Synopsis

As promised I do have a sneak peek of some of the companions you can get during your adventures. I've only included the first three ones you obtain in Aragaard. There is one other in Chapter I, you'll meet towards the end and the others are all in Chapter 2 (or 3). You'll find them in another post on the same date. But first a few words of note.

Thayvian Nights is slightly ambitious in scope although manageable I believe, all total approximately 3 Acts (or 7 seven chapters + Prologue & the Epilogue). Chapter I (dubbed Escape from Aragaard) is only one of the 3 chapters in Act I, the second largest of the three. Most notably Chapter II is probably the largest of all the chapters planned and the least linear in scope. To help you visualize what I'm talking about, I went ahead and made a chart with estimates of how long the chapter will be:

Prologue: 0.3 hrs
Act I
Chapter 1: 2-3 hrs
Chapter 2: 15+ hrs
Chapter 3: 2-3 hrs

Act II
Chapter 4: 2-3 hrs
Chapter 5: 2-3 hrs

Act III
Chapter 6: 2-3 hrs
Chapter 7: 2-3 hrs

Epilogue: 0.5 hrs

And these are merely estimates, Chapters 3 through 7 could be longer than that for all I know. It's too early tell at this point. However, I can definitely say that they'll move along much quicker than Chapter I, or at least I would certainly hope so (I've redone Chpt I so many times now :) ).

I would also like to mention that Chapter I's main goal is to attract players to keep the motivation up, while at the same time perhaps even attracting a few potential developers at the same time. I don't expect any developers to come around, but I'll still remain optimistic. A second person providing ideas and incorporating them into the module would be ideal and help alleviate the weak points of the module and expediate the process of building it.

I find that my writing is one of most biased things about me. I have a certain type of writing that you either like or hate it completely. Every once in awhile, you'll find something really poetic or well-written, but most often its just... I don't know how else to describe it... Josh-like. Which is typically the case in all of my informal writings, such as this blog. And for some reason I can never type a conversation first, I'll sit there for hours on end staring at the screen unmotivated to type. Give me a pen and a piece of paper, and I'll have it written in minutes. I s anyone else like that? Gets annoying, but its the only I can get myself to work on dialogues.

--------------

And on a final note for this post in particular. I ran through the module with a lvl 19 and finished it within 1.5 hours while not really reading the dialogues, noting down bugs, quirks and things I just didn't like how it was done (or portrayed). By the end, I had about 3 pages of stuff between the two. A few things like switch some of the cutscene dialogues to NWN1 styled, some of the commoners when they respawn don't have dialogues (which is odd, b/c in the palette they do), and some strange convos going on if you do things out of order. Some of are easy fixes, others - not so easy.

3 comments:

  Anonymous

February 25, 2008 at 11:29 AM

Give me a pen and paper, then someone that can read my chicken scratch! I can't even read it :P Thank goodness for keyboards.

I'm doing the writing for Stygius and a good part of Misery Stone. I've found dialog to be my strong point, and back ground, or narrated parts to be my weaker points. I just recruit opinions from Jonny Ree and Jason Roy. Bounce it off them and get feedback. They are both wonderful at making everything cohesive for me. They can look outside my claustrophobic little box!

  Josh

February 25, 2008 at 1:19 PM

Unfortunately, I don't have anyone like that to fall back on :( And I usually find it easier to critique someone else's work over mine. What I usually do is come back to it a week or so later and reread it. By then, I may have a different perspective than before. But that doesn't always work of course.

Good luck with those two mods. I look forward to both :)

  Anonymous

February 25, 2008 at 1:51 PM

e reading is a curse! I am always finding something I want to change. I have to force myself to say "enough is enough" lol it is a terrible cycle!