Community still active? / Best game to create story/RP modules in?

[Legacy_-8Silver8-]

               Heya there, everyone.

I tend to ramble incessantly; if you hate that, TL;DR: I want to make a module or two, and want to know if there's still an audience for it here and if the NWN engine/community is the best place to do something like this.

To introduce myself: I'm a professional programmer, veteran modder (Minecraft, Oblivion), decent graphical artist and I work in game development, mostly in writing engine frameworks. On top of that I'm an aspiring fantasy and sci-fi writer, with about a million words of prose (about 400.000 on a very long fanfic trilogy I intend on publishing when it's done, the rest on various doodles, original novel outlines and drafts) behind me in the last two years (most of them crud in my opinion, I should say, alas, though I've written some things that I do feel proud of). I keep it private, so far, only distributing to curious friends and family, since I don't feel like I'm ready for primetime or publishing. No hurries, you know.

I've in the past few months been engaging in a nostalgia trip, reinstalling NWN and replaying the OC + expansions, as well as a few of my old favourite modules (mostly the translated Kosigan ones, and the first parts of ADWR - yes, I realize opinions may differ; I think ADWR did a lot of different things extremely well early on, whatever you say of the adult content and... narratively erratic later parts).

Now, this is great and all, but playing all this, I'm beginning to feel... well, itchy. That is, creatively itchy. Some really great things have been done with the Aurora toolset as far as I can see, and I can't help it but at least want to do some really great things myself. And the practice with interactive narratives can in no way harm, since I'm mostly used to writing for a reader, not a player. Not to mention the practice in game design.

So clearly I wanted to check the waters, to see if this is actually doable, and even something I want to do. So, I've got a list of questions for you guys since this forum luckily appears active. I'd be very grateful if someone would help me out with some answers, since I'm really not well-versed in this community.

First, how active is the community, really? Assuming my work was quality (okay, I sound like a complete douche saying that, but I'd certainly hope it would be, at least! :innocent:), would I be uploading to a deserted wasteland, with nobody to play, review and most importantly, enjoy what I'd created?

Second, assuming what I primarily want to do is create an RP-heavy, story- and character-focused "experience", for lack of a better word, would you guys say that the Aurora toolset/NWN is one of the better/more suitable platforms for carrying that out? What other alternatives are there? I've heard bad things about Electron, and I know of no other proper frameworks for this kind of game. I don't really have the free time to write my own RPG engine from scratch, after all, even assuming I'd start with something well-established like Unity and a few plugins 

Third, assuming that I'm going to do this, are any of my currently favourite ideas already taken? (And if they are, where can I play them!?):

1) Being stuck in a time-loop is really quite useful. That doesn't mean the world isn't going to end if you don't get out of it eventually. Plot involves a Groundhog Day type scenario with a lot of weird philosophy, time shenanigans, "mind-****" concepts and an exploration of consequentialist as well as nihilistic thinking. Bordering on fantastical/singularitarian sci-fi. Shortish (2-3 hours maybe?), not too heavy on combat.

2) A mysterious, immortal-yet-oddly-vulnerable companion and a stumbled-into and probably slightly unwilling megadungeon-crawl for an epic artefact which turns into something completely different when playful gods choose to intervene and play fiddle with fate. Love, sacrifice, divine conspiracies and misguiding mysteries. Destiny, fate, call it whatever you want. What does it matter, and how much are you going to step on it and the world to get what you want?

An exploration of the nature of identity/soul, broken people, why we even do the things we do and how far we might go for the people we care about (and whether that's the right thing to do, when the cost becomes too high). Heavy RP focus, with room for a lot of combat as well. A longer module spanning several "planes", may even fit into several parts. 10-20 hours, maybe? Judging by what I can see are community standards, it would take about 1-2 years to create fully. If I ever did this (which I actually really want to), I'd do something smaller first.

3) A completely silly, deeply meta module with a nebulous view of the fourth wall, intent on lampshading every abused fantasy trope/archetype it can get its hands on while being oddly serious about it in the end. Starts off with the Extraordinarily Chosen One's Old Mysterious Wizard not being killed on schedule to set off the Epic Quest and goes rapidly downhill from there. What in the world happened to the Big Bad? And why does no one care about the story's narrative integrity? Short, probably around 2 hours.

4) You wake up in a strange, subterranean city with little idea of who or what you are, and seem to have the very unusual ability to read people's thoughts. You can't get out of this place, but neither can anyone else. Who are you? What's going on? Who or what's sending people here? And why? And do those questions even matter when you can barely stay afloat in the midst of deeply rooted factional intrigue and conflict? A tale in the darker end of the spectrum, where there are few grays and a lot of blacks. Uncertain length, probably about 3-6 hours.

These are the four ideas I've thought about most, have the most notes on and most importantly feel like I can be most excited about. I'm not really sure anybody else would find them interesting or feel like wanting to play them, honestly. Anybody's two cents on that topic would be appreciated.

If you got this far, kudos. I'm very sorry for writing longish posts - a bad compulsion I have, I'm afraid.

Cheers to all of you here!

-Silver
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Draygoth28]

               First welcome to the community and second storyline #4 seems very appealing to me.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Draygoth28, 22 janvier 2014 - 08:12 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I don't understand your diffidence.

Dive in and give it a try. The water is just fine. You'll like it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_-8Silver8-]

               

Draygoth28 wrote...

First welcome to the community and second storyline #4 seems very appealing to me.

Thanks for the welcome. I think #4 is probably the one that most easily lends itself to a large variety of playstyles/character types, which gives it a certain advantage over the others which may require the player to take on a narrower and more pre-defined role. I'm undecided as of yet. I might use the starting area of this module as my playground test-bed for learning the toolset properly, though; I think it would be very suited to that.

henesua wrote...

I don't understand your diffidence.

Dive in and give it a try. The water is just fine. You'll like it.

Experience has taught me reluctance to dive into large projects without examining the lay of the land first and engaging in a bit of planning and preparation. I'm a complete amateur in this area of course, but I would like to at least check that there even is an interested target demographic, as well as figuring out which platform/technical constraints I'm operating under.

That being said, I am feeling inclined to play around with a small test module to get to grips with the toolset. Unless, that is, things here look entirely unpromising, which they don't really seem to so far 
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheBarbarian]

               Wellll... obviously NWN is an old game with a relatively small remaining player base, and, same as anywhere else, only a fraction of the people that download and play will comment - and only a fraction of those comments are likely to contain the sweet, all-improving mana that is constructive criticism.

Being a newcomer to the scene myself, who decided to start making new NWN content in full awareness of the above, I would say this on the topic:
Don't do it for the comments, do it for your own entertainment/improvement and because you want the thing you are creating to exist. '> If you're going to be toiling away on something because you're hoping for a specific reaction to it upon it's completion, you're probably going to have a bad time. On the other hand, if you're having fun with your work and generally creating something that you love, you could be having a wonderful time and the comments you do get will just be extra sprinkles on an already magnificent cake. :-)

But yeah, there certainly still are people left playing NWN, and people that are creating stuff for NWN. ^^ I, for one, would love to see more RP-heavy modules. Plus you can always milk real-time feedback from people with the same hobby. '> I've got friends in instant messengers whom I call upon to criticize my heads when nobody else will, and it works super well for me, even though they don't even play NWN.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_T0r0]

               To quote an old movie "Build it and they will come ! "

Also to expand a little on what theBarbarian said, regarding feedback. In NWN, as the dm, you can actually tailor/change/adjust your story real time in the game with players so it lends itself easily to audition new ideas or plots without committing all your energies.

go4it !
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Thanks T0r0 for making me feel ancient by calling that film old...

@-8Silver8- I also would like to extend a welcome to you, although I am puzzled why you asked in the custom content forums and not either the modules or the toolset ones. I would say that of the 4 ideas you have, that number 3 would pose you the greatest challenge to do well. BTW, by silly do you mean odd, humorous, groan making or the downright weird?

If you do decide to take the plunge then I would suggest that you first look at another recent thread (this one in the toolset forums) because about halfway down that one I posted 4 links to what I would regard as the bare minimum stuff you will need to help you to fast track learning module making in NwN. Once you have grabbed those then a look through the stickied thread on resources in the toolset forums would probably be a good idea. After that good luck with making the module of your choice. And finally if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask but try to ask in the forum (toolset, scripting or custom content) that has most bearing on what you need an answer to as you'll (hopefully) get more responses that way.

Hope this is of help.

TR
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 23 janvier 2014 - 12:33 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               welcome to the community! As everyone here says is pretty much true (not that youd need me to clarify).

from my experience since joining, this particular community likes helping newcomers out, but only if you take the innitiative! '> im sure just by taking a walk around and viewing some of the most current projects, youll see were quite busy always doing something:

our monthly custom content challenge - where the community gets together and create whatever we want based on a theme

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/191/index/17737427/1

Estelindis is working on a elven city tileset. This can be a great way to inspire more ideas and molding stories into a reality

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/191/index/17659022/1

and the most popular topicc, Zwerkules Medieval City;

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/191/index/6770066/1

This is just to name a few "busy" topics that i see alot of lately. Mostly its from everyones intrests and ideas that continue to keep them fresh and aspiring.
I find that by seeing what other people are making, i get to look at the present before its wrapped

anyways thats it, im sure everyone will tell you there own story. So i hope it helps, and as always welcome
               
               

               

                     Modifié par oOKyeOo, 22 janvier 2014 - 11:45 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_-8Silver8-]

                Thanks a lot for the valuable comments everyone '>

@TheBarbarian: No, that sounds more than good enough, really. Even if nobody plays it, I'll still have gained a lot of valuable experience, in addition to the whole thing just sounding really fun to try out. I do a lot of different things, but generally I need a project to work away on in spare time where I'd be stupidly browsing 9gag or Facebook instead. This will suit me just fine, and I'll just hope that even one or two other people really enjoy it in the end.

@T0r0: When you say real-time, you man as in hosting a module and DM'ing that live for someone/a group of someones? So I'd create a bit of content beforehead, then find some people to DM for and supplement live with extra material to test different things out? That sounds like an intriguing way to te things.

@Tarot Redhand: Uhh... well, yes. I misunderstood the purpose of this subforum and was a bit hasty in posting. When I then looked closer and realized that the meaning of "custom content" was a bit narrower than I'd interpreted it as, well, I did a little facepalm and thought, "Agh, well, too late." Thanks for the links and advice! Both are great; especially the list in the second link will be invaluable to me.

@oOKyeOo: Yes, I'm surprised at how quickly I actually got some genuinely useful responses, and looking around a lot does seem to be going on, like the CEP "reboot" and so on. This bodes positively, I think.

Okay, what I think I'm going to do for now is to try and learn the toolset and see whether it drives me insane or if I can come to like creating things with it. I'll do that by creating a part of the setup for my idea #4, as I've been getting some really wonderful ideas for that. This way I can test whether the idea is feasible (working out how to do the thought-reading thing well so you can abuse it properly against people might be tricky), as well as upload a short demo and maybe see what people think about it.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys; anybody else don't hesitate to add to it '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sumthing]

               I have no idea how active the NWN community is. From NWNlist, it appears as though most people play on Sinfar. Then you've got some other servers, like the Thay PW. I'm not sure how many people still play modules, I'm guessing NWN still has a very large community, for it's age. I think all your ideas are great. I never really come up with very good idea for NWN modules, and when I do, I forget about it due to being busy with other things, never finish it, and it gets lost in a pile of other unfinished modules which I can't be bothered to go through. I also accidentally deleted my most complete project once, and that sucked.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               community is on i repeat... community is on! But dont do an adventure for other people only...that can make you mad cuz the download numbers are low, very low. Do it for your creativity in the first place and share it with love and dont care about numbers at all
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sumthing]

               

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

community is on i repeat... community is on! But dont do an adventure for other people only...that can make you mad cuz the download numbers are low, very low. Do it for your creativity in the first place and share it with love and dont care about numbers at all

NWN will rise again.