BigRob

Fun to see I'm getting some side action from the World Cup with the vuvuzelas. Thanks a lot for the encouragement everyone, I'm very gratified to see new faces as well as those who've already shown so much patience hanging in there. I'm getting closer, but real life continues to gougew away at my writing time. I haven't made much progress over the last couple of weeks, since I just moved house and work is not letting up much to allow me to do much other than do that and complete all my arrangements. I'm in the new place now and getting more organised, so hopefully I should be back to serious writing soon. I know I say this every time, but thank you all and I'll try and cut down that wait for you!

Well, it's not exactly a huge update, and certainly not worth dancing over, but I have finished up another Aklon/Jaheira talk. Hopefully I'll get a chance to crack on tonight and get another one done, or mostly done.

OK, I know this was promised a couple of weeks ago, but there seems to always be something jumping around to delay me doing stuff. *looks up at date of previous post* Embarrassingly so. But I'm here now with an up to date news post, coupled with an update for the general progress, so everyone can get a clue on how slow I really am... So, for current news, Jaheira's banter and talk planning is complete and I've gotten two of her banters written and finished. Not much, but things are settling down at work and I hope to have a bit more free time now. As for the total work done, the following things are finished: Main Romance Track Aklon Flirting PC Flirting Player Initiated Dialogues (romance and non romance) Banters, interactions, NPC romances and conflicts: Aerie, Anomen, Cernd, Edwin, Haer'Dalis, Imoen. The following things are still left to go: Friendship Track (partially completed) Banters, interactions, NPC romances and conflicts: Jaheira, Jan, Keldorn, Korgan, Mazzy, Minsc, Nalia, Valygar, Viconia, Yoshimo, the PC. Quests (planned, but not written) Interjections into in-game events (planned, but not written) Coding (somewhat started, thanks to some generous help from Berelinde)

Gah, it's been ages since I replied here, and I keep meaning to, but somehow something always seems to come up to make it slip my mind. There's been a bit more progress and I'm now into planning out Jaheira's banters and have started some work on one or two. I've unfortunately been a bit busy at work, since this is the busiest time of the year for me, and coupled with my looking for a new place to live, time has been somewhat contrained. I'll keep plugging away though, and I hope to get a fair bit of writing done this weekend. Also, I haven't forgotten the request for a more serious list of what's been done and what's left to go, I'll update the main news thread with that as soon as I can, I'll try and take a little time out later on this week for it.

Hi Aryene and NhmoraFirewalker, thanks for the enthusiastic little pushes there, and the good news is that have made some progress in the last few weeks (though not so much this week as work has been spectacularly heavy), though not enough to get Aklon up and running just yet. I've basically finished Imoen's banters now, just one more to go and I'll be in for Jaheira's.

Oh, sweet alternatives, always good to have them. Congratulations on getting this done and out Berelinde!

Makes me think about going out and getting an X-box just for this, if the old Starflight is on it...

Thanks for that sweepingly positive assessment. Don't worry, I am still working on the mod, just not as fast as I might like to (though I admit that I have been somewhat caught up in Dragon Age for the last couple of weeks ) With my holidays coming up and nothing much to do for them, I'm hoping to get a significant chunk of writing completed fairly soon.

A little, though not enough to put onto the News post. I've got 4 banters done for Imoen, though two are romance specific, and one is minor, only appearing when you fist meet Imoen. I've got about 3 more planned, not counting ToB banters, and hopefully my work schedule will let me get them finished up reasonably quickly.

Thanks a lot for the encouragement Auyssa, I'll try not to make Aklon disappointing, and I'll strive to make sure you get to play it sometime relatively soon. Though knowing the way I make progress, that could be very relative.

Erk, has it really been six months since I put in an appearance here? Well, I've not got much excuse for that, save to say that real life has been particularly intrusive over the last year or so, but I'll keep plugging away, and with some effort, hope to have aklon mostly done before the turn of the century. Well, at last, a little more progress in the progress thread: Haer'Dalis' banters and the romance conflict between Aklon and he over the hand of Aerie are finally done. Now, I'm beginning work on Imoen's banters, which should take a lot less time overall, due to there being less interaction with the PC and (fingers crossed) a quieter time in real life.

Thanks for popping in to keep an eye out Aryene and DeathAngel. Well, aside from lots of work draining away my time, I have nearly completed Haer'Dalis' banters, as well as the conflicts between him and Aklon for Aerie's romance. That's slowing things down a little at the moment, because the PC is also potentially involved, but I'm hoping to have him completed and get on to Imoen this week, if I can.

Life is still dealing me some blows in terms of time available, but I'm starting to wrangle it back under control again. *knocks on wood*. In the interim though, I have got most of the Aklon/Haer'Dalis conflict completed, wtih just one talk left to go now. Ouch, I've just realised how many months it's taken to get here... I really need to get a move on.

Thanks, yeah, real life always does seem to find a way to muscle in on things. Aklon is backed up regularly (as in, whenever I write anything), and fortunately I didn't lose anything major in the dying drive, just a few replaceable bits. It is a major incentive for me to back up the rest of my stuff though. And an Happy Saint Patick's day to you as well. Thanks for the encouragement CelticRose, I'll plug on and bring Aklon forth as fast as green beer will allow.

Thanks very much for the support, I apprecaite people taking the time out to give it to me. Sadly, real life does get us all from time to time, and I suspect that's exactly what happened to JPS. I've been a lot more delayed on writing in the last few weeks than I'd like (heavy work requirements and a replacing a dying hard drive), but I'm hoping to have more progress to report shortly.

Thanks for the encouragement DocLem, SMichelle and Riviera (may the nightshift merely allow you to watch daytime television)! Whoops, and Aeryn, posting sneakily there. The muses have been working well on such offerings as nutella, since I've now completed Haer'Dalis' banters. I just have to write up Aklon's part in Aerie's romance conflict with Haer'Dalis and we're on to Imoen town. As for DarthMordechai, I do agree that his criticisms are generally not helpful, and I suspect mostly played for laughs. He could also be hideously cynical and have extremely high standards, especially since he said that Bioware can't write romances, but that the Bioware 3 are better than any mod romance yet produced. I've been accused of something similar for picking holes in movies. I suspect there will be things in Aklon that he would/will criticise harshly. Likewise that not everyone will like the things I've ended up writing for him and many may be disappointed when he's finally released (hopefully that won't be all of you out there). I like criticism of my work, as it helps me to improve it, though there is a point at which some people just fundamentally do not like a certain style/idea. It's just something I'm going to have to live with.

Thanks Deathangel, I'll try to make sure that the wait is not so much longer and hopefully at least partially worth it. And thanks to you as well, DocLem. Unfortunately the release date is likely to be masured in months at the moment. Now is one of the busiest times of the year in real life for me, but I will be making an effort to ensure I keep progress going and that should keep things a litle quicker. I'd estimate I'll be done this year (knock on wood), but hopefully the SoA beta should be ready before then. Sorry I won't give a real date, but every time I have, I've overrun it badly. Better to be vague than disapointing, I think.

A nutritious and refreshing summer beverage. I think Haer'Dalis might make a special Christmas performance. Thanks KIrving, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you too, I hope I'll have some mice shiny banters ready for 2009. First up, thanks for hanging on for so long, Patiently Waiting, it means a lot to me to hear that there are people just waiting for Aklon to come out to play BG2 again. Hoestly though, there are heaps of good mods out there, you shouldn't miss out on those while waiting for me to finish up. I do apologise for the slowness of my progress, I can only offer that timeworn excuse of real life intruding on my time (and at times desire) to write, but I am committed to getting Aklon completed. I can't really give a percent complete, however, since every time I've done it so far (if you look at some of the earlier progress reports I used to), they've always turned out to be horribly incorrect, and sadly, the same with completion estimates for time. I think the last one I posted said I thought I'd be done by the end of this year. So I really don't want to raise hopes more than is warranted. What I can do, though, is tell you what's been done so far and what's left to go so you can get a guage on roughly how long there is to wait. Banters should be the thing taking up the most time, with the possible exception of coding, which may take me a while to get the hang of, quests, interjects and the Slave track, I should be able to get through with some speed, as these have defined goals. So what's been done: Romance track, Force-talk options (romance and friend), Flirts (Aklon), Flirts (PC), Banters (Aerie, Anomen, Cernd, Edwin, 50% Haer'Dalis), NPC romance (Aerie), Early Coding (Thanks Berelinde!) What's left to do: Banters (all other NPCs), NPC Romance conflict (Haer'Dalis), Slave Aklon track, Interjections, Quests (Getting Aklon's Pharmacopoeia, Removing the Collar, Ano'Garhm: Stranger in a Strange Land), Coding. I hope that goes some way to answering what you wanted to know. Thanks again for being patient for so long with my writing speed.

Thanks for the encouragement, Singingbarmanfan, I hope you find that Aklon plays as good as he sounds (er, when he's ready! ) And though I will be trying to get some more work done on him over my vacation, I won't be forgetting my family and friends on the holidays, I've already got a few things lined up and hope to be spending a lot of time with them too. Not having to work really does free up a lot of hours. Happy Holidays to you and everyone who's still hanging on with me after these years! I might see about a little Kweeznuz spoiler again this year...

Thanks very much for the kind words Illana, I'm having some very busy real life times at the moment (especially since it's taken nearly a week for me to comment on this!), but I'm hoping to move things on more serisouly over the holidays. Haer'Dalis is currently coming along and hopefully I can get all the banters for the NPCs wrapped up soon. I'll try to make sure that both yourgood end evil NPCs aren't disappointed! Ow! Please Ma'am, I've done two banters, can I have a sip now? Thought provoking muffins and muses drunk on chocolate and beer. Haer'Dalis is going to be very... interestingly witten, I think.

I'll have you know that the thoughts of hordes of gaming ladies slaving to my every pastry desire and pamering me with endless gifts and thought provoking muffins does nothing to stunt my artistic integrity. Though the muses do like it.

Proximity to pastry presents is a pernicious problem. Particularly the rich chocolatey variety. Mmm, delicious cupcakes. Thanks for the kind words and offerings of muse-sating chocolates everyone. It's good to see I haven't lost everyone with the time I'm taking over this. I'm sure a little honey, some chicken soup and the promise of more chocolate to come will have the ladies working merrily in shifts. I'm hoping to nudge a little work out of them this afternoon for some chatter with Haer'Dalis. As ever, I'll be trying to keep the wait for Aklon as short as I can. And if no one else has said it yet, Welcome to G3 irrha and Yuwakusha!

Mmm, ice cream. Yoink! Thanks very much for the words of support Ankhesenpaaten and Eleima! I'll try to keep RL on some kind of leash as best I can to get Aklon finished (or at least the SoA part released) as soon as possible. In answer to your question about how many banters I have left to write, I'm going for about three to four per NPC, so with that plus additionals for those with more interaction (for that we have only Jaheira and Haer'Dalis left), we're looking at about 50 banters left. Hmm, that really puts it in perspective. Time to get the lead out!

Gah, another three months, this is getting to be a bad habit. I meant to post this a few days ago, but real life has been angrily clutching at my spare moments such that it slipped my mind. I do have osme major progress to report, namely that Edwin's banters are completed and I'm not moving on to Haer'Dalis'. He should be a little less complex, so I'm hoping to get him finished up a lot quicker (*knocks on wood* never more fatal words spoke). As always, thanks to all of you out there who continue to drop by and offer support and interest, I'll keep trying to make the wait worth it!

Thanks celticrose and Vestrael for the encouragement, this last banter is taking a little longer to write than I thought, despite a lack of fever, nausea or chills. It's one for Edwina and has multiple NPCs involved, so it's a little more complicated than most. I'm hoping to get Eddie wrapped up tonight and started on Haer'Dalis if possible. But, as ever, don't be holding your breaths, or you'll likely get very blue.