Returning to Neverwinter

Neverwinter Nights 2 is a pretty big deal for my wife and I. It’s not just the medium through which we first met, but also the platform that enabled us to dip our toes into modding, and by extension game development proper. In all honesty, I probably learnt more making armor, weapons and textures for it than I did at any graphics institute. It holds for us the same special place that the original Doom does for others.

Naturally, once I began applying my skills towards more professional endeavors, I spent less time not only playing it, but modding for it. I all but stopped by around 2017, with only the occasional foray back into the Persistent World we last set roots in.

That’s slowly changing once again. Perhaps it’s our wish to get some good old D&D games going whilst not being anywhere near such groups. Maybe it’s our fondness for Planescape. Or maybe just the immediate satisfaction of seeing the armor and level projects come to life. Whatever the cause, it seems we’re getting back to the full swing of adding our bits to the Neverwinter Nights saga.

Hell is Other People (trapped under rocks and sand)

The first of the aforementioned projects is the desert of Minethys, part of the prison plane Carcerie.  Built for the Planescape: City of Doors PW, it’s technically the work of three people; SGK73, Mimi, and myself. More accurately, it was first made by SGK73 as a generic desert zone, and uploaded on the Neverwinter Vault. Mimi grabbed it from there and worked her own magic, turning the once bright and sunny desert into a harsh, sulfuric landscape.

Post initially testing, she decided that it still looked too happy. Evidently, she felt only a major edge lord could add true wretchedness to the sandy resort. The results are as follows:

Tinted Shades

Aside from level editing, I’ve also been roped back into armor and weapon craft. The weapon part is not really far removed from what I’ve already been up to; the knife pack I was working on last week is currently up for review on the Unity Store. In all likelihood, I’ll end up porting the models over to NWN 2 once it’s up. The small deviation from the norm comes from the actual armor texturing going on. I hope to have some more shots of what’s going on there soon enough, but for now, here’s a peak at the upcoming knife pack for Unity!