The SAGA team has posted another interview with a community leader, this time with Lazjen, a toolset plug-in guru. Enjoy!

[SAGA] You are already the creator of a lot of Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset plugins submitted to the community. What is your background in programming and how easily did you adapt to this new NWN's toolset functionality?

[Lazjen] I've been involved in computers and programming for even longer than roleplaying. It's my working career and I've done coding in many languages, although my greatest skill is with Java. NWN2's toolset uses the .NET framework, so there are a number of Microsoft based languages available. Since C# is essentially a copy of Java, I didn't have too much difficulty adapting to that, although I will in no way claim to be a C# coder - I write "Java-style" and make it work for C#. For me, the greater difficulty is that the C# development environments appear to be much less advanced than those I use in Java. I think this has slowed my progress in going through the NWN2 toolset code....

[SAGA] Back to your plugins. Do you have plans for new plugins or extra features added to your already published ones?

[Lazjen] Yes to both. I'll be writing plugins for the DLA (http://www.dladventures.com/) now that I've joined the team. These will be to meet the needs of the other team members using the toolset. In most cases, the plugins will still be published for other builders, unless the plugin is truly specific to DLA needs and of no real use to anyone else.

I'm trying to avoid announcing plugins that I'm thinking of, or aren't just about ready to publish. It's not that I'm trying to protect the ideas, since some are obvious (item wizard, creature wizard for example), but more to be realistic about what I can achieve with the time I've got. I also hate vapourware and don't want to possibly be adding to it. I will say however that I am working on a major plugin at this time and there are hints out there for astute observers as to its nature.

As for my published plugins, I'm definitely adding new features. As I've mentioned, the Store Manager and Inventory Manager will be combined. I will be adding more to the Store Manager for the other parts to a store
- markup percentages, etc. The Inventory Manager will get equipping items for creatures as well. Of course, I've promised to write documentation and help for the plugins, so I'll be doing that as well.