Revised Module: Small Village Woes (1.24)

[Legacy_Berliad]

               

I got a few hours in last night.  Having a good time.  It's fun to go minimalist!  The town feels a lot like something I would see in a home-brew pen and paper setting.  

 

FWIW, at least so far, I think Druids probably don't really need the level boost.  Between the animal companion and summon monster, my character has plenty of meat shields between himself and the enemy.  Not that I'm complaining!

 

The barter system is interesting.  I bet it took a while to set up, but I can't say that I miss the normal system at all.  It's pretty streamlined and efficient.

 

Venturing deeper into the forest tonight, and hoping the blacksmith will soon be ready to sell me a weapon greater than a dagger! '>

-B

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Berliad. Love your first series of observations/experiences.

 

- Definitely forgot to take away the Druid level bump in the beginning. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

- The merchant system took a ton of time. But considering the majority of the time I invested in it was in 2002-2003, it's time now lost and forgotten. '> I'm very happy to see you've found it to not be cumbersome to use, which was my intention, and with the added benefits of discount prices, stealing, and the myriad of other options that could be implemented into such a system that I don't currently have the time for.

 

Into the Forest you go! The roller-coaster ride continues! I'm looking forward to more feedback/notes/observations you have of your adventure. '>

 

I got a few hours in last night.  Having a good time.  It's fun to go minimalist!  The town feels a lot like something I would see in a home-brew pen and paper setting.  

 

FWIW, at least so far, I think Druids probably don't really need the level boost.  Between the animal companion and summon monster, my character has plenty of meat shields between himself and the enemy.  Not that I'm complaining!

 

The barter system is interesting.  I bet it took a while to set up, but I can't say that I miss the normal system at all.  It's pretty streamlined and efficient.

 

Venturing deeper into the forest tonight, and hoping the blacksmith will soon be ready to sell me a weapon greater than a dagger! '>

-B

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Berliad]

               

Well, I'm back!  It was a very fun module.  What an ending sequence!  It had some fun little twists and turns, and lots of fun monster mashing.  

 

I'll send a PM with some small things that I noticed, some of which you might already know about.  Also, I wrote up this little post for my blog, so I figured I'd repost them here:

 

This is an oldie but a goodie.  Small Village Woes was released early in Neverwinter Nights 1's tenure, and arrived to a very positive reception.  This included a glowing review from my old pal Alazander (side-note: I still need read Luke's book!).  After a long time away, its author, Bort Son of Bort, returned to give his module an update.  He posted a beta of his update on the Bioware forums, and I decided to give it a go!

 

Summary opinion: it's a really fun, low-level adventure.  There's a touch of whimsy here to keep things fun, and it begins in fairly prescribed fashion as a romp through hordes of fairly easy to kill monsters.  Nevertheless, through a few good plot twists, the story manages to be have some depth to it.  If you look closely, you could even see a bit of social commentary in there.  Furthermore, the ending sequences are spectacular, with a number of fun surprises in addition to some great pyrotechnics.

 

There is a lot of action in the module, and I found it to be a well-balanced for my druid.  In this beta, the druid got a bump to level 2 at the module's start, and that is going away.  Nevertheless, even without that bump, I think the module would still have been pretty approachable.  Combat is initially pretty easy (on par with the starting sequences of NWN1's OC--lots of foes, but they're all easy), but ramps up to a pretty solid challenge by mid-module.  Between my character's companions, summons, and spells, he was pretty well protected most of the module as he moved between ranged and melee combat.  It's also a pretty low-power module, with just a handful of magic items even in existence.  I managed to buy a +1 armor, but that's about all I could afford.

 

All in all, this was a great three evenings of play.  Thanks to the author for making this module, and then taking the time to update it!

 

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

Glad you enjoyed, Berliad.

 

And what a treat to receive a write-up on it, as well! Thank you so much. I hope it will help inspire others to download the module once I release the official 1.30 update to the vault in the next week.

 

- I love that you picked up on and enjoyed some of the social commentary. '>

 

- And I'm glad you enjoyed the ending sequence. I can remember early in the module's development that I wanted to finish it with a little pizazz, if possible. '>

 

Great stuff.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               

Sent PM.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

Update:

 

Greeting All,

 

Some good work is still being done on Small Village Woes prior to the formal release. MagicalMaster has been kind enough to pull together some scripts that will help add a little polish to the module, as well as some added opinions about merchant item pricing. We're trying to balance out the module as much as is possible in this final push for polish.

 

This past weekend, I spent about 7 hours sifting through the new content that was added to the toolset post the NWN 1.30 update, and into 1.69. I cherry-picked new placeable objects, visual effects, and more to add even greater depth and "pizzazz" to the module. I'm quite pleased with all of the latest additions. The Small Village Woes world has never been so lush with detail.

 

I'm also working on a few new added events that I think are going to serve as a nice cherry on top for the player's experience.

 

My goal is, truly, to release this module ASAP to the public. If I didn't add in these details, however, I might not have forgiven myself.

 

More soon!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

Update:

 

Greeting All,

 

As located in a couple Forum Scripting threads, myself and MagicalMaster have been at work ironing out what I would consider to be the final hiccups prior to re-releasing Small Village Woes to the public. Big thanks to him for taking the time to do this work. While I've found MM to be a nice and supportive fellow, part of me hopes that he's also been committed to helping out because he genuinely thinks the module is deserving of this extra polish. I know I sure do!

 

While he's been hard at work changing out some bad scripts from the update to NWN 1.69, and the importing of HotU henchmen scripts, I've been playing through the module seeking out last minute tweaks.

 

I have a good feeling that all of this hard work will come together by this upcoming weekend. If all goes as planned, we'll have a final release on our hands. I can't wait to get some more feedback from users. Although I don't think everyone will have the same experience with the module, I'm hoping those that give it a play through will find something they truly enjoy about the experience.


We're so close! More soon.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

Update:

 

Greeting All,

 

In finishing my play-through of the module, I wrote down about ten pages worth of notes. That's a lot of pages...

 

I spent the weekend working through them, with many of the notes being mostly nit-picky detail work, and some being larger 'projects'.

 

I've added several new encounters to the module, some new camera cut scene work, many new placeable objects and narration descriptions for further detail, and more. I've also started working through the text-based merchant system again to make it even more intuitive.

 

I cannot accurately express how much I'm looking forward to re-releasing this module to the public.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               

@BortSonofBort - We're currently updating the Hall of Fame on the new vault. If you prefer, we can link to your new version (when available), rather than migrate the original. What do you think?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

@BortSonofBort - We're currently updating the Hall of Fame on the new vault. If you prefer, we can link to your new version (when available), rather than migrate the original. What do you think?

^ Definitely. Linking to the new version is the right call. I wouldn't want anyone to download the old module at this point, as it was designed for NWN version 1.30. Thanks, Proleric.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

Update:

 

Greeting All,

 

Phew! Well, after a sweep of detail placeable additions, new event additions, a significant update to the text-based merchant system, and a host of other upgrades and edits, Small Village Woes 1.30 is about to release. I'm going to run a final playthrough this weekend, then give it to MagicalMaster to playthrough since he's done such a great job helping out with this refresh of the module. Get his input, write down my last notes, and then the release should be upon us!


Thanks for all of your patience, everyone. I wanted this module to be in top shape for when I re-released it, and it's just about there.

 

More (so very) soon!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

Update:

 

Greetings Everyone,

 

What I believe is the last iteration of Small Village Woes is currently in MagicalMaster's inbox for review. I'm hoping he'll have time in the next few days to give it a playthrough, and provide me any final notes prior to the upcoming formal 1.30 release. When compared to the last official release of Small Village Woes in 2003 (version 1.23), this version 1.30 update is a significant improvement.

 

I'm humbly flattered that Small Village Woes received very positive praise in 2003, while also receiving a couple of awards. My hope is that the last five months of effort to bring the game current, iron out longstanding bugs, adding new content, and polishing the game experience beyond a point it had ever seen before, is worthwhile for anyone who decides to play this new iteration.


It has been a wonderful nostalgic ride for me. I want to thank everyone who has helped in this past several months, and particularly MagicalMaster for not only participating in scripting new functionality for the module, but for providing incredible insight and feedback. Thank you to Berliad for his blog writeup (I'm hoping the Adventurer's Club will give Small Village Woes an opportunity for nomination--I've really enjoyed reading the feedback discussion that has been generated for modules so far).

 

If all goes as planned, when next I post, it will be to announce the formal release of Small Village Woes v1.30!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BortSonofBort]

               

I'm very excited to announce that Small Village Woes (v1.30) is
Now available for download.

 

A special thanks to MagicalMaster, Berliad, this forum community, and everyone behind NeverwinterVault.org for helping in this latest update.

 

Thanks for playing. I happily welcome all feedback.

 

Very best,

Bort

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               

Link added to the Hall of Fame, as discussed.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Empyre65]

               

Downloaded. What level can I expect to reach when playing this?