Sounds like a good plan. The Chapter 2 content, you will then add back in after the build is published? In other words, not scrapping completely, but just separating for now so you can release Chapter 1. I'm looking forward to trying this one out.
Pescua [title work in progress!]
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Sounds like a great plan, Pongo! It'll give us a chance to try out the first chapter and make a few playthroughs. Looking forward to it.
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Thanks! Yes, that's right Dorateen - I'm not binning Chp2 content, but I'm being more ruthless at gating it off from this build. There will still be plenty of content to explore in Chp1.
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
How is your project coming along? I look forward to playing another IceBlink module, and it's a great chance to learn from other builders. This one sounds like exactly what I enjoy in an RPG. No pressure!
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
I've gone totally off-track in the last couple of months - I had an unexpected work deadline that kind of took over my life for a while. Its now done though 
, so I can turn my attention back to my more enjoyable hobbies!
I think I'm into that final 10% of development that can take 90% of the delivery time. The mod is full of content, but there are still lots of bits that just aren't quite right. I'm going to run through it again with a few parties and continue fixing it for a while. There is also some content I want to go back and change as well to make it more interesting and fun and to improve the overall flow.
It really is getting there, and I'll post a more interesting update in a few weeks! But I'll avoid giving an estimate for completion because I'm continually wrong with those...
, so I can turn my attention back to my more enjoyable hobbies!I think I'm into that final 10% of development that can take 90% of the delivery time. The mod is full of content, but there are still lots of bits that just aren't quite right. I'm going to run through it again with a few parties and continue fixing it for a while. There is also some content I want to go back and change as well to make it more interesting and fun and to improve the overall flow.
It really is getting there, and I'll post a more interesting update in a few weeks! But I'll avoid giving an estimate for completion because I'm continually wrong with those...
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Yeah, estimating completion time is pointless for me too since I'm always way off, haha. Sounds like you have made some good progress and that is great. The last 10% taking 90% of the time sounds about right to me
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Made lots of progress over the last few weeks. I'm basically playing the module repeatedly to pick up broken convos (more than I expected), broken global integers (far fewer than I expected), and issues of flow (level development, items, story etc - all of which need work).
I've revamped level progression and made it much slower, and rebalanced the combat so its a bit easier. I think the pace works much better now. The current content would take 5hrs to get through I think (although its hard to predict), and would leave the player at around level 3 which feels about right. I've removed some enemies that were too hard, and I'll add them into later missions where the player will be higher level.
Story pace is a challenge. I've made it simpler (again!), which helps. I've also made the quests a bit less specific. They were basically "go there and kill that" type things, which on reflection didn't encourage exploration - which was a shame given there is "off path" stuff to find. So now they're more in the "go somewhere around there and work out what's going on" style. It hasn't actually taken too much input to change the style - the actual content broadly stayed the same, just now reveals itself more slowly. I feel it makes a big difference though. I've also gone back over convos to add in more race/class/trait stuff.
I'm trying to avoid adding too much completely new content at this point, but there are few areas that sagged and needed it. This is the opening combat in a three-level tomb I've just completed:
Its a bit of a maze, and there are some fun encounters and puzzles. I've gone a bit "Pools of Radiancey" with monster numbers in this fight - skeletons are fairly weak enemies and the party are well equipped/second level, so they would have no problem with a smaller group, but they could still be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Its a war of attrition!
Finally, I've been playing with ways to introduce a "bandage" skill or spell that stabilises a bleeding character. Haven't quite worked out the best way of doing this yet, but will get there!
I've revamped level progression and made it much slower, and rebalanced the combat so its a bit easier. I think the pace works much better now. The current content would take 5hrs to get through I think (although its hard to predict), and would leave the player at around level 3 which feels about right. I've removed some enemies that were too hard, and I'll add them into later missions where the player will be higher level.
Story pace is a challenge. I've made it simpler (again!), which helps. I've also made the quests a bit less specific. They were basically "go there and kill that" type things, which on reflection didn't encourage exploration - which was a shame given there is "off path" stuff to find. So now they're more in the "go somewhere around there and work out what's going on" style. It hasn't actually taken too much input to change the style - the actual content broadly stayed the same, just now reveals itself more slowly. I feel it makes a big difference though. I've also gone back over convos to add in more race/class/trait stuff.
I'm trying to avoid adding too much completely new content at this point, but there are few areas that sagged and needed it. This is the opening combat in a three-level tomb I've just completed:
- skels.png (332.06 KiB) Viewed 18530 times
Finally, I've been playing with ways to introduce a "bandage" skill or spell that stabilises a bleeding character. Haven't quite worked out the best way of doing this yet, but will get there!
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Looks great! That tileset works so perfect for a skeleton infested tomb.
I also like the idea of slowly revealing information to the player, letting them "work out what's going on", as you put it. This will be a lot of fun.
I also like the idea of slowly revealing information to the player, letting them "work out what's going on", as you put it. This will be a lot of fun.
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Looks Anna sounds great! I have a bandage system that is built in to IBbasic that can be used or not by builders. It is a trait that needs to acquired. It basically sets the hp to zero. I had to make a number of changes to the code to make things work so IB would also need code changes, I don’t think a trait with the existing v203 would work correctly.
Re: Pescua [title work in progress!]
Thanks both! OK no worries about bandage, it was just an idea because I was getting annoyed with my characters bleeding out when I ran out of healing potions. 
Its not a big issue though, can work around it.
Had an amusing panic this morning. My ancient laptop appeared to have died on me, which it has been threatening to do for a long time, and I had a horrible, sinking realisation that I hadn't gotten round to backing up my Iceblink files in months. Fortunately I've now got it running again (turned out the power brick had become unplugged lol so nothing actually wrong with the laptop this time...) and I've now rectified that on cloud and memory stick. Phew!
Its not a big issue though, can work around it.Had an amusing panic this morning. My ancient laptop appeared to have died on me, which it has been threatening to do for a long time, and I had a horrible, sinking realisation that I hadn't gotten round to backing up my Iceblink files in months. Fortunately I've now got it running again (turned out the power brick had become unplugged lol so nothing actually wrong with the laptop this time...) and I've now rectified that on cloud and memory stick. Phew!