[WIP] Thirst, a Dragon Age mod focused on C&C

[sea]

The final change I am making to things is reworking a couple of the endgame options slightly. In truth I was already working on these but put them on hold for a while, so it's not like I'm taking on anything new here. The options available have much more foreshadowing and better integration into the lore, so they shouldn't feel like they come out of left field.

Spoiler

The most obvious is the "demon invasion" option is now only available based on your previous actions in the new quest that I added recently, and the character(s) involved have much more believable motivations rather than "muahaha I'm an evil mofo." There is also a way to infiltrate the upper floor of the keep using non-combat measures.

 

[sea]

Annnd minimaps have been redone from scratch. Did 52 in about 5 hours, and that should be everything. My workflow got to the point where I was cranking out one every few minutes. Getting very close to Final Release(TM).

 

[Zed]

Annnd minimaps have been redone from scratch. Did 52 in about 5 hours, and that should be everything. My workflow got to the point where I was cranking out one every few minutes. Getting very close to Final Release(TM).

I've been holding out for a Final Release to play this. Looking forward to it!

 

[sea]

Okay, I hate to reach out for help, but the city map I made is not cutting it for me anymore, and I fully admit I am not enough of a Photoshop guru to create incredible-looking stuff. Despite a few hours spent and many tutorials read, I have a feeling I either do not have the talent or patience to make such a thing.

So, if there is anyone who is more artistically inclined and would be willing to do the hard prestigious work of making a city map for me, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Grunker]

calling felipepepe

 

[felipepepe]

Reporting in.

Just give me an objective, and I'll see what I can do.

 

[sea]

felipepepe has graciously donated his time and talent to the cause!

The map will get a little bit more tweaking, but I want to thank him for his awesome work. Much better than anything I could have made and fits in perfectly.

 

[Grunker]

Awesome!

felipepepe

Can't wait to play this. Sorry I didn't test it for you

 

[sea]

Tweaked version of the map. Added some text to it, mostly, and I had to rearrange all the icons.

 

[felipepepe]

My wonderful river, a Beggar's Canal?

Also, anything you planned aside, I would move the market district up to the north and leave the entire right side as slums, since they have lots of small houses and such. But anyway it looks very nice, the names gave more life to the map.

 

[sea]

The canal is a man-made transport system filled with sewage and rainwater. So no, I'm not sure I'd call it a "wonderful river."

I'd kinda like to move things, but it's a bit tricky. The Market District is just inside the city gates and there is no visible wall/gate on the map, so I'm kind of implying the edge of the map is where the wall is. Meanwhile the slums are on the side of the canal, and there is a bridge running through it, so that little string of houses there is actually somewhat accurate.

Still, I never gave much thought to how the city would fit together so the map can be taken as more or less relative/abstract anyway. I think it worked better when the map looked like a jumble of nonsense, there it all looked kinda like crap so it didn't matter too much where everything was placed.

Of course, if you want to go back to it again, by all means...

 

[felipepepe]

Just make it a huge blurb and say youyr character lacks the correct cartography skills.

 

[sea]

In other news, I created a tranquil NPC who has more interesting things to say on the subject of tranquility and the nature of oppression and imprisonment than anything in the entire Dragon Age universe ever.

So I'm looking for anyone who wants to test the final version for bugs, before I put it out for full public release. The only bugs that should occur are later on in the game and related to new C&C I added, which is difficult to test the exact permutations of because many of these things rely on multiple decisions to actually take effect; it's easier to get other people to play in their own normal way and see if they run into problems.

Anyone who wants to try it out, let me know. It still might be a day or two as I have to package everything up again, and unfortunately I've got work tomorrow so I might not be able to finish things in time today, but I'll try my best.

 

[sea]

My data backup hard drive died about a week ago after nearly 5 years of faithful service (and I was going to replace it soon, too). I was able to get almost everything off of it thanks to magic data recovery tools, and only lost 1 original level file for Thirst, so I had to remake it. However, the exported level files as well as some things like lightmaps were lost, which required me to re-export all the original levels again. The good news is other than that, things are pretty much ready to go. It'll take a little more time to make absolutely sure everything is back in full working order, but not too long now that all the recovery-related work is done.

Fun times as usual.

 

[sea]

Yes, I am still working on things.

I am extremely close to putting out a release candidate. All content is done and finalized; the only thing that really remains is bug fixing, which unfortunately due to all the plot variables that interact with each other is very time-consuming. Once I am done my current run through the game I'll likely put up a download link for those who want to help with the remaining testing, and then it'll go on the Nexus once I'm sure all issues are sorted out.

New content and changes for the final version:

1. Short undead-filled dungeon to explore/clear out beneath the Chantry
2. Small optional dungeon full of smugglers to clear or sneak through for players on the criminal quest path
3. Side-quest for players on criminal path involving breaking into the vault of one Mr. Bates, offering many stealthy and non-stealthy options and some C&C in resolving it
4. Hidden Mages Collective sanctum which contains a couple side-quests; player can side with Templars in the Chantry to eliminate the mages in any number of ways, or betray the Templars for the mages; interacts with the main quest in a couple of ways, as you get different options in the ending depending on what choices you make
5. Added additional C&C in many parts of the story, some of it pretty nefarious; also comes with additional ending slides/options
6. Tweaked economy balance and significantly expanded unique items available from stores; money is more readily available, especially for those who play on the criminal path, but this is offset by having much more to buy from stores
7. Where possible, tweaked combat encounters and dungeons to feature more traps and other interactive features, like positioning enemy archers behind breakable barriers
8. Enchanting options should now work correctly and are a bit more widely available
9. Dozens of bug fixes and dialogue changes/improvements/typo fixes
10. Can now access fast travel/city map from any outdoor location, so you no longer have to run to a map exit (was annoying in some maps like the Slums and Temple District where exits were not placed in optimal locations)
11. Increased XP growth throughout campaign so that there is less dependence on side quests to get to appropriate levels
12. Crafting recipes much more widely available and can also be found during exploration
13. Added some unique items - Holy Symbols and Demonic Mirrors - which are consumables that do damage against undead and demon enemies respectively

I also experimented with trying to add a Stone of Recall type item that would let you mark and recall a location to go between. Unfortunately I discovered that this is impossible with the Dragon Age engine. Doing transitions between areas requires the use of the DoAreaTransition function, which requires a waypoint reference - but there is no way to dynamically create a waypoint; they all have to be pre-placed. This means there is no way for the player to save a location and then teleport to it. Derp.

 

[felipepepe]

Stuff like this makes you understand Cleve better, doesn't it?

 

[sea]

Stuff like this makes you understand Cleve better, doesn't it?

Maybe a little. Truth be told I just do not have time to work 24/7 on this like I did in the past, and if I have to be frank I'm getting pretty damn tired of playing the same shit over and over and over... but I feel this polish phase, while not 100% necessary, really improves things for the better.

 

[Delterius]

I wish I could promise my help, but sea: if you're still looking testers, I'd be more than happy to try and play as much of Thirst as I can. Moreso now because maybe the coming holyday will remain untainted by busy life. Are you uploading partial builds to the Nexus?

PS.: That map

Also, wish I could still brofist your posts.

 

[sea]

I wish I could promise my help, but sea: if you're still looking testers, I'd be more than happy to try and play as much of Thirst as I can. Moreso now because maybe the coming holyday will remain untainted by busy life. Are you uploading partial builds to the Nexus?

PS.: That map

Also, wish I could still brofist your posts.

There's beta 2 still on the Nexus. It's fully playable but is lacking content compared to the current version and has more bugs/issues.

 

[Delterius]

Alright then, I'll see if I can still make a contribution by friday.

 

[sea]

Release Candidate 1 is packaged and uploading right now. I'll have a link once it's done (damn my slow upload rate). Thanks guys!

Note that you will have to a) wipe out your previous Thirst install (delete My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Addins\Thirst) and b) start a new game for any changes to take proper effect.

Also note that I've included a Potion of Cheats for the RC series (inside your starting equipment chest), so that anyone testing can get through the game much faster, though obviously it will be disabled for the final version.

 

[sea]

Here's the uploaded release candidate:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10680698/Thirst_RC1.7z

Any issues occur, let me know.

 

[Grunker]

When my exams are done, I promise to take a look at this. Promise. Really.

 

[Shadenuat]

seventh playthrough when I wake up

 

[sea]

seventh playthrough when I wake up

Haha, you really don't have to if you don't want to. But that said, the cheat potion will make you immortal and give you permanent 2x movement speed, so things should go much faster.