I've been coming up with some really cool thi...

December 30, 2002 by Adam in NWN1

I've been coming up with some really cool things today. If you don't want to be spoiled, STOP READING NOW. Ignore the attached image and surf elsewhere.

I figured out how to combine a walkable ocean tileset with a placeable boat. I used one of the many boats created by the community, then modified the walkmesh so that you could walk around on deck without going overboard. Basically, the entire area is walkable, but the boat's PWK file prevents you from getting elsewhere. There are some funny things that can happen, such as arrows sticking into an invisible plane floating above the ocean. You can also summon creatures that end up floating above the water. I should be able to minimize the latter through careful placement of non-walk areas. I also ended up enlarging it to be around three tiles long and one tile wide. That way, several players and crewmen can be on deck at any one time.

So, the naval engagements that I have planned for the module look doable. I don't think I'm going to take the polymorph player approach that others are doing. Instead, it'll be cutscenes and respawinging in new areas. Hopefully that'll have a more realistic feel. We'll see how it goes.

I also polished up one of the previously mentioned "surreal" areas, as well as creating a new one. I'm hoping these creations of mine don't seem to be explorations of what's possible with the toolset, but are rather interesting extensions of the story. Here's crossing my fingers.