Hearkenwold

[zach_holbrook]

The amount of progress you've made and content you've produced is inspiring. I think straddling the two engines seems doable. I played Knights of the Chalice a while back and there are certainly some overlaps.

[Dorateen]

Thanks, zach. The more I work with the KotC engine, the more I am surprised how compatible it is with work done in IceBlink. Probably because they are both starting from a similar point, generally speaking. (Top down, turn based D&D style game.)

IceBlink is definitely stronger in construction of complex conversations that branch.

KotC is good with its systems and how smart even the basic AI behaves. That has really been my interest, seeing how encounters will play out in the new engine. (A couple fights are a lot harder for a low level party).

Here is an example of one Hearkenwold outdoor map rendered in the KotC2 engine.

[zach_holbrook]

Very cool -- easy to see the overlap! I like how KotC renders the party. How much control do you have over the AI?

[Dorateen]

It seems to be pretty customizable. You can work from creature templates, and edit lots of properties. There is a screen that has a list of routines and percentages that can be adjusted. I haven't even touched this, as I am trying to work with templates that are consistent with creatures in Hearkenwold. Even still, using a druid package for one goblin shaman, I was surprised to see it cast call lightning in the middle of battle. Abilities, special powers and feats can all be removed or added, but I like the potential for extra tricks.

In some ways, the creature editor reminds me of NWN2.

[Dorateen]

For a better illustration, this is the tab for Artificial Intelligence when editing a creature. There are options to adjust a creatures behavior in combat. And this is just one screen for customizing a creature in the toolset, in addition to stats, feats and equipment.

HearkKotcAI.jpg (280.29 KiB) Viewed 7284 times

[zach_holbrook]

Wow, that's great! Endless fine-tuning possible, looks like.

[Dorateen]

Not sure if there will be much interest in following the Hearkenwold KotC conversion, but here's a couple of more screenshots.





I am almost finished with the Wizard guild adventure in IceBlink, just adding a few more details and then the conversation upon returning to the guilmaster. I think I can have it all wrapped up next week, but still want to go through more play testing. So looks like an end of August release is on schedule.

[zach_holbrook]

Looks great. (I want to know more about the wildebeest quest!). How does line of sight work in KotC? Do you manually place it as in Iceblink?

[Dorateen]

There is a tool that lets you Add Cover by placing lines around the squares you want to block line of sight. In the combat example above, I was not able to see the enemy to the left of the one targeted, because the lower outcropping of rock provides visual cover.

The engine allows you to load pre-made map images, which is what strongly appealed to me for this conversion project. The maps use a grid of 64 x 64 squares. At one point, IceBlink was building with the same dimensions, before switching to 100 x 100 sizes. In fact, the old tilemap maker utility creates 64 x 64 square images, so it is easy for me to transfer the Hearkenwold maps.

The KotC editor also has a brush to paint squares as impassable, as well as set Altitude of different squares, selecting the height.

[slowdive]

I haven't played KotC before, but the Hearkenwold screenshots look wonderful. If, while making the conversion, you think of any ideas on how to improve the IB toolset and engine, please share them. I'm still busy with RL stuff right now, but when the time is right, I'll be digging back into the code again.