Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

Remove all ads!

(Originally posted by Darien)

Well, it's been long enough, so let's get to it. There are a few days worth of comments here from the Official Neverwinter Nights message boards. Enjoy!

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Swamps: I think the forest tileset would make a great mangrove sort of swamp (if you want a more traditional temperate style of swamp, I would still recommend the rural/grasslands tileset, however). Another thing I'd do, though, would be to paint down a whole network of interlocking streams. That way, everything would take on the look of hummocks rising out of the water and the characters would frequently get splashing sounds when they walk, etc. Add in some lizardmen and some good music to set the mood and I think you'll have a very convincing swamp.

Cure of the plague: Let's see, rather than telling you what the creatures are, how about I tell you what the reagents to the cure might be: a bundle of hair and twigs, a tailfeather, a venomous gland, the frontal lobe of moss-encrusted brain... They sound dark but Khelben Blackstaff and his Lady Laerel assure us that just such darkness is required to purge our city of the Wailing Death.

From single player to multi-player: When you make the jump from solo play into multi play is up to you. With the exception of the tutorials (which are single-player only), the entire campaign will be playable in both modes and, what is more, you'll be able to switch back and forth between the two from one module to the next.

Placing notes on scrolls and tombs: In Baldur's Gate, we used little doodads called "Conversation Tokens" to handle unknown elements like gender, player name, etc. Neverwinter's taken that system, expanded it, and renamed everything for easy use. We use angle brackets (greater and less than signs) to define them in the toolset but, as those don't show up when I post them here, I'll replace them with [square brackets.] For instance, if you want your NPCs to refer to the player in a deferential fashion, you might write it as follows:

"M'[lord/lady] [LastName], I'm glad you could get here so quickly."

Grin, my halfling sorcerer, would see this:

"M'lord Undergallows, I'm glad you could get here so quickly."

Our paladin Aribeth, however, would see this:

"M'lady de Tylmarande, I'm so glad you could get here so quickly."

So that's how to do it in conversation. Books get a little more complicated, at least in multiplayer. Whereas conversations have a target (who is being talked to), books do not (at least not one that makes sense - you generally don't want the subject of the book to change with every person who reads it). What we've done, though, is allow you to define a series of 10 custom tokens through scripting. They can be anything you want but we tend to use them to store the names of the first person to sneak into the prison in the Piers district or fulfill other objectives within the module. That way NPCs, journal entries, notes, text pop-ups, etc, can all refer to those players.

Expansions plans: Don`t worry, I`m sure you`ll be hearing plenty about expansion features when the time comes. Whether that time occurs before or after the original release is anybody`s guess at this point however.

But thanks to all of you who contributed your thoughts and preferences to the various expansion threads. It`s good to get a sense of what kind of approach would be preferred by the community. At this point, it seems like there`s pretty even support for both sides of the debate. We`ll let you know more as our plans for any potential expansion solidify.

No Low Light Vision: Our current plans (ie: still not in the engine and fully working at this point) are to include Darkvision but not Low-Light Vision. We simply found that LLV wasn`t different enough from normal sight to warrant implementation at this time. Darkvision, on the other hand, is quite distinct and useful, so we`re working hard to represent it within the game.

Charisma: Does Charisma count? You better believe it! ;o) As the others mentioned, it's key to playing effective sorcerers, bards, and paladins and also used for a variety of really cool skills (many of which will be finding their way into NWN).

The interesting thing with NWN, however, is that we've actually come up with a standardized method of integrating this kind of stuff into your conversations with NPCs. We based it off of the Skill Check system in 3rd Edition but modified it to accommodate things like spells and class abilities, as well.

For instance, if you're faced with a situation in which you need to obtain a favor from an NPC, you could Persuade them (our version of the Diplomacy and Innuendo skills), Bribe them, Inspire Greatness in them (the Bard ability), or cast Charm Person on them, all via conversation. Success or failure in each of these will be determined by whether or not your talent or skill with this ability (combined with a random dice roll) exceeds the necessary Difficulty Class (DC).

We've got plenty more of these Conversation Checks, too, and we'll be using them liberally throughout the official campaign. They really add a lot to the gameplay and give you an opportunity to use your various skills and abilities in a fashion that typically hasn't been available in most prior RPGs.

Official storyline feedback: Glad you guys like what`s been released of the story so far. Rest assured, that`s just the start. ;o) If any of you have questions about the official campaign, feel free to ask them either in this forum or in the Developer`s Corner. We won`t give away spoilers, obviously, but we love to spill teasers where we can.

Eric Noah's D&D 3E Site: Just as a heads up to those of you who aren`t already familiar with Eric Noah`s wonderful 3rd Edition news site, I`d encourage all of you wander on by sometime at:

Eric Noah's D&D 3rd Edition News Site

One of the really exciting things to come out of WotC`s work on the 3rd Edition has been their `open-sourcing` of the D20 rules that lie at the heart of D&D. There are plenty of third-party companies putting out D20 supplements, D20 conversions of existing pen-and-paper campaign worlds, and entirely new worlds, as well. You can find Noah`s fairly thorough listing of D20 products at:

D20 Products

Why am I telling you all of this? ;o) Well, Neverwinter`s all about building bridges between cRPGs and their pen-and-paper predecessors, right? So what are you waiting for - wander over and make friends!

Trent Oster, Producer:

Hacking/Cheating: All the rules happen on the server. In short, unless there is a special hack in the module placed ahead of time by the module creator it is not possible to change gameplay.

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

Single Player as well: The multiplayer game is just one method of playing Neverwinter Nights. We`re creating a game that will be loads of fun, even if played single player. In fact, many of the people who will play this game may never even play Neverwinter Nights online.

Cord Grimwinder-8d, Interplaygames.com Moderator

Text pop-ups Yes, you may attach text to pretty much anything and any place in the game. You can then have the text pop ups appear based on any type of criteria you chose from simply having it appear when a PC examines an item, to having it
pop up when a PC comes near, to having it appear only to PCs that meet certain conditions. Like having a special text pop up that only appears to a PC that has a) an Intelligence of 18 or more, b) is at least a 15th level Rogue or c)is a CN aligned Elf, or any combination of those factors and pretty much an endless variety of whatever other factors you may choose.

Premonition spell: Premonition is a BioWare created spell they made to balance out the spells that didn't make the cut because they don't work well in computer games. We'll be seeing a few like that for every casting class (as well as some original feats/skills to fill out the non-casters). I believe I recall them saying that Premonition sucks up 150 points of total damage, but only the first 30 points of any one attack.

Mmmmmmm balance.....