Neverwinter Nights Forum News

Remove all ads!

(Originally posted by Z-Layrex)

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

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Patch 1.29: Patch detail summary:

Fixes the 3 known issues with 1.28, plus some misc.

Since this is a Beta, if you really want to know, download the Beta patch and read the text file inside the zip.

More:
French, German, Spanish, and Italian 1.29 Beta 1 files are available.

And More:
The Road Map is out of date, and will be fixed up this week. The 1.29 update is not adding anything new.

Tom Ohle, Communications Assistant

Horses *Hears sound of beating*: Horses will not be in XP2; I can pretty much guarantee that. Sorry.

Prestige Class Update: And just a note: We will be updating the Harper Scout profile soon. There were a few omissions in what we posted the first time around--we (the web team, actually) noticed the discrepancies between what was posted and what happens in-game when we actually started playing with the PrCs. So don't get your panties in a knot about the Harper until we show the updated profile. If, at that point, you're still disappointed, please continue griping!

More:
We actually had planned on doing 2... but then found a way to incorporate 5. Trust me, if we would have known we could do 5 all along, we would have told you.

David Gaider, Designer

Arcane Prestige Classes: Not putting in arcane prestige classes wasn't for lack of trying. While it may be easy to imagine, believe us... the equivalent of "and while you're at it, pretend to be a level higher for the class you didn't progress in with regards to spellcasting only" just couldn't be made to work. The engine just wasn't built that way when it comes to the spellcasting classes, for good or bad. We can't do it yet, at any rate. That doesn't necessarily mean we won't try again later.

Zots?: Making an expansion is all about alotting a smallish amount of man-hours to a limited number of projects... all of which will hopefully provide some bang for the buck. It's not a full-project team with the time to work on everything. So you have 20 zots (zots being a completely made-up unit of time and man-hours) and have to split them up amongst the projects, each costing some zots. What do you do? When it comes to new PC heads, some more certainly was an option, I'm sure. Mind you, we're not talking about 'a few more elf heads' or whatever. If they're going to be done you'd have to give a little love to every race and sex, period. BUT we decided to use those zots towards more tilesets, placeables and creatures (these are artist zots we're talking about, incidentally). You want PC heads, they gotta come off of those... and a sizeable chunk, too, because a mere 1 or 2 zots just won't get the job done when it comes to a full range of new PC heads. So where would you like to start cutting? At any rate, we've allocated our zots... at least for XP1. Putting some more work towards heads and other appearance stuff may be possible, so long as it's what's being demanded.

More:

Quote: though I will admit, when "2 prestige classes" was announced, "small pop for cents" was the phrase that was going through my mind

And you wouldn't be the only one. We have these discussions (read: arguments) ourselves, and hence the reason it got changed. Not that the decision was an easy one. Lot of extra work, there.

And More:

Quote: Though if it makes it feel better, I've seen many people say that they've gone from "maybe" to "definite" about getting sou due to the 5 prc announcement...

Which is kind of sad, in my opinion. Personally I don't even use Prestige Classes at all in my games. I can think of a hundred better uses of the programmers' time. But hey, demand is demand, I guess.

Guess:

Quote: So, cloaks ARE possible, & that one addition ALONE makes so much difference it isn't funny. With that in mind, I stand behind my criticism of the reasoning that led to Prestige Classes. I'd FAR rather have a stiff-as-a-board cloak that's visible, than a handful of Prestige Classes that I won't allow players to have, anyway

Yes, but keep in mind, Imperial Aerosol Kid, that the cloaks made by the community are a half-measure that we can't duplicate. Because it's made by the community, you and many others are willing to overlook problems with these cloaks... but would you honestly feel the same if we presented you with the same thing? If we ever did cloaks, at the very least we would have to:

1) Make the cloaks appear and disappear based on the item being placed into the cloak inventory slot, not part of the armor item itself. The color might be controlled by the armor, but the presence of the item shouldn't be.

2) You should be able to sit down or perform any kind of sitting/kneeling animation without the cloak clipping through the floor.

3) You may think stiff cloaks are okay, I'm not so sure many others would... at least when they're coming from us.

The issue is not that they are impossible... we never said that was the case. The issue is that we don't have enough zots available to do them properly. Not without sacrificing a lot of other art in the expansion that is much more necessary. Cloaks are a dead issue, however, as far as we're concerned. That's as far as I comment on them.

Caster Prestige Classes:

Quote: None of the prestige classes that use the "+1 to caster level" mechanism have been selected for SoU, but this seems like it may be a viable option for XP2.

I already said in another thread that we tried the "+1 to caster level" thing and can't do it yet. Why you think this is a cinch I'm not sure.

Point Buy System: The point system is what was presented in 3rd edition as the preferred system to generate a character. Plus, it's fairer all around, especially when you take into account multiplayer. Add to that the plain fact that rolled stats tend to be higher. 3rd edition is designed with the idea that a +1 stat bonus is good... I don't know how many players from 2nd edition I've played with that have looked at their character and found a 12 to be absolutely unacceptable (since of course you don't get a bonus in 2nd edition until, what, 16?). Not only is a +1 good, but having +3's and +4's in everything would skew the system at low levels. Anyone who's played 3rd edition with a monk in the party with high stats should know what I mean.

 

(Originally posted by BigStick)

For the life of me, I still can not figure out what the big deal is with cloaks. Why do so many people whine and complain that we can't have cloaks on our chars? I'd much rather the developers spend their time on functionality instead of appearance.

Yes, someday, it will be reasonable to add cloaks and disguise skills, etc. to games like this, but not yet, not today. It would cost too much and not enough people would buy the game to make it worthwhile for the makers to create it.

The other thing that has me a bit puzzled of late is the big issues with Prestige classes. yeah, they're cool and all, but frequently don't add much to the game, IMHO. If their going to add classes to the game, I'd much rather see the Psionic classes added. I'd love to try out a Psychic Warrior/Monk character. I envision him running up the walls and launching a whirlwind attack from the center of a group of enemies.

On the whole, I think that Bioware is doing a wonderful job of getting the most bang-for-the-buck accomplished in their enhancements.

 

(Originally posted by Sorcerer)

Well, for one thing, the fan-made cloaks mod looked pretty nice, which probably spurred a lot of complaining in the line of "if a fan can do it, so should BioWare".

And prestige classes... well, they're one of the biggest things that sound nice in a "Features List".

 

(Originally posted by Alauriel)

i would prefer epic levels to be implemented.

or a decent storyline, you can always hope