Creating a NWN2 mod

[Walsingham]

Alright then. It occurs to me it would makee more sense to have GD manage it, since I'm confident he can crack teh whip and knows where to crack it. HOw about I do two things before we kick off.

 

1) I do some work for Tale, doing some dialogue. That would help me learn teh system, and chalk up some credit.

 

2) Begin an outline of the story and main plot, then maybe get stuck into teh journal entries.

 

If I can complete those then you'll know I'm serious, as will I.

[Guard Dog]

Alright then. It occurs to me it would makee more sense to have GD manage it, since I'm confident he can crack teh whip and knows where to crack it. HOw about I do two things before we kick off.

 

1) I do some work for Tale, doing some dialogue. That would help me learn teh system, and chalk up some credit.

 

2) Begin an outline of the story and main plot, then maybe get stuck into teh journal entries.

 

If I can complete those then you'll know I'm serious, as will I.

 

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.

[Pidesco]

I have different advice. Before you do anything else, create your main characters. Develop them, see how they fit with each other, what conflicts might arise between them. Then, create the possible, intertwining stories that can revolve around those characters.

[Kaftan Barlast]

NWN2 being as cool as it is I tought it would rock to use it.

 

 

You wont feel that way after you've had some time with the toolset

[MLMarkland]

Or you might find that you prefer the nwn2 toolset to any alternative for combining power with extreme flexibility.

[Tale]

I definitely prefer the NWN2 toolset to say... RPG Maker for the PSOne.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I think dialogue will be tricky. But if you're up for it...

 

I could also write dialog - if that would be helpful (It's not like my own NWNII mod is going, or getting, anywhere at the moment, and maybe a few people who can actually script worth a damn could either migrate over after your project gets done or give me a few pointers). Although, if I did end getting on the team, I would only be able to work when I'm not behind on real-life stuff, so if the others started to outpace me I would have to turn my work over to another until I was free to write again...

Edited November 30, 2007 by Deadly_Nightshade

[Tale]

I'm always up to help scripting. I can't do anything TOO complex, but I've been able to set up areas, spawn in NPCs on triggers, that kind of thing. Been trying to get a cutscene event where a character dies to work properly, but that's keeps screwing me over.

[Rhomal]

I've been thinking for a long time about writing a high level mod for NWN. NWN2 being as cool as it is I tought it would rock to use it.

 

My plan is to have the PCs drop into campaign as the grandchildren of bhaalspawn, called to the Planes in the new home of the Lady of Murder. We have a small world with stuff to do, and a modular series of extension campaigns/missions based around serving the needs of the Lady, or her many Deified/mundane enemies. I'd like to have both dark and humour in the missions, and also some serious BG2 NPCs available for missions, especially

 

Minsc (and Boo)

Xzar

Jan Jansen

 

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who could tell me hwo many man hours this is likely to require, and anyone who can use the toolset.

 

A few suggestions...

 

4 words; "prefabs are your friend", using prefabs all places like nwvault will be VERY helpful to you and save a incredible amount of time. Even if you had to tweak/modify some of them it still a huge time saver.

 

the BG ship has sailed, let it go. Rather then rehash a story and NPCs that will NEVER attain the heights that will be expected by the players (no offense to your writing skill, bit its a fact). you are, in effect doomed to fail in the eyes of those BG fans (your core audience)

 

My suggestion would be create a fresh story and fresh NPCs with MAYBE a cameo or two if not forced and can logically work into the overall plot.

 

M2C

[Walsingham]

Rhomal, I can see your advice is perfectly sound, but I would simply not be me if I gave up on projects just because they were stupid.

[Dark_Raven]

I've been thinking for a long time about writing a high level mod for NWN. NWN2 being as cool as it is I tought it would rock to use it.

 

My plan is to have the PCs drop into campaign as the grandchildren of bhaalspawn, called to the Planes in the new home of the Lady of Murder. We have a small world with stuff to do, and a modular series of extension campaigns/missions based around serving the needs of the Lady, or her many Deified/mundane enemies. I'd like to have both dark and humour in the missions, and also some serious BG2 NPCs available for missions, especially

 

Minsc (and Boo)

Xzar

Jan Jansen

 

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who could tell me hwo many man hours this is likely to require, and anyone who can use the toolset.

 

A few suggestions...

 

4 words; "prefabs are your friend", using prefabs all places like nwvault will be VERY helpful to you and save a incredible amount of time. Even if you had to tweak/modify some of them it still a huge time saver.

 

the BG ship has sailed, let it go. Rather then rehash a story and NPCs that will NEVER attain the heights that will be expected by the players (no offense to your writing skill, bit its a fact). you are, in effect doomed to fail in the eyes of those BG fans (your core audience)

 

My suggestion would be create a fresh story and fresh NPCs with MAYBE a cameo or two if not forced and can logically work into the overall plot.

 

M2C

 

Nonsense. The BG ship is very sea worthy and able to sail around the world.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I agree with madam Raven, Baldur's Gate is hardly dead...

[Walsingham]

Thinking about it some more, the thought of some diehard wearing a tinfoil hat and scratching himself condemning the mod doesn't bother me in the least. Besides, the PCs aren't going to be all BG. It's the spirit of the thing I'm looking for.

[Atreides]

Will we get to kill Noobler/Neebler this time?

[Musopticon?]

Please forget BG, just add better original content instead. I'm really tired of cameos and just like Rhomal said, you'll never reach the height of the characters.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Do whatever you want to do, whatever entertains or inspires you. It will show in the quality of the writing, no matter what any alleged die-hards may say.

[Guard Dog]

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.

[Tale]

Unless you're trying to create a game to use as a foot into the gaming industry, build for yourself, not the audience. Treat it as art and expression, not a commercial product. You'll enjoy the experience more.

Edited December 1, 2007 by Tale

[Walsingham]

Unless you're trying to create a game to use as a foot into the gaming industry, build for yourself, not the audience. Treat it as art and expression, not a commercial product. You'll enjoy the experience more.

 

I think that was what I was subconsciously aiming for. I mean, I'm not interested in getting a foot in the industry so yeah, why not have fun?

 

The only problem at the minute is that I'm stuck without a graphics card and I can barely manage DVD! It sucks, but it's likely there will be no actual design for a bit. But then, I was supposed to work in paper first.

[Dark_Raven]

Don't get too excited there little buddy. Plan it first, start simple and move on to the more complex things. If you start doing to many things at once or out of order, you'll burn yourself out and give up.

[Guard Dog]

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