Brainstorming for a persistent world zero-module ...

[Kosmous]

BTW, for GFF files, I messed around with item and creature blueprints I stored into mySQL and just used an SQL query to edit it while retrieving the object. I had only done it for names (back when it wasn't possible to name creatures and items yet), and the AdditionalGoldValue data of items but if that can be done, surely anything else can be edited that way. I'm not entirely sure if that's the best way to go about it though.

[etched_in_blood]

I will tell you why this will most likely not take place, and why it will most likely not get used very much if it does.

As a world builder myself, and the creator/host of three PW servers to date, I have found that the one thing that makes a server itself draw players, meaning, other than the DM's, owners, and players, is that it has the features that they like. If all the servers out there have the features that they like, then new, and upcoming servers have very little chance of hitting the point where they have a large player base. For instance, if my core was the same as every other PW out there, when I came out with my server, there would be very little reason to switch.

But if my server has systems that no one has ever seen before, and you can do incredible things that you've always wished you could do... word starts getting around, and people show up. Competition always generates innovation and improvement, and though it is important to contribute to the community as a whole, giving someone a prebuilt module that allows them to simply make a PW around it, to me personally, is a bit distasteful. In fact, I have always been a bit appalled at the packages that are currently out there.

To put my opinion more simply, I would say this. The type of people who would end up depending on a package like this are most likely the type of people who are not going to be successful in their efforts to create a PW. And the people who would generally create successful servers, probably won't use a preconfigured package like this one, because they would have already taken the time and the effort to innovate for themselves. The greatest of developers has to ask for help sometimes, but they're not going to ask someone else to do it for them. And in this day, with the NWN player base as it is, for the most part, it's only the best out there that land the players. (With rare exception of those servers who use the names of popular TV shows, movies, and Anime's in their server names to boost the popularity of their otherwise, in my experience, terrible servers.) lol

[virusman]

If most servers had features that players like, NWN community would grow. Would you still play/host NWN if there was no publicly available custom content?
Community benefits from sharing, and while there is CEP/CTP, no two PWs using CEP/CTP look the same.
And sharing is the reason why this board and this project exists. Papillon made NWNX for the PW he was developing for, and decided to release it as an open source project. If he didn't, there would be no new events, functions and plugins

[Kosmous]

Your confusing success with the number of players a server retains as "regulars". The problem with that logic is that NWN PWs aren't market oriented even though many PW admins think otherwise. This is not to say that a PW shouldn't attempt to get "outside" players, but the point of the toolset, the environment, and the community is to build something YOU want for yourself and your friends. It shouldn't matter if you have 5-6 players 2-3 hours a day at most if those people enjoy the server they are playing at.

The whole mentality that PWs should just follow what the mainstream want is ludicrous. NWN, regardless of the amount of haks and time invested into creating "systems players want" will NEVER be as good as modern MMOs. WoW, LoTRO, Warhammer Online are just three excellent reasons NOT to think that way.

You will NOT attract anyone who isn't attracted to NWN as a game already.

With that said, a open-source base module for PWs will not work unless there's enough credibility behind it. After all, why would anyone want to waste their time testing every self proclaimed "complete" PW base module out there?

Regardless, I like most people who are still playing with this aging engine do it because we like doing just that. It's unlikely that anyone (not these days anyway), will progress their career too far with NWN or attract 100s of new players with some miracle hak or tool.

[virusman]

A pre-made PW module certainly doesn't count as a "Base PW module".
By a base PW module I mean a modular, configurable, extendable set of scripts (+ framework) and infrastructure (DB, NWNX plugins, web scripts, etc.) - something you can build on, not something that looks and works the same for everyone.

[FunkySwerve]

And even if it did count as a "Base PW module", HG was build up from AW's PoA, and is currently the most populous nwn server, as well as the top-rated on the vault for over 4 years running. We also feature more custom content than most servers out there, despite the fact that we don't use haks other than CEP. Vman is correct. Methinks your ideas about what makes servers likely to be successful are in need of a little revision, etched. Specifically as they regard reinventing the wheel as opposed to building on the shoulders of those that came before you.

Funky