tanita
23-09-2006, 13:26
i'm sure loads of forum members are going to read this one, and i hope you guys at atari read along. first i'll tell you what i'm asking for, then i'll give you the reasons, and at the end i provide you with a cheap way to do it.
please, atari, give us access to the nwn2 toolset right now. give us the beta-toolset or the "work in progress" version of the final one, even though there are still bugs in it, even if you consider it disfunctional at all.
please continue reading about the reasons to ask for this:
nwn1 was a great success, still prominent on sales shelfs after more than four years. this is due to the large community of nonprofit developers creating tools, artwork and content for running "persistent worlds" all over the (real) world. all of us are eager to continue our work on nwn2, most signed for the closed beta, some were accepted, but the greater part of us were not.
so we settled for the second best way to get our hands dirty with the toolset: we went for the preorder packs. dates were given, first we knew only about september 7th (release of the preorder packs), then we had to find out that we had to wait for september 18th to download the toolset, which was then changed to september 22th and againg to september 30th.
most of us are running nwn1 roleplaying servers and are planning to switch them to nwn2 as soon as possible. but we are aware that there will be some obstacles to work around. as with nwn1 the community will find ways to add whatever is needed to make nwn2 fit for creating and running persistent worlds. some examples of tools/features in planning:
- dynamic download of changed map/walkmesh data to the clients
- persistent item storage
- mapping tool to break down large-scale landscapes into smaller maps
- module/map-size estimation and optimization
- web-based management of accounts and characters
- party-chat & group-mapping
most of these projects do _not_ depend on the toolset being fully functional, often it's just lack of information that put a stopper on development right now. especially fileformats, plugin-api and similar "cornerstones" of how nwn2 works are what we needed to start/continue our work. of course some sort of "developer information pack" or SDK would be fantastic, but even an only partly functional toolset would help us a lot.
as developers of course we understand that there may be bugs in the toolset and/or game that demand delaying both for another couple of weeks or even months. but in the meantime we could get started on our projects which _will_ be of great benefit to nwn2 and atari as it's publisher.
of course i know that releasing a prerelease toolset prior to the preorder toolset even complicates things, so here's a proposal as how to handle it:
just put together as much of the toolset as there is right now, compile a dvd-iso and label it "alpha material without warranty", then offer it for download as a torrent. then continue to fix the bugs and release the final one as a preorder-giveaway whenever it's ready.
please, atari, give us access to the nwn2 toolset right now. give us the beta-toolset or the "work in progress" version of the final one, even though there are still bugs in it, even if you consider it disfunctional at all.
please continue reading about the reasons to ask for this:
nwn1 was a great success, still prominent on sales shelfs after more than four years. this is due to the large community of nonprofit developers creating tools, artwork and content for running "persistent worlds" all over the (real) world. all of us are eager to continue our work on nwn2, most signed for the closed beta, some were accepted, but the greater part of us were not.
so we settled for the second best way to get our hands dirty with the toolset: we went for the preorder packs. dates were given, first we knew only about september 7th (release of the preorder packs), then we had to find out that we had to wait for september 18th to download the toolset, which was then changed to september 22th and againg to september 30th.
most of us are running nwn1 roleplaying servers and are planning to switch them to nwn2 as soon as possible. but we are aware that there will be some obstacles to work around. as with nwn1 the community will find ways to add whatever is needed to make nwn2 fit for creating and running persistent worlds. some examples of tools/features in planning:
- dynamic download of changed map/walkmesh data to the clients
- persistent item storage
- mapping tool to break down large-scale landscapes into smaller maps
- module/map-size estimation and optimization
- web-based management of accounts and characters
- party-chat & group-mapping
most of these projects do _not_ depend on the toolset being fully functional, often it's just lack of information that put a stopper on development right now. especially fileformats, plugin-api and similar "cornerstones" of how nwn2 works are what we needed to start/continue our work. of course some sort of "developer information pack" or SDK would be fantastic, but even an only partly functional toolset would help us a lot.
as developers of course we understand that there may be bugs in the toolset and/or game that demand delaying both for another couple of weeks or even months. but in the meantime we could get started on our projects which _will_ be of great benefit to nwn2 and atari as it's publisher.
of course i know that releasing a prerelease toolset prior to the preorder toolset even complicates things, so here's a proposal as how to handle it:
just put together as much of the toolset as there is right now, compile a dvd-iso and label it "alpha material without warranty", then offer it for download as a torrent. then continue to fix the bugs and release the final one as a preorder-giveaway whenever it's ready.