Greatly appreciate 1) the bug fix work by player1 and reeron, 2) the innovative teleport implementation by mikdrad, 3) the Wild/Dead zone magic system by jallaix, 4) the very methodical HCR framework by 0100010, and 5) Rowell's PW toolkit.
Any chance we'll see a collaborative effort from you guys in the future?
These systems are good on their own, but would be even better combined. Requiring integration of each on the builder's part creates a nightmare of upkeep. What we have now are separate contributors sometimes addressing the same fixes or ideas, each with a different spin, release date, distribution format, etc. Add in the occasional loops we're thrown by OE patches, and it's a near impossible task--just to QA!
PRC, DLA, CTP, CEP and C.R.A.P. teams all are/were very good at releasing solid, new, cleanly packaged content. I think the community would benefit greatly if a similar organization formed around the bug fix arena. A community nwscript enhancement team would free up OE developers to focus on their own internal game engine problems (stealth, multiplayer, path finding, data, lighting, performance, etc.), and ideally provide more credence to your hard work. Individual system adoption flounders now around perceptions like...does this guy really know what he's doing...will this tank my module's performance...is this going to break custom system-x...is that really a valid PnP interpretation of spell-x.
Who knows, a strong enough concerted effort could lead to a legitimization right into future OE patches.
Ground-breaking but rigidly independent systems or fixes that don't conform to any other submission on the vault are wastes of the developers time--at least in posting them here.
What script-only endeavor could be worked on by a team of 6+ people? a unified spell/feat/skill system...a unified crafting system...an alternate AI system...persistent world functions...rest, bleed, death, food, spell component, loot, environmental damage, auto-quest systems?
All of which could be handled as separate--but compatible--HAKs further configurable by the integrator via onload module variables.
An army of lone, well-meaning scripters with intent to create the very best "X" are all doomed from the start.
To genuinely improve this game unfortunately we need less availability of Joe Blow's I-coded-this-bleed-system-in-a-hour-aren't-I-smart glitz, and more reusable infrastructure.
If groups don't coalesce, I suspect we'll all just put off our big plans PWs another year and wait for NWN3.
The only problem is most scripts have to be designed for a specific purpose. You can have systems that would work under most circumstances, but there will still be things people want that any sort of catch-all project will miss. Most scripting "improvements" come with a cost as well. Let's say you had awesome AI for creatures, such a system might be too intensive to run on a multiplayer PW.
What would such a team work on anyhow? They'd probably have to form around developing some *massive* project, since most any scripting chore in NWN2 or NWN1 can be accomplished by a single person, and often turns out better as a result.
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10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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at 2007-05-23 20:11:16
