Copied over from the original Bioware forums
Servers and Modules:
What do you want? jshumate[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUJoined: 15 Mar 2005
Posted: Sunday, 20 June 2010 04:49PM
I've done this sort of thread before, but perhaps this one will bring a
few new faces with new opinions and ideas. I hope it helps other
mod/server builders as well as myself to better understand what the
community is looking for... as we all want the NWN community to continue
to thrive.
That said... what do you as a player look for in a
server/module? What do you especially like, and what annoys you and
makes you leave it? This can be anything from a certain style of RP to
server systems themselves. Anything at all that you enjoy or dislike.
Creative and honest answers welcome.
_________________
www.worldserpentinn.com - CEP RP World - Planeswalkers Welcome -
Vault PageEdited By
jshumate on 06/20/10 16:52 
Syiedthebard[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUJoined: 22 Apr 2009
Posted: Monday, 21 June 2010 08:55PM
An address to the Mistledale project:
You have an interested
concept with great potential. However, I am at a loss for information,
even having looked over your forums. There's a sure bet that, if you
were to clear certain things up and give potential players the
information that they need, that you would have more people!
You
say that we can play Drow. It might seem like common sense, but how? Do
we simply put "Drow" as our Subrace for Elves? Must we select an evil
alignment beforehand, or does it change us to an evil alignment? If it
does change us, do we have the choice between the three evil alignments,
or does it set us to a specific one?
Are there any statistics to
taken into consideration when playing Drow, for example spell
resistance or weakness to sunlight? Where do they start? Is there an
Underdark?
I could ask more questions, but I think you get the
idea. Common sense is not always so common, and while you -could- make a
test character to answer some of these questions the hard way, that is a
huge turnoff to potential players. It was a turnoff to me - and if
that's the case, it's probably a turnoff to others. I'm just curious
enough about Mistledale to prod and give it a shot.
Considering
the "playing of Drow" aspect of Mistledale appears to be -half- of the
project, we are terribly uninformed of its essential details.
There
is also plenty of miscellaneous information missing. Even if there are
NO subraces (other than Drow, perhaps), it's important to tell us this.
In summary, you need to tell us more about Mistledale so we will be more
inclined to play it. An uninformed player will not become a player.
Edit:
And remember, it's very, very important to keep information ACCESSIBLE.
The more steps required to acquire the information, the fewer people
there will be who ultimately acquire it. That means keep ALL essential
information where a guest user (who has not registered) can see it, and
reduce the amount of redundant threads (though so far, given the -lack-
of information, there isn't much redundancy, yet. "Server facts" and
"House rules" could easily be merged, though, for example).
Edited By Syiedthebard on 06/21/10 20:58 Lyndellynn[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2Joined: 28 Feb 2004
From: Japan
Posted: Tuesday, 22 June 2010 01:59AM
I originally spent quite a bit of time writing a very long response to
this, only to have bioware time out on me and erase, instead of posting
it
So, this is a second, and somewhat abbreviated, reply....
A few
things I like to see in mods and PWs - in no particular order of
importance.
1. Tailoring of PC appearance and gear made easily,
and cheaply, available. Let PCs express themselves and individualize
their look. Seen some incredible looking outfits on PWs which promote
this. In mod's, add these dummies to the staging area alongside
starting stores, and throw in a tailoring shop or two in towns or cities
in the mod, so players can make changes once the story is underway.
2.
Make shopping relevant. Use appraise, making sure to give merchants
some skill themselves, so not everyone gets the same price. Have a
variety of merchants with a variety of goods at a variety of prices.
This rewards players who take the time to shop around. Make sure there
are always at least a few shops where players can sell their loot,
including stolen stuff. Throw in some shops that give better/worse
prices to some races or classes, or won't sell to some. Make sure
there's stuff for all classes to buy and upgrade to. Make sure all
kinds of weapons and armor are available somewhere at some price. In
Mods, make sure you have merchants available along the way in the story,
so players can get rid of loot and resupply.
3. Creative use of
CC. With so much good stuff available, and more still coming out all
the time, I really like to see new tile sets, monsters and placeables
but to good use. It's amazing the difference it can make.
4.
Offer a variety of tactical challenges in combat. Provide a mix of
encounters vs lone, or a few, powerful creatures and some vs massed weak
ones. You'd be surprised how dangerous a swarm of low level creatures
can be vs those with out cleave and great cleave. If you do go with
swarms, make sure you test the combats for lag or you may have some
unplayable situations. With increase in processing power of typical
machines, larger battles are more doable than in the past. Have enemies
vector in from multiple directions, so players need to keep on their
toes.
5. Provide plenty of opportunities for the use of skills.
Set up situations where social skills such as bluff, intimidate and
persuade can used to benefit the player/party. Add in languages and set
up situations where these can be used to read or communicate. Scripts
for running, jumping, swimming, climbing, balance, squeezing thru exist;
add some place where these might provide alternative routes or
solutions to problems. XP awards for successful and useful skill uses.
6.
Use descriptive triggers to provide richer atmosphere and clues to
scenes. Some could be tied to skill use such as search, spot, listen,
lore, or to a class like ranger or druid - in wilderness settings. XP
awards for finding useful hints and clues.
7. Hide treasure.
Instead of just having all containers lying around in the open, make
some, or even all, of them hidden with varying chances of discovery. XP
awards for finding such.
8. Use more dangerous traps. This will
definitely keep people from running around at full speed, and give cause
to put the rogue out front scouting slowly, where he/she belongs.
Sprinkle more traps around in passages. For PWs, I'd highly recommend
randomized trap placement to keep players from simply memorizing where
all the spots they need to slow down are. Several such scripts are
around, I use Sir Elric's myself. XP awards for clearing traps.
9.
Set up logical diverse ecologies in your areas. For example, goblins
might coexist with some tamed spiders and rats, which may also be found
in the wild in nearby tunnels or passages. The spiders may feed off the
rats and a colony of stirges, which also feeds on the rats and the
goblins. Set up factions so that monsters have enemies as well and not
always just all ganging up on the PCs.
10. Create more realistic
cities. Most ancient and medieval towns were small and crowded with a
few main streets connected by a network of smaller alleys. The alleys
hak has been around for ages now, and integrated into a lot of larger
haks and CEP. Get it. Use it. Add dangerous encounters to dangerous
neighborhoods, particularly after dark and in alleys. Use factions for
the local watch - who might help out PCs in distress being pursued by
bad guys, the local civies - who may ignore or flee from such
situations.
11. A variety of risk vs reward choices. Some places
are more dangerous, but offer greater rewards in terms of XP and
treasure. Safer places bring smaller rewards. Some indication of this
should be made either by NPC conversations, by being able to view the
monsters CR - should you stumble on to them, signs posted by the locals
warning of what lies ahead, or descriptive triggers on nearing or
entering such areas. (see above) The latter might be tied to INT checks
to warn a player.
12. Use reputation scripts to give more cause
and effect results to players' actions. Some factions may be come
hostile, others friendly, depending on what the players do/don't do.
13.
Allow for multiple solutions to challenges presented. For example, a
key locked stone door must be passed. Have a key for it hidden
somewhere, or in the possession of an NPC - who might be killed, bribed,
pick pocketed. Have a very high DC, but pickable, lock on the door,
which - if the PC has great DEX, maxed Open Locks, and/or good set of
lock picks, can be picked. Make it bashable, but with a high DR and HP
total, so a fighter with great STR, a massive weapon and/or Power
attack/imp Power attack, can eventually smash it open. And of course, a
KNOCK spell could be employed to open it as well. Varying XP awards for
such.
14. In modules in particular, provide multiple paths to
multiple endings. If players are aware of this, it make choices more
challenging and adds considerably to the replay value of the module, as
you can explore other alternatives on second or third times thru the
story. PWs can do this to a lesser extent with individual quests as
well.
15. On PWs, run - and publicize - weekly DM'ed events or
campaigns. Some folks, myself included, don't like just wandering around
much on PWs solo, but would show up and take part in DM'ed events and
campaigns. Advertise these sort of events via Bioware forums and
Neverwinterconnections (NWC) to draw interest of new blood.
16.
Add wandering monsters to dangerous areas such as dungeons, wilderness,
underdark, bad neighborhoods, and sewers. Various spawning scripts are
available to do this. These encounters should vary in danger and
distance from the party. These should have a chance of popping up when
players rest.
17. Reasonable rest restrictions. I prefer Supply
Based Resting myself, but even simple scripting of resting with an 6-8
hr time limit between is fine. Otherwise, what you typically see is the
mind-numbing "Fight and Squat" routine repeated ad infinum and little
thought given, or needed, to balancing spells and healing resources.
18.
Bleeding to death. I like HABTD, but there are others which do
similar. Gives the fallen a chance to be helped by team mates before
they pass on. Helps reduce the nastiness of those occasional monster
critical hits. Makes healing skill and kits more important for non
clerical/druid classes.
19. OOC staging area/lounge to start
with signs providing relevant info, starting shop, tailoring dummies for
gear and appearance, seating area for chatting or briefing prior to
entering the main world.
20. DMFI installed to enhance RP options
thru various included widgets for PCs and give DMs many useful tools
for conducting the game.
A few things I don't like in mod's and
PWs - in no particular order...
1. The massive city. Huge areas
with no or few sights of interest in the area. They take forever to get
around in and drain time best spent elsewhere needlessly. Worse yet is
when they are clogged up by spawned in citizens who have nothing to say,
add lag, and get in the way - further delaying you.
2. The
deserted wilderness/dungeon. A common problem on underdeveloped PWs, and
some mods, are regions with very few, or no, encounters. You keep
looking meter by meter hoping to spawn something, anything - often to no
avail. Sometimes these look beautiful, with lots of placeables and
creative layouts. Only wish the builders spent a fraction of the time on
populating that they did on designing the areas.
3. The endless
dungeon. The other extreme is where the respawn rates of an area are so
high, that you can't clear and exit the way you came without killing
everything on the way out again without running nonstop with boots of
speed. While there are some cases where this might fit a story, your
party should normally be able to walk in and out without killing
everything multiple times.
4. Hunger/Thirst/Fatigue found in HCR
can add to some scenarios, if properly configured. Most of the time,
however, I've found it more a bother than anything else. It's
particularly annoying when you're trying to spend time RP'ing during the
session and find yourself starving, dying of thirst or falling over
from exhaustion, when in reality, you've only spent an hour chatting but
the game engine says it's been days - so die! Related to this, is the
problem of no food, water being easily available whether from stores,
hunting, what not.
5. I shall live forever. Death and respawn
without any penalty only breed carelessness and bad play. Gee, I died,
well, I'll do the same thing again and maybe I'll get luck the second
time round. Various scripts are available for raisable corpses and
ghosts. Force parties to deal with death. Fearing death radically
changes players approach to the game, and rightly so.
6. Monty
Hall lands. Gold and XP grows on trees, sometimes literally. You don't
need to adventure to get wealth, just harvest all the freebies lying
about. Why bother fighting monsters, you can just spend an hour or two
with these combat dummies and be up a few levels in no time. Treasure is
often so plentiful noobs will be given huge troves of gold and gear
from overloaded old hands to welcome them aboard. I guess some people
like it; I don't.
7.Wastelands. You can fight and defeat hordes
of monsters and you get 1 xp and a few gold coins, if that. If you're
really lucky, you may get enough to cover the cost of your healing
supplies, but often you don't. More than a few HCR worlds seem to
gravitate toward this extreme. Some places, it's more profitable to
waylay other PCs and loot them, than face the monsters. Thanks, but no
thanks.
8. The beautiful fully automated living world. Some
places have created lovely looking areas with lots of moving NPCs,
ambient wild life, animated placeable - and they lag the game
incredibly. I found this out the hard way as a builder when I made a
vast seaweed forest in an underwater area. Looked fantastic... till I
loaded it up and tried to move around in it
9.
Metagaming puzzles. Yeah, I know, lots of folks like riddles and
puzzles and they have their place. However, I think clues/hints/answers
to these should be unlocked thru conversations by PC skill rolls, not
simply answerable by the smarted players in the group.
10. Linear
design. I really hate being railroaded through an area, plot or
conversation. Allow for multiple options and consequences. Empower your
players.
11. Broken beyond belief. Some mods and PWs are really
half-baked. Some ATs don't work. Some conversations are missing, or
don't finish properly. Some quests can't be completed as is due to
missing stuff. Factional mixes where you kill a monster and come back
and find most of the town hostile to you, or killing each other.
12.
Leave my camera ALONE! Some mods/PWs feel it necessary to script
changes to camera without warning, swapping to their preferred angle of
the action. Hey, if I wanna change to drive mode, I'll do it myself
thanks!
13. Incurable ailments. I've no problem with players
contracting permanent like disabilities, but, cures should be available,
perhaps at outrageous prices, either from stores selling potions and
scrolls, or from conversations with NPC healers. This also rewards the
parties that have the foresight, and the gold, to invest in such.
14.
The End??? Some modules end quite abruptly after slaying a final boss,
noo final scenes, no final journal entries, the action just stops. In
worst cases, it dumps you out of the mod without exporting your PC.
15.
The unreliable DM/Server. You fire up NWN around scheduled game time
and take a look for the server and it's nowhere to be seen, or you log
on and, while some other players may be there, no sight nor sound of the
DM. You check your email and websites and find no notices explaining.
After awhile you give up and log off. An hour or so later, you happen
to check gamespy; low and behold, there the server is with a session
apparently underway. Still no email or PMs via website.
16. The
disappearing DM. You find and join a new DM'ed campaign. Set up a PC,
play a session or two and then the DM drops off the planet, without
warning, never to be heard from again. You'd be surprised how often this
happens actually. If you're going to run a campaign, make sure you
have the time it takes beforehand. If you have to stop, let your
players know.
17. The hopeless respawn. You die in a horrible
combat situation and decide to respawn. Whatya know, some place, some
monsters, same result. Repeat till bored to tears or very lucky. If
you're going to allow respawns, either teleport the PC to a safe spot,
typically a temple or bind stone somewhere, or if you do force them to
respawn onsite, at least make them invisible for a minute so they have a
prayer of escaping, should they wish to.
18. Here's your loin
cloth and dagger, welcome to hell. While there are certainly stories
where a PC starts with nothing, I really despise standard strip and give
next to nothing starts in most instances. In my book, a first level
fighter should be able to afford decent mundane arms and armor plus a
few healing potions, otherwise he's literally just a meat shield, and
not much of a good one at that. Starting gold should match PNP for the
level at the bare minimum and preferably a little bit of a cushion.
Otherwise, you typically see new PCs farming low lvl hunting areas till
they can raise enough money to actually adventure safely, hardly
exciting stuff, a waste of time.
19. Death without warning. You
step thru an AT and are blasted by something before you even have a
chance to get your bearings. Never, ever, put nasty encounters right at
ATs, always give enough space for the party, or a scout, to come thru
and safely glimpse the surroundings. Likewise do not put traps right on
or immediately in front of ATs. Big parties can sometime come thru and
shove other members into these otherwise, before they have a chance to
be detected, flagged and/or disarmed.
20. No escape. One of my
major pet peeves are areas which you can't escape from without defeating
the big boss holding the only key. While sometimes there are good
reasons for one way ATs, you fell down a shaft or went thru a teleport
trap, its best if you have another way out somewhere which doesn't
involve having to overcome the boss. Retreat should always be an
option, as bad luck can turn the tide very quickly, especially in
smaller parties. Such secondary ways back might be hidden, trapped
and/or guarded by lesser minions.
21. True Seeing. Yeah, I admit
it, I like rogues. However, true seeing is way overpowered and not
according to PNP by default. I have NP with monsters/npc having good
listen or spot skills, but just letting giving them the default ability
to see any and everything is far too much and really emasculates the
sneaky types.
Regards
Karvon
jshumate[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUJoined: 15 Mar 2005
Posted: Tuesday, 22 June 2010 06:14PM
Amazing post, Lyn... thanks for taking the time to post. Gives me a lot
to think about. I'll definitely be applying some of your advice to our
PW.
_________________
www.worldserpentinn.com - CEP RP World - Planeswalkers Welcome -
Vault PageEdited By
jshumate on 06/22/10 18:15 Rocket_Bird[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2NWN 2: MotBNWN 2: SoZJoined: 26 Nov 2006
From: Alberta, Canada
Posted: Tuesday, 22 June 2010 09:45PM
Quote: 1. The
massive city. Huge areas with no or few sights of interest in the area.
They take forever to get around in and drain time best spent elsewhere
needlessly. Worse yet is when they are clogged up by spawned in citizens
who have nothing to say, add lag, and get in the way - further delaying
you.
2. The deserted wilderness/dungeon. A common problem on
underdeveloped PWs, and some mods, are regions with very few, or no,
encounters. You keep looking meter by meter hoping to spawn something,
anything - often to no avail. Sometimes these look beautiful, with lots
of placeables and creative layouts. Only wish the builders spent a
fraction of the time on populating that they did on designing the areas.
3.
The endless dungeon. The other extreme is where the respawn rates of an
area are so high, that you can't clear and exit the way you came
without killing everything on the way out again without running nonstop
with boots of speed. While there are some cases where this might fit a
story, your party should normally be able to walk in and out without
killing everything multiple times.
8. The beautiful fully
automated living world. Some places have created lovely looking areas
with lots of moving NPCs, ambient wild life, animated placeable - and
they lag the game incredibly. I found this out the hard way as a builder
when I made a vast seaweed forest in an underwater area. Looked
fantastic... till I loaded it up and tried to move around in it
Having
a balance in each of these points is the way to go. Myself, when I
load up a module or server, I like to explore around, see things, have a
"far from home" experience.
Quote: 21. True Seeing. Yeah, I admit it, I like rogues.
However, true seeing is way overpowered and not according to PNP by
default. I have NP with monsters/npc having good listen or spot skills,
but just letting giving them the default ability to see any and
everything is far too much and really emasculates the sneaky types.
I
like rogues too! The thing I don't like is seeing a server filled with
shadowdancers exploiting HiPS in conjunction with a massive skill dump
in hide/ms. Certain monsters should have this ability of course. I
know some good folks who do this, and occasionally I make use of HiPS as
well, but it shouldn't be exploited is all I'm saying. For the most
part, I agree with your statement about giving the default ability is a
bit too far stretched, with the exception of certain encounters.
There
is a little point on the nwnwiki regarding a modification to this spell
which I like:
Quote:
Some modules change the effect of this spell,
so it does not allow automatic detection of opponents in stealth, but
instead grants a sizable bonus to the spot skill (which helps spot
hidden creatures). Some modules also provide a bonus to listen, as this
aids in detection, even though listening is not truly part of seeing.
_________________
Go
for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!
ChaosInTwilight[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2NWN 2: MotBNWN 2: SoZMass EffectJoined: 21 Jun 2003
From: Expletive.
Posted: Tuesday, 22 June 2010 09:48PM
Quote: Posted
06/22/10 01:59 (GMT) by Lyndellynn
I originally spent quite a bit
of time writing a very long response to this, only to have bioware time
out on me and erase, instead of posting it 
'> So, this is a second,
and somewhat abbreviated, reply....
I'd
have loved to see the original, but you hit almost everything on the
head, so I'm just gonna highlight parts of your list that I most agree
with. Make no mistake, its all good, but some parts appeal to me more
than others.
Quote: A few things I like to see in mods and PWs - in no
particular order of importance.
1. Tailoring of PC appearance and
gear made easily, and cheaply, available.
3. Creative use of
CC. With so much good stuff available, and more still coming out all
the time, I really like to see new tile sets, monsters and placeables
but to good use. It's amazing the difference it can make.
4.
Offer a variety of tactical challenges in combat. Provide a mix of
encounters vs lone, or a few, powerful creatures and some vs massed weak
ones.
6. Use descriptive triggers to provide richer atmosphere
and clues to scenes.
7. Hide treasure. Instead of just having all
containers lying around in the open, make some, or even all, of them
hidden with varying chances of discovery.
8. Use more dangerous
traps. This will definitely keep people from running around at full
speed, and give cause to put the rogue out front scouting slowly, where
he/she belongs.
FFS
Yes, I ever wrote up a handful of "as nasty as you want it" traps in my
own traps pack.
Quote: 9. Set up logical diverse ecologies in your areas.
... Set up factions so that monsters have enemies as well and not
always just all ganging up on the PCs.
10. Create more
realistic cities. Most ancient and medieval towns were small and
crowded with a few main streets connected by a network of smaller
alleys.
Again, cannot
stress enough. If a buildings in the city, it needs a purpose. Locked
doors that go no where.. leaves players wondering, and trying to get in
to see.
Please god, more people need to make civilized locations
that make sense. Almost all cities/town/village/hovel/whatever will be
centered around either tavern, seat-of-government, or military-post.
Quote: 12. Use reputation scripts to give more cause and
effect results to players' actions.
And if you have those guards that whine at players who have a
weapon equipped.. Please, at some point of reputation, or level..
allow PC's to not get hassled by the local yokels.
Seriously,
how many times must Spiderman save NYC before the cops stop telling him
to put his hands on his head? 'nuff said.
Quote: 15. On PWs, run - and publicize - weekly DM'ed
events or campaigns. Some folks, myself included, don't like just
wandering around much on PWs solo.
And
into the Bad, and the Ugly..
Quote:
A few things I don't like in mod's and PWs -
in no particular order...
1. The massive city. Huge areas with
no or few sights of interest in the area.
See
my above comments about 10.
I would say a large city is
tolerable, I could stand 20X20 if... everything the adventurer could
want is available in an open air market in the city.
While it
make take 30-90 seconds to load the area.. you can get in, get
everything you want, and leave. Rather than running all hither-tither
among 6 linked city maps each with 5 different shop interiors attached
to it.
Quote: 4.
Hunger/Thirst/Fatigue found in HCR can add to some scenarios, if
properly configured. Most of the time, however, I've found it more a
bother than anything else.
Know
when to turn it off too. I tried a place the other day, and got
Thirsty while crafting up my outfit in the starting area. Needless to
say, I haven't given the place a second look, and don't intend to.
Quote: 9. Metagaming puzzles. Yeah, I know, lots of folks
like riddles and puzzles and they have their place. However, I think
clues/hints/answers to these should be unlocked thru conversations by
PC skill rolls, not simply answerable by the smarted players in the
group.
Amen. Playing "who
can Google the sphinx's riddle the fastest" Dev Crits a fun plot.
Quote: 18. Here's your loin cloth and dagger, welcome to
hell. While there are certainly stories where a PC starts with nothing,
I really despise standard strip and give next to nothing starts in most
instances.
Bored to
death of fighting Rat's at levels 1-3. Seriously, roll up some low level
Goblin bard's or Kobold monks or something. I want to adventure, not
play exterminator.
Quote: 19. Death without warning. You step thru an AT and
are blasted by something before you even have a chance to get your
bearings. Big parties can sometime come thru and shove other members
into these otherwise, before they have a chance to be detected, flagged
and/or disarmed.
My rule
of thumb is a 3X3 tile group centered on the trigger oughta be safe.
_________________
Quote: You shouldn't be offended by this; by hacker
standards, your respondent is showing you a rough kind of respect simply
by not ignoring you.
Migrating Traps U: 10May08
Lyndellynn[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2Joined: 28 Feb 2004
From: Japan
Posted: Wednesday, 23 June 2010 12:13AM
Quote: Posted
06/22/10 21:45 (GMT) by Rocket_Bird
Quote: 21. True Seeing. Yeah, I admit it, I like rogues.
However, true seeing is way overpowered and not according to PNP by
default. I have NP with monsters/npc having good listen or spot skills,
but just letting giving them the default ability to see any and
everything is far too much and really emasculates the sneaky types.
I
like rogues too! The thing I don't like is seeing a server filled with
shadowdancers exploiting HiPS in conjunction with a massive skill dump
in hide/ms. Certain monsters should have this ability of course. I
know some good folks who do this, and occasionally I make use of HiPS as
well, but it shouldn't be exploited is all I'm saying. For the most
part, I agree with your statement about giving the default ability is a
bit too far stretched, with the exception of certain encounters.
There
is a little point on the nwnwiki regarding a modification to this spell
which I like:
Quote:
Some modules change the effect of this spell,
so it does not allow automatic detection of opponents in stealth, but
instead grants a sizable bonus to the spot skill (which helps spot
hidden creatures). Some modules also provide a bonus to listen, as this
aids in detection, even though listening is not truly part of seeing.
First,
I don't allow Shadowdancers in my games, I think HIPS is too
unbalancing, and many players design munchkin builds with them.
Second,
True Sight, according to the pnp rules, is for dealing with magical
invisibility and illusions and explicitly has no effect on rogues hiding
skills. Scripts have been written duplicating this for NWN, and some
places use them. But, I've far more often encountered PWs with everyone
and his brother equipped with stock True Sight.
Third, there are
plenty of creative ways one can deal with rogues. Employ creatures with
good spot/listen as guarddogs. Build better traps. Use magical wards,
which require dispelling rather than disarming. Invest in better locks.
Hide treasure behind secret doors which are harder to find. Wizard
lock doors, requiring use of knock spell or dispell magic to open.
My
two coppers, your mileage may vary
Karvon
Lyndellynn[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2Joined: 28 Feb 2004
From: Japan
Posted: Wednesday, 23 June 2010 12:23AM
Quote: Posted
06/22/10 21:48 (GMT) by ChaosInTwilight
I would say a large city
is tolerable, I could stand 20X20 if... everything the adventurer could
want is available in an open air market in the city.
While it
make take 30-90 seconds to load the area.. you can get in, get
everything you want, and leave. Rather than running all hither-tither
among 6 linked city maps each with 5 different shop interiors attached
to it.
Oh, I don't
have problems with large city areas, if they are intelligently laid out
and not too laggy in design. My beef is with 32x32 city wards with next
to nothing of import in them, and then you have to wade thru half a
dozen of these to go shopping - as stuff is typically sprinkled all over
town in these monstrosities
If
you wanna get an idea of the city design I consider reasonable, take a
look at a basic prefab I put up a few years ago on The Vault.
Click HereRegards
Karvon
SuperFly_2000[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2Joined: 14 Dec 2003
From: Sweden
Posted: Wednesday, 23 June 2010 07:56AM
Nice long post at the top. Kind of agree with most but not all.
What
I like myself is a server that doesn't stick out in many ways. I see
many servers go lengths to make their server different and to use
strange scripts.
Also usually choosing a setting that goes
totally against the game engine.
I dont need hilarious amounts of
subraces or to download hak files. In worst case maybe one or two
custom tilesets but preferably just one of the leading hak paks
avaliable.
I'd prefer a server that doesn't attempt to change too
much of the game mechanics. This is going against the stream I think
and usually leaves players clueless as well as the builder themself...in
worst case.
Yes..I know...some changes are for the good...and
some changes are even so common that they are even more "standard" than
the default solution. An example is the death system where usually some
kind of fugue system in in place...or the rest system...where there is a
time delay between rests.
All above only applies to persistent
world servers as this is my only concern.
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Snottling[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUSW: KotOR XboxNWN 2Joined: 26 Sep 2002
From: Scandinavia
Posted: Thursday, 24 June 2010 10:14AM
Quote: Posted
06/21/10 20:55 (GMT) by Syiedthebard
An address to the Mistledale
project
Hello
friend. Your requests have been addressed on our forums, in the House
Rules section.
-Snottling
jshumate[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUJoined: 15 Mar 2005
Posted: Thursday, 01 July 2010 03:39PM
Any new comments or ideas would be welcome. I'm trying to remain neutral
as the thread starter, thus being a little quiet on this subject... but
I assure you I am very interested to hear opinions.
_________________
www.worldserpentinn.com - CEP RP World - Planeswalkers Welcome -
Vault Page Ve Das[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUJoined: 30 Mar 2009
Posted: Monday, 05 July 2010 01:24PM
RE Shadowdancer(HiPS):
The people who abuse this are going to
play their rogues or rangers just as bad. I don't think it's viable
these days to call it imbalancing at all. In PvP, HiPS is easily dealt
with(seriously, just put some points in listen and buy some gear, folks,
it ain't that hard. My barb/rogue eats stealthers for breakfast
).
Does it make certain PvM spawns "too easy"? Yes, but so do fifteen
levels of cleric or a properly built fighter or barbarian etc.. Oh,
don't forget monks. Monks are /worse/ than shadowdancers in so many
ways.
That being said, nerfing true sight down to PnP standards
means you ban HiPS classes for balancing reasons and/or make spot and
listen gear available to fully compensate for stealth capacities
available. The latter actually means you could go by without banning
HiPS, if you wanted.
qaerinju[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUJoined: 28 Aug 2006
Posted: Tuesday, 06 July 2010 05:40PM
If people are able to "exploit" HiPS on a server, then that server isn't
properly balanced for stealth. It isn't hard - just modify True Seeing
and give mobs (and more so bosses) detect. You'd still expect a well
built dex based stealther to be able to hide successfully most of the
time but not all the time versus spotter mobs.
Also think about a
reasonable nerf such as tying the viability of HiPS to SD level to
dissuade the "I'll take 1 lvl of SD for HiPS" mentality.
Kossuths_Will[/b]
Joined: 02
Jul 2010
Posted: Sunday, 11 July 2010 07:35PM
Here's one that I regularly see RP servers completely botch: XP gained
vs. XP penalty. I understand RP servers are meant to go slow in terms of
gaining levels, but when you literally get ONE xp for killing something
that could quite easily kill you and cost you 100-250 per level, that's
a huge no-no in my book. Again, some places are meant to level slow,
but when it comes to the point where there is no reward and all penalty
for the action part of the game, it's just too much for me.
My
criteria is pretty simple: decent size module, occasional moderate RP
awards when deserved, decent crafting system and a way to customize your
character's appearance. Oh and getting more than one XP for something
that could easily waste you when you DO decide to do a little
adventuring. I'm a big RP fan, but there has to be at least a
respectable action side to the module as well.
Just my .02
Olivier Leroux[/b]
Game Owner
NWNNWN: SoUNWN: HotUNWN 2NWN 2: MotBNWN 2: SoZJoined: 01 Sep 2007
Posted: Tuesday, 13 July 2010 10:33AM
I like a lot about World Serpent Inn and I come back there occasionally
to look around a bit but I have to admit the thing that put me off the
few times I was looking for some action is the monster spawn system. I
could live with most other minor drawbacks one could find but that one
ruins most of the adventuring fun for me.
Not sure if it's still
the same as I haven't been playing for quite some time but it doesn't
really cater to what I think is believable and enjoyable in NWN if the
monsters pop out of nowhere. I prefer those systems that spawn monsters
when a player enters the area and reset it some time after players have
left (or a quarter of an hour later or so), even if (or also because of)
that means that a player might find the area was already cleared out by
another player a few minutes ago (not sure if the WSI system
counteracts that by spawning creatures literally on top of a PC).
When
I went on adventure in WSI I never had the feeling the monsters were
leading their own lives, they only seemed to wait for adventurers to
come by so they could serve their function in game. I could almost tell
where the triggers were located. And it makes a lot of tactics futile
and puts PCs who are not into melee classes into a disadvantage.
Don't
get me wrong, I think WSI is a very well built server with lots of
merits and a nice community. I think I would really like it there were
it not for this spawn system, which is kind of sad.
Edited By Olivier Leroux on 07/13/10 10:41 
