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Clachan - Prelude
Clachan Inn has been abandoned for many decades. Your father left you the inn after his death. You are curious to see what you inherited, and you undertook the walk deep into Murtil Forest, guided by your friend Emmerson...
This is a single player story/adventure module, low on everything, level 1 character. It will entertain you (I hope) about 15 minutes.
This is a module to familiarise me with the toolkit and module-making. Please do not hesitate to leave constructive feedback (positive and negative) about your experience. It will help me in making the next part better.
Project Q is needed, link to Project Q is here below
suggestion: for a better experience, use Verdant Wilderness mod (not needed with NWN:EE beta version 8193.14)
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1335795863
Have fun!
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 clachan_v1.01.zip (85) | 3.19 MB |
This is a first part of an adventure, created to learn using the toolkit and module making. Please do not hesitate to give any feedback, even critic, so I can correct the errors, and make the next part better.
Have fun!
I'm getting fatal crashes while loading the starting area. That area won't open in the toolset either. I see you refer to Verdant Wilderness... Did you by chance have that in your override when you built the module? I prefer to avoid using Steam for downloading NWN content, so I haven't been able to check if adding that stuff fixes the issue.
Thanks for the contribution, though - looking forward to checking it out!
Hello Ancarion, I'll check if starting the module without Verdant Wilderness crashes the game. Normally it should not matter if Verdant Wilderness is loaded or not, but I'll check to be sure.
edit: I have removed Verdant Wilderness from my Steam subscriptions, and all loads without problem, no crash. The crash might be caused by the missing files from Project Q, or maybe use of another NWN:EE version. I used beta 8193.14.
Quite interesting approach. Very eye-catching use of tilesets and placeables.
As you requested some QA:
1) typos - you need badly someone, native English speaker, to proofread. I'm not one but still found:
-"Chachan" in module description in-game
- "promis" & "jouney" &"it's an ease"(should be probably "it's easy") & "nightmare to not loose" (I guess it should be "nightmare to get lost in") - Emmerson conversation, featured in one of the screenshots
- "contines" - The Testament (item description)
- "implicite" - Toolbox (item description)
- "miorror" - Mirror (conversation and placeable description)
Generally you are incosequent in use of the upper/lower case. I think upper case like "The Testament" looks better.
There is also an excellent topic in the forums in regard to spellchecking.
2) Emmerson is missing portrait
3) Fights are really hard for 1st level character
4) Barrels in the inn basement should be removed from the top to the bottom in animation
5) Key stuck on the other side of the door should be removable by pushing it onto a piece of paper.
If I'm right the ending is going through the mirror? Or is there something else to do in the secret room?
Thank you very much for this extended feedback, Werelynx. I appreciate it very much!
1) Language, spelling grammar... something I really need to pay more attention to, throwing at least everything in the spell checker is Important. ;)
2) Detailing is something that never ends. It's always possible to go further. But I need to pay more attention to the details that are wrong or missing then adding more. Consisency is more importent than abundancy. ;)
About the content:I played the module with a couple of different classes of characters, and the difficulty veries enormous, for some it's a cake walk, for others very difficult to not die once. But I'm a total novice, and I suppose that the majority op players have more experience than me in fighting battles in NWN, so I kept the level rather challenging.
Entering the mirror is indeed the end of this first part. A small and short module to test style and possibilities.
Thank you again for your reply. I've picked-up a few interresting points to improve for the next part...
I have almost forgot - the movie at the end does not play. My guess would be that it is wrongly checking if the mirror was last used by PC?:
Your script:
void main()
{
object oPC=GetLastUsedBy();
if(GetIsPC(oPC))
{
EndGame("Clachan_P0_End");
}
}
Original script as per Lexicon https://nwnlexicon.com/index.php?title=EndGame
void main()
{
EndGame("Ending");
}
Obviously only PC will ever use it.
I obviously testplayed it, and in all my games the movie played. I suspect it's a packing or unpacking problem, with the file not arriving in the right directory. But that is speculation of my part. I'll check it.
There was indeed a problem with calling the movie. NWN does not like filenames with capital characters. The result is unpredictable. I have converted all to small characters. Now the movies plays. I've published the correction in version 1.01 of my Clachan mod.
This is a really well done introduction to what could be an interesting story-driven module. I definitely hope you continue work on it! It makes good use of scripted events, and gave good direction on what to do without feeling overly railroaded. Really, the only "criticisms" are very minor - a few placeables with their default names left in place, a bit of awkward dialogue, but nothing that a little polish couldn't straighten out. The only small thing I would suggest is that if there are incidental objects that can be "bashed" - chests, doors, kegs, etc - you might want to give them low hit points and no damage resistance.
Looking forward to seeing where the story leads!
Thank you very much for your feedback, Ancarion. And also glad that you managed to solve the crash problem. ;)
About not being railroaded, my goal is to leave the player free in what he/she decides to do, but to play with the urge of curiosity and tempation. Of course, exploration is a part of the game, but without relying upon luck to find plot related clues or objects. It make me happy that you liked the approach.
I noted down the few hints and tips you gave, and take them with me for the next episode.
Hello,
I got the thing fairly working under 1.69 (not without issues). I wonder how this trapdoor works, shouldn't it flaged as "usable"?
The mod:
The starting area is by far to large. Many player tend to explore it fully and are disappointed that there isn't much to detect. And are I'm courious enough to follow Alice through the looking glass into the Wonderland? From the point of view of an evil player: She is gone for good, smash the mirror and be done with it! :-)
The trapdoor is made useable when the dirt and rubble have been removed. ;)
And you are right about "evil" characters, or chaotic, or lawful. All plot actions and reactions chould be checked against the nature of the character. I was planning that for the real adventures, but for this small prototype I did not yet implement all "features". ;)
Thanks alot for the feedback, Mmat. That made me happy. :)
Hello Mmat, I do not have 1.69. What issues did you have with the module? Are there major things I need to pay attention to, for the module to be compatible with 1.69? Do you remember which modification you had to do?
Hello,
glad to made you happy ;-) You can make me happy as well (... or have you revenge ...), by having a look on my mod, which was recently released
There are in general two issues with 1.69
- turning on/off a candleholder gives a nasty "Stack underflow". There is some additional code such as recalculating light and such, which is completely unnecessary for 1.69, Just playing the animation would works fine here (and seemingly in 1.80 as well). The error could be ignored.
- There is a SetTag command which I've seen never before (and 1.69 too). It causes the goblin to stop (script breaks) and not to run to his tent. the coding seems to be unnecessary at this place, the new tags are never used. Not a big deal. However I wonder, what SetTag is good for. I never had the desire to change the tag of an existing object.
Imo it's not a good idea, to develop in 1.80 and look for compatibility in 1.69. You'll run into too much issues which are caused by the version upgrade. It was just an interesting experience for me.
Hello,
glad to made you happy ;-) You can make me happy as well (... or have you revenge ...), by having a look on my mod, which was recently released
There are in general two issues with 1.69
- turning on/off a candleholder gives a nasty "Stack underflow". There is some additional code such as recalculating light and such, which is completely unnecessary for 1.69, Just playing the animation would works fine here (and seemingly in 1.80 as well). The error could be ignored.
- There is a SetTag command which I've seen never before (and 1.69 too). It causes the goblin to stop (script breaks) and not to run to his tent. the coding seems to be unnecessary at this place, the new tags are never used. Not a big deal. However I wonder, what SetTag is good for. I never had the desire to change the tag of an existing object.
Imo it's not a good idea, to develop in 1.80 and look for compatibility in 1.69. You'll run into too much issues which are caused by the version upgrade. It was just an interesting experience for me.
Hello Mmat,
SetTag has a purpose. The goblin has 4 stages of presence:
- waiting near the inn, to be startled by your arrival and run away
- being attacked by wolves when you come closer
- thanking you, and running to his camp after you helped him to kill the wolves
- hang around his camp, which is also your "death temple"
The first 3 stages the goblin is handled by triggers and scripts, but in the last stage he is "set free" and can walk waypoints. Setting him free is by setting his tag that corresponds with his waypoints. For the moment there is just one waypoint for the goblin, and that is atanding by the fire, but the principle has been developed and is working.
So setTag has a specific purpose. I did not know that it was not supported in other NWN releases/versions. I used it because I found it in the documentation and it worked with NWN:EE v8193.14.
Lighting in NWN:EE is bugged, and I tried to make torches behave as I would like, but with beta 8193.14 it needed couple of script calls get it done (set flame on/off, adjust the static lighting, animate the transition,...) I'm sorry it does give problems in other versions. I've posted a bugreport at Beamdog about these lighting issues with torches, camp fires and candles. I hope it will be solved soonish, so I can dump most of these script calls.
Ah, I see. Interresting concept. You could create a new wapoint with the needed tag instead.
Btw. I found out, why the trap-door wasn't usable. I just "removed" the dirt with the blade (leaving mushrooms and other stuff in place). This placebles should be flagged as plot.
There are a lot of new script commands in EE that don't work (and might have unintended consequences) in 1.69.
If you want your module to be played by everyone, the safest way is to develop in 1.69 but test in EE.
Recompiling all the scripts in 1.68 will throw up errors for the commands that aren't supported.
Alternatively, build in EE, tell players it's EE only, and accept that a few will be left out unless they buy EE.
I have NWN:EE from Steam, so how obtain 1.69? Can I download 1.69 from somewhere?
And additional, which script commands return the version of NWN, so one can compile scripts depending the version it's running on?
Ah, if you don't have 1.69 already, the options are limited. I see overpriced second hand copies of Diamond Edition on the web, which you can patch to 1.69 using the Critical Rebuild on the Vault, but you might not want to do that.
There's currently no way to tell by script whether someone is running 1.69, but if you build in EE, your module will fail in 1.69 with a message that it was made for a later version. Anyone playing in 1.69 must have hacked it.
I've installed NWN 1.11, my original CD's from 20 years ago, together with the two separated xpansion pack CDs. I've installed the 1.69 patch from the Vault over it. I seems to work for the standard campaing.
But I can not import my project in the toolkit of 1.69. It refuses, and sais that my NWN 1.69 needs updating. What do I do?
Make a back up copy of the module.Open it with nwhak (which ships with the game). Export module.ifo. Open module.ifo with a gff editor from the Vault. Chane the version field from 1.80 to 1.69. Import module.ifo to the module using nwhak.
This can also be done in one script, if you take time to learn moneo.
Now you can open the module in the 1.69 toolset. On thr Build menu rebuild the module with Compile Scripts checked. This will raise errors for all the script commands that only exist in 1.80.
SUPER! Works first try! And I saw the problems some players mentioned.
Proleric, thanks for the help and all suggestions. I'll make modules for 1.69, which should also be playable with EE.
I've now played through the module, too, so here's some feedback. I played with the EE, a somewhat outdated version though (v79.8193.9, since my fellow co-op players haven't updated their game to the newest version yet either, and we need to stay compatible), and I'm using the GOG version, so I didn't have access to Verdant Wilderness on the Steam Workshop. First my general impressions (DOES CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS):
- The plot, what's there already, is nice, not particularly outstanding yet, but intriguing enough for me to be curious about its continuation. I also liked how information was spread or withheld, if that makes any sense, especially after the initial dialogue: a nice mix of environmental storytelling and observations from the player character's perspective, no lore dumps or walls of text, just enough text to keep the player invested.
- The text itself needs more polish, as was mentioned already. I wrote down a couple of the typos or grammar errors that were obvious even to a non-native speaker like me, but I'm not sure whether that would be of any help to you at the moment, and I don't want to spam this site with it, so I'll skip that part for now. In part, the meaning of the text was not always fully clear to me either - I don't know if that was intentional or not. In particular, the father's will says to keep the inn locked, to leave it alone, but at the same time it says this inheritance is the "most precious", to "not look at appearances", that "time will mend what has been disrupted". I guess it's meat to be a bit cryptic? But at the same time, from the perspective of the player character, it sounds contradictory - why leave alone what is most precious, what's that about "not looking at appearances" when I'm more or less told to look away and forget the inn? Does the last part mean, keeping the inn locked will allow it to repair itself, so that it will be more precious to me in the future?
- Combat, as mentioned, is a mixed bag. I first tried to play the module with a monk (a class I hardly ever play but that seems simple enough in terms of tactical options), just to test how well that would work out. The monk died many times to the boar roaming the woods, so in the end I just avoided it, since the fight was optional anyway. But I had to give up when it came to the phase spider. The (female) monk did not stand a chance. The spider could kill her with one or two hits and had a good chance to hit her, while the monk was missing it a lot. So I restarted the game with a wizard who built a party of three with panther familiar and summoned badger, and that made the fights more interesting, easier and tactically more fun, but I still had to reload a couple of times when it came to the phase spider, because it would frequently just teleport from the melee animals to my frail ranged wizard in the back. When I won the fight, it was mostly a matter of luck. But contrary to the monk, the wizard was able to win it.
- The design in general is neat and the chosen haks look beautiful, even though they come at a price. Since the introduction of the keyhole feature, I had NWN set to never hide second story tiles, but that made the view from the starting position of the camera very ugly and confusing (https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310074422_6960a08da9_b.jpg), so I had to disable second story tiles. It's also a bit irritating that the treelines of the tileset are in fact treated like solid walls and displayed accordingly on the map, too, while in-game they look like your character should absolutely be able to take shortcuts through the gaps between the trees. But that's not your fault, I guess it's the price to pay, to sacrifice a bit of comfort in exchange for beauty, and I can get behind that to some extent (even considering that Project Q is a comparatively huge download that might stop some players from trying out such a short module). As to the area design in particular, it does show a pleasant amount of care in the parts that count, but as mentioned by mmat and as I warned about in my post on the forums, the forest area is indeed too large compared to what it offers in terms of exploration, at least for my taste. Personally I find that it's a good indication that an area is too large in NWN, if the minimap can't show it in its entirety anymore, but maybe the more important thing is how exploring such a huge map feels. The forest looked nice enough, there was nothing wrong with the design per se, it's just that it was rather empty. I didn't really find much that was worth exploring the map beyond the inn, apart from a few single unmotivated fights with forest animals and the shaman camp (which was cool in terms of environmental storytelling, but didn't offer much of interest apart from that either; and I think it was never explained why you would respawn there?). Anyway, there were lots of paths and dead ends and big spaces on the forest map, but nothing much of interest happening there. No secret discoveries, no flavour text etc. And since I'm always tempted to explore maps completely, that was disappointing. As a general advice, I would either make smaller maps or fill them with more interesting stuff. In this case, since all the action centers on the inn, I would have gone for the former.
- Last but not least, my absolute favorite thing about the module was how you fix and clean the house bit by bit. That was great fun, and rather original. I've played countless community modules and I don't remember seeing something like this done very often. This is what made your module stand out and will make me remember it in the future. The thickets around the inn were a great look, and it was incredibly satisfying to remove them, felt like my character was getting things done. :) I did get stuck for a while though, because I overlooked that the cupboard in the house was interactive; I'm used to pressing TAB regularly, in order to highlight all interactive objects, and since you seem to have used a script on an invisible object instead of an actual container placeable, it was not shown and easy to overlook among all the other interactive stuff, especially since other cupboards and furnishings remained part of the non-interactive background, so it wasn't really consistent, it was an exception to the usual rules. Not sure if that's a problem and whether other players will get stuck on it, too, or whether it's just me. Just stating what my personal experience was. That being said, this part of the module instilled me with faith that you are one author to follow and that I can expect great things to come. I am definitely curious to see what you come up with next (but I would also love to see this first episode get a littler more polished and refined as well, so that this diamond in the rough can really shine)!
Some more technical observations:
- The player character starts the game behind an area transition, facing towards it. Instead, the area transition should be behind them, so that players don't accidentally click on it or run through it.
- On my second run (the one with the wizard), Emmerson ran away and vanished in the middle of my conversation with him. I assume I might have been running past him too fast at the moment that he adressed me, so the conversation was triggered then immediately aborted and Emmerson did what he was supposed to do when the conversation ends. This could happen to other players too sometimes, because they will start running before realizing that Emmerson will address them automatically, since at the beginning of the module he is just casually walking away from them.
- I also ran into STACK UNDERFLOW error messages with torches, and one time with a ghost girl script, playing on NWN EE, not 1.69 (but, as mentioned, with a somewhat older version of it, not sure if that's relevant here). Nothing bad happened, everything seemed to work as intended, but the messages made it seem like something was wrong.
- And I also noted a few placeables in the inn that weren't renamed to something more immersive and still had descriptions like "Ground Dirt Patch_01", "Bush - Grass Tuft 01" or "Torch - Wall Mounted 01".
- I agree with Ancarion that it would be better to lower the damage resistance of doors and containers, so that bashing them is less tedious. On that note, I think you can also bash at least some of the dirt patch placeables in the inn, but if they are destroyed they will still remain until cleared with broom and shovel. I guess it would be better to make sure these things aren't bashable.
Olvier, huge thanks for this extended report. I've learned alot with these feedbacks, and that is why I'm working on this module to make it a more complete and coherent experience with less technical annoyances. The integration of story, player and environment is intended and is something I woukd like to carry through the entire adventure.
You mentioned a lot of points of attention. I general I can say that most of your remarks and points of critics are the same as I have, and most of them will be addressed and solved if possible.
- the problem of the camera at the start will be solved with a cutscene sequence. I'm still trying trying to get it right, but I will succeed. That wil also prevent from Emmerson to walk away by accident. The conversation will be more adapted to the type of PC player., and alternative sollutions will possible (steal, murder,...). I intent to do this with most of the conversations, without spamming text walls. The story is also told by the player, his imagination, his observationes, his actions.
- The wording in the testament I might rephrase, so make it less a contradiction. But the intention is there...
- Second part of the journey through this module is the walk through the forest. The tile is large (intended, because of futur plans with it), and also to give the player the sense of being alone. I agree that the area should be A LOT more rewarding for the explorers among the players. I will work on it. Good tip.
- I have to work out more explicitly the role of the goblin on this area. The encourter needs to be fleshed out more, so the purpose is more clear.
- Combat is indeed VARY different depending on the type of class. Characters with minions have no real problem, and can clean the entire module rather easily without dying once. Solo combat characters have it much more difficult. I have no experience in playing NWN games, and I presume that veteran players have robust combat techniques. But maybe some fight are too hard. The phase spider is definitly out, normal spiders are hard enough. The wildlife might be toned down to make it less mortal.
- About the cleaning, thanks for the appreciation. The intent was to express the involvement of the player with the inn, to want to make something out of it. I agree that the technical aspect of the cleaning need a little more attention, especially the bashing part.
- Technical problems related to NWN versions, I'm on it. I've learned that I have to develop the module for 1.69, and check in EE (1.80). I did not know that, but that has been taken care of.
I'll check more thoroughly that interactable object are properly titled and described. All text have to go passed a spell checker so the most annoying errors are corrected.
Thanks again for this very inspiring feedback. It encourages to do better.
Regarding combat: As a veteran player myself (not quite a hardcore expert, but someone who's been playing the game for years and finished several scores of community modules on normal difficulty), I don't think there is much in the way of combat technique that a low level melee fighting character can do on their own, unless the module author gives them a helping hand. Something you could do that might provide them with more tactical options - and maybe you could even combine this with rewarding exploration - is let them find things like: ranged weapon(s), if not permanent than at least limited ones, like darts, so they can use hit and run tactics, or other projectiles like little bombs (I already found caltrops, which goes in the right direction, but didn't help much against the spider), or potions that allow them to buff themselves or flee and heal, or better armor/shield, maybe scrolls and wands - which might not work for pure fighters but could help out rogues. I haven't checked whether the items you can find in the module are fixed or random; for a module of this small scale, I would say placed loot is better than randomized one, but I guess that's also a matter of taste. Anyway, lots of possibilities, thats what these items are for, and finding the right ones could indeed make exploration more rewarding. All the better of course, if you find good reasons why stuff like that would be hidden or lying around in the forest. If you feel like diving into custom crafting available for all, you could, I don't know, allow the player to collect a certain kind of mushroom of your own invention, for example, and make a custom potion or projectile out of it, things like that. There's definitely room for getting creative. :)
Regarding the goblin, in terms of immersion, if you want some icing on the cake, you could make him react in some small way when they player loots his crate, like just triggering a line that tells you the goblin gives a friendly nodd, allowing you to take what you need, or something like that. That's just a little extra idea though, as I'm always a bit baffled when people just let you steal their stuff from right under their noses without any comment, even though it's kind of the norm in NWN.
As for the text, is it possible to extract/separate the text from the module in any way or do you have to check each single sentence via the toolset? If you happen to have text separate from the mod file, I could offer to take a look and help you correct it. Like I said, I'm not a native speaker, but I think I'm fluent enough to spot most errors.
Oh, and an idea I just had that would give players another tactical option in the fights with forest animals if they discover it: What if the animals had different factions and would also attack each other, if you lure them to each other, e.g. like wolves and boar being hostile to each other in addition to being hostile to the player? But I'm just brainstorming weird ideas at this point, this one might be a bit excessive perhaps, seeing that all of that is optional and the animals rather far apart, and I also hear factions can be hazardous terrain ... So, nevermind. ;)
Hello Olivier, thank you for the offer to help verifiing and correting the texts. But for the moment I'm reviewing the entire module, and texts are not yet definitif. And I did not see a method to extract all texts. But no panic, I'll manage with an online corrector. ;)
You gave some interesting hints about making the forest area more rewarding to explore. I'm going to add some extra stuff, so it will be more fun to go left and rifght into the thickets.
But I've also noticed how slow developemnt of small scenes can be. To review just the opening conversation, it took me a week. Now it's more robust, more diversified and more complete, technically, but also in style and outcome depending upon the alignement and actions of the player. So doing this for the entire module might take many weeks. But it's fun to do, and also more fun to play afterwards.
Thanks again for your contributions in feedabck and tips. ;)