Things I am not thankful for - Apple stupidity

Time for a post about the company I have had a love-hate relationship with since the mid-80's (the relationship is older than that but prior to the mid-80's I found nothing to hate about Apple). So many irritations lately that I have to vent. I suppose it would be different if I were a heavy Windows user, but would it be better? Sometimes I am so tempted by their stupidity to make the switch.

The 2011 Mac Mini - no internal DVD drive. Really? Great if all I want to do is stream content from the web but woefully inadequate for anything else. My guess (and I'm not the first to guess this) is that earlier versions with a built-in DVD, Front Row, and HDMI output were cutting into their sales for the 2 generation Apple TV. So they eliminated the DVD drive and removed Front Row from Lion just to increase sales of a lower profit margin streaming device. Stupid.

The external Apple iSight microphone does not work properly with FaceTime 1.1.1 although it worked with earlier versions. No explanation given by Apple. I've asked for a refund on FaceTime. If Apple had an iSight 2 then that would be fine, but to break backwards compatibility with Apple products for no reason and with no alternative product is just stupid. [Update: Reportedly this is fixed in the 10.7.3 update.] [Update: It took over two months to get it fixed, but it was fixed in 10.7.3.]

Crippling the power output of the iPad via software. The iPad camera connection kit allowed many USB keyboards to be connected to the iPad directly, including older Apple keyboards. This was handy when the iPad was being used in flight. Then Apple lowered the power output in an iOS update without announcing they were doing so breaking this capability. This could easily have just been implemented as a power setting but no. Apple breaks it with no valid reason. Stupid.

Magic Mouse disconnects with Lion. You'd think that a recent OS version designed for touch should work with recent Apple hardware like the Magic Mouse also designed for touch. But it doesn't. The mouse disconnects all the time. I never noticed this on Snow Leopard. Sometimes the scrolling stops working as well until you reboot. Apple's QA testing is definitely inadequate these days. I have to have a USB mouse connected just in case the Magic Mouse stops working. Stupid.

Lion drops PPC apps and Front Row. Again, there is really no good reason that Rosetta couldn't continue to be supported in Lion. And certainly no valid reason to drop Front Row except to break something that competed with another product of theirs. Just entirely stupid.

Of course these pale compared to the monstrous stupidities of the past such as killing the Apple IIGS, the Newton (yes, Siri, the artificial intelligence introduced with iPhone 4S finally after 15 years allows something similar to the Newton Assist feature without requiring the stylus that Steve Jobs disliked), and Hypercard. Sometimes Apple can be insanely stupid about killing off products that were insanely great.

And then the straw that broke the camel's back in this case is that they rejected with no reason given a perfectly good post I made in the Mac App Store about Neverwinter Nights 2.  Stupid. Here it is:

Great to see a fully patched no-CD version available for Mac OS. Though this understandably does not include the expansions or Adventure Pack, if you have access to Windows via Bootcamp or a VM and also purchase the Windows versions (current best buys are NWN2 Platinum on Steam which includes both expansions or Atari's Neverwinter Nights Collection which also includes both the expansions and also the Mysteries of Westgate Adventure Pack), then you can install the Windows versions and then copy over the appropriate files to run them natively on the Mac. Instructions have been posted on my blog (bbellina.blogspot.com) and both the nwn2mac.freeforums.org and social.bioware.com NWN2 forums. The NWN2 forums at Bioware are the most active community support forums for NWN2.

While the base game has many hours of play and an almost infinite variety of races and classes to choose from for your main protagonist, the real strength of NWN2 is with the completely free access to Persistent Worlds hosted online and the large amount of community authored custom campaigns that can be downloaded for free from the Neverwinter Nights Vault (nwvault.ign.com). Many of which rival or surpass the campaign that comes with the game. Installation of custom content on the Mac App store version is made slightly more complicated because the place to install such content is now the hidden user Library/Application Support/Neverwinter Nights 2 folder. Navigating to this folder can be done by running Terminal.app and typing the command "open Library" (without the quotes).

If all you do is download this game and do not avail yourself of the community forums and custom content that is freely available then all you will get is a good D&D 3.5 based game that lasts 20-40 hours. If you start installing custom content, playing free campaigns, and using the free Persistent Worlds then the entertainment is endless.  If you like playing in Bootcamp then a better buy is the Windows Steam NWN2 Platinum or the Atari NWN Collection because those include the two expansions.

How to install NWN2 Custom Content

Installing custom content on NWN2 is made somewhat complicated by the fact that every platform and OS has its own way of storing application programs and user content. I'm listing here the default locations of these so that when downloading custom content it will be more clear where it should be installed.

NWN2 always installs two sets of very similar folders. One set is for official content and one for user specific content.

One set of the folders is for official game content. This set is always associated with the Application, so I'll refer to them as the "Application folders". Modifications should almost never be made to the folders and files in the Application folders. This was more important when the game was still being actively patched because custom content in the Applications folders could break the patching system. There are a few exceptions to this including the OC Makeover SoZ Edition and MotB Makeover SoZ Edition.

A second set of folders is installed to allow user modifications and these are generally installed in some kind of user specific Document location, so I'll refer to them as the "User folders". Custom content is almost always installed in the User folders. When something should be installed in the "campaigns", "modules", "override" or "hak" folder these are referring to subfolders within the User folder.

Windows XP standard installation from game discs:
App folder: C:\Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Night 2\
User folder: C:\Document and Settings\[user]\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\

Windows 7 standard installation from game discs:
App folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\
User folder: C:\Users\[user]\Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\

Windows XP/7 installation from Steam:
App folder: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\neverwinter nights 2\
Windows XP User folder: C:\Document and Settings\[user]\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\
Windows 7 User folder: C:\Users\[user]\Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\

Mac OS standard installation from game discs:
App folder: Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/
User folder: Users/[user]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/

Mac OS standard installation from Mac App Store:
App folder: Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2.app/Contents/Data/
 (to open this right-click on the Neverwinter Nights 2.app icon and select Show Package Content from the context menu)
User folder: Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Neverwinter Nights 2/
 (to open this start the Terminal utility and issue the command "open Library" (without the quotes))

Getting NWN2 expansions working on Mac

Note: A followup blog post about installing NWN2 using Wineskin is here.

One of the irritating things about being a Macintosh user is that the games I am interested in playing usually have little or no Macintosh support, so I have to run Windows in emulation to satisfy the gaming urge. Of course for years Apple has allowed Bootcamp to be used to launch Windows natively on Intel Macs and even before that there were fairly decent Windows emulators for fast PowerPC Macs. Recently some game companies have begun shipping Windows+Mac versions, which are really Windows versions wrapped with an open source product so that they run on a Mac without the need to have Windows installed. These work ok if you don't mind waiting until a +1 patch to fix incompatibility issues that crop up. Where possible I try to play the native Mac versions of games, but I always buy the Windows versions as well since I figure they are likely to have better support and greater longevity.

The original NWN2 is available in a native Mac version published by Aspyr which runs well on Mac OS X. They did release a Mac NWN2 1.23 (1765) patch which is compatible with the Windows 1.23 patch with the exception that the DVD protection requiring the disk to be installed while playing was not removed. Mac NWN2 can also be purchased from the Mac App Store and that version does not require a CD to play. Unfortunately no NWN2 Mac version includes the NWN2 Toolset, which means that you need the Windows version to build mods and the small number of mods that require Toolset use will not work on Mac.

The expansions - Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir, and the Adventure Pack "Mysteries of Westgate" - were only released for Windows though. They are Mac compatible but not directly installable.

There are a few options for getting the Windows versions of the expansions to install on Mac. I've only had success with one way though, so that is what I have documented (here and elsewhere). This way requires that you have Bootcamp running with Windows XP (or 7 though the file locations might be different), and have the Windows version of NWN2 installed on that Windows partition, as well as having the Mac version of NWN2 (from CD or Mac App Store) installed on your Mac OS X partition. Basically you install the Windows versions on the Windows partitions and then copy the files from the Windows partition to the Mac OS X partition. I've done this several times with MotB, SoZ, and MoW and encountered no issues.


Instructions for getting the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansions (MotB and SoZ) and the Adventure Pack MoW to work on Mac (CD or Mac App Store installation):
Last updated by Brendan Bellina aka Kaldor Silverwand Nov 24, 2011

Any use of these instructions is at the user's risk.

Original threads:
<http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=722567&forum=139>
<http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=708158&forum=139&sp=15>
<http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=708158&forum=139&sp=60>

Installation of MotB and/or SoZ:

Requires:

Mac installation of:
- Standard Mac NWN2 OC installation from Disk with 1.23 patch
or
- NWN2 Installation from Mac App Store

- Windows installation (Bootcamp or VM) of MotB and/or SoZ accessible from Mac OS X

Using a Steam Windows install as the source:
When using a Windows Steam install as the source (rather than an install from original game disks) the source folders are named differently:
References to "C:\Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Night 2\Campaigns\Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign\" and its subfolders would on Steam be folder "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\neverwinter nights 2\Campaigns\Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign\" and its subfolders.
The Modules folder for Steam is "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\neverwinter nights 2\Modules".

Using the Mac App Store version as the target:
This works when using the Mac App Store as a target but the folders are named differently than they would be if applying to a version installed from originals disks:
References to the Applications/Neverwinter Nights/ folder and its subfolders would for the Mac App Store version be Neverwinter Nights.app/Contents/ which can be accessed by right (or control) clicking the Neverwinter Nights 2.app icon and selecting Show Package Contents from the context menu.
References to the Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/ folder and its subfolders would for the Mac App Store version be Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Neverwinter Nights 2/. If the Library folder is hidden (by default on Lion) then the easiest way to navigate to this folder is to launch the Terminal.app utility and type the command "open Library" (without the quotes) which will open a Finder window.

Important Note:
Unless you install the Mac App Store version the NWN2 OC CD will still be required to be in the drive in order to play, even though it is not required when playing on Windows.

(MotB and SoZ instructions adapted from Rhistin's instructions)

Step one: don't get lost with the two Data folders
The Mac-side, holds a (first) Data folder, containing a (second) Data folder. For clarity, I keep on adding (first) and (second) throughout these instructions.

Step two: File copying from the PC-side to the Mac-side.

Copy both Ambient_X1 and Ambient_X2 folders to the (first) Data Folder.
Copy both Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign_X1 and Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign_X1 folders to the Campaigns folder in the (first) Data folder.
Copy the following from/to the (second) Data folder:
- 2DA_X1.zip
- 2DA_X2.zip
- Actors_v103x1.zip
- Actors_X1.zip
- Actors_X2.zip
- AnimTags_X1.zip
- AnimTags_X2.zip
- Convo_X1.zip
- Ini_X1.zip
- lod-merged_X1_v121.zip
- lod-merged_X1.zip
- lod-merged_X2_v121.zip
- lod-merged_X2.zip
- Music_X1.zip
- Music_X2.zip
- NWN2_Materials_v103x1.zip
- NWN2_Materials_X1_v113.zip
- NWN2_Materials_X1_v121.zip
- NWN2_Materials_X1.zip
- NWN2_Materials_X2.zip
- NWN2_Models_v103x1.zip
- NWN2_Models_X1_v121.zip
- NWN2_Models_X1.zip
- NWN2_Models_X2_v121.zip
- NWN2_Models_X2.zip
- NWN2_VFX_X1.zip
- NWN2_VFX_X2.zip
- Prefabs_X1.zip
- Prefabs_X2.zip
- scripts_X1.zip
- scripts_X2.zip
- Sounds_X1.zip
- Sounds_X2.zip
- SoundSets_X1.zip
- SoundSets_X2.zip
- SpeedTree_X1.zip
- SpeedTree_X2.zip
- Templates_X1_v122.zip
- Templates_X1.zip
- Templates_X2.zip
- VO_103x1.zip
- VO_X1.zip
- VO_X2.zip
- walkmesh_X1.zip

Copy the following from/to the Modules folder:
- A_X1.mod
- B_X1.mod
- C_X1.mod
- D_X1.mod
- E_X1.mod
- F_X2.mod
- G_X2.mod
- M_X2.mod
- N_X2.mod
- O_X2.mod
- S_X2.mod
- T_X2.mod
- X_X2.mod
- Z_X1.mod

Copy the complete content of/to the Movies folder

Copy both Music_X1 and Music_X2 folders to the (first) Data Folder.

Note: TheRealCraze on the Bioware boards posted that he found that the Mac App Store version of NWN2 is not looking in the Music_X1 and Music_X2 folders for the music related to the expansions. So if you want to hear the MotB and SoZ expansion music with the Mac App Store version of the game you have to copy the content of the Music_X1 and Music_X2 folders into the Music folder. 

 Copy the UI folder from/to the UI folder in the (first) Data folder (replacing duplicates).
Copy the dialog.TLK file from PC to Mac side, replacing the old one.

Copy folders from Windows Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\ into Mac Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/:
- portraits
- Documentation

Copy files from Windows Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\ Localvault\ into Mac Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/Localvault/:
- All ".bic" files

Step three: Updating registration keys

Open in TextEdit the file Windows Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\nwncdkey.ini and copy the lines starting with "Key2=" and "Key3=" to the clipboard.
Append those lines to the file in Mac Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/nwncdkey.ini (if you installed NWN2 from the Mac App Store this would instead be the file Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Neverwinter Nights 2/nwncdkey.ini).
-----------------

Installing Mysteries of Westgate on the Mac:

Requires:
- Standard Mac NWN2 OC installation from Disk with 1.23 patch <http://support.aspyr.com/index.php/kb/article/000602>
or
- NWN2 Installation from Mac App Store

- Windows installation (Bootcamp or VM) of MoW accessible from Mac OS X

Using a Steam Windows install as the source:
When using a Windows Steam install as the source (rather than an install from original game disks) the source folders are named differently:
References to "C:\Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Night 2\Campaigns\Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign\" and its subfolders would on Steam be folder "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\neverwinter nights 2\Campaigns\Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign\" and its subfolders.
The Modules folder for Steam is "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\neverwinter nights 2\Modules".

Using the Mac App Store version as the target:
This works when using the Mac App Store as a target but the folders are named differently than they would be if applying to a version installed from originals disks:
References to the Applications/Neverwinter Nights/ folder and its subfolders would for the Mac App Store version be Neverwinter Nights.app/Contents/ which can be accessed by right (or control) clicking the Neverwinter Nights 2.app icon and selecting Show Package Contents from the context menu.
References to the Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/ folder and its subfolders would for the Mac App Store version be Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Neverwinter Nights 2/. If the Library folder is hidden (by default on Lion) then the easiest way to navigate to this folder is to launch the Terminal.app utility and type the command "open Library" (without the quotes).


Copy folder Windows "Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\AdventurePacks"
to Mac "Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/"

Copy folder Windows "Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\hak"
to Mac "Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/"

Copy from folder Windows "Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\Movies\" files:
Westgate_Credits.bik
Westgate_Intro.bik
to Mac "Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/Movies/"

Copy from folder Windows "Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\" files:
westgate.key
westgate.tlk
to Mac "Applications/Neverwinter Nights 2/Data/"

Copy folder Windows "Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\Campaigns\Westgate_Campaign"
to Mac "Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/Campaigns/"

Copy from folder Windows "Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\modules\" files:
Westgate_AR1500,mod
Westgate_AR1600.mod
Westgate_AR1700.mod
Westgate_AR1800.mod
to Mac "Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/modules/"

Copy from folder Windows "Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\music\" files:
mus_wg_arena_night.bmu
mus_wg_arena.bmu
mus_wg_bat_endbattle.bmu
mus_wg_bat_nightmasks.bmu
mus_wg_catacombs.bmu
mus_wg_evilending.bmu
mus_wg_evilendloop.bmu
mus_wg_garden.bmu
mus_wg_goodending.bmu
mus_wg_goodendloop.bmu
mus_wg_harbor_night.bmu
mus_wg_harbor.bmu
mus_wg_intro.bmu
mus_wg_kajeels.bmu
mus_wg_market.bmu
mus_wg_maskvision.bmu
mus_wg_ruins.bmu
mus_wg_tavern1.bmu
mus_wg_tavern2.bmu
mus_wg_temple.bmu
mus_wg_undergate.bmu
to Mac "Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/music/"

Copy from folder Windows "Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\" files:
westgate.ini
to Mac "Users/[username]/Documents/Aspyr/Neverwinter Nights 2/"

-----------------

Hopefully the above instructions will be useful.

Implementing the SoZ Death system

I have the instructions posted in a few places for how to integrate the SoZ Death system into a campaign. But since one of those places is now defunct and another one's future is suspect, I think I'll post the instructions again here. Hopefully Google will be around for the long haul.

Implementing the SoZ death system in a campaign: 
When setting up the SoZ death system in my own campaigns this is what I have found: First, this will only work in campaigns. Using the campaign editor plugin set PartyMemberDying to TRUE. If you do not do this then the player will not bleed from -1 to -10, and will instead jump right from 0 to -10. The required scripts from SoZ are: 
ginc_death 
k_death_remove_gui  k_mod_load (to be used as the module On Load script)  k_mod_player_death (to be used as the module On Player Death script)  k_mod_player_dying (to be used as the module On Player Dying script) k_mod_load contains some SoZ cohort specific code and some SoZ module specific trade code that can be commented out. The significant thing it is doing regarding the death system is this line which makes sure that dead party members are transitioned with the party when switching areas, rather than being left behind:  SetGlobalInt( VAR_GLOBAL_NX2_TRANSITIONS, TRUE); If you allow characters to die and your first PC does, then when you try to have any other party member converse with an NPC the dead body of the first PC will switch with the conversing party member. To avoid this you can set all NPCs to be able to talk to non player-owned creatures. An easy way to do this if you do not want to alter all of the creature blueprints you have is to take advantage of a line in the k_mod_load script which sets a script name to be executed for any creature being spawned in with the standard spawn in script:  SetGlobalString("N2_SCRIPT_SPAWN_CREATURE", "kb_default_sp" ); This campaign spawn script can be used to control treasure on creatures, but can also be used to set the talk to non player-owned creatures and any other custom spawn in code. I also use it to randomize creature and citizen appearances. Look at the bb_kingsfestival_sp script in my Harvest of Chaos: King's Festival + Queen's Harvest campaign if you want to do this. A cautionary note about allowing all NPC's to speak to party members: If you have NPCs set to speak to non player owned creatures then you may have a problem if you use the gb_surrender_hb script. This script causes a creature to surrender after being damaged and then start a conversation with the nearest party member. If the NPC is set to talk to non-player owned creatures then it may start a conversation with someone other than your currently selected PC, in which case the conversation will not work properly. To avoid this problem I set an integer variable on any creature with a conversation that should only speak to the main PC and the script checks for that. The variable is BB_USEMYTALKVAL and when set to 1 my campaign script will not alter the default Talk setting on the creature. k_mod_player_death is pretty clean and doesn't contain any SoZ specific code that can be removed. It executes the k_death_remove_gui script. k_mod_player_dying doesn't contain any SoZ specific code that can be removed. As long as your companions use the standard gb_comp scripts they should be handled correctly. 

So if all you want is to mimic the SoZ death system in your campaign the above should be enough. 
 In my campaigns I do quite a bit more though so that in easy mode the death system from the OC is used rather than the SoZ system. I also apply xp penalties for dying.

Converting Harvest of Chaos to NWN2

Harvest of Chaos: King's Festival + Queen's Harvest

While my work on Gems of Power continued into January 2008, I continued to find myself yearning to release something with more substance than the Silverwand Sample Campaign and I knew that I was many many months from being able to release Gems of Power. So I turned my attention to a Dungeons & Dragons Official Game Adventure that I had had on my shelf since 1989 and had never done anything with: King's Festival by Carl Sargent.  King's Festival was an introductory module and its 32 pages included a plot, maps, and descriptions of two dungeon levels. I thought that using that source material I could quickly turn out something that would be fun to play. King's Festival is set in the land of Karameikos, so my lack of in depth knowledge of the Forgotten Realms was not a significant problem.

Harvest of Chaos World Map

During the time that I was developing the King's Festival campaign Obsidian released the Storm of Zehir expansion. This distracted me for some time, especially since I found that I enjoyed the party editor and the death system in SoZ and decided to rewrite my work on King's Festival to utilize them. Since it was clear from the Bioware forums that people also preferred the crafting system of SoZ I decided to look into utilizing that as well.

King's Festival was released in May 2009 and included most of the SoZ features. I did not include an Overland Map because it seemed like overkill for such a small campaign and the documentation available for building one was sparse at the time. I chose to allow any party members to speak with NPC's rather than using the SoZ Party Conversation system. I also included Amie from the NWN2 OC as a playable companion since she was dealt a bad hand in the OC.

I later expanded King's Festival into the Harvest of Chaos by adding the Queen's Harvest adventure content also by Carl Sargent. While Harvest of Chaos isn't a perfect match for the published materials, I feel that it represents a good balance between what can be done in tabletop play and what can be designed with the toolset. Like any Dungeon Master would be expected to do I expanded upon the written content to some degree, providing some further explanation as to the actions of the main characters and filling in some blanks, but left the major plot points as written.

After I released King's Festival I was ready to turn my attention back to Gems of Power development. Little did I know that my work adapting the SoZ death system, party editor, and crafting systems for King's Festival would lead directly into my next project, one that would result in my playing all the way through the OC a second time (something I swore I would never do) and developing one of the most popular mods for the OC: the NWN2 OC Makeover SoZ Edition.

NWN2 - Year One (Nov 2006 - Nov 2007)

Note: It has been a long while and I am writing these notes from memory, so some inaccuracies in the timeline are bound to creep in.

I started playing NWN2 in late 2006. Planning to build right from the start I purchased both the NWN2 World Editor Guide and the NWN2 Official Strategy Guide from Brady Games. I installed Bootcamp and Windows XP on a Mac OS X laptop and then installed the NWN2 OC. I was pleased with the player creation abilities and also initially pleased that you could have multiple companions. It wasn't long though before I found myself frustrated with many things about the game. I had been hoping that the ability to control multiple companions indicated that the developers recognized the benefits of returning to a gaming style more similar to Baldur's Gate than NWN, but that was unfortunately not the case. Most of the features of NWN2 were developed to serve the purposes of the plot, not the other way around. In other words, they thought up a plot and then decided what features would be required to best implement it, rather than deciding on a feature set and then building an adventure that best demonstrated them.  At least, that it how it played. The player is completely controlled by the game designers and there is no real sense of freedom or risk. My disappointment led to frustration and eventually I was just hoping it would end. I used the Strategy Guide to move things along at a faster clip and eventually reached the ending, which I found depressingly bad.

Silverwand Sample Campaign
World Map

Thinking that I could do better myself, I launched myself into the toolset and began planning an epic adventure, tentatively titled "Gems of Power". I found the toolset to be daunting and buggy and clunky even for a Windows app, but it didn't require any additional resources except time, persistence, and enthusiasm and I was certain I could make progress quickly. Months passed planning my campaign, building areas, and writing scripts and conversations. Eventually I realized that I wouldn't have anything to show for all of this effort for some time and decided that it made sense to work on a smaller project. I knew from the Bioware NWN2 boards that most modders at the time were building modules, just as they had for NWN rather than building campaigns. Campaigns seemed like a much better way to build, so I decided that I would figure out what was needed to create a sample campaign and make that available so that new modders would have something to work from. Thus the Silverwand Sample Campaign was born. This is just a sample campaign that has two modules and a few areas and demonstrates many of the features required for a simple campaign to function, including a world map, companions, henchmen, journal entries, tag-based scripting, and some ambient life. It was uploaded to the NWN2 Vault in May 2007 and can now be found along with all of my NWN2 mods here.

I was about to return to developing the Gems of Power when Mask of the Betrayer was released (Oct 2007), so I purchased it and began playing.  I didn't get very far before deciding that it was as controlling as the NWN2 OC had been and so I quit playing. I continued to create items and became a fairly frequent poster on the Bioware boards, often developing small scripts for others.