Multiplayer PC Games – Why Neverwinter Nights Works Nicely

Well, playing around with one of my favorite games, NWN.  It’s an oldie.  But I think it stands up quite nicely to new ones.  Why?

1) It ran well on old computers a couple of years ago, and while it’s simple, it screams on modern machines.

2) The most community made content of any game, I think.

3) Versatile, relatively easy to learn scripting (well, not in my case).  If you can’t figure it out, then there’s loads of pre-made scripts and script generators.

4) Pretty cheap, these days!

5) The thing is MP right out of the box!  And the DM client is just about the most useful thing out there.

6) The mapping tools are outrageously simple.

There’s more, but it’s late and it’s Christmas.  Sadly, there are only a few hardcore fans left that play it online.  I still haven’t gotten to play a CTF module or the Contest of Champions.

Hey, if you read this (ha!), get in touch with me and play some neo-old skool MP DnD!  I got a hankering to try a halfling thief and run around laying traps everywhere and backstabbing!

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

The Lack of Tact and Grace in Our Culture, also Summoning Dragons

Two things.  Britney Murphy.  I really don’t give a fuck, except to the eye of a person who deals with this kind of thing I might guess at what caused it.  I’m not her friend or former lover, so I will not Tweet what I think.  It’s a loss.  The death of anyone before their time is a loss.  I could’ve waited for a press release, or quietly not said anything at all.  But tweeting the thing is an absolute lapse of good sense and judgement.  For fuck’s sake, be a grown man and hold your tongue.  You don’t need to appear like an idiot to the entire world.  Jesus.  At least, don’t abbreviate your freaking heartfelt condolences.  2day.  Fuck, what has this world come to?  The guy is almost a grown man and probably a millionaire.  I hate California.  Fuck you, Los Angeles.  Yes, I mean it.  Fuck you.

Second, owing to scouring the interwebs, I finally got tag based scripting to work in Neverwinter Nights.  A simple include statement was all that was missing.  Now I can summon dragons at the drop of a doodad.  It’s kind of fun to watch.  If I were so inclined, I would make a Machinima with the various special effects and whatnot.  I guess I am so inclined, as that’s why I set out to start the thing in the first place.  Still, watching the thing go down, my heart skipped a beat, because it was clear (from the sound effects) that it worked…. finally!

The line that was missing was:

#include “x2_inc_switches”

Strangely, not included in any tutorials except the last one I checked.  Whew.  Even Lilac_Soul’s script generator left it out, much to my head scratching and aggravation.  Anyways, my Call of Cthulhu d20 Modern Module is now on track, at long last – thanks to the NWN community and Meth’s Sanity Scripts Beta.  Who you are, Meth, I will never know, as the emails bounce back.

Same thing happens for the clever person who coded the “HL2 Random Map Creator”.

I mean, hell, it’s the holidays.  I deserve to be able to tinker around a little.  At least it’s freaking working.

Merry Christmas – soon I’m off to the land of the Mayas.  Not 2day, but soon.  Seriously, I mean it.  Fuck You, Los Angeles.  A breeding ground for senseless assholes.  I guess that’s true of everywhere.