11 replies to this topic

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 1: Returns and Resurrections

Chrysta Pre-History: Events and Developments Before March 17th 2005

Dear diary...

...bleh, enough of that cheesy nonsense. In case anyone isn't aware of the "Early Days of Chrysta", I thought I would just give some background. I had been involved with the BG series of games right from the first release of BG1, and was fairly active in the game community back then - I had even dabbled in minor script modding by releasing the first (buggy) versions of the Multiple Romance Scripts (yup, you can all blame me for opening that particular can of stuttering worms...). NPC mods were not exactly thick on the ground in those days - TeamBG were the Modding Kings, Kelsey and Solaufein ruled the NPC mod roost and Tashia and Chloe were the fresh young upstarts. In Summer 2002 I had the idea for "Chrysta", an NPC mod who in her first, embryonic incarnation I imagined simply as an escaped clone from Irenicus's dungeon. I started working on her, and a forum was opened on Forgotten Wars, but a couple of months into working on the mod I was forced by work circumstances to go and live with relatives in the country - where there was NO INTERNET!!! So Chrysta died a death, and I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye *sob*. Thus began Sir K's two years in the wilderness...

Towards the end of last year, I found myself living back in more "civilised" surroundings. In mid-January 2005, more out of curiosity than expectation, I came back and said hello on the FW forums - and was extremely flattered and not a little surprised to find out that not only did a few of my fellow old fogeys recognise me (not mentioning any names hlidskialf ), but that they remembered Chrysta as well. That was what sealed it for me - Chrysta would be reborn, and I would make damn sure she was worth the wait!

Of course, I had a lot of catching up to do... WeiDU mods now dominated the scene, TeamBG had gone the way of the weredodo, and there were almost as many different modding communities now as there were mods! Plus I felt horrendously underqualified to start modding again - I had only just begun to code for myself (unsuccessfully) back in 2002, and had forgotten anything I had started to learn back then. Luckily, Sillara and nethrin over at Chosen of Mystra allowed me to help beta test their excellent Saerileth NPC mod, and I learned more by dissecting their code, scripts, dialogue files and TP2 file than I had from perusing weeks worth of tutorials.

Eventually, I felt confident enough to request that the Chrysta forum be resurrected - and so, on March 17th 2005, just a couple of months ago and thanks to the kind peeps here at Forgotten Wars, the Chrysta Mod and Chrysta Forums were reborn!

(Next Diary entry will be less reminiscence and more substance RE: actual mod developments, I promise! )

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:42 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 2: The Opening Salvos

March 18th 2005 - May 17th 2005

So, where have we got to in the two months since the idea was first (re-)mooted and work begun on the Chrysta mod? Well, I would like to think that I and the rest of the team have got off to a pretty good start.

I couldn't progress any further in this diary without mentioning my team. Of the original volunteer group, Seifer and Kai have since discovered that they have absolutely understandable priorities elsewhere, although it has been made clear to both of them that they can rejoin at any time. Zyraen and Hendryk have been total stars - I would not have got my head around dialogue and banter coding without Zyraen's tireless input (and patience), and Hendryk's imagination and creative input concerning plot ideas, banter content and the mod's sense of internal consistency has been nothing short of amazing. A special thank you goes out to Muse (of Sol Ek Sa) for working on Chrysta's portrait. Huge thanks to all who have contributed so far - I only hope your efforts are rewarded in the long run...

In terms of what we have done so far (apart from deluging the FW forums with posts...), a fair summary would be as follows:

Concepts and ideas:

• Decided on Chrysta concept, including race, stats, class etc.
  
• Written a detailed background and personality outline for Chrysta (without going into spoiler territory, let us just say that the days of Chrysta being a simple escaped clone from Irenicus's dungeon are LONG gone!).
  
• Decided on the principle behind how Chrysta would be a combined "Druidic Thief".
  
• Produced an overview of Chrysta's SoA and ToB plotlines.
  
• Decided on the nature of Chrysta's SoA subquests, and written outlines.
  
• Produced encounter-by-encounter descriptive breakdown of all of Chrysta's SoA subquests.
  
• Constructed a detailed timeline of key events in her past and that of other key mod NPCs (to ensure chronological consistency within the mod)
  
• Decided on some other stuff that it would be too spoilery to mention

Technical Gubbins:

• Coded and tested Chrysta's .CRE file.
  
• Decided upon and allocated Death Variable and Filenames.
  
• Made and tested Chrysta's starting custom item .ITM files.
  
• Written the first draft of Chrysta's .TP2 dialogue lines.
  
• Coded and testing spawning and initial party joining scripts.
  
• Written and tested joining dialogue.
  
• Written and tested level-up scripting.
  
• Written (and recorded in coded format) a minimum of four separate banters between Chrysta and each Bioware NPC (we are determined to give each Bioware NPC an equal bite at the cherry).
  
• Written (and recorded in coded format) the dialogue for the first six key dialogue-heavy encounters/interactions that form Chrysta's "core" plotline.
  
• Obtained (thanks to Muse) a working draft of Chrysta's in-game portrait.
  
• Coded and tested Chrysta's custom "Nature's Assassin" kit (deciding to implement her as a slightly underpowered thief with druidic special abilities).
  
• Copied and modified all relevant druidic "spells" into custom special abilities for use with the Nature's Assassin kit.
  
• Successfully coded and tested a working solution to allow Chrysta (a thief) to use druid-only magical items.
  
• Coded and produced a working "Alpha Chrysta" mod incorporating all technical work to date (except banters and all but the first three main plot dialogues).
  
• Distributed and received feedback on "Alpha Chrysta" in order to test initial character and kit balance issues (thanks to insomnia and Togashi for putting time into that ).

Personally, I think that is not too shabby considering that two months ago we had nothing except an idea buzzing around in my warped little brain. My only worry now is that maintaining that kind of pace is going to be nigh on impossible, and also that we have set ourselves very high standards in terms of the amount of thought and detail that has gone into banters and dialogues so far. Let me elaborate on that last point if I may - just out of interest (and because I am weird that way), I copied all current banters and main plot dialogues into Word (basic document, Times New Roman 10pt font), stripped away coding, variables, etc. and did a word count to see how much we had written so far. Here are the results:

6 Key Main Plotline dialogues

• 20 pages
  
• over 12,000 words (more than 67,000 keystrokes)
  
• 450 separate lines of dialogue

65 individual banters (so far)

• 24 pages
  
• over 18,000 words (more than 80,000 keystrokes)
  
• 690 separate lines of dialogue

...and that is with more banters to come (including some for mod NPCs as well we hope), half the main plot dialogues still to write, and no dialogues yet written or coded for her Romance path, subquests or flirts (well I did warn people in my "Chrysta Code" post that she would be very dialogue heavy ...).

And what is the point of outlining all of the above? Well, I just wanted to make everyone fully aware of just how seriously we are all taking this mod, and how determined we are that she will be something special when she appears (hopefully at the beginning of next year). But having said that, we are going to work at a pace from now on that means (hopefully) that we won't burn out or lose interest... and hopefully that will become clear in subsequent fortnightly Developer Diary updates.

*Phew...* Finished... :ninja: Whose stupid idea was it to start writing a Developer Diary? Oh, yeah... hehe. At least the entries from now on are going to be a lot shorter... I hope.

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:43 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 3: Settling into a Routine

May 18th 2005 - May 29th 2005

Well, I was a little concerned that after the plethora of revelations in the first set of Developer Diary entries, I honestly would not have a great deal to impart once the Diary settled into its regular fortnightly slot (that is "once every two weeks" for the benefit of those unused to the eccentricities of English English!). But, on both a modding and personal level, I am glad to say that this diary entry at least will not be a totally pointless and contrived one... maybe.

First of all, I am glad to say that not long after the last Diary entry we welcomed another member on board to the Chrysta Team - none other than our illustrious Head Honcho himself, SConrad. Apparently, the sheer volume of claptrap and excessively-imaginative drivel I had pumped into the threads in the Chrysta Workroom concerning her background and ludicrous plot outlines had attracted his interest... although I also have my suspicions that he is an active member of RSPCW (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to WeiDU) and had decided to step in to prevent me from torturing and abusing game code any further . Anyway, since he has been on board I have been introduced to the coding Kung Fu that is the "FOR" loop and he is currently in the process of enacting some life-saving cosmetic surgery on the rest of my coding attempts. Good to have you on board matey. :thumb:

SConrad's coding efforts have thankfully taken the pressure of my other coding main man Zyraen, which has allowed him to concentrate on his excellent "Beyond the Law" (BTL) mod (for which I am lucky enough to be currently spending my spare time as one of the Alpha Testers). I hope he doesn't mind my mentioning it here - the Alpha has been the one thing that has distracted me from working on Chrysta, and it is no exaggeration to state that it is going to be an absolutely outstanding mod and a unique and refreshing addition to the BG2 mods available once it is finally released. I cannot recommend it highly enough - and I strongly advise people to take a look and show your support for Zyraen's superlative efforts by visiting his Beyond the Law forum over on the Chosen of Mystra boards.

As far as the rest of the team are concerned, the quality and volume of Hendryk's artistic input to the mod has continued to give my imagination an inferiority complex, and I was delighted a few days ago when Seifer returned from his much-needed sabbatical and, without any coaxing required, proceeded to quietly and efficiently pick up his work on the graphical elements where he had left off. Honestly, what have I done to deserve a team like this? (er, and I meant that in a nice way... )

Well, with all that team ego-pampering out of the way with (), has anything actually been done on the mod since the last update? You betcha! Clearly not as much as inspellholdstudios.netspellholdstudios.netspellholdstudios.netspellholdstudios.net the previous threads (well they did cover a three month period!), but given that it has been less than two weeks since the last update we have still...

• Completed the pre-agreed minimum of five banters for each Bioware NPC.
  
• Converted all Banters to coding format ready for inclusion in .D files.
  
• Started work on SoA interjections.
  
• Begun proper coding proofreading to ensure "redundant" coding or poor syntax.
  
• Run a poll to decide on the next teaser spoiler, the winner being a screenshot of an early game Edwin-Chrysta Banter, posted on the Chrysta Screenshot thread.

Oh, and as this proved so popular last time, the current SoA Chrysta Banter count is up to:

• 76 individual banters (so far)
  
• over 21,500 words (more than 118,000 keystrokes)
  
• 800 separate dialogue entries

In addition to all the above, I decided that the mod had reached a point where a major task and progress audit was necessary. As a result, on Saturday I broke down all mod requirements into a comprehensive task and asset list and posted it (ordered and colour-coded) in the Chrysta Workroom. I think that the Task List I have produced (which was based on a format SConrad uses in his Khadion NPC mod - another mod which I am sure is going to take the BG2 world by storm on its release!) is a fairly thorough and detailed one. At least it should be... I had to split it between two posts as the FW board software couldn't deal with all the content in a single post, and our most recent (SConrad) team member's comment on first seeing it was "Oh <make love to me*> gently . What have I gotten myself into?" Always a good sign, eh?

On a more personal note, I have taken a leap of faith with regard to my future in the real world (yes I do visit there occasionally), having quit my job to start a risky PhD in Chemical Engineering (since my fiance and I plan to go and teach over in the Middle East in three years time, it seemed a good idea to add another string to my academic bow during the time between now and then). "Risky" as in "the funding is not 100% certain", so my nerves are feeling a little frayed at the moment. One reason I mention this here is because I am unsure of the demands that will be made on me after this week, but I want to assure everyone that Chrysta's development isn't going to suffer. The other reason, of course, is to unashamedly solicit expressions of good will to try and boost my luck quotient before I start... hehe.

Anyway, signing off for another Diary entry. I told you they would be getting shorter, didn't I? Ahem...

*Translation of actual word used provided by www.ihadbetternotrepeattheactualwordheusedonthepublicsectionofthisforum.com

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:38 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 4: Slow and Steady Progress

May 30th 2005 - June 12th 2005

We really are into the nitty gritty of mod development now, with all team members quietly getting on with their allotted tasks and me just poking my big Mod Head nose into their affairs occasionally to check that things are progressing nicely... which I?m glad to say they are. Not too much to mention in this entry mod-wise, then, so for the first time this week?s Developer Diary actually is going to be a shorter one!

Work on the mod at the moment is mainly split between dialogue and technical work. Banters are still developing nicely, and two more major main plot dialogues have been drafted since the last update (by major, I mean over 4,000 words of plotline dialogue!). On the technical side, work is progressing on extracting graphics and optimising code, but it will be a while before we will see tangible results there. There have been enough developments and clarifications in the last month or so for me to revamp the Chrysta FAQ thread, so if you are interested in Chrysta make sure you check it out!

I was extremely happy to see people leaving such constructive feedback following the Minsc, Edwin and Haer?Dalis banter screenshots on the Chrysta Screenshots thread. It was nice to see so many positive comments, but even nicer to see that people were prepared to suggest how the banters could be improved. I have gone back and looked at some of the Edwin banters based on some of the feedback, and would encourage people to feel free to leave as many constructively critical comments and ask as many awkward questions as they like about any element of the mod or its development ? I and my team want Chrysta to be good, and I will never respond poorly to genuine attempts to offer advice or criticism. So don?t be afraid to criticise!

The main plotline dialogues are developing nicely, despite a brief period of writer?s block that I suffered during my transition to my new student lifestyle (yeah, right...). With almost all the basic NPC banters done, work has now started on converting them to the Adaptive Banter style that we have decided to incorporate. I?m really not sure whether or not we are the first mod to try this ? I doubt it, actually ? but what I mean by an ?Adaptive? Banter is one between Chrysta and a Bioware NPC that has content that changes depending on when it occurs in the game and what experiences Chrysta has had prior to the banter taking place. I don?t want to say much more than that at this stage in case it gets too spoilery, but I will refer the reader to the stated objective item number (2) from The Chrysta Code thread:

As a partially formed character at the start of the game, I want the PC to be able to mold her development to some degree to match how they play the game. Chrysta will become subservient and compliant if an evil character wants to manipulate her into becoming his/her slave, but equally will come out of her shell and grow in confidence and ability if a good character wants to nurture her. Although I know there will be a lot of work involved, I foresee writing a few different character development paths for her depending on how she is treated.

So depending on what (and if) Chrysta has become, her comments in some lines of certain banters will differ... as will the spellholdstudios.netcorresponding responses from the Bioware NPCs. This should improve her replayability as well as reward players who want to see that their efforts at ?moulding? Chrysta have not been in vain.

Something else that I am very happy with is Muse?s continued efforts to fine tune the working portrait, in order to reflect feedback and my excessively unreasonable demands. Her latest effort is getting pretty damn close to an ideal look, I think:


One final hopeful note to finish on ? it seems that the work on my new PhD is not going to be so onerous that I have to reduce my efforts in working on Chrysta, at least not in the immediate future. So I?ll keep ploughing through the dialogue work, and hopefully at the same time getting my head around some more coding techniques. Anyway, thanks for wading through another one of my pointless blurbs... see y?all in 2 weeks!

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:36 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 5: Everything in Moderation

June 13th 2005 - June 28th 2005

Yes, yes, I know this diary entry is late and should have been posted at the weekend, but with the imminent launch of "Spellhold Studios" I thought I would wait to see how the changeover went before posting my latest musings. And here we are, all shiny and new at our new home here at Spellhold (although I think I had better keep that fact from Chrysta just in case she panics).

Not that a great deal of progress has been made on Chrysta over the last couple of weeks, to be honest... but don't panic! There is precisely zero chance of my losing interest in Chrysta, and I hope I can say the same for the rest of my team as well. The only reason work on Chrysta has been effectively "on hold" is because of the help I have tried to give to Seb and the rest of the team in terms of admin duties and onerous little tasks during the FW --> SHS switchover. Oh, and a certain amount of my attention had been taken in honing my forum moderation skills on a certain Modder's Room thread that shall remain nameless. All that remains to be said on that score is "Huzzah for Freedom of Speech!"

Rest assured that Chrysta has not been entirely ignored during this hectic time, though. We are now only two Banters short (the last couple of Chrysta-Viconia banters) of our target of 5 Basic Banters per Bioware NPC, and I am aiming to get those done by the weekend. Work is also continuing on Adaptive Banter content, and technical work on area extractions and the like will begin again soon once our technical team (SConrad and Seifer) manage to extricate themselves from the vice-like grip of the technical issues involved in sorting out Spellhold Studios. The new mod info pages and Wiki look like being a really good idea as part of the new website design, and I have already got in early and posted Chrysta's Wiki Page entry - but it doesn't contain anything that hasn't already been posted on these forums, so don't get your hopes up for any new sneaky spoily stuff!

Mostly for the reasons outlined above, the forum has been a little quiet of late, although a few interesting questions (mostly from Feanor!) have been addressed (and deftly avoided) by me on the "Lets FAQ Chrysta" thread. I am determined to try and tread the thin line between being too spoilery and having people lose interest through being too cagey and uncooperative. So far, I think I am doing OK... but there is a long way to go yet!

Oh, and that mention of spoilers reminds me... we have one of Hendryk's "Jan Jansen" Chrysta banters coming up as the July teaser spoiler screenshot, and it will be appearing on the Chrysta Screenshots thread some time in the next two or three days. Jan fans please queue nicely and be careful not to bruise the turnips.

Unfortunately, it seems likely that the Real World will be impinging on my forum activity, unfortunately, at least in the short term. Basically, being the "new kid on the block" at University has meant that I have had my PC there "claimed" by a more senior postgraduate. Well, that is what he thinks anyway - I overheard my supervisor speaking with one of his colleagues concerning purchase of brand new laptops for those students without access to a PC, so I "kindly" donated my crappy old desktop to the moaning postgrad so as to neatly put myself in the frame for a brand spanking new notebook (sneaky, I know... but I am only a paladin in-game, after all!). While I hope that this will bear fruit in a few weeks time, it will mean that I won't be as active on this site during UK daylight hours as much as I have been in the past, so please don't get impatient if my turnaround time for responding to posts is a little longer than it has been before.

That is all for now, so watch out for that Jan banter later this week and keep asking those challenging questions about Chrysta... just don't expect a straight answer (eh Feanor?).

Cheers,

Sir K

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:35 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 6: It Lives!!!

June 29th 2005 - August 30th 2005

Well this is probably going to be less of a "Developer Diary" and more of a "Where-the-bleedin'-heck-has-the-developer-been" diary, considering the total absence of both myself and Chrysta progress for, oh, the last month and a half or so. Hopefully most of you out there are aware of my recent situation, but in case you aren't a brief explanation is in order. I was on holiday for the first couple of weeks of July, but shortly after returning and settling back into Chrysta-mode I had to scoot off to be with my Mother who had fallen down stairs and broken her hip. I then spent the next four weeks holding the fort at her Charity Shop while she recuperated, and I actually think I might be the first person in history to catch senility off the bunch of lovely but inconceivably scatty old dears who "help out" (in the loosest sense of the term) at the shop. The moment where 82-year old Deidre comes wandering out of the stock room and asks everyone if they prefer "breakfast or Budapest" has to rank as one of the more surreal moments in my recent lifetime...

Thankfully, my mother's hip proved to be a "clean" break rather than a shatter, so after some pretty darn effective physiotherapy she is actually up and about and reclaiming her duties at the Charity Shop as of last weekend. Freedom at last!

I am back now, though, and will be spending the next few days reacquiainting myself with Chrysta progress to date and getting back in touch with the various members of the development team. It seems almost certain that Chrysta's release may be pushed back due to my recent absence, probably due mostly to the fact that I imagine will be hard to recapture the kind of momentum we had before then. Rest assured, however, that my determination to make Chrysta an NPC mod to remember is as strong and focussed as ever - and if anything, more so due to my frustration over the recent enforced hiatus.

So, what to expect in the near future? Well, I do know that we are well overdue another banter spoiler screenshot, so expect to see a Korgan chat later this week. I am also hoping that a few former forum regulars will reappear and start pestering me with annoying questions again, as after the last few weeks I think I need a bit of cheerleading! Anyway, here's hoping that the Gods do not send another little test of faith down in the immediate future, and I'm going away now to get my head around Chrysta once again... oh, er, and to get my PhD back on track.

Damn, its good to be home!

Sir K

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:34 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 7: Back to the Progress Status Quo

September 1st 2005 - September 18th 2005

It?s taken a couple of weeks, but I have now fully reoriented myself with where Chrysta has progressed to, and I am more than happy with where she is heading! It was nice to see how well received the most recent screenshots were - in that people didn't just post a bunch of "ooh yeah dats cool 'n ace 'n stuff" platitudes, but rather took time to give constructive criticism and suggest improvements. As a result, I have (for example) gone back into a few banters and decreased the frequency with which I use *asterisks* to represent *emphasis* in banter text - as an ex-teacher, I admit I was perhaps trying to force a method of reading from my "pupils" and being a little too patronising in that regard! To my mind, if people are bothering to make useful, constructive comments about my work, then I am grateful and actually take that as a compliment - after all, if no one gave a damn about Chrysta and her development, why would people want me to get it right?

At the risk of straying off topic (yeah, like that never happens! ), I have found myself recently wondering just how many people realise what constructive criticism actually is... and I am talking here about mod writers as well as critics themselves. Without mentioning names or any specific instances, in my opinion (and this is only an opinion, and therefore should be taken as such) there seem to have been too many examples over the past few months over the whole modding community of short tempers, blinkered attitudes and over-sensitive egos. A simple criticism of a mod might result in a caustic knee-jerk response from the modder in question, or the activities of a persistent modding community troll might result in unfair finger-pointing and general spouting of misdirected bile between fans (or critics) of any given mod. There are no quick fixes for this, unfortunately, as there is regrettably no such thing as a "maturity virus" that can be distributed online, but it does seem to me that the time cannot come soon enough when people realise that just because someone is criticising an idea or point of view you might hold does not automatically mean they dislike or are criticising you as a person. Equally, people who are genuinely interested in modding and want to make useful contributions would do themselves (and the rest of us) a tremendous favour by realising that "Dis mod sucks" is meaningless without a "and this is a logical reason why I think this" to go with it... of course, even better is a "and I think it would be better if you did it this way". Which brings me back full circle to Chrysta... thankfully, so far at least she seems to have attracted a better breed of critic.

Now where was I... oh yeah, Chrysta Development Diary! As I alluded to at the beginning of this diatribe, the main progress has been my reacquainting myself with the current state of play, but this doesn't mean that the rest of the team has been idle. Far from it... in particular, Seifer has been working hard on area extraction work (yes, Chrysta will have her fair share of "new" areas"), while SConrad has been taking the WeiDU machete to my first draft at the Chrysta TP2 construction - with particular emphasis on compatibility and technical accuracy. I must once again take the opportunity to thank both of the guys for more than compensating for my own technical inadequacies!

The work Seifer and SConrad are doing on the technical front has allowed myself and Hendryk to carry on with dialogue and banter work. Worthy of particular With the basic SoA banter structure now complete (cue trumpet fanfare!), Hendryk has produced some excellent draft "adaptive banters" - i.e. situations where Chrysta's banter contributions vary dramatically depending on how her personality has developed. Without getting too spoily (as if I would! ), the "type" of Chrysta you end up with is going to have a noticeable influence on who she gets along with NPC-wise. My own efforts writing-wise are currently being channeled into one of Chrysta's three major subquests (major as in significant dialogue, extra areas and profound in-game effects on her development). Her main plotline dialogue is virtually complete, and I hope to start drafting her romance plot dialogues soon (I already have the course of the romance plotted out, and yes that has different branches as well depending on how Chrysta is influenced in her development! I really do wish sometimes that I could install a limiter on my imagination... ).

So, in summary, Chrysta is most certainly back on track with everyone pulling their weight with little or no coercion required from me! It remains to be seen, however, what effect the recent hiatus has had on her projected release date. If need be, I might consider a SoA-only release after all in order to maintain an early (first or second quarter) 2006 deadline, but rest assured I will keep people posted as soon as I have a better idea about this.

It only remains to say, therefore, that I am pretty pleased with the way things have slotted back into place nicely, and thanks to everyone for keeping interested in Chrysta's progress. And please, keep up the questions and the criticism... so long as it is constructive, of course!

Sir K

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 19 September 2005 - 11:34 AM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 8: More resurrections than Apophis*

*spot the sad Stargate fan reference

September 2005 - April 2007

Aw jeez, where do I start? And what to do or say?

Well, first of, what I am not going to do is waste paragraphs of drivel describing where I have been for eighteen months... suffice it to say that it has involved a long time out in the internet wilderness, first of all helping a friend get set up in a backwater farm in the Welsh Highlands, followed shortly thereafter by the better part of a year working at a school in the Middle East with draconian internet filtering supervision and no telephone lines in the apartments! So to say that Chrysta has taken a "brief sabbatical" would be the biggest understatement since JFK's secret service entourage commented that the local Book Depository would give a great view of the presidential entourage... probably the highlight of the last twelve months was getting the opportunity to show my Bottom off at the British Embassy in Kuwait (check out paragraph 9!)

So what I am going to do in this issue of the Developer "Diary" is to give a brief outline of where I see things goi9ng from here. What I am going to state here, categorically and for the record, is that I am not going to let Chrysta die. I have never given up on anything I have seriously started in the past, and I don't intend to start now - and certainly not considering all the effort that has gone into Chrysta in the past, both by myself and all the other members of the Chrysta team. This is not the first time I have returned after a "break", but I sure hope it will be the last! I would also like to take a moment to thank the SHS team and Admins for not deleting or mothballing Chrysta in my absence - your faith in my eventual return has been both noted and appreciated, and I promise that I will do my utmost to repay that faith.

I am not naive enough to think that work on Chrysta can simply pick up from where it left off - for one thing, I am completely out of practice when it comes to handling/coding WeiDU, and I also need to fully refresh my memory conerning the state in which I left the mod back in 2005 (yes, it has been that long...). I am also not sure how many of the old team are still around and willing to continue helping me out - it would be arrogance in the extreme to simply assume people have not moved on from where they were eighteen months ago. And of course this is now such an OLD game that I have to consider whether there is still an audience out there for dear Chrysta!

With all the above in mind, here (in no particular order) are my plans for the next week or so for the mod... the "Chrysta post-resurrection revival party", so to speak: B)

• Try to get in contact with all members of the old Chrysta team to see if thy are still alive interested in helping out.
  
• On the assumption that not all of the old team are still available, try to attract some new talent to fill in the creative/technical gaps in the team.
  
• Reacquaint myself with Chrysta: her storyline, the state of her scripts, banters and dialogues. Luckily, her workroom has an "Introduction to Chrysta for Newcomers" thread that summarises her for new members of the Chrysta Team... although I never thought I would need it myself!
  
• Scour the various Infinity Engine modding sites to get a general feel for developments in my absence, both technically (e.g. what state are the various "fixpacks" and alternative NPC mods in) and in terms of the general activity in the BG modding world.
  
• TRY to get up to speed on the technical aspects of modding. I was never that competent in handling WeiDU or scripting for mods even when I was at my most active, so this will be my trickiest (and potentially most frustrating) short to medium term goal.
  
• Decide on what to do first to progress the mod... almost certainly it will be to complete the dialogues for the core route through the mod, but I couldn't say for certain yet.

So all that remains is to say how good it feels to be back, and to apologise unreservedly to the SHS team and all potential fans of the Chrysta mod who I have let down by my absence, no matter that the absence were enforced rather than voluntary. Chrysta is a labour of love for me... and I just hope that having abandoned her for so long she is as willing as I am to get back to work.

Thanks everyone, and here's hoping for a slightly shorter gap between Developer Diary entries this time!

Sir K

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 9: Bloody Hell, two Diaries in one month!

May 3rd - May 31st 2007

Yes, your eyes do NOT deceive you, it has been less than a month since the last Developer Diary entry and here is another one! I am, in fact, going to try and keep these entries on a roughly monthly turnaround now, just to convince everyone that my presence here is more chronic than sporadically acute (prizes for translating that into plain English...).

Getting back into the modding scene after such a long absence has been fun, if a little stressful, having forgotten more about coding than I thought I had (although on second thoughts isn't that a stupid thing to say? How can I know I have forgotten something, because if I know I have forgotten it doesn't that mean I remember it in which case I haven't forgotten it, and if I have forgotten it how would I remember it had been forgotten. GAH! GO FOR THE EYES BOO!!!... ). The biggest headache I had was realising that I had made the classic mistake, when putting Chrysta to bed last time (put those minds away you scoundrels!) I carefully archived her mod files on CD and then put them... wait for it... in a SAFE PLACE. Damnation on all "safe" places! If they are so bloody safe why can we never remember where they are? In much the same way as I often think there is a "Bermuda Triangle of the Mind" situated halfway up every flight of stairs, the sheer number of times I have gone up or downstairs for something only to have completely forgotten what I was going for when I reached my destination, and then only remembered AFTER returning to my starting point. But I digress (as per usual)... the upshot of all of this was that I had to start rebuilding Chrysta FROM SCRATCH!!!

"Oh no!" I hear you cry (well, squeak anyway), "what a disaster!". Well, as it turns out, not really - if anything, it has proven to be a blessing in disguise. To put not too fine a point on it, my "modding skills" had regressed to such a point that, if the old Chrysta files had been available, I would probably have just accepted them without paying too much attention to how they were structured. Instead, I have had to re-do the whole (class) kit 'n kaboodle - basic scripts, CRE files, custom items, item patching codes, basic TP2 files, etc. etc. blah blah wibble. So now my understanding of coding and dialogue structure are probably better than they have ever been... but don't get excited and assume that I am now some kind of WeiDU Ninja. Putting my coding ability in context, this probably just means I would now only just fail an Infinity Engine Coder qualification rather than sit there staring blankly at the paper before eating it or making a paper hat out of it. Fortunately, I still have some expert coders to hold my hand as part of the Chrysta team.

Which rather neatly (and totally by accident rather than design) brings me onto the subject of the modding team. SConrad and Seifer are still on the team as senior gods coding advisors, but I am absolutely delighted to welcome berelinde, Jyzabyl and Lord Ernie as full time Chrystarians... ooh! I like the sound of that! I think I will keep as an official title for the team from now on. "Sir K and the Chrystarians". Er... on the other hand, it does make us sound rather like an octagenarian thrash metal group.

So, enough waffling, what about all the things I said last time that I expected to do next - have I been true to my word? Well, let's check shall we:

• Try to get in contact with all members of the old Chrysta team: DONE - some have moved on to pastures new with my and Chrysta's blessing, but I am happy that some will be staying with us for the rest of the ride!
  
  
  
• Try to attract some new talent to fill in the creative/technical gaps in the team: DONE - and some excellent additions the likes of berelinde, Jyzabyl and Lord Ernie promise to be
  
  
  
• Reacquaint myself with Chrysta: her storyline, the state of her scripts, banters and dialogues: DONE - despite the cheeky little minx hiding her first incarnation where I can't find it, I can safely say I now know Chrysta as well as I ever did
  
  
  
• Scour the various Infinity Engine modding sites to get a general feel for developments in my absence: DONE - my you have all been busy haven't you!
  
  
  
• TRY to get up to speed on the technical aspects of modding: DONE-ish - well, I am getting better anyway! With everyone's help, particularly the bottomless wells of patience that are SConrad and berelinde, I am feeling very confident that we will be able to implement everything I have in mind.
  
  
  
• Decide on what to do first to progress the mod: DONE - The main plot dialogues are close to completion now, and the team have been busy tidying up my technically-impaired coding technique. Soon we will be onto those pesky subplots!

Not bad, if I do say so myself. In fact we have moved on even further than that - an "Alpha Chrysta", without encounters or dialog except the joining one, has been packaged and is currently undergoing playtesting with Lord Ernie and berelinde. Now don't get too excited - all the hard work of coding dialogs and scripting quests has still to be done, and that is a mammoth task. but knowing that the custom kit, item and spell implementations both work as planned, and result in a character that is useful and different without being either munchkinlike in their awesomeness or Aerielike in their wimpiness (er... in other words... "balanced") is a big step forwards.

So watch this space - I will be back again within a month with hopefully even more juicy Chrystaness

Sir K

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 31 May 2007 - 03:02 PM.

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 10: A quiet, steady June

June 1st - June 30th 2007

As promised, another Developer Diary entry sticking to the monthly turnround time. For once, however, I am going to be brief - not because nothing has been going on, but rather because we are at the 'nitty gritty' stage of completing and filling in the remaining key dialogues. My plan, which seems to be working so far, is to get the spine of the NPC mod completely finished (in terms of unavoidable encounters, dialogues and cutscenes) before even thinking about the optional sidequests and "flavour" encounters. We are into Chapter 6/7 now in that regard so there is a light at the end of the tunnel... and I promise that isn't somebody carrying a torch with a pile of new material

Another definite step forward this month was in terms of the appearance of the first serious "Lovetalk"... and I hope you understand what I mean by 'serious' It is probably worth mentioning at this point that the (optional) romance content will certainly be aimed at a mature readership, but that I don't have any intention of writing any 'extreme' adult encounters. I have been working on Chrysta for too long to go making decisions that are going to restrict the scope of who wants to play her. The good news is that, considering it was my first real attempt at writing 'sexy' (as opposed to just making multiple romances accessible for all... ah, those were the days!) the female team members actually gave me some pretty positive feedback on it. Maybe I have a future in writing trashy romance novels after all... er... no, maybe not.

July should see the rest of the Chrysta main plot track completed, so look for some good news here next time. I am off with my wife and both mothers-in-law on holiday for a week in Egypt, so I can feel some creative frustration resulting in a flurry of activity on my return! In the meantime, Chrysta-watchers, be assured that progress is being made. Steady and slow, maybe, but continuous... she will be out there before too long, I promise.

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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Edited by Sir Kalthorine, 01 July 2007 - 02:39 AM.
I'm a paladin, Jim, not a spellchecker...

[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 11: Well, Easter is when he came back from the dead again, isn't it?

godonlyknowswhen- April 13th 2009

With reference to the title of this post, before any religious nutjobs start to track me down no I am not in any way, shape or form comparing myself to the big "JC" ((and no I don't mean John Cleese...) - although no doubt there may be some people spontaneously quoting his name upon seeing that I am back. Neither am I going to make excuses for my effective eighteen month absence by trawling over the events of my complicated little life, since first of all that makes no difference to this mod, and secondly there is probably a 250,000 maximum word limit for posting on these forums.

What I am going to do, if you will indulge a tired old paladin for a few brief moments, is to say what I see happening with Chrysta now as a mod. The first thing I feel I have to to say is this:

She will be finished, no matter how long it takes me.

Bit of a mixed message there eh? Kind of a weird blend of "Hurrah!!! we will eventually get Chrysta!" and "Er... hang on... hurrah?!? we will eventually get Chrysta? How long is eventually, it has been seven years already?!?" Seven years... sheesh, and still so much to do. Well all I can say is that Chrysta is still a way off being completed, which means we are looking at a latter-half-of-this-year release at the earliest - so all I can promise at this stage is that I will post regular updates from now on (and no I don't mean regularly every couple of years, ya meanies!).

In the meantime there are a few other announcements to make regarding the Chrysta mod:
- I have decided to most definitely go for a SoA only release, although I willl continue working on the ToB release after that as her story arc for the expansion is already mapped out and the last thing I want after the SoA release is people baying for my blood about questions left unanswered (don't worry, there is still a definite "conclusion" of her main SoA story arc within the SoA portion of the mod, but there will also be some tantalising threads left hanging for follow-up in ToB...).
- I will be cutting back on some of the planned "extra" content such as the huge number of banters and interjections originally planned in order to speed her along a bit. But there will be no trimming back of her main plot arc, don't worry!

One final note concerning progress in the immediate future - don't expect to see major updates in the next couple of weeks, as considering how long I have spent away from the gaming community I will be using this time to play through the game again a couple of times with some of the newer mods installed, so I can look "under the hood" of recent mod developments and refresh my modding abilities in so doing. Finishing Chrysta is now something I certainly want to do, in fact for peace of mind and spirit I feel I have to do. I have let myself and others down by disappearing off the modding map for long periods in the past, even if not always by choice, and she is just an itch that I have to finish scratching. And it almost doesn't matter to me now if the whole IE modding community is so much smaller than it used to be, or even if it disappears completely. Watch out Chrysta... you can't escape my attentions! <insert evil cackle here>

Oh, and a post script to my final note... it is good to be back

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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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[Sir Kalthorine]

Diary Entry 12: More comebacks than Michael Jordan

In my previous developer diary I stated that "She will be finished, no matter how long it takes me".

So glad I didn't put a timescale in there, I can only hope that there are still such items as physical keyboards and mice by the time I get Chrysta out among the masses.  Rest assured, however, that even if I'm the only one still playing the game by the time I finish her I will still get her out there.

This is only a short developer diary for now, but I thought I owed it to myself (and to others who so kindly welcomed me back) to confirm beyond any reasonable doubt that I am back and committed to seeing Chrysta through to completion.  Don't worry if things are a little quiet on here for the next couple of weeks - I'm not daft enough to plough on without taking some time to re-acquaint myself with all the work previously done, to recruit some new Chrysta team members, and to catch up with any modding developments in the last 3 years.  Once new content starts to be added I'll post another Developer Diary entry in a few weeks time.

I just want to finish for now by saying a huge thank you to the SHS site.  Thanks to them (and the fact that I am a paranoid SOB when it comes to losing data), the Chrysta Workroom forum - containing all the work previously done on the mod - is fully intact.  So no recreating of previous work is necessary, which when I discovered was the case was a huge boost to morale. Yay SHS!

Ah well, back to doing some serious catch-up...


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Comments, suggestions, feedback and inane blabber are all welcomed concerning any element of this Diary or mod development in general, and a Chrysta Developer Diary Comments thread exists for precisely that purpose.
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