JPS

I've posted something to this effect twice already, but I just realized that if someone's interested in the progress of the mod, this is probably where they'll look first...

After I got started again in June, there has been slow but constant progress, but I want to finish all of the writing before I let anyone look at it. This is mainly because I'm a difficult and unsociable person; I'm even a bit reluctant to speak about things I'm currently writing. At the moment, my goal is to finish all of the writing before the end of August, and there will probably not be any new progress reports before that.

The SoA part of the romance is fully planned and most of it is already written. I just need to put all the pieces together to see if they fit, and rewrite the things that don't. The ToB part is being planned. I want to get both parts finished as soon as possible, so hopefully there will be no long gap between the two releases.

I will still take any and all suggestions into consideration, but there will probably not be any great changes.

Progress Report, June 30, 2004.

I just wrote "haer" instead of "hear" in a totally unrelated piece of writing. I don't know if this is progress,but I figured I would report it anyway.

Progress report, June 3, 2004

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Progress!

I am currently:

• Blowing the dust off old topics
  
• Integrating the quests with the romance
  
• Combining old and new ideas into a Unified Field Theory of Everything
  
• Plotting and/or Scheming
  

During the forced break, I've also had time to think about a couple of things. In fact, some of the things that I know how to do now would have taken me more than six months to figure out in November. Really.

Don't worry. Sometimes the choice isn't so much about whether you should neglect your duties as about knowing which duties to neglect. And as a semi-proffessional neglecter of duties, I can say that you've got your neglecting pretty well sorted out.

Umm... what I was going to say before I got carried away with all the neglecting was "take your time, we'll still be here when you're done".

Yes, but 6' 7'' is very tall (around two meters, for those of us who use a more rational system ). That doesn't necessarily have to mean that Aklon can't be that tall, though...

You're probably going to think that I'm not focusing on the essentials here, but: Yay! Rapiers! I can't wait

Note, June 1, 2004: This introduction is in the process of being edited. If something doesn't make sense, please be patient. If something does make sense, please let me know so I can change it...

Another note, June 23, 2004: I'm locking this thread to keep the introduction uncluttered. If you have any comments, either post them in this thread, or start a new thread for them.

This mod started as a discussion on the Unfinished Business forum, when it turned out that the game designers had planned a romance for Haer'Dalis but then dropped it due to time constraints. As far as possible, we're trying to base the romance on the information that is availiable about the original plans. We like to think that this makes us special.

Since the information about the planned romance is rather sparse, and some of it is connected to other plot elements that were cut from the game, what we're really doing here is making things up as we go and trying to look good doing it.

The mod is still in progress, so anything you find on this forum might already have changed when you're reading it. Here are some things that are not likely to change, at least not too drastically:

Haer'Dalis will romance female characters of any race, class or alignment. He will react to these things in some of the lovetalks – an evil gnome cleric might get a different reaction than, say, a good half-orc fighter, but both of them will be able to finish the romance. We are not planning any stat requirements either, so it will be possible to romance him with an intelligence score of 4 and a wisdom score of 7 if you want to. When we write the lovetalks, however, we will assume that the character is able to keep a normal conversation, so there might not be any believable dialogue options for the 4 int 7 wis character...

The Shadows of Amn part of the romance, which is what we're currently working on, will have three possible endings, depending on your choices in the lovetalks. The "default" track will be availiable to anyone as long as you don't break the romance (just like the in-game ones), while the "romantic" ending and the "obsessive" ending will require a little work, and maybe a little extra charm or understanding (that's supposed to be a hint that there might be stat requirements for these two romance paths...). The Throne of Bhaal part should then, logically, have three different tracks from the beginning, but we haven't started working on that yet.

It will be posible to flirt with Haer'Dalis and, depending on how much time we spend on this and how much extra work it takes, some player-initiated interactions might even be required for the non-standard paths. It's also possible that some of the less... well... flirty flirt options will be availiable to players (or shoufd that be "characters"?) who are not romancing Haer'Dalis, but that remains to be seen.

The SoA part of the romance will include the two Haer'Dalis-related quests that were also planned and then cut by the designers. We have not yet decided exactly how the quests will tie in with the romance, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

We are planning to include a brand new quest in the ToB part of the mod. There might be more information about that when we actually start working on it.

Definitely an improvement, especially the hair.

But he doesn't look 37

Report 4 – December 7, 2003

It seems like I've neglected updating this for a while, but I blame it all on society! Err.... or perhaps not.... then I blame it on the badgers. The devious little creatures, with their dancing and their ... their... no, this isn't working...

Things were standing still for a while, but then they started moving. At the moment, they're standing still again, but I hope that's just temporary. We have sort of reached an agreement about Haer'Dalis' past (that means that I've said what I think and then said "no" to everybody else's suggestions ), so I should be able to write the lovetalks that deal with it any time now. And I've gotten feedback on my early lovetalks (that was long ago, but I haven't done anything about it yet), so there should be revised versions of those as well.

The worst of my real life work will soon be over for this time, so I should have more time for this from now on. I'm even considering things like working regularly and keeping to a schedule, but we'll have to see about that... I realize that this would probably take a lot less time if I actually decided to write an hour per day, every day, or something like that.

I also realize that this is more of a "developer diary" than a "progress report" but hey, I blame it on society.... err... badgers... er... the Royal Society of Badgers! It's all their fault.

JPS

Third report – October 25, 2003

Well, it seems like we agree on the preliminary plans for the romance, so I'm going to start writing the actual lovetalks now. I've got a busy week ahead of me, though, so it migth take some time before I manage to finish anything.

And it's been a while since I last wote poetry, so that might lead to some additional delays. Almost makes me wish the Solaufein mod hadn't already used the easy way out (using real world poetry, that is). Hmm... is "contains only previously unused poetry" a good sales argument?

JPS

Second report – October 20, 2003

Ladies and gentlemen, there has been progress!

For the last few weeks, I've suffered from a bad case of Real Life, but things have not been standing still. Important issues have been discussed (by Tam, Bibbi, Barren Fischa and myself), files have been coded (by Barren), the same files have been neglected too long (by me, I'm afraid), and my first outline for the romance has been posted (by me, unsurprisingly) to be evaluated and possibly challenged (by... no, this is just getting ridiculous).

I've written some dialogue, which has not been posted yet, but will be soon. For some strange reason, it seems like I work best during long train journeys. This might mean that more work will be done tomorrow, since I'll be on a train again, but it wouldn't surprise me if the magic is gone now that I've talked about it. You can never be too careful when dealing with magic. And rabbits, but that's a different story.

I'm desperately trying to think of something that will fit the public forum, but it seems like everything is either not decided yet, or potentially a spoiler. Perhaps I'll have to start writing fanfic...

EDIT: Well, I could of course mention some of the things that are currently included in my plans for the romance:

* Class-specific dialogues (well, at least one)

* Poetry (written by yours truly. Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

* Upgrades for Haer'Dalis' swords (for our inner power gamer...)

* A haunting past (well, at least it haunts me)

* A new encounter (probably for the ToB part, which we're not really working on right now, but in advertising, anything goes, right?)

* Dancing rabbits (no, not really. I just made that up)

JPS

First report – September 30, 2003

We've just moved in and started to make ourselves comfortable. Currently Barren Fischa, Bibbi and myself are working on the mod, but there's certainly room for more people (please contact Barren Fischa if you are interested, Dear Reader).

At the moment, we are trying to figure out the basics for the romance, deciding what it should generally be about. As of now, there are quite a few things that we have not decided on, but things are looking good. We are gathering information, throwing ideas at each other and generally having a good time (I hope. I know I am ).

No actual lovetalks have been written yet, apart from the ones that can be found at the Unfinished Business forum (oh, and if Tam, who started that discussion, happens to read this: you're still welcome in the team ). When I get time to do some writing, I'll start posting sample lovetalks in the workroom forum, and as soon as one of those lovetalks is deemed safe for the public I'll post it in this forum as well.

That's about it for this time. I'll keep you informed, and remember that Haer'Dalis loves you (now that was cheesy...)

JPS

Alright, I thought I'd start a new thread just to let potential visitors know that we are in fact working hard, even if it doesn't show here in the public forum.

I'll add a new post every now and then to let you know how we are faring.

I'll try to avoid direct spoilers, but if you see something that you think will spoil some of the fun for you, just let me know and I'll tell you to forget it...

JPS