A Noob's TC, a shiny example/horrible warning thing Options

[Domi]

I talked to Sir Billy Bob, and he had mentioned that it would have been cool to have a Tutorial on making a TC. As none exists, and I am green as grass, and scared as hell, I would like to log what I am doing week by week in my fumbling, what problems I am encountering, which programs and sources I am using. Later on, I can try to rearrange it into a Tutorial – if I do succeed.

Started working on the project: August 17, 2005

Goal of the project: To create a Chapter 1 of a module set in D&D world of the WTP. The departure from the BG2 player environment is as minimal as possible. Number of joinable characters: 5. Number of talking non-joinable characters - about hundred. Number of quests – unknown. Story line divergence – one basic premise for now, no branching paths, but allow for free-hand exploring. Main focus on the interesting story and characters, their interactions.

My Experience: Writing, Dialogue coding, Very simple scripting, some TP2. Currently capable of using/have access to: WeiDU, NI, IEEP, BAMWorkshop, MOSConverter, PhotoShop.

Week 1:

Wrote: Sales pitch for the WPT team. Module accepted. Preliminary character sketches. Character soundsets.

Artwork: Found, but not edited the character portraits.

Area: Determined all main areas. Planned and documented roughly appearances, sources of graphics, creatures and quests in 4 out of 9 main areas.

Thinking about: Details of the Main Plot. Regional gems and valuables. 6 special magical items that will be available in Chapter 1.

Reading: Culture descriptions available from WTP (mostly Human History).

Skipped Myth and Mythera, instead corresponded on making a simplified pantheon tables as an easier to peruse source. Cam’s tutorials on Kit creation.

Found Learning Sources: Downloaded Classical Adventures for further study and to gain experience with small sequential TCs.

Design decisions: Dynamic biographies. BG writing style (unless WTP prefers PST). No branching paths for Chapter 1. Allow multiplayer-created party. Joinable NPCs if left unjoined will participate in the plot.

Correspondence:

Consulted regarding the workflow and suggested order of making things. Was advised to do area-by area development, finishing each area before moving on to the next. Was advised that: The two files that control starting area are STARTARE.2DA and STARTPOS.2DA. StartARE is just that, the starting area and the X/Y position the PC starts at. StartPOS is the positions for a multiplayer team. Also, it seems that .exe has to be overwritten to allow a different starting level. Was suggested that many files will be overwritten, rather than appended to, since it is a TC. Need to investigate which files etc.

Consulted regarding an item that would give a non-thief bs ability. Has to cheat the backstabbing ability on the character at creation, then an item can augment it.

Consulted regarding how to make Biography dynamic. Biography can be updated with SetSound, it is a part of a soundest.

Consulted on the question of Pantheons. Was decided to employ some selected FR deities in addition to regional WTP specific powers. Volunteered to do a selection of FR deities to be added to the regional pantheon.