May 2003

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Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2003 - 9:03 CET by Sorcerer

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

Assassin Prestige Class
The assassin is the master of dealing quick, lethal blows and excels at infiltration and disguise. One of five new Prestige Classes added in Shadows of Undrentide, assassins often function as spies, informants, killers for hire, or agents of vengeance. Their training in anatomy, stealth, poison, and the dark arts allows them to carry out missions of death with shocking, terrifying precision. Discuss.

For Devs: Generic File Format Documentation
The For Devs section has been expanded with documentation for the Generic File Format (GFF). GFF is an all-purpose generic format used to store data in BioWare's games, such as a NWN's object blueprints, conversation files, journals, palettes and more. Updates include the GFF documentation, a Conversion Program Tutorial, and an example GFF Editor (Windows only). Discuss.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Wednesday, May 28, 2003 - 21:14 CET by Veldrin

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

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Quote: On Feb 14 BioWare said that the Mac code was up to speed with V 1.28. Is the Mac code up to speed with V 1.29?

Yes and beyond. We are up to the 1.30 codebase now.

Well, aside from certain types of questions, we would just rather tell you all two things - when the Tech Trial is ready, and when the game is gold. Pretty much anything else would just be seen as an insult at this point, I think.

The problem was that we were taken to task for doing weekly update where we were reporting on what we were actually doing during that time. I think many were dissappointed by just how painful and boring game development can be. It has its high points, though.

Yes, blu, I meant that fans taking us to task. Let me be clear, we have never, nor are we currently, blaming the customer for anything. I think I have been quite clear that we have been thanking you for your continued support and understanding. All I have been trying to say is that we are damned if we do and damned if we don't, so we are simply going to continue to answer questions about the game and save the Big Announcements for the release of the Tech Trial and the retail version going gold.

NWN Mac: First of all, let me just say that I do not have any new information for you at this time about NWN Mac, other than to say that it has not been cancelled. It is a hard thing to balance the need for keeping in touch and the need for providing new information. For the last month, we haven't said much, simply because we haven't had anything new to report. But enough time has past that we need to chime in and report that the project is still in development. I doubt that any of you want to hear any promises or speculations on our part, other than to tell you when both the Tech Trial and the retail product are complete. We will be doing just that. Thank you for your continued support and patience.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Monday, May 26, 2003 - 17:20 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

David Gaider, Designer

AI: The AI's better in some respects, such as spell-casters choosing their spells, but we haven't had the time to devote to it that we might have otherwise liked. Hold us to a higher standard or not, we have a lot to do... a bright and dedicated fan with a very specific agenda and lots of time is always going to have the potential to outperform us, like it or not. I can understand the desire to only look out for official updates, but they're not always going to include everything you want. And as far as henchman leading a PC rather than following... I can tell you right now that that's just not going to happen. Wow, I can't even begin to imagine what that would require beyond the henchman making his or her own decisions on where to go and leaving you to follow or not. Which woiuld make it beside the point, really.

Statues With Petrification:: I don't think the stoneskin effect has been changed.... on some creatures you're going to see the swirling rock thingy and that's all there is to it. There's a reason for that which one of the artists explained a long time ago, but I don't remember it anymore, sorry. You can make statues with the petrification effect, sure... just remember that the creature still shows up as a creature in the engine. The player will be able to examine the creature and see the description, along with the status icon indicating that it's been petrified. If you're okay with that, then go hard.

Item Costs: The info I collected for this is in the hands of the Live Team, and it's something I'm told that they intend to work on... in time. They have a number of other higher-priority projects on their plate, currently.

Quote: All they need to do is allow us to put negative numbers in the "additional cost" box. I really can't see why this is hard to code for them...

I don't think there is any difficulty associated with this. When was that said? Just because it isn't difficult, however, doesn't mean we'll get right on it. We go through our lists in order of priority, not ease. Lower-priority stuff might get done out of order if it's perhaps encountered and fixed on the way to something else. So the Live Team will get to this eventually, even if it's not as snappy as you might like.

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

Evil Druids: My take on Druids is that they are balanced between good and evil as nature serves neither. I think the concept of an evil druid would in line with a druid that has chosen to support a group that has opposing views to the player characters (such as a band of orcs and so on). The druid will seem evil in the eyes of the players but they will have there own reasons for doing so. This does not mean that there are no eeeeeevil druids out there however. I just think that a druid will work for it's own or nature's own purpose which may run counter to PCs.

Don Moar, Tools Programmer

Command Line ERF Tool: I don't know if one's freely available or not, but all the information required to build one is now freely available on this site for the enterprising person (people?) willing to give it a shot.

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Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide Trailer at Gamers Hell
Posted Sunday, May 25, 2003 - 13:45 CET by Astin X

Gamers Hell has posted a new trailer, available for download, showing off a sample of Floodgate Entertainment and Bioware's work from the upcoming Neverwinter Nights expansion. The trailer apparently offers over a minute of CGI and gameplay footage featuring some new monsters and spells.

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Neverwinter Nights Linux Client Beta 6
Posted Sunday, May 25, 2003 - 12:44 CET by Mollusken

BioWare have released the next version of the Neverwinter Nights Linux client, which now has added internet server browsing and chat.

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights
Posted Sunday, May 25, 2003 - 11:32 CET by Astin X

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

Tim Cain, Project Leader

185 Pages And Counting

The manual is now 185 pages, and I'm not done yet. I still need to describe the major game interfaces, explain how followers and reputations work, add some appendices for things like rules changes and quick keys, and let's not forget a table of contents.

This rough draft will probably clock in at over 220 pages. And these are Word pages, so the final manual in Quark may be about 20% bigger, so that's about 260 pages. Oh, and I still need to add screenshots. Ack, that's probably 280 pages when they go in.

Apparently I am long-winded. I see an editing session in my future.

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

A Dream Come True

While I appreciate your comment that we're doing the best games I think it is safe for me to speak for everyone here at Troika and say that we're just doing what we love to do.

Personally whenever people ask me why I decided to become a part of the game industry I answer, "because if I wasn't at Troika making games, I'd be at home making games, and Troika wants to give me money." For me, working o­n Temple has been a dream come true, and while I'm sure I'll eventually want to work o­n a different type of game right now I'm in complete bliss and I can't imagine anything else I'd want to do.

Back to coding,

And here are today's posts by the Greyhawk team at the official Atari forums:

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

A Big 3.5 Fan

The new monster manual is supposed to be really revamped. They've structured the entries to help DMs manage the monsters. They quick list out stats if you're flatfooted and break down what the monster's attacks are (number and bonuses per attack) if they full attack vs standard attack. I think they have also switched to a o­ne monster per page format for easy listing.

I'd say the MM has some of the best improvements. I am also a big fan of the rules clarifications in the PHB, and the simplifications in the DMG. Conditions have been standardized to and there is a much more comprehenisve list. I don't think I'll PnP a 3.0 game o­nce the 3.5 books are available to everybody.

In my opinion I'd say 3.5 is what WotC wanted to do with 3.0 but they just didn't have the time to polish it really nice. I will be picking up all the new 3.5 books and encouraging all my friends to do so, and those that are new to D&D to not bother with 3.0 and to go straight to 3.5

But I may be somewhat bias

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights
Posted Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 20:10 CET by Gopher

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

Tim Cain, Project Leader

Gary Gygax o­n Prince Thrommel And Fragarach:

Here is my question to Gary Gygax o­n the matter of Prince Thrommel and his sword Fragarach.

I wrote:
    Prince Thrommel is in stasis in room 334. He is listed as a Paladin Lord, but no alignment, class or level information is given. His sword Fragarach is listed as Chaotic Good, and Lawful Goods take damage and pass out if they try to wield it. Does this mean Prince Thrommel is Chaotic Good as well, making Paladin Lord just a title? Or is Fragarach's description in error?

To which Mr. Gygax replied:
    Heh. I was planning a CG Paladin, o­ne who didn't fit the mold. Because of circumstances I never got around to that, so the easiest and likely more interesting way of managing the dichotomy is to have the name "Paladin" as a title. Celtic myth-inspired swords just can't be of LG alignment, eh?

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

Steve's take on it:

My take o­n it, (keep in mind this isn't necessarily the Tim, or the Gygax, or the official, or the module way of looking at it) and I'm a neutral party here...

Prince Thrommel was a Paladin Lord... not a Paladin. Fragarach is clearly chaotic, look at what it does! There is no lawfulness in that at all. He may have led paladins, but he himself needent obay their rules as strictly.

But of course thats what I saw in my cheerios. But I add sugar...

Hacking the Level Cap:

While it would be very unlawful, (see the DMCA for why) and even if you could increase the level cap beyond 10, there are no new spells past the level cap, and some of the feats that you couldn't get until after level 10 (craft rod I think, and craft ring) aren't there.

And here are today's posts by the Greyhawk team at the official Atari forums:

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

Arena:

Huy knows there isn't time but somehow he thinks he's going to sneak it in without me knowing. He has been told not to work o­n anything that is not in the schedule. If somehow we have plenty of free time and are ahead of schedule we can add it. But the way I see things right now we're barely squeezing by as it is.

I refuse to let this game feature creap its way into another year.

Maybe if we do another game we can add all the goodies we want (if that schedule permits), but right now our focus is o­n feature lock and an arena is not in that feature-set.

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Greyhawk Runner Up at IGN PC
Posted Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 15:41 CET by Mollusken

IGN PC have announced their Best of E3 2003 awards, and Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil was one of the runners up as Best RPG. The winner of the category was Ion Storm's Deus Ex: Invisible War, while Troika's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic were the other runners up.

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Neverwinter Nights Community Interview at NW Vault
Posted Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 15:29 CET by Mollusken

Neverwinter Vault has posted an interview with two community leaders, Athena and Orleron, who have joined their persistent worlds together in a revolutionary way.

Recently you announced that Avlis and Mythos are linking their worlds up in a unique way. Before we get into the how, could you discuss the why?

Orleron: Why? Because that is what NWN is for. NWN is the closest thing to D&D we have online, and in pen and paper D&D you can go ANYWHERE and do ANYTHING. By linking worlds together in a balanced and compatible way, you make the computer game more similar to the pen and paper game in terms of its vastness of exploration area and content. My dream is to construct a nearly endless realm where players can keep themselves busy for years. It's what UO and EQ SHOULD have been, except we can do it a lot cooler. :)

Orleron: Well, Orleron and I have been in contact since the very initial stages of each of our PW's. We have helped one another with ideas and processes since then. That is the main reason why our two Pws are so compatible-- which is a *must* have for a linkup to take place. Our worlds complement each other well... same, yet totally different, I am sure our players agree. We are roleplayers by heart and our modules and distinguished community are a perfect example. Our main goal.... maximize the game to its full potential.

Read everything at Neverwinter Vault.

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 23:19 CET by Gopher

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

Tim Cain, Project Leader

Original Storyline:

I will check to see if I can discuss the original storyline. I don't know if it was public domain or not. BTW, it's not earth-shattering, but it does explain a lot of loose ends that became evident when I started picking apart the module for scripting.

Game Manual:

The ToEE manual is at 131 pages and counting. I estimate that I am roughly half to two-thirds complete, so plan o­n eating a lot of fiber.

And here are comments from the Troika Team in the official Atari forum.

Huy Nguyen, Interface and Magic

Initiative Bar:

affirmative! you can also delay via the initiative bar (i.e. slide your character's initiative portrait around ala "Delaying" in 3E).

D&D Accessability:

Thank you for the link. I've had nil experience with D&D. In fact ToEE is the first D&D related thing I've ever been interested in.

it's interesting you say that, because there are a few people o­n our team that hadn't played "real" PnP D&D before joining the project, and probably never even thought about it - yet everyone was hooked after the first few sessions of playing! hehe

unfortunately, it's crunch time for us right now, and we haven't been playing our regular weekly sessions at the office... but not a day goes by that someone doesn't mention it at least o­nce! (the fact that we don't have time to play weekly anymore)

anyways, the point is, i'm glad that D&D can be accesible to just more than the hardcore D&D players.

Maps and Occlusion

the maps shown are actual in-game maps... i don't know for sure, but i think some creature placement was done specifically for screenshots/trailer. so while the maps are in-game, the creatures shown may or may not be native to that area.

occlusion for creatures behind walls is in (thank lee! it can be loosely described as a "ghosting" effect, i'm sure you guys know what i'm talking about). also, we do have animations for concealment/unconcealment IIRC, but i don't believe that they have been hooked into the game yet, for the particular creatures.

i'm sure steve could give you more concise answers.

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Dungeons and Dragons Online Interview at IGN
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 22:24 CET by Mollusken

IGN Vault have talked with Jeff Anderson, who is president and CEO of Turbine, the developer of Dungeons and Dragons Online. The article doesn't give away any info about the game, but Anderson hopes to give players more stories than other MMORPG's have delivered. You can get everything here.

Of course, one of the biggest responsibilities Turbine faces is being true to the Dungeons & Dragons license. The game will be based off of the 3.5 rulesets (unless a 4.0 ruleset comes out). They aren't releasing information on the setting just yet. From the beginning, players will feel special. They won't be godlike, but they will feel they are different and hero-like. The game will have an epic storyline. He is a huge fan of periodic updates, although he wouldn't commit to having monthly updates in the game - he did say there will be updates and a live team committed to the project.

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Shadows of Undrentide Preview at GP
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 22:06 CET by Mollusken

Gamer's Pulse have written a preview on Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide, and here's a short excerpt:

Bioware|Floodgate is also working a lot at differentiating the different normal classes from one another in the expansion pack. An example of this is that druids are now capable of speaking with animals, who may provide them with some extra information (or perhaps even a sidequest). No other class can speak with animals (with the potential exception of rangers). However, on the topic of rangers, they can now track. Tracks are objects that can be laid down, with scripting events associated with them. While a normal fighter may notice tracks, and a barbarian may be able to tell you what create made them, the ranger can glean even more information, such as the number of creatures and how old the tracks are. All of this is done with the scripting, so members of the NWN community will be able to use features such as this in their upcoming modules as well.

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Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 11:03 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Does it matter to you if you play any sequential CRPGs out of sequence?
(298 votes total)

Yes, I always play the original game first, then the sequels, in order (179) 60%
No, I play such CRPGs as I get them, not necessarily in the order they were released (119) 40%

Nice distribution of votes in this poll... The majority of poll participants (60%) always plays the original game first, and then everything else.

On the other hand, a large number of people who voted (40%) play sequential CRPGs as they get them, without paying much attention to the order they were released in.

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Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 10:30 CET by Sorcerer

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

E3 Coverage & Reviews
E3 2003 is now over, and after an amazing week running demos of Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the reviews, previews, and first impressions are now filtering in! You can also find pictures of us at E3 here and here. We will add more reviews and pictures throughout the week!Discuss.

SoU Screenshots!
We have added some new Shadows of Undrentide screenshots to the Shadows of Undrentide screenshot gallery. Discuss.



New Creature: Basilisk
The Basilisk is one of over a dozen new creatures in Shadows of Undrentide. Teeth that glint like expensive fountain pens, lightning fast predatory reflexes, and an icy glare that can paralyze any citizen unfortunate enough to cross its path are all characteristics of this terrifying six-legged creature. More on the Basilisk in this profile - screenshots included! Discuss.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 1:22 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

Don Moar, Tools Programmer

Editing Questions: Regarding the ERF issues:

11.

As far as the game and tools are concerned, case does not matter for ResRefs. They are internally converted to all-lower case. But as you've noticed, ResRefs within an ERF may preserve the case used by the files as they existed on your hard drive before being packed into the ERF. When unpacked from the ERF, they will therefore have the same case. This is more of a convenience to someone who is manually looking at the directory contents, rather than something that affects the game or toolset. An application that creates or edits ERFs is not required to preserve case when adding files. It is free to convert the names to all-lower case when adding them, so that extracting the file from it would not result in the same case as the originally added file.

12.

We've updated the documentation to clarify this point. ResRefs can be 1 to 16 chars, with unused chars being nulls.

Regarding the IFO issues, all I can say at this time is: patience.

I believe the module.ifo file is scheduled for discussion in a few weeks. We probably won't be answering any questions on this until after that update. In the meantime, we'll be looking at more fundamentals with the next few releases. Our intent is to provide this information in the most logical and organized fashion we can manage with the time we have available. This means starting at the beginning and going 1 step at a time with the ultimate goal of being able to get your own game data into and out of the modules for play in the game. Unfortunately, Ras, groups like OK may find the first few updates rather elementary but that can't be helped. We have to target the entire community and do what's best for everybody. Now, I'm not suggesting that you don't ask questions; we are interested in what everyone is trying to accomplish, after all. What I'm asking is that you understand if you don't receive an answer from us as quickly as you'd like. I'm also suggesting that you communicate with _each other_. You are your own best resources. You've demonstrated it time and again on the other forums on this site and I expect no less here.

Ras, it's not a bad idea and I'm not suggesting you abandon any of the projects you're working on. I'm explaining that with the limited resources I have available the most effective way for us to communicate this information is by releasing the documentation and then answering questions about it, not the other way 'round. Remember, this site is about presenting a common place for people to get details about some of the internals of how our games work and offering them a place to gather, communicate and colaborate to make their experience with our games that much better. As such, it has to be presented in a logical and organized way for the people that have never heard of OK or aren't part of another end-user group that has a year or more of experience digging into our file formats. I really appreciate what you and the other members of OK have managed to accomplish and we are trying to help. You just have to give us some time to get the site caught up to your level. Don't worry, we'll get there but with E3, finishing KotOR and SoU not to mention work on XP2 (and other things which we can't talk about), we're stretched a little thin right now.

2DA Files: First of all, after looking at your spreadsheet, let me say that we have WAY too many .2da files. Now, as we get into talking about things like items and creatures, we'll begin discussing the .2da files that they use. Once we get the more fundamental stuff out of the way, it'll be a lot easier for us to start rolling on this.

More 2DA Files: We are gradually making this change to each .2da as the opportunities arise. As such, we don't really have a schedule for if / when it'll be done - sorry.

At this point, I don't believe there are any plans for reading descriptions out of anything other than the dialog file. The problem with descriptions is that they tend to be a little more... verbose and as such don't really fit in a .2da structure.

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SP Exclusive: Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Interview
Posted Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 19:24 CET by Sorcerer

Sorcerer's Place has conducted an interview with Troika's Tim Cain, the Project Leader on Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil.

Due to the size of the interview it has been posted in two parts. The second (and final) part is now available.

Read it all here.

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights
Posted Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 19:10 CET by Gopher

Here are today's Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

A Game by any other name:

When I was working o­n the installer I think the last word we got from Atari (previously Infogrames) was that most likely "Greyhawk:" was going to be removed from the beginning of the name of the game. Whether there will be a subtitle or postfix name, I don't know. But I'm sure that the name will contain:

"The Temple of Elemental Evil"

Thats whats in the installer. However that may change too, I think some kind soul at Atari has decided to take over doing our installer (saving us prescious time to continue working).

Official Website:

Thanks for the compliment. I will be sure to pass o­n to Lucas and Peter your appreciation for their accuracy. I have to admit they are some excellent artists. In my opinion our backdrops blow just about every other prerendered CRPG out of the water.

Glad everybody likes the website, it took lots of work o­n o­n both our part and the web guys at Atari. There are a couple more cool things we want to try and add to it (but working o­n the game has taken precidence); we've been playing D&D here at the office and some of the GMs have been keeping session logs. We'd like to eventually post those logs, and there of course is some more concepts / screenshots / etc that we want to get up there. But for right now getting the game done is priority #1 :) Wish us luck!

Shadows:

Since we don't have dynamic lighting (not really an option with prerendered backgrounds); I think we are going to have 3 (or 4) options for shadows in the game:

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Shadows of Undrentide E3 Report at EP
Posted Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 22:47 CET by Mollusken

The Electric Playground have written a report on what they've learned about Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide at this year's E3.

FloodGate is also adding more ways to get around things. There were battles in the original that were pretty tough for the level of character you typically were when you encountered them. This time, if you find a battle too harsh, look around the environment for a shortcut. One example we saw had your character releasing a stampede of cattle through a group of monsters. In another, the player used an item that indirectly allowed them to spring a trap on monsters, stun them, and then take them out easily. Patient and/or tactically clever characters can still do things the hard way, but now there are more options for players who want or need to think things through.

You can find the rest of the report here.

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The Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights
Posted Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 22:28 CET by Gopher

Here are today's Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

Huy Nguyen, Magic and Interface

Shadows in Screenshots:

Shadows were blobbier when those screenshots were taken... emphasis on the were.

E3:

Hehe... Our demos went great at E3, by all accounts! Thanks out to the whole team, it really was a total team effort!!! Everyone kicked butt!

The Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil?

Oh, thanks for bringing that up... I think more than a few people are confusing the original ToEE module (for character levels 1-8) with m.cook's Return to ToEE (levels 4-14). The confusion is understandable, but feel free to correct people whenever you see this!

I noticed this a lot o­n a recent thread o­n usenet/c.s.i.p.g.rpg, where people were discussing the game's level 10 cap.

Corey Pelton, Animation

Health Bars:

You can click o­n the red bar to show a numerical value for your remaining HP. It shows up o­n the bottom portion of the characters portrait. Nope, no hovering, it'll stay there. I actually learned about it from mofo while we were demoing at E3.

Monster Animations:

Man! I had a helluva good time animating all the monsters (and a lot of the PC anims too), D&D creatures are awesome to work o­n.

The site o­nly has but a small selection of monsters in it. We have over 90 unique monsters, and a lot more with the way our system works for different armors and textures, it's really sweet, you guys will dig it

The modeling and texturing of the monsters were created by Craig Matchett and Chris Glenn. Both these guys crush.

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Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 23:09 CET by Gopher

Here are today's Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

Tim Cain, Project Leader

Character Conditions:

The blank boxes are where we planned to put conditions (good and bad) that were applied to your character. Things like poisoned, diseased, raging, invisible, etc. However, we are now placing those icons above and below your portrait, depending o­n whether they are good or bad.

The HP bar is a visual indicator of your health. If you hover over it, you will get a numerical indicator (such as HP: 4/12) of your health.

Health Bars:

The hp bar is always red, and the subdual bar is always blue.

Huy Nguyen, Magic and Interface

Camera Angle:

Yes, you are correct. The backgrounds are 2d pre-rendered, and the avatars are 3d. (Also some scenery objects are 3d, etc.) So no, you can't change the camera angle ;)

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Official Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Website Launched
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 20:33 CET by Astin X

Atari has finally launched the official site for Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil. The site is well designed, displaying screenshots and art available in the game, as well as a library of information with regard to rules, monsters, downloads (including the official trailer), etc.

You can find the site by following this link.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 19:57 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

David Gaider, Designer

Gamespy Preview: The paladin that's mentioned in the article is another student at Drogan's, but is not available as a henchman. She was supposed to be one a long time ago, but we cut her back to a regular NPC. Not sure why the article says otherwise. :shrug:

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Screenshots at ToTheGame
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 19:45 CET by Veldrin

ToTheGame has posted 20 brand new screenshots of Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil. You can see their whole collection here.

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Preview at IGN
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 19:30 CET by Veldrin

IGN has posted a preview of Troika's up and coming game, Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil. This is what they had to say:

"The look of TEE is similar to other Troika games, yet taken to the next level. You've got your elaborate, hand drawn backgrounds with 3-D characters moving among them. Spell effects make use of dynamic lighting and particle separation. In fact, multiple target spells that have been neglected in other D&D games can now be assigned to individual monsters. For instance, if you're using a chained lighting spell to attack a group of giant frogs, the game won't pick which frogs the spell will jump to, it's up to the player to decide. Want to take out the one closest to you first, then the one farthest away, and then all the frogs in between? Go ahead, the choice is just a mouse-click away as you click the order of the monsters you want the spell to hit. Similarly, no more casting a fireball spell and accidentally incinerating that wandering dwarf in your party. Area effecting spells can be assigned with the use of an area selection tool for precise enemy frying."

You can check out the whole thing here.

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Shadows of Undrentide E3 Trailer
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 19:05 CET by Veldrin

IGN has posted the Shadows of Undrentide trailer from E3. You can see some very nice spell effects, fighting, and also some very brief footage of the new Pit Fiend model. The whole trailer is 10.6MB. Check it out here.

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Shadows of Undrentide E3 Update by IGN
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 18:53 CET by Astin X

IGN has posted a two page article describing what they saw of the Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide at E3. It lightly touches on various aspects of the game including prestige classes.

In a nutshell, Undrentide is more of the same but with a heavy emphasis on the more. It's not a sequel, but then nor is it a prequel. Shadows of Undrentide has a varied, distinct and personable cast going for it. Actually, it's not just characters, but rather the classes and specialty prestige classes themselves that should make it cool.

Read the rest here.

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Shadows of Undrentide Preview at Gamespy
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 18:39 CET by Veldrin

Gamespy has posted an interesting preview of the first Neverwinter Nights expansion pack: Shadows of Undrentide. Here's a clip of what they had to say:

"Bioware has chosen to present a shorter storyline than the campaign that's in the original game. Even so, that doesn't mean they've skimped on detail. Instead of presenting a combat-heavy plot, Shadows of Undrentide's campaign will present gamers with several different ways to achieve their goal. For instance, there's a section of one of the levels where your PC has to cross a narrow bridge guarded by many enemy archers on the other side. They've clearly got a tactical advantage, and if you want, you can hack and slash your way across. However, if you open the gate of a nearby pen of oxen, they'll start a stampede towards the archers. The act will net you some juicy XP, so you won't be stiffed on advancement just because you chose to evade fighting the enemy directly. That sort of quest design isn't an isolated event. I saw several such missions where players will be able to choose their own methods of dealing with obstacles."

You can read the whole preview here, and check out the screenshots here.

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Journal #2
Posted Friday, May 16, 2003 - 18:21 CET by Gopher

Tim Cain has written the second part of his Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Journal at RPG Vault. Here's what Tim had to say about his Journals:

"This journal entry is the second in a series of articles that will form a development diary of Troika's latest game, Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil (or ToEE for short). I am Tim Cain, the project leader of ToEE and co-owner of Troika Games. In the first article, I described the origin of the ToEE project. In this one, I will explain how we went from a 128-page 1st Edition D&D module to a 144-page design specification for a 3rd Edition D&D computer game.

In doing so, I promise to avoid phrases like "paradigm shift" and "proactive stance", despite how tempting they may be. I will also try to avoid any spoilers while I describe how we made the necessary changes to the module. However, I do give the names of several locations and monsters in the game, so if you consider that to be of a spoiler nature, please do not read any further."

Read the rest here.

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Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil Forum News
Posted Friday, May 16, 2003 - 17:01 CET by Gopher

Here are the latest Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

SSI Gold Box Series

The SSI Gold Box series (coupled with some Sir-Tech Wizardy lovins) are the reasons I went into PC RPGs. Without Curse of the Azure Bonds I don't think I'd be the same person I am today.

Not o­nly have I played them, they are prominently displayed in my office. I actually want to do a 3.5 conversion of them and put some people thru it pen and paper. But I'd have to find people who haven't actually played the CRPGs.

Multiplayer

Being responsible for a majority of the multiplayer code in Arcanum; I'm going to have to say there are some SERIOUS architecture issues with this engine becoming multiplayer capible.

ToEE has made it a lot better, but there are still some groundwork issues that haven't changed that need to.

Huy Nguyen ,Interface and Magic System

Quote: Can the information window show more info (actual rolls etc)?

Yes, the blue words in the Rolls History are "hyperlinks" to another interface that does a breakdown of each roll (not shown in screenshot)... e.g. +5 to hit -> +2 flanking bonus, +2 class bonus, +1 etc. etc.
(this interface also doubles as the in-game help/"d20 encyclopedia")

Monsters' Initiative

Unfortunately for you guys, the o­nly way you'll witness monsters taking simultaneous turns is if you go to E3 and check out the current game build while it's running (or if media or a fan films an E3 gameplay movie)!

...Although recently sean added a visual indicator by highlighting all the monsters' initiative portraits at o­nce. That would have to wait for the next batch of screenshots or something I suppose.

At first, I as somewhat opposed to this idea, since it raises questions like "what about AOO's? won't this break d20 combat?" etc. I think we were all a little concerned, but after seeing it in action, it works like butter. There are rules that prevent simultaneous turns from going too crazy; at the moment, monsters will do it o­nly if they are doing generic move or attack actions (i.e. they won't be doing 10 frog tongue attacks at the same time!)

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Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Trailer Re-released
Posted Friday, May 16, 2003 - 15:47 CET by Sorcerer

The same gameplay trailer, which Gamer's Hell had prematurely released and had to speedily remove a few weeks ago, is now finally publicly available. You can download it here.

Eye on Troika also posted a nifty scene-by-scene commentary of the trailer.

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Shadows of the Undrentide Article at ActionTrip
Posted Friday, May 16, 2003 - 15:10 CET by Sorcerer

ActionTrip posted a short article on Shadows of Undrentide during their E3 coverage. The article holds no new information or screenshots, but it might still be interesting as a summary of what SoU is all about:

"The game takes place at about the same time as the original story. Undrentide is intended as a new adventure for low level characters but you do have the option of importing your higher level character from the original game. If you choose to take a higher level character, the game will compensate for this by throwing more creatures to contend with."

Read the rest here.

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Shadows of Undrentide Screenshots Mania
Posted Friday, May 16, 2003 - 15:03 CET by Sorcerer

ToTheGame and GameSpot both posted a series of screenshots from the upcoming Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide. Most of them are not new, however.

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BioWare at E3 2003 Part 1
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 21:04 CET by Sorcerer

BioWare posted a few pictures of their getting set up at E3 that you can check out.

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Dungeons & Dragons Online Announced
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 20:46 CET by Sorcerer

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Atari and Turbine today jointly announced plans to bring Wizards of the Coast's incredibly popular gaming universe, "Dungeons & Dragons"® ("D&D"®), to the world of massively multiplayer games with "Dungeons & Dragons® Online." This innovative online role-playing game will be the first project developed, funded and run by Turbine Entertainment, creators of the critically acclaimed "Asheron's Call" and "Asheron's Call 2." "Dungeons & Dragons Online" will provide players with the definitive online "Dungeons & Dragons" experience, complete with dramatic dungeon crawling, terrifying monster combat and challenging puzzles, character advancement and guild-based power struggles.

"We've been looking for perfect opportunities to enter into the world of massively multiplayer online gaming and there is no fantasy gaming brand with more recognition than 'Dungeons & Dragons,'" said Bruno Bonnell, chairman and CEO of Atari. "The key to a productive business model for online gaming is having quality content that consumers will pay for. 'Dungeons & Dragons Online' will build on the huge amount of established content in the 'D&D' worlds. It has the potential to be that killer online app...that breakthrough title that sets a new standard for the medium."

Slated for release in 2005, "Dungeons & Dragons Online" is centered on robust character advancement, challenging dungeon combat, meaningful guild politics and territorial control over major portions of the game world. Players choose and develop a character based on some of the iconic races associated with "D&D," including Humans, Elves and Halflings, as well as classes such as Fighters, Clerics, Rogues, and Wizards -- after which they can socialize, find quests, group together and equip themselves for future battles.

"'Dungeons & Dragons' is the ultimate fantasy role-playing game. It has introduced more people to game playing than any other title and has spawned hosts of imitators and admirers," said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO, Turbine Entertainment. "The social backbone of 'D&D' gaming -- groups of friends creating adventures and worlds to explore together -- along with its rich fiction, immense monster bestiary, and complex character development make it a natural for the next generation of massively multiplayer game."

"Dungeons & Dragons Online" will let players travel alone or in parties as they explore the seemingly endless dungeon complexes found beneath the world. Through the dungeons, players will engage in physical and magical combat with hideous foes straight from the pages of the "Monster Manual"(TM) rulebook. Battle will be challenging, fast-paced, and easy to control with a wealth of unique weapon effects and character movements, as well as specific monster behaviors designed to keep combat both tactical and action packed.

Source: ToTheGame

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Neverwinter Nights for $19.99
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 16:45 CET by Sorcerer

In case you haven't bought Neverwinter Nights yet, and you shop at Amazon.com, you can get Neverwinter Nights there for just $19.99 after a $10 mail-in rabate. The offer is only valid till May 18, so click here to get your copy now!

Considering that the Shadows of Undrentide NWN expansion is going to be released in a month or so, this is perfect timing.

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Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 16:05 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Do you currently subscribe to any PC gaming magazines?
(230 votes total)

No (159) 69%
Yes (71) 31%

Well, the results of one of the simplest polls ever run on SP are pretty interesting, even though not very many people bothered to vote.

69% of those who voted do not subscribe to any PC gaming magazines. I expected this number to be much lower, but the market is obviously still very much there for gaming magazines.

However, 31% of poll participants do subscribe to one or more PC gaming magazines.

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Greyhawk Impressions at GameSpot
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 10:07 CET by Mollusken

GameSpot have had the chance to take a look at Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil during E3. They've written a few words about it, and they've got three very good looking screenshots showing combat and spell effects. You'll find it all here.

Greyhawk will attempt to remain as true to the 3.5 edition rules as possible without overwhelming you with numbers. Your characters' initiative in combat is determined automatically, and icon portraits will be displayed at the top of the screen indicating in which order your party and its enemies will take their actions. If you wish, you'll be able to uncover all the die rolls and hard data that determine initiative, saving throws, and attacks in combat by pulling them up from a side menu. Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil is scheduled for release this September.

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Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2003 - 23:22 CET by Sorcerer

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

NWN: Hordes of the Underdark
BioWare revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that the second expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights will be called Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. Discuss.


Builder Profile: Lisa
From parasols to mage staffs, from dragon trapestries to miniskirts, Lisa (or her screen name of Tiamiat) is a great example of a beginner who started with no technical knowledge at all and now is at the top of her game. We caught up with Lisa to talk about her work. Discuss.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2003 - 23:07 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: I think that, rather than putting them in with no context, no quest to earn membership, & so forth, the whole concept of PRCs should have been nixed from the very beginning.

That was not an option. Keep in mind, as I said, that prestige classes are not specific to the SoU campaign. And just because we didn't use them as a focus of the campaign is not a reason to eliminate them altogether.

Quote: Will there be a generic Henchman Converstaion that we can use as a baseline to make 'improved' henchmen? Or will we need to hack apart one of the campaign conversations?

You will need to hack apart the conversations. They're pretty heavily commented, however, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Quote: Hi Dave, can you verify that weapon switching is in for henchmen? Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by weapon switching. If you mean the henchmen switching weapons on their own, I'm really not that sure. Whenever I want the henchman to switch weapons I just go into their inventory and put something else in their hand, myself.

New Events: I've said in the past that we're looking at including an OnPlayerEquip/OnPlayerUnEquip for XP2, but it definitely won't be in XP1. The only new event handler in XP1 is for the OnCutsceneAbort event.

Henchman: We're going through the henchman level-ups right now, actually, and testing out how they're going to work with the default packages. They may yet change if the combination isn't working well (and, in fact, the kobold henchman may very well have to change the Rogue secondary class for that reason).

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Shadows of Undrentide Preview at GameSpot
Posted Monday, May 12, 2003 - 18:28 CET by Mollusken

GameSpot have written a preview on the Neverwinter Nights expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide. The preview has got a few new details on the new campaign, prestige classes, feats and spells, as well as a couple of new screenshots. Here's an excerpt:

You'll start the game watching the ambush of your master and then have to hurry out the door in hot pursuit of the kobolds. Your main quest is to find the four artifacts stolen by the kobolds and find out who was behind the theft. It soon becomes apparent that a great white dragon in the north is the culprit, but there are also other evil forces that threaten Hilltop. Gnolls under a mysterious leadership have waylaid the kobolds and stolen the artifacts, which suggests that at least two major evil forces are at work. Even the dreaded Red Wizards of Thay, the supreme villains of the Forgotten Realms, are getting into the act.

Read everything at GameSpot.

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Neverwinter Nights Review at Thunderbolt
Posted Monday, May 12, 2003 - 18:17 CET by Mollusken

Thunderbolt Games have reviewed Neverwinter Nights, giving it a score of 7 out of a possible 10. Here's their conclusion:

This game is not a one I would recommend to everyone or even every RPG fan. It just needs a lot of patience and commitment from the player for it to show its true value. If you manage to endure it at first and try to like it, it will give you maybe more than you actually ask for. You just have to learn to like it for you to see the true beauty and great capabilities this game possesses.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 1:17 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: Let me point out they did not add PrCs to the campaign they added them to the game. The PrCs and the campaign are not tied together as some of us hoped.

Not any more. I believe it was said back at the beginning that the original two prestige classes were involved in the SoU story. It did not make sense, however, to have the three new prestige classes not have a story requirement while two did... yet it would require too many big changes to try and fit the three new ones in somehow at that point. Yet we did not just want to exclude those new prestige classes from people playing SoU. Truly, if the story of the campaign had revolved around the prestige classes, it would have been a bigger deal. The story is what's important to us and what we wanted to retain.

Epic Levels: The argument for and against implementing Epic levels is very similar to the kind of dicussion that goes on here regarding it (personally the thought of Epic levels causes me to projectile vomit, but nobody ever takes my arguments seriously when I start doing that). Epic levels are quite clearly one of the biggest demands, and it seems like we need to implement them somehow. Obviously we cannot do a completely by-the-book implementation, though... one just needs to skim through the Epic level rulebook to see that's the case. We can not and will not, however, trivialize the crowd that wants these implemented. So the argument continues here. Feedback from you all is appreciated on the topic, though I would only ask that you be a bit more respectful with each other about it.

SoU Feats: Great Cleave is in.

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Character Files: Character files (.bic) are GFF files. So yes, it will all become clear when the GFF docs are released.

Don Moar, Tools Programmer

ERF Files: 1. I don't know who ordered the resources in the Contest of Champions module or why it was done, but the order of the resources in the erf is irrelevant.

2. Since neither the toolset nor game can support these new resource types you'd like to add, you're probably better off packaging them outside the .mod altogether anyway.

3. Index 0 in the dialog file is the text "Bad Strref". STRREF MAXINT is defined by the game and toolset to also be "Bad Strref" (although that text is not in the dialog file). I think it was assigned when our internal string database for NWN was created, but the MAXINT one was a hold over from the Infinity Engine. I wouldn't worry about it.

Darcy Pajak, Assistant Producer

XP2 Title: We plan to announce the name of the 2nd expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights at E3. This will also be posted on the forums that Wednesday. All I can say now is that the title is in red font.

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Infogrames Name Change
Posted Thursday, May 8, 2003 - 21:10 CET by Mollusken

Infogrames, the publisher of Neverwinter Nights and Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil, has officially changed its name to Atari. Atari was previously just a label owned by the company, and Neverwinter Nights was one of the games released under this label. SFGate has got an article with more info on Atari and the name change.

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Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Thursday, May 8, 2003 - 18:54 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: What kind of Internet connection does your gaming system have?
(334 votes total)

DSL (109) 33%
Dial-up (106) 32%
Cable (92) 28%
ISDN (13) 4%
T-line (9) 3%
Wireless (3) 1%
Satellite (2) 1%

Judging by the results of our latest poll, the majority of poll participants' gaming systems (33%) are well equipped to deal with the modern high-bandwidth needs, namely with a DSL connection of some kind.

Close on their heels are the less fortunate dial-up users with only a few votes less (32%). It is encouraging, however, that the number of dial-up users has been steadily declining over the years. Most of the remaining dial-up users today could opt for a faster connection but usually don't because they are not willing to pay extra for a faster connection.

Cable users are the third large group with 28% of votes.

The other four connection types are obviously not utilized by many gamers. Only 4% of those who voted use ISDN, and 3% have a T-line connection (lucky devils). Wireless and satellite aren't used by many either, with 1% of votes each.

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Site News - New Additions
Posted Wednesday, May 7, 2003 - 22:44 CET by Sorcerer

Helping Support Sorcerer's Place

It's been a while since my last call for help... A reminder how you can help Sorcerer's Place is in order, since the donations I rely on to keep this site running have been extremely slim lately. I have made an exhaustive list of all the ways each and every one of you can help support Sorcerer's Place in one way or another. The link to this support page can be found below the PayPal button on the left side of every page of Sorcerer's Place. I hope you will take the time to read through it and see if you are willing to do something to help.

My thanks go to all who have donated to SP in the past, or bought anything through the links on Sorcerer's Place. If it weren't for you folks to help me cover the monthly costs, SP probably wouldn't be around any more.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

Forgotten Realms Books subsection: Twilight Falling (Erevis Cale Trilogy) added.

Dragonlance Books subsection: The Middle of Nowhere (Crossroads Series) added.

Miscellaneous Books subsection: The Sundered Arms (Dungeons & Dragons) added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate

Walkthroughs & Guides subsection: Baldur's Gate & ToSC Guide added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Planescape: Torment

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: PS:T Magic List updated, PS:T Creature List added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection: Sarevok character added, 3 mods added.

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: Deathmage's Complete NPC Guide updated.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale 2

Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection: 4 soundsets added, 1 portrait pack added.

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: Icewind Dale 2 Spells updated.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

Walkthroughs & Guides subsection: NWN expansion details page updated.

Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection: NWN Character Creation Guide updated, NWN Guide for DMs and Builders added, NWN Spell Guide added.

Miscellanea subsection: 1 chat log added.

Toolset & Related subsection:

Subsection #7: 3 link updates.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil

Walkthroughs & Guides subsection: ToEE Introduction updated.

Miscellanea subsection: 1 chat log added.

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IGN's Top 100 Games
Posted Wednesday, May 7, 2003 - 21:42 CET by Mollusken

IGN are rating the top 100 best games of all times, across all genres and platforms. They're unveiling 10 new games every day, and the list is currently up to number 30. Baldur's Gate has been rated number 63, and here's IGNs reason why:

Why it Made the Top 100 List: Any CRPG player will tell you that there are a few games over the years that have distinguished themselves more than any others. While not all of them could make it on the list, there were a couple that could brook no discussion. Baldur's Gate was one of these. It managed to revive a dying breed of game and breathe a deep breath of fresh air into its lungs. With deep character creation and a gigantic story with more side quests than you could shake a very big stick at, this one has already secured a place in the annals of computer role playing game history.

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Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Wednesday, May 7, 2003 - 20:58 CET by Sorcerer

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

For Developers
Our new community section provides resources for software developers in the community who want to produce new and exciting utilities for our BioWare Aurora Engine and Toolset across multiple platforms. With this launch we release the Encapsulated Resource File (ERF) format complete with documentation, tutorial and an example internal editor. Visit our new For Developers Forum, and read the For Developers FAQ. Discuss.

Builder Profile: Placeables Galore!
Profile: Placeables Galore!
For those of you who have discovered the secret to making your module unique is the clever use of placeable objects- look no further! Here we feature Renato's "AoB Super Placeables 1.0" as well as Spoonmerlin's and gnomad's freaky placeables packs. Discuss.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Tuesday, May 6, 2003 - 21:01 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

David Gaider, Designer

SoU Campaign: As for whether or not the campaign will be better, that depends a lot on what you value. One has to keep in mind that this campaign is a LOT shorter... it's an expansion pack-sized adventure and not a new OC put into an expansion pack. That's an important distinction, as some people seem to be expecting the latter. As for the adventure itself... it's a little more challenging (it's designed for people who are familiar with NWN and not as an introductory adventure), it's got more attention to detail, a better story (for the most part... I'd still say it's quite linear overall while allowing several paths within the bounds of its plot), more interactive henchmen (they make regular comments throughout, initiate dialogue occaisionally, cast spells and identify items when you ask them to as well as allow you to alter their inventory)... and, well, other stuff. It may not end up being everyone's cup of tea, but I'm fairly happy with how it's turning out, personally. My advice, if you're concerned, is to listen for feedback from people who do give it a try and judge for yourself whether the expansion's of interest to you. Although, to be honest, unlike our previous expansions for other games, there is more here than just the campaign to give it value. Aren't we evil?

Quote: I used to answer these things under the mistaken impression that they were read by the "powers that be" and given thought. However, I've since learned that that is not the case.

Mmm... they're certainly read, occaisionally, if not always responded to. It's just that most folks don't know the resources involved in many cases, and so ask for things that just plainly aren't going to happen. How often do you want to tell people no? But it's good feedback, regardless. As far as XP2 is concerned, the implementation of Epic Level stuff is going to take the largest portion of our resources right there. It's not a small thing at all.

Quote: 1 - Fix the freaking city gate! It has got to be *easier* to fix the gate than to create a "plot wizard." It must be easier to fix the gate than to create 20+ new monsters and double-handfuls of spell effects, and 3 new tilesets. FIX THE BLASTED GATE!

I take it something's wrong with the city gate?

Quote: 2 - Circular patrol paths. Duh.

The patrol path is the way it is because it's scripted that way. If you want a circular path, the script only needs to be changed. There are, I believe, already scripts out there which have done this.

Quote: 4 - Give the DM the power to view the player's character-sheets. Duh.

Wasn't this put in several patches ago?

5 - Sometimes my story line says they cannot map the area. Let me turn off the map *without* the need for a hackpak.

This is being considered. You're more likely to see this from the Live Team than from XP2, however.

7 - When I create a mob during scripting give me "SetName" to change what is displayed above the NPC's head. Then I can have 15 "Troll Chieftains" all identical, but give each a unique name without the need for 15 unique blueprints.

A 'SetName' function is not going to happen, as far as I know. This sounds easy to change but is not, according to the programmers.

9 - Ladders. Hello! They only need to be able to be clicked upon to activate an area change, that's fine. But they need to BE. Duh.

There are two types of ladders available as placeables in XP1. You will need to script them to activate an area change, but there you go.

Tom Ohle, Communications Associate

Release Of SoU: As always, it'll ship when it's done... however, we have no control over how long it takes for the game to get to England (or Germany, or anywhere for that matter). It all depends on publisher distribution. Hey, last year, Israel got the game before anyone (even before the States)

Don Moar, Tools Programmer

Conversations: You have to set the Speaker Tag on the conversation node to correspond to the tag of the next NPC to speak. If the NPC speaking is the owner of the conversation, you can leave the Speaker Tag blank (which should default to "OWNER"). Note that the conversation still has to alternate between NPC and PC statements, it's just that the PC line should be blank, resulting in a [Continue]:

-Root
-- NPC1: Did you hear about ?
---- PC: [Continue]
------ NPC2: No. What about ?
-------- PC: [Continue]
---------- NPC1: Well! was overheard plotting against the king! ... and so on.

SoU Modules: Yes, once you've installed SoU, you will be able to add to existing modules with any of the new content. However, this will tag your module as requiring SoU. This means people that don't have the expansion installed will be unable to play your module.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum News
Posted Saturday, May 3, 2003 - 18:50 CET by Veldrin

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: The Shades Absolutely HAVE to be in an Expansion called the SHADOWS of Undrentide, which takes place in the Anauroch

You mean shades as in the shade character template? (more exaggerated innocent blinking)

Quote: On a slightly more serious note: would 'good' races be exactly happy with the prospect of a kobold wandering about their towns, weapon drawn. I mean this dwarf dosn't know much a bout the deserts but any where in the Sword Coast one of those things would be shot on sight.

Indeed. A kobold companion would be an unusual sight, especially in any populated area.

Quote: Having said that, I think the personalities of the joinable NPC's have always been one of BioWare's strongest design capabilities, so even though I am moaning about 3E, I am straining to peep across the Canadian border to see what it's all about.

Ahhhh, I see. Well, the thing I like about 3E is its flexibility. We didn't make a kobold bard just for the sheer silliness of having a kobold bard... he fits in well in the story, and lookee-here there's rules to cover that if I want it. And why not a druidic dragon? Or an ogre ranger? Heck, I can think of scenarios where those could be very serious and unique characters. I'll admit that our kobold henchman does play up a bit on the Boo Factor... it's true, it's true. He also has a serious side, however, and I'm told that his dialogue at one point in the game has moved more than tester to the Hidden Sniffles (as in "sniff! sniff! I'm not crying. Go away. Where's my kleenex?")... and if there's room for that kind of dichotomy in a single character, there's room for it in general play. It's the restrictions of the original rules that supposedly lock everyone into one static vision of gameplay that seem a bit senseless to me.

Quote: So back to the Kobold - who taught him his songs? Better yet, who listened to them? Where does a Kobold's lore come from? How does a Kobold learn the art of persuasion as applied to human society? Context is missing here, so I hope it is provided in the story, eh?

Absolutely. Just how a kobold bard came to be is a tale in and of itself. How sad would I have to be not to pick up on that? As for the system, I just have to shrug. Allowing players to pick up new classes without some kind of justification isn't something I would do in my personal campaign (NWN's functionality aside... you can't do "downtime" in the same way as PnP, although some kind of control would be nice). The options are there for you in 3E to make the kind of campaign that you prefer. Why worry about how everyone else is playing? To me, those very restrictions are what made 2nd edition a bit boring in the long run.

Henchman: No, the kobold is not the reskin. There are three henchmen in total, and you've already listed them:

the kobold bard (potential rogue)
the female dwarven cleric/rogue
the male half-orc barbarian/sorcerer

The class combos might still change, depending on how the automatic level-up scheme works with each of them. If you've got an opinion (dare I even ask?), speak now or forever hold your peace. (yeah, that'll happen...)

Quote: Err, this dwarf has an opnion, on the half the Half Orc, by the looks of him he may be lesss of a Barbarian type, he looks more like a straight caster to me and if he has to have some kind of 'warrior' levels they should be kept in moderation.

He takes one barbarian level for ever four levels of sorcerer unless you tell him to concentrate on one or the other. The choice is up to the player.

Quote: I admit I haven't been following the SOU boards all that closely, but am I correct in assuming that we will only have three henchmen to choose from or is it that there are three new henchmen total?

Well, there are no "old" henchmen... so, yes, there are three henchmen total in SoU.

Their Alignments: Why? What alignments do you think they should be? Overall, I've tried to skew all their alignments so they're pretty accepting of any type of playing style. Seems to only make sense that way.

Monsters: Phaerimm? You mean those magical wind-sock thingies? I have trouble picturing them as actually looking threatening when rendered in 3D.

Yes, Asabi are one of the new creatures... and, yes, it is a reskin of the lizard man. I believe it is, however, the only new creature in the list that is a reskin of an old creature (and does offer all three versions, anyhow: Chieftain, Shaman and Warrior).

New Models: No, it's not 16 new models. If you consider the faerie dragon to be different enough from the wyrmlings and pseudodragon to be a different model, then there's 15 new models and 1 reskin (the Asabi)... by my count, anyhow. And, yes, the formians are considered one creature for these purposes.

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Troika IRC Chat Log at RPG Codex
Posted Friday, May 2, 2003 - 17:29 CET by Gopher

RPG Codex have conducted an IRC Chat with the Troika Team behind Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil, and Troika revealed a heap of goodies that had previously been kept under wraps.

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Sorcerer's Place Needs Your Screenshots!
Posted Friday, May 2, 2003 - 17:27 CET by Sorcerer

What do we need them for? For the Screenshot of the Week feature, of course.

Currently the most desired screenshots are from the original Baldur's Gate (and Tales of the Sword Coast), Icewind Dale (and Heart of Winter & Trials of the Luremaster), Icewind Dale 2, Pool of Radiance: RoMD (I wish), Neverwinter Nights and most of all - Planescape: Torment. I'd really love to put some screenshots from this one up since spell effects in it are amazing and the graphics cool all around, but no one is sending me any...

More info about how to take and submit screenshots can be found here.

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Troika Q&A at RPG Vault
Posted Friday, May 2, 2003 - 17:14 CET by Gopher

RPG Vault has posted their second Q&A with five members of the Troika team. In this chat they asked two questions related to interesting locations in the D&D module and the Troika team members' characters, and here's what Tim Cain (Project Leader) had to say:

What are a couple of locations you find particularly interesting in the Temple of Elemental Evil module, and why?
I have played the pen and paper module many times, but always as DM, so I am looking forward to playing the game in computer form. I like playing dumb half-orc barbarians and charismatic sorcerers, just to see the dialogue variations. But my stress test for the game will be playing from start to finish with five female halfling bards collectively called the Spicey Girls (individually they are Shorty, Baby, Scarcely, Injure and Slosh). If I can finish the game with them, anyone can finish.

If you've been through the Temple of Elemental Evil module, what's your favorite type of character to play? If you haven't, what type do you think you'd most like to play?
For looks alone, I like the temple exterior map, where you can see the whole evil cathedral. It's beautiful and it looks EVIL. But I also like the bottom dungeon floor, which not only looks cool but has a large variety of creatures on it. Most of them are high-level, which means they perform some pretty nifty attacks. I've died on that level many, many times.

Read the rest here.

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NWVault Community Interview
Posted Thursday, May 1, 2003 - 23:08 CET by Mollusken

Neverwinter Vault has posted an interview with community member Kinarr Greycloak on his many achievements contributing towards custom content in NWN.

Your modeling work before NWN came out as well as after has been ground breaking in many ways. Could you tell more on your modeling background. (Do you do it professionally? How did you start?)

No, nothing professional, it's just something I've fiddled around with for many years as a hobby. I started out with computer graphics programming in high school where I made a Star Trek starship combat game and went on to try various free 3d rendering software.

Have you played the official campaign and what do you think of it?

I suppose I am one of the few content creators that has not only played it, but actually finished it as well. I think there were a lot of good moments even though it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Overall I enjoyed it. There were times when I wished I had different options and I had a hard time caring about the henchmen, mostly because it was too easy to get them back after they died, but also that there wasn't much interaction with them outside of their quests. I'm looking forward to seeing improvements in the exansions.

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Linux Beta Client for Neverwinter Nights
Posted Thursday, May 1, 2003 - 19:24 CET by Gopher

The Neverwinter Nights Linux Client Public Beta 5 is now available. Amongst other things, it contains the following improvements:

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Troika Developer Chat Reminder
Posted Thursday, May 1, 2003 - 19:15 CET by Gopher

The Third Developer Chat with the Troika team will be held today at 8:00 p.m. EST (May 2 at 1:00 a.m. GMT). The chat is being hosted by RPG Codex and will be held in the #rpgcodex channel o­n irc.gamesnet.net.

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