIS N/M % chance as above. Adds See Invisibility to the NPC
SS_VS_ETHER N/M Spawns NPC under the effect of Greater Sanctuary until NPC takes hostile action.
SS_VS_REGEN N/M Regenerates 1 HP per second.
SS_VS_FAST N/M 50% speed increase.
SS_VS_CONCEAL N/M 50% concealment applied to creature.
SS_LOOTCHANCE Use creature HitDice Probability Vs 1d100 of a custom weapon being made for this creature.
DEATH_VFX N/M Set VFX shortly after NPC dies (I.E. Mantain illusion created by skining VFX)


I may or may not add more tonight, but if I do, this list will be updated.

The theory behind this, is I want, as much as possible, to make Combat in NWN more tactical. Less
"Build my PC and hope she/he rolls good"
and more
"OK, this isn't working against this monster, let me try something else.."

By making it so creatures can have % chance's of random boosts, I think its going to make it a lot less "Oh look, another orc, let me acid arrow it".. even more so once I finish writing up damage immunity, and resistance bits.


Edit: Above got done

Variable   If unset    Whatssit do.
SS_VS_SLASH_R N/M Slashing resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_SLASH_I N/M 100% slashing immunity
SS_VS_BLUNT_R N/M Blunt resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_BLUNT_I N/M 100% Blunt immunity
SS_VS_PIERC_R N/M Piercing resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_PIERC_I N/M 100% Piercing immunity
SS_VS_FIRE_R N/M Fire resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_FIRE_I N/M 100% Fire immunity
SS_VS_COLD_R N/M Cold resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_COLD_I N/M 100% Cold immunity
SS_VS_ELEC_R N/M Electrical resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_ELEC_I N/M 100% Electrical immunity
SS_VS_ACID_R N/M Acid resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_ACID_I N/M 100% Acid immunity
SS_VS_DIVI_R N/M Divine resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_DIVI_I N/M 100% Divine immunity
SS_VS_POSI_R N/M Positive resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_POSI_I N/M 100% Positive immunity
SS_VS_SONI_R N/M Sonic resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_SONI_I N/M 100% Sonic immunity
SS_VS_NEGA_R N/M Negative resistance = NPC's (Level X 2)
SS_VS_NEGA_I N/M 100% Negative immunity

03 September 2007

OMGWTFBBQ.2da

Miscellaneous playing around today, and finally re-assaulted baseitems.2da and remembered why it was useful, and why CEP needs to edit it so much.


  • It controls all item types in the module using it.

  • Its how CEP adds the new(half-functioning) weapons, like double-bladed kazoo

  • It controls the critical modifier(X2, X3, X4), critical range(20, 19-20, 18-20), and damage of an item.

  • I honestly don't recall what I was going to write here, but I had a fourth point.



This has been long overdue, but I began with some simple changes, namely making crossbow's actually feasible as an alternative to bow's. This of course was done by raising their damage, because let's face it 1d8 on a longbow(max 6 attacks attacks a round) vs a 1d10 crossbow that does max 5 attacks. It looks even, but consider this, Longbow needs a feat to get 1 more attack a round to hit six. Crossbow needs a feat to get more than 1 attack a round.

That playing field is about as level as Bill Clinton's marital vows.

Besides, most Longbow users usually opt for Arcane Archer if at all possible. I for one have never seen a dwarf with a longbow, its always elves or half elves. Not to mention a dwarf would never be able to string a longbow, couldn't hold the base still while managing to reach the top to bend it down.

30 August 2007

Website Overhaul-age

Did some re-working of the main site. Not sure how much more I'll be doing total, but I think I'll be expanding the Worldmap and Paragons & Patrons sections with subsections as appropriate.

You can for example see several of the P&P upgrades




26 August 2007

Daily Debriefing

Northern Armsmen is available for testing. It was pretty easy to just take similar .2da entries and tweak values as needed, still it will require admittedly more effort later to go ahead and get all the right feat options in at the right levels.

Right now, the epic feats this class can pick(As class feats) are absolutely strange, but time and effort will change that easily enough. I think I just need to make a -1 into a 21 in a few instances to allow them to be taken as epic class feats but I can't(and won't) pretend to tell anyone I'm sure.

25 August 2007

Daily Debriefing

Alright, see the rant below, additionally, World map coding(with both South East, and South West maps added) is finished, although updating/finish maps is still on the 'todo' list, and cropping mini-maps to make web images will take some time and effort, but at least the structure behind it is all present.

You'll probably need to hit F5 to refresh the page(and your browser cache with it). Will probably be doing more later.

110MB Rant

Alright, this is done:
Module

(This will never change, once you have it.. you have it.)



Hak

(This will change frequently, usually with an annotation somewhere that something has changed. I will bump this topic when hak is updated.)


However in the doing of that, I required a beer. For those who don't know, I'm weird, I think drinking and smoking, and other such vices are simply a lack of willpower and a failure to exhibit adult behavior. Essentially, they are the recourse of those who have lead such a shitty life due to their own mismanaged choices that they require such things to continue, and/or experience a bout of happiness.

Be that as it may, 110MB.com made me drink today. To start with, I couldn't upload a .7z file. Understandable I guess, the listed reason is they don't want their site to become an alternative to yousendit.com. Again, understandable I suppose. Seems to me their deliberately avoiding a business opportunity, but that's not my problem.

What is my problem, is that I couldn't upload the 7zip, alright no big deal, I'll upload the 5.01MB file and let them deal with the increased space on their server. Oh Fracking well, they brought it upon themselves. As it completes uploading, I get this lovely little message in my FTP client.

[R] TYPE I
[R] 200 TYPE is now 8-bit binary
[R] PASV
[R] 227 Entering Passive Mode (195,242,99,102,157,145)
[R] Opening data connection IP: 195.242.99.102 PORT: 40337
[R] STOR Black_Book Class Test.mod
[R] 150 Accepted data connection
[R] 550-File too big. Max allowed size is 5120 kb.
[R] 550 Black_Book Class Test.mod won't be saved.
[R] Transfer Failed!
[R] TYPE A
[R] 200 TYPE is now ASCII
[R] PASV
[R] 227 Entering Passive Mode (195,242,99,102,156,74)
[R] Opening data connection IP: 195.242.99.102 PORT: 40010
[R] LIST -al
[R] 150 Accepted data connection
[R] 226-Options: -a -l
[R] 226 4 matches total
[R] List Complete: 263 bytes in 0.47 seconds (0.5 KB/s)
Transfer queue completed
1 File failed to transfer


Ugh. 5120 kb? It was 5.01MB, or 5010kb What in fracking blazes? Vile bastards. Alright, I open it in the toolset, Gut it down, remove a worthless area and upload it again. No problem. 4.88mb is apparently less than 5120, while 5.01 mb is not. What-fracking-ever.

Thinking I had reached a mutually hostile truce with the software, I went to upload the hak BB_Top.hak knowing full damned well it was 1.28mb and would upload.

Ahh, the foolish pride of youth, you see I had forgotten it didn't like some file types, apparently .hak is one of them. I was half way to SevenZipping it when I remembered it didn't like 7zip either. I swore. and started to .Rar it, then I realized .rar also has a good file compression. I swore again, and decided to use .zip.

For those who aren't as technologically savvy as I am, I'll put it in perspective. 7Zip is like using K-Y Jelly when jerking off. Zip, being years older is like using Sandpaper instead.

Not so much in the fact that zip isn't even remotely designed to do the job, it was designed for compression, but in the age of E-tech its outdated by years and outshone by present alternatives. While there is a leisure(as well as a health) aspect of riding a bike when traveling distance, its rarely done with the intent to travel distances, or move cargo a distance with speed.

Those two goals are the core of compressing data. To move it quickly, and in large loads. .Zip is outclassed easily by .rar and .7z just runs circles around it.

Daily Debriefing

More mapping done: Results Here
Web map of course, updated to match.

19 August 2007

Daily Debriefing

16 August 2007

Daily Debriefing

Well, Todays trial has been experimenting towards class changing. I'm slotting out quite a few that will get either full or partial reworking to provide what I believe to be a better overall arrangement. Todays goal was to change the Assassin class on the two primary levels.

  1. Changing the 2DA to alter what feat's the class gets/what level they become available at.
  2. Changing the TLK (Talk table) to reflect the above changes and display properly in game.


Suffice to say, I've only made one change so far, a Simple one, let's show you the basic assassin:


- Hit Die: d6.
- Proficiencies: Simple Weapons, Light Armor Proficiency.
- Skill Points: 4 + Int Modifier.


Not bad for a start, but I've always disliked one thing about the class.. How most of the cool and strange weapons.. it can't use by default.


- Hit Die: d6.
- Proficiencies: Exotic Weapons, Light Armor Proficiency.
- Skill Points: 4 + Int Modifier.


See the change? Its minor, until it comes to weapon selection. Anyway, I've tried before to tamper with a talk table and met with a level of success that resulted in only a single change: I got a beer, it seemed preferable.

Not so, with the Tabular Framework application I've kicked around in for this latest attempt. It's actually a TLK and 2DA editor in one app, allowing the user to drag around and alter both, with the added convenience of having both open and drag-around-able while tampering.

This is to say you can have both the talk table(only one allowed per module) and all the 2DA's open that you want and you can switch between them, or drag and place them to keep all the data coherent.

Coherent, that's something I'm not at the moment, but its difficult to explain properly how easy this makes it. Suffice to say, I could train my dog to use this program, getting her to work the keyboard may be difficult. However the software is empathetically not the hardware.

This is a rave review from me to be honest, for the simple fact it handles 2 tasks together that are needed to produce changes, and it does it without bells, whistles, or flaming hoops that seem to be listed as 'features' in so much of todays software. To put this in perspective, my Cell phone has a Calculator(1), a calendar(2), an alarm clock(3), a world clock(4), a stopwatch(5), and a notepad(6) build into its software.

I've used the alarm clock once. It did not meet expectations and I've never used it again. Nor were any of the other "features" I listed above used. Their Fucking Junk. Tabular Framework thankfully does the job, does the job well, and does it without Junk.