Personal Dev Blog - Entry 1

 Jono DAO Dev Entry 1 - 2/3/2011

So I have this blog for writing reviews on various restaurants that I have the pleasure and opportunity of trying.  The problem with that blog is that it is infinitely easier to find time to go out and eat, sample the food, take photos of the food, than it is to write about it, upload my reviews (with photos) in a timely manner.

As I ventured into other projects and things, I wanted to keep a journal/blog of my experiences.  In order to build a portfolio I have been working on installing, and learning how to use the Dragon Age Origins: Toolset.  The tool set is an add-on that registered users of the game can use in order to create mods, campaigns, stories, cinematics, and more.

I didn't want this blog to be so "official" -- I wanted it to be off the cuff, something I just wrote down in to track my progress with whenever I was working with the toolset.

So far, I have managed to come up with a great story for my campaign.  I loved Dragon Age and played through the game several times using different origins, classes, characters, choices, love interests, etc.  I tried being "good natured" I tried being "evil hearted" I tried being "neutral" I tried being mercenary. 

Despite all the various ways I have played through and experienced Dragon Age, I found that the most important aspect of the game was actually the story (as is usually the case with Bioware titles).  So when I started thinking about taking on this project, the first thing I needed would be a good story.  For me, that was always the easy part.  I thought about it a few times on the treadmill and in the shower and came up with what I believe is a great story.  The next thing to do would be to get the tool set installed.

Meanwhile...
Now a few months ago, I had the tool set installed and ready to go.  Like many things in our hectic lives one thing (work, WoW, etc) lead to another thing (more WoW, Civ V, Minecraft) which eventually ultimately lead to me completely forgetting about the tool set.  I also had issues with bugs and weird errors when I would run it, so I needed to start fresh.  Apparently version 1.01 fixes a lot of bugs and issues, so it's probably good for me to re-install from scratch anyway.

Installing the Toolset
The Bioware community is one of the best communities in the world when it comes to game design, mod design, and general awesome helpfulness.  Some of the good folks in the community have taken it upon themselves to create a Wiki which helps users like me greatly when it comes to the more technical tricky aspects.

So following their checklist...

1. Install the Game - DONE!
2. Create an Account - DONE!
3. Register the Game - DONE!
4. Download the Toolset - DONE! (latest version)
5. Install the Toolset - DONE!
6. Troubleshooting - UH OH!
1. I had some issues here, where the DB files were not pointing to the correct location.
2. Additional issues arose when I realized my partition of the C:\ drive was out of space...
3. I ultimately had to delete a bunch of things on my C:\ drive, and then create the database manually using SQL Server Express.  Then I was able to restore the dragon age database over the newly created DB.  
4. Finally, the LDF and MDF showed up, enabling me the ability to actually run the toolset

That's all for now.  I will start studying the Wiki extensively to see what I need to learn next as far as my own campaign goes.