NWNP Episode 43: Erik Karlsson
In this episode the part of Trey will be played by Dave (Eat2Surf). Dave sits in for Trey who is getting ready for a international trip. Michele and Jay try to keep up with the king of dudeness.
Michele goes international again with an interview with Erik Karlsson, creator of A New Journey Begins , Calm Before the Storm , and Surviving Horror modules. Michele as usual does an awesome job, you don’t want to miss this interview. To learn more about Erik Karlssen aka Berra check out his blog at http://erik-karlsson.livejournal.com/ .
In the news:
- Academy for Modding Excellence 2007 Golden Dragon Awards Cycle
- NWN Spotlight - RK Placeables Pack v2 has been released
- Jack and the Beanstalk by Dave Crowell - NWN 1
- Obsidian 3D Modeling Contest Winners Update
- NWN2 Patch 1.12 Update
We are planning a few awesome live events, think irc chats gone crazy. Michele has put together a Live event, where we will host an audio round-table with guests you can listen in and ask question via chat. We are also playing around with the idea of recording a few of our podcast this way so you can see what goes on behind the scenes.
Next episode we will have the Neverwinter Connections 2007 Grand Hall of fame Dungeon Master, and the DM Hall of Fame Inductee for April 2007, Skunkeen.
Until next time,
Get in game and level up!
January 25th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Should I keep my copy of this show… Michele is the queen of all things intreview… and my download has a little four letter word that may be cut out of future releases (grin)… ..though maybe it was a Slavic word..
Thanks for letting me pretend to be Trey… I had a blast.. I hope I’m not too annoying to the listeners.. .. at least any others besides me..
oh.. and now for the plug…
Please click on the Jack and the Beanstalk link above (or here: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=5684 ) to get my UPDATED version… complete with… THUNDER BOWL!!!
January 25th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Thank you Erik for a great interview!
Thank you Dave for joining us. You graced us with your Dude’ness wonderfully
Milk n Cookies!
January 26th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Great to see that the interview is finally up!
Michelle, you’re very welcome and thank you as well.
It was a fun and neat experience.
By the way, my last name is spelled “Karlsson” but I understand that a typical swedish last name can be hard to spell outside Sweden.
Again thanks everyone at NWN Podcast for letting me be a part of this interview. It was a whole lot of fun!
January 26th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Dave - I told Jay where that 4 letter word was! he was supposed to bleep it! lol ut oh!!
Erik, Name fixed! they have yet to figure out how to spell my name! lol Well, you don’t know how to spell it either.
“looks at Erik and his 4 letter word” ooops? lol
January 26th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Oh Dave? is that a pre edited copy? I did not hear the word in the released show. I hope it is pre edited. lol
January 26th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I dunno.. my copy was downloaded pretty early.. so I’m guessing Jay caught it and CENSORED it.. I’ll keep mine for the trial.
January 26th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Hi Everyone. I have sent Jay a message in regards to the “little 4 letter word” that came out in the interview. I do apologize if anyone got offended in anyway. I just realized it is still in there. Hopefully we can get it fixed soon.
Best Regards
Michele
January 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Hey, what happened to that thing where I can play the podcast right here on the page instead of having to download it? I liked that better, mostly because it won’t download anyway.
January 26th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Yes, I must admit that came as a bit of a surprise to me as well, I’ve always been listening to podcast through the on-site player. A neat way of doing it, and it makes it all a lot more interactive in some way. Without the player, the entire perception of the show changes a bit for me, going from something easily accessible to a bit of a hassle. I think you may find a lot of listeners turned off by the idea of having to save the file to listen.
Excellent interview Erik, looking forward to seeing you make the move to NWN2 mate!
Great show as usual everyone, happy to hear you on the show Dave, you should come back at a later time as well as you come through very well!
January 26th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I have to admit. I use the site player as well. I have precious little space on my HD and really liked the fact I could listen right from the website.
Dirtywick - Why are you unable to download it? just curious
January 26th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I click on it and I get a blank window. The little circle looking thing is spinning on IE so the internet is up to something, but apparently what that is doesn’t involve downloading the podcast haha.
January 26th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Maybe try right clicking and saving that way??
January 26th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Hey Dave!! My daughter and I played the Jack and the Beanstalk module today as Daddy time before I leave on my trip. I recorded the session in audio! HA!! When I get back I ‘ll probably post it as a special episode. It was fun, she was a little scared of the Giant, but it came off fun!! See ya when I get back.
January 26th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I hope she didn’t get tooo scared… my boy gets pretty antsy when the chase begins.. but when I mentioned the space bar will pause things.. he was much mor e relaxed.. kind of a Time out button… I hope you got to play the Updated version!.. it’s got more things for a kid to click on.
I’ve gone both ways with the giant… too slow makes him .. well.. not that worrisome.. but too close gets the blood flowing.. but.. well.. It is scary, eh? A giant’s chasing you!
Have fun in Thailand! … I hope you get to see more than hotels and offices!
BTW.. here’s the link to Jack and the Beanstalk for those that don’t wanna scroll back up.. (grin)
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=5684
January 26th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I’m also unable to download the podcast. I click on the link and I get an error saying the site is unavailable.
I try right clicking and savins as but that doesn’t work either.Is the site down?
January 27th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Hehhe, yeah I was a little surprised at first as well when I actually heard my four-letter word.
But I guess it might have been taken care of now. I was one of the first downloaders after all so that “word” might’ve run away by now. 
By the way Michelle, how do YOU spell your name?
Dave - I think you were a great audition to the show. You’re almighty dudeness simply can’t go wrong.
Ree - Great that you liked it & thank you.
And yeah, NWN2 seems a little closer now. At least a little. 
January 27th, 2008 at 3:25 am
anyone else having problems getting the show through I-tunes?
Just downloading manually. BTW I have no trouble with the saving I did that to all shows and have my own personal little archive of the shows.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:14 am
I am also unable to access the podcast directly or via iTunes. I’m going to start twitching if I don’t get my Neverwinter Nights Podcast fix, or maybe that’s just caffeine addiction and I need my morning cup o’ coffee. I look forward to the podcast in the near future. I’m confident the podcast team will get to the bottom of the issue quickly.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Jay may be lurking in the shadows and waiting until someone that really needs a Podcast fix is trying to download.. then he stops it.. that way you have to come comment.. and then.. just maybe.. we’ll set a new comment record..
I’m guessing that he’s taking care of the 4-letter word… I get a page not found error now…
Hang in there… Jay’ll have it taken care of as soon as he can.. maybe he’s busy playing in the snow… luck dog… … Jay’ll … that’s supposed to mean Jay will … not Jail.. wich I hope he didn’t land in.
The reason I think he’s working on it is that my comment with a link got approved.. so I think that means he’s still with us.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am
If I knew how to turn the player back on. I would
I just clicked the download link and it let me save it to my HD. I use firefox, not sure if that makes any difference.
I messaged Jay turn the player back on. I is causing to many issues with listeners and downloading.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Figured it out!!! Commence listening!!!! :)))
January 27th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Erik
Name is spelled “Michele” one “L” not two :p
January 27th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Great podcast. There is no surf in Thailand. Actually it was a six letter word, but it sounded like, “I was flocked”, so no worries. I like horror too and have tried to introduce a modicum of it here and there. Surviving Horror is one of the best examples of this genre, from my reading, as I don’t really play single player modules.
On a side note: I was thinking of dropping in avatars of the podcast team into the pw I am working on, so I thought I would ask here collectively for permission to do that.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Well my flight was canceled. Yes canceled!! So im here for another day, and just read through all the comments. Removing the player was a test because we are thinking of hosting our files a different way that can not use the player. So the removal was to see what kind of feedback we get. We seem to have more and more files issues and are going to have to something soon.
Michele why is there one L versus 2?
ffbj, that would be an honor! Please send us links to preview first though. Make sure you dont give us extra arms or something. *grins
January 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Sorry, not lurking on purpose. My yougest daughter had a dance recital this weekend so we have been busy, family has been in etc.
I did edit the before mentioned 4-6 letter word, but in my hurry to finish up pulled the wrong file into the final production. I do applolgize if anyone took offense.
About the player; we have been looking at ways to improve the download speeds of the podcast. One of the options has been to host the files on the vault, which has more bandwidth for downloads. The downside is the cool inline player doesn’t work when the files are not hosted on the same server. We posted a thread in the forums asking if anyone used the inline player and didn’t get any feedback. So, I took a page from my I.T. handbook “unplug it and see who voices up” and well it seems to have worked :-). Sorry for the inconvienence but it was the only way we could find out who was using it.
iTunes, hmmm, I don’t have any idea what is up with *insert 4-6 letter word here*
iTunes. I was able to download, and even removed my subscription and re-subscribed and it downloaded just fine. This is usually an issue on the iTunes side and eventually is resolved.
Please let me know if you are still having issues.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Works good now.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
If there’s ocean.. there’s surf… My question kinda gets lost in translation from surfspeak to common tounge… My question should have been, “Is the gonna be some swell?”.. basically asking if surf was “up.”
(snip from the net)
I hope Trey brought his board!!
January 27th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Jay.. can you have the download link to the vault.. and host the file also on your server.. but not link the download to it.. just the player??
January 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Trey - You will have to ask my parents. They named me
January 27th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
ffbj - go for it. Can I be a tavern wench? LOL
January 27th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
So.. Trey.. you still have time to go get a board.. though,.. probably best to just rent one.. .. I wonder what the water quality is like in their ocean..
It’s been raining here.. so we can’t go in the ocean for at least 72 hours after it stops.. unless you wanna get sick.. or worse.. What a wonderfull job we humans do at keeping the planet clean (for those who have English as a second language.. the previous statement was an example of sarcasm).
January 27th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
That was kinda of a boring answer Liso! jk LOL
Sorry Dave if there were surf, you for sure wouldn’t want me hanging five!! IS that the correct usage?
January 27th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Trey? The answer matched the question? ” giggles, laughs and sticks out :p “
January 27th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Trey.. Hmm.. yeah.. you can hang five… Hanging ten is more impressive.. I’m ok doin’ cheater 5’s… but gettin all ten over the nose is pretty rare for me!.. though, I can cross-step ok..
But you’d do ok with it at knee-high on a tanker… (ie.. small waves and a big old board.)
Later, brah! .. stay stoked!
PS - I’m diggin’ into the NWN2 toolset… wow… once ya start to find your way around… wow…
January 28th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Good to see that the player seems to work now. Go on and continue listening and commenting on this incredible horror story … err, interview.
*ffbj - Great to see another horror fan among us.
Horror is the best there is. 
*Liso - Michele it is then.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Actually I was thinking of putting you in the tavern, but not as a wench. More like an adventures for hire, Ashercon as a knight, Trey as a barbarian chief. Certainly I will send a sneak peak preview when I have something, but that’s months away. OH the horror!
Ok there is surf but it is miniscule. I was stationed in the P.I. and surf is similar there, a couple feet at most.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
ffbj.. yeah.. sounded like a good place to bring a longboard and do some soul surfin’ with some friends… Endless Summer stuff.. I wasn’t trying to do a snotty, “yes there is” thing.. just a google search and share..
I got into surf late in life.. 29-years-old then?? (There wasn’t much surf in Colorado either, Jay) .. and as I get older (yikes .. 43 coming!) smaller waves and smaller crowds look better and better.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Np. Yeah I did not take it that way. Thailand is well know for other things though, but no need to go into that here. Recently I saw a program on spinning dolphins. No one knows for sure why they spin, but speculation is the elation similar to way surfers get, the feeling of no resistance.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
it’s called being stoked… I know the feeling… non-surfing surfers (long philosophical conversation skipped) show that feeling when in the ocean and bursting out from underwater with sheer joy.. coding, computer-game-playing nerds (compliments intended) show similar emotions when a certain script finally works the way it was intended..
January 28th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
ffbj - Adventurer for hire. hmmm I’m not cheap!!! haha! “wonders if those hiring me care if I bring my frying pan of slashing” :p
January 29th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Eat2surf: about hosting files on the vault, the file that is used for the player is the one that gets put into the rss feed so that wouldn’t help us any. *shrug*
January 29th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Jay.. I guess I meant.. can’t you put the same file both places?? so those that download get linked to the Vault. but those that click the player get the one hosted on your server?… I obviously don’t know enough about the problem.. just figured there may be a way to trick things.. guess not.. *shrug too*
January 29th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Unfortunatly not. The same plugin that gives us the player also provides the funtionaity for the iTunes and RSS feeds. So where it points is where the file is downloaded or streamed from. We could host the file in both locations but it wouldn’t help speed up the file downloads for the podcatchers.
A word about podcatchers, it seems there is some confusion regarding these little applications, so I thought I might try to elaborate. iTunes is the most well know but the only podcatching software out there. In fact there are tons of them, they site on your machine watching the podcast you have subscribed to and downloading new episods for you as they become available. So if a new episode of the NWN Podcast come out at say midnight central time, which is not uncommon, it would already be downloaded and waiting on your machine when you wake up.
You may use a podcatcher to sync the episode to a mobel device such as an iPod, iRiver, or other portable mp3 player and take them on the road. The whole idea is portablility and the fact that you don’t have to visit a site to stay up to date, because the content comes to you.
Pretty cool, eh?
I am currently working on a Gadget for Windows Vista that will play our latest episode with out visiting the site. I am also working on a podcatcher called PodStreamer that will stream the audio from the site instead of downloading it.
Sorry about the lenght reply but it seems some people have been becoming frustrated with having to wait to download the latest episode, I just wanted to point out that you can let a podcatcher do it for you.
If you are interested in trying a podcatcher check out this wizard that helps show you what is available http://www.podcatchermatrix.org/wizard.php.
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Hi All,
Finally got time to finish last week’s podcast and start on this one. Great as always, especially Michele’s interviews. Here are a few “catch-up” comments:
About the Golden Dragon Awards: anything originally submitted to the Vault in 2008 would be eligible, but not until next year’s awards cycle. So Dave, we’ll keep an eye out for “Jack and the Beanstalk” next January.
About swimming and flying animations in NWN1: you can definitely do that with the “flying” phenotypes included in CEP 2.0. I make extensive use of them in my last module (Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker, Act I). Swimming and flying in NWN (1 and 2) is limited because of the fundamental “snap to terrain” design of the Neverwinter Nights engine. I was still able to work out how to do some nifty things with it, though, and you can see screenshots of some examples on my module page.
About the nermat and music: maybe I’m a little more square than most of your other listeners, but I actually kind of liked the old music better. That’s just me, though, and I’m sure I’ll get used to the new stuff soon enough.
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Here are some screenshots of the use of NWN1 swimming and flying animations from my latest module:
Sanctum 2 Module page:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=5599
A Lake in the Mountains (swimming):
http://nwvault.ign.com/fms/Image.php?id=104627
Wind-Walking (flying):
http://nwvault.ign.com/fms/Image.php?id=106219
- Andarian
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Hmm, looks like some of my last post got corrupted. “About the nermat and music…” should have read: “About the new format and music….”