250 replies to this topic

[Tempest]

That said, it would be nice to have a BIG reward at the end for all the hard work it seems the PC will have to do, on top of preventing the prophecy and all that.

There will be... but there will be a factor involved in whether that happens or not that isn't going to be based on dialogue.

If you want my personal take on the hard work involved in romancing him, looking at it from Darian's perspective... it's been a mistake from the very beginning. I don't want to say much more due to ToB spoilers, but suffice it to say that Darian is one of those characters who is actually happier if he's not being romanced, both in SoA and more overtly in ToB. I'm tempted to add a note in Darian's readme that romancing him is not necessarily a good idea...

[Tempest]

I'm debating finally explaining fully what exactly is going to happen in ToB with regards to Darian's character and especially the romance - doing so would of course spoil the meat of the ToB romance and the epilogues, but my vision of how the Darian romance ultimately goes is... I wouldn't call it tragic or even necessarily doomed, but it is perhaps less idealistic and fantasy than the BG2 standard. Darian was never particularly meant to fit those descriptions.

If there isn't any great interest in me posting such an explanation, marked with the appropriate spoiler tags, then at least note this: Darian is no leader. Making good judgments under pressure is something he's quite simply bad at.

[Setepenre]

I'm debating finally explaining fully what exactly is going to happen in ToB with regards to Darian's character and especially the romance - doing so would of course spoil the meat of the ToB romance and the epilogues, but my vision of how the Darian romance ultimately goes is... I wouldn't call it tragic or even necessarily doomed, but it is perhaps less idealistic and fantasy than the BG2 standard. Darian was never particularly meant to fit those descriptions.

If there isn't any great interest in me posting such an explanation, marked with the appropriate spoiler tags, then at least note this: Darian is no leader. Making good judgments under pressure is something he's quite simply bad at.

I wasn't supposed to return () but with a post like this I fear I'm forced to. I am DEFINITELY interested in such explanations - of course with appropriate spoiler tags.

[Civian]

quote]I wasn't supposed to return () but with a post like this I fear I'm forced to. I am DEFINITELY interested in such explanations - of course with appropriate spoiler tags.

Come now! Never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

[Tempest]

Not-update: work further delayed due to mounting evidence that I am the walking bane of technology. Over the last three weeks, every electronic device that I own that is more complicated than a flashlight has badly malfunctioned or otherwise broken. Some more than once. Will resume work after determining whether or not I am in fact a wizard whose powers and attendant tendency to break machines are maturing, and if so, which urban fantasy setting I hail from.

[Choo Choo]

What with the anti-technology magic thing you've got going on, I'd say that you're from Arcanum's setting. Cool!

[Tempest]

Computer's up and running again, but I lost my hard drive again - I'll have to reinstall my modding tools, and I lost three lovetalks and the rest of Darian's banters not in his workroom. I'll be picking up a flash drive today and regularly back up my work on Darian, among other things. My spring break is this coming week, but no promises I'll get much done due to a need to work on my pro seminar (big capstone course of my undergrad program) big paper.

However, Darian's ToB romance stuff is, bar none, the hardest narrative writing I've ever done. I guess it's kind of fitting that most of the time I have no idea what I should write him as saying, because most of the time he as a character has no idea what he should say.

[Eric P.]

Just a note to report that this mod is working as it should in my latest multimod installation under Mac OS X. I enjoy the theme music quite a bit, and I like the details Darian provides about his people. Got him in a test game with a female human T -> M (thief dual-classed to mage), plus Yasraena, Saerileth, Ninafer, and Kivan. Still very early in Chapter 2, but no unusual issues so far

I hope you'll be able to include a voice set for this character at some point! As for the issue of wings, as mentioned in this thread, ISTR that there's a 1PP component that gives an animation wings (on modder in particular was amusingly ecstatic when trying that out), so perhaps code from that could be used, or something, if you find that you want the wings to appear at any point during Darian's story. Just a thought

Happy modding,
Eric

[Eric P.]

Typo found: Darian asks PC how she maintains her sanity, given her heritage. PC's first response ends with "...ever life taken" but it should be "...every life taken"

- E

[Tempest]

Very, very late, but there are no plans to give Darian wings or to voice him.

And for those wondering about ToB: Several months ago, I started writing Darian's ToB. A whole mess of things including losing my hard drive multiple times lead me to forget about it and reconsider any plans to do so as well as having lost all progress I'd made.

However, I have recently begun to reconsider my tentative abandonment of Darian ToB. I will be honest: he is a bitch to write for in ToB. I won't say I'm restarting work on Darian ToB, but it is now on my radar again.

[Tempest]

I just want to ask, for that mid way conversation in SoA before Spellhold - is there a specific forest that it has to take place in or a specific chapter? Or will it trigger in, say, the Temple Ruins area during Chapter 2?

Should be fine in any forest.

To be honest, I'm kind of excited to know that his romance won't be all rosy in ToB. So far I've never been able to allow my characters to ascend to godhood on account of all the various romances they were in, so knowing that the romance with Darian in ToB might not end rosily gives me hope that I might finally be able to break the mold. I really can't wait to see the second half of this mod, although I understand that it will probably take awhile due to school work and an uncooperative OC.

Both Darian's happiest and his most bittersweet epilogues are romance-related, I'll say that much.

Really, the biggest parts left are writing and coding the final lovetalks, and we'll see how that goes.

[Tempest]

T1Dar, and it's no trouble.

[Tempest]

Folks, I am once again requesting some input. I'm working on Darian's ToB player-initiated dialogue, and while I've settled a good chunk of it, I'm still lacking for options for things to ask him on a more serious note if the player is romancing him. There's an option to force the next lovetalk to fire (assuming K'aeloree can code it), a set of options to conclude the romance once you've hit a certain point, and an option to give Darian a heart attack, but beyond that, all I've come up with is asking Darian how he feels. Any particular suggestions, or should I perhaps keep this segment of the PID functional?

[Tempest]

What about asking him for recommendations? Not like asking how he feels, but how he would like to deal with it. For example, you said in the progress report there can come a time for the PC to tell Darian she's pregnant. I imagine for some PC's that would be wonderful news, and others horrible, but some might not know exactly how to deal with it. It's a happy thing, but scary at the same time.

Of course, something like that could be easily incorporated into the "How do you feel?" dialogue...

Let me put it this way: Darian's reaction to Charname getting pregnant is to faint. He's been taking contraceptive herbs (as he'll remind you, he is a ranger) specifically to prevent it. Telling Darian that Charname is pregnant won't actually change the course of the romance - it will simply change the epilogue.

Edited by Tempest, 18 September 2011 - 10:50 AM.