vacation time and quest's

********may contain spoilers********

so the time has come for me to take a vacation. nothing fancy. justa visit t my family up north.so I'll be focusing on other stuff than modding.

but there have been a few rainy days lately so I have gotten a fair deal done. amonst them a lot of dungeon building. I have now nearly made all of the optional content for OM dungeons. and a few optional and hard dungeons based on class. not related to hte class quests but are there to add some "flavor" to the class choice , I a ranger hunting a wounded animal or follwing strange tracks may lead you to a well hidden cave. or as a rogue / bard overhear a some rumors about a old tower now buried in quicksand or similar. theese dungeons will have some interesting and unique gear available.

then I also have the random dungeons you may stumble acrosss. like ancient towers , old forts or jassa-ri outposts. which will have its own stories and events unfold. some even starts a few quest chains.some dungeons I've tried to add options on how you enter how you enter will have sm impact on what goes on. there is size differenses in some of the random optional stuff. some dungeons have several levels. the times you stumble across ancient dwarven fort's you may have to runn through some caves and mines first particulary there is one large dungoen of just that sort. that goes on for 4 layers. but the end reward and the story I believe will be a compelling reason. to finsh. also if you have dungeons that will have darklands events and dreamscape events. theese will be triggered if you have the apropriate feat and or/the azure star.

The azure star is probably worth mentioning. this is an Artefact which you get at the very beginning that scales with level/ spirit power this part of the main quests and this item cannot be removed. this item will have stats partly based on your class. the azure star will also be the key in unlocking spirit energy and and darkland related feats. the spirit shaman has a few interesting uses as well for the spirit energy system.

the spirit energy system is directly darkland related and can most of the time only be used in darklands. there are ways however to channel those powers into the prime plane but hey are unlocked as the main story goes on. I have balanced this system fairly well and I feel confident that I have made a system that does not interefere with my low magic policy.

Also in other news , Apep the maker of The magical miscelania pack, has completed the Item sets for TDM this is great new for me as I can start distribute them as loot for their respective dungeons. I also look forward to his v 1.5 realease of the MMP. this has been a great asset in my module as there are tons of interesting blueprints there.

right now I am assembling the dungeons into module structures and tried to keep module loading at a minimum. this has been hard as there are quite a few areas that needs connection.
so far I ahve made individual modulesfor the overland maps and their dungeons I have 10 om's i total including the continent of haedrin, the grand ciy of Aesir and the Jungles of the ancient tribes. The city OM is turning out quite nice though a bit heavy on the areas. so the single module load is high, thinking about splitting this again into a 2nd module.
I also have a module for the fishing quest , beer quest and a wine quest. each will eventually lead to a item revard and a nice addition for the stronghold.

about the strongholds. I have split the stronghold between the different classes:
-the divine classes will get a hidden church in the woods
-the druids,spirit shamans and rangers will get a forest grove.
-fighters and paladins will get a fort near the northern wall.
-sorcerors and wizards will get a Grand tower in the highlands.
-rogues will get their own hidden cave.
-bards get their own inn.
-swashbucklers will get their own "beached ship" home
-in addition every class have the option of becomming hte governor of the pirate island. if they play there cards right.
-warlocks wil lget a dungeon with summoning/binding circles.
-monks will get to restore a ancient monastery in the mountains.

the pirate island is also a hidden area which requires a few quests to be tied together first.
but the rewards , oh the rewards:D

the areas like the sorceror/wizard tower will act according to class, ie wizards tower will ahve more books scrolls and more wizard like. and sorceror more sorceror like
same with figters/pala fort paladins will have more religous undertone and events.
same for the druid spirit shaman , and ranger etc etc etc.
I wont go the nwn2 route of building etc but there will be desicions to make. and you will need to manage the troops/hunters/others in order to make your fort be able to handle the hindrances it will face. the way you treat your fort will have implications on the main story. this was a hell of a job and I will never ever do something like this ever again (well unless it would be cool to do so in another module.) there will be points in the story where you are called to the fort and you need to deal with incidents. just like BG2

back to the module setup. the classes will have their own mod with the quests areas. those mods are split into nature, divine , rogue and magic. as some areas overlap and there are some unique. this is to keep the mod count and load times as low as possible.

the encounters in the City OM is greatly influenced by what factions you work with and against. some random encounters wont be combat but rather random story elements or plain unique sights/ humorus encounters.

there will be a lot of factions to keep track of. as each city you travel to is more or less a self governing "city state" with lords that have their own agende, htat does not include the newborn empire of Aesir. which more ore less consists of Aesir itself and a few more cities/villages.

thos cities not affiliated directly to aesir will have their own faction and reputation attatched to them. so choose your friends wisely or find your self at the wrong side of a drawn sword.
there is a few quests that will alow you to go deep into the political intrigues.

Combat is something I have given a lot of thought after playing a few community mods I've drawn sme inspiration from some of them. I am particularly as I probably mentioned before inspired my J.E Mckellar's Last of the danaan. the encoutners especially boss battles will require some thinking in order to survive. some encounters will have invulnerable foes , like when you are trapped in a cave with a spellhunter. the spell hunter cannot be killed by you , but it is injured and will aply hit and run tactics to bring you down. the caves are dark and the spellhunters are hard to spot. you will have to run through the caves loking for a way to kill it before it kills you. there are several ways to end him depending on class skill checks etc.
some bosses requires you to split your party in order to do some stuff simultaneously or at different locations.

Puzzles there will be some puzzles and riddles since this is something of a love /hate thing I have some medium easy ones in the main story and some really hard optional ones , once again effort equals the reward ;) .

the Skyships probably will be heeds walkable ships for now. though I still need to raise the skeleton for overland travel or find another way of making hte skyships seem "real".
the skyships will ahve combat options in a spelljammerish way.

this post is probably a large wall of text that very very few will read if at all. though I hope if someone reads this that I've managed to get some interest in this mod. especially since I hope to crank out some stuff soon.

I've also managed to crank out a few more songs for the soundtrack. and soon I have the complete sound library available to me again (before the weekend actually) so I might upload some more songs to the vault.

the mod will end up being a huge story driven campaign with sandbox options. you will have a lot of options to travel along and explore as you go deeper into the main story which will remain somewhat dominant.there will be paralell stories being told along with the main and alot of branches from it that will have its own end. this is so you can choose to avoid a lot of quests if you replay it or just want to see the story to an end.

Companions:

Leyla: human rogue, starting companion. a trusted friend through your childhood that joins you on the adventure. she smarter than the average villager and does well in anything she tries to do. she always thinks things through and is rarely ever without a plan b.
she is notoriusly restless and impatient. she always has something in her hands like a coin or something similar to keep her hands busy.

Joshua: Human, Fighter. Starting companion the other part of hte trio that makes you ,leyla and joshua. Joshuea is the village Blacksmith aprentice. his unusually large frame coupled with his stamina and strength makes him more able for the more labourous work. he wants to live a simple life as a farmer one day. he is immensly loyal and and unlike leyla follows every law to the letter. his most prominent features apart from his large size is loyatly and sense of justice.

Hrotgar, the White.Minotaur Ranger, 2 weapon fighting style. An albino minotaur of the Zathrum tribe. Hrothgar is a kind minotaur with a rather "rough" sense of humor. he may or may not have a growing addiction to a certain mushrom. he is on his Maruk-gel. this is a initiatiion rite for young minotaurs to join the society as a warrior. they are to find a prey or a evil that needs to die and embark on a journey to slay it. he is very secretive about what exaclty he is looking for only that he will know it when he sees it.

Galina the cursed. Gnome warlock. Galina is a tormented warlock that does not what or why she has the powers she has. she has nightmares and sometimes she has blackouts that usually leave her in a burned down village with small hills of distubingly twisted corpses. she is a recluse and rarey speaks to people , she tries to avoid people and populated areas. the past events have filled her with guilt and she wants to take her own life. however each time she tries to end her own existance she has a blackout.

Murin StoneHammer.Dwarf, cleric. a Cast out King of a long forgotten dwarven clan hiding from the demon's gaze. a revolt as a result of a few bad years after burrowing into a pocket of lava led to him being exiled. he was blamed for the the entire incident and cast out. since dwarven laws forbid the killing of another they chose a more indirect aproach. he has since wandered the mountains trying to prove his innosence. dealing with some friends still on the inside of the dwarven halls he strives to prove that he was sabotaged. he is like most dwarves a bit grumpy but immensely loyal to friends. and will go to great lenghs to protect what he cares about.

Salem: Halfling, Paladin. after seing his clan killed he swears an oath to cleanse the world of evil. his devotion so strong it thundered across the planes. he was given the gift of Aeos as the first paladin in the world. unless the player has chosen that class/fate. he is silent most of hte time and only speaks when he have to. sometimes he may give into his anger. in order to become a full fledged paladin he must prove to Aeos that he can controll it. he sees a potential in you to be able to fullfill that quest.

Gorak:"earth genasi" Druid. thousands of year ago he was fleeing for a jassa-ri hunting pack hding into the stone wall of a cave near theym. the jassa ri camped in that cave and to avoid being discovered he hibernated into the stone. in present day he has slumbered so long he has forgotten alot of his skills and lost much of his memory. he rembers his tribe and that he was on a important mission to the capital. to meet with the ruling council there. he joins you in hopes rediscovering more about himself.

well I guess this will ahve to do for today :)
this has been an amazingly fun project and incredibly time consuming.

Source: http://demonmelody.blogspot.com/2010/06/vacation-time-and-quests.html