More Overland Shots

Well of Course I had to make an Overland.

I can't resist. I am so weak. I had to try my hand at Overland Maps. This is an early draft of the Isle of Sampeatos. Not nessasarily connected to the Sands of Solvheil series, but a definate location in the setting. I was thinking about turning this into (after I finish SoSIII of course) a seperate adventure, possibly multiplayer. Think Isle of Dread, original orange cover. Yeah, nothing to do with that, but that cover shot...yeah, that's the feeling.

Finished SoZ, sorta

After much adventuring and exploration, I ended up at the final battle a bit too early. All party members were around 13th level and collectively got their tails handed to them by the final encounter.

I really enjoyed SoZ because of the stark differences between it and previous NWN/NWN2 releases. While I have always had the problem of being either completely open ended such as the Cormyr PW I worked on in NWN 1, or very very linear and story driven such as the Solvheil campaign, SoZ seemed to blend these two elements together.

This does present some problems, as evidenced by my untimely demise (and rather one-sided battle). Without the proper controls in place, it is entirely possible to wander into something that your party is not nearly prepared to handle. While many of the adventures required activation from an NPC conversation, the random encounter tables and overall story arc was completely accessible whether you were ready or not.

This did indeed add the danger that was present by wandering monster tables and other elements of traditional PnP. However, it was without the divine intervention, aka DM discretion, that was there to make sure the gameplay was enjoyable.

Again, I know that many were less than pleased with the latest release. I just happended to find it a bit more interesting than previous. I've always had trouble being guided through a main story without much room for deviation (although I design SP modules the complete opposite because I just want to tell a story). This title gave me a blank sheet to make my mark upon, and retire whenever I saw fit.

SoZ, or, Christmas comes Early

I really do feel like I'm 10 years old on Christmas morning staring under a tree bursting with wrapped presents whenever a new NWN release comes out. I love looking at the new content, be it appearances, placables, scripting functions, weapons, or whatever. The release of Storm of Zehir was no different.

First of all, I have to say that this expansion is indeed a bit different from previous releases. It is much more strategy based and less hand-holding and guiding story than we are used to. Not everyone will be happy with it, while others will welcome the change. Personally, I think it's rather engaging. Although I am sure the toolset bug will overtake my will to complete.

I'm sure I will hit the 'Retire' button long before the module is finished and dive headfirst into the toolset once again without looking back.

Good thing it's a holiday week around these parts, I have lots of game to plow through. Happy Caravan-ing!

Updates are for Chumps

Alright, maybe they're not. I have been one horrendous slacker as far as updates go lately. Luckily, it took some work on the BouncyRock Halloween module to get my rear kicked into gear. While my contribution wasn't exactly as elaborate as I would have liked, being my favorite holiday and all, it did get me back into the swing of things.

So what have I been doing with the two months it's been since my last post? Mainly taking/teaching classes (which is awesome since my two Software Engineering classes are busy making video games...gotta love those guys). Then of course I HAD to buy a new laptop. HAD to (that's what I told my wife anyway).

It is one sweet sweet machine. The Gateway P-7811FX, which is one hella gaming machine squeezed into a semi-portable shell. This thing is screaming fast, and I'm happy to report that NWN2 runs juuuuuust fine on the Vista 64-bit. Crysis Warhead doesn't run too shabby on it either.

Now I have very few excuses to not get right back into writing some dialogue for SoSIII. I'm starting back in this morning as my work computer is on the frazz and running through checkdisk. Seems a waste to not do a little something productive, right?

That's one spicy cutscene

Oh man, I totally see why I asked for outside assistance with cutscenes. I just saw a rather mundane setup conversation come alive. Great camera work, great gestures, completely changed the whole dynamic. It's very cool to see a conversation become a true scene, because you can better convey mood and atmosphere between characters. JasonNH nailed it on this first one, and I realize I had better get my rear in gear to finish up some more dialogue.

Anyhow, things have been really busy, but as I finish up this 10 page case study for class (and come to the realization that I can't sleepwalk my way through a masters program like I did the undergrad), I think time will start to present itself.

Also, did anyone else swoon when they saw Bouncy Rock's new Yuan-Ti Pureblood model? Perfect texturing really set this thing off. I have no idea if Obsidian plans on including one with SoZ along with Half-Bloods, but if so they really have their work cut out to trump this thing. Y'know, with talent like they have over there, I think one could very well take over the world.

Curse You Sharepoint!

Holy Smokes! That's a long time between blog posts!
Things have gotten a might busy between taking masters classes, teaching a Software Engineering class, and this @#$%! move to MOSS 2007 at work. While I have not forgotten the module at hand, I haven't had a free hand to touch it in over a week, bleh!

Anyhow, any Sharepoint Gurus out there know how to ease my pain? Y'know, let a guy get back to his beloved NWN2 module by answering the questions that keep him up at night?


Requirements:
Public Facing MOSS2007 Internet Site for Content Management (with Publishing/WorkFlow) w/o Deployment (no Staging Server). Just want to make sure we begin on the right path before we delve too deeply into content deployment. We will eventually work with the Document Management as well for online forms and such.


Questions:

1.) a.) Which Site Definition should we use to begin with? Collaboration Portal, Team Site, etc.
b.) Should we create a custom Site Definition and if so, which do we base it upon?
c.) Since there will be sites below the top level site (homepage), should their Site Definitions differ from the top?
(IE Collaboration Portal for top level, Team Sites below that).

2.) Since there will be significant CSS changes, as well as multiple MasterPages per site level, should we override the CORE.CSS and what is the preferred method for doing so (Inline, Override Textbox in Site Settings, Custom Function, etc).

3.) Editing Custom MasterPages, there is a place for PlaceHolderMain, yet no breakdown of the Web Part Zones contained within this area. What defines the Web Part Zones and their placement on a given MasterPage?

4.) Calendar and Announcement WebParts only seem to be options in a Team Site. Is there a way to enable these for use in other definitions? Is that done on the MasterPage, the ONET.XML, etc. Basically, how do we select from the Smorgasbord if they are prepackaged into Value Meals?

5.) Assuming that we will eventually be writing custom Web Parts, should we contain the entire Sharepoint Solution on VS2008 as a deployable package, or keep the Web Parts separate within Visual Studio and rely on Sharepoint Designer for the inner workings of Sharepoint.