All posts by Andarian

Sanctum EE Preparing for Release!

NWN:EE

Testing for Sanctum of the Archmage: Enhanced Edition is now complete! I still have to update the documentation, and then package and upload the new files to the Neverwinter Vault. That’ll take a few days to a week, depending on my schedule.

Sanctum: EE includes a number of visual updates and new features. In addition to the ones listed here,  there are some new encounters and tweaks, as well as major overhauls of the XP and crafting systems. These will let the player create a wide variety of new and useful items, and to progress to level 11 by the end of Chapter 2.

Sanctum: EE is being released first on the Neverwinter Vault. Once that’s done, I’m planning to prepare a release on Steam as well. The mods use a lot of custom content, though, all of which is currently on the Vault — so before I post that to Steam I want to contact the authors of that work and get their OK. That may take a while, but I hope to be able to prepare a Sanctum Steam release by the end of the summer.

Thanks again to everyone for their interest in the saga. As a preview of what’s to come, here’s a video clip of my favorite scene — the March of the Guardians — from Sanctum of the Archmage: The Sight. 🙂

Dawn of Chaos: Free Promotion

General

Sanctum of the Archmage: Dawn of Chaos will be available as a free download Thursday, February 15th through Sunday, February 18th!

A new constitution prepares the land of Carlissa for an era of enlightenment. The harsh traditions of the past are fading, and a promise of freedom stirs the air.
In the space of one terrifying day, that promise is shattered in a bloodbath of fire and magic.

Thousands of years ago, an epic battle was fought between good and evil. The demon lords had opened a door to the realms of hell itself, and their horde threatened to overrun the earth. But the Kalarans, led by the hero Calindra, destroyed their hellgate and drove them from the world.

The Great War has long since been lost to myth and legend. The Church struggles for relevance as the people forget their covenant with the gods. A renaissance of freedom and learning stirs the air in the modern age of Carlissa, led by the royal family, and the wisdom of the Archmage.

Many breathe deeply of that air. Princess Randia prepares, not for a loveless marriage of state, but for a life of music and theater with her beloved fiancee at her side. And Orion, a young scholar seeking escape from a traditional merchant family, begins a new career as a professor of philosophy.

All of that comes to an end when a dome of shimmering magic appears in the capital city. In the chaos that follows, the people fight desperately for their very survival, and wonder bitterly why the Archmage seems to have abandoned them.

Their only hope lies in reaching him — and with a young princess who never wanted to rule. She must find the strength to set aside her bard’s calling and take up a battle against impossible odds — or surrender her land and people to the Black Magus and his demons.

Dawn of Chaos finally brings the award-winning Sanctum of the Archmage role-playing games to the world of fantasy fiction. Buy it now and don’t miss this exciting first novel in the saga!

Sanctum of the Archmage: EE Edition

1 - The Sight, 2 - The Quest, NWN:EE, The Miracle Worker

I’ve just posted this over on the Beamdog Forums and on the Neverwinter Vault, and wanted to share it on my blog as well. There are screenshots on the Beamdog thread for those who may be interested.

Sanctum of the Archmage: Enhanced Edition

I’ve been working in recent weeks on developing an EE compatible edition of the Sanctum of the Archmage modules. That work’s mostly done now. I should be able to release SotA:EE Edition v1.0 after another playtesting run, probably in a few weeks at most.

I took advantage of the opportunity to add a couple of new features that I had cut for the remake that I released in September. Aside from minor typo fixes and the like, I also did a complete re-write to both the XP and the crafting systems. Players should now be able to advance to level 11 by the end of Chapter 2, and the penalties for using companions and summons have been flattened. Players should also be able to craft many more (and better) items from both mundane and magical materials alike.

I’m not planning to do much more to revise Chapter 1 and 2 for EE, though. The reason is that I’ve decided that any new modding efforts on my part are probably better devoted to resuming development of Chapter 3, which I suspended several years ago to begin writing my Sanctum of the Archmage novels. I’ve opened up the third module again in the EE editor, cleaned it up, and finally finished the extensive scripting needed for the elaborate “flying system” that it will feature. That will likely take a while, given my other commitments (writing, work and life in general). But all of it will be done in and for EE. And I’ll be looking to take advantage of every opportunity I can to include new content and features made possible by the extended edition.

PC Gamer Feature on NWN:EE

NWN:EE, Sanctum: The Modules

PC Gamer just published a feature on the recently announced Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced edition. I was interviewed and prominently mentioned in the article.

How devs and fans are coming together to rebuild Neverwinter Nights

“When Beamdog’s Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition was announced I contacted several prominent community members who all shared a passion for the 15-year-old RPG…

“Donadio’s creation, Sanctum of the Archmage, features a compelling story, impressive visuals, custom scripts, and well-designed puzzles and combat. It’s one of the highest-rated modules on the Neverwinter Vault to this day, and Donadio now writes books based on it…”

“Will this signal a return for famed module builders like Donadio? ‘I would very much like to return to creating new modules,’ he says. ‘The news about NWN: EE certainly motivates me to, and I am seriously considering it.'”

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition!

Gaming & Modding, NWN:EE, Sanctum: The Modules

In case you haven’t heard the news: Beamdog, a company known for updating classic older games to run on modern computer systems, has just announced that it has acquired the rights to the Bioware’s Neverwinter Nights (NWN). Here’s the  announcement:

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition!

Many readers of my blog already know what NWN is, but here’s a quick summary for those who don’t. Released in 2002 and containing a pioneering “adventure building toolset,” NWN is  a computer-based RPG based around the Dungeons and Dragons (v3.0) rules. The game modules I’ve released, which tell part of the story of the Sanctum of the Archmage Saga, are built using NWN’s Aurora game engine.

NWN has slowly been fading into obscurity over the years after its heyday during the 2000s. A highly energetic modding community developed then around the hundreds of high-quality full-length adventure games built for it by members of its player community. Beamdog is now resuscitating what is probably the most mod-able computer game ever released — updating it to run on modern systems using today’s gaming technology.

This is a BIG deal, and it has too many implications to address in a single post. So I’ll be following up on my blog with additional thoughts over the next few weeks. In them, I’ll try to lay out what I think this may mean — both for the NWN community, and for the future of the Sanctum Saga. Here’s a preliminary start on that for now.

NWN:EE Pre-Order Beta Test is Already Available

Beamdog timed this announcement to coincide not only with the taking of pre-orders for NWN:EE, but with the availability of a new beta test version of it. More importantly, the two are linked: if you purchase the pre-order now, then you can download and install the current beta version. I’ve already done that, and started testing the latest release of the Sanctum modules in it. The visuals are improved, performance is amazing, and except for a few minor issues, they run without even needing to be re-compiled. I’ll try posting some screenshots later to illustrate.

A Renaissance of NWN Modding — Maybe

A lot hinges precisely on what Beamdog does with NWN. But initial feedback from them suggests to me that they actually understand what made NWN special, and are focused on it in their enhancement efforts. (This isn’t entirely surprising, since several of its original developers are on their team.) For example, I had the following brief Facebook exchange with BD CEO Trent Oster, who was also lead developer for the original Neverwinter Nights:

Tony Donadio: I think it’s less about updating the OC [original campaign] than it is about updating the technology. Modding is what made NWN, and it’s what could make a rebirth of it with a (hopefully) updated engine and architecture.

Trent Oster: That was our opinion as well Tony. There is too much content to update it all, but if we can open up the capabilities of the engine and add support for newer types of content we can move the platform forward.

Given that it gave rise to an explosion of indie game creation after its initial release, it’s possible that an enhanced re-making of NWN — especially with the support of a developer prioritizing its use to develop new content — could lead to a genuine renaissance of the game. This is something that no modder, myself included, can ignore or take lightly.

Continuing the Sanctum Mods

As readers can see here, I originally had a fairly extensive plan for developing modules in the Sanctum Saga for Neverwinter Nights. I ended up suspending those plans in recent years, for reasons that I’ve discussed elsewhere (for example, here). In a nutshell, though, I concluded that the demands of earning a living in my profession as a computer scientist, writing and publishing indie novels, and building game mods, all at the same time, was simply unrealistic. And of those three, building mods for a dying game with a shrinking player base, that its developers and distributors had abandoned (sometimes in bad faith), was the obvious one to cut back.

With the coming release of NWN:EE, that assessment may have to change. I don’t want to lead people on, or to promise anything that I won’t end up being able to deliver on. But what is clear is that I do need to re-consider my plans, now, in light of this news. So I will be doing that.

I’m not sure what the outcome of all this will be. But to give some context to my thoughts, let me share an exchange I had with Stephen L. Knowland, aka Savant, author of the Aielund Saga mods for NWN (and now, also, novels). This was on the NWN Community Facebook Page, right after the news broke.

Savant: Yeah HD textures, HDR rendering for really shiny metal effects… you know, if they did this right, I might even be persuaded to do another pass on the Aielund Saga.

Me: I was thinking the same about Sanctum of the Archmage — if I can find the time! It would add motivation to finally try to finish the module series, though.

Savant: Yeah it’s all about finding time these days! I think in about 6 months my schedule clears up a bit, will see how this project goes forward.

I’ve already decided that at the very least, there will be a Sanctum of the Archmage: EE re-release of the first two chapters of the saga. I don’t know yet whether I will be able to put Sanctum of the Archmage 3: Mission to Rayche back on the table as well. But I am thinking about it.

Sanctum Modules Update Released!

1 - The Sight, 2 - The Quest, Gaming & Modding, Sanctum v4q, Sanctum: The Modules, The Miracle Worker

I’m pleased to announce that the long-awaited v4.2 remake of the Sanctum of the Archmage game modules is finally available! Testing is complete, the documentation has been updated, and the files were packaged and uploaded on September 30th.

Version v4.2 represents a significant update to the Sanctum of the Archmage modules. It combines a number of new features in The Sight with a major remake of the previous (v3.4) version of The Quest. Formerly released as “The Miracle Worker: Act I,” The Quest has been unavailable in any form since the loss of the IGN Vault in 2014. Version 4.2 is the first release of Chapter 2 that is compatible with version 4 or later of The Sight.

With the v4.2 update, Sanctum 1 and 2 now use the same custom content architecture and can be played as a unified campaign. As a result, I am releasing them together on my current page for the saga on the Neverwinter Vault. Chapter 2 has been re-written to add new areas, quests, and dialogs, and lore from the Sanctum of the Archmage novels.

I hope you all enjoy the new version, and thank you very much for your interest!

Tony Donadio (Andarian)
Author, Sanctum of the Archmage

 

Sanctum Modules Remake Nearing Release!

1 - The Sight, 2 - The Quest, Sanctum: The Modules

I’m pleased to announce that the long-awaited v4.2 remake of the Sanctum of the Archmage game modules is nearly ready for release! Testing is complete and the only remaining tasks are to update the documentation and to package and upload the files. It should be available on the Neverwinter Vault sometime during this weekend (the last of September).

Version v4.2 represents a significant update to the Sanctum of the Archmage modules. It combines a number of new features in The Sight with a major remake of the previous (v3.4) version of The Quest. Formerly released as “The Miracle Worker: Act I,” The Quest has been unavailable in any form since the loss of the IGN Vault in 2014. Version 4.2 is the first release of Chapter 2 that is compatible with version 4 or later of The Sight.

With the v4.2 update, Sanctum 1 and 2 now use the same custom content architecture and can be played as a unified campaign. As a result, I am releasing them together on my current page for the saga on the Neverwinter Vault. Chapter 2 has been re-written to add new areas, quests, and dialogs, and lore from the Sanctum of the Archmage novels.

I will follow up with another announcement — hopefully in another day or two at most — once I’ve finished releasing theupdate. I hope you’ll enjoy the new version, and thank you very much for your interest!

Tony Donadio (Andarian)
Author, Sanctum of the Archmage