June 2002

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Another NWN Review at GameSpot UK
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 19:44 CET by Mollusken

No big surprises here either. GameSpot UK gives Neverwinter Nights a score of 9 out of a possible 10.

Overall, Neverwinter Nights is a compelling game. It's highly polished, but more importantly, very enjoyable. If I have any quibbles, they are rather minor. At around 60 hours, it is much smaller than the Baldur's Gate games, and although some may welcome this, I personally enjoy games that keep me busy for a long time and always feel disappointed to have finished them (which probably explains why I played Baldur's Gate II through seven times!) I also miss the party-system and the interaction you had with your NPC comrades. Sure, henchman will converse with you, but not to the extent that your party members did in Baldur's Gate II. Still, that's not much to complain about, all things considered. Neverwinter Nights is a great game, and one that will hold your attention from start to finish. We hope that BioWare has more of this in store for us in the future.

Read everything here.

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NWN Dungeon Master Review
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 19:42 CET by Mollusken

Neverwinter Connections has dedicated a review to the Neverwinter Nights dungeon master client, and point out the strengths and weaknesses of it.

We had 3 Dungeon Masters and 5 players. The game was a total success (other than the repeated crashes) and everyone involved enjoyed it immensely. While running the game I was absolutely amazed at how large of a step was just taken towards that holy grail of a pen & paper game. The players were role-playing! They stayed in character! They walked instead of running everywhere! They questioned the citizens of the town, which were of course live Dungeon Masters… It was just awesome.

Not only was it extremely easy to possess NPC’s and to move about, it was also extremely fast. We were able to stay ahead of the party most of the time and luckily the party stayed together.

I could go on and on about the ease of Dungeon Mastering a Neverwinter Nights game, however, I think you realize it will just be more gushing over such an amazing product.

Read the whole review here.

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One Million Neverwinters Shipped
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 19:21 CET by Mollusken

It's been said in a press release from Infogrames that they shipped a total of one million Neverwinter Nights games worldwide. It's also a part of the story that they've allready sold 125000 copies. The whole press release can be found here.

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Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 18:27 CET by Z-Layrex

David Gaider, Designer

Templates: I think that's one of the scripts used for the generic script templates. There are a number of templates which we used which form an easy base for a number of basic quests... there's a fetch quest, rescue quest, assassination quest, etc. These have template dialogues, template NPCs and use a set of scripts which you will see all over the script database (nw_c2_assvict1 for the assassination victim, nw_d2_j_assa01 for one of the assassination plotgiver's dialog scripts, nw_d2_j_fetch01 for one of the fetch plotiver's dialog scripts, etc.) These scripts are set up to work in a very specific manner, with the user only needing to plug values in a few places and adjust the template dialogue to suit them. They won't work well otherwise... that escort script, for example, is setting a variable which is looked for by the rescued prisoner's template dialogue file. Not much use to you unless you have that. The description on the script should probably mention that it's not a general 'follow the PC' script and just for a specific plot where an NPC follows the PC, but it's not incorrect. (Incidentally, I imagine these template plots are being prepped-up with sufficient documentation and will be released for you all to use at some point. I don't know that for sure, but it'd be a waste of all the work we did on 'em otherwise.)

Follow Scripts: I don't know how to do follow scripts, I'm afraid. We used to have an ActionFollow command, but it was probably taken out because it didn't work very well. All I could suggest is that you use the OnHeartbeat event to have the NPC check if GetDistanceToObject (the PC) is greater than a certain amount... if so, then ActionMoveToObject.Might also want to add in there, that if that distance becomes too large, then ActionJumpToObject (like the henchmen do sometimes). Otherwise, I'd suggest opening up the henchmen scripts and see how they follow.

Generic AI: I wouldn't suggest altering the generic AI include unless you really, really have to. It shouldn't be necessary, anyway. If you go into your NPC's OnSpawn script, copy it and save it under a different name. Then uncomment the line 'SetSpawnInCondition (NW_FLAG_ON_DIALOGUE_EVENT);' and recompile the script. This sets up your NPC to fire a UserDefinedEvent # 1004 whenever someone 'shouts' near him. Now if I wanted that NPC to respond to the shout 'Come Here' when stated by the NPC's PC master (the identity of which is stored in an object variable on the NPC), I have to do the following:

1) First, you need to tell your NPC which verbal commands to listen to. This would be added to the OnSpawn script using the SetListenPattern command.

2) Then, in the OnUserDefined script, you want to GetListenPatternNumber() and see if it matches up with the integer set in the OnSpawn.

So, for 'Come Here', I'd need to make sure that the proper SetSpawnInCondition line was uncommented for the OnDialogue event and the following line added:

SetListenPattern (OBJECT_SELF, "Come Here", 100);

Then I could add this as my OnUserDefined script:

void main()
{
int nEvent = GetUserDefinedEventNumber();
if (nEvent == 1004) // OnDialogue Event
{
int nMatch = GetListenPatternNumber();
object oMaster = GetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF, "Master");
object oShouter = GetLastSpeaker();
if(nMatch != -1 && GetIsObjectValid(oShouter) && GetIsPC(oShouter) && (oShouter == oMaster))
{
if (nMatch == 100) // Come Here: NPC moves to PC
{
ClearAllActions();
ActionMoveToObject(oShouter, TRUE, 2.0);
}
}
}
}

Sharing Variables: First you have to use a SetLocal command to actually set the variable on an object... then you can use a GetLocal command from any script to retrieve it. Let's say you wanted to set the "Alive" string variable to be equal to the PC's name (not sure why you're using GetAttackTarget, but I'll go with that). Let's say you want it to be set module-wide. You would set it by doing this:

SetLocalString (GetModule(), "Alive", GetName(OBJECT_SELF));

Then from any other script, you could retrieve that string from the module:

GetLocalString (GetModule(), "Alive");

Generally, however, when getting a variable, you want to use it in the context of a definition:

string sName = GetLocalString (GetModule(), "Alive");

That way in the new script the variable sName would be equal to the name of the PC in the original script.

Scripting: If I wanted a wolf to flee when it reached a certain damage point:

1) Copy it's OnSpawn script and re-save it under a new name. Uncomment the 'OnDamaged' flag (the 'SetSpawnInCondition (NW_FLAG_DAMAGED_EVENT);' line).

2) In the OnUserDefined section, put a script that does something like the following:

(nwscript)
void main()
{
int nEvent = GetUserDefinedEventNumber();
if (nEvent == 1006) // OnDamaged event
{
int nCurHP = GetCurrentHitPoints();
int nMaxHP = GetMaxHitPoints();
if ((nMaxHP/2) < nCurHP) // if at less that 50% HP
{
// clear actions and flee to exit waypoint
ClearAllActions();
ActionMoveToObject (GetWaypointByTag("oExit"), TRUE);
// don't accept any more input from AI scripts
SetCommandable (FALSE);
}
}
}

Custom Tokens:

Quote: i.e. You have a SetCustomToken( int nToken, string sText ), but no GetCustomToken(int nToken). Can I, instead call GetLocalInt(GetModule(), "CUSTOM" + nToken), or is there some other cunning incantation?

No, there is no GetCustomToken. Custom tokens are only for use in dialogue. Once set, they are global, but it's up to you to track what custom tokens you have.

Dragons: It should be easier to use the special abilities in possession with the 1.19 patch (and the regular AI should have your creatures using them normally, as well). Would have been nice to have the DM faction/PvP bug fixed for 1.19, as well, but we're still working on it. That one's a very high priority to get fixed asap.

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Neverwinter Nights on Parhelia
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 12:39 CET by Mollusken

FiringSquad has tested the three-headed graphics card Parhelia from Matrox, and Neverwinter Nights was one of the games they tried out on three 22" monitors. There's a couple of photos from the testing here.

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Neverwinter Nights Patch 1.19 Released
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 12:24 CET by Mollusken

The Neverwinter Nights english patch v1.19 has been released, and it fixes the following bugs.

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Neverwinter Nights Linux Server Released
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 12:19 CET by Mollusken

BioWare has released the Neverwinter Nights dedicated server application for Linux. It's only a 1,4 mb download, but it requires a lot files from the Windows installation of the game. Go here for the download.

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Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 28, 2002 - 2:35 CET by TBR

Feargus Urquhart, President

No release date update: I know you all miss me when I don't post for a while and that my hopefully in ten days has been up for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I don't have an update on our date yet. I know that EBGames.com posted a date and I can't tell you (yet) whether that is going to be the actual ship date or not.

Sorry, I know that I'm not posting any new news, but I thought I should say something because of the info up on the web.

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Neverwinter Nights Reviews
Posted Thursday, June 27, 2002 - 19:06 CET by Mollusken

Another top score for Neverwinter Nights The Electric Playgound, with 9.5 out of a possible 10.

Curse all of you for making me write this review and dragging me away from valuable Neverwinter Nights time. In fact, what are you doing here reading this? Why aren't you playing the game now?

Ok, somewhere in my NWN obsessed mind I vaguely remember a thing called "rent," which I pay by writing about games, so here I go: Neverwinter Nights is a fantastic game, a great accomplishment, and by far the best PC game I've played this year. Actually, it may be the best PC game of a good many years. I can picture other gamesmakers checking out the game, and then just surrendering. Yes, I know there's a small element of backlash surrounding this title, as there always is with any big name/big hype release. But honestly I don't know what they're on about. I am floored by this game.

The 3D Guru doesn't give the game a score, and in their opinion the game isn't perfect (yet).

All in all, if Bioware would fix 3 very annoying and game breaking bugs, this game would be the cream of the crop for RPG's for years to come. Until these bugs are fixed however, they are a thorn in the side of many who want to experience this game hassle free. If anything, the single player game will whisk you away to another world for the time being, as long as you can handle having to go through a dungeon 2-3 times because the map said you were already there when you weren't. I just couldn't let another review go by without letting the public know, that the grass isn't as green as some people might lead you to believe. This game is getting tremendous fan boy attention, even from most reviewers who maybe just want to ignore the problems this game has because they either do not want to admit there are major faults in the game, or simply have not played it nearly enough to give that review in the first place.

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Neverwinter Wednesday
Posted Thursday, June 27, 2002 - 18:54 CET by Mollusken

Yes, I know's it's Thursday now, but here's the wednesday goodies from BioWare anyway. At the official Neverwinter Nights community site you'll now find a module contruction tutorial (downloadable in pdf format), a guide to chapter one of the official campaign and a brand new wallpaper made from the toolset.

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Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 19:17 CET by Z-Layrex

J.E Sawyer, Lead Designer

Release date, the status of the game and no new avatars: Direct questions about the release date to Vivendi or EBWorld. Find out where they got them and WHY they were set that way. I've been pretty explicit about where our development stands. We have less than one hundred active bugs. That doesn't mean that there are less than one hundred bugs in the game, but there are less than one hundred KNOWN bugs in the game.

As for making new avatars: NO. NO. NO. Whether Vivendi wants to ship the game in two days or ten weeks or fifteen years, there are exactly zero artists working on IWD2. They are ALL working on Jefferson or (if they are Aaron Brown) on Lionheart. In order to show you Jefferson, we need art assets. That's what they are creating. A lot of them. Animations, characters, environments -- anything YOU CAN SEE, they are making. Don't believe me?

Aaron Meyers -- Terrain modeling and texturing
Aaron Brown -- Lionheart modeling and texturing
John Dickenson -- Character texturing
Dennis Presnell -- Terrain modeling and texturing
Vance Kovacs -- Environment concepts, character concepts, website concepts
Vera Milosavich -- Character and environment modeling
Glenn Price -- Character texturing
Trent Campbell -- Character animation
Abdul Brown -- Character and environment modeling
Carlos Cheek -- Environment modeling
Dany Martinez -- Environment modeling and texturing
Christopher Marleau -- Character animation
Chris Appelhans -- Character texturing
Brian Menze -- Object texture-mapping

... and Justin Sweet is doing contract work for another company. That's it. Every full-time artist in Black Isle is working on Jefferson with the sole exception of Aaron Brown.

Look, I know you guys really want new avatars for IWD2, but we don't have unlimited resources. When people get taken away from working on Project 1 to work on Project 2, Project 1 falls behind. And it SUCKS. Sorry.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Playing solo update: Skummy is on hiatus right now. To be honest, I was losing interest in him because of the reasons I stated earlier in this thread. For now, I'm playing and evil party consisting of 3 half-orc fighter barbarians, a tiefling fighter/thief, a Dreadmaster of Bane, and a drow wizard. I'll probably go back to Skummy later this week, but I needed a breather from him for a bit.

Chad Nicholas, Sciptor

Axes: There aren't any Orc Double-Axes or Dwarven Urgrosh in IwD2. All axes (2h, 1h, thrown) use the MW: Axe skill.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 19:05 CET by Z-Layrex

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

Dragons: Yes, Dragons have breath weapons. I believe there are even screenshots out and about that show this. A breath weapon for a dragon is one of it's combat abilities and it may not be used during a specific combat. The fire breath weapon is the most impressive attack in the game in my opinion.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Henchman: The henchman were originally designed to need to be instructed on everything that they do, but that was switched to use a system of silents shouts (oxymoron!). This way, henchman are more intuitive and do not need to be so heavily managed. If you come up to a door and click on it, and get a "locked" message, the door is shouting to your henchman to attempt to unlock it. Tomi the Rogue then responds to the door outloud (so you can hear it), saying "Will do!" or somesuch. He should then fire a script that tells him to walk to that door and unlock it. If you are in combat, there is a random chance to his success. If you are not in combat, then Tomi will "Take 20" and automatically be successful. Of course, Tomi will tell you whether or not he can unlock the door by his initial assessment "No can do" or "Will do!" or whatever it is that he says.

This is also the way that traps on the floor work. They will silently shout to your henchman, if he notices them, to tell the PC to "hold up" so that he can disarm it. Just like locks, he'll know whether or not he can do it beforehand, and doing it outside of combat will guarantee that, so long as it is within his skill range, it will be successful.Sometimes, the henchman will receive multiple commands, and this can affect things. When he does receive multiple commands, he will do whatever was the last thing he was told to do. For example, you walk to a door and click on it, and the door says locked. Tomi thinks to open the door, but as he moves to open the door, he realizes that he is too far away from you. So now he is moving to you, to make sure the distance is acceptable. Meanwhile, you click on the door once again and he moves to unlock it, but then he makes a spot check for an enemy and moves to attack. You should be getting feedback in most of these situations (i.e. Tomi makes a battle cry, or says will do, or so forth.), so you won't wonder what's going on. Hope this has helped!

Jonathan Epp, Quality Assurance

Local Variables: Local variables are set on specific objects. So 'val_1' on object 1 does not equal 'val_1' on object 2.If you need to use 'global' variables, set a local variable on the module object (use GetModule() to get the module object). For example: SetLocalInt(GetModule(), "val_1", 42);

Though in your example of players talking to an NPC, you might just want to store the variables on the NPC. But it depends on what you're trying to do...

Lights:

Quote: Is there any way to change the light color of placeables such as torch brackets and other light sources?

Not directly, that I know of. There is a sort of workaround though. First, turn off the placeable's normal illumination with SetPlaceableIllumination(oPlaceable, FALSE). Then, apply one of the Light visual effects to the placeable:
ApplyEffectToObject(DURATION_TYPE_*, EffectVisualEffect(VFX_DUR_LIGHT_*), oPlaceable, 20.0)

The duration can be permanent or temporary (DURATION_TYPE_PERMANENT, DURATION_TYPE_TEMPORARY), and there are a whole bunch of light constants you can use (just click the Constant button in the Script Editor to see the list). The number is the duration, but is only used if it is temporary.This might not work if the placeable object has the Static flag set (on the Basic tab of the Placeable Object Properties). I can't remember for sure, but you might want to make sure the Static flag is not set to be on the safe side.

More:

Quote: Is there a way to determine the tile vector within a script?

Well, let's say I want to figure out what tile an NPC is on:

vector vPosition = GetPosition(oTheNPC);

A vector has three values - x, y and z. The z is unimportant to us, so let's ignore it. All the values are in meters. A tile is 10x10 meters. So if you divide the x and y values of a vector by 10, you have the tile grid position, which is what is needed for the tile color functions.

vector vTile;
vTile.x = vPosition.x / 10;
vTile.y = vPosition.y / 10;

The vector vTile now has the tile grid position, so it can be used in SetTileMainLightColor and SetTileSourceLightColor (after converting to a Location this is). I believe the rest has been covered above...

News Commenting
Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 13:29 CET by Sorcerer

Well, the final version of the news commenting layout is all done now. To minimize the complications (and probably give myself a lot of headache later), I set it so that registration to post is not required.

Feel free to test it by clicking on the Comments link below!

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More Neverwinter Nights Reviews
Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 12:29 CET by Mollusken

The first of today's reviews is found at Gamers.com.

My disappointment didn't last long. In fact, it ended as soon as I began the character creation process. Being familiar with the D&D source material, I know how long and arduous character creation can be. And in the Baldur's Gate games I would typically spend hours trying to lock in on the perfect combination. As usual, gender isn't too tough, and neither is race if you know all the modifiers each race gives. If not, it doesn't take long to read them, and it is well worth it, because the gameplay effects are immediate. Two quick examples: Humans will have more skill points and an extra feat, while elves will have extra weapon proficiencies, nightvision, and more.

You'll find the second review over at MyGamer.

The graphics are well thought out and much attention was paid to detail. I was especially impressed when I zoomed in and found that there was no loss in graphic quality (Something many companies take for granted). Performing a spell was truly magical with the superb lighting effects and some of the most impressive explosions I’ve seen to date. The creatures come in many shapes and sizes and Its obvious they spent a lot of time perfecting them, as hard as I tried I could not find a single flaw in any of them. If graphics are an important part of a game NeverWinter won’t disappoint you.

And finally there's one at GamingReport, which is written by former Wizards employee Ryan Dacey.

Had NWN allowed FP perspective, I suspect that it would be a true revolution in game presentation. As it is, I cannot get past the feeling that I'm not roleplaying; I'm just directing a robot who moves from point to point and kills things.

Imagine how much better EverQuest would be, for example, if you could switch to NWN's 3/4 perspective view when running around the towns or from point to point through the wilderness, but when it cam time to fight something or inspect something closely you could zoom into the "you are there" mode.

I've seen both worlds. I want the best of both in one game. The technology involved is already done; someone just needs to put the pieces together.

Close. Very, very close. But not quite there yet.

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Neverwinter Nights - Maxim Ad
Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 11:15 CET by Sorcerer

Our faithful reader Bel has sent us a scan of the Neverwinter Nights ad from the latest edition of the men's magazine Maxim. It's a very cool picture, though I'm sure some of the ladies will be frowning. ;)
Click on the picture below for a larger version of the ad.

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Another NWN Review at IGN PC
Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 19:01 CET by Mollusken

With the opening line "The only thing Bioware forgot in this package was the fries.", Neverwinter Nights receives another top score from IGN PC.

And on the Eighth Day, He Built Neverwinter.

Okay, okay...with that header I'm not trying to imply Bioware = God, so please don't send me any emails telling me I'm going to burn in Hell. But I will say that God would have been able to get to that day of rest a hell of a lot faster if he would have had access to the Aurora Toolset. It would have been: "On day one He created man, woman, creatures, grass, trees, light, firmaments in the midst of the waters, and all that jazz. And on days two through seven, He vegged out in front of the computer with a case of Mountain Dew and a pizza."

Read everything here.

GameSpot Reviews Neverwinter Nights
Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 18:48 CET by Mollusken

GameSpot gives the game a score of nothing less than 9.2 out of a possible 10. Here's a few words from them.

You might think that a game like Neverwinter Nights probably isn't very healthy for the gaming industry. After all, this is the sort of game you could easily play for months or even longer. Simply put, once you get into Neverwinter Nights, you'll likely have no need or desire to play another role-playing game for a long time--or any other game for that matter. And while that's unfortunate for any game trying to compete, it's certainly a good thing as far as most gamers should be concerned. They'll find that Neverwinter Nights is indeed the end-all, be-all Dungeons & Dragons RPG that it's been touted to be for the last several years.

Read everything over at GameSpot.

Neverwinter Nights Review at TVG
Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 18:45 CET by Mollusken

Total Video Games have written a few words about Neverwinter Nights and they give it a score of 9 out of a possible 10.

Personally I enjoyed the Dungeon & Dragons legacy, the board game was superb if however incredibly complex and confusing which brings me onto my next topic. You would expect a game like Neverwinter Nights to contain so much information and vast amounts of ‘things’ going on that it would confuse and somewhat distress new and less advanced gamers. I must admit I have been playing games like these for years and I too get frustrated if I can’t understand what’s going on, thankfully Neverwinter Nights’ seams to have hit the nail on the head. As you play, the game itself develops at your own speed and at the level of your knowledge. Instructions are clearly displayed and simple to understand, admittedly there is still a lot going on but eventually you’ll get the hang of it. Using quick keys you can use different weapons, cast spells, heal yourself and to some extent get you and your team members out of trouble. If you die you have two options, load a saved game, which is fine if you have saved recently. Secondly you can re-spawn, this takes you back to the temple however you will lose crucial character skill points – again it’s another decision you will need to make.

Read everything here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 16:30 CET by Z-Layrex

Niel Flynn, Programmer

Scripting Problems: Yep, I was wrong. I just whipped out the old statistics text book and you guys caught me. The easiest way to fix that is to do the 1/n, 1/(n-1), ... method. Basically make the top node a 1 in 6 chance. The second node a 1 in 5, the third a one in 4, and so on. If it ever gets to the last node, that one is automatically selected so a script is not necessary. Remember that if you have 4 nodes, the first one will be 1 in 4, if you have 15 nodes, the first will be 1 in 15, then lower by 1 each node down. Also remember that the order will be important so keep that coordinated with the scripts.

Conversations: To link, you have to do NPC to PC or PC to NPC. Add a PC to the end of your last NPC and link that.

Root
--NPC: Hi
----PC: Hello
------NPC: I will say Hi again.
--------PC:
----------NPC (link) : Hi

To get [CONTINUE] or [END DIALOGUE] just leave the text blank. When you create a node it has a default text. That has to be removed so there is no text at all. The [???] is added automatically.

Owen Borstad, Tools Programmer

Servers: The button gets greyed out if it can't connect to gamespy. This means that your server could be behind a fire wall, or that the ports are blocked some how. For more information about which ports to unblock, look at this.

Trent Oster, Producer

Spontaneously Casting: You can drag the cure spell from your spell book into the quickbar. If you have no cure spells memorized it will have a small "s" visible which means you are spontaneously casting the spell when you use the quickslot.

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

Fog:

Quote: Edit-> Area Properties-> Visual tab-> Customize Environment

There you can adjust Sun/Moon Fog Amount and Color as well as the Sun/Moon Ambient & Diffuse colors.

The fog and lighting effects are some of the key ways to completely change the feel of an area. Sound was implemented quite late in the development of the Toolset and so I am just getting used to have full control over sound and it has the same powerful effect as lighting.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 16:08 CET by Z-Layrex

J.E Sawyer, Lead Designer

Staves and daggers: Staves and daggers can still be pretty useful. Staves are the only two-handed bludgeoning weapon. There are a few monsters in the game that are resistant to slashing and piercing. When you encounter them, you will be glad to have a staff. Daggers, used with Weapon Finesse, can allow a low-strength, high-dex character to hit very often, even if it isn't for a lot of damage. This is very useful for rogues who sneak attack often.

Cleric "Domains": THIS IS THE FINAL LIST OF CLERIC DOMAINS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED ABILITIES. LAST EDITED ON 6.24.02.

When a character takes a level of cleric, they will be required to pick a deity from the following list: Ilmater, Lathander, Selune, Helm, Oghma, Tempus, Bane, Mask, Talos. This their deity for all cleric levels.

Selecting a deity is restricted by alignment. It also gives you two (2) special powers and access to domain spells. Domain spells are a special set of spells. For every cleric spell level the character can cast, he or she may cast one domain spell per day, from a list of two per spell level. These alignment restrictions, powers, and domain spells are listed below. Domain spells have been assigned arbitrary levels for the purposes of fitting into the "domain" and feel of the deity.

Ilmater (LG, NG, LN)
Pain Touch 1/day (Touch weapon that causes a -2 penalty to Str and Dex for 10 rounds)
Ilmater's Endurance 1/day (increase Con by 6 for a number of rounds equal to level)
1st: Minor Elemental Barrier, Protection From Evil
2nd: Unfailing Endurance, Aid
3rd: Magic Circle Against Evil, Cure Serious Wounds
4th: Holy Smite, Emotion: Hope
5th: Feeblemind, Holy Power
6th: Stoneskin, Harm
7th: Holy Word, Impervious Sanctity of Mind
8th: Symbol of Pain, Holy Aura
9th: Horrid Wilting, Summon Monster IX

Lathander (LG, NG, CG, N)
Improved Turning Feat (free)
Lathander's Renewal 1/day (cures 2x cleric level in hit points)
1st: Sunscorch, Faerie Fire
2nd: Lesser Restoration, Bull's Strength
3rd: Agannazar's Scorcher, Negative Energy Protection
4th: Shield of Lathander, Holy Smite
5th: Flame Strike, Raise Dead
6th: Heal, Fire Storm
7th: Greater Restoration, Sunbeam
8th: Aura of Vitality, Resurrection
9th: Meteor Swarm, Mass Heal

Selûne (NG, CG, CN)
Selune's Freedom 1/day (Freedom of Movement that lasts 1 round/level)
Moon Shield 1/day (grants a +3 bonus to spell resistance that lasts 1 round/level) 1st: Faerie Fire, Sanctuary
2nd: Moon Motes, Alicorn Lance
3rd: Moonblade, Protection From Fire
4th: Emotion: Rage, Ghost Armor
5th: Wall of Moonlight, Undead Ward
6th: Antimagic Shell, Divine Shell
7th: Planar Binding: Air Elemental, Planar Binding: Water Elemental
8th: Planar Binding: Fire Elemental, Planar Binding: Earth Elemental
9th: Prismatic Spray, Elemental Legion

Helm (LG, LN, N, LE)
Helm's Shield 1/day (grants a +2 bonus to saves for a number of rounds equal to level)
Helm's Watch 1/day (grants a +2 miscellaneous bonus to AC for a number of rounds equal to level)
1st: Protection From Evil, Armor of Faith
2nd: Spell Shield, Hold Person
3rd: Exaltation, Glyph of Warding
4th: Death Ward, Defensive Harmony
5th: Greater Command, Dismissal
6th: Circle of Blades, Globe of Invulnerability
7th: Spiritual Wrath, Impervious Sanctity of Mind
8th: Iron Body, Seven Eyes
9th: Aegis, Banishment

Oghma (NG, LN, N, CN, NE)
Oghma's Knowledge (+1 to all Lore skills)
Identify 1/Day
1st: Identify, Eagle's Splendor
2nd: Charm Person, See Invisible
3rd: Find Traps, Dispel Magic
4th: Malison, Shout
5th: Power Word: Silence, Greater Command
6th: Power Word: Stun, Symbol of Fear
7th: Great Shout, Symbol of Hopelessness
8th: Power Word: Kill, Symbol of Death
9th: Executioner's Eyes, Wail of the Banshee

Tempus (CG, N, CN, CE)
Automatically gains Martial Weapon: Axe and Weapon Focus: Axe feats.
Tempus' Strength 1/day (increase Strength by 6 for number of rounds equal to level)
1st: Magic Stone, Bless
2nd: Draw Upon Holy Might, Chant
3rd: Prayer, Animate Dead
4th: Blood Rage, Recitation
5th: Champion's Strength, Chaotic Commands
6th: Circle of Blades, Spiritual Wrath
7th: Power Word: Blind, Summon Monster VII
8th: Power Word: Stun, Summon Monster VIII
9th: Power Word: Kill, Summon Monster IX

Bane (LN, LE, NE)
Tyrant's Dictum (all saves vs. their will spells are at +1 DC)
+1 to all Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate
1st: Command, Bane
2nd: Silence, Horror
3rd: Dire Charm, Rigid Thinking
4th: Cloak of Fear, Emotion: Despair
5th: Greater Command, Domination
6th: Power Word: Silence, Feeblemind
7th: Suffocate, Gate
8th: Flaying, Power Word: Blind
9th: Mass Dominate, Summon Monster IX

Mask (N, LE, NE, CE)
Free Blind-Fight feat
+1 bonus to Hide, Move Silently, and Pick Pockets
1st: Minor Mirror Image, Sleep
2nd: Blindness, Blur
3rd: Mirror Image, Invisibility Sphere
4th: Emotion: Despair, Improved Invisibility
5th: Shadow Monsters, Unholy Blight
6th: Greater Shadow Conjuration, Phantom Blade
7th: Shades, Soul Eater
8th: Mass Invisibility, Blasphemy
9th: Black Blade of Disaster, Executioner's Eyes

Talos (CN, NE, CE)
5 Electrical Resistance
Destructive Blow 1/Day (gain a +2 bonus to hit and damage for a number of rounds equal to level).
1st: Shocking Grasp, Doom
2nd: Death Armor, Gedlee's Electric Loop
3rd: Storm Shell, Lightning Bolt
4th: Protection From Electricity, Static Charge
5th: Slay Living, Ball Lightning
6th: Whirlwind, Chain Lightning
7th: Tremor, Destruction
8th: Fire Storm, Acid Storm
9th: Wail of the Banshee, Horrid Wilting

Dreadmasters of Bane: Dreadmasters of Bane can be awfully powerful if their abilities are focused in a particular direction. All domain spells (for all clerics) are at +1 DC to resist. Combined with the Dreadmaster's innate +1 DC for all Will spells, that's a free +2 bonus. If they use their precious feats for Spell Focus: Enchantment and GSF: Enchantment, that's a base +6 DC to any domain spell they cast from the Enchantment school that happens to (usually) have a Will save. If a Dreadmaster with an 18 Wisdom cast Domination as a domain spell, the save DC to resist would be 25.

Chris Avellone, Designer

Shopkeepers having speech files: No, they don't do that in IWD2. Unless they're voice-acted, it's just text when you actually dialogue with them.

Late Poll & Some Other Stuff
Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 3:52 CET by Sorcerer

Due to my involountary absence (I've sprained my ankle and waited for 7 hours at the ER), the new poll is more than 6 hours late. We need to make up for the lost time, so go vote now!.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to ask you for donations or any other help you're able to provide. I've recently bought a new, faster server (the one we're on now) just to be able to serve you lot faster and to keep you from nagging over slow load times. ;)
So if you'd like to donate a buck to help me pay it all off (not to mention the monthly hosting costs... ugh...), please use the PayPal donate button on the left side of all pages on SP. Thanks!

Neverwinter Nights First Impressions at UGZ
Posted Monday, June 24, 2002 - 18:35 CET by Mollusken

Universal Gamerz has written an article with their first impressions from Neverwinter Nights.

There it laid on the shelf staring at me, mocking me even, as I approached it with a grin. I laid both hands upon it and jetted for the counter only to be asked how I wished it to be billed. I inquired about the cost and quickly gave the payment, only to be handed a small plastic holding the box I had just purchased. I gently caressed it with my fingers. As I walked back to work, I started ripping and tearing the box apart, it had shined on the shelf, but after I got my hands on it, it lost its luster. I examined the contents. The contents seemed to have an energy about it, sparking with electricity and alive with endless possibility. The time ticked by at a daunting rate that day and the ride home was no quicker.

You can read everything here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2002 - 21:40 CET by Z-Layrex

Niel Flynn, Programmer

One Use Conversations: Fric, The previous advice was correct, except the top node should check for iTalkedTo == 1, and the second should set that to 1

Root
-- 1. I already gave you it, shove off already!
-- 2. Hi How are you?
---- ... blah blah

In 1. use the script wizard to create a test to see if the variable is 1.

In the subtree of 2. Set that variable at the point the item is given.

There are a few other threads on this subject to use as a resource too.

Toolset Tutorial: We have a big 35 page (in Word) tutorial that has been completed and is awaiting final approval. It should be online very soon. I am not sure of the final mode of distribution (pdf, doc, html).

NPCs Attacking Eachother: The easiest way is to set their factions to 0 relative to each other.

Toll Bridges: Use the faction system. Make a new faction that the two Orcs belong to. Make their faction neutral towards the PC. In the converation, the node where the PC refuses to pay should have a script attached in the Actions Taken tab that sets the faction to 0 towards the PC. This can be done with the script wizard.

More:
Select Properties, and the Creature Properties dialog will open up.
- In the lower right you will see an area called "conversation". Select the Edit button in that area
- This will open the conversation editor with a new conversation. When you leave this editor, it will assign the conversation automatically to the creature.

There are a few threads on creating conversations, but if you need more help please post again.

Factions: Factions are explained in the tutorial (not yet released, but soon). Basically, they are a numerical representation of how two groups of one or more objects each, feel towards each other. If you make two factions (FAC_1 and FAC_2) and set them to like each other (faction value bigger than 10) they will not attack each other. Then use the script (warning I am doing this from memory)

object oCreature = GetNearestCreature(???) <- Use the tag of the other creature
AdjustReputation(oCreature, OBJECT_SELF, -100);
DetermineCombatRound ......

Then the two creatures will attack each other. Sorry that is so vague, I can get more specific if necessary.

Merchants: Peeps Darius, there is no "merchant area" per se. You use a script to open the store for the player, and the 'merchant' exists in the player's screen. No one else sees it or has any indication it exists. Usually 'merchants' are attached to a NPC's conversation so the NPC appears to be the shopkeeper, but all he really does is cause a 'merchant' to open on the player's screen. So the flag on an arrow is just a marker to notify the module designer that a store exists. It has no in-game effect.

Build Module: The Build Module does a few things. It checks for unused things (which just clutter up the module but have no bad effect) and it checks for resources that are supposed to be there but aren't. Mainly it will recompile all your scripts and creature challenge ratings. The biggest problem we found was that we would try a script in the game and see it didn't work. We would open the module in the toolset, change the script and try it in the game again but nothing changed. We forgot to recompile the script so it was still using the old one. this just makes sure everything is up to date.

Interior Tiles: Not all the interior groups combine well. The Home Lower 1 is one of them. You could setup a transition between a door there and another in the Inn area. Transisitons can be in two different areas or in the same area. There is no way to blend the two together.

Copying Areas: I'm flattered and maybe even a little curious but...There is no way to make a group of item into a custom item, although it is a good idea for a patch or expansion. You can select them and press Ctrl-C. Then Ctrl-V to paste a group of things. There is no way to rotate a group around the center either. There again is a good add-on for later.

Patrols: There might be a bug with the 'Create Set' functionality, I just tested it and I got the same problem. The issue is that, if the tag is TAG_X, the waypoints need tags of WP_TAG_X_01, WP_TAG_X_02 ... It doesn't seem to be adding the WP_ at the start of the tag. You might have to manually do that until the next patch.

NPCs Fighting Players: Use the script wizard on the Actions Taken tab to modify the faction by -100. This will make the NPC hate the PC and will then attack him/her.

David Gaider, Designer

Conversations & Time: 1) Whenever conversation is called, a ClearAllActions() is done first... this is why your NPC is halting his action queue and not performing WalkWayPoints any longer. What you need to do is go into his dialogue file in the conversation editor.
In the bottom right of the editor, go to the last tab labeled 'Current File'. You will see a title called 'End Conversation Script' and places to put two scripts. These are scripts that will run whenever that dialogue file is aborted or simply ends. What you need to do is put a script in both of these slots that tells the NPC to do something once the dialogue is finished. For WalkWayPoints() all you need to do is call that command again... there is already a generic script called NW_D2_WALKWAYS that does this, so just stick that script in there.

2) As for changing the time in the module, you have two options. Either go to Module Properties in the Advanced tab and change the Starting Hour of the module or use the SetTime scripting command. Remember that time can only be set forward... trying to set it backward will result in no change.

More:

Quote: 1)One more question... How do I go about reseting the delays at each waypoint upon arrival. I know the delay is 1 second by default but im wanting him to move in a more lifelike way. Perhaps have a delay of like 20 seconds at each point.

To do this, you'd have to change the basical WalkWayPoint() calls in the OnSpawn script and in the dialogue file. If you want him to wait exactly 20 seconds at each waypoint, the command would be:

WalkWayPoints(FALSE, 20.0);

Of course, the 20.0 could be any float number... even random. If you wanted him to wait 1 to 20 seconds, it would be:

WalkWayPoints(FALSE, IntToFloat(d20()));

Quote: 2) Secondly, i was wondering if there was a way to make them perform an action once arriveing at a waypoint. If so how does one go about doing that, if i knew how i could have them do something interesting like reach up to the sky in mimic of looking for apples in his orchard

Not if you're using the standard WalkWayPoints() action, no. You'd have to come up with a new script to have him move to waypoints and perform actions before continuing on.

Quote: 3) and third and final question. his NIGHT_ position is valid, but i cant make him sleep once getting there. Whats the action for that?

There is no real action for sleeping. As was mentioned above, you can make someone sleep by using EffectSleep to actually put them out... but, even then, there's no good way to put them into a bed first. They must sleep on the ground (tho a placeable bedmat works well for this). When I was doing my project for a daily peasant routine, what I ended up doing was having the NPC approach the bed and spawning in a placeable body on the bed (with the visual EffectSleep zzzzz's coming out of him)... and then re-spawning the NPC in the morning. This is not simple scripting, however. If you really want to put someone to sleep, you can use this scriptlet:

effect eVis = EffectVisualEffect(VFX_IMP_SLEEP);
effect eSleep = EffectSleep();
effect eLink = EffectLinkEffects(eSleep, eVis);
ApplyEffectToObject( DURATION_TYPE_PERMANENT, eLink, OBJECT_SELF);

Just remember to use RemoveEffect when you want the NPC to wake up.

SP ELC: You can also shut off the ELC control in the single player campaign, if you wish, in the .ini file.

DM Rolling: The DM can roll dice using the DM Console. Press the tilde key (that's the ` key beside the 1) to pull up the console. Then type the die number followed by how many times you want it rolled.

d10 1 = 1d10
d4 5 = 5d4

and so on.

More:

Quote: Thanks for the response. What about the players though. That was what i was actually referring to...attack rolls, feats etc. Some people seem to have uncanny luck... and so will their PC's!

Nope. There's no in-game function for the player to roll his own dice. He'll have to ask the DM to do it.

Waypoints: Ok, to answer a couple of questions I've seen in this thread:

1) Whenever an NPC is interrupted when they are walking their waypoints (whether via combat or conversation), the command needs to be re-issued once that task is done. In the case of combat, this command is automatically issued in the generic AI. In the case of conversation, you need to expressly add the script. It was mentioned above: in the conversation editor, on the bottom right, the last tab has a spot where you can assign a script for when the conversation either ends or is aborted. All you need is a script that does this:

void main()
{
WalkWayPoints();
}

That's it. This will cause your NPC to re-start their walk.

2) The command is normally first issued to an NPC in their OnSpawn script. Check it out... it's called near the bottom. The default is for the NPC to pause at each waypoint for 1 second. To change this, you'd need to do the following:

- copy the OnSpawn script
- assign a new script to the OnSpawn area, paste the old script in
- change the first command so it does what you want it to. If you want a 5 second pause, you need to write the command as WalkWayPoints(FALSE, 5.0);... if you want him to wait, say, 1 to 10 seconds: WalkWayPoints(FALSE, IntToFloat(d10()));

3) Yes, the numbering DOES have to be 01, 02, 03, etc... and not 1, 2, 3. I suspect it may not matter, however, unless you have 10 or more waypoints.

4) When your NPC reaches their last waypoint, they will try to go back to the very first one. MAKE SURE that the NPC can trace a decent path back to the first waypoint, or you will have difficulties. I find it easiest to make the pattern ultimately circular... so that the last waypoint ends up close to the first one.

5) If you are having NPC's going to waypoints in another area and then coming back to continue their path, a few things to keep in mind:
- make sure that the area transition both into and out of the new area are set up normally. It's best not to try and trick the pathfinding AI any more than need be.
- I find it's a little easier to place a waypoint outside the door/area transition... both before they enter the new area and for when they exit (so, for example, place waypoint 4 outside the door, waypoint 5 inside the new area and waypoint 6 back outside the door).

6) If you interrupt an NPC in the middle of his routine, does he go onto the next normal waypoint when he resumes his WalkWayPoints? No... from what I found, a new call of the command will send him back to waypoint #1. This is simply the way the default waypoint stuff works. The only way to alter it would be to make a new WalkWayPoints routine (which is not impossible... I would suggest writing a new #include script, tho, rather than altering the generic AI files. Your call, however.)

Wandering NPCs:

Quote: You can also uncomment the nw_flag_immobile_ambient_animation flag in the onspawn event script. just take out the // the line will change from green to black. save as a new name(or all of your npc's will do this). they npc will random walk, and do animations.

Uncommenting the 'immobile_ambient_animation' flag is good for making a creature/NPC perform animations like scratching its head or turning to a nearby-placed friendly NPC (who also has the flag uncommented) and make like they're talking. The other flag ('mobile_ambient_animation'? Sorry, I don't have the game in front of me) makes the creature wander using the ActionRandomWalk and occasionally stop to perform animations or, if another creature is nearby, talk to them briefly. I would suggest uncommenting the second flag if you want a creature to wander around, rather than solely using the ActionRandomWalk command.

More:

Quote: I did that I uncommented the

Set Spawn In Condition (NW_FLAG_AMBIENT_ANIMATIONS);

thing and they walk, but I get the problem where they talk indeffinately, how can I work around that? or do I have to do the aforementioned bit of scripting?

You mean if they meet up with someone else, they talk forever and don't continue wandering? Hmmm... I seem to recall when I looked at the AI script that there was a chance they would walk some more afterwards. Maybe it just isn't very high.

Scripting: If you want the NPC to just display a string over their head, then use the ActionSpeakString command. For ActionStartConversaton, you are referencing the name of a dialogue file... and that has to be in quotes.

More:
Easiest way to make something run only once is to add a variation of the following onto it:

void main()
{
if (GetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF, "run_once") == 0)
{
SetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF, "run_once", 1);
}
}

OnDisturbed: Identity Crisis is correct... what you want to use is the OnDisturbed event of the object (the shelf, for example). That event is fired whenever the inventory of a creature of object is mucked with.

Event: OnDisturbed
used in: Placeable, Creature

what triggered it? Use int GetInventoryDisturbType(). This results in one of these constants: INVENTORY_DISTURB_TYPE_ADDED, INVENTORY_DISTURB_TYPE_REMOVED, INVENTORY_DISTURB_TYPE_STOLEN. Also used here: object GetLastDisturbed() returns the creature who is altering the inventory, object GetInventoryDisturbItem() returns the item that is being added/removed/stolen.

Closing Doors: Actually, it'd probably be easier to use the DelayCommand actions... just so it couldn't be interrupted.

void main()
{
DelayCommand(30.0, ActionCloseDoor(OBJECT_SELF));
}

Just a thought. This is what I use in my module so the NPC's don't leave the doors open behind themselves all the time.

More:
I suspect if you put the waypoint he's going to immediately after the door, you could stick an ActionCloseDoor in his routine to make him close the door behind himself. Me, I put a DelayCommand(10.0, ActionCloseDoor(OBJECT_SELF)); in the OnOpen event of doors that get used a lot by NPCs... that way they shut themselves.

Giving Rewards: Err... actually, this is incorrect. I'm not sure what you're scripting (I'd have to see the script), but we give rewards in the Action section of conversation all the time in the official campaign.

Heartbeat Scripts: Actually, all the lampposts in the official campaign have that script in their heartbeat event. The only problem with heartbeat scripts is when you get a lot of them that run constantly... you end up getting too much overhead. An object is going to have a heartbeat event whether you do anything with it or not. Having a heartbeat script that only does anything at one of two points in a day is not going to be a resource hog. Be careful with heartbeats... but no need to be too paranoid, either.

Day/Night Waypoints:

Quote: No, you are correct in thinking there is a day/night waypoint ability.. I'll repost where I saw it..

There is, indeed, day and night waypoints built into the generic AI. If you have a guard tagged GUARD and want to have waypoints he walks at night and different ones during the day, you would label the day waypoints WP_GUARD_0# and the night ones WN_GUARD_0#. You must, however, also uncomment the line 'SetSpawnInCondition (NW_FLAG_DAY_NIGHT_POSTING);' in the guard's OnSpawn script in order to have him recognize the day/night differential.

Facings: Keep in mind, Randolf, that WalkWayPoints() is a continuous command. If you issue actions into his queue after you tell him to walk his waypoints, he will not perform the command any longer. In your last script, there, you are telling him to WalkWayPoints(), but then immediately interrupting that command by telling him to face south. Incidentally, the numeric SetFacing would work... you simply don't need the 'f' with the number in the parentheses.

Lights: I haven't played around a lot with the placeable lights much, but something you might want to take note of:

Whenever a light is turned on or off, you have to use the scripting command RecomputeStaticLighting() in order for the illumination to actually be changed in the world. Simply changing the placeable to 'deactivated' only affects the animation itself... the light it gives off is seperate from its animation. In order to shut the illumination off, you not only have to deactivate the placeable's glow animation but put the following in its script:

SetPlaceableIllumination(OBJECT_SELF, FALSE);
RecomputeStaticLighting();

Penguin: I suppose you just looked at the list of pre-made creatures. The penguin is not in the creature list, but it's there as a model. Take any creature and select the 'appearance' button and you can change its model to a penguin. There you go.

Doors: I guess this script should work... it will close the door at night (if open) and lock the door (if closed and the door is lockable). There's no way to tell if any PC's are 'inside', however, but then I don't know how you want to use the script. At any rate, putting the script in the OnHeartbeat event of the door will do the trick.

void main()
{
if (GetIsNight() && GetIsOpen(OBJECT_SELF))
{
ActionCloseDoor(OBJECT_SELF);
}
if (GetIsNight() && !GetIsOpen(OBJECT_SELF) && !GetLocked(OBJECT_SELF) && GetLockLockable(OBJECT_SELF))
{
SetLocked(OBJECT_SELF, TRUE);
{
}

Floating Text: Well... lay down a trigger that you want the PC to cross. Then put a script in the OnEnter event of the trigger:

void main()
{
object oPC = GetEnteringObject();
int nDisplay = GetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF, "do_once");
if (!nDisplay)
{
AssignCommand( oPC, ActionSpeakString( "I am displaying floaty text.", TALKVOLUME_TALK));
SetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF, "do_once", 1);
}
}

Note that this will display the string only over the head of the first PC to enter the trigger.

Monsters Shouting Things:

Quote: I didnt add onto it, I just put the script in that box, where should I put it and how should i trigger it so it works.

Well, I'm not sure whether you could get it to work with the OnCombatRoundEnd event or not. I can, however, tell you how we did enemies who shout things during combat:

1) Go into the OnSpawn script and uncomment the line 'SetSpawnInCondition (NW_FLAG_HEARTBEAT_EVENT);', make sure you save the new script as a seperate one so you don't affect all NPC's.

2) Create a script in the OnUserDefined event that looks something like this:

#include "nw_i0_generic"
void main()
{
int nUser = GetUserDefinedEventNumber();
if(nUser == 1001) //HEARTBEAT
{
if(GetIsFighting(OBJECT_SELF))
{
if(d100() > 75)
{
SpeakOneLinerConversation ("trash_talk");
}
}
}
}

This script means that each round there is a 25% chance of the NPC speaking a one-liner from the 'trash_talk' dialogue file. In that dialogue file, we just have a whole list of one liners... each with a script that gives a line a certain % chance of returning TRUE (with the last in the list having no script, so always being TRUE, if it gets that far). Alternatively, you could certainly replace the SpeakOneLinerConversation command with your random SpeakString method... I don't think there'd be any harm in that. If I'm not mistaken, the problem with what you're doing now is that NW_SPECIAL_COMBAT_CONVERSATION initiates off the OnPerception script... if you have the flag uncommented, the way to use it is to have a dialogue file with the very first line's script checking to see if the flag is uncommented. That, however, only fires once... and not repeatedly throughout combat. It's something that might be used to get a hostile NPC to say 'I will kill you now!' before rushing to attack the PC (as an example).

User Defined Events:

Quote: Try putting the ActionRandomWalk function in the OnHeartbeat script. The Onheartbeat calls every 6 seconds. This worked for me but I'm having a hard time figuring out where in the script I can place the function so that it soesn't preempt the other Onheartbeat stuff.

You don't really want to stick scripting into the generic OnHeartbeat scripts or the other events. That's what the UserDefinedEvent is for. In your OnSpawn script, uncomment the flag for the event you want... for heartbeat, uncomment 'SetSpawnInCondition (NW_FLAG_HEARTBEAT_EVENT);' Then create a script in your OnUserDefined event for the creature. Start with this:

void main()
{
int nEvent = GetUserDefinedEventNumber();
if (nEvent == 1001) // 1001 is the OnHeartbeat UDE number
{
(do whatever...)
}
}

Floating Text: You can't have exactly the same effect, no, because those floating texts are hard-coded. You could use the AssignCommand function on a PC to tell him to ActionSpeakString, however... and therefore display a floating string in a similar manner. This will, however, look the same as regular speech.

Actions: Well, if you're telling him to use the ActionSit command in his OnHeartbeat script, I suppose you could simply add an If statement to see if he was talking to someone. For example:

void main()
{
if (!IsInConversation(OBJECT_SELF))
{
(perform sitting in chair operation)
}
}

More:

Quote: Well I go it to work, thank you. But it does lead me to another question if I may be so bold. Is there an interger to set so that an NPC will remain sitting even when talked to? I have a oneliner conversation basically stating that so and so does not want to be disturbed and it seems akward for that person to stand if they don't want to be disturbed

I THINK so. You'll have to try it out, however, to see if it works properly. If you look in the OnConversation default script, you will see a command ClearAllActions(). This is what is causing them to stand up... they are clearing their performance of the sitting animation. If you copy the script and save it as a new one and take out that command, they MAY initiate dialogue while they are sitting down. They may also not do anything at all because they're 'busy' sitting... you'll have to try it out.

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Top Issues:
Greetings:

Here the top issues that BioWare and Infogrames are working on together. We have been working on these issues ever since they were brought to our attention. Here is the list of the top issues.

1. SecureROM.

2. Bad STRREF issue when connecting to GameSpy.

3. CD Key unauthorized only on certain servers.

4. Invalid Character in singleplayer.

More:
Its also critically important for you to contact Infogrames about all issues that you are having. BioWare is NOT the primary tech support contact for Neverwinter Nights. Infogrames is. If you are only reporting problems here and are not contacting Infogrames, then you are doing yourself a disservice. We are in daily contact with Infogrames and unless we are getting hard numbers on the different issues, we won't know where to focus our efforts. Please remember to contact Infogrames.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Casting A Spell On An Object: What faction is the placeable in and what are your PvP options? These both have an impact on whether or not the placeable does damage. The placeable has to be in the hostile faction group (or other faction group that is hostile to the PC).

Triggers: Triggers can't cast spells or run actions of any sort. Use an invisible placeable object instead.

More:
Have the trigger signal a user defined event to the placeable object when it is entered to cast the spell.

One Liners: Okay... SpeakOneLinerConversation is actually used for conversation. Not chat bubbles... though you can get a similar effect with them. You don't pass in the text that you want the person to say... instead you pass in the resref of the conversation file... that conversation file should have only one node with your appropriate text in it. The only function you can use as you have used it in your example is SpeakString. You pass in the string that you want that creature to say for speak string and that creature will say it.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2002 - 20:58 CET by Z-Layrex

Darren Monohan, Producer

Soundsets details: Yep, it uses that format: 22 kHz, 16-bit, mono WAV files.

Damien Folleto, Junior Designer

Playing the game solo update: Skummy is more than halfway through the game now, and it's EXTREMELY hard. Since his level is 16, he far exceeds the normal party level for the areas, and is subjected to the craziness that is insane level (which is what happens if your average party level is significantly higher than what the "normal" setting the area was designed for). Since Skummy no longer gets XP for killing critters, I have him avoid fights as much as possible. If a fight is unavoidable, then I am slammed by a bunch of high level monsters. When that happens, 9 out of 10 times I must turn the game's difficulty down to easy, or the dreaded Very Easy. So you'll know, Easy setting makes the baddies do 25% less damage per hit and have a -2 penalty to their to-hit. Very Easy sets their damage @ 50%, with a -4 penalty to-hit. It's a big help for the solo monk that has a 30 AC. However, since the critters usually cannot hit Skummy at the Very Easy setting, and there are a lot of critters, sometimes I am relegated to sitting at my desk and watching Skummmy swing away for 20 minutes just to get an opening wide enough between the multitudes of monsters so he can escape. IWD2 was designed from the beginning to be a party based CRPG, and it is very evident from playing the game solo. I much prefer playing the game with a full, or near full party.

Now, I'm not saying that soloing is not doable in IWD2 - hell, I've gotten more than halfway through the game that way. However, I will say that the game is far more interesting with an actual party, even if there are only 3 characters in your party. The different character classes and races really can complement each other, and the game.

Soundsets from Bg1, BG2 and PS:T included: No. Sorry.

Difficulty of encounters depending on party size: Depends on your average party level. If your average party level exceeds the "norm" for the area, some areas will increase the amount of baddies, while others replace the "normal" baddies with more bad-ass, er, um, baddies.

Chad Nicholas, Sciptor

Soundsets: All the sound sets from IwD1 + HoW are in IwD2.

Desslock's Ramblings
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2002 - 10:37 CET by Sorcerer

After a couple of months, Desslock returns with a rather lengthy article mostly praising Morrowind, but there's a little something about Neverwinter Nights here too:

But right now two juggernauts are on their way to retail shelves: Neverwinter Nights and WarCraft 3. I've played a bunch of Neverwinter Nights' single player game (using a pre-release build) and it doesn't disappoint - those of you who were pidgeon-holing NWN as a game that would only be interesting in multiplayer will be pleasantly surprised. The single player game is excellent, based upon my limited experience to date, and in spite of the fact that there's probably been more written on Neverwinter Nights than almost any previous pre-release game, I was genuinely surprised at how comprehensive an adaptation of 3rd Edition D&D the game provides. Do I have any complaints? Only the same problem I had with the Infinity engine games - the non-interactive environments are a little sterile (and much less interesting than Morrowind's detailed settings) - but 2D games like the Baldur's Gate games could "fill" the empty space with background art more effectively. The emptiness of the environments is far more apparent in a 3D game. I also haven't played the multiplayer version of the game yet, but I've heard from several other game writers/editors that it's very well polished, suggesting it won't disappoint. The multiplayer/Dungeon Master elements make Neverwinter Nights, released right on the heels of Morrowind, an even more ambitious game, and potentially one with even more longevity. Although there's other RPGs in the works that I'm looking forward to - particularly Gothic 2 and DX2, I'd be quite satisfied with only playing Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind for the remainder of the year.

That's about it as far as NWN is concerned, however. If you want to read the rest, follow this link.

Icewind Dale II Designer Diary #10
Posted Sunday, June 23, 2002 - 10:31 CET by Sorcerer

The last (?) designer diary, this time written by John Deiley, has been posted at RPG Vault. It contains 5 new screenshots and a bit of text:

First off, I'm happy to say that the game is finished! Yes, you heard me right - it's done! What I mean by finished is that you can play the game from beginning to end and solve it. There is still some work to be done in the form of balance and polish, but we are working on that.

Read it all here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 21:40 CET by Z-Layrex

All news in this post is from yesterday. (Friday 21st June)

Niel Flynn, Producer

DMs Joining Servers: Yes. You only need the DM password that is set on the server, and you will be able to DM any module that server happens to be running.

Conversations: If I understand the question correctly, all you have to do is assign the conversation file in the creature properties window. The conversation will start when the player clicks on the NPC.

Heh, I am not sure (I tend to play, not DM) but I seriously doubt it. Maybe, if you possess another NPC, but I have never tested that.

Starting Conversations: Assign the conversation (consisting of one line) to the object. Then make this the object's OnUsed script:

void main()
{
ActionStartConversation(OBJECT_SELF);
}

Make sure the 'Useable' flag is set in the Placeable Properties Editor.

You have to create a link back to the start. 'Copy' the starting link, then right click on the player response and select 'Paste As Link'. It will show up in grey.

Root
->NPC: Hello
---->PC: Howdy
---->PC: Hi
-------->NPC: Hello (grey) <- the link

Do a search for discussion on links. They can be confusing until you undersatnd the concept. A tutorial should be online soon that includes a section on links in conversations.

Unlocking Modules: Someone already cracked this.

Saving Your Player: To save your player outside the game, use the 'Save Character' button just to the right of the 'Save' button. This will allow you to use the char in another module by using the 'use premade character' when starting the game.

Resting: I am not a designer but here are two easy solutions.

1. Create safe zones where resting is allowed (Inns, bars, camps ...). Other zones can be flagged as 'no rest' so the option will not be there.

2. Use the OnPlayerRest event in the module to spawn in creatures. You can script a roll of a dice and leave it to chance whether they can rest peacefully or not. You could also check the time of the last rest and only allow it every X hours.

Conversation Branching: The nodes are evaluated top to bottom, so:
1. Hello (Set variable)
2. Hi again (if variable == 1)

will produce 1. Every time because the game checks if 1 is valid before 2.

Try:
1. Hi again (if variable == 1)
2. Hello (Set variable)

The game will now test the variable on 1(which will not be set the first time) and fail, so move to 2, show it and set the variable. Next time through, it will use 1.

NOTE: To switch them, just grab the lower one and drag it over the higher one (grab 2 and drag over 1) and the order will switch.
Use the Script Wizard to "Set a Local Variable" and "Check a Local Variable" to control whether a particular node appears. Given the following conversation:

Root
-->NPC: I'm sorry, I've already given you your reward.
---->PC: Darn it!

-->NPC: Hey, you're just in time for your reward.
---->PC: Yeah!

1. Use the Script Wizard to attach a "Text Appears When..." script to the first NPC node ("I'm sorry..."). It should check that a local variable "nRewardGiven" is equal to 1.

2. Use the Script Wizard to attach an "Action Taken" script to the last PC node ("Yeah!"). The script should set a local variable "nRewardGiven" to 1. Obviously, you still have to add the reward - in fact, you could probably do it in the same "Action Taken" script that sets the local variable! Simply check multiple check boxes. It's important to remember that the _first_ thing you want the NPC to say must appear _last_ in the list.

Rotating Tiles: Left click drops it down, right click will rotate it. You can NOT rotate a tile once it has been dropped down.

Trent Oster, Producer

Linux Client: The server is pretty much ready to go. The Client is a little worse off. I haven't got any official date for when the Client will be available, but we are pushing as hard as we can to get it done.

Examine Creatures: The system works off the CR of the creature (so do the encounters though. What you can do is change the CR of the creature in the toolset to whatever you wish and it will modify the examine text accordingly.

Off-Hand Weapons: You drag both weapons to the same quickslot. The first weapon will go in your right hand and the second in your left.

Localization: It all comes down to bandwidth. We don't have the people internally or even externally to complete all the language versions at the same time. The only way this could happen is if we finish the English version and hold it while we create the translated versions. Additionally there is the logistical issue of getting the duplicated copies around the world. Rest assured, we are working as hard as we can to get the rest of the world versions out as soon as possible. In summary, there is only about 100 work hours in a week.

CR Display: We will not remove this from the game as we feel it enhances the game for people who are new to D&D. We will look into making it an option in a future patch.

David Gaider, Designer

Restoration: If you don't have a potion or spell that offers restoration, the priest at the temple of Tyr (where you go when you Recall) can heal you... and at the same time restore any stat loss you may have incurred.

Is there any way to make humanoid NPCs sit down? (And maybe have a drink?): You can have them sit in a chair, if you like, using the ActionSit command (there is a script that involves having an NPC finding a vacant chair and sitting in it... can't remember the name, but I believe it's posted at NWVault). There are a number of NPC's who sit down in the official campaign... looking at their scripts should help. If you want them to sit on the floor or 'drink', you can simply tell them to play the proper animation (ActionPlayAnimation is the command, if I remember correctly). There is no animation, currently, for someone to BOTH sit and drink however.

I want a key that disappears after 1 week game time only to reappear on the key merchant. Any idea how such a feat would be done? I want the merchant to sell but 1 key with this property.: This is a bit more complex. A key can be created readily enough using the CreateItemOnObject command... but destroying it would be a bit trickier. Maybe someone more experienced in scripting could help you with that.

Characters: If you are trying to use a character that's been edited, Calvanar, you need to make sure that the game/server you're bringing him into doesn't have the ELC filter activated. If you're playing a multiplayer game, the ELC filter is just a toggle... shut it off and it won't give you problems regarding character legality. If you're playing single player, I think the ELC has to be shut off in the ini file... not sure how, though.

Respawning: There are 3 scripts that will automatically get applied to any module you create (and are in the official campaign, for that matter). When you create a module, open up the module properties and look at the scripting events. You will find three events that are of importance to you: OnDeath, OnDying and OnPlayerRespawn (if I remember correctly... don't have the game in front of me at the moment). The scripts that are applied automatically will be in those slots. Change or replace them and you can control what happens to your character.

Resting: This is easily controllable in your modules, should you wish to do so. As mentioned above, you can flat-out make certain areas impossible to rest in. By placing a script in the module's OnPlayerRest event, you can also control when they can rest. It is a very simple script to make it so that a given player can only rest once per 8 hours (or whatever) or only when the player uses the invisible magic Resting Wand on them... or however you wish to arrange it. The way resting works now (in the official campaign) is simply the default.

Henchman: No, this is correct. Possession can screw up a henchman's AI (same with familiars, animal companions, etc), so they are exempt from possession. Henchmen can be possessed before they join the player's party, but that's it, currently, until we can find a sure-fire way of possessing not interfering with this.

Merchants: When you create a store object and give it inventory and so forth, you have to actually place it somewhere in your module (so there is an instance of that store and not just a blueprint of it). It is invisible, however, and not accessible. The way to access it is through a script... either an object that you click on or, more simply, via dialogue. You could simply script a merchant NPC to say "Let me show you my goods, dear customer"... and then, in the 'Actions Taken' section, make a script that starts the store. All you really need is to use the StartStore scripting command, referring to the specific store object's tag and any mark-up or mark-down percentage you wish to use (on top of the store's default). So you can script a store to give better or worse prices to someone, using whatever scripting criteria you wish. Does this make sense? Do you need an example? If you're able to open up any of the chapters (even the prelude) of the official campaign, there are examples of stores in each one.

Patrols & Conversations: 1) Does he have the standard scripts for his AI? Specifically, does he have the normal script in his OnConversation event that would tell him to start conversation with you when you click on him?

2) Did you create a dialogue file and assign it to him? If so, did you put any starting condition scripts on the dialogue nodes?

3) For him to resume his patrol after dialogue is done, you need to execute the WalkWayPoints() command. In the last tab on the bottom right of the conversation editor screen, you can place a script which will run when the dialogue is either ended or interrupted... you'll want to insert a script that simply calls WalkWayPoints() there.

Triggers: Two things that might work better:

1) Place a trigger on the inside of the door that tells your NPC to initiate dialogue with whoever has entered the trigger.

2) Use your NPC's OnSpawn script to create a UserDefinedEvent based on his OnPerception (if he perceives an PC, in this case).

Conversation Tokens: Hmmm... if I remember right, you can right-click in the text box where you are typing the dialogue and it will give you the option to 'Insert Token' and then give you a list of all the tokens in the game, no?

Bars: We ran into the same thing when we were making taverns later on in development and discovered there was really nothing in the way of a 'bar' to place in a tavern. Sigh. Thankfully all you need is a decent placeable object. Until one is made, I know we used the table placeables in the official campaign... placed together in an 'L' configuration. Not pretty, but it works.

Scripting: Well, one thing I notice is that you don't always need to declare 'int' or 'void' before scripting commands. The only time you need to do this, generally, is when you are declaring a variable.

int nVariable = 5;

For the above you do need to declare the 'int' because you have to say that 'nVariable' is equal to an integer. When you are telling NWScript to execute a command, however, you don't need to do this. You have already declared void main(), so declaring 'void' in front of all your commands is not necessary. As well, two other things:

1) When using constants, make sure they are capitalized just like they are in the toolset (ie. TALKVOLUME_SHOUT).

2) You will notice a lot of commands that have parentheses after them, like GetXP() or GetPCSpeaker()... even if nothing goes inside those brackets, you do still need to put them in your script.

Altering Character Stats: The DM functions are the only way to permanently alter a character's stats so they remain that way once they leave the module. It can't be done similarly in scripting (yet, I suppose).

Bob McCabe, Designer

Script Error:

Quote: Keep trying that and it wont compile. Quotes included? What it originally read:

object oDoor; oDoor = GetObjectByTag(Barn1door,1);

When referring to an object's tag, you need to include quotes around it in order for it to compile... otherwise it thinks 'Barn1door' is an undeclared variable.

Include Files: Hmm. When I was doing my include scripts for the Fred project, I just saved them without compiling them (or adding a StartingConditional or void main() onto it). They can only be compiled when you are compiling a script where the #include is actually called (which is weird and really kludgy, but I got used to it). Would be a lot more intuitive if 'include' scripts were recognized as a third type of script and could be compiled independently.

Default Scripts: That is a big question. I would suggest looking at the module-level events listed here... specifically at the events OnDeath, OnDying and OnPlayerRespawn. Opening up the default scripts located in those spots should also help you out as to how they're arranged.

Scripts: Once you've gotten your script saved in the module, just open up the properties of your box. Then go to the tab labeled 'Events'... you should have all the events listed there, and all you need to do to attach a script is just press the '...' button beside it to open up the menu of scripts. Select your script and press OK and it's attached.

Rapid Shot: Yes, you can hotkey the Rapid Shot (best way to use it, in my opinion). Just right-click on an empty hotkey and you will get your radial menu to assign a function. Rapid Shot is only available when you are in combat. Once you start firing your bow, select rapid shot and at the beginning of the next round you will see *Rapid Shot Activated!* over your head. It will remain active until you de-select it or until the combat is over.

Henchman: The henchmen all have a certain number of potions in their inventory which they will replenish when they level up (which is when you do). But, yes, you still cannot give them new potions for them to keep in inventory. If you check out the henchmen in the toolset, you'll find that the way we had to do it (so they can level up at all) is to have a seperate version of them for each level. When they level up, the old one disappears and the new one appears. While it is possible to script them taking and equipping items, these items would disappear when they levelled (and that wouldn't be good). When and if we someday get the ability to level up an NPC the same way a PC does (albeit automatically, to boot), then having more access to the henchmen would be a cinch.

Spontaneus Casting: Just open up your spell book by clicking on the icon or hitting the "B" key. The left panel has your complete list of spells. Drag the icon down to your quick bar, instead of to the right where you would if you were choosing it to memorize. Presto!

Spontaneus Casting Healing Spells: To reiterate, drag the spell icon (Cure Light Wounds, for example) into your quick bar. Then fill all of your memorized slots for level one with Bless or Doom or something that isn't Cure Light Wounds. Rest. You're all set at this point. You can cast your memorized Bless or Doom over and over, or you can now cast Cure Light Wounds - which you never memorized - as many times as you have level one slots. Make sense? I hope that helps.

Familiars: Yes, it is intentional. You can click "okay" or whatever to keep things as-is, or you can "dismiss" your familiar and take on a new one. If your familiar dies, you take 1d6 points of damage, I believe, and then you have to resummon your familiar - you may have to rest to do this, depending.

Henchman: If you "right-click" :: "more actions" :: "examine" your henchman, you will see their character sheet. You should then see that Sharwyn has 9 ranks total in "Open Lock", but none in "Disable Trap". This means that no, she cannot disable the trap.
What should happen with a henchman who can disable traps - I believe Tomi might be the only one who can do this - is they should charge forward toward the trap while telling you to hold up, and then immediately proceed to disabling it.

Why The Modules Were Locked: The decision was made so as to keep people from spoiling themselves, or having to resist spoiling themselves. Once you beat a module (i.e. the prelude), it is unlocked. I don't believe I am allowed to say anything about how to do this, but there are multiple work-arounds. I am sure they will all be posted shortly

Henchman: Behind the scenes, in imagination land , the henchman are taking their share of the loot (what - you didn't notice them picking up a share of the loot?). Everytime you stop in a store, they're picking up items. When they level up and can use those items, they are. Isn't that clever of them? Okay, seriously - the henchman's gear does improve as they level up. You just have no control over it. Stop trying to intrude upon their lives! They're real people, too! And they just want to be left alone! ... Man!

More:

Quote: Thanks Bio (although I wish I could be more proactive with the healing potions)

Just drag the healing potions onto their portrait.

Derek Collins, Quality Assurance

Area Transitions: What you're looking for is an area transition trigger. It will serve the same purpose as a door, but will activate when a character steps onto it. So just paint an area transition trigger at the edge of one of your forests, and then connect it to an area transition trigger at the edge of your other forest.

Greyed Out Conversation Paths: What you are looking at is a 'linked node' in that conversation. It's a usefull method for making a long complex converstion that branches off and comes back. I.E. you want an NPC to arrive at the exact same line of dialog from a few different PC choices, so you can just make that NPC line once for one PC choice, then make a link for the others.

Identifying Items:

Quote: So yeah, if you arent a mage of some sort, how the hell do identify items? I got mad loot that i got no idea what is.

While you are shopping in a store, examine that item in your inventory, then press the Identify button.

Chris Priestly, Quality Assurance

Henchman: Hi there, Evil Chris Priestly here. Simple answer.... no. As you/they progress in levels they will get better armor/spells/weapons, but you cannot give them weapons, etc. to use. So sorry, but it is one less thing you have to worry about. Oh yeah. The potions. Thanks for being awake Urza.

Quickbar: Sure, Evil Chis Priestly here. I can help. Instead of trying to drap it, go to the quickbar. Select the box you wish to use and right click your mouse. This will open the radial menu. From there you can "dial" to any action that you want. Most of the PCs abilities are located at 9 o'clock. Left click on the assign special abilities and then click on the appropriate icon. This should place it in the quickbar. If you go to the wrong radial menu right click and you will move back one step.

Off-Hand Weapons: Once you have your primary weapon, say a longsword, in your hand drag it to the quickbar. Then take your secondary weapons, say a shortsword and drag it to the SAME spot on the quickbar as your longsword. Then when you trigger that quickslot it will place the seconday weapon into your off hand. Give it a try, hopefully this will work for you.

Pat Chan, Programmer

Ramps In The Forest: No sorry, there are no ramps in the forest tileset.

Merchants: The merchant object (little flag thingy) is where all the objects for the store are contained. The players do not actually interact directly with the merchant object. So, one method of allowing the players to access the merchant is through a dialog with an NPC. The conversation would go something like this:

NPC - Can I show you my wares?
PC - Sure.

Select the PC node, and add a script to the "Actions Taken" event. Use the script wizard and select "Perform an Action" and hit next. Then, select "Start a Merchant" and enter the tag of the merchant object and hit next. Give a name to your script and hit finish.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Sending Messages To Players:
void main()
{
object oPlayer;
oPlayer = GetEnteringObject();
SendMessageToPC(oPlayer,"Hey, how's it going?");
}

More:
You could put it in a number of places... the area on-enter script, the module on-enter script, on a trigger, Area of Effect Object... etc. GetEnteringObject() and GetExitingObject() are used for a lot of enter/exit events...

Scripting: Ooo... heartbeats bad... You want to avoid using hearbeats whenever possible... as they tend to have huge overhead once you start checking fifteen billion different things at once... instead, try this:

So you know when the door is unlocked and used... why don't you fire a user defined event at the door, like so:

NWScript:
void main()
{
int EVENT_CLOSELOCK_DOOR = 0;
event evDoorLock;
object oDoor;
oDoor = GetNearestObject( OBJECT_TYPE_DOOR );
evDoorLock = EventUserDefined( EVENT_CLOSELOCK_DOOR );
DelayCommand( 10.0f, SignalEvent(oDoor, evDoorLock) );
}

That will get the guard to fire an event at the door to close and relock itself in 10 seconds... then in the user defined event script on the door, you'd have something like this:

NWScript:
void main()
{
int nEventId;
nEventId = GetUserDefinedEventNumber();
if ( nEventId == EVENT_CLOSELOCK_DOOR )
{
ActionCloseDoor( OBJECT_SELF );
ActionLockObject( OBJECT_SELF );
}
}

The other great benefit to this is that an object can usually toggle it's own state... ie: a door can lock/unlock itself without a key. Hopefully this helps...

Include Files: Uh... you shouldn't have to have a void main() in your include files... if you try to compile the include files directly you'll get the compiler bitching at you... however if you compile the files that have the include file included, all should be peachy... and yes, the compiler will whine at your include files every time you rebuild the module, but that's only because it's trying to compile it directly.

More:
Well, if you're getting errors compiling the *source* code when you include the *include* code, there's probably an error in the include code. Maybe something like this:

NWScript:
int DoFunkyStuff( int nSomething )
{
if ( nSomething == 2 )
{
return 5;
}
}

That would generate the error you mentioned (or at least the error I'm thinking of...) Surgeon_general... All paths have to return a value, but then again maybe it's something else and I'm talking out of my @ss. I was having some major issues with the include files until I merged most of my separate include files into one gigantic one... didn't feel very good about it, but it seemed to fix up most of the issues I was having... what errors are you getting Ratbert?

Scripting: In the ondeath event for the specified creature, you can do the following:

NWScript:
void main()
{
SetLocalInt( GetModule(), "m_bSpecialGuyDied", TRUE );
// or conversely if you want the flag set on the
// person that killed them you can do the following:
object oKiller;
if ( GetMaster(oKiller) != OBJECT_INVALID )
{
oKiller = GetMaster(oKiller);
}

if ( GetIsPC(oKiller) == TRUE )
{
SetLocalInt( oKiller, "m_bSpecialGuyDied", TRUE );
}
}

The GetMaster() stuff is just in case a henchman or familiar kills the special creature. You may also want to flesh it out so that the local only gets set if the player had a specific flag on them detailing that they actually had a specific quest to kill this guy...

Jonathon Epp, Quality Assurance

Locking Doors: Instead of ActionLockObject, try using SetLocked(oDoor, TRUE);

I think ActionUnlockObject and ActionLockObject use the creature's Open Lock skill. Though alternatively, you could also just give your guard a bunch of points in Open Lock.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 19:28 CET by Z-Layrex

J.E Sawyer, Lead Designer

Bards and martial weapons: Bards do not gain a choice of martial weapons in IWD2; they simply get MW: Large Swords.

Highest possible attributes: The limit is either 30 or 40. I can't remember which one.

State of the build: Icewind Dale II has been hovering around 100-150 bugs for the past week or so. At this point in time, I feel eXtreeeeeemely confident in saying that the game is currently less buggy than Icewind Dale I was on release. However, Icewind Dale was somewhere north of Fallout 2 in bugginess -- it wasn't sparkling clean. The bugs we are currently addressing are all relatively minor. However, all things considered, we will probably keep pounding away at them for several more revs. This may make some people happy, some people angry, but it is probably in the best interests of the developer, publisher, distributor, and consumers. The weavings of game development are often confusing and frustrating for everyone involved -- sorry for the vague-y nature of the update, but it's the best I can give.

Now, for some definite good news. Because Icewind Dale II's designers have minimal involvement with the bug-fixing process at this stage, the designer caravan will be moving on to new projects soon. The sooner this happens, the sooner you can get a peek on what we're working on.

Hoo-ray.

Old naked women in Icewind Dale II: No naked women in IWD2, old or otherwise.

I take pleasure in jolting our players with occasional weird things like that. If you can't take the heat*, stay out of the kitchen**.

* heat = sight of an old naked woman with no eyes.
** kitchen = Gloomfrost caves.

Game being ready to go gold: Not yet. We found some odd bugs today that were going undetected because they only appear in very rare circumstances. E.g.:

A fighter advances to 5th level. He has a bow equipped. He has the Rapid Shot feat activated. He gains enough XP to advance to 6th level. Somehow, the Rapid Shot BAB/total attack bonus calculations make the feat selection screen think he has the +8 BAB required for Improved Critical. Weird little things like that.

Sleep: Sleep is a good spell at low levels. It's not a good spell at high levels. In HoF mode, creatures' HD actually get bumped up to prevent them from being easily slain by certain spells.

Drow daylight penalties and blindness: It's kind of tricky; the penalties applied to drow and duergar for being in bright light aren't concealment penalties (like blindness). Drow and duergar are uncomfortable in bright light. Not only does it skew their vision, but it often makes them feel physically ill. Blindness, on the other hand, gives a 50% chance to miss on any given attack, according to 3E roolz. Now, drow and duergar can get penalties for being in bright light AND be blinded, with cumulative effects. Blind-fighting helps negate the effects of the blindness, not the light sensitivity.

Scott Everts, Technical Designer

More information about the new interface screenshot: I should point out there is one more mundane change that probably no one noticed. The portrait character effects icons are about a quarter smaller. Since we made the portraits smaller, they had to be resized so your portrait wouldn't be completely covered with effects icons later in the game.

For the fun of it I tried to see how many effects I could put on a character at once and topped out at 12. That still left about a quarter of the portrait visible. Though I'd be surprised if anyone ever had more than two rows.

At least we got those health bars in. It was one of those things that we needed to do but kept getting shifted down the list for more important bugs. So I think its a good sign we're getting close.

(hit point bar) White- full health
Green- 3/4 health to under full health
Yellow- 1/2 heath to under 3/4 health
Orange- 1/4 heath to under 1/2 health
Red- under 1/4 health

Hope that makes sense.

Actually this is very close to what Torment had. The only real difference is it changes color as the bar drops. Our first version was identical to Torment's health bar. But then we tried it with the bar changing colors as it dropped and everyone liked it much better. In battle the color change is easier to read then just the bar dropping by itself.

The effects icons are a quarter smaller, not a quarter size. And the original sized version can still be seen on the Record screen. So if something is alittle too small to make out, just check your record screen. All effects are listed there with both icon and description.

Avatars yawning a lot: Your avatars won't keep yawning forever anymore. They now rotate through the fidgets like they are suppose to.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 17:45 CET by Z-Layrex

David Gaider, Designer

Rapid Shot: Yes, you can hotkey the Rapid Shot (best way to use it, in my opinion). Just right-click on an empty hotkey and you will get your radial menu to assign a function. Rapid Shot is only available when you are in combat. Once you start firing your bow, select rapid shot and at the beginning of the next round you will see *Rapid Shot Activated!* over your head. It will remain active until you de-select it or until the combat is over.

Henchmen: The henchmen all have a certain number of potions in their inventory which they will replenish when they level up (which is when you do). But, yes, you still cannot give them new potions for them to keep in inventory. If you check out the henchmen in the toolset, you'll find that the way we had to do it (so they can level up at all) is to have a seperate version of them for each level. When they level up, the old one disappears and the new one appears. While it is possible to script them taking and equipping items, these items would disappear when they levelled (and that wouldn't be good). When and if we someday get the ability to level up an NPC the same way a PC does (albeit automatically, to boot), then having more access to the henchmen would be a cinch.

Neil Flynn, Programmer

Random Conversations: Create 6 one line nodes off the root. Then in the Script Wizard from the Text Appears When... use the Random check box and select a 1 in 6 chance. Use the same script for all nodes.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Henchmen Inventorys: You cannot manipulate your henchman's inventory. What? Did I say something dirty? Anyway, they cannot be bartered with. If they are hurting, you can heal them through any normal means, or by dragging potions onto them / their portrait. Sometimes, they will get hurt and you might notice that they are drinking potions. They get these from Aribeth, or whomever the healer is in that module. So it's a good practice to, now and then, talk to Aribeth, or whomever the healer might be, because that will give your henchman a chance to stock up on some healing potions.

David Chan, Sound Producer

Resizing the map: As far as I know the map cannot be moved, but it can be resized with the buttons at the top.

Noel Borstad, Programmer

Scripting: If you want to store any values between executions of the script you need to store them as "local variables" on an object (you probably want to store it on the PC).

SetLocalInt(oPC, "gold", nGold);

then later

int nGold = GetLocalInt(oPC, "gold");

Derrick Collins, Quality Assurance

Reading Signs: If you plan to use the one liner conversation method, don't forget to use the following script in the OnUsed event of that signpost.

void main()
{
SpeakOneLinerConversation();
}

Robert Babiak Added:
Couple of ways, first make a description for the sign so when they examine it they see it. Second, make a one line conversation for the sign that has you text in it and set it usable. witht he name. For instance I did a stable sign where the name was Wayward stables, and the one linght conversation is 1 gp per day of lodging, 3gp per day with feed. This way when a player hovers there mouse over it they see WayWard stables. if the use it they see the details. and because it is a one line conversation it comes up in the little white text over the sign.

Derrick Collins, Quality Assurance

Scripting: Umm... why are you using GetPCSpeaker() in the OnDeath event? That function is only supposed to be used in dialogue... as it will return the PC that the creature is *currently* speaking with... I would think that your set and gets are setting and returning garbage values because the object you're setting the values on is invalid. Try using the person who killed the rats... like so:

void main()
{
object oPlayer;
int nRatsKilled = 0;
// Get who killed me
oPlayer = GetLastKiller();
// If it was a player...
if ( GetIsPC(oPlayer) == TRUE )
{
// Get the number of rats they've killed
nRatsKilled = GetLocalInt( oPlayer, "m_nNumRatsKilled" );
// Increment the number of rats they've killed
++nRatsKilled;
// Store the data
SetLocalInt( oPlayer, "m_nNumRatsKilled", nRatsKilled );
}
}

Custom Events: The nearest thing you can do is a custom on use event for an item. You can assign a custom use to an item, which triggers a module event... then in the module event you can do anything you like. Could you expand on what you mean by item effects? As far as adding new spells, it's possible... but involves hacking game resources and I'm not totally certain what would happen... theoretically all you'd have to do is add the appropriate correct data to the spells.2da... and all other associated 2da files that are related... the spell system is pretty much almost entirely data driven... so it is possible to add/change it, however we're talking advanced advanced stuff... so I'm not really going to go into it in any detail other than what I've already mentioned here..

Levers: I should probably note, that you actually have to set up the lever to play the activate and de-activate animations... like so:

void main()
{
if ( GetLocalInt( OBJECT_SELF, "m_bActivated" ) == TRUE )
{
SetLocalInt( OBJECT_SELF, "m_bActivated", FALSE );
PlayAnimation( ANIMATION_PLACEABLE_DEACTIVATE );
// INSERT OTHER STUFF TO DO ON DEACTIVATION OF LEVER
}
else
{
SetLocalInt( OBJECT_SELF, "m_bActivated", TRUE );
PlayAnimation( ANIMATION_PLACEABLE_ACTIVATE );
// INSERT OTHER STUFF TO DO ON ACTIVATION OF LEVER
}
}

GameSpy Reviews Neverwinter Nights
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 14:39 CET by Mollusken

GameSpy clearly liked this game, rating it with a score of 91 out of 100.

One of the oldest questions in history is, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" One of the oldest answers to that question was given by Aristotle, who stated that it was, in fact, the chicken. The philosopher postulated that while a chicken is an actual chicken, an egg is potential chicken. Since actuality always precedes potentiality, the chicken came first.

BioWare, however, eschews Aristotelian logic by offering actuality and potentiality in a single package. Its Neverwinter Nights is an excellent single-player RPG -- there's the chicken. But with its toolset and Dungeon Master client, it offers the potential for an unlimited amount of fantastic multiplayer gaming -- there's the egg. This incredibly ambitious product has gone through nearly five years of development, and although it's not the best-looking RPG on the market, it's well worth the wait.

Read the whole review here.

Neverwinter Nights Review at GamesDomain
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 14:27 CET by Mollusken

As one of the very first, GamesDomain has written a long review of Neverwinter Nights.

To call Neverwinter Nights the biggest game ever might be a bit of an overstatement, but in terms of role-playing panaceas, you'd be hard pressed scraping around for an equivalent in recent years. The game has promised so much, for so long, it's almost inevitable there will be a letdown when the game eventually drops into your sweating, eagerly trembling grubby paws, right? Right? Wrong! Of all the games companies we've come to love and loathe over the really rather short history of videogames, aside from possibly Blizzard and a few other notaries, it's Bioware we turn to for consistent, solid, reliable quality gaming. If there's any company that could pull off the remarkable feat that Neverwinter Nights promises us, they are it, as it were.

Read everything here.

Contest of Champions NWN Module
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 10:21 CET by Sorcerer

BioWare has provided us with a cool Neverwinter Nights module called Contest of Champions. To read all about it and download it, click here.

Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 9:25 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which race is your protagonist in Neverwinter Nights going to be of?
(681 votes total)

Human (221) 32%
Elf (185) 27%
Half-elf (145) 21%
Dwarf (42) 6%
Half-orc (34) 5%
Halfling (33) 5%
Gnome (21) 3%

How... unimaginative. Really, I'm quite surprised that almost one third (32%) of people who have voted in this poll decided to play a regular human character in Neverwinter Nights.

The next big group of poll participants (27%) intend to play elves, one of the most popular fantasy races.

Half-elves are the race that 21% of people are going to play Neverwinter Nights with.

After these 3 main races, which have collected 81% of votes altogether, there are 4 races left with surprisingly few votes.

Dwarves, otherwise a very popular fantasy race, are going to be played by only 6% of those who participated in our poll. Very curious.

The powerful half-orcs and sneaky halflings have it even worse; either of these two races gained nearly the same amount of votes, 5%.

And, as usual, the gnomes are trailing far, far behind and remain the most unpopular race to play. Only 3% of people are going to play a gnome in Neverwinter Nights.

SP on A New Server
Posted Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 9:21 CET by Sorcerer

If you are reading this, you are already accessing our new server. We have opened the boards as well, so get posting to make up for all the lost time. ;)

Actually, all of this had happened yesterday, but since we've had some problems with the news script, we couldn't post it till today. Anyway, we're back in business now, 100%. Thanks for your patience.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 21:56 CET by Z-Layrex

J.E Sawyer, Lead Designer

Having joinable NPCs: We have discussed the difference between CNPCs (similar to Viconia, Xan, et al) and hirelings (Diablo II style, or Sulik-style, if you prefer). Some people hate the interactivity of NPCs, and would rather have laid-back, independent dudes that do their own thing. It would be nice to give players the option between fully controlled "buddy characters" and quiet independent AI mercenaries.

BTW, that is in no way meant to suggest that hireling-type characters should be included in a game INSTEAD of CNPCs (Viconia/Xan style).

Fighters getting Intimidate: In IWD2, fighters do receive Intimidate as a class skill; if they didn't, characters with low Int would have nothing to spend their skill points on.

Cleric domains: Painbearer of Ilmater, Morninglord of Lathander, Silverstar of Selune, Watcher of Helm, Lorekeeper of Oghma, Battleguard of Tempus, Dreadmaster of Bane, Demarch of Mask, Stormlord of Talos.

Tempus domain giving an extra martial weapon profiency: Unfortunately, no. This ties into the whole, "Engine doesn't know a confined bonus feat from a regular feat" deal. You actually get three martial weapon profs: axe, hammer, and large swords.

Hammers: All of our hammers are heavy hammers, but not two-handed.

Expertise: Expertise is a "modal level" ability that is turned on and off at your whim (but only at the beginning of a new round). You can have Expertise active at any level and do anything without turning it off. However, its benefits and penalties only apply when appropriate. Ergo, you can have Expertise "on" when firing a bow, but you gain neither benefits nor penalties from it. Hmm... I'm not sure if it applies the benefits when spellcasting or not.

Modal feats: Power Attack, Hamstring, Arterial Strike, Rapid Shot... some other ones, I think. You click on the feat, select the level, and it just stays on until you choose to turn it off or select a different level.

People from Neverwinter in the game: The actual people you meet from Neverwinter in IWD2 are pretty upstanding folk. Most of the other characters you meet from that general area are from Luskan and are typically scumbags.

New hit point bar on the interface: It looks like Scott "Bugmaker" Everts and Darren "Bug-making Approver" Monahan finished up a "really final for reals, we mean it this time" change to the interface.

The only change is the HP bar. Nothing else new. The HP numbers could always be toggled with the . key.

Dave Maldonado,Designer

Having joinable NPCs: I'm certain someone else here wanted to do it before me, though all I know for certain is that when I asked about including it we were too far into development. Most seemed to like the idea, though, so it'll probably crop up in future titles.

And come to think of it, there are a couple of areas where the party gets help like that - just never quite like in Ye Olde Gold Box Games where Skullcrusher (or whomever) would follow you around as a proper party member busting heads for a time. Some "helpers" will shift from area to area, though...

Site Move Notice
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 19:54 CET by Sorcerer

In approximately 4 hours (sometime after midnight, CET), we will be moving the whole of Sorcerer's Place to a new server. As I've mentioned before, there should be no downtime if all goes according to plan. I will need to close down our message boards for the transfer, though. I can't predict for how long the boards will be offline, but I hope it will be less less than 12 hours... This depends on how fast the DNS switches and we're able to access the new server though. Thanks for bearing with us. We're moving on a much faster server so the delay should be worth it.

P.S. Drop by our our chatroom during the time the boards are down... There are always people there that can help you out if you have any game-related questions, or if you simply want to chat.

Neverwinter Nights First Impressions
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 19:07 CET by Sorcerer

Three first looks at NWN have appeared on the net lately, so here's a snip from each:

Neverwinter Nights offers two starting options, both in the city of Neverwinter. You can play through a prelude that sees you as a recruit in the city's Academy and serves as an in-game tutorial. Depending how quickly or thoroughly you play, this segment can be completed quite quickly, or it can occupy a few hours. The rewards for going through it include gaining a couple of levels, acquiring some gold, improving on your starting equipment and learning more information about the city, the situation that calls for the emergence of a hero, and some of the main NPC characters. The alternative is to jump right into Chapter 1 - there are five in total. It is probably best to play the prelude the first time so you can decide for yourself whether it's worthwhile if you create additional characters.

More at RPGVault.

And the second one:

The interface really lends itself to playing efficiently. Although you can opt to use hot keys, the entire game can be controlled with a mouse. The interface is basic and elegant at the same time, as you can get to a variety of different advanced functions in a matter of two or three clicks. Everything is well organized in a circular fashion around the person or object being affected, so all you have to do is right click and the appropriate options will be displayed for you to choose from. If you're not into digging three layers deep for some of your most-used commands, you can drag them up to the Quickbar menu, which can hold three rows of eight commands, or 24 in total. This is particularly useful for spell casters since you won't have to go digging through menus every time you want to cast a spell.

Read the rest at IGN.

And the third:

On the technical end of the spectrum, NWN has not crashed on me yet. Its 3D world is vibrant and beautiful, running smoothly enough on my anemic 800mhz Athlon and GeForce 2 MX at 1024X768 without giving up much graphically. In fact, it runs significantly faster, though it doesn’t always look better, than Dungeon Siege. Camera controls are intuitive, and load times are surprisingly fast.

Evil Avatar has the rest of the text.

Bob McCabe Interviewed at Twigster
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 12:42 CET by Sorcerer

An interview with Bob McCabe, one of the dev team who have worked on Neverwinter Nights has appeared at Twigster:

BioWare is famous for their story driven games. What is/are the development process(es) to create such high quality games.

At the risk of sounding immodest, a whole lot of talented chefs – from every department – make quite the creative stew. Everyone here is tireless in trying to get things as right as they can be. When you look around and see a group like that, it inspires you to exceed your own potential; it feeds on itself really well. It also helps that we have such strong leadership through our fearless joint CEOs Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk, and James Ohlen – the director of the Writing & Design department. As for a process, I think we just absorb as much entertainment as we can – watching movies, playing games, reading books, and so forth. You need to breathe in before you can breathe out.

Read the rest here.

First NWN Patch Out Already
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 12:13 CET by Sorcerer

That sure didn't take long...

The Neverwinter Nights v1.18 English Patch is now available by hitting the Update button in your game's launcher screen. It fixes the server filter crash, improves client and server stability and fixes the issue with plot items being dragged directly into an inventory bag.

Click here for more.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 2:23 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Staffers Wanted

I have updated the Staffers Wanted page with a lot of extra info - and a new contact. Currently we could use additional news reporters, online walkthrough writers, banner makers and some other people.

Subsection Updates -> Community

Some editing of the outdated info took place on the main page here, but more importantly, I've updated the About Us subsection. Mollusken got promoted to the Head Daily News Editor (deservedly), and Z-Layrex and TBR were added as news reporters, along with their short biographies. Welcome aboard, landlubbers!

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Worlds

Thanks to some work on part of TBR, we have also updated the Fantasy Fiction subsection. Many a good new tale posted in our Creativity Surge forum has been added, so make sure to read all about it, and submit your own stories if you think they're missing!

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

There were two additions made here, the updated HoW Spells Guide in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection, and Winter's Bane in the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection. Winter's Bane is, by the way, the first fan-made IWD/HoW mod that actually made it to completion.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Starting with the most original submission, we have a big pack o' fun connected with BG2 NPCs' voice interactions in the Miscellanea subsection.

Moving on to the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection...

In Subsection #3, you can find the latest version of Extremist's bug-squashing SP Fixpack, and the fix for triple class mages' high level abilities.

In Subsection #7, I've updated the info about the Travelers in Time mod, which somehow slipped by me and went and released itself. How rude... Anyway, it's 171MB in size and sounds very interesting, so be sure to check it out.

The final new addition here is in the TeamBG subsection, where you can find a link to a new mod called Reign of Virtue.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale 2

In the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection we have another new portrait pack from our good friend also responsible for all others listed there. Great stuff, as usual.

In the Miscellanea subsection I've added a little showcase of armour, weapons and the druid's Wildshape bar, and updated the Concept Art & Images page with some new portraits.

There are also about 20 new screenshots in the Screenshots subsection, many of them showing the game's new interface.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

In the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection I've added links to Amazon where you can order the two official game guides - the Adventure guide and the World Builder guide.

Moving on, in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection you can find a little peek at the henchmen & NPCs of the official game campaign. There you will also find a link to the tips for beginner DMs.

I've spent a lot of time on research and updated the monsters list in this subsection as well. I believe it now lists just about all horrors NWN will frighten us with.

The most painful for extraction was the list of spells, which you can find here as well. It's a complete list of all wizardly spells, from cantrips to level 9 spells, info directly from the game. Enjoy!

Next is the Editors, Hacks & Tweaks subsection. Here I've updated the models page with the latest models released by BioWare, and added the latest versions of the Bif and Mod Unpacker programs.

There is only one new addition in the Toolset & Related subsection, a link to where you can download 2 new Tilesets, Desert & Egyptian.

In the Miscellanea subsection I've updated the movies list with the latest new movie, and added the NWN Goes Gold press release.

Final, and probably the most impressive new addition today is in the Screenshots subsection. Due to its massive size I've now split it into 3 separate galleries. Today's addition is gallery #3 with 120 new screenshots, bringing the grand total of unique screenshots to 519. I wonder if we could get in the Guiness Book of Records for having the biggest NWN screenshot gallery in the world? ;)

SP Accessibility Issues
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 2:05 CET by Sorcerer

Some people have reported having problems connecting to Sorcerer's Place from various parts of the world. While I haven't noticed any problems at all, I'm working with the server admin to figure out what could be wrong. Most people are able to access the site without any problems though.

On a related note, we will be moving off this server to a new one tomorrow or the day after at the latest. As I said before, there should be no downtime, at worst the boards will be closed for a while till we move them. Once we're on a new server I will post here so that you'll know the transition is complete.

Exclusive NWN Model at Sorcerer's Place
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 1:14 CET by Sorcerer

So, you want more exclusive stuff? How about something green this time?

NWN Beta Impressions at NWVault
Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 19:09 CET by Sorcerer

Maximus sent word that he's posted his impressions based on beta testing Neverwinter Nights. Here's a snip:

Our main task in the beta was to find bugs, but more importantly to try and crash servers. During the time that I've been testing, I experienced a single crash which happened in the contest of champions server. This was a known issue with a sound file and has since been resolved. The champions module is where you sign in with a game master and are then put on opposite ends of a dungeon like area where you have to find the opposing team and destroy them for trophies. The one who gets the most trophies wins. You can tell which team you're on by a huge flag that appears to stick out from your back.

Read the rest here.

NWN EULA posted at Bioware
Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 17:35 CET by Z-Layrex

Derek French, the Assistant Producer for NWN, has posted the full Neverwinter Nights EULA on the Bioware boards. If you intend to read the document at all, I recommend doing so now as to not have to when you're installing your copy of NWN.

The entire EULA can be found here.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 17:25 CET by Z-Layrex

Derek French, Assistant Producer

I am very annoyed about not getting the beta just because I don't spam on the boards!: You are unfortunately confused about the selection process. 95% of the people selected for the Beta were selected from their registration at Betatests.net. The information entered there was the basis for the selection criteria. We selected a few Beta testers ourselves, based our personal experiences with forum members. Post count has nothing to do with the selection process. Spammers were on our "No Neverwinter Nights Beta for you!" list. Since there were about 70,000+ people that registered for the Beta and about 0.5% of those were selected for the Beta, I am sure that there were many more dissappointments out there. We would love to have you all test, but that just isn't possible.

Importing/Exporting: For simplicity, everything is exported into a .erf file. When you export an object, associated objects or files may be included. By packing everything into an .erf file, we avoid the unintentional appearance of lots of related files in your target directory. Importing is done the same way. You simply select the .erf file you want to import into the module and select the particular resources you're interested in.

If you're talking about models and other user-created content, you would use a .hak file and attach it to a particular module. Use nwhak.exe in the \utils directory to create a .hak file. Note that there are no facilities to create or edit 3D models (ala 3D Studio Max) included in NWN. If you're talking about a specific item you created using the Item Wizard, you export it from one module to a .erf and import to another module from a .erf.

Bob McCabe, Designer

My henchmen died and I can't find him back at the Temple of Tyr, what's going on?: He *should* be where you appear if you recall, or if you die, just a few steps away from Sergol. He is no longer listed as being in your party, right?

How do you spontaneously cast spells?: Just open up your spell book by clicking on the icon or hitting the "B" key. The left panel has your complete list of spells. Drag the icon down to your quick bar, instead of to the right where you would if you were choosing it to memorize. Presto!

David Gaider, Designer

How do you restore lost abilities?: If you don't have a potion or spell that offers restoration, the priest at the temple of Tyr (where you go when you Recall) can heal you... and at the same time restore any stat loss you may have incurred.

Robin Mayne, Developer

Can you open up your henchmen's inventory?: You cannot open up your henchmen's inventory, or give them different armor/weapons - but you can change things like which type of weapon to use (ranged vs. melee) by talking to them and changing their tactics.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 2:44 CET by TBR

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Availability of wands: There is quite a variety of wands in the game - more than you'll probably know what to do with. And yes, they are 3E compliant; just look for the official sticker on every package of D&D 3E wands!

Monk abilities above level 20: From J.E. himself: "They get better + value on their fists and some other general AC/movement improvements."

So another point into AC every 5th level continues, and 1 point of attack bonus for 3 levels, skip a level, then 3 levels again. For example, (first attack BAB shown only) +15 at 20th, +15 at 21st, +16 at 22nd, +17 at 23rd, +18 at 24th, +18 (stays the same) at 25th, +19 at 26th, and so on.

However, they will not get any more special, mega abilities like, "Tiger's Claw of Spine Ripping," or, "Face Chewing of the Angry Monkey," or some such craziness.

Status of the game: FC 3, I believe.

FC = Final Candidate. They are burned CD's of the game that QA gets to pound on, and we hope is bug free and ready to ship to the presser. The numbers represent which version of the FC it is. It's not unusual to go through a few FC's before shipping. If there's something that can be broken, our QA is great at finding it.

Undead attacks: AFAIK, attacks work normally on non-corporeal undead. It is different than PnP. They have to deal with your armor just like any other critter in the game.

Cleave: Cleave works pretty much the same as in PnP. If you kill a baddie on your turn, you get to do one full attack on a nearby enemy. In IWD2, you can take Cleave twice, thus allowing 2 attacks if you kill an enemy. If there is no enemy nearby (i.e. next to you), then Cleave will expire.

There is no Greater Cleave, or Sunder in IWD2.

Playing evil: You'll find that evil has some interesting repercussions in IWD2 - fun, but interesting.

Chris Avellone, Designer

Good or Evil: There are situations in the game where being evil, greedy, or mean will net you a greater reward than being good, altruistic, or polite and there are situations where the reverse is true. Many quests will play out differently depending on which road you take.

Paladins, in particular, have some difficult challenges in some situations where a more compromising group of adventurers could take an easier road... just like in IWD1.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Button-in-button quick weapon swaps and only one shield: Seriously, I've already addressed this. It's not solely an interface concern, but a data management concern. I suggested the button-within button weapon/whatever combos that would allow free-changing of every weapon to a single shield (for instance), but it required more time than we had. Sorry.

BIS at Gen Con: We may be at Gen Con to show something other than IWD2. IWD2 is close to being done. We're actually down to about 125 active bugs.

Availability of ammo, scrolls and wands: Scrolls are quite plentiful, and wands are more plentiful than they were in IWD (at least they were in my game). We have tried to make all forms of ammo available at regular intervals. Just ask Amraith.

Number of CDs: It's looking like 2 is the magic number.

Mind Flayers: Many of the illithids in IWD2 are big, big babies who have no problems with running away when things go against them. Of course, they often leave their thralls to mop up.

Number of portraits: There are a total of 83 portraits in IWD2, with about a third of those being new -- so around 25-30ish.

Enemies using Silence: In my experiences, enemies used it often enough that I found myself saying, "Wow, I wish I had Subvocal Casting or Vocalize right now."

Maximized Attacks feat: There is a feat in IWD2 called Maximized Attacks. It allows you to cause all successful attacks to do maximum damage for 10 seconds. It is useable 1/day. Its pre-reqs are Weapon Specialization in two weapons and 4 ranks of Concentration.

Monks: They receive crossbow and the other typical monk starting profs.

Also, note this: MULTICLASSED MONKS ONLY USE THEIR MONK LEVELS FOR DETERMINING BAB AND NUMBER OF ATTACKS WHEN FIGHTING UNARMED.

In 3E, multiclassed monks have to choose between using only their monk levels for determining BAB and attack rate or using their total class BABs and the standard attack rate. In IWD2, that decision is made for you: you simply use the monk BAB and attack rates.

Wild Shape: 5th level: Arctic Boar -- 15 Str, 10 Dex, 17 Con. Weapon has a chance to "Gore", causing a bleeding wound that does 1 point of damage every round for 10 rounds.

7th level: Winter Wolf -- 13 Str, 18 Dex, 16 Con. Moves pretty quickly, has some cold resistance, but is vulnerable to fire.

9th level: Polar Bear -- 27 Str, 13 Dex, 19 Con. Mauls you to death.

11th level: Dire Bear -- 30 Str, 13 Dex, 19 Con. Mauls you to death more.

13th level: Dire Panther -- 24 Str, 21 Dex, 17 Con. Moves extremely fast. Has a chance to do a "Rake" attack that does additional slashing damage.

High Level (15+): Elemental Forms -- These are basically elementals complete with damage reduction and the ability to destroy things quickly.

There are also Wild Shape special forms that you can get from feats: Boring Beetle, Panther, and Shambling Mound. The boring beetle has some nice little resistances, the panther is good for multi-classed druids that don't want to wait around for 13th level, and the shambling mound is good for soaking up damage and suffocating creatures in its large psuedopods.

Lesser planar ally and related spells: In IWD2, the spells Lesser Planar Binding, Lesser Planar Ally, and their ilk summon elementals that are hostile towards everything around them. They attack the nearest non-elemental that isn't protected by Protection From Evil.

Roolz lawyers among you may be thinking, "BUT JSHO, PLANAR ALLIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIENDS AND GIVE YOU KISSEYS!"

That is true. However, in PnP D&D, these spells also take ten minutes to cast and often require "bartering" with the summoned creatures. Elementals are tough dudes. They have 10/+2 damage reduction and can pound you pretty heavily. Their hostile attitude is the trade-off you get for using these spells.

We had about five or six balance meetings where we got together to talk about balance in the game. One of the recurring things I heard was, "This area was really hard... BUT THEN I SUMMONED FOUR FIRE ELEMENTALS AND HAD A SODA WHILE THEY MOPPED UP."

Basically, their damage reduction and the player's ability to manipulate them were the main problems. They could post elementals at locations where creatures without magical weapons would rush through. The creatures would get waylaid by the elementals and inevitably get pummeled into bits. Now, when you summon elementals, they look for the nearest target not protected by Prot. From Evil. MAYBE it will be the one you want it to attack. MAYBE NOT. Once that target is gone, the elemental may move to almost anywhere. And if they don't see targets, they just wander around looking for something to mess up. That makes them less exploitable as damage-absorbing barriers.

New inventory screen: Well, Grand Master BWeir got that baby avatar working after much toil and trouble.

The avatar has a normal idle animation. This changes to a "battle stance" when enemies are visible. It shows whatever armor/weapons etc. the character is wearing, but not states (blur, color shifts, etc.).

It looks appropriately sized on a human avatar. The dwarf looks smaller because, well, they are smaller.

You cannot turn the avatar or zoom in on it.

The avatars always stay the same pixel size, yes.

Unfortunately, you cannot pick your avatar. I believe your avatar changes to whatever class you have the most levels in.

Dwarves and AC bonuses: The AC bonus gnomes and dwarves receive against giants isn't due to size, but due to giants being one of their ancestral enemies. Besides, dwarves are Medium creatures, not Small.

Neverwinter Nights in (Some) Stores
Posted Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 19:28 CET by Sorcerer

Well, if you live anywhere in North America there's a good chance you can buy NWN in stores already. If not today, tomorrow at the latest. You can also buy Neverwinter Nights from our Game Store and have it conveniently delivered to you. ;)

You can also already order the two official game guides - one for the game itself, and one for the toolset (module building). You can order both from Amazon here. (Left side of the screen, below the site interface.)

Neverwinter Nights Screenshots Mania
Posted Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 10:22 CET by Sorcerer

Looks like half the 'net got sent new NWN screenshots yesterday, so I'll list the lot right here, in one post. Please note that some of these screenshots contain game spoilers:

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 4:19 CET by TBR

Chad Nicholas, Scriptor

Beast claw: Beast Claw is a 2nd level druid spell that gives you +4 to STR and allows you to attack twice per round at 2d4 damage + (newly modified) STR bonus.

Summoned elementals: Elementals will lay the smack down on villagers. When elementals (and demons) attack red- or blue-circled creatures, they become a non-selectable green-circle. This means that red-circled creatures can see the elementals as enemies of them selves, and blue-circled creatures treat the attack as being attacked by a player.

There is another benefit to having the elementals (and demons) change to green-circles; if the elementals you summoned are attacking your enemies, you'll be able to heal/buff them. Druid's Elemental Legion + Wizard's Executioner's Eyes + Cleric's Holy Aura = ded N.M.E.z. Season with Haste for Spicy Xtreme flavor!

Preemptive answer1: Yes, summoned demons and summoned elementals will attack each other.

Preemptive answer2: No, there aren't any situations where an evil mages summon elementals (or demons) that go attacking innocent villagers and the villagers think they were attacked by the player.

The AI being better in IWD2: I'd say it's at the least a little better. Some people have even told me it's really good in a lot of places. At it's core, it is no different from any previous IE engine in terms of what is possible with the functionality of the IE scripting language. However, I do think we've taken what was available and improved upon previous AI as much as possible and still maintain a good framerate and memory usage.

When a creature can no longer reach it's target the attack action finishes, allowing the script to continue.

Script compiler being released: I just asked about that and was told we'd probably release it soon after the game comes out.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Drow avatars from BG2: Yes, there are some of those models used in the game.

Solo game update: Skummy Bigtoe has survived Chapter 2, and is now well into Chapter 3! Currently, he is 10th level monk, and still 4th level rogue. I decided to stick with leveling rogue for a while so his hit points and BAB can be increased a lot over the course of the next couple chapters. I also wanted the monk benefits of more stunning fist (very useful against strong, but dumb, fighter types, especially giants), and wholeness of self. At 10th level, Skummy's fists are treated as +1 enchanted weapons, so magical beasties should be scared. With mage armor and a ring of protection +2, Skummy's AC is 29 - he very rarely gets hit, especially when I use the deep gnome's natural blur ability.

Without giving too much away, Skummy's proudest battle was when he was surrounded by literally 15 baddies, consisting of barbarians and assorted spell casters, and he only needed to go through 5 healing potions to keep his hit points above 80. He rarely got hit, and evaded every area affect spell. In addition, he made every one of his saving throws against mind spells, and his natural magic resistance kept him from most other dastardly damage spells. Skummy kicks butt!

Okay, now it's time to get back to it. I'll let you folks know about Skummy's progress later.

Monks being over powered: The monk's not. It's by the PHB rules. One of the reasons mine is so powerful is because he's a deep gnome. He gets a +4 AC bonus to start, has blur, invisibility, and mirror image as natural abilities. Add this with the quick leveling of solo playing, and you have one kick butt monk. Keep in mind, though; this has not been an easy play. I've kept the difficulty on normal, and had to reload a bunch of times before I could figure out how to get past certain areas. It's not a cakewalk by any means. It also helps that I know the game really well.

NWVault Posts The Best NWN Movie Ever
Posted Monday, June 17, 2002 - 18:53 CET by Sorcerer

Or so I hear... At the speed of my dial-up, I'll be able to download it by Christmas or so. It's a 4min 15sec gameplay movie they received from the Korean clan Asgard showing footage from the game. The file size is 128MB in DivX format and is also available split in 10 files. It should be noted that there are potential spoilers in the movie.

Drooling yet? On a fast connection, too? Go here and download it already!

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2002 - 20:32 CET by TBR

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Human skill points: In IWD2, human characters start with 2 bonus skill points and get an additional skill point every level. This gives them a larger advantage than they would have in PnP, but we couldn't do it the way I thought would best represent the skill (2 bonus sp at first level, 1 bonus SP every other level). Similarly, it would have been nice to give characters with an effective "0" sp/level (due to low intelligence) fractional sp (1 every two, three, or four levels).

Turn undead: Turn Undead is a quick action, not a modal state like it was in previous games. You make a quick cast animation, and that's it. This is "the 3E way".

Bard songs and pickpocket: The bard songs are essentially the same, except that War Chant of Sith has changed to heal 3 hp/round, but only when enemies are visible. Pickpocket will definitely be worth it. You can pickpocket a lot of creatures for a lot of loot.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

"Unique" items: Yes, there are unique items in the game. Even unique items that tie into the story, which is why we cannot show a lot of them to you folks. Some of the ones I posted in my designer diaries are unique, but do not tie into IWD2's story - so those were safe to show.

Mind Flayers vs. undead, elementals: Undead and elementals are unaffected by illithid's mind sucking. I used elementals and undead when playing through the area of the game that the illithids were found - my mindless posse kicked butt.

Avatars: Unfortunately, it takes much more animation and rendering time to do new PC avatars than NPC avatars. That's because there needs to be a separate render of every possible weapon, clothing, armor, shield, etc. combination. Given the amount of time we had, coupled with the 3E changes and the lack of available animators, we didn't update the PC avatars. Sorry.

Icewind Dale 2 Screenshots
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2002 - 20:27 CET by TBR

Here are some screenshots highlighting the impressive new inventory system of IWD2.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2002 - 12:37 CET by Z-Layrex

Noel Borstad, Programmer

Death Scripting: There is an EffectDeath() which will instantly kill the receiver... it even has an optional parameter for 'spectacularly chunky death' (assuming your violence settings allow it).

Derek French, Producer

Game Data and OS: All game data (saves, character, modules, etc.) are all interchangeable between the OSs.

Worldwise playing: North American and Europe versions will be able to play together.

Has the Linux version been dropped?: No, it has not been dropped. We have said that many times. You will be able to download the Linux version from the Community Site.

David Gaider, Designer

Servers: The last I saw before I left, the ILR and ELC are indeed now seperate toggles on the server. So you can turn on the ELC and screen out people from bringing inappropriate characters onto your server... but if ILR is off they can use whatever items you wish when they are actually playing. Or vice-versa... or both, or neither.

Don Moar, Programmer

Toolset: I would have liked to have a modeless window for the script editor. There are inherant limitations in the way the system was originally designed that prohibit this easily. That is why we allow the window to open more than 1 script at a time. There are no 'global' variables. There are variables that are assigned to areas and even the module itself, which you can retrieve using the GetLocalX and SetLocalX on the appropriate object. Since the toolset isn't doing any background compiling to continually update some internal list of variables assigned through the use of these functions, it isn't possible to provide lists of these variables.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 19:16 CET by TBR

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Multiclass party experiment: I tried playing through the first half of the game with a party of four characters, all multiclassed:

-- Bastine the Witness -- LG human male Paladin of Ilmater / Cleric of Ilmater
-- Niamh Elari -- TN half-elf male Bard / Cleric of Oghma
-- Kendel -- LN lightfoot halfling male Old Order Monk / Rogue
-- Rakael Laumera -- CN moon elf female Fighter / Wizard

This did not work out well. My characters had a lot of low-level spells and low level abilities. In my previous game, despite being slightly behind in XP, my six single-classed characters all had 2nd level spells by the second area of the game. I did not. This sucked. I wound up running away from a lot of battles -- but boy oh boy, my party members sure were versatile. I think the problems are twofold:

1) In the first few areas of the game, the difference in XP between a four character party and six character party are not astronomical.

2) At low levels, multi-classed characters don't find a niche quickly, and have a tendency to suck equally at all things.

My advice, for those who care, would be to play through with a mix of multiclassed and single-classed characters, play through with even fewer characters, multiclass later, or set the game on Easy difficulty for the first few areas if you really want a party like this. Multiclassing in 3E is very tempting, but it often has many low-level disadvantages.

3E opens a lot of character customization options, and you have to make a lot of difficult choices as you advance.

Bonus feat restrictions: The bonus feat restrictions for fighters and wizards are not in the game for two reasons:

-- Restricting feat access in this way is difficult from a programming standpoint. The game doesn't know the difference between a "bonus feat" and a "regular feat".

-- Wizards don't have any true meta-magic feats or item creation feats to pick from. It would be kind of odd to give wizards open access to bonus feats but still restrict the fighters' access.

That said, I was never tempted to have my wizard take just one level of fighter so I could buy Spirit of Flame or something like that. Spellcasting levels are just worth too much to fritter them away on a "quick fix". I tried that with my rogue13 /fighter 2 and regretted it.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Playing Solo: Hey kiddies, I decided to take on my own challenge yesterday, and started a game using only one character - i.e. soloing. Here's how he started:

Skummy Bigtoe
Deep Gnome
Monk of the Old Order (lets me multi-class into rogue without losing my ability to level in monk)
STR: 16, DEX: 16, CON: 10, INT: 12, WIS: 14, CHA: 6
Feat: Courteous Magrocracy - +2 to Diplomacy, +2 to Spellcraft
Skills: Diplomacy 4, Hide 5, Knowledge Arcana 5, Move Silently 3, Open Lock 5, Search 3

So far so good. I got through the prelude, and blasted my way through the Palisade battles with nary a scratch (the first major battles in the game). It helps to have a starting AC of 19. I also bought a Ring of Mage Armor, which, when used, bumped my AC to 23. Over-the-top for this area, but just right for a soloing monk.

Currently, I'm in the Horde Fortress, which is the final area for Chapter One. The area previous took some strategic monkeying around, but I was able to get through it without reloading too many times (I won't go into detail of what I ran into, for obvious reasons). The Horde Fortress is proving pretty tough, particularly since my little gnome is a combined level of 9; 5 levels of Monk, and 4 levels of Rogue. Since the normal setting for the Horde Fortress is set around level 3 to 5, my little dude is traipsing around in literal "insane" mode (for PC parties over level 5). The critters are tougher, and more plentiful.

At this point I now have my WIS at 16, up 2 points since I put my bonus attribute points into WIS. His current AC is 22, 26 with the mage armor. His current saves are at +7 FORT, +13 Reflex, +10 Will. The great reflex save lets me use explosive oil bottles on my enemies that surround me. Pretty fun witling them down with a combo of punches and flaming oils.

Anyway, soloing is doable up to this point, albeit very hard. I'll let you guys know how it goes after I finish Chapter 1 tomorrow. The final fight in Chapter 1 will be really tough at this level ::shudder::

There is a formula that was specifically made for this game to balance out XP. Since I'm going solo, yes, I get all the XP, but I am seeing diminishing returns on XP from common scrub critters and quests because of my currently high XP level. I tried a game with only 4 characters, and the difference in XP between that party and my earlier party of 6 was minimal - they were, perhaps, one level higher than normal, and getting their asses handed to them (see JE's thread about the failed experiment). If you plan on going the 4 character party, I'd recommend at least having two, very buff fighters in the mix.

No, Weapon Finesse: Unarmed is not in the game. Weapon Finesse, in IWD2, only works for small blades like short swords and knives/daggers.

Well, I reached a sticking point, but I'm not giving up yet. I'm at the Horde Fortress (no spoilers, these are critters I talked about in my Designer Diaries), and the Hardened Ice Trolls are working me. The blasted orc shamans aren't being very friendly, either. THEY'RE TRYING TO KEEP THE LITTLE GNOME DOWN, MAN!

At this point, I've relegated myself to going invisible, sneaking up behind a hardened ice troll, and getting a "backstab" bonus from thwacking him. If I beat on him long enough, and before his buddies waddle over, hopefully he'll drop and I can make a beeline to the area exit, and transition to a safer, previous area.

"Why don't you just proceed to the next level and skip those damned hardened ice trolls?" you may ask. Because one of the previous critters I just mentioned has something I need to advance. This is going to be the toughest battle next to the area's final battle. With determination, Skummy Bigtoe will prevail!

This game is definitely harder to solo than in IWD & HOW.

Number of chapters: Six chapters, and one prologue.

Last Week's Poll's Results
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 19:00 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: What is the best new feature of Icewind Dale 2 in your opinion?
(273 votes total)

Subraces (83) 30%
3e feats & skills (65) 24%
3e multiclassing (50) 18%
3e classes & half-orcs (27) 10%
3e combat rules (17) 6%
New portraits (10) 4%
Specialized clerics (8) 3%
New interface (7) 3%
Other (6) 2%

Subraces are, without a doubt, the best new feature of Icewind Dale 2 according to the 30% of those who voted in our poll. Really, what could be more cool than being able to play Drizzt, err, I mean a drow.

3e feats & skills have got a big number of people excited as well. 24% of the participants in our poll say that these 3rd edition D&D elements are the best new thing in IWD2.

3e multiclassing is also quite popular, with 18% of poll votes. Ah, now everyone can finally play that elven barbarian and gnome paladin they've been dreaming of... (Well, maybe not, but hey, the option's there.)

3e classes & half-orcs are the best new features in the opinion of 10% of those who voted in the poll. Just to refresh your memory, the classes are monk, sorcerer and barbarian and the half-orc is... Well, still ugly and mostly orc. Tough luck.

3e combat rules, (including the AC now going upwards and so on) are what 6% of people regard as the best new feature of IWD2.

Some people (4%) even went so far as to say that new portraits we'll see in IWD2 are the best new feature of the game. Though I don't know if that's a compliment to BIS or an insult to everyone else but the artists. Still, we have to admit that the portrait art has been excellent in IWD, HoW and ToTL...

Specialized clerics (Dreadmaster of Bane for example) only excite about 3% of poll participants. Same goes for the new interface (3% of votes as well), which obviously doesn't get many people falling out of their chairs. And you can hardly see the portraits now. (My main gripe.)

The infamous Other got only 2% of votes, but no one bothered to comment what their "other" is, so we can only guess.

GameSpot Neverwinter Nights Impressions
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 16:56 CET by Mollusken

The lucky fellows at GameSpot have already received the final version of Neverwinter Nights, and they also have a few things to say about it.

We also took a closer look at Neverwinter Nights' character generation process, which includes a handy "choose recommended option" button for every one of your character's attributes. Just like in BioWare's Baldur's Gate games, you can create a character of male or female gender and make a character that belongs to one of seven races (human, dwarf, elf, half-elf, orc, gnome, and half-orc). You then choose from a sizeable selection of portraits, most of which resemble the artwork of the Baldur's Gate games, then choose your character's class (including the returning 3rd Edition professions of sorcerer and barbarian). The "recommended option" button comes in especially handy for choosing your character's ability scores (strength, dexterity, wisdom, and so on) and your character's skills and heroic feats. Each basic character class offers prepackaged kits (which are nothing more than a prearranged set of skills) that you can choose to quickly and easily begin the game. You can also choose your character's voice from a list of characterized choices (such as "male, violent fighter" and "male, mature swashbuckler")--once you play the game, you'll find that your character and the characters and enemies you meet in the game use speech about as often as they did in the Baldur's Gate games.

Read everything over at GameSpot.

Neverwinter Nights Interview at NVidia
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 16:49 CET by Mollusken

GPU manufacturer NVidia has posted a few questions with Brad Grier from BioWare.

How has your relationship with NVIDIA helped during the game development?

NVIDIA has been a great partner throughout the development of Neverwinter Nights. We rolled the NVIDIA relationship from Baldur's Gate II right into Neverwinter Nights, so we were provided with a whole slew of GeForce4's very early on and worked closely with NVIDIA's developer relations group to ensure we were taking full advantage of the hardware. Bioware has had a long-standing relationship with NVIDIA and we've been able to achieve some amazing visual effects in our games that wouldn't be possible on anything other than NVIDIA hardware. The graphics effects in this game are just incredible. Be sure and check out the shiny bumpy water. And the combat effects, from spell effects to sparks flying off armor from a sword hit.

Read the whole interview here.

Beginner Dungeon Master Guide
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 16:44 CET by Mollusken

Community manager Jay Watamaniuk from BioWare has posted a long article for beginner dungeon masters at the official Neverwinter Nights community site. You'll find it here.

BioWare Auctions
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 16:33 CET by Mollusken

BioWare are offering up two signed copies of Neverwinter Nights and the air hockey table from their offices for auction. The money they will get will go to the BioWare Kids Fund. You'll find the two copies of the game here and here, and the air hockey table here.

Neverwinter Nights Guild Site Hosting
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 16:25 CET by Mollusken

Universal Gamerz has sent out word that they will offer hosting of Neverwinter Nights guild sites. If this sounds interesting, you'll find more info right here.

Sorcerer's Place Server Move Notice
Posted Friday, June 14, 2002 - 22:06 CET by Sorcerer

Calm down, we're not going anywhere...

In the upcoming days (some time next week, I don't have the exact date yet) Sorcerer's Place will be moving to a completely new server.
It will be an Intel server with about twice as much horse power and RAM as this one has, so this is a good thing indeed.

We will try to make the move as painless as possible, though there will probably be some time when the news here on the front page might not be updated and the message boards are closed. This won't be for long though, only until the domain name transfers completely and we're able to set up everything back again on the new server. There should be no downtime.

Keep checking the front page here for the latest news regarding the move.

Icewind Dale 2 Screenshots
Posted Friday, June 14, 2002 - 21:12 CET by TBR

There are some new screenshots of Icewind Dale 2 up at GamersClick. Find them here.

Icewind Dale 2 Interview
Posted Friday, June 14, 2002 - 20:22 CET by TBR

There is an interview with Tex Yang and Chris Avellone of Black Isle Studios up at Icebound.

What is your favourite line of dialogue from any of the IE games? From IWD2?

Tex: I do not have one favorite line of dialogue, but rather a dialogue sequence, which is my favorite - the ending speech by the Luremaster was very moving, in my opinion. My favorite line of dialogue in IWD2 is a class-specific dialogue midway through the game - my paladin of Helm running into a certain sentinel will prompt this otherwise cold and cruel watcher, to reveal a part of him that will not be seen by classes that do not follow Helm, in which he says: “It has been many years since Lord Rengar has heard such an honorable challenge. If this is to be his last battle, he will fall knowing that not all traditions have been lost in this dying age. Lord Rengar salutes you, comrade. To arms!”.

Chris: There's a line you can deliver to one of the mind flayers in IWD2 that's too perfect for words. You'll know it when you find it.

Read the rest of the interview here.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 14, 2002 - 20:19 CET by Z-Layrex

Trent Oster, Producer

Server Specs: You can have a crapola graphics card in a server, but I would push for a decent processor. The NWN server is heavier on the CPU than we initially expected, due to the client pathfinding ocurring on the server. For a smaller game (6 or less) I would recommned a 600 mhz processor or better and at least 128 MB of Ram (more is always better). If you have a better CPU or more RAM, performance will improve. In the office we have had up to 8 instances of the server running single player games on one dual 1600 Athlon system. Since running multiple servers is much heavier in terms of load than individual players in the same server you won't need this caliber of hardware to run a single server instance. I run a dual PIII 800 for my office system and I've hosted five people for a few hours at a time and got reasonable performance out of the old system.

Module Testing: We had 10 internal, another 10 onsite and another 30 offsite for over three months, the 10 internal for over 9 months. I think you could get away with less. It is important to ensure your scripting works for multiple players as this can be a real issue if you fail to plan properly.

After NWN Release: Bob's got it cold. There will be a patch, in fact there will likely be many. NWN does not end with us shipping a game, in fact there is an entire team who have just started and are chomping at the bit to extend and enhance the shipped version of NWN. Long live NWN.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Character Files: When you save your character, the character file is NOT overwritten. It saved with an identical file name with an incrementing numerical count, i.e. Bob, Bob1, Bob2, Bob3, etc. So I make a character and save him, and then play through the Prelude and Chapter 1, and I'm just about to go into 1E, but then Allain (who sits to the left of Bob) says, "Hey! New Contest of Champions Mod is up. Come play!" So I save my character, and then enter into the game. I quickly find out that my character is too powerful (item cost) for this module, so I drop everything and re-set him. I tweak his quick bar and get ready to play. The game is going great, and after a few rounds, my PC is l33t! So I save my character again. Now I have four versions of my character - one that is level 1 with 0 XP and ready for any new campaign, one that is ready for 1E, one that is ready for any new Contest of Champions server, and one that is looking buff from all of the PKing, and that I can use to show off to the guys I just beat.

Derek French, Producer

Do you need a CD for the dedicated server?: The dedicated server requires neither a CD nor a CD Key.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 14, 2002 - 20:17 CET by TBR

OK folks, I know I've missed a day or so.. so here's a massive update. Tons of new info for your waiting ears..

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Why IWD2 isn't finished: If we wanted to release IWD2 as buggy as three day old road kill, nestled next to an ant hill. I find it amazing when individuals jump to conclusions that we have nothing better to do than horde a "finished" game just so we can piss off our fans. Well, I'm happy to disappoint you because it is very important to us at BIS to release a game that is clean, balanced, feature rich, provides many hours of interesting game play, fun, and as bug free as possible. If we rushed IWD2 out the door just so we can "beat" the competition to the shelves, then we just shoot ourselves in the foot for releasing a heap o' merd. Delaying IWD2 was not an evil conspiracy to irk you guys, it was to make sure IWD2 is released in the best possible condition - period. Releasing a quality product is more important to us than rushing it out the door just so we're on the shelf.

Battle squares Mini-quest: Battle Squares is a mini quest in Chapter 2. It's like tic-tac-toe, only more violent and you have to earn the square by beating the s@%t out of a nasty critter. You get pretty cool stuff for winning.

There is a limit to the neato items you can get, and XP is only dished out for completing the quest one of the Battle Square games is linked to. This gets rid of the cheesy-McCheese possability of endless XP. And yes, there is a difficulty setting for Battle Squares which gives nastier baddies - but the reward item is better.

Disintegrate and Flesh to stone: If one of your characters is on the receiving end of Disintegrate, they're vaporized - gone - finito - bye-bye. Portrait disappears. Reload.

Flesh to Stone, and destroy the stoney version of your PC, the same thing - bye-bye PC. This doesn't happen too often in the game at all, plus saving throws work better in 3E. I've yet to have one of my PC's fall victim to either spell, thanks to their saving throws.

Expansion: Would I like to do an expansion? If I had to, I wouldn't scoff at it - I'm not as bitter as the other BIS vets. But an expansion is not likely. However, if it were, I'd like to do it with a mix of the Underdark (under Icewind Dale, naturally) and the Abyssal plane; with heavy emphasis on the Blood War beginning to intrude on the prime material plane. I really like to create a lot of gray areas in alignments, and not make evil and good so cut-n-dry. I'm weird that way.

Weapon combos: You get 4 weapon setups you can arrange and cycle through, so the whole single weapon work-around bonus from BG2 is moot. You can still have your ranger have one setup for archer, slot 2 set up for a sword/shield combo, slot 3 with a dual wield combo, and slot 4 as a two-handed weapon (or whatever). It's just a matter of right clicking on your weapon icon in the main game screen, then selecting which weapon setup you want to use. No more swapping out weapons, if you choose.

Scott Everts, Technical Designer

Miscellaneous new interface information: To answer the question on what the bar is below the small portraits- that is the health bar. It is currently not working so all you see is a black bar. This will replace the red overlay on the portrait and should be a lot easier to see. You will still be able to turn on and off the hard numbers just like in the original IWD.

There seems to be a lot of comments on the large portrait in the inventory. When we decided to make 800x600 the default resolution that gave us a lot of extra space to work with. I started playing around with layouts for spell, inventory, and record screens and thought it would be cool to use a standard format with the character portrait on the left and all the info on the right. When you switched between each character data screen the portrait would stay on the left for a consistent look. It also made it really easy to remember what character you were working on. The main reason I came up with that was because of all the fan interest in the portraits. It seemed from all the posts and comments that players really liked them. They were so small in the original game that a lot of the detail was lost. The larger ones just looked much better. Also, since the avatars are so small I think people relate more to the portraits. So you can blame me if you don't like the larger size.

Character colors: You can't assign default palettes to custom portraits. You still have to pick them manually. There is an internal data file that keeps track of the default colors for the standard portraits. When you select a custom portrait it doesn't check that data file so there is no way to make it work.

Another thing we added was racial colorsets for skin and hair. For example, if you pick a drow you'll only get color choices for drow skin and hair shades. The default portrait color button does override this. So lets say you pick a red headed, light skinned portrait and made it a drow. Your skin & hair color choices would be limited to a drow but if you pressed the default color button it would snap back to red hair and white skin.

Danien Chee, Programmer

Weapon combo analysis: Here's how the weapon combos work: - Instead of 4 quick weapon slots and 1 shield slot, you now have 4 pairs of weapon slots for a total of 8 weapon slots. Weapon slots behave as in previous IE games - you move a weapon from an inventory slot into a weapon slot. However, these weapon slots are paired. I like to call them weapon sets although some might call them couplets, buckets, holes, etc. Each weapon set has an activation button beside them to allow you to quickly select which set you want active. These can be mapped to hot keys. Only 1 weapon set is active at any time. If you modify a weapon slot that is active (i.e. primary or offhand slot of the currently active set), the changes take effect immediately. You can modify non-active weapon sets without affecting your currently equipped weapons. I really disliked how you had to keep removing stuff temporarily in the previous IE games (in particular with bows and two handed weapons) just to put something else on and how dropping a weapon into another weapon slot changed your currently equipped weapon.

- For each weapon set, there is a primary slot (sword background icon) and an offhand slot (shield background icon). You can place single handed (1H) weapons in either primary or offhand slots. Two handed (2H) weapons go in the primary slot as do launchers such as bows, crossbows, slings, etc. Shields go into the offhand slots.

- A 1H weapon in a primary slot with nothing in the offhand slot means you are using a single weapon for combat. Same goes for placing a 1H weapon in an offhand slot with nothing in the primary slot - no penalties.

- A shield in the offhand slot with nothing in the primary slot means you are using a Fist with a shield for combat.

- 1H weapons in both the primary and offhand slots means dual wielding, with necessary modifiers.

- Selecting a weapon set with nothing in both primary and offhand slots will make a Fist appear in the primary slot, indicating you will be using a Fist during combat. Useful for monks to keep one empty set handy.

This makes it much easier to prepare weapon sets in anticipation of different battle situations. e.g. Sword and shield combo in set 1 for general fighting, dual wield axes in set 2 for when you activate Power Attack, bow in set 3 for ranged attacks, Two handed Sword + 1000 with Fireball ability in set 3 against Frost Salamandars, etc.

Although it would be nice to have some way to sharing a single item across multiple sets, this would probably be a lot more confusing to use. For example, if you have a shield across a few sets, should removing it from one set also cause it to be removed across all other sets? What if you drop it into a ground slot to discard it? Also, it would be complicated for the player to maintain weapon sets.

As Wolf mentioned, you can also switch between weapon sets from the main game interface by right clicking on either weapon. This brings up the 4 weapon sets and you can click on any set to make that the active one. You shift-left click on a launcher weapon to bring up a list of usable ammo types. By the way, shields now show up in the main game interface. All this might sound kind of complicated but I believe it will be quite intuitive when you get your hands on it.

I think it is open to debate as to which slot (primary or offhand) would be swapped out by players more often. Someone brought up a good example of keeping the same shield but swapping out different primary weapons. Also, one thing that we aim for is consistency in the interface as much as possible. While right-clicking to customize is consistent with our new interface system, a player might expect right-clicking on the primary slot to also swap the primary weapon out instead of bringing up the 4 weapon sets.

With the 4 possible weapon sets (and thus, 4 primary and 4 offhand weapons), the system you are proposing would be somewhat of a rotating weapon system. This was brought up initially during design although we had it rotate sets instead of just one weapon. It made it cumbersome as you had to "search" for the correct weapon. Bringing up the sets appeared to be much faster and smoother. I guess one method would be to bring up the 4 offhand weapons when you right-click on the offhand slot.

This was in the interface design which I was handed. I believe part of the decision was to try to balance an increase in the number of weapon slots over the previous games (more weapons, ease of switching, dual wielding, etc) with maintaining an uncluttered look. While some may disagree with the latter, I think the 8 weapon slots and new row of inventory slots have proved pretty useful so far.

As for what players found annoying with the old interface, when I was given the task to implement the weapon combos, I remembered that I hated how the previous IE games would swap out my currently equipped weapon whenever I dropped a new weapon into a quick weapon slot with the intention of preparing it, not using it immediately. I asked QA and the designers what they thought about implementing a simple system to allow weapon slot changes without affecting the currently equipped weapons and everyone agreed this would be a nice feature to have. On a similar vein, a lot of the old 2nd edition rules had to go, such as Monks not being able to use two handed weapons, etc. Another annoying thing was having to temporarily remove certain items just so you can prepare something in another slot, then having to put that first item back. This seemed to happen a lot with ranged and two handed weapons. Of course, as with all programming tasks, feasiblity within time constraints is always a big consideration. More so with an aging licensed engine. The trick is finding a good balance.

While we might have solicited more suggestions from the message boards, this was a case of timing. This system was implemented a little late so we tried to implement this as best we could within a given time frame. I think most people would also agree that interface design can be quite subjective. What one person might find completely intuitive and functional might be completely convoluted for another.

Dave Maldonado, Designer

Difference between a programmer and a designer: Gross simplification:

A designer might say something like "I would like multiclassing to work like so. Here are the necessary charts and tables."

A programmer then mutters "Filthy bastard..." and sets to working on it.

A designer might say something like "I need a cut scene to occur here when such-and such happens. Here are all the necessary details."

A scripter then mutters "Filthy bastard..." and sets to working on it.

Many kinds of projects don't require separate programmers and designers/level-builders. RPG's, though, often have so many areas, dialogs, items, creatures and so on that it's a great boon to have people solely dedicated to conceiving of, managing, and testing those things while the super-hero programmers and scripters go about their business of making stuff actually happen.

This is merely how it works at Black Isle Studios. It may well be very different at other places.

We have area design templates and so on that allow us to communicate info consistently, and they are often filled out with pseudo-scripting language kind of stuff when it comes down to movement patterns, attack scripts and so on.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Release date issues: I've already explained this multiple times in multiple threads, explicitly.

Why aren't we done? The game is very buggy. We fix bugs and more bugs arise. 3E implementation and testing took longer than we expected it to -- much, much longer. This, in turn, also affects area testing. Does it frustrate you? Boy oh boy, it certainly frustrates me.

Why is there no new release date from Black Isle or Interplay? Black Isle and Interplay are not in control of when the game is released. Vivendi Universal is. They will distribute the game sometime after the game is final. Exactly when that date is -- that's still unknown. When Feargus tells people that he's trying to get a date, that's really what he's doing. He's not sitting around trying to magically craft one out of the ether. He's trying to find out when our distributor plans to ship the game.

BTW -- FC1 is scheduled to be submitted on Thursday. Hopefully that gives you an idea of where the game is from a development standpoint.

FC1 = Final Candidate 1. It's the first version of the game where we say, "We believe this may be ready for release. Hammer it." QA then smashes through the game. As the FCs get rejected, we refine the priority of our bug fixing. We start by leaving D-priority bugs alone. We then leave C-priority bugs alone. Then, B, and finally, only A-priority bugs can prevent the game from shipping. When there are no A bugs, QA typically signs off on the game, and it is ready for duplication. On IWD, I believe FC5 was the winner.

I am not a programmer. I am the lead designer. I ask for things that I believe will make the game a better product. The programmers are not under any obligation (or even any implicit "threat") to do anything I ask. I will always ask for changes that I believe will make the game better. When programmers tell me that something cannot be done, I ask for reasons. Often, they explain the situation and that's that. However, when I'm told that all changes can be done in a given amount of time, I typically accept that just as easily.

However, please do not revise history. I never said that these changes would be easy.

Rumors are leaked that BIS is developing IWD2, and that it's on a four month development cycle. You know what? That wasn't far from the truth. We didn't have the chance to begin the implementation of 3E rules until after the impossibility of a sub-six month dev cycle was made painfully clear. In the meantime, we get slammed for using dated technology to make a quick, cheap, rip-off game.

So, we finally get a more reasonable dev cycle. We decide that the quick, cheap road isn't acceptable. We make the game as 3E compliant as we can. We revise the entire interface graphically and functionally. We design and re-design areas in an effort to avoid all of the things people disliked about IWD while enforcing everything they seemed to enjoy. The game's length winds up being twice the original estimate.

New interface inventory screen: You are referring to the inventory interface. All of the art for the interface has been done and in the game since before E3. Really. However, the old paperdolls were still in the inventory interface, and for some reason this required a monumental effort to fully remove and replace with avatars.

Want to see the inventory?

WOW! It's really not that exciting. It has an extra row of slots, weapon combos, and that's about it. It's been that way since before E3. An internet news site was going to run a big special about how the revised IWD2 interfaces worked, but I guess that evaporated. There it is. Not particularly stunning or mystical.

The inventory has been in this state since before E3 -- except that the paper doll hadn't been removed. I felt the need to post an inventory shot even without the avatar included just to dispel the prevailing belief that the inventory screen had somehow been overtaken by terrorists and zerglings.

Multiple mage spells scrolls in the game: There are loads and loads of mage spell scrolls throughout the game. At various points, we "re-supply" low-level mage spells in case people multiclass. There are also duplicates of almost every spell.

Dragon’s eye: Dragon's Eye is not the final area of the game, but it is in the second half of the game.

Turn undead: For good and neutral clerics, it's not too hard to destroy undead. For evil clerics, it's good either way. If you get the equivalent of a "destroy" result, you can control the undead and have them energy drain things. If you get a "turn" result, you rebuke them. They get -2 to AC, no Dex bonus for AC, and are stunned for ten rounds.

Iron rations: Iron rations keep you alive in the first area of the game. They are quite useful.

Doug Avery, Associate Producer

Collector’s edition: Here is a brief description of what happened with the whole CE thing. I thought you guys deserved answers to your repeated questions about it. Sorry it is so late in coming, but I had to verify a few things before I posted.

Initially we came up with the idea to offer a collector's edition for Icewind Dale II. We were only able to offer it directly off of our website due to distribution conflicts. When EBworld.com stated they were going to be selling it, we contacted them and told them that we couldn't offer it to them because of contractual obligations. Cut to the beginning of June. All parties involved have reached a consensus and EBworld.com will be selling it on their website, but the copies are coming directly from our company store to fill their orders. This is a good thing for everyone involved. You get EBworld.com's larger distribution range and we get to reach a broader audience. This is the reason that we have removed the exclusive tags from our advertisements. Also, our company store is still offering it directly as well, so nothing has changed on that front. I hope that explains things more clearly than they have been in the past. As always, thank you.

From everything I have heard, you can only get the Collector's Edition from Interplay.com or EBworld.com, no retail stores will be stocking it.

Bug list numbers and killing them: 9414 bugs is not that uncommon for a title of this scope. If I remember correctly, on BG2 we had over 16000 by the time all was said and done. Our Q.A. dept. is very busy hunting these things down and they do a fantastic job of it.

We have around twenty Q.A. analysts that go over every aspect of the game. They test every item, every spell, every dialogue option, etc. They also play through the game about 800,000 times and try to break stuff. Currently we have one team dedicated to multi-player testing. We have two more dedicated to single-player testing. We also have two BIS testers and their job is to focus on the end game. Everyone is working at least twelve-hour days and really doing a great job to make certain the game is as bug free as humanly possible.

New interface inventory screen: Just to clarify, the weapon combos can also be accessed from the main game interface. You right click on the weapon combo buttons and you can select a new combo right from there. You no longer have to go into your inventory screen to switch out weapons. You do still have to go there to equip armor, set up your weapon combos and quick items and, of course, manage your inventory.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 22:06 CET by Z-Layrex

There is a new private Neverwinter Nights Forum on the bioware website! Basically only people who own the game will be able to post. This avoids any spammers who know nothing about the topic. When you register for the forum you will have to enter your copy of NWN's CD key, thus ensuring your ability to post in the very special forum. I will be covering developer posts in this new NWN forum from the 28th of June on the UK release date.

David Gaider, Designer

Can a DM posses an NPC and make them sit in a chair?: A DM could possess an NPC sitting in a chair and speak from there, but if he got the NPC to stand back up he couldn't sit back down. The problem there is that there is no option amongst the emote commands on the radial menu to 'sit in a chair' or 'sit on the ground'... NPC's possessed by the DM have the same emote menu as PC's, so any extra animations you want them to perform will have to be done through scripting. I know there are plans to add these commands directly to the radial menu later, but there are issues that need to be worked out first. Hopefully it can be done in a patch, but we shall have to see.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Can you gain levels faster by fighting the same monsters in an area over and over again?: In 3rd Edition D&D, characters reach a point where they can no longer learn from doing the same thing over and over. At first level, killing an elite goblin for 100 XP is pretty nice, but pretty soon you're getting half of that experience, and then eventually you're getting nothing. So while you could start the campaign over and over again, it's not really worth your while.

Number of Disks: Install disc one and two, and play a disc.

Box size: It will be both sizes, depending on what the individual retail stores want.

Neverwinter Nights NPCs and Henchmen
Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 21:02 CET by Mollusken

BioWare has revealed a few of the NPCs and henchmen we can meet in the official Neverwinter Nights campaign.

MacSoft to Publish NWN for Macintosh
Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 11:34 CET by Mollusken

MacSoft, an Infogrames label, will be publishing the Macintosh version of Neverwinter Nights.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, -- June 12, 2002 -- MacSoft, an Infogrames, Inc. label (Nasdaq: IFGM) today signed an agreement with game developer BioWare Corp. to bring Neverwinter Nights to the Macintosh. Neverwinter Nights is based on the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game published by Wizards of the Coast and is scheduled to ship in the Fall 2002, only two months after the PC version.

"We are thrilled to bring a product of this caliber to the Macsoft lineup," said Al Schilling, product manager for MacSoft. "The Macintosh community is already eagerly awaiting Neverwinter Nights because of its dynamic single player storyline, advanced graphics technology, revolutionary on-line multiplayer capabilities and the new "Dungeon Master" feature".

"Neverwinter Nights will provide limitless adventure and Macintosh gamers will have unprecedented game play options as they join the existing Neverwinter Nights community," said Trent Oster, BioWare's Project Director and Producer of Neverwinter Nights. "This game builds excitement as the first complete role-playing system, allowing players to step into the shoes of the Dungeon Master to tell and create their own stories and adventures."

You can read the whole press release here.

Two New Neverwinter Nights Interviews
Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 11:28 CET by Mollusken

The first interview with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk from BioWare is at GameSpy.

What are some of the things that authors should focus on when building a module to make the experience of being a DM less of a hassle?

Decide if you want to be a hands-on DM or if you want to be less controlling. The DM tool can be used in a variety of ways: you can totally direct a session or you can observe as the players go through the adventure, adding bits of excitement from time to time. Once you determine how you want to manage the game you'll be well able to easily make a module with the tools to suit your desire.

There's also a second interview with Ray and Greg at GameSpot.

Now that Neverwinter Nights' development is finally complete, would you say that the game has turned out more or less the way you wanted it to? What's been the most difficult thing about creating it? Has there been a single feature that's been most challenging to implement?

The overall scope of Neverwinter is probably the most challenging aspect of [developing] the game--there is just so much content there, and so many features. All told, we have put about 160 man-years of development work into the game. Playing the single-player game through from start to finish takes about 140 hours or more if you try to do everything (that's how long it took me, in any event). The four pillars of the game--single-player, multiplayer, the module creation toolset, and the dungeon master tools--all represent significant challenges in their own right.

Neverwinter Nights Scripting Course
Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 11:25 CET by Mollusken

If you're a real newbie in programming and want to script your own Neverwinter Nights module, Neverwinter Vault has made a flash tutorial for everyone which will take you through all the basics in an easy way. You can find it here.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 2:05 CET by TBR

Various odds and ends from the resident fonts of knowledge on IWD2.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

True strike - yes or no: I don't think True Strike is in the game.

Katana info: Not all katana are of the quality you describe. Most of them were downright crummy. Katana also never had to deal with heavy armor or extremely heavy blades in the hands of their opponents. A katana of high quality slapped by a heavy high quality European weapon would probably shatter; they aren't meant to parry in the manner that European blades often were. That said, there are no katana in IWD2. Also, there were martial arts in Europe as far back as pankration.

Presenting the game at E3: If you're looking for something in IWD2 that will knock you on you’re a** in a five-minute presentation, you're not going to find much. That's what pretty much every press person gets when they come by a booth at E3. We talk to them for about 3-10 minutes about the game, hitting the high points and showing them some gameplay and interface.

Chad Nicholas, Scriptor

Humans and stats: Humans cannot go over 18 in any stat. (at character generation)

More Neverwinter Nights Models
Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 20:42 CET by Mollusken

BioWare has released the doomknight, the penguin and three new spell effects for the Neverwinter Nights model viewer. They can all be downloaded here.

A Golden Desktop
Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 14:03 CET by Mollusken

BioWare has released a new wallpaper to celebrate Neverwinter Nights going gold. It can be downloaded by clicking on the image below.

Icewind Dale II Interview at RPGDot
Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 13:45 CET by Mollusken

Designer Dave Maldonado has answered a few questions about Icewind Dale II at RPGDot.

Would it be possible to finish the game by using only the same class?

It won't always be easy, but it's certainly possible. Fighters, clerics, druids, certainly... as for wizards and sorcerers? Whew. I honestly couldn't say. Bard and rogues are on the cusp, too. But I've been wanted to make it through the game with a band of thieves for some time... perhaps after we ship.

What work is still being done on Icewind Dale II at the moment?

Bug-fixing, and that's it. Really! We just want to get it as clean as possible. We weren't very happy about the state IWD went out in, so...

Read everything here.

Neverwinter Nights Gone Gold!
Posted Tuesday, June 11, 2002 - 23:20 CET by Sorcerer

Believe it or not, it's true!

Here's the official press release:

BioWare’s Dungeons & Dragons Masterpiece Is Complete

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – June 11, 2002 – Infogrames, Inc. (Nasdaq: IFGM), a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced that the long awaited and highly anticipated epic, Neverwinter Nights™, has completed development and will ship to retail stores under the Company’s Atari label before the end of June. The most complete software adaptation of the classic pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons® role-playing game ever, Neverwinter Nights is the latest game from BioWare Corp., creators of the 4 million selling Baldur’s Gate series.

"Finally, PC gamers the world over can breathe – their dream computer game is complete and only days away from their PCs," said Jean-Philippe Agati, senior vice president and general manager of Infogrames’ Los Angeles studio. "Neverwinter Nights has lived up to all of its promises – engaging and exciting single player campaign, a groundbreaking multiplayer component, never-before-seen user editing abilities and, for the first time ever, a true translation of the D&D® ‘Dungeon Master’ to electronic entertainment."

Neverwinter Nights redefines the electronic role-playing game genre using the fully-3D BioWare Aurora Engine and the Third Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) core rulebook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The game contains an amazing 60-100 hour single player campaign that is also playable in multiplayer mode. More than just a game, Neverwinter Nights breaks new ground as the first complete role-playing system for the computer platform, allowing its players to step into the shoes of the Dungeon Master to tell their own stories and create their own adventures in the spirit of the exciting pen and paper original.

"We’re very proud of the hard work every member of our development team has put into Neverwinter Nights over the last five years," said Greg Zeschuk, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. and Co-Executive Producer of Neverwinter Nights. "When we started developing Neverwinter Nights, we realized that technology would reach the point where we could actually have a 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons computer game that brought the best social elements of traditional kitchen-table pen-and-paper role-playing to people all over the world through their computer and the Internet. We’re very fortunate to be able to do this."

"Neverwinter Nights was designed to be everything anybody could ever want in a D&D™ role-playing game," said Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp and Co-Executive Producer of Neverwinter Nights. "The development team – a group of exceptionally creative, smart people - has done an amazing job: Neverwinter Nights has an incredibly engaging 60-100 hour official campaign, playable in either single-player or in multiplayer mode. Everything in the campaign has been built with the same BioWare Aurora Neverwinter Toolset that is also bundled with the game. We’ve enabled gamers to join their friends online and play through adventure modules created by fans and Neverwinter Nights community members, together with a dungeon master if they so choose! The game looks amazing – the BioWare Aurora Engine is capable of some amazing graphical effects. Overall, we just can’t wait to see what the Neverwinter Nights community comes up with when they’ve got the game and its powerful tools in their hands!"

The PC version of Neverwinter Nights will ship to retailers before the end of June. Linux gamers can anticipate the online release of the Neverwinter Nights server at launch and the client program shortly afterward. Linux gamers will still need the Windows version of the game to register at the Neverwinter Nights community site (http://neverwinternights.com) and to import essential game resources into their Linux server and game.

And here is the link so you can see it with your own eyes.

You can order NWN from our Game Store and discuss the release news on our messages boards.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, June 11, 2002 - 20:48 CET by Z-Layrex

David Gaider, Designer

Sitting: Currently, PC's do NOT sit. They can sit down on the ground, but only when resting.

File Format Changes: The file formats were changed to speed up save times and area transition loads (and were very successful at doing so). The only files we converted to the new file format were the official campaign modules... everything else that was old had to be dumped (like our earlier legacy modules). Only the programmers would know how that was done. Probably manually, as I've been told that we don't have a conversion utility ourselves that we could make available.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Intro: I believe the original concept (when the intro was to focus on multiple heroes) was that this was to be Morregence (a barbarian) - a character who was cut from the story. The movie was then shifted to focus on one character, and at that point I believe it became Lord Nasher in his youth.

Favourite 3E Changes: One of my favorite changes is skills. I like that you perform your skill with a d20 + modifier, and then someone tries to out-perform you by besting your roll. If your roll a 12 for hide, then I need to roll 13 or better to spot you. The flexibility of characters, as mentioned, is also a huge advance, and a subtle nod toward GUPRs, I think. As far as rolling, almost everything is a d20, and higher is generally better (I can't think of a situation where lower is better, and there probably isn't one - consistency is good). You want your armor class higher, your saving throws higher, etc. And all classes advance at the same rate!!! Who would have thunked it?

David Chan,Sound Designer

Surround Sound: We use the Miles sound system and support both Direct Sound and EAX 3.0. The EAX 3.0 effects are very nice. So, getting a 4 speaker system with a nice sub woofer would be well worth it to enhance the experience.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja

CD Keys: Yes, NWN will enforce 1 CD key = 1 player. For you and your brother to play simultaneously, even on a LAN, each would need to purchase his own copy of Neverwinter Nights (now with pectin!).

Neverwinter Nights Beta Impressions and E3 Award
Posted Tuesday, June 11, 2002 - 14:47 CET by Mollusken

With permission from BioWare and Infogrames, HomeLan has written about their impressions of the Neverwinter Nights beta.

Once the character is created you actually start the tutorial prelude level as you move from NPC to NPC getting lessons and outfitting your character for the big adventure ahead. It’s here that a got the first chance to check out the game’s graphics. Simply put, our beta had the best looking graphics ever for an RPG of this type. People who have played and enjoyed Dungeon Siege (and judging from the sales of Gas Powered Games’s action-RPG there are a lot of you) should be absolutely blown away by the looks of this game. The character animations, lighting and levels of the beta are incredible to just look at. The lighting deserves special mention. Each light source casts a real shadow on the characters so you can actually see several shadows coming from your character and the NPCs. Flame, smoke and spell effects are also well handled.

Read everything here.

Neverwinter Nights has also been awarded Best RPG of E3 at Game Revolution.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, June 11, 2002 - 1:22 CET by TBR

J.E. and Chad Nicholas check in with us this time.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

On the strange phenomenon known as "release date Tetris": There are basically four parties involved in this situation: the developers (BIS), the publisher (IPLY), the distributor (Vivendi Universal), and the retailer. The developers tell the publisher when they estimate the game will be done. The publishers (hopefully) pass this information on to the distributors. The distributors then play Release Date Tetris with their own titles and competing titles, optimizing for maximum profit and minimum risk. The retailers and the distributors play tug of war over who gets what, when -- and at what price. Retailers often shift their dates for effect, or based on something that any individual in any one of the three other parties might have said, implied, hinted, or not said, implied, or hinted at all.

Ghostwise halflings and snares: Ghostwise halflings get the ability to set a natural snare once a day. It takes the form of a little floating skull marker (it looks like Skull Trap). When a creature hits the skull marker, it affects the creature as a single-target Entangle spell.

I got the idea for his facepaint from the Guarani king in The Mission:

I thought that the ghostwise halflings, living in a brutal environment, might be more likely to worship Urogalan, the halfling god of the earth and the dead. So, I asked Vance to add white teeth to the black facepaint. The idea was that this particular ghostwise halfling was a tribal hunter. His facepaint is his way of letting his prey know that its death was not random or for sport, but fulfilling a greater role in the jungle.

Or maybe he's just creepy. Whatever works.

However, the Entangle effect only lasts about five rounds though, and still allows a save. It's pretty useful, but not overpowering, IMO.

Ghostwise halfling male portrait: here

Wild elf female portrait: here

Chad Nicholas, Scriptor

Protection from evil: I don't know about Holy Word vs. Unholy Word, but as for Protection From Evil, evil aligned casters can cast the spell, and should cast the spell before summoning creatures that don't like to be summoned.

Rage: Rage doesn't offer any immunites. That's a BG2/2Ed thing. Rage in IwD2 follows 3E ROOLZ.

The RPG Year 2002 at UGO
Posted Monday, June 10, 2002 - 20:47 CET by Mollusken

UGO.com has looked at a few of the new RPG titles we can expect this year.

2002 looks to be the dawn of some of the best RPGs we have seen in years, with offerings from gaming giants like Tim Schaefer and Peter Molyneux, and everything from a re-imagined Legend of Zelda to a prequel of Star Wars in between. Check out UGO's Top Eleven upcoming RPGs for this year and beyond, including screenshot galleries, linked below:

http://www.ugo.com/channels/games/features/eleven/rpgadventure_e3/

Black Isle Studios Acquires 3e D&D Expert
Posted Monday, June 10, 2002 - 18:57 CET by Sorcerer

Well, almost. While he's not at BIS yet, this interesting announcement appeared at Sean K. Reynolds' website:

When I move to California, I'm going to be working for Black Isle Studios (makers of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale) on a new RPG.

He got the part about BIS making Baldur's Gate wrong (credit for that is BioWare's alone), but still. Him working for BIS means that we can expect more 3rd edition D&D games from BIS, which is definitely a good thing.

Just FYI (in case the name doesn't ring a bell), Sean K. Reynolds is the author of many AD&D/D&D adventures, sourcebooks, guidebooks and so on. Most notable recent works: Monster Manual, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Magic of Faerun, Lords of Darkness and Faiths and Pantheons.

In short, if anyone knows D&D and the Forgotten Realms, this man does. I can see him being a valuable addition to the Black Isle Studios team.

Neverwinter Nights Screenshots
Posted Sunday, June 9, 2002 - 17:45 CET by Mollusken

XGR and HomeLan have both received a couple of huge (1600*1200) exclusive screenshots from BioWare.

Icewind Dale II Portraits
Posted Sunday, June 9, 2002 - 17:16 CET by Mollusken

Four new portraits by Justin Sweet have been posted at the official Icewind Dale II site.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Sunday, June 9, 2002 - 3:13 CET by TBR

J.E. Sawyer, Chris Heidari and Chad Nicholas check in on various "odds-and-ends".

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

On a possible Contest: Not happening. It's too late now.

An expansion: Feargus has said it before: for RPGs, expansions usually aren't worth the development and publishing costs, and they usually aren't as well-received by the public. The six months of development time that you might spend making an expansion would probably be better spent on making a new game. IWD:HoW made us a good chunk of change, but was it really the best thing for us to do, from an economic or consumer-appreciation standpoint?

Limits of multi-classing: The only limit is 30 total levels.

Evil clerics getting more powerful spells: I'd say Lathander and Ilmater both get very powerful spells. Even though the elementals that Selunites summon attack the nearest creature not protected by Prot. from Evil, it's quite easy to unleash a powerful creature with damage reduction right next to an enemy.

Visiting old areas from IWD in the later part of IWD2: My belief was that having IWD areas towards the end of the game would be good for the following reasons:

* The initial areas in the game need to be fresh.
* Only hardcore players make it past the halfway point in a game. These are probably the same people who loved IWD and will have nostalgic feelings about re-visiting places like Kuldahar.

Chris Heidari, Quality Assurance

Changing pre-made parties: Currently (and this may be subject to change), the names and characters for the pre-made parties are stored in a party.ini file located in the root IWD2 folder. This should allow you to rename the pre-made parties and/or replace the characters with your own using a simple text editor. I don't know if this is something that will be officially supported though.

Chad Nicholas, Scriptor

Controlling Efreeti and Djinni spell casting: No. There isn't any interface to allow you control of that (not for any summoned creature that has spells). Sorry.

Djinni casts Fireshield (Blue) to protect itself, and casts a Whirlwind at your enemies once/turn. Efreeti casts Fireshield (Red) to protect itself, and casts Burning Hands once every other round at your enemies.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Saturday, June 8, 2002 - 10:48 CET by Z-Layrex

David Gaider, Designer

Bows: You can fire the bow in melee, yes but do so at -4 to hit unless you have the Point Blank feat and will suffer an Attack of Opportunity if you are at Hardcore Rules or Very Difficult difficult setting. You don't actually strike someone with the bow itself.

DMs changing stat point values: The number of points is set at 30, for now. The Dungeon Master has the ability to alter stats permanently via the DM console after their character is made, however. The only problem with that is that skill points from Int can't be added/subtracted retroactively for the first level. If we're going to allow an in-game setting for the point system, of course we're going to have to put in a filters server-side regarding it. Might be something we could look at in an expansion, perhaps.

Encounter Triggers: Encounter triggers are still tripped off by hidden or invisible characters... though the creatures that spawn in won't necessarily see you. As for casting True Seeing, fortunately in NWN we have different levels of perception available when scripting. Someone wouldn't cast the spell unless they somehow became aware of your presence (succeeded at a Listen roll or were attacked) and couldn't see you.

Skill Points: You don't have to spend all you're skill points when you level up, but any you don't spend are lost... they aren't stored until the next level....

Actually, Bob just told me that in the current build skill points you don't spend at level up actually can be stored until the next one. Just goes to show you that development continues. I'd tried it before and that wasn't so. Tomorrow it may be different.

Locked Campaign: You don't have to play through the whole campaign in order for it to be unlocked, just each chapter/module as you complete it. Really it's to prevent you from spoiling it for yourself too easily. If you really want to, I'm sure you can figure out how it's 'locked' or will be informed somewhere quickly enough how to unlock it. Like we've said before, it's not all that obscure.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Load Times: I think my system is pretty similar to yours (I posted my specs recently (yesterday?) in a thread about benchmarks) - regardless, moving through an area transition to, what I think, is the largest, most script-heavy area in in Chapter 1 took me exactly 5 seconds on the ol' stop watch. To move to a smaller area took just under 2 seconds. Saving my game took just under one second (in the smaller prelude area, saving my game takes an almost imperceptible fraction).

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Hearing Invisible Creatures: I'm just going to say that through playtesting we find different things work better or worse than we expected... sometimes a change is required, other times a change is not required. Other times, there's a bug in code which causes bad misconceptions about how powerful an ability is... so when it's fixed, generally things revert back to how they were... fixed and good. ie: Ranged Sneak attack range: 10m.

To clarify my earlier statement on being able to hear invisible creatures... if the invisible creature gets close to a creature, that creature is then allowed to make listen checks against the invisible creature... and at that point, most spellcasters are pretty much going to be heard... unless of course they're in active stealth mode *and* have at least a small amount of skill invested.

Edit: Also, I should note that any time a creature speaks the speech bubble will appear over their current location... regardless of their current visibility state.

Wizards of the Coast Writing Contest
Posted Friday, June 7, 2002 - 22:54 CET by Mollusken

Wizards of the Coast wants a new fantasy world (like the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance) which they can use in role playing games, novels or card games. They have arranged a contest where the winner will be awarded with $100,000 and have the world he/she created used by WotC. More about the contest can be found here.

Icewind Dale II Designer Diary Part 9
Posted Friday, June 7, 2002 - 22:39 CET by Mollusken

Designer Damien Foletto from Black Isle goes throught the final steps of the development of Icewind Dale II.

Currently, the designers are focusing on balance and bug fixes. Each of us is playing through the game with pre-made parties that we created, and will ship with the game. This gives us a chance to not only evaluate the different areas in the game for fun and balance, but also do the same for the pre-made parties (we don't play the party we created ourselves, we play another designer's created party). Having played through 75% of the game myself, I can say that I'm having a blast. There are things done in this Infinity Engine game that have never been done before, and it elevates the game play to a whole new, very fun level. The 3rd Edition rules alone give character development a more personalized feel, allowing the player to create precisely the character they envision. Even if the player is a newbie and chooses one of the pre-made parties, after playing the game for a few hours and leveling, the characters will feel like their own. I know most players will play the game with a party of their own creation, but to whet the appetite of those that might select a pre-made party, here's the one I made for the game...

Read all about this all female party and a few other things at RPG Vault.

NWN Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 7, 2002 - 14:42 CET by Z-Layrex

David Gaider, Designer

What is a PatternNumber?: I'm not sure how the PatternNumber works. If I'm not mistaken, each PatternNumber corresponds to a specific string that the NPC is listening for, but I certainly could be wrong.

How does the PC talk?: By speaking, simply enough. When a player presses the Enter key, they can type what they wish to speak and it will appear over their heads. They have four 'volumes' to choose from: Talk, Shout, Party and DM. NPC's would 'hear' any text in Talk and Shout if they were in the appropriate range.

How does an NPC listen?: I believe you must tell them by having them execute the command SetIsListening or SetListening... whatever the command is called. When an NPC is actively listening and there is some text spoken within range, their OnConversation event is fired. You can then use GetLastSpeaker to determine who spoke and GetListenPatternNumber to return the PatternNumber integer if a recognizeable string was spoken (it will equal -1 if not). Or so my understanding goes. My suggestion is still to check out the script in OnConversation and how it connects to the 'combat shouts' used by the generic AI.

Bob McCabe, Designer

Maps: The auto-map can be zoomed in on, or out, and it does have pins to place notes. You do not need to scroll the auto-map, as the entire map border is shown (though the contents may not be).

Load Times: We've had some pretty drastic optimizations since the Korean videos were released. It will still depend on the system you're running, obviously, but they are much (much) shorter than they were. As for saved games, they have undergone a similar optimization. On my p3-650, I was having to wait about a minute or two for a saved game. Now, it's, in the largest-sized areas, about 5 seconds. Some areas, I hit save and I can almost see the save game screen pop up. I wondered if it didn't work, but it did.

Rob Bartel, Co Lead Designer

Thick Walls: In the City Tileset, we've designed the height transitions to look like ramparts and have used them as such in the official campaign. To enhance the look, we've also added in a City Gate group and some 1x1 Rampart Towers. To get a general sense of size and functionality, try to build earthen embankments around your village in the Rural Tileset, using height transitions. That should give you a rough indication of what you'll have to work with. Now where did I put my flaming pitch...

Subraces: There are probably a hundred different ways to do this kind of stuff, each with their +'s and -'s. The best solutions are probably going to be ones that mix-and-match a variety of different approaches. A good place to start, however, would be to check the player's Subrace field from within the scripting language. If it says "Drow" then your script could equip them with creature items that you've created (creature hides, bites, and claws -- these are equipped to hidden slots that aren't visible to the player). You can design these items to bestow some of the abilities that you feel Drow should have in your module.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Looking around corners: In interior areas you can hear around corners... also the "Fog of War" shouldn't be so close as to obscure any creatures you could potentially see or hear...I should probably also note that if you're quick enough it's possible to dart out and then back behind a corner without being noticed... but I wouldn't advise it in practise... as the odds of you getting spotted are... well, I suppose it depends on what's down that hallway... doesn't it?

Invisible Creatures: Just thought I'd point out that it's possible to *hear* invisible creatures... they are only invisible after all... but only within a certain range. Same as you can still see a silenced creature...

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 7, 2002 - 12:35 CET by TBR

J.E. Sawyer has completed Icewind Dale 2 with his beta party, the "Hands of Fury". Here's the nitty-gritty from J.E. himself, as well as more information on the various bugs still in IWD2 and the high-level spells currently in the game.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Victory for the Hands: Well, the Hands of Fury finally did it. I started playing through the game on May 9th, and have played the game almost every day since then (minus 3 days for E3 and 2 Sundays) for an average of five hours each day. I finally won the game today. My six characters were all 15th level. And I won it the tough way. Not the cop-out, Let's Make a Deal way. I stuck by my Talosian principles and destroyed everything in sight.

I'd probably shave some time off of that for time spent hammering things repeatedly. Maybe 80 hours of "real" gameplay.

Characters:

Makados: Chaotic Evil Human Male Stormlord of Talos 15
Dahel Bloody-Four: Chaotic Evil Human Male Barbarian 15
Amraith: Neutral Evil Moon Elf Male Fighter 15
Harbesh Carver: Neutral Shield Dwarf Male Fighter 2 / Rogue 13
Mirai Wainwright: Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Female Wizard 15
Fissera: Neutral Evil Human Male Druid 15

Notes:

My Stormlord of Talos was the party leader, and quite good at keeping the party moving along. His domain spells were very useful, but they were by no means the defining features of the character. In the final area of the game, I absolutely loved using my Tremor domain spell to knock clerics and fighters on their proverbial asses. I ROELEPLAYEDE him to the fullest. When a priest of a goodly faith offered me a way to make the end of the game easier, I told him to convert to the ways of the Destroyer or suffer the consequences. He wasn't too happy about this, so he attacked me. My Flail of the Elements made short work of him. Makados of Talos doesn't make deals with Ilmaterians, SUCKA.

My barbarian started out strong and finished stronger. During the mid-game, his melee skillz weren't so great that he was more useful than my elf fighter. In the last third of the game, he really started to shine. His damage reduction was quite useful in several areas, and Greater Rage is nice. It sucked when he was the character in front of the party -- whom NPCs talked to. He had an 8 Charisma and low, low, low speech skills.

My elf fighter was my favorite character. He laid waste to everything with his bow. Easily my MVP, he had almost 30% of the total party kills at the end (669, to be exact). His high Dex came at a price, though. He had a junky Strength (10) and Con (10). When forced into melee, he often had to bust out and run for cover. Thankfully, his Hide and Move Silently were very high, so he served as my scout. Towards the end of the game, he became a worthwhile melee combatant thanks to some nice elven chain and a Strength-enhancing girdle. His best bow shot in the game was a critical hit against a cleric of Bane that did 48 points of damage, interrupting a Gate spell with the cleric's untimely death.

The rogue was the character I had the most mixed feelings about. He had a low Dex (10), but a high Int and Str. If I had him Power Attack and Sneak Attack at the same time, I could deal massive damage with a single shot. I took two levels of fighter, and I alternately am glad and sad that I did so. It helped him in some ways, but his thief skills suffered a little because of the neglect. I usually kept him on crossbow, since he could easily get wasted in melee. However, a well-placed Sneak Attack from him became a staple in the late game, offering a reliable 30ish points of damage to some unlucky sap.

The wizard was all-around awesome. She filled the traditional mage role and did it well. Providing buffs and a slew of offensive spells with horribly high DCs, she and the cleric worked well together. In the late game, my favorite tactic with her was the patented "Stoneskin/Mirror Image/Haste" rush, followed up by as many Sunfires as I could muster before hordes of enemies slaughtered her.

My druid was one of the more interesting characters. He stayed at the back of the party as an offensive caster. He was the "combat class" character with the worst melee combat capabilities. However, he was nice as a rear guard. When jerks would come up from behind, he would transform into a Dire Bear and murder everyone. Alternately, if someone needed help in a jiffy, he would turn into a Dire Panther and rush across the screen in seconds. His 4th level Flame Strikes were invaluable, as was his incredibly awesome Aura of Vitality in the late game.

The wizard was probably more useful overall, but... that's a tough call. The druid has a very interesting mix of spells, but it's kind of a grab bag. Spells like Thorn Spray and Smashing Wave are really only useful in very specific combat situations, for instance. However, when you do get to use them, the results can be dramatic, and quite different from the spells available to the wizard.

Amraith had a 16 Intelligence and a 20 Dexterity. I kept him in studded leather armor until the last chapter of the game, when he found magical elven chain.

Improved critical: Improved Critical only increases the threat range by 1, I believe, regardless of the weapon you are using.

The game and its bugs: If the game isn't complete, how have I played the whole game straight through to the last chapter with only three critical bugs encountered along the way? Want a more-or-less complete breakdown of what types of bugs still remain?

* Text bugs -- These are typos or incorrect information that appear in item/class/race/spell descriptions. Most of these get forwarded to me. I edit the string, send it back for verification, and that's the end of it. Considering the massive conversion to 3E, there are a lot of these.

* Roolz bugs -- An error in implementation. For instance, Expertise applying AC bonuses when a missile weapon is equipped. Barbarian Rage's state icon outlasting the actual effects of the rage. Emotion: Hopelessness not being converted to Emotion: Despair and Emotion: Courage not being converted to Emotion: Rage. These are many and minor, but need to be addressed.

* Graphical bugs -- Graphics aren't displaying properly. This could be a flickering interface panel, an animation state that wasn't added to the resources properly, or a clipping error for a spell effect (like wall of fire not appearing when part of it is clipped behind a clipping plane).

* Quest bugs -- These are the most important bugs, because they are the ones that can wreck your game (like Orrick giving a big fat "NO VALID REPLIES OR LINKS" message in IWD1). Quests have their own big fat whiteboard for verification. Every quest in the game has three "x"s that can appear next to them. A blue x means that it cannot be completed. A green x means that it cannot be completed in all ways the designer intended. A red x means that it cannot be completed in multiplayer. There are still green and red "x"s floating around, and 10 blues.

* Scripting bugs -- These usually tie into quest bugs. Scripts that don't work at all/sometimes need to be reviewed and fixed.

* General application bugs -- Just general errors with the IWD2 application. Programming is always optimizing for speed and ironing things out.

* Balance bugs -- This is what I've been spending most of my days working on (since I only get about 4-8 "real" bugs a day). We are playing through the game monitoring the following in each area (using pre-made parties):

- Combat balance/variation
- Phat loot frequency and amounts

- Cheese tactics that we use to get by areas

- Overall fun factor vs. frustration or ease

So, yeah, that's what we've been doing, for reals.

I don't think I've ever absolved the design team of all guilt. The game isn't ready to ship right now because it simply needs a significant amount of bug-fixing. As for why the delay was not announced earlier and why there is no current release date, those are matters that are out of our hands.

High-level spells: Very few high-level spells from BG2 are in IWD2. Here are the new 6th+ Wiz/Sor spells that I can think of:

Carrion Summons
Improved Haste
Protection from Magic Energy
Wyvern Call
Cacofiend
Delayed Blast Fireball
Summon Efreeti
Summon Djinni
Banishment
Vipergout
Summon Fiend
Flensing
Gate
Wail of the Banshee
Black Blade of Disaster
Meteor Swarm
Aegis
Executioner's Eyes
Mass Dominate

As for Finger of Death in IWD... I don't know. In IWD2, it has a saving throw penalty simply by virtue of being a 7th level spell.

Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update
Posted Thursday, June 6, 2002 - 22:12 CET by TBR

First news post here on SP. Heh.

Here's BIS high-up J.E. Sawyer, on why Icewind Dale II hasn't met its expected release date, the "state of the game", and other issues.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Spells: Banishment is an anti-summoning spell. You cast it at summoned monsters, and they whoosh away unless they make a successful Will save (I think it's a Will save).

Vipergout turns the caster into a snake-vomiting machine. Though he or she can't cast spells, she spits forth a poisonous snake every round for a brief duration.

Flensing (actually Flaying in our game) does 1d4 points of slashing damage per level of the caster (no cap) to one target. The target gets a Fortitude save to halve the damage and resist getting bleeding wounds that do damage over time. It's a very good spell for killing mages, sorcerers, and rogues.

Aegis is a 9th level abjuration spell that instantly summons up several defensive effects. It grants 15 points of resistance vs. all elemental forms of attack, +5 deflection bonus, +3 SR, +2 to all saves, and the effects of Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Stoneskin, and Freedom of Movement. It lasts 10 rounds.

All spells in 3E have a saving throw DC that is determined by their level and the prime ability score of the caster type. For instance, a 7th level wizard spell cast by a wizard with a 22 Intelligence would have a saving throw DC of 10 (base) + 7 (spell level) + 6 (Intelligence modifier). On top of that, you can also stack Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus for even more difficult saves.

Circle of Death and Cloudkill only kill monsters with X amount of HD or less. If you try casting those spells against the higher level summoned monsters in our game, you're not going to have much success.

The "state of the game": Hello. Since no one believes we are actually doing any work anymore, I figured I'd fabricate a small list of things that we're tackling at the moment to give the illusion that we're busy.

* 7 Blue Stars -- There are seven quests in the game that currently cannot be completed as written. All but one of these stars are in the last chapter of the game.

* 81 Green Stars -- There are eighty-one quests in the game that need to be soundly throttled to make certain they cannot be broken in any way, including multiplayer. Most of these 81 green stars are in the second half of the game and deal with puzzles or other particularly complicated quests.

* Spell DCs -- There are currently problems with the way saving throw DCs for spells are being calculated. The game is deriving the wrong ability score bonuses. This is a big bug, and is eating much programmer time.

* Item Descriptions and Useable By Flags -- These are being double-checked. The rules for using scrolls and wands in 3E is very wonky, especially with Use Magic Device involved. Also taking a lot of time.

The shot has gone across the division. Absolutely nothing gets added to the game unless it is of critical (read: fix a broken part of the game) importance. Many of the artists working on Jefferson have been asked to play through IWD2 for a few days just to give a fresh perspective on it. Kihan Pak and I have reached the final chapter of the game through more or less legitimate play (had to set a few Global variables now and then when a quest was broken). The Hands of Fury are now level 14, and fights are still challenging without being ridiculous. The final area of the game should be a lot of fun for players, I think. It has a very nice balance of fighting, talking, exploration, ROELEPLAYEINGE, and puzzle-solving.

On IWD2's delays: You know why the game isn't done yet? It's pretty simple. Right before we made the massive 3E push, I sat down with Darren and the programmers to schedule each of the individual changes and everything that they would entail. When we collectively were done with that, I asked Darren if the amount of time required to implement, test, and bugfix all of those changes, times two, would still fall before our release date. We believed it would.

In fact, the changes took more than four times as long. Every time something seemed to be implemented without error, a bug would appear that required backtracking and revision. Often, these changes required modification of the file formats. When file formats get changed, crying occurs. Designers typically have to spend time double- or triple-checking their files for shifts in data that may have occurred. That's time they aren't spending on fixing their areas themselves. Sometimes, this affects script-folk as well.

The biggest problems were changes to how saving throws worked and how spells were classified and cast. This, combined with the known time-sink of free multiclassing, still haunts us today. So, if you want to blame someone for why the game isn't done, blame me and/or Darren for making poor estimations for implementation. There are no excuses for it. Quite simply, we just believed something could be done in a given amount of time and were incorrect. Three big things were more complicated than we initially thought, and the level of complication was far greater than we initially could have safeguarded against.

As for why there is no release date. Man -- no one in this division can get a release date. Our distributors and their buddy retailers get told so many bizarre final dates from people in development, marketing, public relations, and management that it's no wonder the thing floats around so damned much. Blizzard is a few miles from us, with ex-co-workers a-plenty, and we have no real idea when WC3 is coming out.

Last year at E3, I was demo-ing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. During the course of the show, I saw people who ostensibly work for Interplay (or some satellite Interplay company) give out a variety of release dates for the game that seemed to be pulled out of a hat. Even for people that I know were discussing North American release dates, the dates varied by as much as six months. I see these people once a year at E3. Who knows to what corners of the globe they travel when it all gets packed up? Who knows where/what/why they have the dates they do? The publishing and distribution side of the computer game industry annoys me greatly, because it's so detached from development -- people are basically playing Release Date Tetris between developer, publisher, distributor, and retailer. I can try to give a good estimate of when the game will be finished and mostly bug free, but as for when it will be released -- man, I really have no idea.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Thursday, June 6, 2002 - 19:01 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Do you think that Icewind Dale 2 will be more enjoyable than Baldur's Gate 2?
(454 votes total)

No, never (196) 43%
I couldn't say (176) 39%
Yes, definitely (82) 18%

Heh, heh, what a way to provoke all the overprotective fans of Baldur's Gate 2. ;)

Of course, the majority of poll participants (43%) voted that Icewind Dale 2 could never be more enjoyable than Baldur's Gate 2. I really wouldn't be so sure about that... The conversion to 3rd edition D&D rules and the addition of subraces sounds mighty enjoyable to me. The fact that IWD2 is supposed to be longer than the original Icewind Dale, the expansion Heart of Winter and the expansion's expansion Trials of The Luremaster put together only adds to my feverish anticipation.

On the other hand, 39% of those who voted in the poll were undecided about IWD2 being more enjoyable than BG2. Of course, only time will tell.

18% of those who voted are thoroughly excited about the sequel to Icewind Dale and believe that it is going to be more enjoyable than Baldur's Gate 2. Now that's quite a compliment...

New Neverwinter Nights Screenshots
Posted Thursday, June 6, 2002 - 15:22 CET by Mollusken

Six brand new screenshots from Neverwinter Nights has been released. You'll find them at VoodooExtreme, Blue's News and Shacknews. Neverwinter Vault has also posted a few new images from the game.

Neverwinter Nights Nominations at E3 Awards
Posted Thursday, June 6, 2002 - 15:20 CET by Mollusken

E3awards.com has nominated Neverwinter Nights in the following categories: Best of Show, Best PC Game and Best Role Playing Game. The winners will be announced on June 18.

New Neverwinter Nights Wallpapers
Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2002 - 22:00 CET by Mollusken

Neverwinter Vault has received an exclusive wallpaper from BioWare, which features 180 different spell icons from the game. It can be downloaded here (scroll down to "Spells").

At BioWare you'll find another wallpaper which actually features a doomknight and a whole lot of penguins.

Site News - *Lots* of New Additions
Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2002 - 20:14 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

About 5 or 6 new sample chapters have been added for various Forgotten Realms & Dragonlance books. Also, the 3rd Edition D&D Books subsection now has a new cover for the Monster Manual II, and 3 new additions. First is the City of the Spider Queen (in FR Material) and the other two (in Various Accessories) are Book of Vile Darkness and d20 Modern Roleplaying Game. All three are available for pre-order.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

First new addition has been made in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. Here you can download a new list of all the scrolls (with codes) from Baldur's Gate 2 and the expansion.

In the TeamBG subsection I've added two lost mods - The Planar Sphere mod and the Company of Eight mod. Links to their original sites have been dead for a while now (and there is no contact info in the mod zips either) so I've put them up for download by request. Since I have next to no information about the Planar Sphere mod I would appreciate it if someone who knows more about it could mail me with details.

There is also the standard slew of new additions & updates in the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection.

In Subsection #2, you can download a cool new spell which summons a red dragon to fight at your side. You will also find an updated version of the Extra Playable Characters there, which now has Drizzt as one of the extra NPCs.

In Subsection #3, you can find the latest version of Extremist's now legendary SP Fixpack. This release adds tons of new bug fixes and is in a totally new format - WeiDU - which means that it's compatible with nearly every other mod out there.

In Subsection #5, two updated portrait packs can be downloaded. TheBlackRose has updated his Dragonlance portraits pack to include some pics of Elminster, and Gopherboy has expanded his portrait pack a great deal with some nifty new recolourings and new portraits.

In Subsection #7, you can find links to 4 new mods: WeiDU Ascension, Ease-of-Use Mod, Item Upgrade Mod and Valen NPC Mod.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale 2

In the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection, new info can be found in the Info Compilation. On Page 1 I have added the recently revealed information about Malavon & returning characters, and on Page 2 the mage opposition schools.

In the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection we have two more portrait packs from our regular contributor. They are simply awesome, but don't take my word for it, download them and see for yourself.

In the Miscellanea subsection I have added a link where you can download 3 sample tracks of the Icewind Dale 2 music.

Finally, you can view 3 new screenshots on Page 3 of the Screenshots subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

The Neverwinter Nights subsection has been occupying me fully for the last two days. I have finally elevated it to a full-fledged subsection now that I have a good picture what kind of subsection division makes sense for this game, since it deviates from the norm of older BioWare/BIS games. If you look carefully at the subsection division below you will notice a couple of changes to the regular layout I've used for all other games covered on SP.

I will not list all additions & updates to each of the new subsections because there are simply too many, so just load all of them and look for the flashing NEW picture.

The first is the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection. There are 5 items here currently, more or less in the form of guides and general information about Neverwinter Nights. Once the game is actually released I will rearrange things a bit and move some of what is here now to other subsections.

The Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection is especially interesting. Since the release of the beta Toolset I have been extracting and compiling various information and here is where you can find details on most of what will be included in the game. You can currently find info on class packs, animal companions & familiars, monsters, spells, feats and skills.

Editors, Hacks & Tweaks is the first subsection with a changed name, mainly because I don't really expect many custom characters when everyone's able to make their own so easily.

Updated here are a bunch of new modules for the Model Viewer and Bif and Mod Unpackers.

Toolset & Related is the first totally NWN-specific subsection. As the name implies, it will contain everything having to do with the Aurora Toolset. You can already download the beta Toolset from here, find additional fan-made tilesets, read some guides and more.

Modules, yet another NWN-specific subsection will contain just that. Expect to see many post-release modules here, and you will be able to submit your modules to be hosted by SP as well.

Screenshots is the only subsection that essentially remains the same in this update. While I have a ton of new screenshots that I could post, I lack the necessary time to create an additional gallery so for the latest shots, keep checking our front page.

On the other hand, the Miscellanea subsection has been updated a bit. I have added a couple of new movies/trailers to the list, a sample mp3 of NWN music and put a link to our guild page in here.

Last is the Forums subsection, which now does not link directly to one forum but opens a page where all our NWN-related forums are listed.

Jeremy Soule Interview at Stratos Group
Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2002 - 16:37 CET by Mollusken

The composer of the music for Neverwinter Nights, Jeremy Soule, has answered a few questions over at the Stratos Group.

Are you content composing music for games, or do you look at it as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things?

How do you get much bigger than a $20 billion industry? Certainly, I'm looking to diversify my talents in other fields over time. However, GAMES are ultimately going to rule the world of Entertainment. Mark my words! ;)

What musicians or composers, not necessarily your favorites, has been the most influential on your musical style?

JS: I've so many influences! For game music, I've been influenced by Nobou Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame as well as Yuzo Koshiro. I love the ancient Japanese approach to music and the sound that it creates. This is a sound that I try to emulate from time to time.

Read the whole interivew here.

Aurora Toolset Tutorial
Posted Tuesday, June 4, 2002 - 11:22 CET by Mollusken

Wydraz at Neverwinter Vault has made a tutorial on the basic terrain mapping features of the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset. Click here to read it.

Neverwinter Nights E3 Report at XGR
Posted Monday, June 3, 2002 - 14:34 CET by Mollusken

X-treme Gaming Radio has posted a report based on their E3 impressions.

While running around in the world a full journal system will keep track of your progress and the current quests. To go along with the journal a map is generated of any area visited, as the player moves around more of the map is uncovered from a "fog of war"-like shroud. On the story and NPC interaction front Neverwinter Nights should play out close to Baldur's Gate with NPCs driving the story forward and giving the player quests. Romances are even possible, should a little digital lovin' light your fire. BioWare is expecting players to get 60-120 hours of playtime out of the campaign initially released with the retail product, but beyond that online play and the toolset provide for an almost infinite amount of play possibilities.

Read everything at XGR.

GameSpot E3 Awards
Posted Monday, June 3, 2002 - 14:31 CET by Mollusken

GameSpot ranked Neverwinter Nights as the number 6 among all the PC games at E3. Icewind Dale II wasn't in their top ten ranking.

And yet, despite how ambitious Neverwinter Nights seems, it's coming along beautifully. At the show, we got a chance to jump into a session of the game's fully functional dungeon master mode, and it looked great, played well, and, most importantly, it worked. Though we've been as skeptical as you were about all the remarkable and powerful features that BioWare claimed it would include in Neverwinter Nights, we've really seen it come together. And now that we've finally been able to get some hands-on time with the game, we can safely say that these weren't all just empty promises. It's truly shaping up to be the all-encompassing role-playing game it was intended to be, and despite how many years it's been in development, and despite the incredible amount of press coverage that the game has received, we still can't help but be excited about Neverwinter Nights all over again.

Read everything here.

Neverwinter Nights Screenshots
Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 - 19:38 CET by Mollusken

Neverwinter Vault has got four new screenshots from Neverwinter Nights, which you can view here. The shots show a couple of scenes from the character generation process and the interface.

Neverwinter Nights Video at NW Vault
Posted Saturday, June 1, 2002 - 19:54 CET by Mollusken

We've received the following from Neverwinter Vault:

Neverwinter Vault has posted a second video shot during E3, this time featuring BioWare's CEO Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk talking a bit about the single player game and then demonstrating how easy it is to create modules and play them. Use of the DM client and lots of Dragons to be found. There are two formats for the movies: Windows Media (54MB) and Real Media (33MB).

Link: http://nwvault.ign.com/features/previews/E32002/.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, June 1, 2002 - 19:08 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Have you tried out the beta of the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset yet?
(273 votes total)

Yes, I'm playing around with it (117) 43%
Not yet, still waiting to get it (80) 29%
No and I won't (76) 28%

There is no denying the immense popularity of the beta Toolset released by BioWare. The overwhelming majority of people who voted in the poll (43%) have said that they are already playing around with it. We've even begun to see fan-made content and additions, so I have no doubt that when the game and toolset finally ship, we will have so much fan-made stuff that we won't know what to do with it.

The next bulk of votes was from people who were either still downloading the massive file (thank God FilePlanet is not the only option), and from people whose connection would not allow them to download it so they were probably waiting for magazine cover CDs, which will all undoubtedly have the Toolset. 29% of votes were collected for this option.

Lastly, 28% of poll participants voted that they are not interested in the Toolset at all and will not try it out.