March 2002

Neverwinter Nights Chat Event
Posted Friday, March 29, 2002 - 21:24 CET by Mollusken

Next Thursday (April 4th) RPG Vault will be hosting a chat with composer Jeremy Soule and the BioWare audio team.

BioWare, Infogrames, and IGN Vault Network are pleased to announce a chat event Thursday evening (April 4th). The chat will feature Neverwinter Nights’ award-winning composer, Jeremy Soule, and the BioWare audio development team. So save up your questions, and bring them to the Chat!
Here are the details:

WHERE:
IGN RPG Vault Chat

and for those using regular IRC clients
IRC Server: chat1.ign.com
Channel: #ignvault

WHEN:
Thursday, April 4, 2002
6:00 pm Pacific Time
7:00 pm Mountain Time
9:00 pm Eastern Time

An Encounter With BioWare
Posted Friday, March 29, 2002 - 21:18 CET by Mollusken

Jonric, editor in chief of the Vault networks, was at the GDC conference this week and was lucky enough to spend a few mintues together with BioWare's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. This is what he wrote about the event.

Again this year, Joint CEOs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were visible participants in the Conference, with three and two sessions on their respective presentation schedules. A few other team members were also in attendance, but seemingly fewer than in past years, probably because many people are busy working on Neverwinter Nights. With respect to that title, I was fortunate enough to sit in on an impromptu demo of the editor that Ray and Greg gave to Rob Fermier (Thief, System Shock 2, now with Ensemble) during a lunch break - the kind of thing that sometimes happens at GDC if you're in the right place at the right time. Since they had it on a laptop, the screen was a bit small, but it was certainly large enough to see that the game has acquired a great deal of polish since I last saw it 10 months ago at E3, at which time it was already very well received. A couple of days earlier, they both mentioned that they had been testing the DM client, and their enthusiasm for it was readily apparent, so it would appear that the entire project is coming together. While the official target for release is still summer, Ray mentioned June as a possibility. As for Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Greg reported that it's moving forward pretty well, but my guess is that we won't see much more information until E3.

All Systems Operational...
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 20:33 CET by Sorcerer

Well, this is the proverbial it. Sorcerers's Place is back in all its glory. A lot has happened in the last few days so an explanation is in order.

Before we moved to this new server, while SP was being hosted on the PCGC server, that server went down for a whole week and all I could do was stand and watch hopelessly. I already had everything set up to move to a new server, but couldn't do it because until that old server got back online, I was unable to transfer the message boards to this server. Anyway, this has now been completed and everyone should be accessing this new server by now.

However, Sorcerer's Place is now completely on its own. I bought hosting on this server out of my own pocket, and it's currently costing me $140 a month. Since I have no real advertising on any pages yet (except this experimental pop-up on the front page, and the Amazon ads which don't pay anything for just loading them), I can't rely even on the small income ads would bring in. Currently everything short of placing pop-ups on all pages will not cover my expenses.

No, I will not put them on all pages, calm down. At best I'll set up a system that will open one for you every so many hours while you surf on SP. No pop-ups will appear on any pages of our message boards. Since all advertising you see on SP from now on will be mine, I implore you to let the pop-ups load fully (and then close them, you don't have to click on anything), because otherwise they don't pay anything. Same thing goes for imminent banner advertising - please click on the banners once I get them up!

Though even with all this, regular advertising these days pays way too little for me to be able to get just the server costs covered, let alone anything else. Some people to whom I'm eternally grateful have already donated via PayPal, but I hope that more of you will show your appreciation by donating a couple of bucks to help keep SP stay alive. Because, as I said, the advertising alone will not cover it, so I'm now primarily relying on donations.

The PayPal buttons are on the left side of all pages of SP, by the way. More info is available here.

I'll provide more options for people to help SP and more information here in the upcoming days. And again, thanks to all who have helped SP already.

Jason Manley Interview at DB-Forge
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 20:00 CET by Sorcerer

Dragon's Breath Forge posted an interview with Jason Manley, Project Art Lead at Troika (makers of Arcanum). Jason also made all the portraits, and also some other art, for Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster, as well as Icewind Dale 2.
One of the questions was:

What are you up to right now? Are you drawing portraits, or do you draw all kinds of art for the game you're working on?

I am now working in the greener pastures of Troika Games. :) Im doing a lot of interesting and different things for a very very nice title. My work ranges from character portraits and creature development to level/architecture concepting, as well as some basic art lead stuff. I'm doing my best to flush out what the world looks like and feels like. Yesterday I painted a moody character image and today is level mood art day. The variety of stuff I'm working on is nice. The feel of the game world and images needed for the title is also definitely to my liking. Honestly, I can't wait for the game to be announced. It is the highest quality project that I have contributed to. The team is excellent as well. Troika is moving up the ladder of game quality in terms of art, tech, and design. Im very excited. We all know what makes a great RPG and so do all of you gamers. For the first time in my career I really feel like I am really making that kind of a game. Watch for us. :)

Read the rest here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 18:19 CET by Arwen

Trent Oster, Producer:

Template/class: The monster type doesn't have to count as a class. You can make a 20/20/20 Fighter/Sorcerer/Cleric Dragon if you so desire. The monster classes are more for customization than anything else.

NWN - game for kids or grown ups?: Don't worry about us going kiddie. The plots in NWN are much like the mix in Baldur's Gate, a few funny side plots, a little off beat humor and some more dark adult plots as well. We are aiming for the same teen rating we had with BG and we will orient the content accordingly.

Converting 3D formats: A smoothing group really means all the faces have roughly the same normals at the shared verticies. When you construct a smoothed series of polygons you average the normals at a shared vertex and assign the new normal values back to the polys. You get a smmothing effect as a result as the hardware shades between the verticies as if it were a rounded surface.

Hide skill: Hide balances out. Once your fighter spots the slittle sucker. Splatto. Halfling guck all over the place. Our "stealth" ability depends on the hide and move silently skills. You also have to take local lighting into account. It is harder to hide in bright light. As well, You only get one sneak attack from stealth. To get more sneak attacks you have to flank. So one on one a fighter will take a fair shot of damage up front, but then it gets ugly for the rogue.

User created content and naming convention: There are a few issues with what you propose.
The first is we only allow 16 character filenames.
The second issue is the time involved in setting up and maintaining the system you propose.
The Third issue is enforcement. What do you do when someone breaks the convention? We at Bioware don't have the resources to police the community for convention adherence.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

The ability of Clerics to spontaneously cast: This is implemented. I actually got curious the other day and loaded up a cleric. From the cast spell radial, you have your "metamagic" and "spontaneous casting" and your normal "cleric spells" choices. Nice and easy (but not like the hair dye).

Subdual Damage: Let me play the Devil's Advocate for a moment and ask, "how often do you intend to make use of subdual damage?" For those who play D&D, how often have you made use of subdual damage?

Personally, the answer for me is: once or twice... maybe?

So... why not create simple work-arounds for those rare situations? Or more preferably, why bother creating a simple work-around, when we've already done it?

Just exactly what did we do? We created a surrender script which does just that - when the combat participant reaches a certain level of hit points that starts to make him feel squeamish about his future, he shouts out that he's done with fighting. At that point, combat ends. You can re-initiate combat and finish him, if you don't care about his surrender and want to show off how ruthless you are, or you can talk to him and see what you can work out.

"Yes, I'll accept your surrender - but I want some treasure/protection/information/guarantee that your other goons won't bother me anymore/etc." Heck, even throw in a persuade option to make it more dynamic. Through in some threats if he refuses your persuades - to let him know just how close to death he was, and still is.

Since you don't need to create the script, all you have to do is tell the creatures that you've made to utilize it. Now, suddenly, you don't have to worry about forcing your players to kill everything, if you don't want them to have to. Total power for the DM. And that's fine, right? And since we already put it into our campaign, you don't have to worry about it there, either. Load the game up and run. No need to edit a thing.

This game is very powerful, and there's a lot you can do with it. My suggestion here would take the community all of 5 seconds to come up with, if we hadn't beaten you all to the punch. Makes you wonder how amazing stuff can get when people put their thinking caps on...

Medieval/renaissance feminine attire: We've, obviously, spent much more time working on armor combinations which have much more function in the game, though there is a supply of simple clothing, as well as some slightly more elaborate clothing for the community that prefers non-violent roleplay. Of this clothing, there are some variations that are more suited for the female form, but there isn't anything like the elaborate dresses that you might see in a movie such as Shakespeare in Love or Dangerous Liaisons.

Dual Wield/Weapon Size: In Neverwinter, you can only dual wield weaponry that is the same size category as you, or smaller. A dwarf (med) can dual wield long swords, while a halfling would have to dual wield shortswords.

As far as I understand the rules (I couldn't find the guy who implemented them), and so far as what I know from playing the game, it appears that a rogue properly gets a sneak attack bonus on all attacks in situations where the defender is valid for a sneak attack. In other words, two rogues working in tandem will be quite the force!

Item icons: Every 3D item has a 2D counterpart. I think every variation on a 3D item also has a unique 2D variation as well - even boots (which I just played around with in the NW Toolset - though, as you guessed, do not have a 3D counterpart, just a 2D)!

When you're creating an item, you can see how the item will look in 2D and/or - if it has a 3D model - see it in the 3D viewer.

As for the second poster's question, the equipment that is visually represented is the helmet, any items wielded in the main or off-hand, and any clothing/suit of armor equipped in the chest slot of the inventory GUI.

30 Point Buy System: I guess the idea that 30 points is pushing you toward an uber character comes from the point of view of how easy it is to not only clear all the negatives, but make it so that every stat is giving you a positive. In other words, it's easy to make a character who is good at everything.

I personally prefer the lower point buys (and lower starting stats) because I like to see the negatives and positives balance out more. But I won't take that crusade up again. You've all probably gotten sick of hearing me whine about it by now.

I think it has less to do with realism in a fantasy game than creating an interesting character who overcomes flaws to work through a story.

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager:

Violent content: Valid points. I get a little miffed when I go to see a 'horror' film and there is too many comedy bits which ruin the whole deal for me. I am a rabid horror fan and will be trying to make scary modules with the toolset. Rest assured that I am looking out for the 'serious' factor in the game. I am learning about the toolset by making a basic module about ye olde smokey inn set beside the foggy swamp. Setting the fog and lights really helps with the atmosphere. Having creatures silhouetted against the background is really very cool. I can tell when a group of flesh golem come shambling out of the fog it's a scary thing. The best moment was the lone wolf at the top of a small riser silhouetted. Yeeks.

Dialog tree depending on charisma: You can set dialog trees based on nearly every characteristic in the game if you want. The common example is nobility being terse with a PC because they lack a certain level of Char. With the toolset you can use things like class, alignment, items, race and so on to decide reactions or dialog paths. How about a huge barbarian half-orc that makes fun of a PC based on a weak Str score?

David Gaider, Designer:

Light Spell: Light is absolutely in. So is Darkness... and the Darkness spell works wonderfully. It creates this black fog-like area. If you're outside, those who are within that area can't be seen. If you're inside, everything on-screen suddenly goes pitch black.

Clarification on colours: The player chooses the color of their hair and skin on character creation.

After that, the color scheme is based purely on that of the armor/clothing that you wear. No PC has an 'inherent' color scheme. Nor can items have their colors changed on the fly.

Interrupting spells: Concentration as a skill is in, and works very much like it does in the PHB. The exact functionality I'm not sure of, but I know I've had my spells disrupted (and seen the Concentration rolls being made).

Gypsy Wagon/Gypsy Camp tileset: There's a tent interior (though I don't remember which tileset the tent exterior is in), and there's wagons... but nothing really gypsy-like.

Expansion packs and addons: While I have no knowledge (and I repeat I have no knowledge) of what might be slated for a possible expansion, I do have my own thoughts on what might be reasonable for such a project.

Keep in mind that an expansion, as opposed to a sequel, is going to have a smaller crew. It's also a smaller project... so the features you put into it are going to have to be weighed against both the time & effort it takes to implement it vs. the 'bang' you get for that.

By 'bang' I mean the worthiness of such a feature being a bullet point to get someone interested in the expansion. Just as an example (I have no way of knowing if this is true), let's say swimming would be a major endeavour requiring a huge chunk of the expansion team's time. Such a huge chunk would require that it be a major bullet point... would topping our feature list with "We've included SWIMMING!" be all that exciting? Maybe for some...

An expansion would also have to provide something for all types of NWN players. We've got to think not only about the mod-makers, but also those who are going to want to see more core rules implemented as well as casual players who are going to want more content. And all this is going to be aside from smaller changes that are likely to be requested to such things as the DM Client and scripting language that will be important but have no 'bang' at all.

Not knowing what features that currently exist are going to need changes or additions after release, I can only speculate, then, on some stuff that might be reasonable. Here's what I personally would like to see:

- a spell-making Wizard
- the incorporation of custom Feats & Skills (allowing the mod-maker to add them into the character creation & leveling process)
- a limited system for Prestige Classes (there is still the problem that no set system exists in D&D for how these classes are made and balanced... translating to a possible problem on how to give NWN DM's the power to allow & disallow them. Maybe they would have to be module-specific, but transferrable to other modules that specifically supported them?)
- cloaks, robes & dresses
- a new tileset or two
- a small selection of new monsters
- a module

Maybe this is too much already, maybe too little... I don't know. I could think of a lot more graphical enhancements, except that there's no way the majority of the expansion could be graphical in nature (gotta split it up between the departments, after all).
I know a big request is riding... I'm not so sure how do-able that is in an expansion. Not without cutting out a bunch of other art stuff, I'd imagine, but I've no way to know how difficult that is. Perhaps I'm way off base on that one (it would certainly be cool, if possible).

Once again, this is by no means an official list. Nor am I the one who decides these things. I'm just throwing out my thoughts on the subject. My thoughts on what could be done in a sequel are, of course, an entirely different matter.

Scythes: Yes, scythes are in.

Monster spawning: Actually, scripting isn't required for this. There is an 'Encounter' feature... which is exactly what you've heard about.

Basically you lay down a polygon on the map. Once any PC gets within a certain distance from that polygon, it becomes 'active' and spawns in a number of creatures equal to the challenge it's set at. The spawn takes place somewhere within the polygon nearest to where the PC is (so a large polygon means that encounter could be anywhere, and not 'just around the corner').

Encounters have the following options (via a wizard) when being made:

1) set the difficulty (this generates the total CR of creatures spawned compared to the levels of PC's approaching)

2) give the encounter a name and tag (it can be referenced with scripting, to make it activateable and deactivateable if you wish)

3) assign the min and max # of creatures it creates (min at least 1, max of 8 for a single polygon)

4) set spawn option ('single shot' = the encounter is gone once it spawns once, 'continuous' = the encounter will spawn continuously according to your settings)

5) give the encounter a list of creatures, it will select from this list according to CR (you can specify creatures as 'unique' so they will only spawn once, if you wish).

6) if it is marked as continuous, you can set the Reset Time and the max # of respawns.

7) you have the option to mark the encounter as only activated by PC's (otherwise any creature can potentially activate it)

8 ) Scripting Events: OnEnter, OnExhausted, OnExit, OnHeartbeat, OnUserDefined

Naturally, any of these things could change... and I might have gotten a thing or two wrong (if so, please forgive me). Overall, though, this is how it works... and it's quite handy.

Light: That's an interesting possibility. The light works as it would normally, so putting a light source (like a flame) inside a 3D hooded lantern would look exactly as it is supposed to. Huh. I wonder if that can be done?

As for the 'variable lighting' asked about originally... I've never seen anything like that. Light isn't an effect, so it doesn't work the same was the effects do.

Lighted Windows in Buildings: All doors open (or raise, if it's a portcullis). Windows don't open, no, but there are various other animations in the exterior tilesets (including smoke from chimneys).

Tiles can be individually selected and a couple of their properties edited. You can shut off any animations the tile has as well as edit one of two light sources.

I was playing with the tile-based light sources last night. Source 1 seems to come from overhead... Source 2 seems to come from the 'face' of the building, though not from the windows, per se. In an empty tile, giving Source 2 a 'light' colour gives that tile an ambient light with no apparent source. Some comments, then, from my observations:

1) In the night-time, buildings can be given some ambient light through the tile light source adjustments, as I mentioned above. I had one city street where all the buildings were dark except for one, which was faintly lit up (it did not look fake... you just couldn't tell where the light source was, and there were many shadows). I had one shop bathed in a dark purple light, which looked sort of cool.

2) Using the ambient lighting, one could make a placeable object which 'glowed'. It wouldn't have to actually eminate light, though... you could place it in the tile and increase the ambient light in that tile, and the assumption would be that the light was emanating from the glowing object. (No object like that currently in the menu, tho, it's just a thought... the flames and glowing objects produce their own light).

3) As far as windows go, I wasn't able to place an object on them that made it look like the window itself was glowing. Not that it couldn't be done, perhaps, but I didn't see a way. I did notice that some of the buildings have windows that do glow faintly at night, making it look like the lights are 'on' inside.

If the ambient lighting doesn't do it for you and you wanted to play with the windows, I could only suggest a couple of things. One would be to create a flat placeable object that 'fits' over the window, created with a glow... combine that with an increase in ambient light and it may do the trick. The other, of course, is to play with the skin of the tile, itself.
I'm not saying doing that would be easy, but just reporting what I saw from a few minute's play. The individual tile-editing for the light sources is definitely still in, tho... I made one 'ghost town' with some very creepy lighting effects. Moving through it, the colors would change slightly from tile to tile, as well... and this is beyond the fact that you have an equal array of colors to choose from when creating the area (both in terms of moonlight/sunlight color, fog color, ambient color, etc.)

I believe it is correct, however, that like other area properties it cannot be changed while the game is running. Again, these are my observations... some things may yet change, naturally, before release.

Wind: Yes, you can set a wind level when you make an area (right amongst the same selections as weather and ambient colors), so a stormy atmosphere is very possible.

It is a cosmetic effect only... it will cause hair, clothing and grass to ruffle (not sure about flames, personally). It would be cool if we had a long enough mesh to make a cloak that could fly in the wind... but no visible cloaks at this point, sorry.

Flint and tinder: Torches are automatically lit when used.

No flint & tinder. No lanterns (though that would be cool and is do-able... I guess we figured a torch was enough for now, tho.)

Factions: PC's don't belong to factions... the settings are how factions respond to them. NPC's always belong to one faction, but that faction can be changed through scripting (via the commands Golodhil listed).

Calling the PC's party a 'faction' is a bit of a misnomer, as it might make you think it's the same as the factions that the NPC's are part of... when it isn't, really.

"Use magic device" for rogues: Actually, no... Use Magic Device is in as a skill (and may not be used without ranks in it). It works approximately as the feat does, though I don't remember how failures are handled.

And remember: it works only on magical items that are 'activated'... not ones that work all the time, like magical weapons or armor.

Henchmen: Quote: Actually the easiest way would be to just cut and paste the scripts from the henchmen in the official campaign or perhaps the game will ship with a "henchman" script all ready to go which is very likely.

This is correct. The scripts required aren't all that complex... that 'state' of being a henchman is hard-coded and just needs to be activated, and it can be applied to any creature.

If you wanted the Henchman to level up with you, however, you would at least have to make enough versions of its creature file. If not, then literally it could apply to anyone the module designer wished.

Weapon abilities: With many of the item properties, including the 'on hit' function, you have the option of assigning both a percentage chance of the property occuring as well as how often that property may be used.

Murder and witnesses: It depends on how you want to script it. Personally, I would give the guard a shout, too, so there's always a chance of his alarm being heard (as opposed to the act only seen).

Then there's the matter of disposing of his body, too. I'd have the guard drop an indestructable body item (or placeable object... although that would have to be handled a bit differently), and should the body be discovered by someone, it raises a hue and cry. Maybe script an alarmed guard to be on 'suspicious' mode for awhile, challenging anyone he sees... and then requiring a Persuade check (with a DC based on your current Reputation with the guards) to avoid being blamed for said murder?

Naturally it doesn't have to be that complex if you don't want it to, but even I could handle the scripting for the above (and I'm no expert).

Or are you wondering how it works in the official campaign? No set answer for that just yet... we're playing with several variations right now.

1) Factions are PC-specific. So if the thief in your party goes and kills somebody and starts some god-awful chain reaction across the district, the rest of the party is free to look the other way and whistle innocently while he gets drawn and quartered.

2) Killing any NPC will cause a -5 drop in your reputation with that faction, whether it is witnessed or not. How quickly this will lead someone to a hostile faction depends on where the original setting was placed. A friendly, peace-time city might have guards on a high-neutral PC faction setting of 80. A hostile, paranoid city might have guards on a very low-neutral PC faction setting of 15. Once the faction drops to 10, the faction as a whole is hostile.

3) A witness to your attack (it need not be a death... attacking a faction member will draw a reaction after the first hit) will react according to his relationship to that faction. Some factions are neutral to other members of their own faction... if anyone is Friendly to that faction, they will go hostile along with whoever you were targeting. When hostile they will also emit their 'shout'... drawing other friendly NPC's nearer to perhaps witness the attacks and cause a cascade-effect.

So... if you go into a home and kill someone, and there is nobody about to witness the deed or hear the shout, you will garner a small penalty to their faction (yes, from the suspicion and such that will be caused by the murder) but there will be no reaction beyond that.

If you attack someone in the street, you get the penalty to their faction. If there was a peasant and a guard nearby (both being friendly to the faction of the NPC you're attacking) both would go hostile along with whoever you were attacking. The peasant might run away, emitting his shout every heartbeat... anyone friendly to his faction would also go hostile along his route (if he is left alone). The guard (as a defender) would move to protect the person you were attacking... and his shout might draw other guards nearby (who would also go hostile), and so on and so forth.
You could run away, but you would retain the faction penalties.

The default I'm not sure of is how long the NPC's remain hostile... and whether or not they return to neutral once the PC is killed.

Either way, you can easily change how the default system works by adding scripts to the OnDeath() event in the creature, perhaps making faction hits more widespread if a survivor lives to 'tell the tale' or what-not.

Considering that faction relations are out of 100, a -5 deduction is not that much... and, as a default, relates to what people were saying about suspicion and so forth.

If you kill someone without a witness, there's bound to be some reaction and some suspicion that falls your way. With no witness, no, there's no hostile reaction to the character personally.

Without having a more complex system in like I mentioned in my first post, this is the default method of dealing with there being some kind of 'investigation'.

It would be very simple, as well, if you wanted to include specific places in the city (or wherever) where someone could be killed safely without any repercussion at all, if you wished. Simply add a +5 reaction to the faction on their OnDeath() event, and this cancels out the reduction.

Emotes: Emotes can be recognized and responded to, yes. So if the PC waves to someone, you could script them to wave back and initiate a dialogue... or tell the player off and use the aggressive animation if his rep was very low, or whatever.

Color of liquid: There is a Stream tile that you lay down which may be waded through (yes, it's about knee-deep). The regular Water tile is much deeper and may not be entered.

The color and transparency of the water is part of the tile's model and may not be changed without going into the model itself and changing it. You can go in and change the water to green or muddy if you wish (no idea on the complexity of that, personally), but it would require a hack-pak.

Black fog to make it pitch dark: Correct. Turn the fog up to maximum, set fog color to black and set both ambient light sources to color black and you've got a DARK environment. Believe me... they won't be seeing anything without some kind of light source. I've been in NWN enviroments that haven't gone to that extreme and I find them quite dark enough, thank you.

The reason the screenshots look relatively well-lit is that dark screenshots look pretty crappy.

PC interaction: Everybody sounds about right here. Nothing complex about it. Every PC can engage in a dialogue with an NPC, everybody can only engage in one dialogue at a time. You see dialogues that are occurring if you're in a position to overhear them.

So yes... if 64 players were online, they could have 64 different conversations at the same-time... so long as they were all with different NPC's.

(Personally, the ability of a party to split up and go their own way however they wish is what's most cool about the MP. When I'm in a party, someone will run off to buy equipment, another will go off to explore a sub-plot, a couple of us will stand about chatting with an NPC - the DM - or what have you. It's a lot of fun.)

Pits and Deadfalls: Pits are out in general. Nor did we script any in the official campaign.

Out of character chat controlled by the DM: While I'm not 100% certain, I haven't seen any evidence of this. I don't believe there's any way of preventing the players from speaking.

There is no 'chat' in terms of IRC-type chat, however, if that's what you mean (like in Dark Age of Camelot, where groups chat out-of-game amongst themselves). Players can speak, whisper and yell... and this is displayed on screen just as everyone else talks. If a character is talking OOC, then you'd have to treat him the same way you would someone speaking OOC in your PnP game.

It could be that not all the chat-type functions are implemented at this point, and keep in mind that some of the stuff I've mentioned may also change.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Tilesets: Here is the current list.

Castle Interior
City Exterior
City Interior
Crypt
Dungeon
Forest
Microset (basically a test tileset)
Mines and Caverns
Rural
Sewers

STANDARD WARNING: This could change, a tileset could be dropped, merged, mangled, etc, etc, so these are the tilesets at March 26th, 1:03 PM.

For tiles that are appropriate, there are both Good and Evil parts inside (Good castle, Evil castle).

In one area, you can only use one tileset.

Linux version NWN is programmed for: Currently we are developing and testing under Red Hat. We will expand testing out to other distros closer to release.

Items: All items in a module are considered "templates"

You can create "instances" of these items in your game on the fly, but you cannot create a brand new item from scratch.

Within the game, items are called by some kind of "ID" number indicating which item in the item list for the module they are (thus allowing you to create copies etc)

Not quite true. All items may be a template, but they are made of a number of base parts and properties. These are universal. You can paint down that template into your module, you can modify the template and add it to your palette as a new template and paint those down, or you can go and edit each painted item as it is separate. I know that is hard to picture/imagine/understand right now without seeing the Toolset, but trust me on it. Even that "ID" just references a set of base parts and properties.

Quote: With all of this being true... what on earth happens when a PC joins your server with an item that you DO NOT have in your item list!?!?!

The PC has the item. *goink* This is because the item is made of base parts and properties that is universal to every install of the game.

Quote: Obviously the item doesn't just disappear, and obviously it doesn't exist in your list of created items because you never created it.

See above. Nothing bad happens.

Quote: So that leaves me with lots of questions :
-When a player joins a server, are all their items checked and any item not belonging on the item list "added" a new templates?

Without going hardcore into the internal data handling of this situation, let's just say that nothing bad happens and everything works.

Quote: -If I can actually add to the item list on the fly when running a module (ie via a player joining with a new item) then why can't I script the creation of a brand new item to be added to the list in EXACTLY the same way?(/list-incomplete)

I understand that you are looking for a technical reason as to why there aren't item creation feats. There is a reason for it, but I don't know it. You cannot create on the fly because the internal operations of this are not as simple as you describe.

Character storage options: You can only select one storage option, not multiples or combinations.

Scripting languages: a). Can player typed text be captured for input by a script?

b). Can the script prevent the afformentioned text from being displayed normaly?
The reasoning for this is the possibiliity of scripting PC racial languages.
ie.
-capture a PC's text
-mute/hide/block/whatever the original text
-process it into reletive gibberish
-redisplay it as gibberish for the linguisticaly challanged

Short answer... no.
And to follow up, this kind of thing would be something that we would have to have in place in the game engine as opposed to scripting. It touches on too many different parts of the game for plain conversation.

There is no way through scripting to alter the text that someone types in the chat window. If you were looking for racial language scrambling (a la EQ) it would be something that WE would have to do in the game engine because it impacts so many different parts of the game's internals.

Can we script a text box to appear when talking to an NPC or something and capture text input from there?
No. There is no displayable text input box for conversation trees.

Carrying gold and items when switching servers: Yes, those items are stored on your character and will come across.

Jonathan Epp, Quality Assurance:

Lights to catch thieves: Yup, totally possible. Could be as simple as painting down a trigger, and when someone enters the trigger the light turns on. And there are other ways that you could do it too, depending on how exactly you wanted it to work.

Games in NWN: Yeah, in-game games can totally be done. I've done checkers, chess, othello, and Derrick's done chicken-pong and something he calls "Chickguins".

The scripting language is really powerful, and it allows you to do much, much more than your standard D&D stuff.

At this time they're two-person. AI is obviously a little bit tricky, especially for something like chess. At looked at it for a while, but I decided that it was too much work for me at the moment, as I'm spending all my time testing the 'real' game.

Also, while they technically work, I wouldn't want them on the cd unless they were polished (and that's assuming they'd put them on the cd anyway ). I will make some of these things available at some point though, one way or another.

Preston Watamaniuk, Designer:

Item Properties: Light: Does in fact refer to an item with a light source.
Bonus Feat: Grants a single chosen feat at the time of item creation within the toolset. The feat - as is the case with most item properties - comes into effect when the item is equipped.
Cast Spell: Allows you to build an item that can cast the chosen spell at a specific caster level. Spells can be applied to items and use charges or a specified number of times per day for activation.
Instead of Larloch's Drain we have something called Vampiric Regeneration which acts in much the same way.

A couple of things:
1. We have a list of On Hit properties that can be applied to weapons. For example On Hit: Sleep. The Cast Spell property on the other hand is actually casting the spell. You must stop attacking and activate the items ability to cast the spell.
2. There are many different types of items in the game, all of which have their own list of item properties that can be applied. For instance you cannot give Amulets an On Hit property.

Icewind Dale II Preview at ActionTrip
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 16:21 CET by Mollusken

Still, even with all these novelties, all new levels, races and rules, Icewind Dale 2 wouldn't be what we want it to be without a thrilling and involving story. Some thirty years after the events depicted in the Heart of Winter, Ten-Towns gather mercenaries and adventurers, because of the increasing frequency of Goblin attacks on civilized territories and especially Targos. Some unknown force wants to destroy all good races in Icewind Dale, and it is up to you to get into the entire mess and find out who is responsible for it. Once you finish this part of the story, the game will unlock several new locations where you can look for the great finale (like in Baldur's Gate 2). Icewind Dale 2 will, unfortunately, be just as linear as its predecessor, but it will give you an insight into many new locations in Faerun. You will get a chance to wander around Underdark and meet all of its typical inhabitants like the Hook Horror (indestructible worm-like things) or Duergar and Drider (half-drow half-spider). You will get a chance to cut through the dense forests of Chulta, and run through Cold Marches and Fields of Slaughter. The very thought of all the locations covered in this game sends shivers down my spine.

The game should take about forty hours of quality gameplay, in case you decide to go straight through the main campaign. And if you decide to complete every single quest in the game, or turn the Heart of Fury mode on and go through the game again, you are looking at eighty hours of pure fun, provided by the guys who made Fallout with some fresh reinforcements.

All in all, Interplay never had to be ashamed of any of its AD&D RPGs, and being a game-master myself, I have to say that the quality of the descriptions and dialogues made Black Isle RPGs dangerously similar to the real thing. Icewind Dale 2 is scheduled for release in May 2002. I can hardly wait!

There's more to read and a few screenshots to see here.

New Neverwinter Nights Wallpaper
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 16:14 CET by Mollusken

A new desktop wallpaper featuring a badger, a couple of wild boars and a few fairies has been released by BioWare. It's available for download in three different resolutions here.

BioWare's Road to E3 Part 1
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 16:07 CET by Mollusken

Tom Ohle from BioWare has written part one of an update on how BioWare are preparing themselves for the Electronic Arts Expo (E3). There's not much text in this first update, but there's a few pictures of several BioWare guys assembling computers. See it for yourself here.

Neverwinter Nights Preview at Games Domain
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 16:01 CET by Mollusken

Another preview of Neverwinter Nights has been posted at Games Domain.

BioWare's been around for a while. While best known for Baldur's Gate and its sequel, the team also created the underrated Shattered Steel and equally under-appreciated MDK2. It's hard to believe that they first announced Neverwinter Nights at the Gen Con game faire back in 1999. They chose an auspicious time to do so, cleverly making the announcement and showing the first game footage at the tail end of a presentation announcing the Dungeons & Dragons movie (which looked exciting at the time - how naive we were then) and the D&D 3rd Edition rule set.

"From the perspective of the player, the single-player story is as compelling as anything we've ever done in the past in the Baldur's Gate series," said Zeschuk. "We always worry that people overlook the solid single-player experience in Neverwinter Nights - it is a major focus of our development efforts and it is something we think people will really enjoy. We're shooting for 60 hours for the Neverwinter Nights campaign. One point to note - this can be played either single or multiplayer."

Presumably, this is much in the same way that the BG titles were playable in both single and multiplayer modes, guaranteeing a solid multiplayer game from the day you crack the shrink-wrap. "The single player experience is really solid thanks to the henchmen (NPCs) in the game," he noted, "as well as the ability of the game to scale most encounters to balance with the strength of the player."

Read the whole preview here.

Interplay and Brian Fargo Have Reached a Settlement
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 15:56 CET by Mollusken

Interplay and their former chairman and chief executive officer Brian Fargo has reached a settlement, which we can read in this press release from Interplay.

Interplay Entertainment and Former Chairman/CEO Brian Fargo Resolve Issues

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2002--Interplay Entertainment Corp. (Nasdaq:IPLY - news) today announced that a settlement has been reached with Brian Fargo concerning matters related to Fargo's tenure as chairman and CEO of Interplay and his resignation from such positions in January 2002.

The agreement effectively settles all disputes concerning Fargo's services to and resignation from the company, some of which were disclosed in the company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 28, 2002.

``We are extremely pleased that we have been able to resolve the differences that arose in the past few months,'' said Herve Caen, Interplay's chairman and chief executive officer. ``Brian Fargo is one of a handful of industry pioneers that were able to push the industry to its current status as a true entertainment art form and a significant industry worldwide.''

Fargo noted: ``I feel a true sense of accomplishment that we have been able to settle these issues and I am able to move on with my life and my work. Interplay will continue to have success in the future and I wish Herve and his team all the best.''

BioWare Interview at Neverwinter Nexus
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 15:51 CET by Mollusken

This time it is a female programmer from BioWare named Sophia Smith who answers a few questions about herself and the BioWare games.

How'd you get started with BioWare and what has your role been with the company?

I’d always wanted to see what it was like to live in Canada (though I can’t say I ever truly understood how cold it can get here before I experienced it first-hand!) and though I like many types of computer games, I’d really enjoyed Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment. As it happened, I was able to attend ECTS a couple of years ago and actually met some of the guys from BioWare; they seemed the sort of people that I could work with so when I had decided that I wanted a games programming job, I emailed my resume straight to BioWare. After I survived BioWare’s rather unique interviewing/testing process, it was just a question of getting my visa sorted out and then figuring out how to move my worldly belongings across the Atlantic!

What do you feel will attract female gamers to Neverwinter Nights?

Well, I believe that every gamer is an individual regardless of gender, so speaking for myself, I like the amount of control that I will have, through the toolset and the scripting language, over the way that creatures and people will look and behave. I anticipate spending a lot of time building situations, characters and stories, experimenting with different types of stories (combat-oriented vs puzzle-oriented). I’m also really looking forward to playing some of the modules that other people will make, there’s going to be such diversity out there, and so much to learn from everyone else!

Head over to Neverwinter Nexus for the rest of their "Ladies of Neverwinter" interview.

Neverwinter Nights Interview
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 15:43 CET by Mollusken

Lone Gamers has posted a few questions and answers with BioWare's joint CEO Greg Zeschuk.

Is the mod toolset complete for release?

The toolset is technically done, but we’re still improving it and making various fixes or changes requested by the designers. We want the toolset to be the best it can possibly be when it is released. It’s really fun and easy to use!

What's the storyline behind Neverwinter Nights like? Is there anything learned from other titles that affected this?

The storyline of Neverwinter Nights is epic, focused on the player, and fast-moving. These are all things people like about our previous games and we’re really trying to outdo ourselves this time. The people working on the Neverwinter Nights story have experience from our previous games - we’re applying everything we’ve learned in the past to make the story in the game very memorable.

Read the whole interview at Lone Gamers.

NWN First Impressions
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 0:35 CET by Sorcerer

An interesting peek at NWN was offered on the official NWN forums in the form of a post by Urthpaw, where he describes his hands-on experience with the game:

I think I speak for most of the NWN community when I say that the Toolset is the most eagerly anticipated feature of the game. In this regard, I was tremendously impressed. As has been said in countless interviews, laying down tiles is a breeze. The lack of Z-axis is kind of annoying at first, but most encounters (such as rooftop chases) can easily be emulated with Height Transitions. Another gripe is the deja-vu of repeated tiles... This isn't quite the problem that it might at first appear. For one thing, the vast majority of customization isn't done through tiles... Rather, place-able objects and features can be used in their stead. For instance, using just tiles, a dungeon would be fairly barren. But slap down a couple torture devices, some burning corpses and the odd pile of skulls and it becomes a labyrinth that deserves the fear of adventurers everywhere. Many of these place-able objects are stackable. For instance, a (place-able) wagon can be loaded with corpses (impaled, mangled, zombie, or regular), and then set on fire with flame emitters.

Read more here.

Neverwinter Nights Intro Movie
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 0:35 CET by Sorcerer

It looks rather cool, though consider it a big spoiler since it's the actual game movie, not a trailer. GameSpot has a free streaming version and BioWare put up a page with larger downloadable versions.

Interplay to Make More BG and IWD Games
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 0:35 CET by Sorcerer

This press release went out recently (boring bits cut out):

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2002--Interplay Entertainment Corp. (Nasdaq:IPLY - news), will maintain the license to develop and publish roleplaying games using the Dungeons & Dragons franchises of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, licensed from Infogrames Interactive Inc., which retains the rights to Neverwinter Nights.

The multi-year, multi-product license allows Black Isle Studios, the roleplaying division of Interplay, to deliver high quality PC and console games to D&D fans worldwide.

Dungeons & Dragons games currently in development include Icewind Dale(TM) II for the PC, Baldur's Gate(TM): Dark Alliance(TM) for the Xbox(TM) video game system from Microsoft and sequels to the multi-million unit selling Baldur's Gate(TM) franchise.

"We are very excited about our strong Dungeons & Dragons product lineup," said Herve Caen, president and CEO of Interplay Entertainment.

"As the computer roleplaying game franchise that revitalized the computer RPG genre, Baldur's Gate is firmly established as one of the leading brands in the interactive entertainment industry worldwide. We are thrilled to be developing new additions to this critically and commercially successful franchise."

Notice the bold text? Wheee...

Neverwinter Nights Interview at VE
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 0:34 CET by Sorcerer

Voodoo Extreme posted a rather interesting interview with BioWare's Greg Zeschuk about the highly anticipated Neverwinter Nights. Here's a snip:

The Baldur's Gate series truly kicked ass and has made Canada the Mecca of PC roleplaying games (you guys are like the id of RPGs). Does that kind of pressure help or hinder the development process?

[Greg] The pressure we feel both helps and hinders the development process. On the one hand we're confident we can make a good game because we've done so in the past (and lots of the people that made good games from our past are working on Neverwinter Nights). On the other hand we have a feeling that everyone is watching us very closely - there are very high expectations for Neverwinter. This can sometimes be quite daunting, but then we simply remember all we can do is our very best and we keep on building!

Read the rest at VE.

Neverwinter Nights Adventure Creation Guide
Posted Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 0:33 CET by Sorcerer

Part IX of it was posted at GameSpy recently, so if you haven't seen it yet, go here to do so. Unless you're an avid DM there's not much of interest in the article, but there are three new screenshots to feast your eyes upon.

Icewind Dale II Forum Update
Posted Sunday, March 17, 2002 - 18:02 CET by Tiamat

Doug Avery, Associate Producer

CD Number: We haven't put any of our builds on CD officially yet. I did burn a copy of it to take home and play and it was 2 full CDs and 1 half full. About 1.5 GB overall. We have not done all of our optimization yet, but we also don't have all of our sounds in either. I am guessing it will be 3 CDs, but we'll have to see later on when everything is in place.

Weapon Damage and 3E: We've already made most of these changes now and are planning on doing the rest. We're trying to be as close to 3E as possible.

3E Multiclassing: I believe what he was referring to was the fact that you gain XP independent of your classes. The 20 XP you gain goes toward your next level. Period. It is not split between your two or three different classes. If you are first level, currently you need 2000 XP to get to second. Then when you have 2000 XP you can decide you want to be a wizard. Now you are a 1st level Fighter, 1st level Wizard. When you achieve your next level (4000 XP), you may select what to level up in. Would you like another level of fighter, another level in wizard or maybe even a level in rogue? I really hope that clarifies things. If not, I'll try again.

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer

QA and Kit Cutting: The kits were not taken out of the game to just to make QA's job easier, in fact QA really didn't factor into the decision to cut the kits. The fact that QA's job would be a bit easier now is a bonus to the situation. Working in a Quality Assurance department isn't as easy as it sounds, but our QA teams are doing a great job on IWD2.

Windows XP: Yes, several testers are using XP. I am also using XP and I haven't had any problems at all.

3E and the Release Date: No, it shouldn't affect the release date.

Game Length: Well the reason I said that is there are a couple of types of gamers out there. You have the power-gamers, and the casual gamers. Depending on how the power-gamer plays he will probably finish the game much faster than the casual gamer. Another thing depends on what the player decides to do in the game. For example, do they try to complete every single quest in the game and explore every area, or do they simply do what they need to do to finish the game quickly.
The last time I talked to QA about this, they didn't expect anyone to beat the game in 25 hours, and currently it looks like it will take a minimum of 40-45 hours. But it could also take some people up to 60-70 hours.
The length of a game is the trickiest part of development due to what I talked about in the first paragraph. We as developers try to give our best estimation.
At this point I really don't think anyone can beat it in that amount of time the first time through. In the interview I was just being optimistic. I just talked to the QA guys today, and they feel overall that there should be more overall gameplay in IWD2 than the original IWD.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

3E feats: 3E feats like Power Attack and Expertise trade their stats at a 1:1 ratio. You can use those abilities in a tactical fashion, turning them off and on as your situation changes. I played a 3E fighter with Power Attack, Cleave, and Great Cleave. When fighting heavily armored bad*****, I wouldn't use my Power Attack feat. When fighting a throng of goblins in hide armor, I'd bust my Power Attack up to maximum and slaughter four of them in one shot. This essentially works because you can't opt-out of the penalties; you have to use your head, since you know you'll be rolling to-hit and damage consecutively. You can opt-out of a penalty to cold spells by never (or rarely) using them. It's the kensai mentality.

Mind Flayers: Mind Flayers in IWD2 are pretty tough, but not ridiculous. The most frustrating thing about them is their tendency to Plane Shift away when they get below 50% hit points.
However, if you have a fighter with a low or average Wisdom, he or she will get stunned and/or dominated and/or have his or her brain devoured.

No Prestige Classes: There will not be prestige classes in IWD2. Sorry.

Touch spells: Touch spells ignore the Armor Bonus portion of Armor Class. If a character had a 22 AC, 6 points of Armor Bonus, 2 points of Shield Bonus, 4 points of Dexterity Bonus, a touch spell would only need to overcome a 16 AC (22 - 6).

3E clerics: Have you played a 3E cleric? With Spontaneous Conversion, they're among the most awesome characters in the game. Domains are like free feats -- in fact, their powers often replicate or grant free feats. So, not only do 3E clerics have two good saves, the 2nd best BAB, d8 hit points, the ability to wear heavy armor, turn undead, cast spells, and spontaneously convert them to healing, but they also get two domains at first level that grant feat-like abilities. Taking away domains hardly cripples them.
I'm also failing to understand how combat-oriented feats are "for fighters only". Do your clerics never enter combat? Maybe I'm just funny with how I play clerics, but mine are always at the front line. Personally, I wouldn't mine having my cleric take Power Attack, Lightning Reflexes, Combat Casting, Improved Critical, Dash, Dodge, or other combat-oriented feats.
Clerics in 3E do not have to pray for the various Cure X Wounds spells if they are good. Evil clerics do not have to pray for the various Inflict X Wounds spells. Neutral characters get a choice between the two at character creation.
Basically, a cleric can just memorize combat, buff, and miscellaneous spells. If he or she needs a healing spell, they can spontaneously convert that spell into a healing spell of the nearest level (go down if there is not one at the current level). So, for example, if a cleric converted Hold Person, it would become Cure Moderate Wounds. If a cleric converted Blade Barrier, it would become Cure Critical Wounds. If an evil cleric converted Neutralize Poison, it would become Inflict Serious Wounds.

Bard Spells: Bards will cast spells like sorcerers.

Spontaneous Healing for Clerics: We're working on it.

Bard Songs: I've talked to Darren about the possibility of making the basic bard song "free" and then giving special "bonus feats" at the time the bards would get additional songs. In addition to the regular HoW songs, the player could pick Riddlemaster riddles and/or Lingering Song. I'm not sure if we can do it, though.

Spell Sets: Bards and sorcerers cast spells differently than wizards, so they will have their own list of spells. This did cause much anguish, but Bernie is mostly better now.
However, bards, sorcerers and wizards all pick from the same spell set. Paladins and clerics pick from the same spell set. Druids and rangers pick from the same spell set.

Level drain: No; we aren't implementing full level drain, only the acquisition of negative levels, which operate as listed.

Shapeshifter Forms as Feats: It is quite possible that the shapeshifter's special forms will become feats.

Pausing While in Inventory: Yes. After all, you'll need the extra time to go through your six extra inventory slots.

Paladin Feats: I have suggested that a few of the paladin kit bonuses be turned into feats:
* Fiendslayer (Cavalier) - Character gains +3 to hit and damage against dragons and demonic creatures. Requires: +3 BAB, Weapon Focus: Large Swords or Weapon Focus: Great Swords, Ability to lay on hands.
* Heretic's Bane (Votary) - Character gains +3 to hit and damage against characters with cleric and druid levels. Requires: +3 BAB, 6 ranks of Spellcraft, ability to cast Divine Spells.

Vampires: No vampires, but there are other energy draining creatures that you can grow to hate.

Credit were credit is due: If you want to thank me for the design element of the changes being done, that's all well and good. However, I would like everyone to know that the only way these changes could be made is through the efforts of Bernie Weir, Danien Chee, Dave Boulanger, and Darren Monahan. They are the people who actually code all of these changes.

Wights: There were never wights outside of the mill in Icewind Dale. However, in Icewind Dale 2, there are a bunch of wights outside of that mill. Bitter orc-hating ranger Jermsy is quite annoyed by their presence.

Old Icewind Dale Areas: We announced that Dragon's Eye, Kuldahar, and one other location were being revisited in Icewind Dale 2, with redone area art and completely new area design. By your comments, I'll assume that you didn't play BG2 and see the various levels of Durlag's Tower randomly distributed in such fascinating locations as the Athkatla sewers.

3E Feats: Icewind Dale 2 will be using 3E feats. The feats are a number of passive and active abilities than can be employed by a wide variety of characters. Unlike skills, feats typically do not have "levels"; they usually give a single ability to the character that gives them additional options or bonuses. Fallout's "perks" are a good analogy.

All characters start with one feat. Human characters start with an additional feat. Fighters start with another additional feat. Characters gain an additional feat at 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc. level. Some classes, like fighters and rangers, also gain bonus feats as they advance. In fact, the fighter class' bread and butter is the use of feats in combat.

Often, feats have prerequisites. If a character does not have the prerequisites required for a feat, he or she cannot take it. Here is a preliminary list of SOME feats from the game:

Ambidexterity - Lowers penalties for two-weapon fighting.
Arterial Strike - Allows a rogue character to sacrifice 1d6 points of sneak attack damage to inflict a bleeding wound that causes damage over many rounds.
Combat Casting - Grants a bonus to concentration checks for spellcasters.
Dash - Increases movement by 1.
Death Blow - When a character with this feat strikes a paralyzed, unconscious, or sleeping character, the target must make a Fortitude save or die.
Deflect Arrows - Grants a bonus vs. missile attacks.
Dodge - Grants a +1 miscellaneous AC bonus.
Expertise - Allows a character to take a penalty to hit in order to raise his or her AC.
Great Fortitude - +2 bonus to Fortitude saves.
Hamstring - Allows a rogue character to sacrifice 2d6 points of sneak attack damage to reduce the target's movement by 50%.
Improved Critical - Grants a +1 bonus to critically hit.
Iron Will - +2 bonus to Will saves.
Lightning Reflexes - +2 bonus to Reflex saves.
Lingering Song - When a bard stops playing, the effects of his or her song last an additional 2 rounds.
Power Attack - This feat allows the character to take a penalty to hit in order to increase his or her damage with melee weapons.
Point Blank Shot - Reduces the penalty for firing in melee from -8 to -4.
Still Spell - Reduces the arcane spell failure chance for casting in armor (different from the metamagic feat of the same name).
Toughness - +3 hit points (can be taken multiple times)
Two-Weapon Fighting - Lowers penalties for two-weapon fighting.
Weapon Finesse - Allows a character to use his or her Dexterity bonus when making attack rolls with daggers and shortswords.
In addition to the feats listed above, there are also weapon and armor feats. The weapon types are divided into simple and martial categories:

SW: Crossbow
SW: Mace
SW: Missile
SW: Quarterstaff
SW: Small Blade
MW: Axe
MW: Bow
MW: Flail
MW: Great Sword
MW: Hammer
MW: Large Sword
MW: Polearm

Most non-warrior characters (wizards, sorcerers, rogues, clerics, etc.) start with proficiency (one star) in most or all simple weapons. Warrior characters (barbarians, paladins, rangers, fighters) start with proficiency in all weapon types.

Increasing an individual weapon proficiency is the equivalent of taking the feat Weapon Focus, which grants +1 to hit. Characters with 4 or more levels of fighter may also take Weapon Specialization (three stars), which grants an additional +2 to damage. Elf characters start with a free proficiency in either MW: Bow or MW: Large Sword.

Armor proficiencies reduce the inherent penalties for wearing armor. Although any character can wear armor, most will not want to wear armor. Wearing armor causes chances of arcane spellcasting failure, penalizes thief skills, and can even cause penalties to hit for those without the proper feats.

The following list breaks down armor types. The first column lists the types of armor. The second column lists the chance for arcane spell failure. The third column lists penalties to thief skills (which may be translated into 3E 5% into 1 values). The fourth column lists the maximum dexterity bonus to AC that a character may receive while wearing that armor type.
Leather (Light) 10% 0 +6

Studded Leather (Light) 15% -5% +5
Chain Mail (Medium) 30% -30% +2
Splint Mail (Medium) 40% -35% +0
Plate Mail (Heavy) 40% -35% +0
Full Plate (Heavy) 35% -30% +1
Buckler 5% -5% --
Small Shield 5% -5% --
Medium Shield 10% -10% --
Large Shield 15% -15% --

If a character does not have the appropriate armor feats (light, medium, heavy, and shield), he or she gains additional penalties for wearing that armor. Fighters, clerics, and paladins start out with all armor proficiencies. Rangers, druids, barbarians, and rogues start out with less. Wizards and sorcerers have no armor proficiency.

We are also translating some of the previously used kit powers into feats (Envenom Weapon, Trick Shot, etc.).

The idea with many of these "modal not modal" feats is that you turn them on and they stay on until you turn them off. We will be experimenting with that. For instance, you could turn on Arterial Strike and it would remain on until you chose to turn it off. However, we are still looking into that method of implementation.

That list is not complete. Point Blank Shot is on the list. Rapid Shot may also be implemented.

Instead of adding multiclass class IDs, we aren't using multiclass class IDs at all. The class levels contain their own IDs. When the functions make their checks, they just check for the core class IDs after looking through all of the class level fields a character has. If any of them return true for that check, it makes calculations based on what is present.

At least, that's the basic idea.

Meta-magic: To be honest, meta-magic feats are unlikely. They would be quite difficult to implement, I am sorry to say. I don't want to get your hopes up about them. Spell Penetration is a possibility.

Multiclassing: Icewind Dale 2 will use 3E multiclassing rules. Unlike 2nd Edition, in which human characters dual-classed (start in one class, then stop in that class and start in a second, never to return) and demi-human characters split-classed (advance at an equal rate in two or more pre-selected classes), both humans and demi-humans have the same options available to them.

All characters start game play with one class. Every time the character advances, the player has the option of advancing in the character's current class, or adding a level in another class. The amount of experience required to advance is based off of total class levels (character level) rather than individual class levels. For example, it takes as much XP to advance a character from level 4 fighter to level 5 fighter as it does to advance a character from level 4 fighter to level 4 fighter/level 1 rogue.

Characters gain the full cumulative bonuses of all their levels instead of the "best of" between both classes. For instance, if a character has +4 BAB from his fighter levels and a +2 BAB from his wizard levels, he would have a +6 BAB, not +4. The same applies for saving throws.

Hit points are not divided between classes. A character gets the total hit dice for each set of class levels he or she has. E.g., a fighter 7 / rogue 4 / wizard 5 would have 7d10 + 4d6 + 5d4 hit points, modified by constitution.

Characters may multiclass to any class to which they do not have alignment conflicts, with the exception of the monk and paladin classes. Paladins and monks each have three orders that allow them to multiclass to one class and back again. For example, paladins of Ilmater, the god of suffering, may multiclass to cleric and back again. Dark Moon monks of Shar may multiclass to sorcerer and back again. No characters may multiclass into the paladin or monk classes after character creation.

In theory, a character can take as many classes as a player qualifies for. However, this typically makes the character much less effective than a single or double classed character. In addition, when class levels get out of synch with each other, the character can be penalized XP. Without going into the details of the formula, a character is penalized a small amount of XP whenever one or more of his or her classes is more than one level away from another. There is an exception to this rule: racial favored class. Each race has a favored class which is ignored for the purposes of calculating multiclass XP penalties. For elves, it is wizard. For dwarves, it is fighters. For halflings, it is thieves. For gnomes, it is wizard. For half-orcs, it is barbarian. Half-elves and humans always ignore the highest class level they have. This gives them a range of flexibility that the other classes lack.

Different avatars may have to be used for halfling wizards and demi-human monks, but all races should be able to select all classes.

Chad Nicholas, Scripter

Porting Icewind Dale into new Icewind Dale II IE engine: It's not always hard-coded, but unfortunately to get very special and specific events to happen, sometimes a bit of hackery is needed to get the IE to play nice.
Besides, all the scripts from IwD1 would not work in IwD2. We've changed the way the engine parses the scripts so that it's faster and more reliable, and we've changed a lot of the script functions to take more parameters. All of these improvements mean that IwD1 scripts (and creature files, and item files, etc., etc.) are not compatible with IwD2. Someone would have to rewrite/convert all those little data files so that they could be read by IwD2.

Hostile Adventuring Parties: There are a few battles in the game that - while you wouldn't call the opponents "an adventuring party" per se - the enemy group does end up working together and helping each other out (and they have Phat L00t, too).

Tex Yang, Quality Assurance

Testing and balancing: We're not going to just stop testing and balancing the game because 3E multiclassing is in. As I've mentioned before, balance and fun are some of our higher priorities in IWD2, and that is still the case now.
As a matter of fact, being here at 11:30pm (since 11:00am today) and still having one more area to go before I even contemplate sleep should reinforce that point for some of you out there that might be a little worried about it right now.

Monks Weapons: Monks can equip (some) weapons if their fists are not doing a sufficient enough job against some enemies.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, March 17, 2002 - 17:48 CET by Tiamat

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Music: You have full control of setting what music plays where.

Only one hak pak can be used at a time: Yes, that's it.
Another way of thinking of it is like Counter-Strike for Half-Life and CTF for Quake 2. Both of these are modifications for their respective games. You cannot run both CS and TFC at the same time. Only one. Period.

New Models: There WILL be more models released, but there is no schedule worked out yet. We WON'T have a new model for you next Wednesday (March 20th).

Hak Paks: The release of the NWNMV seems to have refuted this point. We're assembling models and animations and distributing them not as hack packs, but as .mdl files coupled with .tga files. And Bioware has indicated that these same files (.mdl in text format) are supported by the game.

So therefore, could we not get around the whole "single hack pack" problem by distributing collections of models in plain (.mdl and .tga) format, rather than relying on hack packs to begin with?

Yes you could try to to abuse the override directory and it will work, but we will dislike you very much and curse members of your family. The override directory is out of bounds for the end user. Our update system will sanitize the override directory so we don't have resource conflict with 3rd party files. This was a huge problem in BG2.

If you want the zero hassle version, use the hackpacks.

Several comments...

First, I have had my head slapped for spelling it wrong. Here is the OFFICIAL name... Hak Pak not Hack Pack.

The directory for all Hak Paks is called "\hak\" inside there you can have as many Hak Paks as you like, but only one can be active in a module at one time (thus only one active in the Toolset and the server). No subdirectories. And .hak files only.

Source control. This is what I see as the main issue that some of you are talking about. Welcome to development! Yes, you as the developer will have to handle your source control. This may include doing such things as naming your Hak Pak "derekf_underdark_01.hak" and naming resources inside in a similar fashion. We are saddling you with this issue.

Hak Paks must be created before you start using it in the Toolset. Even if you aren't finished with the content and it needs to change, it still has to be done before you start the Toolset. That sound file is too loud? Use your wave editor, fix it, re-add it to the Hak Pak, save, then open your module in the Toolset. Bang. There it is. Keep in mind that this is a "while developing" example.

Hak Paks and Decompressing: Not true any longer! The current version of the Hak Pak editor adds, extracts, and deletes. No internal directory structure, just flat.
There is going to be an internal description area for each Hak Pak where you can describe the Pak.
Yes, there is the potential for a lot of data duplication with same files in different Hak Paks. There is simply not much we can do about it.
"override" does exist and will exist at ship. We will "delete override\*.*" every time you update. 3rd party files in override=BAD. This has burned us in the past and broke BG2 for many people. That is why we are constraining you to the Hak Pak concept. Sure, you can use override while developing for testing, but you had better get those files in a Hak Pak for release. Or we will start to actively hate your cat.

Hak Pak Descriptions: Basically an internal readme that can be viewed in the Hak Pak editor, but I hope to get some of that information in other areas. Not sure about limits, but I would say don't try to write a novel. Wouldn't it be cool if you connected to a server, didn't have the Hak Pak, and the server told you where to get the Hak Pak from?

David Gaider, Designer

NWN & D&D: We are taking great pains to implement D&D faithfully. There naturally will be some things that we have to change, due to limitations of one kind or another, and some things that we want to change.

The number of things that we want to change and do are, however, few and far between. If you want to promote the idea that this means we approach all our decisions regarding the game with ambivalence or whimsy, so be it. You'd be wrong, but that's never stopped anyone before.

We're not saying that we did the fire giants this way because we think we're the DM. We made the fire giants that way because we think they look better that way, and because the color of their skin isn't intrinsic to them being fire giants (as opposed to the color of a dragon or a slaad, for example). We make decisions like that because we're the ones implementing the game.

It's OK if you think that's not a good idea and believe we should stick closer to the rules. This doesn't mean we're playing fast and loose with the rules however... like I said, being faithful in our implementation is important. If you feel that this one detail is some harbringer of sloppiness to come, then by all means gripe. Like I said earlier, some people are going to feel that we have no room for interpretation. If we disagree, I don't think that makes us condescending... we can still talk about it. There is no need for wild gesticulation here.

I understand what Karzak, newc and some others are saying, here. We disagree on the point of the fire giant's appearance, and that's that. They are concerned about just where we draw the line between faithful interpretation and license to change... that's a fair question. I don't think the point need be stretched any further than that, and the sullen bitterness that's being expressed on these threads by each sides is a bit much.

So please... calm down. To suggest that someone who thinks the fire giant's appearance is not a big deal is insulting... everyone values different things, and since information on the rest of the game is limited at the moment, it shouldn't be too hard to understand how someone might interpret that as possibly leading to bigger and more unpleasant changes.
To the ones who are that fearful or distrusting, just keep in mind the same thing... you don't have all the information, yet. I can't stop you from distrusting our ability to make a good 3rd edition D&D translation or the fact that we love this game... so be it. But making pre-judgements and stretching this point to ludicrousness doesn't exactly make us keen to listen to you... and only serves to stir up the pot and create an arguement. If that's what you want, however, then this discussion will be thrown out of here just like the last time.

"Ideal" Player Number: Like any module put out for PnP, we will probably arrive at an 'ideal' number of players for the official campaign... from 1 up to however many. That will be just a suggestion on our part, however.

Can we lock chests? If a chest has been marked as lockable, yes.

Sitting: As for sitting, we've enabled NPC's to be given a script which makes them sit... haven't seen it for PC's, yet, so we'll have to see if that makes it in. Right now they sit on the ground.
There is a generic script right now that tells an NPC to find the nearest chair and sit it in until told to do otherwise.

Decaying Objects: I don't think the global decay timer can be changed.
Setting all items to 'Plot' would be required. It's just a checkbox in the item editor and available whenever you create an item, so the only work would be in checking all the standard items (if that's what you wanted).

Removing Old Items: That's a function right in the DM client.
You could choose to destroy it (zip, gone) or send it to Limbo if you wanted the option to call it back into existence at some point.

Animations: There is drinking animation (for potions) and reading animation, but no eating animation. Hmm... I don't think the drinking animation actually puts anything in your hand (but it looks alright). You'd need to 'equip' a model with a beer mug or whatever for that to look even better... and we don't have equippable beer mugs yet. (fairly minor mod, tho, don't you think?)
There's a lot of 'talking', 'yelling', 'listening' and such types of looping animations, tho... one of the bars in Chapter 2 in the official campaign looked really really good once these were implemented. You got people talking to each other, arguments going on, people at tables drinking and laughing, the barmaid going around taking orders and telling people to shut up... it's great stuff.

Exam Questions: 1) What are the few Skills and Feats you are sure of? There's only a couple left that might change at this point. We may reveal them soon, but I won't provide a list for you. Nice try, tho.
2) What is the number of familiars and animal companions? Haven't seen the familiars, yet, but there were six animal companions at last check.
3) Are henchmen predetermined, or can anyone be hired through dialogue? A henchmen must be determined as such, as we have to make a version of them for each level. That would be difficult to do for a lot of NPC's. That said, you do have a fair selection.
4) True or false, animals such as horses and cows will be able to move around. True, if they exist, they will have animation to move.
5) True or false, your PC can kick the butt of everyone else on the BioWare server. I have never PvP'd in NWN, personally.
What is the highest level you have ever reached playing with any of your NWN PCs? 8th. I had a 6th level bard/2nd level fighter at one point.
6) At that level, were all of your stats implemented properly? Why not? What stats? You mean skills and feats? All the ones that were going in the game were done, yes. There was some class abilities that didn't work at the time, tho.
7) And how did that make you feel? Pretty good. I'd thought I'd miss some of the stuff that wasn't in more, but I didn't. The pace of combat was actually much less frenetic than I had expected. The quick-bars work very well for spells as a result... I never feel harried.
8) Now, have you created your first module yet? It's not done, but it is started.
9) Was it designed for one or multiple PCs? Multiple.
10) Did you DM it? I intend to. If it's good, maybe other people can.
11) How easy was that on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being easiest? 6, so far. A lot of it has been very easy. There were a few things that I wanted to do which were perniciously difficult since I didn't know how to script it and some people were too busy to ask. I either worked around it or have left it until later. Naturally I don't have scripting help or documentation available, as people using NWN will eventually have. I also swear a lot and give up easily and go back to work.
12) Did the PCs complete the adventure? Were they able to attempt all actions that they wanted to perform? In what percent of these did the DM have to intervene because of module shortcomings? Obviously, none of these apply to my module.
13) How many bugs in the game did you notice today alone? Errr... in the 20's or 30's, I believe. I was balance testing today, though, and not writing.
14) How many of those bugs were rules-oriented rather than display-oriented? None. They were all game-balance, dialogue or scripting bugs.
15) How many of these questions have you actually answered? All the ones I could. I'm waiting for my ride to the bar to arrive, so why not?
16) What do you do when you are finished with your daily NWN chores but are still around work? I go home. It is usually very dark at that point. On a Friday, like today, I go out so my friends know I yet live.
17) What is your least favorite part of NeverWinter Wednesdays? Why should I have a least favorite part? Neverwinter Wednesdays are for you guys, not for me.

Hair Length: There is shoulder-length hair. It cannot go past the neck, however.

Scripting Horses: Meaning what? Can you script horseriding?
Someone could create a model for horses, if they wished, yes. If you wanted riders for them, you'd have to create the "rider & horse" models individually (short of us solving the z-axis problem... which is something only we can do).
To make PC's ride horses, you need basically one model for each race and their horse... and be able to apply the proper heads, clothing and such to them.
As far as scripting goes, it would be easy enough to make someone respawn as the combined horse model... 'getting on their horse', in other words.
Beside all of that, you'd need to take into account speed and battle (can you trample? Hmmm... I guess we need extra animations for creatures that are going to attack someone on horse-back rather than their animations right now which would only attack the horse. Can you knock someone off their horse? Does the horse attack?).
So we're talking something way beyond scripting.
If someone wants to make a horse model that someone can click on... and it teleports them to wherever they want to go ("you ride to so-and-so town...", fade to black), basically spawning them in front of the new area in front of their horse... that'd be different. That's fairly do-able.
If we add horses in, though, it's got to be the whole thing. It CAN be done... what we have to decide is if the amount of time to do it is worth giving up stuff that could be done in an equal amount of time. Not to mention that we need to put aside the time to do it.
It may get done, at any rate, in the future. All we've said is that we don't have the time to add it in right now. Period.
Stacking seperate models without overlap, and yet having them animate smoothly together, could be a bit problematic. I suspect not one that can't be overcome, however, with a bit of effort.

What about war chariots? Anything is possible, although I don't know how much call there would be for chariots in D&D.

No need to leave out horse models just because PCs can't mount them: Oh, I know. No horses, however, period.
Not everybody is so understanding. For many, if they see horses, it would 'make sense' to them that they should be able to ride them. I, myself, would have liked to have a horse model at least to tie up in front of the inn or whatever...
...but, no, no horses at this time. :(

Adding Horses To NWN: Hmmm...if we had examples to work from, maybe less than you think. It was the mod community that showed us the way to do bags of holding for BG2, after all, as I remember (ie. the portable store).
In this case, though, it may not be so much a problem with trying to figure out functionality so much as it is raw effort required. Leaving stuff out like that is really painful to us, believe me. The idea that the community may leap on it and make horses is both a big relief and a little sting to the pride (we really wish we could have spared you all the effort... hopefully, if and when we do put horses in, it will be done all the way and done well and worth the damn wait).

How much of the core game will the toolset allow us to change? Hmm. Not an easy question to answer.

Let me possibly err on the side of safety and say that most things regarding the core rules will not be alterable... or, at least, not easily alterable.

You cannot control character creation or the levelling process, nor can you control the physics of the world. There are going to be some situations where you can script work-arounds, but these are going to be specific to the module they're scripted for and will not affect the character directly. You could, for example, create a Prestige Class and script the benefits to be applied to the character as he or she levels up... the abilities would not show up on the character sheet, however, and would not travel with the character should they leave the game.

As I've said before, NWN is not a build-your-own-RPG... it's a build-your-own-D&D-module (or campaign or setting, if you'd prefer a larger scale). The core rules are not designed to be adjustable, though some stuff will be for those who operate outside of the box (and perhaps some will go even farther than that... but that's beyond the scope of my ability to predict and nothing Bioware would be responsible for, naturally).

The idea, however, is that within the realm of the D&D ruleset to give the player as much flexibility as possible.

Now, indeed, one might say "But Prestige Classes are a part of D&D... and so are spells that don't exist in the PHB. That's all I want to add." I'm not arguing that... but in this case, we can't have it both ways. Restricting the access to change some things has allowed us to add a lot more freedom to other areas... and I think this will improve NWN in the long run.

NWN has been built from the beginning so we can easily expand on it... which means stuff like Prestige Classes and so forth is always a possibility in the future. I don't think it will ever be our intent to allow the core rules to be changed, however... although I won't swear up and down that this will never be so. If something is a popular demand to be added and isn't directly in contravention to the D&D or FR license, you can bet that we will at least consider it.

Hope that all makes sense.

NWN Making Money: I don't think you need to be overly worried on how much money Bioware is going to make... if NWN does well, so will we, I suspect.

As far as expansions go, I don't think you ever make as much money off them as you do from the original game. It is a way to keep making money off of a popular game as well as please the people who are playing it by giving them more of what they want... a win/win situation. That, and you have a talent pool who are already familiar with the material and you don't have to create an engine from scratch.

Naturally I could never guarantee an expansion or sequel... that remains to be seen... but I think everyone can see the benefits to all sides of Bioware getting involved in such a venture if NWN does well. Yes, there will be some great stuff to come out of the mod community... and yes, some of their stories and modules and scripts will be better than whatever we can make. You can't deny the fact that we've got the manpower, utilities and experience to do what you're average user can't, however... plus we can change the code.

I think that's the key to NWN's future. So long as there is an audience that loves and uses the game, money is only something that gives us the ability to continue doing what we love (speaking from a developer's point of view, anyhow. :)

Visual & Spell Effects: Quote: After running through the NWN Script Reference a couple times, I keep going back to the section on spells and see the entries that state:
TRUE
VFX_COM_
and then a bunch of colors with other variables. Also the
VFX_INP_ and VFX_FNF_
Are these the different visual and physical properties of spells?

Hmm. Possibly. I haven't seen these references, myself... it may be stuff that has since changed in the scripting language. FNF refers to 'Fire and Forget', I believe (do the effect once only)...not sure about the others.

Maybe one of the programmers will see this and can illuminate you better.

Quote: If so, (I have not seen any official word on this yet so I thought I would ask) is it possible to if not create spells, at least create triggers that will start a visual effect and do x amount of x type of damage?
i.e. the pc opens a door, there is a swirl of lights (the pc thinking d@mn im done) and then there is 12 points of fire damage in a 10 foot radius..

Yes, that's exactly how you can do it. You have access to a whole bunch of effect resources... with which there are several commands on where and when to fire them. By effects, I mean visual effects (such as swirl of lights or what-not) as well as spell-like effects (damage, polymorph, paralyze, etc).

I am not certain on the details of the effects, however, so that's about all I can say on them. Chew on this, though... there are a lot of effects that occur in the official campaign on a regular basis, combined with spell-like effects (with as much a frequency as BG2, anyway). The scripters who put those together are using the same resources that you will be.

His Computer & Blockable Objects:
Quote: What kind of computers are you fellas using while you test the game?

It varies. I, myself, have a Pentium 600... I think. But I'm on the lower end of Bioware staff insofar as power goes. Animators and programmers have the Big Stuff. There are also some computers which are purposefully lower, for testing.

I haven't a clue what kind of video card I have. GeForce 2, I'd suspect.

Quote: Another thing, this time about house modells:
How many will there be in the acctual game? (that is how many different houses it will be..)

Err... that's models, not modules, right? And do you mean creature models? Placeable objects models? Tile models? There's a LOT... nobody here could give you a number, I'm afraid.

Quote: If I create a nice area where a entrance to a cave is will I be able to make that cave impossible to enter and looking like it is brokend (you know like rocks have fallen down so that you can't use it anymore).

Hmmm. I don't think we have any placeable objects that would qualify as 'passage-blocking pile of rocks' (not that that would be difficult to make, I suppose)... but any other big placeable objects would do the trick, if you wanted.

Conversation Editor: From experience, I don't know if it would be worth it to use the conversation editor in real-time. I type pretty fast... but even so even a marginally simple plotgiver is about 1,000 words and takes a couple of hours to put together. Keep in mind that, if you're DM'ing, half your attention is elsewhere, too.
As far as conversations go, I think many things apply to RL just as they do in NWN. If your players are informed before-hand that most characters don't have canned dialogue, and they want to talk to multiple characters, then they have to wait their turn to talk to someone just as they would in a RL PnP session.
Fortunately it's very easy to send messages and navigate around in the DM client.
Alternatively, you could have another DM online with you to handle extra conversations and be a full-time 'possessor' to add a bit of realism to local characters while you spend most of your time guiding the party and dealing with encounters and such.
That's IF you don't want to use canned dialogue. I think having characters with base dialogues is a good idea, and worth the effort you put into them... but writing them on the fly probably wouldn't be worth introducing.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design

Point Buy: I guess the idea that 30 points is pushing you toward an uber character comes from the point of view of how easy it is to not only clear all the negatives, but make it so that every stat is giving you a positive. In other words, it's easy to make a character who is good at everything.
I personally prefer the lower point buys (and lower starting stats) because I like to see the negatives and positives balance out more. But I won't take that crusade up again. You've all probably gotten sick of hearing me whine about it by now.
I think it has less to do with realism in a fantasy game than creating an interesting character who overcomes flaws to work through a story.
If only there could be some sort of compromise between the extremes (low stats and high stats) of Volourn's rollin', and the consistency between characters of point buy.

Clerics: To cast 9th-level spells as a cleric you need a 19 wisdom, but you also need to be level 17. So if you're trying to multiclass a cleric and a fighter, you're like not to have enough levels in cleric to cast 9th-level spells - in which case you don't really need to have a 19 in wisdom.
As well, you don't need to have the biggest muscles to be the hero.

Darren Wong, Tools Programmer

Viewer Grid Size: Each viewer grid square is 1m x 1m. A tile is 10m x 10m. Hope this helps.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja

Multiclassing: Let me try to address this succinctly:
- all classes must be within one level of each other, or you get a penalty to all future XP awards while your classes are uneven
- each race has a "favoured class", which does NOT count for multiclassing purposes. (eg. a Halfling, whose favoured class is Rogue, does not count his Rogue classes when calculating multiclass XP penalties. He could be Rogue 19/BasketWeaver 1 if he wanted)
- Humans have "Any" as a favoured class, so they can discount any ONE class from their calculation of XP penalties
According to the PHB, Humans discount their HIGHEST class when calculating multiclass XP penalties.
Half-elves operate the same way humans do insofar as multiclassing goes.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, March 17, 2002 - 16:54 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

In the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection, the complete walkthrough for The Darkest Day mod has been updated.

Continuing in the TeamBG subsection, I have added a list of features and a link to the new total conversion of Baldur's Gate 2, Epic Endeavours.

In the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection, we have a new collection of custom items submitted by Creslyn.

On Page 2 of the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection, Extremist updated his Fixpack which now does away with even more bugs than before. Further down on the same page you will also find a link to Travelers in Time, a BG2 mod currently in development. You can already try some parts of it (like the inclusion of Coran as NPC) separately.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale 2

The info about the kits has been removed from the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection. (In case you haven't heard yet, BIS took all kits out of the game.)

However, I have added a substantial chunk of new information to our IWD2 Info Compilation you can find in the same subsection.

In the Miscellanea subsection, three new additions were made. For starters you can download the first official game trailer. Next I added another new portrait painting released recently. You can find it on the Concept Art & Images page. Finally, there are 2 new wallpapers you can download from the same subsection.

And if you are hungry for more screenshots, check out the Screenshots subsection. I have added another page of screenshots, more than 30 all in all.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

Quite a number of additions were made in the Miscellanea subsection. The monsters list has been updated with the latest new monsters, and an edited log of the latest chat has been posted.

Lower on the same page you will also notice that I have split the table in two, so Programs and the like are now separate. You can now download the Aurora NWN Model Viewer along with a dozen new skins & models the eager fans have made for it