23 replies to this topic

[Kaeloree]

First up, I'd like to welcome new modder Qwinn to SHS! I hope you have a great time, Qwinn, and it's great to see you here.

Secondly, after an extremely productive month and a half, new modder Qwinn has finally completed his three mods for Planescape: Torment. The PS:T Ultimate WeiDU Fixpack, PS:T Unfinished Business and Qwinn's PS:T Tweaks are all fantastic mods, and we here at SHS are very grateful to Qwinn for putting in the time and effort to make Planescape: Torment an even better game!

Hopefully the titles of those mods are fairly self-explanatory, but here are some brief introductions for those who are curious:

The Planescape: Torment Fixpack is a comprehensive WeiDU Fixpack for Black Isle's classic Planescape: Torment CRPG. Fixing literally hundreds of bugs and thousands of typos, thereby restoring a lot of lost and inactive content, the PS:T Fixpack (along with PS:T Unfinished Business and Qwinn's PS:T Tweak Pack) provides a completely new Planescape: Torment experience! Click here for a list of the most important fixes, as well as further information on the mod itself.

Planescape: Torment Unfinished Business takes the almost-but-not-quite-finished content that shipped with Black Isle's classic Planescape: Torment CRPG and polishes, bugfixes and finishes it so you can see and enjoy the new content in your game! With 14 components in the first release, this mod is a must-have for anyone interested in seeing what the developers didn't get time to do--or even if you're just looking for some new content! Click here for information on each of the compenents and further information on the mod itself.

Qwinn's Planescape: Torment Tweaks adds a few ease-of-use tweaks to your Planescape: Torment install, as well as one or two must-have components! Including a banter accelerator, ease-of-use tweaks and several content changes, this is an extremely useful mod for any player. Click here for information on each of the compenents and further information on the mod itself.

Related Links:

• Download Links: PS:T Fixpack v1 - PS:T Unfinished Business v1 - Qwinn's PS:T Tweaks v1
  
• Website: PS:T Fixpack - PS:T Unfinished Business - Qwinn's PS:T Tweaks
  
• Forums: PS:T Fixpack forum - PS:T Unfinished Business forum - Qwinn's PS:T Tweaks forum
  
• Readme Links: PS:T Fixpack Readme - PS:T Unfinished Business Readme - Qwinn's PS:T Tweaks

[Zyraen]

Awesome! That's a lot of work for someone new to modding.

[Qwinn]

Yes. Yes it was. Hehe.

Being an unemployed programmer hoping that this will turn into a job opportunity somewhere helped, though.

Qwinn

[Zyraen]

That'll only work if you add it to your Resume and hope your interviewer is familiar with PS:T hee.

Alternatively, if you can take running screenshots of the difference in the game BEFORE and AFTER your patches, it may help to impress whoever is interviewing you, if you have the time to actually show it to him.

At this point I recommend a download K'aeloree introduced to me find FRAPS, yes i know its a crappy name, but it does what it does, which is to take a video capture of an application. Ideal for showing how AI works, although it captures it in AVI format, with Macromedia Flash you can convert it to an SWF, and upload it onto your website, and link from your Resume if you think they will click on the link, lol. Flash also allows you to add underlining, circles or whatever layers you need to highlight the differences before and after your mods.

Hope that helps!

[Qwinn]

"That'll only work if you add it to your Resume wink.gif and hope your interviewer is familiar with PS:T hee. "

Oh, not necessarily. Lightning could strike. Someone with actual money to hire people could play these games and visit this site and see my "Seeking Employment" sticky in the Fixpack forum, hehe.

That said, I've always wondered why someone with money hasn't tapped the enormous potential of these modding communities, and come headhunting here. Look at how much gets done by people who have to split time with other jobs, just because they enjoy it. Imagine a game created by folks from the modding communities, who could design their own engine for the thing, and who -didn't- have to split their efforts with other jobs. Some amazing and very popular and profitable games would come out of that, I think. And ones with very few bugs, I might add - heh. I mean, the post-production patching pretty much comes built-in and for-free, but as an official product, heh.

I am frankly amazed no one with money to invest hasn't tried that yet. If someone ever does come headhunting here... well... *waves* Pick me! Pick me!

Qwinn

[Zyraen]

Don't worry. When I make enough money to start my own gaming company for the hell of it I'll be sure to drop by

Off the side note, I am a trained Computer Engineer, been hacking games since DOS, Doom, and Diablo ; but I currently work in the Real Estate industry, and should be actively investing in various things along the way, as well as doing trading business As far as I'm concerned, passion and hobby is very different from work and making money. Nothing like a 4 yr degree course in Computing to almost kill my love for Modding and related stuff.

Edited by Zyraen, 05 June 2008 - 09:12 PM.

[Qwinn]

"Nothing like a 4 yr degree course in Computing to almost kill my love for Modding and related stuff."

Well. Sure. I don't see the same dynamic resulting in "Nothing like working as a programmer in the computer gaming industry for 4 years to almost kill my love for modding and related stuff.".

Of course, if that -is- the case, then that gaming industry must have a hell of a turnover and need to replace disgruntled employees constantly... in which case... *waves* Pick me, Pick me!

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 05 June 2008 - 09:22 PM.

[Tassadar88]

I wonder if JCompton will read this

[cmorgan]

Great stuff, Qwinn - congratulations!

( Tassadar88 is side-mentioning that The Broken Hourglass /JCompton followed *exactly* what you are describing )

[Daulmakan]

Congratulations!

Seems I already have plans for winter vacations.

[jcompton]

I wonder if JCompton will read this

PWG is not exactly a well-capitalized firm, so people seeking top-flight full-time employment opportunities are advised not to hold their breath.

( Tassadar88 is side-mentioning that The Broken Hourglass /JCompton followed *exactly* what you are describing smile.gif )

Except for the actually having the kind of money it requires bit.

That said, I've always wondered why someone with money hasn't tapped the enormous potential of these modding communities, and come headhunting here.

Because they're so busy fielding submitted resumes that they don't have to go headhunting.

The gaming industry is a strange beast in that almost everybody who isn't in it is trying to get into it, and almost everybody in it is trying to get out. Ask almost anybody in the business "How do I get a job in games?" and they will tell you, "Don't. But if you really insist..." And I'm not talking about ill-funded work like we're doing, I mean the big shots and the properly funded studios as well.

Although I do from time to time have opportunities for implementors on TBH, the engine's uniqueness (most people don't have "practice" with something all that much like it) makes it difficult for somebody to come up to speed in a way that lets it make sense for them financially to accept what I can pay them. (And makes it a problem for us to take a flyer on new people, because it usually takes a few weeks at least to figure out if someone actually grasps what the hell is going on.)

My own laments aside, being able to do stuff like this is a fairly specialized skillset--although certainly some of the concepts used to develop "Infinity-style" quests and content are applicable across a variety of games, many-to-most of them are pretty unique to the CRPG space. Which means there really aren't all that many companies who, strictly speaking, need you to know how to do stuff like this. (and the ones who do face a huge stack of resumes on a regular basis and don't need to hold recruiting fairs on modding sites.)

[Qwinn]

Jcompton,

Thanks for your reply I understand and appreciate your thoughts on the matter, I'll send you a PM, I'd still like to see if there's anything we can work out.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 06 June 2008 - 08:00 AM.

[the bigg]

Incidentally, I get a 'broken link' message if I try to view those three fora.

[Qwinn]

Incidentally, I get a 'broken link' message if I try to view those three fora.

Cannot reproduce. Can you be more specific? Not that I think I can do anything about that.

Qwinn

[Daulmakan]

Incidentally, I get a 'broken link' message if I try to view those three fora.

Me too.

[Kaeloree]

My bad. Fixed! Just a small problem with the viewing mask. I've split the translation stuff into a new thread, and posts about Ravel's dialogue into a new thread too.

[the bigg]

My bad. Fixed! Just a small problem with the viewing mask. And split the translation stuff into a new thread.

Confirmed as working.

When I'm wearing my developer hat sometimes I like receiving such messages (when the problem is hard to solve and it's useful to know I found the solution), and sometimes I don't (when the problem was trivial and it feels like the poster thinks I'm stumbling in the dark). Choose your poison

[Kaeloree]

Thanks, bigg, good to know it's workin'.

[Cuv]

Welcome Qwinn.... and great job!

I downloaded all three. Good to see some renewed interest in PST

Cuv

[Qwinn]

Thanks for the welcome

I asked in the fixpack forum, but I'd like to ask here as well - can someone please confirm a successful install of the 2CD version of the game? I have the 4 cd version and it's installing fine, but I've had two reports of issues with the 2cd version, and no one's confirmed a good install for me yet.

Qwinn