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Baldur's Gate has launched!(was called sick drama so i quit)

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:40 pm
by ayergo
(edit: title changed as it came to my attention some folks can only see the titles)

Little early April fools joke there, sorry.

Greetings ALFAns! Some of you may not know or have forgotten about me, for some time now i have been absent from the adventures in NWN1 and around in general. This is not for lack of desire to game, for many a great player still remain active and DMs and quests abound.

It was however with my mind towards the future that i set out into the wastes of the desert to seek out the mythic treasure called NWN2. Great battles i fought in the blasted desert with the beast known as "Toolset", but now i return to you! (see picture)
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And so to the point:

It is with great pleasure i launch my version of Baldur's Gate version 1.00 for general testing

Before anyone gets too excited, its pretty simple so far and more or less a "bare bones" of what you need to really play... but play you most certainly can on this server. On that note...

Fun to be had doing stuff:

-Natury types can collect a few select herbs in the forests. You'll need survival or heal skills to do it though. A certain herbalist would find these useful in town.

-Magey types can find some spell components, most usually in dungeons. Bat guano anyone? : P Oh, and one dungeon requires some basic spell knowlege for entry. People will want to make friends with you.

-Clerics/Faith PCs as always have to care for the dead, don't they? Bodies of adventurers less fortunate than yourself may be found in your travels. I advise that clerics have spells handy to bless (or desecrate :twisted: ) the bodies as necessary.

-Warriors Yeah there are some nasty things about. Roads aren't safe at night, always handy to have you around when things get nasty. Besides, how are those mages going to get spell components from monsters while they're still allive?

-Thieves Traps, what traps? Treasure chests? Locked and trapped? On my server? No no.... all the chests are empty. ; ) Oh yeah, and bluff skills might come in handy in a few situations as well.

-Dungeons: Lets talk a bit about these. I like to reward high Cha and social skills as they seem like dump stats to too many people. So far there are 2 dungeons in the module. To get the key to one you need a somewhat high Cha. To get the key to the other one you'll need some diplomacy skill, or at least be a bit intimidating. : ) Oh yeah, and that one you'll also need a mage of some sort to trigger the spell on the door (or a larger amount of UMD skill). I don't recommend going into either dungeon alone, the enterance to one is uni-directional so go prepared and bring friends!!!

Resting - a few rooms for free in the Helm and Cloak until i figure out a good way to implement paid rooms. yay!

When you do need a hand, its always good to visit your local clergy though. So far i've got Umberlee, Tymora, and Lathander covered. Gond should be along shortly, but if you are of these faiths and talk to the priests you can get their blessings for free, and access to cheaper goods!

What is in so far? Well the city proper, west along the river to Ulgoth's beard, and south down to Candlekeep and Beregost. Remember roads are dangerous at night. The rest of Cloakwood should be included before long.

Ready to play? The good news is i've tried to keep things as simple as possible. I only use one hak as required by ACR stuff to keep downloads to a minimum:

http://www.jkmicro.com/downloads/zip/ay ... fa_acr.hak

PWC is here:

http://www.jkmicro.com/downloads/zip/ay ... 00_PWC.zip

And in terms of bug reports etc i'm trying something different. I want you to submit the fixes, even if you're the player. If you can't and just report it, thats okay too but fixes will be rewarded with DM time. You can download the whole module here:

http://www.jkmicro.com/downloads/zip/ay ... e_1_00.zip

Password is regular alfa password. Module should be up if you're up for a jaunt. Hop in and have fun.

At this time i'd like to request a server forum to discuss getting things up to snuff in terms of ALFA standards, bug reports, etc. If someone could facilitate that it would be greatly appreciated.

Finally a few thanks. First to Josh, jfln whom many have not met. All the pretty areas? Yeah, those are his. All the ugly ones? yah.. those are mine.

AcadiusLost, for incredible ACR work and getting me back on my feet with this mod more than once.

Indio for some touchup work and inspiration for my DMing in general.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster, just because. At any rate, have fun all!

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:50 pm
by AcadiusLost
Just a note for players (and especially builders) who want to check this module out- if you've already got a copy of the alfa_acr.hak, just pick up the PWC for testing, as the hak you have alreadt will work for playing on BG, but BG's one won't work so well for your other build projects (it's several versions behind and may not compile your modules).

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:09 pm
by Rotku
Sounds great, ayergo! Looking forward to seeing some screenshots.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:12 pm
by Rotku
Out of curiousity, which came first - the story about the desert, or the picture?

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:03 pm
by ayergo
The picture. Someone sent me that link the other day and i got a kick out of it.

As for screenies, i'll try to post some of the more majestic shots later on tonight.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:09 pm
by indio
Good god man, this is exciting news indeed.

Very impressive effort ayergo. Doing this the way you've done it. Awesome style. Downloading PWC now.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:36 pm
by Holy_Rage
Way to go, sir, way to go.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:39 pm
by Wynna
The penguin rides again!

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:57 pm
by indio
This is a great achievement by ayergo and Josh (aka jfln).

Until today, I'd only seen an interior or two. Now I've had a chance to spend 10 minutes walking around, before getting dragged of shopping. I'm just blown away. It's totally made my day to see this work, completed in such a professional manner, and made available to us at this turning point in our NWN2 development.

I take my hat off to you two. This work will come to mean a great deal to this community, as it does already to me.

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Racerblue is looking for a place to stretch his legs on some exteriors. You might drop him a line if you're looking for help. And you can call on me anytime for help, interior or exterior.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:16 pm
by JaydeMoon
!!!

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:18 pm
by psycho_leo
Looking good.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:34 pm
by darrenhfx
Wow! Very nice!

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:54 pm
by Veilan
Rotku wrote:Out of curiousity, which came first - the story about the desert, or the picture?
This came first:

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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:31 pm
by Rotku
That town looks absolutely amazing. What is it?

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:36 pm
by ayergo
*sniffles* Ah someone around still remembers the penguin of the desert.

The town pictured above is Beregost