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Neverwinter
Stratics Chat (July 5, 2001)
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Attendees from BioWare:
Marizelle: Welcome to all to the Neverwinter Nights House of Commons Chat with BioWare. I would like to welcome the terrific members of the BioWare team for agreeing once again to be thrown to the lions in our wish to know more about this wonderful game.
So first I would like to ask each of the BioWare team to introduce themselves... Brad since you are at the top of the list would you start?
Bio_Brad: Brad Grier - BioWare's PR - who happened to be away for a moment...sorry :-)
Teresa_Bio: Teresa - Communications coordinator here :)
Bio_Luke: Luke Kristjanson, writer and designer on Neverwinter.
bio_scott1: Scott Greig - Lead Programmer for Neverwinter Nights
Bio_Noel: Noel Borstad, Programmer
BIO-Brenon: Brenon Holmes... Also a Programmer...
BioBob2: Bob McCabe - Writing & Design Dept, Neverwinter Nights
DaveCBio: Dave Chan - Audio Producer/Sound Designer and company email spammer ;)
BioBob2: woo hoo! monkey boy!
BioDonM: Don Moar - Lead Programmer, Tools working on the NWToolset
Mark Hoerrner: How are sneak attacks handled? Are they simply calculated via "This character is a rogue, so under these circumstances, the Sneak modifier is added in?"
bio_scott1: That's an interesting question because we just had a meeting on it last week. Right now you will automatically get a sneak attack any time that you qualify for one. I believe that all classes are eligible for a sneak attack, but the rogue is the class that gets all of the bonuses for it. We had also decided that there will be some type of feedback on when you are eligible for one but we haven't worked out all of the details.
Eyemaze: Will it be possible to hotswap between AI behavior routines on the fly? E.G The party encounters aggressive mob of gibberlings. Under normal conditions the mob attacks chaotically. One of the players asks the DM if he can throw his rations on the floor in an attempt to distract the horde. Would the DM be able to modify the behavior of the mob to gather at a a single point, without having defined this behavior before the module was compiled?
bio_scott1: Short answer: yes. Long answer: At the very least the DM will be able to disable their current scripts and change the creature's hostility towards the party.
Sephron Azure: The means by which magic is cast and restored presents problems for a persistent world, or long multi-player modules. I give specific reference to the need for sleep (as per D&D rules) in order to regain spells. Will it be possible to implement a "Mana System" similar in nature to UO's or EQ's, where by blah spell consumes X amount of mana, and from there mana regenerates at Y rate? I have a hack work-around in mind, but would like to know how you would avoid this problem?
bio_scott1: You will definitely have to rest to regain spells. It wouldn't be D&D otherwise. Of course in a multiplayer game where you can't guarantee that everyone is in the same party, you can't have time compression. As such, resting time will be long enough to ensure that you can't rest during combat but short enough that you aren't annoyed by long periods of waiting. The system that we have in place will prevent you from resting for a period after you perform a combat action but the actual rest time will be quite short. The actual values for the cool down time and the rest time will be determined during play testing.
BukogahnMONKAY: Will it be possible for a character, say on a balcony, to shoot someone below him? For example an assassin shoots a poison tipped arrow (from a window, or ledge) at the governor leading a parade through the street below.
bio_scott1: You can definitely shoot at people that are on different height levels. There are several buildings in the city set that have balconies or accessible roofs.
Marizelle: Sorry about the difficulties folks... seems chanserv has caused a few issues with the BioWare folks seeing the channel - please be patient while we get this resolved.
Urza: Question about Experience Point distributing. If XP is given out real time does that mean they're ignoring Challenge Ratings? Packing more creatures in an area increase the Challenge Rating of that encounter. By distributing XP real time, characters lose the extra XP from what would be a high Challenge Rating, right?
bio_scott1: The encounter system kind of works the other way. It internally decides what the challenge rating for the encounter should be and then generates enough monsters to fill the rating. The xp is then divided up by the challenge rating of each monster. If during play testing we find that one cr 4 monster is easier than two, 2 cr monsters, we can adjust the amount of xp given for each monster.
Enig Matic: Sound. Have you decided whether custom sound files (for special effects) are going to be allowed? Failing that, are sound effects provided for everything from: (Dripping water, running streams, birds singing, wind blowing, rain falling, thunder clapping, crickets chirping, wolves howling, ghosts in dungeons etc, etc). The reason for this is that in order to implement things like "seasons", it would be nice to have a low level background sound effect playing (i.e. Crickets = Summer, Wind = Winter, Birds = Spring, Gentle Rain = Autumn)
DaveCBio: There are 3 types of sounds mainly, ambient sounds which are birds, wind, distant screaming etc., creature and magic and placeable sounds that can be scripted if you want. Ambient and scripted sounds can be custom. Creature and spell sounds right now are going to be hardwired, but there may be a way to override that in script as well.
Donny Trimm: How can corpse looting be handled? If it follows the Baldur's Gate method you could script the death event to spawn items on the ground by the corpse. This works for PvE but if the server admin allows PvP this leaves the items unprotected after you die. Would you have the option of protecting all or partial items for looting only by the player who owns the corpse? Will items have to be individually looted ala EverQuest or can you set an autoloot ala Diablo that re-equips all items when looting begins?
bio_scott1: There will be some basic looting options that are part of the PVP options. They include player can only loot their own character, party only looting, free looting. Of course, as MarkB pointed out, there is an OnPlayerDeath event that can be used to implement selected item dropping. We haven't yet talked about implementing an auto-loot feature.
Itismedan: In the 2000 E3 preview, someone said that a person petitioned the DM for a house to live in. I was wondering if this would be an important part of the game, and if you could set up a business to sell, say, books. Just a little more interacting with the computer or other people.
Bio_Luke: This sounds like more of a "persistent world" feature, whereby a DM has their server up 24/7. You certainly could ask him to accommodate your character, and he could take the server down, modify it with the desired changes, and put it back up… You could stock such a place with books you wrote or any other item, staying there yourself or perhaps asking for the DM to install a storekeeper with the items on him. We've had other questions regarding permanent trading posts, and it is certainly feasible for a player to put up a flea market server where characters come to trade. You'll have the ability to create whatever type of experience for the people entering a module you make. Including hard-driving merchant, if you like.
Devious: Will we be able to script PCs to be able to play as monsters on login? Example: Someone logs into my world and wants to play a goblin. Can we set this up as a script at login or character creation?
bio_scott1: This is what we have been calling "Guest Villains" (t/m). At the very least you will be able to login as a DM and take control of the "Guest Villain" (t/m) and play them as a character. The current plan is to allow for multiple levels of DM powers. One of them may be just the ability to possess npcs.
Urgat Rip-Eye: It was mentioned that vault characters would be usable in the single player game. My question is - How will this work? Will you have to remain on line all the while you play the single player game, or can you simply log on, collect your character from the vault, then log off. Then, when you want to call it a day, log back on, put your character back in and log off again. As I am sure you will agree, the two situations are very different, it would be nice to know how it will work.
There were server issues at this point that prevented the response from being seen in the channel. It was answered at a later time and the response inserted here.
bio_scott1: Sorry my post didn't show up.... Since the entire vault system is new (i.e. there really isn't any previous games that have done this), every aspect of this is only theoretical until we actually have it working. Basically we have a pretty good idea of how it will work, but until we have tested it and decided that it is actually fun, I don't want to talk about it in too much detail, in case it changes radically. By the way, this is effectively true for any feature that we add. Until it is tested and has passed our "is it fun" test, nothing is locked in stone.
BioDonM: *Jeopardy theme starts playing...*
BioDonM: ;^)
Bio_Luke: one moment please... do not adjust your set...
BioDonM: *this is a test of the emergency broadcast system*
BioDonM: *if this had been an actual emergency*
BioDonM: *you would be in serious trouble*
FB: Will any of the BG or IWD composers make any music for NWN? If not, is it possible for you to add the BG and IWD music into the NWN package, so that we can use it in our own modules? And will it be possible to import own music to the modules?
bio_scott1: We haven't picked a composer yet.
DaveCBio: We are actually talking about music right now. I want the music in NWN to be BG quality if not better. The one person I have in mind is an excellent composer and I think you'll all be pleased. You'll also be able to play your own tunes as well.
Gurney9999: How robust will the engine be with regards to creating cutscenes? I assume we will be able to prerecord events that we can place on event triggers in the game, but will we be able to record a scene, export it out of the game and make it downloadable for others to watch? That way we can create introductions to our modules that players can watch and get interested in our stories. (And if you saw the thread on it, we can take it to the extreme of creating theatre, comedy shows, soap operas... sick people...)
DaveCBio: As for the cutscene question I think it's still up in the air as to how it's going to be done.
Elan Faeron: Which method will use up less resources: on large area containing a large number of house/building interiors or a large number of separate house/building interior areas?
BioMarkB: Elan, that's a good question. The answer to that would be the former, but the latter isn't much larger.
J. Danielsen: I would like to know how much effort is put into making the monks combat moves as diverse as possible. If they just make the same kick/punch over and over again in combat, then for me the fascination with playing a martial arts expect will quickly disappear.
bio_scott1: There are some special animations for the monk, but we don't have a final number of them. It depends on the amount of memory that the animations take up and the time for creating the animations. The monks should be pretty interesting to play.
Pelham Argentshield: One intriguing aspect of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Book is the issue of trade. A map is even included to suggest possible trade relationships between various realms. On a linked persistent online world, players could possibly assume the role of a merchant coster head, making their bread by hazarding the travel between cities. Are there methods that can handle supply, demand, and pricing of items determined by the scarcity or commonality of them on a server?
BioMarkB: Pelham, that's an interesting question. The store code is being worked on right now, and we are still in the process of defining our demand and supply rules for our campaign modules. I'm sure there will be some hooks for scripting these values, but that's about all I can say until it's all hammered out. :-)
Dustin: Previous multi-player role-playing games required considerable game alterations to correct exploits and to better balance the game. How do you plan to address these issues after release?
bio_scott1: In my opinion the majority of the game play/balancing changes in those games was to deal with the large and diverse population of players. In NWN the populations will be much more focused, power gamers on this server, role players on that server, people just interested in chat on this other one. That along with the power that we are placing in the hands of the server operators, we don't think that need for major re-balancing will be required.
Jindar: Will one be able to jump? I know climbing and swimming won't be possible, while I understand why I was curious, could a character jump over a small stream for example.
BioMarkB: Jindar, at this current time, we do not have jumping working in the engine. As you may have seen in the E3 demo movies, our characters actually walk through small streams of water. Larger bodies of water are currently impassable.
StormKing: External Events: Can I burn a CD with home-made CGI movies and have NWN launch the movies at predetermined points in the game?
bio_scott1: We still haven't decided on what format of movies that we will be using. It's surprisingly difficult to find a format that works on all platforms and still meets our performance requirements. So until we have the format issues worked out, I can't tell you if will be able add your own.
Locke: Will the DM be able to mark off areas of dungeons/maps as wild or dead magic area, and if so, what are the prospects of a Wild mage Prestige class being implemented?
BioMarkB: Locke, we have a rather ambitious schedule of features for this game. Wild magic is a feature that we are very interested in, but we are unsure of whether we will have time to be able to get it in before our ship date.
Mort_Q: I would like to make single-player games that do not require a DM. Is there a way for a script to call up PC proficiencies so that a PC can be awarded an appropriate "reward" for a quest? i.e. so a fighter proficient with a flail doesn't get a magic longsword.
BioMarkB: Mort_Q, that's a good question. We do have scripting functions that allow the game to examine a PC's feats. Thus, it should be a simple matter to determine whether a given character has martial weapon proficiency, and then use this to determine an appropriate reward (magic club or magic long sword, for example).
Marizelle: Due to the issues earlier in the chat the BioWare folks are going to stick around to answer questions a bit longer than expected.
Jamey: How many tiles on average are there in any given set, and will there be tiles/objects that will be available in all of them, such as teleport pads?
bio_scott1: It really varies depending on the tile set. The city tile set is the largest with several hundred tiles. There is a large set of placeable objects that can be added to any tile (with room for them). These are accessible in any tile set, but I haven't seen the final list, so I don't know if teleport pads are on them.
SpaceLord: Will the BioWare guys be at GenCon game convention in Milwaukee on Aug 1-5? That convention is 30,00 rabid roleplayers, who might be very interested in NWN.
Bio_Brad: Yes, we have plans to be showing Neverwinter Nights at GenCon. It's a great opportunity for us to show the game off.
DaveCBio: We will also have a demo at Fragapalooza this year http://www.fragapalooza.com/
Bio_Brad: Follow-up -(thanks DaveCBio) We're also showing NWN at Fragapalooza (a LanFest) this month in Edmonton. If you're in the Edmonton area, check it out!
Banyan: Thank you for being able to meet with us again. :) My question is this... Is a DM able to grab a copy of a player and save it? What I have in mind is a weekly game I plan on running for some friends -- I want to know if I can play their characters as NPCs if a player misses a week. (Or must they just not exist during that week's game?)
bio_scott1: First of all, if you are playing as a Server character, then the server operator will have copies of the characters. There currently isn't support for importing a player character into a module as an npc, but I will toss it onto the proposed features list to look at later.
Emtea: Can you explain Effects more, specifically how they work in the scripting functions: Effect*()
Bio_Noel: The Effect*() commands return an effect of the appropriate type, that can be applied to multiple objects/locations it can also be adjusted to set subtypes etc... on it.
Grimley: Can the DM setup scripts to control the reactions/actions of animals such as the "deer" seen in the E3 demo? Have them follow specific paths etc.
BioDonM: All creatures are capable of responding to certain events, OnDamage, OnNotice, etc... You'll be able to use our scripts or write your own including behaviour like that found in the E3 demo (specifically the child that was walking between the river, road and ruins).
bio_scott1: The deer in the E3 demo would run away from you if you got too close. I was able to herd it into the dungeon. :)
Marizelle: I would like to thank the BioWare team for answering our questions tonight and all of you for your patience while the servers decided to test our patience even more than waiting for Neverwinter Nights can... but we know quality when we see it and it is worth the wait.
Bio_Brad: Hey all, thanks for taking the time to drop by. We've really enjoyed this, and some of those questions were great...and sure to fire discussion at the next team meetings. Thanks NWStratics folks for hosting this...
BioDonM: 'night everyone
Marizelle: Good night everyone - the questions were terrific!!
Bio_Brad: I'm sure we'll be doing it again sometime :-)
BIO-Brenon: Bye all!
DaveCBio: Buh bye
Bio_Brad: g'night all.
