Tuesday Updates

Alright, so we're into our 3rd Tuesday update.

For this one however, I'm going to redirect over to the forums.

Please visit us at nwn2calimport.prophpbb.com, and we'll continue all updates over there.

Some of the features addressed this week are:

- New mapping functions.
- Dynamic collisions re-meshed between surface to wall combat.
- Conceptual flying progress and flying carpets.
- Lore system refined.
- Quest Indexing system.
- Factions.

Tuesday Updates #2 (On a Wednesday)

Alright! So here we are, another Tuesday, another update!

It's official! We have our forums up. Please sign up at http://nwn2calimport.prophpbb.com. These are temporary forums and may be moved in the future, or we may just sign up for the professional bb services. Undecided at this time as we're working out the details on the site.

In other news. The server went into alpha testing last night. With Vanes approaching on getting all the functions up and running, we're well on our way to getting the first areas, functions and quests into the city.

Again, visit us on the forums, register. First ten sign-ups (not of the dev-team) will be rewarded with an in game item, to be determined when beta goes live.

Again, thanks for all the support guys! We're approaching beta faster than anticipated!

Tuesday Updates

Why on Tuesday? Well...why not?

After very hard work, Vanes has managed to complete our store system and GUI.

I can state, without giving too much away, that players will be rewarded a small amount of experience for appraisal, and that the system will also penalize for poor appraisal. Word to the wise, don't press merchants unless you're sure you can purchase the goods for what you're asking for it.

When I state "what you're asking for it", I'm referring to the system of haggling. A time honored tradition amongst tradesman, and one that is more than appropriate for Calimport, being the central hub of trade within all of Abeir-Toril.

Haggling is a sliding scale of you, the player, being able to test your bargaining mettle against a merchant's own skills in it, by sliding up or down in % of cost the amount you wish to pay. The sliding scale drops the price down 0-15% of the item cost.

Example: The cost of a dagger is 60 gold with a merchant. The current rate he is offering it at is 120% normal cost. In other words, he is selling a dagger worth 50 gold, for 60 gold. You, the "price ninja" decide you can get it at a cheaper price, using your katana-like-tongue. You opt for a lowering of 10% from the price set by the merchant. Upon success, you walk away with the dagger for 55 gold, and a small amount of experience. Upon failure x amount of times...well, only the foolish press an already frustrated merchant. Often times the cry of a merchant is heard in the streets, "Off from my wares beggar!"

Also, we've introduced thievery with merchants. I'll let the picture do the talking.

Yes, there is a limit on how many times you can do this. Those sneaky builders, they're thinking of everything!

Raivo has been popping out interiors, his latest the Wraithshaven Inn. Again, I shall let the picture do the speaking.

Brinley, in coordination with the team is working on the lore for this establishment and its peculiar title. He's been busy quite a bit lately, but promises to begin writing soon.

I've been...well, I've been working on hak packs. I'm ensuring that the content added is not just what we as the builders need, but what you as the user do not need. Bloated downloads of unnecessary proportion will not be included in this module. I've also been working on the exterior for our first sabban, Erarè.

The Erarè sabban is, the basis for how all other sabban will be designed. Some features of our exterior sabbans include tight walkways, alleys, walls upon which the elite and well-to-do tread, and of course secret passages within those walls. Everything completed thus far is geared toward players being able to walk atop walls, rooftops, and buildings, while generating as many of these placeable objects as environmental objects. That's to cut down on the lag or load times. How is this being done you might ask? Trade secret. Just know that three dimensional play is going to be a major aspect in Calimport. You may find yourself a rogue, outrunning the guards, not in the street, but by rooftop...

Now, planned production is as follows:

1. Base hak packs completed and ready for insert.
2. NPC store system completed and ready for implementation.
3. Player run store system completed and ready for implementation.
4. Item creation, and visuals completed for crafted items.
5. Crafting system completed and ready for test.
6. Faction table completed and ready for test.
7. Erarè sabban and housed interiors completed and populated.
8. Quests implemented and ready for test.
9. Two levels of sewers below Erarè sabban completed and populated.
10. First dungeon delve (instance) inserted into Erarè sabban sewers.
11. Calimport Muzad (Erarè sabban section) and interiors completed and populated.
12. Calimport Muzad (Erarè sabban section) quests, and second dungeon delve added.
13. Calimport Underdark (first of x amount sections, still undecided) completed and populated.

Quite literally, we're about 1/3rd of the way into opening beta testing. So this team is flying, and it's quite amazing really how fast things are getting done. That list looks daunting at first, but as fast as this team moves, I'm thinking these will be done in no time.

Now, my last little update is some conceptual items that have come up.

First, we've been talking about a "lore system", one that makes lore useful besides allowing you to identify items, and application in conversation. The concept is, a player taking lore, will have stored pools of points for 24 hours. The amount is capped, by pool, per subject at the players lore level. So a wizard with 13 lore, would have a cap of 13 lore points, per subject. That pool would be gained by doing research on documents, identifying items, or simply in conversation. The amount of lore points earned depends on the difficulty of the subject matter being studied, or the item being identified, etc. 

These lore point pools (again, by subject) can be expended in dungeon delves, during ritual magic as bonuses using the culmination of all lore point pools, or in conversation as a means of greatly influencing the interaction by the revealing of a great secret (see our future post on the Dark Bazaar).

For dungeon delves, this means taking a wizard, bard, or any class really that has a high lore pool in a subject may open a secret door that may otherwise be sealed completely other than the means of speaking the proper phrase that has been lost in ancient times. (Note: These secret doors will change in lore pool types, as well as possibly location and usage per instance. Never rely solely on one subject of study.)

These pools may also allow a character to scribe more effectively. So keep your eyes open for more on this!

Lastly, a bit of concept for dungeon delves. Admittedly I'm a huge fan of MMOs. One of the great things I love about them are instances. I've never particularly liked others intruding on when I wanted to solo, or when I simply wanted to get away with my group and have a closed adventure. While some in the CRPG community may boo this as being unrealistic, or simply detaching characters from the broader world. To that end I say, it's a game, games are meant to be fun. RPGs are not just about the role-playing (though they should be plentiful in it), they are also games. Games need obstacles, goals, and achievements to be fun.
So with that in mind...Dungeon Delves...

These instances will be kept as random as possible. While the area layouts may be similar in nature, we're doing everything we can to randomize them, by spawning walls, and other obstacles to block paths. The algorithms for these will not be very complex, or create much load, but instead, they will create a system where the encounters are new and different, the path-ways are semi-different, and secrets are rarely ever the same. The bosses of these instances will be randomly named, and possibly set from a pool of up to 3 types per instance. Though, the types will not change, we'll try to give you a role-play feel, that once the inhabitants of the dungeon is dead, he is gone forever, into the void. Though, that allows for yet another inhabitant to take his place, at another time...

A particular dungeon delve can only be done by a character once every 2 hours real time to start, once we get more delves in, it may go upwards to 24 hours. Why so long you might ask? This is a role-play server. Besides if we end up with 50+ dungeon delves at various levels, each taking roughly an hour to complete at the level of the delve, 24 hours will be more than enough time. We'll have plenty else to do besides. Also note, this prevents the repetitive hack-n'-slash so many worlds have had to produce to keep players busy. No repetition here, just a pure drop into a dungeon where when something dies, it's dead and you move forward toward the boss.

Oh, and here's a nifty little map of Calimshan, where Calimport rests.

                                           (Thank you to Alaundo's Library for making public)

Leave your comments and suggestions below and I'll respond to them as soon as I can!

I leave you with many fair tidings, and farewell! We hope to see you soon. Goodnight!

Alpha Testing

Well, we're getting there.

With Vanes scripting like crazy, Raivo building a ton of interior areas, Brinley writing starting material, and myself defining/refining the base hak packs that will be in the core custom content....we're about to start alpha testing.

The alpha is so that Vanes will get functionality into the server. He's got some new goodies up his sleeve as of this week.

Five songs have been composed/mixed, to give the setting of Calimport a more adventurous and urban feel.

Dungeon Delves (Instances) are in the works as Vanes and I figure out the details on how to make this very new, and very interesting type of instance system work for NWN2. So far, even in concept and rough design, it's pretty epic.

So, I'm looking forward to testing a few of these systems out this weekend hopefully, and if you're interested in getting into the beta, sign up on the link to the right "Messenger Pigeon" and we'll get you a password.

Lastly, I wanted to address the progress on our website. I'm currently designing it, and getting the forums outlined. I should have it up sometime this next week, but I make no promises due to work and my child. However, I will do my best to get it up so we at least have a standard communication line to our team and future players.

Have a good evening all!

Calimport: Our Version and Vision

“Calimport? It’s like a grand card game in which everyone holds aces in their sleeves, everyone knows everyone else’s hand, and yet the final throw-down'’s always up for grabs. In a lot of ways, it’s not who wins but how you play the game. Heckuva place it is, guv’nor, but only go there if you’ve got a golem watching your back.”

-Foxilon Cardluck, halfling bon vivant and first mate of the Realmsmaster

(Excerpt from "Calimport" - 9589 - 1st Printing, October, 1998)

   "So...the redundancy of just one big city..", some might say. "It seems like the content will just be buildings, buildings, and more buildings." others may chime in. Well let me assure you, Calimport is more than just that.

Yes, a lot of the city will look very similar in nature, and no, it's not going to be on the extremely grand scale that Calimport is, as depicted in the source materials. However, it's anything but redundant, and it's by far more than just a city.

   Calimport is a central hub in Abeir-Toril, within the Forgotten Realms setting. The Realms are a creation of Ed Greenwood's fantasy, and extremely well documented either by novel, campaign setting source books, or fan fiction. Quite possibly the most famous of novels derived from the fantasy world come from R.A. Salvatore, in his "Dark Elf Trilogy" and further continuation of those series. Salvatore's character "Artemis Entreri" from the afore mentioned series, is just one of many famous identities that hail from this busy metropolis. He is indeed a well documented example of what is bred from within the city. Proof that, while some are skilled in the wilds fighting hordes of orcs, and monstrous creatures of all forms...others are borne out a need to survive against their own in the harsh and hot streets where one is just a speck of dust amongst many other specks.

   I can give my personal vision, and the one that I approached the team with when pitching the idea of this project. I'll try to use, with the same verve and passion that I approached them with, in verbatim what is bringing this project together. Of course...you can't see my face, nor hear my voice. That was probably the more comical, child-like aspect that got more than a few excited about it too...so I'll try to extend that through writ here...

   Imagine a persistent world, where the danger doesn't come from an overt foe springing into action upon you in a field, or hordes of orcs slain one at a time just to "farm the experience". Where players are given freedom to explore, not the boundaries of an area, but the boundaries of a story. The lines would be drawn not by area transition, but by imagination. The city may seem hot, dry, and ever-crowded...but inside every building, behind every corner in every alleyway, a new discovery. Our writing will be the limitations of their interaction, our depth of the city will lie not in distance, but in apprehension of what lies just 'behind the curtain'. For the deeper and further they get into the city, the more intricate they will find the plots, the rewards greater, the impact on the world stronger.

   Vanes made comment, at one point, about the setting: "Yep, perfect sandbox." While we reviewed how the scripts would work in this setting, the term "sandbox" truly applies. In fact, a slogan for the server was coined from it while in that conversation. "Calimport: Our sandbox is bigger than yours."

   We are working with scripts that have been fine tuned from World of Torr, created by DrDread and later taken up by Vanes and Raivo along with community members from that world in Neverwinter Nights. Those scripts have, since my departure some time ago, been revamped and in my opinion improved upon vastly.

   Now, those from Torr may notice more than a few of these functions in Calimport. In fact, they will be ever present, and it will give you a Torr feeling to the server. Which, I'm sure we can all agree is a major bonus to this project, and would be a driving factor for more than a few to delve into it. I will not go further into it at this time as I don't want to give many spoilers as to the changes in those scripts.

However, what you will see are the following:

• Improved NPC AI. Allowing for in depth conversation and a moving feel to the world.
• Law and Justice. A function that will be applied by faction for 8 different factions throughout the city. As the city progresses in size, it will also increase in content and diversity with this complex, in depth living system that will allow your character to be revered in some parts of the city, while a complete outlaw in others. Choose your roads carefully within the City of Glory, for all decisions you make will impact your experience in the world.
• Crafting & Trade. As in Torr, the secondary crafting system will be implemented. It will be a very integral part in our world as the very reason for Calimport existing is its trade and the ability to gain all items, moral or amoral within. This system will be tailored to the world as closely as we can find source material for it.
• Housing/Rental. We will be incorporating a system similar to Torr within the game, hopefully further improved by allowing players to craft furniture of various quality, sell it, and as a further bonus, actually move and rotate furniture to their desire as opposed to having set points. Now, with that said, we will have a cap on placeable items within the area. This is to keep the database from stressing too hard, and to give substantial worth to properties of larger size. The plan is to have chests already placed in, depending on size, that are immovable, but allow all other furniture to be placed.
• Dungeon Delves. Think "instances" when it comes to popular MMOs on the market. These particular dungeons will be set apart with multiple variations of the dungeon and able to house one party at a time. While the other versions may be open to other parties. This is to cut down the area camping by one particular party, and create a non-repetitive type spawn system for the dungeon. It creates an accomplishment by quest type of feel rather than a constant grinding aspect found in so many other servers.
• Achievement Rating. This will give store a value onto the server, as an "achievement". There will be various achievements throughout the world, and while this isn't XP based, it's definitely OC bragging rights. I'm working on this one currently to output the data to our website from the server, and as soon as Vanes and I get into it, we'll find out how to give the player (not just his/her character) bragging rights on the board. This will also log how long you've been on the server and record it onto the site.
• Social Systems. As with so many other servers currently running, we definitely do not want to rule out role-players. In fact, we want them more than any other type. Though we're not ruling out non-RPers. RP isn't for everyone. However, we want to give the role-players a little something extra, so without spoiling those systems, we'll definitely have a RP friendly bonus to those that wish to. Disclaimer: This does not mean experience bonus.

I'll be keeping you all up to date as we make progress with each new system, and releasing the general information as I get it.

Now, back to why Calimport works well with these systems, and how it came to be a chosen setting.

If you read the source books on the city itself, there are very few regions or cities that carry with it as much content as this city does. In one setting, we're able to weave action, romance, mystery, horror, and drama all into one tight knit package.

The areas are broken down into layers.

Top Layer: The Sabbans and "interior areas housed in it". (Outer Sabbans will be getting desert areas surrounding them.)

Middle Layers: Sewers & the Muzad (lower city comprised of many things, but not the typical "drow city").

Bottom Layers: The Underdark.

Now this isn't to say the entire world will be city, underground or desert. In fact, the opposite is quite true.

Calimport is a city of mystery and magic, cunning and surprise. Many the adventurer has been whisked away via portal to another time, or realm to the amusement of a powerful Vizar, or Djinn. So expect the unexpected.

That's my time on this for now. I'll write more when I can!

Here's a bit of eye candy on the Eraré Sabban walls and docks as of this moment. I can not stress that enough. I really dislike showing work before it's finished, but...I figure it'll only sting a little for me in this case. *grins*

Sunday Morning and Coffee...

I'd first like to say I'm extremely excited about the project. A few months ago the idea for Calimport had come into mind after thinking about original settings and drawing up plans for a Shadowrun table top campaign. Well, truth be told I'm a major sci-fi geek, and fantasy just never really cut it for me. I think perhaps because I've always wanted to have a laser shotgun instead of a spell-book or perhaps I just grew out of thinking in terms of "magic" and more in terms of science. Either way, it's a good thing. I'm grouped together with a bunch of like minded fellows who tread the fine line of science with coding and making AI do things in a game that has "magic". Now, don't read into this as "Oh he's not interested in really making a fantasy world." I think our whole team wants to believe that we can make magic, intrigue and mystery happen by working with 1s and 0s on our end. So to that end, we'll do our best.

I get the feeling that we exhausted ourselves in the first week of this project, like an athlete that sprints at the beginning of a race. For me anyhow that seems to be the case. I think I'll pace myself now and take it easy. This thing will take a month or two before we even set into beta. The one thing I do know, is that I won't lose interest. Calimport is by far too interesting.

So before this totally becomes a rant into my own personal opinions, endeavors and experiences...let me draw out what we've got going for the next week.

So, here's the list of projects we have going and those working on it (so as to include credit).

#1) Vanes is working fervently to get the database working and streamlined for the amount of data we're going to house on the server. I needn't go into details. Well, primarily because I haven't got the details, and secondly because I know he's got this.

#2) Raivo's working on interior areas, and from what I hear (and have seen with the birdhouse) they're looking amazing. He's currently working on the Wraithshaven Inn, and as a bonus writing in the lore of the place on a plaque. Yes boys and girls, we're going to have plenty of world lore included so you don't have to go hit the source books every time you want to know something about the world. It's all inclusive.

#3) Brinley is working on quests, and as far as I know (as I haven't really gone into it with him), translating the source book material into his own words for transfer of the data into the world as a lore type book able to be read and enjoyed as a character, and not a PC. This basically means he's going to add some depth to the books and make them as though your character were reading books documented within the world, for the world. So you may see some names you don't recognize as authors on the books...but they're most likely NPCs living, or dead. Either way you may meet some of these NPCs (be they dead or alive) within the world at some point. Always good to know your lore when speaking to them...

#4) I'm working on the hak packs, getting them straightened out and adding a ton of new material to them. These haks will be the meat and potatoes of the entire building structure of our world, and every now and again we will add more content to them. For now I just want to get the major includes in there before we build too far. Also, I'm working on the exterior for the Erare Sabban. Yes, we're breaking it down into Sabbans. So 53 exterior areas in total, replete with sabban walls, drudach walls, and plenty of alleyways.

So that's about it. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions below here, especially on what you would like to see, or plan on seeing in the game. We look forward to any suggestions.

Oh...yeah...we'll have a gallery posted up as soon as we get more photos in. No spoilers, I promise. Just the open areas and a few interiors.

   A team that works! Finally after approximately 3 months of gathering team members we have the right ones. I'm proud to announce that Calimport is able to finally start into production and go full blast ahead with getting our first of many Sabbans (including the sewers below, Muzad, and each individual interior tileset areas) done in about 1 month's time from now.

   So let me introduce the team.

   First, you have Bryce, aka Brinley. He's a fiction writer, and an accomplished one at that. He's also a theater actor and has been performing since the age of 12. His role in this project is to ensure that all of the lore that goes into it is adhered to as much as possible while giving creative freedom to the designers in terms of our own efforts to make the game fun within the limitations of the tool-set. He's also the key writer for all of our quests that will go into the module and...well we're just glad to have him.

  Second, we have Robert aka "The Man Behind the Curtain". He doesn't have a game nick, as he doesn't really play games. So for that we thank him for being rational enough to keep our server going and knowing solid networking and databasing. He's MCSE certified, and...well a ton of other certifications including Cisco certs that I haven't bothered to look at...he'll be handling our traffic and doing all the stuff that's WAY above my head. However, he's much appreciated and one of those guys that truly the players may or may not realize is a key factor in keeping the players online and connected to our server when it goes up.

  Next we have Cara, my wife, aka Nimfie. She's my personal moral guidance and well, probably one of the best writers and artists I know. She's got a knack for finding issues with texturing and poor grammar...such as mine is. So we'll be glad to have her quality checking the work on textures and building placement as well as the custom content such as load screens that go into the game.

  We have Dakota, also a man without a game login that is composing much of the music, along with myself for the server/module itself. So any of the custom flamenco style guitar you hear, or kettle drums...or numerous other instrumentals you hear in the game, along with some vocal work will be the work of Dakota himself. Believe me, the guy plays tons of local venues here in Florida and he is amazing! At times, though unnamed here, we have arranged for other musicians to accompany him and they will be receiving credits throughout.

   Along with our music team is another gentleman known by some as "Essex", aka Dave. He's in charge of many of the sound modifications that may be made in the game, as we haven't enough sound effects. He's taking much of this from clips and various other forms, but he's also fantastic at generating sound effects on his own. He is also a violinist and maybe accompanying Dakota on some of the tracks.

   Our newest team members, most recent, and also some of our most valued come from developing other worlds, such as World of Torr after DM Dread left it to the public.

    Raivo, aka Jesse comes to us with incredible knowledge on area building and scripting. He's accomplished much on World of Torr from NWN, but has skills that transfer over well into NWN2. I can tell you from having played on Torr, that the scripts that went in along with our next team member listed, were unrivaled.
One of his more popular modules can be found here: Castle Defense receiving a solid 10 with 16 votes.

   Next, we have Vanes, aka Erno. Vanes and I have been gaming together since the early days of Torr, and over the years we'd stayed in contact via Skype talking here and there. Now the interesting thing about Vanes is that while I knew he was very skilled with the toolset, databasing and scripting, I had contacted him last regarding this project. Why? I don't know...you tell me. He and Raivo are pretty much going to put this module/server on the map in the community and I have a sincere apology awaiting any that don't come take a look at it when it goes live.

   Lastly, myself...well. I'm here, and I'm working. I don't want to go into what I do really apart from some visuals, mapping, scripting and a few other things. So...I'm here. I'll let the guys tell you what they think of me as the project goes along.

   Well, that's pretty much it. I'm hoping we get this going soon, and for all those that would like to see some of our progress keep up with the blog, and  we'll be sure to update it soon!

   Oh, and for your viewing pleasure...to show the eagerness of Raivo, he jumped right into the tool-set upon hearing about the project and made an interior area for a bird shop in the world. Oh and I mean quite literally jumped right into creating...so here it is: