Posts Thanked By User

1

General Discussion / Dear NWN

« on: June 20, 2010, 11:19:09 am »

Dear Neverwinter Nights,

I never actually finished your official campaign (any of them), and most of even my favorite modules were left off around 95% completion. No more than a handful of areas from the module project I started were ever done, even though building was the only reason I went PW surfing to begin with. I am a poor modeler and have not given you any shiny new toys like other people have over the years, as with my most valiant efforts I am generally just translating the work of others to work for us. I rarely finish stories, and my scripting in any language is akin to the tourist that greets natives with "the cat is black" and says his farewells as "the cheese is stinky".

I only dabbled with your sequel, and even when I poked my head into another PW I didn't speak with another soul. I bought that nice premium module that I heard was very good, but like other very good modules I only got halfway through it, along with that expansion. Expansions. I've found that the things I love most about your sequel are the models that got ripped from it and given to you. Enjoy!

I did not get you a card, because I hate cards, and also I don't care for wrapping paper, bows, and in general anyone bothering me, and also I am officially 2 days late. But I thought I would say it anyway.

Happy 8th Birthday, NWN!

Eight years later you are getting some of the best content since your release. Here are just a few examples of the continued labors of love on your behalf, to cheer you and make up for my own lack of contribution. I did not even count the last patch they labored on for you, and the premium modules that were cancelled but given to the community, or any of the older content that is still in the top ranks!

NWShader (Ignore them when they say adding bloom to NWN is like putting lipstick on a pig - they should have said gilding a lily. The possibilities cannot be measured!)
NWNCQ
NWN Enhanced
sixesthrice's pretty tilesets
CTP Babylon
CEP 2.3 (the new DM tools are crazy!)
Senemenelas' Underdark Tileset
KotoR Heads
SciFi Placeables
Worms Fantasy Interiors
Sen's Seasonal Workshop (remember when we were trying to make the seasons change dynamically with worms, NWN? That was silly. This is easy.)
Community Music Pack

Lastly, while I do not have anything of my own that is anything of note, and have not in general added to your lifespan with so much as a font, you must understand that with your kind I am a fickle creature. Drawn to shiny and ever dissatisfied with its empty reflection, I move on and on and on from "games," leaving a trail of open manuals and dusty boxes behind me, bouncing from latest and greatest back to Betrayal at Krondor, Mario, and King's Quest, and, more recently, Lemmings. Forget all the others. You are the only one I have been (semi-)faithful to, and with you are the only characters (singular) I've made that have lasted any significant length of time, even when we are called silly for still caring about a game nearing a decade-old and wanting to do good things for it. Did I say a decade? No, no, you are closer to 5 than 10. Forget all that.

So thank you for the toolset, and thank you for Acacea, and happy birthday!

2

Rumour Has It / Trelanian Activity

« on: March 10, 2010, 12:34:52 am »

With life over the past few years under the unnatural (to their minds) storms along the coastal waters of Trelania becoming something of a norm for folks, many people had learned to cope or move inland. Little villages were reabsorbed into near by towns, dissolved by intent, wave, storm or any combination there in. Many resources had been expended over the years to aid various traumatized towns and cities, Trelania as a whole reached out to those allied and friendly to her to gather the needed materials to protect and reinforce her people. All in all things had settled into a lull of dreary days and tremendous hard work. Crime rates generally fell across the western coast line, or people simply stopped reporting things as much out of weariness as any other reason. Food and shelter once again became prized commodities for the average man, woman and child. Families oft became fatherless, brothers vanished and sons assumed dead, all swallowed up by the sea without even hint as to why or where. The why became assumed... the storms.

The kingdom, despite valiant efforts by it's leaders and those friendly to Trelania, feel into a rut of stubborn perseverance despite the despair carried on her shoulders, and remained so for what to some was 'forever.' Indeed, there are echos of the still remembered Dark Ages by the elders, when the nights were black and the days just as grey. Too many rumbling tummies and too much work to be done bring out the tales, tall and short of that time not so long ago. Old gaffers, drunks and bitties blather on about how the dark days will return. Despair reigned.....

That is, until the last few months.

As the storms began to fill the sky with light such that even the darkest nights looked like stuttered day, Trelanian's leaders moved to protect her people in the only way they could think of.

A call has gone out for those on the Western and Northern coast of Trelania to leave and move inland. Bards, heralds and messengers pound the land to cover every village that can be found, every person who may need to hear it, telling them to grab only the things they cannot live with out and bring their families inland. Supplies have been redirected to build semi-temporary shelters in inland towns and cities as well as in shanty pseudo-villages along main roads. No more does the Crown support or aid in the defense of those coastal cities, calling for material things to be given to the sea so that souls and lives will be saved.

There are echoes across the lands of people refusing to leave their homes, adamant about staying to protect their ancestral homes from the wiles of Lady Doom. Others flee with the loved ones. There is little doubt that if the storm continues this way, tens of thousands and perhaps more will die even with the best efforts of the Trelanian Crown.

3

Rumour Has It / Astral Keys, Please

« on: February 12, 2010, 10:21:23 pm »

In lieu of actual presence, a barely coherent note is scribbled and posted at the Shack.


Cosmic Locks, Unbreakable Rules!
If one has not the proper tools...

Iron-bound paths open to me
With a turn of one little key

Do not tamper with what starts pure,
Change not forms beyond ideals
Flexible is the body's mold
Beyond that, the Astral Seals

All doors were made to be opened!
All rules were meant to be broken!
And even under lock and key,
The truth may still be spoken

'Round the world there will be hidden
Truths some gods have deemed forbidden

(And lest they seek to apprehend,
With all these keys we'll play pretend!)

4

General Discussion / For My 31st Birthday

« on: August 02, 2009, 01:45:27 pm »

I'm going to cut the cord for helping develop the NWN server further.

So, with a fresh new posting style, I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

I've had a brilliant time with a great number of you, even the ones I've gotten really into it with.  I always thought I'd make a farewell post with the list of everything I built here, because it would feel like some sort of reminder to everyone.  It's a bit silly though, as for years and years I've tried to legitimize my efforts to this community, and overly so.  I think it stems back to my embarrassing beginnings here... but I'm no pyschologist heh.  I enjoyed building most everything I built, and I'm very proud of how V3 turned out.  That's enough for me this time.

I will always support the MMO team's efforts, and I look forward to the new game.

There are a lot of reasons for leaving, and I'd explain them... but the folks I'd really want to understand probably already get it.

So best of luck, I'll still be around now and then, in game and on the forums, and Dorg, I'll try not to troll your posts on balance too much.

And with one last challenge... the toolset is easy to learn.  It just takes time if you're going to make something come out right.  Time learning all of the placeables and tile options so you know the brushes and colors to use.  But it's not technically hard.  I challenge one of you, anyone, to step it up and legitimize all of your scrutinizing comments on the way the server should or could be.  Make 10 areas to a new theme, send them to Dorg.  Someone, anyone, impress Layonara with something new for others to enjoy.  Even if you know it's ending someday, soon or not so soon, who knows... build it because you care for the server today.  Take up the torch, as I know there are some people who have wanted to prove me wrong on some things - and there's no bigger crux to it then this.  Everything else is just forum posts.

Take care all.

5

General Discussion / Joining the rank and file :)

« on: June 25, 2009, 09:28:00 am »

Hi everybody!

This is the post to inform I am stepping down as GM. I'm not disappearing from Layo, in fact I hope, RL and remaining DTs permitting, to step up my involvement with Ark as an active and roleplay-enhancing World Leader.

About two years ago I applied for a GM position in order to enhance people's Layo experience, primarily in the AEST timeslot given poor old Dezza was shouldering a lot of that burden on his lonesome.

The main goal of my quests has always been to get players to really think long and hard about their characters. To put roleplay flesh on their mechanics bones. To make players really think about what their characters would do in a given situation, a given moral dilemma. To put them in a place, not always comfortable, not always where they want to be and then see what they would do and where they go. Often my quests have a simple enough premise but I tried to have them involve something that had folks exploring the depths of their character's psyche.

As I write this, I remember one of my quests, early on, that had people magicked into behaving in a manner the polar opposite to their 'normal' sex, class and alignment. This stands out in my memory as a very 'typical me' quest. Hopefully fun. A touch of madness. A strange situation. Minimal set-up A quest that (hopefully) by getting you to do something the opposite of what was normal, made you think more deeply about what was normal. By playing Lawful Evil for an evening, it made you think about what it really meant to be Chaotic Good the other 364 nights of the year.

Anyways, hopefully after two years there are some players who have a better picture of their characters as a result of my quests.

As to why I am resigning, no deep and dark discontent or disparaging remarks against any individual or the GM team as a whole to be found here! Of course there are decisions made which, as an individual, one might not 100% agree. Directions taken that might not have been the direction I would have taken were it my sandbox. Little niggles here and there etc yada yada but I can tell you there are no light decisions ever made by the GM team. No personal grudges. No favourites. No bias. Just a bunch of people that really do strive to provide the best server to be found.

Anyways, see you in game!

6

LORE Ideas, Suggestions and Requests / Port Hempstead

« on: May 30, 2008, 03:30:25 pm »

Hello, since LORE is very out of date regarding a starting city, I suggest [strike]two[/strike] three simple and minor changes:

Change the city's alignment to NG, as it is still LN in its entry.

Make the last paragraph past tense and add a new one that is a little more current.

The bottom line in Port Hempstead is still an economic one. The peasants and landowners who live in the surrounding areas often complain about being under the boot of the Port. The laws of the land are implemented to protect the interests of the major merchant powers, who sometimes use this fact to expand their exploitative labor practices and resource capturing endeavors. Some say this is the cause of the unrest which has emerged in the southwest region. Others believe the uprising it is not a legitimate grass roots movement in the interests of those in the shadow of the port, but a machination implemented by Milara or demons or both to destabilize the region in preparation for future maneuvers. Some believe it is both.

To

The bottom line in Port Hempstead is still an economic one. The peasants and landowners who live in the surrounding areas complained for years about being under the boot of the Port. The laws of the land were implemented to protect the interests of the major merchant powers, who sometimes used this fact to expand their exploitative labor practices and resource capturing endeavors. Some say this was the cause of the unrest which has emerged in the southwest region. Others believed the uprising was not a legitimate grass roots movement in the interests of those in the shadow of the port, but a machination implemented by Milara or demons or both to destabilize the region in preparation for future maneuvers. Some believed it was both.

After years for the rift between rich and poor to grow, the seeds of revolution planted by Harmony Vaeran and sympathizers flowered and there were burnings in the city of corrupt temples and homes of bribed officials. The shadowy hands of Branderback that had been pulling the strings of the entire city were exposed and chased out of the port, though the powerful guild was not extinguished altogether. Under the caring yet clever hands of Harmony, the halfling daughter of Vaeran's clan mother, and with covert outside aid, the city was rapidly cleaned up and turned upside down. Since then, the Vaerans have become the leading merchant family in Port Hempstead's trade council, essentially running the city and keeping it in line with Deliar's principles of individual freedoms and fair trade for the good of the people instead of merely the wealthy. Joy Vaeran took her mother's place as leader of the large and diverse trade council just before the times of suffering in the Dark Ages after Harmony became Storyteller in her mother's place, and the city is still recovering from the enormous amounts of their famed resources spent in the attempt to help the kingdom's people crawl through the longest winter.

In typical halfling fashion, the large dwelling of the Vaerans in the merchant district houses nearly their entire clan, with some room left over for a small clinic.

In addition, I suggest adding the Silverguard to Defenses.

I am unsure when they were formed, but it was likely only a few decades ago, and certainly 50 years max, so not very old at all. We can just fudge the date for the sake of the information.

The city's elite guardsmen are known collectively as the Silverguard - likely both a reference to their lack of accidental spilling of blood, and to coinage. Unlike the legendary Crimson Eagles of old, they are trained to protect rather than kill, specializing in blunt weapons in order to better subdue and avoid maiming or unnecessary death and bloodshed, and they use lethal force but rarely. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the Silverguard would lead any Brelin military in the event of war on the home front.


These are not handbook spoilers, so they are subject to change in the future, but there is no reason not to have it as current as available. This is information that has been in game at one point or another (and you can see hints of it in the actual areas), so it might as well be up on the page for the city. I don't mind if it has to be stamped or if the writing is tweaked (I was not going for a work of art), just offering some of what I've got. Too much and it doesn't seem like a reasonable length for a LORE page...

Oh, also, I'm not sure what kind of government goes better than Monarchy. There is still a duke, but I've no idea of his name and the trade council runs the city anyway. Perhaps Monarchy/Trade Council, heh.

7

Fixed Bugs / Sundials in Hempstead and Vehl

« on: March 18, 2007, 11:18:58 am »

Now that the new starting areas are in two big, busy towns, rather than Hlint, I think sundials would be a nice addition to them, and the one in Hlint can be removed.

Hlint is rather far to travel to just to find out what the date is. This is mostly for those people unable to look at the website or IRC for the date and time while playing, especially newer players.

8

Fixed Bugs / West - Fort Vehl - Multiple Misc

« on: March 16, 2007, 01:37:27 am »

- among the plethora of merchants, we're missing a crafting vendor
- the craft hall is missing an instrument crafting uh.. harp thing
- the craft hall should have a map tag

- I'm sure this isn't news to anyone (and is my fault) but the doors don't autoclose. Just adding it here for completeness.

9

Fixed Bugs / minor naming change

« on: March 16, 2007, 01:19:25 am »

all of freyas items are still sent and named for v2

10

Fixed Bugs / Battlehelm moors, howering mushroom patch

« on: March 15, 2007, 03:58:37 pm »

just a minor thing, near the cave, at the upper right corner of the map, there's one placeable musrhoom patch howering in the air. Cheers

11

Fixed Bugs / Ship Captain - Katherian

« on: March 14, 2007, 08:26:52 pm »

The captain is still labeled Karthy, but his conversation has the new names.

12

Fixed Bugs / Black dog moor, trasition ambush

« on: March 14, 2007, 05:44:19 pm »

A large party entered the 3rd area of the black dog moors.  Upon entering this area we were ambushed on the transition by a group of lizard men.

We were standing as a group on the transition for about 10 seconds, and it did infact seem like an ambush spawn to me.

No one had time to wander off the transition, the ambush just appeared on us.  I believe this might be a bug, because to the best of my knowledge ambushes are not suppose spawn on transitions.  I apologize if this is suppose to be this way.

I took a screen shot of the location, so please PM me if I should post that as well.


AeonBlues

13

Fixed Bugs / Spirit Dunes Mine

« on: March 13, 2007, 10:10:54 pm »

The spirit dunes mine has a skyset and is set to an outdoor area

14

Fixed Bugs / The wandering dunes - the great desert

« on: March 13, 2007, 09:41:17 pm »

There are two bugged areas I found here, first the area with the ruins, right when you get in from the area after the old saudira you can't target yourself or anyone else with spells.

Second area is the one beyond the ruins if you run towards the old north fort you get into a very odd walkmess thingy where your character sort of runs high up in the air.

15

Fixed Bugs / Red light overlord

« on: March 13, 2007, 10:33:49 am »

the overlord in the red light cavern dosent spawn ..ive been here three times the last time this afternoon and he hasnt been there.

16

Fixed Bugs / Persistant chests in lor bank

« on: March 12, 2007, 08:16:07 pm »

As the title says. They arent link to the rest of dregar's bank chests

didnt check out if the vault teller itself is linked either..

17

Fixed Bugs / Too many Will-o-wisps drops

« on: March 12, 2007, 05:27:13 pm »

The numerous will-o-wisps near Hlint all drop their essence.  I suggest that all but one or two be changed to drop nothing.  As it is, whiskey just got a whole lot cheaper!

18

Fixed Bugs / Skulcap from outside the Lizardmen Cave

« on: March 11, 2007, 11:09:16 pm »

I'm not sure the new name of the area, however, i was collecting skiulcap and noticed one of the plants was placed on the trunk of a tree that could not be collected.  I tried gathering it from all angles, unfortunately it failed to be picked.  

Now it might have been a prank from a GM to see how long I'd keep at it before resigning to the fact it just not going to happen (nice one) or it's definately a bug.

Cheers,
Polak76

19

Fixed Bugs / Rat Skins

« on: March 11, 2007, 11:05:54 pm »

I tried skinning the rats from the sewers in Hempstead and it makes mention of me acquiring meat and skin, yet in my inventory only the meat is actually present.

20

Fixed Bugs / Whitehorn Forest- - Previously Harmony Grove

« on: March 10, 2007, 06:16:49 am »

The map pin on the home in the former Harmony Grove still reads "The High Forest - Harmony Grove"