IceBlink Engine Streaming

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:31 pm

I'm looking into having a regular streaming session to play through IB modules and have discussions about IB in general. I may also play some other games at times that are related. I don't really know much about streaming so I will try YouTube Live first since I already have an IceBlink Engine account there. I think I will try to run the session on Saturdays at 15:00 AZ time (22:00 UTC) for an hour or so. I'll give it a go on June 19th and will be playing The Raventhal on IBbasic v1.0.9.

YouTube IceBlink Engine:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrgtr5 ... SUtulQWRQQ

Post by **slowdive** » Sun Jul 04, 2021 1:13 pm

I was streaming for about an hour last night playing Blackwinter on IBbasic. Check it out and see how I did…you can fast forward through all my reading if you like. It has been awhile since I actually read through everything since I always seem to be in testing mode and going fast. So this time I went slow to enjoy the story which I had forgotten a bunch.

https://youtu.be/kjg7fQZ7vNs

Post by **slowdive** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 3:14 pm

I finished Blackwinter last night:

https://youtu.be/cZ7zQjzXX-8

Tonight, I will be starting a playthrough of The Raventhal in IBbasic. I may try out some of the new combat mechanics by playing either a two-weapon fighting ranger or maybe a druid.

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 4:41 am

I started a play through of The Raventhal in IBbasic. I am playing a Druid (I wanted to try out some of the new classes, spells, and features) and so far I had a rough run of bad rolls in my first encounter, but I survived after using up some precious resources (two spells and a healing potion).

https://youtu.be/nPPSqQRKy40

Post by **slowdive** » Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:06 am

I finished my play through of The Raventhal:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7S3 ... 2e8vSdYL-U

Next up, I will be playing The Birthday.

Post by **slowdive** » Sat Jul 10, 2021 6:14 pm

I'm going to be streaming my play through of The Birthday (ep 1) today at 14:00 AZ time (UTC -07:00). I created a calendar event from the IceBlink Engine YouTube Channel:

https://youtu.be/lRLNrLGYmGI

Post by **zach_holbrook** » Mon Jul 12, 2021 1:02 pm

I'm really enjoying this! You (and your cohost) are doing a great job. I'll try to watch the next one live, schedule permitting.

Post by **slowdive** » Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:13 pm

zach_holbrook wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 1:02 pm I'm really enjoying this! You (and your cohost) are doing a great job. I'll try to watch the next one live, schedule permitting.

Thanks Zach for watching and for The Birthday (and H&C too). I have been streaming around 9PM AZ time on weekdays and 2PM AZ time on Saturday. I am mostly streaming since it is easier than the process for recording and posting. So whether you watch during the stream or anytime after is fine with me

I am wanting to share some of the hard work of the IB community and I also like having the recorded playthrough for my own viewing years down the road.

Post by **slowdive** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:38 am

Thank you to Ivan (cartons) and Zach for stopping by and hanging out during the IB stream of The Birthday today. That was a lot of fun and I need to do a better job of reading the chat as I play. I seem to get caught up in playing and forget to look at the chat, haha. Again, I am mostly doing the streaming option because it is easier for me than recording and uploading, but it is fun to have the chat. Seriously, please don't feel that you need to watch live, only if you want to and have time. You can always watch later when it is more convenient. That being said, I will try and finish streaming The Birthday tomorrow around the same time (2PM AZ time).

Post by **slowdive** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:21 pm

I fixed the formatting of the riddle. Well, I had make a few adjustments based on screen size to prevent scrolling. the original text was the following:

Code: Select all

If seven candles light the hall,\nAnd seven stars the way;\nAnd seven fires, all aglow,\nMake nighttime's blackness day;\nHow many lights are bright for us\nWhen man-made fires are done,\nAnd morning on the world shows,\nAnd shines the rising sun?

so it should read like this:

If seven candles light the hall,
And seven stars the way;
And seven fires, all aglow,
Make nighttime's blackness day;
How many lights are bright for us
When man-made fires are done,
And morning on the world shows,
And shines the rising sun?

Here is what I have for IBbasic now:

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Post by **zach_holbrook** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 11:14 pm

Those are some good adjustments! I think your version is actually easier to make sense of.

Post by **slowdive** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:46 pm

I started a Let's Play of Hearkenwold (IB v204) and posted the first episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8iymQ76Q8

Here are a couple of screenshots from episode one showing my party, the new d20 screen (can be toggled off/on depending on your interest in using it or not), and an early encounter with goblins:

My Party: male dwarf fighter, female human cleric, male elf ranger, female elf thief, male elf wizard

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Post by **slowdive** » Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:41 am

Episode 2 of my Hearkenwold Let's Play is up:

My thief and the cleric hit level 2, yeah! We had to make one trip back to the castle so far, but the rolls are getting better now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uBTBAWiY0U

I think the two weapon fighting is not working correctly in Hearkenwold. I just checked the code briefly and it looks okay so I'll need to verify that the actual trait in Hearkenwold is okay. I'll look at it tomorrow before my next stream.

Post by **Dorateen** » Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:07 pm

Thanks! I tried the two weapon fighting, but did not use it much. I had not noticed if modifiers are being applied correctly.

Just had a chance to watch the full stream. Very fun episode, I enjoyed the battle when your party first enters the cave. Always nice to see characters making smart use of resources.

So I understand the two weapon fighting, when Veloria equipped the two short swords, her main/offhand attacks were -3/-7. This is after she leveled and picked up the trait. Then when she switched to the dagger in the offhand, each attack was improved by 2, to -1/-5. Are those numbers correct on the character sheet? Or was it how the modifier was calculated when attacking? I like the split attack idea, and look forward to seeing that in action.

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:33 am

Episode 3 is up. I fixed the twoweaponfighting trait for Hearkenwold as seen in ep3. The Effect didn't have values assigned to the properties so I fixed that and now it works correctly:
twfL1:
"twoWeaponFightingMainHandModifier": 2,
"twoWeaponFightingOffHandModifier": 6,
twfL2:
"twoWeaponFightingMainHandModifier": 4,
"twoWeaponFightingOffHandModifier": 8,

I wonder if short swords should be considered light weapons and maybe finesse as well? Although having daggers be finesse and not short swords makes the dagger more useful? Maybe the swords should have a threat range of 19-20?

Post by **Dorateen** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 2:09 pm

slowdive wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:33 am I wonder if short swords should be considered light weapons and maybe finesse as well?

Since I make a bunch of short swords available to a starting party, I did not want to introduce weapons with special properties right away. Rather, I would like the characters to acquire their first finesse/light weapon through other means. Like you said, it makes the dagger have more value. I have daggers and rapiers set to light and finesse.

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:29 pm

That makes sense to leave the short swords as is so as to make future found weapons more special.

Episode 2 and Episode 3 summary:
Explored more of the goblin cave and eventually confronting their very large leader:

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I then returned to let Khas know of our findings and he then is sending us on another mission:

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I fixed a bug that was incorrectly calculating the two weapon fighting modifiers for those with the trait:

: CaptureEP3_01.PNG (2.25 MiB) Viewed 49494 times

I explored south of Castle Hearkenwold a bit before adventuring on with the mission. I was 'ambushed' by some goblins and spiders:

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Post by **Dorateen** » Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:04 pm

Good stuff. I've been enjoying the let's play streams of the first three episodes. It is always interesting to see how different parties measure up, and how you approach the adventure.

Post by **slowdive** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:45 am

Thanks Dorateen! I'm enjoying my playthrough and finding all kinds of new things that I hadn't seen before that must have been added since my last play through. I posted episode 4 just now and I'm in the town of Witchlight.

Post by **Dorateen** » Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:00 pm

I enjoyed watching your exploration of Witchlight in episode 4. The new weather animation, combined with the somber music, contributes a lot to the atmosphere. And there is a sense of moving through an unsafe place with the characters afflicted with the reoccurring damage.

Looking forward to the next part!

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Oct 22, 2021 4:09 pm

Yes! The weather effects and the wonderful music add so much ambiance and feel to the areas and the module. They really are great additions. Playing others modules that don’t have music, it really stands out. I think music in a RPG is so important and often undervalued and under appreciated. Hope you enjoy ep5, saving little lambs.

Post by **Dorateen** » Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:56 am

Nice work with episode 5. I thought the wolf fights were pretty fun. I like the way you waited for the monsters to group together, to maximize AOE coverage from the Ice Storm spell.

Regarding the crows and that lightning misfire, I remember this was an issue when line effect spells were first introduced, and Karl fixed it. I have not seen that kind of behavior in a while. I just tested the battle in build 203, and the crows targeted the party without any problem. Do you think it is related to the new caster AI?

Post by **slowdive** » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:13 am

Dorateen wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:56 am Regarding the crows and that lightning misfire, I remember this was an issue when line effect spells were first introduced, and Karl fixed it. I have not seen that kind of behavior in a while. I just tested the battle in build 203, and the crows targeted the party without any problem. Do you think it is related to the new caster AI?

Yes, I'm sure it is the new Caster AI as it only looks at circle shape AoE spells. I'll fix it to use what Karl came up with when using line and cone AoE spells.

Post by **Dorateen** » Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:49 pm

Interesting to have a closer look at the caster AI in episode 6. It worked out good that you had a couple of battles with spellcasters to observe their behavior. The repetitive casting of bless is something I look forward to being addressed when the new AI is working as intended.

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Oct 26, 2021 10:20 pm

I added a property "useAdvancedCasterAI" to the module so that builders can choose to use the new "advanced" GeneralCaster AI or use the old GeneralCaster AI. This way, as I'm fine tuning the new AI, the builder can keep the old AI in their module until the advanced version is acceptable to them. I'm going to take a step back from the movement part of the AI for a bit due to the "move before cast" and "smooth move system" conflicts. I'll try and fix the actual casting decisions first like multiple casting of bless, etc. Then I'll try and get the other v204 bux fixes on the list completed so I can send out the v204 update.

Post by **Dorateen** » Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:23 pm

Very instructive stream. It's helpful to see the different calculations that are factored into each enemy move.

Post by **slowdive** » Thu Nov 04, 2021 4:53 am

I recorded episode 8 with some more progress, a couple of level ups, and some nice new gear.

https://youtu.be/zdOIJWpTTRQ

Post by **Dorateen** » Thu Nov 04, 2021 5:48 pm

Nice episode. I was glad to see the trio of trolls can still be a bit of a challenge, but nothing your party can't handle!

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:31 am

I think with the new Caster AI, some of the encounters with spell casters will be much harder. That encounter with the bugbear priestess is brutal now. Constantly being held and not having a chance to have a turn

I'm interested to see how the tavern encounter goes. Hopefully the wizards are frustrating

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Nov 09, 2021 2:29 pm

Episode 9 is up with some good progress and new quest.

https://youtu.be/6yFG0PvCO-U

Post by **Dorateen** » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:47 pm

Episode 9 is up with some good progress and new quest.

https://youtu.be/6yFG0PvCO-U

That was great. It is still fun watching how this party makes their way through the adventure. Thanks for playing!

Post by **slowdive** » Wed Nov 10, 2021 1:22 am

Dorateen wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:47 pm
Episode 9 is up with some good progress and new quest.

https://youtu.be/6yFG0PvCO-U
That was great. It is still fun watching how this party makes their way through the adventure. Thanks for playing!

I don't get to play that much lately, so it has been fun to just play and not just be coding, testing, and debugging all the time

Maybe someday I'll even get to finish working on my NWN2 Lanterna conversion to IB and the H&C conversion as well

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Nov 12, 2021 4:35 am

Posted episode 10 of Hearkenwold. Some exploration and more arrows

Taking my sweet time before going to Kelton Manor, hopefully that is okay.

Post by **Dorateen** » Fri Nov 12, 2021 3:57 pm

Take your time, feel free to enjoy the exploration! Some good battles in that episode, including the goblin swarm. Perfect to show off area of effect spells like your wizard's Ice Storm.

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Nov 12, 2021 4:27 pm

Dorateen wrote: ↑Fri Nov 12, 2021 3:57 pm Take your time, feel free to enjoy the exploration! Some good battles in that episode, including the goblin swarm. Perfect to show off area of effect spells like your wizard's Ice Storm.

I loved the goblin swarm encounter, that was very satisfying for some reason and was a little scary/intimidating at first

Post by **Dorateen** » Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:25 pm

I just watched the latest stream, episode 11, and enjoyed watching your party work their way through Khyn. I'm guessing the wizard in the battle had trouble to target characters because the table in the middle blocked line of sight. Although it's curious he didn't move into a better position.

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:49 pm

Dorateen wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:25 pm I just watched the latest stream, episode 11, and enjoyed watching your party work their way through Khyn. I'm guessing the wizard in the battle had trouble to target characters because the table in the middle blocked line of sight. Although it's curious he didn't move into a better position.

I'll have to try that encounter again offline in Visual Studio and step through the General Caster process to see what is going on here. In theory, the code determines all the locations on the map where the caster can move to in that round and iterate through all those locations to see which location is the best to cast the selected spell from. This is the fun part about streaming the play through is I get to also debug v204

Post by **slowdive** » Sat Apr 02, 2022 4:41 am

New laptop is mostly setup now so I tested out the OBS settings to see if I imported them correctly. Seems like it was working so I can start the streaming and bug hunting again.

Episode 12 is up:
https://youtu.be/MWyGRB7aOQA

Post by **Dorateen** » Sat Apr 02, 2022 2:26 pm

Great to see the continuation of this stream. The party will start to run into some more dangerous enemies from this point, that was a fun battle against the hellhounds. Trumpkin's well-timed critical hits really helped.

Post by **slowdive** » Sat Apr 02, 2022 4:28 pm

I'm not sure were Kelton Manor is located (can't recall) so I'll need to do some exploring around in the next episode

Yes, those crits were well timed and most needed.

Poll Question: In my streams, do you like having the d20 screen up to see the needed roll and the outcome or do you prefer the faster paced combat by skipping the d20 screen (asking for a friend

)?

Post by **Dorateen** » Sun Apr 03, 2022 2:58 pm

Poll Question: In my streams, do you like having the d20 screen up to see the needed roll and the outcome or do you prefer the faster paced combat by skipping the d20 screen (asking for a friend )?

When I first saw the d20 screen, I thought it was neat. It definitely fits with creating a pen and paper and dice type approach. Solasta also shows graphic dice on every roll that is made in the game.

However, I do think it slows down the flow of combat. For purposes of demonstrating a module in a video, it might be good to show the option, and then play with it off. I will say that the d20 screen is very good for showing all the modifiers and making all the calculations transparent.

Post by **slowdive** » Sun Apr 03, 2022 3:07 pm

Okay, that is what I was thinking. I'll probably have a hotkey to toggle it on/off so I can quickly switch between modes depending on the attack being made or if I need to see the modifiers. I am looking at moving all the toggle buttons to a proper settings screen like I have in IBbasic now (see here viewtopic.php?p=1092#p1092 ). So clicking on the settings button will bring up a popup menu where you can toggle all the settings and then close the screen. Most of the time I only change the toggles once during game play so they don't really need to be taking up screen realestate all the time.

I posted episode 13 last night:
https://youtu.be/UMTdYnkVu-E

Post by **Dorateen** » Mon Apr 04, 2022 7:16 pm

slowdive wrote: ↑Sun Apr 03, 2022 3:07 pm I posted episode 13 last night:
https://youtu.be/UMTdYnkVu-E

Hey, slowdive, when I went to watch the video I can only see the introduction image. I can hear your commentary throughout as you are playing, but no video. It just stays on the static Hearkenwold castle picture.

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:06 am

I forgot to transition the scene to my screen. I also think that it messed up a previous video somehow when I deleted a version that was a test. I'll need to go back to the last good stream and start from there. I ended up in Asherim when I wasn't expecting to go there just yet.

Post by **slowdive** » Tue Apr 05, 2022 6:09 pm

I posted another episode but the audio wasn't working (even though it seemed to be working in my headset). I think adding the camera may have messed up my audio settings so I'll need to do some short streaming tests tonight. I'll leave this "silent film" episode up for a day and then change it to private once I have a replacement for it. I'll record another version from that last save but now I know where I am going (I found Kelton Manor path) so it might be a little different on take two.

https://youtu.be/Mys6kokX2hE

Post by **Dorateen** » Tue Apr 05, 2022 8:07 pm

I enjoyed this episode a lot. The fight with the goblin mages was fun.

When Trumpkin was trying on the boots, I couldn't tell if you were checking the modifiers added up correctly. Dwarves get a +2 strength bonus. So his hammer is + 2, and +2 for being a dwarf. That was the +4 before even equipping the boots. Looks like the numbers are right.

The rock pile in front of the wraith in the last battle, I think blocked his line of sight on each turn preventing it from casting.

Post by **slowdive** » Fri Apr 08, 2022 4:35 am

I was having issues with OBS and it took me a few days to find a solution that kind of works (but it is ugly). I have to output desktop audio to headphones plugged into the laptop headphone jack and use the mic on my USB headset+mic. So yeah, I have two headsets going at the sane time

Episode 15:
https://youtu.be/Zvv3ui7hP0I

Post by **Dorateen** » Fri Apr 08, 2022 7:21 pm

That works, it sounded good!