The Dark Sun for NWN Project

[ProphetSword]

Server lists are needless due to the existence of nwnlist.com.

This is not true. The easiest way for players to find a server is through the built-in server lists. I saw a lot of player drop-off after the server lists went down. Sure, some people were able to still find us, but a lot of others didn't know how.

Automatic download... well, I think that manual download and unpacking hak files into hak folder (and .tlk into tlk folder, etc.) is within anyone's skill set, so it's just another bullshitty thing to put on a changelog to show that "something" is being done - and this is basically beamdog in a nutshell.

Actually, this would be another big deal. I can't name the number of players I've had to walk through with instructions on how to find, download and correctly install CEP just so they could log into my server. Rinse and repeat every time a new version of CEP was released in those days.

It can be done, sure, but it's neither automatically intuitive or easy for a large group of casual players.

I am/was in contact with people modding the game and I acknowledge that EE improved the toolset somewhat, which at the moment is basicaly only selling point.

It's also the reason that people should buy it. NWN OC is shit. Nobody is going to buy NWN:EE for the OC (at least I hope not). But much better mods and PWs being on the horizon is a fantastic reason to shell out money.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

I have looked at the EE games that BeamDog has done and I haven't bought one of them. Because like you I do not feel they did enough to the game. However there is more at work with NWN then just BeamDog the NWNX guys along with some other people in the community who really loves the game, are now working with BeamDog to help make the game even better. But most of the changes being made right now are on the toolset / creator side of things. They do have a different small company working on new player character models for the game and they claim to be looking into adding new tilesets and may be a module. Again all that is down the road.

Now as for the server list yes there is a website that people who don't just want to down load and play the came can look around and find to help them find other servers out there. But it isn't as easy to find and join any server some one uploads like it is currently. So for people like you and I we have no problem with the way it has been over the past few years but that were a good bit of players who left after the server list support went away some people just want to install log on and play. The leads into the auto downloading of haks. You and I don't have a problem finding the Vault and searching it looking for haks needed to play a game. However there are people that don't want to take the time to search the internet to find out about the Vault and then search it for the haks needed. Long story short the way it has been the past few years has lead to be leaving the game. However these things will help with people who decided to come back and even more so for new players.

BeamDog also has Forums and if you look at those forums vs the Vaults forums it has far far more activity on them. Once the old Bioware forums went down NWN took another hit in not only players but even creators who felt the game was dying and there was no point to create something for a game that was dying. So BeamDogs forums alone has helped with old and new players looking into NWN once again.

The bottom line is BeamDog has done a lot of good for NWN it may not be what you want in a game but it has made a difference for other. We can all go through life and look at all the bad things or we and look at the good. I have owned NWN since it was released and even though BeamDog hasn't done everything I want or feel they should , doesn't mean they haven't helped the game because they have.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

We are still looking for more people to join our team

- 3d Model Creators using Gmax, 3dsMax, Maya, or Blender
- Class Development (help with finishing the Dark Sun Classes)
- Setting up NPC's, Creatures, and Quests using NWN Toolset
- Scripter using NWScript https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NWScript

- Media Person - Someone to create nice looking "Weekly Highlights" using screenshots and a paint program. Then posted them across all the websites we post one (currently 26 different ones) and monitor these websites (check them all daily and responding to peoples posts).

 

[Grauken]

Dark Sun mod, oh yeah
wait, NWN engine
wait, NWN EE required

eh, you'll never finish anyway, based on how countless other large scale projects in the past have fared

 

[Tonden Ockay]

We will see wont we " Grauken " But if I were you I would keep an eye on us

The NWN engine helps with providing a nice solid engine/platform to work from.

EE opened a lot more for content creators so things that couldn't be done before now can. Plus there is more on the way.

 

[Neanderthal]

Woah Beamdog aren't even "enhancing" the game of NWN, just the toolset and some features? What the fuck, the OC is the one thing most in need of attention, that's bollocks.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

If your a fan of the OC, I have owned the game since the day it came out over 16 years ago and I have never played the OC. I also bought all the expansions and never played them. I love the game for what can be done with it. It allows you to do things no other game out there does. Which is why we are recreating Dark Sun with it

So it's really all about what you want.

 

[Grauken]

We will see wont we " Grauken " But if I were you I would keep an eye on us

The NWN engine helps with providing a nice solid engine/platform to work from.

EE opened a lot more for content creators so things that couldn't be done before now can. Plus there is more on the way.

Given the massive amount of mods released over the years before the EE edition, I doubt these limits really limited anybody. Anyway, since I love the Dark Sun setting, if you manage to finish your mod and there's a solid single player experience i can play offline, I probably will get the EE just for that. So, best of luck to you

 

[FeelTheRads]

- Dragon's
- Avangion's
- Elemental's

Dragon's what? Avangion's what? Elemental's what?

We are still looking for more people to join our team

Find an editor too, maybe.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

I have no I idea why I stuck ' before each s on those, I guess I should get some sleep before typing from now on. However thanks for pointing that out, I guess I don't need an editor since we all have you. Oh and was that all you took away from what I said?

 

[Grauken]

You're aware this community is all about tearing cRPGs down, not building them up

 

[Tonden Ockay]

Well I guess someone has to be on the other side to try and keep things balanced out. After all they say too much of one thing could be bad, so they say, but don't you worry I'm not going anywhere.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

When I first started out with trying to learn how to create custom content for NWN1, I began with texturing. I would just pick different things in tileset I liked the looks of and retexture something I felt may look a little better to me if I was to change it.

So when Dizzitt first started talking about Dark Sun for NWN he showed me a sky that someone had made for NWN1 to be used for Dark Sun. After looking at it for a while I started to wonder what kind of sky I could make using paint.net 1 (which is the first paint program I started working with beyond paint that comes with windows).

I looked around online and found some sunsets of here on earth and played around with them a while until they started to look like how I felt a Dark Sun sky should look, from all the Dark Sun paintings I had seen over the years. I then took the twin moons from one painting and the sun I used from another painting. However the sun wasn’t complete so I had to do a lot of work to it in order to get the full thing.

Using the different layers in paint.net 1 I was able to have two copies of the sky with the sun and moon in between them, which allowed for me to delete parts of the top layer/first sky to allow for the moon and sun to show through and allowed for the other sky behind them to help blended everything together.

Anyway this was the first thing I really did for the Dark Sun Project over 2 years ago. I have learned so much since then and at some point I will try to see if I can create a better looking sky for the project. However for now this sky is the one we are currently using.

 

[ProphetSword]

Those moons (if that’s what they are) look like lopsided Fire Giant testicles. Needs some work.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

Yes didn't you read what I wrote ?

"Anyway this was the first thing I really did for the Dark Sun Project over 2 years ago. I have learned so much since then and at some point I will try to see if I can create a better looking sky for the project. However for now this sky is the one we are currently using."

As for the way it looks well there is all kinds of art work of the Sun

 

[Ninjerk]

 

[ProphetSword]

Fair enough, I don't know enough about Dark Sun to know what the sun looks like, so I'll concede that point.

 

[Sacibengala]

These images are from the 4th edition? the Athas from 4th edition is any good?

 

[Tonden Ockay]

I just went on the internet and grabbed a few pictures to show what some of the artwork made the sun look like.

That said we are mainly using the 2e Books for most of our work, however we will be using some 3e and 4e as well.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Will there be trannies like in siege of dongspear conforming to debased modern librul sjw sensibilities since beamdog is involved?

 

[Theldaran]

If things were like in the olden times, a standalone videogame about Dark Sun wouldn't be something out of the question.

Come on, you are free to shower me with "decline" ratings.

 

[Sacibengala]

Will there bee trannies like in seige of domgspear conforming to debased modern librul sjw sensibilities since beamdog is involved?

It would be actually cool to see an transexual sorcerer-king/queen, though.

 

[Theldaran]

Will there bee trannies like in seige of domgspear conforming to debased modern librul sjw sensibilities since beamdog is involved?

It would be actually cool to see an transexual sorcerer-king/queen, though.

I'm sure Beamdog can manage to turn those hopes into shit.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

Raised Ground Cliffs


It took far more time then I ever thought that is would creating these raised ground cliffs. I learned so much from then, when it comes to what can and can’t be done. That is part of the nice thing when it comes to creating something from scratch.


Now what was it that I wanted from these cliffs one might ask?

1. - No flat clear cut sharp straight line along the bottom of the cliffs where they meet the ground. I didn’t want it to look as if the cliff had flat bottoms to them being placed on a flat even ground. Instead I wanted it to look more blended and natural as if sand has blown up against the bottom of them.

2. - No straight clear cut lines where the sand ends and the rock begins on top of the cliffs. I wanted it to look more natural. So I created a custom texture that slowly blends the two together.

3a. - No sand at the top of the cliffs along the edge ( so it looks as if the sand get blown of the top next to edges)

3b. - Smoother tiles so that they look as if blowing sand has sanded off their sharp edges over time.

When creating these cliffs they really made me have to think outside the box to get what I wanted and work with in the limits of the game engine. So I have to try a few different ideas before I came up with the current look I now have.

 

[Tonden Ockay]

We are always recruiting for this project.

- (Classes) We need for someone go class by class tweaking each one for Dark Sun. There are a good bit of changes that will need to be made for different classes.(edited)

- (Creature erf) We need someone to go through our creature hak and one by one create each creature in the toolset leveling them up, giving them the correct AC, BAB, HP, Attacks, Skills, and Abilities. Then take in game screenshots of them and make custom portraits for each one. After all of them are done they would need to be exported in one large erf. This will allow for use to import the erf into the server module and have all creatures created and working.(edited)

- (Spells) We need someone to go through some of the spells to make them more Dark Sun and MMO compatible.

- (Advertising) We could use someone who would take and create a really nice "Weekly Highlight" every week of something we have done the the project. These things could range between a Creatures, a Player Model, an NPC, a Class, a Placeable, a Tilesets Model, a Script, a spell, and so on. You only only need to take a nice screenshot or two of it and if there is a Dark Sun painting/picture of the same thing on the internet you could post it as well or do a side by side to show how close we are trying to be. Then you would do a write up talking about who created it, thanking them and so on. Again this would only need to be done once a week and then post it to all the websites that we are Advertising on. Then through out the week check on those sites in case someone has a question or is looking to join the team.

- (3d Modeling) Making 3D models creatures, items, placeables, clothing, armor, weapons, NPC's, mounts, or tilesets. We have 5 people in this area so far, but we still need a lot of help in this area.(edited)

- (Scripter) Creating Custom Scripts, We have 4 people in this area already but we could always use more help.

If you have the time and think you would enjoy working on this project please contact me here on the forums or on Discord (My Discord name is Tonden#9076)