NWN Dark Sun

[Tonden Ockay]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/file3.guildlaunch.net/499866/NWN%20Dark%20Sun%20Icon%20Done%20003.png


NWN Dark Sun

Our goal for this project is to recreate the world of Athas ( Dark Sun ) using NWN (Neverwinter Nights). You can get the complete NWN game on the Beamdog Store or on Steam.

Dark Sun is an original Dungeon & Dragons campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas known as Dark Sun. The product line began with with the original Dark Sun Boxed Set setting which was released by TSR for AD&D 2nd Edition in 1991. The product was released again and updated by Wizards of the Coast for D&D 4th Edition in 2010.

Contact use at:
Website: http://nwndarksun.gamerlaunch.com/
On Discord: NWN Dark Sun
My name on it is Tonden#9076
Facebook: NWN Dark Sun


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About us:

A lot of work went into this project to get it to where it is today. So I will start of by giving you some back ground on how this project got to where it is current state. Dizzitt Gradan and I (Tonden Ockay) are really close friends in real life and have know each other 27+ years. We first started playing PnP AD&D 2nd Edition Dark Sun in 1992 and still to this day it was some of the funnest PnP times we ever had. We had just about every 2e Dark Sun book/adventure made and read through them all many times. We really loved and enjoyed the Dark Sun Campaign. So in Dec of 2015 the two of us started the discussion with each other about recreating the Dark Sun Campaign we loved so much using NWN.

We continued to talk about thing over the coming months trying to lay out and decide on what we really wanted to accomplish with a NWN Dark Sun world. We took our time until we felt confident on what it was we wanted to do and that we would see this project through. It was at this point in time (in the fall of 2016) that we started reaching out to the NWN community and recruited a very small team of Dark Sun fans. At which point we spent the rest of 2016 searching through years of content on the Vault downloading anything that we felt might be useable for Dark Sun. Then going through all of it picking out what we felt we could use. Then it all got sorted through pulling out what all we wanted to keep and then created base haks for each area.

- Races
- Items
- Placeables
- Creatures
- Classes
- Sky's
- 2da's

After all that we still needed a really nice desert tileset and after spending a lot of time searching and testing different ones we realized we really needed to create a custom one.


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This led to most of 2017 being spent researching/learning to work with all the different custom content files and tools needed to change the NWN Forgotten Realms setting into a full Dark Sun game world. Along with learning Gmax to be able to create fully custom models. Plus there was a lot we didn't know or understand when it came to the limits of the game engine, which we had to learn as well. Due to all of this is a lot of time was spent at this point in the process. However by the end of 2017 we really had started the ground work on a total custom desert city tiles and playable character models.

By the summer of 2018 we had a small collection of some really nice custom models that we felt we could start sharing. This was when we felt that it would be a good time to ramp up recruiting.

Currently our team has been growing a little each week and we are seeing some really great things being create. Even though we have a nice foundation started, we are still in the development process. So a lot of work still needs to be done.

There for we still could use people who know how or are willing to learn how to create custom models and/or scripts. The nice thing is everyone on our team is willing to help others to learn. So don’t be afraid if this sounds like something you would like to do we will help you help us

- 3d Model Creators using Gmax, 3dsMax, Maya, or Blender
- Class Development (help with Dark Sun Classes)
- Setting up NPC's, Creatures, and Quests using NWN Toolset
- Scripter using NWScript https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NWScript

[LibraryOgre]

Will this be for the original NWN or NWN:EE?

[Tonden Ockay]

Will this be for the original NWN or NWN:EE?

This will be for EE for a few reasons. First it allows for players to see all the different servers being hosted once again, like it did before the support for that was dropped. Second it opens up a lot more for custom races and classes. Third it has support going forward from a game company, which is great for updates and bug fixes.

[Tonden Ockay]

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Raised Ground Cliffs


It took far more time then I ever thought that is would creating these raised ground cliffs. I learned so much from then, when it comes to what can and can’t be done. That is part of the nice thing when it comes to creating something from scratch.


Now what was it that I wanted from these cliffs one might ask?


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1. - No flat clear cut sharp straight line along the bottom of the cliffs where they meet the ground. I didn’t want it to look as if the cliff had flat bottoms to them being placed on a flat even ground. Instead I wanted it to look more blended and natural as if sand has blown up against the bottom of them.

2. - No straight clear cut lines where the sand ends and the rock begins on top of the cliffs. I wanted it to look more natural. So I created a custom texture that slowly blends the two together.

3a. - No sand at the top of the cliffs along the edge ( so it looks as if the sand get blown of the top next to edges)

3b. - Smoother tiles so that they look as if blowing sand has sanded off their sharp edges over time.

When creating these cliffs they really made me have to think outside the box to get what I wanted and work with in the limits of the game engine. So I have to try a few different ideas before I came up with the current look I now have.

[Tonden Ockay]

We are always recruiting for this project.

- (Classes) We need for someone go class by class tweaking each one for Dark Sun. There are a good bit of changes that will need to be made for different classes.(edited)

- (Creature erf) We need someone to go through our creature hak and one by one create each creature in the toolset leveling them up, giving them the correct AC, BAB, HP, Attacks, Skills, and Abilities. Then take in game screenshots of them and make custom portraits for each one. After all of them are done they would need to be exported in one large erf. This will allow for use to import the erf into the server module and have all creatures created and working.(edited)

- (Spells) We need someone to go through some of the spells to make them more Dark Sun and MMO compatible.

- (Advertising) We could use someone who would take and create a really nice "Weekly Highlight" every week of something we have done the the project. These things could range between a Creatures, a Player Model, an NPC, a Class, a Placeable, a Tilesets Model, a Script, a spell, and so on. You only only need to take a nice screenshot or two of it and if there is a Dark Sun painting/picture of the same thing on the internet you could post it as well or do a side by side to show how close we are trying to be. Then you would do a write up talking about who created it, thanking them and so on. Again this would only need to be done once a week and then post it to all the websites that we are Advertising on. Then through out the week check on those sites in case someone has a question or is looking to join the team.

- (3d Modeling) Making 3D models creatures, items, placeables, clothing, armor, weapons, NPC's, mounts, or tilesets. We have 5 people in this area so far, but we still need a lot of help in this area.(edited)

- (Scripter) Creating Custom Scripts, We have 4 people in this area already but we could always use more help.

If you have the time and think you would enjoy working on this project please contact me here on the forums or on Discord (My Discord name is Tonden#9076)

[Tonden Ockay]

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When I first started out with trying to learn how to create custom content for NWN1, I began with texturing. I would just pick different things in tileset I liked the looks of and retexture something I felt may look a little better to me if I was to change it.

So when Dizzitt first started talking about Dark Sun for NWN he showed me a sky that someone had made for NWN1 to be used for Dark Sun. After looking at it for a while I started to wonder what kind of sky I could make using paint.net 1 (which is the first paint program I started working with beyond paint that comes with windows).

I looked around online and found some sunsets of here on earth and played around with them a while until they started to look like how I felt a Dark Sun sky should look, from all the Dark Sun paintings I had seen over the years. I then took the twin moons from one painting and the sun I used from another painting. However the sun wasn’t complete so I had to do a lot of work to it in order to get the full thing.

Using the different layers in paint.net 1 I was able to have two copies of the sky with the sun and moon in between them, which allowed for me to delete parts of the top layer/first sky to allow for the moon and sun to show through and allowed for the other sky behind them to help blended everything together.

Anyway this was the first thing I really did for the Dark Sun Project over 2 years ago. I have learned so much since then and at some point I will try to see if I can create a better looking sky for the project. However for now this sky is the one we are currently using.

[Poldron56]

Even though I do not have the capabilities to aid you on your project, I must say that it looks amazing so far.
I hope everything goes well and I wish the best of luck! ;)

[Tonden Ockay]

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Draygoth is a member of our team here at NWN Dark Sun, who is responsible for creating custom 3D Mounts and Creature models for the project. We really love the work that he is doing because like most of us on this project Draygoth is more concerned with the quality of work he is doing vs speed. He is a valuable member of the team and we are luck to have him.

So thanks Draygoth for all you have done and are still doing for this project.

We are still currently looking for more people who would like to join our team and help with this project. Here is just a small list of things you could be working on.

- Website work
- Recruiting
- Art work
- Interactive Map
- 3D model creation
- Scripting (code)
- NWNX Setup (yes this is something we are looking into for the online server)
- Website to Server features
- Discord to Server features

So if you have the time and would enjoy working with a great group a people come join us.

[Tonden Ockay]

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This team really is working on recreating a living 3D world of Athas (Dark Sun Setting) that we all know and love using NWN (Neverwinter Nights)

I want to thank Azimn for the work he is doing for our NWN Dark Sun Project. Azimn is the newest member of our team, who is currently working on recreating some of the iconic Dark Sun NPCs.

We now currently have six different people on the team who can create 3D custom models.

That said, we are still currently looking for more people who would like to join our team and help with this project. Here is just a small list of things you could be working on.

- Website work
- Recruiting
- Art work
- Interactive Map
- 3D model creation
- Scripting (code)
- NWNX Setup (yes this is something we are looking into for the online server)
- Website to Server features
- Discord to Server features

So if you have the time and would enjoy working with a great group a people come join us.