Man, seems like I've been at this area for ages... when in reality it's only bee the past week and a bit, buit al lthe time on the toolset spent fiddling with it. No matter how many times I tell myself to make smaller exterior areas, and no mattr how much I deliberately underestimate the area I need, I always end up with it a little too open . But. finally feel like it's getting there now - the
screenshots early in development at least give me a nice record of how this has come on now. So now it's almost there...
Been an odd area to build as there's very distinct parts - open trail through grassy mountains, open woodland, fortified camp, beach and rocky area. All meant it needed planning - placing cliffs along the tile borders to maximise the number of textures I can use in adjacent tiles.
Needed a break from area building so loaded up Temple of Elemental Evil - man, I'd forgotten how much Iliked that game. It's a pretty amazing recreation of turn-based D&D - which I know is why some people didn;t like it. I'd love to be able to build in the turn based tactical elements from that into NWN2 to make it feel less like an arcade game sometimes..
Speaking of strategy, has anyone played much with the variables to change how enemies act - e.g. using stealth, or preparing ambushes etc? Not something I've delved into beyond setting their magic usage to 100% - anyone have experience with this? Does the Ranged variable work well - which sets their behavious to use ranged weapons by preference, and to find postions to fire from 'intelligently'?
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9 comments:
looking good :) I really like the top one. The sea side and landscape.
Keep up the great work!
Wooah, impressive base. The cliff part looks great!
Are you using the default light setting in your mod? The light in your screen shots always looks so soft.
ToEE was a really enjoyable game that I once or twice have returned to because it runs nice on my portable PC.
I tried to use the stealth variable once. It was kind of stupid, they just ran away until they could enter stealth mode...which is stupid if someone is chasing them.
If I want an NPC to do something more, I usually script some light AI into the user defined event.
Nice shots Wyrin, the dynamics of the area are well done - That cliff looks great too!
I haven't tried fiddling with those "triggers" or turning on any switches in the default AI scripts. I don't even know if Obsidian did w/ the OC - I have this weird suspicion that it wouldn't do anything like it says it should haha...
Thanks for the feedback
@ amraphael - bloom is upped a little, but little else changed. THe shot are from within the toolset, which seems to always look bette rthan in game for me!
@ dirtywick/jclef - yeah I'm worried those switches won't do what they say on the tin as well - might not waste time looking into them
Wow. This area looks terrific. I have not messed with the switches for AI, but would be very curious to see how it works out for you.
Looks great. I love the bunker. Is this the area where we get to blow up watchtowers? ;)
As for custom AI: I'm starting to get into some light custom ai scripting (scripts called off of DCR and only useable in specific situations, so not much decision-making happening there). I'll probably use them for most of my encounters.
This is something other than the built in switches though. Haven't experienced those much yet.
I'm concerned though how the switches and the custom ai scripts interact with community AI, like Tony_K's. He rewrote many of the default creature scripts, and seems to have thrashed DCR completely, and the custom AI hook with it. I'm wondering too if the default switches are still useable.
This means that a player that has Tony_K's default scripts in override could potentially break your custom AI. I think you might be able to override that by placing the original default scripts back in a hak (IIRC, NWN2Wiki says that hak files have precedence over override files. Anyone can confirm?).
Or maybe the option is to work with Tony_K's hooks, switches etc if there are any.
I haven't looked into that too much yet, but I intend to eventually.
What's clear to me is that Tony_K's monster AI is superior to vanilla Bioware/OEI AI. I'm just concerned about its customizability.
Anyone else have thoughts on that?
Sorry for the long semi-related post here, Wyrin. ;)
yep, this will be the chance to blow sh1t up ;) But i'm trying to stop my notes from making this look like some A-team/MacGuyver "cobble together a catapult using some sinew and driftwood" type thing ;)
I can see scripting AI for the base is going to be tricky, but I'm hoping it will add some depth. Key is to have the bell rung to summon reinformcements, to have someone manning the gate to keep it closed etc... But that said, I don't want players to just take the back route instead - I'm hoping intelligent play can win out. But ,maybe this is askign too muc of this implementation of the game system....
I'll have to revive my thread onthis in the scripting forums once i have more feedback
Very nice work on this area. The blending of the rocks on the waterline especially. I'm with you on making open areas. As much as I'd LIKE to stick to smaller is better, I can't help but make an area in a more open design and allow a little latitude of exploration.
This area looks really sharp.
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