T2 Beta testing

[slidermike]

BW,
it is good to hear your still moving forward; closer than ever to playtesting T2 !!

So will play testing involve players being allowed to test too or are you still in BW only play testing mode when it commences?

Also, will any player playtesting be able to keep said playtesting character once T2 rolls out or will said toons become null and deleted?

Thanks for your continued work.

[Badwater]

Playtesting will not involve player characters, it will just be me trying whatever things I haven't so far. I would like T2 to be a completely fresh experience for all.

I'm still a bit away from having T2 up and running 24/7. After being further along I might bring it up not on a 24/7 basis, but for an evening or weekend afternoon. Players could get a taste and keep whatever character they have. I could envision a few sessions like that before T2 can come up 24/7. It simply needs to have enough content to be up that long.

[Badwater]

I'm currently working on outdoor areas that connect Crescent Bay with Northport. That means 4 home cities will have encounters and connections.

I will then get some basic server functions out of the way and have the 4 said cities up and functioning on a basic level. Before I add additional content and any quests, I'm considering bringing up T2 for a few hours some afternoon or evening and giving all interested a taste of what we have so far.

I think that would be a good way to solicit feedback about some of the basic mechanics while the module itself is still fairly small. I also think that T2 probably should and will come up for short periods before being up on a more 24/7 basis.

I should have more information at the end of the weekend, after I've done a fair amount of building.

[Badwater]

I up loaded a bunch of outdoor areas so that I can test encounters. So far things are ok, with the exception that I've missed something with creature death and they are dropping some things they probably should not. I'll take a look at that and a couple of other things and continue running a few test characters through these encounters.

[Badwater]

May 29, 2011 16:46:36 GMT -5 Badwater said:

I up loaded a bunch of outdoor areas so that I can test encounters. So far things are ok, with the exception that I've missed something with creature death and they are dropping some things they probably should not. I'll take a look at that and a couple of other things and continue running a few test characters through these encounters.

I have corrected the problem. Now hostiles should not drop anything save for the occasional 1 gp. Subraces are working as they should, and subrace modifiers are working as they should for xp.

I will be taking a couple of different characters out to test some of these basic encounters and then I will finish up getting the four home cities that I will start with set up. They will have merchants and CNR setups but no quests yet.

The next city I will get working on will be the elf city. Until the elf city and gnome city are up, those races will go to the Outsider city, Valahna, for now.

Scripting-wise, I will next work on the CRP resting script so that teleports are reset.

[Badwater]

Ok, I have to admit that even though there's a few major things that need to be tested, I think today I started to feel the first excitement, the first eager anticipation of getting T2 online.

T2 has been a major project to get going, even with the invaluable help of folks like slidermike and Lanthar. It's a monotonous trudge so much of the time, doing mundane building that's clean but that most people probably will never really appreciate - appreciate in terms of the time spent building and how ideas and computer work translate into what the the player experiences in the game. I'm not complaining, mind you; it's just that for the builder, the builder gets lost in the details and the endless hours of work and the bits and pieces remain bits and pieces for a long time. Sometimes it all never stops being bits and pieces and the never ending struggle of more, better, deeper, etc.

It's a different feel now, going through T2 as a DM and seeing all these different parts finally hooking together as a unit. It's a long haul from there to here and while I'm glad of the journey, I'm also glad that it will never have to take quite this form again and that everything is easier from here.

All this is just a wordy way of saying that I'm really liking how T2 is shaping up and I hope you like it too.

[HC Sayuri]

I think any of us that have spent any significant time in building understand what your going through.

Its different walking through a world when you understand the background mechanics of how the tool-set works, and what a pain it can be to use.

A big kudos from someone who has stopped and started more than a few modules do to lack of time and imagination.

[Badwater]

I can't see offhand why I can't modify xp values on T2. I think what is being done with xp on T1 is fine, but it's more than I want on T2.

Today I'm soliciting some help from some of these scripting sharpshooters in my efforts to narrow down what is to be done. When I get off work in 10 hours maybe I'll have something I can work with and then if I need to I can talk with Lanthar tomorrow.

[Badwater]

T2 is starting to be what it is. I'm excited for what I have in mind --- keep in mind that when you venture into T2 it's still just a shell. Within the next couple of months it will be quite the adventure!

I said way back when that using home cities was going to delay T2. That's been the truth. I think that what we have in return will be a unique world that transcends graphics and time. Just as board games have their place and cannot be replaced, so is the World of Talus - at least for now. PnP D&D is what it is. Talus is what it is. When the machine is available to build what Lanthar thinks is a better, Talus then we'll go with it. In the meantime, I will build a the best T2 I possibly can.

[Badwater]

I had a busy weekend and then the last few days I've had a relapse of my cold. I don't think well when I'm sick so doing things like working on script doesn't happen.

I'm hoping that I'll be feeling better by tomorrow. This morning Lanthar sent a follow-up to what we're working on and so I'll take a look tomorrow and try to have T2 playable again by the weekend. In the meantime I'm working on some outdoor areas to add to T2; stuff that I want in but don't require the concentration and thought that script work does.

I re-read The Hobbit over the last week. It's been many years since I read it and that's good for the creative juices. I also want to see where Peter Jackson screws this one up (No Tom Bombadil! UNFORGIVABLE! )

I'm also catching up with a manga series that I caught for the first time on Adult Swim a couple of weeks ago, and there are some great ideas there as well. I'm mulling over quests and deciding on kind of a grand connecting quest that alerts epic characters to the real dangers that exist on T2.

[Edohvi]

Hopefully, you'll give a good kick in the arse to your cold and be done with it! I've been doing much work with scripting lately myself (and heading back to it now) and know that yeppers it can be a time consumer.

Hope to get to try out T2 sometime in the near future, myself =)