17 réponses à ce sujet

[PJ156]

I'm trying to gauge opinion here:

 

I am going to start a new project for the summer. I am done with long campaigns I think, they don't offer enough diversity to keep me interested nor do they give the pleasure of releasing something often enough.

 

I am going to do something set in Leilon. I am doing that because I already have Leilon done and i can build on what I have. It's going to be set just after the war with the King of Shadows at the same time as my current campaign mod is at it's halfway point. That allows me to use Crossroads Keep, and the other areas I have done and build on the plot line.

 

It is a time that interests me because I can deal with the social and political plots that will naturally arise from a country pulling itself out of a war. Also the town is in decline, previous generations have allowed the bay to silt up and the town no longer has a viable port. There's a huge amount that can be done with this period from zombies to marauding orcs, it's a melting pot of ideas I can tag onto a lose plot line.

 

Tchos's project is interesting to me. I have thought and spoken, as have others, about the concept of a campaign run out of the campaign folder that can be modified on the hoof. Once the core campaign is done (like candle cove) I will add to it as I see fit building in new content as it is built rather than waiting 2 years to release something.

 

Here's why this is not a community project ... sort of. If anyone else want to add content, I don't we why they should not.

 

If you're a cc creator who wants to spend a few weeks on a Orc cave or short story then, provided it fits generally with the published overall theme, uses the hak pak I create and is of a quality that meets the campaign itself, then I will slot it in. The point here being that I will go it alone if needs be but will open this to the community if there is interest.

 

Add on content would be modules with all new cc, not in the Hak, in the module folder. I will add a conversation to an npc in town that jumped the player to the module. The town would then be a shopping hub and staging area and the player content need not be controlled by me. That will free the modder to do pretty much as they pleased from a village in trouble with raiders to a tomb in the mountains. 

 

One of my drivers for this project is that I believe that the slow rate of release is going to drive players away from custom mods. I don't think it's healthy to wait a year or more before a playable release occurs. I want to keep it flowing with smaller add ons to keep the community coming back to the forums and download sites to see what's happening.

 

I also want to see all this great new cc implemented, not sitting in a folder on the vault.

 

Thoughts?

[Tchos]

I think it's a good idea.

[andysks]

Hi Peter. As you probably know my work is kept back by university duties. I would be happy if I could help you on this. It will make me feel that I still contribute in some way even if it's not making my own work ready to be played. Anything you need except new cc, I am in.

[PJ156]

Thanks guys

 

Hi Peter. As you probably know my work is kept back by university duties. I would be happy if I could help you on this. It will make me feel that I still contribute in some way even if it's not making my own work ready to be played. Anything you need except new cc, I am in.

 

It's not so much meeting any need, more providing someone who wants to do small project a platform to release it on. Perhaps for yourself who is tucked up in a huge project it may be fun to populate an orc cave and exterior, or you might want to focus your limited time on completing what you are on. No pressure either way really.

 

I am tucked up in SOAR for a few weeks yet then I plan to finish the Leilon areas and get the npcs and conversations in place. At the same time I will put out the campaign brief and pull together a core content hak. The brief will be quite specific for me, I have some stories I want to tell, but it will be loose enough that, if anyone feels like adding something, they can without too much restraint. Or they can build on the themes of the campaign if that interests them? I should have a basic pack by March.

 

Even then I cannot see the core campaign being out before Q4. After it's done the add ons can come out as adventure packs, as and when they are complete.

 

PJ

[andysks]

I remember having this conversation with Equindir before he left us. He told me that in his head, the original BG games were created somehow like that because so many areas and quests had different characteristics. Of course, I don't know if it's true but I found it appealing as an idea. So you can be certain that I will add something on this core .

[ColorsFade]

Now that I'm back and actively working on my campaign, I'd be up for contributing to this. I think it's a brilliant idea, and I think your motivation is a good one. Keep people interested in the game and keep the releases coming. 

 

And having outside devs contribute small content would be great. 

 

And if you want my custom AI for spellcaster enemies, I'd contribute it (I'm working on an official release mod for it now). Lord knows if I were to write a small adventure for you, I'd want to use it I like smart spellcasters. 

 

Good idea PJ. Very good. 

[ColorsFade]

I remember having this conversation with Equindir before he left us. He told me that in his head, the original BG games were created somehow like that because so many areas and quests had different characteristics. Of course, I don't know if it's true but I found it appealing as an idea. So you can be certain that I will add something on this core .

 

The BG games had a lot of devs working on them. I'd be willing to bet money that is why some of the quests have a different feel to them. No where was that more apparent to me than Valgyr's Planar Sphere; it's just so different from other things in the game.   

 

It's also one of the reasons I try and play other mods. People have different ideas about how to do things, and it's enlightening. 

[rjshae]

That sounds like a reasonable approach, PJ. I got bogged down while finishing the Moonsea OM; it's taking a lot longer than I thought to finish up that forest. *sigh* One of these years I'll get it done...

[MERP_UK]

Very interesting proposal, I'd be interested to try something like this out.

 

I came to a similar realization in the process of building UA. It became something larger than I first intended (Took best part of 2 years to finish and that was with cutting some stuff out). My preferred approach is to make modules/campaigns inside a year to keep releases more timely and players engaged. So that's all taken on board for the final part of my campaign trilogy. Looking beyond that, the outcome of your proposal could determine my future course.

 

Good luck with it. Always happy to lend a hand. My work is set in another world, but I'm always happy to collaborate or do small requests. Pooling our resources will make all contributions greater

[PJ156]

Okay, I will post the campaign back ground and build the hak over the coming weeks time permitting and post again once I have enough of the core module together.

 

PJ

[bealzebub]

great idea Pj.

I think your "I'm gonna do this, contribute if you want" approach will bring success, unlike previous community projects that seemed doomed to failure.

I'll contribute when you get this going.

[GCoyote]

Not sure what I can do to help but I love the concept.

[Tchos]

I know what I could do.  I have something like this planned elsewhere as well, but I have no end of puzzle/trap-oriented dungeons I'd put out here and there.

[andysks]

For me too it shouldn't be hard. I had more ideas than I needed for my own work. In the process, I had to remove some because it was getting bigger than expected. So some side quests and scenarios are there for me to use and adapt to Peter's core .

[kamal_]

As long as you enforce some sort of editorial control. Five different orc tribes kidnapping local Leilon merchants submitted by five different people available in the same playthrough would be problematic from a "really, another orc tribe has kidnapped another merchant?..." perspective, as would five different clerics of Oghma hanging out at the local temple waiting to be recruited into the party.

[Tchos]

I think it would be fascinating if such a coincidence happened.  I know nothing I would contribute would contain any of those particular elements, as they simply wouldn't have occurred to me, but I was a bit surprised to see a couple of surface-level similarities in my campaign and some elements of Mysteries of Westgate that I hadn't known about when I was designing the former.

[readher]

So, I realise it's a bit off-topic, but does that mean you put Soul Cages on hold PJ? I'm eager to see anything new made by your hand, although I admit I was waiting for part 2 of Soul Cages more eagerly than for normal games releases That's what I get after being spoiled by your writing.

[PJ156]

Hello readher,

 

For now Salt is on hold. It's there but it became a grind and I want to release something at some point rather than trudging through that for another year. It will happen but not for a little while.

 

Part of the problem is doing the SOAR has made project time scarce. Progress on salt became very slow and I want to release something of my own as well in the near future (near is a relative term).

 

Thanks for the support though, I really appreciate that you like my work to date.

 

PJ