Closed Poll: Worth the Effort? I'll say yes (title edited)

I got frustrated last night while sitting in class and started playing around with a concept that depends on my rather poor model-making skills. After about 5 hours of work and testing, and some help from the more knowledgeable folks on the BioWare forum, I was able to get the first one to work. Then, after another 2 hours of work and testing, got the second one working.

So, is it worth the effort for me to make another 10 of these (for races+genders other than humans/half-elves)? Each race and gender requires me to make another version of the circlet for proper alignment and sizing. I have possibly-delusional thoughts of some fancy, long-duration scripting for the good old headband of intellect, but I want to know if the time I put into it is worth it in the eyes o' the players.



Of course, if I do add these to the game, how long before people will want ones made to look like silver? Or with a gem in the middle? Or crowns?

Is HAWT!

Me like.

Me wantz.

Pweez!

Way cool would love to see these in game! Great work as always !

I think that they'll be great additions if you choose to put them in Aenea.

I like.

Now, are those actual helmet models on an item that fits in the helmet slot, or is it more like the neck-piece cloaks in the CEP that look like cloaks but are off the armor worn itself?

They are visual effects, like the demon spawn horns or the glowing eyes.

My plan for the headband of intellect is to give it a power that activates when you put it on. A script would de-equip the helmet model, then apply the Int bonus to your "skin" item (the same one that holds things like the bonuses from ioun stones) for 1 game day or 1 game week (so it's good for gaining spell slots, the time set with a VC command before the headband is used), then add a variable that another script would read to prevent you from equipping another helmet item during that time.

And with the amount of work this would take for me, both in modeling and scripting, this is something that would not be able to be used for custom items.

They look really cool, but I for one can guess that it that wont be long before people want silver, jeweled, flashier, crown like bands around thier heads... and then I suppose once the "models" are sorted out how hard would it be to create other headbands?.. would that be a case of firing a slightly altered script that gives the same visual effect.. for some unique Aenea headband of x?.... I'd like to see it, just purely because it adds something new to Aenea.. and I like new stuff.. it's why I'm here in the first place... ...

There will be some minor clipping with a few heads....stupid dwarves and halflings with their blocky heads....*sigh*.

Yeah, I just managed to do ones for male dwarves and halflings. 4 down, 8 to go. Now that I'm figuring a couple of minor things out, I'm down to about an hour per circlet.

Sure, these look like they could be a nice addition, but I think for such a simple looking plain addition which requires SO much work, Amethyst could probably focus his energy and time into features that would be more worthwhile for our PW.

I am not saying I don't want these, I'm only saying that it would be more productive to improve and add to other areas of the PW.

Now, I myself could give advice on designer these circlets, or suggestions, but right now it seems like alot of work for little reward.

After getting the first few done and figuring out how to do what I wanted, the others have gone much faster. 12 of 12 done in gold. I may alter the gold ones to brighten them up a little, and I'll likely recolor them in silvery color for variety.

I've also spent many, many hours before working on less visible stuff that never panned out. There is not a lot I can do with the game module as far as bug fixes or anything until Saturday when the new haks start being used, so now is a good time for me to experiment.

I definitely like the way these look, and how it sounds like they'd work. If it kills the whole "helmet head" syndrome for wizards too, it's super great.

Maybe Alastair will finally get to see how fugly Crubus really is under that helmet

Without a doubt, add those suckers in! Yes, I'll give you that it's a lot of work for seemingly little gain, but any sort of variety is win-win in my book. , you are the bizz-omb!

I'll be adding them in the near future, once I make any varieties I want. I've figured out how to add a dimly glowing gem, so now I'm going to do a few variations so that there is a different appearance for each "level" of headband of intellect (+2, +4, +6, +. I might want some variety too for possible future "headbands/circlets".

I am also considering seeing if I can model "lenses" to represent things like eyes of minute seeing or eyes of charming. That one may take a bit more playing around with, since it's a more complex shape (or rather, collection of shapes).

We shall see. I won't be adding the circlets until next week sometime (just before I start a vacation). I still have a term paper to finish by tomorrow evening.

they look awesome , would be very nice to get Sevenar's head out of the helmet (though his head might get a little cold in Icereach... he is bald after all haha).

I'm kind of curious why the headband can't be turned into an item model instead of this scripted event of which you speak to insert it into the player model (sounds like a lot more work than should be necessary). granted, i know next to nothing about the design aspect of NWN, but is it not possible to make new item models like that?

Also, thank you for all the effort and detail you've put into making this a truly glorious, living, breathing world. I'm sure you get just as much, if not more, satisfaction from seeing your creation take shape and be enjoyed by the masses as we get in exploring the ever-expanding plane of Aenea you've set out for us, but it really is a blast playing here. Now if I could just figure out what that blasted "viva la revolution" gnome wants... haha

In NWN, helmet models actually replace head models when they are donned. If you wanted to make a helmet item that looked like a circlet or whatever, you'd have to make a brand new helmet model from your character's head model with the added circlet part, then make a customized helmet item for each possible head appearance with each possible circlet appearance. You'd then have to change the colors of the "head helmet" to match your skin and hair colors to make it look right.

Doing it as a VFX means I only have to make 12 simple models for each circlet appearance (1 male and 1 female for each PC race, humans & half-elves use the same models), as visual effects are just layered over the normal head model. I'll have to do some fancy scripting work to add in the properties of the helm to the PCs skin on a 24 or 168 hour basis (1 game day or 1 game week) and to stop people from donning a second "real" helm while the circlet is in effect, but it should work out well.

Closed the poll, since the most people seem to say "yes" and I'm working on adding them in while expanding the possibilities. See the "recent/upcoming changes" section (link).

Poll closed, topic still open. Results were 8 yes, 1 no.