Steady Progress

Podcast Interview This Friday!
I mentioned this a little while ago, but now it's almost upon us! This Friday is the release of my interview with the NWN Podcast team. Find the interview at their website here and listen to me sound important for a day!

Maimed God Progress
I have spent the last week finishing off all the maps. Yes, it seems like I've been doing this forever, but NWN2 maps are a very different animal from NWN maps. I've revised all the "completed" maps from Acts I and II, handled the two walkmesh issues I mentioned last time, and gone on to create one of the two remaining maps. I have now completed 52 out of the 53 I will need, and the last one is (barely) started.

I'm including two pictures from the latest map I'm calling "The Ruined Village." Something destroyed it as you can see... something dangerous! Gee, I wonder what that is! Actually, this is one possible outcome to one of the choices you make, so not everyone will see it on every play-through. I'm not going into it further except to say that this is an example of my commitment to having choices matter in this game. Make certain ones - maybe even one you think is correct at the time - and villages get wiped out.

The Sontaran Stratagem
I'll refrain from commenting (much) on the latest episode until next week. Helen Raynor (the writer) has had excellent opening episodes before (see last year's "Daleks in Manhatten") only to then fall flat in the conclusion. In general, the new Doctor Who is great at setting up impossible situations for cliff-hangers that are only resolvable by the most implausible means. We'll see next week.

That aside, I can say that I appreciate the characterization of the Sontarans in the latest episode. As I said last time, they're absolutely my favorite Doctor Who villains, and their mythos was well-handled. Little touches like General Staal lamenting that the Time War "was the greatest war in all history and we weren't even allowed to participate!" go a long way towards fleshing out the race. They were always militaristic, but we now see that it is not necessarily forced upon them by their conflict with the Rutan Host. Notwithstanding their commitments against that enemy, they actually longed to participate in a war they saw as grander in scale than theirs!

Anyways, more next week, but if the conclusion holds up to the introduction, I'll be very happy indeed.