Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Status: On hold

I'd just thought I'd post a quick update letting people know that Fate of an Empire is on hold for the time being. I'm currently without a computer that can run the toolset, and will likely be that way for some time, as I'm on my way back to Australia.

However, it's likely that development will remain on hold indefinitely. The most significant problem is the scope of the project. In order to follow on from Fate of a City and retain the strong narrative and focus on choice and consequences, the amount of work required to fit into the fairly epic storyline would require a large cohesive development team - or my undivided attention for quite a number of months. Since neither of those options are feasible, I don't see any way it would be finished in any reasonble time period. There are a couple of builders that have offered their support, and I'm keen to work with them, which is why I have an alternative plan in the works.

While this project is currently unnamed, it is planned as an epic level party adventure, perhaps something that a party having finished Storm of Zehir would tackle. It will be far more heavily focused on combat and other gameplay aspects rather than dramatic roleplay, moral choices and consequences. Your party will need to coordinate its attacks and fight strategically in order to succeed against a variety of dangerous and powerful menagerie of enemies. You can also expect the story to be suitably epic, and that your choices may have very far reaching consequences across the planes...

Apologies to those who were awaiting news of FoaE, as I don't like having to shelve it, but I simply don't see it getting finished in a reasonable timeframe, and would rather focus my efforts on projects that I know can be completed.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Status: Fate of a City 1.11

In what I foresee as the final release for Fate of a City, I've uploaded version 1.11 of the mod onto the vault. Featuring a few more tweaks to combat difficulty, area and sound design, and a few miscellaneous script fixes and typo corrections, it should make the module about as unbreakable and polished as is possible barring some weird and unforeseen circumstances. That said, if future patches break things, I will come back to it and find the solutions.

So, if you haven't done so already, or you want to kill some time before Mysteries of Westgate is released, play through Fate of a City - it will get your character to the perfect level to start playing the new adventure pack.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Status: Breaking the silence

Yes, it's been quite a while since I've last posted an update, but life has provided me with precious little time to work on NWN2 lately. I must confess that is in part due to catching up on a few gaming titles from 2008 that I missed out of playing due to my modding. That's not to say that I haven't been doing any modding, however. :)

In news, Fate of a City has been reviewed on nwvault! I'd like to thank 'The Unbalanced' and the nwvault reviewers for their hard work in producing it! The review has provided a few more details for me to fix and improve for the forthcoming 1.11 release. This is in addition to all the suggestions and comments I've had from other players on the vault.

I'd like to thank everyone who has played and commented for their support and opinions. It's constructive feedback that allows modders to fine tune their creations to make them so enjoyable.

And the other massive piece of news is that Mysteries of Westgate has gone gold! I can't wait to get my hands on it. Everything points to it being a fantastic addition to the NWN2 family, and I'm sure it will mean great things for NWN2 and for Ossian Studios.