Untitled NWN2 Mod

[Admiral jimbob]

Cleve's vault dungeon crawl. Full of traps like napalm cannons and poisonous exhaust vents, you have to work your way through a minefield just to get in. Near the end, you discover that VaultOS has rebelled against Cleve, and must side with one of the two factions to decide the fate of what remains of the world. Choices and consequences!

 

[oldmanpaco]

Since oldmanpaco dude is too busy not answering my PMs, it is clear to me that he is a bad and unreliable person and that his dick is not very long.

I resent that comment. I am a very reliable person.

Anyway I will reply to your PMs. Didn't notice them actually.

I'm on a way to a meeting and will update the first post when I get back. But briefly I didn’t get laid off (I got promoted) so I didn’t have the free time I thought I would.

I also figured I should actually finish the games to see what the developers did. It took me a good 3-4 weeks to sludge through the OC. I just wiped out the coven in MotB and will hopefully finish it in the next few days.

Edit: updated the first post.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

But, but, I wanna be one of the good guys...

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Scrap this mod, wait for Knights of the Chalice 2 to come out, remake mod with toolset, win.

 

[mondblut]

It needs a Luddite team. Always going in parties of 6 and extremely powergamist.

 

[JarlFrank]

But, but, I wanna be one of the good guys...

There are no good guys in a Codex RPG, only different kinds of scum.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Merchants need their own shops: I would say 90% of merchants in the OC are street hustlers. What the hell is that about? And, like I said before, they are filled to the brim with named magical items so it makes no sense. Merchants should have their own shops.

One of the sucky things about NWN2 is the insane loading times. I assume they put the merchants out in the streets so it doesn't hurt the game flow too much because you need to load a minute into some tiny shop area, buy some crap and get out again. I suggest you seriously consider not going all the way to build shop areas and simply put them in the street.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Merchants need their own shops: I would say 90% of merchants in the OC are street hustlers. What the hell is that about? And, like I said before, they are filled to the brim with named magical items so it makes no sense. Merchants should have their own shops.

One of the sucky things about NWN2 is the insane loading times. I assume they put the merchants out in the streets so it doesn't hurt the game flow too much because you need to load a minute into some tiny shop area, buy some crap and get out again. I suggest you seriously consider not going all the way to build shop areas and simply put them in the street.

Quality point. I will have to do some research into loading times. This is a 5 year old game though so hopefully people will have better setups than when the game was originally launched. Playing though the OC and MotB I never really noticed the loading times.

I think what bothered me the most were the street venders with insane amounts of magic items. Outdoor markets are a viable option but they need to be true markets – not just some guy on the street.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Loading times are better now if your rig is good, but still not so short that it's not annoying as fuck to load in and out of an entire area for nothing more than shopping. The engine is just that unoptimized. Making the shops something interesting looking in the city area would be my preferred way to do it.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Does the system cache recent area? I can't remember and I'm at work. I ask because I played a mod once which put all of the shop interiors in one area. You could see the other areas on the mini-map but it worked out as far as I could tell.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

If it does, it doesn't do a very good job of it. Sometimes it seems to have everything in memory and doesn't do much on disk, but even then you spend some time on the progress bar screen first. If I were making a mod then if at all possible I'd just avoid using more areas than absolutely necessary (combat zones vs city) because transitions are simply never anywhere near "instant".

 

[Monocause]

Make a Monocause NPC. He'd try to persuade the PC to strangle Andhaira free of charge.

Anyway, I can do voices too. Drop me a PM if interested. I've got decent skills and equipment so VO's would be of an at least acceptable quality.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Make a Monocause NPC. He'd try to persuade the PC to strangle Andhaira free of charge.

Anyway, I can do voices too. Drop me a PM if interested. I've got decent skills and equipment so VO's would be of an at least acceptable quality.

Sounds good. I'm a ways away from V/O work though.

 

[Murk]

If it does, it doesn't do a very good job of it. Sometimes it seems to have everything in memory and doesn't do much on disk, but even then you spend some time on the progress bar screen first. If I were making a mod then if at all possible I'd just avoid using more areas than absolutely necessary (combat zones vs city) because transitions are simply never anywhere near "instant".

Definitely this - Have salesmen stand outside their shops if you feel the need to have an actual forge for blacksmiths or shop-house for general stores. Its a pain to have to load up 3-4 times just because you want to check shops for supplies.

 

[oldmanpaco]

If it does, it doesn't do a very good job of it. Sometimes it seems to have everything in memory and doesn't do much on disk, but even then you spend some time on the progress bar screen first. If I were making a mod then if at all possible I'd just avoid using more areas than absolutely necessary (combat zones vs city) because transitions are simply never anywhere near "instant".

Definitely this - Have salesmen stand outside their shops if you feel the need to have an actual forge for blacksmiths or shop-house for general stores. Its a pain to have to load up 3-4 times just because you want to check shops for supplies.

Think of BG2. They generally only had one or two shops per area. My issue is that you remember the Adventurers Mart and the Copper Coronet. I don't remember a single shop in DA/ME/KotoR/JE/Gothic/NWN. Joe Blow who sells crap from the back of his wagon or in an open air market is OK for general items. But sometimes you need to step inside.

 

[poocolator]

I'm upset that I'm not featured as a character

 

[Zed]

I'm upset that I'm not featured as a character

 

[GarfunkeL]

Voted in all the polls. Good luck!

 

[poocolator]

I'm upset that I'm not featured as a character

Well, good thing oldmanpaco isn't important or anything. Now I feel better.

 

[oldmanpaco]

I'm upset that I'm not featured as a character

Well, good thing oldmanpaco isn't important or anything. Now I feel better.

Don't worry. That list was a quickly generated deal a month or so ago for fun. I'm going to try to get everyone in even if they are cannon fodder.

 

[Dragula]

What is this

 

[Freelance Henchman]

What is this

You don't even?

 

[OSK]

OldSkoolKamikaze is not cannon fodder.

 

[Jack]

OldSkoolKamikaze is not cannon fodder.

Jack probably is though.
Sounds like some drunkard that tries to headbutt a fifteen feet tall djinn... to death.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Update - 8/7/10

Finally finished MotB for the first time (F13/WM/7/DC10). Pretty good stuff. By far the best scene was the dialog with the dead god. Best interaction I have seen in an RPG in years. Really felt the moment there. Not going to address the spirit meter as it is story specific and will not make it into the mod.

Lessons learned:

Economy: I had well over 500,000 gp at the end. What is the point of gold if it's this abundant and there are no money sinks?

Magic Items- Once again had a bag full of unused magic items.

Crafting - Way, way overpowered. I only added a vampiric reg (+4) and fire damage (4d6) to my off-hand sword. The game was still easy. If I had crafted armor/weapons for the rest of my party it would have been a cake walk.

Story - This is where MotB shines. It is basically a doomed love story that the PC gets in the middle of. Also the PC has a vested interest (can't just move to a different town) in the outcome of the love story. Saving the world is great and all but there needs to be an emotional connection between the player the PC and the story otherwise it falls flat.

Narration - This was a great idea. In the tool-set you can convey visual moments but cannot tell the player how they feel. The narrator really tied it all together. This will definitely be in my mod.

Visual effects - They did a lot with the light ambiance in this game. Making some areas bleak and others soothing based solely on the light levels. Well done.

Next up Soz.