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.

David Gaider, Designer

Petrification: Just as an aside: using dialogue is not going to work. You cannot initiate dialogue with people (including PC's) who are dead or under petrification... that's part of those effects.

Quote: After using a permanent paralyzation effect in the toolset as a proxy, I found it rather easy to pop up the gui panel every few minutes asking me if I wanted to respawn. And I wasn't even dead. In fact, the gui pop up can be called by any event, regardless of (or dependent upon) player state. No new GUI is needed as the current will suffice. David, I'm not here to insult you because I'm positive your scripters have brought it to your attention, if you hadn't thought of it yourself already. Just now very curious as to why you would state something so easily proven untrue.

Actually, I hadn't thought of the PopUpDeathGUI command... I'm not a big scripter, myself. I'm sure this would have gotten mentioned eventually... if we were working on petrification right now (which we aren't). Thanks for pointing that out, though. That's a good idea.

Okay... just as an update, we did a quick test and the PopUpDeathGUIPanel idea seems to work, so we're going to play around with it a bit and make sure it will function in both SP and MP modes well. If it does, this is what we're aiming for:

Normal difficulty - no change from current (the effect wears off after a certain number of rounds on PC's, permanent on NPC's)

Hardcore or higher - in SP, it's reload time. In MP, you can wait for help or die.

This is not a promise... this is just what we're trying out for the moment, based on your feedback, and if we can make it work without too much trouble it's what we'll use. One possible hitch is the 'wait for help' button... there's no way to tell it's been pressed, and since the PC isn't dead the GUI won't come up again unless it's on some sort of timer. But we'll see. EDIT: In case you were wondering, we did test out using the petrification effect followed by the death effect. Didn't work... you explode into stony chunks (petrification death)

Quote: Thank you David. As long as I know this idea is getting some consideration and testing, I am happy. It was the fact that it was (or seemed to be ) being dismissed that concerned me.

No, not dismissed. We only have so much time to look at these things, however, and the spells and effects were a long time ago. *You* people have all the time in the world to obsess over one effect. I said what we were doing and why... but that's part of getting feedback, here. If there's something reasonable that's suggested, we'll always at least consider it. But what's with all this head-banging? Am I missing something, here?

Okay... the argument appears to be continuing. Maybe I missed something. Petrification is being made permanent on the Hardcore mode, which is what was being asked for. It's being left the way it is on the default mode, consistent with how just about every effect is on Normal. So what, exactly, is the problem?

Quote: a) By making the effect by default non permanent - thats how it will usually be.

If your concern is that the NWN games you play in are using Normal difficulty as opposed to Hardcore difficulty, wouldn't your concern be a bit broader in terms of the challenge that game has chosen to play at rather than in our implementation? I mean... we're going to at least provide a choice in its implementation that doesn't require re-scripting, so if someone wants the more difficult version it's right there. If I'm not mistaken, that's what was being asked for. People who want the difficulty for its own sake will be playing on Hardcore anyway, no?

Quote: b) By making this effect (much like death itself as handeled in NWN OC) non permanant, it seems that Bio is just trying to remove challenge from the game - making it simple, and accessible with almost a complete lack of taactics, and strategy required... (The Idiot proofing we keep talking about).

It's non-permanent only on Normal difficulty and below and only for PC's. If challenge is what is important to you, play at Hardcore mode. I can see how you might have an issue with overall challenge even on that mode, but not with how it relates to petrification, itself, as you are getting exactly what you're asking for at that level. If your problem is really with the overall difficulty and not with petrification itself, then why not start another thread addressing that point? If your problem is that you believe everyone should be playing at Hardcore difficulty just because, then obviously I'm paying too much attention to this thread.

AI Questions: The SetAILevel is really only going to be of use, I think, in situations where the creature is in an area where the PC's aren't but still needs to path-find. If it will be of greater use in combat, where AI level is already set to high, I'm not really certain. The AI scripts, themselves, are indeed being upgraded, however... the spellcasting AI in particular.

Quote: Which reminds me, David - what was the final decision on how resting was going to be restricted? Area based? Time based? AI upgrades (patrols etc.)? Random encounters? Some combination of those solutions?

We won't have random encounters until XP2. What we're using in SoU, currently, is no resting at all in a dungeon unless it's a one-exit room and the door is closed (Brent has developed a 'resting trigger' that works like this). The system is still being tweaked, which is why I didn't mention it before. It might yet change, though I doubt it at this point.

Spell Failures: There is an EffectSpellFailure, but no way to alter the ASF percentage on armor just yet. We are looking at that for XP2.

Hak Paks: This is not being changed in SoU. If it's to be changed, it's likely to be something done by the Live Team... they've got several big changes planned for the way hak paks are used.

Quote: As can be seen by the lack of any death penalties (you don't really lose anything by dying), resting restrictions (just p[lop down and fully heal and respell yourself)

I would just like to point out that the resting and respawning in SoU does not match the OC. There is a "recall stone"-type item in SoU, but it both operates on charges and cannot be used in combat. As well, it is only available in Chapter 1. In the rest of the game, if you die, it's reload or quit. As well, inside a dungeon that is still dangerous you can only rest in a one-exit room with the door closed (as it's currently implemented). Just pointing this out for accuracy's sake. Continue on with commentary or whatever.

Derek French, Assistant Producer

The Second Expansion Pack: Let me state in the strongest possible terms that XP2 is NOT Witch's Wake.

(Ed. Note: If I got rid of the 'NOT' do you think Derek French would get mad?)

Quote: The strongest possible terms? did you guys not like Witch's Wake or something?

We love the Witch's Wake. That is why we made it. The issue is that we have stated that the Witch's Wake will always be free and I wanted to quash any notion that we are going to turn around and start selling its sequel as XP2. I want to keep the line between retail and free as clear as possible.