News
08-03-09
That's a pretty epic update gap. Module's out now. At least no one can say I spent time updating the website that should have been spent on the module.
02-05-05
Well, we've started alpha testing (the module is still grossly unfinished, but you can technically get all the way through it to the end) and things seem to be going well. I sent out emails to anyone I thought might have a faint hope of wanting to help, but I got an awful lot of user unknowns and other mail returns.
If you are interested in testing, do come along and post on the
29-09-04
Like a big idiot, I reformatted my hard drive (owing to a fatal Microsoft error) and managed to lose some of my email. I recovered most of it, but lost all of the Maugeter email people have sent me in the last year. I was storing the addresses so I could let people know when the alpha, beta and final versions were ready.
If you've emailed me about Maugeter at some point in the past and you want me to let you know when it's done, email me or post on the forums.
24-05-04
Three months? Geez. Sorry, no alpha yet. Still at the finale. I suck.
My flatmate has set up file access logging for this website, which means I get to see the retarded things people put into Google before they arrive here. At half midnight this morning - the classic "cum quests", for which Maugeter is number one. Maugeter is also for some reason number one link for "famous weaponsmiths", which is odd, if disappointingly un-retarded.
23-02-04
I'm two quests away from a playable alpha, so I'm going to start emailing people to see who wants to help alpha test.
There's a new picture of Maugeter by ChaosSquirrel on the Maugeter World Page.
22-01-04
I'm still plugging away. The main plot is 80% complete, as are the subquests. Class-specific quests are here or there, but I'm hoping to have a fighter and rogue playable alpha ready soon.
I put up a NWN player portrait compatible portrait of Sara, one of Maugeter's four henchmen, on Neverwinter Vault. You can find it at http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/portraits/data/1070057993417.shtml in case you feel like looking like the lovely lady.
Also, there's a new forum (a permanent one this time, fate willing) for discussing Maugeter (and other things) at http://halogensunlight.co.uk/lavalamp/.
HOTU has jiggled things up. To clarify, Maugeter will NOT require either of the NWN expansion packs, but I am working to include as much as I can so that owners of the expansion packs can get their money's worth. Appraise is in, crafting skills are out. Later modules in the campaign will require Hordes of the Underdark, but not Shadows of Undrentide.
18-11-03
I forgot to mention that I made a full set of Elementals, Paraelementals and Quasielementals because I needed them for Maugeter (as summoned creatures, etc). I've put them into a form usable by other builders and uploaded them to Neverwinter Vault as a hack pack. You can find them here.
19-8-03
I've revamped the website, less perhaps that I might have liked, but with more information about what's in the module compared with dull stuff about the world.
I'm still working on the module. I'm currently writing the "chapter 4 climax" bit and making good progress over the summer since my degree finished. I'm hoping to have something in a semi-finished state that I can start alpha testing by the end of the summer (about a month and a half's time).
11-6-03
Oh of course! That's where it comes from!
I had been assuming that I had subconsciously adapted the word "Maugeter" from the Magic: The Gathering card "Mageta the Lion". In actual fact, it seems highly unlikely that it comes from anywhere other than the Warhammer 40000 Eldar equipment card "Maugetar", which as I recall is some kind of giant shuriken cannon-cum-scythe carried by Maugan-Ra, the Dark Reaper Exarch (or whatever they later called them - the Webway guardians anyway).
So anyone who's labouring under the misconception that I came up with this nice, memorable word can rest assured that I actually stole it, albeit accidentally.
15-10-02
Just a quick one. Thanks to DamnLag for this genius new server, saving the world from Geocities bandwidth limitations. Also of interest is the Maugeter Demo, a little taster of what's going to be in the full thing. Initial reactions have been pretty positive.
The website is hideously out of date. Ah well.
26-9-02
Hmm... time flies when you have a summer job. Things are still coming - it turned out that rather more than I expected needed doing for a playable demo, and I refuse to release some half-finished thing. You can currently complete the demo module (first fifth) following the mercenary, thief or bard paths. There's a massive deus ex machina that needs clearing up, and I have one and a half proper quests to finish.
Results from the early test thing I sent out to a small bunch of helpful volunteers were generally positive, and filled with comments and complaints which have been dutifully hand-waved or corrected. Four henchmen can now join you coherently, and don't say strange things when they leave or if you miss them. They still don't have proper AI ("fight at range please") because I'm waiting on a friend to have a look at the Pausanius AI scripts and see what's usable. Whether it'll be in the demo or not I don't know, but since they're an existing "product" so to speak, I don't think it matters that much.
The resting works. Enough said about that - though something interesting happens. I'm damned if I can find a way to apply a "rest effect" to the player. Doesn't seem to be one. At the moment you have to sit through the resting progress bar, which is a bit annoying. Never mind.
5-8-02
I've been slowly plodding away at things on the module - the Tari cult (which is the first quest which has an obvious variety of ways of completing it, from killing everyone in the building to redeeming lost souls to setting up a protection racket to... no, that one's a secret) is nearly finished, and one of my friends has agreed to help me out with the more complicated scripting tasks that I don't have time for, but which would really benefit things.
I've been pimping this thing all over as many forums as I can find, and Rashad from Neverwinter Builders apparently spotted me passing and wondered whether I'd like a forum.
You can find the forum at http://www.nwnbuilders.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB2&file=viewforum&f=23 - which is a hell of a URL. Hopefully the traffic on the forum will pick up when I manage to get a demo out.
23-7-02
It's a month since Neverwinter Nights came out, and I thought it might be a good idea to update the page now that I've started working on the campaign and we all know a bit more about what's actually possible with this beast.
I've rewritten the Campaign Page so that it includes almost-accurate information (as always, subject to change - not that anyone's planning in advance) about what's actually in the module, rather than a bunch of speculations. I also added a little more about Maugeter itself to the World Page.
One thing I'd like to mention is how the experience system is going to work, because it's a little different to anything else I've seen and is designed to encourage a semi-linear structure with almost complete freedom within it.
The idea is that quests are keyed to your level - when you reach a new level, plot devices ensure that the hooks for the new quests become avaiable to you. You will not be able to attempt a quest until you are the appropriate level, but this fact will be disguised as much as possible. Experience points are awarded for quest completion - NOT for kills - until you level up. At this point any quests remaining from your previous level will not award experience points - you are now too experienced to learn anything new from these less dangerous situations.
This system, although it seems oddly restrictive, allows you a certain freedom. It is designed to encourage you to approach the quests in a characterful way rather than the usual "gotta do 'em all" attitude. You can still complete leftover quests, and you will still receive any material or social rewards, but there is no pressure to complete the quest for the purposes of being as high a level as you can. At the same time, it relieves the pressure on the module to make every quest scale to fit every experience level. The module knows that when you attempt a level 5 quest you are level 5 or above - if you're above, you receive no experience points so it doesn't matter that the challenge is insufficient.
The important thing that makes this work is that there are more quests at each level than need to be completed to level up. Six to eight quests will be available for each character level, some obvious and some harder to locate. Sometimes an item obtained at a lower-level quest can be used to unlock parts of the world you have travelled to but been unable to access. The completion of around four quests is necessary to attain the next level, giving you a fair amount of freedom in what you choose to do.
An important benefit of this is of course for roleplayers, who can now afford to pick and choose amongst the avaiable quests and do those they deem in character, without worrying that they will have lost out on experience towards the end of the game.