Adventure Packs Server (edit)

[Swift]

Neverwinter is currently in production by Cryptic Studios. This is widely viewed to be NWN3. It is labelled as an MMO, but the early interviews make it sound closer to MMO 'like', which can be different. Nothing new has really been released though, so we still don't know if it will suit our needs. It does claim to have 'adventure creation' tools, so we will wait and see.

[Kemeras]

ahh I didn't know that, I only picked up on the whole lawsuit issue but never found out where it went.

Interesting, http://www.playneverwinter.com/about I guess I will have to wait and see, there isn't much info but it this does look promising.

I am not a huge fan of Cryptic games, the seem to have a tendency to rush games out the door (then again what production companies *don't* do that ) but they have done some interesting things.

With the amount of info they have out now, I am guessing late 2011 probably pushed back to 2012 and then the inevitable wait for a patch(es)

[CloudDancing]

FUN!

Well let me tell you mister about fun...

Actually thats why I say Dm, Dming is good and fun.

But there are three kinds of DMs. Right now I am an Builder though NOT a Dm. I make with the pretty pretty areas and then pass those on to a generous scriptor (Castano) who quickly scripts and bam they are in the module. It's a wonderful happy process. And the process you have going with your wife sounds the same.

Plus its cool she's helping you!

But you can be a Builder DM, a LIve Action Dm, or the more sedate Adminstrative DM who are usually HDMS.

I welcome more areas and more generic. I've been cranking out prefabs and areas with utter realistic clutter and named generic because I want them to be used in the future for a general pack. I mean there is only so much you can do to a certain point. But again there is alot you can do too.

Prefabricated quest modules also seem to point to Ad&D modules which is awesome too.

As per Cryptic, they get an A in customization and making attractive character creation engines. Deviating from that in Star Trek Online was whacked. But the best thing we can do right now is spam the dam heck out their forums. They oddly listen to their customers and you might even get in for a beta test.

If enough people poked them, I bet suddenly we could suddenly blink them on to a series of user created MMO worlds build and adminstrated in the manner that we do in gamespy. Think of it, great game graphics, standard responsive MMO engine, AND hosted on computers designed to JUST host by a reliable company. And they wouldnt need to do much but develop online content, upgrade their UI, and make sure their toolset is easy to use (but not too easy.)

It could happen.

[Rotku]

I guess in my own long winded rambling way I was trying to say..." having fun, not going to stress about it"

That post has to be one of the more amusing things I've read in a while.

[Kemeras]

I guess in my own long winded rambling way I was trying to say..." having fun, not going to stress about it"

That post has to be one of the more amusing things I've read in a while.

I live but to serve

Making decent progress on this, into building up the details on the dungeon crawl part.

I have 3 different side paths to take depending on class/skill checks (basically let's you skip an area if you can find them but the shortcut is a little more dangerous).

I still have the final battle scene to finish and then the post battle cutscene and good vs evil final quest choice (that is going to be a fun cut scene to script out).

I am estimating that by mid next week I should be into post production mode (doing fine detail on the areas, my GOD is that a PITA to do and have to figure out have to lay down tracks for Rangers). Then I will be working on converting it to ALFA standards and get it up and running with the full ALFA scripts. After that then I will start making variants of the existing one (I wrote it so that it would not be hard to replace creature X and Villian X with creature Y and villian Y, I should be able to get 4 different but similar adventures out of each one I make with some minor variations).

What I want to do after I finish this process is turn the adventure into a stand alone ALFA builder platform buy providing an semi-automated installed for the MySQL, NWNX, Vaultster so people can setup a single server 'out of the box' type idea.

I have been reading through the ACR scripts (little over my head in some cases but using them shouldn't be too hard thanks to the great work others have put into it).

I am not clear yet if the custom languages can be used in skill checks, if not now then later I have a lot of good ideas for supporting them in adventure modules, with them I can design some very narrow side paths.

Cheers

[Kemeras]

just a FYI haven't had much time to work on anything since the last post.

On vacation for the next two weeks so I should have something pretty solid to demo by the end of it

Cheers!

[Kemeras]

Been making some decent progress, I have been working on the different class options in the module. For this adventure I am focusing options for thieves, wizard(and like types), clerics and attempting to add tracks for Rangers.

I got seriously lucky yesterday, my primary workstation crapped out after moving the computers in the basement around. The drive with all my data started going wonky (not just ALFA stuff, all of my personal projects).

36 hours later, Athena smiled upon me and the drive came back to life in a drive enclosure off an old laptop (seriously odd, was about to give up hope and start restoring an old backup and tried it one last time, laptop is the only one that can read the drive right now and I was able to pull everything off).

After I finish up the thief's path side option, I am going to script up the end fight and start working on getting up and running under a ALFA build mod now that I have all the resources to do that.

Seamless portalling is working so the concept is completely doable from a technical stand point. I just need to get some time to keep working on it

Cheers

[Kemeras]

changed the title of the thread, GvE plot tracker isn't really needed and I am not going forward with that idea for hte time being. ALFA already tracks quests in the DB and it covers everything we need for reporting.

Just going to focus on story development and putting module packs together for the world hosters.

[Kemeras]

Hey

just an update, have done zero work on this over the last week or so. Been wrapped up with work and family life.

Hoping to get back to it soon, sorry guys

Still committed to this. Cheers!

[ElCadaver]

Hi Kemeras,
I had a similar idea I proposed, where an adventurers guild on an island had portals to all over the forgotten realms, and DM's could load adventures on for peeps to play, and rotate them every frw months. the idea got torpedoed, but come to think of it, I did actually build the island... which might come in handy for a scenic diversion.

[Kemeras]

thanks man, I will always take areas to add.

Will be working on it tonight, Thursday going forward are dedicated to creative content (my wife is back into the writing swing which is great!)

Cheers!

[ElCadaver]

should have internet at home in a week or so, will see what I can upload then.

[ElCadaver]

I've had a look for the Island module I made, no luck so far. Just finding all my nwn2 building folders again after a reinstall due to HDD crash.

Keep going though. I really think this direction is the future of ALFA servers with NWN2. It can't handle the vast sprawling world we created with NWN1, and a server full of dedicated adveture areas for RP and static quests could increase the scope of how much we can portray of the FR. There are so many great places TFR, and I think we should be picking and chosing the best and most interesting locations, re-creating them to the best of our ability, and providing plausible means and reasons for players to go there.. and stop making so many roads ( from a person who has made quite a few).

I suggest we also approach the best builders on the NWvault, and a) ask if we can use their current areas on this server (with credit given), and b) inspire in them an interest in TFR, with a view to having them create canon locations. We have some great builders in ALFA, but there is heaps of talent out there who might like to have their awesome areas on a PW server as big as this one.

[Kemeras]

Hey Thanks man!

A) Thinking the same thing, once I finish the concept version and then refine it we should have a decent working template, it's a matter of throwing people at the content problem at that point and taking direction from Admin on storylines (e.g. PA breaks it up in penny packets and then passes along what he would like to different people, that way he can try and keep the overall plot somewhat hidden).

B) Totally agree, all about the working prototype and a bit of play testing.

That being said I have had little time to work on any projects lately, home and work have been busy but I will be back onto it next week. Thursday we are dedicating to creative projects (wife is complaining about it too, we both have stuff we want to work on).

The tech is there to support the concept, now it's mainly a matter of grunt work getting it ready. Hoping by the end of April at the latest.

Cheers

[Sandermann]

The idea seems sound but I'll have to play devils advocate:

1)Who is HDM for this server, for all extant servers one individual (the HDM) is ultimately responsible and answerable for anything that happens on that server. Who would fill this leadership role for a proposed adventure server?

2)who is going to check standards? If content is going to be regularly rotated through it, is this content going to be checked by the standards team to ok merchatants/spawns/NPCs?