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Progress update - 29/09/04


NiGHTMARE

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I figured that since the last progress update was over 1/4 of a year ago, it was time to let everyone know what's happening. So, without further ado:

 

New team members

 

- Ellderon will be contributing several NPCs, including two female elves; Thalia is a crusader (an optional component will make her a paladin) and Aquarilliya is a sorcerer. Both are good aligned.

 

- Moongaze will be writing dialogue for various background characters as well as creating two neutral aligned Calimshan-based NPCs, Abdul and Punjab.

 

 

Number of NPCs

 

We've had some complaints about the seeming emphasis on new NPCs, so we've cut back slightly on our plans in this area.

 

- NiGHTMARE (aka me) will be incorporating the Kivan mod (which has been hovering near finished for an unseemly length of time) and creating a new female paladin called Jaina.

 

- Andyr will be adding his Elai & Nasard mod and working on a new priest of Kossuth NPC, currently nameless.

 

- Corradun is working on two female NPCs, namely a female monk called Amaterasu and Lunius, a priestess of Selune.

 

- Stinky_Ogre is working on a good-aligned necromancer called Reywind and a half-ogre (yes ogre, not orc!) barbarian named Thoghuk.

 

This brings the grand total of new NPCs to 13. Considering three of them are not technically being developed as part of LoI (though they will have extra, LoI-only content), and no less than six people are working on them, I don't consider this too many.

 

Some of the team members (including myself and Ellderon) have plans for other NPCs. If these are finished before the rest of the LoI content, they'll be incorporated into the main project. If not, they'll be incorporated into LoI v2, v3, etc.

 

 

LoI-before-LoI

 

We're considering releasing some parts of LoI as seperate mods. Obviously Kivan and Elai & Nasard have long been intended to be released seperately, since both predate the beginning of LoI. The speciality priests and new divine spells are (or will be) in Cleric Remix, and content from NPC Kit and Improved Battles is also being incorporated.

 

One of the new ideas we've been throwing around are releasing all the kits, since they're likely to be the first thing that gets entirely completed. It's likely that things like sdruidic circles, primary terrains, and deity selection (other than for clerics) will remain LoI-exclusive.

 

 

Current work in-progress

 

I can't speak for what the rest of the team have been up to, but personally I've been focused on two areas:

 

During my lunch breaks and on the train I've been working on numerous dialogues, for LoI as well as a couple of other BG-related projects. Two quests, including our new route to Spellhold (one of the major LoI quests), now have pretty much all their dialogue written. I've also gotten several new Jaina banters done.

 

At home, I've been concentrating on the kits. You'll remember from the last progress update that all the ranger kits were finished... well, now almost all the priest "classes" are done as well. Yep, the bard kits were supposed to come after the ranger kits, but whatever :cry:. I'm currently working on the monk kits (created as kits for other classes, selected via in-game dialogue) as well as several unique HLAs for both ranger and priest kits.

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Since NiGHTMARE has posted an update, I guess I really should too.

 

I have been busy modding other stuff for a while, most recently working with CamDawg on the coding for Cleric Remix. When we have that sorted I will be trying to get lots more of the kits done. I have tentative ideas for releasing a Sacred Remix of the Divine classes and a Secular Remix featuring the other ones - essentially, just adding the kits from LoI. So these would be available for people to play, and would work with Tutu and the like. We'll see what the others think.

 

As for NPCs - Elai and Nasard are coming along slowly. I haven't done anything for the Firewalker beyond brainstorming so I'll see how that pans out; if it is holding things up I am content to drop him to concentrate on other stuff. A few developed NPCs is better than a dozen bland ones.

 

Also, I should probably point out that Stinky Ogre has not been seen in a while, so if you're out there, get in touch...

 

Finally it might be nice to sort out the Improved Battles revamp too and release it.

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Hmm..well, I cleared everything wiht coluege, so I should have more time now...for a while at least...

 

I haven't been doing much lately, mainly do to my Freespace 2 and Homeworld 2 modding, but I did so much material for those two games lately, that I can sit back and relax and concetrate on LOI again...

 

Now, I'm refraining myself from writing banters with other LOI charachters, sily coause I don't want to miss-represent one of your chars. I'l concetrate on BG2 NPC's banters for now and once I'm satisfied with them, move on..

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I would hope not. :cry:

 

I think it would be prudent to wait and see what people manage to get round to writing and coding - we do have a lot of ideas for stuff and I think things need to be pared down a little at some point.

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- Six people are working on the NPCs.

- None of the NPCs are planned to be romanceable (AFAIK anyway).

- The three NPCs which are being released seperately first are near completion.

- A fourth NPC is about 1/2 finished, and some of the others have had a considerable amount of work done on them.

 

It all works out to an average of under 1.4 non-romanceable NPCs per person, which I personally do not find to be too many in any way, shape or form.

 

Of course this average is in no way a reality. Almost all the quests are being created by two people, myself and Corradun (though Andyr has plans for a couple, and Moongaze is helping out with dialogue for various background characters). There's no way I'm dropping my single planned new NPC (she's been an intended part of LoI since before LoI existed!) and I doubt Corradun will want to drop either of his two.

 

Since the rest of the team members don't have to worry about working on the quests (other than for interjection purposes), they will have absolutely tonnes of time to work on their NPCs. If any NPCs are not finished or (at the very least) nearing completion by the time everything else in LoI is finished, those NPCs will be saved for v2 or an add-on or something.

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But (unless you prefer the "go there, kill them and retrieve that" style of quest), the most interesting aspect of quests is the characters involved: their personalities, motivations, relationships with other characters, and so on. Which is exactly what NPCs are all about...

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I do not see any joinable NPCs involved in quests such as Durlag's Tower, the Werewolf Island or the Thieves' Guild quests in Baldur's Gate. There are NPCs connected to BG2 quests such as Umar Hills, Trademeet, the Planar Sphere, the Demiplane Prison and the Unseeing Eye but they are not vital to the quests and the quests can be enjoyed without them.

 

-Echon

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I cannot blame them in any way; most "members who recently joined" and want to make a mod of some sort want to make an NPC mod.

 

However, I very much agree to all points said by Sim and Echon.

 

Something I'd like to add is that I wouldn't download a mod that claims it's a massive quest mod, and I see the ratio of NPCs to quests is 1 : 1.

 

-Galactygon

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I do not see any joinable NPCs involved in quests such as Durlag's Tower, the Werewolf Island or the Thieves' Guild quests in Baldur's Gate. There are NPCs connected to BG2 quests such as Umar Hills, Trademeet, the Planar Sphere, the Demiplane Prison and the Unseeing Eye but they are not vital to the quests and the quests can be enjoyed without them.

 

-Echon

By "characters" I meant the quest givers, the people who you meet (and often have to kill) as part of the quest, etc, not neccessarily anyone joinable.

 

LoI is not about dungeon-crawl style quests (though that isn't to say there won't be any), and if that's what people are expecting, I'm afraid they'll be somewhat disappointed. Remember, the 'I' in LoI stands for 'intrigue', and the mod will consequently be full of secrets, lies, half-truths, double-crosses, plots, schemes, ancient legacies, all that kind of stuff :cry:.

 

And Galactygon, AFAIK no-one ever said LoI was a "massive quest mod". At least, not anyone on the team :D. In fact, the four oldest elements of the mod are all NPCs.

 

Bottom line: if anyone wants there to be a larger number of quests in the mod, please join the team and help us create them! :D

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Nightmare, I just realized thateven with all LOI charachters included, there is only ONE dwarven party NPC (who is evil b.t.w. - Korogan).

We should need a good aligned dwarf NPC somewhere..

 

And while I do think quests are important, I'd rather see 5 high-quality, in-depth quests, than 40 go there and fetch that quests...

From what I can see, LOI quests are deep indeed....

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