{"id":437,"date":"2007-05-25T11:19:36","date_gmt":"2007-05-25T17:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/?p=437"},"modified":"2013-04-14T05:07:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T12:07:17","slug":"a-builders-dilemma-2nwn2-or-not-2nwn2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/?p=437","title":{"rendered":"A Builder’s Dilemma (2NWN2, or not 2NWN2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m posting this blog entry mainly to\u00a0solicit feedback on a major dilemma that I now find myself facing, with regard to the development of\u00a0Sanctum of the Archmage II.\u00a0That dilemma is whether to continue with my decision to develop the first act of the sequel in Neverwinter Nights 2, or to go back to developing it in Neverwinter Nights 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was initially very impressed with Neverwinter Nights 2 in January when I got my new computer and played through the OC. I was wildly enthusiastic about the possibility of scripting with parameters (those of you who don’t code, trust me: that’s a big deal), with the improved graphics and terrain modeling, and with many of the design improvements that I saw in the engine. And since it seemed to me\u00a0that the future of Neverwinter Nights lay in the sequel, rather than in NWN1, I decided that making the switch early would be a good idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also heard (and saw, as\u00a0I started trying to learn it) a great deal about the instability of the toolset. I was\u00a0horrified at the almost uniformly grotesque head models, the full-body underwear, and the elimination of 2D portraits and cinematic cutscenes. Many of the\u00a0armor models\u00a0had\u00a0bizarre hard-coded tints that could not be changed in the toolset. And the initial palette of\u00a0creatures and models did seem a bit light. But I also knew that I\u00a0wasn’t going to be able to get to work in earnest\u00a0on Sanctum II\u00a0until May or so because\u00a0of my schedule. And by then, I reasoned,\u00a0most of these\u00a0issues would have started to be\u00a0addressed and new and custom content would start\u00a0appearing\u00a0for the game. In the meantime I could work on planning, and on fully fleshing out the plot for the three acts of the sequel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now that May is here\u00a0(indeed, almost over) and that planning work is done, I’ve had to\u00a0take a sober look at these expectations. And what I’ve seen hasn’t given me a sense of confidence about the prospect of being able to build\u00a0the first act of Sanctum II in\u00a0NWN2 — not in a way that\u00a0I will be satisfied with\u00a0as a builder. <\/span><\/p>\n

The NWN2 toolset seems to be crashing less than when I first started using\u00a0it, but there are still widespread bugs. For example, the item-related 2DA files have actually spawned a whole host of “Bad Strref” entries\u00a0since the 1.04 patch. I haven’t lost any work due to corrupted mod files, thank goodness, but I’m\u00a0still seeing posts from other builders who are\u00a0reporting this. And unless I’m completely confused about where to to look,\u00a0the NWN2 models sections of the vault show next to nothing in the way of new creature and placeable content. This was a huge\u00a0surprise to me, since NWN1 had a robust community of modelers (such as the CEP Team) that were regularly developing such resources for the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

After doing some digging this morning, though, I think I’m beginning to understand some of the reasons for\u00a0this. Apparently, Obsidian used a proprietary 3D modeling and animation system\u00a0for NWN2 called “<\/span>Granny<\/span><\/a>.” <\/span>From what I’ve been able to gather, Granny offered certain\u00a0benefits in terms of performance and ease of development — but at the price of\u00a0a proprietary format for which there are no available converters for\u00a0commonly used\u00a0modeling programs\u00a0like\u00a03DSMax.\u00a0A prospective modeler could, of course,\u00a0buy a copy of Granny —\u00a0starting, I believe, at around $12,500 for a single machine license. Perhaps not surprisingly, that hasn’t turned out to be a particularly viable option for the cadre of amateur 3D modelers who had previously been turning out so much excellent work for the Neverwinter Nights community.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, and from what I can see, there are few to no\u00a0new creature and placeable models for NWN2, even now eight months after release of the game and much longer after the appearance of the pre-release toolset. There has been\u00a0widespread clamor for a “granny plugin” from Obsidian that will finally make this modeling work possible, and they\u00a0<\/span>appear to be working hard to provide one<\/span><\/a> in the relatively near future. If<\/em> it works well, that will be a real breakthrough that should\u00a0liberate and empower\u00a0custom modelers to start creating new models for NWN2.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that work will almost certainly\u00a0come too late for me to make any use of for Sanctum II, Act I, since I have to start making progress on the\u00a0sequel now<\/em>. And this has put me in something of\u00a0 bind with regard to some of the content that I need to make Act I work. Wasting half a day today unsuccessfully trying just<\/strong><\/em> to re-create\u00a0the “Control Rod” from Sanctum I — a simple, unadorned black rod held in the left hand —\u00a0brought me up short about the harsh\u00a0realities of this.\u00a0Here’s a partial list of the\u00a0creatures and models that I\u00a0want or need for the sequel that I currently cannot find or create in NWN2:<\/span><\/p>\n

– The Beastmen<\/strong><\/span>. They return and play an important role in Sanctum II, Act I. The closest thing I can find to them in the NWN2 toolset are bugbears.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Hand-held wands and rods.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0The player acquired several of these\u00a0in Chapter 1. None of the wand or rod models from NWN1 seem to have made it into NWN2.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Demons<\/span><\/strong>. Demons play a central role in Sanctum of the Archmage, and not surprisingly, there are a number of\u00a0major battles with them in\u00a0Sanctum II.\u00a0NWN1 and CEP between them gave\u00a0a wide selection\u00a0of fiendish outsider\u00a0models to choose from. NWN2, by contrast, has\u00a0Balor,\u00a0a Hezrou,\u00a0a Succubus, and a couple of devils.\u00a0I could probably make do with these, but\u00a0that\u00a0isn’t a whole\u00a0lot of variety from which to construct an army of demons that are overrunning the kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Pegasi.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0The elven pegasus warriors\u00a0play an important role throughout\u00a0all three acts of Sanctum II.\u00a0From what I can gather, there aren’t even any horses available in NWN2, much less winged ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

For these reasons and others, I’m now seriously considering returning to building in NWN1 until NWN2 matures more as a\u00a0modding environment. There is no question that the development of Sanctum II Act I will go much<\/em> faster if I do this, even if it does mean scrapping much of the preliminary work that I’ve already done in the NWN2 toolset. And I could always port Act I to NWN2 later on. I really would rather move to NWN2 now, but I can’t shake the conviction that the considerations I’ve described here are too important to\u00a0set aside and just “hope for the best” by sticking with NWN2, at least for the first act.\u00a0(As a former manager\u00a0of mine used to put it: “Hope is not a course of action.”)<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a decision I have to make now. So\u00a0the question I wanted to solicit feedback from my\u00a0fellow players and builders on\u00a0is: what do you think?\u00a0Am I overreacting, and\u00a0are the prospects for NWN2 maturing sufficiently in the couple of months\u00a0or so\u00a0better than my currently pessimistic mood would indicate? Or would going back to NWN1 be a sober decision based on an assessment of the current realities of modding with NWN2?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that May is here (indeed, now, almost over), I’ve had to take a second and sober look at those expectations. And what I’ve seen hasn’t given me a sense of confidence about the prospect of being able to build the first act of Sanctum II in NWN2 — not in a way that I will be satisfied with as a builder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-22-thequest","category-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andarian.net\/TheSanctum\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}