The Sanctum

Here’s a short update on the progress of version 3.0 of Sanctum of the Archmage 1: The Sight. I’ve made a set of tweaks to the selection of available items, and to some of the areas up to and including the first level of the ancient ruins. And I’ve rebuilt the second level from scratch, to for the most part (though not entirely) resemble the upper part of Level 2 from the current version. Some parts of it, however, have been broken out into separate areas of their own, and I’m working on those now.

I’ve also included a (short!) configuration interview at the beginning, to set two parameters for the module playthrough. One of them, of course, is choosing Robin as male or female, and I have all of the dialogue lines and variables written and set up now to support that. The other is a flag that I’m going to let the player set at the beginning, to indicate whether they would prefer to play with difficult combat (as in the current module), or with easier combat. I’ve written some code and have reworked many of the module’s encounters to make use of this setting, which I hope will make the module more amenable to players with varying levels of appreciation for difficult combat.

SPOILER SECTION

Here’s an example snapshot of what I’m working through now in the way of updating areas. It uses this tileset, which I rather like – except that the low ceilings do create something of a problem that I don’t think I’m going to be able to get around. The tileset is an upgrade to this one, which doesn’t contain the enforced (low) ceilings, and which I’m probably going to have to end up using instead. I’m interested in feedback, so feel free to post comments (prefaced by a spoiler warning ) if you have any thoughts on this.

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I announced recently that my last building task in Neverwinter Nights 1 (before moving on to Act II of the Sanctum saga in Neverwinter Nights 2) was going to be to do a final update for Chapter 1, "The Sight." In particular, I wanted to merge the two "male and female Robin" versions into a single module that supported both, to fix a few very minor and lingering bugs and spelling errors, and to do just a little more "tweaking" to improve the combat and playability. I started that work last week, and it’s coming along very nicely.

It’s coming along so nicely, in fact, that since this will be my last building project in NWN1, I’ve decided to turn it into a major overhaul of the first chapter. It will be a full version upgrade (to "Version 3.0"), and I expect the updated module to be ready sometime in February. In addition to the aforementioned improvements, I’ve decided to completely rebuild the whole of the "Ancient Ruins," which I was never fully happy with. I committed a classic "first time builder’s mistake" by making these areas too large, when I should have broken them into several smaller and linked areas instead. I’m going to do that now, and take advantage of the opportunity to use some very cool new tilesets while I’m at it.

I’m also tempted to retrofit some of the new features introduced in Sanctum 2 – such as the food and improved "bleeding" system. I haven’t entirely made up my mind about that yet, though, since I don’t want to delay getting started on Act II for too long.

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Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker - Act I, version 1.4, is now available on the Neverwinter Nights Vault! Version 1.4 adds three new areas and scenes, some important combat improvements, and nearly ten thousands words of new Roleplaying dialogues. Barring the need to fix any unexpected bugs, this will be my last update to Sanctum 2.

My next project is going to be doing a similarly final update for Sanctum of the Archmage 1: The Sight. In particular, I plan to merge the male and female Robin versions of the module (making the separate "M" version of the module obselete), and to make a few fixes and playability improvements to the first chapter. I’m hoping that won’t take too long, and that it will be available by early February at the latest.

After that, it will be time for me to move on from Neverwinter Nights 1 and to start building the next act in the series – Sanctum of the Archmage, Act II: The Miracle Worker – in Neverwinter Nights 2. There are still several features in NWN1 that I’m going to have to forego in the NWN2 sequels (such as the flying animations for wind-walking) and that I’m going to miss, since they don’t appear to have any reasonable prospects for appearing any time soon in NWN2. But on the whole, I’m now convinced – after many patches, the release of MOTB, and a lot of new work by the NWN2 custom content community – that NWN2 has matured significantly as a modding environment, and that it is headed in the right direction. Many of the issues that drove me away seven months ago from my original decision to build Sanctum 2 in NWN2 seem to have been resolved since then, such as the lack of custom content, and support for 2D character portraits and for cinematic cutscenes. And I am also looking forward to taking advantage of the many new and powerful features that NWN2 provides. I’m excited by the prospect, and looking foward to it!

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