Ernie Noa's RPG Blog

I got a couple of mentions on episode #15 of the NWN Podcast found here . They read a post I made regarding #14 and a few other bits about other posts in a text interview they did on Steve Savicki. The podcast is worth a look. Enjoy.

Two more caves to decorate and then it's on to the meat of the module. I am still inching forward, just a bit at a time. I got very frustrated over the past two days, partly non-mod writing pressures, but I was tempted to let it go. I'm still working. Slowly.

The new tracking widget seems to be working. It's been up for 2-3 days and I'm tracking hits by IP address for a month. I'm not sure how the tracking works. I don't have access to blogspots logs and neither does the creator of the widget, but it's pretty cool!

I am not sure if this widget will work, but I thought I would give it a try.

I got a good hour to 90 minutes in on Keep on the borderlands. It seems like the dungeon, 'the caves of choas' are an endless parade of guard rooms, common areas, storage rooms and chief's quarters. I got a few tile issues repaired in the Hobgoblin's caves and decorated a large common area and a guard area. I'm quite pleased with the look. I'm going to finish the caves then before I add NPCs, dialog and scripts I think I will do a little testing and make sure I can 'walk' everywhere I need to and that area transition and secret doors are all working. Then on to the fun stuff... I know this is a classic module, but I am struggling with how much to expand the plot. The original is nearly plot free, leaving it up to the DM to fill in the blanks. I guess as a mod builder that's up to me, but as I color in the blank spots I wonder if I am deviating too much from the original. It's a classic module and I want to do it justice.

Well I got half a room done. My kids want to play so... duty calls. It's not really duty, it's just plain fun.

Neverwinter podcasts interviewed Steve Savicki, a very active NWN community member. Steve gave a kind mention to the mods I've developed including Hythum . Thanks Steve! Click here to read the interview.

NWVault has listed the entries for the 2006 module of the year . Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan , Hythum and Hythum II were up for 2004 mod of the year or 2005 mod of the year, but they didn't do particularly well. Although each mod made the Hall of Fame and were very well received they didn't do too well in the running for mod of the year. They got some votes, but were somewhere in the middle of the pack. This year Eye of the Serpent is up for Mod of the Year 2006 . I have no problem with how things went in previous years, and I don't expect Eye of the Serpent to win this year. I am pleased with my modules, but I think there are better far more deserving mods that should win. ... but as they say. I am thrilled just to be including in the list of eligible mods. * Edited * You know I looked at the list and noticed Hythum II is on the list of nominees. Something is wrong with their list. I know Hythum II was up for 2005 mod of the year, and I think Eye may have been...

I have started listening to a Neverwinter Nights podcast. You can check it out here if you are curious. The podcast covers both Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2. It's an interesting mix of tips for player, module commentary, and information about patches/game updates.

I've posted an announcement about Keep on the Borderlands on the bioware forums. Check it out here if you are curious. Thanks to all who have already replied.

I have been using a fantastic mapping tool to build my interior areas. Worked like a charm, but I notice in larger areas there is no ceiling in the center of the room. I've been correcting this manually as I go. I got a few more rooms underway. I should have the interiors decorated within a few weeks. Then it's on to the 'meat' of the module.

Here are a couple of very early screen shots from Keep on the Borderlands. No people yet, just decorated spaces. Enjoy.

I finished off 'decorating' a few more rooms in one of the orc caves. I think I may be gaining a bit of speed, I've had to get used to each section of the Toolset. I was pretty handy with the NWN1 toolset, but this is a whole new ball of wax. The next couple of weekends don't look promising in terms of time available for building, but hopefully I'll get a little bit done here and there.

I might need to take a break from Keep on the Borderlands. I am enjoying it, but I want to play a few games for a while and focus on my kids. I enjoy writing but feel overly focused on it when I get going to the point where I miss other things. I write this stuff because I enjoy working solo on this type of project but I have considered working with others on future projects or perhaps even this one. I'm just not sure. I realize mod building isn't writing, but writing tends to be a solitary activity which is part of what I enjoy. Maybe a break will help. I feel obligated to finish what I've started and I miss it when I step away, but I feel like I'm missing out on things when I work on it all the time. I become very obsessive.

I've been making some progress with Keep on the Borderlands. I'm slowly decorating the interiors I have created. Given the pressures (and pleasures) of raising three young boys, I find it very hard to pursue module building. The wonderful ability to build truly unique areas has a high price tag, a much longer build time. This may be my only mod... if I follow through to completion. * UGH *

Has anyone else heard about this? I was shocked to stumble upon it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825245/ http://www.dragonlance-movie.com/

I have completed building all the areas for Keep on the Borderlands. There is nothing in most of them. The keep is well decorated as are the wilderness areas, but the caves are completely bare. Area transitions and doors are finished, but untested. No people, no stores no loot. Next segment of work will be decorating the caves. When that's done then I'll start working on NPCs, monsters, loot, plots, etc... I've got a lot of that done in my head and on paper but not in the toolset.

I worked quite a bit on Keep on the Borderlands for NWN2 last night. I have created areas for most of the caves. The caves are empty outside of a handful of doors, they have no decoration. I have two more caves to layout then I will put in placeables, etc... After that, people, plots and loot... I've got good ideas for quests, plots, etc...

The wonderful NWN2Mapper plugin has been fixed. Support was discontinued after version1.3 of NWN2, and it broke with the release of version 1.4. The tool has many votes and a rating of 9.9 out of 10.0. Another site member recompiled it and made it available for download. It works! Thanks to the author for building it and thanks to community member Tani for fixing it.

This was too good not to post. It's a circa 1983 TSR Dungeons and Dragons television commercial. It's pretty awful. Enjoy or run in fear, I'm not sure what is more appropriate. It's almost unwatchable...

I now have a functional world map for my NWN2 module Keep on the Borderlands. I used Sunjammer's tutorial which saved me more time than I could have hoped. Great tutorial. Well written and easy to follow. I got stuck on a few little things, I wasn't declaring my variables as strings in the area transition triggers and the variables and their values would vanish when I saved and loaded the toolset. Now that it's functional, I have a bunch of things to fix, bad mouse overs, a few transitions not quite the way I want them, but I basically have it working. I can do all of the things I want to do with it. Thanks to Sunjammer for the tutorial With that said, does Keep on the Borderland's need a world map. If you are familiar with the module you know I don't have to have one. It might be fun to do everything with traditional map transitions. I think it's fine to handle travel with the world map too, and it gives me the chance to learn how to put one together...

Many thanks to Elhanan for letting me know that one of my Neverwinter Nights 1 modules, C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan was mentioned in the November 2006 issues of Computer Games magazine. I was able to order a copy of back issue of the magazine that mentioned the module. Sure enough the module was mentioned in the Modsquad section by Brett Todd along with a screen shot from the module. The blurb from the magazine reads as follows: "Not a Gygaxian Landmark, but Close Enough ... And just to continue the NWN lovefest, besure to check out C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan , a conversion of the classic pen-and-paper D&D module from 1979. While the original module in question doesn't quite have the geek cred of a Gygaxian landmark like, say, S1 Tomb of Horrors or S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks , anyone who's a sucker for old school Greyhawk gaming will love this one. Designer ENoa4 has nicely captured the feel of hack-'n'-slash AD&D from way back i...