Rogue

Ah yes. Another MonsterLAN, another journey. The Eleventh Commandment was really pretty great. You'll have to excuse any rambling as I'm running on empty with only a few hours sleep and am still having to put in a full day of work.

I had to put my precious LCD under the plane on the way back to Adelaide since I forgot to put my pocket knife in with my case, meaning they wouldnt let me onto the plane. So I just put everything under as additional luggage and got on. When I got home I took it out and couldn't see any damage, of course it may be internal or even just have dead patches on the screen. I won't know until I can boot up.

I sunk a lot of hours into getting the tournaments at XI as fluid as possible. Researching server configs, emailing lans and online tourney groups, stress testing setups, load testing, then play balancing and finally writing some automation scripts to make life a little easier. That's in addition to having to sit there for 12 hours monitoring and controlling the whole thing, not being able to do anything else at the same time.

I don't yet know whether it's actually paid off or not. My initial impressions were that all the effort was vindicated, but in the new feedback thread when asked about the comps everyone is just saying "yes". And that doesn't tell me shit. I'd actually like some comments, even bad ones. Everyone just saying "yes" gives me no impression of what I need to change. Damn it.

Ok so maybe I just got the google earth beta, and maybe I'm not actually in space. But it's pretty damn cool all the same. For those who don't have it yet (shame on you! unless you're a dial up user, in which case don't bother) check it out at earth.google.com which should have a download link on the top right.

For those that do you can see where I am right now by checking out:
33°10'09.12" S 138°00'35.51" E

Those are the precise coordinates for my desk. Jeez I love this program.

Just tweaking it up a bit from the archived edition this weekend just gone. Some neato things:

I've secured the Xel'Naga ship from the player wandering on there by creating a 'bampf' script. It works just like how it sounds, you draw the trigger for it and it automatically 'bampfs' the player to a designated waypoint when they step into it. The waypoint tag is stored in the triggers variables, so the script is totally reusable.

I've also had to roll through a huge portion of the module updating all the things that have been broken by BioWare's patches that have been released in the interrum. Platinum Edition will install you at 1.63 for those wondering (I think 1.65 is the latest, but it has some issues with the CEP).

The arena in Scuttlecove is working great. When you enter it begins spawning in gladiators (only during daylight hours!) who brawl in bloody contest, with the corpses cleaned up and each gladiator having random clothes and equipment. Likewise the Porphyry House itself has it's foyer population generated on the fly as well, with them entering and leaving at nighttime (business ours for the brotherl ).

I've set up the first of the PH investigation quest hooks, so now Kedward Bone (the drug lord) and Aaron Islaran (the junkie snitch) will push you towards going into the PH and checking it out. Once I've got those down tight, the next hook will be from Tyralandi the demonic (succubus) private investigator.

On that note, a quick comment for other builders... memorable characters cannot be carried on looks alone; 'that evil mage guy' would be better remembered as 'Terrance, the wife beating necromancer' if he had some real characterisation. Dialogue is all important, and sound sets that don't fit can ruin a module.

Sometimes that can be the hardest thing; keeping your characterisation dialogue fitting and consistant for each NPC.

I finally took the shrink wrap of my fresh new copy of NWN Platinum Edition the other night. I'm glad I finally bought a replacement set of CDs, it was worth it.

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I'm flying to MonsterLAN XI - The Eleventh Commandment!

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