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.

A Party at the Party Tree!

*The follow note is found posted on various trees and found in mailboxes across the lands of the Shire*

Please join other friends of the Shire at the Party Tree on the 15th of May at 10 PM EST. Drop in for a quick break from the recent troubles of the Shire to rest, share stories, smoke a bit of pipeweed, and perhaps partake in a few beers with new and old friends alike.

~Signed Dermid~

Dermid, the organizer of this little event, beings to get a little anxious at having posted the notice with no real plan. After a short moment of nervousness, he lights his pipe and all seems better. He thinks that maybe a minstrel or two might show and we could have a little contest, but that would mean prizes….searches the bag…nothing, well at the best very little. He takes another deep breath from the pipe. Tomorrow… I’ll plan Tomorrow.

OOC:

This is an roleplaying event on the Windfola server. I’m trying to gather some momentum on that server and see if I can find some like minds. This is event is posted in several locations within the LOTRO community, but it needed to be here as well.

Please stay IC for the meeting. We will use the /say channel for this event. It will be a great opportunity to begin to meet the members of the guild and meet new friends. The Party Tree is just south of Bag End, pretty much in the center of the Shire. All levels and characters are welcomed. I’m hoping to meet others within the guild that, at least on occasion like to take a break and sit back and RP a bit.

I included a few tags for this post, because if you are here for NWN, you’d certainly be welcomed at the event.

NWN2 and the Multi-Player Community Numbers

I’ll throw this little tidbit out there. Not sure it really does much or says much that I really didn’t know. For a number of reasons, the NWN2 Multi-player is not successful. I guess I still feel a little bad about moving along, but the reality is mostly everyone has and there is little left.

From GameSpy Online stats NWN1 easily has 4-5 times the number of people online at any moment. NWN2 struggles to reach a 500 person mark.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like NWN2 as a SP game and the toolset provides for a wonderful opportunity for modders to get involved and produce great content, but that content really relies on an audience and, for me – a multi-player focused developer, I think realistically this is why my interest has wained.

Dark Waters and Rising Tides

One of the projects that I have followed for NWN2 was Adam Miller’s next home-grown module: Dark Waters. I haven’t had the opportunity to play it, but this is more of a commentary on the NWN community and how, at least in my opinion, the time has run its course for single person development teams and in some ways part of what drove me away.

I don’t know Adam on a personal basis, but I’ve worked with him on the boards and through the beta and watched the website and seen his prior work so I think I have a decent feel. He is mature and professional and has sunk an absolute huge volume of time into the development of the module. I have no doubt that what he has put into the module is far beyond what most would even consider doing unless they were working towards a career in software, gaming development.

I got my first taste of just how high expectations were in the beta. During the beta, Adam released his Pirate Card game. It had custom graphics, custom UIs, voice overs and a game that was far MORE complex than the mini-games in the KOTR series. Granted, maybe the game wasn’t bug-free and maybe it didn’t have the polish of a professional team, but the scope and effort was simply amazing. I was shocked to open up this module in the beta and thought it was simply jaw-dropping that he could do so much in so little time. That said, comments on the beta board, while they were good and encouraging fell waaay short of my internal enthusiasm.

I think that is the point of this post. Expectations have risen to the point that I’m not sure it is that fun to try to meet them. I look at the reviews and comments on Dark Waters and think “wow” (in a sad way). Not that everyone doesn’t have the right to voice their opinion, but 4’s. Stephan Gagne released some early modules for NWN1 that basically were a few functional shops in a town setting. That effort received 10’s from the community.

Again, I haven’t played his module, but the point is that there used to be a clear 2 tier rating system. One for professional content and one for community content. Community content was expected to be faaaar less professional and it was given huge credit for expanding the current standard. Now expanding the standard is expected and it had better get it accomplished at a professional quality. This is really, in many ways, a credit to the NWN1 community and to what we were able to accomplish but in many ways, I think it has crippled new adopters into the NWN2 community. So we are left with a small group of developers from NWN1 and specialized groups developing projects that are far beyond what a single person can do.

Anyway, I see the work and I think the rewards are less this time around.

How does this relate to the DMFI and my experience, “The DMFI has great marks, you might say”? Yes it does but the numbers of downloads and the overall size of the DM community is but a fraction of the NWN1 community at this time. Secondly, OEI realistically did a poor job delivering a playable DM client and so the DMFI looks good next to the official product that has several basic UIs that are broken or non-functional. Even still, the bar is high and the documentation standards and my personal standards were high enough that I needed a group to continue development and without that support I decided to walk away.

I guess I wish we could all back up in time and lower expectations and just be happy with what we are given. There’s the thought of the day for May 1.

Here’s a link to Adam’s development webpage / blog:

Dark Water’s Link

DMFI Apparent Fix!

After a private message, I put together a merged context file using the OEI 1.05 as a base. I was hoping someone would do it, but after a few days, I posted one. I’m not sure if I missed something or if something else changed but it didn’t fix the DM side of the menu. Luckily, FireballNWN has come through and posted a link to a file that apparently fixes whatever changed.

1.05 Context Menu Link

If I can get a few replies that show this really works, I will upload it to the vault as the main fix. I need to get in contact with FireballNWN and make sure that is all-right. Anyway, it is a busy time in RL and likely won’t slow down here for the next 10 days so updates maybe a little sparse. Maybe not, but maybe.

I’m working with Carlo One about possibily transferring the DMFI ownership but I’m around enough to keep it in shape. Still hoping others will step in and grab the reigns.

1.05 Patch Apparently Broke the DMFI

I checked on the Vault the other day and was sad to see that with Obsidian’s patch 1.05, something broke for at least some players in the DMFI package. (I headed development and wrote probably 95% of the code for that package. It was a supplemental add-on aimed at making the MP environment more PnP like.)

I worked hard to get that thing polished up and I actually did a lot of work on a “next version” of the DMFI that enhanced the system another couple of steps. I decided NOT to upload it because 1.04 was so stable. Realistically, I would need to stick around for a month or 6 weeks and follow up with bug reports etc. to get it back to where 1.04 was prior to the patch.

I still doubt that I will go back and do anything. I’m hoping someone will be excited and contact me or go forward themselves with work. Anyway, a little sad to see it break with an official update but the number of patches and the number of changes with each patch was part of the constant work load that made me consider continuing in the first place.

DLA has left the building

I stopped by the DLA forums and saw an interesting post where Robert (Steelwind) stated that DLA isn’t developing for NWN2.

I’m honestly a little surprised. Not that much but a little in that it hasn’t been announced or touched upon that I have seen. As of last week, I had access to the Community Representative forum and there were 3 or 4?? (I forget) members of DLA on that panel and there was not a peep.

Now realistically, although they were on the CR panel, they pretty much didn’t show up or participate on the board but it looks like they signed the NDA a while back and if that is the case, I would have expected them to withdraw or at least hear something. I guess they don’t “have to” but they are pretty forward with the fact that essentially all their free-time will be put towards DLA and if that is accounted for, then they obviously won’t produce that much content for NWN2.

So certainly another segment of the community that saw something missing and has moved on. I hope that they and OEI have been and continue to be on good terms and that they’ve been open behind the scenes for everyone involved. I just want everything to end on happy notes.

More Musings

I’m slowly in the process of transferring stuff off the other site and slowly moving things here. Not really sure why this is needed or what purpose it will serve at the current moment, but entertaining myself at the moment with the new great set-up by WordPress.

I’m stepping down from the Community Representative position for NWN2. I don’t see myself spending enough time in the DM client and my development days for NWN2 are quickly coming to a close. I don’t plan on leaving completely and I will certainly be on the BioWare boards, but my exposure there is going to take a step backwards.

I don’t see myself having the energy to move forward with the actual building of the campaign and the online community for NWN2 is but a small segment of the NWN1 community. I’m hopeful it can continue to grow and progress and I really believe that OEI will continue to support the game and that they have great goals for where it should be. I’m looking forward to the expansion packs and plan on playing out several of the SP modules, but I think that puts me in a different position than trying to lead the DM community.

So with respect to this site… I’m not certain what will happen or what it will become. The other site was looking a bit old and certainly no longer represented what I was doing so it needed to go. Whether this will become something of merit or not is yet to be seen.

Riverside Musings

Welcome to the newest version of Riverside!

 I’m not really sure how long this is going to last or exactly what it will end up becoming, but I’m pretty sure the other format doesn’t meet my current goals.  It’s becoming a static page which was good when it was going to serve as a reference, but now I’m not so sure it is needed.