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IGN
Vault Chat (October 10, 2002)
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Attendees:
Will you ever include a /emote text function
so players can have custom emotes displayed differently from normal
text?
We have a strong desire to support a custom emotes system. But we
have a number of other items on the priority list first. All features
go onto the live features list and they get sorted by priority and
time to implement.
Are there any plans to implement systems that
allow PWs to be more persistent? Such as an SQL interface or the ability
to read from a file?
We are interested in giving all module creators access to some sort
of permanent data storage. We are investigating a number of different
ways, but we have no concrete plans, nor an ETA right now. Its not
just PWs that would benefit, but module creators that are doing a
continuing story line, too.
What are Bioware's plans for saving variables
on characters and not being able to update servers? While this is
not a main concern for everybody, for PW builders it is very important.
Our hope is *IF* we can get the database support in the database
will be the place to store all data.
Given the Witchwork series is likely to continue
for some time and is already looking good, have you other NWN developments
running parallel to this?
At this point, I'm the only designer on the Live Team. We've discussed
some other ideas that we'd like to pursue but it will depend largely
on whether or not we can justify adding another designer to the team.
Are there plans to include more tilesets? (desert
, winter , etc)?
The Live Team is looking into adding a tile in a future update. Creating
a new tileset is not a trivial thing and we don't have an ETA nor
have we picked what Tile to do. Tilesets along with creatures are
some of the most requested things to be produced either by the Live
Team or in any possible expansion packs that may come out. You can
be sure that if plans move forward for any kind of expansion to NWN
they will include a new Tileset. Details do not exist right now but
it is far too large a demand to ignore. It is, however, a huge amount
of time and resources and may be beyond the Live Team's abilities
to do a completely new Tileset.
What's the word on custom voice sets for monsters
and henchmen?
We don't have a pretty way of supporting them right now, but this
ties into our goal of improving the custom content end. Right now
you can find out the file names and override existing sets, but there
is no pretty way to add sets
Any plans to make it possible (even though
it'd obviously be unsupported) to make it so it's possible to create
custom races/spellcasting classes?
With regard to custom races and classes we don't have any plans to
support them. Right now we are having a hard enough time keeping custom
content straight without allowing major rules / character modifications.
Does Bioware have any intention of making an
ITP/GUI/etc editor, or will I have to actually get mine working?
I'm afraid you'll have to get yours working. Our internal tools are
quite ugly on the gui side. I Wouldn't want to inflict them on anyone,
even new Bioware employees. That and some of our Tools are tied to
local network resouces and won't work outside our walls. Please make
your editor.
Could any of you shed some light on how the
shadow algorithems work? We've had some problems with both architecture
and skinmeshes.
The shadow algorithm in our engine works by calculating the edges
of an object based on the light angle. We didn't get into a lot of
the issues with skinmeshes as they were added late in development.
The important this is your object is sealed and doesn't have any non-manifold
edges (if it passes an STL check in Max the mesh should work). I know
this isn't a great explanation, but I can't really go into detail
here.
How has all the amazing work and mods done
by the NWN community inspired and/or effected you? Did you ever think
some of the things being done would be possible or happen so fast
after release?
I think that I have seen it all as far as what people will come up
with but there is always something crazy that shows up. Seeing all
this great stuff has gotten me very interested in attempting to pick
up the scripting side of things. Your options ramp up a 1000% when
you can do even simple scripting. We all were standing around Robin's
computer looking at Mr.X's tree city tiles. Really amazing stuff.
The speed at which stuff shows up used to amaze me... now I'm spoiled
I guess and expect things to be developed instantly out there. :)
The NWScript API seems to be missing a large
number of functions, for instance the ability to find out the magnitude
of a damage resistance effect. GetResRef was added in 1.25. Are more
functions going to be added in the near future?
The scripting language is a work in progress. We will continue to
add features and extend the language as the needs come up. There are
some limits to the scripting language access to rules specific data.
We tried to make the language as open and powerful as possible, but
some functionality is coded into the engine and isn't accessable from
scripting.
Seeing how the community has developed towards
the NWN game to provide a gaming experience that is much closer to
the Pen and Paper DND 3rd Edition rules, what is your point of view
about this? Will future expansion pack(s) move towards the Pen and
Paper DND 3rd Edition rules? Or?
I think it's important to distinguish between the active NWN community
and the larger NWN market. For the community, which is largely the
Live Team's domain, we're definitely wanting to push the Pen &
paper angle as much as possible. With the help of some of the prominent
DMs in the community, I'll be working hard to make the Witchwork series
is DM friendly. As for potential future expansion packs, those decisions
will have to be made by the dev teams responsible. Perhaps it will
be a priority, perhaps they'll focus more on the traditional single-player
cRPG experience.
Are there plans to make an expansion dedicated
to adding small, new, commoner like animals, and are there any plans
to add in Rideable horses that both Creatures, and Players can ride?
While we don't have ridable horses in the works at this point but
there are plans for new creatures to be released by the Live Team.
Kobolds and the Malar Panther are two examples from 1.25. We've got
more in the works, some of which include small, common animals. Riding
is a much huger issue, however, and not something likely to be addressed
by the Live Team directly.
Now looking back on the work was done, what
would you guys do differently in developing NWN, and what have you
learned during the process of its creation?
I would get the programming done a lot earlier. I would also sleep
more during the development ;-) We'd keep Dups away from the paint
fumes. I learned there is a real limit to parallel tasking. Only so
many people can touch something at one time without breaking it.
Any plans to allow auto-download from a server
of custom content (including player pics, hak-pak equivalents)?
Auto downloading of Haks is one of the things we are looking at for
a future live team release. We want to improve the whole custom content
experience but it will take us a fair amount of time as we are quite
limited in terms of resources.
There is still the question of how to convert
DDS graphic files into something Photoshop can read - the DDS plugin
that is available doesn't support the DDS files that come out of your
tool.
For us the creation of certain files (like DDS files) is a one way
process. We might be further ahead by releasing a template of the
source file. We still have some issues to sort out though.
What are the Future plans for this community,
as Bioware sees it?
The future of the community really depends on what people ultimately
end up using NWN for. We can make predications, and we do, but since
we find something surprising everyday it gets hard to predict what
the community as whole will do. Right now we would like to move into
seeing where a need will soon develop and jump on it instead of just
reacting. I would love to see more coordination between talented people
to produce larger more professional-quality content. I think that
is a natural extension of what we are seeing now. Larger teams getting
together to produce something. And eventually monkeys. Lots of monkeys.
What's the word on the Linux client?
Underway. As the Linux folks know we have a page dedicated to bringing
them weekly updates. We have shuffled a few resources around recently
so a few schedules got changed but the work continues. As for when
it will be done- not sure. I have taken the screenshots myself so
it's working fine thus far.
Do you plan the encounters to be able to pick
creatures with CR30 or more, it seems stuck to CR27 at most?
Bloody hell man!!! What do you need CR 30 or better creatures for?
Seriously this will change in the mid term future. As we need tougher
critters to kill off the players.
What new features of the toolset are you guys
working on at this moment?
We are working on a farily large feature for the toolset right now,
but we can't really offer any details yet. Before we talk about it
I really want it to work ;-)
If you had to put a rough estimate on the amount
of time required to produce a 10-hour long module that had the same
level of gameplay and "polish" that your Official Campaign
had, what would that estimate be?
Hmm. For Witchwork, I'm estimating about a month of development for
a 2-3 hour module. But my estimates of gameplay length are usually
a little short. Level of polish is also a very ambiguous thing. For
instance, I'm trying to create something that's more polished and
focused than the OC had been. We'll see if I succeed or not, but that
could also explain some of my extra time. But in general, we have
5-10 designers working on different aspects of the official campaign
and we created it in maybe 6 months from engine solidity to design
lockdown. A hard thing to judge.
The first step for pushing the Pnp angle in
NWN wouldn't be to add some auto-pause feature (as in BG)? What do
you think?
Maybe. I like the idea of having the DM do the pause. We figured
with only controlling one player it is possible to do things at a
faster pace. There would be issues with building a robust system which
allowed each character a turn
Will Bioware do a Gamasutra/Game Dev Mag postmortem?
Yup. Matter of fact it is done and going into print fairly soon.
What do you think of the proliferation of adult-themes
in NWN mods?
I believe that adult themes can have a place in entertainment. There's
a substantial portion of our audience that is in the over-20 age range
after all. For me, I'm not a fan of gratuitous adult themes (I really
dislike the fact that we've included prostitutes in every single product
we've released except MDK2... ;o) But, if used responsibly, I think
they can lend a lot of depth to a story.
Is Bioware fixing/fixed some exploits with
servervault that allows people to spawn items or level up with every
feat from local 2da changes?
We've identified this as a major issue for the Live team. The problem
is where the fix lies in code. A fix has the potential to really break
things, so we have to tread lightly and spend a good deal of time
verifying the fix doesn't cause any issues. We really strive to support
the game with our live effort and we really regret when something
doesn't get fixed properly or in a timely manner.
Will there be future games developed for the
Linux platform or is NWN the last?
We have not announced any plans for future Linux titles...but we're
not ruling it out either :-) The market is a hard one for Linux titles
at the moment. We had to really push to support Linux with NWN. It
is still an uphill fight. I really hope we can do further Linux support
in the future, but that's just me.
Does Bioware intend to include the content
contained in the Epic Level Handbook?
The Epic levels look very cool and it is somewhere I'd really like to go.
