December 2003

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 16:28 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

The community: As for your questions, of course we are learning from our games and of course we will use that knowledge in our next games, one or another way . As for the reasons you are suggesting why HotU is better: I guess most of them played a role.

- The community acted as "competition" in a way, driving us to do things that haven't been done before.
- After such a long time with the toolset, most of us have mastered it pretty well
- We had feedback from the OC and another expansion pack we could build on, find out what people liked, see what worked out and what not.

Rob? Who is Rob? Ahh I remember, that crazy guy who is working on WW2 ...

David Gaider, Designer

HotU campaign: The expansion is a sequel to Shadows of Undrentide. Just because you bring in your character from the official campaign does not mean that suddenly we are going to re-write everything to make it possible for you to be the Hero of Neverwinter... or a "I'm a nobody" option. I understand that sometimes players like to imagine a whole background for their characters, but just like in PnP there will be some adventures that are compatible with that and some that establish a certain background for you. I certainly wish there was some way in NWN for us to do that with a module... have giant flashing letters that leap out and say "THIS MODULE CONTINUES SHADOWS OF UNDRENTIDE ONLY! HEAR THAT? ONLY!! IF YOU BRING IN OTHER CHARACTERS THEY WILL BE TREATED AS THE PC FROM UNDRENTIDE, WHETHER YOU PLAYED IT OR NOT!!". Chances are, some folks still wouldn't get it. As for Deekin, we don't assume that you took him with you as a henchman. If you don't bother with him in Shadows of Undrentide, remember that you still have to deal with him extensively in Chapter 1 and he still travels with the halfling caravan, so would have heard a lot about what you were doing then.

Further:
It wasn't my intent to be harsh, Jackhammer. All I'm saying is that we wrote Shadows of Undrentide (yes, Bioware did that campaign, though Floodgate did the tilesets and creatures for the first expansion) and intended for Hordes of the Underdark to be its sequel... the work to make the sequel somehow work either generically or for the original campaign character are more than significant, as has been pointed out. If I seem harsh, it's perhaps just that I don't understand the assumption being made by some folks such as yourself. In retrospect, it seems that we should have gone to greater efforts to make the nature of the campaign more obvious.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at Game Revolution
Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 16:20 CET by chevalier

Game Revolution have reviewed Hordes of the Underdark and given it a B+. Here's a snip:

The graphics, for example, are largely unchanged except for some more detailed texture, especially for characters faces. But the developers added something that’s been available to players as a very popular hack for ages: you can now unlock the camera, look over you character’s shoulder and view the world from a new perspective. You can at last check out the sky (although you wont see much sky in the well-named Underdark) or peer down at that suspicious treasure chest.

The new epic levels are also great, and again imitate what the community has been doing for years. Many online servers scripted in their own epic levels a year ago, awarding permanent bonuses to players for experience at certain points over level 20.

Read the whole thing at Game Revolution.

Post Comments (0)

SP Happenings #29 - Season's Greetings
Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 0:51 CET by Sorcerer

Since I won't be around as much as usual the next few days (and I presume neither will most of you), I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy, successful New Year on behalf of the whole SP team. SP got its own Christmas present in the return of our sorely missed team member Extremist (in case you don't know, he survived a bad car crash), as for the rest of you, I hope you each get what you wished for.

I have to especially thank everyone helping me with running SP; people who help me pay the SP bills, the news posters, board moderators and admins, people helping me with various SP-related tasks behind the scenes, chatroom ops, people who submit content to SP and many, many more. Cliche or not, it's the truth - I couldn't keep up the superior level of quality on SP without you all. I'm very proud to be in the company of such excellent people who helped me make SP what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow.

While 2003 has been a transitional year for SP in many aspects, 2004 is going to be evolutionary, if not revolutionary. Much will change - SP is finally going to get a new look, and we will also change the message board software our community is currently utilizing. Both of these changes are going to be major for everyone involved with SP on a more technical level, while the user experience is going to improve as well.

So here's to a bright, successful 2004, and many new D&D games! Though the current prospect of that looks bleak (no new PC D&D CRPGs announced), I hope the situation is going to improve in the following months. In the meantime, you can join in on the traditional song of the season:

"Ring Their Bells", or "The Munchkin's Carol"
--by the Sea Wasp
(to the tune of Jingle Bells)

"Slashing through the Orcs
With a good two-handed blade
Over corpses we go
And through the gore we wade
Mace on helmet rings
Making bodies fly
What fun to sing our SLAYING song
And watch these suckers die!

Chorus:
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don't let 'em get away!
We're brave and bold for fame and gold
We'll make a lot today!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don't let 'em get away!
We'll hack and slash and blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!

Crashing through the door
Into the dragon's nose
Our mage whips out a Cone of Cold
And out its fire goes!
Elven bowstrings sing
Making balrogs fall
And our thief finds a secret door
Into the treasure hall!

(Chorus)

Then appears the Lich
With his demon guard
Our wizard yawns and wishes
We'd run into something HARD...
He begins to cast
His 19th level spell
That damn Lich throws a Gate at us
And drops us all in Hell!

(Chorus)

We appear in Hell
In front of Satan's Throne
Our cleric waves us out the door
And takes him on alone!
Satan's legions don't
Want to let us go
Our Techno pulls a bazooka out
And NUKES 'em 'til they GLOW!

Oh, ring their bells with prayers and spells
Don't let 'em get away!
We're brave and bold and CRAZED, we're told
To think we'll live the day!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and shells
Don't let 'em get away!
We'll hack and slash and blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!
Yes, we'll hack and slash and blast and trash
And drag our loot away!"

Post Comments (2)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 16:53 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Area size:

Let's put it this way:

16x16 is the max recommended area size. From a design point of view, you should never need to go above that, if you find yourself in the need to go above 16x16, rethink. From a technical point of view, going above 16x16 is bad, just plain bad.

Stat caps:

Quote: Any developer insight on why the stat caps are what they are? Are there any plans to raise them in the near future?

We looked at raising those caps during the development of Hordes and unfortunately it didn't work out. From a design point of view, this isn't too bad, as, according to the rules, ability score increases should not stack anyway (but they always did in NWN, so we wouldn't change that). However, for a variety of abilities (i.e. mighty rage), it would have been very nice to have the stat cap being raised. No prediction for the future, as I am not on the Live Team, but this topic is definitly on their radar.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at VideoGamesLife
Posted Monday, December 22, 2003 - 20:00 CET by chevalier

VideoGamesLife have posted a review of Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark giving it an overall score of 85%. Here's an excerpt:

Do the Drow really get a bad rep in RPG's nowadays? A matriarchal society forced to live under the ground of Faerun, having to put up with the appalling gray hue their skin took must have been the final straw to the catalogue of indignities foisted upon them. Is it really the Drow's fault that their alignment is nearly always set around Neutral Evil, does the blame lie solely at the feet of their less tolerant cousin's, the Elves or is it just because they love to sow chaos and havoc on the hated ground dwellers? Whatever your perception of the Dark Elves, expect it to be changed in Bioware's second expansion disk for NeverWinter Nights, Hordes Of The Underdark.

Several months have passed since your escape from the Plane of Shadow(as experienced in the first data-disk, Shadows Of Undrentide), an escapade that has made you the talk of Faerun, thanks in part to one of your companions, the Kobold bard Deekin, his book about your exploits becoming a best-seller. No time to rest upon any laurels however, as the city of Waterdeep is in grave peril. Built above the site of an insane archmage's dungeon known as Undermountain, built specifically to lure in greedy adventurer's desperate to get their hands on the oodles of treasure rumoured to exist within the sorcerer's lair. While not the most desirable tenant to live beneath the houses of the Waterdeepians, Undermountain does have the advantage of being a buffer-zone between the outside world and the Drow homesteads. Until now, that is. The Dark Elves and their dwarven allies, the Druegar, have attacked Waterdeep with no warning and seem to be using Undermoutain as their main base of operations. The Lords of Waterdeep have called all heroes from the realms to gather and help fight this menace and find out how the Drow have managed to capture the seemingly invincible creator of Undermoutain, Halaster.

Read the whole thing at VideoGamesLife.

Post Comments (0)

Interplay Remain Positive at Yahoo
Posted Monday, December 22, 2003 - 13:35 CET by Yerril

Over at Yahoo Finance, there's news of Interplay's annual meeting. Despite the fact they're losing money fast, have just closed one of their most profitable divisions (Black Isle Studios), and are now concentrating only on console games, Interplay CEO Herve Caen is very pleased with the way things are going. Here's what he said:

"2003 has been a challenging period for the company. A down economy, a difficult legal dispute with our North American distributor, and the adventures always associated with being a game developer and publisher all presented obstacles for management and staff.

"Yet, our trend toward profitability is strong. Our sustained focus on cost control continues to improve our balance sheet position, while strategic sales of certain intellectual properties and development of key franchise titles drive our revenue. We also purchased certain gaming rights, extended the contracts on others, and re-energized some familiar Interplay brands."

Whatever you say, Herve. See the whole article here.

Post Comments (0)

Tom Ohle Interview at Home LAN
Posted Monday, December 22, 2003 - 12:50 CET by chevalier

Home LAN have posted an interview with Tom Ohle, BioWare's lead PR guy. Here's a snip:

HomeLAN - Looking back at the past 12 months, what was the high point in the video and PC game industry in your opinion and what was the low point?

Tom Ohle - I think the low point definitely has to be the Half-Life 2 source debacle. I don't know too many people who aren't looking forward to that game. As for a high point, I don't think there was a specific one; it's been a great year for PC and video games. The success of PC and video gaming this year has really helped push mainstream acceptance of the medium.

HomeLAN - What was your favorite game or games that was released in 2003 and why?

Tom Ohle - I really think this has been one of the strongest years for gaming in quite some time. This generation of consoles has really allowed developers to push the limits of their imagination and create some truly memorable experiences. Naturally, I've had a blast with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark (I'm a bit of an RPG nut), but a number of other titles really captured my interest this year. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was an amazing experience, and Prince of Persia has kept me up until 3am on a few occasions. I'm also hopelessly in love with Winning Eleven 7 and Amped 2.

Read the whole interview at Home LAN.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 15:15 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Coloured names: Colored names have been removed from the game as they were never intended for player use. They will not come back. The color coded names in the game serve a certain purpose and people have been using the (not indended) functionality of changing their name's color to disrupt other peoples gameplay experience. Colored names are gone and they will not come back.

Fatigue & Starvation: We consider mundane tasks like sleeping and eating boring and non epic, they would disrupt the play experience of 95% of our players - you wouldn't see something like that from us in NWN. But being an incredibly open game when it comes to modification, such a system can be implemented by the individual module builder if he desires - do a search for the words HCR and I'm sure you will find something that suits you needs.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Saturday, December 20, 2003 - 19:09 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Day/night switching: Unfortunately there were so many questions ... fortunately we still got our boards where you can ask. As for this one:
No DayToNight and NightToDay contain special coding to make the do what they do, there is no generic system in place. They were coded for the specific situation(s) they are used in HotU chapter 2.

Post Comments (0)

New Source Speaks on BIS Closure at IGN
Posted Saturday, December 20, 2003 - 15:57 CET by chevalier

IGN have posted another article on BIS closure and Interplay PR's subsequent denials. They claim Interplay sticks to "semantic loopholes" in their evasive strategy. Here's an excerpt:

Late last night, we recieved information from another source backing up the initial claims. "To set the record straight once and for all - Fallout 3 is cancelled, and Black Isle Studios has been effectively shut down, even if the name lives on. Fallout will probably continue to exist in console form, hence the 'Fallout lives' comment."

Fallout 3, claimed to be nearly complete by our first source, would have been the long-awaited followup to the post-nuclear RPG which hasn't seen a new release in the franchise since 1998. During this time, Interplay released Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel for the PC, a strategy game in the vein of UFO: Aftermath and X-Com, and was working on the action-oriented Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for the PlayStation 2, much to the disappointment of the community of Fallout fans who'd been hoping for a true RPG sequel.

Our newest source says that Interplay seems to be relying on semantic loopholes. "Technically, I suppose they are correct: Black Isle Studios isn't shut down (still got two people left!) and Fallout 3 could not be cancelled since it was never announced." According to the previous source, the two remaining employees had been working on an unannounced console title before coming to work for Black Isle.

Read the whole thing at IGN.

Post Comments (0)

Interplay Receives a Warshaw Award from Shacknews
Posted Saturday, December 20, 2003 - 15:11 CET by chevalier

Shacknews have posted this year's Warshaw Awards. The Save Costs by Killing Off Your Best Asset Award goes to Interplay. Here's a snip:

Last week it was revealed that Interplay (who for reasons unknown to me is still alive and kicking), has canceled Fallout 3 and dismantled what remained of the once great Black Isle Studios. Instead, Fallout fans can look forward to Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a game that is nearly identically named to Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, but is in fact totally different, and will be released for PS2 and Xbox. Platforms, it should be pointed out, which the earlier Fallout titles have never been released on. Meanwhile PC gamers, who are the real market for the franchise, have nothing to look forward to. Good job, Interplay. Good luck pulling out of that financial nosedive.

Read the whole thing at Shacknews.

Post Comments (0)

PC Special Award for the Temple of Elemental Evil at GameSpy
Posted Saturday, December 20, 2003 - 15:06 CET by chevalier

GameSpy have given ToEE the Old School RPG Award. Here's what they say:

No game brought back memories of the old pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons days the way Temple of Elemental Evil did. The Troika team is made up of old-school guys who still get together and play using the new 3.5 rules set. Unfortunately, the game had some bugs (many of which have since been patched), exacerbated by Atari's desire to remove children from the game, which broke a few quests. But the bottom line is the game was a lot of fun and really brought back the good old days of playing the famous Greyhawk module by Gary Gygax. Thanks for the memories.

Read the whole thing at GameSpy.

Post Comments (1)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at Just RPG
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 - 23:06 CET by chevalier

Just RPG have posted a review of the Hordes of the Underdark expansion and awarded it 90%. Here's a tidbit:

Since its recent release, Hordes has garnered wonderful reviews from reputable gaming websites. Every review drools over the engrossing story, and all the new “stuff” that propel D&D character-building gamers to RPG nirvana. I completely agree with these opinions. Online buzz has followed suit. What’s more, I am an up-front admirer of Neverwinter Nights and the first expansion. In my review for this site, I graded the expansion 90% (A). If I had reviewed Neverwinter Nights, I would have given it the same A+ as the reviewer did here.

Read the whole review at Just RPG.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at Warcry
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 - 22:59 CET by chevalier

Warcry have reviewed Hordes of the Underdark, giving it a score of 89%, and including a screenshot of beautiful elven lass in plate armour. Here's a clip:

The new prestige classes are very exciting, although as any hardcore D&D fan will point out, they don't necessarily translate exactly from the Wizards of the Coast sources material. This can be a little frustrating at first. For instance, Dragon Disciples don't advance in a spellcasting class along with the Disciple class...this can allow you to start the game with a 15th level character that can only cast level three sorcerer spells and will get eaten for breakfast by a troll. Only druids can become shifters, where in the WotC books, any class that can polymorph or change shape can take this class. Aside from these minor issues, the prestige classes are still unique and fun to play. The Weapons Master is an excellent choice for those players that like warriors that focus on one weapon (most warriors do anyhow). Alas, my poor wizard is still missing the Archmage prestige class.

New player head models are excellent, but a small minority of them don't look very heroic. Instead, they look more like people you'd see in any downtown present-day metropolis: balding, bad haircuts, piercings, and no chins. I'm not sure I'd want to play a cleric that looks like he could be my accountant. The new monsters are brilliant and in some cases I would said are better interpretations than what I have seen in the WoTC books.

Read the whole thing at Warcry.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 - 22:42 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Expansions: Players who do not own an expansion pack can not play modules with content from that expansion pack. That was always the case and will never change. People who have HotU can play on SoU flagged modules, but people who only have SoU can not play on HotU servers.

Further:
Sorry I need to clarify. HotU does not contain SoU tilesets, etc, so you need SoU to play on SoU flagged modules.

Changing outfit: Changing robes is free (DC 0). Changing armor DC is dependent on how many parts you change at once, with the highest DC counting (Torso 17 or 19 I think, neck or glove ~DC 12). Changing weapon DC ranges between 11 and 17. Crafting new objects is between 10 and 19 depending on the object, up to 30 for "special materials"

Further:

Quote: I'm thinking you wouldn't want to mod it to have a totally different armor class -- just a torso within that same class, maybe different gloves, a different neck piece, etc.

That wouldn't work anyway - since players wear the armor while modifying it, changing torso could potentially allow them to create armor they could not wear due to missing proficiencies - thus we don't allow changing the torso outside of the current armor type choise.

Post Comments (0)

Interplay Says BIS Not Closed at IGN
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 - 22:41 CET by chevalier

IGN have posted another article on BIS closure, touching especially Interplay's official denial of the rumour. Here's a snip:

For those of you who haven't been following the story, there have been some rumors circulating the industry that Black Isle Studios, creators of Icewind Dale, has been closed down. After posting the initial story on the rumor, we received more details from a former employee who confirmed that the studio was closed and that Fallout 3 had been cancelled.

Which brings us up to our new guest star, Interplay's investor relations department, with their official denial of the stories. "For the record," says Interplay, "Black Isle Studios remains open with projects pending, the status of Fallout 3 is under review, and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel will ship on January 13."

Read the rest at IGN.

Post Comments (0)

BioWare Chat Logs at Neverwinter Vault
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 - 17:00 CET by chevalier

Newerwinter Vault have posted logs from the developer chat they had this evening. Topics covered a range of issues including touching on unreleased and unannounced games that BioWare is working on. Here's a snip:

BPatryn Of Elvenshae To the crew: Thanks for the support you've shown the NWN community over the past few years. Having said that, what's your real opinion of the community feedback process? We're a cantankerous bunch at the best of times, and has our tendency to over-analyze caused, in your opinion, better work by the BioWare staff?

Jay Watamaniuk First of all thanks for the praise. The whole purpose of the Live Team is the make darn sure that the people who pay the money for our games get a game they enjoy. That being said we have spent a great deal of time on the forums listening to fans.

Rob Bartel Community feedback's been invaluable. Creating games in a vacuum is ridiculously difficult. Sometimes the love hurts but we're very grateful to have you all the same.

Jay Watamaniuk That being said we have spent a great deal of time on the forums listening to fans. And...yes, at times, things can be a bit harsh but you have understand that all things must be taken in a certain light. Every single time someone has come up with a great suggestion we take it into consideration. It is the way that the suggestion arrives is the key point. Be respectful and you get heard- disrespect and you get dismissed and may miss your chance.

Georg Zoeller And some of the better community modules certainly were another way of feedback ... they raised the bar for HotU and we had to beat them :)

Derek French One day, I am going to sit down and list out all the community requested and implemented features, just to show how much you guys have contributed.

Rob Bartel Noo, Derek, noooooo! That's like reading the phone book!

Read the whole thing at Neverwinter Vault.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights and Expansions Review at EDBIS
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 - 2:02 CET by chevalier

EDBIS have posted a review of Neverwinter Nights and both expansions, giving a score of 75% to NWN, 86% to SoU and 89% to HotU, which makes an overall 83%. Here's a snip:

Lets talk about a the story aspects of the game and expansions themselves shall we. The Neverwinter Nights official campaign was, overall, rather lackluster. The story of Aribeth and the assault on Neverwinter was predictable, boring, and best forgotten. After spending five years making
this game I would think that Bioware would try to make an Official Campaign that would best showcase the hard work they did to make this game the technical marvel that it is. For new players I suggest to forget about the NWN OC and go directly to Shadows of Undrentide or download the myriad of
user made mods. More on those in a little bit. Shadows of Undrentide's story is far more interesting. Starting off with a new character the player gets a clean slate. You start off as a student to a Dwarven Wizard, one of four, at a rather isolated village of Hilltop. Before you know it the small school and the village itself is attacked by kobolds, moderately competent
kobolds at that. One of the best joinable NPCs in the game is Deekin Scalesinger, a kobold bard who has much wrongness in him which continues in Hordes of the Underdark. Hordes of the Underdark starts off the character at the Yawning Portal and those with good Realmsian knowledge knows that
this is the famous home where many adventurers enter Undermountain. A huge dungeon complex created and manned by Halaster, a fairly mad wizard who have populated the dungeon complex with quite a number of traps, pitfalls, and monstrousities, along with a few puzzles as well.

Read the rest at EDBIS.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 18:15 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Craft Item: For starters, add some magical abilities to the crafting components in the toolset ... you will find out that some of them carry over when you make an item out of them.

Further:
We were not allowed to make magical item crafting using skills, as it is against the 3E rules. However, the system itself supports item properties being carried over from crafting components to the final product. Example: Add a property to the item components for a longbow (bowshaft and leather string) either in the toolset or via scripting. Then create a bow ...

Patches: Sure, there are/will be issues, but mosty of the issues in the ("I have trouble when joining a server with patch 1.60) I've seen so far can be attributed to people not updating their server hakpaks correctly.

Singleplayer: The patch fixes several issues in the official campaign, you should apply it in any case

Multiplayer: The patch fixes DM issues and security exploits, you would be stupid not to apply it.

Subradial Feats:

Quote: A question... is it possible to make the subfeats have requirements of their own? In other words, say you take the Leadership feat and it gives you two extra henchmen commands (say, Knitting and Sewing) in a subradial menu. Then upon meeting some other condition (another feat taken, a certain skill level, whatever) it adds the Basketweaving command to the Leadership radial menu. Is that possible at all? It's a long shot but it would help tidy up some of my projects.

The radial will always show all options, but you could of course make the script that is fired by each radial option require a certain feat or whatever, otherwise have it display a floating text "you can't do that".

Further:
Quote: Thanks Georg. Let me get this straight, the subradial feats are nowhere listed in feat.2da, right? From a quick look at that file it appears to be so, some kind of virtual feats...The subfeat ID... I suppose this identify the subradial feat for the GetHasFeat, etc, functions, as do the indexes usually? So this should be different from any actual line number used in feat.2da, by Bio or us? You say IDs under 2999 are reserved for Bio, however the "safe index" line in feat.2da is 2000... So I'm probably completly mistaken.

hehe, you are. Those subradial feats are spells (that point back to a feat - just like the greater wildshapes spells in spells.2da)

Further:
Err, short summary

1) add your feat to feats.2da and a spell to spells.2da
2) put the feats id into spells.FeatID and the spell id into feats.SpellID
3) create up to 5 more spells and put their ids into the subradial fields of the new spell in spells.2da

now comes the tricky part: you need to calculate the value for the featID value of those 5 new spells. To do so you use the calculation method provided in the first post, which requires you to use a SubfeatID value, which you must decide on.

Hope that clears it up

Further:
Subfeat ID's are the numbers you need to put into the FeatID entry of all subradial spells used by the spell connected to your feat.

Further:
Hmm (* smashes head against the wall * )
Hi word (top 16 bit): The FeatID (it is not only OK to use the feat ID there, MUST BE the featID).
Low word (low 16 bit): 16 bit integer of your choise, above 2999

Their use by the engine is to allow the game to associate the spell that is cast from the subradial entry with it's parent feat. You couldn't just put a featID into that row because the featID <-> spellID relation between feat.2da and spells.2da is a 1:1 relation (as opposed to 1:n or n:n).

Further:
Ah, sorry for confusing you,

65536 * subfeat + feat ID is correct, ignore my former statement regarding that.

Let me try to put it into pseudo code, much easier for me

Further:
You added a feat at line 3000 that points to a new spell at line 2000 that has 3 subradial spells, lets say at 2001, 2002 and 2003 in spells.2da

feat[3000].spellid = 2000 // point to the master spell

spell[2000].featId = 3000 // masterspell point back to feat

spell[2000].subradial1 = 2001 // register subradial 1
spell[2000].subradial2 = 2002 // register subradial 2
spell[2000].subradial3 = 2003 // register subradial3 3

spell[2001].featid = (65536 * X ) + 3000 // link to feat
spell[2002].featid = (65536 * Y ) + 3000 // link to feat
spell[2003].featid = (65536 * Z ) + 3000 // link to feat

where X,Y,Z are numbers of your chose above 2999 which may not be reused in the entire scope of spells.2a. They are used to generate a unique entry for the featId field and still point back to the original feat, so the engine doesn't have to resolve the featid by looking it up on the master spell.

Further:
Exactly, don't do it, the programmers said not to do it. Also the engine has reserved "subfeat id's" below 2999, so you would be asking for dire trouble if you would select any number below 2999

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at 1UP
Posted Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 18:04 CET by chevalier

1UP have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion and given it a score of 8.5. Here's what they say:

I found while playing Hordes that I was really, really enjoying not partaking in my real life. It was easy to look past the now aged and overripe core graphics and lack of facial animations and dive face first into an engaging storyline more inline with traditional D&D adventuring I never played because I was too cool and preoccupied with the fairer sex. I won't attribute this newfound joy to typically chop-chop heavy Neverwinter gameplay or the workable interface that's not seen a graphical retooling since its inception, but rather to the pacing, design, story, familiarity, polish, and subtle additions that help round out the expansion's already robust offering. Things like a little shop in a bottle that lets players toss out inventory filling bootie looted from the corpses of monsters and even a few puzzles that range from numbing fetch quests and flip switching contests to more clever plays on traditional brainteasers really help drive the experience home. And the ultimate conclusion (the only one I've experienced, anyway) sums the game in a solid manner that left me satisfied.

Read the rest at 1UP.

Post Comments (0)

News on PC Game Retailers Quitting at GameSpot
Posted Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 17:57 CET by chevalier

GameSpot have posted an article on uncertain future of PC gaming. EBGames and GameStop are supposed to remove PC games from their shelves after the holidays, which has been denied by EG CEO.

PC games have come in for their share of bad press recently. In the current issue of Game Developer magazine, respected game designer Feargus Urquhart commented on "the lack of support for the PC as a gaming platform." Of course, the game conference circuit just wouldn’t be the same without the requisite "Is PC Gaming Dying?" panel.

Recently, the hot topic took a decidedly darker turn. Last week, a number of widely read game forums posted entries suggesting that EBgames and GameStop, two of the nation's biggest specialty retailers, would remove all PC games from their inventories as soon as the holidays passed.

While gamers debated the finer points of retail strategy, analysts had a different view of things. "I don't think that PC games are dying out," IDC analyst Schelley Olhava said, although she did acknowledge, "they definitely are a much smaller proportion of the overall market."

Read the whole thing at GameSpot.

Post Comments (0)

Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 15:12 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which of the new prestige classes in Hordes of the Underdark excites you the most?
(339 votes total)

Red Dragon Disciple (127) 37%
Weapon Master (77) 23%
Shifter (47) 14%
Champion of Torm (36) 11%
Dwarven Defender (28) 8%
Pale Master (24) 7%

Very much unsurprisingly (dragons never seem to lose that coolness factor), the Red Dragon Disciple HotU prestige class excites the majority of the people who voted (37%) the most.

Second places goes to the Weapon Master with 23% of people voting it for the most exciting PC.

The Shifter prestige class is next on the popularity scale with 14% of votes.

Champion of Torm also has its fans. 11% of the people who voted, to be exact.

The least popular two prestige classes are the Dwarven Defender with 8% of votes and the Pale Master with 7%.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 14:35 CET by Sorcerer

Another week's around and here are the latest NWN Wednesday goodies:

Dracolich and Adamantine Golem
Two Hordes of the Underdark creatures are revealed this week! Nothing says 'paladinhood is for chumps' like a giant dragon shaped skeleton. The Adamantine Golem has been also been released to fan sites (see below), and is truly one of the most feared and unstoppable juggernauts in existence! Discuss.

BioWare Holiday Card
Check out this year's BioWare Holiday card featuring Jade Empire. You can download and print the pdf version for cardboard cut-out action! Happy holidays from BioWare! Discuss.

Post Comments (0)

Article on BioWare's Move at GameSpot
Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 21:44 CET by chevalier

GameSpot have posted an article about BioWare's move to a new office.

And so it was in weather-beaten Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Word came down the pike last week that BioWare was moving its offices to larger digs. "Everything's absolutely nutty right now," said the usually calm Tom Ohle, BioWare pr specialist. "We're still sticking around in Edmonton, just moving about five minutes south of our current office," he added.

Elaborating on the reasons behind the move, Ohle said, "BioWare is currently nearing the 170 employee mark, as opposed to around 130 at the start of the year, and our new office is about 60 percent larger than our current space. Now we have more space, a dedicated demo room, some focus-testing rooms, more meeting rooms, more coffee stations (very important), more lounge-type areas, a massive rec room, and a far more comfortable space for internal and external quality assurance staff."

Read the rest at GameSpot.

Post Comments (0)

More on BIS Closure at IGN
Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 21:38 CET by chevalier

IGN have posted another article on the dissolution of Black Isle Studios by Interplay, revealing some interesting facts. Here's a snip:

The dissolution was prompted by an apparent political "ass-kissing battle" within the separate divisions of Interplay. Black Isle Studios' director quit in frustration, leaving Black Isle unofficially under the management of Digital Mayhem's director. Citing disharmony with the new management, Black Isle Studios appealed to Interplay to adopt a more hands-off approach.
Interplay agreed and the team continued work on Baldur's Gate 3. The title was cancelled after management failed to retain the license for the D&D system, so Black Isle decided to focus development exclusively on Fallout 3. The design was finished, the engine was written, and the work on the maps had begun when Interplay asked for a playable demo of the game.

By Black Isle's account, the demo as delivered was 95% done, including all game functionality but only one finished demo level. (Work on the rest of the levels was approximately halfway complete; all that remained to be done was to populate and script the maps.) The next day Interplay began laying off people at Digital Mayhem. Since the Fallout demo was so polished, employees at Black Isle felt (relatively) secure.

Read the whole thing at IGN.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 17:09 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Patch 1.60: If a beta patch is not failed, it will be converted into a full version. Yesterday night it was not apparent what was wrong with the patch, so it was pulled, because it would have disabled a significant number of players from playing the game at all - a far larger number of players than we have server admins or even people playing NWN in multiplayer. One one hand you demand information, and you got them, as much as we knew at that point, on the other hand you start complaining about exactly that information, even if we stressed that we did not know what's wrong with the patch (it was 12am) - Result: You don't get "hot" information anymore, you will have to wait for it being verified in the future.

Further:
Quote: See, the problem here is that if they'd been honest about their schedule, and the ETA for the release, instead of making up one excuse after another, server admins would have been able to warn their players, and make plans. Nevermind the fact that integrity is important. They should just come right out and say it's going to be two more weeks, at least. I can tell you this: I've seldom seen such a blatantly BS post as the one stickied on this forum. Anyone who doesn't recognize it as an excuse.. well, I hope you're not registered to vote.

Ok, here is the deal: How about you don't get ETA's anymore because people do not understand the meaning of E in ETA and take it as a promise. The advantage of not giving out any estimations seems to be striking to me, I sometimes wonder why we still bother to do so - but then, not everyone here has misconceptions about the word "estimated" and it would be unfair for the rest of the community to cut communications because of just a few people who feel "lied to" because they don't understand the concept of open communication.

Further:
Quote: I -know- that any announcements made on forums which are open to the public need to be run past marketing people.

Then you do not know OUR forums. Up to date, I never thought about submitting everything to PR ... but maybe I should do so in the future - sure, this would result in about 99% less posts from me, but at least it would be "safe speak" then, leaving as much open to interpretation as possible. The server binaries are going to be released and the website will be updated. Following the logic in your initial post you could, of course, ask us to delay the release of the next patch until the web team has finished the proper patch webpage and the server binaries have been made available - After all, why shouldn't everyone wait for the patch until the web team is available to update the webpage.

From 1.60 to 1.61: You won't need to revert if you are already on 1.60 - the plan is to have a patch 1.60 to 1.61 available through the auto updater.

From 1.59 to 1.61:

Quote: And what of those of us that already reverted? Will there be a 1.59 to 1.61 patch?

Yes

Patch 1.61: Patch 1.60 that went up yesterday wasn't compatible with the gold version and caused people with that version who updated to be unable to play, thus we had to pull it. If you are not running the gold edition, you are fine with yesterday's patch. You can update to 1.61 as soon as it comes out. A couple of minor resource issues (i.e. the wrong 2da files in the source directory) were identified with yesterdays patch and will be corrected soon, but I do not know if these are already fixed in 1.61. 1.61 will be out as soon as possible -
(this not estimated date was sponsored to you by the "but bioware promised us..." faction(tm) on this board)

Third expansion: There are no plans for a third XP.

Sky:

1) Enable skies in the game on the video options page. They are off by default

2) Create an area in the toolset and a sky to it in the area's visual properties

3) place the starting location in that area, save the module and start the game

4) enter the module and look up

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Patch 1.61 Released
Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 16:58 CET by chevalier

BioWare have released Neverwinter Nights Patch 1.61. It fixes several bugs in HotU campaign, crash bugs and adds some cheat prevention. Different versions are available for the original game or with expansions installed.

The latest update for all English versions is now available! 1.61 includes fixes to the HotU campaign, compatibility for HotU and non-HotU owners, and adds the Demonflesh Golem. Full details about 1.61 and how you can update can be found in the patch section. Update 1.61 is available for for Mac, Linux, and Windows, as well as the Stand-Alone Server.

See the complete list of patch features (with HotU) at BioWare.

Post Comments (0)

BioWare Reveals the Adamantine Golem
Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 0:32 CET by Sorcerer

This week BioWare provided us with something much better than another Hordes of the Underdark spell - the full scoop on the fearsome Adamantine Golem!

Adamantine Golem

The Adamantine Golem is truly one of the most feared and unstoppable juggernauts in existence. Adamantium is one of the hardest substances known within the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Only the really hardcore magic-using uber-nerd would even attempt to mess with this stuff to create a golem. Success would elevate the creator into the near-unreachable stratosphere of magic-using heights such that all the other magic-using nerds would only be capable of making that incoherent wailing sound through the nose when they saw him:

First magic-using nerd: (walks into the main room at the ‘House of Fantastic Nerds’ with Adamantine Golem holding his groceries)
All other magic-using nerds: (make that incoherent wailing sound through their nose).

AC: 38
Hit Points: 220

Abilities:
Str 51
Dex 9
Con 10
Int 10
Wis 11
Char 3

CR: 32
Alignment: True Neutral
Class: 40 Construct
Special Abilities: Immunities

Check out these two shots of the monster: Shot #1 and Shot #2!

Post Comments (2)

SP Happenings #28
Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 0:17 CET by Sorcerer

Apart from the fact that the belated site update finally went up today, I don't really have much to write about here. It's been a busy week for me in real life, and when that happens, all non-essential SP things are put on hold. I've got a bit more free time now so I'll spend it by working on the new design some more. I'm really just polishing the details at this point and doing minor corrections, so that next month I can start the conversion in earnest. Yes, we're getting close now...

Post Comments (0)

BioWare Chat at The IGN Chat servers
Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 23:52 CET by chevalier

IGN have scheduled a chat about Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark with BioWare staff on Thursday night.

When: Thursday, December 18th at 5pm MST (4pm PST, 7pm EST).
Where: The IGN Chat servers

IRC Client:

Post Comments (0)

Interplay Speaks on BIS Closure
Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 22:00 CET by chevalier

Interplay have replied to a user's inquiry on BIS closure, claiming nothing special has happened. Here's what they wrote:

Thanks for your note and comments on Interplay, its games, and recent actions.

For some reason, there has been a high amount of speculation about Black Isle Studios and intellectual property surrounding the Fallout license. My only guess is that the source of these rumors must be an employee/employees who recently departed Interplay.

My response to these rumors is quite simple: Interplay management makes decisions and takes action on items relating to product, personnel, costs, revenue, and more on a day-to-day basis, none of which would be deemed material by SEC regulations, and none of which would merit a public announcement or press release.

Accordingly, if Interplay management had closed its most valuable development asset or chosen to abandon one of its most prized intellectual assets, the Company would have made an announcement.

As always, Interplay management is focused on delivering great, profitable games and maximum shareholder value.

Read the whole thing at Interplay.

Post Comments (2)

BioWare Pulls Neverwinter Nights Patch 1.60
Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 21:34 CET by chevalier

Patch 1.60 is broken with NWN Gold Edition because of a CD check that makes Gold users unable to play. The team are currently building Patch 1.61.

We are currently building a 1.61 patch. The only change will be a fix to the CD check that was causing NWN Gold users to be unable to play.

You will not have to revert as a 1.60 to 1.61 patch will be available.

If you have reverted, that is fine as a 1.61 patch will be available for you as well.

---------------------------

1.60 has been pulled. The following files will allow you to revert back to the previous version. Download the appropriate file to your NWN directory and run the nwupdate.exe program or click on the update button on the launcher.

Read more and get the files needed to revert at Bioware.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at Jolt.co.uk
Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 21:23 CET by chevalier

Jolt.co.uk have posted a review of the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, awarding it a score of 84%. Here's a clip:

There are two parts to Hordes of the Underdark, really. One is the campaign, and one is the technical upgrades that can be used when building new custom content. Among the upgrades is further improved henchman control. You can actually have two henchmen now, and better yet, they will converse with you, NPCs and each other. Occasionally other characters can join your party. These characters you have less control over, and they will leave when they please, but, even without being able to control henchmen directly, the fact that you can actually have a party of four addresses one of Neverwinter Night's more significant shortcomings.

There are a number of graphical upgrades to Neverwinter Nights too, and among them are robes. Actual, proper robes. Other technical upgrades are more closely tied to the gameplay, and these include new item functionality and gameplay dynamics. Hordes of the Underdark is a much more puzzle oriented game than anything else in the series. Everything feels more interactive, and skill checks are used more frequently and in more interesting ways. There are new crafting skills, which is great. And while the main use of the persuade skill in the original campaign was to talk people out of more money, here it is more often used to talk characters into helping you directly or giving you information and clues.

Read the rest at Jolt.co.uk.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at GamersHell
Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 21:18 CET by chevalier

GamersHell have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, giving it an overall score of 8.2. Here's a snip:

What attracted me a lot was the fact that the story unfolds in a really interesting way. For example the conversations unfold depending on what kind of a player you are, what henchmen you have with you, and how you play your cards. I should also note that Hordes of the Underdark is considerably funnier than the previous games. Deekin, whom you may have met in the first expansion, can be a great asset to your little gang - and not just because of the boost spells he provides, but also because of the witty banter between him and other members, or his rather strange monologues.

New to this expansion is that you can keep two henchmen with you at all times, provided they stay alive of course. Reviving is easier this time around, which is fortunate, because the game can be very hard at times. I must say, neither of the two previous games were insanely difficult, and Hordes of the Underdark isn?t for the most part, but it can be during the last chapter. These especially difficult fights have been rather heavily discussed on message boards, but I also think the puzzles have become viable challenges too. You could pretty much run through Shadows of the Undrentide if you had a fairly good character, but you can forget about it this time around.

Read the rest at GamersHell.

Post Comments (0)

Site News - New Additions
Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 18:44 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

Forgotten Realms Books subsection: Paths of Darkness Collector's Edition (Paths of Darkness) added, Insurrection paperback & Extinction (R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen) added, The Yellow Silk (The Rogues) added, The Rage (The Year of Rogue Dragons) added.

Dragonlance Books subsection: Hope's Flame & A Dawn of Dragons (Chronicles Trilogy - Young Reader Adaptation) added, The Wizard's Fate (Ergoth Trilogy) added, Tides of Blood (The Minotaur Wars) added.

J.R.R. Tolkien Books subsection: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [Extended Version] DVD added.

3rd Edition D&D Books subsection: Creature Collection III: Savage Bestiary (Sword & Sorcery Studious Accessories) added, Map Folio One, Deluxe Player Character Sheets (3.5e), Deluxe Dungeon Master's Screen (3.5e), Ravenloft Player's Handbook, Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide (Various Accessories) added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate

Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection: Baldur's Gate NPC Add-on added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: Rastor's Item Making Tutorial added, BG2: SoA Monster Encyclopaedia added, Scythesong's Guide to Blades added.

Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection: 1 mod updated, 3 portrait packs added, 3 mod links added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale 2

Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection: 1 pre-made party added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

Walkthroughs & Guides subsection: NWN Expansion Details page updated, Hordes of the Underdark official strategy guide added.

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: NWN/SoU Fighter Character Guide added.

Modules subsection: IGN Insider Contest: Hordes of the Underdark Pre-Modules added.

Miscellanea subsection: 1 HotU trailer added (previously posted on the SP front page).

Toolset & Related subsection:

Subsection #1: 2 new additions.

Subsection #7: 2 new additions.

Subsection Updates - Games -> The Temple of Elemental Evil

Walkthroughs & Guides subsection: ToEE Walkthrough updated.

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: ToEE NPC Listing updated.

Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection: 1 trainer updated, 1 mod added, 1 portrait pack added.

Miscellanea subsection: ToEE Official Patch added, ToEE demo added.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Monday, December 15, 2003 - 16:55 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Water tiles: There is a function in x2_inc_toollib to remove those effects as well. This allows for powerful plot devices where the player can trigger the changes himself (i.e. drain that lake or open a valve to flood a level). There are some limitations to doing tileset alterations like this (fog, lighting releated). Also that stuff is not limited to ground tiles as well, you can also script a lot of other neat stuff using this technique (i.e. buildings getting destroyed like in the final battle in XP3). If I find some time, I'll post some tutorials in the scripting forum.

More on water tiles:

Quote: Would it be possible for me to change the water in the sewers tileset to lava?

Yepp, that's entirely possible. Also remember that you can use TLResetAreaGroundTiles(?) to remove your dynamic tiles. This allows you to change your areas on player interaction (i.e. open valve, flood level) and that's always a very cool thing to have as it gives some sense of power to the player.

Post Comments (0)

The Temple of Elemental Evil Review at Quandary
Posted Monday, December 15, 2003 - 16:36 CET by chevalier

Quandary have posted a review of The Temple of Elemental Evil. Here's a tidbit:

If The Temple of Elemental Evil lacks in the story department it sure makes up for it with the wonderful turn based combat. This is where I was in my element because there’s no rush, you can take your time to work out a strategy. Just right click on screen and this opens a radial menu for each character where the combat choices are many. There are various defensive or offensive moves for fighters; triple, double and single attacks, and charge attacks, for instance, not to mention all the spells for your spellcasters, and you can also choose to reposition your characters. For movement during combat a gauge to the left of screen tells you how much time there is but I mainly watched the colour coded cursor. Move it on the screen and if it stays green then your character can take their turn from that point, maybe cast a spell or fire an arrow, if not then their attack is forfeited.

Read the whole thing at Quandary.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at GamerDad
Posted Monday, December 15, 2003 - 16:32 CET by chevalier

GamerDad have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, giving it a score of 4.5/5. Here's a snip:

The original Neverwinter Nights took a cue from Diablo II by offering the ability to teleport back to town for healing, the selling of equipment, identification of magic items, or raising of henchmen. Underdark gives your character an interesting ability (that turns out to be more than it seems) in a "reaper stone." If you die, you appear in a parallel realm in front of a winged figure, who lets you return to the inn and rejoin the adventure. The going gets rough in this game so you'll appreciate the ability to keep your equipment, experience, and only lose the time it takes to return to the fray.

Needless to say, the story is strong, contains all the typical Bioware twists, turns and quality writing, and fans of power-D&D will have a lot to crow about. It's in three pieces and the three are cleverly put together and unique in their own right. That alone makes this a necessary purchase for NWN fans already groaning under a huge pile of free content. What makes Underdark more fun is the ability to fight these massive monsters in multiplayer. A well-balanced party fares much better against Beholders, Blue Dragons, and much, much worse.

Read the rest at GamerDad.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Sunday, December 14, 2003 - 21:39 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Don Moar, Tools Programmer

Patch 1.60: Since we cannot finalize the European versions of the 1.60 update until it is properly localized, we plan on making beta versions available so that those players can connect and play on updated servers. These beta versions will, obviously, include some untranslated text in the areas corresponding to new functionality introduced in HotU. We will be working with Atari to finalize those versions ASAP.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

The secret project: Bioware is not working on a D&D game at the moment. The secret PC project is based on our own IP.

Craft Wand:

Quote: I'm trying to do this in the NWN OC, don't know if that makes a difference. I can cast stoneskin on the wand, but nothing happens. The same thing with mage armor..Plus several of the more useful spells - improved invis. for instance, do not scale up past lvl7..

Make sure you cast the spell on a "bone wand", I used stoneskin to craft wands a lot when I last played through the campaign. You can craft bone wands from the large bones dropped by several creatures in the HotU.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at Game Banshee
Posted Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 23:09 CET by chevalier

Game Banshee have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, giving it a nice 8.8 of 10. Here's a snip:

In almost every aspect, Hordes of the Underdark brings a change to the Neverwinter Nights experience that’s expected, then goes one step further. First of all, setting the story in the Underdark obviously meant new tilesets for the Drow, Illithid, and Beholder communities and new monster models for their denizens. You could already give your character the skin and hair color of a Drow, but the designers went ahead and upgraded the clothing models so they could preserve the Drow leather fetish, even going so far as to include new texture packs for robes. The tilesets, models, and robes all look great and you can use them all in your mods.

In addition to cosmetics, we knew that gameplay would be enhanced by the ability to play as new prestige classes. After the relatively tame prestige classes in Shadows, I was astounded by the imagination put into the prestige class offerings in Hordes. Instead of getting more bonuses in the feats already present, several of the new classes come with completely new abilities.

Read the rest at Game Banshee.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Friday, December 12, 2003 - 23:38 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Missile Storm: Hey, it's not a bug. Since missile storm now correctly checks SR on the first missile, the game won't fire any subsequent missiles if the first one is resisted, as they all would be resisted.

Mark Brockington, Lead Research Scientist

DelayCommand Bug: The intended behaviour has always been to run the events that were delayed at the same time in the order that they were run.

DelayCommand(0.5f,SpeakString("1"));
DelayCommand(0.5f,SpeakString("2"));
DelayCommand(0.5f,SpeakString("3"));

should be forcing a character to say "1", "2" and "3". Why did we make the optimization? Because there are many more events in Hordes than in Shadows or the NWN Official Campaign. Handling of events came up as a major use of CPU time during profiling, and we rationalized that a lot of your modifications would probably also benefit from the speed increase of delayed events.

Imagine all of the events are stored in a ordered linked list. Now, when it comes time to enter an event, we have to scan the list from the top down until we pass all of the events with the same time (time being stored down to a millisecond as an integer, not as a floating point value). There are many events to be run immediately (such as AssignCommand()s), so these are still handled the same way. The huge delays were coming from events that were delayed by a couple of seconds. They had to hop over ALL of the events that were stored at the front of the queue every time we added them. Thousands of comparisons didn't make the CPU very happy.

So, the optimization was to reverse how we handled *delayed* events. Instead of starting at the head of the sorted list, we turned the queue around and started at the tail. But, we forgot to examine what specifically happened when events had equal time. Because we simply reversed all assumptions about ordering, our CompareWorldTimes() function went from == -1 to == 1. (Note that when times are equal, the result is 0). So, to preserve the intended ordering, the code should have been != -1.

There is a significant risk with making this fix. There is also a significant risk associated with removing the optimization. We will investigate the repercussions of restoring this to the proper ordering for a future patch. In the meantime, wrap your Delays in a function (as Georg mentioned earlier) or, if that is not an option, I would wholeheartedly recommend separating all DelayCommands by at least 2 milliseconds or 0.002f to avoid any rounding issues associated with bringing floating point numbers into the game engine. This will ensure that if we restore the proper ordering in a future patch, we won't break your scripts a second time. However, there is another point that was brought up recently about the DelayCommand(0.0f,foo()) versus foo() which runs immediately ... this is not a bug. Commands that are assigned or delayed are always run subsequent to the end of the currently running script completing successfully. This is the intended behaviour. So if I do this in code:

SpeakString("1");
DelayCommand(0.0f,SpeakString("2"));
SpeakString("3");

Your character will say: "1", "3", and "2". Similarly, if SpeakString("2") is assigned to another character, your object will say "1" and "3" before the other object says "2".

Craig Welburn, Live Team Programmer

Launching The DM Client Directly:

Yes you can do this (This is for WinXP).
- Create a normal shortcut to nwmain.exe.
- Then right click on the shortcut and select properties.
- Click on the Shortcut tab at the top.
- Under "Target" add the command line switch "-dmc" to the end.
- Apply the change.

It should now launch the game as the DM Client.

Tom Ohle, Communications Assistant

The Live Team: Rest assured that the live team is extremely busy We definitely plan on supporting the Neverwinter Nights community in 2004, though we're not quite ready to talk about any details yet. We are planning on holding a chat in the coming week or so, where that may be one of the potential topics of conversation.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Patch 1.60 Delayed
Posted Friday, December 12, 2003 - 2:18 CET by chevalier

Bioware have sent to their community members a message about patch 1.60 being delayed until after December 15th. Until then, players with HotU installed will not be able to play online with those who don't have it.

With the move of the BioWare data center, we will have to delay the release of the Neverwinter Nights 1.60 English Update until the week of Monday, December 15th. If the move goes well, the English Update could be released as early as Monday.

Due to the publisher's choice of release dates for the non-English version of Hordes of the Underdark, we will not have a final version of the 1.60 Update for non-English versions at this time. We will, however, create 1.60 Beta updates in the coming week for these people that don't mind seeing some English in their non-English game version. This 1.60 Beta update will allow the non-English versions of the game to play together with the 1.60 English versions, as always.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 23:23 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Tips on shifters:

A few tips.

1) Get items that have magical improvements to AC, will be adsded with your shifted form: If you wear a +5 armor, your shifted form will get a +5 to AC - Same with bracers of Armor, etc

2) Learn which form to use against which enemy. Some forms have resistances and immunities against certain types of attacks that will make fighting a certain enemy easier - other forms will have certain damage types that can hurt enemies that are immune to mundane attacks.

3) Use special abilities. Especially the petrification ability of some forms is very helpful as there is no immunity to petrification in the game. Mindblast is also very helpful as it does additional damage to creatures that have been stunned by previous mindblasts. Some forms have debuff elements in their special attacks (i.e. green dragon shape, rakshasha staff), that really can help to soften up enemies.

4) Try to pile up elemental damage on your attacks. I found myself using a dagger with additional elemental damage all the time, because the elemental damage will transfer to any form that is using a melee weapon - Example: If you are shifting into a whipmaster, you get a whip with lousy base damage (1d2), but you also get electricity damage and the ability to stun enemies for a short duration. If you carry a weapon with additional fire and acid damage, your whip will have 3 types of elemental damage, making it very hard for monsters to resist your attacks.

Further:
I think Dodge bonus stacks, while for other bonus types the highest of those is taken into account (but that's nothing shifter specific). AFAIK this is "by the book". While testing through the campaign, only Dwarven Defenders in defensive stance had significantly better AC than my shifter in certain forms. One more tip: The mindflayer's psionic armor ability is pretty powerful for a short duration.

David Gaider, Designer

HotU storyline: The HotU story doesn't continue the story of the original campaign any more than SoU did. If the first expansion didn't continue the original campaign, why would anyone just assume the second would? Mind you, that didn't stop a few people from taking their 18th level character from the original campaign into SoU (even though it clearly stated that it started a new character at 1st level), finding it incredibly easy and then coming here to complain.

When HotU's story was first written out, it was a completely new story just as SoU was. We decided a bit later to tie it into SoU and include some old and familiar faces as heroes who had been drawn to Waterdeep by the Council's call. We figured that a few people would probably try dragging their original campaign character all the way to HotU, as well, and there's nothing to stop you from doing that... but we certainly didn't have time to write the all-new dialogues for Deekin, the four original henchmen and especially Aribeth that that would have required, not for the few who would have tried that.

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 20:36 CET by Sorcerer

Another week's around and here are the latest NWN Wednesday goodies:

Prismatic Dragon
These magnificent magical creatures are fun, festive, and prone to unexpected mood swings. Prismatic Dragons keep a very neat lair with tasteful, yet bold use of space and color. They're also 40th level, and have over 1000 hit points! Discuss.

Deekin's Big Adventure Part 5
Hordes of the Underdark takes adventurers to a vile, lightless world of festering evil and corpulent nightmares fashioned from horrors undreamt. Who better to brave this dark world of creeping malice and lurking doom? Deekin of course! Check out the last installment of Deekin's Big Adventure, featuring the new Drow Interior tileset! Discuss.

Deep Rothe and New Spell
Similar to the very unterrifying cockatrice for sheer undiluted lack of horror, the Deep Rothe is a big cow. The only way that a party of adventurers might give these creatures a second thought would be if the Deep Rothe fell asleep on the road! There is also a new Paladin spell released to fan sites this week, Deafening Clang (see below). Discuss.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at FiringSquad
Posted Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 20:20 CET by chevalier

FiringSquad have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, giving it a final score of 84% following a long list of pros and cons.

Every single aspect of Hordes of the Underdark is better than the original campaign. The story is tighter, more gripping with more believable twists (not to mention dialogue.) In many ways, Hordes of the Underdark reflects Knights of the Old Republic. Veterans of BioWare games will be able to pick up a familiar vibe that goes deep beneath the obvious stylistic similarities. The NWN team’s writing and design have clearly matured and taken a page from the crew behind KotOR.

Even though NPCs are not nearly as important in NWN as they are in KotOR, they are fleshed out in a similar manner, always revealing a little bit of themselves at a time. They go through their own struggles and always resolve them (based on the player’s input) just in time to get through the toughest parts of the quest. The NWN team has grown skilled at masking the “fetch this” aspect of quests, so skilled, in fact, that even though you still are constantly the FedEx boy, you rarely feel like it.

Read the rest at FiringSquad.

Post Comments (0)

Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 15:06 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which new Hordes of the Underdark tileset are you most looking forward to seeing?
(196 votes total)

Drow Interior (103) 53%
Exterior Underdark (53) 27%
Mind Flayer Tunnels (23) 12%
Beholder Tunnels (17) 9%

Apparently, the most popular new tileset introduced with Hordes of the Underdark is going to be the Drow Interior tileset with 53% of votes.

With quite a few votes less (27%), Exterior Underdark is the second tileset people are looking forward to seeing the most.

The Mind Flayer Tunnels tileset is third in order of people's interest (12% of votes), and the Beholder Tunnels tileset is last with only 9% of votes.

Post Comments (0)

Bioware Scheduled Internet Downtime
Posted Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 0:22 CET by chevalier

BioWare has sent word of upcoming downtime via their PM service:

Please be advised that all BioWare online services will be unavailable for a 24-hour period starting 6am Friday, December 12th 2003 (MT) and ending 6am Saturday, December 13th 2003 (MT).

What Does This Mean?

During this time period there will be no access to any of BioWare's web sites and forums including:

Star Wars: KotOR
Neverwinter Nights
Jade Empire
BioWare web site

The BioWare Neverwinter Nights Master Server will also be unavailable during that time. This should not interrupt your play experience. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Why Is This Happening?

Friday, December 12th BioWare is moving its datacenter and must relocate all our servers. This process will begin early Friday morning and continue all day until each of our many systems have been packed up, moved, unpacked, reconfigured, and checked for pesky Gnomes and dire squirrels.

Thank you for your understanding.
BioWare Live Team

Post Comments (0)

Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 18:23 CET by chevalier

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Timestop: Timestop was exempt from being used on scrolls for balancing purposes. It is too easy to bring down an entire multiplayer game with this spell if you want to grief. Module builders can edit a certain 2da to remove that limitation or to add an existing material component to the spell.

Further:
You can create scrolls of timestop (and the other two restricted spells) in HotU, but you need the appropriate material component - a vial of Dragon Blood. The three spells that require a material component by default are:
Harm
Timestop
True Seeing

The material component for all these spells is NW_IT_MSMLMISC17 (Dragon Blood) which is usually dropped by dragons. You can spawn in the material component from the console if you don't like this restriction. Technical Stuff:

There is a 2da file called des_matcomp.2da

It only needs to exist on the serve side, so you can put it into the server version of your hakpak or even your override directory (which would also affect singleplayer). Inside that file there is a comp_tag column. In this column you can put the tag of an item that must be present in the player's inventory when he wants to cast the spell. If you make the column empty (****), the spell does not need a material component. We restricted a couple of spells to make them unavailable for scrolls for balancing reasons (and that's not only true for multiplayer, chaincasting timestop will wreck balance in any campaign).

Summoning Circle: Yepp, that placeable is special, you need to activate it via scripting to show the pentacle. (It was created for those nice cutscenes you see it in).

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review and Screens at ActionTrip
Posted Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 18:16 CET by chevalier

ActionTrip have posted a review of the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, giving it a score of 88 out of 100. It also includes twenty screenshots from the game. Here's a clip:

This expansion pack allows gamers get to try out six new prestige classes: Pale Master, Champion of Torm, Weapon Master, Shifter, Dwarven Defender, and Red Dragon Disciple. Since you start your adventure at level 15, all characters are skilled and trained in accordance with the prestige class you've chosen. This aspect sets off an excellent pace, which is more or less perpetuated throughout the entire game. The important thing you must realize, is that Hordes of the Underdark adjusts any character profile to level 15 automatically, so you won't have to worry about insufficient experience points or low-level characters (we've already mentioned this in our previous coverage, but just to be on the safe side). Regrettably, there's wasn't enough time to see each new prestige class in action, but we did manage to put two of them to the test - a skillful and sly Barbarian/Weapon Master and a cunning Wizard/Pale Master. Starting the game with high-level character classes allows for some serious action right from the beginning, relying, of course, on new skills and feats. We were impressed to see some of these in action. For instance, the Weapon Master, apart from being able to use an amazing variety of ranged and hand-to-hand weaponry, can use a significantly Improved Whirlwind Attack, which effectively deals out damage points to multiple enemies. The Pale Master counts on the powers of the Underworld, resurrecting the dead and summoning deadly creatures into the fray. The coolest innovation is being able to beef up your characters all way to level 21, after which they unlock epic level spells and skills. That's when the good stuff begins. With such powerful prestige classes, you'll be able to tackle with some of the deadliest foes around the block. Raising the level cap to 40 was a no doubt a welcomed move by Bioware. In practice though, your characters are likely to achieve the level of 30 by the end of the last chapter.

Read the whole thing at ActionTrip.

Post Comments (0)

Hordes of the Underdark Review at GameSpy
Posted Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 18:10 CET by chevalier

GameSpy have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion and given it 4 stars out of five. Here's a tidbit:

Hordes of the Underdark is geared towards high-level characters (at least level 15), which is most definitely reflected in the story. The odds you're up against and the monsters you fight give the game a more fantastic feel than the previous single-player adventures (the official ones anyway). I was impressed with the story as a whole; it didn't have the drop offs and dead spots found in its predecessors. The writing and acting really bring it to life in a way that reminded me of playing the Baldur's Gate games.

From a gameplay standpoint, Hordes is also well balanced. In addition to the monster killing and treasure hording that's synonymous with RPGs, there's a fair amount of puzzle solving and exploration to be done. The three chapters have very distinct feels, partially from their locale but also partially from the gameplay focus. My favorite was chapter 2 since I'm a Drizz't fanboy that's fascinated with the Underdark; it was cool seeing Drow political games, creepy Beholders, and those funky Illithid. My least favorite was the third chapter, but it's mostly a personal thing. There's something about otherworldly settings that just doesn't jive with me (as great as Planescape: Torment was, I never got into the setting). That said, it was still easy to see that Hordes is the most polished and balanced single-player Neverwinter offering out there.

Read the rest at GameSpy.

Post Comments (0)

New HotU Spell Revealed
Posted Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 23:57 CET by Sorcerer

Here is the latest (last?) Hordes of the Underdark spell revealed by BioWare:

Deafening Clang

Caster Level(s): Paladin 1
Innate Level: 1
School: Transmutation
Descriptor(s): Weapon Enchantment
Component(s): Verbal, Somatic
Range: Touch
Area of Effect / Target: Creature's main or off-hand weapon
Duration: 1 Round / Level
Additional Counter Spells:
Save: None
Spell Resistance: No

You empower the touched weapon with a +1 attack bonus and a +3 sonic damage bonus. Also, the weapon gains the ability to deafen the creature that is struck with it. If you or your target dual-wield and your main weapon either is magical or has some spell cast on it, this spell will target the off-hand weapon.

Post Comments (0)

More on BIS closure at RPGDot
Posted Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 22:05 CET by chevalier

Also RPGDot have posted an article on the dissolution of BIS by Interplay today, laying off BIS people and suspending the works on BIS titles. Here's a snip:

Sources close to Black Isle Studios let us know today that Interplay has effectively closed BIS and laid off around 14 staff. Here's a quote from our source:

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but the "good" folks at Interplay have laid off everyone at BIS. Van Buren has been "shelved," as tha geniuses at IPLY have put it. Console only is the word of the day now. Even though Van Buren was half-way finished, the 'tards in charge have decided they want to do Exalted console and FOBOS 2. The simple fact they are making FOBOS2 even when FOBOS hasn't shipped and is hated by the Fallout community says a lot about their intelligence. Not to mention Van Buren would be the only game they could possibly ship by X-mas next year.

So, BIS is no longer. Anytime you see the BIS logo on a future product, know that no one who was associated w/ BIS actually worked on it. BIS is nothing more than a sticker that IPLY slaps on their future product.

Read more at RPGDot.

Post Comments (0)

More on Black Isle Studios dissolution at GameSpot
Posted Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 21:56 CET by chevalier