Almraiven updated! | 08.27.08

A tweak here, a tweak there. With the release of Shadewood on the horizon, I've taken the time to update Almraiven and fix a few reported issues. This small update will be uploaded to the vault shortly and includes the following: ! Fixed Tale of the Ruby Red side-quest on Loom Avenue. [reported by a number of players over the years] ! Fixed an issue with experience sink on Ulip, which allowed the player to continue to receive experience by saying Farewell in the conversation. [reported by Calgach] ! Fixed Sorcerer's Friend on Caster's Claim 3rd Level inventory. Offered Wisdom +1 instead of Charisma +1. * if player has bugged version going into Shadewood, item is stripped on entering Shadewood and proper amulet is provided in player's inventory. [reported by Mizar] ! Fixed a bug with Lamu always respawning on Horseshoe Lane even if already robbed by player. [found while preparing for Shadewood release] ! Fixed a bug with chest in basement of Springwine Jones Estate that would continue to give a journal entry. [reported by Azarr Kul] ! Fixed Rotting Boards blocking Abandoned House on Horseshoe Lane. Variable would only be set when boards were physically attacked. Now takes into account any damage. [reported by Atlas] ! Fixed "man" on Domon Bin to as player would be called "man" even if playing a female character. [reported by Faramac] ! Fixed an issue with Darwien's Dissapearance quest where Annex could not be found if player saved Wundra instead. Conversation options are now available to tell Annex that Darwien could not be saved. [reported by Grylock] ! Fixed an issue with Domon Bin not taking player if they happen to be wearing an Evelyn Society of Thinkers robe. Captain of the Blood Runner also does this, so Domon Bin was fixed to allow player, otherwise if player spoke to both captains, they had no way of getting to the Forest of Mir. [reported by Silvius] ! Fixed an issue with Tin quest that would break if the player spoke with NPC while not wearing street-side clothing even though player met required NPC. By doing so, option to speak and complete quest with the NPC became broken. [reported by Paradoxical] ! Fixed an issue with potion brewing, which allowed player to place in multiple reagents and brew potions. Problem was, it would leave reagents behind, allowing the player to brew more potions over and over again. A large experience sink tank for doing nothing. [found while preparing for Shadewood release] + Added more Bird Seed in Almraiven due to player requests on finding it difficult to locate the only Bird Seed in the city. [requested by Elhanan] + Added new and improved Spell Conversation scripts from Shadewood to Almraiven for Scare and Charm Person. Said options would appear even if player did not memorize them. + Updated Auren Society Robe script from Shadewood to add consistency between both modules. Now when player levels up, script will auto fire instead of previous versions of Almraiven that required player to unequip and equip robe to gain the new level bonus. + Added some variables to store to Database file. Nothing major that will ruin the experience of previously played versions of Almraiven.

Release is near! | 08.24.08

Is your Weave ready? Shadewood has reached Private Beta 6 and quite quickly since PVB5 was announced. The final days of testing are coming to an end as I begin to feel much more comfortable releasing a public version of Shadewood. Already two testers have completed the module from start to finish and sent in their comments, issues and bug reports. On another note, I'm now able to really do a lot with Neverwinter Nights 2, especially in the toolset, which was not possible with the old machine.

PBV5 | 08.18.08

Testing 1 ... 2 ... 3 After a month of being out of the Neverwinter Nights loop, Shadewood has moved forward to Private Beta v5. It would have happened a lot sooner if my old computer had not decided to die but that's how it goes in the hobby business when you need your hobby the most. As for the new system, it's doing just fine, except that I have no sound. Installing SoundMax and the drivers for the onboard sound card crashes Windows XP during the boot sequence, returning with a blue screen of death. So for now, I have no sound. I'm feeling confident enough to say that Shadewood will be released in September now, two months behind schedule. Better late then never I suppose.

It's alive! | 08.17.08

Reborn I'm up and running, finally, although there are still a few odds and ends that need to be taken care of, the new machine is doing well. First process is to get everything working program wise with updates, software installations and the like. I've been unable to get any of the two new SATA drives recognized during the boot sequence, so I had to use an old IDE drive to get the OS installed. So, for those who are computer lovers, here's the new system that will hopefully, last another seven to eight years. Motherboard - Asus M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe 780a SLI CPU - AMD A64 X2 6400+ 3.20GHz Memory - OCZ Dual Channel XTC 4096MB PC8000 DDR2 1000MHz Graphics - XFX GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB DDR3 SLI Power - OCZ / GameXStream / 850-Watt SLI Well, I'm off. Have to reboot and continue installing required software.

Fried Fester | 08.07.08

R.I.P On my return from a vacation to the United States, I booted up the Neverwinter Nights build machine, a 7 year old box that has done me very well, only to watch it die five minutes later. In the seven years I've had the box, all that's been upgraded is the graphic card so I could play Neverwinter Nights 2. From a GeForce 4200 to a GeForce 7800. The pocket book was very happy. With the death of the motherboard, an Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 powered by the old AMD Athlon XP CPU, it's as good as spent. No bios, no beeps, just a black screen when the power goes on. Is there good news to this? I suppose. Now I get to build a new system. A long time has gone by for new nForce boards to be designed and new CPUs. I'll need memory too. Not even the old 450watt power supply is strong enough these days. Sigh ... what happened to that good news vibe I was feeling just moments before? Is there bad news? Sure is. It's the second week since my return home and I've not been able to tweak the bug reports coming in from the Shadewood beta testers. There are two "strange" bugs that I know are all variable based, keeping two side quests incomplete, even though they've clearly been completed. Spelling and grammar mistakes are quick to chew threw, so are the general suggestions to the improvement of the adventure but I don't like leaving bugged quests. Until a new machine is up and running, Shadewood is grounded at Private Beta 4, the last update sent to testers on July 17, 2008. After four years of building in Neverwinter Nights, I really miss it.