275 réponses à ce sujet

[Tarot Redhand]

Now I hope I am not ,misinterpreting what you are asking. Based purely on the way things have worked out in the NwN forums (and it might well be different here) I would suggest that you have a build any type of thing other than side quests, quests or modules purely because for the most part these three things take much more time to make.

 

If I have misinterpreted and you were asking for a topic suggestion (e.g. Dark Sun, aquatic adventures etc) then that is a question that I shouldn't answer because it should really come from the NwN 2 community. In other words start a thread in the custom content section here and ask for suggestions. You could also look in the stickied thread over in the NwN area on this page about halfway down for the list of the themes that have been used by the NwN community (hint steampunk was probably the least successful at only 2 things made for it).

 

One thing to bear in mind is that should you go with this idea, it absolutely needs someone to organise it and a transferable email address for the content creators to send their creations to. The reason that the email address needs to be transferable is simply because for one reason or another the person in charge will probably change over time (so far the NwN version has had 4 (I think) so far). My last thought, again using NwN as a model, is that it could take up to 6 months before it beds in enough for people to really believe in it. Oh and before you ask, I am not available for the post due to numerous reasons  .

 

For those that don't know what we are talking about here, this a link to a page on the new vault with links to the results of various monthly challenges.

 

TR

[rjshae]

No worries; I was just posting a query for reasons of curiosity. I've become far too jaded about human nature to attempt to initiate any such collaboration project.

[Shallina]

in NWN2 it' s really easy to put new content in or out. There is no really needs of a coordinated effort.

[-Semper-]

Speaking hypothetically then, what sort of challenge theme do you think would be the most attractive to potential modders?

 

it's a little biased, but i am most interested in modelling. personally i would go with something small for the first challenge. thinking about it i would go with either a small themed prop (a unique lamp, a magical pedestal, torture racks, furniture, etc.) or an official/custom relic in the form of a piece of equipment. this could be both a retextured vanilla model or something completely new.

 

personally i would not reserve 2da ranges, but include a custom 2da with only one single line with a missing id. with a reusable readme the users are then able to copy/paste this entry to their own 2da to get the stuff ingame.

[Tarot Redhand]

@ rjshae Strictly speaking a custom content challenge is not a collaboration project. Content creators contribute if they feel there is something they can make that fits the current theme. In other words it is individual creators making things that have a shared theme. It can involve 2 or more people working on the same thing (e.g. NwN's June 2013 challenge Rolo made the models & I created the textures of the Bomb Beasts) but that is usually the exception, not the rule. 

 

@ Shallina You'd be surprised at the amount of extra content that a custom content challenge can generate.

 

@ -Semper- Before you get too carried away (and before this thread gets hijacked any more) why not start a thread on this topic in the custom content part of this NwN 2 area.

 

TR

[rjshae]

in NWN2 it' s really easy to put new content in or out. There is no really needs of a coordinated effort.

 

From what I've seen in the NWN CCC projects, it's not so much about solving a problem of adding new content because they already have a ton of such. Instead, it is about a communal effort toward a common goal combined with the challenge of creating content around a theme the modders may not normally pursue. For example, this month's theme is weird science.

 

it's a little biased, but i am most interested in modelling. personally i would go with something small for the first challenge. thinking about it i would go with either a small themed prop (a unique lamp, a magical pedestal, torture racks, furniture, etc.) or an official/custom relic in the form of a piece of equipment. this could be both a retextured vanilla model or something completely new.

 

In the NWN CCC, they have been restricting the use of porting in order to make it more challenging.

[rjshae]

I started a new NWN2 CCC thread for discussion. Thanks.

[MagicalMaster]

Hey, welcome to my ignore list. See ya.

 

I like that rather than point out how I've misinterpreted your words (and I even clearly asked you whether my interpretation was correct) or acknowledge that you miscommunicated, you apparently decided to ignore me.  Classy.

 

"See ya."

 

i also thought about a similar challenge - model of the month, quest of the month, area of the month, fully fleshed out npc with background of the month, new spell with custom vfx of the month, etc. it would be refreshing and perhaps it will bring in some new folks who are more interested in doing small stuff for the fun. especially the modelling challenges could increase in difficulty over time to get people into creating their own stuff. dunno, perhaps the creators could even do a small "how it was done" tutorial, if there's enough interest and if they're willing to.

 

as tarot said: what's there to lose? if nobody participates it will be buried like all those other things never to see the light of day.

 

NWN's done something called the Adventure Building Challenge, where the idea is that you make a small module in the span of a month.  Some months we get more submissions than others, but like you said what's there to lose?  Also gives a way for people who might want to learn the toolset but not make actual custom content to start small.

 

That definitely is something different than a monthly CC challenge, though, like Tarot said.

 

in NWN2 it' s really easy to put new content in or out. There is no really needs of a coordinated effort.

 

Part of the idea is to inspire people to actually get off their rear ends and DO something.  May push people to get involved who otherwise are not.

[Scrotok]

I've heard NWN2's toolset is more difficult to use than NWN's toolset.  That, coupled with the number of hours I've invested in NWN modding, makes me hesitant to make the switch.  Fancy graphics don't matter much to me.  I want the ability to rapidly build a module, then use the DM Client to take folks through the adventure, like in the pen-and-paper days of olde.

[Eguintir Eligard]

There would be a lot more quality fun adventures if people used to toolset to make areas and monsters and filled in the rest with a live reactive dm. I feel many of us missed the boat by trying to come out with commercial efforts of our own for single player mode. All those conversations and corresponding scripts are more than half the work.

[Kaziem]

So, I read through a lot of posts to get here. This is a particularly interesting topic for me. I've been playing and tinkering with the toolsets for NWN and NWN2 since their launches (NWN before it was launched) I'm only 26, so I was all of 13 at the oldest when I first picked up the beta for the NWN toolset. I've been playing D&D just as long. When it comes down to it, D&D is the core of why I love these games. I'm also a huge Forgotten Realms fan, as well, despite them throwing it under the bus with the spellplague (opinion.) I'm not a 3D artist, I'm not an exceptional story teller, I mostly played action persistent worlds. I love both games and they both have their merits. I've never published anything I've made in either. I'm a professionally trained programmer and I know over a dozen programming languages. NWScript was one of the first I picked up. I've been interested in game design, mechanics, art, everything you can think of that goes into making a game forever. NWN has lets me play with that and sharpen the skills needed to be a professional game developer.

 

All of that being said, I just want to point out what makes both of the games vital in terms of where we are now in terms of gaming. They introduced something new, on both accounts, which is ease of access. Normal game development tools, such as Unity, or (Insert Word Here)Engine take years to get basic grasps of. The made the ability to create game content common place. The same can be said of The Elder Scrolls series as well, but to less an extent, in my opinion. What they did was take and engine, add a server mechanism, and apply a rule set (which cuts out 9/10's of the programming) - making it about the content. They took a 4 year degree and a couple of years of technical experience, with a month+ of on the job training to familiarize yourself with that specific toolset, and turned it into a few months of trial and error as you developed a workflow for yourself. All the while doing this without the need to know applied calculus and trigonometry. It let someone like me, who does have a lot of the know how it would take to make this game, do it in a year, alone, as opposed to 2 years with a team of 100+ people working along side me. After all I wanted to make Dungeons and Dragons into a computer game.

 

So when it all comes down to it the real question of which platform to use, isn't an issue of which is better, or which has more players, or what has more already done for it. It's simply an issue of which is going to have the best return on investment for what the creator and players want to see. In my latest project, I took a different approach, and normally I don't use the NWN2 toolset specifically for the fact a lot of things take long. This time however, I used it, I had a very specific requirement I wanted to see fulfilled.

 

I'm sure most of your are familiar with the Forgotten Realms, and I'm sure some of you are familiar with Shadowdale, the home of Elminster. It's a beautiful mostly farming community in the dale lands. It also has a canonical look, and is well documented both in history and geography. I wanted to recreate this town. Normally I have no problem with the limited granularity of the NWN toolset. But to really capture the town of Shadowdale, I needed more control, a lot more. I took a couple of canon(ish) images I found online:

 

http://www.mythopoei..._shadowdale.jpg

http://www.tammo.org...shadowdale2.jpg

 

And I turned it into this:

https://www.dropbox....S948iue3pa?dl=0

 

Just the terrain took me a week (I had a lot to learn with the tools) and I've been scripting things for a while now on it to catch that side up. When I get bored of scripting I'll do lighting, and drop some placables. When scripting is done I'll drop NPC's (the scripting is a requirement for them). It's an amazing workflow for the dynamic feel I want to apply to it for my PW. This is the central location for the mod after all. If I finish it, awesome. It'll released. If not I had fun working on it. It's about how you are telling the story that drives which toolset is appropriate. It doesn't boil down to technical specs, or even existing custom content. I've got thirty pages of back story and a 15 page excel spreadsheet of systems, from custom XP, to housing documented as well. This persistent world might be 40-50 areas, at launch, that being said in NWN1 terms that'll relate to about 200 or so, given size and layout. 

 

If you want the player immersed in the world you're likely better off using NWN2 if you want them immersed in the story go for NWN. If you want it to be 100% unique NWN provides the better trade off and can speed that up. If you want better mechanics and a more expandable set of systems NWN2 is the way to go. 

 

The NWN toolset tailors itself to PW's very well because constant content additions help stabilize a player base. NWN also allows you to keep a wider scope as an option with single player. NWN2 is well suited to single player and one shots because it allows you to get that extra level of detail, and immersion. NWN2 also provides the ability to make very immersive, and mechanically driven PWs.

 

I've said my peace, and everyone else here has as well. I appreciate you reading it if you did. I wouldn't have even necro-posted if I didn't spend 4 hours I could have been working on this, reading and trying to get into the community a bit. Time well spent all the same, but personally, I think the argument is a bit silly. They're two different types of onions, yes (sorry couldn't find a simile with apples or oranges), but one goes in fajitas and one goes on a burger. It's as simple as that.

[Visavant]

But given that, the upgraded graphics in NWN2 aren't enough of an upgrade for me to consider them noteworthy.

I found it more than adequate enough to accomplish immersion while drumming up newer gameplay mechanisms such as dynamic stealth modified by ambient light, and other visual cues that're coming into play in my upcoming PW. These are additive to the overall player experience. I hope that any potential modder that views this thread doesn't find discouragement as a result of the nay-saying of others.

 

 

 

 

[Ubai]

Those screenshots are amazing! Is there a thread with more?

Thanks,
Matt

[Visavant]

Not at this time, looking at a summer launch however.

[MayCaesar]

I've been lurking here for a while, comparing what people have to say on NWN1 and NWN2 toolsets. The thing is, as a game in itself (excluding the toolset), I simply adore NWN2, while NWN1 feels a bit... meh to me. It is not just the graphics, but it is the combat (the ability to control all characters in NWN2), it is the complexity (NWN2 has much more classes and playable races than NWN1), it is controls (I know what was said about NWN2 camera when it was released, but I personally didn't have any issues with it, while I hate camera in NWN1).

 

However, the thing that makes me play NWN1 and learn Aurora toolset currently is that there seems to be many times as many modules and as much custom content for NWN1 as there is for NWN2. I don't know how true it is, and on these forums, at least, NWN1 has 9,000 topics and NWN2 has 7,000 topics, so the difference doesn't seem too big. But almost the unanimous agreement is that NWN1 toolset is more popular than NWN2 toolset.

 

I would like, I would just love to use NWN2 toolset. But I have a few concerns, and questions related to them:

- Is anyone going to play my modules made in NWN2? How active are both modding and module playing communities? Are my efforts going to be in vain and forgotten after a few bored people have played through my modules? 

- Is it true that it takes much more time to make a module in Electron compared to Aurora, having roughly the same gameplay length? If so, what is the ratio? Is it, say, 5:4, 2:1, 10:1?

- Global question: in your opinion, which toolset should I use to create my modules? Which would you choose if you were me, inexperienced in either toolset and starting essentially from scratch? I use a lot of C++ in my work, if it is of any help, so I think I can quickly get into making modules in any toolset. In fact, after 20-30 hours of playing with Aurora, I believe I know how to make anything I need in my upcoming modules, and if I really knew that I would stay with Aurora, I could start working right away. But I love NWN2 as a game so much more...

 

---

 

Oh, and for the record, I HATE the tile-based structure of NWN1 outdoor areas. While I understand that it saves a lot of PC resources, it feels very limiting when I am trying to design a zone. I would rather prefer working freely, without being attached to fixed tiles, even if it meant that it would take me 5 times as much time to design the outdoor areas as in a tile-based system.

[Tchos]

the thing that makes me play NWN1 and learn Aurora toolset currently is that there seems to be many times as many modules and as much custom content for NWN1 as there is for NWN2.

 

- Is anyone going to play my modules made in NWN2? How active are both modding and module playing communities?

- Is it true that it takes much more time to make a module in Electron compared to Aurora, having roughly the same gameplay length? If so, what is the ratio? Is it, say, 5:4, 2:1, 10:1?

- Global question: in your opinion, which toolset should I use to create my modules? Which would you choose if you were me, inexperienced in either toolset and starting essentially from scratch? I use a lot of C++ in my work, if it is of any help, so I think I can quickly get into making modules in any toolset. In fact, after 20-30 hours of playing with Aurora, I believe I know how to make anything I need in my upcoming modules, and if I really knew that I would stay with Aurora, I could start working right away. But I love NWN2 as a game so much more...

 

There are more than enough modules in NWN2 to keep me playing for as far as I can foresee, so it doesn't really matter to me that there are more in NWN1.

1. Anyone going to play?  Speaking for myself, it's about 100% more likely that I'll play yours if you make it in NWN2.
2. How active?  In the past 6 months, judging from the Vault releases, and only counting new adventures (rather than re-uploading of old content from the old Vault), there were 5 modules for NWN1, and 4 modules for NWN2.  So they seem to be at a more or less equivalent trickle, with NWN1 leading by a nose.  Don't mod for either of these games if you want it to be played by thousands of players.  For that, it would need to be something more popular, like Skyrim.
3. More time to make?  I don't know, but I don't find NWN2 burdensome at all.  The thing people say takes longer is building environments, and only because you can customise them so much.  If you don't want to spend time building your environments, you can just use a prefab.
4. Which would I pick as a beginner?  Since I hate building with tiles, NWN2 for certain.  I also think the parameterised scripts you can use in conversations make it much easier to make things happen in NWN2, since you don't need to make a new script for each unique situation.  And I think the toolset layout is better and more customisable.  Basically, I've seen builders in the NWN1 forums talking about far too many things about the toolset that make me glad I'm using the NWN2 one, because I'd hate to give up these features.  Well, this only scratches the surface, but I'm actually tired of repeating all of the things that I like about the NWN2 toolset.

[kamal_]

I've been lurking here for a while, comparing what people have to say on NWN1 and NWN2 toolsets.

 

I mod for the groupies. And for the fame and fortune (of which there is none), but mostly the groupies (none of those either).

 

Since I have a couple of completed campaigns and have been at this for some time, I think you're going to get a better opinion from someone like andysks, who is working on his first campaign, or tchos, who has worked with several different toolsets.

[Tchos]

or tchos, who has worked with several different toolsets.

 

Well, I thought I was less qualified to answer for that reason, since I'm not coming to it from a beginner's perspective.

 

I guess I could say a little more, though...the first time I tried to mod a game with a tile-based map creator was in Torchlight, and the experience was so bad I gave up after just a few attempts. 

 

It was better working with the Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 toolkits, because even though they had interior tiles (though not all areas were built with tiles), the tiles had just as much freedom in placement as our placeables.  They can be rotated arbitrarily (not just in 90° units) as well as along all three axes, and raised and lowered as desired, and offset freely instead of being locked into discrete squares (you can activate snapping to a grid, but you can also redefine where the grid is centred at any time).  That's something I miss, since we don't have that here.

 

In NWN2, I've mainly been building my interiors with placeables lately, not tiles, which restores much of that freedom that I lost in the move.

[kevL]

I've been lurking here for a while, comparing what people have to say on NWN1 and NWN2 toolsets. The thing is, as a game in itself (excluding the toolset), I simply adore NWN2, while NWN1 feels a bit... meh to me. It is not just the graphics, but it is the combat (the ability to control all characters in NWN2), it is the complexity (NWN2 has much more classes and playable races than NWN1), it is controls (I know what was said about NWN2 camera when it was released, but I personally didn't have any issues with it, while I hate camera in NWN1).

However, the thing that makes me play NWN1 and learn Aurora toolset currently is that there seems to be many times as many modules and as much custom content for NWN1 as there is for NWN2. I don't know how true it is, and on these forums, at least, NWN1 has 9,000 topics and NWN2 has 7,000 topics, so the difference doesn't seem too big. But almost the unanimous agreement is that NWN1 toolset is more popular than NWN2 toolset.

I would like, I would just love to use NWN2 toolset. But I have a few concerns, and questions related to them:
- Is anyone going to play my modules made in NWN2? How active are both modding and module playing communities? Are my efforts going to be in vain and forgotten after a few bored people have played through my modules?
- Is it true that it takes much more time to make a module in Electron compared to Aurora, having roughly the same gameplay length? If so, what is the ratio? Is it, say, 5:4, 2:1, 10:1?
- Global question: in your opinion, which toolset should I use to create my modules? Which would you choose if you were me, inexperienced in either toolset and starting essentially from scratch? I use a lot of C++ in my work, if it is of any help, so I think I can quickly get into making modules in any toolset. In fact, after 20-30 hours of playing with Aurora, I believe I know how to make anything I need in my upcoming modules, and if I really knew that I would stay with Aurora, I could start working right away. But I love NWN2 as a game so much more...

---

Oh, and for the record, I HATE the tile-based structure of NWN1 outdoor areas. While I understand that it saves a lot of PC resources, it feels very limiting when I am trying to design a zone. I would rather prefer working freely, without being attached to fixed tiles, even if it meant that it would take me 5 times as much time to design the outdoor areas as in a tile-based system.

? NwN2 ...

two to five times as long, per. ten if you want really great looking areas, where players sit around smoking their pipes


oh, and if you feel you're going crazy : relax, it really doesn't work the way you think it should .... & Make backups. Often - i have a batchfile if interested

[MayCaesar]

I see. You've convinced me to try the toolset, at least. I will make a small module with it, see how much time it takes and how much I like it in general, then I will decide on which toolset to focus. I really want to be able to build effectively specifically for NWN2 though since I like it incomparably better than NWN1.

 

 

I am with you on the tile-based maps, Tchos. Tile-based maps in Neverwinter Nights always made me feel that outdoor areas were just large buildings with painted walls. Outdoor areas didn't seem to be an organic part of the game. Before I even got to work with the toolset, I had no idea about the tiles, and I always wondered why everything, both in-door and out-door, looked so "plastic", so box-like in Neverwinter Nights 1.

 

---

 

Speaking of the modules already released, what would you say about the quality of top modules, both for NWN1 and NWN2? Is it comparable? I've heard different opinions on this, with some people saying that, although there are fewer NWN2 custom modules than for NWN1, the larger percentage of them is high quality - while others claimed that NWN1 modders cared more about the story than visuals and cutscenes... My experience is limited to Aielund so far, and I really like it - but it isn't exactly what I dream of playing: I would prefer a stronger focus on the story and character interaction, and less dungeon crawling. Are there great story-based modules in NWN2, and how much does NWN2 community cares about story compared to combat?

 

A couple of stories I had in mind would be very story-rich and dialogue-heavy, with quite few combat encounters (in fact, there would be entire acts with almost no enemies except for the final bosses). Are people really interested in playing such modules? Or do I have to include a lot of encounters, at the expense of the story, so people don't get bored with it? A module I would consider at this point my perfect creation would be something that would remind an interactive book more than a video game with a lot of combat - but I know from my Warcraft 3 toolset experience (there is a lot of RPGs made in that toolset, strange it might sound, and people in general are interested in it) that, at least, some people refuse to play anything that doesn't contain much combat.

 

 

? NwN2 ...

two to five times as long, per. ten if you want really great looking areas, where players sit around smoking their pipes


oh, and if you feel you're going crazy : relax, it really doesn't work the way you think it should .... & Make backups. Often - i have a batchfile if interested

 

Well, considering that, pretty much, anything I do in NWN2 will probably look a lot better than the same made in NWN1 (due to sheer graphical difference between these games), I don't think it will bother me much if an outdoor area doesn't look like a Naboo scenery from Star Wars.

 

At this point I am just going to start learning the toolset, so I don't think any particular files would be of much use to me now. After a couple of weeks, when (if) I am confident in my abilities and start working on something real, I might come back and ask you for that batchfile.

[Tchos]

Truly, there's room for all kinds of modules here.  There are many where story is the main focus, and combat is minimal to nonexistent.  It's not my area of expertise, but other active modders here like PJ are experts on the subject and should speak up.
 
There are also modules with no combat, but also very minimal story, instead focusing on puzzles, like Gold and Ebony: Temple of Time by Seraphimsage, or Frank Perez's Elysian Manor in the BouncyRock Halloween community project (which I would recommend as a nice sampler of many different modders' interpretations around a central theme), or Amraphael's Zork module, or other great modules too numerous to name.

 

So don't feel like you need to throw in combat for combat's sake.  Make the module as you prefer.

[GCoyote]

I played briefly with the NWN toolset but never got anywhere with it. I got into the NWN2 toolset first learning to debug modules that are no longer supported by the original author. That lead me to do a rebuild which took about six months of very sporadic effort as learned what you can and cannot do mixed in with a lot of real life drama. I up loaded it in late spring as a beta. It's been downloaded over two hundred times already.

 

I have zero programming skills. The folks here can testify that I still ask total noob questions. If I can figure it out, a skilled programmer should find it child's play.

 

As to content, build something you would like to actually play.  Odds are, you are not alone in your gaming tastes.

[PJ156]

Hello MayCaesar,

 

I get limited time at the PC so generally keep out of threads like this. As Tchos mentioned though, I like to build story led modules.

 

I would say a couple of things. The player base is limited but loyal. Your module will get played but not by the masses. You are embarking upon a journey of at least a year and perhaps several years even though you may think the process is going to be fast (Tchos can attest to this*) so you have to build something that you want to build or it will lose luster for you. However, if you are going to build a niche module for a niche audience then your are going to get less players I suggest thinking about injecting some side quests which allow the player to drift out of playing the book for a while and stomp the odd orc.

 

I used both toolsets and NWN1 was certainly easier. If your writing is excellent then you can build a N1 story led module with more ease than N2. For me, it did not work though. The tiled outer areas just don't work for me, I like a little eye candy too. As Kamal_ mentioned, you can speed up the process of the first module by using prefab exteriors and interiors and just lay your story into that. there are hundreds out there so if writing is your thing you can focus on that and let the rest of the strain be taken off you. For me, while I like stories in modules, I suffer from poor grammar and spelling so it helps for me to have the better graphics and areas so people don't notice so much

 

If I were starting down this road again, I would certainly still mod for NWN2.

 

I hope that helps a little, and welcome to the community.

 

PJ

 

* Note: The time it takes you will be reflected in the quality of the output. If you use prefabs you can build a very acceptable module quite relatively quickly and it will look good. Tchos (though I do not know him personally) is not one to really on prefabs nor allow themselves to be limited by any barriers imposed by the current usage of the tool set. When you make things that closely meet your image of how you want the module to be, it takes time. the module will reflect your good work though as it does in Tchos's. I am more pragmatic, I come across an obstacle and decide if I really need things to happen that way. If it's yes, I do it. Otherwise I give myself a time limit and move on if I cannot make things work in the way I want. This may seem like waffle but it's about workflow and I have personally found that planning workflow combined with understanding the way you work and how much free time you have are critical to bringing a module to the end.

[MayCaesar]

Thank you for your insights! I think I've decided to focus on the NWN2 toolset, for now at least. I tend to be a devoted follower of the philosophy "quality over quantity". If in NWN2 it takes 5 times as much time to make something as in NWN1, but the result in NWN2 is 5 times better than in NWN1, I think I will take the former over the latter.

 

 

 

 

I hope that helps a little, and welcome to the community.

 

PJ

 

* Note: The time it takes you will be reflected in the quality of the output. If you use prefabs you can build a very acceptable module quite relatively quickly and it will look good. Tchos (though I do not know him personally) is not one to really on prefabs nor allow themselves to be limited by any barriers imposed by the current usage of the tool set. When you make things that closely meet your image of how you want the module to be, it takes time. the module will reflect your good work though as it does in Tchos's. I am more pragmatic, I come across an obstacle and decide if I really need things to happen that way. If it's yes, I do it. Otherwise I give myself a time limit and move on if I cannot make things work in the way I want. This may seem like waffle but it's about workflow and I have personally found that planning workflow combined with understanding the way you work and how much free time you have are critical to bringing a module to the end.

 

Thank you! That was very much like I felt. Although, I believe, my problem is the opposite to yours: I tend to focus on writing too much, forgetting about the gameplay and flavor content.

 

I found that, in my particular case, the main problem in finishing projects I start is my maximalism. I often started projects, invested dozens hours into them, then decided that they weren't what I wanted them to be, and scrapped everything. My "life work", a huge single player RPG project in Warcraft 3, was scrapped after a few months of intense work: I made almost everything I wanted to make, there were just a few loose ends to close, a few bugs to fix - in fact, now I think it was a complete project that I could freely release. Then I started seriously testing it, playing it a few times - and it just felt... boring. Everything played exactly as I intended, the story developed the way I wanted - but it just wasn't fun for me. And, since I myself didn't like what I made, I abandoned the project completely. Same happened to many other projects. I did complete some projects, and even uploaded some of them - but I always was unhappy with my work, even when everyone else told me they really liked what I made. 

My brother is one of the leading Doom map makers currently, and he seems to be able to release anything. Sometimes he will release a map made in one day. Sometimes he will release something, noting that what he made was horrible. I am not like that. I can make a non-perfect job for my boss, for my university project, for myself, after all. But when I make something, at least partially, for other people just because I want them to enjoy what I make, I simply cannot release anything I am not perfectly happy with. Even if a project I made is really enjoyable for me and I myself play it a lot, I often feel that other people won't like it as much, because they don't have the "author bias".

 

However, I have never, till recently, worked with a toolset made specifically for story-based RPG games. All editors I used before weren't made with RPGs in mind, and attempts to make such in them never worked out well. I hope it works better in Neverwinter Nights 2, and I finally make something, even if I have to spend years on it, that I will be proud to upload to Neverwinter Vault.