Hey, know its been awhile.  Anyway, i'm gainfully employed and where i work we have a pretty good server thats really not doing anything that i could easily host something on.  In fact, i already have a server up, i just cannot connect to it externally because of the windows firewall.  I can configure this in group policy but i have to add each port individually (as far as i know) and there are 200 ports (5120-5300 as far as i know)  SOO, if anyone knows a way to port forward a range of ports using windows small business server 2003 i can host something.

Also, we could start every one off at a higher level than 0 on the crafting. What do you think?

That is kewl ... but can we draw more players if it exists I think you are correct that if we only have a few players then there is no real need or want for this system.

I think it depends on how many players there are on the server. If the server is usually empty, the crafting system is not needed, as there is basically nobody to buy crafted items.

I like the crafting system, but if the amount of simultaneous players never goes over 10, it's better to concentrate on content.

Well consider how many items, areas, npc, conversations, etc you create for a single quest.  Every single thing you add to the module increases the resources being used so 2.6k will be used very quickly if we put any effort into new development.  I would guess that removing the crafting system, and it might be difficult to remove everything, will free up around 10k.

In my opinion the only way its really useful is to completely recode the advancement formula.  The way we have it set up a player can make truly powerful items, which might be an issue itself, but to have a reasonable chance to make anything really good will require an extraordinary commitment of time and effort.  Some people think a crafting system keeps players interested, especially since we have true player merchants, but I think content is more important.  3k of resources is literally 3k of items, area, npc, etc so that number is going to be exceeded quickly with new development.

We are using 13k of 16k of the resources allotted by NWN. Removing it would allow for us to put other (hopefully better) stuff together, plus save the server a few cycles.
On the other hand does it add to the game enough to keep it?
Let us know what you think.

Podilarius

hmmm ... removing that system would be difficult ... it accounts for most of that 13k ... question is do we try to tweak it so gaining a proficiency is easier or remove it or keep it? Once a player has completed all the quests we have out there (say we have tons) what do they do while we come up with new ones (aside from DM events)? It could be a way for them to show off during DM and quest events ...

We need a poll open for this ... we need to see what everyone thinks. 

We are currently using 13,451 in module resources and the limit is 16k.

I think we should remove the crafting system.  I think it takes far to long to get any level of proficiency to be of any real value or interest and that space could be better utilized with resources that actually enrich the module.  I don't know how close we are to the 16k limit, I'm downloading the current module now, but I'm sure we have to be close.  The one thing I would like to keep is the treasure maps and the magical map.  I'm sure with some tinkering we can get those to run by themselves. 

What do you think?