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The Community Tileset Pack

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk

With the release of the Community Expansion Pack (CEP) Neverwinter fans breathed a sigh of relief that a group of tireless and slightly crazy volunteers had gathered up some of the best community-made content into a well-documented, convenient to use package that has become nearly standard across this huge community. The one part of NWN that still needed to be addressed however, was tilesets - big, complicated, and painful to develop items that are nevertheless vital to Neverwinter players everywhere. It was understood that a group of very special and slightly barmy people was required to bring some order to our Neverwinter worlds. Project leader Banshe introduces a very special group indeed...

What is the CTP?

Banshe: CTP stands for Community Tileset Pack. The CTP is a collection of tilesets that (we hope) will be universally used throughout the community much the same way as the CEP was.

How long has this package been in the works?

Banshe: The guild for the CTP was started by Dethangels Shadow about a year ago (April 1st to be exact: read into that what you will). Since then, there has been a fair amount of member turnover and some slow times and fast times. But overall, the project has been worked on steadily since it was started.

How many tilesets are included and what are some of them?

Banshe: We're expanding 12 of the BioWare tilesets and including around 30 or so custom tilesets (some of these custom tilesets can be found on the NWVault). We also will be providing skyboxes and texture packs which radically change the look of a tileset. Some of the custom tilesets we have are only to be found in the CTP. One of my favorites is called "White Wizard Lab" by our main tileset compiler, Pasilli, who is quite well known in the community by his work on the NWVault. It's a bit hard to describe, but try to imagine a white, glistening, marble interior that houses a lush, almost tropical underground forest. It's a beautiful meshing of an exterior and interior tileset concept. It really blew me away when I saw it. Underground Druid Grove, perhaps? Who knows... It's up to the builder.

Some of the other work that really excites me comes from our professional texture artist, Ashteferre, who also has a few offerings on the vault. Ash has been working on our texture packs and they are looking great. He can make a dungeon look downright dirty, age a city like a fine wine, and help a lost civilization lose itself a little more.

I strongly suspect that the work Pasilli and Ashteferre have been doing for the CTP will be the most popular parts of our project. If there are requests for more, more, more CTP content in the future, I'm positive that it will be for more of their work.

From the Vault, one of the CTP's favorite artists is Chandigar. So expect to see his stuff in there: Aztec Exterior, Gothic Estates and Gothic Interior.

How big is this file going to be?

Banshe: Gah... I think you're going to find that it is pretty substantial in size. The average tileset is around 30 MB. We've got 30 of those, plus the BioWare Expanded tilesets, plus sky boxes, plus texture packs. So, it won't be small but the math might be a little scary. We are hoping for a little more than 1 GB.

When is this going to be released?

Banshe: Hopefully as soon as possible. What this really boils down to is how much trouble the tilesets give us during the bug testing phase. It is a little hard to tell how long it will take until you really sink your teeth into it. Of course, there is that pesky "real life" thing that slows things down sometimes too. I think it will be done at some point this year, but I'm not sure I could be any more specific than that without making a date up.

Who do I contact if I want to help CTP?

Banshe: If you would like to keep tabs on how the project is coming along and perhaps lend a hand, you can visit us at our new website: www.nwnctp.com made by our star Webmaster, CTP team member, CC enthusiast and jack of all trades: Christopher. We will also be sending out a newsletter with updates and information for the community. Plus, for a little bit of light entertainment, the folks from West Sea guild will be regaling the visitors to our site with tales of wonder set in the CTP Tilesets themselves.

Lastly, I would also like to take this opportunity to mention the names of a few people who have really helped the CTP proceed to where it is today. I think it is important that the community knows who the folks are that have helped in a major way to make this happen:

• Maxam: Cool, calm, collected, level-headed Officer of the CTP who helped to keep the CTP together when it almost fell apart.
• Makzimia De Graf: Our permanent backup and "goto" guy. Every problem we faced, Makz has been there to help us out of it: servers, hosting, you name it.
• Kalenthius and Fridrik: The very first building blocks of the CTP were laid by these guys. They created the first CTP prototype hak file.
• Dethangels Shadow: The guy who clicked on the "start new guild" button, got the ball rolling and never looked back. Thanks for getting us started and hope your current endeavors are serving you well.
• Nihilus Narcissus: The silver tongued fellow who found 40 CTP members in the first few weeks of the project and then abruptly disappeared into the night. A recruiter without peer.
• BioWare: The Toolset, The Game, This Announcement... I think that says it all.

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