A rant on NWN wizards

I've come across a LOT of options for base scripts, items, prefabs, and areas.

Now it's just a matter of figuring out how much I want to try to incorporate. I think for the initial server, I'm going for a "setting feel" and my core, base scripts. The ones that will set the tone of the module. Level 1 stuff.

I'll work in crafting and all the other flimflam later. But you have to have good options on death, bleeding, leveling, treasure drops, spawning and "flavor" scripts in immediately. Same with items.

I'm going with a lot of alternate solutions - there are quite a few things I don't agree with in the base NWN2 game system. For example - free spells on level up for wizards.

I get clerics or druids - they pray to a god. Wizards, though - takes hard work and a week for even a level one spell. So I'm putting in a hak to make sure that they can't just pick out a few good spells. I'm sure with the lack of scrolls in the mod I have planned that this will hurt like a punch to the gut - but I'll give them an extra feat - Arcane Blast - to make up for it. I figure if a warlock has it, then wizards and sorcs shouldn't be left out.

They'll get the later ranks MUCH later, I think at level 1 (d6) Level 5 (2d6) and Level 8 (3d6). That should keep things balanced while they hunt for scrolls and scrimp and save.

The first wizard to get all spells up to top level (4th level spells) will win.

The "I really, really need a life" award.

Beautiful bird, the Norweigian blue...

...wonderful plumage.

But, seriously. So, after a whole heck of a lot of drama, I've decided to create an NWN 2 PW.

Yes, yes, I've said this a couple of times before. And yes, I know I've flaked out on more than one occasion. The bottom line, though, is that NWN1 is no longer a fun engine, and any monkey can steal or appropriate some files from a hard-working builder team and end up with a ready-to-run PW in a matter of weeks.

I mean, really. How hard do you have to work to build in NWN1 yourself? Especially as an persisten world builder and admin?

Sorry if I seem to be laying it on kind of thick, but stealing from a dwindling playerbase to make your own dwindling server is sort of cheesy. Even if the people running it were being pansy on the whole subject.

Regardless, there is a lot of competition for players, apparently. Apparently so much so that taking someone else's PW out is the best option. In NWN1. Right.

I know I am ragging on someone specific (*cough* Fractal *cough*), and despite my genuine liking for the guy, that he couldn't make his own NWN2 world take off (even when it was built by other people and he just "appropriated" the work there, too) - how do you expect to do so for NWN1?

I didn't realize this, but I have credits on at least 15 PWs - some of which have come and gone. Fifteen. Wow, I cannot believe I helped that many people out.

In NWN2 alone, there were four which I directly aided, and with a little pack out there, I helped probably 20 more based off of votes.

Really, I only wonder if I should make a PW for a dying game, but I want to make a little sandbox in NWN2 just to make one, make MY sandbox, and perhaps have some friends over. It'll be like the old days, hosting it on my personal machine, giving players what they want, and lots of personal attention.

What's sad is Kalia, Lysander, DT, Naerth, Semaj and countless other friends won't be out there to play with. I wish they were, but it's not likely.

But I do need to get a coder - I can code some stuff myself, but if I get too involved (as I tend to do), nothing else gets done. My idea is to use as much drag and drop stuff as I can, put everything I can together from the community, and try to put together an experience which is driven based off of DM-player interaction on a small scale.

That is, after all, what made MD so wildly popular. One to 10 DM/player ratio.

All in all, based off of the "activity" from MD (more properly, MD1, rest in peace), I understand why Frac did what he did. I don't even think it was entirely wrong. Hell, I did it years ago when I was DMing Menzo, and for much the same reason - DMs who weren't running quests, admin staff who was mostly absent.

That's one thing I always did - run the place. When you can't run a server, give it to someone else. That way, you can afford to bitch at them years later.

Yadda yadda

I haven't posted on this blog since April, but then again, I haven't advertised much or done much of anything in NWN building.

I've been approached for Myth Drannor 2 by a number of people, but my main organizers have been silent due to IRL woes. So, this may not work out - again. I can;t really build a PW solo within the NWN2 engine, it's just not feasible.

I'd say the community is dying out - I posted updates to a highly-used package and discovered that only a few people were really interested in it at all. The downloads are high, but very little voting or feedback. Managed to get 2-3 votes for it, but it's still five votes shy of HOF status.

I'm not tooting my horn on this one, I've had feedback from ENoa, Dragonbane and a number of other highly-respected builders, both from SP modules and from PWs. The package is literally a "cannot do without", as it speeds interior building by about five times.

That it's getting so many downloads (approximately 2000 currently, and even the old package posted separately is up to 70 in just a few weeks) is actually kind of disheartening. Even I don't vote for everything I download, but I do manage to get at least 70% of them voted for.

Alas, it seems that those giving back to the modding community have forsaken the game and very little seems to be occurring with the Vault as opposed to NWN this far out. I'm not sure if another expansion will do the trick, or if they will develop NWN3 (since DA will blow most of what could be done out of the water for a little while).

As for me, I'm still tinkering with WOW, but I've slacked even on that quite a bit. Gaming just doesn't have that intense rush it used to back when NWN was released, and I've been more interested in IRL stuff (like girls and theater and clubbing and whatever else) to really sink time into any projects or playtime.

I guess that happens when you hit 36, but I'm presuming that my gaming days have passed, I am long in the tooth and other explanations.

Of course, my mind could change tomorrow.

Updates

Sorry I've been so remiss in updating my blog. I've lost a lot of "free time" for creation os stuff, so I've decided not to get re-involved with NWN.

I figured I'd blog about the game I am involved with, though - World of Warcraft.



Yes, even I have fallen for this hideous beast of a game. Granted, I'm not quite raider status:



Nor do I play waaaaaay too long. Which I think anyone who has the time to come up with this image does:



I play possibly about 5-10 hours a week, and that even sporadically. Sometimes I read, get sunshine, etc.

So, I thought I'd blog about my time in Warcrac... er, Warcraft, seeing as there are 500 million bloggers out there doing so already.

No, I'm not an individual beautiful snowflake. I'm one of elven million... but I do have some fun doing what I am doing, and if people enjoy reading this stuff - well, more power to ya.



At least I'm not that bad.

My Triumphant Return

Well, okay. Perhaps not "triumphant". But I made an area.



I've been involved with a world named Kingdom of Winterhaven which has been fun.
Now, it is an action PW, but it's pretty well laid out and has a good progression rate. One of the guys asked me to make an Astral Plane setting. For not having actually touched to toolset in eight months, I think it's not too bad...


Yeah... it sucks. *defensively* But it's better than some of the areas I have to walk through in that place!

On the progression rate, I'd possibly slow it down a bit (a tiny bit) and actually create persistent quests, but it's not a bad job for the PW scene as it stands.

Yeah, I suppose my biggest problem is persistency. Having to show up again and again at the starter area. Having to re-grab quests every time the server crashes. Not having persistent bind points, but a select few.

But other than that, I mean, it's not bad.

I've tried a few other action PWs, even just plain ol' action servers, and they're not that well-balanced, nor do you have a good direction right off the bat. And some of these are Hall Of Fame.

World One:

"Choose between three factions to start off with. No information on those factions in-game, but there you go."

Well, I exaggerate a little bit. They did say something about the faction I chose being snobbish.

Then "Go kill beasts in the forest. I'll mark your map for you."

Okay. Now. I personally cannot see a forest anywhere. Secondly, the mapnote is not visible on the overland map.

But this was the kicker:

Our faction headquarters had been occupied (apparently prior to my arrival) by an enemy faction. Wonderful. So, I've chosen a faction right of fthe bat that sucks, probably has one player online.

Wait, there's a "see online faction" tool. Great!

Three. Three of the nine players are my faction.

Should be pretty well-balanced, I think.

Where the heck are my faction people, so we can destroy the enemies?

And that was world one. I logged right at the point where one of the mobs just raped me with three crits in a row, right outside the city gate. Some builder did not check the BAB on this critter, caue he was hitting a light-armored newb pretty heavy.

Whatever happened to the "rats in the basement" start?

Okay, okay. I guess my ad campaign worked too well, because I haven't seen a rat starter quest in any of the PW's I've played in.

Le sigh.

What happened to the term “Roleplay”?

It seems that too often now a days, “roleplay” as a term has come to mean “tea and biscuits at the inn” style of doing a social chat network on an NWN server. I mean, some RP servers I’ve visited give literally 10 XP per kill on a creature – grudgingly at that, with all sorts of counter-measures to ensure that “no one levels too fast”.

And it’s not just my old server.

It’s a plague.

Yes, you heard me, a plague.

Dungeons and Dragons (at least the NWN version) has come to mean those things you avoid because of XP and gold loss when you get your ass pasted by level 3 goblins with Great Cleave and +3 vorpal swords in starter areas.

I mean, really, come on. We’re supposed to be adventurers.

And we’re not. Oh, sure, every once in a while those blokes hanging out like barflies at the town center might roam into the wilderness, but for the most part, they play political intrigue games and attempt to garner power which, factually, they never really earned through deeds.

Reminds me of some presidential candidates.

Like, all of them.

I mean really, let’s take a historical look at things, especially from a Forgotten Realms aspect. Mourngrym would never have become the lord of Shadowdale had he been a greengrocer. Not a good one, anyways.

In fact, all of the classic NPCs of yesteryear had adventuring down pat before they embarked upon their political or other journeys. Azoun. Mourngrym. Fzoul. Take your pick, all of the “good” leaders had at least five years of spell slinging under their belts before becoming political intriguers.

Now, let’s snap forward to present: If you’re on a roleplay server, what makes you think that you’re any better than the guys on the action server because your character sits and discusses events that others have done? Why is your “sewing circle” somehow better?

I’ve got news for you:

It ain’t.

Your drow character seeking nirvana-like bliss through tantric gyrations of verbiage is not any better than the guy using the shout channel to “LFG”.

Your half-demon winged emo-child with parental issues and a raging oepedial complex is not special. He’s not a unique snowflake.

I’ve seen it all folks.

From the moody female sorceress with a tainted past to the likeable rogue who is secretly working for [insert evil faction here]. It’s been seen, it’s been done, and most of the DMs working with you have the t-shirt. And let’s not do the tragic elven character who sings of the loss of his homeland or rebels against The Retreat.

You are just as common as any other WOW player yapping doglike for “LF1M 4 HFC”. No difference, yours just has a veneer of some sort of brain having to think of all this convoluted shit.

Now, I don’t mind that a character gets developed, has their own personality. The problem comes in when you feel a need to prove in some way that “Izza good roleplayah!”

It’s not funny. It’s not cool. And it certainly doesn’t make your character powerful. I’ve read posts where people have stated “I’m a low-level character, but I roleplay so well that I’m a mover and shaker!”

Poppycock.

You’re never a mover and shaker if a level 10 wizard can take you out with an Ice Storm spell.

Hate to burst your bubble, but might does make right.

Really what my ire boils down to is the dumbing down of adventure, and the loss of the old “dungeon crawl” style of adventuring. You know, the ones that Gary Gygax supported. The ones that Dave Arneson usually DMed. The ones that Ed Greenwood (the founder of your “oh-so-illustrious character) lives in, writes about in every single book he’s done.

Adventuring is what drives characters.

Not trite dialog, not how many people you’ve managed to talk about and certainly not how many people you’ve persuaded to vote for you on a forum.

Deeds speak louder than words.

Then why, of all things, has roleplay as a term become so sullied? Where people who “hunt” become so frowned upon as “powerlevelers”? How come action servers are so looked down upon? Why are “hack n slash” mods noted as a negative?

The inn is a way stop on the road to your character’s development. It’s not where most of the development occurs. If you spend more than 20 minutes of a two-hour NWN session in the inn, seriously – get a life. Play Dungeon Siege or Diablo for a bit, and learn to love finding new places, killing new things, and finding new treasures.

I’m not sure when the term changed. Personally, I think it’s time that the real adventurers took it back.

Survey

I've taken a survey. Strangely enough, it always coincides with my main character.

Which D&D Class Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Bard It is said that music has a special magic, and the bard proves that saying true. Wandering across the land, gathering lore, telling stories, working magic with his music, and living on the gratitude of his audience: such is the life of a bard. Bard 100% Monk 70% Sorcerer 70% Rogue 70% Fighter 60% Wizard 50% Paladin 40% Cleric 40% Barbarian 20% Druid 20% Ranger 20%