Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Picking up

Building on Trinity has picked up recently. After feeling under the weather for a while, I’ve regained in the last couple of weeks the physical and mental energy I require to crack open the TS with any serious intent. I’ve since easily logged in 15-20 hours of TS time, which is a good pace for me.

Mostly, I worked on the “final” big encounter where resolution of the story happens. I took some nice cutscene screenshots, but it would be hugely spoilerific if I were to post them. So I won’t. Too bad, cause they really look good. ;) Players might get to see during this scene, depending on their ealrier actions, a new creature "glove" model done by Daronas. I won't say what, but it's suitably gruesome.

I’ve also revisited the large-scale drow battle I alluded to in the past, testing and troubleshooting some of the variations that might come into play depending on the player’s choices (essentially consisting in deciding at what stage in the mod to attack and in which circumstances). This fight, inspired by some of the larger battles in Challseus’ Rose of Eternity (NWN1), is shaping up to be a cool one (at least it is to me).

//Start section of interest mostly to modders ;)

I’ve recently run into two stubborn problems (and in the case of one of them retrospectively stupid) while scripting that scene. One: this pre-placed NPC refused to make a scripted jump no matter how many times I checked if its tag was correct. Eventually, it dawned on me that the object might simply be corrupt. So I deleted it and placed it again, and, voila, problem solved.

The other issue, which I’m still trying to solve, has to do with a convo that is meant to start in mid-combat with one of your opponents. The convo starts, but breaks, as the enemies go hostile again (or maybe they never stopped being hostile…). I’ll pass on the details, but that’s one bug I hope to quash soon. [EDIT: Problem solved! Custom creature event scripts were interfering in that scene because they weren't checking that a convo was in progress before triggering.]

I’ve also found out that while you can apply a VFX_DUR_GLOW effect to a placeable to make it translucid (neat feature), you can’t for some reason remove it. The remove script finds the effect on the placeable, identifies its creator, but the placeable will simply not return to its former state. That’s too bad, but not dramatic for my purposes.

And yet another problem with which I’ve been trying to come to grips elsewhere is with spawning or applying (to a creature) a custom light-event based VFX. While it shows up fine in the TS, it doesn’t show in game, whether placed as a Placed Effect or applied via script or via the creature VFX setting. If anyone has had success with that sort of stuff please let me know. I know it’s feasible because many other VFX have light-events attached to them and these do show up fine. (Unfortunately, simply spawning an actual light in this case is not an option.)

//End section

Alright, well since screenies are always an appreciated feature of dev blog posts, here are a couple that are not quite spoilers. Thanks for reading. :) (If you like screenshots, check out the gallery on the right-hand side for a compilation of previously released pictures, and some never before seen ;) )

9 comments:

Jclef said...

Nice post, E.C. - I'm glad to hear development has picked up on Trinity!

dgraf said...

looking (and sounding) good E.C. Glad to hear of the renewed energy. I know how that goes. I ran into a similar problem with VFX (stain glass windows). Worked fine in toolset - but no go in game. Never did figure it out.

Shaughn said...

Nice to hear you're able to put more time in on the toolset.

I also can relate to the not being able to post the cool stuff that would spoil the game. You spend hours even days on game defining points and all you can say is:

"I've done stuff but you can't know about it or see it."

Eguintir Eligard said...

For this hostile issue, if you are turning them all neutral mid battle, there is a chance they are still in the middle of attacking after you do it, which will get them to continue fighting after the faction change.

Unknown said...

Glad to hear you're making progress!

JasonNH

SirChet said...

Can E.C. make some inviting areas, or what?

btw, been working on that spawned light effect ...

I saw it done brilliamtly in a module, just need a little more research. ;)

EC said...

Thanks guys!

Chet: that would be great if you could get the custom light VFX working! I might also have another critical mission for you! I'll drop you a line.

Eguintir: I just solved the issue (see post edit) but thanks for the suggestion.

Right now, I can't wait to get back on the TS tonight! Seems like I'm on the up-slope these days of the building enthusiasm wave.

Starwars said...

Looking really good!

EC said...

Thanks SW! I appreciate the encouragement.