NWN User-Made Modules

[Soul Sojourner]

I don't know how much you guys have previously gotten into user-made modules, but... as some of you know, I used to play them all the time and I still do on occasion.

I just got done REPLAYING TORTURED HEARTS I just the other day. This modules is HUGE. I played it in 2005, it came out in 2004. It had been a long time since I had played it and I remember fiercely enjoying it. The guy who made it still replies to comments and updates his modules, which is admirable indeed. (makes me think of 420 =P) The mod greatly changed since I played it in the past.

I've played tons and tons of user-made modules and I've definitely enjoyed a great deal of them. (way better than the campaign and expansions, although I've played the campaign like 11 times over the years...)

I created this topic to see what others here have played, what mods they recommend, and if anyone still plays any.

[420]

Unfortunately I think a lot of the user made mods I played never got updated with newer versions of NWN so I have no idea how playable they still are.

Modules I have played (and enjoyed):

Shadowlords Campaign by Adam Miller
Shadowlords 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Dreamcatcher 1, 2, 3, and 4
Demon (can't find a link to it)
Demon Cards

SoU -> HotU Campaign Winner
The Nether Scrolls by Papermonk

Post HotU Campaign Winner
Sands of Fate 1 - Shadows over Heliopolis by John McA

Almost Premium Module
Darkness over Daggerford by Ossian Studios® Inc.

There are a bunch I never got around to trying like the other SoU -> HotU and Post HotU contest entries and the other "almost premium mod" AL3: Tyrants of the Moonsea by Alazander.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

Seriously, they should be just as playable as they were. I've honestly never had any problems with mods that weren't updated to the newest versions.

The Shadowlords series, Dreamcatcher series, and Demon modules last time I played through them all worked flawlessly. (I've played through them probably 3 times altogether) I still have them all, and shadowlords were the first ones and my fiance and I played the first couple less than a month ago, they still worked flawlessly so the rest probably do as well.

I don't think I ever tried the Nether Scrolls, but I've definitely seen it in on the vault. Neither have I played Sands of Fate, not sure if I've seen it before or not. Darkness over Daggerford was good from what I played but I never finished it and I don't remember why... lol.

I played the premium mods... Witch's Wake, ShadowGuard and Kingmaker. Since my fiance has diamond version... complete disappointment. It says on the box: Kingmaker expansion: Including three complete adventures. Total fucking bullshit. They were all fun, but they were all short and NONE of them were finished. I played the Witch's Wake DEMO a long time before I played the real thing. THEY ENDED IN THE SAME PLACE. What a fucking joke.

I can't even begin to list all the user made mods I've played since I played a shit-ton of them in the past.

Here are some anyway:

-Shadowlords 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
-Dreamcatcher 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
-Demon

-TORTURED HEARTS I, TORTURED HEARTS I v2.05

-The Hex coda 01
-Excrucio Eternum
-Elegia Eternum (or something like that, it was the first one)
-Penultima series... and the rerolled

-Tales of Arterra: Not sure which one? Maybe all?

-Midnight and Twilight

-Runes of Blood

-Bloodright: The Blood Royal

-Blackguard 1, 2, 3

-SQ1 and 2 ShadowQueen modules or something like that... I remember the first was made to take place between the events of expansion 1 and expansion 2. Though SQ2 was made to take place after expansion 2.

-Darkness over Daggerford


And I that's probably only half the list but it's all I can remember at the moment. Most I played a long time ago.

I've always wanted to play mods by Fabien Cerutti, but they're all in French. I've heard good things but I don't speak French dammit!

420:

Link to Demon: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=3699
Adam Miller made a combination package thing some time ago that contains the whole series:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=7780&id=4273

=D

[420]

I played the premium mods... Witch's Wake, ShadowGuard and Kingmaker. Since my fiance has diamond version... complete disappointment. It says on the box: Kingmaker expansion: Including three complete adventures. Total fucking bullshit. They were all fun, but they were all short and NONE of them were finished. I played the Witch's Wake DEMO a long time before I played the real thing. THEY ENDED IN THE SAME PLACE. What a fucking joke.

Actually the original Witch's Wake wasn't a demo, it was part 1 of what was suppose to be a free complete campaign by a Bioware employee. The Premium Mod version was just the original "remastered" (whatever that's suppose to mean).

I agree that ShadowGuard and Kingmaker aren't worth playing, mostly because, like Witch's Wake, they are both part 1 of an on-going campaign that was never finished.

However, the premium mods Pirates of the Sword Coast and Infinite Dungeons are both really fun single player and multiplayer. While Infinite Dungeons is just a hack'n'slash game,  PotSC actually has a compelling storyline and really interesting locations and quests.

As for Wyvern Crown of Cormyr, the only real reason to play that is to see the interesting way they implemented jousting. Otherwise it is just a pale imitation of Darkness Over Daggerford.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

The reason I said demo was because it said it was a demo somewhere when I found it on the Bioware site a couple years ago. But you're right, it's the same length as part 1 so how the hell can it be a demo? lol. Well, I played both versions and they're basically the same. I really liked Witch's Wake though, it pisses me off that they didn't finish it.

I completely forgot about those ones. I should think about getting them. Namely, potsc. Infinite dungeons isn't appealing to me, however.

[Mo]

I agree Witch's Wake was well made except for it being overly short.  But that's what you get for implementing skill/alignment checks in every conversation, you lose quantity of content for increased quality.

Now the only ways to increase both is a) Hire more developers b) spend more time developing.  Each option = less profit.

I'm probably not the only one who would pay a hefty premium to get a full RPG experience that is over 200 hours long, I'm talking 5-6 character parties, rich NPC characters.  Huge side quests, huge bonus dungeons.  Basically Baldur's Gate 3.  Bioware promises Dragon Age to fulfill that.  Still wait and see.

[420]

Throbble reminded me of this little gem:

Bone Kenning I: Art of the Thanaturge by Wes Lewis

However it does give this warning:

WARNING: THIS MODULE DOES NOT CURRENTLY WORK WITH HOTU, AND MAY NOT WORK WITH v.1.61 AT ALL. I'll fix it when I can, but that involves a bunch of uninstalling/reinstalling expansions, and a friend has some of my NWN disks right now. The problem is with polymorphing into a raven to fly back to your lair, which isn't necessary to finish the mod but eliminates a LOT of walking since you go back home often to build new skeletons. In Bone Kenning you play a thanaturge, a necromancer from a long family tradition who animates bones through a ritual called the Incant of Reanimation.

And the last time it was updated was in 2005.

However, I remember this being one of the most original mods I've ever seen.

If anyone is going to start up a PotSC game count me in. Last time I played it was with Throbble and Cuchulann and we had a blast. I'd like to see how it plays with 4+ players.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

Never heard of that one, sounds really interesting. Bit surprising to me that it doesn't work with HOTU though, as tons of old modules work fine for me.

Looking at the comments for that mod, it works for most people, and one person posted a fix for a bug a few years ago.

Might be worth looking into AFTER I finish TORTURED HEARTS II. Which might literally take me a month since the first one took me a few weeks... and this one is supposed to be longer/larger... O_O

[cuchulann]

I liked the Twilight and Midnight mods, but I never played Dawn which was the final part of the story. That was one series where some neat scripting got broken by updates and the builder did not try to remake it, this was just like bone kenning which was fun as well. Penultima i have played through a few times and am doing so again. That one i guess was built simply enough to not get bugged by new patches. I played darkess over Daggerford for a bit but deleted it because the game dropped the main quest. So 10 out of 10 for being like real life wheer you do hit dead ends in teh case of missing persons, but minus 200 for storytelling. I played a couple of teh shadowlords set too but i got bored by the huge areas filled with nothing. So play teh Penultima set if you ahve not done so already. But go to Smith Hold first to get yourchar set up, because it is very unforgiving when it comes to items. And yes PotSC is a blast like 420 said.

[Soul Sojourner]

Penultima is simply fucked up in my opinion. I never really found much to it.  I really liked his Eternum series though... despite the fact that he never made the third one. 2 was the best anyway. I liked his HeX Coda series too, although it never really became a series because he never finished that either..  Honestly, this guy was one of my favorite mod creators but it drove me nuts that he would never finish what he started. lol. He also almost never replied to comments and was basically non-existent in the community except for when popped up out of the blue with more creations.

I think I might have played Dawn as well, but I don't remember anything about the series, so I either didn't find it that spectacular and/or I didn't play them all. It was indeed awhile ago.

Shadowlords can be tougher to get into as it's rather plain compared to what we've seen after it's original release, but if you get yourself to finish them all, and dreamcatcher/demon, you don't regret it in the end.

Only real issue I'm having with PotSC is that 420 said you, he, and throbble played it together. That makes me think it's rather short, unless you guys left your comps on to sleep, played for a long ass time, or it's in parts. Which is the question I was working towards... is it in parts? I might play sometime with my fiance, regardless.

[420]

Only real issue I'm having with PotSC is that 420 said you, he, and throbble played it together. That makes me think it's rather short, unless you guys left your comps on to sleep, played for a long ass time, or it's in parts. Which is the question I was working towards... is it in parts? I might play sometime with my fiance, regardless.

There is no real difference in the multiplayer aspect of NWN. You just choose one person to be the "main character" the person that takes all the quests. Then, when you are done playing for the day, one person (usually the server host or the person playing "main character") saves the game locally and then everyone exports their character (just as a precaution).

The next time you all play, have the person who saved load up the save game and everyone log in with their exported characters. When you log in with any version of your exported character the game will ask whether you want to use the local version or the version in the save game and it will give you a comparison of each character's XP so you know what the most recent one is.

I think it took us about a week to finish PotSC playing a couple hours a day. We also played through SoU and HotU together, though HotU requires some workarounds like saving local games and completing certain quests in single player then coming back to multiplayer.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

There is no real difference in the multiplayer aspect of NWN. You just choose one person to be the "main character" the person that takes all the quests. Then, when you are done playing for the day, one person (usually the server host or the person playing "main character") saves the game locally and then everyone exports their character (just as a precaution).

The next time you all play, have the person who saved load up the save game and everyone log in with their exported characters. When you log in with any version of your exported character the game will ask whether you want to use the local version or the version in the save game and it will give you a comparison of each character's XP so you know what the most recent one is.

I think it took us about a week to finish PotSC playing a couple hours a day. We also played through SoU and HotU together, though HotU requires some workarounds like saving local games and completing certain quests in single player then coming back to multiplayer.

-420

See, I don't usually go through that because I worry about screwing up scripts and whatnot. Which tends to happen to me and is a pain in the arse to work around. It easily aggravates me because my playstyle is extremely thorough and organized. If stuff starts getting chaotic or messed up I tend to lose it... lol.

I've never had it ask me that though.... is that a specific trait of that module? If it is specific to the module then that's very convenient and would make multiplayer much easier. Stupid spellchecker doesn't consider "multiplayer" a word/spelled correctly, it tried telling me it should be "multilayer."

I would never do the expansions multiplayer. I'd probably have a stroke.

[420]

Check out Adam Miller's contribution to the official BioWare blog: Why We Fight

Excerpt:

As I finished Dreamcatcher and moved on to Demon, something funny happened. It became work. I spent endless hours removing the sparkly seams between tiles. I would slog through bugs, write apologetic e-mail to people who didn’t like my story, and play tech support to every player in the world. I still had fun creating the story, though the excitement had waned, especially working away without a release for a year.

-420