A Land Far Away

Castano and I have been kicking around the idea of bringing back a NWN1 server. Some ideas have been to rotate the server location every few months. Another idea is to have two servers, like an urban and rural one. Specifically, we were thinking we could try bringing back WD and TLR.

Was wondering if anyone wanted to give some input about what this idea might look like. Do you have server preferences? A single server, versus several? What sort of rotation might we consider? Would you be interested in DMing or building somewhere in particular? Is this something that would be good for our community, or are there negatives that might rule it out?

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[UPDATE]
All of our NWN1 haks and the tlk file are uploaded to the website now. I have put some suggestions for NWN1 installation into a readme, as well as a brief explanation of where to extract the files. I've also uploaded the optional portraits, and music haks will be added soon. The download link is found here:

http://www.alandfaraway.org/downloads

As a former TLR (and wd) stalwart...

Wow.

Good choice, it's (tlr) adventure central. It has challenges for every level. I wonder if the old wayfarer fort still stands...

Or a certain orphanage in Red Larch.

I think its a good thing, a breath of fresh air. Might attract some folks back (or not). The vast sizes of the place will be a nice change at least.

Will it counter low player numbers? Not without organisation (same as our nwn2 servers).

The real interesting question is can we combine the servers IC with our current crop. PCs cannot cross the technology divide, BUT plots can.

The butterfly flaps its wings in WD, and the WHL burn type thing.

We're still formulating exactly how it would work, but we want to keep things low tech and low labor. Haks would be basically static, no updates etc.

My thoughts are (1) capture more of our member's gaming time and (2) possibly recruit some of the nwn1 folks into ALFA and (3) offer a place for people to DM who don't want to DM nwn2.

What this would basically come down to is this: out of the old servers that were updated to the 1.91 has (I don't believe TLR was btw) where would DMs prefer?

I love the idea of bringing NWN1 servers back as the platform is, in my opinion, vastly superior to NWN2, but you are not going to capture much additional playing time without DMs and if a DM does not want to DM a certain location, rotating them around won't really work. Additionally, regularly rotating the server that is up wrecks havoc with the continuity of the characters people make.

Another thing would be, would the new servers hold interest to anyone but old timers? There is next to no static content on most of the NWN1 servers, spawns are very hit and miss on some of them and there are few if the conveniences that we have for our NWN2 servers. Is that even attractive to the average ALFAn any more?

What of old lore from the servers? Would we be running perfectly fresh or would old PC deeds and lore be allowed to be included?

My vote, and for anyone that knows me will find this to be no surprise, would be for Northern Cormyr. The full rebuild of the mod late in the cycle left it looking awesome, it is vast with forests, mountains and villages all over the place and the city of Arabel is fully implemented into it (since Arabel used to be it's own server). Cormyr is also full of intrigue due to friction over the ruling family and their constantly ebbing support from the nobles, so plenty of meat from less combat happy DMs.

It also has the half orcs that make the TSM ROFLorcs look like a bunch of wimps that need to hit the gym

Edit: the servers are all on the DMFTP and are sorted by the ones that were and we're not updated to the final set of haks. From memory, Waterdeep, Northern Cormyr, Baldurs Gate and Daggerford all work, though there are a couple others. I have actually been looking for The Frozen North recently but it appears it is not on the FTP. I have no idea how much work it would take to update a mod to use the last version of the haks either. Zelk would probably know as she was TA for a period near the end.

Finally. A few people can go back to seeing how NWN1 wasn't any better.

Thanks Swift, that was exactly what I was looking for. Also, I am assuming we would just be reusing old servers, but running a different timeline from NWN2 and the old NWN1 era.

Could be quite fun if done right. Not sure I understand the 'no update' thing; that was one of the bigger advantages of NWN1 over NWN2. Campaign style is probably the way to go; would be great to see campaigns like Ronan's or Rumple's run on say, WD where we start at low lvls then eventually the campaign makes it's way down to Undermountain. Change of scene in the wilderness/frontierish places like TLR would make for a nice contrast.

I didn't see much of the revamped NC, that sounds like it's got potential too (especially if Arabel has the old sewers!).

The main draw (besides elves you can stand looking at) I'd imagine would be alfa1 style campaigns with the DM running the campaign able to (more) easily update content frequently based on the plot advancement and actions/consequences of sessions. There's not enough player numbers imo to merit worrying too much about static content (which is going to be sparse anyway as already noted; although WD had a good number of static stuff I'm pretty sure TLR didn't have much) or keeping the servers populated 24/7; I don't think that needs to be the focus.

By no update they probably mean no hak updates. Adding areas/items/npcs to a NWN1 mod is a piece of cake. Presumably whoever ran the NWN1 server could add to it as they saw fit.

TLR had quite a bit of low level static content (and a ton of critters to go and whomp). But moot point if it wasnt up to par tech wise compared with other areas.

Rumple C wrote:TLR had quite a bit of low level static content (and a ton of critters to go and whomp).

Yeah.... the critter whomping (and my personal lover of TLR) was why I suggested it as an add on to the original plan of WD only.

Lots of wild animals, varied humanoids (goblins with 30 ranks in spot ) more caves, forests, dungeons, etc than you can shake a stick at.

Too bad the old girl wasn't updated.

I demand the return of VoLV.

Heero wrote:I demand the return of VoLV.

Now THAT would be interesting. Never got to play on it alas, but the setting...

Ill offer some time to building and scripting/static writing in order to make these servers come to life. Over and out. Heck, I might even be willing to DM.

Heero wrote:I demand the return of VoLV.

This must not be allowed to happen lest the ghost of Elorn rises to smite us.