My First Module Blog - The Doves of Summer

[Legacy_ShadowSplicer]

               
INTRODUCTION: So I just got Neverwinter Nights for Christmas this year, with my primary intention being to become a part of the module building community. So, not wasting a breath of time I have already began work on my very first primarily story-driven module, which I entitled "The Doves of Summer". It will be using a custom setting of mine that I've been working on called Avalon, particularly in a time frame before the events of my planned future modules to be set in said world. Anyway, I haven't done all that much, I've been following a little tutorial and made about three little areas so far. The primary purpose of this blog is to ask for suggestions on problems I'm having and hopefully in doing so also provide some useful info for others asking the same things. I also just want to gather some attention for the module so that when it does finally come out people will play it. Anyway, here we go!

December 24th, 2011: Module Started!
Alright! So today I began my work into the Aurora Toolset, which I was very impressed with. It is very user friendly, perhaps even moreso than the Elder Scrolls Construction Set, which is awesome, so soon I began making some areas for my module, and with screenshots this is the result:
First Area: The Ruins of Summer:




So the first area is pretty simple and small. It is a forest ruin known to the surrounding people as The Ruin of Summer. It's origins are shrouded in mystery, but most come there for peace and quiet that it often is known to bring. It is a little ways out into Redwood Forest, a generally peaceful province of the Human Kingdoms of Andoria. This area will be where the player starts and will primarily be a place for dialogue throughout the module. It also harbors the ruin entrance itself which will be seen used later in the storyline. Probably little to no fighting will occur here, but there will indeed be quite a bit of dialogue here.
Second Area: Crossroads:


Exiting from the first area, you enter a sort of crossroads which then leads to a hub of multiple other areas. I will probably have an NPC be the one to first lead the player through here and into the next area, the town where the story will really begin. Besides the path leading into the next town, you can also see two seperate paths that will lead further into Redwood Forest... I wonder what's there?
Third Area: Avendale:




So this is Avendale, it may or may not be where the player grew up (depending on Race and such), but it is home nontheless. In this short little module, Avendale is essentially the main little village around which all the events will unfold.

So there, just a little tiny bit of what I have gotten down in the toolset thus far on the first day, but I now need some assistance before I begin further. Starting with the beginning of the storyline, I wish to have a few lines of descriptive conversation, in which it describes your character as they are at the ruins and the player can make some decisions that will establish his/hers personal history with the village or their views on the problems that are now about to surround it. It also would provide a grand opportunity to first introduce the setting. Only problem is... I don't know how to do this just yet. All tutorials detail conversations with NPC's but what about just a conversation with nothing as shown here in the beginning of this module?


Anyway, that's where I am so far! If you made it this far, then you get a <3! thanks="" for="" reading,="" and="" i="" look="" forward="" to="" working="" more="" on="" this="" module="" in="" the="" future="" and="" i="" hope="" you'll="" enjoy="">

- ShadowSplicer
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_jackkel dragon]

               

Only problem is... I don't know how to do this just yet. All tutorials detail conversations with NPC's but what about just a conversation with nothing as shown here in the beginning of this module?

It's technially impossible to have a conversation with "nothing", so many modules have a dummy creature/placeable or just have the player start conversation with themself. I'm not sure how much you know about scripting, but most of these methods require some. I think the simplest method (for me) would be to force the player start a conversation with themself or create an "invisible object" placeable to converse with.

I'm sure I didn't make much sense. Hopefully I can explain it better later, or someone better at teaching can do it for me. Do well on your project!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_wyldhunt1]

               There are a few ways to do this type of thing. Each way tends to work better in different situations.
One is via conversation. You have to be talking to something for the conversation to open.
I'm more of a programmer than a builder, so I may not know the best ways to set this up in the mod itself. Here's how I understand it though:
Create a new NPC. You should be able to use the creature wizard, or right click somewhere in the creature palette and choose to create a new one. You can set whatever you want for most of the creature stats since it won't ever actually do anything....
The important parts are the portrait (The player will see this during the conversation), the event scripts (Delete the scripts out of every slot so that it won't try to kill anyone or wander away), the faction (Keep it faction neutral, or maybe even make a custom neutral faction for it), appearance (There are a few invisible or NULL appearances. Use one of them so that players can't see it), TAG (Anything unique, such as 'myinvisiblething') and, of course, the conversation needs to be your conversation. I'd use a very neutral portrait, such as a ball of light or something so that the players aren't distracted by it.
Now that you have your new NPC, you can place it in the mod near the point where the PC will be when they need to start the conversation. Now for the tricky part. How do you begin the conversation with an invisible creature?
I'd advise painting a trigger around the area where the PC will be. If this is the intro story, I'd advise painting a trigger around the module start location. In the trigger properties, you can place a custom script in the OnEnter event script. The script can force the conversation to begin. I don't remember if there is a default script that can do that already or not... But, there is a community made tool that can help you make basic scripts like this.
http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=1502
That should help you with any basic scripts that you need and introduce you to how scripting works.
That all sounds way more difficult than it is. You only need to make the script and the NPC once. You can re-use them for every invisible conversation after that.

Other ways:
You can have a player speak when they enter a trigger. The words will show up above their heads. This is good if you are trying to convey a players thoughts or something similar to that.
You can send messages to a player when they enter the trigger. The messages show up in the chat box. We use that a lot to send descriptions of areas to the player. As they enter a trigger placed at the begining of a passage, I might send them a message explaining the smells and general feel of the place that may be lacking in the default graphics.
You can add entries to their journal. Use this when the description may be needed later for reference. It's best to accompany this with a message to the player telling them to check their journal.
You can also (This is the easiest way) make a new book item in the palette. Place all of the descriptive text in the description of the item. All you have to do is give the player the book. They can read the book to get the info whenever they want by inspecting the book.


Mostly, download the script generator and play with it for a few minutes to see how easy it is to make custom scripts with it. It'll make a lot more sense once you do that.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par wyldhunt1, 27 décembre 2011 - 03:33 .