chevalier
Thu, 25th Jan '07, 3:04am
Here are today's Neverwinter Nights 2 forum highlights, collected by NWVault (http://nwvault.ign.com). Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Rob McGinnis</font>
Answers to your questions (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewpost.html?topic=531901&post=4755373&forum=115&highlight=)
I think these all came from here:
<hr />Q: In walkmeshes, each face has a 32-bit flag. We have seen the values 0x0, 0x9, 0x11, 0x21, 0x41 and 0x101. The bottom bit seems to indicate whether the face is walkable or not, but what do the other bits mean?
A: The bit assignments for the walkmesh face flags are: bit 0: walk bit ( 1 = walk, 0 = no walk ) bit 1 - 2: reserved bit 3 - 13: material ( used for footstep sounds, etc... I dont know what will happen if more than one of these are set at the same time. I dont recommend it. )... bit 3: dirt bit 4: grass bit 5: stone bit 6: wood bit 7: carpet bit 8: metal bit 9: swamp bit 10: mud bit 11: leaves bit 12: water bit 13: puddles bits 14 - 31: reserved
Q: I would like to know how I can import mp3's and such into the game to use as background sound for my module. I have NO idea how to do this, and I haven't been able to find a tutorial that dumbs things down for those of us who don't know what we're doing; most of the sound tutorials seem fairly advanced. All I know is that I need a hak-pak, and that I need to edit a 2da file and convernt my mp3's to bmu's. I don't know how to do this or even how to begin doing this, so if anyone has a good link to a tutorial for us beginners, or can explain it here, I would TREMENDOUSLY appreciate it. Thanks!
A: The way it should work in NWN2 is identical to NWN1. There is also a brief tutorial on NWN1 at http://nwn.bioware.com/builders/sounds_bmu.html
with links on how to do additional sounds.
NWN2 can take and play uncompressed WAV file in the Override, but that would be pretty huge in size.
Basically, we use an APP called "Lame" that takes a .Wav file, converts it to MP3 (changing some header information) and rename it back to a .Wav extension.
Click Here (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-CD-Rippers-Encoders/LAME-MP3-Encoder.shtml)
So automate it some you can make a .bat file (assuming they are using LAME) that will basically convert a WAV file, make it an MP3, rename it a Wav file, then delete the old MP3's with the following commands.
lame -S --quiet -t %1.wav %1.mp3
echo BMU V1.0 > "WavFolder%1.wav"
type %1.mp3 >> DifferentWaveFolder%1.wav"
del /f /q %1.mp3
Q: Is there a way that you can filter the domains available when taking the first level of cleric, based on the deity the player chooses? Torm, for example, might only offer the Good, Sun, War and Healing domains. Is this possible?
A: It is not currently possible to restrict domains based on deity selection.
The Domain GUI code has no knowledge of your deity selection, nor is there any data loaded up on a deity-by-deity basis on what domains are in that deity's portfolio. Also, default package domain selection has no knowledge of deity selection either.
Q: Right now journals in single modules synch to party leader by default. In order to turn off synching you have to add the module into a campaign and turn off synch. Is this on the board for a change? Seems a little cumbersome to have to add a single module with no world map into a campaign just for this, and it can really mess up a multiplayer module, PW or not.
A: This really should have defaulted to false all along. It’s been changed so that this setting defaults to false and those who want to enable party-leader journal synching will need to create a campaign and change the setting to true.
This change should be effective in version 1.05.
Q: How long can a variable name be? How long can a string be?
A: While the runtime virtual machine doesn't have any limits that we could find, the compiler will reject tokens that are longer than 512 characters. So that would probably be the de facto limits of variable or hard coded string length.
Q: What effect information do different values for the Idx parameter give back for GetEffectInteger()? There doesn't appear to be many comments on this function that I can find.
A: The problem is that the Idx values will return different information for every single different kind of effect. While it would be nice if we could document all of that, doing so is outside the scope of answering just this question. If there is a specific spell we need to look into, let us know.
Q: Are the values for SetEffectSpellID limited to valid SpellID values only? I tried setting a high order value (maxinteger value - 500 or so) and failed to read back what I set. I was hoping to use this a a unique Efffect Identifier for effects applied outside spell scripts, so that I could unquely ID and remove that effect at a later point.
A: I couldn't find any limits to the SetEffectSpellID parameter. I also looked for areas where maybe the value would be stored as something that wouldn't accommodate a large number (such as a WORD), but couldn't find anything like that in the code either.
I would recommend trying this with a smaller number than something near MAXINT to see if you get the results you expect.
Q: How do I use custom terrain-texures from a hak pak?
I've tried placing a modified "terrainmaterials.2da"-file with the extra entries plus the corresponding dds-files in a hak pak which I then added to the module. There is no obvious way, however, to select the custom terrain-textures within the toolset. I used "Bioware Hak Pak Editor v 1.0.2.0" Any help will be appreciated.
A: If you are trying to load a hak pack up in the toolset, this does not currently work. They are only loaded in when the module is run inside the game. So a Hak Pak will do you no good in the editor. To make it work in the editor you have to place the textures and edited 2DA file in your override folder.
Q: Creating new skills require not only modifying skills.2da (which is straight-forward enough), but also a set of GUIs in chargen_skills.xml and characterscreen.xml. In both of these, each individual skill carries its own UIPane: does this mean that all skills are hard-coded, and that it is not possible for us to add new ones?
A: Not without some extra work. The mentioned GUI screens will have to be changed to reflect the new Skills you have added. The good news is that you can simply override the old GUI screens by turning your module into a campaign and placing your new GUI screens in the campaign directory.<hr />
What's with all the people... (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewpost.html?topic=543572&post=4755464&forum=109&highlight=)
When it comes down to it, Multiplayer is in our gameplan. For these first few patches we have been focusing on the bigger issues that affect the entire community, not just individual niches of it. Fixes such as server stability, camera controls and game-stopping crashes.
While these patches have been coming out, we have been working on some of the larger problems that take longer to fix and or implement.
Shortly, we will have released four patches in just over two months of the game being released, with three of those four patches based on community feedback - your feedback.
We have unleashed 11 Community Representatives on you guys and they are collecting questions, complaints, suggestions and feedback from you that will go into future patches.
All facets of the game are being addressed. Multiplayer will get some Obsidian love just like PWs and Custom Content. It's not going to be an overnight fix, but it is going to get fixed.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Jeff Husges, Designer</font>
Creature hides dont match pnp stats? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewpost.html?topic=543322&post=4755681&forum=115&highlight=)
The damage reduction is on the creature blueprint itself, not the skin/hide.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Rob McGinnis</font>
Answers to your questions (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewpost.html?topic=531901&post=4755373&forum=115&highlight=)
I think these all came from here:
<hr />Q: In walkmeshes, each face has a 32-bit flag. We have seen the values 0x0, 0x9, 0x11, 0x21, 0x41 and 0x101. The bottom bit seems to indicate whether the face is walkable or not, but what do the other bits mean?
A: The bit assignments for the walkmesh face flags are: bit 0: walk bit ( 1 = walk, 0 = no walk ) bit 1 - 2: reserved bit 3 - 13: material ( used for footstep sounds, etc... I dont know what will happen if more than one of these are set at the same time. I dont recommend it. )... bit 3: dirt bit 4: grass bit 5: stone bit 6: wood bit 7: carpet bit 8: metal bit 9: swamp bit 10: mud bit 11: leaves bit 12: water bit 13: puddles bits 14 - 31: reserved
Q: I would like to know how I can import mp3's and such into the game to use as background sound for my module. I have NO idea how to do this, and I haven't been able to find a tutorial that dumbs things down for those of us who don't know what we're doing; most of the sound tutorials seem fairly advanced. All I know is that I need a hak-pak, and that I need to edit a 2da file and convernt my mp3's to bmu's. I don't know how to do this or even how to begin doing this, so if anyone has a good link to a tutorial for us beginners, or can explain it here, I would TREMENDOUSLY appreciate it. Thanks!
A: The way it should work in NWN2 is identical to NWN1. There is also a brief tutorial on NWN1 at http://nwn.bioware.com/builders/sounds_bmu.html
with links on how to do additional sounds.
NWN2 can take and play uncompressed WAV file in the Override, but that would be pretty huge in size.
Basically, we use an APP called "Lame" that takes a .Wav file, converts it to MP3 (changing some header information) and rename it back to a .Wav extension.
Click Here (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-CD-Rippers-Encoders/LAME-MP3-Encoder.shtml)
So automate it some you can make a .bat file (assuming they are using LAME) that will basically convert a WAV file, make it an MP3, rename it a Wav file, then delete the old MP3's with the following commands.
lame -S --quiet -t %1.wav %1.mp3
echo BMU V1.0 > "WavFolder%1.wav"
type %1.mp3 >> DifferentWaveFolder%1.wav"
del /f /q %1.mp3
Q: Is there a way that you can filter the domains available when taking the first level of cleric, based on the deity the player chooses? Torm, for example, might only offer the Good, Sun, War and Healing domains. Is this possible?
A: It is not currently possible to restrict domains based on deity selection.
The Domain GUI code has no knowledge of your deity selection, nor is there any data loaded up on a deity-by-deity basis on what domains are in that deity's portfolio. Also, default package domain selection has no knowledge of deity selection either.
Q: Right now journals in single modules synch to party leader by default. In order to turn off synching you have to add the module into a campaign and turn off synch. Is this on the board for a change? Seems a little cumbersome to have to add a single module with no world map into a campaign just for this, and it can really mess up a multiplayer module, PW or not.
A: This really should have defaulted to false all along. It’s been changed so that this setting defaults to false and those who want to enable party-leader journal synching will need to create a campaign and change the setting to true.
This change should be effective in version 1.05.
Q: How long can a variable name be? How long can a string be?
A: While the runtime virtual machine doesn't have any limits that we could find, the compiler will reject tokens that are longer than 512 characters. So that would probably be the de facto limits of variable or hard coded string length.
Q: What effect information do different values for the Idx parameter give back for GetEffectInteger()? There doesn't appear to be many comments on this function that I can find.
A: The problem is that the Idx values will return different information for every single different kind of effect. While it would be nice if we could document all of that, doing so is outside the scope of answering just this question. If there is a specific spell we need to look into, let us know.
Q: Are the values for SetEffectSpellID limited to valid SpellID values only? I tried setting a high order value (maxinteger value - 500 or so) and failed to read back what I set. I was hoping to use this a a unique Efffect Identifier for effects applied outside spell scripts, so that I could unquely ID and remove that effect at a later point.
A: I couldn't find any limits to the SetEffectSpellID parameter. I also looked for areas where maybe the value would be stored as something that wouldn't accommodate a large number (such as a WORD), but couldn't find anything like that in the code either.
I would recommend trying this with a smaller number than something near MAXINT to see if you get the results you expect.
Q: How do I use custom terrain-texures from a hak pak?
I've tried placing a modified "terrainmaterials.2da"-file with the extra entries plus the corresponding dds-files in a hak pak which I then added to the module. There is no obvious way, however, to select the custom terrain-textures within the toolset. I used "Bioware Hak Pak Editor v 1.0.2.0" Any help will be appreciated.
A: If you are trying to load a hak pack up in the toolset, this does not currently work. They are only loaded in when the module is run inside the game. So a Hak Pak will do you no good in the editor. To make it work in the editor you have to place the textures and edited 2DA file in your override folder.
Q: Creating new skills require not only modifying skills.2da (which is straight-forward enough), but also a set of GUIs in chargen_skills.xml and characterscreen.xml. In both of these, each individual skill carries its own UIPane: does this mean that all skills are hard-coded, and that it is not possible for us to add new ones?
A: Not without some extra work. The mentioned GUI screens will have to be changed to reflect the new Skills you have added. The good news is that you can simply override the old GUI screens by turning your module into a campaign and placing your new GUI screens in the campaign directory.<hr />
What's with all the people... (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewpost.html?topic=543572&post=4755464&forum=109&highlight=)
When it comes down to it, Multiplayer is in our gameplan. For these first few patches we have been focusing on the bigger issues that affect the entire community, not just individual niches of it. Fixes such as server stability, camera controls and game-stopping crashes.
While these patches have been coming out, we have been working on some of the larger problems that take longer to fix and or implement.
Shortly, we will have released four patches in just over two months of the game being released, with three of those four patches based on community feedback - your feedback.
We have unleashed 11 Community Representatives on you guys and they are collecting questions, complaints, suggestions and feedback from you that will go into future patches.
All facets of the game are being addressed. Multiplayer will get some Obsidian love just like PWs and Custom Content. It's not going to be an overnight fix, but it is going to get fixed.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Jeff Husges, Designer</font>
Creature hides dont match pnp stats? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewpost.html?topic=543322&post=4755681&forum=115&highlight=)
The damage reduction is on the creature blueprint itself, not the skin/hide.