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.

[dragon_lord]

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

I'd like to add that the tob starting area for single player games is hard coded in the exe.

The easiest way around this is to add code like the following to BALDUR25.bcs

IF
AreaCheckObject("AR4000",Player1)

THEN
RESPONSE #100
ActionOverride(Player1,LeaveAreaLUA("area","",[coordinates], face))
END

[SimDing0]

Avenger figured out the offset in the EXE to change the ToB starting area at some point.

[fallen demon]

Sounds cool, I look foward to playing what you produce, Domi.

[Avenger_teambg]

hmm, probably i'll add the startarea modification to my xppatcher.
But, if it is a TC, why don't you simply overwrite ar4000 (or whatever is the starting area)
It is the simplest, thing to do

[Sir-Kill]

hey good idea. thanks Avenger

[Domi]

Then, I think we *need* to make AR4000 to be the Fort Unity if we want the cross-compatibility between all our sub-modules.

[Domi]

Week 2:

Wrote: NPC-NPC banter, which pretty much everyone knows how to do ; Dynamic biographies for all 5 NPCs

Area: Finished the write-up for all 9 areas.

Artwork: Prepared one portrait and started working on another.

Thinking about: Details of the Main Plot. Regional gems and valuables. NPC-NPC interactions.

Reading: Nothing.

Found Learning Sources: None

Design decisions: Compiled a master table with reduced/adjusted FR pantheon to add to the 5 WTP specific dieties and their portfolios.

[Domi]

Week 3:

Wrote: NPC-NPC banter, have 5 banters left, and then it's done (it will bring me to 4-6 banters between each pair of the NPCs)

Area: None

Artwork: None

Thinking about: Regional gems and valuables. Player1 interactions.

Reading: A couple of posts about the Gnomes and Halflings

Found Learning Sources: None

Design decisions: Decided on 2 banters initiated by each NPC with every other NPC for Chapter 1, 3 banters appart from plot related interactions for each NPC with PC for Chapter 1, decided how much of a backstory will be revealed in the first Chapter for each character.
Made a short outline of the Gnomes and Halflings Territory, as I needed it for Laofeng's (who is a halfling) banters.

This post has been edited by Domi: Sep 8 2005, 03:22 PM

[Domi]

Week 3:

Wrote: Finished all NPC-NPC banter. Wrote 1 dialogue for Area 1 (Salomeya's Introduction)

Area: None

Artwork: None

Thinking about: Collaborative Work for Fort Unity

Reading: Fort Unity

Found Learning Sources: None

Design decisions: Discussions about FU collaborative work.

[Domi]

Week 4:

Wrote: Wrote 2 dialogues for Area 1 (Hildury's and Nord's Introductions)

Area: None

Artwork: None

Thinking about: Quests in Area 1

Reading: None

Found Learning Sources: None

Design decisions: None

This post has been edited by Domi: Sep 21 2005, 06:48 PM

[Domi]

Week 5:

Wrote: Wrote dialogues for Area 1 for jNPCs (Salomeya and Nord) reacting to the main plot line; started writing dialogue on the first pair of the 'important' njNPCs; I think in a couple of weeks I will have to start building the subareas to accomodate the actors.

Area: None

Artwork: None

Thinking about: Quests in Area 1; Ranger specific content for FU

Reading: Human History of Tralon; suggested introduction for the 'core' WTP content

Found Learning Sources: Some ship specific terminology

Design decisions: Discussion about the FU area and the Lore availability on the territories in WTP universe. Wrote Lore sketch for Azule (Desert Kingdom)

[Domi]

Week 6:

Nothing to report. I was working on BG1NPC at every spare moment of my time.