[MUD-Dev] Persistent worlds in NWN (was: Retention without Addiction?)

[Matthew Dobervich]

Shren wrote:
> Matthew Dobervich wrote:

> If I'm anything other than a layman, I'm a NWN PW developer.  I
> recently signed up to develop the Spine of the World for the
> overly, overly ambitious ALFA project.  I'm not sure if I'm going
> to do it long term, but it's interesting to see inside the
> project.

I've been doing modeling, texture, and animation work for the
community.

> You left out the best bit - the NESS spawn system, which is unique
> in that it replaces core script methods with methods that are
> superior in the minds of many developers, especially PW
> developers.  It's a very impressive piece of work in it's
> flexibility.

Indeed!  The specifics aside, I guess my point is, where would EQ be
if it could have started with the source code for UO's trade skill
system?  Where would DAOC be if it could have started with the
source for EQ?

>>  It will be interesting to see how these worlds grow and mature.
>>  I have a feeling the speed of game world evolution will continue
>>  to outpace commercial MMORPGs, it is yet to be seen if they
>>  overtake commercial games in time.

> I very much doubt it - or, rather, if a modular game is going to
> outpace commercial MMORPG development, it isn't going to be NWN in
> it's current form.  That database backend would be a good step,
> and it would be doubly good if we could put characters in it and
> not have to do SAMBA hacks to span the character vault across
> multiple servers.

I guess I didn't outline my point clearly enough in my first post.
I don't believe that a NWN PW will represent financial competition
for a commercial PW.  It's apples and oranges really.  I was just
making a guess about the relative speeds of evolution in commercial
PWs as compared to NWN PWs.  How far have we come in the last 6
years in the commercial world?

Considering the fact that NWN PW developers are free to take risks
that a commercial PW developer just plain can't, considering the
fact that NWN PW developers are all building on the strengths of all
the development work that has come before them, and considering the
fact that the NWN development community in total FAR outnumber even
the most ambitious commercial PWs dev teams, I think it will be very
interesting to watch them grow, that's all.

> If it does happen, however, NWN is a very important step just
> because people are learning what it takes to do these kinds of
> things.

It's been the single most useful experience I've had in my continued
quest as a budding game developer.  I've played enough of them.
It's time to put my money where my mouth is and build my own worlds.



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