Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - Reacquainting myself with the Toolset

The last update was on the 31th of march and I had a lot of other work to do that prevented me from working on the mod. Since then I have also learned a lot about game design and I will try to find a way to implement what I learned into the mod making it better and more interesting.

First there were some bugs in it that I will try to fix and then I will work on the next part of the story and the implementation of it but after so long I have to reacquaint myself again with the Toolset and the needed tutorials for companions and custom classes.

I am not making any promises to finish anything soon but I will work on it nevertheless.

Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - Managing the player's character's journal

Most crpgs have a journal as a place where quest information and various notes are stored. Dragon Age is not different with regard to that. 

But I have always asked myself who managed that journal, who wrote all the different notes down and sometimes copied whole books into it. Some games use the first person for entries so that the player feels like his character takes the notes himself. Some games use the second person for the entries as if someone were talking directly to the player through his entries. In DAO it is the second person and I sometimes wondered who was managing it.

In "The Magic of Innocence" I wanted to be clear about who makes the entries and who "talks" to the player. It is the mage apprentice Ben who created the pc in a ritual and is the first and a permanent companion in my module.

Another aspect is the fact that the journal is just a concept and has no "physical" representation in most crpgs. That is something I dislike and therefore want my mod to be different. Fortunately, there is a item category in the game that is visible and does not count against the item limit: plot items. So the first plot item the character will get is in fact the journal where Ben writes down all the important information the player needs to stay atop of in the game. Most entries will be mostly neutral, but in order for the reader to know that it is Ben, who writes them, some of these entries will include his opinion, so it can be quite interesting to have an entry about something and then the player finds out that the information is not as accurate as he believed it to be. This approach is interesting but could potentially be devastating to the point that the player doesn't trust the journal any more so entries that are not based on facts have to be marked as such. I am thinking about adding a new category to the codex entries labels something like "ideas" or "rumours". In that category all entries floating around as hearsay and Ben's musings will be separated from the "facts", like the entries used by the original campaign or quest notes which only record past deeds.

Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - Morality meter and approval systems

Dragon Age: Origins uses an approval system with its followers that is point based and displayed on something like a number line or number ray (not sure what the right word in English is), lets call it approval bar. With changing values the reaction toward the character changes. For positive changes the follower is more open to the player's ideas and with negative values it is possible that the follower would leave or even turn hostile.

Using that system for my own mod is something I will try to implement. The basics are there but effectively tied to the original followers from Origins. So far I can change the simple point values and get the value via script. To use the whole range of options available I have to dig a little more, make copies of more core scripts and adjust the system to my followers. It is a bit of work but would be nice to have in the long run.

As for having something like a "morality meter", that is a little bit more complicated. I would like to have something that the player can see in the GUI without searching for it. After some experimenting I found out that I can also enable the approval bar for the player character (pc). It easily fits into the GUI and the values are handled the same as for followers (no surprise there, its the same system). But the player won't know that this approval bar is different from the others and changing the icons just for the pc doesn't work, it is a part of the GUI that I can't edit.

Another idea came from another modder in the BSN toolset forums that suggested using items as tokens for a reputation system she uses in her mod. These items would be assigned as plot items to not count against the item limit and to be in a separated section of the inventory screen. Using those tokens for different factions as signs that you had dealings with them is quite a good idea when the core game had nothing to represent factions in the first place like other crpgs have.

Combining the pc approval bar with tokens for morally wrong decisions could be just what I wanted. If the pc passes a specific value on his/her approval bar a token is put in the inventory and by the description of said token the player can see if the consequences are worth the action. I will not make these tokens a bad thing per say. They will have consequences both beneficial and limiting. For example there could be some talents that get unlocked that mirror the decisions previously made but at the same time some npcs might not want to have dealing with the pc anymore or even turn hostile as a result. There will be ample warning of mayor changes both in the mentioned token descriptions and by journal entries that Ben makes.

Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - Upload Beta 2 and bugfixes

Beta 2 is ready and uploaded. But as expected there are some bugs in it because I still used some only one and the same computer for testing and development. There were some remains from mods I had installed like new textures and meshes. Some of those I included in the upload other I just forgot entirely so the result had missing hair meshes for the main character and also some icons.

Some of the new lines of dialogue were a little bit rushed and therefore prone to spelling and grammar mistakes. I am no native English speaker and have to check the text more than once in the future.

I wanted to upload a new version before my semester start on Wednesday so I was in a hurry, big mistake. I now have to check the content for bugs and grammar mistakes nonetheless. Hopefully there are no major bugs in it and my changes to the previous version improve the experience. So far I have one play test from another modder and he made some important comments that I need to look out for in future updates. It is still a work in progress, I never claimed anything else.

With some more time on it, I will fix the reported bugs today and tomorrow. I'll also have another look at the conversation flow to make it more smooth.

The class abilities are the next big thing I have to tackle because so far they are only pictures without any code behind them.

And I really should make a design document and collect my notes to improve my structure. There are dozens of posits and sheets of paper littering my desktop and only some of them have something important on them. In digital form there is one to-do list that I made last year and forgot about it so it is hopelessly outdated...

Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - Classes and social skills

Dragon Age like most rpgs uses classes for their characters to distinguish between the mechanic sides of roles.

As a result I need to design a set of classes for my mod that represent the sets of abilities my characters get.

For the main character it is the hardest because I want to give as much freedom to the player as possible. Realising that goal with a system that restricts different sets of skill or talents to different classes and not use a common pool of abilities where all the can chose from is maybe the hardest part of my idea to realize.

For my npcs it is easier because I will use existing classes or build new ones atop of them. My apprentice will become an alchemist which is an edited form of the original mage with some unique abilities. There will be a rogue that will get a new specialisation.

Back to the main character.

Since I will not need fighting skills or magic attacks from the start I have to design a set of abilities that are interesting enough to use. Dragon Age: Origins has too few abilities that are not combat related so I have to design those myself.

What kind of abilities do I need?

Mostly social skills, something special knowledge like street smarts for the rogue and magic theory for the alchemist and some that are for the main character.

The main class I will call "Enigma" with the background "Created"(Surprise!). The npcs have no background as mechanics so their background abilities must be part of the classes.

The class is called "Enigma" because at the beginning there are not really much skills or talents but the player influences the availability of other skills through his/her actions. These skills will then enhance the different styles of play. For example, a pacifistic character might get abilities to prevent the need to fight while a confrontational character will get fighting skills.

The character at the very beginning has no special abilities apart from maybe "attractiveness", which can help dealing with grumpy npcs. Wait? How? Well there are social studies that state that attractive people are better at getting help then unattractive ones. It is nicer to talk to someone who is attractive then the "filthy bum" from the bus station. It might be illogical but sadly it is the way social interactions work to an extent.

Another aspect that someone needs that is just created is the ability to learn fast and efficiently.

So we have the first set of abilities for the class:

• Attractive: Your creator made sure that you look good and people have no problem talking to you.
• Here is room for something like flirt, charm or the like, that might come in handy in conversations. The standard is persuasion which splits in Intimidate and Persuade but that is not enough for good role playing.
• Fast Learner: You learn faster than normal people. 
• The first thing to learn might be that language the people of Fereldan speak.
• Here is room for more abilities like maybe "learning by imitation" which could be interesting. To watch someone do a specific task and gain insight that way. A nice way to learn to fight maybe...
•  Help from Companions: Your companions can help you with their knowledge and their skills to find out more in conversations.
• Since there will not be more than three companions there could be a skill for each one of them. It would be something like: 
1. own dialogue option 1
2. own dialogue option 2
3. etc.
4. (Companion 1 skill) 
5. etc.
• These skill are just for things the character is not able to learn for herself in the course of the game like the before mentioned "street smarts", "magic theory" or so.

Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - The ToolSet

The toolset for Dragon Age is a large program with a lot of options and a lot of interdependency.

You can do level design in the same window with the dialogue editor so you have full control over all aspects of your modification.

With so much power comes (responsibility.. sorry, couldn't resist) a steep learning curve to understand all the aspects you need for a specific task. There is a wiki with some good starter tutorials, there are also some video tutorials for those of us who learn better the audio visual way (like me). But there are nor advanced tutorials there or anywhere else but you can ask questions in the forum at the Bioware Social Network.

It took me about half a year to get my bearings with the toolset and there are still parts of it that I do not understand at all. But for the most parts of my mod I know where to look and what to change.

The toolset has some bugs like every piece of software, some of them easy to find and to avoid, others can really creep up on you and you have to redo a lot of work. I might do some posts on aspects of the toolset or dragon age modding in general in the future, not sure yet.

In relation to my own mod, I have about 10 areas planned and maybe a hundred npcs. The easiest part are the visuals because I mostly use original designs from the game and be able to change them to my liking without much hassle with the morph and the creature editors inside the toolset. The level editor is a little bit more complicated but I don't need it that much with using original content. Rearranging some furniture or pushing a wall to the side is easier than building the level from scratch but even that is not that much of a deal with a little bit of practice once you are familiar with the usage of the tile sets and the difference between the camera modes(area vs. level editor).

The hard part is breathing life into those visuals and make them move around but I will get the hang of it in time, hopefully.

Development Blog: The Magic of Innocence - Part 0

Wait, Part 0?

Yes, because it contains the idea and no real development.

It is more like what do want my mod to be.

So here it goes:

At first I thought about taking my own fantasy world and tell a story in it, but since I am not a good artist and my 3d models are all too static and simple, I decided against it and instead thought up a story that could play out in Thedas, the world Bioware designed for their Dragon Age games.

One point was clear from the beginning, I wanted no dungeon crawl or hack'n'slay game play. With that in mind I had to push the world a little, so there is no blight at the door step and no war between mages and templars.

I wanted a time of peace but still the conflict between magic/science and faith/religion.

For that to be evident I located the story inside the mage circle tower of fereldan, also because I had the layouts from Origins and could start without hour spend in level design.

The story contains a young apprentice mage named Ben(real original, taking my second name ;P) who finds an old tome of powerful spells in the basement and is tempted to try one of them out. He wants to create a new life. He gathers the ingredients he needs and prepares the spell.

So much for the background story, now to the part that is more interesting, the game itself.

As the player you control a young woman that was just created in a magical ritual and thereby you are thrown in an unknown world with new things to experience around every corner (in theory).

The player should either be able to design the optics of the character or just thrown in the world with predefined looks. The mechanics like background and class are predetermined in both cases because none of the existing classes or backgrounds were appropriate to my ideas and going without a class or background might not be possible with the tools I have (the Dragon Age toolset and the published content from the original campaign of Origins).

I want the player to experience the world through the eyes of an innocent and give him/her the ability to shape a unique character from it. Every decision has to have consequences and those shall shape the rest of the game. Maybe it is a little too much for someone with no prior game design experience but I will face that challenge.

I read a lot of lore for the mod to make it not seem out of place and my idea fits into the setting so without giving too much away I will stop here and go over specific aspect of development when they arise.

One thing you might have noticed, yes, I am not a native speaker and yes, I am already full in the process of modding. I have just started posting in this blog so bear with me.