Ernie Noa's RPG Blog

Real life intrudes. No substantial work for the past few days. :-(

I started tracking blog hits in Feb 2007. Here's the results for last year. To everyone who visits this blog - Thank you. I appreciate your visits and your frequent posts.

Darmok shared the following screen shots with me before I showed him the ones I had selected. These are his favorites of the area he's working on.

I took the screenshots, but Darmok has been working on this area for Hythum Redux. Darmok is a long time gamer, with a tremendous background in game testing and software testing. I've known Darmok for... it's been so long we don't speak of it, it's forbidden. At any rate, here are screenshots from the area Darmok is working on. He says it's not finished and he has more to do but I think it looks FANTASTIC. This is Darmok's first NWN2 modding effort, and I think he's really hit the nail on the head. The area looks fantastic. Note the castle in the background. I think this area really looks open and expansive, which is a nice trick as the area is actually quite small. Well done Darmok! Awesome! My favorite screenshot of the bunch! Post and let me know what you think. This is Darmok's first trip out with the toolset, and I think it's impressive when compared to the work of other experienced modders! @Darmok - Nice job part...

Sunday February 10th at 8:30pm EST/7:30pm CST Neverwinter Nights Podcast has arranged a roundtable discussion. LadyElvenStar , Amraphael , Raith Veldrin , Delak , Nalencer , Wyrin and I will be participating in a Live round table discussion on modules currently in development. I was thrilled to be invited to participate in another NeverwinterNights Podcast event, my interview in episode 40 was a wonderful experience. Listeners will have to use Skype Cast and log in. Listeners will need the latest version of skypeThere will be a chat window as well This private link once logged in will take you to the discussion room --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Featured Modules/Speakers http://nalencer.blogspot.com/ http://enoa4rpg.blogspot.com/ http://nwn2-zork.blogspot.com/ http://solvheil.blogspot.com/ http://wyrind.blogspot.com/ http://ladyelvenstar.blogspot.com/ ...

I'm sure a more than a few of you have been keeping tabs on Amraphael's adaptaion of ZORK – The Great Underground Empire for NWN2 . The screen shots and news on his blog has been very impressive. Amraphael's has released a trailer for the mod which is equally impressive.

Quick screen shots of a seedy smoke filled tavern. I've got a tile that rotates 90 degrees in game, but looks fine in the editor. You can almost make it out the second screen shot. Weird.

This goes on both blogs... Liso... after your what's Battlestar comment, there better not be any wisecracks. ;-)

And a few more screen shots. This is showing off more of the cliff placeable. This is showing off the edge of the world. Nice night sky. Then the next shot is the same thing but panned down, looking over the edge of the cliff. Looking down you still see stars below... You won't spend a ton of time at the 'edge' of the world, but when you are near an 'edge' I want to be clear and striking. I'm pretty happy with it thus far.

The title says it all. Here are some picts from an interior I've been working on.

My previous post touched on some visual noise. I noticed this occurs for specific objects. Door appearance# 112784 shows up as bright white when the fog effect kicks in. (see my previous screen shots). I changed the door model and that bit of visual distortion went away. I still see some sparkles, which I believe is due to the light effects in the building models. While playing in the toolset I saw the following: The object that is glowing is a flat curb. Weird huh? Anyone else seeing this?

Amraphael was kind enough to direct me to a cliffs placeable on NWVault after reading that was not satisfied with the stretched texture showing up at the 'edge of the world'. See the top screen shot in my last post for an example. The cliff placeables are exactly what I want. Here's a screen shot with no fog. This looks great and it's exactly what I'm after. However when I turn on the fog I get a lot of 'noise'. Sparkles in the background and the doors are all highlighted. Very odd indeed. I can't live with the noise. I have MANY cliffs layered together along with rock faces and I'm wondering even though they are mostly environmental objects if the game (or my graphics card) just can't handle it and it's generating the noise. I've got a lot of stuff piled up here. I loaded up a back up of the mod that does not include the cliffs and also saw the 'noise'. I thought it was the cliffs but apparently it's been there and I...

Lots of screen shots today. See the previous posts for more. Saugatuck Docks. I'm not crazy about the stretched textures near the bottom, but I think this is working out as the 'edge' of the world. Hythum is comprised of islands and land masses floating in the sky. Forested Isle Near Burnham Crossing. (I need to fix the 'floating' dead tree... oops)

More screen shots from Hythum. It's a mix of areas completed over the last month and a half. Forested Isle near Burnham Crossing. View of the Saugatuck Docks from the marketplace. Road near Saugatuck. Road near Saugatuck. Evyinder's Tower

I posted some early screen shots of Burnham Crossing the other night. Here they basically the same screen shots with a bit more polish and decoration. No one is inhabiting the streets yet, that will come later. I think they have improved a bit.

I love this show. Which Battlestar Galactica Character Are You? Created by BuddyTV

My modding efforts were suffering due to Portal, now they are suffering due to Team Fortress 2, which has captured my interest at the moment. I'm playing more than modding, but I don't feel all bad about that. I tend to become too obsessive about my modding so the ability to STOP and due something else is both unusual and probably quite healthy. With that said I have some very early screen shots of Burnham Crossing, a city of twisted alleyways and lawless thugs. I thought it was one of the more distinctive locals of the original Hythum. With that said here are a pair of very early Burnham Crossing screenshots. The buildings and pavement are basically in place. In the distance you can see an Airship in the second screen shot. Not much in the way of decoration yet. I'm getting there.

I am not a World of Warcraft player, but admire the game. I'm also a William Shatner fan. I found these two WOW commercials. The first with Mr. Shatner and the latter with Mr. T. How funny.

I recently had an opportunity to look over the story outline, dialog and other plot related content for Stygius , a module currently in development by several community members. The story is different, and not a traditional D&D tale, but it is utterly fascinating. I was really able to connect with the characters, and found I was reading through the material that was shared with me faster and faster. I couldn't wait to find out where the story was headed. The dialog is great, many of the characters have a unique and well defined voice. The story held my attention, and I was invested emotionally by the end. There were a few good surprises along the way to boot! This mod seems to be fairly early in development, but it's something to watch and look forward to. Click here to read the Stygius blog !

I played Portal, which is part of the Orange Box game package. It was original, funny and entertaining. I couldn't resist posting two youtube clips. Here is a pre-release clip that shows how the game works and gives you an idea of they type of problems you'll solve. It also gives you a hint regarding the types of puzzles you'll solve. This second clip has a spoilers, it's the end game movie and 'song' that's played after the game. If you haven't played I'd wait. (How weird is it that I like to listen to this while programming at work.) At the end, there will be cake.

Slow progress on Hythum but progress none the less. I've worked for a 30 -60 minutes each night this week on Hythum. Hythum will be broken into 7 modules, all released together as a campaign. I'm nearly done with the areas required for one of the smaller modules. I've worked on producing the 'edge' of Hythum which is important as the world of Hythum is comprised of islands floating in the sky. I've got one more interior to take care of then a small modified exterior. No scripting, people, converesations, etc... I think we're going to build all the locations first this time.

Happy New Year NWN community friends and acquaintances! In 2007 I played NWN2 OC and MOTB and released two custom mods, Keep on the Borderlands and Tomoachan . I started on a new mod, Hythum and got an amazing Airship model from Amraphael . I played countless great community mods, participated in a NWN Podcast interview . I played Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1, Episode 2 and portal. Wow! What a great gaming year. This year... I'm working on Hythum for NWN2 and may assist with an upcoming NWN Podcast episode if everything works out ok. :-) To kick off the gaming year, I have a different kind of game to watch. My alma mater, the University of Illinois , is playing in the Rose Bowl . Go Illini! I used to play in the Marching Illini . If you'd like a video clip of the band in action look no further, a bit off topic but I can't resist. Happy New Year to you all.