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#536159 03/08/14 06:41 PM
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apprentice
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Hey everyone, thanks for all the help! I've gotten the first level of a short mod i was working on ready and playable, so i thought i'd share it with you guys for feedback! It's also probably somewhat useful for other people just starting out to see how i did things.


Kitchen Escape!
http://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin/mods/33/?
(also available on steam at http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=295388152 but steam likes to hide the file somewhere useless)

Four crabs find themselves in hot water in the local kitchen! If you ever want to see the great outdoors again, scuttle quickly down counters, appease the other kitchen denizens into helping you escape, and have crab battles with those who would stand in your way.




It's a stand alone adventure where you guide crabs to freedom! I'm getting some good feedback so the first level will be changing around a bit soon, in addition i plan to add in a stealth section and more as i get more used to these tools and scripts.

I started out with big dreams of massive adventures, but once i started playing around i figured a nice small mod like this would give people some quick fun and be a great way to learn the ins and outs of the modding system.

Anyways let me know your thoughts and feedback and questions. Thanks guys!

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I will give it a run tomorrow (when I am not hung over anymore... I hope) and throw some feedback at you here or on IRC. Cool idea though!


Join #TheDivinityEngine at irc.gamesurge.net, help build a live modding community! Related forum topic here.
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gonna check this out m8, sounds like fun smile!

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Spoiler for anyone who didn't do it
So, this mod takes ~5 to 10 min to finish.
No bug found for what I've played. I didn't understand at first that I needed to move an object to move the crabs. I've read the recipe and the journal, nice flavor. Poisonous cheese is a good idea to beat the mouse, but it removes a fight and I wanted to fight a crowned rat frown
I only found weird the fact that I couldn't pick up some items because they were supposed to be weapon, it's frustrating.
You should also make it that when 4 crabs have the winners parchemin, they teleport to the see.

Hope you keep going!

Ah and by the way, how to install with steam : when it's downloaded, go to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\ and CTRL+F and search for kitchenescape. Copy the .pak file named "kitchenescape_insert_random_letters_here.pak" to "C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin\Mods"
Should work

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Thanks for the feedback!

Unfortunately the game doesn't like letting crabs use weapons, and bad things happen if you try, so I've disabled them. Trust me, I wanted knife wielding crabs as well.

The crabs will eventually reach the sea, but not before going through more rooms in later patches!

Next patch won't be more rooms, it will upgrade room one. It will allow you to choose a faction ( or neither) to help, will add another world interactable, and will add some dialogue and crab personality.

As of right now you CAN fight the rats, but such royalty is far above your paygrade, little crustacean! You CAN still deal with them one of two ways that doesn't involve your pincers.

I may add some more pointless flavor, maybe in the form of a chicken, or may attach a quest to the pig, not sure yet.

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That was fun. smile Praise, cheers, high-fives, etc.

Some initial thoughts on improvements:

Played a half a dozen times, survived three times, wiped three times! It feels like the combat scenario with the cats boils down largely to how the random number generator deals with miss chances -- it might be worth considering ways to implement more strategy/variety/options into the fight, or perhaps upping crab HP levels to even out the unlucky circumstances. I'm running into a similar issue with an early fight in my mod. Some times the enemy dies in two hits, sometimes they dodge everything and you barely survive with just a sliver of HP. I haven't found the right balance/set-up yet.

I also managed to spring the cat-fight whilst still on the table. I'm not sure if that's intentional? Your cat-charm ability doesn't appear to work, at least from my experience. Bubbles here got Charmed, then when his turn came around he attacked the cat who Charmed him (though I couldn't control him, he acted like a friendly non-party NPC). Small typo for the Recipe too; in game the item is down as 'Recipie'. smile
[Linked Image]

I encountered some odd behaviour stemming from your dialog trigger with the rats. Just clicking around that spot and your party will move in and out of the trigger, making the dialog box pop up willy nilly. I didn't manage to break the game with it (I tried!) but it was a little jarring. Maybe consider having the very first dialog with a trigger, then unregister it and have subsequent dialogs with the rats opened with the normal click-on-character. I noticed that the key isn't labeled as having an owner, so the hand to take is still white ("okay to take"). Unless it's a design choice for that encounter, perhaps label the key with an owner so the red hand ("steal this item") displays.

Throw an EndGame() trigger at the back. Even for a short level, it's nice to finish things off in-game rather than wonder if you're missing something and eventually going Menu>Exit out. smile

Hope some of this feedback helps! Keep up the good work.

Last edited by Noaloha; 05/08/14 07:31 AM.

Escape From Smalcatraz: Steam/Nexus. Forum thread.
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Thanks for the feedback! Its always good to get different experiences (i haven't lost to the cats yet and charm has always worked fine for me, so i didn't even know those were issues! I'll look into it.)

The engage from table was definitely unintended! The cats encounter is being overhauled in how it initiates though, so that will take care of itself.

I'll definitely touch up the rat talk boxes! early on i had a set of triggers that i couldn't think of another good way to do, now i have some more experience i've got more ideas.

Also, any idea on how to make the red hand appear? I tried just setting owners, but that didn't work for me, and i haven't seen any options for it yet. Would be nice to have for some stuff i'm adding

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Fixed the charm option - Certain crab alignments were not properly aligned.

Last edited by RestarttGaming; 05/08/14 12:09 PM.
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Originally Posted by RestarttGaming
Also, any idea on how to make the red hand appear? I tried just setting owners, but that didn't work for me, and i haven't seen any options for it yet. Would be nice to have for some stuff i'm adding


I've only had the theft option show up accidentally in my mod, from having an item moved to an NPC's inventory who then drops the item on the floor shortly afterwards. When my character went to pick it up, it showed the red hand cursor.

I'm guessing here, but it could be tied to alignment somehow. Whichever NPC you set as the owner, try giving them alignment 'Neutral NPC' and see if it displays theft. Other than that, I'm not sure.

Last edited by Noaloha; 05/08/14 07:49 PM.

Escape From Smalcatraz: Steam/Nexus. Forum thread.
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Well guys thanks for the help so far! It looks like i'll be ready to release the updated room1 tonight and possibly room2 mid next week.

Thanks to you guys Kitchen Escape pt.1 managed to be the most popular divinity mod of the week for the full week since it's release, with a 91% approval rating and over 260 players.

Here's to hoping that this is just the start as the mod grows and grows.

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AND it's live! Update to the mod available at

http://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin/mods/33/?

Because steam workshop wont update it (might just post it as a new file).

I took in a lot of your feedback. The big changes are:

1) Added a pre-kitchen scene where you get caught
2) Added occasional inter-crab dialog
3) Camera angle is much better for those who can't rotate 360
4) You now have to active the washboard
5) Cats fleshed out as a faction (you can side with them or the rats or neither)
6) Rat encounter improved (dialog triggers, possible fight, etc)
7) Impossible to forget key
8) Poison cheese more easily identifiable.
9) Now possible to trigger the endgame screen.
10)Various minor tweaks.

for the next version i hope to flesh out the capture scene with a boatride and a chef leaving you there, and get the first draft of the next room in.

Last edited by RestarttGaming; 09/08/14 08:11 AM.

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