2007 NWN Module Awards

[Jaime Lannister]

NWN 1:

Mod of the Year: Aielund Saga Act IV Part 3

I played the first three parts of this and it was pretty basic hack-and-slash with a good story. Does it get better in Act IV?

Gold: Tortured Hearts II

I played about 10 hours of this after finishing the original. Huge, amazing mod that I don't have time for.

The rest of these mods I haven't played. People who have, share opinions please?

Silver: Towers of Dregar: Xora's Vial

Bronze: Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker - Act I

NWN 2:

Mod of the Year: Harp & Chrysanthemum

Gold: Pool of Radiance Remastered

Silver: Moonshadows: Chapter 1

Bronze: Dark Waters 1 - Highcastle

Link: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Ar ... tail&id=93

 

[dagorkan]

Why no Conan Chronicles? It's in the Top 10 of both NWN1 and 2.

Guess people want 'epic' only.

 

[Shoelip]

Any modules with low amounts of combat and the possibility to talk you way out of it that don't require expansion packs? The OC was so bag I couldn't bear to spend more money on expansions for that game. Same with the sequel, though I've read it's much better, but meh, I just got Space Empires V as part of a Strategy First complete pack on Steam.

 

[dagorkan]

Any modules with low amounts of combat and the possibility to talk you way out of it that don't require expansion packs? The OC was so bag I couldn't bear to spend more money on expansions for that game. Same with the sequel, though I've read it's much better, but meh, I just got Space Empires V as part of a Strategy First complete pack on Steam.

From what I recall almost all the worthwhile mods I saw needed expansion packs, most need the CEP as well by default. You can probably find some good mods which don't need expansions but they'll be pretty old.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Why no Conan Chronicles? It's in the Top 10 of both NWN1 and 2.

Guess people want 'epic' only.

That was one fine fine module. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Korgan]

Btw, why wasn't the 2006 NWN Mod of the Year mentioned at the Codex? It's called A Dance With Rogues and it has lots of RP, some C&C and, most importantly, PR0N! Like, with jiggly boobs and 20 sets of chainmail/leather bikini to carry around (the protagonist's obviously female) and whoring at the docks and shit. And the author pretends to be a woman for some perverted reason. Seriously though, it's great. Yeah, and there's one more immature mod that anyone should try: Blackguard. Basically all the Bioware evil PC cliches, but EVILER. Also, battles are harder than, well, ever. Definitely worth looking at despite some horrible design.

 

[Jaesun]

I voted for Silver: Moonshadows: Chapter 1 as I really really enjoyed this mod. Shame it came in 3rd place. The fact it was single player (NO companions) was awesome. And the story was half way decent.

 

[Starwars]

I voted for Harp & Crysanthemum, I felt that it was very good overall for what it was. Not to much roleplaying which is a bit of a shame, but most everything was really nice.

The fairly recent mod called Asphyxia seems very promising from what I've seen (played through the opening area), though I'm told it loses steam a bit as it goes on. Nevertheless, without a doubt one of the best mods for NWN2 as of yet. Very well written.

Haven't actually played the Conan mod yet, should get around to doing that.

Korgan, Dance with Rogues have been discussed here a million times.

 

[Thalkirst]

IMO:
Mod of the Year: Harp & Chrysanthemum - decent design, decent story, good dialogue. challenging combat. The ending is anticlimatic though and the mod is fairly linear, C&C is virtually nonexistent. Soundtrack is good. Out of all current NWN2 mods, this is definitely the best.

Gold: Pool of Radiance Remastered - well, it is a decent hack and slash mod. Dialog is awful, no C&C, the story follows the original PoRR with a few twist.

Silver: Moonshadows: Chapter 1 - not played this one yet.

Bronze: Dark Waters 1 - Highcastle - the story is fairly unique, the mod features amateur voice acting, no C&C, lame combat, and an interesting setting. The author put a lot of effort into the module and design, but the result is mixed.

 

[afewhours]

Dark Waters 1 - Highcastle - the story is fairly unique, the mod features amateur voice acting, no C&C, lame combat, and an interesting setting. The author put a lot of effort into the module and design, but the result is mixed.

The fellow was trying far too hard with this mod. I can appreciate the effort he put in, but I can't help but feel something else other than the NWN2 engine would have suited his needs better.

The setting and story did show potential, but it's presented in entirely the wrong way. The flashbacks and heavy exposition hurt a lot. I felt he pulled a good stunt with the old 'throwing you down the rabbit hole with no way out' trope as it's a personal favourite, but he really needed some momentum to go with teh MYSTARY. The guy has ideas, but not the craft... though I guess that could come with time. We will see.

I may go out on a limb and say I was pleasantly surprised with the voice acting. It's not stellar, but it could have been far, far worse than it was. There are a few characters that sound unspeakably awful, but for the most part, it's straight and tolerable.

I tend not to screw about with the NWN mods too much, as I'm not the biggest fan of the Aurora/Odyssey engine. MotB did bring a lot of improvements though, so I may start trawling the mods again. I still haven't tried out Harp and Crysanthemum yet, so I should add that to my list.

 

[Starwars]

I played through Dark Waters 2 as well, which is quite different in how it's set up from the first mod. The first being basically a long dungeon, the second is quite a lot more open. I also consider it quite a feat that the guy actually managed to get the "Pirates!" system into a freakin' NWN2 mod. It actually works to, which was the part that really surprised me. Seems to be rather dependant on the user setups on how buggy it is though, I had nearly no bugs at all when I tried it.

But, it kinda suffers from the same thing that the first mod does. He has all these different custom system and GUIs and god knows what, but the core gameplay and/or story just isn't solid enough. Dark Waters 2 also echoes "our world" way to closely at times, and there are way to many references to other games/movies etc. The whole mod is also basically a setup for what I assume is the final mod, it's just one long fetch quest really, with very little development in the story.

It's a sort of fun romp, and I am very impressed with how he got all the custom shit working. It definetely doesn't deserve the average score it got on the Vault though, but then again... I suppose that's true for most mods.

I haven't played through Pool of Radiance yet, not sure if I will. I played Moonshadows though which I thought was quite decent. Very hack'n'slash-ish, but with some good writing (though it goes over the top a few times). Story doesn't get going until the end, but it seems pretty promising. Kinda looking forward to the second chapter.