Wow, so my unreleased module for Neverwinter Nights (a game more than a decade old) has caused this flame war? Well if anything, it's nice to see the community still has a fire to it even if I am a late comer to NWN!
If you haven't guessed it by now; I am the lead developer of Celeritas Eos - Equilibrium of the Night and I find this whole situation quite hilarious. I only just stumbled upon this discussion when Googling my mod to see if anyone on any other site has heard of it or were talking about it since I keep being informed by CE's watchers that "there's people expecting a lot from EoTN".
In any case I'd just like to say that I'm unaffiliated with this all and I don't understand the commotion. From what I gather, user Stainless Veteran thinks I'm a Biodrone (or simply uses that as an ad hominem) and dislikes some of my lame jokes (and they were lame, I'll admit…
) as well as disliking the fact that Celeritas Eos lacks sexual descriptions and sexual animations which is what he seems to expect from adult modules. However, I have always listed Celertias Eos as "a low fantasy-mature-horror-survival-RPG series for Neverwinter Nights" and I don't see how mature is automatically equated to adult in the sense of meaning explicit sexual content, pornography and erotica. It's nice to see my unreleased module was defended but I think it's best if I address this…
Firstly…I'm not a Biodrone. The last good game I think Bioware developed was Dragon Age: Origins which was released four years ago. I don't think the Mass Effect series is anything special and I haven't played SWTOR and don't intend to. Meanwhile, I'm skeptical of Dragon Age: Inquisition because of the dumbing down of both Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 (the later of which is still lying in my collection of games unopened, so much for a Biodrone eh?).
Secondly…I don't see why Celertias Eos has to have explicit sexual content and/or sexual animations to be an adult mod. The sexual content is there as a means to role-play and in this sense, serves the same purpose as the sexual content in games such as Fallout 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. I'm not "proud" of the feature where Lucia can work in a brothel anymore of the fact that I'm not "proud" that EoTN uses KoTOR heads on NPC's (well it was either that or the default dated horrible low textured heads of NWN) alongside some custom ones. I recently had a beta tester write to me about this and I'll give you all the same answer I gave them concerning the lack of sexual detail…
"Well that's the thing, Celeritas Eos is not an adult module. It's a mature module. I think the two are different with adult meaning "sexual" and mature meaning "for adults that only they would understand" which is the case with some of the content. For example, the racism and sexism. During the boat journey to Eridanus, Lucia is confronted by racists who seek to throw her overboard. Then there's the Eridanusians colonizing other lands now. There's the sexuality thing being addressed such as in the quest "Immoral Behavior" where you see that homosexuality is not only punishable but punishable by death. Then there's the rape content which doesn't seek to shock the player as it occurs but rather deals with the aftermath. Or at least it will do in future. If raped by the bandits in the sewer there will be a point on Eridanus where Lucia has flash-backs to this event. There's not much politics at moment but there's some there such as Lord Ivar seeking to take advantage of the plague situation in Espilon simply to gain ranking and of course, the nobility not caring much for the common folk (hence why they've been cut off and left to die in the slums).
In other words I don't think you need sexual content for a mature module. The themes are what's mature and magic and mystical content has been deliberately avoided to give a realistic feel and portray the world as an alternative to our medieval time (although EoTN borders onto the Renaissance)."
and…
"Again, I wouldn't call this an "adult" module in that sense. The inspiration here was Baldur's Gate (exploration, map encounters and party), Fallout series (character traits and dialogue), Dragon Age: Origins (party system and interaction), Dark Souls (reward of exploration and challenge) and The Witcher 2 (multiple paths) and to make an RPG that doesn't hold your hand, is complex and tackles mature issues. Deciding to have sex is simply either another method to solve a quest for Lucia or a role-playing option to make Lucia either into a whore or romantic."
Making Lucia a prostitute isn't there for gratification. Lucia earns money for it but mostly scorn from her companions as well as a bad reputation effecting the response certain NPC's have when they meet Lucia. Rape isn't there to fulfill some sort of fetish, EoTN deals with the aftermath of it (the psychological aspect) and it can always be avoided. The fact Lucia can drug someone and rape them, again, isn't there for gratification as it's not presented in that way, this is for someone role-playing an evil character who decides to rape a chaste knight and is something that has a heavy consequence.
If Stainless Veteran wants 50 shades of Grey then he should go read 50 shades of Grey. Celeritas Eos tackles mature themes in a mature way, nothing is there for gratification or to satisfy some random geezer's fetish. It's a role-playing game foremost in the vein of the classic RPG's and simply gives it a unique flare by including realism and past issues of the medieval-Renaissance world.
Veteran is entitled to his views but I find it peculiar and repugnant that he's judged an unreleased module in such a way. At the time this shenanigans occurred, I was recruiting testers for EoTN and its page on Moddb has always been opened for all to comment. Stainless (along with everyone else) have all been welcomed to beta test so I find this tomfoolery startling to say the least.
To each, to their own, I say but people must remember that I'm creating Celeritas Eos and getting little in return. I'm using some of my free-time to mod and when it's released I don't get paid or even credited for it in real life. I'm producing a mod with over 30 hours of gameplay for free to the public. Constructive criticism will always be welcome but I find this ridiculous.
I mean no offense to anyone, including Stainless. I'm just confused at this entire flame war but at least it's made my unreleased mod controversial even before release, eh? Such is the drama of the internet. :lol:
In conclusion, I welcome Stainless and everyone else here to play Celeritas Eos when it releases. Then you can have a good laugh or not about it but until then, it's wise to reserve judgement for it.