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.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Hellball Backlash: Its included but deactivated by default. You can enable it on a per module basis. Reason is the really huge area of effect of that spell, its easy to stay within the blast area by accident.

Wait a minute ... why don't you people take time to actually read the responses you get. Hellball does damage to the caster when you are playing on hardcore + difficulty and are stupid enough to stay in the area of effect (as any similar AoE spell does). What I said is that the default 10d6 points of damage the caster would get any time he casts the spell have been disabled, unless you specifically enable this feature in your module. The reason why we disabled it is because it is already hard enough for the caster to stay out of a 20.0 sphere blast radius.

Palemaster: Don't get your hopes to high on the spellcasting stuff, its hardcoded into the palemaster class. You will get more information on that class once our web profile is out.

I'd suggest not to interprete at all at this point, because, like I said, I don't know what is happening exactly, I can only say that there is something happening with your spellcasting abilities if you are a pale master. I guess you need to be patient until the pale master profile is out

AI: There have been some changes to the generic AI, mainly to the use of invisiblity and dispel magic and such. Also some variables have been added to allow a killed builder to tweak a creature's behavior (very comfortably using the new variables window in the toolset) and that can be used to tweak certain aspects of the generic AI for a creature, including
- bumping up the chance for a creature to use spells,
- make them go into stealth on spawn (works now),
- tweak their "compassion" value so they help other creatures more often,
- randomize spell use, etc.

Also we added a variabl that allows to override the default combat ai script (DetermineCombatRound()) for specific creatures. This way you can write additions or replacements for the generic combat AI that only affect creatures you want. Don't expect miracles from those tweaks, but I found the changes were at least noticeable when playing through Hordes.

Poison: You are talking about a Use Poison Feat? Well, Blackguards and Assassins created with XP2 installed will get this I think. The advantage of having this feat is that you can use poison you buy or find on weapons without a chance of wasting it.

Changing Appearance: consider the rumours dispelled. You can change the appearance of a creature to any appearanctype defined in appearance.2da, but you can not touch individual body parts.

Spell Death: Some spells (like Infestation of Maggots) and some special attacks (like the shadow's strength draining attack) kill you now once you hit 0 in an ability score and play on hardcore difficulty. The overall system still stays in place.

Familiars: While familiars will not last long in battle, they certainly help. Especially the new multi eyed friend you can have in hordes. He can poke enemies from distance.

Quote: Yes indeed, a really good choice... I love the little line of gems down the middle of his forehead! Will this bad boy come with the trademark store-soul-in-teeth/imprison ability? Will there be a new animation on PCs to allow them to run away like scared wee girls, arms-a-flailing?

Its more like once you've had a meeting with his shiny teeth, you won't be able to run anymore... he has really immobilizing arguments. Seriously, this guy is a real badass. There is no monster you met in NWN so far that comes even close.

Quote: Is Demilich a template, like Lich or Dracolich?

No, "Paragon" is the only new template we added.

Quote: The trap soul thing traps the soul in one of the demilichs gems, and turns the body into a small pile of dust... You get a fortitude save (DC 36), if you succeed, you gain 4 negative levels. It takes 24 hours for the soul to be completely absorbed, so after 24 hours the soul is gone forever. If the demilich is destroyed, and the gem crushed, before 24 hours, the soul and body can be restored by spells like resurrection. I guess much of this can't be done in NWN though.

Right, we did not do it, but it was not necessary. The paralyzing touch of the demi lich is pretty much equivalent to death anyway.

Quote: This is just lame. It should be an instant kill and destroyed corpse if the save fails. Also you made it a touch attack?!?! Sorry, but that is just lame. I would have at least made it a ranged touch attack.

No we tried that and it was not fun at all. You can still add it yourself to your demi liches in the toolset..

Naurendel pretty much summed it up. No, trap the soul would not work in NWN. Any self respecting demi lich would not use it on summoned creatures, he can just send them back or kill them. It all boils down to that it is a DC 35 instant death that most characters would not have a chance to avoid at all, and since we can not simulate the trapped soul in NWN anyway, it was removed. Still a level 40 character has only a very slim chance fighting a demilich alone, its tough enough. Plus you have the toolset to tweak that thing if you like. End of story

Quote: Will this feat be applied retroactively to Assassins/Blackguards from XP1? Or is it something you receive at level 1 only (and thus your existing level x Assassin won't receive it?). I'm unsure as to exactly what you mean (hence the post..)

I think you need to start a new assassin, not 100% about it through.

I think so, yes. This is because those feats come from different expansion packs. One easy way to do that would be to set your XP to 0 by scripting and then using the dm_giveXP command to give you back your original XP, and level up your character again. But since this feat is given at level 1, I'm not even sure this would work.

David Gaider, Designer

Familiars Dialog: I know Dan is going to be re-writing the dialogue that is currently used when you talk to familiars, animal companions and summoned creatures. I know some things like asking them to go stealth or not to bash containers will be included, but I don't know if changes to tactics are being included (or if they're even possible).

Quote: But they removed both of them, cause they "Confused the testers" (that's actually included in the comments of the scripts where whole sections are commented out (effectively removed)).

Well, that's one small comment to cover a whole lot of reactions. Basically the problem was that we needed more feedback to let the player know what the henchman/companion was thinking (and didn't have time to provide the feedback necessary), otherwise the tester thought that what was happening was something else completely. The selective use of spells, for instance, was perceived as the henchmen "not using their spells" or, in some cases, it was assumed that the henchmen just didn't have any spells. Keep in mind that in SoU (especially right at the start) all you encountered were low-CR kobolds and therefore the henchman would often just whip out a bow or melee weapon rather than use a spell. Whether that is being worked on for HotU, however, I do not know.

Quote: Perhaps David will enlighten us to any alteration or addition to what I have posted based on what I read sometime ago...if he, or someone else in the know, can give us that information.

As far as I'm aware, you're still correct on all points. Technically the functionality exists to go beyond 2 henchmen... we just don't want to push the pathfinding and AI any further than we have to ourselves without a lot more time to develop & especially test it. But you all can play with it as much as you like. And, hey... once you get the talking sword it's pretty much like a party of 4 anyway.

Quote: Perhaps they will open up pathfinding to the community in the expansion.

No no no, I meant the AI, not the pathfinding. When it comes to pathfinding you are just as screwed as we are: use the multi-henchman at your own risk.

Quote: Does anyone know if the original voice over cast will return to voice the characters from the OC?

Nope. It's new people doing the VO's, but for the most part they sound pretty close. And holy CRAP... you want to see deadly? Now that Tomi is part Shadowdancer and does his Hide in Plain Sight thing during battle, does he ever kick BUTT! Sneak Attack Sneak Attack Sneak Attack... my eyes were bugging out.

Quote: Question: How the hell does Tomi get into the underdark

Who says he does?

Quote: And can he be sacrificed to Lolth.

I think the real question is: can you?

Quote: Gawds, he was the most annoying aggravating NPC I have ever seen in your games.

Yeah yeah yeah. The sword was annoying, Cespenar's annoying, Tomi's annoying, Deekin's annoying, Linu's annoying, Dorna's annoying, Xanos is annoying... as soon as a character opens its mouth, someone finds him annoying. I stopped listening to that a long time ago when I realized two things:

1) You all are very easily annoyed.
2) The only litmus test of a character's staying power is how much they are discussed, good or bad.

So those of you who feel compelled to come here and register how much you loathe some character, be aware: you are doing your part to ensure that character sticks around. I love my job.