I think the comments on the Aurora toolet being so much better because of being tile based and the Divinity Engine simply needing more prefabs is COMPLETELY missing the point. I don't mind the engines complexity from a landscape creation standpoint. I don't like the complexity of bringing any function to the mods.
I completely agree here. Imho it also makes much more sense to compare the Divinity Engine Editor to the NWN2 toolset rather than NWN1 toolset.
I posted around release some quick impression and camparision about NWN2 vs Divinity Editor here:
http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=42990&Number=510259#Post510259 First of all, although i didnt back the kickstarter campaign (somehow missed it) i followed develepment of this game for some time with great interest, especially triggered by the powerful editor which comes with the game.
Couple of years ago (6-8) I messed around a lot with the NWN2 toolset aswell including importing assets into the game and retextured models.
As I am still waiting to find shared time for the coop campaign ( i can't wait to play this formidable game finally, so far just did some fast beta runs and loved it so far). Thereofore in the meanwhile I started to have an initial look at the editor and I couldn't resist to compare everything to NWN2 toolset (although the games are different and so the editors), and raising question about the possibilities and limits of the divinity engine (which is far more than just the editor).
I really see the potential of this game and the engine, just curious where are the limits (which can be pushed once again;)
What is the good, the bad and the ugly? I am sharing my first impression, please feel free to complete as my list will be rather uncomplete.
Very first impression was, the Divinity Toolkit is less intuitive, but after some videos and guides, i doesnt make a difference so much.
the whole pathfinding, AiGrid / Walkmesh seems to be far better than NWN2: This was a huge issue and one of the main failures of NWN2 and I remember creating unplayable areas. (also resources seem to be handled more effectively)
Rotating on all 3 axes. Rihaa! I was selling my soul for that back in the days with NWN.
So far I couldnt find any tint-function based on RGB-tint-maps. This was rather genius with NWN2. Especially for retexturing work. I found in the textures DM (diffuse maps), NM (Normalmaps) SM (specular maps?) and some werid MSK. Though some of the SM and MSK look like RGB tint maps (with one color). Well Skin and hair is tinted. My question if that's possible for armor/bodyparts, placeables and items.
Regarding the tinting of placeables, i remember seeing a kickstarter video where they introduced the powerful material editor and applied all kind of material on a statue. I shouted out loud for happiness when i saw that. How much hours I spend to retexture models just because we needed a different material.
This partly could make the tint function obsolete, though didnt find out how to do that so far.
The wall function for houses looks like a really good solution (instead of tilesets), though seems to be rather limited so far what you can do.
I love to play in isometric view, though also would like to have a look around option. As far as i could see, is that the out of the box assets are not made for different viewing ankles. The skyboxes are also limited. My question is, if this is rather a limit of assets or the engine aswell?
Plugins could help a lot, as they also really pimped up the NWN2 toolset to its p
Overall handling is fine, though would like to be able to do more with Shift, Ctrl, Alt Keys plus mouse R+L
Questions raised in my head:
How will be the whole file handling and import export of assets?
What amount of resources (placeables in the came) the game can handle to stay playable. ( I saw the Cyseal area is actually one huge area)
what are legal and technical restrictions to import (custom) assets from NWN2 (OMG nwvault.ign.com is down since some days)
What functions of NWN definately will never be possible with the divinity engine (more than 8 players, skydome with actual moving sun moon stars, ...)?
That's it for now, I certainly will find more things and would be very interested to hear your (to you ol' NWN people now messing around again with the editor) opinion as would be flattered by any answers to my questionsby larian or insiders.
cheers
I personally remembered how still during NWN1 times during developent of NWN2 I was eagerly unpatiently waiting for some non Tileset based mapping and a little more eye candy.
And although NWN2 had its flaws and somehow flopped it was not that bad successor to NWN1. Especially the toolset of NWN2 was rather polished with excellent plug in interface intuitive mapping, script wizards and so on. D:OS with that UI and plug in support was a dream!
Sure here the effort to create nice good looking maps increased significantly (other content like scripts remained to same effort to NWN1). But still there were released tons top notch community mods, (unfortunately nwvault.ign.com is down to give an impressive picture), which at the end also were more eye candy and more beautiful than NWN1 ever was.
NWN2 main flaws (DM client, huge file sizes, Server transitions) were affecting the persistent world and multiplayer projects that D:OS so far is not supporting at all. (The file sizes and walk meshes seem to be much better in D:OS though.)
From my experience with NWN2 and why it flopped to be the NWN1 succesor in so many peoples eyes, i think you can tell, that D:OS has a potential but still needs a lot to step in that footsteps (that the actual successor didnt manage too well).
As i posted somewhere else i think we would need a kind of official addon that brings us needed features:
Larian should consider the Addon "Divinity infinite". This ultimate expansion pack adds persistent world functions, a dm client, lots of assets to the toolset as general improvements to the editor. Additionally this Addon adds a new parts of rivelon as ready world to play in and tell your stories. (there is not expected any deeper story, just the world to have a start and good example...)
What sounds like a personal daydream could be considered seriously. Heck, I bought actually all addons of NWN 1+2 more or less just for the assets, features and functions to play and build PWs and custom adventure mods for friends.
As I agree that 64 players. At least in one area certainly was to much for a turn based game, 16 could be a fine start. Just interested what major overhaul is needed to push the limits of the engine...
Could be aswell a way to outsource (I guess mostly assets) certain things to the community and hive some quality custom content developers the way to alienate their work...