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. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Derek French, Assistant Producer

Quote: MacSoft didn't port it at all. BioWare ported it...or so they would have us believe...

We did the code. Make no mistake about it. All blame and kudos for the Mac code rests squarely on our shoulders.

Quote: What exactly happens on the day the number reaches the big O?

SoU should be on store shelves in North America on that day. It is only limited by the individual store's shipping services.

Quote: SoU will be on the shelves in retailers worldwide?

No, the non-English versions of SoU are not gold yet, but they are very close.

Quote: SoU 1.30 patch be available as an update to NWN game owners?

SoU ships at 1.30. The first Update availabe to SoU owners will be 1.31, but there is no date for that right now.

Quote: I recently downloaded the 1.30 beta patch. I was soooo hoping that maybe we will already get some of the goodies in SoU like manageable inventory for the Henchmen.

That is an SoU-only feature. You must purchase the SoU expansion to get this feature.

Quote: From the threads I read and exchanges I have had with various devs it was said xp1/patch 1.30 would be more a feature extension then a bug fix as thats the point of a XP.

Correct, but that doesn't mean we won't fix bugs that crop up while we are developing an expansion pack, especially if they directly affect the expansion.

Quote: Now I see the patch 1.30 read me and I am VERY confused. Theres a TON of fixes that many dont seem directly related the the content in XP1.

Correct. The Live Team worked on bug fixes since the release of 1.29 for about 2 months. We were just about to release the next Update when we entered the code freeze. This action didn't mean that we lost those 2 months of work, just that the release was delayed.

Linux SoU: Linux SoU is shipping on the SoU CD. Both shell script and Loki installers are there. Thank you, and please drive through.

Quote: Hey, will there be any special install needs for SoU if the fairly standard camera

Since this is an .exe hack (and NOT a Hak Pak as some people keep saying it is) it will be overwritten by the SoU installer.

Quote: and AI haks are already installed?

The SoU installer will blow away your override directory, BUT it will ask you if the SoU installer should back it up first. Remember, that is our override directory.

Quote: MacCentral says the demo is 645 MB. Ouch. Is that after unstuffing? What is the downlolad size?

That is incorrect. The real number is 239 MB, I believe.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: To one of the Developers ... will we be able to coversate with Tymofarrar about other things then the plot. Like history or his life?

Well, it depends on how well you and Tymofarrar get along. It doesn't necessarily have to come to violence between the two of you, but you ARE an intruder and he is suspicious of you. It's not like you both got invited to High Tea and just bumped into each other then (though I will have to remember that for later use...)

Quote: About Deekin: can the kobold talk normal or does he "sssss". Talk a bit like an orc who wants to look smart. Do we also get a story why he became a bard, what his goals are .. and things like that?

Deekin has a funny-sounding voice. He doesn't go "ssss", but his voice is... unique. You'll either hate it or love it. And yes, there are lots of options to talk to Deekin about his story and goals and such. You may have problems getting Deekin to shut up rather than getting him to talk.

Quote: So I'm guessing that Tymofarrar will have his own voiceset. With lines like Aribeth had hers' etc ... Still nice touch talking with a White Dragon about things.

Oh, yes, I can confidently say that Tymofarrar is the best dragon voice we've done yet. His dialogue file is also the biggest in the game, next to the henchmen. Quite the Chatty Cathy.

Quote: And Deekin sounds like a great henchman just to have around. I personally found the ones in the NWN OC a bit dull ...

I thought their stories were pretty good, overall. I think if we'd taken out the "find an item for me and I'll tell you more of my story" element, expanded their tales and allowed them to interject in dialogue as well as comment on things on their own... if we'd done all that I think people would have a different opinion on the OC henchmen. Sadly, we just didn't get the time to do that. Fortunately, we did in SoU.

Quote: Will be something special indeed, having a little singing Kobold along

He tells limericks, too, don't forget. And when you find gold he calls dibs.

"Dibs! Deekin calls dibs!"
"You can't call dibs!"
"Deekin can, too. Deekin just did!"
"Well, forget it. I carry all the gold."
*skritch skritch* "'Suddenly the very cruel hero decided to crush the heart of his faithful kobold companion. Oh, the humanity! What had little Deekin done to deserve such base treatment?!'"
"Will you put that book away, already?"
"Well, how you expect Deekin to write epic tale of Great Hero?"
"Quietly."
*skritch skritch* "'Once again the heart of the faithful kobold companion was crushed, so uncaring was the great hero...'"
"Stop that!"
"Deekin just tells truth."
"Well how about Deekin scouts around the corner?"
*skritch skritch* "'Heart broken, the faithful kobold companion was now sent away from his Master, sent into the depths of the deadly dungeon to be snapped up in the jaws of lurking horrors like the crunchy breakfast snack that he was...'"
"*sigh* Never mind. I'll do it."
"You is a good Master! You treats Deekin so well!"

Alignments: If you really must know, the henchman alignments are (IIRC):

Deekin - Chaotic Good
Dorna - True Neutral
Xanos - Chaotic Neutral

Quote: Mark it up-let them haggle you back down to normal then throw in something useless for a "good" price.

Or haggle them up in price and then ask them if they have that much gold on hand, like you don't believe it. When they say yes, they do, knock them unconscious and take it. Really, with Him it's all good.

Portraits: As far as portraits go, our experience has been that the number of them we do is largely irrelevant... there will still never be enough to satisfy everyone. We could include, say, three portraits that we think should satisfy for monks... and there is certain to be a thread eventually that goes "What?! NO MONK PORTRAITS?!". After all... what does a monk look like? How about a paladin? How about a rogue? Yes, yes, I'm sure you all have ideas... and that's the point, because they'll all be different. Now, I agree that putting in custom portraits could be easier (it's my understanding that the Live Team is looking at that for the near future), but insofar as tsk tsking us for not including race X/class Y/alignment Z -type portraits (or your particular slant thereof)... I'm afraid there's probably not much we can do about that, sorry.

Tanar'ri: Balor are tanar'ri, as are succubi. And I believe the ability to summon succubi is right out of the book (though it could be a 2nd edition ability carry-over... not so sure on that point). Why did they give Balors the ability to summon succubi? Not really sure. Ask them. I suppose technically they could probably summon incubi, as well, if you wanted to be fair.

Quote: According to the d&d 3rd edition rules:

"Summon Tanar'ri (Sp): Once per day a balor can automatically summon 4d10 dretches, 1d4 hexrous, or one nalfeshnee, glabrezu, marilith, or balor."

Aahhhhh. Then it's a holdover. As I recall, the Planescape compendium said Balors could summon a succubus. Or was it a succubus could summon a Balor? Hmmm... now I guess I have to go and look. As for why the Pit Fiend was summoning a succubus in the video? Good question. It's probably using a Balor's summoning power. Not very exact, but then again we don't exactly have a wide selection of baatezu at the present, either, so I guess you could just pretend it's an Erinye. Oo! When HotU comes, though, your Pit Fiend really *will* be able to summon an Erinye. No, I doubt we'll have an Erinye as a creature... but you'll see what I mean.

Beardless Dwarves: Actually, if you're curious about Dorna's beardless status, the subject actually can come up when you talk to her in-game. There's a reason why she isn't "traditional" in this respect (and why many female dwarves that leave dwarven lands also eschew that custom).

Medusa: No, she does have snakes on her head... and that kinda orangey scaly skin as per the 3rd edition picture. The snakes are not animated, though.

Quote: Were oozes and the like discussed and played with during the development phase of nwn or were they just axed right off the bat?

They were probably discussed, but there are only so many creatures that we have art time to develop. Like other sorts of models that require special consideration, they will always be the first to be put on the back-burner if there are others we can do first.

Quote: I am just a bit perplexed how a basic monster such as this would not be taken into consideration when building the game engine.

Is this a basic monster? Everyone has a different opinion on which creatures are more important than others... how important are slimes and jellies, relatively? More important than kobolds? Those weren't in the original NWN. More important than hobgoblins and manticores? Those just got added. More important than beholders and mind flayers? Those haven't even been done yet. So we're working on it. If an easier way to do them is dicovered that isn't too time-intensive and it looks good, we may see them yet, who knows?