Message to the whole ALFA community (from Aelred)

[indio]

This page lists a bunch of tutorials.

Can a mod or admin make an Annoucement thread in this forum with this link please? I can't make anything better than this stuff.

[Aelred]

I was definitely afraid when I started learning the toolset.

For me, this was the most helpful guide to get over that.

DON'T PANIC: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the NWN2 Toolset

and these two video tutorials are definitely awesome and a must see for any new toolsetter (a shame she didnt make any more) - after watching them you will see what I mean!

DLA Video Tutorials: Lesson 1 : Toolset Basics
DLA Video Tutorials: Lesson 2 : Intro. to Trees & Placeables

[Twiggy]

I recommend getting people to use voice chat such as Ventrilo. That's how LP taught me to edit 2das when he needed grunt work done for the PrC classes. Being able to actually talk to someone makes learning something new much less painful.

[Lusipher]

This is where Dan springs to mind. He's not a bad guy, but he doesn't understand support. He'd as soon tell us how badly we'll fail as he would tell us he likes what we're doing.

This isnt altogether true, Indio. When praise is required I will reap it upon whomever deserves it. You seem to always want to throw in some jib at me for not helping ALFA build. I have no time for it. I also have no motivation for it since my server team are all AWOL and some have said they probably wont return. The server area that folks are building right now hold no interest for me whatsoever besides Moonsea and that team are only going to work on Zhentil Keep and mostly things for the Zhentarium. I personally wanted to do some stuff with The Flooded Forest on their server, but was told they wont include it for sometime. So, my only interest left is now gone towards building.

Never think that I dont want the project to succeed, because I do. Like many, I have invested a lot of time, friendships, and wasted energy (forum nonsense) here and I consider this place one of my favorites on the net. I learned to love D&D here and learned a ton about the Forgotten Realms here. For me, its hard to just take that knowledge and go somewhere else with it.

I appreciate all that our builders are doing and I know how frustrating it is to work on the servers. I personally am trying to do my part for ALFA on the PR side of things since my interest do not lay with the toolset at all right now. If thats not enough for you or other ALfans then Im sorry.


Anyway, good luck with getting it to Live. I appreciate your work on the server itself and the time and energy you and the others are putting into the Team forums. You and the few who are helping are doing a bangup job getting us moving forward.

[MorbidKate]

Aelred,

Those video tutorials are friggin awesome! Thanks!!

Seeing an experienced person using the Toolset while they explain what's happening and why is a massive time saver and a lot easier that staring at PDFs.

Any more good vids out there?? Anyone??

Kate

[Grand Fromage]

There aren't any more English videos I've seen, but those are good primers for the super-basics. I don't have a microphone or I'd see about making some... maybe I'll find a mic somewhere.

[MorbidKate]

There aren't any more English videos I've seen, but those are good primers for the super-basics. I don't have a microphone or I'd see about making some... maybe I'll find a mic somewhere.

GF, if you can that would be sweet. Being able to watch, pause and try it out on your own has been a godsend. Vids are much, much more helpful for getting over the initial hump which is where most quit from frustration.

Kate

[Aelred]

Those are the coolest I've found MK - I wish she had continued to make them.

There are four more video tutorials here along with the codec you may need to view them in Windows media.

http://www.nwn2toolset.dayjo.org/video.html

That site also has the link to my second favorite tutorial (After the DONT PANIC tutorial)

The Complete Builders Guide For The Neverwinter Nights 2 Toolset BY NWNmaster

[Thangorn]

wow I go away for a few days and look it what happens..

I appreciate the enthusiasm that everyone posting in this thread has displayed. I am an extremely busy man but I will be on #alfa-builders to help out with njubie building questions (at odd times of the day for most of you but some of my best building gets done in the wee hours ).

I (and Blackwill before me) have actually broken down the entire Moonsea workload into small tasks with basic instructions for people. The best thing at this juncture I believe is for me to post a thread in this forum with full details of exactly what I need done for each stage and how to do it. The rest of you can then advise me as to whether you need further clarification on what the Moonsea's needs are.

Can someone with authority please advise me whether the above task list and instructions would be welcome in this forum? If not please tell me where I should put it so I can redirect people.

by the way, quick thing, just my two coppers on the debate (of sorts) concerning the toolset....

Every single one of the builders/scripters/techheads in this community started out having to learn everything from scratch. The programmers and IT professionals amongst us probably had a leg up but they still had to learn how everything they know applies to the toolset. For my part, my programming experience was limited to cracking games on the commodore 64 & 128 back in the eighties.

What led me to build is the desire to create what I can imagine and concieve and to share it with diverse other people to breathe life into the creation. Every single builder, did whatever they had to do to learn and understand the inner workings of the medium of creation with their goal in mind.

My own path started with NWN1, I desired to help the community out because I found that when I came to a door that wouldnt let me walk through or a busted AT, it was ruining my immersion and therefore probably ruining someone else's aswell. I thought "I cant complain because all I do is play, so I'm going to do something about it."

What I did then was download every possible tutorial (the ones Aelred listed appear to be a good starting point) I could find and make a bunch of practice mods until I was happy with my abilities. I then sought out a build team and "hired on". I made small stuff and meanwhile learnt the alfa specific scripting systems (which were reasonably well documented at the time and are 1000% better documented now).

Along my journey, I asked questions of every builder/scripter/techie that would listen until I got my head around it. Every single person I asked for help or advice was extremely happy to help me out, even with difficult or complex problems.

I dont want to crap on much longer (I am in the middle of a marathon 9 dayx12hr working week), I just want to say, that if you have a vision you want to create or in anyway have a desire to learn the toolset, dont be fazed. Anyone, including a trained monkey (I mean look at me ) can learn it, you just have to pick it up for 30 minutes a day, hell spend 30 minutes a week on it if you want and eventually you'll learn it if you apply yourself to what you want to get out of toolsetting and refuse to get discouraged.

Just remember not to get let the toolset beat you, beat IT into submission repeatedly until it does your bidding.

enough of my ranting... GO BUILD SOMETHING!

[Thangorn]

The server area that folks are building right now hold no interest for me whatsoever besides Moonsea and that team are only going to work on Zhentil Keep and mostly things for the Zhentarium.

Thanks for your interest Dan.

Can I just clarify for yourself and other folks who may be interested..

Zhentil Keep is merely the starting hub of the server, there are 16 others planned including 2 elven villages, a drow village other (Non-Zhentarim) features will include orcish outposts, hidden temples of dark forgotten gods, dragon lairs, ruins, ruins and more ruins, shipwrecks, etc.

The Zhentarim are but one planned faction on the server among at least 20 others including several goodie factions which I am not at liberty to disclose unless you join my band of shady rogue builders.

Perhaps I need to do a server write up with screenies for the home page so people can get a full grasp on the scope of the Moonsea project.

BTW if any one has got this impression from me in chat, Everything I say about Zhents in IRC is largely my Aussie smart-arsed sense of humour and really has bugger all to do with the build.

Hope that helps


Dez

[Mulu]

There are 131 English language mods on NWN vault for NWN 2 right now, compared to 1300 mods that were created during the same time frame for NWN.

That's very interesting, as the builders I've spoken to says it takes 10x longer to build in NWN2 than in NWN1, so that's pretty much the same ratio. 10x longer build time = 1/10th the builds.

I taught myself how to build in NWN1 through trial and error, though all my mods are DM only so I managed to avoid the tricky stuff, e.g. all NPC's are mute until possessed (never had a player complain about that) and I use core build mods so I don't have to add scripts or more than a couple haks. The NWN1 toolset was simple enough to pull that off. NWN2 is going to require more. It's going to require going through those DLA video lessons that GF linked to, and probably many other tutorials before competence is gained. I suppose from that perspective it does require some investment.

I'm currently building for a weekly campaign at NWC, so I'm not going to make any promises I can't keep, but this thread sure took a positive direction.

[Mikayla]

10 X longer to build in NWN2?!? Well, lets see, ok, then if it took me 2 years to build the North Underdark server in NWN1, it would take me ... 20 years to build it in NWN2?!?!? And people wonder why some of us won't get near the toolset with a 10' pole ...

[indio]

I'm finding it takes about twice as long in the NWN2 toolset.

[Grand Fromage]

It depends a lot on the area too. I'd say it ranges from two to five times as long. Interiors are fast, some exteriors are fast (having a whole server of frozen wasteland has some advantages) and some like cities take quite a lot of work.

[Aelred]

Mulu -

I think the best thing that kept me going when I first began to teach myself how to build was a positive attitude and a belief that it is possible. As a hardcore roleplaying fantasy community we instinctually have it in us to use our imagination. Imagining that you can do something and seeing it in your mind's eye is often half the battle to actually getting there.

The opposite extreme of pysching yourself out, thinking you will fail before you have even begun to try, and adding cynicism/pessimism on top of that can only lead to self-defeat.
___________________________________________________________

We already have the two key ingredients needed for successful learning here in Alfa:

First we have support within the community for learning. Having both centralized resources and people who are willing to help makes learning much easier.
Earlier today Hialmar added the NWN: Toolsetting forum (under ALFA projects in the main index) and I began posting things for new beginners. And everyone is welcome to post their toolsetting questions. No questions is too small.

We also have the #alfa-builders channel where you can pop in and ask away.

And finally PMing anyone you think might have the answer you are looking for will usually result either in the answer or in pointing to the right person to ask.

And second we have a wealth of creativity and imagination here in Alfa.
Take a look at what has already been built. Seeing what others can do with the toolset helps to spark your imagination and reinforce the belief that learning to tool is a real possiblity.

Or how about all the creativity in the Alfa Library or the daily 'in game' creativity of so many Dms and players.

The final ingredient needed which Alfa can not supply lies in each one of us - a positive commitment to trying.
No one can do it unless they try. We just need to give it a try while believing in ourselves. Self defeatism is counterproductive to this idea and it scares others into thinking they can't do it even if they tried.
Anyone can start out by learning the basic Toolset controls and practicing them a bit in the toolset. Once that initial bridge is crossed I assure you that the toolset won't look as hard as it did at the outset of your journey.