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Topic: NWN2 Toolset & plugin question (Read 63 times) |
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Grinning Fool
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Last On: 04/10/09
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Hi there -- Mortis just reminded me that this community existed (I know, I know, there's no excuse to have forgotten in the first place... ). I'm "grinning_fool" on the bioboards; I'm a community rep for the toolset, and I saw something in another thread that got me curious.
To me plugins are one of the toolset's strongest points. The simple fact that even if Obsidian didn't include something, the community /can/ continually amazes me. I've currently three published plugins, and plan at least two more; as far as I can tell, almost everything that the toolset developers had access to, plugin developers have access to as well.
The reason I'm waxing poetic about plugins in my own clumsy fashion is this comment I read here earlier:
"1. Making custom NPCs and items is a pain. An easy wizard is needed. Best would be something offical from OEI and not a user-plugin"
I single this out not to give any one person a hard time, but because it's not a unique viewpoint; it's representative of something I've seen a lot of in the #nwn2cr channel, and more than a bit in the official forums as well.
I'm posting here because I would like to hear the rational behind it -- if a user-plugin fills a needed gap, why the emphasis on having that functionality as part of the basic toolset, in some cases to the point of eschewing plugin(s) that?
Afterthought: since I authored the creature /npc plugin referred to above, I feel I should clarify -- I'm really not trying to make a a whiny, "What's wrong with my plugin?" post  I really do mean this at a much broader perspective; if it's something that we (plugin authors) can do to make them easier or more convenient to use, I would like to hear about it. Or if it's something we (community reps) can pass along back to Obsidian, that would be good too.
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Venture
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I'm just speculating, but I think what I've heard others talk about is how plugins need to be recompiled with new patches (I know there were a couple good ones, like the mapper one, that were abandoned until someone else picked them up).
Also, some plugins just don't work as easily as if the functionality was built into the toolset. Of course, this could just be because I don't fully understand the workings of the toolset. For example, I keep the Properties window open on another monitor at all times, and I constantly fiddle there. It would be nice to have some functionality accessible directly from that window (previews, sounds, etc.) without having to start up a plugin.
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Starbuck79
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| I'm just speculating, but I think what I've heard others talk about is how plugins need to be recompiled with new patches (I know there were a couple good ones, like the mapper one, that were abandoned until someone else picked them up). |
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This is the key. The community has been taught by Bioware, with good reason, that it cannot be the developers job to care how a patch will effect community developments. The CEP/Cloaks Patch is a good example.
Not only would an "official" Plug-in have the developers stamp of approval, but we could also probably assume that it would be updated as part of a patch. The problem with many community made products is that the developer can stop supporting it. All of a sudden the super awesome plugin is useless because of a patch and the developer is MIA.
NOW, We don't know what OEI's policy is going to be. Perhaps we'll get lucky and they will release exact details of their patches to the community early to give plugin developers time to make modifications.
Even better, and I think we saw this with some AI mods, OEI would find community plugin developers and either make thier plug-ins "official" or support them in some way.
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 28, 2007, 9:58PM » |
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Lazybones
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That's it in a nutshell for me. When I was building, I got really dependent on a few plug-ins (TerraCoppa, another one that used a graphical GUI to help build interior areas, and a few others whose names I forget at the moment). The patches really put a kibosh on my project as I waited for the original builders of the plug-ins to recompile them.
I don't have a problem with using plug-insin lieu of official support but it would be a big concern if there was a patch 6 months down the line that ruined my plug-ins again and the developer wasn't around for the fix. Look at how long it took CEP to respond to some of the patches (not intended as a dig at them, their project is awesome but the amount of stuff that had be changed was considerable).
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 28, 2007, 10:27PM » |
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