OTS Neverwinter Nights Server Update

[Canis Lupus]

This is to let our members and visitors know that we will be testing a custom module in our OTS NWN Server tonight.

What's the module? It's a D&D remake/revival of the original Diablo classic. But instead of being a carbon copy clone of the original game, this is more of a "fleshing out" of the story as well as the reinclusion of some of the quests removed from the retail version of Diablo that was released in 1996 (hey, that's eight years ago, wtf).

Yeah sure, some people will moan and groan saying "why not create a module with an original adventure?" Unfortunately, this is my first module, and what more to motivate me into learning than creating a "reimagining" of an old favorite?

Anyway, the module that will be up tonight will be an early alpha version ... it means that the maps are done, the encounters and monsters are mostly done, but the quests are not yet finished. Actually, there won't be any quests at all in this alpha version.

So this will be mostly a hack-and-slash dungeon romp until you get bored or something. But this is so that you can send feedback on possible problems, bugs and glitches, as well as any suggestions and recommendations for the module. So be gentle when you ream me, please ;)

Those interested in being our guinea pigs can check it out tonight (approx 8PM or 9PM Pacific) when they log onto Multiplayer, and check out the Action category. Our server will be named OTS NWN Server with the module being "The Diablo Campaign" ... no NWN expansions required to play.

See you there, later :)

[INeedHelp]

cool! are you going to be on there though?

[Canis Lupus]

Yeah, I am ... logging on as DM if a lot of players are gonna be on, just to observe ... I may have made the hell levels too difficult (Slayer with CR 17 did a one-spell kill - implosion, I think - on my level 20 barbarian with full resists while I was testing the creature, and the slayer is just the lowest form of balrog in the game), so good luck getting past the cavern levels...

Might be 9PM, though ... still coming up with alternatives to the poison spitters and the storms :)

[uh...ok]

edit: I can't read.

[Canis Lupus]

Oops, one more hour ... have to drive someone :(

[uh...ok]

Post when you do get it up. ;)

Edit: Damn 3 hours difference, it's too late - I'm going to bed. :(

[Wacheif]

ooo it was tonight? damn i thoguht it was tomorrow... DAMN i mised it :(

[Canis Lupus]

Sorry for flaking on this one yesterday, people ... seems I had more stuff to take care of than I thought :o

Anyway, the module is up :D You can access it in Multiplayer by going to the Action category and look for OTS NWN Server.

Some important things about the alpha testing:

1.) The module uses the server vault (characters saved on the server), so that the module can be tested properly without some level 20+ character wreaking havoc at the Cathedral levels.

2.) Gold is a possible issue with this alpha module (haven't tweaked the chests yet to put out some more cash), so my trusty little pet werewolf in the town entrance will be happy to give you 500 GPs to start if you say please ;)

3.) There are three henchmen in the tavern, but they are all fixed at level 5. They probably won't level up as you do since I haven't created the templates for each of their level-ups... right now you can hire any of them for free but in the final module, they will require a contract that you'll buy in the tavern.

(to properly test the play balancing, try not to hire henchmen from the get go, hehe)

4.) Make sure to buy a book of town portal from Adria (under Miscellaneous) so you don't have to backtrack.

5.) Make sure to examine the banner in the town entrance before you go to Tristram (coz you won't be able to get back!), as well as talk to my pet werewolf for some important info :)

6.) I made the module accessible to the public, so there may be times when someone you don't know from these forums will log on... the more guinea pigs, the better!

7.) You will level up pretty fast in this module. Before you say it'll make the game too easy, wait till you get to the catacomb and cave levels... and the hell levels are ... well ... hell...

8.) Level 16 is closed off coz I haven't enabled the quests yet (you will notice other areas are closed, like the forest areas, chamber of bone, halls of the blind, leoric's tomb, etc)... don't worry, you'll get your chance to fight the big D soon.

9.) The module restarts itself whenever there are no players present. This is why I opened up the shortcuts to the cats, caves and hell so that you won't have to go through the whole thing again when you're level is already high enough.

10.) If you encounter any problems or glitches, please reply to this topic and let me know, so I can update the module.


That's it... have fun, and stay tuned for more updates :D

[SKYHN]

Hmm...maybe I should get this game...

[Canis Lupus]

Update: So far, the one player I saw log in while playing it (not an OTS member, I think) had only one comment: "why the hell is everything so hard???"

Yeah, I think it's a bit hard, even at the first level of the cathedral (the scavengers/rats there are pretty nasty, not to mention the fallen one shamans), so I may put up a v0.1.1 tonight with creatures tweaked to "very easy" mode (as opposed to just the "easy" mode they have on right now...

[INeedHelp]

i have never used the aurora tool set before so you meant the difficulty level is preset? you won't have to script all the immunities, hit points and such?

[uh...ok]

Laggy, can't you allow localvault with level restrictions?

Like say, use localvault to log onto server, then the character gets converted into servervault for sole access of that person (which I assume is what happens in regular servervault anyway), and then level restrictions get lifted? Or something... I guess that seems sort of complicated, but it'd still be nice to use my own character. :)

[Canis Lupus]

Well, the creatures properties and statistics are already preset, hehe ... spent a good part of last week creating custom creatures with varying challenge ratings... but when I use triggered encounters (as opposed to placed monsters), there is an option to set a difficulty rating ... this setting adjusts the base challenge rating (CR) and lowers or increases it according to the option selected...

Say, a CR 2 Dark One (which is essentially a customized Gobline Elite) gets included in a triggered encounter with a difficulty setting of Very Easy, it will (I think) adjust the CR to 1 or something, and when the difficulty setting is set to Very Hard or Impossible, it bumps up the CR to 4 or 5, I think.

Almost all the triggered encounters I have on the module are set to Easy.

But I may have overestimated the survival capabilities of low level characters. I now have a level 6 Barbarian on the module who has a troublesome time trying to hit Carvers and Dark Ones. Granted he levels up fast, but I don't know if he will survive an encounter with a couple of the Flesh Clan (customized Minotaurs with a challenge rating of 4 or 5, I think) on Level 4 of the Cathedral, much less a whole gamut of Flesh Clan and Stone Clan, as well as 3 species of skeletons, in the Catacombs.

I can almost imagine how it would feel to encounter the Night Clan, Overlords (customized Slaadii) and Magma Demons (customized Earth Elementals) in the cave levels. And don't get me started with the Hell level - customized Doom Knights and Liches there... ugh...

I'll have to manually change the difficulty settings of the encounters tonight and reupload an updated version of the module... let's see if that one is easier - although for this module, fighting in the dungeons with either a henchman or a fellow player is recommended. I don't think a solo player can finish it, unless he's got access to the unique weapons and armor I created, which aren't available yet in this module...

Anyway, let's find out tonight :)

[Canis Lupus]

Originally posted by uh...ok
Laggy, can't you allow localvault with level restrictions?

Like say, use localvault to log onto server, then the character gets converted into servervault for sole access of that person (which I assume is what happens in regular servervault anyway), and then level restrictions get lifted? Or something... I guess that seems sort of complicated, but it'd still be nice to use my own character. :) Hmmm, lemme think on that :) The whole purpose of using servervault is so that I can gauge how a low level character can survive in the module ...

Even though I can allow localvault, I would still have to consider if I should lift level restrictions. It's an all or none proposition (or at least, I dunno a way around it yet). Even if a character gets through from localvault without lvl restrictions, once I enable servervault, I dunno if that character will be recognized anymore since there is no copy of it on the server.

And if I just drop servervault, the module will just end up as a skirmish area for high level chars. Not that it won't be fun to try out how our fave chars can survive, hehehe ... maybe I'll allow localvault w/out lvl restrictions (but WITH item restrictions to prevent someone from bringing in a freaky +7 great sword with on-hit vorpal/wounding/level 15 destruction/etc. and armor with complete immunity and saving throws for EVERYTHING, hehe).

Maybe I'll make it a weekly event or something... see if your fave char survives Hell :) Lemme consider that...

[uh...ok]

I doubt my lvl 20 Ranger will survive hell. He's buff, and has the best items in the game, but those items are from the original NwN. :D

I was more interested in being able to start an Aribeth character (level 1 or 2 or something). I guess you *could* put it in servervault for me, no? :) I have the .bic file for it.

[Canis Lupus]

I'm trying to upload a new version tonight but the server interface is under maintenance ... Anyway:

Version 0.1.1 Alpha

Changes in this version:

1.) Reduced the difficulty of triggered encounters (now set to Very Easy mode), as well as downsize the maximum amount of monsters that will spawn in. Now you won't die from a lowly scavenger anymore, hehe.
2.) Changed Crinos Lupus's handout to 1000 GP, because gold is still a big issue in this module.
3.) Corrected a few typos and missing map points
4.) Still fooling around with Pepin's healing. Decided to use the default one that came with NWN. Might or might not work, let's find out.
5.) Added a few sound triggers in some areas for "flavor"

Hopefully I can update the module before I sleep in a couple hours...

[Canis Lupus]

Version 0.1.1 Alpha is up :D Gonna start putting some quests in the next versions ... the Butcher is first in line - anyone think a Minotaur with a challenge rating of 5 will be too tough for low levellers? Hehe :)

uhawk, right now I have limited access to the server folders except for the modules, haks and the servervault ... maybe when it goes beta, or when it becomes a downlooadable module, you can try your Ari char ;)

[Canis Lupus]

Alright, I broke down and switched the module to localvault ... I guess having high level characters in would also be good to see if I made the hell levels "epic" enough for em ... there ya go :D

[Canis Lupus]

w00t, 4 people playing right now, haha ... so far so good :D

[uh...ok]

Yea, lots of people playing now ... at its peak there were 14 on the server.

I get what your intention was by simply using servervault - everyone in there is practically level 20 - most of them in hell - just running around and killing stuff. Makes it kind of hard for low level people to do much around the levels.

This one annoying guy came up to me and kept going "wtf, how to get to next level. show me, slut. slut. slut. slut. wtf. slut." and then left.

I, on the other hand, managed to level up my Paladin to 5 (yay Aribeth player model :D). I reached Cats Level 2, took one hit from the Burning Undead or something like that, and ran my ass right back up to Level 1 and TP'd out of there. :D

Maybe I should go in with my level 20 ranger and see how everyone in the server is doing (since I was one of the few who was actually playing dungeons -> cats).


As for thoughts about it, I think you did a splendid job of the mod - very detailed. Tristram rocks. :D Pepin still can't heal for crap, but that's ok. I joined the game using one character to realize she was messed up (but went past Crinos Lupus and into town), and joined again with my new character (fixed) to find that I couldn't go to Crinos Lupus for 1000 gold anymore. So I just left the game and gave myself 100K before entering again. :D

An inherent problem of NwN playing action mods is that it's not too great for dungeon crawling - simply because of the pace of the game. Not being able to be fully in control of your character and how he or she attacks is also a bit of a turnoff. Of course these preferences vary among each person - but what made me think NwN was so awesome wasn't really the action, but the storyline. :)

Oh and finding shit is cool too. Maybe you should have more of that. Like make enemies actually drop stuff you can use (Diablo style) vs. having them simply drop skeleton bones or jewels.

[Canis Lupus]

Glad you liked it :) I'm finishing up on another update... modified the treasure model of most of the creatures, hopefully prompting them to drop some more moola ... also added 4 more creature types - bats, gargoyles, spitters and storms :D I couldn't find a suitable creature to replace horned demons, so I just dropped the creature type for now.

Also fixed Pepin's heal spell - altho it would require him to be standing up instead of sitting down (duh, such a simple solution) ... I am also including the Butcher (no quest tho), and drops the cleaver when he dies (he respawns every 20 minutes or so if he's killed). The Butcher's Cleaver would be the first unique weapon I'll be making available in the alpha ... I might include the others when I introduce the bosses.

I'll see what else I can update before I upload it in an hour or two :)

[uh...ok]

Niiice. It's about 12 PST right now, I'm thinking about playing for a few. By the way do you still use ICQ? :D Auth me if you do.

[Canis Lupus]

A few more tweaks before I put up the quests :D

I'll be releasing another update tonight (0.1.3) that will hopefully fix the item requirements on the uniques in the game (per uh..ok's suggestion), and I will also place "defenders" near the openings of the cats, caves and hell (for those freaks who like to drag a balrog or an overlord up to town)... the defenders will sport their flashy black-and-green armor, for posterity's sake, and they will be named after the moderators and "some" people from these forums, hehe :D

Next week, I'll be finishing up on the quests ... so far, the alpha test is going well, and the overall feedback is favorable (except for those level 30+ or 40+ yahoos who log on, clean up hell, and complain that the game is too easy :rolleyes:

Stay tuned :D

[uh...ok]

Hey Laggy, can you reset the server one more time? I accidentally bought a whole bunch of stuff from Wirt and forgot to save... :D

[uh...ok]

Here's an attempt to add incentive for those of you still debating on whether or not to join in the fun - screenshots of action!

Dealing with some carvers in the Cathedral:
http://web.mit.edu/calvinon/www/pics/nwn01.jpg

Hitting a flesh clan in Catacombs:
http://web.mit.edu/calvinon/www/pics/nwn02.jpg

Getting beat by Incinerators (don't remember them from D1 though) and a Magma Demon in the caves (it's more fancy here, called "The Caverns"):
http://web.mit.edu/calvinon/www/pics/nwn03.jpg

And finally, fighting a Balrog in hell:
http://web.mit.edu/calvinon/www/pics/nwn04.jpg


I'd post a screenie of Diablo, but you're going to have to find that out for yourselves. :D

[Canis Lupus]

Server's down :(

Anyway, I uploaded a temporary fix (0.1.3 alpha), which added four defenders near the entrances to the Cats, Caves and Hell, and they're named after the four mods in this forum :D Also made the doors in Tristram indestructible for those bash happy players, and also made the NPCs unkillable. Right now I made a soft restriction of level 1-30 players, so as to avoid the random level 40 character who logs on just to blow up stuff.

Next week will be a pretty big update, as it will fix the henchmen (so they level up as you do), addition of the first few quests (butcher, leoric, poisoner water supply, etc), and hopefully opening up the forest areas.

I'm also getting rid of "placed" monsters in favor of triggered encounters, so that the respawns would be consistent.

There's gonna be a semblance of a plot in the next revision, although level 4 of Hell is still closed ;)

Nice screenshots btw! So far it's been pretty good. I have translated all the D1 creatures onto the module (with the exception of horned demons coz I can't find any suitable counterpart for it - there may be one in SoU and HotU, but I try to make the module compatible to those who have neither of those two).

Fixing the spitters so they move/spit faster, maybe increase the damage of their projectiles, and adding a nice little quest that takes place when you cast a townportal in the butcher's chamber (wirt gives the quest, hehe) ...

Almost all the info I'm putting into the module is based off the MPQ file of the D1 CD ... there was a fire elemental type creature nicknamed "Incinerator" in the unused portions of the game, as well as the Devil Kin Brute (which was revived in Sierra's Hellfire expansion) ... even Andariel and Izual were originally included in D1 but were removed from the final game, so I'm reincluding them in a couple quests ;)

The module would be better as a single player campaign once I finish the hakpack (which includes all the voices of the NPCs, the D1 music and some of the D1 images), but it's turning out to be a fun multiplayer module too. I am expanding a little on the ending (maybe make different endings depending on which alignment you are), but to give you a hint, I built a Wanderer NPC ;)

The whole project shouldn't take more than a month from now... it's my first module, so it's slow trying to figure things out ... but if I ever make future modules, they'll be out faster ;)

[Tecil]

I'm finally all up and running, so ready to fire it up as soon as it is available again.

[Canis Lupus]

Cool beans man ;) For a while there I thought only uh..ok was the only one who wasn't indifferent to my module, hehe ...

The server is back up now ... I'll have the newest version up on Monday, probably ... I'll see ya there ;)

[uh...ok]

Unfortunately, I'm probably the only one who was frustrated that it's been down for two whole days. :D

What sucks is we might have lost some of the people who had intended on coming back to the server, but found it to not exist anymore (to them at least).

You should place random advertisements for OTS.net so people know where to go express their interest. :)

[Canis Lupus]

There were a couple people who logged on within minutes of it being back up ... they even told me they were looking for it for "days" lol ... well, it's not really a big deal for an unfinished module. If they like it, they'll still come looking for it even after weeks have passed :D

[Wacheif]

Ok Ok Ok ill come play :D , When are the rest of you usually on??? hmm just gotta choose a main class now... maybe a druid or just a plain ol fighter??? hmmm

[uh...ok]

Just get on, pick any class. If you mess up it's really easy to start over since the leveling is fast.

Or if you know how to h4x your character, it's even easier to fix messups in picking feats and skills.

[Canis Lupus]

Yeah, levelling is a breeze, hehe ... one thing that always annoyed me in D1 was how slow you level up ... in this module, XP is distributed according to D&D rules (the official campaigns only gave you 10% of the XP). Since PnP D&D had considerably less encounters and fights, it is only natural that you level up faster in a hack-and-slash mod, hehe...

Big update tomorrow, so don't miss it... don't worry wachief, there is almost always someone playing on it, so you don't have to play alone :D

[Cinderno4]

It's looking good. Looks like its a hit too, when I got on earlier, about 8 other people jumped on too. May I suggest some sort of teleportation portals or something strewn about the dungeons so we can get back to town every once in a while or back to the rest of the party when we die. Also, you need to get rid of death magic. It sucks. :o
One last thing, what is everyone's character names, so we can party up when we meet. My character is Groll Birbag, Half-Orc Fighter, legit NWN campaign character lvl 18, at your service.

http://www.digitalstar.com/cinderno4/OriginalImages/303295ORIG.JPG

[Canis Lupus]

Thanks for the suggestion ... I may put some TP books on some of the monsters and/or chests, in case anyone forgets to stock up on them from Adria's hut ;)

Dunno about death magic ... I agree it sucks, and I actually removed implosion from a number of creatures (mainly the balrogs in hell level), although some flayed ones have gotten through from time to time ... lemme consider it - not enough save vs death items available, after all :)

I log on from time to time as DM, but not often. More quality time updating the module :D

[uh...ok]

I've been playing as Aribeth, a somewhat legit level 24 elven Paladin/Cleric (I'm using items from the Diablo mod, which is what accounts for the "somewhat"). She's only seen the days of Diablo mod - started her from level 1.

My level 20 half-elven Ranger from NwN Classic Campaign is Tanis Half-Elven, though I doubt I'll be using him much - I may eventually want to level him past 20.

I have a Level 7 (or 8?) Wizard in training... the name is The Spectacular Spectacular Penguin. I played NwN Classic campaign with a friend using him ever since the server went down. More likely I'll log on with that than with Tanis.

[uh...ok]

Question: Is PvP technically allowed? Is there some way to make a consent system like D2 (I think it's unlikely), or, as an alternative, create an arena as the *only* place where people can PvP/duel (and make everywhere else no-PvP)?

I ask this because upon several occasions I have seen random high level players come in and just randomly TK in whatever dungeon. I know that in a way, this is a lot closer to what D1 originally was, but that was also what made D1 unfun - and made people resort to playing in private games only.

[Cinderno4]

A few more comments/suggestions. (not to say that I don't think your mod isn't awesome!)

Mayhaps put a dungeon beside the normal one and label it hell or nightmare and increase the difficulty to an insane amount, just a thought... Because for my fighter, well, they just don't stand a chance against him unless they use death magic.

Also, mayhaps you could let a few people add in "guest dungeons"... :) I make a few every now and then that might be fun to go through since different dungeon-makers have different styles (not to say there's anything wrong with yours, they're really good). It'd take me a weekend to get them polished enough for someone besides me to play them though. You probably wouldn't even want to do that though... but maybe once you get everything finalized to a degree, you could consider that...

Also, it wouldn't hurt to have a little more loot strewn around in the dungeons. :) I'm a pack rat. Groll has 10 magic bags and carries 2333some pounds.. :)

Oh yeah, there needs to be some advertisements for OTS throughout. :) Have the slayers in hell threaten you to "go to OTS or burn eternally in hell!" :)

I'm not trying to be a critic or sound like a complete idiot (which is probably what I did). Just thoughts. Giving you feedback... probably the things I'd do to the module if it were my own. To take the risk of sounding like an ass-kisser (which wasn't my intention), the module is really good, no matter what I say.

[Canis Lupus]

hey man :)
Originally posted by Cinderno4
Mayhaps put a dungeon beside the normal one and label it hell or nightmare and increase the difficulty to an insane amount, just a thought... Because for my fighter, well, they just don't stand a chance against him unless they use death magic.
The settings on the module right now are primarily in the Very Easy to Easy mode... the time when I set it to Normal mode was when level 3 characters were dying to scavengers, lol ... that's why I tweaked it to make it easier and more fun to play ... but the difficulty can be adjusted using either the server settings or the DM knob. But I'll see if I can toggle the creatures in the caves and hell back to Normal mode and see if it'll be harder to survive ... someone already complained that the Storms were too nasty, and I had to tone down their phys and lightning dmg coz of that ;)

Originally posted by Cinderno4
Also, mayhaps you could let a few people add in "guest dungeons"... :) I make a few every now and then that might be fun to go through since different dungeon-makers have different styles (not to say there's anything wrong with yours, they're really good). It'd take me a weekend to get them polished enough for someone besides me to play them though. You probably wouldn't even want to do that though... but maybe once you get everything finalized to a degree, you could consider that...
That would be fun, but not really relevant to my module at this time ... Note that this is designed to be a single player module first and foremost, and the multiplayer module I have right now is just an alpha version ... third party contributions would be very welcome once I finish all the quests (those are the hardest to make)... I actually considered making each level have a west wing, east wing, north wing and south wing - now that would be really ridiculous, but more maps would be fun ... I can make maps pretty fast, it's the quests and other story-related scripts that are bogging me down, hehe...

Originally posted by Cinderno4
Also, it wouldn't hurt to have a little more loot strewn around in the dungeons. :) I'm a pack rat. Groll has 10 magic bags and carries 2333some pounds.. :)I'm working on that ... might have to use a third party treasure generator script since I don't know C that well, but we'll see ;)

Originally posted by Cinderno4
Oh yeah, there needs to be some advertisements for OTS throughout. :) Have the slayers in hell threaten you to "go to OTS or burn eternally in hell!" :)
Yeah, one player even suggested I put up an "under construction" signpost in front of the doors that lead to levels that are not yet finished, particularly the fourth level of Hell. While I certainly would like some sort of self advertisment, I don't want it to deviate from the main purpose of the module, which is to test it for bugs and glitches. After the module is done, OTS will be pretty popular in the NWN module community if the module itself ends up being above average ;)

Originally posted by Cinderno4
I'm not trying to be a critic or sound like a complete idiot (which is probably what I did). Just thoughts. Giving you feedback... probably the things I'd do to the module if it were my own. To take the risk of sounding like an ass-kisser (which wasn't my intention), the module is really good, no matter what I say.
Glad you like it ... I haven't even scraped the surface of what this module has in store ... I aim to be faithful to the original Diablo game but also want to "flesh out" the story some more, and make the characters not appear too black-and-white...

I just wish I knew the C language better so I can script faster, but I have begun using some scripting tools that will hopefully get the module done faster ... I have only worked on the module for just over a month, and I plan to finish it within the next one. Considering that most story modules take at least 3-4 months to finish, I think I'm making pretty good time for a first module :D

[Canis Lupus]

FYI, I may need to enable item level restrictions again ... there has been an alarming number of people logging in with ridiculously "hacked" items since I enabled it ... I guess I'll only disable it again once we go back to servervault mode...

[Wacheif]

Im on right now , my character name is RioK BladeMaster... im a Dwarven Fighter hehe :D

[uh...ok]

Originally posted by Canis Lupus
FYI, I may need to enable item level restrictions again ... there has been an alarming number of people logging in with ridiculously "hacked" items since I enabled it ... I guess I'll only disable it again once we go back to servervault mode...

Yea, and someone messed up Wirt's inventory big time. >.<

[Canis Lupus]

I'm closing this topic so that further discussion can be continued in the PC Gaming forum at this link:
http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21475