I don't understand that. Why go to the trouble of having a "remember me" button of the freaking thing doesn't work? The only times I come to this site are for reasons that require me to be logged in. Seems like a lot of hassle for no good reason if you ask me.
Which you probably didn't. I mean, what are the odds that you'd think the same thing and say "I wonder if dirtywick feels the same way and happened to have made a post about that topic. Let's see!" Probably pretty slim.
Yeah, I'm in a bad mood. Thing is, I'm taking these college courses online, and the due date for the final was yesterday. Three days earlier than any other semester. For some arbitrary reason, they changed the due dates for finals leaving me high and dry, and they didn't even have the courtesy to send out a simple mass e-mail saying "hey, we moved the due dates for finals to a different day than what we have been using the last few years!" Not the end of the world, though. They're usually pretty cool about stuff like that and make ups. Even if they're not, it'll get sorted out. Normally I'm probably the most laid back guy you'd know, but when somebody goes off and does something stupid like that that will turn my $1200 A into a wasted $1200 D, best believe I'm going to break my foot off in somebody's ass.
But enough about that. You're probably wondering what's going on with my mod. Well, I just so happen to have a few screens with what's what on them.
Basically, I've been working on The Simbul's Palace. Seeing as how she's one of the most prolific and probably among the top 5 most powerful spellcasters in all of Faerun, I figured she need a laboratory to, I don't know, do wizard stuff in. And what happens when there's an unattended laboratory and an apprentice too big for her britches? Heavily scripted and multiple ending sidequest mischief!
Speaking of laboratory, I was typing that word out when I had one of those "You know, that doesn't look right..." moments. You know what I'm talking about, when you write out a word that you know is spelled right, but it just doesn't feel like it's right. So I looked up "labratory" online instead to cross check my crossed t's and dotted...lower case j's (props if you caught the reference, because it's party time, excellent! Woo woo woo woo!) Apparently, I would have been the 275,001st person to make that mistake, but I caught it. Most notably is the second link down on the page, a company that sells "labratory" equipment. That's got to hurt sales seeing as how your site only shows up if you spell the word wrong.
But yeah, basically the next few weeks will be occupied with building The Simbul's Palace. It's 5 areas deep, most of them double digits by double digits, so it's massive. Figure in all the NPCs that need dialogue and the huge banquet cutscene that will be influenced by the previous actions throughout the first three mods, your conduct inside the palace, and your conduct during the banquet, and all of the various sidequests/exploration opportunities in the palace, and you've got a lot of work to do. Well, I have a lot of work to do.
But it's going to be fun, this is one of the things I've been looking forward to doing.
Alright, then.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Did you catch Southpark tonight?
It was hilarious, for real, mostly because I get to sit back and see all those stupid characters from cartoons over the years. Not as good as last weeks, but still you don't want to not catch that. But I'm sitting here wondering what the preachy point is going to be at the end of this three part episode.
So, yeah, I'm still going through this testing thing. It's coming along, the people that volunteered to beta test have been really helpful, especially dude and his brother been e-mailing me and flem. Lot of good ideas and squashed bugs have come of it, which is great.
Thing is though, I'm-a be totally honest here, beta testing is probably my least favorite part of building. Well, the post release fixes are also a hassle. Keeping with my honesty, I'm pretty lazy so I don't like to do things more than once. Get it done right the first time around has always been one of my philosophies of life, ya dig? So obviously going back and digging through things I had done months ago and trying to figure out what's wrong is, I don't know, grating? Yeah, I guess that's a good word for it. The other thing is I get a lot of "why didn't I think of that?"'s and "how did I miss that!?"'s throughout too, and most of the time it's something really simple that makes you feel like an idiot, you know?
That ain't to say I'm unappreciative of these cats because, like last time, their ideas and bug reports are a great contribution that I wouldn't want to go without. But, you know, if I can't be honest about what's going on then there's a problem festering there anyway.
Point here is next time you're playing a mod for, well, anything (not a professionally done one, though, they get paid for that! I mean, unless you want to give props to everyone who does their job adequately, go 'head.) and you're leaving a vote or comment or whatever the system that respective game uses to rate user made stuff, just remember the beta testers. I'm telling you, if it wasn't for them your enjoyment of that mod would have suffered in a big way.
Right on. In other news, I'll be putting up a new poll soon about the new "Adventure Pack" for NWN 2. I mean, it looks cool, but I'm a little tentative about buying it for a few reasons. What I'll tell you now is MotB was a bit of a headache (not even close enough to make me regret the purchase) in the way that it messed up my custom content and problems from it are still surfacing in other areas. It's all good though, they'll be worked out. But once you have that installed, it's not really an optional thing. Like I can't build for just vanilla NWN2 now, it's MotB required because it's that integrated into the toolset, which is much of a problem because most of the folks playing the community stuff will have it. But this Adventure Pack? That remains to be seen. How integrated will it be with the toolset? As much so as MotB? And will I even be able to use the stuff they're making with it? Like can I just yank some stuff out of their hak or whatever and slap it into mine? Their music?
See what I mean? Or is it going to be like MotB where a mod I make using it simply won't work unless the player also owns it. Because on the real, I could just pull things out of my MotB files and put them in a hak and you could play it with vanilla...I'm not going to because the hak would be huge and Obsidian would probably have a seizure at me. I'm just saying.
That's the kind of stuff that will influence whether or not I install the Adventure Pack. Yeah, I said install. I'll buy it regardless, Ossian is an indie studio employing (do y'all get paid cash or just a stamp on your resume?) people I e-know, so supporting both the indie studio scene and some cats I like/respect on a personal level is something I'm in favor of. So I'm all over that.
But how useful it will be to me is another story.
Finally, I have been making progress on the next mod. I have a cool cutscene finished, and have begun work on the next "area" (which is actually five areas split apart), The Simbul's Palace interior. It's coming along, it's just really, really big.
So, yeah, I'm still going through this testing thing. It's coming along, the people that volunteered to beta test have been really helpful, especially dude and his brother been e-mailing me and flem. Lot of good ideas and squashed bugs have come of it, which is great.
Thing is though, I'm-a be totally honest here, beta testing is probably my least favorite part of building. Well, the post release fixes are also a hassle. Keeping with my honesty, I'm pretty lazy so I don't like to do things more than once. Get it done right the first time around has always been one of my philosophies of life, ya dig? So obviously going back and digging through things I had done months ago and trying to figure out what's wrong is, I don't know, grating? Yeah, I guess that's a good word for it. The other thing is I get a lot of "why didn't I think of that?"'s and "how did I miss that!?"'s throughout too, and most of the time it's something really simple that makes you feel like an idiot, you know?
That ain't to say I'm unappreciative of these cats because, like last time, their ideas and bug reports are a great contribution that I wouldn't want to go without. But, you know, if I can't be honest about what's going on then there's a problem festering there anyway.
Point here is next time you're playing a mod for, well, anything (not a professionally done one, though, they get paid for that! I mean, unless you want to give props to everyone who does their job adequately, go 'head.) and you're leaving a vote or comment or whatever the system that respective game uses to rate user made stuff, just remember the beta testers. I'm telling you, if it wasn't for them your enjoyment of that mod would have suffered in a big way.
Right on. In other news, I'll be putting up a new poll soon about the new "Adventure Pack" for NWN 2. I mean, it looks cool, but I'm a little tentative about buying it for a few reasons. What I'll tell you now is MotB was a bit of a headache (not even close enough to make me regret the purchase) in the way that it messed up my custom content and problems from it are still surfacing in other areas. It's all good though, they'll be worked out. But once you have that installed, it's not really an optional thing. Like I can't build for just vanilla NWN2 now, it's MotB required because it's that integrated into the toolset, which is much of a problem because most of the folks playing the community stuff will have it. But this Adventure Pack? That remains to be seen. How integrated will it be with the toolset? As much so as MotB? And will I even be able to use the stuff they're making with it? Like can I just yank some stuff out of their hak or whatever and slap it into mine? Their music?
See what I mean? Or is it going to be like MotB where a mod I make using it simply won't work unless the player also owns it. Because on the real, I could just pull things out of my MotB files and put them in a hak and you could play it with vanilla...I'm not going to because the hak would be huge and Obsidian would probably have a seizure at me. I'm just saying.
That's the kind of stuff that will influence whether or not I install the Adventure Pack. Yeah, I said install. I'll buy it regardless, Ossian is an indie studio employing (do y'all get paid cash or just a stamp on your resume?) people I e-know, so supporting both the indie studio scene and some cats I like/respect on a personal level is something I'm in favor of. So I'm all over that.
But how useful it will be to me is another story.
Finally, I have been making progress on the next mod. I have a cool cutscene finished, and have begun work on the next "area" (which is actually five areas split apart), The Simbul's Palace interior. It's coming along, it's just really, really big.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Things are going well.
Ran into a few snags with the beta testing thus far, but that's to be expected. But overall it seems to be going a lot better than the first time around with Chapter 1. That's good news, mostly because I don't like this phase of the building process because it usually involves pinning down bugs and exhaustively testing the fixes.
But I've got to say, thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help. Multiple pairs of eyes makes things so much easier, and I can't even stress how much I appreciate the help.
But yeah, this week has been busy. Well, not so much busy but not having time to work on building. My cousin came out to visit for a few days, and I spent most of that time playing the Wii. I don't know about that console, hopefully it will get better. For one thing, the developers that work on that platform seem too obsessed with the ability to flail your arms seizurically and the character on the screen does stuff, so they tend to go that route when, perhaps, pushing a button would be better.
That's not really the case in all games. Obviously games like Tiger Woods golf are better when you're swinging the thing, and Zelda and Paper Mario use the remote effectively. Mario Party is a lot of fun too. But take Prince of Persia, I can't even play that game. There's too much flailing and too many buttons to learn. I'm looking like an idiot flopping my arms everywhere while my character is getting beat down by every enemy I run into while I'm running up a wall and falling to my death. Likewise, Red Steel sucks because it's ungodly difficult and relies too heavily on the remote which, for whatever reason, they made ultra sensitive and the camera movement really fast.
I would say that, on average, at least half of the games for the Wii I've played end up with me dying dozens of times in the tutorial section before the real game begins before giving up for better pastures.
The best joints on the Wii you can get is Scarface just to play the beginning, and probably the Wii Sports that comes along with it.
I also found a few minutes to play MotB. Anybody know at what point you're supposed to get the Spirit Eater ability? I'm about to go into the Death God's Vault and I'm feeling like I should be eating some souls by this point. I heard about a bug where you can miss the event where you pick it up.
Don't forget that the quest idea contest is still running and any and all beta applications, which is just you asking and not a real application, will be accepted!
But I've got to say, thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help. Multiple pairs of eyes makes things so much easier, and I can't even stress how much I appreciate the help.
But yeah, this week has been busy. Well, not so much busy but not having time to work on building. My cousin came out to visit for a few days, and I spent most of that time playing the Wii. I don't know about that console, hopefully it will get better. For one thing, the developers that work on that platform seem too obsessed with the ability to flail your arms seizurically and the character on the screen does stuff, so they tend to go that route when, perhaps, pushing a button would be better.
That's not really the case in all games. Obviously games like Tiger Woods golf are better when you're swinging the thing, and Zelda and Paper Mario use the remote effectively. Mario Party is a lot of fun too. But take Prince of Persia, I can't even play that game. There's too much flailing and too many buttons to learn. I'm looking like an idiot flopping my arms everywhere while my character is getting beat down by every enemy I run into while I'm running up a wall and falling to my death. Likewise, Red Steel sucks because it's ungodly difficult and relies too heavily on the remote which, for whatever reason, they made ultra sensitive and the camera movement really fast.
I would say that, on average, at least half of the games for the Wii I've played end up with me dying dozens of times in the tutorial section before the real game begins before giving up for better pastures.
The best joints on the Wii you can get is Scarface just to play the beginning, and probably the Wii Sports that comes along with it.
I also found a few minutes to play MotB. Anybody know at what point you're supposed to get the Spirit Eater ability? I'm about to go into the Death God's Vault and I'm feeling like I should be eating some souls by this point. I heard about a bug where you can miss the event where you pick it up.
Don't forget that the quest idea contest is still running and any and all beta applications, which is just you asking and not a real application, will be accepted!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Download the Beta!
Just holla at me here if you want Beta test this motha!
I'm always pretty excited about a real milestone. This is a bulky third of Chapter 2. I play tested it myself, took a little longer because I hit a few snags (none game breaking, though, just oddities), but overall I'm pretty satisfied with what came out of it. The story is a lot more tight so far, the combat is pretty intense, and the companions and RP elements are a lot more varied and alive.
I was going to write about this last time, as my keen sense of observance usually gives me plenty to talk about (most of it stupid, but that's a given), but the last post was a lot longer than I intended it to be.
The other day I caught this anime called "The Fist of the North Star" on Showtime. Now I'm not a big anime fan by any means, but I like some of it. Ninja Scroll is probably the best of all time, Akira was good, Vampire Hunter D, Robotech, about every third or fourth epidsode of Dragon Ball Z, Afro Samurai, I don't know, there's probably some more I've seen and liked. There's also a lot of garbage too, more often than not.
You know what's interesting about anime? It was and, to a certain degree, still is ahead of it's time. It's catching on in the US, but so far the only cartoons that I know of made for adults are comedies. Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, etc. Afro Samurai was pretty recent (and awesome, should be listed above. Matter of fact I'll edit that in right now...) and was great. I'm not sure why the US needed like a 20 year post-Simpsons adjustment period for it to become "OK" for adults to watch cartoons made for adults. But the simple fact is it did, and now-a-days Showtime is playin' them joints on the daily.
But anyway I was watching "Fist of the North Star", and I had seen that before in high school back in the 90's but completely forgotten about it, and Jiminey MFing Crickets! That show is crazy. The basic premise is this guy knows Fist of the North Star style which is like the greatest kung fu style ever, and he wanders a post apocalyptic world doing good deeds using his martial arts. Pretty much a direct port of David Carradine's Kung Fu, except while they both travel the world offering sagely, Kung Fu advice to solve problems, David Carridine doesn't explode people when he punches them.
And that video is the old school tame version. The stuff they're showing these days doesn't leave a black body/red background to the imagination.
That's not even the crazy part. During the opening credits, the writers of the show were given their due. One of them was responsible for the Fist of the North Star novelization. Really, how much could you possibly write about a guy who walks around exploding people with punches? More of a visual thing, though that's obviously trumped by the fact that this must be a stupid book.
Then again, in high school I did a book report about the novelization of "The Golden Child" starring Eddie Murphy. Maybe the Japanese and Americans aren't that different.
I'm always pretty excited about a real milestone. This is a bulky third of Chapter 2. I play tested it myself, took a little longer because I hit a few snags (none game breaking, though, just oddities), but overall I'm pretty satisfied with what came out of it. The story is a lot more tight so far, the combat is pretty intense, and the companions and RP elements are a lot more varied and alive.
I was going to write about this last time, as my keen sense of observance usually gives me plenty to talk about (most of it stupid, but that's a given), but the last post was a lot longer than I intended it to be.
The other day I caught this anime called "The Fist of the North Star" on Showtime. Now I'm not a big anime fan by any means, but I like some of it. Ninja Scroll is probably the best of all time, Akira was good, Vampire Hunter D, Robotech, about every third or fourth epidsode of Dragon Ball Z, Afro Samurai, I don't know, there's probably some more I've seen and liked. There's also a lot of garbage too, more often than not.
You know what's interesting about anime? It was and, to a certain degree, still is ahead of it's time. It's catching on in the US, but so far the only cartoons that I know of made for adults are comedies. Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, etc. Afro Samurai was pretty recent (and awesome, should be listed above. Matter of fact I'll edit that in right now...) and was great. I'm not sure why the US needed like a 20 year post-Simpsons adjustment period for it to become "OK" for adults to watch cartoons made for adults. But the simple fact is it did, and now-a-days Showtime is playin' them joints on the daily.
But anyway I was watching "Fist of the North Star", and I had seen that before in high school back in the 90's but completely forgotten about it, and Jiminey MFing Crickets! That show is crazy. The basic premise is this guy knows Fist of the North Star style which is like the greatest kung fu style ever, and he wanders a post apocalyptic world doing good deeds using his martial arts. Pretty much a direct port of David Carradine's Kung Fu, except while they both travel the world offering sagely, Kung Fu advice to solve problems, David Carridine doesn't explode people when he punches them.
And that video is the old school tame version. The stuff they're showing these days doesn't leave a black body/red background to the imagination.
That's not even the crazy part. During the opening credits, the writers of the show were given their due. One of them was responsible for the Fist of the North Star novelization. Really, how much could you possibly write about a guy who walks around exploding people with punches? More of a visual thing, though that's obviously trumped by the fact that this must be a stupid book.
Then again, in high school I did a book report about the novelization of "The Golden Child" starring Eddie Murphy. Maybe the Japanese and Americans aren't that different.
Monday, October 15, 2007
33% of Chapter 2 enters internal beta...
...later today. I have one thing I have to do still, which is finish a companion dialogue file up. But that shouldn't take more than a few hours, and we're on to internal beta, which is a fancy way of saying I'll play through it beginning to end. There's two paths through this, and one is already internally betaed, but I need to do the other half, which I'll have done by the end of the day. I've already tested the path multiple times by itself, but I just need to run through it as a whole. Then I'll be opening it up to a wider audience.
But remember, this is just a third of the whole chapter 2, so there's a lot of work to be done yet. I like to split it up into manageable chunks, though, makes the testing faster and easier. But I need help! If there's one thing I learned from last time around, it's that I didn't test it adequately. But I'm only one guy and can only do so much, so if you want to help me out either message me here, at the official boards, on the SoT download page, or by e-mail and I'll get you hooked up.
Just to make this short, here's a few bonus screens!
And a number count:
Areas: 17
Words: 50,000+
Monster Blueprints: 30 - 20 with uniquely scripted special abilities
Items: 600+
Scripts: 175
Conversations: 137
Add that together with the first chapter and so far I've got over 50 areas, over 110,000 words of dialogue (which is full novel size), over 40 custom creatures, over 600 custom items! That kind of puts it into perspective for me how much work this really is. I've designed more maps than an FPS, written a full length novel, and coded probably over 100,000 lines of code.
Anyway, now the ranty part that a blog post of mine wouldn't be complete without:
So yesterday, after watching the "Sunday night line-up" (which is literally what I call what I watch every Sunday) consisting of The Simpsons, skipping King of the Hill and catching half of a bad movie on Showtime, Family Guy which is great, and American Dad which I can't help but feel the jokes that weren't funny enough for Family Guy get shoved into, I did a little internet surfing. I was supposed to be working on the campaign, but got distracted by something else (shiny!) I saw on the internet and led into a wikipedia journey through all kinds of topics that eventually landed on Cannibal Corpse, the death metal band.
You long time Google spiders may remember that I listen, nearly exclusively, to rap. You also might remember the Don Imus incident not long ago where he called the women of the Rutgers basketball team "nappy headed hos" and was promptly nominated for the head of the neo nazi KKK coalition. Well, I guess if you're European you might not have heard about it, so basically the guy had a radio show on some major network (honestly, I'd never even heard of the guy before that) and did a sports broadcast and said that, and basically everyone remotely involved with civil rights for African Americans thought he was racist. I didn't really catch it. Nappy is a reference to when your hair looks like you just woke up from a nap (hence, nappy) and is messed up looking, and ho is a shorter term for the word "whore". Basically, he called them ugly sluts.
I'll admit, he probably didn't mean it that way and there was some racial undertones there. This is further accentuated by his actions after the incident when he went on Al Sharpton's radio show to apologize, which Al accepted and still went on to try and destroy the man (moving him to XM radio where he's probably making more money than ever) and blamed rap music for coining the term. Basically, aside from the fact that I can count on my hand the number of times I've heard the term "nappy headed ho" on my hand in rap lyrics, he said (paraphrased from reading in between the lines) "you all can do it, why can't I?", at which point Al Sharpton set his sights on hip hop. But the aftermath of that is a story for another day.
What's my point here is what you're probably wondering. Well, this isn't really my point but we're getting there: Hip hop has been a scapegoat for the countries problems for too long while heavy metal gets a free pass. Let me just start out that I think the whole blaming any kind of media for influencing people is BS. Like when Steve-O from Jackass straps meat to his balls and wades through crocodile pits, you don't sue jackass when your junk gets bit off, he's an idiot and so are you, you know what I mean? Likewise, when you start selling crack (which the real reality is most drug dealers dont' make a whole lot of money anyway, just saying) and beating women because Jeezy "told" you too, you're also an idiot, and when you commit suicide "from" listening to heavy metal, you're still an idiot. Just had to get that out there.
We straight? Good. Now, if you want to blame some kind of media for messing up idiots, take a look at some song titles and album covers from Cannibal Corpse. I mean, if you're the type of person that likes to d-ride musicians over their music, focusing on the guy that talks about a 9 and selling dope on the corner hardly seems worth the time when there's a ton of metal groups out there with disembowled bodies talking about (and I probably wouldn't click on this link) raping corpses and such. Know what I mean? A little bit of crack and a gun hardly seems like it should be worth it to them when it's next to that.
But again, this isn't a criticism of Cannibal Corpse (that's coming up), but a dig at those jokers who are trying to shut these musicians down.
But, I've got to hand it to Cannibal Corpse. In a time when the music industry is taking a crap, these guys can keep the seats filled. I watched a (eh, go ahead and click that one. You won't understand a word the dude is saying unless you're specially tuned to understand growling and if you are probably won't care because you listen to death metal)YouTube video or two of them live (and honestly I was expecting something more along the lines of a Gwar show, but nastier) but it was pretty standard fare for a metal band: long haired dudes moving their hair around and playing instruments.
But here's where it gets fun. Now, I've been on this side of the table before, probably a lot more than you have if you like death metal, but my ultimate point here is being in Cannibal Corpse can't require a whole lot of talent. There, I said it. Obviously, it's a lot more skill than many of us possess, and by the stadiums they play in a lot of people like it (good for them), but I'm talking about relative to similar groups. Like in the way that Jay-Z is simply better in every aspect of rapping than Mike Jones, I'd say there's a lot of metal bands that are a lot better than Cannibal Corpse.
Now, like I just told a black joke, I'm going to say this: Some of my best friends listen to Cannibal Corpse. Personally, it grates on me after a few minutes and I'd rather listen to dozens of other metal bands, none of which I particularly like anyway so I suppose it's a moot point. Usually I just say "What is this, White Snake? Gay." when I hear them playing it.
And I don't even think it's because these dudes aren't talented or skilled, it's just the genre. Death metal pretty much is a dude growling unintelligably about nasty with a drummer hammering away as quickly as possible and repetitive guitar riffs. That's all I hear when I hear this stuff, as opposed to, say, Pantera, where at least they change things up.
I don't know. Probably put too much thought into a 2 minute YouTube clip.
But remember, this is just a third of the whole chapter 2, so there's a lot of work to be done yet. I like to split it up into manageable chunks, though, makes the testing faster and easier. But I need help! If there's one thing I learned from last time around, it's that I didn't test it adequately. But I'm only one guy and can only do so much, so if you want to help me out either message me here, at the official boards, on the SoT download page, or by e-mail and I'll get you hooked up.
Just to make this short, here's a few bonus screens!
And a number count:
Areas: 17
Words: 50,000+
Monster Blueprints: 30 - 20 with uniquely scripted special abilities
Items: 600+
Scripts: 175
Conversations: 137
Add that together with the first chapter and so far I've got over 50 areas, over 110,000 words of dialogue (which is full novel size), over 40 custom creatures, over 600 custom items! That kind of puts it into perspective for me how much work this really is. I've designed more maps than an FPS, written a full length novel, and coded probably over 100,000 lines of code.
Anyway, now the ranty part that a blog post of mine wouldn't be complete without:
So yesterday, after watching the "Sunday night line-up" (which is literally what I call what I watch every Sunday) consisting of The Simpsons, skipping King of the Hill and catching half of a bad movie on Showtime, Family Guy which is great, and American Dad which I can't help but feel the jokes that weren't funny enough for Family Guy get shoved into, I did a little internet surfing. I was supposed to be working on the campaign, but got distracted by something else (shiny!) I saw on the internet and led into a wikipedia journey through all kinds of topics that eventually landed on Cannibal Corpse, the death metal band.
You long time Google spiders may remember that I listen, nearly exclusively, to rap. You also might remember the Don Imus incident not long ago where he called the women of the Rutgers basketball team "nappy headed hos" and was promptly nominated for the head of the neo nazi KKK coalition. Well, I guess if you're European you might not have heard about it, so basically the guy had a radio show on some major network (honestly, I'd never even heard of the guy before that) and did a sports broadcast and said that, and basically everyone remotely involved with civil rights for African Americans thought he was racist. I didn't really catch it. Nappy is a reference to when your hair looks like you just woke up from a nap (hence, nappy) and is messed up looking, and ho is a shorter term for the word "whore". Basically, he called them ugly sluts.
I'll admit, he probably didn't mean it that way and there was some racial undertones there. This is further accentuated by his actions after the incident when he went on Al Sharpton's radio show to apologize, which Al accepted and still went on to try and destroy the man (moving him to XM radio where he's probably making more money than ever) and blamed rap music for coining the term. Basically, aside from the fact that I can count on my hand the number of times I've heard the term "nappy headed ho" on my hand in rap lyrics, he said (paraphrased from reading in between the lines) "you all can do it, why can't I?", at which point Al Sharpton set his sights on hip hop. But the aftermath of that is a story for another day.
What's my point here is what you're probably wondering. Well, this isn't really my point but we're getting there: Hip hop has been a scapegoat for the countries problems for too long while heavy metal gets a free pass. Let me just start out that I think the whole blaming any kind of media for influencing people is BS. Like when Steve-O from Jackass straps meat to his balls and wades through crocodile pits, you don't sue jackass when your junk gets bit off, he's an idiot and so are you, you know what I mean? Likewise, when you start selling crack (which the real reality is most drug dealers dont' make a whole lot of money anyway, just saying) and beating women because Jeezy "told" you too, you're also an idiot, and when you commit suicide "from" listening to heavy metal, you're still an idiot. Just had to get that out there.
We straight? Good. Now, if you want to blame some kind of media for messing up idiots, take a look at some song titles and album covers from Cannibal Corpse. I mean, if you're the type of person that likes to d-ride musicians over their music, focusing on the guy that talks about a 9 and selling dope on the corner hardly seems worth the time when there's a ton of metal groups out there with disembowled bodies talking about (and I probably wouldn't click on this link) raping corpses and such. Know what I mean? A little bit of crack and a gun hardly seems like it should be worth it to them when it's next to that.
But again, this isn't a criticism of Cannibal Corpse (that's coming up), but a dig at those jokers who are trying to shut these musicians down.
But, I've got to hand it to Cannibal Corpse. In a time when the music industry is taking a crap, these guys can keep the seats filled. I watched a (eh, go ahead and click that one. You won't understand a word the dude is saying unless you're specially tuned to understand growling and if you are probably won't care because you listen to death metal)YouTube video or two of them live (and honestly I was expecting something more along the lines of a Gwar show, but nastier) but it was pretty standard fare for a metal band: long haired dudes moving their hair around and playing instruments.
But here's where it gets fun. Now, I've been on this side of the table before, probably a lot more than you have if you like death metal, but my ultimate point here is being in Cannibal Corpse can't require a whole lot of talent. There, I said it. Obviously, it's a lot more skill than many of us possess, and by the stadiums they play in a lot of people like it (good for them), but I'm talking about relative to similar groups. Like in the way that Jay-Z is simply better in every aspect of rapping than Mike Jones, I'd say there's a lot of metal bands that are a lot better than Cannibal Corpse.
Now, like I just told a black joke, I'm going to say this: Some of my best friends listen to Cannibal Corpse. Personally, it grates on me after a few minutes and I'd rather listen to dozens of other metal bands, none of which I particularly like anyway so I suppose it's a moot point. Usually I just say "What is this, White Snake? Gay." when I hear them playing it.
And I don't even think it's because these dudes aren't talented or skilled, it's just the genre. Death metal pretty much is a dude growling unintelligably about nasty with a drummer hammering away as quickly as possible and repetitive guitar riffs. That's all I hear when I hear this stuff, as opposed to, say, Pantera, where at least they change things up.
I don't know. Probably put too much thought into a 2 minute YouTube clip.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Probably about a week now
Yeah, so the last of the area design for this mod is finished, and I also took the liberty of designing five new troll blueprints to spice things up. Took a while to test them out, though, as several of them don't die from fire and acid, but other types of damage, as well as a few other scripts for them. After it's all set to go, I have one side project for my bud Anduraga, and I might actually get a chance to play MotB while the testing is happening.
Either I'm really disciplined at holding off, or I'm terrible at time management. Or some combination of the two.
But, here's 6 new screens for you to take a gander at whilst I whittle away at the last of the work that needs to be done, such as the plot events and encounters. Then I need to balance it against the alternate path in terms of XP and loot (I wasn't an idiot this time around a wrote down all that information as opposed to just winging it). But it might be done by this weekend if I stay on my hustle.
Speaking of whittle, has anyone ever done that before? It's been probably a decade since I last heard that word spoken aloud, and technically since I wrote it (twice) that doesn't count. Probably wouldn't know what that is unless you were either a boyscout or have camped before, so here's a rundown: Basically, you grab a piece of wood and a knife, then you carve the wood into something for hours. Usually you end up with a smaller piece of wood if you lack the skill, or just a branch with some bark missing if you lack the patience.
I suppose the last time I heard that word was when I saw the movie "Son in Law" featuring Paulie Shore, which was incidentally probably the last time I ever heard the words Paulie Shore. But anyway, there was a scene where he sees the old, grumpy, and presumably racist homophobe, grandpa whittling a stick, and I believe he uses the word "whittle" when describing to Paulie Shore who minces up to the grandpa asking what he's doing with his ass cheeks hanging out of his pants like he thinks he's Prince.
Yeah but, I don't know, kind of an odd word.
Still moving along, here's some community mods and reasons why you should play them from a builder's perspective:
Night Howls in Nestlehaven
I'm going to be honest here: If you give me a choice between a pure exploration mod and a linear story mod, I'll choose the linear story. But if you're into open exploration, this is the joint you need to play. I didn't finish this because of time constraints and focusing on building over playing, but with this there's so much to do just poking around in the various houses and seeing some oddball stuff that I thought it was really fun. I'll be picking this up again soon because word on the street is the sequel is going to be dope.
Also, throw in cutscenes here, those were also really well done.
Tragedy in Tragidor
I know you all probably already played this, but this is a prime example of how a technically simple mod can convey a great story. The dialogue choices are simple and almost universally superficial in terms of consequence, there's no custom special script systems, etc. But the writing really carries this whole thing onto another level. I don't know, I thought it was immersive and memorable, and off of memory when I cracked it open in the toolset, I think there was very little scripting in there. That's mostly highlighting what you can do with what Obsidian gave you, which is ultimately make a great mod.
Moonshadows
This is basically, to me, a breakdown of how to do sidequests. Hugie really did a good job with that, I think that's the highlight of the mod. Again, didn't finish this one because of the summon/strip buffs/die bug in the later parts (which I've read was since fixed and I'll have to play it again), but the point here most of the mod is doing sidequests in the parts I played. Thing is though, they weren't the typical "go here, kill that, and I'll pay you" format. The setting and narrative, and the details especially, was enough where you probably could have built another mod around each one. That was the most exceptional part of this mod, and you've got to give dude props there.
Tomoachan
Little sidebar here: in the classic SNES game Lufia II there was this dungeon mini-game where you start from level 1 and move through 100 floors to the end, which obviously takes a long time and you're forced to really manage resources and make smart tactical decisions...it was one of my favorite things in RPG history, an actual challenge.
That's what I liked about this, not that it was gruesomely challenging in comparison to the Lufia II dungeon, but that you're on a no resting policy for most of the dungeon and hit with status afflictions, resource management, and tactical decisions to protect your potentially limited and draining resources. This aspect of D&D, and really RPGs in general, is too often ignored. Making the wizard with low strength having to ditch loot because you don't know where the next shop is, make hard decisions about where to use that last potion of restoration, skipping killing the vampires because of the threat of level drain, do I use my spell on this guy or save it in case something worse is around the corner, that kind of stuff is all an aspect of what can happen in a dungeon, but with unlimited resting abound and clearing buffs when you die...whatever. Thankfully, from what I've seen of MotB when a companion is killed and comes back, the status afflictions stick around! Awesome!
Anyway, good job in that regard. That should be the kind of stuff dungeon design uses over wading through hordes of enemies (though that's fine too, just make them a horde of wights with level drain!)
Well, that's about all I got for now. Enough to keep ya thinking anyway.
Don't forget the contest, and if you want in on the beta test come on and holla at me.
Peace!
Either I'm really disciplined at holding off, or I'm terrible at time management. Or some combination of the two.
But, here's 6 new screens for you to take a gander at whilst I whittle away at the last of the work that needs to be done, such as the plot events and encounters. Then I need to balance it against the alternate path in terms of XP and loot (I wasn't an idiot this time around a wrote down all that information as opposed to just winging it). But it might be done by this weekend if I stay on my hustle.
Speaking of whittle, has anyone ever done that before? It's been probably a decade since I last heard that word spoken aloud, and technically since I wrote it (twice) that doesn't count. Probably wouldn't know what that is unless you were either a boyscout or have camped before, so here's a rundown: Basically, you grab a piece of wood and a knife, then you carve the wood into something for hours. Usually you end up with a smaller piece of wood if you lack the skill, or just a branch with some bark missing if you lack the patience.
I suppose the last time I heard that word was when I saw the movie "Son in Law" featuring Paulie Shore, which was incidentally probably the last time I ever heard the words Paulie Shore. But anyway, there was a scene where he sees the old, grumpy, and presumably racist homophobe, grandpa whittling a stick, and I believe he uses the word "whittle" when describing to Paulie Shore who minces up to the grandpa asking what he's doing with his ass cheeks hanging out of his pants like he thinks he's Prince.
Yeah but, I don't know, kind of an odd word.
Still moving along, here's some community mods and reasons why you should play them from a builder's perspective:
Night Howls in Nestlehaven
I'm going to be honest here: If you give me a choice between a pure exploration mod and a linear story mod, I'll choose the linear story. But if you're into open exploration, this is the joint you need to play. I didn't finish this because of time constraints and focusing on building over playing, but with this there's so much to do just poking around in the various houses and seeing some oddball stuff that I thought it was really fun. I'll be picking this up again soon because word on the street is the sequel is going to be dope.
Also, throw in cutscenes here, those were also really well done.
Tragedy in Tragidor
I know you all probably already played this, but this is a prime example of how a technically simple mod can convey a great story. The dialogue choices are simple and almost universally superficial in terms of consequence, there's no custom special script systems, etc. But the writing really carries this whole thing onto another level. I don't know, I thought it was immersive and memorable, and off of memory when I cracked it open in the toolset, I think there was very little scripting in there. That's mostly highlighting what you can do with what Obsidian gave you, which is ultimately make a great mod.
Moonshadows
This is basically, to me, a breakdown of how to do sidequests. Hugie really did a good job with that, I think that's the highlight of the mod. Again, didn't finish this one because of the summon/strip buffs/die bug in the later parts (which I've read was since fixed and I'll have to play it again), but the point here most of the mod is doing sidequests in the parts I played. Thing is though, they weren't the typical "go here, kill that, and I'll pay you" format. The setting and narrative, and the details especially, was enough where you probably could have built another mod around each one. That was the most exceptional part of this mod, and you've got to give dude props there.
Tomoachan
Little sidebar here: in the classic SNES game Lufia II there was this dungeon mini-game where you start from level 1 and move through 100 floors to the end, which obviously takes a long time and you're forced to really manage resources and make smart tactical decisions...it was one of my favorite things in RPG history, an actual challenge.
That's what I liked about this, not that it was gruesomely challenging in comparison to the Lufia II dungeon, but that you're on a no resting policy for most of the dungeon and hit with status afflictions, resource management, and tactical decisions to protect your potentially limited and draining resources. This aspect of D&D, and really RPGs in general, is too often ignored. Making the wizard with low strength having to ditch loot because you don't know where the next shop is, make hard decisions about where to use that last potion of restoration, skipping killing the vampires because of the threat of level drain, do I use my spell on this guy or save it in case something worse is around the corner, that kind of stuff is all an aspect of what can happen in a dungeon, but with unlimited resting abound and clearing buffs when you die...whatever. Thankfully, from what I've seen of MotB when a companion is killed and comes back, the status afflictions stick around! Awesome!
Anyway, good job in that regard. That should be the kind of stuff dungeon design uses over wading through hordes of enemies (though that's fine too, just make them a horde of wights with level drain!)
Well, that's about all I got for now. Enough to keep ya thinking anyway.
Don't forget the contest, and if you want in on the beta test come on and holla at me.
Peace!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
MotB Edition Up
Or will be soon, at any rate. Technically, as I write this, it's still uploading.
So go play that joint, if you haven't already. The changes were mostly cosmetic, and the rest was fixes to make some room for the new base classes, as well as slapping some new bugs in the face.
It's also about 100 MB larger because of the model override...who knew that could get so big? So, yeah, ouch to those who don't have a broadband connection. But you know what? Another 100 MB isn't that big of a deal if you're on dial up, either way you're putting on download and coming back in the morning, and either way it'll be done by that time.
Good news is it was a lot easier fitting the expansion into my existing hak than I thought it would be. Took about 15 minutes and I was rolling like nothing happened. I haven't checked out everything yet, I want to play it before I start figuring out what everything is and ruining the surprises in the campaign itself, but what I saw was great! There's a ton of new item models, a handful of monsters, a lot of new faces/races and classes, and the placeables! Picking this joint up was worth the money. Plus I hear the campaign itself is awesome, so that's good.
Anyways, I tested it with a Favored Soul...I wasn't terribly impressed with that class. Maybe it slaps everyone around at high levels, but try that joker at level 3 and it's pretty weak. You can cast a handful of buff spells and basically that's the only way you're going to survive. From what I've seen, at high levels they'll make great "melee clerics" with a ton of divine mights and such to go around, but wearing medium armor and being able to cast a couple of crappy first level buffs a few times a day (and you'll have to forego the healing spells if you want to fight) and not being able to turn the undead hurts. I don't even know how you'd handle playing a full caster either; either you're not going to have a whole lot of spells to cast (and a poor selection at that), or your DCs are going to be low enough where it'll take multiple casts to land a spell. In a group though, they have more than enough buffs to go around, which is really nice (stoneskin all around!), and you can basically have persistant divine favor at early levels.
Maybe I'll spend some more time with it and I'll change my mind, or find a better way to work it. But right now I'd rather stick with a cleric, they're a lot more vesatile and turn undead is nothing to sneeze at.
Also, check the post at the bottom of the page. The contest is still going on! When does it end? I haven't really set a date. If you're one of those guys that has a lot of ideas, but no experience with the toolset, here's your chance to see a quest of yours in a mod! On the other hand, if you're a builder and are going to use that idea yourself, eh, probably shouldn't say anything. Hi Hugie!
Enter, the more entries there are the more fun this is!
Alright, until next time!
So go play that joint, if you haven't already. The changes were mostly cosmetic, and the rest was fixes to make some room for the new base classes, as well as slapping some new bugs in the face.
It's also about 100 MB larger because of the model override...who knew that could get so big? So, yeah, ouch to those who don't have a broadband connection. But you know what? Another 100 MB isn't that big of a deal if you're on dial up, either way you're putting on download and coming back in the morning, and either way it'll be done by that time.
Good news is it was a lot easier fitting the expansion into my existing hak than I thought it would be. Took about 15 minutes and I was rolling like nothing happened. I haven't checked out everything yet, I want to play it before I start figuring out what everything is and ruining the surprises in the campaign itself, but what I saw was great! There's a ton of new item models, a handful of monsters, a lot of new faces/races and classes, and the placeables! Picking this joint up was worth the money. Plus I hear the campaign itself is awesome, so that's good.
Anyways, I tested it with a Favored Soul...I wasn't terribly impressed with that class. Maybe it slaps everyone around at high levels, but try that joker at level 3 and it's pretty weak. You can cast a handful of buff spells and basically that's the only way you're going to survive. From what I've seen, at high levels they'll make great "melee clerics" with a ton of divine mights and such to go around, but wearing medium armor and being able to cast a couple of crappy first level buffs a few times a day (and you'll have to forego the healing spells if you want to fight) and not being able to turn the undead hurts. I don't even know how you'd handle playing a full caster either; either you're not going to have a whole lot of spells to cast (and a poor selection at that), or your DCs are going to be low enough where it'll take multiple casts to land a spell. In a group though, they have more than enough buffs to go around, which is really nice (stoneskin all around!), and you can basically have persistant divine favor at early levels.
Maybe I'll spend some more time with it and I'll change my mind, or find a better way to work it. But right now I'd rather stick with a cleric, they're a lot more vesatile and turn undead is nothing to sneeze at.
Also, check the post at the bottom of the page. The contest is still going on! When does it end? I haven't really set a date. If you're one of those guys that has a lot of ideas, but no experience with the toolset, here's your chance to see a quest of yours in a mod! On the other hand, if you're a builder and are going to use that idea yourself, eh, probably shouldn't say anything. Hi Hugie!
Enter, the more entries there are the more fun this is!
Alright, until next time!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Coming at you from an all new location!
That's right, I moved over to blogger dot com. Why? Well turns out what I thought were Google spiders were actually people reading my blog. That, under certain unnamed conditions, may have left a comment. Whether or not they wanted to sell me x4n4x or v14Gr/\ remains to be seen.
Seeing as how I'm pretty lazy, I was going to put this off until tomorrow. If you'll recall from my last post at the old spot, I was awaiting MotB to continue any further. Well, I got an e-mail confirmation that it shipped, and it's estimated to arrive tomorrow. So rather than cut into the time I'll spend messing with that, I'll be messing with this, uh, right now.
First thing's first though, Happy Columbus Day!
For real, I wish somebody would have told me that it was a holiday today. I might have mentioned at some point that I have a three year old that I'm, for all intents and purposes, completely responsible for. Now I don't know if any of you all Google Spiders searching this for topless Britany Spears pics (I guess that was early turn of the century...Jessica Alba?) have kids, but to get a three year old to do something you want as opposed to running around the house screaming and jumping on the bed is a little tricky. My basic method is to bribe her with promises of ice cream, candy, or things to do that are fun (my daughter is actually a bit of a nerd thanks to me, because I can say "I'll read you the Big Book of Snakes and Other Reptiles!" and she loves that ish). So anyways, I had to get her ready for preschool, which includes brushing her teeth, getting her out of pajamas and into clothes, and tieing up a "dad ponytail", which ends up being a tangled mess of rubberband and knotted hair. Obviously, easier said than done. But I struggle with it three times a week.
Point here is that it's a holiday, so the preschool wasn't open. Apparently, every other parent knew that. So I'm standing around in the parking lot, mostly leaning on my decade old Pontiac Sunfire with the dent in the front, smoking cigarettes and wondering why no one else is there. Just so you're not confused, Tenessee is going through the same October heat wave as the rest of the country, but my AC doesn't work so it didn't make much difference whether I smoked in or out of the car. Only took about 15 minutes for me to look at the door with the big "We're closed on Columbus Day" sign...which they didn't even have the decency to add "sorry of the inconvenience!" at the bottom in small print (I checked).
So, yeah, not a real big Columbus fan.
Anyways, on to the NWN2 mod related content of this post:
Nothing new to add.
But, to kick off this new "I get to read comments, yay!" thing I got going, I'm hosting a contest. Check it: Give me a premise for a city based quest you'd like to see. I'll pick one and put it in the mod. I'm putting a few sidequests in the upcoming city area, but I thought I'd have some fun with it and make this a little more interactive than my last spot.
Now I guess I've got to add links to the sidebar and whatnot, maybe a picture of me staring away from the camera?
Alright, so that's all I got.
That's right, I moved over to blogger dot com. Why? Well turns out what I thought were Google spiders were actually people reading my blog. That, under certain unnamed conditions, may have left a comment. Whether or not they wanted to sell me x4n4x or v14Gr/\ remains to be seen.
Seeing as how I'm pretty lazy, I was going to put this off until tomorrow. If you'll recall from my last post at the old spot, I was awaiting MotB to continue any further. Well, I got an e-mail confirmation that it shipped, and it's estimated to arrive tomorrow. So rather than cut into the time I'll spend messing with that, I'll be messing with this, uh, right now.
First thing's first though, Happy Columbus Day!
For real, I wish somebody would have told me that it was a holiday today. I might have mentioned at some point that I have a three year old that I'm, for all intents and purposes, completely responsible for. Now I don't know if any of you all Google Spiders searching this for topless Britany Spears pics (I guess that was early turn of the century...Jessica Alba?) have kids, but to get a three year old to do something you want as opposed to running around the house screaming and jumping on the bed is a little tricky. My basic method is to bribe her with promises of ice cream, candy, or things to do that are fun (my daughter is actually a bit of a nerd thanks to me, because I can say "I'll read you the Big Book of Snakes and Other Reptiles!" and she loves that ish). So anyways, I had to get her ready for preschool, which includes brushing her teeth, getting her out of pajamas and into clothes, and tieing up a "dad ponytail", which ends up being a tangled mess of rubberband and knotted hair. Obviously, easier said than done. But I struggle with it three times a week.
Point here is that it's a holiday, so the preschool wasn't open. Apparently, every other parent knew that. So I'm standing around in the parking lot, mostly leaning on my decade old Pontiac Sunfire with the dent in the front, smoking cigarettes and wondering why no one else is there. Just so you're not confused, Tenessee is going through the same October heat wave as the rest of the country, but my AC doesn't work so it didn't make much difference whether I smoked in or out of the car. Only took about 15 minutes for me to look at the door with the big "We're closed on Columbus Day" sign...which they didn't even have the decency to add "sorry of the inconvenience!" at the bottom in small print (I checked).
So, yeah, not a real big Columbus fan.
Anyways, on to the NWN2 mod related content of this post:
Nothing new to add.
But, to kick off this new "I get to read comments, yay!" thing I got going, I'm hosting a contest. Check it: Give me a premise for a city based quest you'd like to see. I'll pick one and put it in the mod. I'm putting a few sidequests in the upcoming city area, but I thought I'd have some fun with it and make this a little more interactive than my last spot.
Now I guess I've got to add links to the sidebar and whatnot, maybe a picture of me staring away from the camera?
Alright, so that's all I got.
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