Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Arwen)

Trent Oster, Producer:

DM client: The DM has two major parts, the Chooser and the Creator (Working names). The Creator allows you to create almost anything in the game except tiles in real time. The Chooser allows you to see a listing of every area, creature, item, etc ...

There are a number of other DM abilities, but these two encompass the major features of the NWN DM Client.

Screen wise, we are working on getting screens out, but for now, the main interface is similar to the in-game interface.

Balrogs: We have a Balor in the game, but no Balrogs. Someone may have mistyped while working late.

Infinite dialogue loops: The scripting language has a time out feature and will break out of the currently executing script after a finite period has passed. The period is long enough for very long complex scripts to execute without fear of timing out.

Disconnecting from the game: When you are disconnected we plan that your character will remain in the game world for a short period and then disappear. If you log back in your player will re-appear in that same spot.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Map style: As in BG2, there is an automap. This map can be on-screen while you play. It can be sized to smaller and larger versions. You can place map notes upon it, and also view the map notes that have been placed. You can, I believe, have the map show you the entire area, or only areas that you have explored. The map reads the tiles, so you can make any kind of map, and the automap feature will always work for you. The art work for the automapper is very nice.

The automap is re-drawing the actual map in 2d for you... no matter what kind of map you paint, the automapper will match it. you would have to adjust the map notes, though, if you painted down a new tavern or somesuch and wanted there to be a map note for it.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Custom Sounds: I am not sure about custom sounds being "attached" to objects. You'd have to ask a designer if that could be scripted. However, custom sounds in areas is no problem and can be linked to scripted events as well.

Voice actors: Okay, we've all had fun poking at who's going to be in the VO We are not being coy, it's just that VO is some of the last audio work to be done because it's expensive and time consuming so it's best to wait as long as possible to ensure that lines don't change. Even a word or two change means a new session which, if you have ever booked voice actors you know, is a lot of work for a small revision. Needless to say there will be no Von Sydow, Wendt, Jones, Hamil or Billy from down the street on NWN .

Voice/text dialogues: I think I can say without fear of contradiction that BG2 had the most voice over and sound effects of any game before and so far since.

That being said, the vast majority of lines still had text with no VO. Not only would it be cost prohibitive to voice every line in a 100+ hour RPG it would also be space prohibitive.

It's a nice thought, but it's just not realisitc to do in a larger game. Smaller 10-20 hour games can do it, but I don't think anyone would be happy with a 10 CD version of Neverwinter with a 4 or 5 GB minimum install.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Text Dialogues: Having voice-only/no text would be a problem for our deaf fans, so we will always have text dialog for our games.

As others have said, it is cost prohibitive. There is no way that Deus Ex had as many words as BG2 and I did enjoy the all spoken Deus Ex. It is one of my favorite games.

10 CDs? No, that would cost you the consumer over $100 dollars for the game and add about another 6 months to record every single line. The CD swapping or the install size would be from hell.

David Gaider, Designer:

Midget NPCs: No, you can't adjust the height of the model. It's not quite that simple. All members of the same race will be the same height.

There is a 'fat' model version of the playable PC races.

There are no midgets, per se, but there are is a human male and female child model.

Dire animals: The 'stone/metal stuff' is supposed to be bone, I believe.

And yes, the dire versions have considerably larger models then their non-dire cousins. Not quite as big as some of the descriptions in the monster manual, perhaps (the dire boar doesn't look 16 feet long, for instance), but plenty large.

Severing character doll limbs: Actually, with the base PC races (human, elf, dwarf, etc) any body part can be set to '0' which will delete it. I've made characters with one arm or hand missing, for example.

This can be done in the toolset (not as part of character generation... PC's have to have all their limbs).

It's one thing to take away part of a model that already exists... it's something else to add a feature that isn't there.

Adding horns or a large nose would require changing the base model, itself. That's a custom edit.

Removing body parts is done only in the toolset... you cannot remove a hand or lop off a head during the course of the game.

Weather effects: Weather effects (snow, rain, lightning and wind level) can be set in an area upon its creation. For snow, rain and lightning you set the % chance (if you want it to snow all the time, for instance, you set the snow to 100%). Wind level has a scale.

Weather effects are changeable via script commands.

Just to clarify my own comment, weather effects (rain and snow... not sure about lightning, tho) have script commands that change them. I don't see anything that changes wind.

Glowing runes on weapons: I've seen 'glowing' material on placeable objects (the lamp post, for one), but not on any items. That doesn't mean it is impossible, however... though it does mean that placing 'glowing runes' on a weapon would require you to add them yourself.

If you wanted the glow to actually provide light, you could use the 'light' item effect. The glowing material would not, itself, be a source of light however.

Robes and armor: Robes and armor share the same slot. They both, once worn, form the dominant visible garb of the avatar.

DM Toggling between zones: If the DM jumps to an area, it has to load just as it does for any player.

Ergo, if you leave a lot of things in your module that require your direct intervention, and your party splits up, you are going to have problems.

I doubt most players will throw hissy-fits if they have to hold on a minute or two until they get the DM's attention for an NPC conversation (players do this in PnP games too, after all)... remember that you still have access to the chat system for communication. You can also ask the players to stay together (or engineer things so that this is obviously a good idea).

The only other option for you is to either get another DM to help you or to plan your module to be more independent of your presence.

Store Object (gold): Actually (and unfortunately, I think), the store object is much simpler in its purpose.

1) There is no control over what a store will purchase... only what it will sell. Control over the store's purchases from the PC's only goes so far as the blanket markdown. Gold for the store is not tracked.

2) There is only one scripting event that I can see on the store GUI. Unfortunately it currently has a 'bad strref' assigned to its button, so I do not know what the event is, I will have to ask on Monday. Seeing as there is only one event, however, I suspect there is no seperate 'buy' or 'sell' event generated.

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While this kind of sucks insofar as exerting control over stores (I, myself, wouldn't want an innkeeper in a small town to fork over 30,000 gp for a magic item) and I have a few ideas for future changes to it, I can see a way around this if you have a very specific idea in mind for a store:

1) Set the markdown to 100%... that means the store doesn't purchase anything from the PC. The selling part of the store works well enough since you can define exactly what is available.

2) If you want the merchant to buy only specific things, I figure you can actually script it in dialogue. Not ideal, but it would work... and one 'master' script by someone intrepid could be useable and alterable by all.

Why do I think that? From browsing the scripting commands (and from discussions with a co-worker), here's my thoughts:

- you can 'cycle' through someone's inventory using the command GetFirstItemInInventory(object) and then GetNextItemInInventory(object). On each pass, so long as GetIsObjectValid() is returning TRUE, you continue onto the next item in the pass. With me so far?

- as you get each item in someone's inventory, you can determine its base item type (BASE_ITEM_ARROW, BASE_ITEM_LONGSWORD, BASE_ITEM_GEM, etc) with the command GetBaseItemType(object). If you had the player tell the merchant "I want to sell you an arrow" because the merchant only buys arrows, then we can scan through the inventory and come up with every item that is BASE_ITEM_ARROW.

- Once you've narrowed down that an inventory item is of the base type you want, you use the SetCustomToken command to create a custom token with that item's name (which you can get with the GetName() command). Why? So you can put this in your dialogue:

What do you wish to sell to the merchant?
1)
2)
3)
and etc... you just put a starting condition on each line making sure there is an item that exists.

And you can even detect and sell in stacks, too. The command GetNumStackedItems will tell you how many are currently stacked with any given item.

- GetGoldPieceValue() will return an integer based on how much the item is worth, IntToString() will convert it into a string... presto! Make another Custom Token and the merchant can tell you how much he'll pay.

- When it comes time for the merchant to take the item from the player, he can put it into the store object's inventory directly to be sold later. If you prefer, he could put it into some other object's inventory (like a store shelf!) instead... of course, for him to sell it, then, you'd have to reverse the whole above process and have the storekeeper scan his store's inventory.

(Incidentally, if you are wondering what would happen if someone decided to take something from that shelf's inventory, there IS an InventoryDisturbed event and several commands relating to that... get as custom as you want with it. )
...

Complex? A bit, but not too bad. Just time-consuming to sit down and write it all out in the dialogue editor and script it. Fortunately you would only need one. (And I'm not trying to scare anyone... for all but the incredibly detail-minded, the standard store should probably do).

And hopefully we can do something a bit broader with the built-in store later.

Attack Animations: 1handed, 2handed, polearm, twoweapons and unarmed. With various types of 'stab' and 'slash' and other animations for each weapon type. There's a lot in there: you do notice the difference when you switch from a longsword to a greatsword, for instance.

It would be nice to have animations based on individual weapons rather than by weapon type, sure, but excessive.

DM dropping monsters: Basically, as a DM you have a Creator menu through which you have access to a list of all the pre-made creatures that exist in your module (all the ones that were either pre-existing in the toolset or that you made specifically).

You can click on whatever creature (or object or item or whatever) that you want to spawn in and click on where you want it to appear... poof! There it is.

Alternatively, you can hold down the Shift key and you can spawn in multiple copies.

Just to re-iterate, however: the creature must exist in your module. There are a bunch of skeletons that are pre-made for you, for instance. Let's say you also made some skeletons with axes and tough stats. If you suddenly wanted a tough skeleton with a sword, but hadn't made it in the toolset, that would not be available to spawn in. You cannot create blueprints with the DM client on the fly... you can only spawn in instances of blueprints you have already made.

The pre-made monsters/items/objects that Bioware has made will be available automatically in every module.

For blueprints that you make, you can export them to another module, if you wish.

Random name command: The RandomName function does exist, returning a string. I can't think of any place it was used in the official campaign's scripting.

It does not, however, allow you to change the name of an NPC. NPC's names must be pre-set in their blueprint and no scripting command exists to change it.

Character generation: The point buy system is the only one available in character generation.

There is, however, a console command in the DM client which allows the DM to alter someone's stats directly. As far as rolling goes, I guess we just figured we'd take out the middleman.

Custom music: We call it a hak pak because we like it that way.
All 3rd-party content is unsupported. We've given you the means to add it to your module, should you wish, however. Custom music is added via the toolset (in your area settings).

If someone throws a bunch of MP3's into their module, those MP3's still have to be downloaded.

AoO: If you've set your stance to another PC as hostile, then you will get an attack of opportunity against them as appopriate (they would need to be in melee with you, naturally).

PC's set their stance vs other PC's on their own. Factions only relate to how NPC's treat PC's.

Monsters have whatever base attacks per round they are given, same as PC's. You are only allowed one attack of opportunity per round, period.

Quote: Well for real time combat, a rogue with nice high dex (as all good rogues SHOULD have! ) should get 4 or 5 attacks of opportunity a round, in addition to his normal attack.
That would be pretty rare, though, unless the rogue with Combat Reflexes was in combat with multiple combatants all doing actions which were causing attacks of opportunity... you are still restricted to one attack of opportunity per enemy.

As for Combat Reflexes being in or out, I actually am not certain. I have not seen it on the list while playing, however, so it may indeed be out.

Safe areas: The PvP settings are set by area, yes. I've recalled getting in-game messages saying 'you are now entering a PvP area'.

There are three levels of player versus player (PvP): No PvP, Party PvP, and Full PvP. If you choose No PvP, players cannot damage one another. The Party PvP setting allows you to damage other players unless they are in your party, in which case you cannot damage them at all. The final setting is Full PvP. Under Full PvP settings you can damage any other player unless the area you are in is locked against PvP. This means area effect spells will harm other players if they are within the casting range, so if you play full PvP watch where you target your area effect spells. The PvP setting on the server options panel dictates the maximum level of PvP conflict allowed in the module. This means that if the server PvP is set to Full PvP, there still may be Party PvP or No PvP areas in the module, but if the server is set to No PvP, all areas in the module will be set to No PvP.

Polymorph: Polymorph as it stands in NWN is mostly for combat. You can't turn into other character races, only monsters or animals. You could have polymorph useable for role-playing, but that would be up to how you or your DM scripts it/chooses to play it live.

Disguise: The problem with disguises is that it requires some kind of interface to make decisions on what kind of disguise the player is using... what is he or she trying to look like? Every disguise used in role-playing, as well, tends to have a very specific purpose... that either has to be scripted by the DM or we have to come up with a very generic in-game function for it.

If and when the problems behind implementing Disguise are dealt with, I have little doubt that spells such as Alter Self and Change Self would be done at the same time, since they are just versions of the same coin.

Terrain heights: You can ascend to a higher height transition via a tile called a 'ramp'... it places a walkable slope that connects two height transitions. You can therefore control where the hills can be climbed.

Basically, when you lay down height transitions, you are creating steps... like an Aztec pyramid. The first layer is 10 feet high (with whatever siding the tileset uses... some have rocky, cliff-like sides, some have brick or stone sides), then you have a flat surface... if you want to add another height transition, it begins 10 feet in.

A 'ramp' creates a slope that connects the ground to the lip of the next height transition. Yes, you can place ramps on top of one another to get a smooth slope that could conceivably go all the way to the top of your hill (and that the PC could step off of at any level).

You cannot place these ramps side by side to 'widen' the ramp. There is a regular flat space between them and it looks silly. The sides of the ramp are already smoothened out a bit... it's not a vertical slope on each side.

What the slope looks like depends on the terrain. In the city exterior, it's a paved walkway. In the rural tileset, it's a grassy slope (which can optionally have the road on it, if you have a road that goes up to it).

Controls: The arrow keys are used for zooming in and out and rotating the camera.

The mouse is used for moving, either via point-and-click to where you want to go or holding down the button and directing your movement (with your speed depending on how far away the cursor is from the character).

At least... that's how it is in the standard camera-and-movement setup. I understand there are other options, though I've never tried them.

The number keys do still pull up the radial menu, if you desire. I use the left-click or just quickbar my radial needs, personally.

If you look at the screenshots, you will see that there is a row of boxes on the bottom of the screen, each with F1-F12 written on them.
The icon of whatever you're binding to it will appear in the box.

Pressing Shift brings up a new row... with each box reading 'Shift-F1' to 'Shift-F12'.

Pressing Ctrl brings up another new row... 'Ctrl-F1' to 'Ctrl-F12'.

So 36 quickbar keys are possible. Initially, I thought it wouldn't be enough for my spellcaster... but it turned out that after a bit of playing it takes almost the same amount of time to use the radial as the quickbar key, so I only quickbarred my always-use combat spells anyway.
(And by the time you get to a level where you will have that many spells, you will be that adept for sure).

Brenon Holmes, Programmer:

Somatic Spell Components: Spells without somatic components, or spells with somatic components that have been stilled will not suffer the ravages of potential arcane spell failure.

John Bible, Programmer:

Infinite loops: Not all languages are as "hard" in a computational sense as Turing-complete languages.

Also, as a clarification, the way long-running NPCs work is by repeatedly running the script through the heartbeat event, with persistent global variables. You can imagine that being provably terminatable is of interest in such a setup, just as it is in visual programming languages.