Let's Talk About Verbomod

I hadn't planned to do this so soon, but since I started proper bugfixing for 5.5 beta and some of the reported Verbobonc bugs specifically, I unexpectedly found myself working on tuning up Verbobonc in the more comprehensive sense that has been mentioned so many times before and was normally categorized by me as being far off in the future.

So, Verbomod 2.0 is now underway.

First of all, Verbomod 2.0 will be nothing like Hickory Branch 2.0. Krunch's Hickory Branch needed an enormous amount of work on new graphics and everything else that goes along with it - sectoring, lighting, etc. It needed nothing else whatsoever because there was nothing else there: no story, no dialogues, nothing. Verbomod 2.0 will, by contrast, have no new graphics whatsoever (because Allyx was so clever as to use little-seen original ToEE graphics for it), but since Verbomod has a story, version 2.0 will feature fixes directed at dialogue bugs and continuity errors, as well as some vastly expanded plots involving the existing characters there, and some in-depth re-characterizations of these same personas.

This is not to say that these characters will change like night to day; they won't. But what they will do is (hopefully) be a bit more complex and varied, and the player's interaction with them will be expanded.

At this point I don't intend to even add any more quests or battles or anything like that. But the existing quests will be made more engaging, and the characters more three dimensional. They may behave somewhat unexpectedly, and they may demonstrate varying shades of grey across their alignments. And when it's all said and done, hopefully the whole thing will be bug-free. (This is not a slight at Allyx, btw; he never had the proper support with which to beta test and whatnot for such a large undertaking, so bugs were to be expected. The entire mod itself remains a most remarkable achievement.)

Feel free to ask any questions you may have or make suggestions here.

Verbomod 2.0 will hopefull be a part of the non-beta release of 5.5.

 

A few notes on dialogues ...

Dialogue writing and the attendant potential player choices that go along with it have been at times hotly debated here in the past. Some players like to have choices every step of the way. Some players like a rich and complex story. Most players would probably prefer both.

After some consideration (and acknowledgement that there are limitations to the number of variables that I can conceivably comprehend at one time), I've decided that I'm going to go the complex story route with Verbomod 2.0.

I understand that you can have lots of choices and a complex story at the same time, but the fact is, the amount of effort required to achieve both is beyond what I can possibly put forth here. I think it would quite literally take years to achieve a truly rich and varied interactive play experience with the ToEE engine. That kind of effort and time is unrealistic, so I'm going with story.

What does this mean? It means that players will not have a lot of options as plot is being laid out through interaction with NPCs. You will not be able to say "fuck you!" to an NPC every step of the way, and get a proper response from the NPC, and then have your PC respond in kind nine different ways according to his or her alignment, and then follow the chain of that single dialogue decision to its natural conclusion -- or any other of a variety of different conclusions based on how your PC reacts the the next thing. Instead, you'll most often be told a story of some kind, with character and plot exposition, so as to make you think that something is actually happening within the game world. Then, when the time is right, you'll be allowed to make important decisions. Do I accept the quest? Do I believe this or that person? Would my character respond to the larger picture this way or that way? That sort of thing.

This may in the end make you feel to some extent like you're being railroaded. If that's the case, I'm sorry. But hopefully, in the end, you'll also feel like something meaningful has happened, and in my mind that trumps the freedom to say "fuck you!" at every turn every time.

This approach will also likely carry over to Welkwood Bog and other future efforts.

 

To be honest, I don't even know precisely what happens with them as is, so right now I'm not looking too hard at that. I do know that the main priest guy has nearly the same dialogue file as the priest from the LE vignette, so my guess is there's not a lot going on with them right now.

Also, being as this is then General Modification forum, this is a suitable place to discuss modding. That's what the forum's here for.

 

Nothing at all, I had put them in mainly for the preist, I'd intended for him to offer healing to the party, but didn't quite get around to that bit. I'd also intended to make Senshock reveal info about Iux's mother should the party decide to charm him as the module states that is the only way he'll ever tell anyone (exactly what info I can't remember) and for Senshock to despawn after you leave the map (as Iuz kills him) Perhaps I would have made Iuz spawn in the temple should that turn of events happened so the party could duke it out with him withough Cuthbert's intervention, I just never got that far wih it.

 

In that case, I'll just leave it alone for now, other than to fix the dialogue bug(s). Ranth can fiddle it however he likes.

 

I'm thinking of adding a couple additional locations to Verbocono (there are available doorways on the main outdoor map). Maybe a trader (not a sinister spy for the temple trader, just a regular one), or a tavern, or a city watch building. Anybody got any preferences or other ideas?

 

Something not currently in the game.

 

Okay, thanks for the suggestions. We have:

1. city watch post
2. multi-level warehouse
3. shops fot the temple merchants
4. high level trader
5. tavern with whorehouse
6. something new

1. Maybe so, but I don't think it should involve the Hextor temple. That's just too close to be suspected of being in operation - they'd have to be daft not to figure it out. Better that the temple be completely on the QT, as if they've somehow managed through great effort to keep it that way. The guard house could instead just be a place where you check in for info and arrange to see the Viscount, stuff like that. Or if you were to get arrested ... :twitch:

2. Not sure about this ... it sounds kind of cool, but we've already got something similar (once again, just down the street) in the gnome quarters with the drow and spiders. Plus, I don't think there should be all that much conventional monster danger in a big city.

3. I think we may do away with those merchants. We've already got a crowd of rejects respawning in Verbo - Nybble, Gleem, Chanda, Jenna, Elysia, Senshock ... not everyone should come to Verbocono, let alone to that one corner of the city. It's like some sort of ToEE class reunion.

4. This might do, but I'm not big on making a bunch more uber stuff available. It does seem like you should have access to a shop in the big city though.

5. Well, the whole 'Wow I'm at a brothel!' thing was explored pretty thoroughly in Nulb. If we did it, it would have to be different somehow. Like you say, set Meleny to work on her back to generate revenue, that sort of thing. That would probably be limited to evils though. What about the rest?

6. Like what - town cobbler? Pizza hut? Post office?