henesua wrote... <snipped for brevity>
My primary criticism of it is that the ending left much to be desired, and didn't clearly follow from the action. Given the overall high level of polish and that most events in the module naturally progress from one to the next (so as to feel unforced) - the ending was jarring and dissatisfying.
The mod was canceled, then hurriedly reinstated. The ending suffered quite a bit from that. There were sections that were removed etc...
However, the entire mod was conceived as a 2 or 3 part mini-series type. The story continued long after what was displayed in WCoC. However, since the story was intended to be presented in a 2 to a possible 3 part series, there were lots of "bits" that didn't quite seem to connect in the first of the 3. The ending was re-scripted to close it all off, but it also left the whole issue open for possible expansion.
In other words, the surgeons knife, cut deep and fast, and some things just didn't get finished or were not intended to be finished in part one. Ben attempted as well as anyone could, to keep the story together, and to tie off as much as he could. However, the intention remained the same for the final scene... other than the leading bits for part 2, that were never seen. It would have made more sense if you had seen the prequel bits as they were initially intended to be seen during that final cutscene.
Ben was/is an excellent writer, and he stood by his guns as much as he could in a game development environment. At the same time, Ben made the story live, and made it actually very enjoyable. It truly made sense, where a lot of mods are just a bunch of bits thrown together, WCoC as designed by DLA had custom content created specifically to allow that story to be told. All the tilesets, all the placeables, and all the creatures, were created specifically to tell that tale.
It shows.
What is sad, is that the rest of the story couldn't be told. (And no, I have no copies of the rest of it.) The actual 2nd episode was never given over to us, as it was not yet fully fleshed out. We didn't have the time to worry with that, while attempting to get WCoC part 1 out the door.
There is much good to say about this mod that it is hard to focus on any one thing as a stand out. The custom content still holds up well today, and appeas to be the inspiration for much of the modding that has happened in NWN since. The area design is good over all.
The writing however is what holds it all together in my opinion.
I am positive Ben would love to hear this. He may even still be visiting the forums under a different nick now. Too darned bad that Atari/Infrogrames couldn't see the forest for the trees, and decided to kill all the premiums that were under development.
As to the afor mentioned Horse Hat... yeah, that was a bugger. Some pc's and vid cards just can NOT handle the way the horses were developed as a tail.
Having a horse for a hat, can be quite funny at times though... as you duck through a door with a 5ft tall horse on your head. I think we fixed that particular issue by not allowing a horse inside buildings, but a few may have slipped past the testing phases. I don't think so though...
What was really fun was the jousting sequences... you, running down the lists with a horse on your head, holding this huge lance out in front... sorta reminded me of Monty Python.
Gah... "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...." Right up until Atari stomped on everything.
Modifié par Bannor Bloodfist, 05 octobre 2011 - 06:15 .
