Friday, January 30, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year

Slightly belated. Enjoyed cooking to celebrate it, and went slightly better than my Burn's Night celebrations earlier in the week. Burn's Night is something that might not mean much to those outside the UK, but the key aspects are haggis and good dram o' single malt whisky (note, no 'e' in this whisky). I cooked haggis canneloni as a varient on haggis lasagne, which still seems like heresy, but went down well.


There's something oddly therapeutic about putting hak packs together and reordering 2da content as necessary. Yes, it gets tedious after too long, but it still has a certain charm, and certain logic, to it. I've been tinkering with a few things on the toolset, and looking at the Forgotten Realms-specific content on the vault to see what there is that can really bring a realms setting to life. Next on my list is to dabble with the Overland Map to get a handle for what's required, and see how much of a barrier to using it there is. Then, with some handy pointers from Lance, I'm planning on picking up on some initial digging I'd done into the new crafting mechanics.

Once, they're done, I'll see how I'm feeling about getting properly stuck into something new

A poll to the right I'd be interested in people's thoughts on - there's a lot of talk about the state of the community, but from the players and builders, I'd like to know what will keep you sticking with NWN2 this time next year? Something struck me the other day - having read through 4e D&D, and having played all incarnations of D&D (and still playing in PnP Rules Cyclopedia campaign), for me 3.5e is where I'm happiest, and where I feel D&D is the most coherent, consistent, expandable and logical system. I can have fun with other editions, but 3e is what I'd come home to. And NWN2 is likely to be the last bastion of 3e D&D for computer gamers. That to me, seems a pretty good reason to stick with NWN2 and the community. I'd be interestd to hear others thoughts on this (and the poll)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't see myself switching to another D&D soon. I don't like 4th edition, but even if I did there would be no reason for me to do so, as long as at least a part of the community remained. Also, I have to finish my mod first (which could take years) and maybe a sequel.

Generaly, I think that NWN2 community will continue to grow for several years just as NWN community did (does?). Maybe more, as 4th edition doesn't seem so popular.

Lariam said...

I picked several of the poll options. I guess choosing 'I'll stick with the game no matter what' option was something of an exaggeration. But there are so many mods I haven't played, at this point, that I felt I'll be likely so spend some time with this game, well, no matter what else happens in the crpg scene.

I tend to like moving on, though, to new games (if my computer is able to run them). I guess that's because I like the idea of this D&D-with-a-toolset crowd sticking together. When NWN3 is released, it won't flourish unless folks move on, and so on. But perhaps this scene will of necessity become more fragemented, now that there will be many games of roughly this style available.

Still, though, the next D&D game will make me leave NWN2 only if it is similar in that it has a toolset that the community can use to create new adventure modules.

Adventure packs would be fun. As well as new expansions. Promises of more promising modules (whether by familiar names or promising newcomers) are nice. And good for the community, I think. Provides some horizon for expectations; some hope for the future of the game.

The option that best fits my attitude is the 'I'm fine with the trickle of interesting modules' -style of response. Probably until NWN3, if not longer (I don't see myself getting a new computer all that often in the future.)

slowdive_fan said...

I'll be sticking with NWN2 for a while. I didn't like NWN1 very much (although I did release 2 modules) because of the lack of control of companions (I hated the henchmen system). I have studied the D&D4.0e rules and I don't like them (I started with AD&D1.0e and still like that rule set, but I agree that 3.5e seems to be solid). So I don't know how excited I would be about a NWN3 with 4.0e. Dragon Age is out of the question due to the lack of a terrain editor or tilesets. So I'll stick with NWN2, even though the community is shrinking slowly, but those who remain are awesome ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'll stay with NWN2 at the moment also. Playing wise, I play many other games as well, but the community and toolset keeps me "anchored" in NWN2 for now.

I don't think I'll like Dragon Age that much, though I'll give it a try. It'll have to have some extraordinary things for me to switch over modding wise. Stuff like cutscenes (which I hear is a big thing in the DA toolset) is not something I personally consider important for example.

If NWN3 gets released sometime, then I might move on to that depending on how it'd work out. It'd be fun to see Obsidian doing it in that case.

But yep, I'll be staying with NWN2.

Anonymous said...

I'm staying with NWN2 for the time being. I find the editor easy (enough) to use, and the power it has is mind blowing. Of course, more CC--creatures especially--would be nice, but I'm willing to deal with the trickle as of now.

And I hope you stick around Wyrin!--I started DA and am very impressed.

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Wyrin,

Thanks for the blog pointer. :)

I have to start looking at the various mapping systems again soon. I got a working version of the very first system with NWN2, but I would like to take a closer look at both the systems out since then ... MotB and SoZ, as both have something to offer.

I also voted stick with NWN2 regardless as the best option for me at the moment, as I am familiar with the rules and toolset that we have here, and it may be too big a step to take (again) to switch to yet another system. ;)

That said, if there is a need for a change (players request or better support in a later toolset), then I may be tempted to swap sometime down the line.

As long as its D&D in the spirit I like to play, then it should have my vote. :)

Lance.

Anonymous said...

I'm still on NWN1, you insensitive clod!

Wyrin said...

well this is a NWN2 blog, but thanks for stopping by!

EC said...

All in all, very few NWN1 builders seem to have made the jump to NWN2 (then again, most builders only ever put out one mod!).

I think we might see the same phenomenon when DA (or NWN3) comes around, being that a lot of builders (who want to keep building cRPGs) will stick to NWN2 no matter what (smaller player base, fewer new CC releases etc.), because that is the game they invested so much time and energy becoming familiar with.

I'm likely to fall into that category. :)

As for the time being, I'm quite satisfied with the quantity of mods out there now, and the rate at which new ones are published. I haven't had the chance yet to play all of those I want to play, so I can't complain!