In Auvers Cathedral, South France, a monk called Jacob was responsible for a massacre. The victims were all fellow monks, knifed with their guts spilled out onto the floor. Moreover it is also reported that from a while back then there was news of people going missing from villages in the surrounding area. ...Massacre and missing persons... You, a member of the Knights Hospitaller, head to the cathedral to investigate the relationship between these two cases but ...
* Single play only.
* Restricted to human fighter, level one.
* Module is set in medieval Europe.
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NOTE: This module uses a tlk file (DarkAges.tlk) which should be placed in the tlk subdirectory of your NWN installation (e.g. C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\tlk )
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Created by Loveichi
Translated from the Japanese by HotondoNaNashi (aka Taltos)
> I get the impression that HotondoNaNashi > is a Japanese-speaker who has a good grasp > of English, but not a native English- > speaker. Exactly the wrong way round, but like I said this was for the practise. One problem is that you can't work well with Japanese text in the toolset directly (unless you have the Japanese NWN) and you can't play the game in Japanese (ditto). I extracted it all first with NWNN Tool and worked on it in a separate text file. This led to lots of problems knowing what the context was. > "book store" -- you mean library. No I don't. It's more of a warehouse for books not referred to anymore. > "Your predecessor messed up." -- Yeah, I plead guilty to that one. The translation I had there first was too literal and stilted, I went too far in the other direction trying to fix it. > If magic is new, why hasn't anything been > said about that in the rest of the module? 'chikara' is a tricky word to translate. [chikara] (n) force; strength; energy; might; power; agency; authority; influence; vigor; vigour; stress; emphasis; exertions; endeavors; endeavours; efficacy; help; support; good offices; ability; faculty; capability; attainment; means; resources; (P) Looking back on that bit I think I should at least drop the "a" from "a new power" and think about it from then.
Posted by rawbee at on08/22/05
A nice job. Minor spoiler Cut-scenes and lighting were very well done and add to the atmosphere. While some thought there was too much reading (what?) I feel the books and back-ground were a nice touch and added to the the story. The journal was simply a copy of what has been already read. The best part for me was running away from the (spoiler "monk") through the first floor near the end, a great feeling of tension. Well done and thanks for the effort.
Posted by Andiri at on08/21/05
Very good use of lighting, sound, atmosphere, and cutscenes to create a mood. Nice balance of problem-solving and combat. The story has some holes, however, and is excessively linear.
Posted by Andiri at on08/21/05
Pretty good. Like everyone else here, I thought the atmosphere was very good but the plot a bit too linear and restrictive. One oddness is that so few are willing to accept the possibility of a supernatural occurance. This is the Dark Ages, after all, not the Enlightenment. The phrase "mental imbalance" seems far too clinical and modern for the setting. I get the impression that HotondoNaNashi is a Japanese-speaker who has a good grasp of English, but not a native English-speaker. There are some grammatical mistakes, but of course native speakers make grammatical errors all the time. More seriously, there are phrasings and usage errors that are jarring or confusing to a native speaker and tend to damage the mood. A few off the top of my head: POSSIBLE SPOILERS "book store" -- you mean library. "Your predecessor messed up." -- this is too casual to fit the rest the conversation. "A new power! That which humans call magic, that which they call miracles, choose freely." -- Is the new power magic? Are you *permitted* to choose magic or *required* to? If magic is new, why hasn't anything been said about that in the rest of the module? I suspect the average medieval knight believed that magic was not a new power at all, but had always been there.
Posted by Tai_Chi at on08/21/05
Very atmospheric. The plot may be too linear but strong enough to hold you till the end. It's worth playing if you can stand the lame text.
Posted by HotondoNaNashi at 2005-08-2109:37:47
>>Tai chi Well I'm not a professional translator - I'm dong this for practise, and one of the things I need most practise with is not being over literal with my translations. I would appreciate, and act on if I consder appropriate, specific comments on parts of conversations. However I don't intend to go over the whole of the text again at this point as I have other projects underway.
Posted by lebowski at 09:21:11 Voted9.25
Good to know the original japanese author is workiing on continuing the series. It is a bit strange to change the character from one part to another, still in a three years old game strange things are mostly appreciated. _________________________ The hottest new modules you can't miss - player suggested Contributor to Overlooked Module Reports An interview with me about NWN mods
Posted by Tai_Chi at on08/21/05
I played the initial version of this module. It successfully created both dark and twisted atmosphere. Its effective use of cut scenes is very impressive. It's hard to believe they don't require any hackpacks. This module is definitely one of the best short module on the vault, but still it can be improved in many ways. And the point most concerns me is its text. I'm not an English teacher, but the grammar, vocabulary, choice of words. . . the style isn't accomplished and ruins the atmosphere pretty badly. You should revise it much more carefully. PS. Some people ignore modules in RAR. So you should consider providing it in ZIP. Well, that's just my two cents.
Posted by HotondoNaNashi at 2005-08-2108:59:07
CORRECTION " ... at the start of the next chapter he is in." is I suppose what I meant to say.
Posted by HotondoNaNashi at 2005-08-2106:18:21
I've just heard that there will be four chapter in total - the last one will feature the same character as the first. In the event that your character was not exported with the xp that can be gained in Chapter 1 it seems that he/she will be granted an equivalent amount of XP at the start of Chapter 2.
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