Horses in NWN2

Most builders who have purchased MotB for NWN2 know that horses were added, though the players can't ride them. What some of you may not be aware of is that you can change the appearance of the horses in the toolset. Simply go to the appearance of the horse you have selected in the toolset (under the properties tab) and change it to several other options such as Palomino, Pinto, White Stallion and even Skeletal. I've included a few pictures of examples.

Dragonkin completes creatures for Act One!

Thanks to Camb, I have the final custom creature needed for Act I... a dragonkin race. I won't go into too much details since I don't want to give the plot away but you'll be fighting one of these powerful creatures in Act I and more in Act II and III. Now, I had better go finish up all of the custom encounters in Act I and then it is back to dialogue writing!

Update! I think I made this dragonkin too strong - she wiped me out with one wave of her sword after a few rounds. Might have to scale down her skills a little bit... :)

Sorry for the poor quality of this sneak peek - the lighting is unusual in this interior! :)

Baphitaurs are a go!

I have been agonizing over whether to include a major part of the storyline in my campaign, which happens to include the Shadow Portal beneath the Dessarin River. The major creatures inhabiting the labyrinth are a cross between humans and minotaurs...an evil manifestion known as a baphitaur.

I had no clue how to create something akin to minotaurs since there are no creatures similar in the toolset. Luckily for me, Daronas, a fellow member of Gaming Parents Studios took a stab at creating one for me and it turned out great!

I have taken a few pictures of what the baphitaurs look like, it looks like we may be able to use it for minotaurs too. Yes! He also created a cool half-black dragon for jacky's NHiN2...posted on the Gaming Parents Studios blog.

Winter Wonderland

It's snowing yet again and we're definitely having a white Christmas... here's a picture of the trees in my backyard as well as part of my neighbour's taken by my daughter today. :)

The rest of the snowy tree photos are at my personal pic web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/elmeida/PersonalPics

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that Santa is good to you tomorrow - I know my kids are itching to open up the presents under the tree.

All the best to you and your families this holiday season!

RWS Towers

So many to choose from! I think this tower may suit the area the best for Iniarv's Tower...which is featured in Chapter two of Act 1 in A Time to Die. The area is a modified version of Boomstick's Coastal Tower prefab.

Underground city picture

I am experimenting with the custom cave skydome and a portion of SGK73's copy and paste city prefab. I think the combo makes a pretty good undeground city for Act III of A Time to Die.

Here's a sneak peek! (Plus, more screenshots are at the end of the slideshow to the right...)

Special thank you to Amraphael

Amraphael was able to tackle the custom cave skydome for me. Now I can actually move forward and start working on Act I of A Time to Die again. I am working on the ambience of the starting area which is the small town of Red Larch in the Sword Coast. I have town residents moving randomly around the town shopping, talking, and looking at statues etc.

Here's a few pictures of what the cave skydome looks like that he designed. I added the skydome to a sample area I had created for testing...

Gaming Parents Studios Launches

Well, we decided to take the plunge and rename ourselves... instead of the NHiN team... we'll be known as Gaming Parents Studios or GPS for short.

We've just created our own blog at:
http://gamingparentsstudios.blogspot.com/

The whole team will be welcome to post their own updates and comments on our upcoming projects such as Night Howls in Nestlehaven 2, A Time to Die, among others we will list within the next few months or so.

Exciting Announcement!

I am so thrilled! I just received permission from Justin Durban, a very talented composer, to use some of his music in my upcoming saga, A Time to Die. Some of you may know him on the NWN Vault as Edgen.

He is pleased that I wanted to use his work and now I am occupied choosing from the many scores he has written. Luckily I have plenty of time since the campaign will still take quite a few months to complete.

Feel free to visit his site and listen to his music...what unbelieveable talent!
http://www.justindurban.com/ or http://edgen.com/

Harp & Chrysanthemum Mini-Review

This is the module that I am currently playing and man, what an awesome game it has been so far. The battles are challenging, the dialogue superb as well as the characterization of the companions. But, nothing compares to the beautiful atmosphere of the areas, the music, and even custom loadscreens -- an enjoyable experience not to be missed!

Once I am finished, I will be voting at the Vault... it is shaping up to be one of my favourites, next to the NHiN series. You can find it on the Vault at:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=206

Maerduin's Blog can be found at:
http://mmoonsea.blogspot.com/

Update: April 7, 2008

Congratulations to Maedruin for winning module of the year 2007 at the Vault for this module - well-deserved, I'd say!

More pics of the Custom Cave Skydome...updated Dec 12

Here are more pics of the custom cave skydome I am working on for A Time to Die, Act III. I have just updated the skydome file as of Dec 12/07 so these are brand new. Progress is slow but sure...should be able to ask a few modders to beta test this and then release it to the Vault when it is ready.

Custom Skydomes Here We Come!

A special thanks to Camb (Divaren on the forums) for posting a tutorial on how to create your own skydomes! I have attempted my first one - a skydome resembling a cave ceiling so that I can use exterior areas instead for creating my caves. Here's a picture of my progress... with a few placeables for effect only.

Sunken Ruins added to A Time to Die...

A quick announcement- I am working on a sunken ruins to be included in a later Act of A Time to Die, wherein the player finds an ancient artifact needed for the final encounter. Here's a sneak peek at what the area looks like so far!

A Time to Die will contain Chasms...

I am happy to announce that the Chasms tileset will be included in A Time to Die saga, I will be using it for an underground area leading to a drow settlement. I won't reveal which settlement quite yet, but it is part of a large drow city.

Do Wendersnaven exist?

Who knows? :)

But, there is a cool resource site with that name that will help out us mod builders: http://www.wendersnaven.com/

Resources, links, tutorials, a forum and much more...all for NWN2 builder enthuiasts!

I just found a video of Grobnar and his singing debut in the OC of NWN2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOl6WR24DIM&mode=related&search=

Tutorials on Character Animations

Attention Builders of NWN2 mods: Here is an excellent explanation and tutorial on animations for npcs at: http://www.cerea2.com/index.php?option=com_openwiki&Itemid=50&id=players:animations&rev=1180528722

Colonial Occupations

Curious what certain occupations were called in the Colonial times? Many would be suitable for your medieval-based RPG modules. Take a look at:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sam/occupation.html

Who ever would have thought that barbers were surgeons back then! :)

Thought this might have been of interest for any fellow mod builders out there...

Latest NWN2 News at GameBanshee

For the latest news for builders and players, visit the NWN2 portal over at GameBanshee:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights2/

NWN2 Wiki

I have always known of the NWN2 Wiki but never really took the time to visit:

http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

What a mistake! There is a lot of useful information there, especially for beginner mod builders. One useful area explains the waypoint script system and how to go about troubleshooting your errors! That would have saved me a lot of time with the module I am working on. Definitely worth visiting the site for tips and scripts when creating your own module...

Stuck for a plot?

If you are a mod builder and are stuck for a plot for your NWN2 mod... then I've got the perfect site for you. It will help those creative juices flowing: The Big List of RPG plots

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

I use it for side quests or even the occasional main plot idea for a module...

We have a winner!

After much deliberation - we have chosen a winning banner to represent the Night Howls in Nestlehaven campaign. See the bottom of the blog for the banner...

Scripting Tutorials

As a builder of NWN2 modules, you can't do too much unless you have a basic understanding of scripting. Now, I had zero knowledge when I started last Fall and I had to search high and low for little tidbits of how to use or find a particular script.

Luckily, I came across two useful sites... the first was by Jassper at:
http://www.noobscorner.jassper.com/ It is definitely helpful for us noobs to scripting.

Then another site popped up this year that really helped me out with scripts for custom waypoint AI as well as step by step beginner tutorials. http://www.nwn2scripting.com/

Back from holidays!

Well, we had a few restful days in Prince George... swimming, shopping and going to movies we missed. I was surprised at the devastation the pine beetle has had on the BC forests south of where I live. It hasn't reached where we live - hopefully it never will. There were literally thousands of trees dead from that beetle... quite a terrible sight to see those majestic trees all dead!

Going on Holidays

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be on holidays this coming week so I won't have any new posts until I return. Then I will be working on finalizing the banner for NHiN as well as other projects for the NHiN team!

System Reference Document 3.5

If you are like me, you might not have all the D&D books that you need at home. Luckily, the webmaster of http://www.geocities.com/sovelior/srd/home.html has a fantastic online reference for you to use at your leisure.

Need stats on races, classes, feats, magic item specs, spell lists - they've got it covered! Perfect for NWN2 mod builders. :)

Name Generators

Since we're on the subject of name generators this week - I've got another one to share with you. The Seventh Sanctum at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php has a huge list of individual generators for fantasy characters, worlds, cities, realms, taverns and more.

Definitely helpful to us mod builders out there... :)

Screenshots of A Time to Die Saga...

I moved the slideshow to the top right corner of my blog - that way it will stay on top and not get lost in the posts (when they get archived.)

Custom Banners

Today I was busy designing a custom banner for Night Howls in Nestlehaven - we wanted to display it for both the original game as well as the sequel.

I used a screenshot taken from the game for the background and used the Papyrus font for the text. Next I used a combination of cutout, shadow, and bevel effects on the text for the various banners. I used the cutout 3D effect, then a drop shadow, followed by inner bevel - finished off with another drop shadow effect for emphasis.

Amazing what a difference it makes with even slight changes to the effects and colours! See the bottom of the blog for the banners.

Fantasy Name Generator

Are you a mod builder that is stuck for names for your NWN2 companions or npcs? My secret weapon is a cool online tool known as the Fantasy Name Generator. It will give you first and last names of female and male characters. The site also has a drow language converter too!

http://www.fantasyrole.org/learn_namegen.asp

Tutorials on Custom Creature Stats

I have posted a question at the NWN2 forum regarding converting stats for D&D creatures and adding them into the properties panel of the new creature in the toolset. Once I learn how to do this, I can post a tutorial on the subject.

* Update* You can check out the post I made on tutorials here:
http://ladyelvenstar.blogspot.com/2008/01/best-list-for-nwn2-toolset-tutorials.html

VFX Editor

The VFX editor has always been very confusing for me and I decided yesterday that once and for all I would try tackling it again. Luckily for me, I found an easy to understand tutorial on the basics at the Vault: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Tutorials.Detail&id=21

It still takes quite a bit of time to create a special effect, since you are forever tweaking one variable or another - but at least I know how to use the editor now which is important for any builder interested in customizing vfx.

New Blog!

Well, here it is. I decided to create a blog about my voyage with the toolset for Neverwinter Nights 2. I wanted to have a place to share what I have learned as well as a spot to show progress on my own campaign for NWN2 called "A Time to Die".

Currently, I am helping Jackyo with his sequel to Night Howls in Nestlehaven. Jackyo is a pleasure to work with as well as everyone else on his team. We've created a team and have named ourselves Gaming Parents Studios. Check out the blog for more details on the upcoming release of Night Howls in Nestlehaven 2.