What I have been up to these past few months...
Well, with some free time, I think I should dust off the old LiveJournal and write about what I have been wasting my time on.
In the past I have babbled on and one about Neverwinter Nights Persistent Worlds. Earlier this year I decided to put my money where my mouth is and join the build team for the Avlis 2 PW. Avlis is one of the older PWs out there for NWN and they have been working tirelessly to bring about a NWN2 version of their universe. I always wanted to learn how to make areas with the NWN2 toolset and saw this as an excellent opportunity to dive right in.
After getting into the closed beta of their server and learning about the world setting, I contacted their head builder, a fellow who goes by the name of Camb on their forums, and volunteered my services. I submitted an area I threw together and I was accepted into their team. I was given the keys to the Development Wiki, secret IRC chat channel, SVN repository, and developer forums. One online tutorial later and I was ready to start building and submitting. I stuck with interiors as they are much easier to build and they needed a lot of them, since they already had a large number of gorgeous exterior maps. I started with volunteering to do areas that were emergency needs such as guild halls, stores, temples, taverns, etc. With each area I learned a bit more about the tool set. Areas that took me three weeks to build soon took only one week to build as I learned all the tricks and shortcuts of the toolset as well as all the neat plug-in tools that fans of the game have been building for the past two years.
As time passed, I was able to pick and choose the areas I wanted to build and also lend my input into more of the design of the world, specifically the city the game takes place around, Crosstreams. Those of you who have seen my previous posts know how much I love doing design work for miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. Well, this is a virtual extension of that into the electronic world.
Some examples of my work so far:
A society hall for the Order of the Crystal Rose:
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000ck0yx
Temple of Dru'El
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000ceqeq
The Crimson Wolves Mercenaries
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000c5w2k
The Grey Dirks Thieves Guild
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000byg0p
The Scarlet Orchid
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000ay7wx
The Ship Inn
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000asped
The PW has moved to open beta and we are testing things like the banking, crafting, and death system. I am also working with the DMs in the game to provide them with play areas they can use to set up adventures as well as pre-made NPCs and monsters that they can just throw into an area for instant adventure.
Now that I have mastered interior areas. I may start tackling exteriors. My hope is to be able to design one of the mega-dungeons that are being planned. Also, I would love to learn how to DM in the game.
If anyone is interested, here is a link to the A2 web site:
http://www.avlis2.org/portal.php
In the past I have babbled on and one about Neverwinter Nights Persistent Worlds. Earlier this year I decided to put my money where my mouth is and join the build team for the Avlis 2 PW. Avlis is one of the older PWs out there for NWN and they have been working tirelessly to bring about a NWN2 version of their universe. I always wanted to learn how to make areas with the NWN2 toolset and saw this as an excellent opportunity to dive right in.
After getting into the closed beta of their server and learning about the world setting, I contacted their head builder, a fellow who goes by the name of Camb on their forums, and volunteered my services. I submitted an area I threw together and I was accepted into their team. I was given the keys to the Development Wiki, secret IRC chat channel, SVN repository, and developer forums. One online tutorial later and I was ready to start building and submitting. I stuck with interiors as they are much easier to build and they needed a lot of them, since they already had a large number of gorgeous exterior maps. I started with volunteering to do areas that were emergency needs such as guild halls, stores, temples, taverns, etc. With each area I learned a bit more about the tool set. Areas that took me three weeks to build soon took only one week to build as I learned all the tricks and shortcuts of the toolset as well as all the neat plug-in tools that fans of the game have been building for the past two years.
As time passed, I was able to pick and choose the areas I wanted to build and also lend my input into more of the design of the world, specifically the city the game takes place around, Crosstreams. Those of you who have seen my previous posts know how much I love doing design work for miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. Well, this is a virtual extension of that into the electronic world.
Some examples of my work so far:
A society hall for the Order of the Crystal Rose:
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000ck0yx
Temple of Dru'El
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000ceqeq
The Crimson Wolves Mercenaries
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000c5w2k
The Grey Dirks Thieves Guild
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000byg0p
The Scarlet Orchid
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000ay7wx
The Ship Inn
http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/000asped
The PW has moved to open beta and we are testing things like the banking, crafting, and death system. I am also working with the DMs in the game to provide them with play areas they can use to set up adventures as well as pre-made NPCs and monsters that they can just throw into an area for instant adventure.
Now that I have mastered interior areas. I may start tackling exteriors. My hope is to be able to design one of the mega-dungeons that are being planned. Also, I would love to learn how to DM in the game.
If anyone is interested, here is a link to the A2 web site:
http://www.avlis2.org/portal.php