Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Arwen)

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Red for danger: There are three categories for NPCs - friendly, neutral, and hostile. A hostile creature will be actively trying to attack you, so having your cursor turn into the default "attack" icon and the creature becoming a shade of red does nothing to give anything away.

I think I know what you might be considering now. If I go in and slaughter a bunch of commoners so that other commoners become hostile, my default action would become attack. Yet, the commoners would be doing their best to avoid me or run away from me; they wouldn't necessarily be aggressively hostile toward me.

This is something that was done in BG, as well. I'm not sure that this is something that we will change, because really, it simplifies things down a bit and removes a bit of the frustration of having to manually select whether to talk to the commoner and attack the orc.

I'm guessing you could probably alter their scripts slightly so that killing one wouldn't make them hostile, but rather nuetral. If everyone stays at neutral, then their intentions could be disguised. Of course, if you're running around slaughtering commoners, I think you would know already what their intentions are as for different situations, simply script someone as neutral, and then have an event trigger their switch to hostile. We do this all over the place in all of games so that you can talk to the big bad hoss, listen to him "muhuhaha" for a while, and then jump into a bit of the rough and tumble.

David Gaider, Designer:

+INT items: Hmmm... that's a good question. If I remember right (and I might not) I believe items that alter INT only affect the modifier to INT-dependent skills and not skill points, themselves.

Did you happen to notice whether two items which both raised Int (or any other stat) were stacking (hope not) or not (as it should be)?

I haven't seen it in practice, but I understand that's supposed to be the way it's in NWN just as the rules... all bonuses have their own type and don't stack with other same-type bonuses. Casting Cat's Grace won't do you much good if you're already wearing Gauntlets of Dexterity.

I may be wrong, I'll have to check.

Faction messages: 1. Will faction messages, such as those in EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot, be displayed in Neverwinter Nights.

No. Just like in PnP games, you'll know the guards are angry at you when they come charging down the street. (And when the rest of your party begins pointing fingers at you and backing away slowly...)

2. Would it be possible to use the player character OnDeath event to determine the faction of the NPC creature that dealt the killing blow to that charater?

Err... yes, I believe so. Factions are undergoing a bit of tweaking right now (haha! guess who's pleased as punch his favorite idea is being implemented? On-sight faction reaction only! woot!) so I'm not sure how faction will end up relating to character death just yet. At worst, there should be a way to detect it (as in GetLastAttackedBy, anyway).

PCs seen as NPCs by other players: Other than the 'blah has entered the game' initial message, there's no way for players to detect other players in the game (unless they're in the same party, natch).

Object properties: I have never sat down with a programmer and asked them to explain to me exactly what the problem is with transferring variables with the character, or I might be able to enlighten you further. It might have something to do with the fact that the ability to store variables on the PC didn't exist at all, initially... but it might not.

If it was as simple a matter as scripting alterations to the item descriptions and reading off them, I'm sure that's the system we would be using. So far we've been using plot items that are looked for in the next module's script... but we designers have been clamoring for something more, and hopefully the programmers will have time to look at it more closely (although the amount on their plate is already pretty excessive... at this point there's a big difference between what can be done and how you split what little time the programmers have amongst higher-priority tasks, such as making the game work).

NPC usage of charged items: Are you talking about giving your PC a wand and/or potion? Or are you talking about giving some enemy NPC mage a wand and/or potion?

assuming you could give the henchmen these things to begin with, whether or not they could use them depends on the AI they're using, the shouts you've made (if any), and the stance you've asked them to take with regards to magic use/healing and so forth.

Beyond the optional shout, your PC doesn't have to do anything in regards to controlling the henchmen when it comes to combat... at least, as it stands right now. Henchmen are being especially tested at the moment, so they're likely to go through a lot of tweaks and changes in the next little bit.

Q: Are henchmen imbedded in the character like a familiar is? Can the pc cross modules and maintain the same henchmen?
A: THAT I know how to answer. No... henchmen are not imbedded like a familiar or animal companion. They must be scripted into a module (though the generic henchmen scripts would work fine they still must exist as a creature).

As for everything else, the questions can't really be answered. I know how they worked yesterday... but like I said, there's so much work being done on henchmen right now that they'll probably work differently tomorrow.

Even the guys who are scripting won't be sure how everything will turn out... they get responses from QA and modify what they're doing accordingly. They're quite busy... last time I asked one of the scripters to do something extracurricular (go eat lunch, in fact) they looked at me shocked and frightened like a cornered rabbit...

Q: If I create a minor villain with a wand of fire how will he use it? Are there standard NPC scripts we can attach without too much scripting knowledge (e.g. evil wizard, evil fighter, hostile rogue, etc. . .)?

A: Yes, actually. The 'generic' AI that Preston has been continually adding to and tweaking is a huge monster of a script. It is behavior-oriented and quite interesting to watch in action... not very predictable except in the regular sense (one would not be surprised to see an enemy heal himself, after all, if he is very injured).

All creatures that are made are given this script automatically. Any spells or items (note: items with assigned properties, not scripted ones) are automatically detected by the generic script and used appropriately. No work on your part.

I imagine there will be a lot of user tweaking of this main script, and several versions (some superior, no doubt) will be available... offering more behaviors and/or more specialized combat use. Without those, however, you're not going to be lacking with Preston's wizardry.

NWN portals and persistence support: Yes, all things associated with items... names and tags, as well as properties... are intrinsic to the items, themselves, and would carry over.

Module variables between server in future releases: This has been an issue for us, as well, since the official campaign is several modules and has several variables that need to travel between them. If it could be easily changed, it would have already been.

Hopefully this is something that we can look at in the future, yes. There exists, however, the potential for a lot of problems in having garbage info attached to a character that continuously travels with him. We shall have to see what can be done.

Players not being able to go from server to server: Local variables cannot be attached to items... they are attached to objects such as the module, creatures or PC's. If a PC quits out of a game (portals) and joins another, these locals do not go with him. They are... well... local to the module they came from.

All items and character information do go with the character. While you cannot attach locals to items, you can give the character specific items that the new module will look for and react to by re-setting certain locals there. That's the work-around that some are discussing.

The inventory slots you mention (claw/bite/hide) are slots that a PC will have but only the DM has access to (through scripting). Scripts may be able to spawn items there that the new module will recognize, all without the player being aware. There are several threads where this is being discussed.

That's the limit of inter-game communication, as we're working with it. We are aware of the limitation... the official campaign is a multi-module campaign itself, after all, and we've got some campaign-spanning variables to deal with, too.

Text boxes as objects: You can create an item that has its own description, and there are lots of icons to choose from (and probably not too hard to create).

Or do you mean object as in a placeable object... the 3D models that make up containers, beds, cannons and so forth. The stuff that can contain inventories and be destroyed, etc?

There is no simple white box, no... and nothing that would have visible, readable text on it. Most items (like signs) that would have writing are read by clicking on them and having their description displayed on-screen.

I suppose you could select an item that was similar in mass and have it give a description when clicked on... but of course there'd be no visual cues to the player that the object wasn't at first what it looked like.

Items have their own model for how they appear. For many of the miscellaneous items, this is a small sack... that might very well be changeable, however.

Druid weapon restrictions: Yes.

Wild Shape: The durations are the same as in the PHB. When you make a module, you can specify the translation of real time to game time (minutes per 'day', etc.) which will affect how long such spells will last.

Wild shape forms will be limited to the animals we have available, of course. For the most part this is for fighting... I know personally I've used Wild Shape in PnP for travel (turning into a bird), escaping sticky situations (turning into a small creature and sneaking off) and such, but obviously that sort of thing is limited in a CRPG.
You could have creatures ignoring a PC who's turned into an innocuous animal form, but that's something that would specifically have to be added to their script (I believe, anyway... I'm not sure whether this is something that's otherwise been implemented, personally, though I doubt it).

Thousand faces ability for a druid: Changing a face to another face would involve changing the model, itself... which isn't in. The problem I see there is what face do you use? Do you pull up a GUI and play some odd form of Construct-a-Face to do the ability? There are some other things to consider, here, as well... but the short of it is that Thousand Faces probably won't be in until Disguise is, as well.

From a PC standpoint, it seems like druids will lose a lot of their main abilities from PnP, with the exception of wild shape. Are there other surprises in store for druid PCs, or should they expect a more beefed up wild shape to compensate?

Let me just say that druids can hold their own quite well. There is a contingent here that's pulling for this class.

Incidentally, there's also some druid abilities that I would have laid bets on wouldn't be included... yet there they are... so I think there will be pleasant surprises for you as well.

D&D rules and FR campaign setting: By D&D, I mean the 3rd edition rules. Most of those are going to be hard-coded, and 'YCSI' doesn't mean they'll all be changeable.

By FR setting, I mean that much of the stuff we implement focuses on creatures and settings that you would find in the Forgotten Realms. You are free to take it elsewhere, if you wish... really, it's less of a restriction on the types of modules you can make than forcing the D&D rules... but it does mean that official material that is produced will tend to stick to stuff you'd find in the FR license (as opposed to Planescape, Ravenloft, etc).

The official campaign will have no impact at all on your module creation. It, itself, was created using the same toolset you will be.

The planes and planar cosmology are a part of D&D, itself... not a part of the FR license. The planes are linked to the FR just as they are linked to Spelljammer and Ravenloft and everything else. Because so many D&D players who might play in the FR would also go plane-hopping means chances are better that we will include the opportunity to do so... but there's still a lot of territory in the Realms, themselves, before we would need to move onto the planes insofar as settings go.

Ideally we can produce tilesets that are specific to neither and can be used for both (with generic tiles and some interesting effects and lighting, lots is possible). Some stuff, like Sigil or Astral space, would most likely require work specifically all their own.

Changing alignment: Changing the alignment of the user is not a standard feature for an item. It is easily scripted however (and I do mean that... it's one command). That does mean that said 'Helm of Alignment Change' would not work in another module unless the module supported it.

All alignment changes done through the scripting command are permanent. The only way to apply a change temporarily would be to script it as such (have a delayed command that applies the opposite alignment change).

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Module security: There is no module security. If you post your module for download anyone can open it up and look at everything.

That being said, clients do not need to download your module to play on your server.

Hosting Modules: Yes, you can host the game locally. If you want to set your server to use server vault characters, then your friends would create and use characters only on your server. No need for even an internet connection for this situation to work - just the LAN.

Module size: Most modules will actually be quite small, in the 500 K to 2 Meg range. The reason is that a module is made up of reference information to data that everyone has installed, not the actual art.

I just zipped a 33 Meg module down to 2.5 Meg.

Custom music and sound is a different story and has to go into hack packs.

Item creation: DM cannot create or change an item, of any kind, at run-time.

Turn-based combat: Neverwinter Nights will be real-time "rubbish".

Portal connections via serial port: No serial portalling.

The only method supported for portals is IPs.

Upload/download options for servers in the engine: There are many issues raised in this thread and I hope to address all of them.

Neverwinter Nights does not require downloading of modules from the server to the client. All this specific are information is sent down while playing. It is a very small amount of info that the client needs for playing in an area.

The ONLY thing that is downloaded is custom portraits (think decals from Half-Life).

There will not be downloading of custom content from the server. We just don't want it to work this way for several reasons. You must go download this content before connecting to the server. We will try to make this as painless as possible.

There was the mention of GetRight. Uh... *cough*spyware*cough*.

There was also the mention of modem users not being able to have the ablility to allow content to be download from their own computers. Most ISP prohibit the running of servers and most allow 10 to 20 Meg of web space where you could host your content. There are also numerous free hosting services out there.

Viruses are not really an issue as none of the custom content is executable code.

There was a mention of custom swords. Swords would be stored as part of the module and streamed down to the client using minimal information for the client to understand the sword.

Trent Oster, Producer:

Power attack: Power attack is all or nothing +5/-5. We also have an additional feat we call Improved Power attack which is +10/-10. Cleave is in.