Addam's Family?

No, I am not making an attempt at anything crazy and kooky. I am just doing a bit of playing around to see if I can use some of the RWS assets to create a nice mountaintop castle that would serve as a decent vampiric abode. Long before I start shaping terrian, I like to work with strictly placeables to see what I can fit with each other to anchor the look.

I'm kicking around a few ideas for my post-crusaders development life. I have a few nice projects in mind, with this being near the front of the pack for tying it all together.

Don't worry, I'm not content with staying in one setting throughout a module, so this adventure I'm tossing around has a spanning storyline that also visits the depths of the forest, an island jungle, and a few other scenic places to die.

Sigh, I suppose I should get back to progress on SoS:III, while I have made a good dent in the first third, I am realizing that many of my ideas had not yet manifested into actual conversations. Hopefully I can take care of these pick-up shots without a noticable difference in style.

The Next Two Thirds

I finally get to start revisiting some areas that I have had semi-completed for some time. Normally, almost all areas in my modules reside as prefabs from the moment the story is determined. Then I have to take it a little at a time filling in all of the non-visual parts that make that happen (dialogue, waypoints, scripts, etc.) forcing me to shelf some of the later areas.

Anyhow, with the first third of the module in a working order, I can begin to open these back up and start adding the filling. I'm sure I won't be able to stop myself from retouching here and there.

Temple Exterior

Temple Interior

Oasis Crypts

Ruined Tower

Alakanthor Exterior

Alakanthor Interior

Scarcrag Pass and Cliffside Battle

Here are a few screens. One is the introduction to Scarcrag Pass which connnects the kingdom of Dalreon with the Shalihir Desert. This is the first area the player encounters after leaving their estate in Albrynn where they headed to at the end of SoSII.

The other screenshots are the setup and battle along the edge of Nalass. Nalass is a former island kingdom in the Imlan Sea that is now just a large plateau littered with ruins in the desert.

The beginning of this area is some fabulous cutscene work put together by JasonNH. I still love watching this thing and an earlier one he did for the town of Tahamman everytime I test the mod.

Conversations in Nalassian Ruins

Just a few screenshots from an area I'm trying to finish up the functionality of. These are the ruins of Nalass where you, Malcarus, and a few of his holy brigade to to capture Anziath Aers and recover the Tome of Koth. Naturally there are plenty of Ith'inaar dark-elves waiting there for you, as well as some of their new breed. Hazards of playing with chaos magic I suppose.

NWN MMO

Ug...

Hopefully the reports on the gaming sites are just idle speculation. I guess I wouldn't mind if the NWN Name/Title went to an MMO, as long as something else stepped up to replace the toolset driven community development suite that we know as NWN. I don't know, the DnD Ruleset Fantasy Module Creation Studio would be fine. I don't care what you call it, just don't take away our ability to mod.

On the flipside, anyone know of Dragon Age user created content can/will be deployed to consoles via live connections?

[Edit]
On the upside, finally a DnD MMO that isn't set in Ebberon? FR > Ebberon.
4E is practically screaming to be made into a game with it's cooldowns and such.
[/Edit]

God help me, I can't stop making towns

Oh, and RWS All-In-One...rocks.

To Dragon Age or Not to Dragon Age...

...that is the question that I'm sure many of us in the development side of things are considering. The big question (for me) is how much latitude will the toolset allow us? While the footage from E3 was beautiful, and the dragon in combat was not only modeled well, but animated smoothly. I did notice some hiccups, which lead me to believe it will be like when NWN2 came out and was a bit much for standard machines of the time. I refer to this as the Crysis Conundrum.

I know, I shouldn't be setting sights so far down the road. Especially when I have a project that I am long overdue on finishing. With a release date of late October, there is plenty of time to not only wrap up the Solvheil trilogy, but also perhaps throw another smaller module out there. I've been having a blast using the RWS All-In-One for area design.

Hopefully as things come more into focus, we will all have a better idea of our long-term development dreams. I'd like to try to put together a medium-small team and attack a grand goal with some sense of scope and strategy...just not sure which platform will end up looking the most attractive.