Part One: The Sight
Part Two: The Miracle Worker
Part Three: The Alliance
My current plan is to complete Part Two ("The Miracle Worker") in Neverwinter Nights 1, and to develop Part Three ("The Alliance") in Dragon Age. "The Miracle Worker" will be developed in three acts (of which this is Act I), and "The Alliance" will be developed in two acts. Each act will be built as a separate module or chapter in the series.
Act I of "The Miracle Worker" is a bit different in style from the first chapter, "The Sight." It is very heavy on drama and cinematic storytelling, and on roleplaying and companion dialogue (including romance). There are relatively few combats, but a few of them can be very challenging.
Although the sequel can be started and played through as a new module, I strongly recommend transferring to Chapter 2 from a saved game at the end of version 3.4 of Chapter 1. If you start Chapter 2 as a new game (either with a new character, or even a saved character from Chapter 1), then some of the game variables from the first chapter will not be carried over to the sequel. This will affect the romances in particular, since the defaults for these are likely to be lower that what you would have reached by playing through Chapter 1.
NOTE ON IMPORTANT ITEMS: The module includes two important custom items (the Control Rod and the Horn of Rallying from Chapter 1) that it is important for the player to become familiar with, and to be willing to use at times. Otherwise, some of the combats may be more difficult to beat, and some important plot-related information could be missed. The Control Rod must be equipped in the off-hand in order to be used.
NOTE TO PLAYERS WHO PREFER 2-HANDED WEAPONS: In some situations, it may be advantageous for you to temporarily unequip your preferred weapon in order to equip and use the powers of the Control Rod. Most of these should be apparent from the circumstances.
Chapter Two opens with you and your companions finally making your way through the passage to Mount Cassandra. The resistance is under heavy attack, and thanks to intelligence provided by the traitorous Duke Karrik, it is being systematically decimated by Zomoran's army. And also thanks to the Duke's treachery, the Warlord now controls the strategically important Stonegate Keep, and is moving to extend his empire to include the neighboring Kingdom of Rayche.
In the rebellion's most desperate hour, the princess turns to you and your Sight for guidance. And together, you conceive a bold plan to defeat the Magus, the only one that your talent tells you can succeed: to forge an alliance among the nations of the eastern continent, and lead them in an apocalyptic war against the Warlord and his demon allies.
Updates:
4/13/08 - Fixed spelling/grammar errors in dialogue; edited module description.
8/24/08 - Version 3.1 now available for patch 1.69 and CEP 2.1 compatability.
9/24/08 - Updated file description for 1.68 version to include url for CSP v2.0.
9/1/2009 - Version 3.2 released.
12/31/2009 - Version 3.3 released (current version).
"Fake NWNCQ" Hak. NOTE: You only need to download this if you do NOT want to play the modules with Chico400's NWNCQ upgrade. External Website Beyond Our Control
Current version (v3.4) of Sanctum of the Archmage Chapters 1-2, in .7z compressed format. Custom Modules, Haks, Music, Tlk, Documentation and Spoilers. This version is patch 1.69 and CEP 2.2 compatible. External Website Beyond Our Control
Sanctum of the Archmage v3.4a Patch Hak, dated May 23, 2011. This (required) file contains the current hotfixes for Sanctum of the Archmage v3.4. External Website Beyond Our Control
An excellent series, though I found that this chapter was somewhat disappointing given the length and quality of Sanctum 1. There are a few things, though, that I found very frustrating. Installation: One word... nightmare. A flaw shared with the first module, but even more so with this one, is the horrendous array of HAKs that have to be installed to play. CEP2 is something of a standard and one can expect most people to have it installed. But the huge host of other haks should have had the content they used siphoned off into a single module-specific HAK. That way one can keep track of what HAKs are used for what modules and get rid of unneeded ones at the end of the day. Please make future chapters easier to install. If unwilling to repackage into a single HAK, please consider using NSIS to automate the installation (and uninstallation) process. Game Mechanics: Rods have been made to require equipping before use. ARGH! While technically correct that I would have to put a rod in my hand to use it, I don't feel like I should have take the time to pause the game all the time to swap out weapons for rods and back again. The idea in the original NWN game mechanics (where you don't need to equip a rod to use it) wasn't that you weren't putting a rod in your hand to use, but that it was being done behind-the-scenes without requiring the micro managing. It's such a pain that the author had to make a meta-object. A control rod for the control rod, just so the player could have a macro to equip and use the control rod. Which is bordering on the insane. It contributes to the inventory heavy sense of having tons of little "fiddly bits" in my inventory for every little thing. Nothing is stackable (herb, potion bottles, gems, etc). In short, for being a plot-driven module, there are way too many added irrelevant game mechanics. Like food. I'm not really sure what purpose food serves, but to make another annoying thing I have to carry. It's not stackable either, so it just makes for more juggling of my inventory. Food isn't scarce in the game, so the added mechanic does nothing for the plot. It all seems to be an effort to make the game take longer to play not by there being more actual game to play, but by being more things to micromanage. I was half surprised that I didn't get messages telling me I had to go to the bathroom (though it's nice to see there are commodes set up if I feel the need to do that anyway). Writing: Excellent quality, though Diana's repeat of Orion's "carpe diem" motif made her feel a little like a female copy of him. I loved the walk, talk, and camp idea. Made the distance seem greater, and gave an overall feel that I really was travelling. As nicely as that worked, though, it would have been nice to spread it out over larger areas. I'm not sure why the decision was made to break up Sanctum 2 into three chapters, because the first chapter seems really, really tiny. Maybe it was just having to download a gazillion haks in order to play that made me feel like "really... this is the end?". Was just a release strategy to give people something to play while the rest of the module is being worked on? All three "chapters" are eventually going to be a single module, right? As it it it's sort of like the Shadowlords/Dreamchatcher series. Each module barely has time to load before it's over and the next one is loading. Anyway, I hope my comments above don't make it seem I didn't like it. If I didn't like it so much I wouldn't spend the time. The module is too well written to have things like that detract from it. So technical and pet peeves aside, I love the writing. There are just too few plot-driven modules out there.
Posted by Nelson at on05/29/11
I really enjoyed this plot-driven module. It is linear in nature, so if you're not into that, you are warned. Deal with it. Linearity is fine with me as long as there is a strong story to give a sense of purpose and good features (like romance, cutscenes, special effects). There was great use of Journal and near flawless dialogue, some really good cutscenes, plus riding pegasi and fighting in mid-air too! Fun - 10, Layout/Design - 10, Dialogue - 10, Originality/Creativity - 10, Quality Control - 10, Overall - 10
Posted by Andarian at 08:10:45 Voted10.00
I just posted an update to the "patch hak" for Sanctum 1 2. This adds a couple of very minor playability features, and fixes the following bugs: - Problem with Len and Robin frequently not engaging in combat in the North Forest (Sanctum 1). - Pegasi gaining an extra pair of wings when played with CEP 2.4 installed, due to a bug in CEP 2.4 (Sanctum 2). Tomas: Thanks for the kind words and vote! _________________________ Sanctum of the Archmage Writing Projects Website and Blog Academy for Modding Excellence
Posted by TomaszTrapczynski at on04/11/11
Very promising is the mod, I can not wait for further części.No and vote for him
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 05:20:00 Voted10.00
Is there going to be a part 3? _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them. Thanks, Steve
Posted by Andarian at 15:16:17 Voted10.00
Note: I just updated the module page to correct an error in the module description text. Unfortunately, there's no way to do that without causing it to appear on the "updated modules" list, but there's no new update to the module (the current version is still v3.4). _________________________ Sanctum of the Archmage Writing Projects Website and Blog Academy for Modding Excellence
Posted by Apotre at on03/23/11
(French user, excuse me for my english) Love this module ^^. Pegasus are a very good idea, as for romances. I'm waiting for the next part ^^
Posted by greenriceman at on02/14/11
@Andarian I understand. The underwater combat wasn't a necessary suggestion. It wasn't like I'm going to say, "NO UNDERWATER COMBAT!!!!!???? That bites!!!!!!!" It was just me trying to get my creativity for myself. In the end, what you do with your mods and your stories is your prerogative. I apologize if I might have been too forceful with the suggestion.
Posted by greenriceman at on02/14/11
Nice to see consistent quality with modules. Unfortunately, I was playing this in places where I was forced to mute my computer so, I couldn't judge the music. But, here's what I know... SPOILERS: I love the wind-walking/riding pegasus segment/cutscenes. It's the first for me and I hope to, at least, see something similar in future projects. Perhaps underwater combat? As for the characters themselves, not much has changed for Orion, but I wasn't really paying attention to him. I was more focused on my favorite little happy/vengeful bard Robin. ;P Speaking of, the duality of her vengeful and caring/loving side becomes more apparent for me, but I might be over reacting. It's like her heart still closed off, but it still feels like I am making getting through. Loved the scene where you find a list of potential suitors for her. It made me laugh. Also, she's the first romance-able companion that tries to redirect the PC to another companion. Diana is, obviously, more straight-forward than Robin is. She's fun and is not shy about speaking her mind, like mentioned in your guide. Also, the fact that her father was all too eager to ally with the Warlord, it would seem interesting if she and her father go head to head in a module down the line. No suggestion intended. It's just my two cents. In the end, the module was short, but not in a bad way. It just made me wanting more. Can't wait for part 2
Posted by Aspire at 10:21:06 Voted10.00
im still waiting for chapter 3 :P nice to hear ur still working on it, good job!
Site
