Comments - wombaciur

Not sure if anyone else is having the same problem but I can't launch the mod : missing custom talk table. It seems some .tlk file wasn't uploaded. I've even downloaded NWN critical rebuild to avoid any mistakes on installation front.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've also thought about a dynamic thieving system - there is a group of thieves and while exploring you can be robbed of some non-quest item which can later be found and bought at a black market. If your spot / hear / pickpocket skill (or some combination of these) is high enough, you notice getting robbed and initiate a dialogue with the thief:

1) If your other skills are at 'medium' level (like intimidate / persuasion), you can get back the item he wanted to stole
2) If you have higher skills, you can convince him to give you all his loot and some chances are, there might be a good item in there
3) or you can just attack him but his partners from thieves guild will appear and the fight will be difficult due to sneak attacks of the group ;)

The higher the crime rate, the tougher the thieves are which make them more difficult to spot and while stealing your items, they target more valuable ones.

If robbed, the player gets the feedback and a timeline is set once he can be robbed again.

Also prostitution can impact crime rate as well, especially with women (as in local lore it is punished by death or something). So if the PC is a prostitute and decides to take some "prostitution quests", it does affect crime rate.

Will the prostitution impact crime rate as well? Or maybe the other way around : crime rate impact prostitution/sexual harassment - e.g. if the crime rate is high, more and more possible male rapists appear. They aren't hostile instantly but approach you, especially at night and won't take 'no' for an answer. If you choose to attack them, they turn hostile. If you don't attack them at once, two things can occur :

1) At first you can use some skills to convince the rapists they'd better look elsewhere (intimidate, persuade, size of your party). If the number of rapists (randomized but with some weights, e.g. the bigger crime rate, the bigger values of minRapists and maxRapists) is high:
a) the checks are more difficult, there is also a check to see if you are quick enough (DEX) to draw weapons and fight the rapists
b) if you fail the checks and the number of rapists is higher than the number of party members, the party members are knocked out (as in : removed from party) and you are dragged to some warehouse nearby.
2) All your things are put in a loot bag and left at the ground where you were approached by the rapists apart from armor (as in: you'd just had enough time to toss the loot bag away so they won't get your hard earned loot as well).
3) In the warehouse a text game appears to check your abilities if you are able to break free, the more rapists the more difficult the check. If you are overwhelmed, the rape starts and after they're done with you, they leave the building.
4) Every "successful" rape scene increases crime rate as well. There might be a special "quest" to that - if a PC gets raped a lot of times (e.g. 10), the rapists grow stronger and there is a boss (stronger than others) which you can fight. If you manage to win, you get some interesting loot from him.

Will there be a feedback telling us what crime rate is in an area? E.g. asking a guard and/or some official "Is it safe here?" Based on a crime rate there could be a few responses :
0% - It's hard to believe it but I think it is absolutely safe here for the moment
1-14% - It's fairly safe here so you must really try to get into trouble.
15-29% - It's relatively safe here.
30-49% - It's not that safe here, especially at night.
50-74% - A fair warning! You'd better get out of here while you still can.
75%-90% - It's extremely dangerous! What are you doing here asking stupid questions like that!?
91-100% - Get lost! Don't you see all hell broke loose here?

Since we are talking technical aspects... do you plan on changing the way dialogue trees had already been constructed? I mean there are 700k + of words but that's because most conversations are repeated based on party lineup instead of using bookmarks. It makes further editing of the dialogue very time consuming and impossible to guess the actual length of the dialogue.

I'd like to reinforce what I wrote about in my previous comment regarding introducing procedural generation to outside areas as well. In alpha version there were fixed encounters which spawned monsters and if you revisited an area some times later, exactly the same monsters appeared in the same place which was time consuming and boring.

Since we are talking about the world being dynamic and an evil flooding the land, I'd suggest :

1) Completely delete fixed encounters from the maps (unless it is some "boss"/item encounter)
2) In "enemy areas" spawn enemies (of course the number of creatures available at once should be manageable for the player)
a) Increase quantity of spawned enemies in a specified area with e.g. each passing week/month up to a maximum value (so we need to have variables for each area to store that numbers) if the player doesn't pursue a main quest (I think you can assign variables to areas in the editor)
b) If the time passes and still nothing is done about the main quest, increase the quality of enemies as well (up to a maximum class, e.g. zombie -> tyrantfog zombie -> ghoul -> ghoul lord etc.)
b) If the player reaches some milestone, change variables for each area accordingly (e.g. REDUCE the quantity of spawned enemies, even to zero or increase the number of guards etc.)
c) Make some "hard to reach/difficult" areas scale based on player level. Normally I don't like level scaling but if done cleverly, it could work. E.g. there is a magic cavern with a powerful amulet emanating some evil powers that make undead grow stronger and the later you arrive (that usually means the higher level you are), the stronger they are to defeat.

Besides, without 'on hearbeat' event to check for many things I wouldn't be able to figure how vampire features could work once fully implemented ;) (e.g. taking damage because of sunlight)

I had an idea once how to prevent using "remove from party" button to remove party members. 'On heartbeat' script could check for variables if an NPC should be in party. If he should and his state allows for it (e.g not dead, petrified) and a player removed him from party, he should "join immediately" again ;)

Hi, glad to see dev diary and it's a very interesting bit about procedurely generated NPCs. Honestly, I think such a mechanism should be introduced to the 2nd and prologue city and perhaps some villages. Let's not forget some wild areas as well which are being patrolled by knights and / or undead.

I guess Valine tried to make something similar in ADwR although in her case it had less to do with proceduraly generated content and more with some dialogues being different and not too repetetive with different NPCs. During a 'whoring' dialogue with sailors for each point of conversation there were a few different responses from which one was selected at random. Thanks to Valine's skillful writing it allowed for a lot of iterations of dialogue which had a good 'flow'.

Yeah, it seemed the beta was indeed an alpha. The good news is the thing is still in development what new screenshots indicate.

So, have you stopped working on the mod at all and all suggestions should be sent to JM_Scion?

Please note monk's ability is just faster movement, it doesn't add haste effect per se. But it is a nice ability to have especially if combined with a haste spell. Monks are especially viable with a shifter class due to the bug in NWN engine where some properties stack upon loading a save so you can have e.g. a super fast hasted monk / kobol commando impossible to achieve through other means. Actually druid / shifter / monk is my favorite class combo to play in higher level modules (well, until at least lvl 21 anyway but it starts rocking at lvl 12 anyway).

On the other hand above mentioned shifter stacking bug makes undead shape quickly less effective if you aren't careful as 50% piercing / slashing damage resistance goes through the roof and is reduced to 0 :(

And that makes a lot of sense to use holy water. I'd like to see similar options for critical strike. E.g. if you have a keen, small or tiny weapon equipped, you might have dialogue option "critical strike" which leaves your opponent 'badly wounded' once a fight starts provided that some other requirements are met (e.g. high dexterity bonus and/or low armor check penalty).

I guess choosing a rogue class might work more if you are going to join vampires as then probably you will be facing more human than undead opponents so those sneak attacks might come in handy ;) Unless the questline for vampires involves a lot of fighting within the realm of undead as well (e.g. opposing clans) which would be cool as well. Not so cool for rogues with their weak saves, though.

I think fighter route seems to be better. While a rogue has a lot of skill points and useful "social" skills, combat wise it will be inferior due to undead's immunity to sneak attacks. You can always take a rogue companion (provided such exists in the mod). As to sneaking, there are other classes that do that as well (ranger - an interesting choice for low level characters or monk).

I like to be challenged so I will see how my charismatic cleric with sun/healing domain will take on those pesky undeads rambo style ;) If extra experience allows, I will add paladin level for extra saves later on.

Oh my God! Is that Crowley? He's awesome! He's my idol!

Would you have anything against modifications to the mod?

I know, I know, the end boss is called "Aicul" BG1 style :D

Such a place already exists, see here : Moddb.com

It might be like that but I believe the more places where the mod is available, the better. Imagine one of the websites closing down and people can't access your mod. It's always good to have some backups on the net.

Great update! Happy to see JM_Scion taking the reins and I dig the new logo.

Anyway, I do hope you can obtain (because I don't think Lucia or her crew would be experienced enough to cast 6th level spells ;) ) some stone to flesh scrolls and free some statues. I remember a nice quest in BG2 in the underdark where you could freed some wizard from imprisonment spell. Perhaps you can alter the basilisk quest and allow for some sort of similar interaction for those willing to go the extra mile ;)

I'm all for quests that span across areas, NPCs and have different outcomes in-between. I never liked typical fed-ex quests unless it was just a flavor and obtaining the quest or finding a delivery place was a real challenge ;)

If the author can keep the replay value high, he/she should be praised for it. It's a very difficult task to accomplish, though, because you need to avoid fake choices unless it makes sense within the context of the world (being dominated by La Croix in Vampires:Bloodlines comes to mind ;)). If the player finds out the choice is just fluff, he/she might feel disconnected from the gameplay. On the other hand, if you feel your choices matter, you are that more immersed in the gameworld. And it doesn't have to be shiny graphics.

Anyway, keep up the good work and honestly... I can't wait to see the mod :)

That's good to hear. What I like in my rpgs the most is the restricted content - because if content is available for all no matter the class, level, skills, reputation etc. then what's the reason for a customization of your character in the first place? For the mod creators it is, however, more and more work so you need to make things manageable.

A quick quest example : Lucia gets to know about some smuggler's cave in the area and only after having a knowledge of the place can visit it for exploration. She has to enter a cave alone because there is a small inland passage only she is fit enough to squeeze through. Once inside, there is some loot to be gained but a stealthy approach is advised because of the smugglers.

If she gets discovered, the fight starts. If she kills them all, she gets the loot. If she gets to 'near death', she is overwhelmed by the smugglers, raped and left to die with 1 HP. During the rape she sees clearly a face of one of the assailants and can meet him afterwards in a city.
Anyway, the cave is emptied after the incident as the smugglers suspect Lucia wasn't the only person to know about the cave so no chance for loot afterwards.

Now, there could be a few non-obvious ways to obtain the quest for different characters: 1) Lucia sneaks into an inn room (picks a lock on a door, stealth DC as well) and later picks a drawer (higher DC) where a note with information of the cave is 2) Lucia "entertains" a smuggler (reputation DC) in the inn and after the intercourse the smuggler is sleeping and Lucia can inspect the drawer 3) The smuggler in the inn is very rude while speaking to Lucia and she doesn't take it well so a fight starts. Once beaten, he spills the beans about the cave.

Such on-the-fly example shows how you can design a quest without that much of additional content but at the same time restrict it for different characters :)

Hi, glad to see some update. Anyway, I do hope in order to unlock some quests there would be some requirements that need to be met first.

I always don't feel a situation where a hero walks into a town and everyone is pestering him with the problems or some **** happens just in time he/she visits a place. I'd rather see a situation where a player "has to work" to obtain some quests - be it by gaining a reputation, having a high persuade skill to convince a speaker to tell what's wrong etc. Basically, I don't want my quests to be handed on a silver plate.

"It's June now and Equilibrium of the Night still hasn't released. I know some of you may think that this has something to do with the merging of the areas and some content from the cancelled mods I was working on but this isn't true. I got a new computer so I had to import everything which has slowed things down too but everything is back to normal again." ;) Seriously, though, I know from experience that switching machines can slow the progress considerably because you are sort of forced to take a break and sometimes it's difficult to get back on track.

Sure, no problem, take all the time you need and I hope your issues will be solved. Also saying "Hi, I have nothing new to report" is much better for us than not getting anything at all.

"It's May now and Equilibrium of the Night still hasn't released. I know some of you may think that this has something to do with the merging of the areas and some content from the cancelled mods I was working on but this isn't true." ;-)

Yeah, it's always great to see when the visuals are on par with story and quest design. Can't wait to test the mod myself :)

At this moment it's hard to say. I guess waiting and encouraging the author(s) is the least we can do. The best would be to offer some help like JM_Scion did. From my understanding RadiantLoneWolf wants to make a mod that is complete at release which obviously takes a lot of time to get all the finishing touches.

Personally I'm against such approach because I think it's better to release a 'preview' version and wait for comments from users which might be insightful and helpful to make the final version of the mod better than firstly anticipated. On the other hand - if someone wants to release a 'perfect' mod from the get go - he will be polishing it for a long time.