The spiritual successor to a Neverwinter Nights 1 Module named RTS - Harvest of Souls which was a 4 team RTS/RPG hybrid unlike anything then or today.

The Neverwinter Nights 1 Years

Many years ago I was quite active in the Neverwinter Nights 1 community. This was an RPG by Bioware that many of you may have had dealings with. I made a lot of scripts and such that were used by many people in the community. My scripts inspired what Obsidian did in their official system in Neverwinter Nights 2. I coded the horse scripts and a few other things in the last Bioware Premium module for Neverwinter Nights by the name of The Wyvern Crown of Cormyr. I then went on to code the horse and a few other scripts in the official 1.69 patch for Neverwinter Nights released by Bioware.

My personal favorite thing from Neverwinter Nights though was an experimental module I made that was a hybrid of RTS and RPG elements unlike anything I've ever seen, even to this day. I made some initial systems and showed them to a friend of mine named Jeremy Greene. He came on board and he and I released what was considered 1.0. We had a few interviews from gaming sites. It was largely an obscure game though. There were people addicted to it, myself included. I actually find myself wanting to play something like it frequently. Yet there is nothing to scratch that itch. Instead I occasionally reinstall Neverwinter Nights 1 just to play RTS - Harvest of Souls and my family and friends will join in. I kept adding to the module after Jeremy and I released 1.0 and added a ton of features way beyond the initial release. There were also fans who translated it to other languages.

RTS - Harvest of Souls

Here are the things I can find people saying about this very old module on the internet.

From www.titanquest.net

From www.tomshardware.com

From bay12forums.com

From gamer.nl - image below translated... click link to see in original language

From flashback.org - click on link to get in untranslated version

From Neverwintervault.org where you can actually download the module

Here is a really old interview document I found - the website was homelanfed I believe and this is long since gone.

From 2003

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
1. First, what previous mod experience have you had prior to Harvest of
Souls?

Jeremy: I've made a few levels for Unreal Tournament, but other than that none of my modding ideas have gone past the planning stage.

Deva: Well as in Mod I assume you are speaking of Modules. I have almost completed a remake of S4 - The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth which I'll probably release soon. I like doing originals more. I have started making about 3 different modules besides that also. I kept running into things missing I needed. If you are referring to MODIFICATIONS then I guess this is pretty much it as far as computers go. In other areas I've been doing it most of my life. Designing games on or off of computers has always been a passion of mine since I was a small child. Jeremy does not take credit but, we like other people made heavy modifications to our D&D rules in our youth. We also co designed our own Pen and Paper RPG system which has some aspects that are pretty unique.

2. What was your reaction when Neverwinter Nights was first released?

Jeremy: I ran out and bought it. I was very exited, as Neverwinter Nights was the first game I'd ever seen with the potential to match paper and pencil roleplaying gaming for depth.

Deva: I was following its progress for several years. I am an old school D&D fan and also addicted to programming. I was excited that a tool was coming out that would let me make my own modules. My reaction? I played a few minutes in the Official Campaign and then cracked the toolset open. I have not looked much since then. I was excited. This and Dungeon Siege were games I had been waiting for the release of for quite some time.

3. When did you come up with the idea behind Harvest of Souls?

Jeremy: Deva's the one who had the initial idea for Neverwinter, though I'd been kicking around the idea for a similar project with Dungeon Siege. He started working on the scripts and I started working on gameplay and balance issues when he sent me a prototype of the Harvest of Souls module, and the project evolved from there.

Deva: I have tossed around a Real Time Strategy idea and even started programming it in C a couple of times over the past couple years. I was working on an idea about a month ago when I suddenly realized... Hey I can do this... I wonder if it will work? I put my other projects on hold and scripted most of it in a week and a little more the next week. After that Jeremy came on board to help me test it and he did enough balancing and idea generation that I felt it was as much his project as it was mine. The total time spent making it was about 4 weeks give or take a few days. So, the short answer is about a month to month and a half ago.

4. For people who are not familiar with the mod, can you give us a brief description of the gameplay?

Jeremy: The mod can actually run in two different game modes. The first is an elimination mode where you have to wipe out all enemy forces. The second is the Harvest of Souls mode, where the first player to collect a certain number of souls wins. Play starts in an entry room where each player picks one of four teams (Dwarves, Undead, Spider Cult, and the Unclean) to play and various settings can be changed, such as game type, number of souls needed to win, unit caps, etc. After all players have signaled they're ready to begin, each player is teleported to their lair. From the lair, you can summon new units, collect taxes, and gather information on units you're already created. Each unit is fairly autonomous, and will scout, harvest resources, attack enemies, guard your base, follow your character, or guard other units based on what orders you give them. The resources used are mana and gold, which are gathered by harvesting from the map and through taxes, respectively. The module is pretty heavy on the adventuring aspect, as well. Hidden around the map are many encounters with creatures that are hostile to all players, powerful magic artifacts, several merchants that sell things like healing potions to keep your character alive, and mercenary lords that will hire out creatures to whomever happens to find them. To compare with other games out there, this module has the flavors of Majesty, Heroes of Might and Magic, Magic: The Gathering, and a hack-and-slash adventure game all mixed up together. The plot in this module is very limited, as it's intended as a prototype of sorts and we were more concerned with how it played than how good the story was. We have another module of this RTS-RPG hybrid sort in the works right now, and we're looking to fix the plot deficiencies in our next attempt.

Deva: Jeremy has this one covered we don't want to duplicate efforts.

5. How hard was it to get the RTS aspects of Harvest of Souls into the
Neverwinter Nights RPG gameplay?

Deva: There is some tricky scripting but, I am kind of becoming an old hat when it comes to large projects. I have a number of scripts I have released and none of them are tiny things. I approach my scripts with the plan of being able to give them to other people. I started that way with Harvest of Souls but, some things just got too tied in. It is more about balancing the game play and such. I think you will see a lot more of this soon. I know you will from us. :) So, for some people it may prove really challenging. For me it kind of is becoming second nature. I think in code a lot of the time. I also love RTS games and I love RPG games. I have designed both types of games on paper and elsewhere. So, it is easy for me just time consuming. I guess that is hard for me to judge for someone else. The next module we are making it so anyone will be able to make modules like this. The scripts I use will be exported and provided to the community and will make the creation of such modules easy.

6. Did you create any new "units" for the mod?

Jeremy: We didn't create any new models, though we used several from other members of the Neverwinter Nights mod community. Many of the stock creatures in the game have had stats tweaked and equipment changed, however.

Deva: Well we used models made by other people. If I have a weakness in game design it is that I suck at the art and the modeling. Jeremy is starting to play with the modeling. I am a programmer, musician, and story teller. So, we took existing units and we did add some extra features to some of them to give them a bit of flavor. The spiders grow over time. The Master Vampire can create more vampires, ghouls and such feast on corpses to heal themselves, and sunlight plays a role. So, did we create new units... in SCRIPT yes in models no.

7. What other unique gameplay aspects does the mod have?

Jeremy: I think the whole experience of controlling 30-40 units with the wide range of abilities you'd expect to see in a RPG, and being able to see the RPG complexity while playing general, makes the whole module a very unique gaming experience.

Deva: Basically I can honestly say it is the most fun I have had playing NWN. We actually managed to hit the idea of tying an RPG and an RTS together closer than I think I have ever seen it before. By the 2nd or 3rd time you have played the module it will feel different than any game you have ever played. One thing that is also unique I think we stumbled on a way to give a module infinite replay value without getting dull. No two games are a like and you never know 100% what is going to happen. You do not feel herded towards a specific goal. It is freedom of playing but, you know there is some other vile being (the other players) out there hatching some plan and it is not a scripted
plan so, it makes impending doom a real possibility. Wait until the first time your mana production drops to 0 and you go back to your lair to find out the other player stole your mana crystals. Haha.

8. Are there plans to release future versions of Harvest of Souls?

Jeremy: Yes. The version we've started working on will have 10 teams, more resources and creatures, a bigger world, new game modes (plot victory and a game mode similar to Domination in Unreal Tournament), improved performance, and some additional features like diplomacy and trading.

Deva: Definitely. I consider the prototype a great success. It is very fun to play. We plan on expanding the play style, making plots that are manipulated by all teams. The next module should prove very interesting. We discovered in Harvest of Souls that our placement of many random elements in the maps adds a lot of flavor to the game. We plan on continuing this practice.

9. What do you think of the state of the Neverwinter Nights mod
community? Is it healthy?

Deva: The community as a whole is wonderful. There is also a lot of talent out there. I think it will remain strong because, there are people like me that are addicted to making things for it. The only thing I have noticed is it is really hard to get these people to work together. I have about a dozen project ideas that are really cool and I just do not have enough time to do it by myself. I tentatively suggested that the community get together and work together and share project ideas. The only response I got was an offer to work on the DLA project which translated to more work for me not a possible way to offload some of my ideas to other people. They are a good team though and I am excited to see what they come up with. Is it healthy? To me it appears that way.

10. Finally, is there anything else you wish to say about Harvest of
Souls?

Deva: I amazed by the feedback on “What a great idea” type things we have gotten. This is also my second interview. The vault game me one as well but, also discussing one of my other projects. The thing that has amazed me about this reaction though is we have not heard from a single person yet as to whether they enjoyed the module or anything. We don’t know if it is all hype and people are downloading it. We really would like to hear how other people like it. We want to know if they are enjoying it as much as we do. So, yes it is strange to get all this hype but, hear nothing about whether it is fun or not. We really need to hear this because, we are the authors so, we are naturally biased and need to hear from people. If we hear from one guy and he says “It sucks” that will probably depress us a bit so, we’d like to hear from people who like it as well as dislike it. Harvest of Souls uses a number of hak packs which total to 16.2MB download. We are providing a link that will give all these haks in one download or a way to download just the ones you do not have. This discourages some people but, we really like the new creatures and placeables so, it will be larger in the sequel.

I'm not dead yet...

I noticed when looking at this that the neverwintervault.org files were updated 3 days ago by a friend named Qlippoth. He is a QA specialist on the West Coast of the U.S. and he is perhaps one of the biggest fans. He has even taken it with my blessing and fixed a few things. So the above interview was from 2003 and there are still fans who love the game 13 years later.

War of the Reborn

I decided some years ago I would never mod a game again unless I have the option to sell or charge for my mod. I spent thousands of hours on RTS - Harvest of Souls.

I have embraced Unity pretty heavily and have purchased 95% of the assets needed to make a new spiritual successor to RTS - Harvest of Souls. What you see in that video is me running around in what could end up being the replacement for the new undead lair.

We have decided that the game world will be similar in design to the world in RTS - Harvest of Souls but bigger, and the layout will be familiar. There will be the same 4 teams as in RTS - HoS and a 5th called the Mageocracy.

We have a lot of lore and explanations for why mana pools are scattered around. I have pretty ambitious plans for this project. I expect it to take years before it is ready for release. I am not constrained by the limitations of the Neverwinter nights (Aurora) engine and there is nothing hard coded so I can attempt to do anything I can think of.

I've made the city for WOR three different times already and there will be a 4th due to new assets, and new tools.

This was the project my son Nathan and I were going full throttle on when we learned that our game Wormhole Ventures had been greenlit. We had to pause work on WOR while we finish up WHV. Then suddenly I discovered steemit.com and it has been a pleasant distraction.

The advantage of being an indie is I am not under any pressure. This War of The Reborn is one of my game ideas that I refer to as my Holy Grail.

I sincerely hope I one day have something playable for all of you out there to try.