Custom Content Spotlight: NWNCQ

If you've been living under a rock, you may have missed the latest awesome custom content. Well, I say latest, but it's been around for a while, steadily picking up steam. It's called NWNCQ, and it's an overhaul of stock BioWare tilesets. There's some other goodies like reskinned placeables, but most of the fun comes from seeing old gross areas that looked dated even in 2002 suddenly looking new and wondrous again. I decided to test it out on my all-time favorite server, Nexus: the City Between Worlds.



The screenshot above was taken in an area designed with using the standard Rural tileset. Oh, and you're only seeing two or three placeables (the campfire and the mushrooms) in all of that. While you pick your jaw up off the floor, lemme say this is because the idea of NWNCQ is to create environments that look incredibly detailed without the builder having to crowd it with placeables. You can get a thick, tangled forest using only the features included in the stock tileset. Additionally, since the detail is confined to the tileset, you don't have to worry nearly as much about pathfinding lag as you would have with a horde of placeables.



Probably the greatest thing about NWNCQ is that it's available in both hak and override form. This means you can incorporate it into your module, or have it incorporated into any module you play. Hence why I can hop onto a running server and see the beautiful content without having to get the admins to install it.

chico400, creator of NWNCQ, has incorporated some good design into the project to make it painless to use. First, override versions of the tilesets make it possible to walk through trees, rocks, and other added details, so you don't have to worry about places formerly accessible now being unreachable. The hak version doesn't do this, since you're planning on building with it and can work within its constraints.

Second, he includes a batch utility to selectively activate or deactivate overrides. While you could just delete the files of a particular tileset that you don't like, chico's utility puts it aside in a special folder. This is particularly good if, say, you want the updated look for one module but not another. Activate it before you play the first module, then deactivate it when you want to play the second.

Performance is very smooth, even with shadows and anti-aliasing, and chico has tried very hard to ensure that fading geometry works well. The end effect is that you have very organic areas that still run well and are a pleasure to play in.

Other features of the package include pseudo-bloom...



...pseudo-bumpmapping...



...animated lens flares...



... and nicer textures.







In short, it's easy, it's painless, and it brings old yucky areas back to life... whatever module you play on. Try it out!

Slow progress

Hey there, Sherincall here with our progress report.

Progress has been really slow this month due to a very busy life we're forced to deal with. However, it is not right to say we haven't been productive. On the contrary, we keep getting new ideas, really cool ones too. Unfortunately, that results in a much bigger to do list. Anyway, what has been done (or almost done) is a very nice ambient system (Squatting Monk) and a mana based spellcasting system (Sherincall). Here's a list of script systems taken from a 'Builder's Guide' I'm working on.

Finished systems:

• Core Framework (SS) - Authors: Edward Beck, Squatting Monk
• Generic System (G) - Authors: Squatting Monk, Sherincall
• Persistent Reputation and Reaction System (PRR) - Authors: Vendalus, Squatting Monk
• Experience System (XP) - Authors: Squatting Monk, Knat
• Spawn System (SP) - Author: Sherincall
• Persistent Storage Chests (PSC) - Authors: HerMyT, Sherincall, Squatting Monk
• Persistent Quests & Journals (PQJ) - Author: Squatting Monk
• Hunger, Thirst and Fatigue (HTF) - Authors: Edward Beck, Squatting Monk
• Chat Control System (CHAT) - Author: Sherincall
• Rest System (REST) - Authors: Edward Beck, Squatting Monk
• Bleeding and Death (BD) - Authors: Edward Beck, Squatting Monk
• Visual Effects System (VFX) - Authors: Sunjammer, gaoneng, Sherincall
• Cutscene System (CS) - Author: John "Gestalt" Bye
• Dynamic Dialog System (DLG) - Authors: Paul Speed, Greyhawk0, Sherincall

In the works:

• Ambient System - Squatting Monk
• Spellcasting System - Sherincall

To Do:

• Inn System
• Horses and Pack Animals
• Crafting and Alchemy
• Bulletin Boards and Newspapers
• Custom AI
• Player and DM Tools
• Weather System

There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. Starting June 5th, I'll have a few more hours per day for scripting, and starting July 5th, I'll have a few more.. About 8. My estimate is that by August all scripting will be done.

Apart from scripting, the other thing that requires a lot of time is custom content. Placeables are done, though a bit outdated (we'll need to look at the stuff that was released in the past month). Tilesets are half-way done. The other half will require a skilled modeler. We also have a ruleset base, which we'll build upon. I estimate the haks will be completed sometime mid August.

After that, it's building till we drop.

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In other news, we have a few more enthusiastic people helping us (A big round of applause for Ociros and Esayitch). Though they are busy as well, more people means more progress. It will all change soon, I'm certain.

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And finally, some lore (Pardon my poor narative skills.)

Umec Adkal

Umec is a respected noble of Midport. In his early days he was a famous warrior and adventurer, before he got crippled. Now, in his early 40s, Umec is a successful merchant, dealing in exotic trinkets. He is the employer of the Purple Masks, an assassin squad he uses to get rid of his enemies and aquire valuable trinkets.

Umec does not have a family. He seems completely emotionless, caring only about profit. The truth is that he has become obsessed with a relic he had acquired. A book that belonged to a powerful alchemist, a book he believes holds many secrets known to very few men. He has been studying it for years, yet hasn't been able to decipher and understand the writings contained within.

Umec is not an irrational person, he is well aware of the dangers he is putting himself into. He will never act prematurely, and always carefully calculates everything before making a decision. Ever since his retirement from adventuring, he has not failed in anything. His prosperity is slow but certain.

Anna

People who know her true name, Sarah Sol'Dath, are very rare, and often get even rarer once she finds one of them. Anna is possibly the deadliest of assassins in Midport. She is currently working for one of the nobles, Umec Adkal, who has given her a place in his mansion to use as headquarters for her squad known as the Purple Masks.

Despite being a professional killer, Anna is not without morals and codes. She has a perverted sense of loyalty, and considers betrayal worse than anything. She will cruelly punish anyone who betrays anyone, even her enemies. She dislikes pointless killing, and will always avoid ending a life unless necessary. This does not mean that she will forfeit an assignment she has been given. If she has been hired to kill a man, she will not stop until one of them is dead. It is not uncommon for Anna to give charity and help other people, especially children.

Sarah is the daughter of an elven priestess and one of their nobles. After her father has done some very wicked things, both him and Sarah were exiled. Sarah later killed her abusive father during their visit to Midport and tried to survive on her own. She thrived on the streets, and rose high in the ranks of a guild. The leaders of that guild thought her to be a threat and tried to eliminate her. She viciously punished all who were involved in that betrayal and with the remaining members founded the Purple Masks.

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I don't have any new screenshots to show, so here's an old one, to break the monotony.

A long overdue update..

Hello all, Sherincall here.. Sorry we've abandoned this blog lately, we're both very busy with building. No matter, here comes a full update to make up for leaving you folk in the dark.

First of all, scripting. Progress is really good, and soon we should have all the basic (and not so basic) systems in place. The only big piece that is really missing is a crafting system. However, my SHC project originally started as a crafting system, and luckily it's very modular, so we can recycle huge portions of that code. All in all, scripting is the least of our problems.

Haks. These things are problematic, as by the time we've collected everything we want, a lot of new content appears. So, best approach is to wait for as long as we can. We have the placeables pretty-much finished, and they are at 55 megabytes 7-zipped. Tilesets are a bit more annoying, as for example, Gothic City was made using old BioWare models before full camera control was unlocked, and is thus missing geometry on the bottom side of the models. These bugs have been fixed by BioWare and CTP, and we need to take all those models, and apply the gothic texture to them. Not really a hard job, just tedious. Then, some textures in the Gothic City are dull and boring.. Or just don't fit, so there's the job of retexturing as well. I think (hope) other tilesets won't need this much work.

And now, here are some screenshots using default tilesets to show our placeables..

And finally a lore tidbit: Here's one of our NPCs.

Alaenna the Witch

Alaenna is a half-elven sage, alchemist and sorceress, living in a tower about 15 miles away from Midport. The church of the Archons despises her, and has given her a bad reputation. She doesn't really care, though, as long as she is left alone. It is said that the church had attempted to remove her by force in the past, but was unsuccessful, however it is uncertain how much of that is true. One thing is certain, should the church, or anyone else invade, she would never leave her tower and valley again, and is willing to fight to her death.

Alaenna is very fond of mirrors. Rumor has it that she has the ability to create fast and slow mirrors, that allow you to look a few seconds into the future / past. Alaenna is not naturally beautiful, however, through alchemy and practice she has managed to change her facial traits to that of a very attractive woman. This is very exhausting though, and when she is alone she will relax her face and revert to her original appearance.

Her only servant, and closest friend is Isrrak, a blind monk, who is one of the last connoisseurs of the forbidden alphabet, symbols that when written in a special manner cause death to any who see them. Isrrak speaks only when it is absolutely necessary, so most who've met him think he is dumb as well. Alaenna sometimes asks him to inscribe the forbidden symbols on her eye-lids, to keep her protected from enemies while she's asleep.
Alaenna spends an hour every day living the life of her mother. She dresses in her clothes, and acts like she would. During this trance, she forgets all the details of her own life and only knows what her mother knew. This is her way of repaying her mother for dying while giving birth to her.

Alaenna values knowledge above anything else, and will always trade an information for an information. Even material objects she is willing to part with for a good tale or some news. Once she gives herself an assignment of understanding something, she will be able to do little else until she is satisfied with her knowledge of that thing - Meaning until she has full understanding of everything about it.