Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Darien)

Greg Zeschuk, Joint-CEO:

PC Gamer Article: What was discussed in the recent PC Gamer article was one of the small features added to NWN to polish the game - as you mention it was either Ray or me that gave the quote to the magazine (can't remember which one...)

Anyway, the feature is quite simple - the second floor of buildings fade out when obscuring the character. This allows the player to see character when running around corners, etc. - making it easy for people to play the game. There is still a load delay (very slight) when you enter buildings and change locations.

Finally the building fade is the kind of feature added to make the game easier to play. Even though it's a small thing, all of those small things add up to make the game something special. This is certainly what we're working toward with Neverwinter Nights.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Pausing: Hi all. Good thread by the way, but it is getting too long and I have to close it. Once we get stickies working on this board, we will be able to park some of these issues at the top for people to see. The current plans for NWN and Pause-in-Play and issue-orders is that there will be no Pause-in-Play. As with all developmental things, this is subject to playtesting.

The one critical thing to realize is that NWN does not distinguish between 1 player or 64 players. It uses all the same code. Allowing user-based pause in a game with more than 1 player would be completely unworkable. If we were to add PiP for when the 1 player is both the client and the server, it would require a HUGE reworking of the Official Campaign in order to allow for PiP.

Short version: PiP no, but subject to playtesting.

Pause and Play: Fan Quote: "How can implementing a spell or special ability called "Pause in Play" be included or excluded from individual modules?"

Oooof! Now you have me confused. As far as I know, you cannot enable/disable spells or abilities. Sorry, but what does a spell in the game have to do with an engine level function of pausing the game? Oh, and good to see you, Bard, welcome!

Hey, I have been wrong before, but I will check on Monday on disabling spells/abilities at the module level. But, I am still confused as to what this has to do with engine-level pause.

First, everyone calm down. This is a good thread, and I have only had to delete a few flaming post from within it. Please re-read what you are about to post and remove any comments that you have directed at someone personally and not their concept. We will all get along better this way.

Bard (sorry, can't get used to the Lance name just yet ), now I see what you were talking about. What you are suggesting is that we have something in place in the engine that we won't use, but would be available for the community. I understand the idea, but with the limited development time we have, we cannot develop something that we are not going to use internally, and not something that would have such a dramatic impact on game balance. Sorry, but as per the other thread, it is all subject to playtesting.

More Pause and Play: Fan Quote: "Translation: "But surely adding the OPTION for those who WANT IT can only be a GOOD THING." But seriously: I'm confused. I thought the DM WAS going to have full pause-in-play functionality, and could therefore pause the game in order to do what he pleased. Is this not the case?"

Yes, DM pausing is in. What most people are talking about is in a 1 player game where the user is both the client and the server, being able to pause the game and issues orders to the player/henchmen under his/her control.

DM can pause and interact with the environment. Run scripts, inspect, spawn, adjust, etc. The DM gets PiP.

Class Kits: There are no kits in 3rd Edition, so there won't be in NWN. What we are doing is making "packages" that are a preset grouping of skills and feats to aid in the character creation process. They aren't really 2nd Ed. kits, but they do resemble them.

David Gaider, Designer:

Rangers: I'd have to agree about the ranger. In my experience, even players who are normally not the power-gaming type do little more than take the 1 level of Ranger required before moving onto either Fighter, Barbarian or whatever else fits their vision more closely. And one really can't blame them.

I don't know how much WotC would let the NWN crew change it, though. Keep in mind that changes to the monk or the 'class abilities that don't work' are related to their functionality in terms of converting the game to computer. The Ranger isn't broken, per se...what you're suggesting is an aesthetic change, even if the class would be overall more useful.

But it certainly doesn't hurt to campaign for what you want. I'm not saying change is impossible. Personally, I think the Bard and, to a lesser degree, the Druid are in need of something extra. While the Bard gets some fairly useful illusion spells, it gets those in exchange for even rudimentary attack spells... and its spellcasting limits per day are low, the bard song bonuses never increase and its fighting ability is quite hampered unless it dual-classes (in which case those decent spells are even further away).

In my home campaign, I give Bard the extra feats that the Wizard and Fighter have... making him more of the utility player he is meant to be... and I allow Druids to cast from their spell list as a Sorcerer does. It's the only thing that makes my players pick those classes. But, again, those are due to my personal preferences. At best, I think it would be great if NWN allowed for some ability on the DM's part to modify the classes a bit... although I have my doubts that that's possible, as it would be interpreted by most players as opening the door for prestige classes, I think.

Alan Miranda, Associate Producer:

Manual Translations by Fans: Yes, from what I have found, game manual translations (or "paper-parts") for lots of games (including some of the BG series) could be improved upon. Ensuring the best possible quality can be a challenge when translation houses are quite distant/removed from BioWare and the English version that we initially work on. Text translation is not something that we are able to review here, and in general such things are publisher handled. I think this issue will be something to keep in mind for NWN. Thanks for all the translation offers. We appreciate your enthusiasm.

Sound File Formats: No, the sound file format has not been finalized yet. In terms of quality, it would most likely be 16-bit, 22KHz, mono. I think this is what is used in most games, and it is what we used in BG.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Custom Sounds: Alan is right in that most of the sound effects will probably be 16 bit, 22Khz mono or stereo. However, you will most likely be able to play back most standard sample rates and bit depths. Keep in my mind that the higher the bit depth and sample rate the higher the overhead.

Aidan Scanlan, Writing and Design:

Script Area Transition Random Encounter: This is possible to script.

The concern would be with manually cranking the clock forward. Time is global over all areas. If you pushed the clock forward when a character went through the transition, another character in the original area (or any other character for that matter) would suddenly find himself jumping through time. It is possible to enforce that the entire party go through the transition, but this isn't really desirable in an open format game. You would have to plan for all PC to be in same party (a fair assumption in a game designed for a small number of characters), otherwise the transition would become a choke point.

When you enter a standard area transition, i.e. one created by the wizard, a script will run that finds the waypoint that that trigger is linked to. It then jumps the entering object (character) to that waypoint. If you want, you could write your own script that specifies different waypoints depending on different conditions. Just (as Brother Amos says) make sure you have transitions that allow you to exit any areas that you send characters to.