Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Burning down the gates


Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable - William Shakespeare

For the most part I like to make custom content that will be useful to the wider NWN2 community. Sometimes I do things just for fun, like the severed heads. Sometimes I make stuff that people ask for, like the Rune Placeables. My Module Testing Toolkit is targeted at a niche audience and I don't expect that will be hugely popular. But overall I like to know that I'm spending my time on building custom content that is appreciated.

The best way for me to gauge popular opinion on a particular project is to look at the downloads and votes that my NWVault submissions collect. So it's been two weeks since I re
leased the update on the BTH Watchtowers and the update has only attracted one extra vote and twenty downloads. I begin to wonder if I'm wasting my time making models that only a handful of people are going to use.

I've decided to drop the rural gate model and make the final watchtower update with the the new Archer's Platform and the walkmesh helpers. I still have to package the new models and write a how-to for the walkmesh helpers. It all takes time to do it properly and looking at the response to the previous watchtower update I don't think the additional effort involved in making a gate model is worthwhile. The new models are "more of the same" and it doesn't seem to be what builders want.

I had been thinking about re-vamping my house pack, but again, the interest in those models has been minimal. I have another 5 or 6 models that I had done previously for the Aussie NWN boys, all I need to do is package them up and submit them. But the interest from the community doesn't seem to be there.

In the meantime I've been playing with the texture for the new great sword. I have added a subtle pattern to the lower part of the blade. The pattern is a combination of diffuse texture and bump map. It doesn't jump out at you, but that was the look I was trying to achieve.

I also gave the blade a very sublte taper. It's barely noticeable, but somehow it improves the overall look of the weapon.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

BtH you need to do dresses and little latte' cups to get the votes!

(actually you'd get the downloads the same percentage of people would probably not vote)

BTH said...

NWVault voting seems to be dominated by youngins that like their bling. And I can understand that. Item overrides (such as weapons, armour, shields) often do well because the players and mod builders can get instant gratification by using them.

Placeables are a different matter. These are used almost exclusively by module builders and the players don't give them a second thought.

To my mind, the watchtowers and archer's platforms have a lot to offer any builder working on a rural setting. But the figures don't reflect that with only 300 downloads after 11 months.

There's no point flogging a dead horse.