Depends on your exploring of the world and doing side-quests. A speed run would probably take 5-7 hours. If you really open every chest, talk to every NPC it will take about 20-25 hours.
Number Players
Single player only
Language
English
Level Range
Starts with level 1 and evolve to around about 10 depending on how many quest you do, locks you pick, etc.
Races
Human only
Tricks & Traps
Heavy
Roleplay
Heavy
Hack & Slash
Light
Classes
Rogues preferred, but similar classes will do fine as well (there is a lot of sneaking and lock-picking)
Scope
Large
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
01
Max # Players
01
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
01
Content Rating
Adult
Alignments
Any
Gameplay Hours
15
Description
Darkness.
Cold wet stone.
The taste of blood... My blood.
What happened?
Where am I?
And... Who am I?
This is the story of a man who finds himself alone in the dark, trapped in a cell, struggling to regain his memories and freedom.
But while escape proves rather easy, coming to terms with his life lost proves a far more challenging task.
Especially in a world that is swiftly spinning out of control.
Will he regain his identity, remember his family, his friends and his wife?
And by what dark events was he cast into this personal hell in the first place?
This is for adults only! Contains graphical and verbal nudity, explicit content, rude language and forms of violence. You have been warned.
A Dance With Spies is a fan mod to Valine's A Dance With Rogues (ADWR) series.
It revolves around the main ADWR story, but introduces its own story line as well.
As the main plot unfolds, it offers a different perspective on some of the key events and characters from ADWR.
However, A Dance With Spies and the story elements suggested in it are not officially accredited by Valine.
Prerequisites:
* This module requires NWN v1.69 with both expansions (SoU & HotU) installed.
* You need to play a male human character or otherwise the story wouldn't make sense.
* Level in Rogue Class or equivalent, since gameplay emphasizes use of rogue skills.
* Single player only.
Installation:
Download the <module>.zip and the required hakpacks from below.
Extract and distribute the contained files into your NWN installation folder as follows:
* The hak files go into the hak subfolder,
* the mod file goes into the modules subfolder and
* the tlk file goes into the tlk subfolder.
* In case you want to used the predefined player profile provided below put the bic file into the localvault subfolder.
Useful Hints:
* There is a new feat called eavesdropping. It allows a player to eavesdrop on bystanding NPCs. This feat is available via the ring menu under Special Abilities > Rogue > Eavesdrop. (Note: eavesdrop can be placed on the quickbar for faster access.) In order for your rogue to have this feat available from start on he has to be created using "Create new character" when loading the module.
* Do not break dialogs by hitting the ESC button. Do not run around while in a conversation. Do not click away those little action icons in e.g. a cutscene. All this may result in uncontrolled behavior and may ruin the game experience.
* Try to be sneaky and roguish, rather than blunt. You will probably earn more experience this way. After all, this is a rogue-based, role-playing mod.
* Again, this mod emphasizes role-playing/story, not fighting. You have been warned.
* There is always more than one way to solve a given quest.
* A lot of missions are triggered by or depend on events that happen at home. So, like in real life, when you are stuck after a day of heavy adventuring go home and take a nap.
Acknowledgments:
I want to specially thank Z. for doing the testing and quality assurance, and Lexor for his various contributions.
And of course I want to explicitly express my thanks to Valine, whose marvelous A Dance With Rogues series has in fact encouraged me to get this thing going.
Since this module blatantly uses several parts of the original ADWR story and setting, I hope Valine is OK with me using it. (Unfortunately she didn't answer my request messages.)
Also, I reused story elements, scenes, character features and quotations heavily inspired by other games, modules or films that I really adore.
I want to express my thanks to those originators too.
Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.
Please refer to these sites for additional credits:
Intimate Animations Suite (sx_intimate.hak) by NinjaweaselMan
Link
Disclaimer:
This module contains explicit sexual content and graphical nudity that may not be appropriate for all audiences.
To put it in Valine's words: "I refuse to feel responsible for any mental damage [using] this may cause"
Miscellaneous:
For questions, comments, suggestions or bug reports please use the NWNVault Link For further information like known issues and version history see the readme file below.
WoW, omg, i am going to try this out straight away.
Posted by Hito-Shura at 2013-04-21 04:52:00 Voted 10.00 on 04/21/13
Please ignore my previous comment. I just read the comments which I should have done that first.
Thank you JohnL
I would love a sequel or more sidequests. Really REALLY enjoying this module. Thanks again
Posted by Hito-Shura at 2013-04-21 04:18:53 Voted 10.00 on 04/21/13
Hello,
I would like to thank you first for making this module, Having a lot of fun playing it. I consulted your walkthrough and I am stuck I finished the warehouse infiltration mission by hiding in a crate and went to Hartley and after that nothing happens.
I did Sharna's Sweetheart quest before going to the warehouse. I took Imoen and Sharna to talk to the Mayor and he doesn't tell me anything and my only option is nevermind. Am I missing something or a bug? I don't remember meeting a Jena before to try and get the quest from here.
@Tinkerbelle:
We are quite international. I will release the dialog source files with the next version so those who are interested in helping to improve can simply correct whatever they think is worth of being corrected directly in the text files using a standard text editor (and hand them in for merging).
By the way, isn't it "too pedantic" (with a double "o")?
The player starts at level one because he has suffered severe head trauma and other injuries.
@MisterH616:
... maybe ;)
@Friar:
You can skip the intro by not taking Kate's invitation and leaving home alone.
I wonder if the glitch happens when you manually traverse to the Government District.
I had similar issues on my old notebook with ADWR and the castle scene - I suppose it was an issue with my graphics card - but I couldn't solve it either.
A very enjoyable mod and the way it was tied into ADwR was done very intelligently. Hopefully more will be done with the sex system as in you can improve your skill like in ADwR. Although I did like the premature ejaculation seen with your wife, very amusing.
I'll wait till something more finished is released before I vote but I have a feeling that I'm going to score this very high.
As this seems to be a wip I am holding off on rating until I play the final version.
I do have a couple of problems that might be of interest. I presume the author and testers are not native English speakers as many of the texts are so bad as to be understandable, or perhaps I am just to pedantic? The other anomaly is that the pc is supposed to have been a special ops. agent for several years but he starts as a level one character which does not seem realistic.
I just downloaded A Dance with Spies because I share your enthusiasm with A Dance with Rogues.
I ran into some technical difficulty, however. It happens when the main character leaves his pad for the first time, goes through the dialogue, transition occurs, finally on the loadscreen between The Street and the Government District the game always = (Not responding).
I know the game has stability issues on my Windows Vista, but I was also wondering if it is a video issue. I know that the Main campaign bink movies don't play on this computer so I suspect this might be a graphics video card related issue. Is there a video that occurs once I arrive in the government distrinct or something?
I look forward to playing your project and voting.
@Digital Lyfe Form
Imoen's backstory will unfold in one of the next (content) versions, which will also answer your question then.
@Muric
Good point with the bag and jewlery stores - they are in for the next release... but I don't know how the upgrade system works (programmatically).
You are also right about Taris. She shouldn't be a lvl 7 ranger by character at this point. On the other hand she shouldn't be too far behind either.
Currently I am working on a version with less intermission dependencies and more journal entries.
New content (as was mailed to me) and character development will come right after that.
I won't repeat what other people said here already, but I will mention that injecting into the mod Imoen really broke immersion for me because she was taken from one established universe and put into another, completely different universe for what seems like some wierd fanservice, the kind you're likely to find in fanfics. I mean, while you're at it, why not add Luke Skywalker and King Leonidas as well to watch your back as loyal companions? After all, they both overflow with unparalleled amounts of awesome? Bonus points if you dodge around the question of how they got there or even if they are the same popular heroes or just dudes with strangely identical names and looks but-not-kinda.
I won't repeat what other people said here already, but I will mention that injecting into the mod Imoen really broke immersion for me because she was taken from one established universe and put into another, completely different universe for what seems like some wierd fanservice, the kind you're likely to find in fanfics. I mean, while you're at it, why not add Luke Skywalker and King Leonidas as well to watch your back as loyal companions? After all, they both overflow with unparalleled amounts of awesome? Bonus points if you dodge around the question of how they got there or even if they are the same popular heroes or just dudes with strangely identical names and looks but-not-kinda.
oh, right. I just remembered the other annoyances: no upgrades available from Igor(or the other smithy in your hometown), and lack of access to the bag and jewelry stores. I ended up with a bunch of weak items that could probably have used an upgrade, and other heavy gear, that would have made a bag of holding or two very nice to have. I wouldn't worry too much about asking permission to include the forge/upgrade scripts, through the vault message system(it doesn't work anyway), just give credit in the description. _________________________ jml's list of community addons/overrides, etc. Link
I played the module probably a week ago. it was kind of nice to see the story from that perspective. kind of left me curious about Imoen and her past. anyway, I didn't really have the feeling of "becoming a spectator", that everyone else seems to have had. Imoen does tend to do a lot of the talking toward the end though. Overall it was a fun distraction, and I can't wait for the finished product. thankfully I never got stuck enough to actually NEED the walkthrough, which I've still not read yet(am going to though). I didn't really have too many issues, an occasional script would fail to fire(specifically the ones in/around your PCs home), typically all it would take leaving and coming back in and it'd work. it did crash a couple times on me, but that's not an unusual event on my system, so I doubt it was related to the module itself. other then tweaking some script timing, and spelling corrections here and there, there's not a lot to fix...as far as suggestions though, maybe update the journal entries a little more. there was a couple occasions where I was rather confused as to what to do next, so I just went home, and chatted up Kate a bit only to find out that's what I was supposed to do ;)
I didn't have any of the problems eL_PuSHeR posted. I didn't really have the problem Shuurai had either with teris offering her opinion of people she hadn't met yet(I went through that conversation tree too and no names were listed), though I do agree some of the characters could use some more development, particularly Melissa and Bull(I get he's the strong and silent type, but I feel like there's or maybe should be some sort of interesting back-story there). The rest are pretty easy to read. If I hadn't known better I could have sworn he was a Dhorn double agent(he just has that kind of up tight attitude). Melissa sort of feels like a blank slate though, and you really don't know much more about her then you do about Imoen. The combat was fairly easy(mostly thanks to having good companions with you when they take place), I find it odd that Teris found herself in such a predicament that you discover her in, being a lvl 7 ranger in her own right. honestly had she had a weapon on hand she probably could have "saved" herself. that situation just seemed a little unrealistic to me was all. I kind of felt like the provided character(yeah I used him) was a bit underprepared for a couple of those early encounters. also for some reason he had lightning reflexes(which isn't really an ideal feat for a rogue since they already have a high reflex save), I think he would have been better served with toughness, or thug feats. hmm.. I think that's all I can come up with at the moment. _________________________ jml's list of community addons/overrides, etc. Link
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2013-03-24 11:23:34 Voted 7.25 on 03/24/13
I have just finished this module (sort of). I also agree with what everyone has said so far. This module is good and shows great potentital but it's not as good as ADWR. It lacks some polishing and bugs ironing out. For instance:
**** SPOILERS BELOW ***
The three Betancuria quests:
- Questionable allegiance
- Damsel in distress
- Family affairs
get overlapped in certain circumstances and may even break the plot. E.g. If while doing the QA quest you talk to Sharita and get the DiD quest, and idle for a bit, Questionable Allegiance may abort abruptly. I also was unable to complete the Damsel in Distress quest because Family Affairs one overlapped this one. Also the journal isn't clear at all.
Posted by shuurai at 2013-03-23 21:46:27 Voted 7.00 on 03/23/13
It's cool how this module meshes with the ADWR story line, especially in the second half. And the story is interesting and well paced.
Unfortunately there are just way too many bugs and scripting issues. For example, several of the scripted events at home involving Kate and the other girls either fail to fire, or fire when you're trying to leave the house. Many of the conversations loop, or in other cases just abruptly end. And in a few cases, the NPCs talk about people they've never met - for example, you can ask Taris what she thinks of pretty much everyone else you know before she's actually ever met any of them. Very few conversations acknowledge that you already had that conversation before; they just start over again.
The other thing that's lacking, in my opinion, is character development. That is where the original ADWR really shined. The characters all had unique, and really well developed personalities. The characters in this mod are, unfortunately, not well developed at all in my opinion. Their personalities seem very cliched and without any real depth to them. I suppose in any other module they might be fine; but because this module is based on ADWR it is difficult not to make that comparison.
The main plot line seems very forced, especially once you get to Betancuria. The first half of the module showed real promise, and forced the player to find clever ways to accomplish various tasks - the warehouse, for example - but the second half of the module just feels railroaded.
Finally, as someone else mentioned, the NPCs are just too overpowered. I get that you weren't going for a combat module, but even in terms of social interaction, Imoen practically takes over by the end. The main character suddenly becomes a spectator.
Overall... cool effort, and definitely has some potential to be very good, but right now just doesn't seem complete. Maybe it's a bit unfair because the original was so good and so very well polished; but again, you practically beg the comparison when you make a module based on such a well-liked module.
@acamantor:
You seem to have some idea of an interesting sub quest for the cult? Just let me know. -> prwo --AT-- gmx --DOT-- net
Posted by acamantor at 2013-03-11 12:27:43 Voted 9.00 on 03/11/13
Fun watch from other point to the story in aDwR, liked a lot the family life thing but that part It helped a lot giving deep to the game. The main con could be it's a bit lineal in some places: exploration of the cult was mostly run from here to there without nothing to do. It is a module with many opportunities for growth, should you feel like that.
There are a few things I'd like to mention:
The story you see now is the main plot line - basically how I would play it through. I haven't had time to implement further choices or quests yet, but be assured that this is about to come.
Also there will be more character defelopment for NPCs.
As you correctly realized this project isn't finished yet. We released at this point to get feedback on our approach so far and where the journey should go.
Merchants, weapons or fancy items will not be a strong feature of this module. Neither will be fighting.
I agree that theft without (martial) consequence isn't as exciting as it could be, so there'll be more to it in future.
Thanks for the hint with the missing XP generation in Northern Betancuria. I'll look into this.
Just to continue from before, putting the character in the role of the Dhorn investigator is very clever and works to tell the story more from their point of view. However, the last part of the Family Affairs quest, from when the character enters into the Knights' Street warehouse to the end of the quest completely robs the character of any agency what-so-ever. You have introduced the hyper-competent NPC to take the lead of the story. This is one of the worst storytelling techniques as it not only robs the character of agency but the player as well. Especially since you have make Imoen into a complete Mary-Sue. Her character is an eleventh level Rogue that has hidden Mage powers. She does all of the talking and turns the PC into a silent NPC. This is a problem with all of your NPCs by the way -- they are all more powerful than the PC. This is a major sin for writing an RPG. The NPCs can be competent, but if they start overshadowing the PC as has been done in the Family Affairs then it is no longer a game and becomes fan fiction. No one likes this.
I would like to add a few observations as well. This module does a good job of creating intersections with the ADwR world.
However, the big negative to this module that kills replayability is that there is NO character agency. Even though the orginal ADwR story is full of railroading, there is almost always character agency. I played all the way through chapter four without bothering to level my character. The module makes very little use of the charater's abilities. The quests are all sequential and there is very little exploration. There is little love for equipment here. The stores are empty and in the Cult quest when my equipment was taken away, I was never able to completely retrieve all of it -- just a few potions in fact.
There is something wrong with how henchmen conversations are triggered. I will hit a conversation trigger and the henchman will bring up something from two or three quests back. There are also way too many doors that cannot be unlocked. Doors that are just dressing should just open without having a transition. Otherwise it kills a person's desire to explore if 99% of the doors are like this.
It is however refreshing to see the use of smaller areas. Gigantic areas bog down and get tiring to constantly have to hoof across.
The grammer and spelling are a bit jarring at times as well.
Mostly this feels like an interactive story instead of a game. However, because there a no meaningful choices, there is also no point in replaying it either.
I will not be voting until you have indicated it is finished as it looks like there is a long way to go before the module is finished. It is a good skeleton -- even ADwR was rough for the first three versions.
Posted by Lord_Frederic_DQ at 2013-03-08 04:06:54 Voted 8.50 on 03/08/13
Hello to you all and sorry for the double post. I click submit when i remember that there is something else i would like to say
The last problem that i have is that sometimes there is no clear way what to do. For example, in the quest that you search about the missing painting, noone that i can found give you the name of the mage and where he leave. Maybe you could ask the colonel or the mages in academy if they know a mage that can use teleport spells and they give you some names (especially the Dhorns that seems to have already problems with him). As it is, if you don't read the walkthrough you have to search the whole city to find him.
********************************** End of spoiler ********************************
Sorry again for the double post (we really need a edit button in our posts)
Posted by Lord_Frederic_DQ at 2013-03-08 03:55:19 Voted 8.50 on 03/08/13
Hello to you all
An interseting campaign, with good story. I like the "feeling" that i went back in the wonderfull universe of ADwR again, and this feeling is one of the big advantages of this campaign. You were seeing the story from another angle and see how the fall of betancuria change the fate of the other nation. Good job.
However, there are some problems that IMO don't give the campaign the chance to shine as bright as ADwR.
1) There are almost no side mission. All the mission has to do with the main plot, there is nothing more to do other than the main plot. Especialy in the first city (because in the Betancuria you are not so known, there is the family that solves the problem and you are pose as dhorn, so you are not so lovely
2) Very little interaction with Kate. Maybe the problem with this is just my game (i can't make the dinner scene to fire), but i want to see much more interaction and scene with Kate. When i awakening from the first time i promise Kate that i spent more time with her, but there is nothing to do. For example, to take her for a walk, to stay in home and talk, go even for a picknic or a vacation thing like these. I have the feeling that i spent much more time with the other women in the game than with my wife.
3. One big disadvantage is in Betancuria. Noone care if you are in plain sight and steal from houses or from chests etc. However, dhorns are start to shout when you carry just a little knife. To tell you the truth, i don't care a lot if you can take anything from anyone and nothing happened in general. However in a module that you are a rogue i like to have such mechanic. Of course, i don't know if you make the module with a rogue character as the protagonist. However, both that you give a rogue pre-character (that is the one who i use to play it) and that in ADwR the dhorns hate the stealing, in Batancuria at least you shouldn't be able to steal in plain sight. And a strange thing i have found. Unlocking and disarming every time in Northern Betancuria never give XP. The same is happening in a lot of doors in arena. But in no other place.
4) Finally, i would like to know more about the background of the main character. There are some bits but not too much, especially for yourself and Kate. The PC has amnesia, however this never really seems to develop in game. I like to see yours and Kate past as you slowly starting to remember.
********************************** End of spoiler *********************************
All in all, the truth is that this is an very interesting campaign. And it has the feeling that you are in ADwR universe. It is a uncut diamond that i believe it can be a big and really beatifull diamond
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2013-03-08 00:12:06 Voted 7.25 on 03/24/13
@eL_PuSHeR:
Talk to Kate about your leaving.
Then talk to Hartley again and you'll advance to Betancuria.
The note there is just a hint in the dialog that you should go to Col. Hartley.
It is not a physical thing to obtain.
The assertion you noticed is just overly critical at that point, but doesn't harm at all. Will be removed in the next version.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2013-03-07 10:26:21 Voted 7.25 on 03/24/13
Stupid question of the day:
**** SPOILERS BELOW ****
How do I return to Betancuria to do the "find the princess" quest?
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2013-03-06 12:37:44 Voted 7.25 on 03/24/13
Although I didn't see any physical note, the game seems to progress properly because Col. Hartley has assigned me a new quest: finding the princess.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2013-03-05 13:13:56 Voted 7.25 on 03/24/13
Hello prwo:
I think I have run into a strange situation. I was at home and after "the rpg interlude", some text says "I noticed a note..." but this is what appears in the text box:
assert: Assertion failed: object is invalid. cannot redress o.tag=Taris,o.object=150,o.name=Taris
@eL_PuSHeR:
I've looked into the bug you reported about Avery's Smithy, which has been reported by Seatroll also, but which I couldn't reproduce at the time.
Thanks to your description I was able to reproduce it and yes, it's a bug up to V104.
Do not enter Avery's Smithy (Docks) at night.
Workaround: If you are trapped I'm afraid you have to use DebugMode to teleport out (pressing '.' in DebugMode allows you to teleport to different areas).
Will be fixed in next version.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2013-03-04 16:31:27 Voted 7.25 on 03/24/13
Hooray! Good thing I have a lot of different savegames. Reloading the "warehouse breakin" quest and doing it properly this time has set things in motion. Now I have gotten the "find Sharna's sweetheart" quest.
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at 2013-04-23 00:11:28
