Even going back to the days of the old Bioware Forums, other than registering their CD Keys, most players and a significant number of PW Admins/Hosts/Builders were ignorant of it's usefulness. With fewer numbers today and many old faces leaving with the demise of the old forums, there's even fewer left here now.
Speaking from my own experiences, I think it's the "learning curve" that has always limited how many folks get involved in making or even using most custom content. When I first started my own PW, I scoured NWN Vault looking through all the myriad possibilities that existed and spent weeks just drooling and downloading stuff. Then ... I tried to make it work. Tileset "A" worked wonderfully, that is ... until I added Tileset "B". Haks were added, haks were reordered, haks were removed, haks were readded, etc... until I came up with a few that "almost" worked properly and I deemed it "good enough" and started building.
I'd downloaded tons of tutorials. Some were helpful, some just confused me more and some were now out of date. I can easilly see how most folks would simply give up on custom content and just use a premade compilation like the CEP or Project Q and make due. Often times, the Host/Admin for a particular PW has limited knowledge of scripting and building to begin with. There's was often a "vision" upon which their PW was founded, but having too little RL time or lacking the will to persevere and muddle through the learning process, they often just "settled" for what was easy and expediant. I.e., they chose to run a "vanilla" module or grabbed the CEP and started building.
Squabbling between sub groups within our community hasn't helped either. There's no good reason for many of the contentions between groups like the CEP, Project Q, the CTP and others (Well, actually there is and most of the blame can be layed upon the shoulders of "Barry_1066", the CEP's current
Leader Dictator). My own views as they pertain to NWN are, "If it helps to promote and/or prolong the longevity of this great game, then be cordial and helpful with others ... even if you dislike them" (though, sometimes I break my own rules too
'>).
Along with the squabbling between groups, the issue of "ownership" arose. Folks that had been making CC contributions left in a huff when things were used without their permissions or in ways they did not desire. Myself, if "something" is posted publicly, I'll use it or not at my own pleasure. I ALWAYS give credit when I use others works. If an "author" places restrictions on something, I'll do my best to abide by them, but ... many restrictions such as "do not include this in a compilation" I might ignore. Why? Because, often the "offering" is no longer even being supported or the "author" has failed to respond to my direct querries. In those cases, I've no qualms doing as I see fit ... and giving them due credit.
As far as a way of "fixing" things and promoting and encouraging both existing and New Custom Content, I can tell folks here that if not for all the nice screenshots, questions asked and answered, the monthly CC Challenges and other things I've spotted while lurking on these boards, I'd not be finishing my own custom haks for my PW at present. "Seeing" all this has been the impetous for learning and asking questions. Pillars of the community here like "Rolo", "OTR", "Amethyst Dragon" and countless others have answered my PMs or posts, sent links when needed and sometimes just let me vent frustrations.
'> All in all, the community as a whole has given me the boost needed to get things sorted and not just merge "other's" stuff, but include some of my own personal additions to the haks I'm finishing now. In all honesty, it's been all the sweet new stuff found in the "CCC" submissions that has been the biggest kick in my rear. I had to "have it", so I've learned the "hows" of adding it along with some meager skills in editting/tweaking others works and adding my own now.
There's alot of good custom content that is found here, on NWN Vault and other places. Sadly, it's often a pain-in-the-rear to get it all working for most of us. Initially, alot of custom content I was considering came out pre-1.69. After the 1.69 update, which was just after I'd started working on my own PW, many older haks were broken. Mostly issues with textures or doors. Not having the "know how", myself and many others doing building found our choices suddenly very slim again. Sometimes I'd find a hak that would expand or change a Bioware tileset, and it, then find out it changed others as well. Sometimes I'd find "A", add it, then find "B" and add it, then find it broke "A" ... grrrrrr! It's taken me awhile to figure out the ins and outs of many things. Now when "A" conflicts with "B", I just rename models, edit 2DAs and any .set/.itp/etc... files I need to make it all work smoothly. Skills I lacked until very recently. Adding and merging custom content, especially with the works of "tons" of authors, many of whom had various skill levels themselves and differing naming conventions or 2DA lines used is no easy feat and most won't spend much effort doing it themselves.
In a perfect world, most if not all custom content would not conflict with default options or others of their kind. You could pick and choose from a list, adding what you desired and leaving out what you did not. There'd still be some small work involved in merging, but merging haks and various 2da lines is still alot easier than having to reorder, rename and otherwise "fix" most of the current offerings to get them all working harmoneously together. Had I the time, I'd be more than willing to start collecting individual offerings and making merge ready haks that that both CEP and Project Q folk could make easier use of. I don't have such freedom at the moment however. Perhaps this spring I shall. I know if "we" made using CC easier in general, more would partake of it.
