I was pleasantly surprised to find that an Enhanced Edition of NWN1 had just been released. I remember crafting modules for it back in the old days. The enjoyment and satisfaction of making them were only matched by the tedium and frustration.
It took me some time - both in learning in how to effectively use the toolset and to find my own style - before my modules finally began to make it into the Hall of Fame.
I remember I was working on a few different modules - including what was to be my largest, most complex module to date. It involved several months of work. I was just putting the finishing touches on it and was only a couple weeks away from finally releasing it. Then my place was broken into and robbed - including my PC with all my NWN files on it. And that put an end to my module making.
The Auroa Toolset was quite revolutionary for its time. I had hope that it would set off a whole new wave of gaming - where such toolsets were standard. But unfortunately the concept turned out to be rather unique and limited.
Still I have a bunch of unused ideas for modules that I would like to try. But don’t know if putting all that work into it would be worth it if the community is now just a handful of die-hard fans. So is there still interest in new modules?
As for me there’s always been interest in new mods. I’ve been playing them for about ten years now, both for NWN1 and NWN2 and I am still playing them. Actually what I am not willing to play anymore are mods which are labeled “part of a series”. That’s because there are too many unfinished series I’ve invested a lot of time in just to be inevitably left without the final chapter. So, if I have to speak for myself now I use to play only “that’s it” projects.
Yes, the community is smaller than its heyday. But it’s also now split between this site, Steam, GOG, and Facebook. There is a dearth of single-player modules being released and I think that the community would eagerly play any and all new modules at this point.
However, I would caution against building for the sake of accolades. In my opinion, there seems be a lot less comments or discussion about new content than there used to be. In addition, it is not uncommon to find someone on this board bemoaning the fact that their content had over 100 downloads and not a single comment (positive or negative).
So my advice is to build what you love and share what your build.
I’d feel pretty certain about saying “Yes, definitely”, at this point. There’s a dev team again, and plenty of signs for that commercially-sold premium modules may be making a comeback in the future (see Darkness over Daggerford being available on Steam). I’d expect player interest in the EE to ebb and flow with the release of new campaigns and premium modules, with the PW-goers otherwise forming a fairly regular base.
You can get a lot more exposure for your modules now than you could’ve before the EE, if you put them up on Steam and do some advertising on the various boards. Publicly blogging about your progress as you go along could get you more attention for the individual projects, too. Silent downloaders will still outnumber commenting downloaders by far, of course… but, yeah. New and returning modulebuilders are definitely a welcome sight hereabouts, and it’s a pretty good time to start.
Of course, more activity and publicity also mean more likelihood for humandrama. The more attention you get, the more negative attention you can get, too. Here, take this hat and monocle: , and also this cup of coffee: . In case of destructive critics or ideological clashes, such as they abound in the world at large, I recommend putting on the hat and monocle, sipping from the cup, and saying “Fie!” in a very bemused tone of voice - and then giggling a little at your own antics.
Grymlorde’s got it right, though. You should go with doing things you want to do, not things you think other people might want you to do. We’ve all only got a limited amount of lifetime to spend, and strangers on the internet will never care about your projects in the same way you care about them. If you’re going to do it, do it because it makes you happy and adds something worthwhile to your life.
Agree with all those comments. I’ve seen a surge in downloads of my modules since EE launched, not only on Steam, but also here at the Vault and on my own site. However, very few comments or likes.
Even so, a few of the best known mods / modules have achieved 4-star status on Steam, which, as I understand it, means that at least 25 people bothered to say thank you. (Steam doesn’t actually count downloads, only current subscribers, but it gives us some idea).
So I’d endorse the advice to do it for fun rather than fame. As Dilbert’s boss once said, “I’d like to thank you, Dilbert, but as you know, your job is a thankless task”.
It’s normal that people don’t see value on typing feedbacks on modules. Why would not you being commenting a module? Could be anwsered this question in 2 points? Let’s see what I can type here…
1 - We are multi-tasking all the time. Check this: while you are in a park you can play Neverwinter Nights sitted in a table, you are in your notebook or tablet, there is a hot dog you are eating, there is a external and unassociated song playing in your headphones, you are talking to your girlfriend and you have your smartphone, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram…
2 - The people are spending more time searching games than playing a game. Like when you are in Netflix you could waste more time searching for a movie than watching, supposing that is possible you open a wrong movie and abandon it after 20 minutes, because you know there is a better movie to find in the list of movies. So I see there is a big number of games available in the market and the players are searching for the games and expecting new games.
Speaking as someone who only started playing online PWs in the past few years, I still spent over a decade with NWN installed on every new PC to simply play single player modules. There’s absolute a market for new single player content, however small, and some people are still releasing things. A number of fairly recent modules are more engaging for me than actual full release games that come out anymore.
I still play single player only. There’s more than enough pointless drama in my life as is that I don’t need to let strangers on the Web add more. I enjoy quiet evenings in the game or the toolset and thank the members here for helping me with both.
Make a mod you would want to play. Let us know how it’s going from time to time. And welcome.
Well, I use to comment and vote every single module I have played here on the vault because I think that it’s the right thing to do. But if I can think to a reason for such a small number of comments here on this site I think that it’s just a matter of proportions. If you have 5000 people who downloaded the module and let’s say the 1% of them will vote you will have 50 votes. I don’t remember the numbers from the old IGN Vault but I don’t think that even at those times every person who played the modules used to value them. Therefore if nowadays the amount of download is 200 and the percentage is the same you will have 2-3 votes at max. I don’t see anything different from how it was before. I also think that having a lot of abandoned modules doesn’t help. Someone should also think “Why should I bother if I don’t even know if the author is still around?”. This is also the reason why I keep saying that actually supported modules should be more highlighted here on the Vault.
That’s just because I have still to play it but don’t worry: it’s already on my list. you know, I go back and forth from NWN1 to NWN2 modules and in the last few months I have been almost entirely on NWN2. When I’ll be back to NWN1 it will be the first one I’ll check. Rest assured that you’ll read my comment then! :
@hartunga, check this thread: About the feedback…, I put some pools, trying, among other things, to asses potential players preferences. Granted, the responses were not many, but maybe it’ll help you.
What is Steam exactly? I was unaware of it til this thread. I have a project I’d like to release in 2019 for the ; would it be 15th anniversary of the original NWN game?
Do I have to develope a module in EE format to have it uploaded? I don’t have anything downloaded from EE currently and my present project is just with CEP stuff. And thanks for the link too!
No it doesn’t have to be EE specific, but would have to be EE compatible tho as the Steam crowd would be all using EE to play any modules they get from there. Most (but not all) old modules work fine with EE as is.
, and also this cup of coffee: 
. In case of destructive critics or ideological clashes, such as they abound in the world at large, I recommend putting on the hat and monocle, sipping from the cup, and saying “Fie!” in a very bemused tone of voice - and then giggling a little at your own antics.
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