Today at the GP we got in the final installment of the Tearing of the Weave trilogy, Anauroch, Empire of Shade, the Sundering of the World. Now, the previous two adventure books already bore an unsettling resemblance to the Shadows of the Past campaign I was working on. This final book takes the cake though. It is like the were looking over my shoulder as I worked all these years. The resemblance between the two stories is unbelievable. Now, I know I have no real proof that my campaign idea is older than theirs, in fact I can't be sure that is truly is. I know that they began work on the trilogy in 2005 but the idea could have been much older than that.
Anyways, this kind of takes a lot of the sting out of losing all my work on Shadows of the Past. I wouldn't have really felt too comfortable working on the campaign knowing the two were almost identical so I guess I was spared the stress. Also, I find it kind of funny that I say that and yet two posts ago I went on a rant about how similar my new project is to MotB. I'm just a funny hypocrite I guess.
As a side note, I've been thinking about uploading my new work in segments to the FRW people so they can test it out. I think it might help to get a lot of the "alpha" testing done in increments rather than all at once at the end. Just a thought.
-Inder
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Midnight Snack
Going by my new schedule I think you all can expect regular updates from me every Friday. It's one of the only two days I have off now. I might update with small tidbits at other times in the week, probably Saturday since I don't work then either, but Friday is much better for me. And since it is technically Friday here I am! This will be a short little post before I march off to bed, not like some of Dirtywick's blog posts which I've been reading lately. He goes on even more than I do.
I've been working on side content for the past few days. The main reason for this is that I've been revising the main plotline's story. I've made a few large changes from my original concept, but they are all for the better. The story was a little confusing prior to the change and inconsistent with itself at times. Considering I often pride myself on my stories as a DM above all else, I couldn't let that slide.
I've been rewriting a lot of the opening cutscenes as a result of this, which has been a bit of a pain. The new story helps me write much more exciting dialog, though, and I've been tearing through most of the writing. Tomorrow I hope to complete all the cutscenes and "catch-up" to where I was before.
As a side note, my wife picked up Assassin's Creed for me today, since she's so sweet. I highly recommend it. If you can get past the whole weird genetic memories thing (you'll see), it is still a highly enjoyable action game.
-Inder
I've been working on side content for the past few days. The main reason for this is that I've been revising the main plotline's story. I've made a few large changes from my original concept, but they are all for the better. The story was a little confusing prior to the change and inconsistent with itself at times. Considering I often pride myself on my stories as a DM above all else, I couldn't let that slide.
I've been rewriting a lot of the opening cutscenes as a result of this, which has been a bit of a pain. The new story helps me write much more exciting dialog, though, and I've been tearing through most of the writing. Tomorrow I hope to complete all the cutscenes and "catch-up" to where I was before.
As a side note, my wife picked up Assassin's Creed for me today, since she's so sweet. I highly recommend it. If you can get past the whole weird genetic memories thing (you'll see), it is still a highly enjoyable action game.
-Inder
Friday, November 9, 2007
The Exciting Conclusion
Alright, it has been a very busy work week, but here I am on a Friday with time to myself. I'll get right to the last part of this torrid series.
My modules, yes, plural, for Shadows of the Past are all gone. Deleted by MotB. After installing MotB it informed me that it was not in the correct install directory and that I should reinstall. Nevermind the fact that it was in the correct install directory! Frustrated after 30 minutes of shuffling files from folder to folder with no results I go to uninstall. Some of you might be shaking your heads at my foolishness at this point.
While the bar ticks away the destruction of my work (unknown to me, of course) I go and read some readmes on MotB and the current state of NWN2. You know, the BioWare boards and such. It is there that I discover that, apparently, a current issue with MotB is that if you uninstall it... it will not save your MyDocuments/NeverwinterNights2/modules folder's contents. Sure enough, when the uninstall was completed my entire folder was gone. Every module stored on my computer was within my NeverwinterNights2 folder. And they were all gone.
Really, I just felt numb at first. For the next day or two it didn't quite sink in that all my work was gone. Slowly, over the following week it all hit me. Everything I've ever created in NWN2 is gone. It is a hollow feeling; mostly, I mourn for the wasted time.
There is a silver lining, of course. The time wasn't truly wasted. I learned more about the toolset and the creation of quality modules than I knew I could. Now, with MotB firmly entrenched and working correctly I have begun a new project in earnest. Allow me to share a few screenshots.
Welcome to Llorkh. Some of you Realmslore experts will already recognize the name. Llorkh is a small, walled town, nestled into the foothills of the Greypeak Mountains of the North. Situated at the western end of the Black Road, this town is a stronghold of Zhentish might in the North. Ruled by a cruel devotee of Cyric, the resurgence of Bane and his followers to the east threatens the city with civil war as the Banites seek to depose the Cyricist lord of the city.
When you, an adventure of no small merit, wake up in the forests outside Llorkh, afflicted with a strange,
magical disease and surrounded by Zhentish corpses, you have little choice but to seek shelter in the city to avoid the coming winter. What path you take once in the unstable town and what role you will have in the conflict to come, is up to you.
I'm extremely excited about this project. It will be substantially more non-linear than Shadows of the Past was intended to be. I have nagging concern about the module, though. MotB is a great game and I have taken a page out of their book in this game's style and, even, its story. In fact, depending on how nit-picky you get, I have taken several pages.
Chapters. Reems. Time will tell exactly how similar my work is to Obsidian's. To an extent, there are only so many ideas in the world and it is not surprise that two entities have similar ones. The community, I fear, will have to be the ultimate judge of whether I am a big rip-off or just being paranoid.
I have a few cool gameplay tidbits to leave with before I get back to cleaning. Just like in MotB you will be able to kick your party members out and most of them will be completely optional, "hidden" companions. There will be a few times when a companion will be required but these times are few and far between and always have a reasonable explanation in game (instead of GOD WHY WON'T GROBNAR LEAVE!?). *ahem*
Also, the disease that afflicts your character is something that you have a medium of control over. You will be able to use it to attack and create other useful effects. This will be at a cost to you, of course.
My last specific gameplay goal for this project is to make it completely multiplayer friendly. This will probably be the most difficult of my goals but I hope to make it a reality. As I work on scripts and cutscenes I always try to mindful of what will happen if a second PC is present. Rarely do a make calls with commands such as GetFirstPC() and other similar things. I hope for players to be able to LAN up with a buddy or two and play through this game.
Okay, I've rambled on. It is time to get back to cleaning.
-Inder
My modules, yes, plural, for Shadows of the Past are all gone. Deleted by MotB. After installing MotB it informed me that it was not in the correct install directory and that I should reinstall. Nevermind the fact that it was in the correct install directory! Frustrated after 30 minutes of shuffling files from folder to folder with no results I go to uninstall. Some of you might be shaking your heads at my foolishness at this point.
While the bar ticks away the destruction of my work (unknown to me, of course) I go and read some readmes on MotB and the current state of NWN2. You know, the BioWare boards and such. It is there that I discover that, apparently, a current issue with MotB is that if you uninstall it... it will not save your MyDocuments/NeverwinterNights2/modules folder's contents. Sure enough, when the uninstall was completed my entire folder was gone. Every module stored on my computer was within my NeverwinterNights2 folder. And they were all gone.
Really, I just felt numb at first. For the next day or two it didn't quite sink in that all my work was gone. Slowly, over the following week it all hit me. Everything I've ever created in NWN2 is gone. It is a hollow feeling; mostly, I mourn for the wasted time.
There is a silver lining, of course. The time wasn't truly wasted. I learned more about the toolset and the creation of quality modules than I knew I could. Now, with MotB firmly entrenched and working correctly I have begun a new project in earnest. Allow me to share a few screenshots.
Welcome to Llorkh. Some of you Realmslore experts will already recognize the name. Llorkh is a small, walled town, nestled into the foothills of the Greypeak Mountains of the North. Situated at the western end of the Black Road, this town is a stronghold of Zhentish might in the North. Ruled by a cruel devotee of Cyric, the resurgence of Bane and his followers to the east threatens the city with civil war as the Banites seek to depose the Cyricist lord of the city.
When you, an adventure of no small merit, wake up in the forests outside Llorkh, afflicted with a strange,
magical disease and surrounded by Zhentish corpses, you have little choice but to seek shelter in the city to avoid the coming winter. What path you take once in the unstable town and what role you will have in the conflict to come, is up to you.I'm extremely excited about this project. It will be substantially more non-linear than Shadows of the Past was intended to be. I have nagging concern about the module, though. MotB is a great game and I have taken a page out of their book in this game's style and, even, its story. In fact, depending on how nit-picky you get, I have taken several pages.
Chapters. Reems. Time will tell exactly how similar my work is to Obsidian's. To an extent, there are only so many ideas in the world and it is not surprise that two entities have similar ones. The community, I fear, will have to be the ultimate judge of whether I am a big rip-off or just being paranoid.I have a few cool gameplay tidbits to leave with before I get back to cleaning. Just like in MotB you will be able to kick your party members out and most of them will be completely optional, "hidden" companions. There will be a few times when a companion will be required but these times are few and far between and always have a reasonable explanation in game (instead of GOD WHY WON'T GROBNAR LEAVE!?). *ahem*
Also, the disease that afflicts your character is something that you have a medium of control over. You will be able to use it to attack and create other useful effects. This will be at a cost to you, of course.
My last specific gameplay goal for this project is to make it completely multiplayer friendly. This will probably be the most difficult of my goals but I hope to make it a reality. As I work on scripts and cutscenes I always try to mindful of what will happen if a second PC is present. Rarely do a make calls with commands such as GetFirstPC() and other similar things. I hope for players to be able to LAN up with a buddy or two and play through this game.
Okay, I've rambled on. It is time to get back to cleaning.
-Inder
Friday, November 2, 2007
The Dawn of the Dead
Okay, part two.
I've also been extremely busy lately working. A little over 5 weeks ago now I was fired from my job at FedEx. Suffice to say that they have an extremely unreasonable attendance policy that, in mu opinion, guarantees you will get fired if you work there long enough. They are kind of shooting themselves in the foot here. As my manager put it, when it comes to my job "there's none better". To make up for it I have my old job at my local game store back. I work 38+ hours a week there now, so time is sparse compared to before. Overall, I'm much happier for the change. The job at FedEx was at night, basically outdoors, and painful physical labor. I make just as much money now as before thanks to the amount of hours I have at the game store, named the Game Preserve (henceforth known as the GP). The only real downside is that I received benefits through FedEx that were extremely good and extremely cheap. Now I have no insurance of any kind.
As an update on my last post, I have finally solved my virus woes. The guys at TechSupportGuy Forums were extremely helpful. They directed me to a number of free programs that scanned my computer and examined my logs line by line to ensure the most targeted and accurate spyware removal possible. If any of you have serious computer issues that you cannot solve yourself, then I recommend you check them out.
-Inder
I've also been extremely busy lately working. A little over 5 weeks ago now I was fired from my job at FedEx. Suffice to say that they have an extremely unreasonable attendance policy that, in mu opinion, guarantees you will get fired if you work there long enough. They are kind of shooting themselves in the foot here. As my manager put it, when it comes to my job "there's none better". To make up for it I have my old job at my local game store back. I work 38+ hours a week there now, so time is sparse compared to before. Overall, I'm much happier for the change. The job at FedEx was at night, basically outdoors, and painful physical labor. I make just as much money now as before thanks to the amount of hours I have at the game store, named the Game Preserve (henceforth known as the GP). The only real downside is that I received benefits through FedEx that were extremely good and extremely cheap. Now I have no insurance of any kind.
As an update on my last post, I have finally solved my virus woes. The guys at TechSupportGuy Forums were extremely helpful. They directed me to a number of free programs that scanned my computer and examined my logs line by line to ensure the most targeted and accurate spyware removal possible. If any of you have serious computer issues that you cannot solve yourself, then I recommend you check them out.
-Inder
Thursday, November 1, 2007
November the 1
Hello, blog. I'm back.
I've been so busy with things not NWN2. I have a lot to update everyone on. So much that it will have to come as an exciting multi-part series! I'll start with my most recent problem first.
As I post this I have another virus scan running in the background. A few days ago I became infected with a large host of spyware, viruses and other malware. The extent of the infection was so great that my computer basically could not be used. Now I have the majority of the malware under control but one problem persists. A program called Trojan.Vundo a.k.a. VirtuMonde. Now, I'm not a tech support worker but I'm no scrub when it comes to computers. Even I can't get rid of this bastard. I have an open thread on the TechSupportGuy forums, http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/645767-malicious-program-problem-psw-x.html, if any of you are extremely savvy with removing malware and have any tips.
It figures that this would happen only days after I get MotB installed (which is a whole 'nother can of worms that I will touch on next time). I was just starting to get to work using the new tools available to me.
So, there it is. I'm not dead. Check back soon for the next installment in this exciting trilogy!
-Inder
I've been so busy with things not NWN2. I have a lot to update everyone on. So much that it will have to come as an exciting multi-part series! I'll start with my most recent problem first.
As I post this I have another virus scan running in the background. A few days ago I became infected with a large host of spyware, viruses and other malware. The extent of the infection was so great that my computer basically could not be used. Now I have the majority of the malware under control but one problem persists. A program called Trojan.Vundo a.k.a. VirtuMonde. Now, I'm not a tech support worker but I'm no scrub when it comes to computers. Even I can't get rid of this bastard. I have an open thread on the TechSupportGuy forums, http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/645767-malicious-program-problem-psw-x.html, if any of you are extremely savvy with removing malware and have any tips.
It figures that this would happen only days after I get MotB installed (which is a whole 'nother can of worms that I will touch on next time). I was just starting to get to work using the new tools available to me.
So, there it is. I'm not dead. Check back soon for the next installment in this exciting trilogy!
-Inder
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
GG
Another crash and corruption today. Once again, a system out of memory error during an autosave plunged me into a danger zone where attempting to manually save will indelibly lead to corruption of the file due to a crash during the save. In order to avoid this the only thing I have found to work is to immediately load my 2nd most recent autosave and lose about 15 minutes work (not *too* big of a deal). However, today, because the toolset hates me, it decided to delete the entire contents of my autosave folder. It was mysteriously empty upon my load attempt. I had not manually saved all day. Therefore, I was forced to close the toolset to avoid corruption and reload my save from last night. I lost about 3 hours of work from today.
It is very very hard to motivate myself to continue work on this project when more and more frequently I am forced to repeat my work two or sometimes three times.
To date, I have recorded 48 crashes during saves, 41 corrupted module files and I estimate about 20 hours of lost work. That is on this project alone.
I don't like to say things like this but I really can't find any other way to express my frustration.
GG Obsidian.
-Inder
It is very very hard to motivate myself to continue work on this project when more and more frequently I am forced to repeat my work two or sometimes three times.
To date, I have recorded 48 crashes during saves, 41 corrupted module files and I estimate about 20 hours of lost work. That is on this project alone.
I don't like to say things like this but I really can't find any other way to express my frustration.
GG Obsidian.
-Inder
Friday, August 24, 2007
An Aberration
I have decided to come clean here. I have an insane habit, a madness spawned from the deepest oceans of mankind's fears. It lurks just beneath the surface of my thoughts as I work. Its tentacles grasping and feeling for an opportunity to slide from the black surface into the weak moonlight.
Shortly, I like Illithids.
Basically, whenever I can replace a waypoint with a script hidden illithid I do so. If you were to open all my areas you would see every once in a while.. a mysterious illithid just standing there. This is one of my favorite images I have taken of silly mind flayers lurking around. Remember, as you play my creations... at any moment you could be mere feet away from an illithid!
-Inder
Shortly, I like Illithids.
Basically, whenever I can replace a waypoint with a script hidden illithid I do so. If you were to open all my areas you would see every once in a while.. a mysterious illithid just standing there. This is one of my favorite images I have taken of silly mind flayers lurking around. Remember, as you play my creations... at any moment you could be mere feet away from an illithid!-Inder
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