BigRob

Probably the simpest way to test that would be to have a paladin character (with 20 rep) kill an innocent, and see what happens. Most reputation losing acts in the game is not so much really evil as slightly self centred, normally involving insisting on payment for help. I can see this as an bad, but excusable thing for a paladin to do, since they tithe heavily to their temple so they may, in effect, be insisting on a donation to their deity. I don't think I'd complain if my ranger or paladin immediately fell for deliberately killing, or having killed, an innocent for purely selfish reasons.

Nope, there's still more to be done. After Anomen, there's banter for all the other NPCs, Quests to be written (but the basic plots are done for those) and the interjects. Then the coding begins. The longest parts remaining will be the Anomen conflict, Haer'Dalis' banters (because of his conflict with Aklon) and Jaheira's banters (she and Aklon have a lot to say to one another). The quests have PC interaction so they may take a little while too.

Well, more time has flown by and a particularly busy time in Real Life hasn't helped speed the progress. However, I can report that I have completed the basic Anomen banters, as well as Aklon's part in the fight between CN Anomen and Aerie. I have now moved onto Aklon and Anomen's romance conflict. I have the basc plan for it worked out and am now in the process of slotting in some ideas. Hopefully I will complete that shortly. Thank you all for visiting and posting, it's good to know that you're all waiting (and not yet running out of patience!).

Ooo, Anzac buscuits! I suppose it's been a while since the last report... Why do I smell ozone?

The forum is kept here on the off chance Jessayla will return, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. It's been a very long time since she was active.

A cup of mulled wine, the sparks flying high into the night, the serenade of the injured... There's probably someone to go for a bit of that.

If it weren't summer down here, chicken soup by a fire would be a very welcome holiday. And I don't know if the kind of fire I had in mind might feature in a romantic CD advertisment... still, you never know.

Thanks Celtic Rose. The illness is pretty much done now, but who am I to turn away chicken soup, milk and cookies? I'm hoping to sneak in a bit of writing some time this weekend, in between the work, but right now, I'm thinking of that old adage: Fire fixes everything.

Yes, thank you, I'm feeling much better now. The fact that the illness fell right at a period of narrow deadlines at work really didn't (and still doesn't) help with the time factor currently. Work (well, the deadlines bit) is what ails all of us, sadly.

I have been nibbling away at the Aklon/Anomen stuff, and have made some more progress, but a mix of real-life work and some illness managed to completely wreck last week, writing wise. I'm going to try and catch up on things this week though, and see if I can't give a proper progress report sooner rather than later.

It is nice to break up writing with a little gameage, but it does tend to get out of hand if you don't watch the clock (or keep thinking "Just one more battle")

Thanks very much for the well wishes and most of all for the patience, Dragon's Jewel, Celtic Rose and Berelinde! I know I say this a lot, but I'll try to make things come along as fast as possible. Real life has been nibbling away at my time recently, and I don't know what's ended up happening to it all (Though I think NWN2 might have a little something to do with it ). Hopefully I should have some real progress to report soon. And cookies are always welcome. Even if they are being dangled like carrots.

First up, I will try to make Aklon compatible with Oversight (and I also think Ascension alters monks, but I'm not too sure about that). Aklon may have a custom script, but I'm not too much of a fan of script use myself, I tend to like to keep a tight rein on my NPCs ripping off spells and abilities left and right, or breaking off from something I really want dead to attack a more dangerous target. That said, I'll see if I can develop something that others will find useful. I will, however, be looking at some extra abilities and/or HLAs to mark Aklon as different from other monks, due to his more eclectic training. These would be something along the lines of special strikes that would count as a use of Stunning Fist, and include minor hampering of enemy THAC0, slow effects and other such things. While playtesting I will have to see if these don't unbalance him compared to a standard monk. As for HLAs, some of the things I'm considering are a limited Mirror Image (we all remember those ninja films, right?), knockdown, a concentrated attack doing large damage, but causing Aklon a penalty in subsequent rounds, a distance Stunning Fist and perhaps additional Quivering Palms. *cough* Well, no promises, but I'll see what's possible. Best of luck on your exam!

Well, I'm trying to put things together so that even those not really interested in romancing Aklon will still have access to a complex and interesting NPC. Access to player initiated dialogues and backstory encounters is pretty much the same for romancers and non-romancers, and there is a friendship path as well as the romance path to explore. Hopefully that should be enough for at least one replay's worth of interesting stuff. So, Berelinde, going to be stress testing the romantic pentagon?

Well, I'm not holding my breath that ToB's gonna be any easier, but there shouldn't be as much writing at least. Hi DocLem, thank you for the kind words. I hope the final product lives up to expectations. And welcome to G3! Once I'm done with the main writing for SoA, I will be putting together some banters and interactions for mod NPCs as well (Via the Cross-Mod Banter Pack forum also at G3). That will depend on getting consent from the mod's original makers to put them in, so hopefully you'll see things for Kelsey and other NPCs as well, but we'll see how well my writing agrees with the originals first. There will almost certainly be reactions for the G3 NPC's, and I have had some thoughts about Amber already (that I really really need to chase up again ).

Well, I do have some plans for Aklon ToB, but they shouldn't be as complex as the ones in SoA, though I am envisioning a quest with a new area, if I can get one convnicingly made.

Thanks for that note of patience. Hopefully I'll be finishing Aklon sooner rather than later, but if you need time for writing, there's always ToB...

Work has a way of doing that. And all the arsenic never does a thing.

So when should I expect the burning effigy? I haven't ended up with the amount of holidays I thought I was going to get, but I'll be trying to get as much done as possible while I've got the time. Sorry about having to go on with patience fumes, but I am working on it!

Nothing calms Aklon for a good night's sleep like a long read from the instruction manual. I wish you to keep your sanity through it! It sounds pretty complex, but it could be very lively too. Thanks Domi. Going by how complex the version I'm doing now is turning out, the romantically conflicted version might end up being a riot. Just enough complexity to get Anomen to eat during a murderous rage. "Look everyone, we're all a bit tense from life on the trail. How about a tasty treat before we resolve this?"

*cough* Well, there's still two months of summer left... Obviously the place where I work is going to have to have one of those accidental burnings down that sometimes happen. Oh, of course. Anything to relieve party tension, right? Maybe if he's spent to much time with his Pharmacopoeia...

Thanks Menelanna, I'll see what I can do to keep that wait as short as possible. Oh yes, many confused and frustrated emotions boiling around will certainly make for a... complicated stand-off. It's a distinct possibility too, especially if the player picks up Aklon, Aerie and Anomen fairly close together. I started working on this last night, actually, and including that scenario, I've currently got six different ways for Aklon to react to Anomen's little loss of temper.

The boy has a temper, that's for sure. But maybe he'd drop that mace so CHARNAME could kiss him better? Anomen does have problems, no matter what alignment stage he's at. Aklon and Anomen rub each other the wrong way, but there will be a kind of mutual respect between them. They're both warriors and each has qualities that the other will grudgingly admire. Thanks for the well wishes, I'll try to keep the speed as close to god-like as mortally possible.

Thanks. Of course, you know how progress can be. I'm looking forward to the next progress post not taking orders of months to appear. That's true. It's certainly given me a perspective on where, when and how to place them. The material will be a little different though, as Aklon and Anomen don't get on very well to start with, where I had to allow some different angles for a PC/Aerie conflict. Some of Anomen's stuff is already done, being part of the main Aklon romance track, so I've got a starting point to work from, which I didn't have for Aerie. The show's booked in for next year. Including Haer'Dalis in that mess, you've got a love pentagon.... I've tried to pre-build some of that into Aerie's talks, but when all the NPC bantering is done, I'll probably need to go back and add a few extras to really capture the complexity of all those raging emotions. They're all relatively similar. Sir Anomen becomes a lot less antagonistic, but he retains a lot of his stiffness and general disregard for things he considers beneath him. Chaotic Neutral Anomen becomes a lot more aggressive and retains his arrogance, but he does loosen up his sense of nobility. Aklon doesn't get along with any of them, but you're right that he will get along with CN Anomen the worst of all. And that won't all be Anomen's fault, Aklon is generally patient and tolerant, but he has his lapses. With Sir Anomen, there is a chance that they will become relatively friendly, but there'll need to be a specific chain of events to do that. Aklon's basic reaction to that event will be similar regardless of what state the romances are at. What the romances will do is modify just how far Aklon's willing to go and what he might do afterwards. The layers of complexity just keep stacking up, don't they?

Oh dear, it's been another two months, hasn't it? Well, on the bright side, Aerie's romance is done, complete with Haer'Dalis and PC conflict. I've now made a start on Anomen, and will see if I can't power through his conflicts and banters a lot faster than I managed Aerie's. Thanks for hanging in there everyone...