I’m probably within one or two test runs (which I hope I can do tonight) of having my beta test of Sanctum 2 ready. I’ve thought about the remaining scenes, and they actually shouldn’t be particularly difficult to do — so hopefully, I may be able to finish them in a few days. I’m taking off tomorrow from work to give myself a long weekend to see what kind of progress I can make.

What I’m thinking of doing, though, is actually posting the Beta version to the Vault over the weekend for everyone to try out. I’m both comfortable and nervous about that at the same time; I think the mod is pretty tight, but I was hoping to have some feedback on the how it plays before going “public” with it.

Any thoughts? Should I post the beta version this weekend?

An update on Sanctum 2A:

I’ve been occupied recently with some other projects, so progress on Sanctum 2A has been slowed a bit. However, I’m pleased to announce that I finished a playtest of the first 75% or so last night. Aside from a few spelling errors and minor bug fixes, which should only take a couple of hours to fix, the first three quarters or so of the sequel is done. I only have one area and a few more scenes to build, which shouldn’t take more than 2-3 weeks with luck.

The first three quarters is complete and self-contained, though, so I think I should be able to allow a few beta-tester volunteers to check it out by this weekend. So if anyone is interested in beta testing, please let me know!

I was surprised to realize this morning that I’d let all of August go by without blogging. That’s a good thing in a way, because it’s an indication of how busy I’ve been, and work on Sanctum 2 has been front and center on the list of things that have been keeping me busy. I’ve made some decisions about how to move forward with releasing the work I’ve been doing on it, though, and I wanted to make all of that “official” with an announcement here.

I still very much want to keep working on the sequel modules to the Sanctum of the Archmage saga. It’s become very clear to me now, though, that the only way I’m going to be able to manage that is to develop them in relatively short pieces, on the order of 2-3 hours in length — similar to the format of Adam Miller’s “Shadowlords” and “Dreamcatcher” series. In line with that decision, I’ve decided on a good point in the story to break and end the current module, and I’m now working toward that as my goal. If all goes as planned, I should be able to release the first installment of “Sanctum of the Archmage 2 – The Miracle Worker” in about a month.

For those who may have read my previous remarks on the idea of releasing my current work as a “demo” module, I want to stress that “Sanctum 2A,” as I’m now thinking of it, will not be a demo. It will be a short but fully completed piece, probably a little over 2 hours long. Although there will be a couple of challenging fights, it will be light on combat, and very heavy on dialogue and roleplaying. I also spent a good deal of time working out how to do some (I think) fairly creative things with scripting cutscenes, structuring dialogue, and the like — all of which I hope will give the module the same feeling of novelty that many players have come to expect from Sanctum of the Archmage.

Here’s where things stand right now. I’ve fully tested the module up to the current scene, which should constitute a little under 2 hours worth of play. I have one more conversation and a little script debugging to do, and then the current area will be done. After that, I have one more area to create, and 2-3 scenes to write, along with about a dozen or so journal entries. Perhaps more importantly, the remaining scenes will be straightforward, not involving any of the complicated scripting or cutscene testing work that tends to slow things down a lot. With some sustained effort, this should be a few weeks worth of work at most. And since I have most of the current 3-day Labor day weekened free to work on it, with any luck I should be able to get a fair chunk of that work done right away. 🙂

Work on Sanctum 2 is moving along, but perhaps not surprisingly, not as quickly as I’d hoped. Part of the reason is that I’ve inevitably gotten sucked into trying to do a series of new, challenging, and (to me) very interesting things that I either didn’t know how, or didn’t have time, to do in the first chapter. Some of these include:

• Almost completely re-writing the death scripts from Sanctum 1, including a radical upgrade to the “mortal damage” code. I’ve also worked out a way to circumvent the game engine’s mortal damage limit of -10 hp for players. Players and companions who fall in battle can now survive longer before dying, and can get saving throws vs. death to hang on a little longer when mortally wounded, hopefully making for a more complex combat dynamic.
• Including lots of new tilesets, skyboxes, placeables and music, to make for a far richer audio-visual experience than in the first chapter.
• Updated travel and rest systems, and a number of new (and I hope interesting) items that can be found while exploring.

The good news is that most of that infrastructure development is now complete, along with the initial scenes of Chapter Two as the player travels through the underground passage to Mount Cassandra. As I promised at the end of Sanctum 1, these are heavy on dialogue and roleplaying, with only a few combats (including  a couple of quite challenging ones). My current playtests run a little over an hour if I read all the conversations. And between now and the end of August, I’m fairly confident that I can finish the scenes that involve reaching Mount Cassandra and rejoining the resistance, which should probably constitute around 2 hours of play time all told. After that, though, I’ll have to scale back my modding for the fall, to finish one more part-time semester of graduate school.

Since Sanctum of the Archmage is a linear module series, I think that that work might be able to stand relatively well on its own, either as a demo mod, or perhaps even as a short module in its own right. So it occurred to me to throw out the idea of releasing it in that form, probably around the beginning of September or so. I’m curious what my readers think of that idea. Would there be interest in a demo version of Sanctum 2?

Work on Sanctum Chapter 2 is proceeding apace, now that I’ve finally made a decision to continue building in NWN1. I’ve worked out and implemented several important features that will be used in the new mod, and thought that an update about some of them might be of interest to my readers.

• Module Transfer and Starting Options. Chapter 2 opens in the same “waiting area” with the talking portal where Chapter 1 ends. I want to encourage everyone to hold on to their final savegame in the portal room from “The Sight” (not from the placeholder module!), because that will enable a smooth transition to Chapter 2 — preserving information about your game state such as items, companion relationships, permanent abilities, and so on. If you don’t transfer from a Chapter 1 savegame, you’ll only retain your items (if using an exported character), but will have to accept default values for the rest of your game variables. Plot-related items will be re-created or upgraded automatically for you, if necessary.
• Configuration Interview. The portal will talk you through what you need to do to configure your preferences for Chapter 2, and includes an extensive “troubleshooting” interview if you encounter any problems when starting. It will also let you select a class for the sequel’s new companion, to enable you to better balance the game for your character and personal playing style.
• Character Upgrades. I learned a great deal about designing effective characters and levelup packages in the year since I built Chapter 1, which I wanted to incorporate into Chapter 2. The sequel will give you the option of “upgrading” Robin and Orion to take advantage of these new packages, which include improved class, skill, feat, and spell selections that are also optimized for Chapter 2. Robin’s build in particular (in keeping with my vision of her) is a little more “roguish,” and includes a level of the custom “spy” package that I created for the series.
• Merging the Male and Female Robin Versions. I’ve now worked out a way to support Robin as a male or a female character in the same module, eliminating the need for two different versions. The configuration interview will give you the option to choose which version of Robin to play with or upgrade to — even if you played the opposite gender in Chapter 1.
• Travel. Chapter 2 will involve traveling significant distances across the eastern part of the World of Glorn. This in turn required me to develop an approach to making that extensive travel possible, both in terms of the story, and in terms of game mechanics. I’ve now implemented and tested a fairly elaborate system for this, which I think turned out to be surprisingly authentic and that players may get a real role-playing kick out of.
• Dialogues. I’m currently writing the early “extended dialogues” with Robin and Orion that I promised at the end of Sanctum 1. I just finished Robin’s, and at just over 6000 words, it turned out by far to be the most complex and ambitious conversation that I’ve ever written. And while I won’t spoil what you talk about, I will hint that it does include a long-overdue discussion (if you’re playing the romance) about what’s really going on with your relationship…