Guard Dog

Wow, two in a row Volo.

You know they really do have party at Shula's steak house in Miami Beach every year after the last undefeated team goes down. I wonder if the '76 Bucs will have one when the dolphins win a game. I suspect not.

Nevermind.

In Afgahnistan women were treated even worse. Until about six years ago. Hmmm, I wonder when Yushaa is going to get here.

I was so sure that was it. When the Ravens knocked the pass away on 4th down I started celebrating. Then.... the penalty.... But hope resurged again on the KO return, then Bolenger passes, it's complete, I jump up, one step to the goal line, two steps, then.... down he goes. Four yards short, and no time left. It was one of the best games I've watched this year, college or pro.

Shouldn't they be demanding to hack the heads off of the children then? I mean, after all, the children were the ones who actually came up with the name.

I was wondering if anyone down there will let me send them $70 AU and a FedEx label and have them buy it for me and ship is back here to the US. That is unless Amazon UK will ship to the US or I can get it on ebay.

I guess not.

Just got invited to the Dolphins-Jets game. Yea! Lower level endzone seats. If you watch the game look for me, I'll be the drunk one in the Florida Panthers T-Shirt (No dolphins shirts I'm afraid). Today is the day they get that first win!

Hmmm. I wonder who much it would cost to FedEx and envelope to AU or NZ. And have a package FedEx'ed back. Or if anyone down under is willing to play ball.

More good stuff from the "religion of peace".

That is exactly how most mods fail. Including a few of mine.

No kidding? How much? Is it complete?

I did a very brief cameo of a BG2 charater in one of my mods and got really good feedback from it. But Rhomal does have a point. Brigning back BG charaters as actual players is pretty risky. If you do it right it will be a huge success. Err just a little and it will be a huge failure. But if you have a story to tell, you need to tell YOUR story. And if that involves invoking BG chracters, do it.

Makes sense I guess. They want to create the maximum amount of stir for the new season. They've never made us wait a year and a half before. I guess it's just as well next season it is. As good as this show it, management wise it never seemed to have it's act together.

Before you do anything else, write up a one paragraph synopsis of your main story. Lay out the premise. Explain the hook. Name your players antagonist. Set up your rising action and major player decisions. Cover your climax and it's potential outcomes. State the falling actions and conclusion(s). You should be able to do that in 100-150 words. That will give you about 3-4 hours of game time. If you can't put it all in 100-150 words, revise you story and narrow the scope. Get your main story, the conflict between your player and the antagonst straight first. Then worry about companions, dialoge, and where it all fits in.

Glad I could help. It just makes sense to me. If the story does not work it does not matter if the mod is techincly sound. The reverse is not true. If the story is good the player can forgive a few techincal shortcomings in the mod. So it seems to make sense to get the story and all of it's branches laid out before you start building.

It's funny. I would happily spend $1000.00 building a new computer to play a PC version of ME , but would not spend $300 to buy an Xbox to play it now. I guess I'm nuts.

First some shameless self promotion... I've created two NWN1 mods, collaborated on a third (that is in the HOF) plus did all the building for the Red Tower PW in NWN1. In NWN2 I've been working on one for a long time now. So here is my advice; Keep the scope of your story narrow. Big epic wanderfests (ala BG) do not work in NWN2 mods. Have a clear consise main plot with a half dozen or so side quests or sub plots. The more convoluted the story is, the more variables you need to script and write for and it becomes VERY difficult to keep up with as a builder. Most mods never get completed because the builder wants to create something the size of Oblivion and it is too much work for one person. Plan for no more than 5 hours of gameplay. there is a practical reason for this. NWN2 mods are huge downloads. The longer it is, the more it contains, the larger the download. If your mod weighs in at 180M zipped you can forget anyone with dial up or BW limitations (college accounts) ever playing it. Plus this ties neatly into my first bit of advice. Keep your areas small. It is much easier to design a smaller playing area than a larger one. A small area with high attention to detail is more visually pleasing than a large empty one. Plus smaller areas load quicker. Waiting for a larger area to load up kills game continiuty and spoils immersion for your player. And lower end computers will run easier with smaller areas. Better to create four 4X4 areas than one 16X16. Plus NWN2 has a lot of neat features that make small areas look big. Outline, outline outline. I cannot stress how important that is. Some builders (like Beerfish and Stephan) can just go off the cuff. Most can't. So make an outline because it will tell you how many areas you need to create, what NPCs you need, etc. The way i write the story is using the players journal. I'll write all of the journal entries first and then build the mod around that story. I recommend creating a few playable areas with a few sidequests that work right away. It is really motivating to be able to load you work up right away and see it working. Name your scripts something unique so you can recognize them if you need to edit them. Most mods end up with hundreds of scripts. If you use the default numbering system, good luck finding them later. Dont' be afraid to use and edit premade areas from the NWN Vault. Building in NWN2 is a hell of a lot more work than NWN1. If you find a shortcut, take it. Just credit the one who built it in you readme/credits. There are also a ton of good tools and script writers out there. Use them, they are life savers. As far as man hours go, who can say. My NWN mods were about 4 hours of playing time for the first, 2 hours for the second. The first took a month of steady work, the second took six weeks. I've been working on the NWN2 mod for almost a year. Off and on. Anyway, let me know if I can help.

Colrom you are a smart guy, no doubt. But you have no sense of humor.

You know, I have read posts blaming America for a lot of things but that is a first.

Actually it means they have not met the right person to change their mind about it. Notice the ones here who are coldest about finding love and family are either college students who haven't even begun their careers yet or they are like Tale, young professionals whose careers are rising. It is completely understandable why starting a family would be the last thing on their minds right now. Now look at the ones who have wives and kids, Hurlshot, Taks. Hurlshot is a teacher, and Taks is going to invent a new super efficient semi conductor that will allow the creation microprossesors the size of atoms any day now. They both have succesful careers that are well on track and this is exactly the time to have a family. If someone states something like "I'll never get married" that just tells me they haven't met anyone to change their minds about it....yet.

That is true. And very significant.

Let me take this into a different direction. I'll pose two questions about the war and lets see what opinions everyone has. 1) How would history have changed had Germany won, or at least ended the war on more favorable terms? 2) What impact did the US entrance have on the war and if the US had not entered what would have changed? Would history be different today? I'll post my own thoughts in a bit, but I'm curious what you guys think.

I once thought I would have a traditional family. Wife, kids, take them to see the grandparents from time to time. But the reality was a little different. My wife and I split up a few years ago with no kids. I hated her after that but now that I look back on it the divorce was really like a quiet death at the end of a long illness. You're sad when it happens but you are also glad it's over. I hated her mostly because I blamed her for things she was not totally responsible for. At the time I had a failed marriage, failed business, and failed political career, plus was totally broke. She left because of it but she was not the cause of it. I alienated most of my family in that process but have mended the fences some since. But most holidays I avoid family gatherings, too uncomfortable. So really my dogs are like my family now. I seriously doubt I'll get married again, once was enough. I wonder what life might be like if things had gone differently, especially this time of year. But I don't dwell on it. The one lesson in life that I have learned is that happiness is something you chose to have, or not to have. I chose to be happy and optimistic. Thats why I've never understood why so many people get so down and depressed over family, or homesickness this time of year. Your home is wherever you are. And your family is your friends and the people around you right now, just as much as your parents, spouse, siblings etc.