We have a whole bunch of options comming up soon that I want to get every one's oppinion on. At the moment I have a really awsome computer (for my standards). And I have a few ideas/thoughts that I would like to discuss with everyone.

Firstly, the shard is save and secure from the last save and will not be lost.

Second, UO is an old game, with not much improvement as of late. The reason I play UO was due to hardware... Ummm the LACK of hardware able to run better stuff... and of course the fact that It was a game that I love and could do it for free my way for others to enjoy.

Third, BEFORE I started even as a Gamemaster on a UO shard I had a fully functional Neverwinter Nights Mod on an old computer that was realy good that got trashed. Now that I have a computer able to run it again is it time to Upgrade our gameing experience too??? Plus the fact that NWN comes with the tools that the devs actually used to create the game for ANYONE to use, not some smart guys trying to backwards engeneer a program to Emulate (emulate being the key word) the game in atempt to clone it.

Fourth, I like the overall D&D world, a dragon should never be brought down by one or two hits like UO. The overall monster selection is much much better with challange rating to player realism, thus never getting bored with ease of being able to kill the worst the server has to offer solo in a few seconds or minutes.

So Now I ask... What should we do? Keep in mind that it will still probalby be a few weeks or a month before I can afford a decent internet connection, but I want everyone to share in the oppinion and discuss in public what they think. I've talked with a few of you privately but I want to discuss it in a whole. I do have a huge world already created that can be adjusted to become a more multiplayer game server rather then a solo adventure as it is set up now.

Ok so what Is NWN? in this post I shall explain a bit...

Quote :

What is Neverwinter Nights? Neverwinter Nights (NWN) is a computer game set in a huge medieval fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons. This role-playing game (RPG) puts you at the center of an epic tale of faith, war, and betrayal. As a player, you are able to choose what skills and abilities you will develop as you voyage though the complex and dangerous fantasy world of Forgotten Realms. Be a deadly and dangerous Rogue moving through the shadows using stealth and secrecy, be a scholarly Wizard and wield powerful magic against your enemies, be a hulking Barbarian whose lust for battle is matched only by his terrible rage, be an armor-clad Paladin who protects the innocent and vanquishes his foes, be a crusading Cleric who heals the sick and defends the helpless… be all this and more. Neverwinter Nights allows you to create your own worlds. This revolutionary game will come with all the tools needed to construct your own unique lands of adventure. The Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset allows even novice users to construct everything from a quiet, misty forest or a dripping cavern of foul evil, to a king’s court. All the monsters, items, set pieces and settings are there for world builders to use. But do not stop there; construct traps, encounters, custom monsters and magic items to make your adventure unique. But the Neverwinter experience is not just for one person- adventure with all your friends. Neverwinter Nights can be played online with up to 64 friends, all sharing in the adventure. You can organize and run your own adventures through the role of the Dungeon Master and control all the monsters, creatures and characters your friends meet as they journey on their quest. A powerful piece of software that is included with Neverwinter Nights, the DM Client, allows nearly unlimited control for running your own adventures for your friends. Neverwinter Nights…endless adventure!

http://nwn.bioware.com/about/

Why do I like this game? the Final patch has already been released so no major changes will ever need to be done to a functional server.

The tools are there for us to create our world, with a huge amount of extra content submitted by countless thousands that can be added

The graphics are way better then UO ever will be KR included

Once you pay for the actual game, the countless online servers including any that Bioware runs are FREE

Bioware is NOT EA OR Blizard!  

--Last edited by Sirenix on 2008-11-03 00:04:54 --

I played NWN way back when,  It's a fun game to sit and play for a while, but I seemed to get bored of it much faster then UO.  I voted for keeping both going, in the event one gets boring, I can switch over to the other for a day or two.  helps keep some choice involved.  NWN is a fun game and does have a lot of options.

a few of the things I plan on doing is setting up the server as if it was a massive multi-player game, so that said I would make it as interesting as possible and not get boring.

Few changes I would like to see are player housing *already had that started with the mod* and player crafting of items, or at least an embune craft, or any other RP elements I can think of to enhance the gameplay. Not sure what all is in these new expansion packs yet that can help with that but the community pack seems pretty intresting.

By the way, which storyline did you want to go with? UO story or something totally new?

I havent played NWN yet seen it around heard a few good things from people but i recon ill have to go get myself a copy now n give her a berl hah......


shard desicion is a hard 1 , honestly i never played UO because of its fantastic graphics or amazing gameplay . i played it because the game had enough content to keep it from getting to boring, if u can do that with NWN with all the upgrades it comes with i think you will be onto a winner.



For the storyline i recon it its gonna be done it has to be done right and totaly fresh , a new story line is a must in my books



On the other side of the coin i would hate to lose any memebers of our long standing community just for the fact that they dont have the access to the hardware to upgrade to the new game.

Mr Funkalicious  

--Last edited by benichy on 2008-11-06 18:10:03 --

don't think hardware is a huge issue when considering NWN.

Here are the Required/Recomended requirements for the game.
Game itself is pretty cheap.. example... here is the game online for those who like to own their copies of games for $3.00!!!!
http://gogamer1.amazonwebstore.com/Neverwinter-Nights-Hordes-of-the-Underdark/M/B00009MGVH.htm?utm_campaign=froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=froogle


Processor Pentium® II 450 MHz or AMD K6 450 MHz / Pentium® III 800 MHz or AthlonTM 800 MHz

Operating System Windows 98/ME/2000SP2/XP

RAM (Windows 98/ME) 96 MB 128 MB

RAM (Windows 2000/XP) 128 MB 256 MB

Hard Disk Installation 1.2 GB 2.0 GB

CD ROM or CD/DVD ROM Drive 8X

DirectX DirectX® version 8.1

Video Card 16 MB TNT2-class OpenGL 1.2 compliant video card / NVIDIA GeForce 2/ATI Radeon

Sound Card DirectX® certified sound card

Multiplayer IPX or TCP/IP via LAN or Internet
Multiplayer via Modem 56k (2 players max) broadband

Becareful buying USED versions of the game, If I remember right its like UO and to play online you got to have a speical unique CD Key to register it to play it online. You can play the single player version and all its expansions, which you also need atleast Shadows of undertide, AND hordes of underdark Plus the 1.69 patch rest of the expansions are optional and wont be used for our Module aka server. If you get Diomand or Platinum edditions (think plat is better) you get them included.

I'm pretty sure the computer I got now can handle this game. Sure it says all that nice stuff about being low requirements, but thats not for hosting a server. I think back when I tried it orginally I had a 1.5 (though might have been somewhat smaller) and lke 128 memory. Right now we are running a 2.0 dual core with a gig of memory. so we should be ok. if I have to I can designate half the CPU solely for running the server. not sure how to do that yet but thats why I got a dual core if I needed to I could.


Well I'll give you guys all a heads up on my curret progress. The PLAN is, that I will be gettig DSL hopefully at the start of next month. Wont be anything too fance, but maybe it will support a server being run. I'm not at all technicly knowlagable in any way but what ive heard is that it is more stable then cable. always stays the same speed while cable can drop and icrease speed dependig on how many other people in the area are using it. well see...

To give you an idea what ive got done so far, I've started a totally new world. Yes I have to make a whole world from scratch so, that means things are going to be slow starting. I'm not sure how this works with NWN if I can just simply drop in the new sections of the world and reload it and everyone plays, or if everyone has to export characters, import onto the new server or what ever. I HOPE its just simply a matter of reloading, cause I'd like to limit the starting level of the new characters. Dont want someone who's a level 40 cleric popin on the shard and wiping out everything I got. I'm building the world to increase players skills from 0 to whatever, so the goblins and such will be closest to the starting area, where a ancient dragon that can impale a level 20 warrior with one bite, would be... well hard to find at first...

Speaking of creatures. NWN highly underestimated its popularity when they where making the game. Think the game shipped with like 500 monsters or so (if that) I went to my brothers during his vacation and downloaded over 700MB of new stuff for the server. I got more stuff now then I'll ever use in 5 lifetimes creature wise. We even got Griffins! (no not the petter kind lol) theres mythological beast in there Ive never even seen or heard of before, not to menchon a lot of D&D ones that originally didn't come with the game.

Ontop of the new creatures, I've downloaded over 50 diffrent build tilesets. Whats a tileset? Humm... hard to explain. Ok lets take UO for example. Lets say in theory that every peice of graphic used to build the actual world is too much information to process all at once, so its broken down into related sets. Like, Britian Sewers would be one set, Ice dungeon and Dagger Ile (ice ilenorth of moonglow) would be another, Ummm towns would be another castles another, etc etc etc.  So far the only one ive used alot is the biggest, but I got plans for use for ALL of them eventually. Think I'm going to have fun with the Drow city. I got 4 seprate drow tilesets. Idea of what I got: orential, egyptian, ice/snow/viking, 4 diffrent swamp sets, lots of other desert stuff, a few castle sets, undersea sets, halfling/dwarf sets, a GIANT set, tons of caves, caverns and mines, two diffrent rual sets, and of course the underdark. Best part of NWN is, if anyone ever wants to build something for the server they don't have to know a single thing about programing at all, all they do is open the toolset that comes with every copy of the game, and use it as if they where using windows paint brush, its just as idot proof. I must warn ya, its highly addictive. First time I opened it I as just going to take a peek to see what id did, and ended up spending 2 solid days with no sleep building a world. (not much better now 6 years later).

I've can spend hours just scrolling through all the custom stuff I got now, hell it took me 2 hours just to create a dress and armor for an NPC drow character I was making that I dont even know how im going to use her yet. Prehaps having TOO much is a bad thing?

The scrïpting is easy for me, although I started editing scrïpts in NWN long before I went to UO I really never even loaded up NWN again after I got into UO cause after I tried to run a NWN server my old computer simply couldn't cut it. Therefore I went with my second choice and played UO. It wasnt till after I became a GM on a player shard that I really got addicted to creating things using C# scrïpts. The big diffrence between UO and NWN is, NWN isn't created by a bunch of guys *all good intentions asside* trying to hack the program and emulate how the program works. NWN's world designer programs are created BY bioware, the actual game company. Even the scrïpt tools are totally idot proof. ive TRIED to crash the game and cant do it!. Example: In UO if I scrïpt an item to lets say equip itself it does it no questions asked, even if theres already a weapon equipt if you do it wrong it will stack the weapons, just look at all the Fishingpole/weapon bug screenshots out there. In NWN I needed a scrïpt that would equip a person with a lance to joust an NPC jousting character I created. I did NOT put anything in the scrïpt about disarming the players current weapon first. the game did it anyway! when I relized what I did (about the time the joust began) I said to myself, well here goes my first crash... it's bloody sweet.

The game is alot more stable then UO will ever be. and i dont have to worry about Oh crap new version of UO out Gota start over from scratch (like now with UO) Bioware has already released its "final" patch for NWN1 which played a huge part in why I'd like to do this, and the huge amount of custom content is amazing too. Which I guess shouldnt be a suprize, if you give everyone the tools you used to make your game, hell ya people are going to make custom stuff for it.

SO how is the storyline going to go? I need everyones oppinion on that. Right now I'm building the world on the assumption that we are going to use UO fiction mixed with D&D fiction as we did on AK. but that by no means has to be what we use. Its just a matter of clicking area props and sticking a new make in, because each has a unique tag I aint gota worry about suddenly 100s of doors not leading to the right area after a name change.

only actual players/staff members I was worried about loosing due to hardware limits, where Poe, and SPAWN. Spawn seems intrested and has a job now and already has more then enough to buy a new computer/game/better internet and all that. and Poe has already upgraded computers since i talked to him last. Not sure if hes real thrilled about learning a new scrïpt language for a new game but once he sees how idot proof the scrïpts are and even has a scrïpt creating wizard (along with a ton of other kinds of wizards) Im sure hell be sold on it.

have been playing NWN for about a week now , no exspansions yet although of the price n age its still pritty impressive. for the story line  it just wouldnt feel right if UO or AK wernt mixed in there somehow. Gota show respect to the roots!

Maby somthing like a group of travels from AK in search of (somthing) stumbled across (somthing magical maby a protal) and are now stuck in NWN land and so they must find the (key) figurtivly speackin to unlock the (door) to get home (AK) and save everyone from the dark forces controlling it.



Had a lil play of the NWN world builder...it might be idiot proof but its not idiot friendly! lol i still dont understand how to make 1 screen join anuther i will keep playin with it hehe  

--Last edited by benichy on 2008-11-16 15:07:22 --

It is pretty easy, If you really want to learn how to use it, theres some fool proof tutorials written by a guy named Maximus. Although ive used every tool before I still downloaded every tutorial and learned from scratch again incase I forgot something. I'll see if I can't dig up a link then edit my post here.

*EDIT* I hope you where able to get a new sealed versuin of the game with a unique cd key. That way you dont have to worry about not being able to play online when you register it. You'll also need Shadows of Undertide, and Hordes of Underdark plus download the 1.69 patch. (and maybe all the hacks ive downloaded too but I'll have to conform that I'll probalby repackage everything up and upload it if thats the case cause theres no way in a thousand years you guys would find everything ive downloaded lol)

anyways those links:
http://nwvault.ign.com/?dir=resources/tutorials/viewlets/
Only ones you guys would have to even consider learning are the "Toolset Lessons - Basic" on down to "Toolset Lessons - Intermediate" but for world building you wont even need all those. but it would give you an idea what I do to get the world set up.  

--Last edited by Sirenix on 2008-11-19 19:55:58 --

We're going to need to come up with a name for the world pretty soon. I had to go through the 105 gods and deity books and remove the word Faerun, which is the D&D forgotten relms world name, Either we can use Faerun, Britannia, Sosoria (Ultima world before the shattering of the Gem of Imortality),  or some random name.

Heres a quick list of some random names: can get alot more then that. that list is just what I got off my seventh Sanctum name generator site I go to. they got some good generators for alot of things.

Aguaror
Amirand
Anglosis
Aquasul
Arcarctus
Arcason
Arcesona
Asibica
Atlinthor
Atlitrus
Atluanas
Bolibium
Caspygya
Cesiseos
Egas
Egerova
Engatrea
Engora
Erenya
Estiatea
Ethene
Ethiatini
Ethya
Eulitrova
Eulium
Euphacica
Euphis
Euraneos
Eurernona
Floruanova
Galleva
Granibova
Helvandana
Hibunor
Indand
Itentene
Itysa
Lucantini
Lyrivor
Malarum
Mercuanaea
Namenur
Norartaia
Rhodundaia
Segarium
Segontaea
Sibabas
Trarta
Ugygius
Zeelagias  

Another reason I need a world name soon is I got to create a web site lol. I made some screen shots on the AK web page link is photo 3 I think.  

also keep in mind that Im going to leave each of the players background story line up to each person. I'm going to avoid assigning any kind of back ground for the players short of what they are doing as soon as the game starts. For humans that is they couldnt afford transportation from where ever they where comming from, so they get stuck in the hold of a cargo ship bound for (what ever the first citys name ends up being)...  

--Last edited by Sirenix on 2008-11-19 20:45:31 --

well I like Erenya or Ethya but also Floruanova, names with nova in them just sounds good    but anything goes really.

For the world name i recon Ultima,Tarta or WaggaWagga  

--Last edited by benichy on 2008-11-20 06:51:48 --

Floranova? Yea! its an explosion of flowers! heh. We're all gona die by Poppies! Fluffy pink and purple sweet smelling dragons who breath pollen! (I actually have a fluffy purple cute dragon which makes it all the more creepy...(LINK! http://avatarskingdom.s5.com/cgi-bin/i/images/purpledragon.jpg If that link dont work its in the photo album 3 on the main web site.))

Actually I'm pretty sure theres a few dozen servers named ultima or britannia or anything along those lines. I guess if we really want to stand out the server really does need a unique name. and if we DO decide to go with UO lore, we can just say on the web page that we are a Ultima Online based server.  

--Last edited by Sirenix on 2008-11-20 16:40:50 --

Might have a little problem. I had to go to the vets yesterday, (cat died anyway) and spend 150$. (of borrowed money) so It might not be till January when we get the good internet. BUT as it is going right now, It may take that long just to get a good world built anyway. What I'm wanting to do is get the world built before everyone hops on. that way we dont have to start over every time I add a new part of the world. (not sure how that works still.) But don't think we're not going to be up and running 4 months from now. I'm pushing hard for 2 months atleast. any longer then that and it starts to effect my job hunt.

Right now I got 9 Gigabites of custom files for the server. OBVIOUSLY, thats going to have to come down to a reasonable number espically if everyone has to download that crap. Good news is I have sevral packages of custom content that has alot of the same stuff in it, so combineing the files will get rid of the duplicate files, (some as large as 500MB themselves). thats what Im mostly working on at the moment, and every so often I'll build an area of the world.

Right now the starting city , and most of its interriors, and first dungeon (a mine) are completed, a haunted woods area with a mini dungeon and subquest, the first city of the drow (exterriors only), the elvish city (exterriors only), an egyptian city which has some bugs I hope to fix by the end of the day, and a wood elf city which I also has a lot of bugs, that I dono how to fix yet, but its too good not to use, its exactly what I wanted.

Most of the time right now is spent organizing files, combining files, seeing what the files are, and getting the files all to work right together (which is a HUGE issue with so many files over 100,000 easily)  once thats done things should start to flow world building wise alot more easier.  

--Last edited by Sirenix on 2008-11-22 10:40:09 --

That's great man!  take your time building, no reason to rush and have something sloppy, then it comes out like some video games out there that are god awful.

I think the question on everyone's mind though is... Will there still be a Vampire race...LOL (just kidding)  (not really...)

About custom races:

I'd like to, infact it is planed, but I got to learn alot more about codeing then I do now since Im pretty sure theres not much along those lines already scrïpted for NWN it would be totally new. I did huge edits to the NPC Jousting (not even sure if I NEED to edit the PVP joust system that came with the same pack yet cause I cant test it) but that don't mean I know what I'm doing enough yet to create something new. Right now the main focus has been just what i menchoned above getting things sorted out.

*EDIT* actually I plan on a custom race system similar to how it was in UO, when you choose your deity, only problem is I haven't figured out exactly how to create a "GUMP" window click a button thingy. Gumps where hard enough in UO but I had a tool to create them later in the life of the shard. reason thats important, Like with UO I HATE the skin/hair color choices that D&D are lettin people use, if your going to be a elf it should be a normal skin hue, not sky blue or purple. so I want to basicly force people to choose colors that I want people to have, but at the same time giving them a chance to choose races that might not be avalible before.  

--Last edited by Sirenix on 2008-11-23 10:21:30 --

I'll look into gump creation/editing for NWN.  heh I still can't believe they turned NWN into a graphic game.  Way back when it was a text based AOL chat game(with aol 2.0).  weekly games with over 400 members... was a sick time,  I miss it =[

Thank god i am to young to have had to experience the text based games hahaha. i also heard you had to pay buy the hour is that true?  that sounds f*kin rediculious to me haha

aol would charge hourly for use, or you could pay like 60-80$ for unlimited.  I used to go to my aunt's house and pay on a computer they gave her for work.  had windows 3.0 and aol 2.0 on it... was the saddest thing ever.  but the text base game was fun.  had to type //roll 3dice 20 (or 3 20 sided dice)