The High Council has summoned you!
Well, not exactly but soon. Thought I'd post a few of the NWVault entries that will be making their rotation. Which one will start off the advertising campaign I have yet to decide on. Got a favorite?
| A New Weave | 05.16.08 |
Mother of Mouthmuck!
I'm not a good blogger if the last update I put together was in January. I'm also not a good builder to interview, still having to put together the answers to the questions I was asked by the AME Crew. One day, I promise!
So, let's get right to the meat. Shadewood.
It's going beta very shortly and by that I don't mean a private beta. The final hakpak and music pack should be up on the Vault by the end of the weekend (May 18, 2008) and those who have offered to help do some testing will be notified where they can download the module.
A six minute cutscene ending was completed today. I'm not very good at doing cutscenes, so much of what's available are static camera shots while dialog is read and a few flashy things happen on screen. It takes place at the end of the events that surround Shadewood and I'm very happy with how it's turned out.
Patch 1.69 is now at Beta #10 and Craig was quoted as saying if all goes well, 1.69 Beta #10 will become the FINAL!
Great news for those of us still lingering in the Neverwinter Nights Community.
Put on your robes, fiddle with your ring and grasp your staff.
The Auren Society of Weavers and your continued adventure is about to begin.
| New Year | 01.27.08 |
Happy New Year!
Yeah, so I'm twenty-seven days late. :) It's always the thought that counts. Since this is the first post for 2008, I think it's fine to wish anyone reading this a Happy New Year.
So what's left? That's why you're here, right.
Bug tweaking, bug tweaking and more bug tweaking. No more building because that's all done. No more side quests as they're all done. No more major plot for that's all done too.
Small additions are being added though, little notes I wrote down over the building of Shadewood that I'd like to put into the module. These include such things as area descriptions, flavor text and conversation modifications. There's nothing worse than a builder who makes an NPC spill all the beans.
I'm very happy with the results thus far and have played Shadewood from start to finish with Falis Goodmane, Annex and Shayla Shay, the three companions you can pick up in Almraiven. That's what is taking me so long with my own internal testing. What works for one companion may be a bug in another.
The hakpak has been final for awhile but I'll be adding one more addition to it that just works with what's going on in the module plot wise. I have yet to get to that. It's just a placeable, for any wondering.
Also, the music collection is final. I did my best to include new tracks for Shadewood but also made use of the older tracks from Almraiven. That is, the tracks that fit. You'll not hear any tavern music while exploring the wood.
On another note, v1.69 is in Beta 4 stage, which means that sucker is just around the corner from final (fingers crossed). I'm really curious how many new single player modules or builders will come forth.
I'll be looking for beta testers soon, so keep an eye out.
Cheers!
| Holidays | 12.29.07 |
Happy Holidays!
Well...
I actually made it to the end of the year blog-blog wise. Who knows if anyone is reading this little corner but for those that happen to be lurking, Happy Holidays!
Christmas day went on by and I had a great time with the family and cousins as well, who happened to drop by. I don't see them that often, so it's always nice to catch up.
Of course, the reason I'm posting is to say that I'm very happy to announce the final side-quest I was working on is complete!
So what does that mean to those who are waiting for Shadewood? That the end is near. With all of the major side-quests completed, small bugs will be my issue in the weeks to come as the module is ironed out to a final beta release.
Not sure how many will offer to beta test, no one likes doing that it seems, but whatever.
I'll test it myself if need be.
I'm still debating on making Shadewood part 2. Ug. I know... I know. The module itself is almost 55 megs in size and has reached the point where the actuall game clock stops. Arg! This ain't no frickin' PW I say! As Falis Goodmane would say, "Mother of mouthmuck!"
Players might not be happy with a part 3 and with NWN on the downside of the bell curve, I might hurt my chances at a part 3 if no one is around to play it.
The debate continues into 2008 but with v1.69 around the corner, how many will come back and build?
Happy New Year everyone, for those of you stopping by.
| AME Awards | 11.21.07 |
NWN 2006 Golden Dragon Awards
Today there was a nice surprise waiting over at www.nwvault.com in regards to the AME Awards, the Academy for Modding Excellence for those who do not know, which is a voluntary organisation dedicated to finding and recognising the best community built content for Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2.
Almraiven was selected for the Best Adventure Module and went up against some very well built modules as well:
Prophet - Chapter I - By the Will of Kings and Mortals by Baldecaran
The Fall of Aielund, Part 2 by Savant & BlackDiamond.
I've read nothing but rave reviews of the Aielund Saga and it's on my play list when I'm done with building, so I was shocked that it did not take top spot. I don't know anything about Prophet but will add this to my list of modules to play, obviously an attention grabber due to its nomination.
Then there's the Debut Author Award, which this old grumpy man was also selected for and received, running along side of Andarian (Sanctum of the Archmage 1 and 2) and Proleric (Enigma Island 1 and 2). Anadrian is very well spoken for on the Bioware boards and Almraiven was released around the same month that Sanctum of the Archmage was released. I have yet to see Proleric, unless of course the nick on the forum is different but from the comments made on the module, it's a fine piece of work.
It's a hard nut to crack these days in the module building era of a five year old game that is Neverwinter Nights. Long standing members know the toolset well and do, on a more regular basis than before, churn out excellent and well designed modules. The bar is set higher than those released in 2002, as an example, for players expect more and builders can do more.
With modules like Darkness over Daggerford, the Rose of Eternity saga, HeX coda, Tales of Arterra, the Aielund saga on the minds of many players, it's a nice reminder to those of us coming to the party a little late that we too, are seen as contributors to a great building community.
Thanks to all who have supported Almraiven, played Almraiven and have also guided me during my early building years and to those who have put AME together, kudos.
| Tweaks | 11.10.07 |
It's been a good week! The pain I had felt after my wisdom teeth extraction has gone away, although I still have small holes where the stitching is, which I also have to clean with warm water and salt every night. I've finally been able to enjoy more solid foods too. As much as one enjoys jello, ice cream and soup, it gets old fast day after day. My craving for a steak is getting worse and I hope in another two weeks I can cut into one.
There's something called AME that's formed and founded by community member MokahTGS, and their current chairman is B G P Hughes. This group will be handing out awards for such things as best veteran author, best action module to even best RPG module. It's a good way for old and forgotten content to get noticed again.
Today I finished a major side quest I had been putting off and not because I've lost interest but due to the complex nature of designing it. I don't think I'll be doing an open ended module again due to the number of variables and checks that are required. Did the player do this before that or do that, then this before that other thing? Anyhow, I have one last major quest to tie up, which is thankfully, already done on the open ended side, so now it's just more of a linear pace until completion.
A few more conversation options are being added in as well as general fixing of very old issues that I also put off. One such bug, which I just knocked off, was the dinar system that was written for Almraiven. I never expected players to buy items in one store and sell them for more in another, which some did. This caused the player to collect 10,000 or more wealth in dinars.
Well, the dinar system will stop working when one reaches 10,000 in dinars, resetting the amount to 0. There's no way a player can collect so many dinars in Almraiven, even if all the quests are done but buying and selling via all the shops, one obviously can reach this number.
So Shadewood now supports up to 99,999 worth in dinars, which no player should require in a wilderness but one can never know the evil mind of another.
| Plugging | 10.28.07 |
I've been plugging and in more ways than one.
Just last Thursday I got my wisdom teeth yanked and it hasn't been very much fun since then. The time off work is nice though but using that time to plug bleeding gaps in my jaw with gauze wasn't what I was aiming for.
Today though the pain is very faint and I was able to eat a KitKat or rather, suck it to death with saliva.
The other plugging has been in Shadewood and I've actually tested it from start to finish with Falis, making notes on what still needs to be tweaked. Annex and Shayla Shay will still require a full run through before I feel comfortable enough to release to beta testers.
In other news, Ossian Studios is about to release a city adventure module for Neverwinter Nights 2. Lots of folks are excited about that, including myself. Having yet to dive into NWN2 and its ability to build, I'll be very curious just how well Westgate is designed as a city, how well it's populated and just how busy it's made to feel. Large empty streets with little to no activity is never a hit with me.
I'm sure Ossian can pull it off, there are enough folks who have the talent and experience from building their own modules, so it'll be one module I'll be keeping an eye on.
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