Guard Dog

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.

Ricky Williams out for the season after just 6 carries It's almost enough to make your head explode.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Green Bay at Dallas 8:15 p.m. COWBOYS. (Hard to call but GB is only 18th in pass D and Dallas is 5th in pass O) SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2 San Francisco at Carolina 1 p.m. PANTHERS (49ers are terrible) Jacksonville at Indianapolis 1 p.m. JAGUARS (Jags are the 4th best team in the league right now) San Diego at Kansas City 1 p.m. CHARGERS (very leery of this one) NY Jets at Miami 1 p.m. JETS (This is a home game for the jets) Detroit at Minnesota 1 p.m. LIONS (Vikings only won last week because of injuries to NY) Seattle at Philadelphia 1 p.m. EAGLES (Seattle is a poor road team and they are under no pressure) Atlanta at St. Louis 1 p.m. FALCONS (Better O, better D than the Rams) Houston at Tennessee 1 p.m. TITANS (Losing streak ends today) Buffalo at Washington 1 p.m. REDSKINS (Rebounds after loss in Tampa, dedicates game to Taylor, emotions running high) Cleveland at Arizona 4:05 p.m. BROWNS (Should have no trouble) Denver at Oakland 4:05 p.m. RAIDERS (Raiders D should come up big here.) NY Giants at Chicago 4:15 p.m. GIANTS (Look for a big effort after being embarassed by Vikings) Tampa Bay at New Orleans 4:15 p.m. BUCCANEERS (GO BUCS!!!!!!) Cincinnati at Pittsburgh 8:15 p.m. STEELERS (Last nights game was ugly. But good teams can win the ugly ones) MONDAY, DECEMBER 3 New England at Baltimore 8:30 p.m. RAVENS (This is it! Pats will be looking past the Ravens with the Steelers looming next week)

How is that series? I have Pandora's Star but I never got around to reading it yet. Is it worthwhile?

Redskins' Taylor dies in Miami-Dade from gunshot wound Very sad.

Watched Saturday night. I won't spoil anything but I will say get the DVD. It longer (uncut) and the story is worth the price tag. I'd give it 8.5 out of 10. BTW, they announced the start of Season 4 has been pushed back to 3/2008 and still no release date for Season 3 on DVD.

That and the inherent bias in the western media. That is utter sophistry but I realize only too well the futility of discussing it with you. No disrespect intended, but with your current president's lackluster track record, I'm finding it rather difficult not to doubt the intelligence of american voters. Remember what I said about the best of two bad choices? In the US only two candidates have a realistic shot at election. If they are both duds we are doomed to a dud president. You just have to hold your nose and pick the one that disgusts you the least. GDM makes a post in obvious jest and you use it to cast aspersions on his intelligence? That is a cheap shot.

*cheerfully* ...Because clearly an aggressively expanding communist bloc could have been expected to stop at Vietnam, and not go on to take over Laos and Cambodia, followed by Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia... Australia... India... that would have been just fine. Isn't that right, my unfeasibly 1920s friend? If a country is not strong enough to stand on its own against those that transgress it then it doesn't have the right to exist. Geez, does that mean nobody should help other countries against aggressors? That would change history a bit. Ja, mein freund. Okay, that was a little low.

Well I guess that solves that. It's all Greasy Dog Meats fault. Seriously, the rest of the world needs to come to grips with two facts. 1) The average American voter is not stupid. They may not be as informed on world events and politics as other countries citizens but that is only because we are less directly impacted by them. Never doubt though, most are pretty well informed when they step into the voting booth and the choice they make is usually an educated one. 2) Americans elect leaders to safeguard and advance the interests of America, not the rest of the world, not the UN, and certainly not our enemies. And when the interests of America contradict those of others (even allies such as most of Europe) we expect and demand that our leaders do what is best for our country. John Kerry utterly doomed his presidential bid when he stated he would not use military force to avert or defend against an imminent threat without world approval. What fool would place control of their well being in the hands of people who care nothing if you live or die? Don't get me wrong, no one likes GWB but he was the lesser of two bad choices in both of the last elections. Case in point, The Kyoto Treaty. Signing that would be tantamount to an act of sabotage on the US economy. Why in the world do you think Clinton refused to even put it to the Senate the first time it came up? Why do you think in 1997 the Senate voted it down 97-0? Because it would hurt us. The elected leaders of ANY sovereign nation should be expected to act in the best interests of that nation not some nebulous abstract concept like "the global community".