Eriadain is back in action!
Eriadain began as a module for BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights that was to be based on the original storyline of Ultima 9: Ascension. This original storyline, also known as the Bob White Plot, was a much larger, more detailed plot that remained much more true to the Ultima tradition and the history of the series.
Moa Dragon built a sizeable portion of the necessary map for this project, including much of the overworld and all of the dungeons. He also implemented many of the necessary scripts, although many of these were untested at the time that work stopped on the project. Dialogues were incomplete at that point, and were marked with placeholder conversations for the most part. The released module above should not be considered a demo for these reasons.
Sadly, Moa Dragon stopped working on Eriadain some time ago, and the project languished in the Orphanage for several years. But then a rather incredible thing happened: part of the actual Bob White Plot documentation was found and released online. This inspired Moa Dragon to begin shopping around the idea of an Eriadain reboot here and in other fora, and in March 2011 he rebooted the project…this time using the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine and working in (informal) collaboration with the team developing Return to the Serpent Isle.
You can find the new project website here, and the revised and updated project entry here.
Let’s hope it works out this time!
There is a Facebook (look for Eriadain in the search thingie)
I also would love to welcome WtF’s help, which he has offered! I realize that first, I have to set up a file asking for well… what the project needs : the cities, the dungeons, and other script and graphic stuff. I will probably update the website with it within the week.
I tried that last night, to little success. Just drop the URL here; I’ll link to it.
WooHoo!
Sometimes I look around at all the boxes of artifacts the Museum has collected over the last 12 years (has it really been that long?), and wonder ‘why am I doing this’?
I am honored and excited that our archiving work is inspiring folks!
So–are the Bob White map designs going to be implemented in the new project, or were they just inspiration for the reboot?
I would absolutely *love* to wander these dungeons!
Strictly speaking, a 1:1 implementation of the dungeons as designed in the documents isn’t possible, given the limitations of the NWN2 engine. That said, a close approximation is probably possible, and I for one would expect to see it built.
Well I don’t know what else to say except: good luck with this!
I’ve always been interested in Eriadain (I still remember doing those cheap Guardian and Avatar Sprites for the RPG Maker 95 version :P) and I’d definitly enjoy playing through the original plot.
We’ll be happy to offer any support we can, and I hope you’ll be able to find more team members for your project.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Eriadain/198664076824119
Here is the Eriadain page.
Thanks for everyone’s support. I will try my best not to disappoint, but as I emphasized, that won’t work if I do it alone 🙂
I think my next efforts, alongside with taming the NWN2 toolset, will be to write a more detailed design document to put online for contributers, as well as put on a call for specifics stuff needed.
Oh and yes, the idea is to use the dungeon documents that have been made available. In fact, the more info we get, the closer we should stay to it
Fare thee well in they pursuit of the virtues.
Or ‘thy’, even. Damn…
I would like to participate, in case you need a coder.
I’m currently working for the Ultima Return project, but I could spare some time for Eriadain too.
Krom, what’s your email adress ?
Moa, I invited you to join the Team Return mailing list. You can get in touch with me, Krom, and everyone else that way.
I already contacted you by email, so you should have my address.
I appriciate all of their work. I like this original storyline.