NWN1 ALFA Servers

[Adanu]

This is an entirely different platform from what we're currently using, and you're calling it an 'addition'?

Seriously?

[Rumple C]

Seriously.

Its offering another gameplay option under Alfas umbrella. Ella. Ella.

No resources were diverted from any of our current servers as far as I can tell. If we can pull some nwn1 players into Alfa, its a good thing.

I'm not seeing what the big deal is, but perhaps that's just my perception. I do wear glasses after all.

[kid]

No resources were diverted from any of our current servers...

Other than the most valuable and scarce resource we have...
Players.

[Heero]

I think its more likely to attract players that arent playing (like me) than it is to steals players that are currently playing NWN2 out of ALFA NWN2 servers. I am going to play a druid/shifter and its going to be so awesome.

[Zelknolf]

No resources were diverted from any of our current servers as far as I can tell.

This cost tech a week of work, and BG is skipping changes of actually-trivial complexity (requiring the mere deletion of files) with "lack of time" cited as rationale.

Whether or not it's worth the cost seems like a different question, but let's not pretend it's zero cost.

[Swift]

This is an entirely different platform from what we're currently using, and you're calling it an 'addition'?

Seriously?

It is not like it was floated as something for NWN2 before someone pulled a bait and switch and decided to go with NWN1.

The only 'addition' I see is discussion about whether there should be a HDM for the NWN1 servers or not. Apart from that, the plan seems to be progressing as it was originally put forward.

[Ithildur]

I don't see a high level of interest among the current active or semi active NWN2 players/DMs; you're not going to lose adanu, foam, talonbreak, etc. to NWN1.

It's mostly folks who aren't involved with NWN2 at all currently returning to ALFA plus a handful of others (castano, rumple,) who aren't really actively playing/DMing NWN2 anyway getting involved. Heegz might be the biggest 'loss' as he was quite active until BG went down a couple of weeks ago and shifted his focus to NWN1, although he sounds like he plans on trying to keep up with both platforms to some extent.

I'd like to try and play on both ideally, we'll see. Haven't installed NWN1 yet, though I plan to.

So yes, overall so far it looks to me like more of a net gain as far as players, not a net loss.

Overall I'm somewhat torn, slightly concerned, but atm I'm for a 'let it play out and see what happens' approach as long as there isn't a drain on resources needed for NWN2. On the one hand, if NWN1 servers, players, and DMs offer a better experience than NWN2 (which is a serious possibility, the NWN2 game has been lethargic at least on 2 out of the 4 servers recently), that's where people who actually have NWN1 will go, as opposed to barely logging on to dead NWN2 servers they weren't interested in to begin with. Nothing wrong with that. Hard to say at this point if that might happen or if things might fizzle out after a short run.

On the other hand, I do wonder if some of the energy/effort/time going into NWN1 could've been directed towards improving the NWN2 experience, and lament that isn't being pursued as much as it could be. I too fondly remember many of the better points of NWN1/old alfa and get frustrated by some aspects of 2, but I still would love to see 2 revitalized. As I've stated elsewhere I'm hoping at least some folks get inspired/recharged by playing 1 again, and take that energy to improve 2.

Really, after reading some recent threads this development isn't all that surprising; ALFA currently has a big spread of preferred playstyles and things are quite fragmented; there's a strong sense of 'I want to play my game the way I want it'. Splitting off into 2 platforms is in some ways the natural outcome of 'you go over there and do your thing, I'll go over here and do mine' when people can't or won't work/play together.

Ultimately I don't think NWN1 is the biggest threat/hindrance to the NWN2 game for ALFA; there's some other obstacles that need to be addressed.

[Rumple C]

I don't think I'll play tbh. I just like to support people who put in their time and effort into improving Alfa, rather than complaining about where people put their efforts.

Regardless of whom it may be.

Nice job...

Adanu on dm'ing so much
Zelk for leading tech and doing great things
Heegz and Castano for taking chances and thinking outside the square

[Electryc]

Btw, fwiw I downloaded everything successfully, except the music which will be a later addition. Let me know if/when a server is up so I can playtest either as a DM or player whichever is needed. Thanks for this guys looking forward to trying out NWN1 again.

On a side note: I doubt anyone's going to be asking Zelk, Ronan or anyone else from the NWN2 side for anything that's going to take up valuable resources towards the later edition. Maybe I'm misreading but it sounds like some people would rather members quit ALFA all together then get this off the ground which to be quite honest sounds like being a bit on the selfish side. I wouldn't call myself selfish. This came about and I don't play NWN2 at all now, people posted I responded. I've spoken to a few other non-active alfa members who quit when the NWN1 servers went down. What harm will it be to bring those folks back?

[FoamBats4All]

On a side note: I doubt anyone's going to be asking Zelk, Ronan or anyone else from the NWN2 side for anything that's going to take up valuable resources towards the later edition. Maybe I'm misreading but it sounds like some people would rather members quit ALFA all together then get this off the ground which to be quite honest sounds like being a bit on the selfish side.

1) It has already taken tech's time/resources. Stop insisting that it doesn't/won't. We can say "stop going to tech for support" just as we said that when this project was first suggested. Fact is, it's going to tech anyway.
2) It's not "we'd rather you quit than play NWN1" it's "hey if people play NWN1 they won't be playing NWN2, which means our already small (NWN2) community shrinks even further".

What is supposed to draw these people back to ALFA? Can't we just add that to ALFA2 rather than creating a separate project? Can't we do that, instead of diluting our already small player base over multiple mediums?

So: What is going to make you play ALFA1, when you won't play ALFA2? What is honestly going to bring you back that this project is offering? And why can't we just add that to ALFA2? Ideally without fragmenting our player base further than it already is.

[Swift]

So: What is going to make you play ALFA1, when you won't play ALFA2? What is honestly going to bring you back that this project is offering? And why can't we just add that to ALFA2? Ideally without fragmenting our player base further than it already is.

1) I am far more likely to play on the NWN1 servers because the NWN2 servers we have simply do nothing for me and because my timezone does not lend myself to hitting DMs on anything remotely close to a regular basis.

2) Why can't we add it to NWN2? Because these servers are already built and far bigger than anything we have to offer in our NWN2 servers. I will absolutely play the Shit out of a Dalelands or Cormyr or Waterdeep server that is 500+ areas if someone builds it for NWN2, but chances are that won't be happening in any time soon. We struggle to get builders for what we already have and thanks to fears of further splitting the player base, new NWN2 servers are essentially off the table. Perhaps we are not helped by the fact that our current NWN2 servers are rehashes of servers many of us played to death in the NWN1 days.

Simply put, this provides options for players that are bored or disillusioned with what NWN2 offers or just simply prefer NWN1 over NWN2.

[Ronan]

The server is an old laptop, and its battery just died. Waiting on a new one; should be here Monday-ish (or never; yay USPS).

[HEEGZ]

I don't see a high level of interest among the current active or semi active NWN2 players/DMs; you're not going to lose adanu, foam, talonbreak, etc. to NWN1.

It's mostly folks who aren't involved with NWN2 at all currently returning to ALFA plus a handful of others (castano, rumple,) who aren't really actively playing/DMing NWN2 anyway getting involved. Heegz might be the biggest 'loss' as he was quite active until BG went down a couple of weeks ago and shifted his focus to NWN1, although he sounds like he plans on trying to keep up with both platforms to some extent.

I'd like to try and play on both ideally, we'll see. Haven't installed NWN1 yet, though I plan to.

So yes, overall so far it looks to me like more of a net gain as far as players, not a net loss.

Overall I'm somewhat torn, slightly concerned, but atm I'm for a 'let it play out and see what happens' approach as long as there isn't a drain on resources needed for NWN2. On the one hand, if NWN1 servers, players, and DMs offer a better experience than NWN2 (which is a serious possibility, the NWN2 game has been lethargic at least on 2 out of the 4 servers recently), that's where people who actually have NWN1 will go, as opposed to barely logging on to dead NWN2 servers they weren't interested in to begin with. Nothing wrong with that. Hard to say at this point if that might happen or if things might fizzle out after a short run.

On the other hand, I do wonder if some of the energy/effort/time going into NWN1 could've been directed towards improving the NWN2 experience, and lament that isn't being pursued as much as it could be. I too fondly remember many of the better points of NWN1/old alfa and get frustrated by some aspects of 2, but I still would love to see 2 revitalized. As I've stated elsewhere I'm hoping at least some folks get inspired/recharged by playing 1 again, and take that energy to improve 2.

Really, after reading some recent threads this development isn't all that surprising; ALFA currently has a big spread of preferred playstyles and things are quite fragmented; there's a strong sense of 'I want to play my game the way I want it'. Splitting off into 2 platforms is in some ways the natural outcome of 'you go over there and do your thing, I'll go over here and do mine' when people can't or won't work/play together.

Ultimately I don't think NWN1 is the biggest threat/hindrance to the NWN2 game for ALFA; there's some other obstacles that need to be addressed.

I was going to type up some more thoughts, but this sums up my outlook.

I've spent some time, maybe 5 hours, working on getting the technical stuff related to this NWN1 idea sorted out. In the past week or two, I've spent maybe 20-30 hours working on new content for NWN2. I've not been posting much about this new stuff because I am still organizing the information about it. It has also involved creating new forums, just like this project has. Expect some new info soon.

I'm not sure what is going on with the "tech support" side-conversation. I spoke to Zelk for an hour or so last week about the NWN1 haks. Outside of that, it's already been agreed that we won't be bothering her or any other tech team members for support for NWN1. This is pretty much a non-issue, and some of the stuff being posted is baffling.

I think my next post in this thread will be when the server is online. There's not a whole lot more to talk about at this point, unless people want to post preferences for the server rotation.

The server is an old laptop, and its battery just died. Waiting on a new one; should be here Monday-ish (or never; yay USPS).

[edit]
Thanks for the update. Good timing, heh.

[Galadorn]

Thank you HEEGZ (and others) for the effort and dedication!

[JonnyJerny]

Since the GameSpy thing is down does that mean a pirated copy of NWN1 would be able to connect to the multiplayer servers