Building in NWN1 vs. NWN2 Toolsets :: Fun vs. Not

Ok. Life has been busy leaving me little time to do much else, but as summer was ending and I was trying to do something to stimulate some thought for my child; I returned to NWN1. First things first, I haven’t opened NWN1 in years. I was trying to come up with something that might get my 8 yr old interested that would be better than simple Gamecube games or console games – the reality is that everything there is pretty much mindless.

So I thought – he’s read all the Harry Potter books (up through 6th one) and loves them. Maybe I can get him to work on basic modules for himself or for his friends so that he can create a little world. I certainly think it promotes creative thinking and I can introduce some basic concepts about programming etc. Better to see things early and within a good environment than never at all and if I can get him interested, he might learn something – at least more than red button, green button.

My first question was: NWN1 or NWN2. Again this review comes from the perspective of building a world – telling a story and being able to have an 8 yr old have a CHANCE. The decision didn’t take me that long. I choose NWN1 and opened up the toolset for the first time since probably 2004 or 2005. It certainly has been more than 2 years at this time.

Going back to NWN1 was simply put – a far better building experience than NWN2. No doubt.

Less powerful? Yes, but fun. NWN2 lost something magical as it transitioned to something newer and it is the fun factor. Sure NWN1 graphics are less visually appealing and the game camera now does look old, but from the builder’s perspective, Obsidian simply missed the boat. NWN2 traded tedious for fun. Opening up the NWN1 toolset and you are a storyteller. Your focus immediately shifts to broader – more important – aspects of the story. I’m not saying you CAN’T have that focus in NWN2, but the reality is that the details abound and make keeping that focus soooo much harder.

NWN1 is intuitive. I opened it up and really had no problems doing or creating anything. It made sense. Sure somethings were nested or I had to close down windows to get access to things but the thing worked. I haven’t patched up the NWN2 toolset beyond 1.05beta but the last time I did, music doesn’t play unless you copy files over. Making items and clothing and creatures without community haks was painful and getting to view them wasn’t straightforward. Many basic functions simply were not user-friendly. Certainly that is opinion and certainly there is a trade off for power vs. user-friendliness but BioWare hit that balance and Obsidian missed.

NWN1 struck an amazing balance of power and ease of use. NWN2 failed on the ease of use side of the software and I believe it is one reason the game was really only a SP OC campaign success.

Please don’t confuse the purpose of the post. I am not saying that if NWN2 had just added a few features to NWN1 it would have been better. Obsidian had a very difficult if not impossible task to follow such a truly great game. The graphics needed updating. But I believe they lost focus on creating a toolset for storytelling and turned it into a game development type software and that is/was a shame for the community. Granted they did that to focus on the SP game which is where the mainstream income lies so maybe that is reasonable, but from a users perspective, it shows just how special the NWN1 Toolset really was.

These aren’t rose-colored glasses – this is side by side testing and it isn’t close in my opinion for what I want to do.

Hijacking of Email – Maybe a better trip planner is hidden inside

For the last month or so, my email has been hijacked and someone who apparently comes from Russia appears to be sending out emails and is able to get any failed return email to come to my address. So someone sends out the email and sets the return address to my account. From that point, the returns don’t go to the sender but to my email account. Great!

Here is the basic story. A month ago, I started getting hundreds of returned emails back to my account. Obviously I wasn’t purposefully sending out the spam or Russian character based emails, but they would come back to my Comcast account. Ok…. ok… first things first, I will crank up the firewall and update all the virus protection and scan for other pests on the computer. I did that for everything on my network and still no luck. I changed passwords and did just about every common step that I think you can do.

I’ve called Comcast and alerted them of the issue and basically the answer is pretty poor. “Yea it happens and it should slowly fade away with time.” I’ve gone hunting on the internet and it seems that some providers are good about monitoring for this type of activity and others are poor or just don’t care. Comcast seems to be in the group that either doesn’t care or doesn’t want to install the equipment needed to stop this type of abuse.

But how do I know it isn’t a virus using my computer? I guess I can’t say 100%…. well I think I can actually. I can shut everything down and leave for a day and come back to find additional returns for the times when everything was off. So that and the fact that the Comcast “Abuse Specialist” said it was pretty common lead to my conclusion. Nothing I can do but wait for Comcast to fix the issue at their level or enjoy the numerous returns.

So today I found a great site that will locate an IP address. I’m certain it isn’t perfect, but it is fun to see where all these email apparently are coming from. (To get the originating IP, you need to view the Source code of the email – all email programs are slightly different, but it should be an option). After grabbing a random 5 returns out of my email junk folder, I’m thinking that I have a built in vacation planner. At least that might make something productive from this mess.

So here is my mapped out vacation taken from 5 consecutive random emails from the junk bin.

Germany

Trip begins in Germany. Looks like a nice enough place. I’ve never been to Germany, perhaps this concept will have some legs after all.

Lithuania

From Germany, we will travel to Lithuania. A town called Vilnius. Not someplace that I would pick, but it would be interesting and certainly different from the places I normally take the kids.

Rome

Ah yes. Rome. Never been there and it is on my list. Looks like I will have to bump this planner up above the others I have bookmarked. So far I’m impressed.

Russia

Russia isn’t a bad choice. I’m a little confused by the planner picking such a remote town. Moscow would have been higher on my list but maybe I’m missing out on something I don’t know about in Krasnoyarsk. I guess it can’t be that bad near Kazakhstan and Mongonlia. How many places get that as a positive?

Sydney

Finally we end up in Sydney Australia. Again, probably better than I could have imagined. Perhaps Google’s next generation search software has been stolen and some user has figured out some way to merge travel planning software for the next generation into a spam routing widget. Overall, I must say that I am overly impressed with this little hidden gem of a planner.

Maybe I should write Comcast a thank you notice because hidden in those thousands of returned emails that I have received in the last month, there’s a hidden travel planner that goes head to head with the best sites on the web.

So if the site goes silent again, I guess you have a handful of places to start looking.

On NWN2 and LOTRO :: Now in the Past

Just a quick note to say that it has been a good long time since I’ve touched either. NWN2 has been gone now for quite sometime and outside of checking on Adam Miller’s work with Dark Waters, I simply don’t check in.

With respect to LOTRO, it was good fun but I was at a point where the progression through the game was slowing a bit and there was simply so big of a world, that I felt like it was going to be long journey. With Pirates of the Burning Sea on the horizon and the great guild growing in anticipation, I made a conscious decision to play mainly solo without the context of an online guild. I think that made it easier to let go.

Ironically, I left for vacation and upon my return, my account was expired. Even though the money simply isn’t an issue, I still consider my purchases and I’ve continued to put it off to this day. It is somewhat surprising to me that these prescription games continue to pull people along with the expense they build up. Granted it is cheaper than going and buying new games, but with all the complaining on boards about pricing, I’m surprised this model is so well accepted.

So all in all, I am waiting for POTBS. Dragon Age seems miles away. Mass Effect rolls out in October and Jade Empire occasionally finds its way into the kids Xbox360 for those occasional lull moments.

If I’m missing something great, let me know.

Sail Design for the Highland Confederacy

In the big picture, I’ve settled into just messing around with guild development and artwork related to the Highland Confederacy at the moment. A few of us think it might be best to have some simple lettering as a sail insignia and so I’ve tossed together a few examples.

These are pretty simple but I do think they would look nice. They are obviously designed to be single icons and not tiled.

We will see what people think and go from there.

Design Notes:

These were pretty simple to create. These are “Book Antiqua” font scaled up really big with a default Simple Inner style applied and then a single texture to add a bit more wear and inconsistencies. I think they could use a bit of hand touching here and there, but not sure that I will be successful. For the H into C, I did have to break out an eraser and manually remove sections of the H but it was a real quick job.

Flag Development for PotBS :: What I’ve Learned

Today, I’m going to share my thoughts and what I have learned about making flags for Pirates of the Burning Sea. A few notes of fair warning first: I’m not an artist and really don’t have that much experience within Photoshop. I do use Photoshop and I’ve messed around with it enough to know about layers and opacity but that is about it.

(If you don’t have Photoshop, there are several other options. I think almost all programs can do the stuff I talk about in this tutorial. I think they all do things a bit differently but I’ve gotten pretty one-sided in only using Photoshop so that is where all the references come from.)

With that background, I do think if you go through the site, you can see clear improvement. My goal here is to help other relative newbies figure how to get up to a pretty good level quickly.

First things first, the official forum has great references around:

Read the Stickies Here

I’m going to walk you through my learning curve. First things first, I started a few months back trying to make something. I pretty much failed. I tried to take big art and simply scale it down. That doesn’t work. I tried weathering the flag by hand, altering colors here and there and making parts darker and others lighter. If you aren’t an artist, that doesn’t work.

I’m not going to say that my flags are great. But I think they are acceptable and you can get to an acceptable level very quickly and very easily using a few rules and never trying or attempting to have an artistic flair.

First things first, expect it to take a bit of time to play around and figure out how stuff works. Even though the images are small, most of the betters ones are pretty tough to duplicate. Small doesn’t mean that a lot of work didn’t go into them. So I will walk you through making a decent appearing flag using a simple flag of a nation. *Runs off to Wikipedia and grabs the Scottish flag*

Ok, rule one. Work a bit bigger than the 128×85 dimensions. I work on something 3 times that size and then shrink it down for the final picture. It simply works much better to do the work on a bigger canvas. Zooming does NOT cut it. So that is my base image at 3 times the final product size.

Easy enough thus far. Now months ago, I would start trying to mess with the flag colors and “age” the flag and “desaturate” the flag and alter the contrast or brightness. You may need some of that, but rather, let’s focus on textures and layering. Again, I’m not an artist and simple is better. I went around my house and took pictures of stuff with different textures. I have about 20 now that I can use. Wallpapers, book covers, carpets, shirts, jeans, marble table tops, wood grains. Everyday stuff.

So here is my “old book cover” texture image. I’ll use this base image and crop it and add it as a layer to my flag.

Note: the great thing about this particular texture layer is that is “does” several things. First it brings in a fine cloth type pattern, and secondly it has faded inconsistencies so that it looks aged – actually it is aged as it is from the early 20th century. You can get this look through combining multiple textures but this one in particular is excellent due to accomplishing multiple actions in just one layer simply due to the original texture.

Simple overlay of the layers and turning the opacity down to 50 on the texture, you get this.

The three main things to do with layers are to alter the opacity (or strength of the overlay) and the style of the overlay (how it is applied to the lower layers) and finally alter the order of the layers. Adobe has lots of options for how to overlay the various layers. Play around – I don’t think there should be any hard fast rule – just scroll through them and pick what looks good. I think you will find a handful that you like the best. Again, this is simply normal which is the default with an opacity of 50%.

It is pretty good but you can see where the blue in the texture is altering the white and I want my white more white. Let’s adjust that texture layer. (The texture layer was “causing” the blue so go to the source – if you had altered the background, you’d also be affecting the blue within the Scottish flag and it was pretty good so let’s turn that blue texture to a gray scale type image.) Rather than a blue tint, let’s just desaturate it and make it gray. Simply select that layer and alter the color by setting Saturation to ZERO. Now you have something like this.

The scary part is that is a better flag than I could make in hours of doing hand techniques. Seriously. Textures are key. I spent a couple of weeks working on various flags and couldn’t figure out this basic technique. You have to use layers and probably multiple ones. Textures are everywhere in your home and a simple picture will get that look on your concept in seconds. I think you are better off if you use multiple textures so try multiple combinations. I have 20 in a folder – took them in about an hour. So rule 2 and 3 are textures and layering are ABSOLUTELY key.

If you want the picture brighter or darker, use an adjustment layer (small button above the layers). It is much better than actually adjusting the background. Try gradients for shadowing. Combine multiple gradients for more complex shadowing. I have a flag with well over 10 layers. For my final flag, I simply added one more texture. It is a wood grain and served to further age the flag and added a little warmth.

Ok, now you have the background. Next let’s cover some information regarding making small, low pixel count images. The best thing that I can say is find a reference image and then use a layer to create an outline of the art. Outlines shrink. Originals won’t. Pretend you’re in kindergarten and outline / trace / get an imprint of the picture you want. Then shrink that down. It is easier to edit and easier to fix something if you do it poorly. Trust me, originals won’t shrink and this step is critical to low-poly count art.

Here is an example showing the source art and the original tracing and the various layers that I used to build that really simple looking Fleur. I think it illustrates that when you see something “even simple” in these flags, they are often a bit more complex and take a bit more time than I thought when I started doing this a couple of months ago.

From this point, where the basic tracing is complete, make a new layer or layers. Use layers to add shading or add in additional details. If you mess up, it is easier to revert. I work in a DIFFERENT file for each individual piece to keep things simple. So I have a Fleur file and it has a layer for the tracing, a layer for the shadowing, a layer for highlights, and a layer for the background. Remember, changing the order of the layers and the type of overlap can have a significant effect. It is easier to play around with this approach than it is to be truly creative from a non-artist perspective.

Add the art and the flag is pretty much complete. That is a rough summary. I’d love to be able to tell you how to custom “tatter” the flag. Best I can tell, this really requires artistic talent and a lot of trial and error. It is very hard to get to a realistic appearing weathering pattern. I can get close by erasing small chunks and then smudging the texture around but I loose details in the surrounding flag and then have to clone the background and it becomes a labor intensive process and still very difficult.

I hope this helps a few or at least, saves you a few hours knowing where to spend time and where NOT to go. Good luck. Post your flags on the official forums. The members there have great eyes for looking at flags and quickly can point you in the right general direction.

To the High Seas!!

My Flag :: Final Version

FYI: I’m working on a tutorial explaining what I have learned. Not sure it is anything new, but it will be a tutorial explaining my process and with a few pointers of what not to try. Check back in the next couple of days if you are interested.

Which One :: A few varieties

Here a few more tweaks of my Scot flag for the Highland Confederacy:

Original:

New:

Fresh:

It is looking like “new” is winning so I added a bit more textures to get to here:

It certainly looks the oldest and I do think that fits nicely with Dermid.

Highland Confederacy Banner Update

Apparently the French flag was not period appropriate in the prior banner. So it was removed and replaced with something from the era of the High Seas!

Updated Highland Confederacy Banner

Highland Confederacy Flag Work Resumes

CREDIT: James G. Elmslie

2nd flag background and remix of original artwork by Demetrious

Intent is for James to use these rough examples for final creation and submit them to Flying Lab Software for inclusion into Pirates of the Burning Sea. Do not reproduce, use, or submit without approval from the original creator. These are works in progress and posted to help expedite getting them into a final form.

Meeting of Two Unlike Minds :: Dermid Gavin

The following is an account of several excepts and encounters between members of the Highland Confederacy and Captian L. Horatio Hawke of the St. George Squadron of the White.

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.
Master of the HMS Relentless
St George Squadron of the White
His Britannic Majesty’s Royal Navy

In May of 1719, there is the threat of a Jacobite invasion of Scotland with the assistance of Spanish forces. The Royal Navy sent five ships under the command of Captain Boyle of HMS Worcester to the area near Eilean Donan castle for reconnaissance. I was fortunate enough to have commanded the HMS Nemesis which was part of the squadron that helped put down that feeble attempt at rebellion. Dare if you will to bring your Jacobite cause to the Burning Sea and follow in the failed footsteps of the ‘Old Pretender’… The White Squadron will send you packing back to your Catholic Masters in Rome at best and at worst strech your neck from His Majesty’s Royal yardarm… However, I think it would be a waste of good rope.

For King & Country!

______________________________
Hamish McBane, Proprietor – General
The Highland Confederacy

Sir, I care not a whit for the pope and his ilk, but for the freedom English dogs would deny us by taking power from our country and seating it in their own. You may have bribed and cajouled the weak minded men of my country, but you sir will not dominate us. The Treaty of Union has stolen our soverienty and threatens to steal our national identity for which we will not stand. Scotland has ever stood against English villainy, since Edward the first and before. You have bought us and paid for us it would seem, but some of Scotland’s sons and daughters will not be bought and paid for! I care not a whit either for failed and weak Kings, for they fail to show the strength of our people. Though some may follow them, we seek the higher calling to freedom. We will find the freedom we seek and be like stinging nettles in your skin. The Jacobite cause is one of freedom and in the end it will succeed, for good and God will triumph over evil.

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant
The Highland Confederacy


Aye. Not a day’s sun will set without a vision of seeing a British ship fall. It is not a treat of union but rather one of oppression. The few that do argue something else are nothing that I call kin. The British left us to rot in New Caledonia when I was not more than a child and now I take to seas to set right against their wrongs.

Bring your fleets and your guns and your ill will and I will see them layed along side the buried depths of Port Royal!

Hail the Highland Confederacy!

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.

Pfft… the Highland Confederacy… Rebel rousing scum. Worse than any scallywag pirate. Indeed the noose would be too good for the lot of you. Your words are as hollow as your pathetic goals. The only vision you traitors will see are His Majety’s loyal servants pounding you to the black depths under the weight of full broadsides.

Strength in Unity!

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant

*Dermid raises his nose from his large tin stein*

Aye! Often the difference between right and wrong depends only on the side of the table you sit at. It might be harsh but I’ve seen it many times myself.

We come from many lands and many places. Our bond’s not a singular event but a willingness to escape the harshness of our homes for the right to make our own good fortune. Without friends to watch your back, these lands are unliveable. We represent merchants and privateers willing to trade goods at fair price and seek that chance here in this new world.

We fly under 5 flags today, and I’d bet this tin that that number grows. If that strikes you as unjust, then *politely tips hat* good day.

*Dermid returns his attention to his stein and proceeds onward towards the bottom of yet another leaky tin while visions of his banner float through his head.*

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.

…Any Captain who joins ranks with these rebels will find themselves branded traitors to the Crown and executed under the traditional methods of those charged with sedition.

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant

*laughs under his breath and thinks to himself about the comments reportedly made by Horatio Hawke*

It is not as if I shall walk around with target upon my back for you to simply strike upon. If the English believe this to be a fight fought upon level ground and open seas, then they are even more foolish and arrogant than what I know as truth.

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.

The sad truth is we put nothing past anyone who would abandon their own lands only to warm the feet and lick the boots of enemies of the Crown.

“What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.”

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant

Oh how brave and mighty those filled to the brim with ignorance can sound.

“Abandon their own lands?!?” Abandon…. ha! I was thrown upon “The Endeavor” at no more than the age of 4 as my mother and father fought for our countries hope and survival. If helping to sail to the new world for Darien is what you deem to be abandonment then you are, perhaps, even worse than I would have imagined.

So yes, my father and my family left Scotland in hopes for a better life. From all accounts, life at home was nearly unlivable and there was little support from your “crown” so there was little else but to fight for own survival. My father did what any honorable man would do. Fight for his country, not so unlike yourself Captain Hawke.

But that is not my anger for the crown, no it goes deeper and I have seen it first hand. I will never forget the look upon my mother’s face when father returned home after pleading repeatedly with your governors as we Scots were left to die here in this new land. Did the crown offer support then? Simple supplies or medicine for the sick and dying? Of course they did not! It was only after we died and failed for your benefit; when our parliament was moved to your land; when our land taken that you offered your “generosity”.

If I am undecent for choosing to stand rather than to fall in line with those who I have watched let innocents die, then all that is good will soon fail.

*With that, rather than ending with an angry outburst of energy, Dermid seems saddened and depressed by having to recount the early days of his life. Head hanging low, he simply turns and walks into the crowded streets and disappears.*

OOC:

I’m excited for the unique angle that Pirates of the Burning Sea is bringing to this community. I think there is great opportunity for very real and reasonable alliances and enemies between various guilds making the community that much stronger and closer. Certainly, if you are interested in playing a British captain, please check out the St. George Squadron of the White. We have a great relationship building between the two guilds and I look forward to continuing this type of fun RP relationship for a good long time!