Build team strategies: discussion on closing the gap to Beta

[AcadiusLost]

Let's get some productive discussion going on leaping the hurdles between the current state of affairs, and where we'd like to be as a project, with regards to NWN2 (presumably, having several Betas up at any given time, in a state in which they may be enjoyed by our playerbase).

I'm not one of the old guard, who helped to navigate the pre-beta to beta transition for NWN1, but I was involved in the ground-up rebuilding of the Northern Cormyr module, so I've at least some experience on what worked, and what didn't. As an ACR head, I'd also like to try to make sure we've got central support for things builders want/need to do.

So far, The Savage Frontier is the only project that's been hosted longterm, with statics, merchants, NPCs, etc. It is in a playable state currently, though I think it's not been well publicized somehow (despite the threads and frontpage announcement, people still seem not to know about it / have tried it). By the sounds of it, it's going to get a good deal bigger shortly, now that NWN2 is patching up to the version Indio's been working with for a few weeks now. If I'm not mistaken, Indio is still self-hosting the module, so it has not yet moved to it's high-end hosting infrastructure. That said, I haven't noticed much lag while on there.

I think we'd all like to see 2-3 more servers catch up to this state- a number of frustrations or confusions have been cited in the selfanalysis, but hopefully we can help each other move past them and onward. I don't find pointing fingers or trying to challenge the community through negative sentiment to be terribly productive. Let's focus on what has worked, recently and in the past, and try to help those who are working keep motivated, and help others who may not think they have ways to contribute, learn to pitch in.

For the NC rebuild, it was initiated by several DMs on the team who knew the area and canon well, but were consistently frustrated by the state of the old module. We set up an offsite forum (at the time, the ALFA forums were less flexible in terms of getting new space set up), drew up a grid from an agreed canon map, and got things rolling. At the time I had very little experience with the toolset, so I started by just making a few forest areas- a bit of terrain and some trees (easier done in NWN1 toolset than NWN2, but a starting point in any case). One member with scripting background adapted a base module, making sure it had all the support structure (ACR, NESS, AJAI, loot systems, factions), another builder with a more artistic eye focused on the area around Arabel, trying to make it match their vision of the place from canon. This would be the focal point for PCs gathering, so it was top priority to get from the start. Another member focused on getting the roads in the major cardinal directions built, so that we'd be able to fill out the grid and place the server portals. We kept each other appraised of our progress, submitted areas to an FTP so they could be added to the basemod, coordinated on who was building what. By the time we had the roads and an area of intrest or two, probably half of our builders no longer had time to contribute as they expected to- but folks like me were learning by doing in the meantime, picking side areas of intrest to fill in (small mining towns, border areas with near-impassable mountains, smaller trade roads). Those of us who continued had the grid to work with, and chose gaps to fill in, using a kind of "race to the middle" approach, each working from a different side. Some of this applies less to NWN2, where I doubt we'll be doing extensive grids of adjacent areas- but the sense of comraderie and commuication were huge in terms of motivation in the early build stages. Even if you get stalled out for a few days or a week, if you can log on and see that your fellow team member has dropped in a pair of new interiors and wants to know if you've picked what the exterior of building A should be like yet- you don't feel so much like you're going it alone.

Once a module (however limited) is hosted consistently, the feedback from beta testers (a role any ALFAn can play, toolset experience completely unnecessary) can synergize with the team effect.

I'd recommend build teams start to use the main ALFA forums for their servers, in order to do day-to-day build discussion. Offsite forums are an alternative approach, but not one that will allow other teams to offer advice, aid, or experience. Using the ALFA forums also stands a chance of helping you pick up new team members. The sort of information that goes into the build process doesn't usually have much meta potential, especially at the early stages. I wouldn't expect any problems with playing on a server you helped build if your contributions are with interiors, exteriors, custom items- even some conversations should be safe enough (general information, random ambiance). These are not resources that lend any significant meta knowledge about the server's inner workings.

How are current projects doing for hosting? I know it was a part of the proposal process, each of the servers approved had a plan/connection/machine, though some were waiting to purchase until more time had passed, on a "more machine for the money" strategy. Have these been bought yet? Are they holding teams back in any way, or is it more on the building side?

With the next ACR release, I'll likely make 3 versions: an upgrade erf/hak for existing servers, a from-scratch install pack, and a preset generic basemod (if I can manage it, the latter may lag behind the others somewhat). For the teams that have not yet started to merge their areas together, perhaps the latter will help with the consolidation.

With regards to stalled teams: where are things lacking? Organization, leadership, or (wo)manpower? I do think there is a great deal of sense in collaboration- if you feel you're the only builder working, or your team has reached an indefinate roadblock, I don't imagine anyone would slight you for "interning" with another build team for a while- in all likelyhood, you're likely to be able to return to your original project armed with better experience and motivation than when you left. Teams that have been stymied by absense of a crucial member should likely evaluate whether they should set things on hold to help out elsewhere, or selfnominate an acting coordinator to get things rolling again.

I'd like to hear from people, both ones actively engaged, and those on the sidelines of the effort, wondering how they can help out. Let's see about getting some enthusiasm and momentum going for the NWN2 push.

[Rick7475]

I am currently helping with two projects, Myth Drannor and Waterdeep.

Personally, I think we should focus on one rural and one urban server. I think the SF is going to represent the rural server well.

WD should be the next server to concentrate on. It was our flagship in NWN1, and I think the Cipher has a good detailed plan. It is getting built and has made some good progress, but not nearly as much as the SF.

After that, I think we should work hard on MD. MD is another server that has a well organized plan and is at various stages of being built. Alered has done a spectacular job at bringing MD back into the spotlight, but Halrin is still MIA and the server would benefit from coordinated leadership.

I am not aware of the state of the other servers and await Rusty's report.






As for server resources, here is my take. We could pool builders, which could work, as Indio has suggested. Personally, I could go for that, but I can't vouch for other builders who may be less enthusiastic about working on an area they are not interested in.

But I really like the idea of making a group of area templates, exterior and interior available. My exerpeince with building DF from nothing has taught me the value of having exisitng resources as a base.

Here are some suggestions that I think could speed up building, and I know Indio has praised some of these ideas before in NWN1




1) An Inn template complete with rooms, a food menu, a drink menu, room keys and scripts, and room patterns with sleep zones. All the basics would be completed so that a builder would have all the standard menu items and could customize new items based on the area of Faerun. The key system would be in place and all the builder would have to do is follow the pattern in place.

2) A pet shop template. I laboriously worked to research all the main types of dogs in Faerun. We still have that info on DF and we can pull the info out. Some of these dogs (not all) might be avaiable in certain parts of Faerun. We should make a pet shop template complete with all the scripts for a player to purchase a pet, including NPC's etc. This way, the builder can choose some or all of the dogs (and cats, falcons, or other domestic pets if we want) and have a template to work with.

3) A priest and/or temple template, much like the one we had on NWN1 though without the bugs and pricing based on cha check and religion discount. We can have a good temple template, a neutral temple temple, and an evil temple temple. We can have a nature temple template and a hidden underground temple template. Or at the very least the priest scripts where all you have to do is input the religion.

4) An exterior forest template. Just with the green and the texturing and a undergrowth shrubs. The trees can be faerun generic trees that can be enhanced by regional trees. Just a simple forest exterior without lakes or streams to save inventing the wheel everytime.

5) Road exteriors, on rural or forest routes, so that the texturing for the roads is already done, based on a typical main road.

6) Jail house template, with cells and keys and a jailor's office.

7) Generic farm lands and farms with cows, chickens, dogs, barns, fields, and a few farmers and their families.

These are some examples. If we have a bunch of stuff already made in out library, we can jump start a lot of things.




And, access for non-DM builders to keep essential resources such as the DM FTP or other areas we can utilize the resources.

[AcadiusLost]

I'm working on getting a scripted inn and generic temple to go with the basemod's initial release.

Another suggestion from Castano, was to use generic interiors and prefabs off NWVault, then customize them to fit the intended purpose. I've not looked for into what's all available, but it certainly has the advantage of not forcing any builders to wait for someone in our project to turn out and upload generic interiors. Thus far, it seems what builders we have are already engaged in their own server-specific building.

[Rotku]

Out of curiousity, would we be willing to release any generic areas we make onto the vault?