The Sanctum

I’m happy to announce that the Sanctum v3.2 Beta Test 1 is Ready to go! As soon as I finish packaging the beta test files, I’ll contact those of you who’ve offered to help out.

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I finished my playtest run a couple of days ago, and I’m making the rest of the required changes now. Unfortunately, though, the list is too long (and in some cases the fixes are too substantive) for me to just finish them and upload the beta test. Some of the new changes (such as the new shopping system and modifications to some of the items) also have the potential to alter the play balance, so I’ll need to make one more playtest pass through the modules after finishing to make sure nothing serious is broken. Unfortunately, that’ll take at least a few more days.

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I took a detour from playtesting today to add something that I’ve been thinking about for a very long time: a complete re-write of the merchant appraisal system. I’m a big fan of shopping and of using the appraise skill, but the NWN1 implementation of it was really awful. Here are my criticisms of it:

• Appraise rolls encourage players to save and re-try to get better shopping statistics, especially since they are remembered from visit to visit until your appraise skill improves.
• An unlucky second roll can actually cause your shopping adjustment to get worse when your appraise skill improves, which makes no sense.
• Characters with a very high appraise skill can actually sell items back to the merchant for more than they paid for it.
• Characters don’t get a charisma-based shopping adustment, which I always thought would have been appropriate.

I’ve just finished testing the changes that I’ve made to Sanctum v3.2 to address these issues, and I think you’ll like the results.

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The long-awaited (certainly by me, anyway ) version 3.2 update to Sanctum of the Archmage 1 and 2 is just about ready! I’ve finally finished building it, and I’m just about to start what hope will be my final playtest before making the module available for beta testing. It should be ready by next weekend if everything goes well.

I’ve ended up adding a lot of new features in v3.2, most notably Romantic Animations and Ridable Pegasi in Sanctum 2 (thanks to NinjaWeaselMan and Hardpoints, respectively). The ridable pegasus system in particular was an enormous bit of work, and required probably the most elaborate NWN scripting system that I’ve ever had to develop. Most of the rest of the improvements are smaller and more isolated, and came from going through my "dissatisfaction list." These were a lot of little things that I never really liked or thought worked quite right, and someday wanted to figure out a way to "fix up." Often these were things in the base game or in the CEP that I needed to work around, such as the (I thought) awful crafting system, or the custom CEP items that you couldn’t cast Magic Weapon or Flame Blade on because of the very inflexible way that the scripts were written. I’ve paintstakingly fixed as much of that as I could manage, and re-vamped the crafting system for exotic weapons and materials in a way that I think players are likely to enjoy.

The beta test will be closed and I’d like to keep it fairly small, so if you’d be interested in participating, please let me know.

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I just wanted to give everyone a quick heads-up that Tybae and I will be participating in a "streaming preview show" on the NWN Podcast to announce this year’s finalists for the AME’s NWN1 Golden Dragon Awards for 2008. For details on how to join us in IRC, and to listen live to the show stream, see our announcement here.

Also, just an update on the Sanctum 1-2 v3.2 work: I’ve finished my playthrough, and I’m in the process of making some fixes. Once those are done, and I’ve done another playthrough to make sure everything’s working right, I should be ready to set up a beta test. So stay tuned!

Also, check out my submission to the Vault’s NWN1 Screenshot contest:

Mount Cassandra Peak by Andarian

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I’m very pleased to announce that I have officially resumed work on the Sanctum of the Archmage module series.

During the time since my last announcement, I’ve been working on and off to complete the v3.2 update to Sanctum chapters 1 and 2 that I started working on last fall. I had originally planned to release it before the end of last year, but as many of you may know, that plan was delayed by events related to a custom content authorship controversy that arose at the time. Since that controversy now appears to be largely resolved, I have decided to return and pick up with the series where I left off.

Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on the Sanctum v3.2 update, which I hope to be able to release within the month. Sanctum v3.2 will have major feature upgrades to include both ridable pegasi and (the now final version of) NinjaWeaselMan’s Romantic Animations Suite. It will also feature a large number of scattered improvements in various places, including some new dialogues, rebalancing and other improvements to some of the combats, and compatability with CEP 2.2.

After Sanctum v3.2 is complete, my next project will be to continue the series with Sanctum of the Archmage 3: The Miracle Worker, Act II. My current plan is to substantially re-vamp the scripting and custom content infrastructure for Chapter 3, and in particular to improve the series’ companion AI, with which I’ve never really been entirely happy. Sanctum 3 should also include a number of new tilesets, particularly for mountain scenes, which will dominate much of the next part of the series. The new ridable pegasi and romantic animations, of course, will be integral to the follow-on modules as well. And finally, I’m currently planning to use Project Q for the rest of the series, which should give a distinctively new look and an overall artistic facelift to the entire experience of Neverwinter Nights gaming.

As for the status of future chapters: I’m still debating whether or not to build Part III of the saga – "The Alliance" – in Neverwinter Nights 1. I do have a number of compelling reasons to consider doing that, many of them having to do with the newly available NWN1 custom content that I expect to be able to make use of in the process. I can also provide some useful information for the benefit of those players who dislike NWN2, the idea of changing games in mid-saga, or playing a module that they regard as "unfinished." First, I’ve firmly decided that Part II – "The Miracle Worker" – will definitely be completed in NWN1, and it will have an ending that should provide a sense of closure for players who may for whatever reason not want to continue the saga after that. Although I’m unlikely at this point to build "The Alliance" in NWN2, I have been giving some thought to the possibility of continuing it in Bioware’s new CRPG, Dragon Age, which should be released later this year. But my main concern right now is to complete "The Miracle Worker," and as I’ve said, that’s definitely going to be finished in NWN1.

In other news, I’m also pleased to announce that I’ve just been elected as the new Chairman of the Academy for Modding Excellence. More information about that can be found in the latest announcement on the front page of the AME Website here.

Thanks to everyone for their continued interest in and enthusiasm for the module saga and the story!

Sincerely,

Andarian

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I regret to announce that my plans to develop any new updates or modules in the Sanctum of the Archmage series are suspended until further notice.

My reason for this is that the availablility of several cutting-edge cc (custom content) packages that I had been intending to use in the series has been called into question by recent events. For those interested in understanding the background and details of this developing situation, I recommend reading this recent post on my blog, as well as the comments on it from a number of prominent NWN cc authors. The bottom line is that some of these authors, in protest over having their work stolen and over the rude treatment that they have received by others in the community, have decided to either cancel plans to publicly release works that are in progress, or are considering doing so. Since it would be problematic for me to try to publicly release a module (or a module update) that is built partly with custom content that is not going to be made publicly available, I think it only prudent to suspend my development plans until I see how that situation works itself out.

The Sanctum of the Archmage series is being developed using some custom content that is in parallel development by other authors, and consequently it is directly affected by several of these decisions. Taking place in and around the Nurian Mountains of the World of Glorn, it is primarily a mountain adventure, and it also features a prominent romance sub-plot. For these reasons, I have been actively working to integrate NinjaWeaselMan’s Romantic Animations Suite into the series, starting with the v3.2 update to Sanctum 2. I had also wanted to use Lord Rosenkrantz’ Rocky Mountains tileset in the follow-on modules in the series, and I already use (and planned to continue to use) the Community Tileset (CTP) and the CTP Doors packages. The future public availability of these packages (and/or updates to them) is now in question, so I will have to do some hard thinking about how I may have to adapt my module development plans. If this situation cannot be resolved satisfactorily, I may have to switch to building with older or (in my opinion) inferior custom content, switch to building in NWN2, only release my own future modules for private distribution as well, or give up modding altogether and go back to writing my novels. These are all viable alternatives to my mind, and I am currently considering each of them.

I want to make it clear that I fully support these content developers in their protest. Since discussion of this issue is unwelcome on the Bioware forums, I have even helped to organize a web forum on which discussion and debate about it can continue openly and without interruption. That forum can be found at:

The ‘Modders Shrugged’ Initiative: http://www.moddersshrugged.com

I encourage anyone who may be interested in these developments to check out that forum, and to feel free to offer your (civilly expressed) thoughts on these matters.

It is my hope that an acceptable resolution to this situation can be reached by raising consciousness about it in the NWN community. I think that most players and builders here are decent folks, and that a consensus of support for content authors who do not want their work to be used without their permission can be arrived at if the matter is discussed and debated openly. In the meantime, though, further work on the Sanctum of the Archmage modules will have to remain on hold.

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Along with my fellow members of the Academy for Modding Excellence, I was a guest this week on Episode 84 of the Neverwinter Nights Podcast. We had a load of fun recording a roundtable discussion, and got to talk about a whole host of interesting topics – ranging from the Golden Dragon Awards to the future of CRPG modding to whether or not we consider ourselves "geeks." Stop by and give it a listen!

NWNP Episode 84: AME Round Table Under the Hood LIVE!

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On Friday, a fellow builder brought this thread on the Bioware custom content forum to my attention:

Proposal for a common template to prevent authorship issues

Participating in that thread until it was (in my opinion, unfortunately) locked by a Bioware moderator was an eye-opening experience. I think that much of the thread is worth reading, but here’s the background, and a quick summary. A number of serious and talented NWN1 custom content developers have been becoming increasingly frustrated with having their work taken, modified, and redistributed without their consent. Sometimes this has involved unauthorized and sometimes uncredited copying and/or alteration of their work into "compilation packs," over which the author has no quality control, or any way to maintain or update. For many developers – who are motivated by an artist’s seriousness about the quality and integrity of their work – this is an unacceptable situation.

This problem has been festering in the NWN developer community for a while, and it has even been driving some to consider giving up building for it altogether in disgust. As a modest but long overdue way of trying to address it, some individuals proposed a voluntary but standardized "template" for the posting of NWN1 custom content. The template consisted of several choices about what restrictions the author wished users of his work to respect.

For the record, I completely support the moral right of these builders to control the use and distrbution of their work. Ours is a community of individuals who build under a EULA that prevents us from charging for our efforts. The only price we are allowed to ask in exchange for the thousands of hours that we spend creating content for others to use for free is respect: respect for us as the creators of that work, and for our wishes about how it should be used and distributed. Apparently, though, to some this is just too high a price.

What surprised me (and perhaps it should not, and I was just being naive) was the sometimes ugly hostility to the rights of these content creators that I saw expressed on the thread. Many stood up for them and forthrightly defended the proposal, and I honor and respect those who did. Others, however, bristled at the very idea that these creators’ work was morally theirs, and should not be considered public property, free for the taking and arbitrary use by anyone who wanted it. Those readers who remember the archetype gallery in Sanctum 1 and the statues of "The Giver" and "The Taker" may understand why I found this to be quite ironic. I guess that sometimes, life does imitate art.

Although there were a number of examples of this sentiment expressed, I want to focus on one extremely presumptuous comment in particular, which I did not have a chance to respond to while the thread was still open:

"I respect the creators of custom content. I admire them, and their gifts to the community. But, aren’t they gifts?"

No, sir, they are not. My work is not a gift. When I post it for you to use and to (hopefully) enjoy, I am not "giving it away" to you to do whatever you damned well please with it. I am the one who spent thousands of hours painstakingly building that work, not you, and you have no moral right to take it without respecting my wishes in the matter. My work is mine, and I am sharing with you, not giving it to you. I am sharing it on mutually beneficial terms, as a trade, and one from which we both (hopefully) gain something of value. The only payment that I ask for in exchange for sharing the results of those thousands of hours of effort is the simple human decency of respect for my work, and for my dignity and rights to it as its creator. If that is too much to ask from you, then you cannot afford my price and are not welcome to download and use it. It’s that simple.

Some ethically challenged people seem to think that they have the right to presume upon – and to take advantage of – others’ generosity. Well, that’s exactly what the Demons thought in Sanctum of the Archmage. And it was the naive altruism of the Provans – who never stood up for themselves, and never set moral limits on their "giving" – that made it possible. The same is true of all creators – and indeed, all men of good will and self-respect. If we don’t stand up for ourselves, our dignity, and our rights, then we will not hold onto them for long.

Regrettably, Bioware doesn’t seem to be willing to allow this issue to be aired, no matter how constructively approached. In response to my protest to the moderator for locking the thread, I was told that this topic is no longer welcome on Bioware’s forums. While I would encourage anyone who agrees with me to also PM Chris Priestly to reconsider his decision, I doubt that it will make a difference. If we don’t want the NWN1 CC community to implode, it will be up to us, as individual authors and concerned community members, to find a way to deal with it on our own.

Consequently, I will be looking into finding (or if necessary, creating) a forum on which discussion of this issue (which I obviously consider important to the future of the NWN modding community) can proceed without being silenced. When I do, I will post a link here on my blog. Until then, anyone who wants to discuss this issue is welcome to do so (civilly, please) in the comments on this blog post.

I don’t mind saying that this entire experience has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn’t build under a no-payment EULA if I weren’t personally motivated to create something that people will enjoy – but nothing turns me off from that attitude faster than being taken for granted for it. If this kind of treatment is what builders in this community can expect for our efforts, then many of us may very well simply decide to walk away and shrug.

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I’ve been talking on and off for a while now with my good friend Charles – who is a professional artist – about the idea of doing a custom portrait for a character from my Sanctum of the Archmage saga. We’ve recently agreed to go ahead and try this out with Orion, and I thought I’d post (with his permission) his first sketch to solicit some player feedback.

Keep in mind that this is a preliminary sketch, and that he’s already working on several changes that we’ve discussed to better fit my image of Orion and his personality. The main ones will be to shorten his hair, and to change his pose and expression to be more direct (looking right at the viewer) and less threatening.

Here it is. If you have thoughts or suggestions, let us know what you think!

Orion Custom Portrait – First Sketch by Charles Imbro

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It’s official: I received word last night that my Master’s Essay has been approved! Now all I have left to do is to visit campus on Monday to shepherd the paperwork through the Registrar’s office, and I should be all set to graduate in January.

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It’s been a while since my last blog post, so I wanted to give everyone an update on the status of my building activities for the Sanctum of the Archmage module series.

First, a bit of good news. Some of my readers may know that I’ve been splitting my time for the last several years between a full-time job, working on a graduate degree in physics, my work for the AME, and of course building the Sanctum modules. I’m happy to be able to announce that I’m now on the verge of being able to close out one of those projects. Just a few days ago, I completed my final requirement for graduation in January (a paper that I should be submitting sometime within the next week). Perhaps not surprisingly, this has been occupying most of my focus and attention for the last two months. So if all goes as expected, a major block of free time should begin to open up for me to begin building again in November.

My next step will be to complete the final update to Sanctum 2, and then to move on in earnest to Sanctum 3. Although my new ridable pegasi are now working in Sanctum 2, I still need to decide exactly how to handle a few issues regarding how to work them into the plot. Should I give the player a choice between Ridable Pegasi and Wind-Walking, or get rid of Wind-Walking altogether? How should I handle it if you get your mounts killed in battle? Should you be able to summon new ones, and if so how frequently? (If anyone has any advice or thoughts on that, please feel free to opine. ) I’m working out those issues now, and trying to write the scripts I’ll need to make whichever solution I decide on work seamlessly in-game.

I also have a couple of final tweaks and updates to make to the module in general, such as (for example) updating the "Flooded Cave" battle. I had some very good feedback on that battle from a player, which made it clear to me that I need to make a serious effort to hack the standard monster AI for that encounter to make it more realistic.

Finally, there are NinjaWeaselMan’s Romantic animations. I corresponded with him recently, and the updated version of his hak (which will include some additional animations that I need for my update to Sanctum 2, such as hugging) should be ready in about 2 weeks. I’ve got the code ready for these animations now, so hopefully I should be able to just plug in the final version of the hak when it’s ready.

I hope to have a beta version of Sanctum 2, version 3.2, available sometime in November, and (hopefully) to be able to release it next month as well. And then, after that, it will be on to Sanctum 3!

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Since I posted a video preview of the ridable pegasi, I thought I’d post one for the romantic animations as well. (Size is about 6 mb.)

Romantic Animations Video Preview

For those who may be having trouble playing the above video, here’s one in Quicktime format that may work better:

Romantic Animations Video Preview (Quicktime)

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I’ve got most of the scripting and details worked out for including ridable pegasi in Sanctum 2. I’ve decided to leave both flying options in the module, so that the player can choose whether they would prefer Wind Walking or Ridable Pegasi as their means of travel to other lands. Here’s a video preview. (The size is about 34 mb.)

Ridable Pegasi Leaving Mount Cassandra

I’m still tweaking the details, but I think it’s good enough to show. I’m still having trouble with the wings not showing up during the mounting animation, but I think I can live with that for now. I was also able to use one of the custom horse animations to make it look like the characters were really flying off the side of the mountain. Unfortunately the only suitable one I could find also has the rider losing his balance for a moment at the start. It actually makes the scene a little more humorous than I’d intended, but I think it’s a small price to pay to actually see the characters fly off the peak and into the distance.

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At my request, Hardpoints has finally posted a ridable pegasus model that I can use in Sanctum of the Archmage! See below for a screenshot, and here for details and more screenshots.

I should be able to integrate them into Sanctum 2 in a few days. When I do, I’ll post some screenshots from it in-game, with our heroes riding them through the Wind-Walking areas. (Our pegasi, of course, will be white. ) I’ll still need to figure out what to do with the Cloak of Flying, since it’ll no longer really be needed for the story; but that’s a minor detail.

EDIT: Except for some timing details with the mounting and dismounting animations, I now have ridable pegasi working in Sanctum 2. I’ve replaced the image above with one from a test in one of the wind-walking areas. I think it looks great!

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