Amraphael's House of Curious Things

As you may know the NWN2 GPS module, Trinity is soon to be released. If you don't know about it check out this blog! I've been one of the lucky to be able to play this one before the release as part of a just-before-release-test and I just have to say it's a real blast. I won't ruin anything by telling what it's all about but so much I can tell it's an instant classic and one of the best composed NWN2 modules I played so far. E.C. Patterson has done a great job making it challenging, interesting, fun and even very good looking with lots of details, custom content and new ideas. As a bug hunter and helping hand I wasn't too brilliant as I didn't find any big problems or bugs. It could be that E.C. had done a great job washing out all issues before pre-releasing it to us testers, of course :) It felt really solid.

Anyway this is what I recommend you to start out the new year with. Keep your eyes open, download it and play, You won't regret it. And as always. If you download it - vote for it!

Tomorrow I'll start playing it again and enjoy it from a player only perspective.

Happy New Year to all of you!
/A

Posted at 12/31/2009 11:48:00 AM | 2 comments Links to this post  

The snow is here! -13 degrees (8.6F) so the trees are glittering of frost. We've struggled with transporting a huge silver fir through the house and it's now unfreezing itself in the living room. I don't kidding it's the biggest damn tree ever to enter this house. Tomorrow we'll dress it so that even Liberace (click here younglings)would have been embarrassed. And at Thursday it's the day of the year. Yeah, I know, everywhere in the western world you celebrate on the 25th but here in Sweden the big day is the 24th. One theory is that the partying at the yule sacrifice wasn't so popular among the church's people when the religion shifted from the multi-god to the mono-god system so it merged with the fasting tradition that ends the 24th. That way the practical commoners could both party away on ham, beer and other nice things and be pious. You know, don't shift horse mid-stream. Who will punish you most Thor, Odin and the other guys for not eating pork and being drunk or the new kid on the block, big J, for not being a clean living individual?

Well what I really wanted to say is:
Where ever you are, whatever you celebrate this time of the year - Have a great holiday and play many games, both digital and... the other stuff what it was called back then!

/Amraphael

Posted at 12/19/2009 05:28:00 PM | 5 comments Links to this post  

Just wanted to share three painful screenshots from DA:O. My character is a real loser when it comes to combat skills, well most of his qualities are really average. I like him, he's sort of like myself :) It's even worse he's a crush on the evil chick Morrigan. In real life it took me like 20 years to understand that I should avoid that kind of girls. I doubt my character we'll learn before it's too late...

Posted at 12/12/2009 03:28:00 PM | 2 comments Links to this post  
Labels: Dragon Age Origins

Just wanted to show you some shots from another area I've been working on for Wyrin's White Plue M0untain-module. Forests are really difficult to create in my opinion. I you take a look at a real forest there's tons of bio-mass everywhere and you can often only see a couple of meters ahead. This doesn't really work when playing because it makes it impossible to navigate and pours syrup all over your graphics card's processors. And that was what made up the rules for this area. It should feel as a huge forest valley with high hills around. Lots of leafy trees so it takes a while to search through for goodies and encounters but still be somewhat easy to navigate. So I made it a bit sparse and had to use fog and a short far plane to keep the performance acceptable. That works fine when running around focused on other stuff but when looking at the screen shots it seems a bit flat because of the details fading out about 20 meters away from the PC. I also had a slight walkmesh challenge with the stairs and platforms around the abandoned tree houses, but they were very fun to make and turned out pretty well I think.

When going through taking those shots today I realized that I should ask Wyrin to let me go over this area again when he has populated it with the interesting stuff. I saw lots of small issues with hovering trees and grass. It really needs more grass and boulder piles too. Some strange textures and coloring that made my skin itch. Then it should be a really okay experience when it comes to looks and feel.








Thanks for reading
/A

Posted at 11/28/2009 10:47:00 AM | 7 comments Links to this post  
Labels: Screenshots

I've been pretty silent about NWN2 lately. As everybody else I've been busy playing DA:O and besides that working my shiny butt off starting up a new office for our server hosting guys in the southern parts of our elongated country. But I've been doing good and interesting stuff too as I got the chance to help Wyrin creating two new areas for his upcoming White Plume Mountain module. It's nothing fancy but it had it's share of complicated walkmeshes and making a 16x16 area feel a lot larger without eating your computers performance as snack. Here's a few shots from the Serpent Hills area complete with a poor mans re-textured petrified serpent. I think it looks okay and the colorful soil/rock of that area matches those wind-swept, misty mountains. The serpents is really huge and it's mid-part crosses a slow cold stream while it's tail has some strange building carved out. I'm sure that Wyrin will fill this area with nasty encounters and action-packed fun for all that dare to explore it. I had a really good time creating it as it's so relaxing to do.






Thanks for reading
/A

Posted at 11/21/2009 03:42:00 PM | 10 comments Links to this post  

If you never read the book The Hobbit by JRR Tolkin be warned. *Spoiler ahead*
*Shaking my head* A pointy ear icon singing about another pointy ear icon. This is... was... sick! I can't take it anymore.



In the middle of the earth in the land of the Shire
lives a brave little hobbit whom we all admire.
With his long wooden pipe,
fuzzy, woolly toes,
he lives in a hobbit-hole and everybody knows him

Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
He’s only three feet tall
Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Now hobbits are peace-lovin’ folks you know
They don’t like to hurry and they take things slow
They don’t like to travel away from home
They just want to eat and be left alone
But one day Bilbo was asked to go
on a big adventure to the caves below,
to help some dwarves get back their gold
that was stolen by a dragon in the days of old.

Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
He’s only three feet tall
Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Well, he fought with the goblins
He battled a troll!!
He riddled with Gollum!!!
A magic ring he stole!!!
He was chased by wolves,
Lost in the forest,
Escaped in a barrel from the elf-king’s halls!!!!!!!

Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Now he’s back in his home in the land of the Shire,
that brave little hobbit whom we all admire,
just sittin’ on a treasure of silver and gold
puffin’ on his pipe in his hobbit-hole.

Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
He’s only three feet tall
Bilbo (Bilbo)
Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Posted at 11/09/2009 10:00:00 PM | 2 comments Links to this post  

Been playing a few hour now, the Noble Warrior road, and here's my first impression.

The graphics is great but less than I expected. It could be because of my slightly old graphics card but I run everything on highest. The textures look a bit flat and blurred. Not that it matters so much. Worse is the exterior areas. Many trees look really strange (not in the good way) the grass is flat and the overall terrain is not so good as in many NWN2 modules. Just take a look at the area below this ruin.

But as said. It does not matter. Not at all. The game got me instantly. The controls feels like an beloved old glove. Everything is familiar and I know exactly what do to without thinking too much about it. I get feelings for the characters I meet and the voice over is really good compared to the other CRPG's out there. I even got some adrenaline rush from the first fights. Something I noticed I like very much is that distances in the different areas both indoor and exterior feels correct. Of course they aren't really, but they feel so. In many games rooms are so huge and there's lots of empty space everywhere. The ambient life is also convincing in a way I've never seen before. It feel like when I played Baldur's Gate for the first time but in a more mature way that's suits me very well. My wife couldn't stop looking over my shoulder complaining that it should have been a BG-style multiplayer option (I agree on that). And she said that this is what NWN1 and NWN2 should have been and I agree again - don't dare to disagree with her ;)
Other small things I like is the sortable inventory, the tactics option for handling AI-behavior and the camera control.

And I like, hope and wish that the "single player"-folder indicates something for future expansions.

Posted at 11/07/2009 06:23:00 PM | 4 comments Links to this post