Expedition to Devil's Island

Sounds like a lot of fun! I'll be sure to check it out, keep us posted. Maybe get a small group to have a time we meet up through the week and run through it

OK. I've decided to back track and get the character creation stuff organized. Once I get that done perhaps we can just do some hack and slash and test out the balancing/equipment issues etc....

That would be step one. The actual adventure would be a later step.

I discovered a larger problem than I expected today which will require an unconventional solution.

I have customized the races in this module, and added custom feats. Unfortunately this is a multi-player module which means that it is difficult to get this custom content to load during character creation - especially the custom TLK file.

One solution is to package some override files to put in your override folder and to edit the dialog.tlk file (by adding on some lines at its end).

Would that be alright for you guys? You would have to replace your dialog.tlk file, and put some files in your override. If thats a GO then I'll proceed with that plan. If not, I'll have to find another solution: make a character creation module for the setting, and you would make a character on your own prior to playing.

I prefer option number one because it makes it easy to use a server vault, and make our characters together. Option number two lends itself to character vaults on each player's computer - and thus enables some nasty hacks that can kill a server should one of those vandals log in.

Well, I have solved the problem in the simplest way: custom dialog.tlk (which does not impact default game behavior) and a few overrides and icons to throw in the override.

It works and isn't exceptionally complicated so... this is the way I'll handle it.

I'm still working out the process of character creation: background selection, spell list adjustments, cleric domain adjustments (and some new ones), adding the 11 explicit deities for polytheists, conversations in the out of character welcome area for adjusting: religion, background, appearance, equipment.

This will take a couple weeks. Once its done we can experiment with character creation and some sandbox style play in the areas I've created. Kill monsters. Experiment with your mix of abilities. Try the different equipment.

Here's two write ups I have made so far for two available religions:
The Faith
The Mystery

Reading between the lines of The Faith, you may figure out that I have a polytheistic option in which each of the divine beings can be worshipped as a god.
Arnheim's Old Religion is Druidic AKA Nature Worship.

Here's an Overview of Religion in Arnheim and Orsenna and a break down on how it affects your character (especially clerics). For non-religious classes like Barbarian, Bard, Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard religious need not play a prominent role.

Expedition to Devil's Island Update:
Incorporating custom spells and feats, some of which will be familiar as they have been adapted from Vives.

SPELLS

• Dancing Lights (now can be dispelled)
• Teleport (Brd, Wiz. Vives style Dimension Door which hops the caster to a clicked location in an area)
• Dimensional Portal (Wiz. similar to teleport but creates two portals that the caster can keep open until concentration is broken. These are dispellable as well)
• Pass Without Trace. (Rng/Drd. recipients untrackable)
• Steady Stride (Rng/Drd. Enables wilderness classes to help party members negotiate difficult natural terrain. Marshy Ground, Brambles etc... and provides bonus to save against Grease, Entangle, Web. Woodland Stride feat gives similar but superior results.)
• Flying creatures immune to ground based Area of Effect spells. Not fully implemented, but doing so on a spell by spell basis. Soon will tackle traps as well.
• Baleful Polymorph. (Drd, Wiz. Turn your opponent into a useless, inoffensive creature. Heinous spell.)
• Additional Polymorph Changes. (Improving upon and adding to the list of polymorph self spells. Cleric's with Animal domain will be able to take a Bear form possibly others.)

FEATS

• Track (FEAT available to wilderness classes. Rangers get for free at level 1. Similar to Vives but adjusted to be extensible with more features. Use of feat can target more than just a section of ground. Uses search skill, wisdom bonus and favored enemy bonus when tracking creatures. Activated from the Class's special abilities radial menu. Emote parsing for feat activation is not yet implemented, but coming.)
• All Dwarves are proficient with the Dwarven Waraxe.
• Goblin-touched (previously Half-orcs) are immune to baleful polymorph and lycanthropy.
• New racial feats open up possibilities for new feat chains, prestige classes, and special abilities at higher levels. Goblin-touched are Magically Disfigured (providing a range of horns for your character to choose from) Gnomes and Dwarves are Chthonic (meaning that they are underground dwellers). Elves and Feyborn (half-elves) have Fey Kinship. [Incidentally both elves and feyborn are equally half-human and half-fey but with different backgrounds. Elves when in play are no older than their human counterparts.]
• Trackless Step and Woodland Stride in addition to their standard powers, also provide the benefits of the new spells respectively: Pass Without Trace (untrackable), and Steady Stride (less movement reduction over difficult terrain).
• Weapons and Armor Feats: Simple/Martial/Exotic Weapon Lists, class based weapon lists and Armor feats have been altered. Whips (which are one handed and usable in the offhand) are available to Rogues. Bards now use the Rogue Weapon List. Maul (two handed style polearm-hammer) is a martial weapon. Innumerable "handtools" from project Q are simple weapons: rake, hoe, shovel, pitchfork, broom etc... Also moved light hammer, and hand axe to simple weapons because they are essentially tools that can be used in crafting/harvesting. Short Spear (one handed) is now martial weapon. Long spear (two handed) is simple. Morningstar is now a martial weapon (it was too buff for simple and the simple list is improved by my changes), and Lightflail takes its place as a simple weapon. There are many other changes. I'll post the new lists when I get around to it.

I've got much more in the works, and intend for it all to work as part of the actual GUI.

I intend to give to religious classes a special ability to convert others to their religion (another PC must agree to convert) which can be activated by the class menu or emote. Number of followers to each religion will bolster the religion's power. Prestige is also gained by those that bring over lots of converts.

Another ability that I intend to give to all classes is the ability to teach other PCs what you know - the basics needed to enter a class, learn a language, learn a spell ... etc... At present the base classes are restricted after creation based on class, race and background. So if a player wants to multiclass (or select a prestige class) they will need to unlock the class in game. I think the best way to do this in multiplayer is for players to teach each others what they know. I still need to figure out a good system for this. I think the best way is to only allow new powers/abilities to come into play at level up. So teaching must happen before you have enough XP to level up.

And I need to provide the subdue damage choice via feat/ability to all classes. This is actually a bit more complicated than just porting from vives, but i'd like to get it incorporated.

Expedition to Devil's Island Update:

Starting Area Character Customization:
When you show up the following is done for you.

• Custom Starting Clothing using Project Q content.
• Starting gold based on class and background.
• Monks, Druids and Paladins start with a default religion so that you need not bother typing in the deity field correctly.
• Illegal characters sent to isolation. (which means that you won't be able to mess up your vives characters if you log in by mistake with one)

You then have the choice of various mirrors that will help you make adjustments.

VANITY MIRROR:
Adjust appearance

• Change Head (and access many many custom heads)
• Change Horns (for the goblin touched)
• Change Color of Hair, Skin, Tatoos
• Change Body Adornment (Tatoos - including new tatoos in Project Q, minor body adornment such as bracelets and arm bands)

SPIRITUAL REFLECTION:
Adjust religion and alignment

• Adjust alignment.
• Adjust religion (based on factors of class and clerical domain which was a significant amount of work. I have created 11 gods, 4 religions, and the ability to invent your own religion which results in 36 different options to choose from for clerics)

FITTING MIRROR:
Starting stores.

• Purchase equipment based on class and background.
• Wipe out all gold and equipment and start fresh.
• Warning: do not try to trade or drop items in the OOC areas. Its an obvious exploit and so the solution is to destroy the item.

REARVIEW MIRROR:
Starting background. - in order to launch the game sooner. This is being ignored. So various starting benefits of religion will not be available. Essentially it will be impossible to start with a home base or NPC allies or a game world relevant ethnicity until this feature is added. Considering its more of a PW feature, we'll just ignore it for the first release.

More New Spells:

• Faerie Fire: 0 level druid spell. Works almost identically to pen and paper
• Shield of Law: 7th level Law Domain Spell. Similar to Pen and Paper.
• Barnabus's Form: 3rd level Animal Domain Spell. Polymorph into a bear similarly to a druid.

Special:

• Gnomes can cast Dancing Lights and Faerie Fire once per day. (Available in the Class menu)

I need to do a little more work with starting equipment and then we'll be ready to test this out. Not implemented in the test version will be Languages, Conversion (converting PCs and NPCs to your religion), or Education (teaching PCs or NPCs what you know).

I'm getting very close to running a test of this. Who is available to do tests? Send me a PM, and I'll return your PM with information on how to proceed.

The way we'll do this is that I'll give you a link to the tlk, haks and overrides and instructions of how to install everything. To start with you'll just download the files, and then wait for the mod to be up.

The mod will be live by next weekend in place of Vives. So that is the time that anyone interested would be able to give it a test run. This test will be about character creation, equipment, and monster bashing. I've made a few areas that you can run around in.

Some more updates

• XP earning rates and some of the activities migrated from Vives.
• Explore XP in place.
• Combat XP scripts now work.
• Spell XP scripts now work. (I may update Vives as well someday to these new scripts)
• Bard songs and Undead Turning earn XP
• Tracking can earn XP.
• Some Spell like abilities earn XP like spells (So far this just works for the innate spells gnomes have)
• Have yet to create DM and PLAYER tools. So the Roleplay/Questing is completely dependent on the module at this point. But should have these in before the module is released.

Took a small detour into spell hooking... wow! I tied in all those things that I always wanted done when playing Vives. This opens up more possibilities with unconventional spells (those that cause deafness and silence):

• Silenced spell casters will not be able to cast spells with verbal components.
• Deaf divine casters will also have a chance of spell failure for spells with verbal components. The engine with vanilla scripts only impacts deaf arcane casters.
• Entangled and slowed casters might have trouble casting spells with somatic components.
• Druids spells and wildshape fail when wearing metal things (helmets, armor, shields). These are supposed to be taboo! (Thus I need to implement IRONWOOD crafting.)
• Paladins must maintain their honor and religion or many of their magical abilities (Spells, Lay on Hands, Turn Undead) will fail.
• Clerics must remain true to the divine sources of their power.
• Blackguards must be evil to use their turn ability.
• Rangers must have a religion or their divine spells will fail (any religion will do for a ranger, but I plan on giving advantages for rangers devoted to particular religions eventually.)

Level up scripts also restrict leveling for those that transgress from their faith/discipline:

• Monks do not lose their powers if they lose their religion or change to another class, but they may not continue to gain monk levels.
• Clerics, Paladins, Druids must remain true to their religion to gain levels.

This means that I need to write an atonement spell.

Starting Class / Race / Feat Combinations together generate assumptions about your character's background and thus their basic knowledge. So even though more fine grained background choices are not yet available, some of it is written in so that starting choices provide opportunities that make sense with the setting. Options of other classes at level up is now more sophisticated depending on what your character is assumed to know. Wizardry for example assumes a literate and educated background. Elves, barbarians etc... lack the prerequisite knowledge at the start of the game to multiclass into wizards. The Courtly Magocracy Feat is thus now of some benefit beyond just a few skill bonuses. And any character that we can assume has spent formative years in a Temple or Monastery will have a certain level of religious and/or magical education as well. Characters that are assumed from a wild background get some access to the wild classes.

It is also planned to create a DM widget that can adjust Character options should a Player come up with a persuasive background story for their character.

Starting Equipment Merchants almost finished

As you can probably tell, I am fired up about this module I am making. And as usual I have overdone the stuff I am getting excited about rather than just make a romp of a module. However this foundation is almost finished. Once it is done, I should be able to easily make a number of modules that will work with your "Arnheim" characters.

Noticed some issues with equipment costs. Shields, torches, lanterns, and lantern oil were much too expensive for example. Its a tricky balance to get starting gold, and equipment costs to work properly for starting characters - and still have consumables like healing kits have a reasonable price once the gold starts rolling in from adventuring. I suppose that is why bioware just gave characters starting equipment, and vives had the community chest.

Well I stubbornly refuse. I'll make this work. Starting players should have to weigh the costs and benefits of different equipment. Are you fine with the spiked club so that you can afford the chain hauberk, or do you really want a greatsword so you'll make do with leather. Etc... Wizards will have to decide about those pricey scrolls, most of which push the budget.

Anyway... games within games.

Created musical instruments that can actually be played. They also influence bard song to some extent.

Created hooks for NPCs to be aware of a bard performance and its quality.

The first phase of work on Expedition to Devil's Island is complete.

Since no one has PM'd me about interest in testing, I won't be posting the module at this time, and am forging ahead.

Updates:
Basic equipment is finished, as are the starting equipment stores.

(1) Camping stuff from Vives modified. The rest system while having more depth from these changes is  no more complicated than as in Vives. All you need do is push the rest button, and ensure that you have the correct items (food, fuel, bedroll) or have shelter (be in an inn, bedroom etc...).

• Food is more than just rations - so if the old food crafting is created, all of that stuff would work as food. Crafting and Natural Resoures not implemented however so animals do not drop meat, and plants don't produce fruit. I'm still on the fence about CNR and how to implement crafting.
• Bedrolls still in. Wild characters do not need them. (druid, barbarian, ranger, and elves.) 
• Firewood replaces the campsite kit. Gathering firewood not yet implemented, but wild classes are better with building and packing up campfires. Firewood represents an hour's fuel for an average fire. A game hour is 20 real world minutes.
• Campfires (which look and sound better) are not just for resting and have a lifespan depending on how much fuel you give them. Light shed by the fire will keep certain creatures at bay. However the brighter they are the quicker they burn.
• Rain and general wetness can impact a campfire. (Wetness not fully implemented but keep in mind that weather is not just a visual effect.)
• Campfire remains contain information that a character with the track feat may be able to discover. (Tracking success is search skill related)

(2) Consumable light sources: torches, oil fueled lanterns. Torches and on flask of oil in a lantern lasts an hour of game time (20 real minutes for this module). Lanterns look cool, shed more light, and can be refueled. Candles are implemented, but this mod lacks the art resources for holdable candles, and I have not yet implemented candles that a player can place in the area. Candles might get slipped in later.
    These light sources keep some creatures at bay just like a campfire.

(3) Musical instruments as I mentioned earlier enable a bard to change the kind of music they perform, and some improve the perform skill when equipped. Non-bards can give instruments a try but might find the audience laughing at their performance rather than with it.

(4) Masterwork quality, silvered, adamantine, and darkwood weapons, and typical materials of armor/helmets/shields (hide, leather, cloth, wood, steel). Neither warp wood nor heat metal spells are yet implemented but I wold like to. Currently working on silver as being dangerous to certain creatures (eg werewolves and vampires), but will have it implemented at the same time I have a subrace system implemented.

(5) Weapons and armor interact with one another. Shields and armor still increase AC. Non-magical AC range for armors is from +0 to +9. Each type of armor also has various levels of damage resistance to each of the damage types (bludgeon, slash, pierce). Damage resistance typically ranges between 0 and 3. Padded armor is thus not useless despite the low AC bonus because it does well against clubs. The intent was for a better representation of how armor functions, and give characters with the heavy armor feat more of a benefit. And this is what I really want to test in game arena style!

(6) Animal and Monstrous masks - that you can actually wear. Additional masks will require more custom content. But these two should be useful for making a number of magic items. At present they are non-magical.

(7) Quivers for bolts and arrows when equipped - are visible on the character.

Tracking
Meanwhile, I finally got around to implementing that tracking system I mentioned much earlier this year. Its a little too resource intensive for Vives (which is maxed out due to inefficiencies in its code and the size of the module) but will work fine for a smaller module like this one. 

• track feat is available to rangers, druids and barbarians (rangers get for free)
• favored enemy gives a benefit
• search skill is used in tracking
• basic locating of creatures in an area is included (same as vives with minor improvements)
• examining the remains of a campsite has been implemented, (campsite remains fade over time - more quickly in the rain)
• targeting a PC who you wish to follow. (PCs don't yet leave trails because I have not yet put in the ability for rangers to extract information from them. need to think about it more, and keep this efficient. tracks will fade overtime - and in the rain - however similar to campsites.)

Improved Combat Animations
this is primarily for monks, and just an aesthetic thing. But they are available.

And once I've had a better look at what they look like, I may use these alternative animations as a means to distinguish between different martial art styles (identify where the Monk has studied). And this COULD MAYBE open up the way for old school (1st ed) Oriental Adventures style special abilities (feat chains only available to those studying  particular school) but NWN's combat system is opaque so it is very hard to add this sort of thing. Just want to let you know that I am thinking about this.

All that said... I think I have enough new functionality and toys for players to enjoy playing with. And so my priority is now shifting toward the content of the adventure.

Screenshot of an elf in woodland skins and animal mask, wielding a darkwood shield and handaxe. That mask is NOT a helmet. It only covers part of the head which is still visible.

Background shows Project Q improvements to TNO tileset, and a new sky.

I couldn't resist: combat animations have been added. It took another 100mb of modified clothing files/body parts... but I think it is worth it. (This was also for horse back riding if I ever want to implement that). BUT I did not add alt combat animations for large phenotype characters. It would take another 100mb to do this and would be an extraordinary amount of work that I am not prepared to do.

So if you want the alternative combat animations - play a normal phenotype character. Available animations: kensai (katana wielding sword style), monkey grip (reverse sword grip), heavy (one of the alt fighter styles), fencing, arcane (flying wizard with telekinetic weapons), warrior (another alt fighter), tiger fang (monk), sun fist (monk), dragon palm (monk), and bear claw (monk).

Most of these styles are taught at a Monastery. Fighter types get access to others. A few are restricted as special knowledge - including one I did not mention that only humans can access.

It all sounds amazing! Very cool stuff. Cant wait to see it! You have a lot of good ideas going, not just one thing catchy idea, but a world of interesting new variants of the game.

Out of character lounge in game. Tileset by Six Thrice, and included in Q v1.4

This required chat commands. /lounge. /help. /style.
/lounge will jump you into or out of the player lounge
/help lists available chat commands
/style will list the alternative combat styles that your character knows and how to use them.

Hey Henesua - this is huge! I'm sorry I missed all this reporting of your progress. Somehow I imagined you were getting arrested with the occupiers. I'm just coming off 3 weeks of work about 1.5 hours from home. Came home blitzed every day and went to sleep by 8:30 or 9:00.

Now I'm leaving town for ten days! But I'll start watching the Beyond Vives website again, and I do want to help test this thing. I'm away for the next two weekends but the end of November or December would be good.

The screens look really good!

Nope, not getting arrested. We have a new kid in the family. Two boys now live in my house. Lots of responsibility here. I'll figure out how to get back to the revolution when my family settles into the new schedule.

Play testing at the End of November/Start of December could work for me. How does that sound to you, Oragastus?

BTW for Renter6 and other clothes-horses a mini-update:
remember how sometimes adding a robe to certain armors would mess them up? Well I am working on a system to solve that problem. This system when implemented will bring new features as well. Different kinds of robes! A large hide/skin coat, a cleric's cowl, tabards and gambesons, traveler's robes etc.... You will have to own the robe that you wish to combine with armor/clothing. The next step in this implementation will be the ability to combine a chain hauberk or a breastplate with other armors. Chain hauberk can fit over leather and studded leather. Not sure how I will work the breast plate yet. This will all work with the craft armor skill radial menu.

Anyway, these armor/robe features are not yet implemented. Been busy the past week with a new baby. But I want to get it implemented before heading back to work.

Also need to stitch together some areas to explore. Have about 12 areas I have worked on, but they aren't game ready yet.

These areas however have the following features thus far:

• smooth edge transitions so that edge transitions feel less arbitrary and more natural
• marshy ground which slows some characters down, and yet gives advantages to aquatic/marsh species.
• tilesets you haven't likely seen before (wildwoods by sixesthrice, and the marsh mini tileset by tom banjo which is built into project Q. I have spoken some with Tom Banjo about the marsh tileset and he is adding some generic tiles to it for me to improve the swampy look. I feel blessed that he is doing this.)
• monsters that weren't used in Vives, and have some beautiful creature models by Diademus/Babayaga. These are also in Project Q.

Yea sounds good! As to how much time is available I'll have to play it by ear. I'll have time, just not sure what time frame and how long each day. I should be still training during the night so I can adjust my schedule during the day to accommodate.