Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Steelgem)

Trent Oster, Producer:

Will there be Dragons:
We're already doing dungeons, so maybe we could fit in dragons too.

Pausing the game:
This is a continuation of an older thread, click here to read through the posts on the topic.

Pausing is a complex issue.
We've defined the two type of pause:
"Pause-in-play" which allows you to manipulate the game while it is paused
"Pause" which holds everything static until you release it. (no gui interaction)

You will be able to Pause NWN as a single player. You will not be able to Pause a multiplayer game unless you are the server operator.

As for Pause-in-play, this is a much more complex issue. When we developed BG we didn't plan for Pause-in-play and after playing the game we realized it was very difficult to control six characters in real time. We implemented Pause-in-play and the game had to be completely reworked and rebalanced to compensate. With NWN we believe the game will be much easier to control in real time, as you are only controlling one character at a time. It is also my belief that the non-pausing nature of the game will more realistically simulate the confusion of battle. In one pen and paper group we had a DM who only allowed us 20 seconds to describe our move for the combat round and make the necessary rolls. The tension during combat sessions was nearly unbelievable. Everyone was on the edge of our seats during play and left the session quite exhausted. I think NWN can capture this magical mix and the game will be an excellent blend of strategy and action. A game with the flexibility offered by the D&D rules with the elevated feeling of threat brought by real time play. Currently we are developing the game without pause-in-play in mind and we will be balancing the game as such. If during playtesting the game sucks we may re-evaluate this decision. Bottom line the game has to be fun or we won't ship it.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Single-player campaign 60+ hours of gameplay: That number is basically accurate, looking at the plans we have at this time (13:46, Thursday August 16th, 2001).

As with all things, playtesting, funtesting, timelines, etc. can come crashing down on that number and make it longer. Or shorter. It really all comes down to testing. As per the above time stamp, 60 hours is a good value at this time.

I just wanted to add that the phrase "single player campaign" really doesn't exist. There is no line drawn between single and multiplayer. The "Official Campaign" will work whether you have 1 player or more. NWN is not like Half-Life, etc., where Single Player is the part of the game that has a story and Multi Player is where you just kill each other. The Official Campaign can be enjoyed on your own or with others participating.

Marc Taro Holmes, Art Director:

Desert or/and Artic tile sets: Sorry, no desert or winter set in the first release. You could experiment with doing a texture replacement on the rural set, and you might be surprised how wintery you could make it. But that is kind of a hack.

All I can say is I hope we get the go ahead to make 600 expansion packs for all the stuff I'd like to see in the game.

Will there be Dragons:
Like Trent Oster, Marc had a similar reaction to this question, and responded to it by supporting the statements of Staran Pioux in previous posts.

Staran Pioux)
Dungeons and Dragons game
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons....and...Dragons
Dungeon ... Dragon

We, I think, have seen our share of Dungeons in NWN demos. Therefore that is HALF of the requirements for a Dungeon and Dragons type game.

I give you my word that it will be the last monster they implement, as well as the very last thing they will ever tell us about the game.

Marc_taro)
Staran is a very wise man.

Characters Hair/Head/feature attachable geometry: Your head and/or helmet in NWN is one piece. You choose your entire head, hairstyle, hat, facial features as on item at character generation.

We had to go this way because of technical limits on the number of parts to a character. A Hair, Hat, Beard, Jewelry system was tried, but it adds a lot of parts when you multiply that by the number of characters on the screen.

Perhaps as min-spec's rise in the future, we can expand the system in this area.

Portrait sizes: Hello everyone. I see some clarification on portrait art is in order.

We do our portraits quite large, just because we like having nice high rez paintings we can use for all kinds of things, like promo art and web graphics. You can do your original art any size you like, so long as it IN PROPORTION to the BG format.

BG large pics were 110x170 pixels at 72 dpi.

NWN actually supports the following sizes

256x400(on 512) - player bio
128x200(on 256) - char sheet
64X100(on 128) - your in game pic
32X50(on 64) - party members and radial
16X25(on 32) - chat thumbnail

We create them all from the largest 256x400 size. Due to the tech behind 3D games, the portraits have to be pasted onto a texture that is a "non-square power of 2", so the image is created with some blank space on the bottom to fill in the difference from 110x170 proportions to the power of 2 sizes. . Those are the numbers in brackets. (Don't ask me to explain why, just trust me, paste your 128x200 pic onto a 128x256 image and it will work).

In order for your image to work in game, you only need to provide the 128x200(256) size. You don't have to have the smaller sizes below 128, the game can create those automatically.

If you use a BG image straight across it will work just fine, but will be 'blown up' by the game engine to fit the larger texture - this will cause a small loss of quality that many people will not notice. You have to remember you see your portrait full size, but everyone else sees the smaller size in the party bar or the conversation window.

Marc also posted this question & it's response about character portraits.

I got the following question by email - that I'm posting here for everyone -

Q - Is the large "player bio" picture going to be available to other players (and thus transmitted during multiplayer games), or is that picture mainly for the player's eyes only (and thus, not transmitted like the main image?

The very largest size 256x400 will not go out on the net. You don't want big honking bitmaps like that uploading every time someone logs in and out of the server. Other players will only be able to see your 128 size pic, and even then only on demand - when they actually inspect your avatar. Otherwise you will see the 64 size in the party bar and when doing a radial menu action on a player.

NWN vs Morrowind: I don't think it is a situation of either of us copying the other. They are making a world building game for single player, and we are making a multiplayer dungeons and dragons game. It's really apples and oranges, except that we both use the very popular 'fantasy' setting (which is a very wide playing field).

Personally I’m looking forward to their game - I'm always curious about other editors....I'm eagerly waiting for Arcanum as well...their module building tool looks very polished.

Requesting The Marilith: Hello all. A merry band of marilith supporters here today....

First off...no we are not doing a marilith for the first release. We will certainly consider doing one for a future release, provided we are given the opportunity to do an expansion pack or some kind of sequel. (As you all know, we don't decide these things ourselves, there are many stakeholders at the suit and tie level.)

What can I say - you have to make some kind of list, and for NWN we mad a list of around 200 creatures. We think that’s quite a few critters for our first kick at the cat.

There are a tad more than 200 in D&D, so we had to pick and choose. Many of my personal favorites are not included, and sadly we did not have the chance to make any unique creatures - which is always a bit disappointing for an artist. But, what we have done is looking great, offers a lot of gameplay, and should keep you guys rolling for a few months!

Due to technological constraints we have to draw the line at creatures that use too many parts, have too much single mesh involved, or those that cannot be used for a lot of different variations. The marilith is actually the worst offender in all cases. It just doesn't pay of for you guys - why make one six armed creature, when I could make a creature that we can convert into ten other critters?

I know you guys will understand, and support us so we can keep going with NWN and get round to doing her in the future...

but thanks for your input, and keep the messages coming, we do listen.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Scripting & Performance: To be honest, performance issues will depend lot more on the script than the scripting language itself. There are such things as efficient and inefficient scripts, just like there is such a thing as efficient and inefficient code. A good scripter will be able to do three things:

1) Make it work;
2) Make it work well; and
3) Make it work fast.

I know that's kind of a vague answer but it's all we can really give you at this point in time.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

25-Point attribute discussion: I love low scores, too, for role-play reasons, but having an 8 is free. If you lower your score from 8, you should gain no points in return.

Personally, I would have gone with a system that starts all of your abilities at 4, kept the current system for point buy (just shifted the numbers up to account for the lower starting point (i.e. 8 - 14 costs 6 points would become 4 to 10 costs 6 points)), and given you 24 points to buy your stats with, but you'd gain a point at every second level-up (2, 4, 6, etc.). You'd start off a lot weaker, but you'd show a constant sign of improvement, and it'd give you more points to shape your character with as you go along.

Of course, everyone probably has an idea for how they would tweak the system, but really, it's pretty well-balanced as it is. I don't need to see any changes to it.