January 2002

NWN Monsters List Updated
Posted Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 18:14 CET by Sorcerer

This just missed yesterday's update, and since I added some more today too, I might as well post it separately.

So click here to see the most up to date list of known creatures/monsters to be in Neverwinter Nights.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 13:51 CET by Tiamat

David Gaider, Designer:

Fire Giants: Fire giants are in...and they look cool. So do the hill giants, frost giants, mountain giants and ettins. :)
Do they have proper flesh tones? I believe so. It's a dark, coppery red... I think that's right. Very intimidating-looking, too. No giant Scotsmen, here.
The fire giant model is tall... about 2.5 times the size of the human model... but I wouldn't say he's overly squat. Much more monstrous and muscular than the BG2 model, I think. His skin isn't black, but it is a very dark, coppery brown. Not sure what color the hair is...he's wearing a helm with giant horns on it. His snarl shows teeth that certainly look ivory (or, at least, dirty) to me. Whether you think that's a good fire giant or a bad fire giant is hard to say. I like it, though.
Well, the fire giant looks like it does...regardless, it certainly looks a lot better than those horrible drawings from the 2nd edition Monster Manual. It's also easily recognizeable as a fire giant, I'm sure. If you think that a fire giant skin has to be black and not dark copper, than you're free to change the color. If you want to crab because the models don't look exactly the way you think they should, then go right ahead. This is the place to do it, after all. (Might want to wait until you actually see the model...but I'm sure that won't stop some.)

Birds in NWN: Actually, I must be hallucinating. There are falcons and ravens, not falcons and hawks. Although I imagine the graphical difference between a falcon and a hawk to be minimal enough so as not to matter. So, yes...ravens are in. And chickens. But I don't think anyone wants a chicken familiar. Except for those more perverse halfling sorcerer types, but we won't mention them.

Placeable Objects: Placeable objects aren't moveable by the PC's, no...not in the way that you can select them and put them in inventory and then take them out and put them elsewhere. A PC also can't 'push' them about or anything similar. Once they are placed, there they stay.
As for scripting involving placeable objects...the objects have individual tags, so you should be able to destroy them and move them about and such with the appropriate scripting...but I've never seen it done, so I'm not 100% positive about that.

Wraiths: The wraith is in.

Torture? If it was called for in the official campaign to use torture, we could certainly script something. This is very do-able, depending on what you intended.
There is no specific animation for torture is all I was saying. As far as ratings go, graphic depictions of torture would certainly be objectionable...the mere presence of the obejcts is not. And you guys who make your own uses for stuff don't need to worry about ratings, I'm sure.

And are torture devices usable? Depends on what you mean by useable. If you mean being able to apply a script onto the object so it has an effect...or placing an inventory or dialogue onto the object...then yes, of course. If you mean useable as in animation that shows gory scenes of torture, screaming elven maidens on the rack and so on...then no, naturally not.

Could you script a player to perform an action when no person, or certain type of person, is looking? Very easily
You could, for instance, have a script which says 'go ahead and destroy-respawn'...but upon the occurance of the OnPerceive() event, don't do that. Or upon the occurance of the OnPerceive() event and the LastPerceivedBy() is a PC or of Race R or Class C, then don't do that. Or only do it then (after all, in-game scenes where you come across people talking or other events happening have to 'detect' the presence of the PC's, right?).
You can control the perception range of creatures, so if you had a creature with a small-range perception, you could also alternatively determine if a PC was, say, within a certain range...and make that the condition that excludes the re-spawn.
Since the scripting language is very much like C++, adding conditions and if-thens and so forth is very, very easy to do.

Animals: The shadow has passed. The Dagaider is pleased. (Lots of champagne has that effect).
In celebration, I'll just say that both hawks and falcons are in the game (though these are the only birds I've seen), and while both of them are either familiars or animal companions, I'm not sure which is which.
Just as an aside, though: it is not necessary to address questions to me, specifically. If I know the answer, I'll generally respond. If I don't, or it's something I don't want to talk about or a part that isn't very settled, then even asking me won't get you much of an answer...and you'll miss out on having some other more knowledgeable Biowarean pop up.

Will NPCs have way-points, or will they wander aimlessly throughout a map? Either.

Squirrels Attacking: I never said that. Someone else might have, though.
As for squirrels, I've yet to see one. Very small animals are hard to do (or just don't look good...I'm not sure which is which).

Aasimars: The aasimar model looks very cool. I love the silver eyes, especially.

Undead Models: The skeletons and zombies in the game are based on human/humanoid models...although there are a couple of unique exceptions. There are no dwarven or orc skeletons specifically. I suppose you could make a zombie version of one of the playable races by adjusting their skin color...but otherwise the only way to get it would be to edit the existing models/textures.
Naturally we'd love to have every monster out there in every version available (esp. the new template monsters like lycanthropes and undead), but that's just not going to happen in the initial release.

Any giant undead? There is a bone golem animation which could pass as a giant skeleton, I guess, but beyond that no...there's no giant-size undead. The exception I was thinking of was the skeletal version of the intellect devourer. There might be one or two others, but they don't leap to mind...and certainly aren't giant-size.

Altering the Combat-System: That would be like asking for a toggle that allows you to turn the game into some other game completely. Unfortunately, stuff that is hard-coded into the game is something that can only be changed with extreme effort. Lots of effort is going into making NWN customizeable for the end-user, but altering something as fundamental as the combat system probably won't be an option.

NWN Scripting: The online community is going to produce a lot of scripts...and going through them all to find something close to what you need might sound like a big chore. Most likely, however, this is something that Jay has already thought of, and having scripts organized into a fashion that will be a bit easier for browsing and finding is, no doubt, on his list.

I will tell you, though, that I was not eager to learn the NWN scripting language at first, either. I am not a C+ programmer and it all looked very complex. It is very EASY, however, to learn the basics of the scripting...stuff that will get you through 75% of all the dialogue and basic stuff that you will have to do. Things like setting globals and playing with inventory and xp/gold rewards will become second nature within a few days.

A lot of the more complicated stuff is handled by the Default scripts that come with the game. These scripts are also well-documented and designed to be easy-to-use insofar as tinkering with them goes.

Don't believe me? Let me give you an example.

The default script for a characters OnSpawnIn() script has a whole list of commands and instructions. All the commands are commented out...so they do nothing as they stand. But...the instructions say "in order to do this with your character" you simply un-comment that particular command.

So you'll see this:

// SetSpawnInCondition(NW_FLAG_SHOUT_ATTACK_MY_TARGET);
// This will set the listening pattern on the NPC to attack when allies call

If you take out the '//' and uncomment the command, the character will then listen for shouts from allies and attack their enemies if he does (based on the Default scripts being used elsewhere...though these are so complete that I think 95% of the users will end up modifying them for their purposes rather than making whole new behaviorial scripts).

Want your creature to do something special when he sees a PC? Or maybe when he sees a specific NPC? Use this:

//SetSpawnInCondition(NW_FLAG_PERCIEVE_EVENT);
//OPTIONAL BEHAVIOR - Fire User Defined Event 1002

Un-comment the command...and then go to your UserDefined() scripts and make a simple script that basically says "when Event 1002 occurs and Last_Perceived is X, do this..." ...and these are not hard to do, either.

I know it may look a bit strange, but once you've got the basics down you literally start to read these lines like English. Like everything, though, there is a bit of a learning curve.

Your last option: change your plot to conform to your scripting ability. We do it. Not the funnest way, but sometimes you just have no other option...and rather than find or make some really complicated script that will enable your character to do some small thing...you do have the option of taking that small thing out. And that's just being realistic.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Importing into NWN: As Vanor says, things, and rules, were a lot different back when we were working on BG2. Importing into NWN seemed like a simple thing. The rules are so different between 2nd and 3rd that the current "import" is basically name, race, and almost class. Nothing else would come over, plus, it wouldn't work, plot-wise for the Official Campaign, if we allowed more stuff to come over. I will have to get back to you on the Official Status about importing.

More on importing from BG: 3E rules weren't finished yet. BG2 was still being finished. Since we already had importing of BG1 characters into BG2, we thought it would be great if you could import your BG2 characters into NWN. So we added a line into the loading messages about importing your character. That was done about 1 year ago. Now we had no concrete ideas as to the scope of this import, but we wanted to try and do it. It was kind of a pet feature of one of the programmers. At this time, it doesn't look like this feature would be that useful in the final version of Neverwinter Nights, but I can't give you a definitive answer until Monday or so, when I can ask the guys responsible for it.

Importing High-Level Characters: True, but that is only if you are talking about importing into the Official Campaign. What about using the import for bringing a character into a high-level campaign? What if you wrote your own BG3 module continuing the story? Then the import would be useful. For the most part, since the DM can create/modify any player character, I think that most DMs will do their own importing, into their own modules.

Content: We have tons of content, documentation, interviews, etc., etc., all that have been on hold with the legal stuff. Now that its clear, we have to get it all up and running again. We have no dates for this other than that we have to balance continual development of the game and the need to get you all information. Please bear with us as we get back on track.

Neverwinter Nights and Faerun: Nothing has changed, its still Neverwinter Nights (we own the trademark) and its still in the Forgotten Realms. Rejoice! :D Nothing has changed. We have the Trademark on the Neverwinter Nights? name: You can see the little TM in the graphic. :)

Adding Music: Yes, while we haven't finalized the music format yet, you will be able to add your music through the Toolset very easily.

Weapons at the ready! Yes, you will need to equip/unequip weapons to use them, and it is even easier than what you describe. You can set a hot key (Function Key) to a weapon. One tap brings out the weapon (with the accompanying animation) and another puts it away.

Weapon Animations: There is a basic attack animation for all weapons. Weapons don't usually get animations themselves.

Parrying Attacks: You must put your character into Parry mode, then they will stop attacking and attempt to block all attacks.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

NWN Rumors: :D Doesn't that just *scream out* "do not believe me!"? I wonder if our breakfast delivery people are trying to start something :) It could be a conspiracy! Hee hee. As usual, don't even try guessing at a release date; you're just going to hurt yourself. :) And, as usual, we'll let you know as soon as there is one.

Items Scripts: Actually...It was me that said it - and the script writer was Brent. When we first started testing the scripting language, everyone was obsessed with getting the wererats (the only model aside from humans and dwarves, I think) to run around picking up objects that were lying on the ground. At the time, we didn't even know if it worked because we couldn't test the creatures' inventory for a while yet. Eventually, we had it so that the creatures would pick up AND drop items, so we were all impressed with ourselves. Then Brent showed off his hunter script, and we all bowed our heads in shame.

Unconsciousness and Stalking: I'm not sure how much "fun factor" there would be in watching your character knocked unconcious, and then spending the next hour or two waiting for him to wake up. But whatever DMs are a crazy breed.

Yes, you can stun a player so that they can make no actions. You can do this with a special item that has this special effect, you can do it, I presume, with a DM flick of the wrist, or you can do it with an item like the sap.

Yes, you can transition the player to a new location by using a jump to location type command. Dragging a player... I can't seem to think of a script-around on that count, but there might be one. Who knows? There definitely isn't the animation for one person to drag another person around, and a stun wouldn't last long enough to get the PC more than 20 yards away.

Once transitioned to the new location - a cell that cannot be escaped by any means (just a quick toggle on the door to make the lock indestructible and non-pick-able) - the NPC can then stalk the next PC and repeat the process.

To stalk PCs, you can have the stalker cheat by determiningg the PC's location, jumping to that map, and then move to that PC's current position (constantly updated). Or you could have the NPC wait at a choke-point and simply make spot and listen checks. Or you could have the NPC make random number checks, and everytime he gets one right, he moves to the exact location where the PC was, and continues this until he gets it right. Could be more ways, too Whatever you can think up, I'm sure.

Once all PCs are in the inescapable cell, a global can be set that triggers the appearance of a mysterious, shadowy, black-robed figure at the other side of the gated prison, and he can then say, "muhuhuhuhahahaha... you're probably all wondering why i've locked you in this cell. muhuhuhuhahahaha - it's because i can!"

Hope that answers the question.

Random Insanity and Explanations: Actually, it's more like standing there with little birdies flying about your head.
Hmm...
I'm thinking of a few ways to go from here... you get hit, you see birdies, you transition to a black room, a text pop up appears and says "ow! your head hurts! you wish you could wake up!" and then you transition again to the cell.
Or...
While the guy is standing there with birdies, the npc says, "muhuhuhahaha! now that the pc is unconscious, i will drag him back to my evil and mysterious lair!" and then you get the transition to the cell, followed by a "I see that you have awoken. i hope your enjoy your new... comforts. muhuhuhahaha! i'll be back with some friends. muhuhuhahaha!"
...
Or maybe even you can make an item that forces a pc to play an animation and become stunned. in this case, the animation would be the "dead" one.
...
Or maybe when you get dazed, you will hit the ground, but because nothing is final yet, i have no clue.
Or maybe it's something else?
I'm taking extra liberties at being verbose since jay says spam is now legal

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager:

Weekly Designer Update: I was doubtful of a weekly Designer Update specifically, as that did require a couple of weeks of rewrites and approvals, but I am expecting that we can have something to post every week that is informative and interesting about NWN. Occasionally, things get snagged in editing etc. until I can get the final form up here but I should be able to get something up in a timely fashion. We are working the kinks out for the eventual community site features and how such features get looked at by all the folks that should take gander at stuff before it hits the airwaves.
I am veeeery close to getting a go status on the next Top 10 Questions. They are quite specific, and may help with some module makers and Persistent World people. I am really pushing for today on those...

Arrows: As of today that animation is still in. It looks very cool too. You keep fighting (hopefully) with two or three arrows sticking out of you. Reminds me of the death of some guy in movie that recently came out...hmmmm....

Release Dates and Rumors: I'm a little surprised someone bothered to post that. Someone claiming to be working for BioWare that can't be named? Wow. And just in case you missed it:

We have no release date. Which means that no release date has been set. Which means to me even with my rudimentary English skills that IF we HAD a release date that I could NOT say "We have no release date". Which further means, that if you hear we have a release date from someone other than BioWare they are guessing. Which is great, but not a solid, steely fact you can set your watch too.

If you could have a conversation with me, say over a hot chocolate, about the release date it would go like this:
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: So...do you have a release date?
Jay: No.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: Really?
Jay: Yes, really. We have no release date.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: I'm not sure I understand you...you have no release date?
Jay: That's correct- no release date.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: If I were in some other country besides Canada and asked if you have a release date, what would you say?
Jay: I would say that we have no release date.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: If I was a retailer of fine computer games and said you did have a release date and was just being coy, what would you say?
Jay: I would say you are incorrect because we have no release date.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: If I was an advanced Alien race with amazing powers of telepathy due to thousands of years of genetic tampering and vastly superior technology and forced you to tell me when the release date was, what would you tell me?
Jay: I don't know. We have no release date.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: Even if the Aliens turned hostile and threatened to destroy the planet?
Jay: Even if they threatened to destroy the planet, yes.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: So what your saying is, that you have no release date?
Jay: That's right.
Normally Rational and Intelligent Game Player: But...
Jay: (Boots him in the head)

For those fans who are in our international community:
No tenemos ninguna fecha del desbloquear.
Nous n'avons aucune date de version.
Wir haben kein Freigabedatum.
Non abbiamo data di emissione.
Nσs nγo temos nenhuma data da liberaηγo.
BioWare wa release date ga arimasen. Gomen Nasai.

Jay "Be Super Clear or Die Trying" Watamaniuk

Trent Oster, Producer:

More on animals: The birds in NWN don't hop, though they do fly quite low most of the time. The largest benefit to the low flight is the high speed with which they can move about. No Rabbits. No cute fuzzy things in NWN besides the badger. There is a rumour of a penguin though. I wonder how a rumour of a penguin got started? I bet it was one of those shifty artist types.

Funniest Moment: The funniest thing for me so far in NWN happened just recently. I was playing a multiplayer session with another person. The other character was a elven rogue and I was a halfling sorcerer (don't ask). We spotted a group of troll ahead so we prepared and then attacked. My first spell was Gate. The spell looked awesome, huge rock pillars rose from the ground, fire belched forth and a flaming Balor appeared. I began casting my second spell and the Balor truned to the nearest troll. He began casting a spell and I waited with bated breath. My huge, monstrous, powerful other planar servant cast his spell. I was expecting fire to rain from the heavens or trolls to explode. He instead summoned in a badger. A freakin' badger. So this little badger goes ballistic and attacks the nearest troll. The badger quickly kills the troll and moves on to the next. For some reason my Balor just stood there. I was outraged. If I wanted a badger I'd have summoned a damn badger. That is the joy/pain of game development. Just when everything is starting to seem right everything falls apart.

Server Crashes and Items: This is currently an issue, as the server would indeed keep every item and every creature exactly as they were when the game is saved. The savegame is really a complete snapshot of the entire game which is restored verbatim upon load. The issue is garbage collection. I think we will have to implement a gnomish garbage detail who sweep the area periodically and pick un non-magical or non-plot items. Afterall, gnomes have to be good for something, right?

International NWN: We'll do everything we can to ensure the various langauge versions of NWN are top notch. Our tools department have outdone themselves on the translation tools, so everything is in place.

Changing attributes on the fly: The change is made using a console command. You just have to type in SetSTR and your cursor goes into action->target mode. You click on the creature you want to change the strength of and the strength is changed. You can also add console commands to the quickbar, so this becomes damn handy.

Targeting while chatting: The mouse and chat are not linked, so while chatting you could still click on a target to attack. We discussed having your character perform intelligently without your control, but in testing we found it bad enough when familiars and summoned monsters go berzerk on any nearby creature that having a character do the same would be very bad. If you character is attacked without your input they will go into a defensive mode and try to defend against the attacker, that is all a character can do without your input. In my experience you rarely have any difficulty targeting any creature.

Weapon Customization: You can add a speed (haste) effect to a bow to gain an extra attack with it. You cannot make a bow look like a longsword, as the bow is a basetype and the bow appearance is linked to the bow base type.

Controlling multiple creatures: Yes, you drag on the ground to group select and then they run with you where you click and attack what you want them to.

Save and Load Scripts: It is not currently supported, but we are interested in the concept.

DM-ing: Dialogue tree parsing in real time would be a little too difiicult for us to implement in time for release. I have done some time as a DM-Lite and it works quite well. During dialogue I possessed another nearby NPC and added some commments after the dialogue had completed. I then stayed with the players as they moved into a dungeon and then began controlling the monsters they encountered. I feel I enhanced the experience while playing in a completely reactionary mode, with little preparation.

Noel Borstad, Programmer

Blood: Currently there is, in my opinion, too much blood in the game... One little stab and there's blood everywhere! (Lets just say that there's more blood on the floor after a few rounds of combat, than is conceivably in either of the combatants...) I expect this will get toned down a bit before release or else it will have to ship with warnings not to play while, or before, eating.

Nathan Frederick, Quality Assurance

Thoughts on Armor Class: It's harder to hit a guy wearing fulplate male than a guy in studded leater for exampel. Wouldn't it be better that armor affected two things, chance to hit and damage reduction. Hitting a fullplatemale should be very easy due to the fact that you can't move much in a piece of armor like that. But it might have a damage reduction of 10. All damged below 10 doesn't affect that person, unless thet score a critical or the like (hitting a soft spot on the armor). A man wearing no armor should be harder to hit due to the fact that he has nothing to encumber him and can move more flexible, but if you hit him, he goes down bad. How does that sound. I think it gives a more realistic armorclass, and perhaps more variation on warriors types of armor.
It's an interesting concept, and has been used in many games, however, it's not how the D&D3E rule system works.
As NwN is a 3E game, we will be using the usual form of AC.

Treetop Modules: Well, one way of simulating what you want would be to use the forest tileset, use pit for the majority of the tile, place a few "big tree" tiles (which also have a bit of land around their bases) for the platforms, and link them all up with bridges. Play with the lighting to your tastes, and you have a pretty convincing tree-top map.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja:

Knives vs Daggers: My take on this issue jibes with others that have already posted. For me, knives have always been just tools, sturdy one-sided blades with a simple handle designed for cutting (or spreading (mmmm.... butter...)). Daggers are double-sided weapons, usually with a hilt (and usually a small crossguard), balanced and lightweight enough for quick thrusting, slashing, or throwing.
Throwing knives/daggers are much slimmer and would have no crossguard, and are not really designed for melee combat. They are more piercing weapons.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 0:15 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Baldur's Gate 2

An updated version of the Complete BG2 & ToB walkthrough has been added to the Walkthrough & Guides subsection. There you'll also find an updated version of The Darkest Day walkthrough. (It has been updated a couple of days ago but never reported here.)

Further down on the same page, you'll be able to find a vastly improved version of the Why Thieves Rule guide by Ragusa. (It probably took me just as much time to fix his spelling, grammar and put it into a nice html form as it took him to write it.) =)

In the TeamBG Tools subsection, one new addition was made. Check out the Company of Eight mod. Sounds promising.

There are three new additions in the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection. ShadowDaemon has sent us a small sword quest, and a package of 4 new spells. If you scroll down on the same page a bit more, you'll also spot a new collection of various portraits.

Subsection Updates -> Community

A couple of minor updates were made in the Chatrooms subsection. Most notably, the links to channel stats have been changed, and the pages showing who's currently online were added.

In the About Us subsection, Relic's bio was added, so if you're curious about our guild head, be sure to read it.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, January 26, 2002 - 20:14 CET by Sorcerer

Q: Which of the games & expansions covered on SP have you played?
(4114 votes total)

Baldur's Gate II (723) 17%
Baldur's Gate (715) 17%
Throne of Bhaal (581) 14%
Icewind Dale (569) 14%
Tales of the Sword Coast (527) 13%
Planescape: Torment (447) 11%
Heart of Winter (359) 9%
Pool of Radiance: RoMD (193) 5%

(The poll allowed multiple selections, so the number of votes total is a bit larger than usual.)

As per expectations, the majority of people who voted (17%) have played Baldur's Gate II.

Practically just as many (another 17%) have played the original Baldur's Gate.

Throne of Bhaal, the expansion to Baldur's Gate II, was also played by a large number of people - 14% of all who voted, in fact.

Icewind Dale was played by 14% of all poll participants.

Tales of the Sword Coast, the expansion to the original Baldur's Gate, was played by 13% of the voters.

Planescape: Torment was played by 11% of people.

Heart of Winter, the expansion to Icewind Dale, was played by 9% of those who voted.

The last game on the list, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, was played by only 5% of poll participants.

Interplay CEO Resignes
Posted Friday, January 25, 2002 - 20:35 CET by Mollusken

CEO Brian Fargo has decided to leave the troubled company Interplay.

Brian Fargo holstered his laser pistol, hung up his rocket helmet and elected not to continue down the multibranching maze of menace.

In other words, Fargo resigned this week as chief executive officer of Interplay, the Irvine video-game company he founded in 1984 by selling games on floppy disks wrapped in plastic baggies.

Interplay President Herve Caen declined to comment on Fargo's resignation but said Interplay would announce the appointment of a CEO within days.

Fargo said the decision to separate from the struggling company has been in the works for months.

Read the whole article here.

Infogrames Will Publish NWN
Posted Friday, January 25, 2002 - 8:02 CET by Mollusken

BioWare has announced in a press release that the company which owns Wizard of the Coast, Infogrames, will be the publisher of Neverwinter Nights.

Neverwinter Nights to be published worldwide by Infogrames

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – January 24th, 2002 – BioWare and Interplay have reached a settlement ending the dispute between the companies. Per the agreement, Neverwinter Nights, developed by BioWare, will be published by Infogrames worldwide subject to certain pre-existing Interplay licenses. In addition other matters have been resolved to both parties’ mutual satisfaction.

Ray Muzyka, joint CEO of BioWare Corp. said, "We’re delighted that we have reached an amicable settlement agreement in our dispute with Interplay, and we look forward to completing the development work on Neverwinter Nights and having Infogrames publish this product."

Added Herve Caen, President of Interplay: "We are very pleased with the outcome of this situation and we are looking forward to a successful and mutually beneficial relationship with Infogrames and BioWare on this and other titles."

Read the whole press release here.

We're Back!
Posted Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 12:10 CET by Sorcerer

And on a spiffy new server, too... Hopefully we won't experience any trouble here, like we did before. I'm pretty sure everything transferred fine from the old server, but if you happen to notice anything missing, please let me know ASAP!

The boards are also open now. ;)

[If you're looking for hosting, check out the banners I've put up on all pages of the site & boards... Cobalt Connection is our current host and they've been great in helping us move. Their prices are also very reasonable, and I expect their service in the future to be top notch as well.]

**Update**

My sorcerers.net mail is working now, so send away.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 11:58 CET by Tiamat

Trent Oster, Producer:

Feedback Mode: The game will ship only showing the to-hit rolls and the damage. If we have a little extra time we can look into adding an extra feedback mode.

Portals: Portals ping the other server. If the server is full or not accepting new players the portal is disabled.

David Gaider, Designer:

Familiars: You are correct. We are offering the ability to quickly summon in your familiar. The main difference between familiars and animal companions is probably melee combat. Many animal companions are very strong in melee, while familairs are not as a whole that tough in melee. Additionally the familiars do grant the special bonuses to the player character. To date I'm quite fond of the fire mephit and the hell hound familiars.

Detecting Weapons: You can detect through scripting whether or not someone has something in their 'hand' inventory slot. Most people in towns do this...and if you've got something there, they ask you to put it away (as it's got to be either a torch or a weapon). They also detect whether you've got anything in the 'chest' slot...if you don't, they laugh at you for running around half-naked. If you do, you could do an equivalent check on their AC. High AC doesn't solely come through armor, though, so I'm not sure if that would be the best way. It would depend on what you were trying to do.

Stilt-Houses: Ok, to specify what can be done with the 'stilt-houses'.

If you use the generic 'building' tiles, you can place them anywhere in the water and they will not generate land around them...they will appear entirely on stilts. There is, however, no way for anyone to get to these houses. Unless you're using the stilt-houses purely as decoration, you're going to have to put some land on, at the very least, one side of the house.

So you could put down one square of land, surround it on three sides with houses on stilts, and have a bridge connecting it to some other piece of land. Note, too, that bridges can act just as roads...they can turn corners, intersect and so forth, so you could have a whole city of bridges if you wanted, you would just have to be frugal about the number of little 'land islands' you had in the water to anchor the bridges and buildings together.

Like I said, though, you would ONLY be able to use the generic buildings tileset. Any of the pre-designed buildings, castle-tilesets, merchant stores, etc. all will generate land around their edges (and some, like the castle tilesets, generate land in all adjacent squares). It still should work for you, though, with some playing around.

Doors: Ok, basically there are two types of doors that I've seen. There are the 'standard' doors which you can put into place in any regular-sized doorway that's left open on the tileset. Some of these will be specific to the tileset (such as the 'barndoor' which can only be placed on the barn tile), while the rest are generic.

Keeping in mind that this is a temporary list, we currently have the following types:

Strong Wood
Weak Wood
Fancy
Portcullis
Portcullis_2
Rusted
Metal
Stone
Stone_Evil
Jeweled
Force Field

There are also the 'large' doors which are placed via the tileset. These will be used to put, say, a gateway on wall tiles or to block a corridor/bridge. Some of these are very large, but it depends on the specific tile. Either way, these doors operate the same as normal doors and can be opened/closed and assigned the same statistics.

And, yes, you can break down doors...unless the door is specifically flagged as 'plot' and therefore indestructable. Locks may be placed on doors the same as placeable objects...but may be made un-pickable if you so choose.

The thing I like best is the ultra-easy way that the area transitions are set up with the doors. Here's how you do it:

1) In your first area (let's say this is 'outside the house', place your door. You can drag over a 'standard' door, which will make it appear on the empty doorway in the tile...or create a new one. Or drag over a standard door and edit it...you choose.
2) In your second area (let's say this is 'inside the house', place the same kind of door on the interior. If you're a fan of detail, you can invert it's graphic so it's the 'other side' of the outside door.
3) Right click on the door. Click on 'Setup Area Transition'.
4) A new menu will come up. You have a pull-down menu of all the areas in your module...select which area you want the door to transition to.
5) A mini-map of that area will pop up, showing all doors, triggers and waypoints in that area...and have a pull-down menu listing all their tags. Select which you want the door to transition to. In this case, we select the door in the 'outside the house' area.
6) Select whether you want the transition to be 'two-way', 'current to target' or 'target to current'. Select 'two-way' and the transition will automatically be set-up for the door in both areas.

That is SO simple. Once you do this, you may now go into that area in-game and click to open the door. When you do so, it will automatically transition the character inside...and the character can travel either way. No hassle at all.

But enough babbling on my part...back to work for me. (hears whip crack)

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Fading music in and out: You trigger a song and it plays. If another song is triggered while the first is playing it will quickly fade out and the new song will start. The fade times will most likely be hard coded. You can't overlap 2 songs as the amount of overhead would be too high.

More on Music: 1. Music has to be written to use this kind of system (i.e. VERY modular)
2. Editing the music into phrases that can be linked together is a small nightmare.
3. Playing MP3s back to back with no gaps in the sound is very difficult and we won't be putting that in.
4. The amount of memory required to encompass all the different moods you'd want would be huge.
The music system we are implementing will be quite flexible and I think most people will be happy with it.

Stringing Music Together: No, the sound effect system is not made to work in this manner and the results would probably be nasty. As for the graph theory, it might work well in math, but making something sound good is not as much of a science as connecting nodes. It's a lot more subjective.

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

The Toolset: The name of the toolset is the Neverwinter Toolset, or NWToolset for short.

A key which only opens a specific door/chest: Actually, no scripting is required in the case you describe. Simply give your key item a unique scripting tag and specify that tag in the Key Name property of your chest.
Voila! The chest will not open unless you have a key with that tag in your inventory.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Sunday, January 20, 2002 - 21:20 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Have you played Trials of the Luremaster, the free official expansion to IWD: Heart of Winter?
(328 votes total)

I still intend to (127) 38%
Yes, I did (117) 36%
No, and I won't (84) 26%

Quite interesting. An overwhelming majority of almost 40% of people who voted said that they still intend to play Trials of the Luremaster. I don't know if all that interest was spurred by the ToTL page link here on SP, but is certainly is encouraging to know that there are still many people who count on this free expansion as a source of entertainment.

Almost as many people (36%) voted that they have played ToTL already. Considering the relatively small percentage of people who bought and played HoW, I'd say that this means ToTL was downloaded or got from another source by practically everyone who bought Heart of Winter.

A bit more than a quarter of all poll participants (26%) said that they didn't play it, and won't play it either. This includes people who either didn't buy Heart of Winter, or don't wish to play ToTL for some reason.

NWN Adventure Creation Guide: Part VIII
Posted Sunday, January 20, 2002 - 18:49 CET by Darien

Once again Abbot Fenthick Moss of Neverwinter takes us through another facet of adventure creation over at Gamespy.

There are so many things with which to concern yourself when your tale is finally ready for the telling. What if your tale is too daunting, for example, or too easy. One might stunt the hero's desire and cause him to never see it through to its conclusion while the other might pass too quickly and end with too little consequence to be remembered. With this in mind, it is always best to sample your tales upon a small group of trusted heroes before you showcase your work before the world at large. Listen to those who undertake your tale, accept their criticisms gracefully, and even be willing to make significant changes to the tale that you have labored on so tirelessly. At the same time, trust your instincts and take the criticisms of any given hero with a grain of salt. Listen to a wide range of heroes and look for patterns in their protests for only there will you find that golden mean of truth.

Read the rest.

R. A. Salvatore Interview
Posted Sunday, January 20, 2002 - 18:31 CET by Sorcerer

A while ago a portugese site O Grimorio posted a pretty interesting interview with R. A. Salvatore, the creator of Drizzt among other things. If you're a fan of his books, you should definitely check it out.

Here's a short excerpt:

There are some rumors about Drizzt motion pictures produced by Fireworks. What's your role in this project? If you had the power and the money to cast the film, what actors would you choose to play the role of the main characters from your Dark Elf's books?

I've seen the announcement, and met with some WotC/Hasbro and Fireworks people early on. I have no idea of what's going on at this time, though, nor do I know if I'll have any role in it. They know where to reach me, and given the recent successes in the genre in movies of late, I am truly excited by the prospect.

Casting? I've heard this a million times. A few years ago, I would've hoped for Antonio Banderas as Drizzt. He was just so good as Zorro. Honestly, though, I have no idea. I never heard of the guy who played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings before, but wow, he was something. And the elf... doesn't even get me started about Legolas. Perfect elf, right there!

Read more here.

Sorry about the pop-ups
Posted Saturday, January 19, 2002 - 10:43 CET by Sorcerer

We're aware of the problems they're causing and will get rid of them ASAP. They've already been removed from the boards code, and I'll get rid of them for the rest of the site later today.

We will also be moving to a new server today, so boards will be closed for a while. (But not as long as the last time.)
The site will be mirrored on both servers until the DNS for the new one propagates, so the only thing missing for a while will be the boards. Thanks for bearing with us!

*Update*

- The pop-ups have been removed from the ad system completely.
- I've delayed the move to a new server for a few more days, so everything will be working normally for a while longer.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Saturday, January 19, 2002 - 1:48 CET by Darien

Trent Oster, Producer:

Balancing Game Classes: We are planning on a variety of systems to make NWN playable for all classes. The first system is the henchman system. Henchmen and animal companions or summoned monsters can really help out the weaker melee classes and can also fill out the skills of a melee strong character.

The encounter system handles balancing based on the toughness of the player and his/her companions, so fights can dynamically scale. The third is designing in multiple resolution paths to scenarios. A smart or charismatic character may be able to talk their way through an area. A stealthy character may be able to sneak past and the less than intelligent Half Orc fighter can smash his way through.

In short, our NWN campaign will play different depending on what character you play, thus ensuring a good balance and replayability.

Saving and Loading: NWN will allow full saving and loading when you are running the server (single player or multiplayer). So, you start up a single player game and you can save at any time. You can also start a multiplayer game and save at any time so your group can quit for the night and resume at a later date.

With regards to balancing the game, anytime a player goes to re-load the game we have to look at it and decide if we have made a design mistake. If the average player of the game is reloading all the time, we really need to re-work the balance of the game. In short, we think game loading is a real disruption of the gameplay experience and anything we can do to keep re-loading to a minimum will be done.

However, we still want some fights to be very challenging and we will have to work hard to ensure the correct balance.

Lan Network System: NWN is built from the ground up around our own networking layer system. In the past we have worked with other systems which had non-optimal performance. The NWN networking engine is much faster and more efficient and should give a better Lan playing experience.

Two-headed Weapons: Yes, we will have a few two headed weapons.

Acceleration in movement: Question: How is the acceleration towards maximum movement speed implemented ? It would be nice and balancing with a slight delay before you reach maximum speed. It's both realistic and takes away the annoying factor that a melee monster/person with slow running speed never can attack a faster moving archer. It's just a thought and can't be to hard to implement if it's not done already.

Done. The animation looked crappy without it. When people just popped to running it looked bad, so character now go from stand->walk->run and run->walk->stand. It looks much better

Contingency Spell: Contingency will not be in the initial relase of NWN. This single spell requires at least one custom Gui and a lot of custom coding, so we had no choice but to exclude it from our list of spells for the initial release.

Resting: You can flag an area as not allowing player to rest there. As to rest length, we are still going over the issues involved, so I can't really offer an answer.

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

Flashy Crits: Big critical hits? Oh my Toto- you bet!
Alex S. (Special Effects Artist) is very proud of his graphics for the big hits. The first time I saw them, (I was fighting a deranged citizen) I said "Alllright" just like Otto from the Simpsons.

Underwater: Conditions can scripted to be different for an 'underwater' section you might have. The specifics, of course, would depend on the organizer and the level of his scripting Kung-fu.
As a side note, Derek F. is very proud of the simulated underwater environment he created, as an experiment, with his liberal use of the colored fog effects (very dense, blue fog).

Point Buy: As I'm sure this will become a 19 page discussion on the Point buy idea, I'll get in here while it's still new. Trent O. mentioned, about a month ago, that 30 points will be going through the testing process to see if that is an acceptable level for creating characters. I can't say anymore than that because the testing continues. It might change with what we discover about game play as a result of that testing.

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Supported Operating Systems: The currently planned supported OSs for the Windows version are 98/ME/2K/XP. This could change as will all things, but it should be about right.

Henchmen Limit: Those screens were multiplayer. Limit of 1 henchman per PC.

Banning Players: We will not be doing any banning of players ourselves because we are not running any servers. We will be providing the tools for server operators to do their own banning.

We will have the standard IP banning for server operators. We will also give the server op the ability to ban a player's CD Key from their server. This does not give the server op access to peoples CD Key as this ban is based on a public version of the Key.

There is nothing we can do about banning someone globally from the game as we do not have that kind of control in a distributed, non-BioWare server environment that we are using. Plus there is the issue of someone selling their copy of the game. Are they banned too?

Release Date: Amazon is making up that date. They do not know when it is coming out. Same for the Norwegian site.

Official Campaign: The Official Campaign is being designed so that you can finish the game no matter what your class or classes of character. It will not matter what class you are.

XBox: Hmmm, I can't believe that none of us posted in this thread. Two things:

1 - The XBox rocks.

2 - There are no plans to bring Neverwinter Nights to the XBox at this time.

Toolset: Actually, the Toolset uses the exact same graphics engine as the game. It is compiled right in. Its not a representation, its the same. This is also why we cannot Open Source the Toolset code to allow just anyone to port it.

David Gaider, Designer:

Creating Cities: There are some very cool things you can do to bring cities to life. The scripting language allows for much more control than we had in BG2. Take the following as ideas, if you like:

Since you are able to create waypoint objects and use these to have people walk a pre-determined route, you could very easily create such activity as:
- patrolling guards who actively watch out for thieves (or maybe just thieves who are actively mugging someone as below). Maybe they chat with each other if two guards come close, displaying dialogue that shows them complaining about stuff. Maybe once in a while they head off to the tavern.
- peasants that go from place to place...you could even make their route random. Say, during the day, they have a chance of going to the tavern, going to a church, etc etc. But at night they definately head home, and spawn in front of their doors first thing in the morning. Synchronize their movements with the scripts of interiors, and you could literally 'follow' someone inside of a building (their disappearance at the entrance corresponds with a spawn in the interior area).
- how about spawning in thieves at night who, if they come across peasants and no-one's around, try to mug them?
- when peasants come across each other in the street, have a chance of them stopping and chatting. You can have random dialogue or pre-determined conversations displaying over their heads.
- a priest preaching in the streets. Have him display fiery dialogue over his head. When peasants come within range, they stop and gawk for a while, drawing a crowd.
- have merchants who shout out at anyone (PC or NPC) who walks nearby.
- have beggars who wander randomly and approach anyone who comes within range, begging for money. If it's an NPC, you could make a check whether the NPC displays 'certainly, here you go' or 'off with you, beggar!'.
- have a group of children playing a game of tag and chasing each other around the streets. At a pre-set time, their mother spawns in front of her house and calls for them, and they all run home.

At any rate, these are only ideas...but I know for sure that they are all definitely do-able. There's been some great work done on how the tavern works in the official campaign...it'd be interesting to see someone build on that, too, and make the kind of tavern that someone could sit in and watch (some guy hitting on the women, the drunken brawl between NPC's, the two old men complaining, the merchant who gets pickpocketed, the mysterious figure in the corner, it's all good...)

Scripting: Skin color cannot be a tag that will be recognized by a script, no. If you set the SubRace field to Drow, however, that would be the easiest way to recognize someone as such.

If you're dealing with NPC Drow, making them a faction that your guards are hostile to is the easiest way to get them to fight. Otherwise, if it's PC Drow, you would have to script the reactions.

Not that it's difficult. You have an area script, right? If there's someone about with Drow as their SubRace, let's start spawning guards with scripts to attack someone with that SubRace and anyone defending them. Lots of stuff are possible, depending on how detailed you want to get.

Clothing: Yes... without any armor or clothing, the base model is stripped down to their skivvies.

There are several varieties of cloth 'armor'...which is really just clothing...for all body parts, allowing you to get a variety of combinations. If you like, you can have a clothing shop with as many different styles and colors of clothing as you can make.

As for LadyShayna's guess about detecting whether or not a weapon is sheathed, she's about on target. You can detect through scripting whether or not someone has something in their 'hand' inventory slot. Most people in towns do this...and if you've got something there, they ask you to put it away (as it's got to be either a torch or a weapon). They also detect whether you've got anything in the 'chest' slot...if you don't, they laugh at you for running around half-naked. If you do, you could do an equivalent check on their AC. High AC doesn't solely come through armor, though, so I'm not sure if that would be the best way. It would depend on what you were trying to do.

Clothing is treated the same as armor. You could have clothing that added +2 to your Armor rating...or whatever other properties you choose to assign to it.
For armor, however, the base AC is always determined by its type. You couldn't have non-magical clothing that added +8 to AC, for instance...it would have to have magical properties assigned to it to do so.

NPC Scripting:
1) Can an item or area be aware of the NPCs around it? For example, could I mark a certain area/item as a 'lair', and if it is empty spawn a few preparation type NPCs, like Goblin Scouts. If they live for X time then spawn some Goblin Workers, and if they live for Y time then spawn a whole colony with soldiers, chieftains, etc?

Yes. The script could go on an item or, more likely, into the area itself. Spawn in your goblin workers after a delay...and then have a script on the workers that spawns in the rest of your colony. The scripting language would be very flexible for this purpose...what I really like is using the die roller (like d100() for a roll of 1-100) and then using the Case commands to give a series of results...just like using random encounter charts right out of the books.

2) Are NPCs aware of each other, and can they use that awareness to trigger scripts? Every X days can I have a female deer check to see if a male deer is around, and if so spawn a baby deer?

Absolutely. You'd make sure that the female deer's OnPerceive script was active, and add in a script that if her OnPerceive was activated by a male deer, go ahead and spawn the baby (probably with a delay, no?).

3) If 2 is true, can NPCs count? If there are more than X deer in an area, no babies are spawned. If there are more than 6 Goblin Raiders, 4 of them take off to raid the nearby village.

There's no real difference, as far as the game is concerned, between PC's and NPC's. PC's are tagged as such, though. As far as the above question goes, absolutely. There are actually examples of such scripting in the official campaign, I believe.

4) Can an NPC modify its 'home' location? If a baby deer spawns as male, after X time growing can it be scripted to wander to a new area to start a new herd?

What it considers it's 'home' depends on how you script it. If you supply conditions that will make it move somewhere else, it will do so.

5) Can a trigger cause an NPC to change its type? After living for X time can a baby deer 'grow' into an adult deer and take on those new stats and graphics (if applicable)? Can randomness be added? Half chance of becoming a buck, half of becoming a doe?

I don't think you can have the NPC actively change its type (I'll have to check this to be sure). It might be easier, though, to have the baby NPC 'destroy' itself when the conditions are right and spawn in an adult NPC of your choice on the same spot.

6) Can NPCs spawn items, like a Goblin Miner spawning ore?

Yes. Whenever the scripted conditions are right, the CreateItemOnObject (using OBJECT_SELF if you want them to add items to their inventory) will do what you're asking.

7) Can NPCs pick up and put down items? So my Goblin Miner can take that ore back to camp and put it in a chest?

Yes.

Can an NPC check to see if an item is available (on the ground or in its treasure list) and if so change that item to another? So a Goblin Blacksmith can pick up that ore and turn it into an axe? Then a Goblin Peasant can pick that axe up and become a Goblin Axefighter (see 5 above)?

In a way. They could pick up the item, detect that the item is in their inventory, destroy it and replace it with another item. Similarly, your Goblin Peasant NPC could detect that he has an axe in his inventory and replace himself with a Goblin Axefighter.

9) Can an area/item set an NPC's waypoints on creation? Say I make a generic Goblin Chef template that has waypoints at an oven, a cupboard and a refuse dump. I have several lair areas that could spawn this NPC, each with their own ovens, cupboards, and refuse dumps, and I want him to be set to go to the oven/cupboard/dump in the area that he is spawned in, so I don't have to make a Goblin Chef for each area that there could be one.

Yes. You can name waypoints...and if the script calls for him to move to particular waypoints, all you have to do is make sure that the waypoints are named similarly in all your areas.

10) Can NPCs talk to each other? If two Guards are playing chess, when one says ?Ha, Checkmate!? I want the other to say ?You must have cheated!? and such. Would the PCs see this if they are close enough?

Yes, absolutely. We do this all the time in the official campaign, so you will have lots of examples. The PC can stand there and listen or he can move on and leave the NPC's chatting away. It's not dialogue that the PC is involved in, per se.

Script Length: A script can be quite long. If it's numerous pages, you might see a slowdown depending on the processing speed of your computer and how many scripts the computer is running at the same time...it really depends. There are tricks, however, to optimize the speed that even long scripts run at (usually by having the script run only the sections that it needs to...I'm not familiar with the process myself, though).

As for the other post before this, the one thing I will caution on vis a vis this 'civilization' is that if you are going to have objects being built via scripting, you have to have these placeable objects ready to spawn in. Otherwise the resources just don't exist for what you're suggesting.

Pool of Radiance Review at MGON
Posted Friday, January 18, 2002 - 21:10 CET by Mollusken

In this review at MGON, Pool of Radiance recieved a total score of 6.5 out of 10.

The combat is for the most part enjoyable, even if the AD&D movement / turn system feels like it is better suited to the pen and paper version of the game, and is a little out of place on the computer. It is also amazing to see how your party sometimes loses the initiative in circumstances when you’d reckon they’d be in the box seat to get the first attack in. For example at one point I entered a room full of still, seemingly dead, skeletons lying on the floor. Now before I could get just one of my characters to even raise a sword, this sprightly thing leaped up from the group, closed on my chaps and had attacked my party – weird!

Read the whole review here.

Throne of Bhaal Awards
Posted Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 16:17 CET by Mollusken

The Baldur's Gate II expansion pack, Throne of Bhaal, has recieved new awards from major gaming sites:

Gaming Revolution: Best PC RPG Game of 2001

Sure, it sort of requires that you've played the other BG games. But when it comes to serving up PC role-playing, nothing comes close to Throne of Bhaal. Massive spells, massive enemies, and massive fun. Just a great finale to a superb series.

IGN PC: Best Expansion Pack of 2001

It hardly seems fair to list this game as an expansion. Packing over 60 hours of gameplay, this is one expansion that rivals most full games for enjoyment. The Baldur's Gate series has really revolutionized the roleplaying genre by bringing an incredible amount of detailed content to our desktops. Since Throne of Bhaal is meant to be the capstone on the series, it's only fitting that we choose it as our expansion pack of the year.

Gamespot: Runner up for Single-Player Role Playing Game of the Year

"BioWare really has added the icing to the cake with this expansion. The game still heavily draws on the whole D&D ethos, and beefs it up with some stunning graphics and some incredible sounds."--B W, Reader Reviewer

Neverwinter Nights Preview
Posted Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 19:28 CET by Darien

Here's a detailed preview of Neverwinter Nights at Ferrago. There's not a lot of new information, but the article touches on all the basics of the game. It's worth checking out.

My biggest concern for this ambitious title is how cheating can be avoided, especially since the developers have allowed the transition from single to multiplayer games. Surely this would leave the system wide open to abuse? In answer to this problem Bioware are incorporating encounter controls, as stated previously within this article, whereby higher-level characters would be faced with harder enemies. My remaining question would be, will this be enough to dissuade hackers from affectively writing their own powerful avatars offline then bringing them online to ruin the experience for the rest of us. Only time will tell...

In closing I would suggest that if Bioware can deliver on even seventy-five percent of their current proposal for this game, then it will be a run-away success. I eagerly look forward to playing the finished product.

Read the entire preview.

Phlan Server Site Online at SP
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 21:43 CET by Sorcerer

Neverwiner Nights is getting closer and over at ALFA (the persistent world), the server map is getting filled in. Sorcerer's Place is hosting the website for one of those servers - Phlan on the Moonsea. Those with long memories may remember Phlan as the setting for the original Gold Box 'Pool of Radiance'; this is Phlan 32 years after that time. Erran is HDM, Baldak is ADM and Vanadin is webmaster. Phlan is a microcosom of Faerun with mountains, woodlands, sea coast, grassland and, of course, the City of Phlan. Check out the website to see what you are in for if you venture out there. Comments or questions in the Phlan Crier forum of the Boards O'Magick, please.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 21:17 CET by Tiamat

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Dedicated Servers: You will be allowed to set up as many dedicated servers as you would like from your existing installs. The dedicated server does not require a CD Key to run. It is possible to create a dedicated NWN server and place the server in one location, create a second dedicated NWN server and place it in another location, and install the game on your main machine at your house, do all of my design and scripting. Log in and play with the NWN Client Or NWN DM Client and connect with your dedicated servers (each server containing one half of the persistant world), with only one copy of the game.

Install Size: Sorry, but until the game is almost finished, we cannot guestimate on the install size. Anything that we would say right now would be a complete guess and cause some sort of uproar.

Patching: Patching in NWN is entirly voluntary. The only requirement is that you can only play with people that have the same game version as you. If you are out of sync, you or they will have to patch in order for you to play together. The patcher is a separate program from the game executables (there are multiples).

Is Gmax in the game? Sorry, but we don't have an answer for you at this time.

Single-Player vs Multi-Player Sales: To clarify, the poll that ran on our web site has nothing to do with the percentage statement about multiplayer. While I cannot off hand recall the source of the original survey, I will restate it here.
For games that have both a single play mode and a multi-player mode, in North American, 60% of the sales are for single-player only. In Europe, that number is higher, at 80%.
"Rigging" of polls has nothing to do with nothing.
NWN is both single-player and multi-player in all things. The Official Campaign that ships with the game can be played by a single, non-internet connected PC and it can be played by multiple player via LAN or internet.

CD Checks and Backup Copies: Few CDs actually have "copy" protection on them. And for those that do, I don't know of any programs off hand that have had problems reading and backing up the CDs. I use Nero and haven't had a problem yet making a legal backup of my purchased software. I will state that BG2 and ToB are fully playable from backups. I keep my CDs safe in the original from my "mangler" CD-ROM drive. We intend for NWN to be the same. CD checks are put in by request of the publisher. While this can be problematic for certain CD drives, there is no way around this.

DVD Release of NWN: Unfortunately, the stats show that DVD drives have not yet reached that critical mass where they are commonplace. While everyone you know has a DVD drive, out of 30 friends and family that I can think of off the top of my head, none of them have a DVD drive. Its just too early for DVD on release titles.

CD Key Authentication: CD Key authentication takes place on a remote server. This way, you cannot see the authentication code or monitor the process. As for brute force cracking with no code inspection access, check out this attempt to crack a 64 bit cypher. 1539 days of distributed computing and only 63% of the keyspace checked and no solution found. There is no privacy violation with internet CD Key authentication as it is purely anonymous. I also am not aware of any games that force you to register in order to play them. That is not true with CD Key authentication codes. The games that use them for multiplayer have yet to sucessfully crack or generate a valid CD Key. The programs that proport to do so either are pulling from a list of already stolen Keys or read your Key from your computer and send it to a warez site.

New Level Cap: We have made no such statement. The only thing we have said, is that if rules for the 20+ levels are released, we might make this part of an expansion pack. Nothing definate and nothing planned at this point.

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

Henchman System: NPCs are NON PLAYER CHARACTERS. That is, its the category of everybody other than players in the game.
Henchmen are a 'system', whereby each player can have one henchman with limited control(they can remove this henchman to take a different one, but the upper limit is always one).
You can 'script' an unlimited number of NPCs to follow you around or something, but that is not the henchman system. You cannot use the built in henchman control system to command these NPCs.
As of this moment there is no inventory control system with henchmen. Henchmen are a relatively new system and still remain to be tested.
We are aiming at creating a world that is more 'alive' than others we've made before. NPCs in the game will occasionally help you, but only for their own reasons, their own motives.
Yes, there is a maximum of 1 henchman.
Though henchman AI would know to use the better weapons, we just haven't added a method for them to get these better weapons yet.

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

NWToolset: The nwtoolset already allows you to specify a text-only comment for just about everything, including the module as a whole, anyway. I don't see any reason why we couldn't use a standard structure as a starting point. It is even possible to obtain some of that information you've specified automatically, although I'm not making any promises about that - we've got more than enough to keep us busy as it is.

Yes, there is an export / import facility inside the NWToolset. It will allow you to export everything from individual scripts up to entire areas from one of your modules and import them into another. It checks for dependant resources and automatically includes them in the export. Thus if you're exporting your favourite creature, which has three custom scripts and a conversation file associated with it, the export utility will automatically export the scripts and conversation, too.

The script editor itself will allow you to cut & paste text to & from other programs, if you're so inclined.

Radial Menu: Yes, the radial menu is still in.

David Gaider, Designer:

Streams and Water: If you place a 'stream' in the tileset, it's something that's fairly shallow, and a player will be able to cross it on foot. There is also the 'water' tile, which makes the entire tile area deep water and impassable...and you can lay down as many water tiles as you need.
Both can be crossed by bridges. Oh...and someone once asked if there were houses on stilts. Originally I said no, but lo and behold I was in the game today and saw a series of buildings by the shore on stilts. Go figure. Apparently, the pre-made houses and buildings that you lay down can't go on water (and will generate land around them if you attempt it)...but the generic 'building' tile (which we use in the cities to represent a cluster of buildings, often for bordering areas...although they are fully useable and have their own doors and so forth) will have stilts if you place it on a water tile. Might have to be bordering actual land, though...I'll have to play with the toolset to find that out.

NPC Patrols: Heh...list this under 'Cool Thing of the Day' (hey! Bug Jay and maybe this will be a regular feature, eh? )...so I'm supposed to lay down a patrolling guard in the current area, right? In BG2, scripting this would be a headache-inducing labor involving finding the specific points and scripting the fellow to walk from point to point...and then hoping it didn't break if the player did so much as speak to him.

I'd never done it before with the toolset, so I punched up the instructions...and they looked deceptively short. I was sure this couldn't be it.

So I shrug and go ahead. I grab one of the generic guards with the default scripts attached to him and plunk him down. Then I select the Waypoint button and click on the 'New' button to create a new waypoint. It automatically gives the new waypoint a name...and since I'm not using this to place map notes on the area or anything...I can just plunk this down on the map, as well. A few more times and I've got the whole route the guard is supposed to take.
Select all of the waypoints together, right click, and one of the options you get is 'Create Set'...it asks you for the template name of a creature to associate the set with. I enter the guard's name.

And that's it. I think "That can't be it". Sure enough...the instructions include a command which you can include at the end of dialogue if you want the creature to re-assume its 'rounds'...but otherwise, it was indeed it.

Suspicious, I entered the game. Sure enough, there was the guard strolling about his rounds in the city. When I chatted with him, he stopped...and after we were finished, he went back about his business. Watched him stroll around until he came to the tavern, when he (as scripted...which was also a simple matter) walked up to the door and disappeared. (He went inside to have a bit of ale...and on duty, no less. Shame, shame.)

Looking at some of the complex reactions that exist within the default scripting...as well as the ability the DM has to set the 'perception range' of a creature...gave me some very evil ideas about how castles and monster gaves might be patrolled...

Anyway...back to work once again. (Hear that whip crack!)

DB-Forge Downtime
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 18:39 CET by Darien

Looks like The Dragon's Breath Forge is going to be down for a short while. The domain name has expired, and there is no estimation on when the site will be up again, only "as soon as we possibly can".

BioWare Kiddie Christmas Party
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 15:40 CET by Mollusken

On December 15th, BioWare arranged its first Christmas party for the staff kids. The party was held in the BioWare office.

The highlight of the event was a visit from Santa (if you can't recognize our guest Santa, all the better, as he would like to remain anonymous), who dispensed gifts and wisecracks. Needless to say, Santa's job was done quickly and efficiently and he departed with a nod and out the hall door he went!

Read more and see pictures here.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 14:28 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Baldur's Gate

A new character creation guide has been added to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

In the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection, I added the missing maps to the IWD/HoW/ToTL walkthrough. In the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection, I prepared a troubleshooting FAQ for Heart of Winter.

There is a new addition in the Maps subsection as well. All of you who don't own HoW might be curious what the map for the new areas looks like, so I extracted it.
The last new file here can be found in the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection; namely a collection of portraits from BG1 & BG2.

Subsection Updates -> Baldur's Gate 2

Two new additions were made in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection. The first is a walkthrough for TeamBG's The Darkest Day mod, and the second an overview of saving throws, compiled by one of our community regulars.

In the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection, the ToB: The Ascension epilogue texts have been updated. They new include the epilogue text for Bodhi & Balthazar, and add another one for Sarevok.

One new addition can also be found on every page of the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection. On Page 1 you will find a new version of the custom items collection, now much easier to install. On Page 2 you will find - believe it or not - a Nalia romance.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

I've updated the list of monsters with some new ones we heard about recently. You can find the list in the Miscellanea subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Community

Three minor updates were made in this section.

The Boards O' Magick index page was updated with the new forum info, I retired Azirath in the About Us subsection, and updated the final rule on the Chatroom Rules list.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

Two new sample chapters were added on Page 2 of the Forgotten Realms books subsection (The Siege and Black Wolf), and two more on Page 2 of the Dragonlance books subsection (Conundrum and Search for Magic).

NWN Developer Update
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 14:06 CET by Darien

This update was posted by Jay Watamaniuk on the Official Bioware Forums:

A little summary of what some people are doing with NWN...

Trent O- Producer

I'm shaking everything down, seeing where everything is after the holidays. I'm looking at some texture pack issues and modules of different sizes; working so people with lower-end machines can still get a great looking game.

Right now, I'm finishing up answering questions for interview. Sometimes the interview can be pretty tough as I can't talk about some things, but I do want to give them something good to print.

I also will be meeting with Ray and Greg about how to get more hours out of the week...

Derek French- Assistant Producer

I'm working on the NWN patching system. We have spent about a month on it so far because it's an all-encompassing tool. We are shooting for a Cradle-to-Grave system that takes the user from 'I think there is a new patch' to 'You're fully patched and up to date'. Some issues that we are working to resolve are; error recovery, Internet connection, selecting the appropriate patch for game version number, providing the user with info and things like that. We will probably be working on that for another 2-3 weeks.

Don Moar- Lead Tools Programmer

Most of the major functions in the toolset are complete, meaning that pretty much everything the designers need to finish the game is in place and working. We have begun to evaluate the toolset's GUI to make it more intuitive and will continue to add wizards to make the process of creating modules easier. I think even people who have seen the trailers and movies and thought that the toolset was already easy to use, will be pleasantly surprised at the changes we're making.

Today, I am working on some issues with the install package and on the design for some new wizards.

Preston Watamaniuk- Writer/Designer

I continue to work on getting the spells data complete- that is making sure all the information on each spell is done and ready to go. I'm working with Alex (Scott) to tie in the visual effects for each spell as well as working with Allan (Miranda) on the sound effects so everything matches. Spells are also being sent to QA for verification and testing.

Today I am updating spells to work with the various player versus player settings.

Rob Bartel- Co-Lead Designer

The game is coming along really well- its starting to feel like an actual game. Today, I'm writing the default creature descriptions and talking to the testers about the Chapter 1 journal entries that I was writing and scripting before the Christmas break. I've also got some bugs on my plate regarding one of the major Chapter 1 quests. Yum, yum.
My favorite part of game so far is definitely the Toolset- I've seen some of what Don has planned for the GUI overhaul and it should be a great improvement over what was already very good. Ultimately, it's the toolset that going to give the game a long life span and keep players coming back for more... and more... and -- you get the picture.

Alex Scott- Artist

I'm responsible primarily for spell effects and effects in general for the game. Everything right now is on schedule and we haven't encountered any real problems. We started out with a core effects engine that has changed and evolved so much from our first version that it is nearly unrecognizable from its original form. (All hail the graphic programmers) The current engine is very powerful and we have some pretty kick ass particle effects.

This week I'm working on finishing the spell effects for players and next week I'll be working on spell effects for creatures.

Today I'm working on 9th level spells. If your casting spells at this level then you've put some major time into the game, you don't want to get a puff of smoke when you hit somebody. You want your spells to melt the monitor into the desk.

Karl Schreiner- Lead QA

I've been lead QA on NWN for about nine months now. Although this is the project I wanted to be on I was terrified at first at the enormity of it but after I saw the very thorough design documents I was able to organize the testing into coherent blocks. Things, of course, change over the course of development but the initial organization was very strong to allow for that change. The majority of the QA team came on about 6-7 months ago and, despite rumors to the contrary, testing begins from day one and not only after the game is finished. Right now some solid testing is being done on Chapters 1-3 as they approach a complete state.

Today I was dealing with some issues that related to the 'Fog of War' that were slowing down the QA team from it's testing. I am also doing a final pass on art for the placeable objects, and taking a look at Chapter 1 myself, as the designers who have been working on it for these past few months, feel that are too close to be objective. The rest of team is taking a look at the 0-3rd level spells from Preston and Alex, the journal entries for chapter one (grammar spelling, correct placement, functionality, etc.) and final creature animations so they can shipped off to audio to start recording the sound.

Neverwinter Nights Top 10 Q&A
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 13:55 CET by Darien

Bioware's Community Manager Jay Watamaniuk has put together a short list of the most commonly asked questions and concerns about NWN. While not an official FAQ, it's a start.

A topic that needs no introduction (again).

There has been a lot of talk about the lack of a FAQ, which is still under wraps as our business stuff is awaiting resolution, but we thought a mini FAQ of actual questions that have come up on a regular basis over the past week or two would be a start.

Keep in mind, these answers may not be new to you, but we still seem to get them either here in the boards, as personal messages or sent to NWN info with alarming consistency:

Top Ten Questions

1. Q: When will NWN be released? Can I be a Beta-tester?

A: There is no specific release date yet stated. We also have no announced time frame yet for a Beta-test (though we are considering this in the future) and are not looking for Beta-testers right now. If either of these changes we will certainly leap over ourselves in getting the info out to you.

2. Q: Can we get a new video or screen shot?

A: Due an amazing amount of business type issues, we have to wait on releasing anything like that - we're eager to get this information to you as soon as possible.

3. Q: Will there be riding horses or mounts of any kind?

A: No - the real issue with riding is the massive amount of work that would have to be done in the Animation, Design and Programming departments to implement this feature. Riding impacts on almost all aspects of game play and really is not just a move from point A to B issue. What about the impact riding has on combat, dungeons, and pathfinding?

4. Q: Is there an update on swimming, climbing, or disguise kit?

A: There will be no swimming or climbing in the initial NWN game. The Disguise Kit and disguises in general, have not been decided upon yet and no new information is obtainable on them right now. The same issues that appear because of riding also make an appearance in lesser form with climbing and swimming.

5. Q: What races are there?

A: Playable races include Half-Orc, Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Dwarf.

6. Q: Can I create my own race and how would that work?

A: As a Game Master or module creator you can create a sub race for a player characters and grant special abilities to that sub race through module scripting.

7. Q: Can we get a list of Spells, Skills, and Feats?

A: We have not yet released a complete list of spells, skills, and feats because some will be dropped and some will be included as the development process continues. We'll likely provide a comprehensive list closer to the release.

8. Q: When will NWN be available for sale in Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Belgium etc. How much will the game cost, where can I buy it or pre-order it?

A: Since we do not have an announced release date for the game we certainly cannot speculate on when the title would be available for sale in any country. In addition, we cannot say how much the game will cost and where it can be bought or pre-ordered as that is a question for a publisher and not a developer. We cannot comment on anything having to do with a publisher for NWN currently.

9. Q: Can I get a copy of the Toolset separate from the game to start on my module/Persistent World creation?

A: It is not possible to get a copy of the Toolset as the game right now as it is an integral part of the game and, for the time being, is inseparable.

10. Q: Why has there been a lack of new information?

A: While we have been doing our best to answer some of the questions about the game we want to ensure that we provide the most accurate information to our fans and because of legal issues we cannot answer several questions or release a great deal of information at this time. Our fans are extremely important to us and we do believe in open communication - that's one of the goals of our Communication strategy.

More Drow & Drizzt in 2002
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 12:20 CET by Sorcerer

If you're interested in novels about the evil Drow society and Drizzt, you might want to check this link out. Among other things, it announces a new series of novels about the Drow, entitled War of the Spider Queen. (It will not be written by R.A. Salvatore though, he'll only supervise and write the introductions.) However, fans of Drizzt will get their share as well. The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, another thing Salvatore will be working on, will be pure Drizzt and nothing else. And written exclusively by Salvatore, of course.

For all of you hungry for p&p adventures, City of the Spider Queen will be a very cool adventure set in the Underdark, running concurrently with the story being covered in R. A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen.

SP is going to have these novels & module listed as soon as they're available for pre-order, but in the meanwhile, check out our Forgotten Realms novels and 3rd Edition D&D books subsections. I'm sure you'll be able to find something of interest.

The Week Before Last's Poll Results
Posted Friday, January 11, 2002 - 19:34 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: What was the passing year 2001 like for you, personally?
(256 votes total)

Ok (69) 27%
Very good (56) 22%
So-so (51) 20%
Excellent (40) 16%
Awful (40) 16%

(The choices were, from top to bottom: Excellent, Very good, Ok, So-so and Awful.)

As expected, most people voted for the "ok" choice, with 27% of votes. The year was very good for 22% of people, the second largest group of votes in. 20% of those who voted evaluated 2001 as so-so, putting this choice in the third place.

The last two groups received an identical amount of votes. 16% of people voted for Excellent, and just as many for Awful.

Updated Fantasy Books & Games Sections
Posted Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 22:07 CET by Sorcerer

I went through the entire Fantasy Books & Games sections and fixed the links to all the items that were either changed or removed. While I was at it, I also added about 5 items in various book subsections. (Especially Dragonlance and J.R.R. Tolkien.) Since most books are on January sale at the moment, this is an excellent time to check the pages here at SP and show your support by ordering through our links. (More info can be found here.)

There is only one new addition in the Games section, but something I know many of you have been waiting for. Finally a combined package of Baldur's Gate 1 + Tales of the Sword Coast addon has been released in USA. This is something that has been available in Europe for a long time, but you couldn't get them together in one pack at Amazon.com. So, if you don't have these two gems yet, head over to our Games section. The bundle is definitely worth $29.99.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, January 9, 2002 - 22:48 CET by Sorcerer

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

Random Map Generator: This feature is definitely on our wish list and if we have the time to do it right, we'll include it. At this point however, it appears unlikely.

Features: As I understand it, the official campaign is the focus of NWN.
I would like to stress that the nwtoolset is being built to provide the functionality required by our designers to tell the best story they can. Those features are being implemented in the most user-friendly fashion possible. Other features, such as wizards, are being added to make it even easier for end-user module creators to make their own adventures using the core 3rd edition D&D rules as implemented in NWN.

David Gaider, Designer:

Factions: Don't get factions confused with organizations...they are just a group (or even single person) that react commonly towards other factions. When you create a module, it comes with a few standard factions...one of which is the 'hostile' faction which is used for most enemies, which makes them hostile to anyone not of the hostile faction, and is the default setting applied to any creature/NPC unless you change it.

Making new factions is very easy. You can have a whole slough of them, if you like. When you make one, you give it a name...and up pops a handy bar graph that shows the faction's relationship to all other factions (on a scale of 0...hostile...to 100...friendly) as well as the PC. You just click on a bar and you can drag it up or down to whatever setting you desire. The actual relationship can be changed dynamically during the course of a module through scripting.

How someone will react to a 'friendly', 'neutral' or 'hostile' mob depends on their scripting...though the standard scripts that are applied to most mobs dictate that they will move to protect those they are friendly towards and attack those they are hostile towards, as well as more complex stuff. An enemy wizard who is part of a group, for instance, can judge the blast area of a potential fireball and decide against it if there's friendly allies in that area...or decide that, hey, maybe one friendly is expendable enough...

Say you make a town with a 'commoner' and 'merchant' faction that are pretty much neutral to everyone. The merchants are hostile to the 'thief' faction...but their own script dictates that they won't attack a hostile but instead will shout for help. The 'town guard' faction would be friendly to commoners and merchants, and protect them, but might be neutral to thieves unless a merchant calls for help. If you wanted active fighting in the streets, the town guard could be set to hostile against the thieves...attacking them on sight. Those thieves could be scripted to run away until they call for help and outnumber the attacking guard...or whatever you like. A lot of these behaviors are already in the default scripts...you'd be surprised. Personally, I love the reaction of commoners when threatened. Run and scream...unless and until there's enough of them to form a potential angry mob...
There's probably more that can be done with the factions, or more changes planned in their implementation...don't take this as gospel just yet...but from what I've used of it so far it seems pretty handy.

All I meant by organizations is that you could organize the factions in that manner, if you wanted, but you weren't restricted to it. If you had an organization of thieves in your campaign called the 'Black Hand' you could assign all of them to the same faction and call it 'Black Hand Thieves' or whatever. You could also split up that faction into sub-groups and/or individuals, if you so wished...depending on how you wanted the factions to change their attitude throughout your campaign.

And yes...numerically changing the attitude of a faction and using that in a script...that works just fine. Say for every Black Hand thief you capture and turn into the City Guard in a city, the City Guard faction's attitude towards you improves by 2...and when you get to an attitude of 60 (which is still neutral, mind you) they will help you out by giving you that classified info you needed. Of course...the Black Hand might not care for you much by that point...maybe at an attitude of 40 (also still neutral, technically) the module script calls for them to send an NPC assassin your way...

Familiars: We do listen to suggestions. We don't implement them all, nor could we.

Sure...in PnP familiars can do a lot. There will actually be a lot of cool things you can do with your familiar in NWN...more than in BG2, certainly, although probably not as much as you're suggesting. For us to spend so much time implementing all those features for something that is only available to 2 classes probably isn't a good idea.

But given the fact that they have a standard creature file, you have the ability to possess them and use them as you wish, the ability to give them dialogue and spell abilities and so forth...if we don't make familiars quite the way you'd prefer in the official campaign, you are certainly free to modify them to your heart's content in your own games (or change it in the official campaign) and it will not be terribly difficult to do so.

ToB Review at Game Rampage
Posted Wednesday, January 9, 2002 - 8:20 CET by Mollusken

The same people who gave Pool of Radiance a rating of 2, now give Throne of Bhaal a rating of 9.

I'm sad right now. I just finished Throne of Bhaal. I'm sad because I know that this is the end of the greatest RPG saga that I have ever played. Never, in all my years of gaming (anyone else remember Zyll, Adventure and Enchanter?) have I been treated to a game of such epic proportions. My character - who started off as a level 1 fighter way back in Candlekeep, ignorant and naive - has finally embraced her destiny. She made and lost friends along the way. She went through trials and hardships - and I went through them with her. She fought countless battles and killed many foes. She performed many duties for others who were too cowardly to do for themselves. To see her finally overcome every obstacle and to fulfill her destiny was one of the coolest things I have witnessed in a game. It was like reading your favorite book series and sharing in the character's adventures and when it's over, feeling both happy and sad.

Read the whole review here.

BioWare Interview at Dragon's Breath Forge
Posted Monday, January 7, 2002 - 20:18 CET by Mollusken

BioWare designer Dave Gaider has answered some questions about old, new and upcoming CRPG games.

What can you tell me about Baldur’s Gate Deluxe? (EBgames are taking pre-orders) Is it a updated version of BG1 with enhancements like bags, TAB highlight function, 800x600 support, kits, dual wielding?

As I understand it, it’s a rebundling of BG1 and TotSC called Baldur’s Gate: the Original Saga…and that’s it. There’s no technical enhancements or additional content that I’m aware of.

Will they have public boards for their new Star Wars game? That is one of the great things about BioWare and Interplay/Black Isle. Are they going to look for fan input for those games? Any news they can share?

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic will most likely get its own forum area at the BioWare boards at some point. It would have to be at a stage where we could discuss it at length with you fans, though…or what would be the point of opening up an official forum? All that would do is invite speculation and make all of you annoyed at the lack of official information. Once more announcements have been made regarding the game, that’s probably when you’ll see the official boards.

Read the whole interview here.

Game Rampage reviews Pool of Radiance
Posted Monday, January 7, 2002 - 10:29 CET by Mollusken

Game Rampage has review Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, giving it a rating of 2 out of a possible 10. The only reason for not giving it 1 was that "the graphics was kind of cool".

That brings me to combat. Turn based. Your party never wins the initiative. At least mine didn’t. Not even against Zombies. And there are LOTS of zombies. If I had a dollar for every zombie I killed in the game, Bill Gates would look poor. If memory serves, there are other monsters in the D&D game. I could be wrong though. So, during the combat round, here’s what happens. The zombies, I mean monsters move (go ahead and watch a movie or go out for dinner or something) about 3x as far as the players can, then attack, and if you survive (monsters always seem to roll high numbers) you get to attack. Better hurry – your turn is timed (unless you turned it off which I HIGHLY recommend doing). This is where it gets REALLY interesting. The interface is the worst I’ve seen in a game. Clumsy, slow, and requiring multiple mouse click to register actions – and precise location clicks – it’s a miracle that you can get anything done. Remember those wands I mentioned? If you want to use one – you have to select it twice in order to do so. Ok, so let’s say you’ve successfully attacked. You’ve even managed to kill a zombie, I mean monster or two. Congratulations. You’re well on your way to being even more bored. I do have to admit one thing I like at this point. You may have used that Magic Missile spell by now (you did follow my suggestion, and select it as a spell, right?) because it is an automatic hit. The spell effects. If the special effects were enough though, Star Wars Episode 1 would be a good movie in much the same way this would be a good game. But, effects can’t save a horrid piece of work. They couldn’t save Phantom Menace, and they don’t save POR.

Read the whole article here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, January 6, 2002 - 23:19 CET by Tiamat

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager:

Requirements (Again): Our minimum system specifications currently are a Pentium II 300 MHz or AMD K6-2 350 MHz, a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 class video card, and 64 MB of RAM. An internet or LAN connection will be required for those wishing to play multiplayer games, of course, and a 56k modem should allow any such computer to support approximately 8 players or so. As bandwidth is the primary determinant of server capacity, a cable modem or xDSL line will be able to support significantly more. The maximum number of clients (player and/or Dungeon Master) allowed on a server is fixed at 64.
As for Mac and Linux, we do not have the system requirements yet, so I cannot comment on those platforms.

Price of Magic Items: As it stands, the price of magic items is calculated as you assign it magical powers.
Of course the price could be slightly higher if it came with free Ginzu knives and car polish.

Lightning Bolts: Lightning bolts no longer bounce around the room. If you fire a lightning bolt it will strike a series of targets, in basically a straight line jumping from one target to the next, in front of you until it reaches the max distance or hits a wall. If no additional targets are behind your initial target(s), the lightning will stop.

Experience Division: I went and spoke with Preston about the experience system that is in place right now. He said that any experience is handed out to a party as a whole.
For example, if your playing multi player and the fighter whacks an orc everybody gets experience. Another large avenue for experience is completed quests. So if the rogue solves a puzzle or something that solves a quest, everybody gets the experience.

NWN For Children: It should be quite simple to slap together a simple module for your children using the toolset- in fact, it is being designed to be easy to use right off the bat. Detailed stuff and complicated plot will need a little more time to create.
If you haven't played for a while you may want to read a few things on how NWN will be different than the second edition D&D rules. There are some very important differences.

Pre-ordering: You will have to contact the supplier you ordered the game from as BioWare has nothing to do with this. That is not much help but we really have no influence, power, or say in pre-ordering the game at this time.

Fatigue: There will be no fatigue per se, but the penalties for not sleeping are not regaining HP, Spells or special abilities (like Rage) after combat.
This penalty for not resting far out ways any possible artificial penalty we could institute.

Invisible Objects: We do have invisible objects but information can be stored on the Area and Module objects.

Constitution Bonuses: When you increase your Con to receive another bonus you would receive the retroactive hit point bonus. For example a 4th level character increases his Con from 11 to 12, would receive 4 hit points- +1 per level.

PR Restrictions: We are still under restrictions concerning a lot of PR things. Sorry folks. It's not because we do not want to release 'big stuff', it's because we are limited in what we can release right now.

Exotic Weapons: There are some Japanese weapons but not armor. I, of course, can't be more specific right now.

World Map: Right now, we are shooting for the map being made up of a group of tiles. If everything goes right, each map should be connected by an area transition.
You do not transition to a new screen unless you go from one map to another.
As it stands, there is no world map- only local area maps. Mark D., Lead Programmer, and Scott G., Director of Programming, mentioned that the world map idea flipped back and forth between being in and out many times. At last count it was not in.

For Newbie Scripters: I went a spoke to Don Moar, our tools programming Overlord, to see what developments have been to help out module creators who have no scripting experience. I then talked to Brad, our Das Uber PR Leader, to make sure I could even reply to this. I can't give specifics at this point-sorry- but I can say that 'things' are being worked on right now to help the novice scripter. Hopefully, I can speak more specially about these things a little later. Don had some great news about what he is working on, but I can't detail it right now. This is a terribly painful reply, but the best I can do right now.

Humanoid Monsters: Most humanoid monsters have the same emotes as humans. They can sit and lie down.

Is the toolset sophisticated enough to allow an action taken inside the building / dungeon to have visible / audible ... consequences outside (e.g. pulling a rope and having the peal of bells heard all over the area)? As far as I know, this can only be done through the use of scripting.

Can NPC's (both joinable and non-joinable) have followers of their own? Can followers have followers? (e.g. Can I have boy with a pet dog / lizard / rat / tarrasque... following him around? Again, without scripting.) Good news here: henchman, such as mages, can summon monster who will then follow them around. No Tarrasques however.

Varying Dog Breeds: We have a wolf / coyote type model a mastiff, and a doberman type model expected.

Are there children models for monster races? Are there models of pregnant women? Unfortunately, we do not have the art resources to explore the many variations as could be encountered, such as monster children models and pregnant women, as it would add significant development time. For some of the variations that fans desire, we are relying on innovative use of existing models such as the large women model with certain clothing to simulate the pregnant women look. Marc, our art director, is only occasionally allowed to go home as it is, and we feel he may begin to refer to his computer as 'my precious, my preciousss'.

Can we create a cursed temple surrounded by complete, impenetrable darkness fifty feet around it (without resorting to scripting, placing permanent globe of darkness spells, etc.)? Not without scripting I'm afraid, as that is a pretty specific thing to want. As with the preganant women idea there are many clickable controls within the Toolset that can be jury-rigged to simulate a variety of special conditions such as a Fog Setting that was used by Derek French to simulate an underwater look (turn the fog blue etc.).

Trent Oster, Producer:

Number of Onscreen Models: The number of characters you can render on the screen at one time depends heavily on the video card you have. There is a CPU hit for the AI as well, so hihger system requirements will be needed for an army scene like you propose. I've seen 30 creatures on the screen at a time and I've seen 28 players on the screen at a time and in the current build it slows down fairly hard on a 600 Mhz system with a GeForce 1. We are optimizing the engine now and every few days bring a few more Frames Per Second, so any figures we give now won't be very accurate.

Spiders: Spiders cannot climb walls. We compensate for the reduced mobility by giving them a faster movement rate. The goal is of course to have spiders able to quickly descend on a party and attack with surprise. Using movement speeds and perception distances we can quickly re-balance the spiders for a more accurate feel.

Placeable Objects: With placeable objects, we might not have two visible states, but you can place a trigger anywhere you wish, so having an area transition on a placeable object is very possible. You could even script the transition so it requires a greater than 19 strength to open it the first time and then it remains open.
In short, NWN will not support everything one might desire natively, but with a little creativite scripting almost anything can be simulated.

Server: The server can be set to log a great deal of information. We have logfiles in excess of a Gigabyte at one time due to message appending. When the server is in debug more it spits just about everything out.

Single-Player Story: The single player story in NWN is also the multiplayer story. You can play solo, or with a group of other players and enjoy plot driven multiplayer adventuring. The story has undergone some very heavy revisions, and continues to be reworked on a daily basis. We are trying to include many of the play forms from our previous games, such as the open exploration of the original BG, the interesting subplots and cities of BGII while implementing a much more flexible rules system behind it all. The story will be an enjoyable one, I'm sure of that. Now that we fixed the Carl Lewis Zombies, the game plays a lot better too.

Tiles: NWN tiles (and all the art) are built around base helper objects. These "bases" hold most of the game specific data (animation names, durations, etc). You can have a number of objects linked as children to the base and they will be exported as one model. Each child can have it's own texture, so you don't really need sub-object textures. You can model the grass and road, detach the road faces as a new object and apply a different texture. make the road a child of the grass and you should be just fine (just don't move the road). Tiling works fine as long as the texture can be completely repeated (you can't crop sub sections and repeat them). Basically, the system works quite well after you adopt a certain workflow pattern and it allows us to keep the native data formats quite clean and quite fast.

Paying Money: You could have a choice in dialogue which is "here is the money". If you select that option it runs a script which a) checks you have the money and then b) removes the money from your inventory and then c) enables the next entry in the dialogue tree.

CGOnline Article: It has come to my attention that a number of people have become confused due to the CGOnline article. The confusion is about modules and our campaign. Our intial plan was for 20+ different modules organized over four environments. We have stepped away from that initial plan and have condensed each environment down into one module. What this means is:
1) The story will have as much if not more content than the originally planned modules
2) The larger modules allow a much more in-depth adventure and much more complex interaction with plots and NPC characters.
3) (the programmers love this one) NWN has to be much more efficient with memory and processor power as the modules we are shipping are over five times as large as originally planned. This ensures a high performance system able to handle large end-user created modules.
In summary, the NWN Campaign has not shrunk in the move from 20+ modules down to 4 modules. The story has become richer and more in-depth while retaining the length of story (and possibly even growing)
Hope this clears things up.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Media Formats: Not sure about video formats, but audio will be a publicly available format.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Playing Modules: Only the server needs the module in order for a client to play on it.

DM Client: The DM Client is just another version of the player client. Both can be run full screen or windowed. In your example, you can run both programs at the same time.
As for availability of Windows cut and paste, that is something different entirely.

Aaaargh or The Time of Troubles
Posted Sunday, January 6, 2002 - 21:19 CET by Sorcerer

As I'm sure you've noticed if you visit SP regularly, the site has been down for the last 3 days. To put it mildly, just about everything that could go wrong also went wrong.

However, this cannot continue. We've had way too much downtime for my liking so I've been exploring other solutions for us which would put us back on 99.9% uptime, as it should be. In any case, we will have to move to another server because this one obviously has too many issues and I don't like SP being the guinea-pig problems are solved on.

I'm currently looking at several options, but I'm not entirely sure what the future course of action will be. I'll know more in the upcoming days, and let you all know then. In the meantime, be sure that even if you can't reach us now and then, we didn't go anywhere or (heaven forbid), abandon the whole project. It's just a short period of unstability which we are working to solve as soon as possible. Thanks for bearing with us while we do.

(The poll will run for another week, and I'll change the screenshot tomorrow. Our diligent news posters will catch up on the missed news ASAP.)

P.S.
If anyone has sent me any mails in the last 3 days or so, they must have bounced back. So now would be a good time to resend them...

Planescape: Torment Role-Playing Game Test
Posted Tuesday, January 1, 2002 - 15:57 CET by Tiamat

RPGPlanet has posted a Planescape: Torment Quiz for all those who wonder how deep their knowledge of the game really is.

Planescape: Torment was one of the best RPGs of 1999 so any hardcore role-player should know all about this game. Do you know The Nameless One's real name? Have you merged with the Practical Incarnation? Those questions and more will be answered in the Planescape: Torment Role Playing Game Test!

Test your PS:T knowledge here.

Desslock's Rant on NWN, Part 2
Posted Tuesday, January 1, 2002 - 15:30 CET by Tiamat

Desslock, of Desslock's RPG News, has posted a rant on the potential ramifications of Bioware ending their contract with Interplay. Will Neverwinter Nights be released as a D20 game...?

Wizards made a lot of stuff from D&D freely available for use under the D20 licence, including the D&D character classes, skills, feats, etc. You can get details about what's "free" here. But what you can't use, for free, are anything that's defined as "Product Identity", which is generally all the "content" that we'd expect in a D&D game: references to the forgotten realms world, places, characters, as well as all of the spells and magic items that have been created for D&D by Wizards (and its predecessors), so a D20 game wouldn't be able to use any of that D&D content.

Read the whole ramble here.