Neverwinter Nights Board Update

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(Originally posted by Darien)

Here are some bits from the last couple of days on the Neverwinter Nights forum.

Co-Lead Designer Rob Bartel:

Subterranean Dwellings: It's not entirely clear yet whether we'll have enough room to include subterranean dwellings in the various dungeon tilesets or not but we are keeping them under consideration. Another suggestion would be to scatter a whole bunch of doorways throughout your cavern area and attach normal interiors to them. Their 'houses,' then would actually be inside stalagmites and rock formations, etc, which strikes me as being a lot cooler than the typical brick and mortar anyways.

Spell Interface: You'll be happy to know that we are considering the possibility of allowing you to cast spells directly from your spellbook, as well. A general rule of thumb when it comes to interface design is that, if there's only one way to do something, it's not enough. If there are five ways to do something, you'll have five times as many happy customers.

Right now, that means a spell book as in a BG-style spell book: a special interface panel, not a specific item. If that changes, though, I'm sure we'll make the news very clear.

Producer Trent Oster:

Combat Animations: The combat system is what I would term version 0.85. Most of the basics are in there, but it still needs some polishing and cleanup. The system is built on a number of different weapon animations per character, broken down by "class" of weapon. We have no-weapon combat moves, one handed, two handed, pole/staff weapon and missile weapon combat moves. Each melee class has a number of different attack moves, parries and dodges. It makes for a more interesting combat experience as a whole.

We also implemented tactical movement while in combat, so you can control your character's movement while in combat and stay engaged and continue fighting. It works like this: while fighting a horde of small, pesky, annoying, whimpy gnomes you could slowly move backwards into a doorway, so only a few could attack you at once and your ankles would be safe. All the movement is done without breaking combat, so no attacks of opportunity emerge unless you turn and run away.

We will be demoing at E3 and we will be showing off the combat system there. (in addition to a few more things) and mortar anyways.

Writer and Designer Bob McCabe:

Feats, spells, etc: I don't think we're planning on releasing the complete lists of creatures, spells, item types, items, magic items, script functions, tile sets, groups, features, skills, feats, etc. at any point in the very near future It's actually part of our PR campaign...

Trent and Bob both had responses to some questions about tile height transitions.

1. Will height transitions be limited to 1 raise/lower next to the adjoining tiles?

Trent: Yes, you are limited to one level in height change per tile.

Bob: As far as I know, the answer is yes. If I raise a tile one, it does not affect the tiles around it, but it does enter into their area. If I want to raise that tile twice, it will lift up the adjacent tiles surrounding it as well. Think Populous.

2. If there are tilesets that will allow for more than one height transition at a time, which are they and how many will be allowed?

Trent: There are no tilesets that allow for more than one "unit" of height change per tile.

Bob: There are tilesets that allow you to use height transitions. I think we're saving tileset information for PR, so I won't give you the answer on this one. Sorry! As for how high you can go, it depends on the size of the board you are using. Again, think Populous. If you use a two-height map, then you need at least 4x4 of real estate. If you want one height transition, then you need a 2x2 map minimum. To further clarify, you can't raise one tile multiple times, without also raising the tiles around it. If the entire map is at one height transition, no part of that map will be higher than one additional transition. Make sense?

3. Are " bottomless chasm" tiles taken into consideration when raising the height of an adjoining tile?

Trent: Yes, bottomless chasm tiles cannot have a height change on the same tile.

Bob: Bottomless chasms are not height transitions like I described above. They're a special grouping (I forget if they're referred to as terrain or feature or group).

You know, one interesting thing you can do is lift the entire map up several height transitions. By so doing, you don't have any requirements; the entire map is at a higher point. Then, you can make underground lakes and such. Looks nice!

I'm not sure how many height transitions you can use in this manner, or if there will be any limit.