Golden Dragon Interview: Stratovarius (PRC)

[BenWH]

Today we have an interview with Stratovarius, from the Player Resource Consortium. The PRC scooped the 2006 NWN Golden Dragon Award for 'Community Contribution', one of the most prestigious rewards awarded by AME & NWVault. He tells us of some of the trials faced by the PRC, where they are going from here, as well as his views on the Golden Dragons and working with DLA.

How did the PRC get started?

The PRC (although it was not yet under that name, nor in fact under any name) was founded by Stratovarius in early December of 2003, after the release of Hordes of the Underdark. Stratovarius had been playing through the HoTU campaign using a Pale Master and mr_bumpkin's Caster Level script; enjoying it quite thoroughly, but decided that the PM was just not good enough to be a pure caster prestige class. As such, he decided to make his own, starting with the Mage Killer, progressing to the Harper Mage, and then the Spellsword. These three formed the first release of what became the PRC and the beginning of the group.

Soon after that version, Shane Hennessy sent his PnP Shifter and the Lich template-class to Stratovarius (using the new [for the time] SetAppearence function) for inclusion into the PRC. These two classes, along with the Archmage class by DarkGod, spurred the PRC to a higher level of popularity, with the first stage of the PRC's life culminating in a Seminar at NWCon 2, and the same-day release of PRC 2.0, moving the PRC from 20 classes to 40, our largest proportional release ever. Just a few days before, the PRC had become one of the first three haks inducted into the newly opened Hall of Fame.

2.1 and 2.2 followed, each seeing a large increase in the number of classes, and more systems added, the most popular of which has been Boneshank's Epic Spell System, bringing over 60 epic spells and proper epic spellcasting to the PRC. 2.2 saw the release of the PRC Races, coded by Wyz_Sub10, another aspect of the PRC that has recieved much support. At the same time, the PRC expanded into other areas, taking over the wildly popular Java Character Creator of CODI that allowed for new races and base classes, the PRC Compiler, based on the code of Torlack's NWNNSSComp, which is what has allowed the PRC to continue growing, having outstripped the Bioware compiler identifier limit.
Following the release of 2.2, the PRC went into a long development period, spanning almost two years and much feature creep as they struggled to bring Psionics to life in NWN. Release 3.0 stood clear above any other PRC release in both scope and development time, adding not just psionics, but a host of other new functionality too.

Since then, there has been one more release, that of 3.1 on the PRC's 3rd year anniversary, bringing with it the Truenaming magic system from Tome of Magic, Complete PnP Crafting, Corrupt and Sanctified Spellcasting, as well as 7 new base classes and 19 total classes. The massive number of spells in the release pushed the PRC over 300 new spells total.

You've added a huge amount of content to NWN. Which was the most satisfying to include?

Probably Psionics. It was such a large undertaking, with the duration, as mentioned above, taking some two years to edit, create, and deliver the product. You've been working on something for almost two years, with two more or less full rewrites of the code to improve it and add new features, and then the brutal thousands of lines of manual 2da entry to make it all work, and to finally see that go out the door and get the acclaim that it did was a very pleasing thing. It's certainly that way with every release, but there was something special about psionics. It's also the first alternate magic system I wrote (I'm nearly done with my third now, and the fourth overall for the PRC), or that any of us wrote, and that made it fun in its own way. It's also the project that involved the most PRC members on the same task at the same time, because we actually had four people working on Psionics. In particular Ornedan and Primogenitor, the two of whom did all of the hardest work in creating the internals that run the entire Psionic system. Normally, we're all scattered around doing whatever we like, but for this one project, it was about half the team all focused on this final bit. Naturally, as the duration increased, some fell away, but it was a good time, and great to see it finished.

Although, I can't really call it a final product, as we're still adding more and more psionics material to the game. There's still a few more base classes and certainly some more prestige classes, and feats and powers and all those little things that go into a system to make it better. The glory and the curse of the PRC: it's never actually finished.

Do you think there is any need for more PRC updates for NWN? If yes, what else will you add?

We are now working on the PRC 3.2 release, and to learn more about that, you'll need to stop over at our website, as details aren't final. Given that we're in the middle of a release now, I think that more or less answers the question. We'll continue releasing updates until we finally move on. Now, I know that time is getting closer, and I'm not sure how much further we'll make it after the 3.3 release, but there will certainly be more content, and more releases.

As to what is currently on the list, aside from the rather large set of content planned for 3.2, which includes the Tome of Battle, the Warlock, the Dragonfire Adept, the Dragon Shaman, a few more base classes, and about ten more prestige classes, there's also a plan to spend most of the 3.3 development time fleshing out all those missing feats, especially ones for martial characters. We're expecting to get over one hundred feats into the release, so it should be quite entertaining.

What is the status of the move to NWN2? How much of the content will get ported across?

For the answer to this question, you'll need to interview LadyDesire of the Player Resource Group. As head of the PRG, she manages converting PRC content to NWN2.

How did you find working for DLA?

They've been a good group of people to deal with. I've been there... three? years now, maybe longer, because its spread out over two stints. I know I've been around since near the beginning of the Wyvern Crown of Cormyr development process, and I worked on the Purple Dragon Knight class that came with it. My main contribution to DLA, really.

I've known ThriKreen (Brian Chung) for five years, basically since I started playing NWN online, and I've known a few other DLA members almost as long. Good guys to be around, especially if you poke Brian with a tree, or ask him about his little pink dress. It's been a blast to be a part of the most talented content group in NWN, especially to see them turn into a more professional outfit with WcoC.

What did you think when you first heard about the Golden Dragon Awards?

Thought they came along a bit too late, to be honest. NWN by that time was four or five years old, and only now an awards group was springing up to recognize the content and module makers for the game. Missed out on what could rightly be called the golden age of NWN, shortly after the HotU expansion came out. Still, we at the PRC certainly appreciated being chosen to win in the inaugural awards, especially over the worthy competitors. Now I'm just hoping for a nice golden statue to put in the front lawn. It would cap the experience off quite nicely.

What are you up to currently?

As the comments above state, I'm still working on the PRC and developing content for NWN, as well as helping LadyDesire get the PRG up and running for NWN2. I also play the usual assortment of computer games, with Civilization 4 being the frontrunner at the moment. NWN, however, is not on the list, and hasn't been for a year or two. The time I spend coding for it is the time I used to spend playing it.

Aside from that, I write, both fantasy stories (look at Tarranau, Unfolding a New Continent, and the Story Blog for samples) and Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks (two of which are in editing, and a third under development). There's also sports and other real life things like work involved, but those are less interesting.

Thanks to Stratovarius for the interview, and indeed to the whole PRC team for some great content.

[Tybae]

Well, the budget is a little low for a shiny golden statue.  How about a gold painted Kobald?  Or maybe a tin foil covered Purple Dragon Knight?

[Andarian]

Well, the budget is a little low for a shiny golden statue.  How about a gold painted Kobald?  Or maybe a tin foil covered Purple Dragon Knight?

No, it's got to be a dragon. "The Golden Kobold" just doesn't have the right ring to it for an award name.