Slow Progress

Wow, it's been a while since I updated. I haven't gotten too terribly much done, but I am still working. Most of my frustration lately has been in trying to get some of my hakpaks to work. Izik the Mad was kind enough to loan me his Giant Eye Skybox for my intro scene. It worked... right up until I tried renaming the model to fit my resource naming scheme. I renamed the texture and went through the model by hand updating the texture references, but it still won't work. Then I started learning Gmax to try to fix things, but that's led to nowhere but frustration. I found some tutorials from the DLA, but they all assume you already know how to model. That makes sense. *grumbles*

Anyway, I've picked the toolset back up in the meantime and am trying to flesh out my city a bit more with some new areas. I've built a few areas and put few or no placeables in the, just so I can get an idea of how the city layout will look. I've also started making some interior areas. I'm mostly just adding the shops that have signs out front, but I'm also making sure I have at least one quest in each one as I firmly believe every place should have something to do. Some of the quests are not availabe right away. You'll have to chat people up and get them to like you before they trust you enough to let you help them. How you do this depends on the person. Merchants like folks that make big purchases, and you can chat with most people to increase their reaction to you. I'm also letting people use the social skills NWN provides to influence each NPC.

Here's a couple of screenshots of some of the new areas I've created. First, Hollander & Sons. I'll let you guess what they do for a living.





Grisham's Textiles is next. This is where PCs can buy and sell clothes and cloth, as well as a selection of dyes. He doesn't fit in well with the rest of Manheim Court. Perhaps talking to him will dig up some information on why his shop is in such a poor location for one with such fine goods.





Finally, here's Aether Armors, formerly Sundry Armors. When AetherTech Industries bought this shopkeeper out, he got the short end of the stick. He's anxious to get back at them, and patrons that help him could profit... if they don't get caught.





I'm finding interiors easier to design as I go along. They tend not to be as cluttered as the outdoor areas. My thought is that people who own shops tend to keep things more organized than those who cry their wares on the streets. It's also a bit easier to work with sounds, too, since you have less going on indoors than outdoors.

It's coming slowly, but hopefully it'll keep flowing. Enjoy the screenshots!