Creating a Custom Content NWN2 Discord

Neverwinter Nights 2
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Hello ~~

I was talking to a few custom content creators more in the PW scene of NWN2. They had floated the idea of creating a Discord that focused on Content Creation for just NWN2. I know the vault currently has a discord channel for general NWN2 discussion and asking for help but generally the focus of that discord is around serving NWN1 / NWN2 / NWN:EE ect…

My goal is more around creating a NWN2 focused discord with a large emphasis on Custom Content creation - asking for help, showing progress and floating ideas.

(NOTE: Discord is NOT Voice Chat, 99% of all users only talk in text format, this channel will be text only)

This could be anything including Texturing / 3D Modelling / VFX creation / Animating or even just script libraries / modules. Anything focused on the creation of content for our community and sharing that with everyone.

I have really pushed this idea of sharing everything people make instead of hoarding them for a specific module or PW server.

I would also love to see more users from this forum get on Discord. So much talent hanging around here that is missing social engagement with probably the largest part of the community!

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks!
(I’ve already been sending messages to people asking for interest in the idea - sorry if I missed you, I don’t know who is already on discord and who isn’t.)

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::mumbles something bitter about social engagement, tucked away for being from the NWN1/NWN:EE section::

Size Reduction Magic!
Pitch-black-pits-of-a-depressive-realism(?)-rant
Social engagement is terrifying. People are terrifying. If you don't hit the exact correct combination of words and sounds and poses and phrasings to identify yourself as a suitable member of their ingroup, they shut you out, and never accept reparations and reconciliation attempts no matter how hard you try. And most generally, identifying oneself correctly means voicing opposition to the same group of established enemies, in a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of way; grouping up for safety against (Insert Threat Here) - or, otherwise, signalling potentially being interested in sleeping with them. Do either of those, and *bam*, you get Social Status(TM), which means you've got *friends!* Just the kind who'll be gone in an instant if you ever stop amassing and maintaining your Social Status(TM).
Why even bother. Disregard social engagement, build neat stuff. Won't get you professional networking opportunities, will get you marginally less depression and self-loathing from the creeping realization that you're starting to live your life feigning behaviour patterns to deliberately manipulate people around you into admiring you for social profit (networking opportunities, protection and support in ingroup rankfights, tangible favours and gifts). Of course, what's even the alternative? Opposing group-bonding "enemy-bashing", being clear about not being interested in sleeping with anybody, and rejecting small favours and gifts as they're being offered, I suppose, all of which register as rejection to bonding overtures to others, which just makes especially the most sweet-natured people feel sad and rejected in turn.
And at that point, isn't *trying to socialize* a knowing, deliberate act of making nice, well-intentioned people miserable? Maybe it's best to just stay away. It's certainly easier. No risk. No rankfighting. Just peaceful tinkering by oneself, in exactly the way one wants to do it. And they're doing fine by themselves, anyway. It's not like they won't get by fine on their own. As long you don't get them attached to you, they won't even notice when you're gone. Actually, honestly, they won't care when you're gone if you *try* to join in the group, anyway; not if you don't do the Social Status(TM) dance, and do it well. You know damn well that failure to perform there means getting tossed to the wayside and forgotten - how many times have you seen this happen to others?
And there's always somebody or other out to saw at anybody who does *anything* that elicits a positive reaction from people... and, more depressingly, if you do well and they try to saw at you, your supporters saw *them* in turn and then *they* get pushed out and then there's *still* somebody being made miserable over this stupid social rankfighting bullshit *and you can't help them*. You *can't stop it, even if you try*. Is it maybe the kindest thing to just make yourself available to *be kicked by others* in *their* efforts to establish a moderately dominant social position, so at least *they* can feel safe and, hopefully, happy? But then you won't get anything useful done anymore - and frequently, *neither do they*, often becoming too busy maintaining and reveling in their Social Position(TM) to be productive and watch out that everybody else is able to be productive, too, as if *rank* is an end in itself that serves to glorify the ones who hold it rather than a crippling, horrifying responsibility and burden that would cause any sane person to run away screaming at the thought of being afflicted with it.
May as well skip that entire pointless drama-and-misery-factory and use the time for tinkering instead; keep head down, don't perform *too* well, stay away from groups, don't attract too much attention. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

::cough::

Adding supportive note to try to balance that out a little, though: Heck yeah, this is a pretty great idea for everyone around here who’s at all interested in networking and getting technical crafting know-how from “other divisions” in realtime - which y’lot should, because you flipping rock and, for all the awkwardness of grouping up, people get a lot more done in teams than on their own and I love seeing the kind of shit you all get up to and there should be more of it in the world.

Preaching to any hypothetical reclusive ‘socially awkward ‘introverted’ computer-people’ in the modding scene who might be interested in doing this kind of thing professionally someday (… or, introverts and socially awkward people in general): Networking can be depressing and annoying as heck, but if y’don’t do it at all, you voluntarily isolate and disadvantage yourself. And even far as purely hobbyist aims go, it’s a good idea. Gets you together with people who have complementary skills that can improve your own projects. Could be pretty nice just for the human interaction, too; pretty sure there’s a boatload of very nice people there.

Don’t do what I do. Get’cherself out there. Just make sure that when you’re working for free for somebody, you’re at least getting skill gain out of it, because connections can be cut and lost pretty easily, but skills are there to stay.

Ignore me; this ain’t the most constructive interjection ever, and from the wrong section of NWN besides. It’s a viewpoint from a person who doesn’t like social engagement very much, though; might ring a bell with some other people who don’t network as much as they should, which might do it’s part for forming social connections and alleviating some old “Blergh! Social engagement with other human beings?! No thanks!”-prejudice, in a “Yeah, we don’t like socializing either! We can totally bond over that. :-D”-kind of way (ahh… the irony of it). I support this idea very much. :+1: Rock that Uniting The People thing, @Trinital. :slight_smile:

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Thanks… the issue is… NWN2 Developers are separated across 10 PW Servers / Several Forums / Nexus / Vault…

I don’t want anyone leaving their current communities… I just want a space that bridges all those places together… NWN2’s biggest weakness is a bunch of talented people… spread paper thin across a giant piece of bread.

Until I made this discord… half the people in it had never seen or met the other half… or saw what people were working on…

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Yeah, it’s a huge waste. :-/ Sometimes y’see people working on one type of thing (say, animating) in one place, lamenting that they don’t know how to do another thing, say, modeling… and a door down the (figurative) hallway, there’s another person working on that exact thing lamenting that they don’t know how to do the first thing. Practically made for one another, if they each just knew the other exists (and dared approach them, too).

It’s an extremely worthwhile effort, connecting people. Keep at it. If nobody goes “::pushes together:: Now kiss!” at us every now and then, I think we’ll probably just sit in our own corners of the sandbox building sand castles by ourselves forever. ^^ … not that that’s a bad thing. :thinking:

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I’ve already seen a lot of content I hadn’t seen before since I’m not a pw person. So far so good with the channel.

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100% Agree TheBarbarian… The other issue that developers of modules and custom content… often think the community is dead or nobody is working on stuff…

When you stuff all these people from their corners of the internet into a single place… suddenly you have 30 or 40 people all making stuff… and sharing it with each other… and discussing how things can be done optimally.

It gives you motivation to finish projects… and it feels good to work on things in a positive team environment.

Even if some people aren’t super active or whatever - it just feels nice to know others are doing the same thing as you.

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Hi Trinital,

I did not even know what “Discord” was or meant in the context you were using it until I looked it up on the web today. :grin: After looking it up, I gather its some kind of “live” chat (via text) place … like Skype, but not Skype.

So, in case I am not the only one … (also bear in mind that I do not use any other type of social media that people may expect to be the norm) … I have these questions:-

  1. How does one “Discord-inate”?
  2. Have you already set it up, if so where?
  3. What does one need to do if they did want to join in? (Login? Dropin?)

That all said, my situation (health and time) is not conducive to “regular” commitments. I certainly like the idea, but then thought this forum worked for such a situation … apart from not being “live”. However, that probably works better for someone like me; in that I can participate when I am feeling best able.

I am still trying to keep involved in NWN2 and the forums, and am hoping to continue work on my own project, but even this has required less involvement of late.

Anyway, I like the idea … I have some reservations about how it will work, especially if we are coming from different time zones … and if somebody has difficulties like myself. However, if there was a place where people could “drop in” adhoc (like the forums), where they may be able to help out now and then it sounds like it could be a useful place to know.

The other thing that just occurred to me, is that quite often, those things where I may be able to contribute (and I guess would include quite a few other areas to others) are not “easy” (not for me anyway) to address “live”. i.e. Sometimes, unless an issue is one of the more straightforward ones, a question takes time to answer properly … and then that leads me back to the forums that already work like that.

It may be that I am just not understanding/appreciating the benefits of a “Discord”, and is why I ask the things I do.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention. :slight_smile:
Lance.

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Out of curiosity I tried to join, but didn’t seem to have much success trying to find anything. Does one need to set up a “server” before one can participate?

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I just use a web link:
https://discordapp.com/channels/459058293566996494/459058293566996498
You do have to set up an account if you don’t already have one, I registered with an email address I don’t normally use.

The Vault itself has it’s own Discord channel: https://neverwintervault.org/chat. The channel from Trinital has a lot of people that aren’t in the general Vault channel.

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@kamal, the first link doesn’t work. You seem to have a special invitement that allow you to visit this cahnnel.

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i don’t think that this will work out. for example someone asks a question: if there’s no one knowing the answer online the question will be buried after a few hours or days, given how active the channel is. nobody will scroll through hundreds of messages to find a question or an answer to a question. a forum is better suited for presenting work, getting critisism, or asking questions. discord is good for short discussions and quick arrangements.

i agree with you that there’s no real exchange among the custom content creators. a few years ago there was an attempt to bring a custom content challenge, similar to the one for nwn1, into being to support the community spirit and to get new people into content creation. iirc there was no real interest and the whole thing got nowhere.

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Hey Semper… I would love to have you join if your interested… Most people are really enjoying it so far and seeing stuff they never new existed.

If you have a discord account please contact me… <3

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I’ll just put my response to Lance here as well… to clear up any misconceptions…

We are not using Discord as a “Live” service. You are free to come and go as you wish.

Treat this less like a Skype conversation and more like a… Live Forum… where you can pop in… talk to people at your discreation and post screenshots of stuff your working on and see what others are working on.

More like a living breathing community of NWN2 players motivating and discussing stuff when they have time. You can be as active or inactive as you want. You can just simply watch and never talk at all.

How does one “Discord-inate”?
https://discordapp.com/ (link is external)
You create an account and download the client here. You can also use the web app and not download anything if you wish.

Have you already set it up, if so where?
I have already set it up… When you get on add me as a friend ( I am in the Vault Discord too)

What does one need to do if they did want to join in? (Login? Dropin?)
I will send you an invite to join… after that you can view and see everything… and talk as much or as little as you want.

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Thanks for the invitation Trinital.

I tried to join but which discordtag do I enter ?

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@Trinital: sent you a reply.

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Hey all if your having trouble getting into the channel. Join the Vault discord and add me as a friend!
Thanks!

<3

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Hey there! Can I get an invite? I’m trying to port (which is to say manually recreate it) over my NWN1 world to NWN2. It’s been 5 years since I’ve done any world building, I would love to have access to the channel.

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*Unscrupulously bumping this thread up*

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I think that this is a great idea, community is rarely a bad thing. I’d love to take part. I however wouldnt have much to offer.

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Don’t sell yourself short… Contact any of us on Discord and will toss you an invite… We are all in the NeverwinterVault channel.