Hammering at a rock...

Ever get the feeling that your tasks in life are like a wall of rock, and you're just hitting it with a little hammer?

Every hit with that hammer can contribute to the wall's demise.

Yeah, I got the chance to spend some quality time with my laptop today (yay, self-occupied, and behaving, kids!). Spent a huge part of the day hammering away at a NWN model I wanted to adapt/update. It took several full hours of:
editing, testing, (hammer)
editing, testing, (hammer)
editing, testing (damn emitters are only visible in-game, so I gotta save the model, add it to the hak file, save the hak file, open the toolset, open the build module in the toolset, check to see if the model works...nope...time to start back at the gmax stage...),
editing... (hammer)
starting from scratch... (hammer)
holy crap it works! (giant crack suddenly appears in the previously flawless rock)
save. Save under 2 other file names just in case. (faster hammering with the goal in sight)
overhaul two existing models. (more cracks)
create 49 additional new models to go with the overhauled two. (a ton of new cracks)
edit some 2da files. (pry out a few easy stones)
save in the updates hak. (look, more cracks appearing)
rewrite the entire Wanderer's Portal scripted system from scratch. (ground begins to shake)
update the module with revamped portal system. (rock wall collapses!)

Yeah, my brain is tired. I'll probably spend most of the day offline tomorrow catching up on house work and raising offspring. But I head off to my lair very satisfied with the removal of that giant wall I hadn't noticed before this morning.

Well, truer words were never said. How do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time...

Im glad you found success with those emitter models, and I am excited to see the new portal system in operation

It is a very satisfying feeling when projects in the toolset work out ... I haven't had that feeling of elation in some time, perhaps it's time to drag out the old module projects and finish them off ... I look forward to seeing the changes you're working on! (Though in all honesty, I don't use the portals - I can never figure out the riddles associated with the gemstones...

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:yay, self-occupied, and behaving, kids!

That's awesome! Wanna trade? Mine are already housebroken and sleep well through the night! But self-occupied and behaving, that's a whole other story ...

Eric of Atrophy wrote:It is a very satisfying feeling when projects in the toolset work out ... I haven't had that feeling of elation in some time, perhaps it's time to drag out the old module projects and finish them off ... I look forward to seeing the changes you're working on! (Though in all honesty, I don't use the portals - I can never figure out the riddles associated with the gemstones...

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:yay, self-occupied, and behaving, kids!

That's awesome! Wanna trade? Mine are already housebroken and sleep well through the night! But self-occupied and behaving, that's a whole other story ...

Kids: The self-occupied and behaving for long periods of time doesn't happen very often. Usually it takes an average of 2.25 minutes before they are fighting over something (or nothing) or needing parental attention. I think I'll hang onto these though. Sentimental value and all.

Portal riddles: The notes section of the journal is handy for recording the ones you've got figured out, as is a Post-It note kept out of the way on the side of the computer monitor. You could always ask for a little assistance in-game if need be.

As far as the new stuff for the portals, after the change-over, it'll require actually walking through the stone ring (aka, stepping on a trigger), rather than clicking on the ring. And I'm increasing the "open time" from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

With the new system is there a way to get the journal clue entries to "complete" when you step through a portal you have activated correctly.. the complete entry giving a "plain as day non-encrypted, press these, that was the order" entry... then the auto-quest rememberer thingi will keep the codes for you each time you log in ?... saves the need for post it's and own-journal entries .... ...

Other then the actual "stepping through" part (to walk across the trigger), are there any other changes player side ?... Does the "key" item get updated to the "newer" style of said items ? ...

Have you made the system easier for possibly putting NEW portals up ? ..... I think we could do with a new portal in some dark shadowy world that can be visited... and of course finding a random portal clue in, say, some big underground library, for a place you have never been to is just a very neat way to open whole area's of the world "not connected" to the rest of it... such as say a jungle village of lizardmen in the wildlands.... .... ....