Category Archives: 2 – The Quest

Posts related to Sanctum of the Archmage Chapter 2: The Miracle Worker, Act I – The Quest

An Update on Sanctum II

2 - The Quest, The Miracle Worker

In the comments on my post, “A New Face for Robin,” Michele asked: “When is the next installment coming out? I’ve been checking up on it ever since I played #1 last summer.”

Michele, thanks for your interest in the sequel! Here’s a little more information about the progress of “Sanctum of the Archmage II – The Miracle Worker.”

Players of Chapter I may remember that I gave a pessimistic estimate (“sometime in 2007,” I think I wrote) about when I might be able to have Chapter II available. Unfortunately, I’m more or less still on schedule with those expectations — but my plans for Chapter II have also expanded significantly in scope since then. As I describe on the Sanctum Projects Website, I’m now planning to release Chapter II as a series of three short modules or “Acts” for Neverwinter Nights 2. I’m hoping to be able to release Act I, titled “The Alliance,” sometime in the late summer of 2007.

The main reason for the delay is because of the demands of my “real life.” Currently, I’m juggling a full-time job in quantum optics with part-time coursework for a graduate degree in physics. What little spare time I have left is split between my writing projects (including the modules), and of course spending time with my wife. Unfortunately, that means that during the academic year (between September and May), my ability to spend focused time working on the modules is very limited. I wrote Sanctum I in my spare time over the course of a year, from August 2005 through July 2006, and I’ve been using more or less the same estimate for how long it will take me to develop the first act of the sequel.

That timetable has been complicated by my decision to build Sanctum II in NWN2 rather than NWN1 — which means, among other things, having to learn a largely different and much more complicated toolset. And it has also been complicated by the fact that my plans for the sequel have become much more ambitious in the past few months. I’ve been plotting it on my drives to work using a new attachment that turns my iPod into a voice recorder, and I now have the basic storyline for all of Chapter II entirely worked out. The good news is that it has now grown into a fairly extensive and complex plot that will support a somewhat longer sequel trilogy — but each Act of which I should take less time to build than the full sequel that I had originally planned.

A New Face for Robin

2 - The Quest

I’ve seen a lot of comments on the forums about people being disappointed with the faces available in NWN2. After having spent some time trying to choose one for Robin, I’m starting to empathize with that sentiment. Remembering the limited selection of decent looking “heads” in NWN1 is helping me keep this in some perspective, but not entirely. One of the NWN2’s selling points is supposed to be its improved graphics, and the ability to support things like facial animations. So I was a little surprised that there weren’t more attractive head models currently available in the Electron toolset.

None of them fit Robin exactly. But I think I’ve finally narrowed it down to two choices, so I thought I’d post them and ask for reactions. The first one uses Aasimar head model #2, and the second one uses Half-Elf head model #5.

Robin with Aasimar head #2Robin with Half-Elf Head #5

I’ll hold back mentioning my own thoughts and preference for now. But I get the impression of a somewhat different personality from each of these faces, and I was curious to know which one players preferred — and which one better fit their “mental image” of Robin.