| Product: |
Neverwinter Nights |
| Date: |
05/08/02 (670 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Best RPG out!
Disadvantages: Some bad modules out there.
Neverwinter Nights allows you to build your own worlds and let up to 64 people play it. This is a huge part of the game weather your a player or game designer.
Theres a great feeling when you have people playing your module on the internet so heres some tips for creation.
1) Saving
Always save your module every change you make. The module toolset is quite buggy and does crash quite often. Some people dont get any errors and some crash every five minutes The point is that the toolset is unstable so take care not to loose your work. Its also worth mentioning that you should also not overwrite your previous saves - make multiple copies. It may take up disk space but if the editor crashes while your saving you dont want to loose the lot do you?
2) Plan your module.
Dont just think of one good idea in a dungeon and start building from the inside out. If you have a good story idea or an idea for a weapon or encounter, dont just start to create an area around it. Start from where the players will start and build it upwards. This stops lots of time later on which you spend filling plot holes badly.
Plan a definate start, middle and end. Some modules are excellent but fall down when they leave the players wanting when the end is an anti-climax.
3) Introduction.
This is where the players start. Dont just drop them in a dungeon. Most of the time a village or tavern will be the starting point. If its not a single player module then give them things to do while waiting for other players to join. If you dont they will get bored and leave.
Make sure you give them an introduction from a book or speaking to a character. From this they should know where to go and what to do and any reward.
This may sound basic but you would be suprised at the amount of modules I've joined to be dumped in a forest or dungeon not knowing what to do.
4) Configure module properties.
This is what the players s
ee when choosing a module to play. Give details like advised party size, player level range, if its mainly fighting or roleplaying etc.
5) Make sure new players can join existing games.
If a party is already on level 5 of the dungeon, how will new players join them? Do they have to wade through corpses for an hour to catch them up? Can they teleport to a waypoint that has been activated by the main party? Do they have to wait to form there own new party?
These are all questions that you will have to deal with.
6) Make encounters respawn
Theres nothing worse than joining a game and all the monsters have been killed by someone else earlier. Make monsters respawn for the next party to come across.
7) Play testing
Make sure you have played your module end to end and it all works. If you release a module that people play for 2 hours and then cant complete it - its a bad advert for you module, even if you fix it later.
Put out a beta release for people to play and give you feedback.
8) Plagerise code.
It will take a while for you to pick up the scripting side of the toolset as its like the C programming language. Until you have mastered this, copy code from the Scripting Forum on the Bioware website. Just make sure you credit the people that originally wrote it.
9) Balance
The encounters should be at a level that arnt easy or impossible for the players. There are a few modules where you spend a few hours killing things easily and the boss at the end is near impossible.
10) Advertise
Upload your module to nwvault.com and wait for feedback! Host a game yourself and wait for the players to start.
I've designed a few modules and hopefully these tips will help new module designers.
Happy building!
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Last comment:
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mavis_riley - 05/08/02 Ditto gothbutterfly - Dooyoo is as much a consumer site as it is a community, so always try and give the reader the relevant information.
Wel come to Dooyoo nonetheless. Hope you stay and enjoy! |
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