A Brief Break

I took a break today from my NWN2 OC playthrough to get some excellent work done on my CompSci final project for school. I'm building a MySQL and php-driven website for one of Harvard's on-campus publications from scratch, and it's looking flashy and actually working pretty well thus far! Tomorrow I head to Vermont 'til New Year's, which shouldn't affect anything apart from the number of screenshots I'm able to post up, since upload speed's a bit slower up there... :-P

Photojournal of NWN2 OC, more cont'd.

More NWN2 OC screenies...:



























































































...and that's as far as I've gotten! I'm about to try to infiltrate Crossroad Keep via the tunnel in the mountains after the doors have been counterspelled from the inside...

The NWN2 OC, cont'd: A Photo-Journal

I've posted a slew more screenshots below which document my journey through the NWN2 OC. I left off on my way to go investigate the castle at Highcliff. Enjoy!

NWN2 OC

Well, I'm now home and on vacation, so I decided to do something I should have done a long time ago--play the NWN2 OC and, since I now have it, Mask of the Betrayer. Over the course of the past two days, I've made pretty substantial progress in the OC: I began with the tutorial, and I'm now exploring Neverwinter City after having visted the Skymirror with Elanee. I've completed all sidequests I've come across, have killed three of the Shadow Priests, have seen the warlock dude kill some random noble in a cool cutscene, and of course caught my first glimpse of Black Garius. I'm still not sure who's side the warlock is on...Black Garius and his shadow priests are obviously with the King of Shadows, but I think the warlock may be on my side. Not sure. Don't spoil it for me! I'm actually having a really good time playing, which is a pretty rare experience for me these days; the combat balance is excellent for my character/party, the loot is in healthy supply, the economy is fair and, apart from a few laggy outdoor areas which are just ridiculously covered with grass and trees (BAD IDEA), things are running smoothly. I'm enjoying the cinematics and the story isn't half bad thus far. The companions are surprisingly "real", and I like that a lot of interaction with them happens automatically, without the player having to take the initiative to right-click and select "Talk To", which is something I never, ever feel inclined to do. So, two thumbs up from me so far...

In any event, I've taken a bunch of screenshots to document my playthrough. I'm trying a Favored Soul (with one level of fighter early on for some power-gaming goodness...), and having a great time; the sorcerer/cleric combo spellcasting-wise is really neat, as the one thing I could never stand about clerics was having to deal with the blasted spellbook. :)

Anyhow, some pictures: there aren't any of the more recent scenes I've been through (ie near Neverwinter City, Skymirror, etc.), but there are a bunch from early on. Enjoy!

Moonshadows on the Vault

I've noticed over the past week or so that Moonshadows - Chapter One's score on the Vault has been slowly but steadily increasing! From fluctuating between 9.04-9.06 a few weeks back, it has now been mounting thanks to a series of excellent votes, and just last night it rose from 9.07 to 9.08! This puts me at 6th overall on the Top Rated list, but of actual "modules", it's 3rd behind Ossian mate Maerduin's evidently-exemplary recently-released Harp & Chrysanthemum and Jackyo123's long-time "bestseller," Night Howls in Nestlehaven. Adam Miller's Pirate Cards, which is sort of a module but only kinda, is also ahead, as are Heroic Dream, a training mod, and Tank's Prefab World, which is, as you might guess, a prefab world.

I must say I'm thrilled with Moonshadows's current placement on the Top Rated list, and I have high hopes for it in the upcoming Module of the Year Contest for NWN2 2007! Word on the streets is that any module with a rating of 8.00 or above will be eligible in the MotY election, which makes sense--it also means I'm lucky enough to have Moonshadows eligible despite it not being Hall of Fame until this upcoming round of inaugurations, at the New Year (simply due to the 3 month limit...). Perhaps the HoF induction will garner some attention to the mod as voting starts...that would be excellent. :) In any event, contests like these are always fun, so I'm looking forward to MotY eagerly.

Let the Freedom Begin!

At noon today begins my now-thru-Jan2 freedom marathon, during which I will be running, coding for a CS50 project, revising an essay and--you guessed it--working like a madman on Moonshadows II! :D

Hell Week(s)

Last week and this week have been chock full of major assignments, not-so-major assignments, and just a bunch of commitments that have kept me from making significant progress on NWN2. I did manage to do a good bit of testing and cutscene-scripting a few days ago in a rare evening of freedom, but I probably won't be making much more good progress until I get on break on the 17th/18th. Then it's home-free until early January--plenty of time to make headway on Moonshadows 2. :)

Agh!

Sorry 'bout the lack of updates of late, guys. I've been totally swamped with work and activities and stuff. Winter break is coming, though, and that'll mean some work on Moonshadows - Chapter Two, I hope. :) Until then, bear with me!