(WIP)BG Sandbox

Allbrother

I've been working on something recently and I figured I'd make the thread for it early as I just want to talk about it and also a place to just post what I've been working on on any given day. Also gauging interest I guess.

Anyway, before I get into it, I'd like to preface this by saying this is a long way from done.

So what is this hopefully going to eventually be? Well here's what the mod is intended to look like:

-Pools of 25 small repeatable 'quests' for each of Nashkel, Beregost, Candlekeep, Flaming Fist and Thieves Guild. Some will be location/faction specific, some will be shared between pools.

-When player requests a quest from a location, one will be semi-randomly assigned from that location's pool.

-Most quests will have 3 challenge tiers based on player level, which will affect the type, stats, equipment and/or number of enemies faced.

-Most quests will have some level of randomization, mostly related to the location where enemies spawn, but in changing the encounters themselves in some instances.

-The content of the quests will vary from generic combat encounters (this was initially conceived to mimic Skyrim's radiant quests) through wave survival and escort type encounters to more involved (small) quests that can be resolved in different ways and even entirely dialog based quests.

-Location/faction specific reputation tracking for the repeatable quests to feed into with benefits/detriments using the journal to display the player's standing with each faction


I think that about covers it, unless I'm forgetting something.


As for what's currently completed, I have a pool of 9 quests in Nashkel completed and playable. Most but not all of these will be re-used for at least 1 other faction (i'm just going to call them that rather than location/faction each time).

I'll list them below, spoiler warning:

-Hunting a gnoll raiding party - randomized location, combat encounter with a large number of tougher than vanilla gnolls, time sensitive
-Bandit blockade on the road to Beregost - randomized location, combat encounter with a large group of bandits. Non-violent solutions considered but not implemented.
-Escaped golem - randomized location, randomized selection between pure combat encounter and an encounter with a possibility for dialog and non-violent solution, the latter planned but not fully implemented
-Miner strike - set location, dialogs, 2 violent and 2 non-violent solutions, stat checks.
-Ankhegs attack - set location, combat encounter with large number of ankhegs, time sensitive
-Necromancer trouble - set location, combat encounter with themed custom spellbook/script mage and minions, randomized selection between 2 spellbook/minion combos 50% implemented
-Extortion racket - randomized locatiom, combat encounter with backstabbing enemies. Non-violent solutions considered but not implemented.
-Ogre band - randomized location, combat encounter with a large number of bruisers supported by some custom spellbook ogre mages.
-Closing a portal - set location, defend a wizard while he destroys a portal that continously spews out enemies or destroy it yourself (very hard to hurt), Randomized selection between 2 portal/enemy types. Time sensitive

Also, I have the reputation system for Nashkel in the game, though the effects of it aren't implemented yet.

So that about covers it I think. I'll be posting updates on what I've been working on most recently as replies

Allbrother

So what I've been working on today:

-I finished the last quest that's noted in the spoiler tag. That one took a long time, longer than any of the others and for something that's not going to take that long at all to complete ingame. I had to learn to add new animations for it and I struggled with the creature scripts for a lot to get the critters to behave how I wanted them to. Glad that's done.

-Also implemented the skeleton of the reputation system.

-Also started work on a new, fully dialog based quest.

It's about commissioning a sword. You get a bunch of money then go to the smith and choose various aspects of the weapon that cost different amounts. You can pick the cheapest options and pocket a bunch of money but end up with a piece of crap that will hurt your reputation, overspend but get reputation benefit or go middle of the road. I'm also considering optional combat encounters where you can get high quality option by fighting instead of spending but that's a low priority for this one

Endarire

I had considered the possibility of adding more typical 'random' or 'generic' quests, like talking to a creature to have you kill a creature that spawned for the quest or to get an item that spawned for the quest.

The point was largely to satisfy my curiosity on how these could be implemented and if they were worthwhile considering the mountains of content the EE games already have with mods. Still, this system allows for more randomness akin to Diablo with procedurally generated creatures, loot (items or loot tables), NPCs, and more.

For example, you might generate a quest with extra optional conditions like, "Kill 10 worgs without being damaged by any of them," or "Heal this wounded creature without using spells," or "Guard this man from thieves but make sure none of the thieves even notice him," or "Unlock X locked objects within view of at least one neutral creature." The extra conditions are intentionally more difficult but may provide extra rewards.

When it makes sense to do so, I'm partial to weighting quest destinations to be places that are generally sparsely populated. For example, many BG1 wilderness areas have little of interest amidst the wide open space. The temples are also generally neglected areas for me because why visit them for healing when you can have divine casters on your team or just use items? (I know the temple services have a point and that some temples have quests associated, but using temple services is generally less useful than using items or a party member.)

Regardless, thankee for your contribution to this!

megrimlock

Very interesting concept. Would it make sense to aim for a beta release with a smaller number of quests for each location and then add to that list incrementally rather than completing all 125 quests at the outset? I'm sure there would be feedback that way which might assist you as you go.

Allbrother

megrimlock wrote: »

Would it make sense to aim for a beta release with a smaller number of quests for each location and then add to that list incrementally rather than completing all 125 quests at the outset? I'm sure there would be feedback that way which might assist you as you go.

Yeah, when I'm done with Nashkel or Nashkel + Beregost I'll upload it as feedback would be great. Initially I intended to make the thread when that's done and have it available, but couldn't wait as I just wanted to have a place to post progress

Speaking of which, I'm still on the quest I started yesterday. I was hoping to have it done by now, but that thing grew more complicated as it went along., the main d file for it is now over 400 lines and it's mostly triggers rather than actual dialog)

I ditched the idea of optional combat for this one and made it entirely dialog based. Sword can be made in 27 different combinations of materials, ultimately producing 18 different swords with different properties. Player can opt to intentionally fail the quest and just keep the sword, some of the combinations are rather nice and may be worth the rep hit

Endarire

Thankee!

Allbrother

I didn't do a ton over the weekend - I finished the last quest I talked about, completed another one and today I've been working on a third that's once again turning into more work than expected.

So, for the sword, I added some follow up events that might happen after the quest is complete depending on the player choices and some dice rolls.

The other quest I completed is an escort job that can turn out to either be just what it says on the tin or might end up being a trap by someone unrelated to the main quest who wants charname dead

And finally, the thing I've been working on today is another group of adventurers that botched a job for oublek and made off with some valuable papers when he stiffed them on the pay. For this I'm re-using the 3 adventurer parties from the black pits for the scaling and I intended to use their existing scripts, but they're either terrible to begin with (can't remember it's been a long time since I played BP), or they just don't work with the less open environment I've set this encounter in. But either way, the mages just obliterated their own frontline in my testing without me doing anything. So I'm going to have to do custom scripts for them. With 18 different enemies, that's going to take a bit. I might end up putting this on the backburner and starting something else

This can also be solved peacefully in a few ways based on party leader's stats btw