In my opinion NWN1 editor was super easy to use because it was all prefab tilesets, so constructing maps was super fast but you were also limited to either the tilesets in box, or the ones others developed. I always felt hindered by what was possible in that toolset because of that.
With NWN2 (and D:OS) the editors were so buggy that I had a real challenge even being able to edit anything in addition to being super complex.
My sense is that what is different this time is that a) there is a stable toolset out now, with the launch of the game, b) has steam integration for publishing (which will hopefully lead to a good community and lots of mod sharing, which we had with NWN1 at NWVault).
a) Stabilty is great
b) This is awful, when GOG owners can't even use those mods
Far from leading to a good community, Steam Workshop divides communitieas, even when it's a Steam exclusive game, like Skyrim, the first Workhop game.
It has no mod management features, and is nothing but a glorified downloader of files to a specific folder.
All that's incidental, when compared to the fact DOS2 isn't a Steam Exclusive.
When a section of the owners can't even use Steam Workshop, integrating that walled garden is a huge roadblock to building a cohesive community. We are starting with two.
One open to all types of mods, and users, hosted independantly mostly on Nexus Mods, but anywhere is possible.
The other limited by the restrictions of the Workshop requirement for prepackaged mods, and only available to ownwers on Steam.
This was, in my opinion, another decisive factor in the small size of DOS1/EE modding scene.
One being repeated again.
