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Neverwinter Nights 2 Forum News (Jun. 02, 06)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Jun 4, 2006.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    Here are today's Neverwinter Nights 2 forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

    J.E. Sawyer, NWN2 Lead Designer

    New Dev Diary Video
    There is an error in the video. T-Ray said that the two dragons were red and green. They are actually red and black.

    spontaneous conversion
    DO YOU ENJOY PLAYING CLERICS AND DRUIDS, MY FRIENDS?!

    It was looking iffy, but Andrew "Woo-Tang" Woo managed to make spontaneous conversion of cleric and druid spells work closer to Le Rűlz. We might make it a little sassier on the interface, but here's how it currently works:

    On the quickcast menu, just below the metamagic feat buttons, there is a conversion button (assuming you have cleric or druid levels). Clicking this will place a quarter-size (32x32 or 16x16) icon in the lower left corner of all icons for spells that can be converted.

    If you are playing a good or neutral cleric, all cleric spells have progressively fancier cure/mass cure wounds icons. Evil clerics get inflict wound icons. Druids get summon nature's ally Roman numerals. Clicking the spell allows you to target as though you were casting a cure/inflict/summon spell and it eats the selected spell from your list.

    It's just that easy!

    More:
    Is this open to modification through 2da file edits? If I want to change which spell can be cast in this way OR to turn off the ability altogether, can this be done by changing 2da entries (or any other means?)
    No.

    More:
    What script does a spontaneously cast spell fire? The same one as a normal cure x wounds spell, for instance?
    It plays the standard script for that spell.

    Patrick K Mills, NWN2 Production Tester

    New Dev Diary Video
    Now it makes more sense... The first Dragon to appear in the video is black, so I was like, red and green? That must be a tinted dragon...

    Oh.. what about the background music? Is it official?
    I think that the "black" dragon was merely a tint of a the red.

    The black dragon has forward curving horns among other things which are quite different from reds (this is of course if they followed the D&D 3.5 art for the black)
    Indeed, you are correct. However, we do actually have a black dragon model that looks like the one from the MM. I don't know why they used a tinted version of the black dragon for that shot, but at least it does show you that it is possible to tint a dragon pretty convincingly. I do not know if that picture was a retinted skin, done in photoshop, or a tint handled through the toolset.

    Anthony Davis, Programmer

    Obsidian Developer Chat on Wednesday!
    Speaking only for myself, that's why I assumed the questions were being screened. Either that, or Anthony Davis is psychic. ;)

    Now, before anyone accusses me of "bashing", I don't care if they're screened or not, honestly. As I've said over and over, the Devs have every right (within the bounds of NDA, of course) to tell us, or not tell us, anything they like about the upcoming game. And I'm old enough to understand the PR game, the realitites of software development, etc. But I'm also old enough to understand the importance in treating your customers fairly and honestly. Not that I'm saying we haven't been, but being upfront and honest goes a long way to building the kind of relationship you want from the folks who will contribute to the module/cc/pw community.
    LOL yeah. At that point we already had several screened and answered. I was jumping around a lot making sure we were all on the same page.

    Also, I can't say it better than Shane already did. We were inundated with questions and we only have an hour. For future events, the best advice I can give potential question askers is this: Be clear, to the point, and brief.

    TO answer the question up above about tinting speedtree trees, the answer is, No you cannot. However there are many variants and different colors built in.

    More: Well, I would have preferred to receive the questions before hand. That away we could have answered ALL of them.

    However, this is how it went. We all logged on at various degrees of 'lateness'. Some of us were NOT in the staff channel where we were trying to discuss the questions. There was confusion over that and trying to get everybody together. That could have been handled a LOT better, but alas it was not in the instructions we received for the chat.

    Second, the questions were coming in at an ALARMING rate. Many of the questions were very poorly written. Just for the record, if you WANT to get your question skipped, make sure it has 17 parts to it. Sheesh, we only have an hour folks.

    Third, considering the questions that were well written and understandable we still had a lot of questions left. RedR (bless him) was trying to keep it organized in the staff channel, but several of us were answering different questions at the same time.

    As for the flub at the end, by that time we finally had a system down and we were screening and answering the questions in a timely manner. So when I said 'roll the VFX one' RedR already knew what I was talking about because we had already answered it.

    For many of us, this was our first or second chat. I haven't even USED IRC since my days at Netscape/Firefox.

    Anyway, I wanna thank everyone who was there, it was a lot of fun in spite of the confusion and I would love to do it again.

    I said it in a different thread, but it bears repeating. If you do want a question answered, make it brief, to the point, and clear.

    More:
    I wouldn't mind if the next chat moderator took questions first, passed them along, and gave OE a chance to research questions first.

    Then the chat would have the format:
    Question
    Answer
    Discussion

    Say pick 10 questions to answer and give the community a few chances to ask clarifying questions about each. They could be passed through RedR or the channel could be opened up.

    Personally I thought the pace was a little slow, but then again I'm a fast reader/typist.
    If they did go with this format, they would need to submit slightly more than the number of questions we want to answer. I.E. if we are going to answer 10, submit 15. We still need to leave wiggle room for things we can't, won't answer.

    Chat Is Complete
    As for my questions that didn't get answered:

    1) Can we "copy adjacent area tile edges" and use them in the border to maintain continuity? In the alternative, can the borders be shut off (for PW folks who don't want all that extra footprint?)

    2) Is there any way we can use GMax for making placeables or will we have to use something "bigger?" ie: 3DS Max or some other expensive equivalent?

    3) How much "room" will the .2da files have for entering CCC without overwriting original OC/SP data?

    I had a couple of others that were answered, basically.

    dunniteowl
    1. I'm not sure if you can copy and paste, and I don't know if the borders can be turned off.

    2. I wasn't aware the GMax was still supported. I honestly don't know if GMax will work.

    3. Since I am not sure exactly what all these acronyms mean, I will guess...
    How much "room" will the .2da files have for entering 'Custom Content Creation' without overwriting original 'Original Campaign'/'Single Player' data? I don't really understand the question since 2DA's are flat files with no real max length to them. Is there a specific 2DA that is a problem?

    Sorry I wasn't much help at all with these. See normally I would leave these blank since I do not have a good answer for them. :)

    Heartfelt Thanks
    Nice site!

    Cutscenes for the budding cinematographer.
    At this point I believe it is only fades, though I think you can color the fade. You may have been able to do that in NWN1 too, I just can't remember right now. I just sopke with Rich, and he confirmed that he added in colored fades for NWN2.

    World Map Dynamics
    What we now know for sure for now:
    • Each "hotspot" on the map has two scripts associated with it:
      • A: One to check to see if the Hotspot shows on the map; and
      • B:One to do things with, called an Action Script
    • Last night, it was added that there was an OnMapClick action also (or perhaps a better description of what we already were told, hard to say.)
    • said OnMapClick event could allow you to Zoom In on the Hotspot calling up another map with more detail.
    • Scripting hooks are available and will allow module makers the ability to include scripts to create random enccounters and static encounters via the map.
    • the map file type is .tga and we can make them in any program that will allow making/editing of .tga file formats.
    • we can also create our own Hotspot images to add to the maps. (WAY COOL MAN! yes I am shouting.)
    • We can script changes to the map and how it shows Hotspots as we go along in the game (changing Hotspots, anyone?)
    • We cannot dynamically change the map while viewing the map. (Meaning that any changes that occur after closing the map view will show up, not during.)

    What we don't know:
    • Maximum file size of the .tga for making maps.
    • Just how much scripting the map system can handle.
    • How scripting in general can be applied to the Map System. (though it was implied that we had a LOT of power and flexibility here...)
    • If there is a maximum number of Maps or a Map Limit in the game.
    • If it will be possible to somehow script in animation of any sort into the map. (Like a dotted line appearing during the course of your travels from one point to another, an icon that shows where you/your party is on the map at any moment in time, etc.)
    • If this map could be used outside of an AT trigger as a Get Out of Death Free escape hatch. (this may not be so important in the SP as it might be in MP/PW, however, it is a concern that even SP mod makers will have to consider.)
    • If there is any way to script this .tga file into appearing, in-game, as, say, a placeable wall painting, a map of the realms across the meeting hall wall, etc. (if so the possibilities are interesting to say the least.)
    • If the map appears as a GUI or if it can be alternatively used in this fashion. (combined with the item above and the poster's above comments, this could pave the way for a whole new way of adding puzzles, games, challenges and other things that could remove a combat centric mentality from the game [if desired.])

    I will get back later and post some more with the links if someone else with a faster connection doesn't beat me to it.

    dunniteowl
    what we know list:
    1. Yes. There are 2 scripts per mappoint node. One to determine if it should appear, and another to determine what to do when pressed.
    2. That was Eric being colorful and describing the 'click' script. The events are there, but they do exactly what I described in #1.
    3. What Eric meant was that since it is controlled through the script, you can do this 'zooming' functionality by calling up a world map with the zoomed in image. The end result is the same, but this is all handled through script and the toolset.
    4. Yes, all doen through script. For example, mappoint node # 5 calls a script that does a random check (or whatever you want to script) that determines if you hav a random encounter. If you do, it loads up a different area/module, if not, it takes you to your destination.
    5. Yes. TGAs.
    6. Yes. Each mappoint node has 3 stats, normal, pressed, and hover. Though I believe I currently have a bug that the hover state isn't working.
    7. Yes.
    8. I believe this works.

    what we don't know list:
    1. Yeah, I don't remember. This needs to be improved right now to handle really large images better.
    2. I fully expect to be blown away by what the community comes up with.
    3. Yeah, it uses the scripting language - so go crazy.
    4. Nope.
    5. Not right now and not planned for the initial release.
    6. Yes. The world map can be called up from the GUI panel *AND* from script. The triggers in game where we bring up the world map are being brought up via script command.
    7. I have no idea.
    8. No idea, not really sure I understand the question.

    More: I've been answering some questions in there, is there one in particular that I missed?

    More:
    Hence we know:
    1) Maps are special resources, made from an image (.tga) and then edited within a plugin to give them hotspots.
    2) Map spots can have a script attached that returns TRUE if the spot is to be displayed, FALSE if it is to remain hidden.
    3) Map spots can have a script attached which controlls exactly what happens when the spot is clicked.
    4) Maps DO NOT redraw after having been displayed.
    5) The script attached to map spots to control display of the map spot is only called when the display map GUI command is issued.

    From other posts, not copied into the above, we know:
    7) The map can be displayed by a scripting command.
    8 ) Modules may use several different maps.

    We can deduce from the above truths the following speculations:
    a) As the map cannot be updated after it has been displayed, you cannot have a 'footprint' trail left as you travel along the map
    b) The number of maps is limited only by the number of possible resrefs (that's a lot!)
    c) If players are able to open a map at will at any point in the game, we can simply scupper their escape plans by not displaying anywhere to run to! ;) *evil kakkle*

    Finally, now that we know roughly what we know, and what is more than likely to be true, we can ask some important questions:
    i) Does clicking on a map spot close the map GUI? Or is this determined by actions taken within the OnClick script for a map spot? If the map normally closes, could a StopMapClose() command be added?
    ii) Can Map spots have textures associated with them, including an alpha channel?
    iii) When calling the scripting command to display a map, posters have been presuming that this would be player specific (ie, the command takes a player object). Is this true?
    iv) Can we please, please, please get a RedrawMap() scripting command!

    The first question determines how limited in application the map would be. If it closes after use, the possibilities for interesting uses become quite limited.
    The second question effects how dynamic the map can actually be - if places can literally appear on the map.
    The third question is importatant, if not vital, for multiplayer.
    And the last question...
    The final question is in many respects the most important of them all!

    If we can cause the map to refresh and dynamically change what it displays, this will infact give us back full GUI customisation!
    And with delaycommand, those map trails will show once more, too!

    I suspect it would only need a tiny ammount of code to allow this specialist (yet highly useful) functionality, too (as it is basically similar to the initial display map command).

    Please let us refresh the map!
    1. Yes.
    2. Yes.
    3. Yes.
    4. Correct.
    5. Correct.

    No question 6.

    7. Correct.
    8. Correct.

    a) Correct.
    b) Correct.
    c) Correct.

    i) No, clicking on the 'Travel' button or the 'Close' button will close the World Map. It is possible to disable the Close buton through script so that you can for a travel (I believe this is working...need to double check).
    ii) Yes.
    iii) I don't believe so, but it has been a while since I looked at it.
    iv) Probably not before release. Maybe in a content patch. The reason is that it is not a trivial amount of information that gets sent from the server to the client(s).

    More:
    This little bit leads me to believe that the world map images will be streamed to the client. Is this correct? If so, then it would not require a client-side hak and and if this is the case then there would not be a need for automatically downloading haks for this type of things.
    No, that is not what I meant. The images are not streamed to the client.

    What I should have said is POTENTIALLY there could be a non-trivial amount of information sent to the server. Also, for every mappoint node, the 'do I appear?' script would have to be fired again. It's just not the kind of thing that can be updated with every frame.

    Sorry for the confusion.

    Exterrior Tileset - opinions.
    I can't really comment on this since the screenshots don't appear to be working for me. edited for my poor writing skillz.

    More:
    Anthony Davis, here's the same picture on NWN2 Wiki:
    Number 1
    Number 2

    Nevermind, found it...
    Thanks Mord! Yeah, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree. Those are some of my favorite screenshots. I do agree about the ambient life, but that was not the GOAL of those screenshots in particular.

    Custom Weapon Options
    This is a good question, but sadly the answer is No. We currently aren't allocating time for something like this.

    I could see this being done as a total conversion however and then just editing the strings in the talktable for the feats.Other than that, sorry.

    Nathaniel Chapman, NWN2 Q&A

    Cutscenes for the budding cinematographer.
    Basically, in NWN2, a "cutscene" is just another way of saying "conversation". Cutscenes function exactly like NWN1 style dialogues at their core. Basically, you just flag a conversation property and that conversation will behave as a "NWN2 dialogue" - which means:
    • It'll use static cams for each node if they are provided (you place them in the toolset and assign them to dialogue nodes), or, you can select one of a set of "random angles", where the game engine will try to place the camera based on some engine-level criteria.
    • It will have the cinematic "black bars".

    Just to clarify: We have NWN1 style dialogues (textbox in the upper left corner), and NWN2 style dialogues.

    If you can not be certain that an NPC will be in-shot, you will not want to use a static camera - instead you'll want to use one of the "random angles". Some examples of random angles are close up, medium shot, etc. The game will basically figure out where to place the camera based on a "camera bone" on the model.

    Static Cameras can be placed anywhere within the current area. So, if you want to have an NPC talk about something, and then the camera cut to whatever they're talking about, you'll need to make a dummy version of the area within your current area and place the static cam there.

    Additionally, you can tell a random camera to pan or track to follow the speaker.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Jun 4, 2006
    #1
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