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Neverwinter Nights Forum News (Jun. 06, 06)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Jun 7, 2006.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Here are today's Neverwinter Nights 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.

    Rob Bartel, Senior Designer Live Team

    Wyvern Crown of Cormyr - Renegade Version
    I believe BioWare's official recommendation would be to avoid the *.bif approach.

    Now DLA, CEP, CTP and all of the other community groups can do as they wish, of course, but the danger is that the *.bif system is not designed for ad hoc release. If DLA puts out a *.bif, then the other groups will want to as well and you'll be dealing with multiple competing *.bifs at that point. Without a single central authority (i.e. BioWare) there to ensure compatibility, the system will eventually break down.

    Hakpaks, on the other hand, are specifically designed to handle an ad hoc and chaotic release environment and have been doing that very effectively for quite some time now. My 2c

    Chris Priestly, Quality Assurance

    *Spoilers* All About Boss Monsters...

    Am I missing something? Or is it really the end of the line?
    Harat is pretty resistant to spells. But remember, you can always back track a bit, get some hirelings, quest givers, or buy some monsters and return. Harat is tough for a sorceror, but he can be beaten.

    ID: Token of Mastery console command
    Well, I'm not really happy that people have posted this "cheat" here. As part of the team that made the game, we put a lot of hard work into it and I generally like players to play the game as intended once before they start changing things (which is why you get the Token only after completing the game once).

    But, in the end, it is up to the individual player. The most important thing about any game is that you have fun playing it. If you need to make a couple of minor changes or if you want to completely change everything, in the end, that's up to the player.

    I still suggest that people give the "real" game a shot first. But, as long as you have fun, in teh end that's what matters.

    *Spoilers* Help please! Harat fight impossible
    As I mentioned in the other thread, you can also retreat, get more henchmen, plot givers, or purchase monsters to help you out. Also check stores for scrolls that may give you powerful spells (like the ones suggested) to help take him down.

    You CAN do it.

    More: Nope there is definately a big clue in the cutscene arriving in his lair. Watch that and then give the fight a try again.

    problems connecting to my friends server
    If you do not have Infinite Dungeons, you will not be able to play. Each person in a multiplayer game must have their own copy to play.

    ID with DM Client
    BioWare's Evil Chris Priestly here. But but but... it was the weekend! We were all outdoors working on turning our pasty white winter bodies into lobster red sunburned ones. It's not our fault!

    I don't know the answer to your question, but now that I'm back inside away from the dangers of fresh air and sunlight, I'll see if I can find someone to help with this, Stay tuned.

    Georg Zoeller, Designer

    Infinite Dungeons scripting questions

    Um, no, I meant as a repository for server-side only 2das and content. I doubt that area's would work any better, if at all, in the override folder.

    Basically, it'd be more the things like custom_xxx.2da file that there is no need to distribute and is only read server-side, by Get2daLine().
    I find the server override to be the perfect place for them, because when you create a hakpak, you need to get the client at least a hakpak of the same name to avoid annoying messages.

    Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

    Help please! Harat fight impossible
    Also, take note of the cutscene that plays when you first enter his lair. Perhaps there is something you're missing? Could something make him more vulnerable?

    Need a more explicit hint? Let me know.

    ID: Brazier Puzzle ?? (spoiler)

    I read that the offset brazier will capture a flame and create a gap in the sequence. It only captures the flame from the brazier in front of it correct?
    Correct.

    Quote: I know which brazier are to be lit.. but getting the sequence down is what is baffling me :confused:

    I hope someone can proivide a detailed solution on this one.. I hate to leave a puzzle unsolved :)
    SOLUTION BELOW


    Clicking on any of the braziers in the circle rotates the placement of the flames. The idea is to use the offset brazier to capture a flame and place it in the proper pattern, then rotate the circle to get the flames where you want to them.

    Ring the gong again.

    Loot the imp for items to be placed in the outside ring of spheres according to what was lit when you rang the gong the first time.

    I think you have to ring the gong to finish the puzzle, too.

    James Henley, Technical Designer

    Nostromo Speed Pad
    Speed pad == the Belkin Nostromo.

    a one who wants it all
    The highest number of classes you can have is three.

    Brian Chung - Technical Artist

    Error: This container is full ...
    Ah, there was a check added to disallow putting larger sized items into a container, as an exploit prevention for putting the portable encampment in Infinite Dungeons (a 10x6 icon) into a container's 7x5 space (that is, no putting it into a bag of holding to get around the weight of the encampment to limit you to carrying one or two at a time).

    It seems that the act of putting a normal sized item in a nearly full container triggers this check as well, when it should just create another page.

    Peter Thomas, Designer

    Infinite Dungeons scripting questions

    In creatures.2da, I noticed there is an "attributes" field with a series of 0s and 1s... I am assuming these are bit flags... not the easiest thing to test in the world, so any dev off the top of their head remember what some of these do?

    Also, do creatures use a custom onspawn script to handle their equipping and leveling, or is that handled elsewhere? Just wondering if I can slip in a modified AI package (like TonyK's) without breaking things.
    All creatures in ID use the generic x2 scripts. These have pretty much all been modified to accomodate ID requirements, but just having the names in the script fields should enable them to work. Replacing any of them with different scripts could break gameplay.

    The Attributes field is a series of bits determining the following information about the creature in this order:
    - If the creature is medium-sized or less.
    - If the creature is intelligent.
    - If the creature can cast spells (this was cut).
    - If the creature can drop gold.
    - If the creature can drop recipe gems.
    - If the creature can drop items/recipes.
    - If the creature can use weapons.
    - If the creature can use armor.

    The bit sequence method is used for tilesets and themes as well, according to the order they appear in their respective 2DAs.

    More:
    I would like to play with the mapping placeables from ID. I notice there is a hak with them in it, but what else do I need. Some new entries in placeables.2da? Anything else?
    Adding them to the placeables 2DA and including the hak should enable you to place them. I'm not sure if 1.67 is required.

    More:
    Wow, thanks for the info. :) So is the pool of potential NPCs (especially hirelings) limited to medium/small intellegents that can carry weapons, or is this set somewhere else? (not that I recall seeing it anywhere else...)
    Hirelings are limited to Medium Intelligent creatures. Monsters from monster sellers are Medium Unintelligent. The reason for not having large creatures is that they could be blocked by doorways and always be teleporting around.


    Quote: Ideally, I'd like enemies to drop loot bags instead of corpses with items, but have npcs leave corpses, and I had thought creating seperate copies of the NPC monsters and then (tediously) editing all the ID monsters will fix this.
    The leave a corpse flag is set on all creatures in ID. This could be edited manually. The reason for this was that there is a flag in the dungeon controls which allow you to turn permanent corpses on, so all monster bodies will stick around until the area is exited. There may be some minor problems with taking the flag off all the creatures, but I don't think it would break the game. The only thing I can think of would be that the light that signifies a creature that has dropped a boss plot item may not appear correctly.


    Quote: I suppose any scripter could answer this instead of a dev, but I am wondering (in general) if there is a way to modify creature spell selection. My epic character seems to run into clerics who always cast the same predictable acid rain whatever spell, then sunlight, hammer of gods, etc, I'd like to randomize this a bit. I guess you would set memorized spells on a preleveled creature, but assuming all ID entries are minimum level and then scaled with levelup commands, that wouldn't work so well.
    The creatures in ID use the LevelUpHenchman script command. This bases its levelup off of the packages 2da. You could do indepth modification of that system and hope it doesn't break ID. The other issue is the core AI of NWN, which chooses the spell. We haven't touched this in ID, as we wanted combat to perform consistently with the other NWN expansions.

    More:
    Aww, you mean there's no halfling/gnome hirelings? ;)
    The Medium-Sized flag meaning less than or equal to Medium size.

    ID: Token of Mastery console command


    Actually having said that I've been playing it with the loot set down 20(!!!) levels and far fewer and I'm still getting items that just aren't appropriate for a hack and slasher.
    We're going to need some mucking around with raising item property values in the appropriate 2das, or possibly capping and disabling them (haven't looked into compatability issues with that) The default system just makes too many silly spawns otherwise.
    It isn't that easy. The numbers used to calculate item property multipliers and things are spread through tons of 2das, and 2da accesses are very slow. Also, they had to be ordered correctly to speed up treasure generation. They are the default values from the Hordes 2das in an include file in the module, so you can't even override a specific script.

    More:
    Before I'm even tempted to lookup the token command....

    Is it possible to either:

    A. Adjust the plot dungeons encounter difficulty, and treasure level? And still play through the main plot?

    OR

    B. Create an entirely new set of dungeons and use them to play through the plot...

    Although my play time is limited, and I'm only on the 3rd Dungeon, I'd start over if I could do A or B, otherwise, it's C: Keep playing till I kill Halaster :)
    Certain things are set when the dungeon is created, like size, themes, etc. Other things (pretty much every percentage in the game) can be adjusted and you will see the effect the next time that percentage or value is used. Encounter and treasure percentages would be on area generation, while plot percentages would be on level generation.


    Quote: Also, a quick question for those who have the token, how big can you make the dungeon? I would really like to take a character from level 1 - 40 in one dungeon. I don't however like the larger levels, it makes getting around a pain and backtracking is soooo time consuming. I think my perfect dungeon would be something like 2x2 or 3x3 with a TON of levels. I beleive the dungeon I am in is currently 5x5 with 3 (maybe 4) levels, and I just completed level 2, it was a pain to go from one corner of the map to the far corner just to get to the stairs, returning to plot givers was a pain too. (Wouldn't be so bad if not for the area transitions which aren't painful unless you have to go through them needlessly). I'm a completist, a lazy completist, but a completist none the less.
    I hardcapped the maximum dungeon size to 20x20x20. Unfortunately, since you couldn't end up adding new areas in hakpaks, we're limited to the number of areas in the module (around 240 or so useable ones). It will generate the level and fill it with all possible areas, but it won't be able to fill the full 20x20 space. Good luck in exploring all that though. :p The dungeon size will also be quite large when you try to save or export it.

    *SPOILER* Definitive ID Nethack dungeon management

    Adjust specific item frequency: 20% (thinking about putting this at 50, or even 90, but not sure how this will impact essential consumables etc)
    The essential consumables are the same for both the specific and generic items. They are each a preconstructed list and chosen according to level.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
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