Neverwinter Nights Forum News

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(Originally posted by Veldrin)

Here are today's 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.

Trent Oster, Producer

Spell Sequencers: We didn't put in spell sequencers in the original release because we never had the time.
I love the idea of waking up in the morning and quick casting all your normal protection spells with one click. I'm hoping we can free up a little time in the future to look at sequencers in depth.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: it just didn't seem like THAT big a deal... since you can fake it with a list of constants in the scripting...

I suppose it's true that there are many things this function does that are currently possible... but you try creating a wandering monster table or a random treasure table via regular scripting and then try it with a .2da and then tell me how big a deal it is.

Quote: Excuse my ignorance on the subject, but can this be used for custom content like creatures? As in a new creature can have its own .2da files (appearance/portrait/etc) instead of having to include modified default .2da files?

No, not that. The game itself accesses the info off of the default .2da files when the game initially starts up... it grabs the info and then doesn't look at those files again, afterwards. The scripting command allows you to look up a .2da file (whether one of the defaults or one you made yourself) and get the information out of a specific row/column at any time. So you can grab some information out of the appearance.2da, but that's not the same as how the engine uses that file.

Quote: But as always, it's up to the module builder to put that stuff in. Either way it still has to be scripted in by somebody. This just makes it easier to manage. Hopefully this will be how they do the SoU wandering monsters so we can all get a good peek at how they use it.

I'm not sure how the wandering monster system is being done, but it probably will use this, yes. That's being done for XP2, though. What we want to use this command for right now is our random treasure system. It will probably also be extended to the summoning system as well as controlling the XP we give out in the OC... having one clear, central table where you can adjust all this stuff is a god-send. If anyone's ever looked at the random treasure script for the NWN OC, you'll know what I mean.

Quote: Wait wait, you mean we can create our own 2da files? Say I create a file and call it temreksencounterlist.2da, with the first colum being a monsters name, the second its blueprint reference and the third the amount of creatures? And then read from it?

Correct. Anything you pull off the table that isn't a string you can convert, like with StringToInt. And you can make the .2da as complex as you need... blueprint reference, number of creatures, chance of other creatures appearing, a waypoint tag they appear at, the name of another .2da file that determines the makeup of that encounter group... whatever.

Brent Knowles, Co Lead Designer

Craft Systems: We really like the D&D item crafting system and have explored various ways of implementing it (as well as examing the various crafting systems that the builder's community have developed). Unfortunately for SOU we will only be able to put in a couple of item crafting teaser's (like the Harper Scout ability). This is definitely something we are looking into for XP2.

Class Abilities: For XP1, class feat-spell abilities *will* show up dynamically, though there is a cap of 7 active abilities on the radial, if I remember correctly. So this means you could add Feat X which calls Spell X for your new prestige class and it would show up on the radial menu in game if you set the data up correctly.

Tom Ohle, Communications Associate

NWN Wednesdays: There's a reason we haven't shown as many creatures as we have spells and feats: there aren't as many. 16 creatures... 50 spells.... 30 feats. That's a 5 to 1 ratio... thus, mathematically, creatures get less lovin'. They'll be coming, though.

SoU Treasure System: Yeah, there is a better treasure system in SoU. Part of that is that there aren't as many random treasures laying around. If there's a barrel in a kitchen, it's highly unlikely you'll find money in it; a fish is much more likely. That said, I played about the first 5 hours of SoU on the weekend... it's a lot of fun. Can't wait until it's done; there are definitely way more non-combat options for those inclined.

Oh yeah, you still get experience for combat--but you also get experience for solving things diplomatically