The release version of the NWN CRPG Module, Sanctum of the Archmage: The Sight v4.0, is now in its final playtest. If I don’t find any significant unexpected bugs, I’ll be updating the readme and hint documents, and then posting it for download on my website. It should be up tomorrow, and definitely no later than Monday.

Preparation for the second beta test of Sanctum 1 is nearly complete — I started my pre-release playtest last night. If everything goes well, the next (and hopefully last!) beta release should be ready in a few days. And in the meantime, work on upgrading Sanctum 2 is continuing apace. 🙂

Well, after a grueling few months, I’ve finally finished work on the initial beta version of the Sanctum 1 version 4 upgrade! I’m putting together a download package and writing up some directions, and should be ready to start a closed beta later this week. So if you’re interested in helping beta test the new version, now’s the time chime in to volunteer!

Courtesy of the kindness of pstemarie of Project Q, I present to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, the new faces of the Hellman Commander, Lord (or Lady) General Y’Thra.

I just finished the first playtest a few minutes ago! I’ve got a pile of notes about things that need to be fixed up and added, some of which I took care of during the test and checked out with the patch hak. Most of it’s little stuff, and the biggest items look like they’re going to be added dialogue lines that need to be written to flesh out the new henchman’s interactions with other characters. (Of the three new henchmen, two only travel with the party for a short time. But the way the logic of the story changes worked out, the  third needed to be available for about a third of the module from about halfway through to near the end.)

The changes should probably take me a week or two to make, and to check out with one more playthrough. Then I’ll be able to package it for a closed beta test. It won’t be long now, so stay tuned!

The last quest for Sanctum 1v4 is complete, and I’m just about to begin a full playtest of the updated module! The changes since my last full playtest earlier this year have been truly massive, so I’m sure there will be a score of things that need to be tweaked and fixed up. But aside from a few minor items that may come up during the testing, all the new content should be done — so I’m definitely in the “QA/Test” phase of the update now. Once that’s complete and I’m sure there are no game-breaking bugs, the module will be ready to go out to my volunteers for a Beta test.

And for those who were interested in the last new quest that was added, and the two new (temporary) companions associated with it, here’s another hint. Aside from some slight reworking of names, they’re characters that you’re already familiar with from Chapter 1. They meet a tragic end in the current version — but will their end be as tragic in “The Sight,” version 4? You’ll have to play it to find out! 😉

I’m still trying to get a beta test of Sanctum 1 v4.0 ready this month, and think there’s a good chance that I can manage it. Unfortunately I have to admit that after my last post, I realized that I’d left out just one more new quest that I had planned on. I thought about cutting it, but it’s one that I really want to get into the update, and that based on past feedback I think that players will especially like. In addition to providing an opportunity to flesh out more of the lore of the World of Glorn, it will also involve adding two more (albeit temporary and optional) henchmen. So I’m taking a little more time to add it in before preparing the module for a beta test.

I’ve just posted a “patch hak” for folks who have video cards and/or drivers (typically ATI) that are having trouble rendering some of the custom content models used in Sanctum 1. You can download the patch hak by clicking here.

This has been a known problem since 2009, although I haven’t heard anyone asking about it recently — so I’d assumed it had been fixed by a later driver update. If you’re having it, you might want to consider checking for an updated driver for your card before trying the patch hak. If you do need it, though, just download it, unzip it, and copy the SanctumPatch.hak file into your hak folder (replacing the previous one). If you have any problems, feel free to let me know (post here or on the module page).

This patch hak contains the updates for Sanctum v3.4b as well, which includes the (Drow version of the) new Guardian Battle cutscene that I posted last year.

Well, it took a little work, but I finally managed to get the cast together for a little party and to pose for a Christmas card photo. So a Very Happy Holiday from all of us here at The Sanctum! 🙂

And thanks to TarotRedhand for his NWN Map Mats Ice Sculpture Christmas Card Kit!

Well, the move I mentioned in my previous posts is now complete! We’ll be busy unpacking for a while to come, but we’re now safely and completely in our new home. It’s much larger and much nicer than our old place, so we’re quite pleased and excited about it. And after a bit of settling in, I should hopefully be able to get back to working on the Sanctum Saga. 🙂

Another thing I’ve finally gotten around to doing is merging my two websites. I’ve wanted to do this for the last year, and it became a necessity now that the free hosting package from my cable company (which was providing the original domain) was going away with the move. I’m pleased to announce that the (newer) andarian.com and the (older) andarian.net domains are now merged into a fully integrated site. That includes both the New and Legacy Sanctum Blogs, the urls for each of which now point to a single Blog with (as you can see by looking at the archives list to the right) all posts going back to March 2007. My old andarian.net website is still archived (for “historical” purposes). Here are the links:

• http://andarian.net – The Old Sanctum of the Archmage Writing Projects Site
• http://sanctum.andarian.net – The New Merged Sanctum Blog and Writing Projects Site, Including Legacy Posts
• https://andarian.net/TheSanctum – Another URL for the Merged Sanctum Blog and Writing Projects Site