92 replies to this topic

[LiellaMod]

In the final coding stretch at the moment (prior to optimization of course) The Bodhi abduction and rescue is coded and works properly after some problems with the script now solved. I've removed 2 of the lovetalks so far (Commented them out for now) for comparative irrelevancy. Maybe i'll work them in at some later point after rewriting them. As far as the SoA portion goes, it's really nearing towards being ready for "shipping" to beta and testing. I'll sit down this week and go through the last conversations to see where flow needs to be improved and test out everything a few more times. Given how much i've learned in the past weeks about scripting, dialogue-writing, cutscene-scripting and structuring, working with the TOB portion will be a lot easier, i expect.

 

Thanks for everyone here - and on G3 as well - who so far has played an active role in helping me solve some of the more technical issues. The only reason i've come this far and the time i've spent is because of the excellent community support and teaching.

 

Peace out!

Edited by LiellaMod, 26 March 2014 - 03:00 AM.

[LiellaMod]

Half of the ToB conversations entered, optimized and adjusted for flow and pacing. Scripted and tested the wraith scene for the Mir temple as well as dreamscripts. So far, so good! Just a quick update to let y'all know that it's still progressing at roughly the same pace.

Peace out!

[gloomfrost]

Thanks for all the hard work! I am sure this will be a "keeper" of a mod. The opening screenshot shows what a fun character she appears to be.

 

Honestly this will be the first non canon NPC i have ever tried, but she sounds like a fun and raucous character so i am excited to try her out.

[LiellaMod]

Thank you for your kind words . While i'm still at the stage of finishing and optimizing the code - ToB at the moment, and there's been a lot of unforseen scripting to be done over the course of the mod so far - we *are* constantly revising, optimizing and trying to perfect flow and dialogue. It's a loooong process, but the distance we've come over the past...*eyes calendar* little over a month now, is pretty staggering.

Once all the scripting is done (at least the first phase, prior to optimization, good coding practice, etc) we'll go through all of the written dialogues once or twice more in total before flagging it for beta. Then - possibly while we are beta testing, start looking for a voice actress.

[LiellaMod]

Everything "necessary" is now done and tested, including scripts, romances, cutscenes, interjections and making sure that everything works somewhat flawlessly on a "clean" install of BG2EE. Just finished scripting the epilogues (8 of them in total) to make sure that they trigger at the correct choices.

Now...it's revisions, extensive testing and fluff. There are a few things that we've added to the to-do-list over the course of our playthroughs that we might add. And once we begin beta-testing we'll of course listen very attentively to the opinions of those who try to add or remove things to/from the mod.

Peace out!

Edited by LiellaMod, 07 April 2014 - 01:54 PM.

[Eric P.]

In the event that you'd like beta-testing on a PowerPC Mac, such as mine, I volunteer my services in advance. I can test with only BG2 Fixpack installed, or on my "stable play installation," which has various mods (including a short list of NPCs), but isn't as large as a mega installation. Also, I'm happy to assist with proofreading any text, as English is my native language, and I've done considerable proofing and editing both professionally and for other mods (and I'm a fiend for correct and consistent spelling, grammar, and punctuation).

[Twani]

I just wish she'd appear for female protagonists.   My gals want a chance to know her, too!

 

Good luck with the modding!

[LiellaMod]

I just wish she'd appear for female protagonists.   My gals want a chance to know her, too!
 
Good luck with the modding!

Sorry . About a month ago we actually went so far as to write up something for female protagonists - an alternate storyline but....well

We're pretty harsh critics of our own work. In the end, her entire character *only* makes sense if the protagonist is male.

[Sergio]

Looking forward to this!

[Ulb]

This looks really promising.

 

I'm a total sucker for npcs with lots of content and interjections.

I even enjoyed Saerileth on my first play-through with her. (Though that was back when I still played the German version of BG. I think a lot of people would be surprised how much better the mod gets if you play it with its excellent German dubbing.)

 

Anyway, while what Glam Vrock said about blowing dialogue up just for the sake of it is of course true, I really hope you won't cut content from your mod just because you fear it might be too much for the average player.

 

There are already tons of small to medium sized npc mods out there and, as you said yourself, your mod is intended for people who favor a more elaborated character/story over a killing-machine with a few banters.

So I doubt your 'audience' will have issues with your mod being/taking to long.

 

In any case, good luck with the rest of your mod.

I'm looking forward to its release.

Edited by Ulb, 25 June 2014 - 02:34 PM.

[Sergio]

The sad part, Ulb, is that it seems that Liella didn't connect anymore :'(. There is a chance this mod will never see the light of the day.

[Ulb]

Hm, these things happen of course, though if a modder disappears for a few months that doesn't necessarily mean they are gone for good.

 

Anyway, in LiellaMod's case her last post is from April and she doesn't appear to have been a heavy forums user before, so I don't think there is any reason to write this mod off (yet).

 

In BG modding terms one or two months aren't that much...for now, let's just hope that nothing bad has happened to her.

[LiellaMod]

No worries, everyone.

 

Life took a drastic turn for a month or two there. Me and my lovely girlfriend simply had to put everything on the back burner while we moved our lives half the country for a job. It pretty much meant that any non-vital activities came very low on the priority list.

 

Things are looking more stable these days however. You'll be happy to hear that we took a long, 5 hour look into the mods current state tonight. As far as things go, we're very pleased. Very pleased, in fact. The only thing i'm not pleased with is that i seem to have forgotten about half of what i learned of modding while taking this hiatus, not to mention half of the variables in the files no longer make sense to me. I'll have to delve back in and catch up again.

 

What's left on the to-do list?

 

* Embellishments. We want everything flowing smoothly, from point A, to B, to C and so forth. This includes everything from conversation pacing, flirt pacing, banters and so forth. Optimizing this will require time. We also don't want the player to have to wonder "what am i supposed to do now?". It should be clear whether things are okay with the NPC, or aren't okay. It should be clear if she wants you to do something specific, wants you to go somewhere or wants to do something. Most of this for SoA is done, ToB is another matter. I'll have to look into it and see what needs doing.

 

* Dialogue polishing. The mod features, despite content cuts and revisions, a large amount of text. This text needs to be read through, corrected, optimized and fixed about 10-15 more times i expect. It's not deplorable in it's current state, but there's always room for improvement.

 

* Voice acting. Once the dialogue is in a satisfactory state, we'll want to find or hire a voice actress to play Liella. Whether this will be a requirement for the release...we'll see.

 

* The character is my girlfriend's brainchild, and she's expressed a desire to split the mod into two different install options, much like certain other mods, where the player can choose between a somewhat "tidied" up version of Liella or the 18+ adult version of the mod and character, which will include foul language, use of curses as well as content that might be considered unsuitable for anyone under 18. We'll see if this is something we'll end up doing. 

 

 

Blah, blah, blah. Does the mod work? Like, right now? Is it complete?

 

Ish, yes. It works, all of the content works. All interjections, banters, lovetalks, commentary and quests work. Epilogues and ToB content works. It's just poorly timed, not sufficiently edited and certain features we'd like are not yet finished. But the mod is currently in version 0.993 Alpha, bordering on beta. I'll re-contact people over at G3 to open up a tester's forum when it's time.

 

My lovely co-author who isn't here right now would also like me to apologize for the numerous female players who in emails over the past months expressed their disappointment that the Liella mod will not be playable by female PC's. Sorry, folks!

 

//Sebastian & Jasmine

Edited by LiellaMod, 05 July 2014 - 12:52 AM.

[Sergio]

Nice to hear all this stuff! I admit that I was going to write you a mail to know if you were still working on this, and while I was opening yahoo, I saw that you posted inside the topic. Good news.

Well, to your own idea of making two actually version, one with swearing and one without, I would like to tell you my personal idea: I don't like much swearing and things of that sort in baldur's gate.



Good luck for your life!

[Almateria]

I even enjoyed Saerileth on my first play-through with her.

 

[Ulb]

I'm glad to hear you guys are fine. 

 

I even enjoyed Saerileth on my first play-through with her.

 

 

Well, in my defense; it's been a few years, quite a few years..

 

Though honestly.. unless my memories got somehow deluded over time, the German dubbing is really excellent (great sound quality and a 'fitting' voice actress) and improves the whole mod tremendously.

So, for someone who has already played vanilla BG a few times (and thus doesn't get his original BG 'feeling' spoiled by the intrusiveness of the mod), it is well worth a play-through.

 

(Of course you need to play a somewhat naive goody two-shoes to make it work..)

 

Anyway, we probably shouldn't prolong this discussion in Liella's thread..

 

@Liella

Sorry for abusing your thread & good luck with your mod!

[LiellaMod]

No worries. Discuss away! ^^

 

As far as Liella goes, we spent some time discussing just what we wanted to and how we wanted to approach it. In the end, it came down to the question: What do *we* enjoy in a mod?

 

Well, both of us are players who enjoy the conversational, intrigue and character aspects of the Baldur's Gate games. The combat is awesome, the storyline is superb, but what kept us coming back to the game was the characters coupled with the storyline. We enjoy the fact that every character brings their own little mini-story (and sometimes not so small) to the game.

 

As such, we view the game as a great outlet for telling a "story."

 

That's what Liella is/will be. A story. She won't be an overpowered/godmodded NPC who you'll want to bring along because of her amazing combat skills. She'll be able to use swords, sure, but her usefulness in fighting will be secondary. We don't want players going in with the wrong impression or expecting something entirely different out of it. Liella is basically a small novel in NPC form, in length and style. She's embellished to interact with the world we put her in to a very high degree because we want to flesh her out. She interacts with other NPC's and with the PC to a very high degree because we want to make you interested in her - curious to learn more and wonder where things will go. The reason she features such a large amount of lovetalks, commentary, banter and dialogue that in the end may put some people off taking her or playing the mod all serves this purpose - telling the story. That's why some of the things i've had to learn to do to make this mod have been scary - Liella wouldn't be complete without her own - and large number of - cutscenes.

 

When we talked this over, we basically came down to the decision - we can't please everyone, so we'll please ourselves. We hope that some people will end up enjoying Liella and what she has to offer. We feel that it's a pretty interesting little tale and we feel that the character has depth and a sort of charmingly flawed personality without being helpless or annoying. The feedback results of the small excerpts we've allowed friends to read have been encouraging - one of whom asked us to write more of her. We hope you like her, but in the end, we're writing this mod as a project for ourselves. Initially due to a lot of free time - now, because we want to see it done.

 

The length of the mod will be a subject to criticism - how could it not? Some players don't want this size of a mod/character when they replay the game - nothing wrong with that preference. But as someone who makes a living artistically (though not by writing mods ) - writing a mod like this to please others would be doing it for the entirely wrong reasons. We're writing this for us, and we'll share it with you. If you enjoy it - awesome, we'd love to hear from you. Got criticism? Shoot it over - we'd love to hear from you as well! You're not the kind of person who wants this type of comparatively logorrheic NPC in your party? You really should avoid Liella.

 

I'm sorry to say that i doubt a German translation will be done though .

[Ulb]

Sounds pretty good to me, I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Judging from your NPC-to-NPC interaction preview, it appears to me Liella would be a good fit for a more evil aligned party, or am wrong about that?

(My next play-though will definitely be with an evil main char since I only went with a good character for Fade's sake this time.)

 

I'm sorry to say that i doubt a German translation will be done though .

 

Personally, I haven't played the German version in years, so it's not really an issue for me.

(Though I'm sorry for my fellow German players who won't get to enjoy your mod. )

[LiellaMod]

While Liella's alignment is evil and she inherently will get along better with a PC and character who have a certain moral freedom, her alignment is in no way indicative of where she is most "suitable". 

 

A "good" and an "evil" path exists, and this becomes much more readily apparent during ToB when the path splits entirely, offering a drastically different ToB storyline and character for good/evil respectively. Where you end up will depend on certain choices during SoA. In that way, the mod is malleable to a very high degree and, at least i would argue, has great replay value at least once. It features 8 different epilogues - 4 per ToB storyline, all with different outcomes - unless your tale with Liella ends much earlier than that, which is also possible in more than one spot during SoA and ToB.

 

Hope that answered your question a bit .