Wanna Join My Band?

I finally buckled to the pressure (my own mind you), and picked up an XBox 360 this weekend complete with Rock Band. That's right, after years of practicing air guitar, I will finally be taking one step close to the real thing. I'm thinking of naming my virtual band Brannigan's Law, because, as you may know, "Brannigan's Law is like Brannigan's love: hard and fast".

I will admit that it was extremely difficult to get any work on the module done this weekend with the thousands of adoring virtual fans out there. I will really have to avoid the call of the stage and put those last little touches on things for when I release it to the vault this Friday.

2007 Module of the Year Nomination

Sands of Solvheil I: The Ruins of Kazatharis is on the list of nominees for 2007 module of the year. I'm caught between feeling honored and being realistic. Still, it is very nice to be among some great pieces of work and very talented developers. Naturally, I will have to abstain from voting as I rarely ‘play’ enough to make a fair judgment, and I am of the camp that believes voting for one’s self is…well….cheesy. I can't let myself get too distracted as I am in the homestretch. I have a bit more spit and polish to do before releasing Sands of Solvheil II on the 29th.

Things are really getting busy all-around. I started my last Undergrad class last night (Corperate Finance...blah!), scoping out a potential smartphone to get when my contract comes up in April, Baby 2.0 still on course for a late July arrival, and I still haven't talked my wife into letting me by an XBox 360/Rock Band. You would think arguments like "You do want your children to grow up around music don't you?" would sway her iron grip on my manhood, but alas.

I'll break her down, just have to be clever about it.

Spellcasting in Conversation

Well I'm not sure if this is something that I had forgotten or a concept that I never grasped in the first place. When casting a spell in conversation, it cannot be the conversation owner casting it. Even with ActionPauseConversation() and ActionResumeConversation(), the owner of the conversation ends any further transaction if forced to cast.

That should save quite a few head-scratching moments moving forward. The workaround is to of course use an IPoint Speaker object as the owner and use careful camera placement on each node. On the upside, I think I have nailed the concept of a blocking script. That will be nice to have moving into the third module.

Leap Year approaches

Had a good time at the NWNPodcast Builders Roundtable, everyone was really cool. While the Lords of Skype tried to smite us, we prevailed and put forth some pretty cool discussion about development technique, troubles, and philosophy. I think without the initial frustration of technical difficulties, we would had much more to talk about. Just goes to show that 97% of all NWN2 builders are cool people, and 82% of people make up statistics on the spot.

Neverwinter Nights Podcast

Seeing as I only have a little less than 2 weeks before Leap Year and my release date, I decided to quick twinking around with area design for III: Crusaders of Shalihir. I left II: Beneath the Hearleforne in pretty good shape all around. The only thing unfinished is the final confrontation and then any possible encounter balancing (which I never nail until it has been played a few times anyhow).

So as I throw myself back into the Mines of Mount Stoneclef and decide how hard the party will have to fight for their lives after restoring the Anvil's Eye to the Shrine of Pulenthor...I supposed I can throw up a look at my headstart. I'd call these semi-finished.

On a side note, I did finally finish the nwn2dieties.2da entries to allow setting specific choices on character creation and level up. This should be a little more 'realistic' than in the first module where I couldn't reveal any dieties until the end.

Tahamman with Index

Tahamman 2.0

Just adding in the remaining buildings of Tahamman. Now I'll begin to try and match up the best road/pathway texture, and add in the scenary to let this stand out as a commercial hub of desert transport. This will be the first major town of module III, much like Rindleforde and Evertide before it.

They MUST Be Giants!

The defeat of the New England Patriots just goes to show that there are no sure things. That, and apparently Belichick either doesn't watch a game clock, or doesn't know how to lose gracefully.

Gratz to all of New York and the Giants! Talk about a big win that stunned the sports world.

It all proves that no one is infallible, nothing is impossible, and reality can always be altered.

Tahamman: Toolset Shot

This is an early shot of Tahamman, which is the closest town to Dalreon in the Shalihir Desert. It resides just on the other side of Scarcrag Pass which separates it from Albrynn. Taken from an early area prefab that I had constructed back when my goal was to create several setting-specific towns and adjacent dungeons for release as quick adventure sets. That was the origin of Rindleforde and the Undermill/Marathorl Keep. It was originally supposed to be a multiplayer option open-design setup. I later scrapped that idea in favor of writing/developing the now in-progress storyline instead of blindly throwing areas out to the world.

While this is far from a finished work (it isn't even tinted or sculpted), it does give a bit of sense of how towns will look in the third module which takes place primarily in the Shalihir desert.