Dragon Age

NWN 2

NWN 1

Today is the day, with NWN2 hitting the shelv...

October 31, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Today is the day, with NWN2 hitting the shelves and two long years of waiting coming to the end. I'll probably get the game tomorrow via overnight delivery, which is fine with me as I have plenty to do with just the toolset. In honor of the day, I'm dressed up like a pirate, though some may think it's Halloween, we all know better.

I've saved one of the best Pirate Card creatures for last, the Dragon. It's one of the best cards in the game, though casting it exacts a heavy price. It "eats" fifty hit points, first from your creatures and then from your avatar. If you have no creatures in play and your avatar is near death, casting a Dragon is a quick way to kill yourself. If you manage to cast it, though, it can quickly end a game, destroying nearly everything in its path. One of my favorite card fights was between a Dragon and Hellspawn, which was truly epic.

I managed a bit of work on the module, getting the final level polished up. I think I like the outdoor look the best, which is mostly textured, though it needs some placeables, sounds, and so on. The big push for today will be to transfer over everything from the prototype. I have five areas worth of stuff, so it might take awhile. After that, it's adding placeables and polish to get the look right.

I'm not quite sure what I'll do once the game appears. I'll probably take a day or two to get the Pirate Card game ready, and then see how testing goes. Hopefully a full release can happen within a week. It might be nice to actually play the official campaign somewhere in there too, though I might have to take time off work or something equally crazy. No rest for the weary.

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I'm back from the beach, with lots of work do...

October 30, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

I'm back from the beach, with lots of work done and endless things to catch up on. But first, the Pirate Card of the day. The Pirate King is similar to the other "leader" cards that give a bonus to others of its kind. There's a number of different pirate creatures, so it's quite easy to create a pirate-themed deck. To top it off, he gets to wear a cool hat.

I spent most of the three days I was away working on a single area. It was huge, and outdoors. Any outdoor area requires lots of work shaping, texturing, and adding grass and trees. Texturing in particular is very time consuming, though the results are pretty amazing. After that I imported everything from the prototype and tweaked their appearance. As it is, it's one of the areas I'm most proud of.

This morning I woke up at 4:30, immediately getting into mapping the final areas. Four of the final level maps have their tiles placed. The big center area is still being worked on. I created it first with tiles, and later decided that it looked better using the exterior method. The main issue is the ceilings, which look horrible if you have anything large you need to place.

The only downside is the size of the module, which after adding the two exterior areas has grown to 40 MB, compressed. There's not much else of significance to add, other than the custom content. Music and voice might get up there in size, but the module itself will be quite large.

I'm feeling completely behind in my corrispondence and hopefully can catch up today. NWN2 is supposedly being released tomorrow, though I'm betting it'll take an extra day to get mailed to me. I won't quite have finished all the areas by then, but hopefully it'll be close. I'm quite excited to test everything out and see if all those fancy scripts of mine will actually work. Probably not, but hopefully it won't be long before they do.

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There are a number of undead cards in the Pir...

October 27, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

There are a number of undead cards in the Pirate Card game. One of these is the Death Master, which gives a bonus to all nearby undead units. Half the fun of the game is collecting cards and assembling your deck. Putting together theme decks around undead or certain card combinations can be both wise and entertaining.

I continue to plug away at the first module, counting the days until release on Tuesday. I'm off to the coast for a few days, which means I'll drop off the grid for awhile. Hopefully I can sneak in some development time in between kid watching and trying to stay warm on the Oregon coast.

The maintenance levels are feeling pretty done at this point, with some custom scripts created to manage the transition between areas. I split it into two levels in order to take advantage of some new NWN2 features. I've got about five or six areas to go. After that, I'll need to start testing and tweaking, getting custom content in, and a million other little things. Somewhere in there I'll be releasing the Pirate Cards game and maybe even playing the official campaign a bit.

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There's nearly 100 different cards in the Pir...

October 26, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

There's nearly 100 different cards in the Pirate Card game, so it's pretty easy for me to pick one for each day leading up to release. Today's is the Green Reaver, a charming little beastie with a special ability of being able to paralyze all foes when sacrificed. This can be extremely useful, essentially stopping your opponent's army for several turns. It's even better if they have something like Hellspawn which causes destruction of their focus gems.

Yesterday was crazy busy, so I didn't get a chance to fiddle with the module as much as I would have liked. I did manage to work on the maintenance level a bit. I moved some things over from the prototype and I'm planning out some of the aquatic effects better. Hopefully I can manage better today.

I'm trying to catch up with my e-mails and such today, which I'm being pretty bad about. I'm working on a better way to distribute and version modules during testing with Arachnid. I got a few appreciative e-mails from people who played the old campaign. I even got a "your modules suck" e-mail, which I haven't had for awhile. Ah, the true joys of fame.

I'm also off to the coast for a long weekend. Since I'm able to haul along my computer with only mild eye-rolling from my wife, hopefully I can sneak in some development time then as well. What's really crazy is that early next week, NWN2 will be available. It's surreal.

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For each of the cards in Pirate Cards, I set ...

October 25, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

For each of the cards in Pirate Cards, I set up a little scene and took a screenshot. When I was working on the Fairy Dragon, it didn't look particularly small and cute until I stuck a bunny next to it. It's an odd card, using up a magic generator for both players. As a bonus, you can sacrifice it to cast another card in your hand, up to a power of two, though the selection is random. The Fairy Dragon works well in a small creatures deck, keeping the available magic low to prevent big creatures from coming into play.

I've been slaving away at my various NWN2 projects, as usual. I dutifully added the sound clips to the Pirate Cards game, which is feeling increasingly polished. In terms of Dark Waters, I ended up going back and polishing the fifth level even more. Empty rooms are the bane of my existence, and I was going back and adding proper furniture. The sound and lighting should be in place now too.

I'm excited to get to the maintenance level, as it'll be a challenge to get the aquatic portion looking good. I've learned a few tricks with special effects lately that I want to try out. Once I get the model import down, I want to give that a try too. I think I can do some fairly effective 3D fish, even without true animation.

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The most traditional way to win a match of Pi...

October 24, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

The most traditional way to win a match of Pirate Cards is to get your foe's avatar down to zero hit points. A more challenging way is to run your opponent out of cards. Cards like the Privateer can help with this, removing four cards from your opponent's deck and two from your own. Like all creatures that can be sacrificed, timing and luck can play a significant role. It's best to sacrifice your creature right before it dies, getting the most out of it as well as its special benefit.

I made a lot of progress with the module yesterday and early this morning. The fifth level is feeling increasingly fleshed out, now with lighting and more placeables. I put together a fun effect involving floating objects flying about a room. Hopefully it'll raise a few eyebrows.

I'm behind on correspondence again, something that will probably get worse before it gets better. I did manage a lengthy exchange with our semi-famous guest writer, who I'm still hoping to lure with my wiley charms.

I'm going to see if I can hunker down and finish up some last minute things for the Pirate Cards game, as I'm hoping to have an open beta right after NWN2's release. I fixed a bug with one of the card graphics this morning (the Privateer, in fact). I also have some more sound clips I need to chop up and attach to dialog.

Slowly getting there.

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Small creatures, such as the Rat have an inte...

October 23, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Small creatures, such as the Rat have an interesting place in the Pirate Cards game. Though comparatively weak, there can be a big advantage bringing out a creature early in the game. If your foe only has large creatures, your pesky little rat may have a number of turns to slowly damage your defenseless foe. Also, rats work well in theme decks with other rats as well as the Rat King. Finally, cards like Pirate Horde, where all players draw extra cards, really help a small creature deck. Though Hellspawn and the Dragon are flashy, don't give up on the small creature decks.

I made some good progress on the module over the weekend. The fifth level is mapped, as is the maintenance level. Both need lots of polish before they're remotely ready. That leaves the five areas for the 6th level and two small outdoor levels, then I can call the first module fully mapped. I'm guessing I'll finish a bit after NWN2 hits the stores.

I spent some time over the weekend tinkering with getting the flintlock pistol in the game. I'm getting closer, but it'll take some fiddling yet. I also had a rough time getting new spells and feats in the game. They'd show up in the toolset with weird names. I may hold off until the final version arrives.

As for today, hopefully I can find some time to work on polish, which is never done. I'm pretty excited about an underwater area, which looks stunning. Now I just need to figure out how to work in some little fishies.

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One of the limits in Pirate Cards is that you...

October 21, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

One of the limits in Pirate Cards is that you can only have four of any single card type (excluding Focus Gems). If there was no limit, you could simply fill your deck with cheap direct damage cards and win in a few turns. Still, cards like Treasure Hunt let you bend the rules a bit. If you've just played a card and want it returned from your discard pile, this card will do it. Even better, you get two cards for playing one, giving you a card edge over your opponent. Effectively you can reuse the same cards multiple times, making them quite useful in appropriately themed decks.

I made some good progress with the module yesterday. The fifth level is mapped, including some fun water effects. Next step, transferring over as much as I can from the prototype and then manually adding the rest. Slowly making progress.

It's strange to think that NWN2 will be out in ten days. Hopefully I can find the time to actually play the official campaign, though I think I'll be more excited about the bug fixes and toolset improvements. I'll also be getting ready for the release of Pirate Cards. Busy, busy.

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Evil Eye is an unusual card, worthless unless...

October 20, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Evil Eye is an unusual card, worthless unless you have a Voodoo Witchdoctor in play. If you do, though, this card can be devastating, applying crippling effects to multiple creatures in play. Some cards work best only as part of a deck theme, and this is one of them.

I managed to get the music set for all the levels I've finished. It was a little challenging working around the TLK issues. In the toolset, the music is called wacky things like "Improved Sneak Attack IV". Fortunately players never see it and it doesn't slow me down too much. I also finished the lighting for the fourth level, which makes a huge difference in the mood. I may have to go through and do the same for the third level. I'm also itching to start mapping the fifth level and perhaps the maintenance level as well. The latter should be fun, as most of it is under water.

Danmar has made some good progress on texturing the ships. Mostly it was a dry run to make sure it was doable. You can head over to his site to see the results.

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Sometimes you'll be playing Pirate Cards, and...

October 19, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Sometimes you'll be playing Pirate Cards, and pretty much all hope is lost. Your foe has a massive army whacking away at your Avatar and there's little chance you can turn things around in time. Cataclysm gives you that chance, destroying all creatures in play and destroying their bodies. Having a few of these cards tucked away is excellent insurance. Of course, timing is critical. If you cast it too soon, your opponent may quickly recover. Wise players may wait and hold a few creature cards, casting them after the battlefield has been cleared.

I made some good progress on the module last night, finishing placement of all the placeables in the fourth level. This morning I started in on lighting, which can dramatically set the mood for the area. It's wonderfully flexible and powerful, though it's easy to spend countless hours tweaking things to get it just right. That seems to be a recurring theme in the new toolset. With great power comes great responsibility.

I want to start getting music in the game. It should be a piece of cake, just fiddling with 2da files a little and I'm good to go. I think once that's done, I can start declaring areas ready for final QA.

It's nice to see progress being made, slowly but surely.

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What would the Pirate Card game be without pi...

October 18, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

What would the Pirate Card game be without pirates? The Buccaneer is just one of the pirates you can play. He's relatively weak, though is one of the few creatures with a ranged attack. When the Pirate Captain is in play, he'll get a boost like other pirates.

Sadly my daughter has been sick the last couple days, which has filled up a lot of my time. I did manage to do some minor tweaks to the first module, but mostly I've spent my time keeping up with e-mail and such.

There was good news all around in that area. Danmar might be helping texture the ships, which is something we've desparately needed. I might also have a fairly well-known writer helping with side quests for the second module. We're still working out details, but hopefully I can share more on that. I also had a neat compliment on the Evil Avatar forums from an Obsidian employee. Evidently the Pirate card game is going over well. I even had a new voice actor audition out of the blue.

I'm not sure what today brings. Hopefully I can sneak in some development time in between watching sick Emma. Juggling work, family, and my little NWN2 hobby is certainly a challenge at times.

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In Pirate Cards, the biggest asset your foe h...

October 17, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

In Pirate Cards, the biggest asset your foe has is their magic generators, used to summon creatures, cast spells, and generally give you a hard time. With Sabotage, you can take that away. Playing Sabotage destroys one of your foe's magic generators, making it less likely they'll be able to summon that Dragon and ruin your day.

I've been crazy busy as of late, falling behind on correspondence and work on the module. Still, I was drawn to the toolset like a moth to a flame. I spent a lot of time with the Visual Effects editor and the first level, adding waterfalls and nice spashes. There's some real texture gems buried in the toolset. I also had fun with sounds and lighting, giving the entire area a wonderful, haunted feel.

Danmar has graciously offered to look at our untextured ship models. He did wonderful work on the lighthouse and the Black Spot, so I'm terribly excited he might offer some assistance in that area. Ships really are core to Dark Waters, and there aren't really any ship models I could use that come with the game.

Today I'm going to try and catch up with my various e-mails and messages. Hopefully I can apply more polish to the levels I've done. For many parts of the first module, I'm going for a post-disaster System Shock style feeling. Sound, lighting, and water effects really help.

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The Black Spot is one of the most simple and ...

October 15, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

The Black Spot is one of the most simple and effective cards. When played, it kills the most powerful creature your foe has. If your enemy just brought out a dragon, it's time to play it. If they only have gnomes and zombies, it might be best to wait for a more opportune moment.

I spent a lot of time playing with the visual effects editor. It's complex, but incredibly powerful. My first attempt was to get a waterfall-style effect, with water streaming down the wall. The splash is minimal, instead subtly warping the textures behind it. I also ended up creating a marker symbol for each side of the Pirate Card game. It's now far easier to tell the two apart.

Finally, I got a little obsessive with a single room. It involves a partially flooded floor, wooden pallets, and a broken electric light spewing electricity in all directions. I must have spent nearly an hour getting everything just right. Hopefully people will appreciate the effort.

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In Pirate Cards, the cards themselves determi...

October 14, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

In Pirate Cards, the cards themselves determine if you win or lose. As such, cards like the Cartographer can turn the tide, giving you a huge advantage over your oppontent. The Cartographer lets you draw an extra card each turn, with a maintenance cost of two focus gems. This tends not to be too serious if brought out later in the game, when there's plenty of magic and it's time to overwhelm your foe with summoned creatures.

I continue to plug away at the fourth level, having lots of fun customizing each of the beasties. The NWN prototype had them all looking about the same, while the NWN2 version has slight variations in height and coloration. I've also been varying the weapons a bit more, mostly to give players an opportunity to pick up their weapon of choice.

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While the creatures in Pirate Cards tend to b...

October 13, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

While the creatures in Pirate Cards tend to be the most flashy, spells like Ship's Surgeon deserve mention. This spell is very simple, healing your avatar in proportion to the focus gem's you have in play. Early in the game, it's not that great a card. Late in the game, with lots of gems in play, it can easily turn the tide.

The Proctor dialog is in the game and cleaned up. It's timely, as I'm working on the level with the Proctor at the moment. The tiles are down and I'm copying as much from the prototype as I'm able. It's not perfect - placeable importing produces errors and the creatures seem a little funky when I bring them across. Still, having most everything else come across is a huge help. After that, it's putting down doors, placeables, adding some variety to the appearance of the creatures, and so on.

Testing is going to be time consuming, as it's easy for me to leave out some small detail. There's also some things that require a model importer, but it looks like folks are working hard on that.

The voice actors continue to amaze and astound. Wendy put together quite a bit of audio for me to peruse. I'm doing some more recording this weekend with a coworker who has a great pirate voice. Good times.

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I've been showing off the bigger creatures in...

October 12, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

I've been showing off the bigger creatures in the game, but the lowly Wolf deserves a mention. Decks that only have large creatures in them often do poorly, as it takes awhile before you have enough magic generators to summon them. Balance is key, as well as using cards that work together. Wolves have an aura that give nearby wolves a Haste effect, making them quite effective in packs.

The module goes well. I started on the fourth level yesterday and have most of the tiles down. I love the ability to mix-and-match tilesets in NWN2, and I'm using it to good effect.

The voice actors have also been working really hard, with Wendy cranking out huge amounts of dialog. I'm going to hunker down and get the new Proctor dialog in-game, mostly clean-up for existing problem dialog or a few missing gaps. It's nice to be making progress.

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Letter of Marque is one of those game-changin...

October 11, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Letter of Marque is one of those game-changing cards that should be played with great care. On the plus side, you get posession of all your opponent's creatures(and they get yours). On the down side, all your magic generators are destroyed. If played at the right time, it can make all the difference in the world. The catch is that you have to win quickly, as the lack of generators will make it impossible to play new cards for awhile. Couple these cards with creatures you can sacrifice. That way you can sacrifice all your creatures, ensuring your opponent gets nothing when you play this.

The Pirate Cards game is feel pretty close to finished. I might tweak some things here and there, but it's mostly done. In terms of the first Dark Waters module, I have the dumbwaiter in. Now it's time to start mapping out the fourth level.

I also have a bunch of e-mails to catch up on. I'm finally starting to feel better, mostly through liberal application of caffiene and Advil.

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Think of Fresh Wind like Dispel Magic

October 10, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Think of Fresh Wind like Dispel Magic. It removes all enchantments on creatures, as well as any global enchantments in play. This one card can easily make the difference between life and death if something like Hurricane is in play, massively damaging both creatures and players. Putting it in a deck requires a bit of faith, though, as it has no benefit other than countering your opponent's enchantments.

As for me, I'm nearly finished with the third level. I just have a dumbwaiter to put in a wall and I'm ready for the next level. I've also put in some serious work into the Pirate Cards GUI. It's going to be incredibly slick. You'll be able to see a list of your creatures, their hit points, and you can sacrifice them with a single click. Before you had to deal with a dialog and navigate through some screens, plus the updates weren't real-time.

I'm sorely tempted to rework the SAGE system to use the custom GUI. It would be a bit of work, but would be much more user friendly.

I'm also still sick, so it's a bit difficult to focus. I really should be in bed, doing something quiet, instead of staying up late fiddling with the toolset.

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Today I wanted to talk about Second Chance

October 09, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Today I wanted to talk about Second Chance. It's a fairly common, inexpensive card with the nifty power of bringing creatures back from the dead. If your Dragon dies, simply cast this and it'll be munching away at your foe within seconds. The only down side is that you have to actually have a good dead creature in play. Too often I've ended up using it on a Gnome or Rat, simply because there wasn't anything else out there.

I'm a bit sick today, and ended up with this zombie-like fixation on getting a custom GUI implemented in the Pirate Cards game. I stayed up way too late, but laid a scripting foundation that should let me do what I want. The GUI system is pretty darn cool and I'll be using it for High Seas later on.

I also worked a bit on the main module, putting down placeables as needed. I only have a couple more rooms to do and then it's off to the exciting fourth level.

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I continue to work away in the toolset, conve...

October 07, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

I continue to work away in the toolset, converting areas from my NWN prototype to the NWN2 version. I'm continually amazed at how much flexibility there is now. I can make each room completely unique, picking from a long list of placeables to add appropriate decor. The bedroom of the captain's guard looks very different than the bedroom of a gentle lady.

All the flexibility does make things slow going. The main exterior is finished, as are the small buildings. I'm finishing up the third level and hope to start in on the fourth shortly. The lowest level scares me, as it's simply huge.

The Pirate Card for the day is the lowly Cow. It's cheap and allows you to sacrifice it for a little healing. I'm also embarrased to say that I've been killed more than once by a cow. It has a mean kick.

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The pirate card for the day is the Copper Aut...

October 06, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

The pirate card for the day is the Copper Automata. Though seemingly wimpy, it's pretty good at sucking up damage and distracting more powerful foes. It also has a fairly dramatic healing bonus should you sacrifice it. You can voluntarily destroy certain of your own creatures, giving a one-time bonus of varying benefit. If you time it right, you can sacrifice it right before it dies, to great benefit.

I continue to polish and enhance the pirate card game. I may end up making some custom visual effects, and perhaps some custom GUI elements as well. I also started in with the conversion of the first module. I'm busy getting icons for all my items, building areas, and slowly getting things ready. It'll take some time, but hopefully I can get something ready for testing soon after launch. I'm also excited to see folks are already working with the MDB format. Hopefully I can get the flintlocks in the game sooner than I thought.

As an aside, there's an artist drawing 100 pirates in 100 days. Some are fairly amusing.

Also, if anyone knows of a talented texture artist, please let me know. We're starting to see model import/export tools being developed and I'd really like to finish up those wonderful ships that Raz started. The payment is your standard fare - empty promises of grog and loose women, and perhaps some recognition from the community for a job well done.

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Well, for those of you who are regulars, you ...

October 05, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Well, for those of you who are regulars, you probably figured out I've been in the beta for the NWN2 Toolset. While I still can't talk about it, I can say that I was a winner in a screenshot contest we had during the beta. I even had a new category of "Most Freaky" created just for me (the little girl with her "toys"). Quite an honor, I think.

The Pirate Card for the day is Simulacrum. It creates a copy of your opponent's biggest creature and puts it under your control. This could be great if he's got a Dragon out, but not so good if he only has tiny creatures or nothing at all.

As for what else I've been up to, I have the conversion of wav to mp3 sound clips down pat. The reduction in size is amazing, about 90% or so. I've got most of the voices ready to go in, though I've got one or two more I'd like to add. While I could probably spend endless hours working on loadscreens and the like, I try to remind myself that I have a full single-player campaign waiting for me too.

Exciting times.

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I thought I'd start things off with the lates...

October 04, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

I thought I'd start things off with the latest Pirate Card. It's the Hellspawn, one of the toughest creatures in the game. If you can get this one out and hold on to it, there's a good chance it'll destroy your opponent's creatures and then finish off your opponent in short order. The down side is that it destroys Focus Gems, so don't expect to be doing much after you bring it into play. If your opponent plays Paralyze, look out, as your massive creature is now a huge burden.

Yesterday was very productive. All the card models, icons, and deck icons are in the game. I'm integrating the new DisplayInputBox command so that you can more easily rename your decks (e.g. "Hot Flaming Death" or "Gnome Banzai"). I think I made a breakthrough with the voice clips - it looks like mp3 is supported now, which means I can reduce the size of the files considerably from their current wav format.

I still have some issues and tweaks to sort out, but my hope is that I can get a playable game ready for the launch of NWN2. After that, it's all about converting the first Dark Waters module.

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Today's Pirate Card of the day is Hurricane (...

October 03, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Today's Pirate Card of the day is Hurricane (click for large version). It's one of those "game clincher" cards, doing damage to everyone and everything each round until someone dies. If you have more life than your opponent, it makes for a good choice. If they somehow deal you damage and drop your life below theirs, you may lose the game with no way to recover.

Needless to say, I've been working on the Pirate Cards game and coordinating voice actors. Jules worked on some fairly amusing ones. Flik continues to work on Daniel. Magnus continues to play with his new choir plug-in thingie, making a lullabye that almost put me to sleep on my keyboard.

My to do list is pretty massive these days, as I can now do so much. I have some card icons to assign, bugs to squash, and endless areas to recreate. Fun, fun, fun.

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Okay, I've been bottling it up, so this is go...

October 02, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Okay, I've been bottling it up, so this is going to be a big post.

First off, Neverwinter Nights 2 is shaping up to be exactly what I was hoping it would be. The toolset is streamlined, with things like the ability to open multiple areas being extremely useful. The graphics alone are amazing, with incredible flexibility over the look and feel of areas. You can truly make areas that look very different.

This does come with a cost, the old "with great power comes great responsibility" sort of thing. When you get an empty tileset and place each and every table, chair, light, and so on, it takes awhile. There's tons to fiddle with. Of course, there's something called "prefabs" that I'm sure will start showing up on the Vault soon. They're pre-defined groups of things. For folks who just want to make a quick area, that should make things much easier.

There's other "gotchas" that have been brought up in the community already. Module sizes are going to be much larger, mostly due to exterior areas. All that information about terrain texture, heights, grass, and so on has to be stored somehow. It's hard to say at this point, but I'd be surprised if my first Dark Waters module wasn't tens of megabytes in size, compressed. The "full" version with music and voice couple easily be several hundred. So, plan your Internet connection accordingly.

There's some behind-the-scenes things that have turned out to be pretty cool. The toolset has a "plug-in" feature that lets programmers make tremendous changes to the way the toolset works. I think we'll see ways to import and export models, wizards for terrain creation, and so much more. You couldn't do much with the NWN toolset, so this sort of open functionality is going to be huge.

In terms of Dark Waters and what happens next, it's all about doing conversions now. I need to test out the import functionality (you can open old NWN modules, but things have to be tweaked). There's lots of areas to recreate. That should keep me busy for quite awhile. If I'm really lucky, I'll be able to recreate each area by the time NWN2 hits the shelves. I'm guessing it'll still take a couple months of testing and getting some of the models in. I really want to get at least flintlock pistols in the first module (there's a few scenes that might be silly without them).

So, time to circle back with the team today and start getting things organized. Here's a few screenshots to whet your appetite. Click on each for a larger picture.






Making Pirate Cards
I also wanted to dedicate some time to the Pirate Card game. The first module in the Dark Water campaign is less piratey than the others, so I'd like to give folks a taste of piratey goodness early on. The Pirate Cards game was released for NWN awhile back, but it's getting a major revamp for NWN2. I'm also hopeful that it can be released very soon after NWN2's release. The scope in some ways is small and should be much easier to pull together.

The biggest change is the way that the cards are being done. In NWN, I used portraits from the game itself, which kept the total size pretty small. NWN2 doesn't have portraits, so I ended up creating the images myself. It takes a lot longer to make a screenshot, but the results are very nice.

First, I start with a card editor. It did the font and placement of everything quite nicely, so all I had to do is make a screenshot. That was done in the toolset, placing things where I want, adding visual effects, and setting up lighting.

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Well, it looks like the toolset isn't out, as...

October 01, 2006 by Adam in NWN2

Well, it looks like the toolset isn't out, as hoped. I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping it comes out soon. I've been ignoring my team for far too long in fear of breaking the NDA in any way. The sense of guilt is palpable.

On the plus side, I'm hearing some great stuff from the voice actors. Here's a clip of Daniel that Flicked passed along this morning. I absolutely can't wait to hear it all in-game. I promised Flik he'd get countless e-mails from women praising his wit and charm. I'm also getting the rest of the Proctor and some piratey voices from Jules.

In terms of little ol' me, I can't say much as usual. I can say that I'm working on Pirate Cards still, at the moment fiddling with Photoshop quite a bit. The current hope is to release it as a teaser soon after the launch of NWN2, and then focus on the first module exclusively.

Update: The toolset is out and screenshots are hitting the net. Before I go to bed, I'll put one up of a first-pass at Heather in NWN2 glory. After two long years, it feels so good to see things come to fruition.

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I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000. In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.