Can I add my voice to the others here: speaking as a longtime lurker who has watched this thread for a while, it's heartening to see you regaining interest in the project. And it would definitely be better to see a tangible release in the shorter term than have the project stuck in a scope creep doldrum!
Major milestone achieved today. I've completed the 2 big dungeon areas that were the big hump that basically derailed me last year on this.
So what's left in terms of content?
The last area and boss of the dungeon. This is very small though, just a single room and fight, and a bit of dialogue to write along with it, along with 1-2 items from the encounter.
Then after that, I'm injecting a bit before the final Sarevok fight. This one will take a bit of figuring out since it's a bit of a unique script I'll need to write. But there's not a ton of actual *content* to make there, it's more just a bonus little thing I need to figure out how to do.
So strictly in terms of content, I'd say I'm about to the 90% mark!
(to be clear, this doesn't mean I'm 90% done. I'm 90% to the point where the mod can be played start to finish. I still need to make a proof-read and fine tuning pass afterwards).
Make sure to back up your modding data...or join the bazillion modders who tasted true despair when their HD/PCs died along with all they did up to that point. Including any remaining motivation lol.
@AWizardDidIt
Alleluia! I also agree with the notion of backing up your data - but on Google Drive because it's accessible from many places and independent of any one of your hard drives!
The planned BG:EE portion of the mod is now playable from start to finish! I've completed the last few segments and run through it and it all works perfectly.
So what's next? It's time for fine tuning and proof-reading. What's involved in that?
1. Spell and grammar check along with reviewing and rewriting dialogue if I'm unsatisfied.
2. Add in more interjections from party members (it was something I did frequently early on, but later on dialogue is much less rich with party member interaction. Adding more in is a priority for me).
3. Make sure that each dialogue tree flows correctly.
4. Playtest each fight added and adjust if I think it's too easy/hard.
We'll see if I can get this all done by the new year! (no promises, that might be an optimistic holiday miracle)
I also recommend using SCS (Sword Coast Stratagems) to ensure it's doable on SCS Insane within the level cap of BG1EE - as well as adding native EET compatibility.
Thankee, Wiz! At release, we can rejoice with you saying that you ARE the Wizard that did it! Alleluia!
I also recommend using SCS (Sword Coast Stratagems) to ensure it's doable on SCS Insane within the level cap of BG1EE - as well as adding native EET compatibility.
Thankee, Wiz! At release, we can rejoice with you saying that you ARE the Wizard that did it! Alleluia!
I believe SCS would not effect any portion of my mod since SCS doesn't change the scripts of the Black Pits encounters (which is what I based all of the encounters in my mod based on). I'll definitely double check on that though.
I will def look at what's needed for EET implementation.
I mentioned SCS due to difficulty because SCS in general makes enemies competent and SCS Insane means the player is asking for one of the highest challenges that's expected to be 'fair,' which I know is subjective. I didn't expect SCS scripting to interfere.
I'm about halfway-ish done with my proof-read and bug test playthrough. Making sure that all the dialogues chain together correctly is melting my brain a bit, but I'm making steady progress on it. I've also been doing some revisions on the fights as I go through them, trying to add extra spice into them so while each combat encounter is essentially similar to the progression of fights in Black Pits, they all have some kind of twist on them too.
Also, I finally came up with a cool portrait for Illasera to use for the mod. I used AI to interpret a base using the original Illasera portrait from TOB and then photoshopped it pretty significantly and blended real portrait imagery over it. I'm going to do a bit more touch up to try and fit it to BG's style, although I think it's getting there.
Love the portrait! I can't wait to play this. I think it's really cool what you're doing, adding so much backstory to Illasera, a much underused character.
I've been burned before by estimating a release date on this thing and then completely falling off haha
But I have a big holiday break coming up without a ton IRL going on to keep me from just diving deep on the last bits of the mod to finish it up. If everything goes the way I want it to, it's possible I Release it on the New Year. We'll see. As I get deeper into playtesting/review, I'm starting to rewrite and revise a lot of things. Over the past week, I wrote about 700 additional lines between npcs and companion members. It's moving along though!
I've also sketched up a rough outline for the SOD "epilogue" part that I had planned to initially release with the first release, but instead I'm going to just cut off into its own separate mod. It'll be significantly shorter and just entail one quest that will fill in Tamoko as a character (she'll be a non-party companion for the first halfish of the game) with a mini dungeon involved. I had initially had some second thoughts about "stealing" Tamoko's character for fear another mod might have developed her (I hate stepping on other modder's toes), but after some searching around, the only mod I could find that involved Tamoko was one done by Roxanne. After reading that dialogue file, I figured nobody would object to me doing a... different take on the character.
If Tamoko was killed in your game, there's a slightly different path and that extra mini-dungeon, but it'll be pretty brief. Again, just an epilogue to fill out some things to lead into BG2/TOB. If you don't have or like SOD, you won't miss out on much for not playing it.
Sounds awesome with the Tamoko part - and I think that no one will consider you bold or bragging if you claim that you are up to par or better than Roxanne when it comes to writing dialogue….
I've also sketched up a rough outline for the SOD "epilogue" part that I had planned to initially release with the first release, but instead I'm going to just cut off into its own separate mod. It'll be significantly shorter and just entail one quest that will fill in Tamoko as a character (she'll be a non-party companion for the first halfish of the game) with a mini dungeon involved. I had initially had some second thoughts about "stealing" Tamoko's character for fear another mod might have developed her (I hate stepping on other modder's toes), but after some searching around, the only mod I could find that involved Tamoko was one done by Roxanne. After reading that dialogue file, I figured nobody would object to me doing a... different take on the character.
If Tamoko was killed in your game, there's a slightly different path and that extra mini-dungeon, but it'll be pretty brief. Again, just an epilogue to fill out some things to lead into BG2/TOB. If you don't have or like SOD, you won't miss out on much for not playing it.
Sounds awesome ! About the SoD epilogue part, it would be great if you also check @jastey 's another fine hell mod, which makes some changes to the end of SoD.
The BG2 Kivan mod assumes Tamoko survived into BG2, but in a world where resurrection is fairly common, that should be no big deal to write around.
Domi's mod? Interesting, I'll have to give it a look.
In other news, proof-read and rewrites are done. I'm basically at the 99% mark. Just going to do one last playthrough to triple check for bugs and make some adjustments for the fights as necessary. After that, it's just checking for EET compatibility issues and writing up a readme and it should be ready.
Comments
So what's left in terms of content?
The last area and boss of the dungeon. This is very small though, just a single room and fight, and a bit of dialogue to write along with it, along with 1-2 items from the encounter.
Then after that, I'm injecting a bit before the final Sarevok fight. This one will take a bit of figuring out since it's a bit of a unique script I'll need to write. But there's not a ton of actual *content* to make there, it's more just a bonus little thing I need to figure out how to do.
So strictly in terms of content, I'd say I'm about to the 90% mark!
(to be clear, this doesn't mean I'm 90% done. I'm 90% to the point where the mod can be played start to finish. I still need to make a proof-read and fine tuning pass afterwards).
A lot of people really hope you get it ready for release. I am also looking forward to it - best of luck to you.
Alleluia! I also agree with the notion of backing up your data - but on Google Drive because it's accessible from many places and independent of any one of your hard drives!
The planned BG:EE portion of the mod is now playable from start to finish! I've completed the last few segments and run through it and it all works perfectly.
So what's next? It's time for fine tuning and proof-reading. What's involved in that?
1. Spell and grammar check along with reviewing and rewriting dialogue if I'm unsatisfied.
2. Add in more interjections from party members (it was something I did frequently early on, but later on dialogue is much less rich with party member interaction. Adding more in is a priority for me).
3. Make sure that each dialogue tree flows correctly.
4. Playtest each fight added and adjust if I think it's too easy/hard.
We'll see if I can get this all done by the new year! (no promises, that might be an optimistic holiday miracle)
Thankee, Wiz! At release, we can rejoice with you saying that you ARE the Wizard that did it! Alleluia!
I believe SCS would not effect any portion of my mod since SCS doesn't change the scripts of the Black Pits encounters (which is what I based all of the encounters in my mod based on). I'll definitely double check on that though.
I will def look at what's needed for EET implementation.
I'm about halfway-ish done with my proof-read and bug test playthrough. Making sure that all the dialogues chain together correctly is melting my brain a bit, but I'm making steady progress on it. I've also been doing some revisions on the fights as I go through them, trying to add extra spice into them so while each combat encounter is essentially similar to the progression of fights in Black Pits, they all have some kind of twist on them too.
Also, I finally came up with a cool portrait for Illasera to use for the mod. I used AI to interpret a base using the original Illasera portrait from TOB and then photoshopped it pretty significantly and blended real portrait imagery over it. I'm going to do a bit more touch up to try and fit it to BG's style, although I think it's getting there.
But I have a big holiday break coming up without a ton IRL going on to keep me from just diving deep on the last bits of the mod to finish it up. If everything goes the way I want it to, it's possible I Release it on the New Year. We'll see. As I get deeper into playtesting/review, I'm starting to rewrite and revise a lot of things. Over the past week, I wrote about 700 additional lines between npcs and companion members. It's moving along though!
I've also sketched up a rough outline for the SOD "epilogue" part that I had planned to initially release with the first release, but instead I'm going to just cut off into its own separate mod. It'll be significantly shorter and just entail one quest that will fill in Tamoko as a character (she'll be a non-party companion for the first halfish of the game) with a mini dungeon involved. I had initially had some second thoughts about "stealing" Tamoko's character for fear another mod might have developed her (I hate stepping on other modder's toes), but after some searching around, the only mod I could find that involved Tamoko was one done by Roxanne. After reading that dialogue file, I figured nobody would object to me doing a... different take on the character.
If Tamoko was killed in your game, there's a slightly different path and that extra mini-dungeon, but it'll be pretty brief. Again, just an epilogue to fill out some things to lead into BG2/TOB. If you don't have or like SOD, you won't miss out on much for not playing it.
Domi's mod? Interesting, I'll have to give it a look.
In other news, proof-read and rewrites are done. I'm basically at the 99% mark. Just going to do one last playthrough to triple check for bugs and make some adjustments for the fights as necessary. After that, it's just checking for EET compatibility issues and writing up a readme and it should be ready.
Regardless, thankee for your diligence and near-term release! Merry Christmas & alleluia!