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.

Tim Smith, Programmer

ResRef Vs. Tags: The resource reference (resref) and the tag are two different things. The tag is used by scripts to help locate the object in question. The resref is the name of the template used to create the object.

David Gaider, Designer

Quote: You just asked people to list a mistake, and I thought this engine that seems to cause all sorts of problems and prevent all sorts of features from being implemented many months later seemed like a good enough mistake to me.

We don't look on the Aurora engine as a mistake of any sort. When you start putting together an engine, you have to decide what's going to go where and how it's all going to work beforehand... you might regret some of those decisions afterwards (especially the ones that seemed perfectly reasonable at the time), but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the engine itself. The Aurora engine is plenty flexible enough... but aging, of course, just as the Infinity Engine did before it. We went through the same process of updates and changes to the IE being needed as we'd regularly go in and rearrange its guts, until eventually it reached a state where technology had improved enough that it was worth it to make a completely new engine. The stuff that they're talking about is just a matter of time and resource allocation. Technically speaking anything is possible with the current engine: robes, cloaks, subraces, mounts, psionics, spellcasting prestige classes, what-have-you... it's all a matter of exactly how much work you want to put into it. Like I said elsewhere, "engine limitation" is a relative term based on how realistic the amount of work that's required to do what's being asked is compared to the cost and the "bang" for that cost.

Let me put it this way: you build a house a certain way built on the blueprints that were made for it. You have a particular type of foundation, you put in a particular type of roofing material, you have your wiring done a certain way... all of it serves a particular purpose. After its built, it's easy enough to put on a fresh coat of paint or change a window or maybe even install a new roof. If you decide then, however, that you want a whole new den put in the basement and have the entire thing re-wired and with extra insulation (because it's a bit cool down there), the construction guy might say "Welll... we can do it, but we'll have to rip apart a lot of stuff down there. It would have been way easier to do this back when we built the place." The translation is that it COULD be done, of course, but it'll take some doing. Enough doing that the cost of which might make said home-owners think whether it meets their budget or not. Would they really use the den at all? Maybe a hot tub outside on the deck would get more use.
Then there's telling the construction guy that you want the house's foundation changed to a different type of concrete... and while they're at it, you're interested in re-insulating the entire house with something hypoallergenic. You ask the construction guy if this is impossible... to which the construction guy says "Well, technically no, it's not IMPOSSIBLE..." but he has a hell of a time trying to explain to you exactly the problems involved in such an undertaking.

With the Aurora engine, we've got a nice house that's already fully-built, and only so much money to go around for renovations and such. There's some stuff that would be really nice to do... the wife wants a huge walk-in closet, for instance, but that would take rearranging the rooms upstairs and we just can't afford to spend that much just so the wife has somewhere to display her shoes. Heck, I'd like a skylight in the living room, but the contractor tells me that the way the house was built, there's a support wall where I want my light and it just can't be removed. Yes, we're sort of wishing we'd made it 4 bedrooms instead of 3 (no going back now), and that fireplace really would have been nice. Come to think of it, next house we build, we've really got to re-think that whole mexican tile thing we do in the kitchen. We fixed up the basement nice earlier this year, however, and we're planning to add on a deck right away (with hot tub!), so it's not all bad. So add this onto my list of Really Dumb Analogies but it works, more or less. The engine is a great old gal that may not do everything we want her to do as time moves on, but she does everything that was asked of her to begin with. If we don't have the resources to put together a full project team and rip out her guts and add do all the big changes that are being asked for, it's because you only get that team when you have a full project (surprise!)... like with a sequel, and not with a year-old release that doesn't charge its users a monthly fee to play (sweet deal though that is).

HotU Fixes: One side note related to things that are brought up on the message boards and us acting upon them: a while back some of you might remember that it was mentioned here how irritating it was that spellcasting would often be interrupted by the mage taking attacks of opportunity. I said at the time that we weren't aware of that and I would report it. Received word today that this has now been fixed for HotU. No more abandoning your spellcasting to take attacks of opportunity. Maybe not the biggest thing, but there ya go.

Stupid PC Dialog: No, we won't be doing "stupid" dialogue in HotU. Characters with low Int will occasionally be restricted from selecting certain options... or high Int characters will get their own unique dialogue options... but low Int characters will still sound normal when they speak

Quote: Can we ask questions about this? If so, how was the fix made?

You can ask, but I'm not up on the details. I just got my bug-tracker that I put in on the issue sent back to me as "fixed", and that's about all I know at this point.

Quote: Does the implemented fix also fix the AoO interrupting potion drinking problem, since I believe they are related?

I assume it would, since drinking a potion is still spell-casting, as far as the engine is concerned.

Quote: Do AoO's now appear in the action queue, such that they are taken after the action they would have interrupted finishes, or are they just given up if you aren't ready to take one when the opportunity arises?

No, AoO do not appear in the action queue. I am certain of that. So most likely it is just a case of you giving up the AoO entirely. I've yet to see this in-game, however.

Quote: Can we get a final clarification on actual dynamic properties? (as in giving a chainmail suit an ac of 6 and a dex bonus of up to 23, sort of thing)

Okay, just to clarify, we are talking only about the magical item properties, here... enchantment bonuses, AC bonuses, skill negatives, what-have-you. Anything from the toolset list where you drag the properties over to the right hand side to have them applied to the item. We are NOT talking about regular item properties such as weight, base AC for armor, cost and so forth... though of course some of these things can definitely be affected by the magical item properties. So you CAN take a suit of chainmail and apply an AC bonus to raise its total AC to 6, and apply a Dex bonus (err... not sure if you can do +23, but there you have it). These properties all have their Get function (now with sub-property types so they're actually useful!) and Set, which can permanently affect the item, as Georg said. Not only do you get this, you ALSO get the OnEquip/OnUnequip module event and (I believe) an OnHit(CastUniqueSpell) for weapons and armor/shields... which should pretty much fill in the gap for scripting unique item properties (like properly cursed stuff).

Quote: Max Dex Bonus to AC is one of the things I believe the dynamic item property scripting can't modify.

Correct. I said that, didn't I? You can add a Dexterity bonus but you can't change the base Max Dex Bonus property of the armor.

Quote: What I wanna know is if you can make a cursed weapon or armor, so it works fine for a while - but suddenly change you into a chicken or a cow!

Why not? With the OnEquip/OnUnEquip event you can detect whether someone has donned said armor... script in your delay and away you go. The best thing about scripting cursed effects, in my opinion, is that they don't show up on the list of item properties when you examine the item. As for the item that speaks when it hits something, yes... that can be done, too. The OnHit(Cast Unique Spell) is actually less of a spell and more of a script (though it is tied into a module event and not a script that is part of the item itself). So the "spell" that is run when the sword hits something might very well trigger a sound to be played or a string displayed.

Quote: I like this idea V. As far as a "blue" VFX, couldn't we just use: int VFX_DUR_ETHEREAL_VISAGE?

No. Item visual effects work a little differently. You will have the ability to apply the current visual effects (fire, green acid, holy glow, etc.) to a weapon without the corresponding damage being needed... and one assumes that more could be added by the community... but there is no blue glow effect, currently.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Item Properties: You can add any itemproperty that is in the toolset under Item Properties to an item via scripting. It's a bit like this:

AddItemProperty( DURATION_TYPE_PERMANENT, ItemPropertyKeen(),oItem)

or

AddItemProperty( DURATION_TYPE_TEMPORARY, ItemPropertyEnhancementBonus(1),oItem, RoundsToSeconds(6))

That should get you a small idea on what to expect. You're going to love it. And, yes, DURATION_TYPE_PERMANENT means it carries from server to server.

Quote: Are these item properties added by scripting taken into account when determining the item level requirement?

They add to cost if added with DURATION_TYPE_PERMANENT. There is indeed a new OnHitCastSpell, it fires for weapons when hitting a creature and for armor when being hit. You can assign many offensive spells to this property, plus there is a UniquePower spell for OnHit as well, so you do not need to fiddle around with 2da files to add new spells OnHit.

No, you can not use EffectVisualEffect with Items. There is an ItemPropertyVisualEffect() which can be used to make a weapon glow like they would glow when you have added i.e. high elemental damage, divine or vorpal properties to the weapon, but you can not use visual effects from the effect system with items, as these are not itemproperties.

Yepp, there is a OnHit: Unique power which fires a certain script you can add your module specific OnHitSpell Code to, similar to the CastSpell:Unique Power.

Quote: Not to draw conclusions or anything, but I wonder if anything else stays around while you rest. For instance, Continual Flame is pretty useless because it goes away, making it effectively no better than the Light cantrap.

That was a bug that has been fixed. You can now also cast it on items and they will get a permanent light property attached to them.

Quote: I'm thinking so .. but best to ask. So, will keen edge and flame weapon stick around on weapons even when caster rests?

No, Temporary Item Properties created through scripting wear of when the caster rests, just like Temporary Effects.