Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Tiamat)

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager:

NWN Requirements: I pulled this from the now-being-revamped FAQ:
What kind of computer will I need to play Neverwinter Nights?
Our minimum system specifications currently are a Pentium II 300 MHz or AMD K6-2 350 MHz, a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 class video card, and 64 MB of RAM. An internet or LAN connection will be required for those wishing to play multiplayer games, of course, and a 56k modem should allow any such computer to support approximately 8 players or so. As bandwidth is the primary determinant of server capacity, a cable modem or xDSL line will be able to support significantly more. The maximum number of clients (player and/or Dungeon Master) allowed on a server is fixed at 64.

Game Demo: No demo yet for NWN as it usually comes out after the game is released...and no, there is no release date yet.

Pick-Pocketing: Pick pocketing is in- however the specifics are not set yet as to how it will function. Reverse pick pocketing is still an unknown as yet.

Clerics: I spoke to Preston about this and he responded with:
We are planning on a player being able to choose their domains. We also should have a box to fill in your own deity. This name can then be checked from scripting.

Drawbridges: I popped into Preston's office to see if he had some answers for me on this:
We have several types of bridges that raise and lower to deny or grant entry into an area. Whether they are drawbridges or not, I can't say for sure right now.

May item properties be variable names? As it stands, you would not have this ability. There are ways to get around this via crafty scripting as trc was writing about referred to here as the Slight of Hand scripting.

Music: This direct from the Sound Guy, David Chan:
Q: Will we be able to put our own music (ie, music from other games, or other sources) into our mods?
A: Yes, minding copyright issues of course.

Point Buy: Before this crazy thing gets rolling I'll repost information I presented before on Point Buy:
Here is the official word on Point Buy as of today. I spoke to Trent about this and here is what he had to say:
We are testing the game with 30. We will be tweaking the balance of the game and this number has changed in the past and will likely change again.
That last bit is important as we will be testing, testing, testing to see how things work.

Dwarven Racial Bonuses: Dwarves will have their racial resistance to poison & magic.

About Sleeping: A partial answer to questions about sleep:
Everyone can rest in Neverwinter by sitting on the ground and recouping. This regenerates spells and HP. However it cannot be done in the presence of monsters or right after a fight.
If you are interrupted while resting your rest is disturbed and ruined.
Yes, there is an animation for sitting on the ground. I tried it out this morning.

What happens to money if you die? If a char dies does the coin they have on their person won't fall to the ground (ie UO). Money is a 'non-item' that can't be 'lost' (ie BG). The dropping of items would be very similair ro BG in this respect.

The Wonders of Scripting: Scripting can modify how death and money work. Money can be taken and given via scripting, and individual stores can be modified to reflect the economy you want.

Tattoos: We actually do have tatoos in the game. How many and what kind are still being developed but a few of them are usuable in the game right now. In a variety of fashionable-yet-salty colors.

NWN Script: The problem is that NWN Script is a scripting language not a programming language. There seems to be some confusion with the difference between the two. A scripting language can ask questions of the engine and tell to do a limited set of instructions. It does not allow us to modify the engine or to override it in any way.

Will the specs be higher a NWN development system than for just gaming? No.

Alan Miranda, Associate Producer:

Importing Music: Yes, the plan is for users to be able to add their own music to their modules, both ambient and battle tracks. So if you want heavy bass conan battle music or whatever, you can include it.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Cantrips: Cantrips are 0-level spells and they're in the game.

Interface: I didn't work on them, so this is just second-hand opinion, but I think that for the most part, the interface's elegance comes as a result of its simplicity. It can be opened, and the game can continue to be played (the interface is transparent - actually, the feedback windows (i.e. chat bar) can be clicked through (!) so you can make them full-screen if you so wish). Of course, these aspects will be reviewed before the game ships - but I would think that it would be preferable to be able to manipulate your inventory and such without closing off the game world.

Todd M. Grenier, Art Guy:

A theory that we use here at BioWare about the interface is that you do spend allot of time with it and it should be pleasing to the eye and not take away from the game because gameplay is the most important. So we make the design of the GUI's a large priority, and the decision to keep it simple is to keep the gameplay more enjoyable without the distractions.

Nathan Frederick, Quality Assurance:

The Inventory Screen: As a side note - the inventory screen is something that is in flux - it changes often.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

NWN Audio: We will be supporting 3D positional audio for NWN. Which API we will be using still hasn't been finalized (we are trying different options). In other words when a person screams behind your character, assuming you have the proper sound card and speakers, you will hear it behind you. Also, just for clarification EAX is an effect, not a positional API. For example EAX is like the echo in a cave, whereas Direct Sound places the sound in the audio space in front, beside or behind you.

OpenAL: The problem with OpenAL is that there isn't a critical mass of support behind it yet and it's not a mature API.

Positional Audio: While hearing things behind me when it's behind my character is more "realistic", I am pretty hung up on my monitor, and the view I have of the world. I could be wrong, but I'd rather have positional sound be based on the camera, not the character. I certainly react correctly faster when I place myself at the point of the camera, rather than translating myself to the position and orientation of my avatar.
The "microphone" position will be at camera position for most sounds. There are exceptions such as main area ambient loops, which are stereo and will not be positioned and dialog. The toolset will be quite flexible when it comes to placing sounds. Also, there will be access to sounds through scripting as well.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Only 3 Classes? It is mainly a matter of rules processing and GUI layout. And we determined that, for the majority, there won't be that many needing more than 3 classes. I know this answer won't satisfy the people that find the 3 class limit an issue. This has come up before and turned into a many page rant/flamewar, but this won't be changing.

Banning: Banning is an on/off thing. There is no such thing as banning for a week or the like.
Banning by CD Key is done by the "public" part of the CD Key. This is not the actual CD Key that is used for playing.
As for banning after the fact, that would have to be a combination between server logging and the banning system. I cannot answer if public CD Key will be logged at this time.

CD Check: This is almost always put in at the request of the publisher. We have no say in this.

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

Templates: Several 3E templates are in. They modify stats & properties when applied to a creature. Additional templates are fairly easily added and will likely appear post release.

NPC AI: How Non-Player AI Works *trying to eliminate the confusion*

1. A player only has direct control *ever* of one character -- him/herself. If a wizard/sorceror they can take control of their familiar (but they lose control of themself while they do this).

2a. A player *can* gain partial control (through the radial menu and the quickchat system) of 1 Henchman, 1 Summoned Monster, 1 Familiar, 1 Animal Companion, and 1 Dominated Creature (total of 5. We call this group of creatures Associates). This limit is on a per-player basis.

These limits are hard-coded. The only way they'll change is through playtesting.

2b. By partial control, you can do stuff like
- Tell it to attack (but not the specific target)
- Tell it to wait where it is
- Tell it to follow you
- Tell it to attack your last attacker

This behavior can be scripted. You can create a rude henchman who ignores all your commands, if you want.

You could also script more advanced functionality if you want. For example, our Henchman can be spoken to and you can modify the way they fight (i.e., do they act defensively et cetera) and the range they follow you. This is something you'd do when not in combat obviously.

2c. Quickchat commands are sent to all of your Associates. For example if you press the quickchat for Attack, all of your associates go into Attack Nearest Enemy mode.

3. You can't *script* RTS-style control.

Henchmen, Goons, and Summoned Monsters 1. You do not have to *tell* your henchman to fight each round. By default all henchmen who join you will be set to Attack Nearest Enemy & Follow Player mode. So they'll follow you around and fight monsters without ever having to be told to.

2. The limit on the number of summoned monsters is more for performance/gameplay reasons than the control issue.

2a. Too many creatures bog the game down. Summoning spells inherently lead to far too many creatures being onscreen at a time. In singleplayer this would be bad, in multiplayer it could disastrous (in terms of performance).

2b. As well, since you don't have full control over your summoned creatures, having a squad of AI-goons could be very frustrating (as they'd constantly block you in rooms or split off in 5 different directions attacking enemies).

The difficulties of playing with a single class: WThis comes down to Design. Don't make an area *impossible* to get through if the player is not CLASS X. As well, something that we are doing is that in some places there'll be NPCs nearby who can be persuaded to do something for you (like get into a building). So you can hire/persuade some NPCs on the spot to perform a particular task for you if necessary.
As well, there are multiple ways through most obstacles. Thieves can unlock a door, fighters/clerics can potentially knock it down, and wizards can cast the knock spell on it.
In BG2 we seldom(ever?) made an encounter that only Class X could get through, and I think most of our battles were pretty fun and challenging.

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

Transferring Objects: You can transfer most objects between modules using the NWToolset's export / import functions. This includes creatures, items, scripts, conversations and even entire areas. Unfortunately, the NWToolset will not be exporting data in formats other than the binary one understood by itself and the game. I don't know if we'll be publicly releasing any information regarding it's structure, however.