Advertising the community in the game

Are you on a small monitor or a full HD (or higher e.g. 4k) one? If not on a small monitor try the following -

  1. Open NIT in full-screen mode
  2. Press [CTRL]+[PrtScn/SysRq] together. That will send a screenshot to the clipboard. Replacing [CTRL] with [Alt] will grab just the currently active window.
  3. Open Gimp
  4. From the menu select File/Create/From Clipboard. You should now have a larger image to work with.

For a selection of other ways to get screen grabs see -

Windows 10 tips and tricks: 7 easy ways to take a screenshot on Windows 10 system

Hope that helps.

TR

Thanks @Tarot_Redhand

Running 1080p, 1920 x1080.

Making it full screen would not help, because the image would be resized as it is on the forum. If you click on the images I posted, they are very clear.

Not sure what to try next.

@niv, here is my latest attempt, which I tested by creating a mock-up similar to the one you did…

NIT Header Image

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Regarding links to builder resources - given that most players won’t use them, to avoid clutter I’d prefer to see just one builder link in game, to a builder page on the Vault or wherever.

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As I vaguely hinted at above, I think having a ‘For Players’ and ‘For Builders’ page on the Vault that gave useful links and facilitated easy finding of content (e.g. Lexicon and Wiki for builders, as well as some links to custom content searches like ‘most popular’) would be ideal to cater for an influx of new Vault users.

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@Phantasma I think that, at least as far as newbie builders are concerned these 2 pinned threads should cover it -

The Starting Point - module building tutorials for beginners - and where to find them
Books & Things

TR

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Agreed - that looks perfect :slight_smile: I think my general concern is more having that information easily accessible for ‘random visitors from the UI’. I think the ‘top menus’ on the vault home page aren’t necessarily intuitive for the casual visitor (Projects? Media? Articles? Forum? Not to mention what tags to search for or how to find modules by a category) and having a distinctive menu item ‘for builders’ and ‘for players’ that takes them to a central overview page (even if it links to that forum post) would help greatly to direct newcomers

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The problem with those threads is information overload.

I’d rather see something much simpler, reflecting a consensus (if there is one) about the items builders need to get started (such as the Toolset manual) upfront.

By all means add a second post with links to the NWN University and any assets not mentioned there, with a clear indication that no one actually needs any of that on day one, valuable though it is for reference.

This sounds better than clogging the GUI with links to multiple resources. Were it me, I’d go with the Lexicon, the Wiki, the Guide to Building Vol. 1 and 2 (aka toolset manual), along with a brief description of each.

Guide to Building is here:

The Guide to Building Volume I – The Aurora Toolset Manual | The Neverwinter Vault
Building Volume II The Design Manual | The Neverwinter Vault

Alternatively, it might not be a bad idea to have the GUI button link to the WIKI as that has way more information than the vault has on the subject. Then the WIKI can host a “Builder Guide” page that links back to these “must have” resources.

Don’t forget that addresses can be tweaked so that you drop straight onto a particular post in Discourse - You simply add ‘/PostNumber’ to the end of the address. So adding ‘/2’ takes you directly to -

Thus avoiding the NwN University link in the previous post. If we decide to go with a minimal essentials thread I think that post of mine is a good starting point. It doesn’t have to include my stuff that is linked to in that post.

Just a thought @niv, but as the NwN Chess module is now part of the download for EE would it not be possible to include AuroraToolsetTutorial (Tutorial & module) aka Fern/the Fernesk Mine tutorial in a Doc folder in the \Documents\Neverwinter Nights folder too?

TR

Ok, so, here’s how it looks like now in my test env:



The “Vault Repository” button actually triggers the “Add repo” UI flow. The vault currently doesn’t HAVE a repository, but this opens the door for eventually creating one.

On the last page, the “Getting started” button links to the thread you mentioned.

We can create a proper landing page later on, since this is all data driven:

"adverts_label": "Find more content!",
"adverts": [
	{
		"uuid": "378ac5d7-fbe4-47c6-8982-f93b5a8039ab",
		"name": "Neverwinter Vault",
		"description": "The NWN Vault is the primary hub and meeting place for Neverwinter Nights content creation.\n\nWith archival storage spanning two decades of module and art creation, it is the biggest content repository for NWN.\n\nThere are community forums and a Discord chat, with most of the core creative community active.\n\nIf you are looking for new modules to play, this is the place to start.\n\nIf you are looking to create your own adventures, this is the place to stay!",
		"header_image": "vault_logo.jpg",
		"buttons": [
			{
				"label": "Home Page",
				"url": "http://neverwintervault.org/"
			},
			{
				"label": "Discord (Chat)",
				"url": "https://discord.gg/pWVqMRX"
			},
			{
				"label": "Forum",
				"url": "http://forum.neverwintervault.org/"
			},
			{
				"label": "Wiki",
				"url": "http://nwn.wiki/"
			},
			{
				"label": "Vault Repository",
				"url": "http://nwsync.neverwintervault.org/",
				"type": "nwsyncrepository"
			}
		]
	},
	{
		"uuid": "63b79e7f-bad9-43f0-8b4e-80cbc7ea0819",
		"name": "NWN Installer Tool",
		"description": "The Neverwinter Nights Installer Tool (NIT) is a tool for advanced players to help with manual installation of content not available through direct installation via the curation system.\n\nIt provides easier access, installation, management, and clean removal of the many modules, haks and compilations only downloadable on the Neverwinter Vault.\n\nCurrently only available on Windows.",
		"header_image": "nit_logo2.png",
		"buttons": [
			{
				"label": "Website",
				"url": "https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/tool/neverwinter-nights-mod-installer-tool-nit/"
			}
		]
	},
	{
		"uuid": "7859f579-6c98-40ed-abfc-b85cd80edd5b",
		"name": "Create your own!",
		"description": "This game has a powerful toolset that allows you to create your own adventures.",
		"header_image": "make_logo.jpg",
		"buttons": [
			{
				"label": "Getting Started",
				"url": "https://forum.neverwintervault.org/t/the-starting-point-module-building-tutorials-for-beginners-and-where-to-find-them/550"
			},
			{
				"label": "Script Lexicon",
				"url": "https://nwnlexicon.com/"
			},
			{
				"label": "Tech Wiki",
				"url": "https://nwn.wiki/"
			},
			{
				"label": "Fandom Wiki",
				"url": "https://nwn.fandom.com"
			},
			{
				"label": "nwnx (for servers)",
				"url": "https://github.com/nwnxee/unified/"
			}
		]
	}
]
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More spam: I’ve rolled the NIT panel into the Vault panel, since they’re intrinsically linked.

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Just a small thought, @niv.

In the pic above your blurb describes NIT as “a tool for advanced players”. I don’t think advanced players have much of a problem just now with downloading required projects - it is more a time saving device for them. Is NIT not equally if not more useful for non-advanced players who don’t like getting into the nitty gritty of finding and downloading appropriate haks etc ?

I suppose I’m not sure on this one. I used it for the first time recently and found it quite easy to use, if not to understand exactly what it was doing. Steps were just :

retrieve the module URL
download files
install

The onscreen prompts helped as well. It’d be a shame to scare away the very players something like NIT would help most unless it was necessary. Did others find it difficult to use?

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TBH @niv I’d put NIT at the top of that column of link-buttons. Also I would (for the purpose of the buttons) just call it “Module Installer” as it makes it clear what it’s purpose is given the limited space available in a button. I agree with @jimdad55 that dropping the word advanced from the main text panel would be a good idea too.

TR

@niv Like what you did.

Fandom Wiki is a great resource for players, too, so maybe it should be on the community page rather than the builder page.

Builder page should at minimum link to the Toolset Manual IMO. Lexicon, too, but given the number of builders who rely on Lilac Soul and never write a line of code, it ranks second in my view.

Can I second this? I just started working on content creation and module making the other week after getting EE, and it’s taken me many hours of going through the vault and looking up things in the wiki and looking for tutorials to figure things out. And I only found out about the tutorials in Tarot Redhand’s post just now when I read it.

Also my 2 cents on clutter is to have a link to a site on the wiki that has all the links and info (As Pstemarie mentioned), as even players interested in custom content might get intimidated by info overload.

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@niv It may have taken a bit of time but I have now gotten around to “tweaking” your text to this -

The NWN Vault is the primary hub and meeting place for Neverwinter Nights content creation.

With archival storage spanning two decades of module and other content creation, it is the biggest repository of material and information for NWN.

There are community forums and a Discord chat, with most of the core active creative community there.

Feed your imagination. If you are looking for new modules to play, this is the place to start.

Unleash your creativity. If you are looking to create your own adventures, this is the place to stay!

You may think what I have come up with is rubbish, but that’s OK. It’s definitely not easy coming up with a short, succinct “sales pitch” for NwN.

TR

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Any update on this @niv?

TR

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Got sidetracked. Soon.

A small request for a wording change - when starting a new game, change the tab name Community to Curated.

There is already some confusing in forum posts - when players ask about “community” modules, do they mean “all modules created by the community” or just the curated ones?

The tab for non-curated community modules is labelled Local, which seems fine to me.

The point is that curated and local modules are both subsets of community modules.

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