Category Archives: Sanctum: The Modules

Posts related to the Sanctum of the Archmage module series

Sanctum Updated for Patch 1.69 and CEP 2.1

1 - The Sight, 2 - The Quest

I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve posted version 3.1 of Sanctum of the Archmage Chapters 1 and 2, which is updated for Patch 1.69 and CEP 2.1. You can find the download links here.

I’m not 100% happy with the update just yet, since I’m still seeing some minor bugs in playing it (see here). I’m also planning a more substantial upgrade when Ninjaweaselman’s romantic animations and Hardpoints’ mountable pegasi are released. Unfortunately, I can’t spare the time right now to hunt down and kill those remaining minor bugs, and fortunately they’re ones that can very easily be ignored or worked around if one of them shows up. Because of the CEP Team’s unfortunate decision to reuse some of the same component names from CEP 2.0 to 2.1 (which has been complicating some players’ efforts to play CEP 2.0 modules), I felt that it was important for me to get a CEP 2.1 compatible version of the module out as soon as possible to support my players, and that this could not wait any longer.

NWN Podcast Interview

2 - The Quest, 3 - Mission to Rayche, AME, NWN Podcast

In case anyone missed it, I was this week’s guest on the Neverwinter Nights Podcast. Trey and I talked about Sanctum 2 winning the Golden Dragon Award for Best RPG, as well as my plans for the next chapters in the series. Here’s the link:

NWNP Episode 68 – Golden Dragon Winner Andarian

My interview starts at about 9 minutes into the podcast. I’m not sure why, but this time they decided to use a “listener greeting” from a non-guest instead of the one that I sent them. If anyone was looking forward to hearing my intro, here it is. 😉

Sanctum 3 Will be in NWN1

3 - Mission to Rayche

I’ve been procrastinating about making and announcing a final decision regarding when and where to build “Sanctum of the Archmage 3: The Miracle Worker, Act II” for a while now. So far I’ve had what I thought were good reasons for the delay. There was my discovery of one more (unexpected) requirement for the Master’s degree that I’ve been working on, which prevented me from graduating in May; some health problems (nothing serious, but which I do need to deal with, and at least partly by taking the time to get more exercise instead of sitting in front of my computer all the time); some changes and new responsibilities at work; another potential new project (which I can’t say any more about just yet); the AME 2007 awards cycle; and a desire to actually spend some more time with my wife. In short, real life has been intruding, big time, on my desire to get started in earnest on building the next chapter.

I’m not willing to delay my writing and building any longer, though, and I’ve been thinking a bit about how to do them while still managing all of these other competing demands on my time. So for these and other reasons, I’ve decided to finish “Sanctum of the Archmage: The Miracle Worker” in NWN1 after all.

As I said, part of my motive in coming to that decision is because of the schedule constraints that I described above. It is unquestionably faster and easier to build in NWN1 than in NWN2, especially for someone who is already as familiar with NWN1 building as I am. There is little chance that I could finish the next chapter this year if I switch to NWN2 now, and I don’t want to disappoint my players and start to lose my audience by delaying it too much longer.

But some of my other reasons for deciding to do at least one more module in NWN1 have to do with the incredible new content that’s becoming available with the 1.69 patch, which went final last week. Here’s just a partial list of new 1.69-based content that I should be able to include in Sanctum 3:

  • The Community Expansion Pack, v2.1 (CEP 2.1), which is now released;
  • The Seasonal Forest Tileset by Lord of Worms, which just won the AME’s NWN1 “Best Tileset” award for 2007 despite still being in extended Beta. Take a look at the stunning images captured by Estelindis for the AME Awards Video (starting about 11:30), and I think you’ll see why I’m excited about the prospect of building scenes with it.
  • Romantic Animations by Ninjaweaselman. This is a variation on his “Intimate Animations” suite (which won the AME’s Best Custom Content award for 2007), to include kissing, hugging, and even dancing animations of extraordinarily high quality. It’s currently in a closed beta (in which I’m participating). I’ll be able to integrate the romantic animations into Sanctum 2 and any later modules that I do in NWN1. And the dancing animations will allow me to realistically script some upcoming scenes in the saga that I had very much wanted to include, but that I had previously resigned myself to having to do without.
  • Ridable Pegasi. For more on this, see my previous blog post. I’ve already replaced the existing pegasi in Sanctum 2 with the new models, and if a ridable version is ready in time, I’ll include those as well.

There are a number of other new custom content projects in the works for NWN1 that I’ve learned about recently, such as plans to develop high-poly head and body models. I’ll blog more about these when they become a bit more public. But these discoveries have definitely given me confidence that NWN1 still has a good bit of life left in it, as a game and as an ever-extending environment for CRPG modding. The fact that other top-notch CC and module builders like Fester Pot, Savant, Lord Rosenkrantz, Ninjaweaselman and others are still building in NWN1 only reinforces that thought.

I want to emphasize that this doesn’t mean that I’ve set aside my plan to begin building in NWN2 at some point. My intent right now is that the last part of the saga, “Sanctum of the Archmage: The Alliance,” will definitely be developed in NWN2, or perhaps even co-developed for both games, if my schedule ever frees up enough to allow it (*crosses fingers*).

Sanctum 2 Wins Golden Dragon for Best RPG!

2 - The Quest, AME

I’m very proud to announce that Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker, Act I, has received the Golden Dragon Award from the Academy for Modding Excellence (AME) for Best Neverwinter Nights Roleplaying Module of 2007! Here’s a link to the announcement of winners, including a very nice (if I do say so myself) awards video produced by qkrch:

NWN1 2007 Golden Dragon Award Winners and Video

The segment announcing Sanctum 2’s win for Best RPG starts around 3 minutes 32 seconds in. I’m very proud of the video as well, not only for the honor of having my work included in it — for which I’m deeply grateful — but also because I actually did most of the video capture scenes for it myself.

I should also mention for the record, since I am a member of the AME, that the Academy has strict rules for when one member nominates another for an award. (Members may not nominate their own work.) In those cases, the nominated member must immediately recuse himself from any further participation (voting included) in that entire award category (in my case, Best RPG) for the rest of that year’s awards cycle.

Having worked with the other members of the AME for over a year now, I can only say that receiving an award from a group of people who are as dedicated to recognizing quality as I know them to be is a profound honor. Thank you!

EDIT: Be sure to listen to the great awards podcast with hosts Trey and Skunkeen, and AME member guests BGPHughes and Tybae. The awards segment for Sanctum 2 starts at about 22:35 into the show.

NWN1 2007 Golden Dragon Awards Podcast

AME NWN1 Golden Dragon Module Finalists Video Posted!

2 - The Quest, AME

I just wanted to let everyone know that the NWN1 2007 Golden Dragon Award Module Category Finalists have been announced by the Academy for Modding Excellence (AME). As before, we’ve also produced an announcement video, which can be viewed here:

 

 

 

 

 

I’m particularly proud of this one, since I actually produced most of the video clips that were used in it myself. Qkrch edited those clips to create the final video, adding the sound, voiceover, and titles.

You’ll also see, at about 4:50 into the video, that Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker, Act I is a finalist in the “Best RPG” Category. (Since I’m a member of the AME myself, according to the Academy rules I wasn’t allowed to be involved at all in that nomination, and had to recuse myself from further participation in the NWN1 Best RPG category once I’d been nominated.) I am very glad that my fellows in the Academy decided that Sanctum 2 was worthy of a nomination, though, and I’m hopeful about my prospects for winning the award. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EDIT: Here are the nominations and video for the NWN1 Recognition and Custom Content category awards. These two videos also include the (combined NWN1 and NWN2) sound/music nominations.

 

 

 

 

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Now THAT\’s a Pegasus!

2 - The Quest

I haven’t had much time yet to get caught up on the new content being developed for NWN patch 1.69. But I discovered something today that I’m definitely going to have to incorporate into Sanctum 2:

Unicorn, Pegasus, Nightmare and Horses for HotU 1.69

To see why this has me positively drooling, take a look at this image:

Pegasus

These gorgeous models are adaptations of the DLA horses for NWN1 patch 1.69. And best of all, from what I can gather from reading the hak page, they’re going to be able to be made ridable!

*SPOILER WARNING* for Sanctum of the Archmage 2

So now I’m doing some serious thinking about how these could be incorporated into another update to Sanctum 2. One reason for this is that the original story (and my original plan for the module) featured the Pegasi of Mount Cassandra more prominently than the final version of the module was able to allow. In the original plan, the Pegasi served as steeds for the heroes on their quest to recruit allies for the fledgling alliance. But doing this properly would have required ridable Pegasus models, which didn’t exist for NWN1 (much less for NWN2) when I originally built the second chapter. That’s why I developed the idea of using Queen Talina’s “Wind-Walking” cloak for this purpose instead — which I think has actually worked out to be a very good alternative.

But I still have a soft spot in my heart for the idea of the loyal Pegasi of Mount Cassandra, carrying our heroes on their quest to build The Alliance against the Warlord Zomoran. So when these models and patch 1.69 become available, I’m at the very least going to add a cutscene showing the heroes actually being carried up to the peak of Mount Cassandra from the foothills. But should I redo the Wind-Walking scenes to include the pegasi as well?

 

Sanctum of the Archmage Act I, v3.0 is Now Available!

1 - The Sight, 2 - The Quest

I’ve just finished uploading the v3.0 update to the “Sanctum of the Archmage” modules (both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2). Please note that ALL of the version 3.0 files (including the music hak) are required to play the update, and that the downloads for Chapter 2 are now contained in these files as well. The module specific hak files (Hak, Music and CMP) will be moved to separate hak pages as soon as these requests make their way through the Vault approval process.

I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to the Beta testers who helped me playtest the update. Your thoroughness, enthusiasm, and attention to detail were very helpful, and very much appreciated. Thank You!

I hope that you will all enjoy the new version. Let me know what you think, and if you have any problems!

Andarian

EDIT: Here’s a screenshot from the new version. It’s a little too spoilerish for the module page, but check it out if you’ve finished Chapter 1. I thought it did a good job of capturing a particular moment that you’ll probably recognize. 🙂 (WARNING: The image is rendered with the game’s “violence level” set on maximum.)

Proceed to Battle

Sanctum Act One v3.0 Nearing Release!

1 - The Sight, 2 - The Quest

The long-awaited version 3.0 of “Sanctum of the Archmage: Act I” is finally nearing release! The last stage of the beta test is finishing this weekend, and barring unforseen issues, I should be ready to post it sometime next week. Version 3.0 includes updates to both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the saga, although the most extensive changes are in Chapter 1. I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to the beta testers who volunteered to give the new version a very thorough shakedown, and who offered many helpful comments and suggestions.

I’d also like to remind everyone that we’re now in the final week of the NWN Vault’s Module of the Year Contest, in which “Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker – Act I” is a contestant. So if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to vote before the contest ends on Saturday, April 5th!