The Approaching End

Well, I am finally finished with all but the final battle. The last stretch was a real bear. I guess you don't truely know what you don't have done until you get there. Anyhow, things are really falling into place and I am finally starting to be pleased.

Luckily a new tester has come forward (and one that has recently re-completed parts I and II), and may be giving things a semi-final runthrough this week. I'd love to expose any potential problems or unfinished aspects before I seal it all up.

I do know I have to complete some companion chatter for both Malcarus and Anziath, and I may want to go back and add one more triggered encounter in the late plot discovery. I think there is a bit too much fact-finding and not enough violence right before the final series of sequences so I may try to mix things up a bit there.

In the meantime, here are some shots of dimensional ruins after I spent an evening tinkering with placed effects and environmental settings:

If I Had Free Time..

...I'd be playing Zork. Seriously. I don't deviate from the Forgotten Realms often (which is odd since I've spent almost all of my NWN2 time outside of them), but Zork is a classic. A classic's classic. I'm talking your first text-based CRPG classic when the only other thing you had to occupy your time was Oregan Trail and Logo the Turtle. Probably one of your first real experiences with some sort of AI built into a game that in ways far exceeds the actual thinking algorithms that we enjoy now. It seemed like anything you could imagine doing with the environment could be done. To me, especially back then before I knew a little more about logic and design, it was mind-blowing.

ZORK – Rediscovering the Great Underground Empire

Do yourself a favor, and see what Amraphael has done with one of the genres that helped set the foundation of computer based fantasy. If I had some more free time, I certainly would be. It's one of the proverbial carrots I have been dangling on a stick to work towards getting to enjoy.

If I was a wiki kinda guy...I would think it was time to update this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork in the See Also section.