Neversummer 5 Development Team

[Flailer]

Thought I'd document who some of the Neversummer 5 team members are for those that are interested.

Specifying who exactly is involved in a persistant world effort is a difficult process because the development structure can be somewhat fluid - people come and go over the course of time and have different levels of involvement. Also, we rely on some contributions and expertise of the greater NWN2 community without whose efforts, PW's would be in a much less advanced state.

NS5 Project Leaders:
Fangorn: Lead area developer (~60 areas to date), area & realm storyline, project planning.
A longtime NS 3 & 3.5 diehard, he has served as a Whitecloak, DM, server op, and developer for both iterations of NS 3.5. He is an original member of the NS 5 development team
Flailer: Scripting, area development (~30 areas to date), creature creation, project planning, recruitment.
Previously, a longtime NS3 and NS4 player, took over as NS4 project lead after Joran's departure and served there for serveral years. Involved since the inception of NS5.

NS5 Development Team:
Shield: Scripting Lead, database development, utility development.
Long time NS3/NS4 Player, became a NS4 Dev mostly involved in scripting and DB admin and then moved to dev work on NS5
Cely: Item creation, scripting, infrastructure
Lokey: HAK management, scripting, NWN2 pitfall navigation, nerfing
Nolan Silvermoon: Area development (~3 areas to date)
G'of: Area development (~2 areas to date)
VagaStorm: Forum/website development, scripting
Netrom: Scripting
about to start a CS degree and devoting time to that, but can't quite seem to be able to leave.
Valimer: Area development (~2 areas to date)
Paddy: Back end DB/Java web admin interface
Fhuhli: Area design
Spree: Area design, NPCs, quests

Retired or on Hiatus:
Deputy Dog: Project guidance
The granddaddy. A bit swamped with real life at the moment, but hopefully will be able to jump in at some point.
Joran: Scripting, infrastructure
Assisted us in getting things off the ground, but then found real life commitments too pressing to devote to NS5 and didn't find his heart in NWN2 development. His expertise and scripting productivity is greatly missed.
Lusule: Area development
joined us briefly as an area developer and submitted several maps, but has found real life too hectic to devote to NS5 for the moment.

Content used from others in the NWN2 Community:
Robinson Workshop: Makers of excellent tilesets and placeables for NWN2. Great stuff. http://www.robinsonworkshop.com/phpBB2/
SGK73 - Area developer who's released many excellent maps to the Vault which we've used as the basis for several random area maps for NS5. Samples here
All the folks that have worked on the NWNX project over the years.
Nytir: Released an excellent building construction kit that we're using

[Flailer]

Development Team Positions Open:

Despite all the people we have working on NS5, we're always in need of more talented folks (or those willing to be trained to become talented) with some time and energy. Positions we could still use help with:

Exterior Area Developers: I don't think we'll ever turn down someone skilled with doing exterior areas in the NWN2 toolset.

Interior Area Developers: We can always use folks to create interesting and diverse caves, castles, ruins, etc that are done with the interior tiles in the NWN2 toolset. Interiors are substantially easier to create than the exteriors in NWN2 - just takes some time, patience in looking for the right placeables to use, and a bit of creativity to make some of the same tilesets look fresh and different.

Quest Development: We have a slot or two open for those with an interest in dialog creation for NPCs and fleshing out quests for players. Some exposure to scripting would be a plus, but skills in creative writing is the primary requirement. Background text found on items in the game (such as tomes, signs, weapons, etc) would also fall under this job description.

Scripting: Coders always needed - great if you have some experience with NWScript or NWN1 scripting development, but if you have experience with Java, C#, or similar languages, you should be able to pick things up pretty quickly.

Creature Creation: Loads of creatures needed for NS5. Particularly helpful if you have a good feel for balancing - if you enjoy tweaking the stats of the PC toons you create to a finely tuned degree, you'd probably enjoy creature creation.

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If any of these positions intrigue you, drop me a PM on the forums or send me an email at flailer@nsrealm.com

[Flailer]

Bump for this thread. Also updated our development team roster.

Also, we're always looking for people to help out!

Particular areas we're looking for people to pitch in with include:

Item Creation:
If you can use a calculator, you can create items. Really - not that hard. But, it's a big need since we have so many items to create. Weapons, armor, treasure items, etc. Ability to write concise, creative descriptions a plus.

Interior Area Developers:
Again, interior areas aren't hard to make - comperable to NWN1 design.

Creature Creation:
Probably one of the more fun areas of development. Tools are available that can help you out get a good baseline for the creature.

Scripting:
If you're experienced with any scripting language (JavaScript, PHP, etc) or any development language (C#, Java, etc) you could pick up NWScript pretty easily. Also, for those experienced with Java and MySQL, we've got an extensive back-end system that runs the machinery.

Exterior Area Design:
Probaby the rarest skillset - if you enjoy painting or graphic arts, exterior areas are probably right up your alley. But of course, I enjoy neither of those, but love exterior area design, so your mileage may vary. It takes a couple of maps to get the hang of it so if you're tried it before and given up, don't despair!

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We're working as hard as we can to get something open as soon as we can, but the more people we have helping out, the faster we can go. Honestly, development is a lot of fun - ever since I switched from playing Neversummer to developing it, I've never looked back. Far more fun in my opinion. Give it a shot!

Anyway, drop me a PM or an email (flailer@nsrealm.com) if you're interested - even if it's contributing on an occasional basis.

Thanks!