175 réponses à ce sujet

[Alaron251]

The toolset is hard for me. I don't know the first thing about scripting, I'm just making houses for fun atm

[Ranlas]

Alaron251 wrote...

The toolset is hard for me. I don't know the first thing about scripting, I'm just making houses for fun atm

You could always find a partner or group to work with. Then you can make areas for fun and let someone who knows the scripting langauge handle that.

[Alaron251]

If only it was that easy. Oh well, it's experience I suppose.

[TimelordDC]

Alaron251 wrote...

The toolset is hard for me. I don't know the first thing about scripting, I'm just making houses for fun atm

You could release them as prefabs though I am unsure of the format exactly. I suppose you could export the group and release them or just have an area with all your prefab models and release as a B2B package. IMO, working in the level editor is a lot harder than scripting

[FalloutBoy]

JasonNH wrote...
They're all trapped in the Fade! In fact, someone should make a module where you are trapped in the Fade with them and the only way you can get out is to rescue all the NWN and NWN2 modders, who when released are able build a new world into which you can then escape.

Hah! Your throw-away off-the-cuff idea is way better than anything I've come up with.

Anyway, I was a NWN and NWN2 module-maker and now I'm working with DA. It took me 4 months to make my NWN2 module and it was among the early group of modules that came out, and it wasn't even very long (I spent a lot of time on cutscenes). So I wouldn't expect anything too awesome for a few months.

[FalloutBoy]

TimelordDC wrote...

Alaron251 wrote...

The toolset is hard for me. I don't know the first thing about scripting, I'm just making houses for fun atm

You could release them as prefabs though I am unsure of the format exactly. I suppose you could export the group and release them or just have an area with all your prefab models and release as a B2B package. IMO, working in the level editor is a lot harder than scripting

QFT x1000

If you make anything decent or even half-decent or even slightly-better-than-terrible in the level editor, put the models into a group, export the group, then post it here as a prefab. Good level designers or even prefab designers are in short supply. Not every module needs fancy scripting, but every module needs new levels and they are very time consuming.

[Challseus]

Driggan wrote...

Hey Challseus, intending to finish the RoE story? Always loved those modules for NWN.

Yes, sir.

[BryanDerksen]

TimelordDC wrote...

Hey Driggan, those are already out - http://social.biowar...m/project/1331/

And also version 1.01 of the toolset comes with the designer resources pre-loaded into the database, in case you haven't upgraded to that yet. (you really should, 1.00 had some game-breaking issues with core plots that 1.01 addressed. Make sure to follow the migration instructions if you want to preserve any existing database resources you've worked in in 1.00)

[Sethronu]

At least some modders (I know I do) simply want to get a better feel of the game, explore the original campaign and its characters, jot down some notes and ideas before actually using the toolset themselves. On top of that, there is the learning whole new interface which IS quite a big step up from Aurora; then you have to remember there's been tons of little nifty utilities and mods already out for NWN (script generators in particular spring to mind, oh how much grief they saved me...) - things like that and various tutorials / guides do take time to spread around. Besides, the more people get bored with the 'stock' campaign, the more likely they are to try their hand at writing something of their own. It's not like there's been hordes of designers waiting for NWN to come out just so they can go on designing their levels, most of the modders come from the community - after they had beaten the game and decided they want to add a touch of their own to it, or at least that's how I always imagined it to be.



I really do think there's going to be plenty of community-made content for DA though, just... not so soon. Oh and ME2 is definitely going to delay it some more.

[JasonNH]

FalloutBoy wrote...
Anyway, I was a NWN and NWN2 module-maker and now I'm working with DA. It took me 4 months to make my NWN2 module and it was among the early group of modules that came out, and it wasn't even very long (I spent a lot of time on cutscenes). So I wouldn't expect anything too awesome for a few months.

And it was quite good and well received. Particularly impressive in light of the immaturity of the NWN2 modding community at that point.

[WyrinDnjargo]

I'm here... lurking... won't touch DA toolset in depth until my NWN2 work is finished, likely early next year. But I do have an idea for a mod, something based on my playthough and events I didn't think quite felt right - where the PC should have been given a chance to act but wasn't - I want to explore what happens if they did...
but as i said, I have White Plume Mountain to polish off first. But there's a lot of truth in the comment a few posts above - i'm still on my first playthrough, and I have to be comfortable with DA lore and gameplay balance to be fully happy modding for it, and that's gonna take more playing and reading first.

Modifié par WyrinDnjargo, 17 décembre 2009 - 07:31 .

[ladydesire]

*waves to all her NWN2 friends, and the folks from NWN that she hasn't formally met yet*

[Whailor]

So, what's bad with Fallout 3 and Oblivion modders? They've made some very amazing stuff there, more in Oblivion as it has been out for longer but the same with Fallout 3. Some have no story and some have plenty of it. I did and do like NWN mods as well, played several of them, hopefully there will be mods from all type of modders there. Heck, for example, I so would love to see Adonnay's swords in DAO (elven ones were nice, but I liked more those bastards swords).



Though, it'll be some time because DAO toolset is.. Well, more messy. I'm not a "real" modder myself but with NWN/NWN2 toolset or Oblivion toolset or Fallout 3 one I just launched it and very quickly learned basics and soon enough was making my own areas, with NPC's and all. In DAO toolset.. Sheesh, I don't think I'll be doing anything even close to it for a very long time.

[Inhuman one]

Seeing how neverwinter nights 2 never even came close to Neverwinter Nights 1 regarding custom content, I think that might answer the question seeing how Dragon Age has an even less friendly toolset that only pushes more people away and demands more time of those that do want to work with it.



I made areas for neverwinter nights 1, but after a look at the dragon age toolset I already gave up on it and will leave it to modders. It requires a game designer to do anything with the dragon age toolset.



Sorry for sounding negative, but I had hoped for a toolset as good as the one for Neverwinter Nights. Userfriendlieness makes it good to me.



Its like the NWN1 toolset says "welcome, how was your day, what fun stuff are we going to do now?" when I open it.



Where the Dragon Age toolset simply says "**** off!" when I open it up.

[Qkrch]

There's a huge difference, the neverwinter modder creates new modules and adventures, building all what they need fot his/her best plot. Not simple addition to a campaign but building the scenario himself. There are nwn modules that actually beat anything done by bioware with his own engine.



The amount of this nwn modules are far superior than in Oblivion , Fallout... and in many ways, since sieges and short stories until long epic campaigns with full detail (own models, music, vo and more)



DA toolset is not much difference from nwn2 toolset and some in this topic have been using it for years although there's a learning curve... and a "take it easy" approach,



-said the roach

[Redunzgofasta]

Inhuman one wrote...

Seeing how neverwinter nights 2 never even came close to Neverwinter Nights 1 regarding custom content, I think that might answer the question seeing how Dragon Age has an even less friendly toolset that only pushes more people away and demands more time of those that do want to work with it.

I did quite a few area's for NWN   and the only reason I only did one for nwn2 is that I never realy liked the game utill the 2nd expansion came along.
I am quite sure I will do a lot more for DA:O. The toolset maybe a bit more complicated to grasp, but once you do it is certainly a lot easier (and quicker) to create great levels/area's in DA:O than it ever was in NWN2.

[JasonNH]

Inhuman one wrote...

Where the Dragon Age toolset simply says "**** off!" when I open it up.

Yeah, but it does it with awesome animations, including lip syncing.

[Malacola]

You also have to account for the fact that for a couple months people were probably giving the toolset a wide berth, as it was vaguely carcinogenic to the original campaign. Now that the toolsets fixed and all the assets are out, you should start seeing more content.



It's worth noting that even simple mods require a bit more work to get off the ground. I'm planning on approaching modules like an overly elaborate form of short fiction, pretty much just dialog and puzzles, but that still leaves cutscenes, area design, plots and scripting, not to mention the actual writing... You need at least a functional competence in all these areas.

[ChickenDownUnder]

I wouldn't write off Oblivion modders just yet. I'd kill for whoever made those Ren Hairs, long anime hair or no, (much less some of the weapons and armor) to make its way to DA. The amount of scripting they've shown themselves capable of was pretty impressive too.



But yeah, the DA toolset seems to have a higher learning curve. Ol' NWN modders, and even those who made mods for BGII, are just still in the DA toolset learning phase.

[nedlbin]

DA modding is basically different to NWN. The world of NWN is well-known - you can easily access tons of source books and even campaigns and adventures. Any serious mod for DA.O requires a lot of recherche work to learn the world - the culture, society.



Given the sheer size of DA.O many people are still stuck in playing through BEFORE they will start doing their own things - well that's at least what I do at the moment.



Given our prior experience with the toolset developing mods for DA.O will require a team of specialists. Am I right, Sunjammer?



It will be difficult to do a mod all alone with the expertise required in different tools and editors of the package.



I would not expect to see mods like mushrooms after rain here, but I'm sure we will see a good number of remarkable ones.

[FalloutBoy]

JasonNH wrote...
And it was quite good and well received. Particularly impressive in light of the immaturity of the NWN2 modding community at that point.

I appreciate that. I did some scripting tricks that I was proud of and polished the hell out of it at the end.

It's not fair to suggest that there is anything wrong with FO3 or Oblivion modders. The problem currently is that the only thing you can find are trivial mods. People go looking for a new campaign to play and all they can find are tons of ability tweaks or clothing tweaks or cheats. The good stuff will come though eventually.

Furthermore, I think this toolset is actually easier to use than NWN2 in many ways. Outdoor level editing is no harder than NWN2 and the lightmaps make it look a lot better. Indoor levels are harder since the "tiles" don't fit together very well. NPC creation is easier and making unique head morphs is fun IMO. Item creation is the same. Convo editor is the same, though it uses plots instead of local vars. Scripting is pretty much the same except we have to predefine persistant variables in a 2da, I can live with that. Cutscene editor is outstanding. There are features that I miss from NWN2, but not enough for me to say that either toolset was better.

Of course NWN was so easy that my grandma could make a module, but that was a totally different thing.

[Driggan]

TimelordDC wrote...

Hey Driggan, those are already out - http://social.biowar...m/project/1331/

Oh, excellent, don't know how I missed that. This should cut down on level creation times by a ton. Thanks for pointing it out.

It'll be nice to figure out how in hell they made things like Orazammar.

[Ticladesign]

I tried to figure out the level editor.



First there were the problems with my Vista64 system, had to install the lighting proggy of 32 bit something.. (i'm really no IT specialist) which worked.. I could light things in an interiour.



But the exteriour lighting keeps failing. Constant errors that make no sence. And do not light up the area, so I cannot see what i'm doing. This caused some actual headaches. So after that I could do nothing but give up for now. The NWN2 toolset was harder to use than the NWN1 one, but it did work.. it had a Day lighting, night lighting and so on. I could see what I was doing. And managed to make areas fine, learned that toolset one step at the time by simply building and learning.



In the DA toolset it seems there's more problems getting the thing to run propperly, rather than that I'm busy with the creative process of making an area. It's problem after problem to a level I just gave up on it. There's just too many things either not working propperly, or being too elusive.



But also, still much too busy on my NWN2 Persistent world, where I just get more and better input from players about my areas I make.



Still keep an eye on DA:O toolsetting, but right now I cant really figure it out for level design. There's too many problems getting the thing to work.

[sirchet]

It's sooooo promising to see most of my favorite artists commenting on works they have either started, or at least have in mind.



My recommendation to all of you very talented and experienced modders is ... put rl aside and crank us out some quality adventures.



Visa, Mastercard, the Mortgage Company and all those other responsibilities will understand, just tell them you're making mods.