13 replies to this topic

[Malthis]

Hello SHS-community,

Today I will reveal the first signs of life of the Alanya-NPC modification which I hope you will like.
The modification itself is already near the beta status and will be hopefully released this or next month.
At the moment I am mostly working on rewriting and proofreading but if there is anything you would like to see,
please don´t hesitate to let me know and in case it fits her character, I will keep it in mind.

To give you further information, I made a Q&A list, but well free to ask whatever you want, but keep in mind that I want to
expose as less as I can.
Helpful comments are also always appreciated.

Nonetheless I would like to give you one advice: Explore every pixel of Atkathla before an especially after you let her join
you.
Even places where you was never before.
Trust me, you (hopefully) won´t be disappointed.



1. Is this a Weidu-Mod?

Yes, of course and it should be compatible to all mods I know.



2. Who is Alanya?

First of all, please take a look at her picture and her in-game appearance.
(I would be grateful if someone could tell me how I can make them be displayed in this thread - the board gives me an error when I try to use )


http://www.1webspace...this/Alanya.bmp


http://www.1webspace...his/Alanya2.bmp


I my opinion it represents her personality perfectly.
But I am also interested in the views of the community.


Now a bit of her backstory:

Alanya is a child of the planes.
She has a very good reason to join, a very good reason to stay and also a very good reason to fall in love with <CHARNAME>.
Yes, she is romanceable and trust me, a friendship wouldn´t be logical at all.
She also has an intact family (did you read that often?) which you will meet at least twice.



3. What are her class, stats and advantages/disadvantages?

I do everything possible to keep her balanced, so do not worry, she will not be too powerful.


Class:

Single Druid


Stats:

STR: average
DEX: very high
INT : very high
WIS: (Unsure - she has high knowledge of the planes but very few of Faerun, though she is able to abstract due to her INT.
         Very high WIS when it comes to everything that has to do with nature)
CON: average
CHR: (Unsure - overall beautiful and deeply caring but maybe not in everyone´s eyes)


Advantages:

-Suffers considerably less from acid- and cold-based attacks
-Has some magical resistance
-Immune to some effects


Disadvantages:

-Suffers badly from fire-based attacks
-Suffers badly from physical attacks that causes slashing and crushing damage
-Suffers from physical attacks that causes piercing and missile damage



4. Does she has personal equipment?

Yes, she does and every item is undropable (yes, there is a reason for it, don´t worry)
All are powerful but only some provides you advantages in battles.



5. Where and among which circumstances can I pick her up?

You are able to get her only in chapter 2 for the reason that the game is already
close to the end when you return to Atkathla and you do not want to miss most of the content,
do you?
I will not reveal exactly where she can be found (it is more fun to think for yourself, isn´t it?),
but just think about the places that would make sense.
It will not happen randomly.

Your PC also has to meet some requirements to become aware of her.
He must be:

-A male
-A human, half-elf or elf
-Of a NG, CG or RN alignment
-High of CHR and INT



6. Will there be personal quests?

Maybe the one that already partially exists, but I am unsure about it.
Time will show.



7. Will she interject with other party members than <CHARNAME>?

I´m sorry, she will not.
Not because of the reason she hasn´t anything to say, but for the reason that I don´t want her to have two or three talks
in the months she will be with the party.
Her to be mute is less unrealistic, at least in my opinion.
Or in other words: I don´t have that much time.



8. In what language is she written?

The modification is written in German.
I am sorry for all who´s native language is another, but translate her sentences goes a little beyond my abilities.
Nonetheless I have high hopes that some people (maybe from Kerzenburg?) are willing to give her a satisfying English
translation, so that far more people will be able to test her.



Thanks to everyone who came this far.
Malthis

[Paareth]

Good luck with the mod she definitely sounds interesting enough to give a test run, if someone can translate to English for you.

I can?t view her images at the time of writing due to an error message when I click the link. The links are probably set to not accept requests outside of the host website, direct to images. (Image protection)

Edited by Paareth, 01 September 2008 - 12:40 PM.

[Kaeloree]

You need to copy+paste the url of the images and manually go there rather than clicking the link. Some websites don't allow displaying of images on other websites for bandwidth reasons.

She looks very interesting, Malthis--keep us updated! Hopefully someone will be able to translate it to English...

[Daulmakan]

You need to copy+paste the url of the images and manually go there rather than clicking the link. Some websites don't allow displaying of images on other websites for bandwidth reasons.

Curiously, I'm able to see them just fine.

Here they are, for convenience:

[Malthis]

Hello, it´s Malthis again,


First of all: Thanks to Daulmakan.

But I´m a bit disappointed there aren´t many around, even though I made the first step to gather some people to translate this project.

Just let me know what teases you and I will probably do it (concerning this thread, of course   )

Well, this evening and night I will do some more writing on two or three major events and hopefully don´t get a new idea.

Bye, Malthis

[Ankhes]

This sounds really cool but I have to admit that the lack of interjections with other party members does disappoint me. But that won't stop me from taking her along once she is ready. Good luck!

[minotaur_in_maze]

7. Will she interject with other party members than <CHARNAME>?

I´m sorry, she will not.
Not because of the reason she hasn´t anything to say, but for the reason that I don´t want her to have two or three talks
in the months she will be with the party.
Her to be mute is less unrealistic, at least in my opinion.
Or in other words: I don´t have that much time.

Two thots

One, if she isn't going to converse with the other party members then it might be worth the time to write up some description for her reaction TO them, as many of the Original NPCs would be way out of character not to at least Try to talk to her:

IMOEN: So Alanya, what is this thing you have about <CHARNAME>? You like <PRO_Him/Her> I can tell but it seems different than that at the same time, too. 'Fess up.

Alanya: <Cocks her head slightly at the young thief's words, but, as usual, says nothing.


The other idea is that if you want english speakers to play the mod, find some who can translate.

Not a bad concept but I think complete lack of communication between your girl and other NPCs might kill the thrill for many.

Minotaur In Maze

[Malthis]

Hello again,

After I browsed through many threads and the pinned poll I wonder that not few people at least seem to see quality interactions with other NPCs as the most important aspect of a NPC-Mod.
But maybe I would understand these opinions better if I had a NPC I always take with me because I like him or her that much.

Anyway, thanks minotaur_in_maze I realized for the first time (sometimes I really can be blind) that other NPCs would talk to Alanya...
Well that makes things far more complicated and I not even played with every bioware NPC, for instance I never took Mazzy along.
And I really can´t discuss that much without spoiling nearly everything because nearly everything is connected to each other.

I have to think about it.

But to mention something more positive I managed to get already one person who is willing to translate, even tough one isn´t enough to do the whole work.

Bye, Malthis

[Paareth]

Hello again,

After I browsed through many threads and the pinned poll I wonder that not few people at least seem to see quality interactions with other NPCs as the most important aspect of a NPC-Mod.
But maybe I would understand these opinions better if I had a NPC I always take with me because I like him or her that much.

Anyway, thanks minotaur_in_maze I realized for the first time (sometimes I really can be blind) that other NPCs would talk to Alanya...
Well that makes things far more complicated and I not even played with every bioware NPC, for instance I never took Mazzy along.
And I really can´t discuss that much without spoiling nearly everything because nearly everything is connected to each other.

I have to think about it.

But to mention something more positive I managed to get already one person who is willing to translate, even tough one isn´t enough to do the whole work.

Bye, Malthis

Over the years i've learned a few things about modding various games. I find it helpful and ultimately more enjoyable, to make a mod based on how you enjoy playing. For Baldurs gate 2, there are several one day NPC's about for instance, many just have a few lines here and there (some are surprisingly well made regardless), they still get played and tested but they are not to everyone's tastes, nor are the dialogue intensive NPC's others enjoy.

Just do what you feel comfortable doing and in time perhaps you'll update your original creation with more content but if not, you've done what you set out to do and hopefully enjoyed the result and process.

Its good you've found someone to translate and the good thing about any translation is, you can split the workload if you need to.

A further point, on not having a firm grasp on every original bioware NPC's character. Its fair to say nobody has an exact grasp other than the original writers/designers, all we can give is our best interpretation, so don't feel bad if its not 100% in line with their character, our best is all we can do.

Edited by Paareth, 07 September 2008 - 06:45 AM.

[berelinde]

You might also want to consider that it's easier to get translators for shorter mods. I've got translations for two of my short ones, but at 7K+ TRA lines for Gavin, well, I don't expect any takers.

[theacefes]

I could translate Gavin into gangster for you, berelinde.

[berelinde]

Yo!

[Malthis]

Hello again,

Well, even though I have nothing really new to say, I just wanted to let everybody know who might have an interest in playing the Mod that I made really great progress  in the last couple of days.
And I really hope that I am able to show some dialogue-previews in the next time.
Until then, here are some actual statistics:

Number of "new" areas:

14, size: 78 KB

Number of new creatures:

169, size: 221 KB

Number of new dialogues:

100, size: 683 KB

Number of new items:

7, size: 7 KB

Number of new scripts:

91, size: 153 KB

Bye, Malthis

[Malthis]

Hello again,

It feels satisfying to announce that I was able to bring the Alanya initiated talks, the Player initiated talks, the other talks which are important and the comments she has to make to a final status.
It took me 4 months of really, really hard work, but when I give it a playthrough in the next hours or tomorrow, it will pays off.
And hopefully the translator will enjoys it too and sacrifices his time and devotion.

Well, that´s all for now, time for a little rest.

Bye, Malthis