StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Ok, this is the thing: I'm planning on getting a legit copy of NWN in the near future, hearing how great Multiplayer is and all, and after seeing how shitty the single player campaign is. I also read a while ago a thread talking about making a "sd.net" (meaning made by us, not having a SW theme ) and then somebody brought up persistent "worlds" that play a little bit like Everquest in that people log in and out and interact socially and do other things.

So I've been immersing myself more deeply in the Aurora Toolset, and I think I have a pretty good idea about how to start a world. These are the guidelines I've figured out so far, what are your opinions?

#1: The setting will be "familiar" but not directly based on any D&D setting. Meaning no Forgotten Realms references, like towns or gods or whatever... it won't be totally alien, just try to avoid familiar places and names.

#2: um, ok so far I only have #1

I already created a city and I think it's pretty cool... another thing I haven't quite figured out is how to make a world cooperatively... I think there's an option to export-import things like areas, right?

I'm a bit pissed because you can't make an elevation using the City Exterior tileset, with a stream of water coming out of it, because the top level of the elevation will have an invisible, impassable line right next to the tile

If you're going to make an SD.net PW then be sure to check nwn.ign.com for good custom content to be included.

Coolness, possibly mounted on or near a stick. I'm an experienced module designer in all areas except scripting (though I know C++ so it can't be that hard). One thing people have universally commented on is my sounds effects and music - apparantly I'm really good at it. I don't have a massive amount of time to throw around but if you ever need some help with this I'd be willing to help out.

And yes you should be able to import and export stuff, ideally a file server would be useful for said exports if there's several people in on the project.

JediNeophyte wrote:Coolness, possibly mounted on or near a stick. I'm an experienced module designer in all areas except scripting (though I know C++ so it can't be that hard).

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

It is C++ based, but believe me it's not as simple as it looks. There are things that look as though they should work and simply don't. NWN is very specific about certain conventions that it follows when scripting.

The programming is very C++ like (even stuff like "default" parameters are the same) but you have to memorize a whole set of functions that are game-specific...

Actually looks quite robust.

You might wanna check this out.

It's a database program to help with PW servers. In my admittedly limited exprience, the ones that didn't use it were pretty kludgy about storing information, while the ones that did weren't.

What you mean, I shouldn't use NOTEPAD like I was planning to?!?!

Hey, whatever floats (or in this case sinks) your boat

Ok thanks, I'll check that utility out, for now there's little to "run" though, step 1 would be to actually make the world

If you're planning on designing, scripting and implimenting a database yourself can I make a suggestion?

Keep the area count low, I mean really low, like around ten areas. At least until you get some more help anyway. The large persistant worlds out there have staff counts in their tens and twenties. in order to get mods with area counts around the 500 mark.

I already have about 4 areas for a single city
any special reason?

Quality and maintenance. Things like NPC's, quests, items, encounters all take a long time to produce if you want to produce them to a good standard.

4 areas to a city is quite good, probably wouldn't want to go to far higher, except for structure interriors. Cities generally tend to be more area intensive then the worlderness.

Ten is probably a good number to start with as main areas. A city, town or two, some areas in between. The reason why is that it makes it a lot easier to make those areas special.

Imagine this, start with ten, add a few caves, maybe some dungeons, maybe a couple of NPC's in each area. Have some quests set up, make sure the area geometry looks nice, ie isn't just a pile of flat lands, make sure that you use plenty of placables to flesh out the areas, play with fog and lighting effects, add ambiant sounds. Then add some other areas on top of the first ten that contain dungeons, caves, house/castle interriors. Your area count will probably end up ballooning to something like 25 or 30, but they'll be good because you've spent quite a bit of time on them making them good. Once you're done you can move on to expanding your mod with another ten main areas and support areas.

Now, try doing that if you start with 20 or 30 main areas. With all the supporting areas you'll likely need to add in your needs will end up ballooning up to about 50 or 60 areas and unless you're willing to spend A LOT of hours detailing each area it probably wont work out too well.

So basically, start small and work your way up.

Ah, that. I thought you meant to set myself a final 10-area limit for the whole game.

Yeah, my bad. I should have said don't go over ten until you know where you're going with it. Also, see if you can play on some of the existing PWs, just to get a general idea of how they work. The dynamics are slightly different then to normal games.