Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Steelgem)

Trent Oster, Producer:

DM Client & Controlling a dozen creatures: The DM client is late on the development schedule. There are a few reasons for this, Foremost is the functionality required before we can get the DM up and running. In effect the DM client is effectively a "jacked up" player client. The plan for the DM Client is to allow for a group select type interface. We're currently a way off from a functional DM Client, but when we have something solid we will show it off.

Who changed the "vision":
This is a response to a poster who feels that Bioware has gone off track from the original "vision" for the project..
The overall vision for NWN hasn't changed. We set out to make the best singleplayer / multiplayer story based roleplaying game possible. We added a toolset to this concept to add infinite replayability and end user content creation.

This game will be as close an interpretation of 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons as is currently possible. NWN will not be everything D&D has, but it will be as close as we can possibly make it.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Pause & Play Status:
The reason that the thread is up there is to give people a single place to discuss the pause-in-play topic instead of the board being cluttered with many individual posts. No other reason than that.

The current status is that pause-in-play is NOT part of the current NWN plan with the caveat that if playtesting shows a need for it, we MAY reconsider. But, the reconsider part is not a simple thing in any way, shape, or form. Adding pause-in-play would require a substantial change in coding and module design.

Dungeon Siege Delay:
I would just like to add that I had a chance to play DS at GenCon this year and it was FUN! I won't give away what I saw too much, but there was a point when I was walking down a path and I watched the bushes in front of me shimmer then part as a monster walked out.

*shudder*

It was that cool. I would encourage all of you out there to actually try a game before deciding against it, or at least talk to a friend that has tried it. I would hate to think about what would happen to the BG series if people just outright dismissed it.

Release Date Update:
Short and sweet.

There is no official release date.

We are expecting to release the game this winter, not this spring.

Thank you and drive through.

Pause Button:
Main menu pause is the plan. There is a whole thread devoted to this at the top of this forum.

Side Note: Players will be able to pause single player games, only the DM will be able to pause a multi-player game.

Marc Holmes, Art Director:

File formats & organization:
Glad you're interested in these nitty gritty details, but it's a bit early. File formats and disk organization can change at the last minute. So, I don't want to get into an explantion of how the resources are packed, until we reach a final implementation.

User (Character) Maps:
I'm quite impressed how important this question is to you. I don't know the answer to everything off the top of my head, so sometimes I cannot answer right away.

I'll try to get back to you about user maps soon.

Game Map Layouts:
Tiles are 10mx10m in the game with 3m stories. Buildings are 1 - three stories high. There is a seam at the 3m mark, but it's usualy invisible or disguised by a piece of trim.

We build in cm so 1 max unit = 1 cm.

We will be working on a set of FAQ's and tutorials for user creation, but naturaly we have to concentrate on game art right now, so it may take a while. I *will* try to speed up the process, but we are quite busy with content.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

NwN Demo:
We like demos and they definitely play a role in the marketing of a game. Unfortunately, demos can take a significant chunk of time out of the development cycle. Essentially, it's a completely separate product or 'SKU' from the actual game - it needs its own testing and balancing process and, when faced with an almost-complete feature, you need to make some tough decisions between investing the time to finish and polish the feature or investing the time to remove it (and all traces of its existence) from the demo. If you cut too much out of the demo, you run the risk of having people assume that you've cut it from the game as well. Cut too little, and you run out of time to get it on a CD cover mount with one of the big magazines (which generally need the final code 3 to 4 months in advance of publication). In short, it's unlikely that we'll be able to put together a demo for NWN prior to our release (a beta, on the other hand, is more likely because they're understood as being more of a work-in-progress).

Ranger Racial Enemy:
As per the 3e rules, NWN will use the monster groupings to handle rangers' favored enemies. Almost all of the groupings are represented, though a few (such as oozes, plants, and aquatic humanoids) didn't make the cut for obvious reasons.

Within the toolset, we've integrated the monster groupings into the special ability and item property systems and we also make use of them to categorize the creature library. You can also reference that information through the scripting language. All told, the monster groupings play a big role in the underlying structure of the game.

+4 vs Shapechangers

Game Maps & Using 2D images:
the 2D line drawings are tile-based, just like the area itself. That means that you'll get a cool, customized sepia drawing to match any area that you end up creating.

Just as an update, the artists are pushing to get all of the games many interfaces mocked up right now. From there, they go to the GUI programmers to get cut into their individual components and converted into a functional interface, complete with buttons, scroll bars, and so forth. The artists haven't hit the map screen yet but I'm guessing that it will be coming up shortly. The original proof-of-concept stuff that they did however many months ago looked really good so hopefully that look and feel gets carried over into the final game.

Dungeon Siege Delay:
I'll chime in here, too. I've been playing very close attention to both Morrowind and Dungeon Siege and I'm definitely excited to get my hands on both of them. Arcanum, too (woohooaycheque comes at the end of the month!) The neat thing is that, even though all 4 of us are making toolsets an important part of our product, we all seem to be carving out our own little niche. Here's how it breaks down in my eyes:

Arcanum & Morrowind fill a roughly similar niche in that both are focused on hardcore roleplaying systems, and fairly intense interaction with the storyworld. Arcanum gets kudos for being the first out of the gate but Morrowind's later release date gives it the edge over all of us when it comes to sheer over-the-top visuals and 3D gameworld. I believe that Arcanum also has multiplayer support, whereas Morrowind is strictly single-player by my understanding.

Dungeon Siege has cornered the other end of the market. Again, they use a custom-built roleplaying system but one with a much greater focus on action. Character interaction will be kept to a minimum in order to allow for what looks to be one of the best, most immersive dungeon crawls ever. Their seamless gameworld is amazing and their engine allows for some very cool level design.

So where does Neverwinter fall? I'd place it in the middle somewhere but others might place it somewhere else entirely. We're the only one of the batch to use a licensed roleplaying system - many people will like that but others won't. In terms of storyworld interactivity and the accessibility of our roleplaying system, I'd put us about on par with the BG series (some may think of that as hardcore, others as mainstream). From what I've seen so far, I believe that our toolset will be the easiest to use (though I don't have as much info on Morrowind's). Also, our DM client and massively multiplayer capabilities give us an edge over the other titles as well (though the latter's a convenient accident, not the actual focus of our development).

Ultimately, I'd encourage you to pick up all of these titles and, if you're interested, make use of all of their toolsets. Doing so will definitely make you a better game designer and will have a positive impact on all of your creations.

Toolset Frenzy!

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Who changed the "vision":
This is a response to a poster who feels that Bioware has gone off track from the original "vision" for the project..
There seems to be some confusion with your initial post, and I have to admit to being a little confused myself.

Our initial goal was to bring pencil and paper D&D to the computer, and that is still our goal. Nothing has changed there.

However, some things do not always translate as easily, and some things are not so easy to implement. But for the most part, it does little to change the game play that is D&D. What you come away with is still a sense that you've been on a grand adventure.

We are still providing a toolset to allow you to create modules, we are still providing a DM client to allow you to run those modules, and we are still providing a server/client set-up so that you can play the game/host the game for one, for a few friends on a LAN, for a group of strangers over the internet, and so forth.

We're all big fans of D&D here. Many of us have one or two campaigns or more going on at most times. We really like D&D, and we want to do it justice in every way possible. But, in a computer game, things cannot be identical. This was a fact from the very beginning of our design cycle, and will continue to be a fact for the foreseeable future.

For the most part, D&D is a game that lives in your mind, where you are forced to imagine everything. CRPGs are games that take place on the screen, and where you can see, in actuality, everything that is happening - every duck and swing, every hunk of moss in an ancient tunnel, and every (prescripted) bit of body language that an NPC uses when speaking with you. Imagination will always be more flexible than computers; this is just a part of those "facts" that we have to accept, that make CRPGs different from pencil and paper.

So, of course, we're dealing with a different set-up, a different world, and so forth, but believe me, we're doing what we can to make sure that we're dealing with the same game and the same experiences, that when you play a few hours of Neverwinter Nights versus playing a few hours of face-to-face pencil and paper with your buddies, you'll come away with the memories of a fun time, a good adventure, and a thought-provoking story.

I hope you don't feel that I'm trying to squash your argument. I'd really like to hear more details about how you feel we have switched gears throughout the development cycle. But for now, know that we do take this very seriously, and we're not trying to do anything other than bring a quality D&D experience to the table.

Dungeon Siege Delay:
I loved the way DS looked-and-played when I was there and from what I saw on the web, and I was all excited when Chris Taylor came in to check out the NW demo. I was like, your game rocks! Of course, that started an argument over whose game rocked more.

Ah, we're all such humble creatures, right?

Anyway, if I wasn't working at BioWare, I'd be first in line to get DS. The only thing that changes with me working at BioWare is they'll probably get me a copy and tell me to do "research".

On a related note, I'm curious to give Arcanum a try, too. Some of the guys here have played it, and say it's really pretty good. And from what I have heard out of their camps, they're really trying to get away from some of the fantasy cliches.

I know it's popular to bash Diablo II by some of the hard core D&D fans, but I have to admit that I've enjoyed all of their games. I've beaten Diablo I on-line (all difficulty levels) and off-line too many times. I haven't had a lot of time to play it, but LoD looks to be a nice improvement on Diablo II, which was already a good, enjoyable game. Overall, I have to say "thanks" to Blizzard for those titles.

The only other game on Xnoybis CN's list (of the ones not yet released) that I've gotten to play is PoR2. I didn't get a lot of time to play it, but it's another game that I'll definitely play through. It sure looked like it would be a time-stealer.

Easter Eggs:
If you're talking "in-game", the answer is a "yes" as well. We're looking to hide some items within the game world that you would only normally find by reading the Forgotten Realms book "Neverwinter Nights" by Phillip Athens.

It would be stuff along the lines of the way you got the magic carpet in Ultima V, but even further from the beaten path. I kind of stumbled across it. While wandering, I was exploring a lighthouse and one of the fellows within taught me a tune to play ("Stones"). Later in the game, while exploring Lord British's room atop his castle, I saw the instrument in the room and decided to try playing the tune. After playing it, a door opened which revealed the magic carpet. I was pretty surprised to see it.

Usually in games, everything is so spelled out. I kind of miss the days where you had to try every item in every way at every location to get anywhere

I'm sure we'll have some other Easter Eggs of "varying varities"... we've talked about a few "jokes" we'd like to slip into the game to poke fun at our respective bosses

Of course, it all comes down to time; the game comes first!

Broken Features in CRPG's:
This thread was started with the following questions ...
1) Regeneration.

SUCH a bad idea. The main disadvantage of fighters is their need for healing after combat. Regeneration removes this disadvantage, allowing fighter types to pretty much tear through games.

2) Wish spells that allow spell restoration.

By having Edwin memorize a couple of wish spells, I was basically able to infinitely cast all my spells...as soon as they got exhausted, I just chose the option to refresh them from wish. Easy to abuse.

3) Archery

Make sure the penalties for shooting into melee are there. Archery is too strong if there's no chance of hitting your party members.

4) Stunning items

A crossbow or longbow with multiple attacks per round with stunning bolts, or darts or whatever, makes combat too easy.

And here's Bob's Reply:

Strictly speaking within the context of Baldur's Gate, I'm not so sure that, by the time you are powerful enough to memorize two 9th level spells, having "infinite spells" is really a bad idea. I mean, most people rest so often that it's the same effect. The only difference with Wish is that you're removing the chance to have your rest interrupted, and that's a minor difference at best. Even then, you still have to get your clerics and such to rest. So the advantage is knocked down yet another step. But anyway, Neverwinter Nights is an entirely different game with an entirely different balance set-up.

In game books & stories:
The primary writers on Neverwinter are Lukas Kristjanson and Bob McCabe. Dave Gaider has also written a couple of the modules and I'm helping out with one as well. As for story development, I've been guiding the process but it's really been a collaborative effort between Bob, Lukas, Aidan Scanlan, Preston Watamniak, James Ohlen, Trent Oster, and myself. Various members of the WotC 3rd Edition team had some valued input early in the process, as well.

Anyway, about the in-game books, I put them together for NwN. I'm not sure who put them together for the BG titles. But really, it wasn't a very creative job. I went through the FRCS, and tons of other source material, and either paraphrased the information into one tale, or I did a straight cut-and-paste. I think I wrote from scratch 2 or 3 stories of the 30 or so we have set-up for NwN. So all credit for the awesome stories should go to the guys at WoTC

A quick side note, if you're talking about the item histories, then that's all us. Aidan, Luke, and I wrote almost all of the stories that you'll see in NwN Hope you enjoy them

PS Before I got the gig at BioWare, I was playing through BG with a friend. At one point, he "discovered" that each item had a history comprised of an interesting story. He asked me if I knew this, and I replied, "yeah, but I really don't pay them much attention."

He laughed and said, "one day you'll be writing these, and no one else will read them, and that'll be your justice."

Feeling guilty, I started reading through all of the books and items that I found, and I'm glad I did. They add a lot to the immersion of those titles.