The blogosphere of game modding with Neverwinter Nights 2 has become so thin I have decided to close mine as well.
However my exploits will simply be posted on the forum I use, as seems to be the current trend. Here I go, and feel free to follow me, Eguintir Eligard on these forums:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/167/index
Jan 13, 2014
Aug 28, 2013
Leaving Dodge always takes forever
As always I seem to get really hampered by the start of a module. Just making a couple cinematic twists and information gathering scenes to set the party off from, has taken all my time so far.
Lots of the same old problems that never changed have been the cause recently (starting conversations when near death in combat, so on...).
But now that the Karmic Troupers are (un)safely off into the overland map, I can start building the 5 or so key areas that comprise this short(ish) episode adventure.
There's going to be some custom content to make one of the first areas a reality, so good luck on me remembering 3d studio.
Lots of the same old problems that never changed have been the cause recently (starting conversations when near death in combat, so on...).
But now that the Karmic Troupers are (un)safely off into the overland map, I can start building the 5 or so key areas that comprise this short(ish) episode adventure.
There's going to be some custom content to make one of the first areas a reality, so good luck on me remembering 3d studio.
Jul 30, 2013
Lessons from Islander
To this end I think Islander was a hybrid test/playable work.
It was my first campaign and it was intended to break the ice. Now when something goes on as long as it did (I still cringe thinking about the years filled with 10 month development voids throughout), it certainly qualifies as a finished work and then some. So again I say, it was a hybrid.
I knew I had to make something to test the toolset, as I did not want to do work for the sake of learning and destroy it after.
I also knew I would not put up anything that didn't make the player want to play. The term "sample adventure" comes to mind, and those completely turn me off.
So what I ended up with was Islander. It's actually very long, fairly depthy in parts and I went the extra mile in some areas such as voice acting, original music and art from community members who helped me. I also managed a few "escapes from the norm" to break up the monotony that can build in a stereotypical D&D game. Some inventive quests, the odd pull to another plane, a rogue only mission that was unusually generous in loot. In my opinion, there are parts (such as the flashbacks) where it is polished and cinematic enough to rival any commercial game. There are also parts where I found the fun/creativity level very high.
...however there were a lot of shall we say "holes" along the way. The campaign never was fully stable because of corrupted data that caused me to question completing it. This resulted in a lot of hit or miss areas for the public unfortunately. It was still largely a "test" adventure in parts. I will remedy this in my next campaign, Karmic Troupers, currently in progress.
I also noticed, that a lot of peoples comments both positive and negative actually coincided with my own thoughts. Which is good because as an author you always assume yourself immune to perceiving your own deficiencies. I don't need to post about the positive remarks, I just need to keep those features strong going forward. These are all things I noticed and were also pointed out by players as flaws:
Creative writing on it's own I would enjoy, and I think be at least above average in my ability to do so. But within the toolset it seems like a time waste, I despise doing it, I tend to dump information and then change a word here and there to create a personality. And I find my characters all sound the same because I spend as little time thinking about it as possible. Using a smaller cast and going "back" after the game is complete to establish personalities behind the "shell" conversations is how I plan to handle this going forward. I will also work on adding foreshadowing after the fact as well, once I know the plot fully.
Creative quests... say no more. I am going to spend a lot more time in this area. I didn't do many in Islander as I wanted to keep the infinity engine theme (largely combat based) going. But I found it is far too easy to do much more with the nwn2 toolset. And people liked what little I did. It's also something I will enjoy if it ends up being a really fun break from combat. It's also a theme that is largely missing from the original game and the vault... the menacing room of traps, where no monster looms but it's just as deadly none-the-less.
A personal observation is just the general polish of Islander. I left too many "meh who cares" spots where I could have went the extra yard to clean it up. Design, writing, scripting, many spots really. I blame this partly on a lack of interest as the project lagged on, but also on the repeated fixing of the same bugs over and over that no one in the community seemed to understand ( due to corruption again). I think having a cleaner shorter campaign will be a lot easier to work on. I'm keeping a tidy "workspace" this go around.
Planning: I've always harped on this but never got to do it by the time Islander was done. I know how many maps and the layout of each of them already, for Karmic Troupers. It's helped a lot. And on a personal note knowing you are xx% done your campaign is a lot easier to stomach than "when will this end??".
I have to learn to enjoy authoring as I seem to want to do it in my head, but the toolset gets in the way often.
Here's promising the players of Karmic Troupers a polished work worthy of their time. Next update will be specific on Karmic Troupers.
It was my first campaign and it was intended to break the ice. Now when something goes on as long as it did (I still cringe thinking about the years filled with 10 month development voids throughout), it certainly qualifies as a finished work and then some. So again I say, it was a hybrid.
I knew I had to make something to test the toolset, as I did not want to do work for the sake of learning and destroy it after.
I also knew I would not put up anything that didn't make the player want to play. The term "sample adventure" comes to mind, and those completely turn me off.
So what I ended up with was Islander. It's actually very long, fairly depthy in parts and I went the extra mile in some areas such as voice acting, original music and art from community members who helped me. I also managed a few "escapes from the norm" to break up the monotony that can build in a stereotypical D&D game. Some inventive quests, the odd pull to another plane, a rogue only mission that was unusually generous in loot. In my opinion, there are parts (such as the flashbacks) where it is polished and cinematic enough to rival any commercial game. There are also parts where I found the fun/creativity level very high.
...however there were a lot of shall we say "holes" along the way. The campaign never was fully stable because of corrupted data that caused me to question completing it. This resulted in a lot of hit or miss areas for the public unfortunately. It was still largely a "test" adventure in parts. I will remedy this in my next campaign, Karmic Troupers, currently in progress.
I also noticed, that a lot of peoples comments both positive and negative actually coincided with my own thoughts. Which is good because as an author you always assume yourself immune to perceiving your own deficiencies. I don't need to post about the positive remarks, I just need to keep those features strong going forward. These are all things I noticed and were also pointed out by players as flaws:
- Inconsistentcy... companions are lively then go silent then talk too much at the end.
- Plot pacing: same as above. Too long of a silent portion followed by a information dump later
- Creative quests/puzzles were fun but too sporadic. Essentially, do more
Creative writing on it's own I would enjoy, and I think be at least above average in my ability to do so. But within the toolset it seems like a time waste, I despise doing it, I tend to dump information and then change a word here and there to create a personality. And I find my characters all sound the same because I spend as little time thinking about it as possible. Using a smaller cast and going "back" after the game is complete to establish personalities behind the "shell" conversations is how I plan to handle this going forward. I will also work on adding foreshadowing after the fact as well, once I know the plot fully.
Creative quests... say no more. I am going to spend a lot more time in this area. I didn't do many in Islander as I wanted to keep the infinity engine theme (largely combat based) going. But I found it is far too easy to do much more with the nwn2 toolset. And people liked what little I did. It's also something I will enjoy if it ends up being a really fun break from combat. It's also a theme that is largely missing from the original game and the vault... the menacing room of traps, where no monster looms but it's just as deadly none-the-less.
A personal observation is just the general polish of Islander. I left too many "meh who cares" spots where I could have went the extra yard to clean it up. Design, writing, scripting, many spots really. I blame this partly on a lack of interest as the project lagged on, but also on the repeated fixing of the same bugs over and over that no one in the community seemed to understand ( due to corruption again). I think having a cleaner shorter campaign will be a lot easier to work on. I'm keeping a tidy "workspace" this go around.
Planning: I've always harped on this but never got to do it by the time Islander was done. I know how many maps and the layout of each of them already, for Karmic Troupers. It's helped a lot. And on a personal note knowing you are xx% done your campaign is a lot easier to stomach than "when will this end??".
I have to learn to enjoy authoring as I seem to want to do it in my head, but the toolset gets in the way often.
Here's promising the players of Karmic Troupers a polished work worthy of their time. Next update will be specific on Karmic Troupers.
Jun 21, 2013
Vaulted
Well this is interesting:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/167/index/16570655
The vault seems to be dead, more literally than figuratively to be honest.
I had never really worried about it because I hard heard of the nexus, but upon seeing the ridiculously low download counts for modules on there ( see my post on the forum) I'm a little concerned about the whole situation. It sounds like vault 2.0 whatever that is, is the best hope.
I can already see a discussion about a new voting format... I don't see the point of putting my two cents in as I seem to prefer more objective approach than most modders, who I find may prefer to insulate themselves from the true scores of their modules.
But I'd like to add my two cents here just to get it out there:
Personally I would like to see limited high votes as had been bandied around and already squashed by Rolo.
If the vault system of votes were actually adhered too, I would have a much better benchmark of where I stand and other modules before I choose which ones to play. By vault voting standards I would be very happy if my works reach seven.... anything over 8 would make you an all star. Likewise I would find a 4 vote very informative as it indicates a near miss... room for improvement. And a 5 puts you middle of the pack. All useful places to be in my mind.
But the existing system of trying to figure out how a module that is a 9.4 is about 1/10th as polished and inventive as one rating 9.7 is basically useless. So if that's the alternative I say go with the equally uninformative thumbs up and down as per the nexus and how it seems to work. As has been echoed by my fellow modders, voting isn't necessary at all if it's done poorly. Personally as many know, I like my download counts. Without them I wouldn't have the energy to make free gaming experiences.
Oh and Karmic Troupers continues... I don't get many days off these days but it's going to be a shorter work with a reasonable release time as promised. You may even enjoy it. But more on that next post.
May 24, 2013
There is a pulse...
With most things sorted out, I will be doing some modding again.
My blog (and reflected experiments) have kind of been all over the map.
I want to focus on finishing my 1 month challenge mod (that I started... can you believe it... TWO years ago). But it will require some more basic and if possible, advanced custom modelling, for it to meet my plans.
My plans are probably unreachable. But plans are plans.
So I'll handle the module first, make it playable end to end and then I'll have a chance to get as far as I can with the custom modelling I've learned. I still think the crocodile is finishable, I did get it to animate but all of the steps involved made my head almost cave in so I kinda took a step back from models, for now.
So Karmic Troupers Episode One is back on. And a short time frame, as originally planned.
My blog (and reflected experiments) have kind of been all over the map.
I want to focus on finishing my 1 month challenge mod (that I started... can you believe it... TWO years ago). But it will require some more basic and if possible, advanced custom modelling, for it to meet my plans.
My plans are probably unreachable. But plans are plans.
So I'll handle the module first, make it playable end to end and then I'll have a chance to get as far as I can with the custom modelling I've learned. I still think the crocodile is finishable, I did get it to animate but all of the steps involved made my head almost cave in so I kinda took a step back from models, for now.
So Karmic Troupers Episode One is back on. And a short time frame, as originally planned.
Jan 2, 2013
Gotta say something
Sorry to have put this blog on life support.
I'll update with what I think I'm maybe doing.
I moved into a place of my own, need a roommate and a better job stat so I don't think there will be any production to speak of anyway till I nail down the essentials of life first.
Stay tuned.
I'll update with what I think I'm maybe doing.
I moved into a place of my own, need a roommate and a better job stat so I don't think there will be any production to speak of anyway till I nail down the essentials of life first.
Stay tuned.
Jul 8, 2012
Talk to the Hand
- A standing statue of a hand (for Helm and any other hand symbol based deity)
- Enhancing Bigby's line of spells visual effects
- A floating and attacking hand creature
- A clawed handed
Jun 27, 2012
I'm here, I'm here...
I haven't disappeared or anything just busy between switching a job, buying a car, selling an existing car, fixing a former car.
3d modelling is a lot of work. But I am determined to finish the crocodile now that Elysius has gone to the strain of creating a book on it through his blog. I may lean more towards placeable creation than creatures going forward, but I retain the ability to create a necessary creature if a need should arise. Particularly when you can steal the animations of a similar one. That is a useful skill.
Recently I fleshed out the EXP and area table for my episodic adventure, and completed an area for chapter 1 of the Althea campaign.
Ps you didn't hear it from me, but I processed a few major plot points in a possible Islander 2. But seriously nobody said anything.
3d modelling is a lot of work. But I am determined to finish the crocodile now that Elysius has gone to the strain of creating a book on it through his blog. I may lean more towards placeable creation than creatures going forward, but I retain the ability to create a necessary creature if a need should arise. Particularly when you can steal the animations of a similar one. That is a useful skill.
Recently I fleshed out the EXP and area table for my episodic adventure, and completed an area for chapter 1 of the Althea campaign.
Ps you didn't hear it from me, but I processed a few major plot points in a possible Islander 2. But seriously nobody said anything.
Apr 23, 2012
Getting Hammered
Obligatory picture
Well I've just been too busy with a second job so I just wanted to say nothing has happened, but there is reason to believe I can actually complete the crocodile when my time frees up again in about 3 weeks. I had to re-work it again, but I did get to the stage of it having more than just an idle animation (walking will be the hardest), and I also realized from TV that crocodiles walk like a dog, not with its legs spread way out like a spiders.
Until then, get hammered I guess. Those are just some concept weapons I did in 20 minutes.
Well I've just been too busy with a second job so I just wanted to say nothing has happened, but there is reason to believe I can actually complete the crocodile when my time frees up again in about 3 weeks. I had to re-work it again, but I did get to the stage of it having more than just an idle animation (walking will be the hardest), and I also realized from TV that crocodiles walk like a dog, not with its legs spread way out like a spiders.
Until then, get hammered I guess. Those are just some concept weapons I did in 20 minutes.
Apr 6, 2012
Hazaa: video time
Well that picture I put up showed little more than a statue (that's what it was thanks to some flaws in the execution). So let me show a more legitimate prototype:
Eguintir, crocodile hunter.
You gotta switch to 720p and fullscreen to really see the mouth action.
There's some things to hammer out yet, but I think we can all agree that creature is close to legitimate.
Eguintir, crocodile hunter.
You gotta switch to 720p and fullscreen to really see the mouth action.
There's some things to hammer out yet, but I think we can all agree that creature is close to legitimate.
Mar 27, 2012
Mar 11, 2012
Cracking the Code With Elysius
Thought I would make a quick update here as it has been a while. I did up the rough mesh for an owlbear. It really pays to have a picture or think about what you are doing first because I screwed around with it for a week because it didn't look quite right. Then I realized bears heads go straight out like a dogs, and not upward like a horse, which is how I had it. Anyway, before I go through all the rest does anyone know if it's somehow available in NWN2 already in a hak and I am wasting my time? I was trying to find a sorely missed but highly common monster that many would use.
As for the crocodile (Shaughn), I was able to contact Elysius now that he's partially temporarily un-retired from his blog, and got some good direction. I'll be able to animate this crocodile or any other model pretty easily as expected, now that I know how. Still working on texturing but I think I have an idea on that as well.
He also made it known how to borrow a skeleton, for the purpose of using brand new models, but existing animations, such as how the hill giant's appear to be done in that hak on the vault. So I guess I can do the flying eyeball at some point after the crocodile, once I give the eyeball actual teeth and wing textures that are more professional.
Any idea what a crocodile's animations should be? I think rather than just a lazy uncreative variation of bites, one of the attacks should be the famous death roll they do once they clamp down. So I guess I do have to pay some attention to the underbelly texturing quality.
As for the crocodile (Shaughn), I was able to contact Elysius now that he's partially temporarily un-retired from his blog, and got some good direction. I'll be able to animate this crocodile or any other model pretty easily as expected, now that I know how. Still working on texturing but I think I have an idea on that as well.
He also made it known how to borrow a skeleton, for the purpose of using brand new models, but existing animations, such as how the hill giant's appear to be done in that hak on the vault. So I guess I can do the flying eyeball at some point after the crocodile, once I give the eyeball actual teeth and wing textures that are more professional.
Any idea what a crocodile's animations should be? I think rather than just a lazy uncreative variation of bites, one of the attacks should be the famous death roll they do once they clamp down. So I guess I do have to pay some attention to the underbelly texturing quality.
Feb 4, 2012
Slow out of the gates...
So this texturing thing is really the big stall in the project. Although I don't know how to store animation sequences yet for NWN2 either. But really, to even make still objects I need to understand the texturing results once you define the "wrapper" for 2d painting.
I was a little busy switching jobs, and now I'm done so I'm back at it. I decided to recreate a ridiculous little monster I saw in cracked magazine some time in the 80s. I did this only because I thought I could quickly make a model, and see how textures show up on the model based on how I set the "seams" of the texturing boundaries. I've spent literally 3 days adjusting seams on this crocodile so I figured I should learn how they work through a quicker, less laborious prototype.
With all smoothing, detail, polish aside (and a mouse cursor drawn mouth to boot) it's not pretty but it doesn't have to be. At least I can see that a texture can be done and I have a better idea of what I am doing now. So back to it I go.
PS Been play testing for The Wizard's Apprentice 2. It's a far throw ahead from the original, much broader in scope and ambition. I actually was dissapointed I had to stop for a while while we tackle a bug in the progress of the plot.
I was a little busy switching jobs, and now I'm done so I'm back at it. I decided to recreate a ridiculous little monster I saw in cracked magazine some time in the 80s. I did this only because I thought I could quickly make a model, and see how textures show up on the model based on how I set the "seams" of the texturing boundaries. I've spent literally 3 days adjusting seams on this crocodile so I figured I should learn how they work through a quicker, less laborious prototype.
With all smoothing, detail, polish aside (and a mouse cursor drawn mouth to boot) it's not pretty but it doesn't have to be. At least I can see that a texture can be done and I have a better idea of what I am doing now. So back to it I go.
PS Been play testing for The Wizard's Apprentice 2. It's a far throw ahead from the original, much broader in scope and ambition. I actually was dissapointed I had to stop for a while while we tackle a bug in the progress of the plot.
Jan 15, 2012
So here's where it's at
So here is the stage of modelling that trumped me in the past, and just about did again this weekend, until I figured it out. The stage where you designate your texturing borders, and export them for 2d imaging. Well really it's 2 parts, but I never properly accomplished part 1 before and I have now. Essentially you are trying to unfold the 3d model into 2d parts that can then be painted in the stencil you see here.
A checker pattern is usually applied, as on above, to make sure that your texture resolution is consistent. As you can see, the arms appear as long rectangular checkers similar in size to the main body. That is ideal.
The reason this is necessary is because you actually have to size the body parts in the stencil, and you can actually end up making some body parts different resolutions if you don't keep the proportion. Any piece you see on the stencil can be completely resized and throw everything off. They have all been manually adjusted by me after the program did it's horrible guessing on generation.
For those interested in how close I am to a viable output for this crocodile (and future animated models) I think I have broken it down as a work flow:
1 - 3d Modelling - done
2 - Texture mapping - done
3 - 2d Texturing - Next
4 - Defining bones and "rigging" - wtf (ok I kinda know what it is)
5 - Animation sequences
6 - Importing using engine recognized methods
So physical work wise, once you have 1 and 2, you've done most of the actual time consuming work. The rest comes to knowing the engine and how to import to it, which I imagine will be a huge pain but not necessarily a long time once I've done it once.
Animation may be a day or two, but I find it a rather fun and fluid process... everything's already made, and is not being altered, you just move parts around and try to do it in a life like fashion. I look forward to it.
Jan 6, 2012
The early Shaughn gets the Croc
Well sometimes it pays to be one of my four readers. For reasons unknown, my fatso model is now a corrupt file and will have to be started from scratch. But since I have a request for a crocodile, I thought now that I have no project, why not try that first. I took a gamble and decided to apply my cube modelling technique to a cylinder, in the thought that it would better suit the initial shape. Modelling this way is basically manipulation from a rough shape; the closer that shape is the less adjustment you have to do later, so it made sense).
From a humble, shapeless beginning. . .
... I soon gained confidence that I made the right choice, and had the skill to manipulate the extra vertices on a 12 sided cylinder...
... I wasn't going to do the head at first, as obviously it will take more skill and need to be split into two halves (as I'm assuming Shaughn wants this crocodile to attack by biting as opposed to nose spearing the player). But I gained a little comfort with the concept of "cutting" polygon faces in half, and was able to make a distinct mouth extend from the flat cylinder end that was his neck:
So there you have it, using only shaping with no texture at all, it does actually somewhat resemble a quadruple-amputee crocodile. The real detail comes in the texturing, as that's where the bumpiness, texture and colour realism comes from. And to be honest, I think I will have less trouble animating than texturing as I've stated. Particularly since I have no 2d software knowledge at all. I think I'll try GIMP as it seems to be the way to go.
My Next update will certainly include some legs if nothing else.
Update: seems like either 3ds or my computer is borked because I lost my crocodile work in the same fashion. Colour me pissy. I redid it all.
From a humble, shapeless beginning. . .
... I soon gained confidence that I made the right choice, and had the skill to manipulate the extra vertices on a 12 sided cylinder...
... I wasn't going to do the head at first, as obviously it will take more skill and need to be split into two halves (as I'm assuming Shaughn wants this crocodile to attack by biting as opposed to nose spearing the player). But I gained a little comfort with the concept of "cutting" polygon faces in half, and was able to make a distinct mouth extend from the flat cylinder end that was his neck:
So there you have it, using only shaping with no texture at all, it does actually somewhat resemble a quadruple-amputee crocodile. The real detail comes in the texturing, as that's where the bumpiness, texture and colour realism comes from. And to be honest, I think I will have less trouble animating than texturing as I've stated. Particularly since I have no 2d software knowledge at all. I think I'll try GIMP as it seems to be the way to go.
My Next update will certainly include some legs if nothing else.
Update: seems like either 3ds or my computer is borked because I lost my crocodile work in the same fashion. Colour me pissy. I redid it all.
Jan 1, 2012
Big Fat Update
Turns out that foot was destined to become a fatso after all.
There's unlimited potential to create other biped's once you have a model done, and it looks like fatso is about at the 2/3 torso mark, so I'll keep this updated.
Dec 31, 2011
Out with the Old?
Well the year is almost up. Does anyone care? I guess it's the end of the world this year as well ;) so that's newsworthy.
I've been thinking of what I could fill this blog with and my (currently reduced) spare time. There is certainly enough games to talk about, and I welcome new neverwinter nights 2 modules from my fellows, although this blog will certainly be less centric to that theme.
As I said, spare time is fewer these days, and my career may change again next month. Hopefully towards a job that has nothing to do with computers or sitting so that I can actually use my computer when I come home for games / hobbies. Which is not the current case, with the knife like pain in my left eye from ridiculous amounts of unwavering computer use at work leaving me incapacitated.. So here's hoping.
Some areas my blog may take are the highly fun fields of speculation (is there a new D&D game on the horizon? Toolset? etc) and general game talk, or talking from my rear end on the odd night as I am so doing.
I decided one way I could do a little hobbying without tying myself to any toolset, was to just try my hand at modelling. Of course my models could be made to work in varying sets if I can put in the time and desire to learn the steps of making them compatible. I started a great tutorial for making some anime looking cartoon girl warrior, but after 2 hours I had only gotten as far as the foot. But I read a head a bit and I think I got the basic idea of "cube modelling". Theoretically this technique can make anything. Like most things however, there are different and better ways to do certain things.
For now though you can see how my series of ugly pixelated lego blocks becomes a functional foot.
Now the problem here is I started modifying the girls perfectly formed foot into a large, more beast like foot. Then I added two pincer-like toes. Now the question is what do you do with this?
I had a couple ideas in mind when I began the model. It could become the foot of an ogrillion or flesh golem (explains the missing toes). But then of course adding claws and it quickly becomes a demon foot or dragon like foot if you add a rear claw.
I also considered making it human again and creating a clone of the fatso model from infinity games. And who wouldn't want that?
I suppose I can modularize this model and actually finish it that way without going insane. The foot is done, and it's one project within a project. Next can be the leg.
But I still have to quickly decide what the model is... kind of stupid to not have decided first, I know. Bearing in mind that the foot can still be reformed, toes added, etc, any suggestions? I'm trying to think of a D&D creature that was painfully missed in NWN2.
If I build it it could be ported to varying games I imagine.
I've been thinking of what I could fill this blog with and my (currently reduced) spare time. There is certainly enough games to talk about, and I welcome new neverwinter nights 2 modules from my fellows, although this blog will certainly be less centric to that theme.
As I said, spare time is fewer these days, and my career may change again next month. Hopefully towards a job that has nothing to do with computers or sitting so that I can actually use my computer when I come home for games / hobbies. Which is not the current case, with the knife like pain in my left eye from ridiculous amounts of unwavering computer use at work leaving me incapacitated.. So here's hoping.
Some areas my blog may take are the highly fun fields of speculation (is there a new D&D game on the horizon? Toolset? etc) and general game talk, or talking from my rear end on the odd night as I am so doing.
I decided one way I could do a little hobbying without tying myself to any toolset, was to just try my hand at modelling. Of course my models could be made to work in varying sets if I can put in the time and desire to learn the steps of making them compatible. I started a great tutorial for making some anime looking cartoon girl warrior, but after 2 hours I had only gotten as far as the foot. But I read a head a bit and I think I got the basic idea of "cube modelling". Theoretically this technique can make anything. Like most things however, there are different and better ways to do certain things.
For now though you can see how my series of ugly pixelated lego blocks becomes a functional foot.
Now the problem here is I started modifying the girls perfectly formed foot into a large, more beast like foot. Then I added two pincer-like toes. Now the question is what do you do with this?
I had a couple ideas in mind when I began the model. It could become the foot of an ogrillion or flesh golem (explains the missing toes). But then of course adding claws and it quickly becomes a demon foot or dragon like foot if you add a rear claw.
I also considered making it human again and creating a clone of the fatso model from infinity games. And who wouldn't want that?
I suppose I can modularize this model and actually finish it that way without going insane. The foot is done, and it's one project within a project. Next can be the leg.
But I still have to quickly decide what the model is... kind of stupid to not have decided first, I know. Bearing in mind that the foot can still be reformed, toes added, etc, any suggestions? I'm trying to think of a D&D creature that was painfully missed in NWN2.
If I build it it could be ported to varying games I imagine.
Oct 13, 2011
Dead community
Well, like it has been, the NWN2 community is in massive decline.
I feel like you can discuss it more readily here than in a forum full of fan kiddies who put in days of effort to drown you out in a pile of argumentive posts.
Let's look at facts. The early mods of this community cleared 20k downloads in a year. Now they are hard pressed to hit 1k. I can't make it any simpler than that. Typically, something is considered defunct when it reaches it's "half-life". Well for that, even if we ignored the first explosive 6 months of NWN2, that was a solid 3 years ago.
But like I said, when anyone ever pointed out the decline, they caused a sh*tstorm of angry replies from people. Mostly people who never posted or add anything to the forums, but they always appear to rant like lunatics about its never-ending and always growing appeal. And then disappear again, leaving it to near silence as 100 posts per day became 10 per week.
I remember one particular poster who joined about 2 years ago asking if it was viable for him to start in this community, a project he had a long time frame for. It was not an accusation, just a question if the community was still valid. Surprise surprise there was another volley of "this ocmmunity is BETTER than it was before". Except this time it wasn't the old deny-er guard, because they had moved on. The few stragglers continue this denial, and even tried to claim it was the "prime" of the community, because 3 year production mods were coming out and NWN2 was going to steam etc etc.
Now what fuels this furious denials, and sometimes out right bs in the face of facts (claiming a community that is a percentage of it's former size is in it's prime or growing, for example) is beyond me. It's beyond me because I have long agreed the community was in decline, but I ended up staying longer than these blindly angry deny-er types, who today aren't even around to keep up the facade.
I really just find it a mystery what they really accomplished. Rather than paint an at least somewhat unbiased view based on facts, they lie, deny, quit and are never heard from again. Were they trying to trick new modders into joining and wasting their time? Convince others, or just them self? Either way they failed because they are gone, and others are not joining.
Really you have to decide for yourself however, when the community lacks an audience for you, as a modder. For me, my Islander would have done well to be released about a year sooner. Most of my fellow modders who I swapped ideas with in the early days (and by early I mean nearly a year after MOTB as thats when I joined), never saw me complete my campaign, nor play it, nor comment on it.
Everyone who has released a campaign that took more than a year (which is why some argue we are in the prime, because of the "multi-year" projects coming out) has abandoned the community immediately after. Some names?
Harp and Chrys
Trial and Terror
Misery Stone
Trinity
I'm sure if you're a follower you can fill in the other names.
I get a giggle out of the fact that as I wrote this, it took all of 8 minutes for someone to show up and write a pissy reply to my post on this topic. From the same person who fits the category above, of having nothing to say until his community's glaring emptiness is pointed out.
And there are a lot more visual cues than simply watching your module getting 2 to 3 downloads per month in the top ten list, or my rough math that tells me we are below 2% of our one time popularity with downloads and viewership.
Look at the forums themselves; our moderators have neither posted nor "moderated" a post in months. When the police leave the inmates to guard themselves, you know something less than ideal is going on. The vault fills with more spam than commentary and the ability to even upload has evaporated. People are already speculating where you can release works at this point.
I don't see why this is an issue; life moves on, and a 2006 spec game should not be expected to last into 2012. My only regret is there is no real successor; the dragon age toolset does not offer a decidedly better product so much as just newer, and it's overwhelming difficulty has seen its community misfire and shrink in only one year.
It could also be that people modded at a time in their life when they had too much spare time like myself, and simply had to outgrow it.
Anyway I figured I owed any of my 2 readers an explanation rather than a simply drop off the internet which I saw many of my fellows do and found rather... haunting. Haha it's like they were ashamed of it and wanted to "die to the modding world". Well here is where I went.
Personally I think it's a little sad the community wasn't just "shut down" formally around 2010 rather than see it in the state is has become. Not that I expected something like that, but it would be more humane. You got a handful of persistent hard working talent, and no audience at all, with more and more dysfunctionalities appearing daily.
Should a superior toolset product show it's head I may well be interested in a lesser capacity, but the complexity has really gotten such that it's more than a full time job to even use the full range of tools available.
I feel like you can discuss it more readily here than in a forum full of fan kiddies who put in days of effort to drown you out in a pile of argumentive posts.
Let's look at facts. The early mods of this community cleared 20k downloads in a year. Now they are hard pressed to hit 1k. I can't make it any simpler than that. Typically, something is considered defunct when it reaches it's "half-life". Well for that, even if we ignored the first explosive 6 months of NWN2, that was a solid 3 years ago.
But like I said, when anyone ever pointed out the decline, they caused a sh*tstorm of angry replies from people. Mostly people who never posted or add anything to the forums, but they always appear to rant like lunatics about its never-ending and always growing appeal. And then disappear again, leaving it to near silence as 100 posts per day became 10 per week.
I remember one particular poster who joined about 2 years ago asking if it was viable for him to start in this community, a project he had a long time frame for. It was not an accusation, just a question if the community was still valid. Surprise surprise there was another volley of "this ocmmunity is BETTER than it was before". Except this time it wasn't the old deny-er guard, because they had moved on. The few stragglers continue this denial, and even tried to claim it was the "prime" of the community, because 3 year production mods were coming out and NWN2 was going to steam etc etc.
Now what fuels this furious denials, and sometimes out right bs in the face of facts (claiming a community that is a percentage of it's former size is in it's prime or growing, for example) is beyond me. It's beyond me because I have long agreed the community was in decline, but I ended up staying longer than these blindly angry deny-er types, who today aren't even around to keep up the facade.
I really just find it a mystery what they really accomplished. Rather than paint an at least somewhat unbiased view based on facts, they lie, deny, quit and are never heard from again. Were they trying to trick new modders into joining and wasting their time? Convince others, or just them self? Either way they failed because they are gone, and others are not joining.
Really you have to decide for yourself however, when the community lacks an audience for you, as a modder. For me, my Islander would have done well to be released about a year sooner. Most of my fellow modders who I swapped ideas with in the early days (and by early I mean nearly a year after MOTB as thats when I joined), never saw me complete my campaign, nor play it, nor comment on it.
Everyone who has released a campaign that took more than a year (which is why some argue we are in the prime, because of the "multi-year" projects coming out) has abandoned the community immediately after. Some names?
Harp and Chrys
Trial and Terror
Misery Stone
Trinity
I'm sure if you're a follower you can fill in the other names.
I get a giggle out of the fact that as I wrote this, it took all of 8 minutes for someone to show up and write a pissy reply to my post on this topic. From the same person who fits the category above, of having nothing to say until his community's glaring emptiness is pointed out.
And there are a lot more visual cues than simply watching your module getting 2 to 3 downloads per month in the top ten list, or my rough math that tells me we are below 2% of our one time popularity with downloads and viewership.
Look at the forums themselves; our moderators have neither posted nor "moderated" a post in months. When the police leave the inmates to guard themselves, you know something less than ideal is going on. The vault fills with more spam than commentary and the ability to even upload has evaporated. People are already speculating where you can release works at this point.
I don't see why this is an issue; life moves on, and a 2006 spec game should not be expected to last into 2012. My only regret is there is no real successor; the dragon age toolset does not offer a decidedly better product so much as just newer, and it's overwhelming difficulty has seen its community misfire and shrink in only one year.
It could also be that people modded at a time in their life when they had too much spare time like myself, and simply had to outgrow it.
Anyway I figured I owed any of my 2 readers an explanation rather than a simply drop off the internet which I saw many of my fellows do and found rather... haunting. Haha it's like they were ashamed of it and wanted to "die to the modding world". Well here is where I went.
Personally I think it's a little sad the community wasn't just "shut down" formally around 2010 rather than see it in the state is has become. Not that I expected something like that, but it would be more humane. You got a handful of persistent hard working talent, and no audience at all, with more and more dysfunctionalities appearing daily.
Should a superior toolset product show it's head I may well be interested in a lesser capacity, but the complexity has really gotten such that it's more than a full time job to even use the full range of tools available.
Sep 25, 2011
What do I know?
Well as some may have figured out, I have paused my icy episodic adventure for the community project, which will actually see a little more work from me than this adventure would have produced.
Unfortunately there has been a big delay as our group hak isn't working. I'm trying to work around it but limiting your tools and variety of items to use also limits your inspiration at times.
I've been looking to maybe partner up with at least one veteran modder and making a decent game of it. I figure this community project would be a sneak preview. I was thinking it could be even more but it seems a lot of my submissions will be much larger than the others, so not quite the same experience.
City Adventure
I'm not quite sure what the NWN2 toolset can do for my city adventure I got cooking in my mind. It may never happen as it is fairly ambitious. On the other hand I have no problem at all chapterizing it and have learned how to build that way. Additionally I'm not sure what toolset I would use. I want real legitimate control over the architecture, and nwn2's collection of "prefab" placeables does nothing to help this, and I (and the population of the vault/forums seem to agree) am simply getting tired of seeing the same tired old models ad nauseaum. But Dragon Age's tool set has all of six monsters. So really, what do you do with that??
And you can rotate placables in all directions, but you cant resize or recolor anything. Puke. It's like having to choose one meal for life, between two essential piles of food, with each one givine only half of what you need to keep from dying of nutrition.
I wonder if there is a new toolset on the horizon...
Unfortunately there has been a big delay as our group hak isn't working. I'm trying to work around it but limiting your tools and variety of items to use also limits your inspiration at times.
I've been looking to maybe partner up with at least one veteran modder and making a decent game of it. I figure this community project would be a sneak preview. I was thinking it could be even more but it seems a lot of my submissions will be much larger than the others, so not quite the same experience.
City Adventure
I'm not quite sure what the NWN2 toolset can do for my city adventure I got cooking in my mind. It may never happen as it is fairly ambitious. On the other hand I have no problem at all chapterizing it and have learned how to build that way. Additionally I'm not sure what toolset I would use. I want real legitimate control over the architecture, and nwn2's collection of "prefab" placeables does nothing to help this, and I (and the population of the vault/forums seem to agree) am simply getting tired of seeing the same tired old models ad nauseaum. But Dragon Age's tool set has all of six monsters. So really, what do you do with that??
And you can rotate placables in all directions, but you cant resize or recolor anything. Puke. It's like having to choose one meal for life, between two essential piles of food, with each one givine only half of what you need to keep from dying of nutrition.
I wonder if there is a new toolset on the horizon...
Jul 2, 2011
1 month episode: Still alive
Yes this thing is going. It's amazing how fast post dates get away from you during the summer.
The project will still be a 4 week total effort, I just haven't been able to do anything recently. I've got about 2 weeks into it and really it's just time to ramp ahead. I'll let you know as momentum picks up and anything you can add to my modules forum post for ideas would help fill it in.
For future reference, offering even a slightly circular or branching path to achieve a goal (even if all branches are required, but can be done in random order) adds considerable time to a rapid fire project. A Live Forever style module, as nice and well written as it is, is MUCH quicker to make.
Additionally, I am wondering how to handle party chatter. It will be central to this ongoing series because they are basically your supporting cast. The problem is I don't believe in instant raise deads after battle or for the sake of conversation, so I am trying to get a handle on how I would ensure you spend enough of your time alive to get in on all of them. Ideas?
Skipping the dead companions line isn't really an option here as it was with Islander, as there will hopefully be some pretty intricate comedic exchanges that don't fit the bill with the punch lines missing.
The project will still be a 4 week total effort, I just haven't been able to do anything recently. I've got about 2 weeks into it and really it's just time to ramp ahead. I'll let you know as momentum picks up and anything you can add to my modules forum post for ideas would help fill it in.
For future reference, offering even a slightly circular or branching path to achieve a goal (even if all branches are required, but can be done in random order) adds considerable time to a rapid fire project. A Live Forever style module, as nice and well written as it is, is MUCH quicker to make.
Additionally, I am wondering how to handle party chatter. It will be central to this ongoing series because they are basically your supporting cast. The problem is I don't believe in instant raise deads after battle or for the sake of conversation, so I am trying to get a handle on how I would ensure you spend enough of your time alive to get in on all of them. Ideas?
Skipping the dead companions line isn't really an option here as it was with Islander, as there will hopefully be some pretty intricate comedic exchanges that don't fit the bill with the punch lines missing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)