Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

Remove all ads!

(Originally posted by Z-Layrex)

David Gaider, Designer

Toolset: The toolset is unsupported... which means that tech support won't assist with scripting problems. The problem seems to be that tech support didn't seem to recognize that you weren't asking for scripting help, that you were actually reporting a bug. Infogrames is definitely supposed to still take information on bugs regarding the toolset and NWScript. Like I said, if they tell you therwise, please tell us (Dave McGruther in particular, as he's the one dealing with this). Nothing bites my butt more than the thought that there might be people out there thinking that toolset bugs won't get fixed. That's not the case.

ActionLockObject(): The 'ActionLockObject' command is used on creatures to tell them to go to an object and use their Open Locks skill to lock it. Doors and other objects don't have that skill, and telling them to use it will cause a crash. In a door's script, to tell it to lock itself:

SetLocked (OBJECT_SELF, TRUE);

TRUE means locked, FALSE means unlocked. Make sure, as well, that your door has the 're-lockable' box checked.

Blocking The Automap: There have been a couple of threads on this. We'll consider it in the future. Don't, however, expect any stuff to be added into the game right away... fixing bugs is our current priority.

Factions: As I understand it, only the standard factions can be cleared en masse with a single command (SetStandardFactionReputation). For the rest of the factions, you need to identify a single member of that faction. Then you can clear it like so:

object oClear = GetFirstFactionMember(oMember, FALSE);
while (GetIsObjectValid(oClear) == TRUE)
{
ClearPersonalReputation(oPlayer, oClear);
oClear = GetNextFactionMember(oMember, FALSE);
}

SetCommandable: SetCommandable determines whether or not they will accept any other orders from their AI. What I've done above is given them the order to run away and not listen to any other commands until they are 100 feet away from the hostile. ActionMoveAwayFromObject isn't all that great a command except in specific circumstances, however, as NPC's don't pathfind 'away' from something... and can very easily just run into a wall and be stuck there. It might actually be easier to have them run towards something specific. Note, as well, that if you don't expect to use your screaming commoners for anything specific, the BEST way to go is to have them scream and run towards a specific exit point and then destroy themselves... and SetCommandable to FALSE after issuing those orders. Then they will proceed to do just that and only that.

GetIsPlaceableObjectActionPossible(): Hmmm. Memory may be failing here, but I don't think that command determines whether or not the placeable can perform that action, but whether the caller of the script can perform the action in question on the targeted placeable.

More:
Right! That's it. It's basically a 'can I succeed at this action' command. You'll find it used in the generic OnBlocked script, I believe. Keys aren't currently taken into consideration. I know this is something that's going to be added into the functionality pretty soon... so that it not only returns TRUE in this kind of situation, but so that an NPC that must walk through a locked door in the course of his movement will automatically unlock it if he has the proper key. Oh... GetLockKeyTag currently (oddly) returns an integer rather than a string, as well. Bad command. This is due to be fixed in a patch.

Animations In Conversations:

Quote: 1) While a certain dialogue is being performed, I want my NPC to make hand gestures. The really annoying type - like Stan's Used Boats/Stan's Used Coffins (Monkey Island). I've seen this used in modules. Which animation would that be, and how do I use it?

If you select a line of dialogue in the conversation editor, go down to the bottom right and select the 'Other Actions' tab. You will see a pull-down menu for 'Play Animation'. Any animation you select will play when that line is spoken, and if 'Loop' is checked, it will continue to play after the line is finished.

Quote: 2) Is there a way to make an NPC point toward a certain object or waypoint? Literally. Point. Or gesture. My guess is no, but if there's a way, please let me know.

There is no pointing animation, no. You can have an NPC turn to face an object (via SetFacingPoint), but that's it.

Input/Output & Persistant Worlds:
As I said in the other thread where this was brought up, we've no current plans to add I/O functionality to the game. We are, however, interested in looking at this possibility in the future.

More:

Quote: I'll take that! It's better than "Never"

It's definitely not a never. I was talking to Derek French about this issue not so long ago, and I know there's interest in looking at this in the future. There are issues to be resolved (security is one, preventing character files from becoming bloated with information is another), and if we can resolve those and still produce enough functionality that it would be useable, then it could become a possibility. It's hard to say exactly what would be required until the Live Team does decide to sit down and re-examine this, however, so I certainly wouldn't want to imply 'we'll get right on that'.

Hostiles: Actually, you are correct. A creature is told by its OnPerception script to attack a hostile that comes into view. If it has killed its current opponent and another is not in view, it doesn't receive another DetermineCombatRound() command... and there's no OnPerception event occurring if the player respawns in the current area because going from dead to not-dead isn't a change of perception type. What you can do, if you wish, is put a simple script in your OnHeartbeat... make a check to see if 'the nearest hostile that I can see' is a valid object. If it is and I am not in combat, then DetermineCombatRound(). That will 'restart the engine', so to speak.

EffectCurse(): I don't remember the exact nature of the bug, but I do know that there is a crashing bug with EffectCurse that is fixed in the next patch.

Derek French, Assistant Producer

BioWare:

Quote: Here's some resons for not buying this game:
* The savegames gets corrupt in multiplayer when e.g. other characters steps through a door during save. I guess developers who creates a RPG with a built-in risk of corrupting the savegames has a great possibility to be expelled to some netherworld like Ravenloft

We are aware of this issue and it will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

Quote: * Expensive!

Hmmm. Not much we can do about this one. Patch or no. Infogrames sets the price for the wholesaler, who sets the price for the distributer, who sets the price to the retailer, who sets the price for you. We are quite removed from this process.

Quote: * Bioware/Infogrames support and customercare is more or less zero!

I have to disagree. We care a great deal about the issues that you are having. It is extremely frustrating to read that our customers are unable to play the game as it was designed. All of these issues weigh on our minds a lot. It is in our best interests to fix your issues and get you on your way playing. We are working contantly on these problems and trying to duplicate them. It does take time to investigate all these issues.

Logging Into Your Game As An Admin: You can't at this time. The fuctionality hasn't been added yet.

NWN:

Quote: Well, I've payed to buy NWN and you are payed to develop NWN. So, you've released a buggy game, a game that supports only nVidia cards ("Shiny waters" ?) and you pretend us not to be angry?

There is this self-fueling issue that NWN is "buggy". Yes, there are some bugs that the end users have made us aware of and we are working on them. Looking at a Tech Support forum is a bad place to judge a game's quality. Of course all the people that are playing the game with no problems are not posting here. And we are actively working on bugs. We have acknowledged the issue with Shiny Water and ATI. It worked right up until just before ship and we aren't exactly sure why it stopped working. It will be working in an upcoming patch. As soon as ATI fixes their drivers, a lot of other issues with NWN that will get resolved, as per the ATI sticky above.

ATI Drivers: Many people have reported that they are having problems with Neverwinter Nights and the latest Catalyst drivers. Many of those have reported that if they go back to the previous version of the drivers their problems go away. If you are having problems with the latest Catalyst drivers, please find the previous version from ATI's driver support page. After you select your OS and your exact video card, you will be taken to a page listing drivers for your video card. For example, if you had a Radeon 8500 under Windows 2000, you will be taken to a page listing with the Catalyst drivers at the top. Below that is a link to Previous Drivers. Here is the page from this example. Click Here, try the drivers at the top of that page.

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

Custom Content: We are working on solutions to the 3D solutions. I had a conversation with Greg Z. (one of the co-owners of BioWare) yesterday and he was adamant about getting the word to you folks that we are making every effort to help the custom community. We have a huge list of things that are critical and we are attempting to address them in a timely fashion that benefits the most people. The game has been out for about 3 weeks and there is a large laundry list of stuff that needs attention. We are waiting on a few things right now that are out of our hands but rest assured, things are in the works. As I mentioned before, you are the reason for all this community site. A game does not last if the people who create custom stuff do not have support. So, yes, we are very interested in what you are creating and yes, we will be offering support. I can't detail specifics because, again, we are wrangling a few things out now but it is being worked on.

More:
It's actually the 'doing it right' part that often delays things. At this point we do not want to rush into releasing anything that will not be a huge benfit to you folks. Anything that is a bit shaky will get people frustrated after waiting for at least some word on our plans.

X-Packs?: We are doing the planning for possible expansion pack stuff and throwing a lot of ideas around for what might be in there. We are hoping things become very clear in what is desired from the community- usually folks aren't shy about what they want. I would love to see stuff with an Underdark theme, larger ships, creatures, items, spells and so on. I shall have to wait and see what pans out. I am also taking a look at some of the custom tileset that have appeared-very cool. Having been working with the Toolset for about 6 months it's really cool to see something different.

NWN: I think NWN is about roleplaying not about getting stuff. I would hope the very fact you can make anything you want, have as much gold as you want, be as powerful as you want with 10 minutes work, would force people to move in the roleplaying direction. Power levels can be manufactured, great gaming cannot.

Speaking His Mind: Excellent letter that started this thread off- big thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts up here. At some point a game needs to be released or folks will get a little wacky. A lot of people were under the impression that NWN had reached a critical point and that great features such as a 'plot wizard' for the Toolset which would allow a non-scripter to design quests and have scripts automaticly included would have been a great, great feature for the average non-programming sort, such as myself. Unfortunately, time ran very short and there were several things that had to be set aside in favor of more critical game issues. I have a tremendous amount of faith in the mod community and certainly cannot keep up with all the things being created to aid the rest of the mod folks. BioWare built this community site on the foundation of helping and encouraging the mod community show us the potential of NWN through their talent and hard work. NWN has been out on shelves for about 3 weeks now and we are starting to see some of the work being done already. Some of it is pretty primitive, but it is amazing to me that folks could absorb NWN in a few weeks and then create anything at all in that time. I have no doubt more and more sophisticated utilities, mods and programs will be created that cater to the specifics needs of all levels of DMs, module makers and custom content creators. Quality takes time however and a good load of patience. I'm sure once those talented few who can rip something apart and understand the guts will be working on things to help those who do not have the technical know-how to do the same. I've been DMing for a long time as well and in the same boat for knowing zero about programming so I look forward to see what the mod community can come up with and what BioWare can contribute.

Forums: I'm a little surprised that you would think that BioWare does not read and respond to these forums. While we cannot answer all threads as there are over 3000 posts a day and climbing we do try and spend time here and jump in when we can. As for documentation, we are seeing a great amount of stuff being written by talented users at this time. We are working on our own additional documentation but time will be a factor. As for any expansion pack possibilities we are taking a look at several ideas right now but have nothing firm to speak about.

What They're Doing: Yup, lots of folks who worked some pretty crazy hours in the last 4 months, if not longer, are lying on a beach somewhere sleeping. We are getting done what's needs to be done one piece at a time. I hate to say it but patience, my friends, patience.

Multiplayer: We sent out a survey to give us an idea where we can improve the multiplayer experience for gamers. We have received a great deal of information which we are taking a look at now. Multiplayer is where the game will find longevity and so it is a priority. I realize a survey is not terribly helpful for you but we need to get the impressions of as many people as possible in order to do the greatest good in using our time. most everything will get done but it is the order in which to place things that it becomes a bit tricky.

Patches: Making patches takes time. Why? Because every time something is listed as fixed the entire game needs to be tested to make the entire thing works. We released the Toolset fix because it did not require the entire game to be tested so we figured we would release that while we wait for the big patch to go through all the critical path testing. I supposed we could have waited and included it in the big patch which is scheduled for later as it would have been the easier thing to do...but that would kind be a pain for the module makers.

Dom Moar, Tools Programmer

Deleting Blueprints: Deleting any blueprint may take some time, depending upon whether you tell the Toolset to delete the instances of the blueprint in the module. Try deleting the blueprints without deleting the instances - it should be pretty fast. Otherwise, the time depends on the number of areas, the number of instances in each area and the object type. I believe items would take the longest since it would require searching not just through the list of items, but the list of creatures for those that have the item in their inventory and through the encounters that contain those creatures.

1.20 Patch: I'm not implying anything. I'm trying to determine where the problem lies. I believe the solution we have in 1.20 addresses the problem that caused the corruption and in _most_ cases will successfully recover corrupted modules. However, since I can't be certain what people have done to their modules to 'fix' the problem on their own, I can't be certain that 1.20 will recover all corrupted modules.

Custom Palettes: Yes, we looked at allowing users to create their own categories when we were first designing the palette system. At the time, our primary goal was making sure that the blueprints were organized in the same way between both the Toolset and the DM Client. It would reduce the learning curve on the user and make it easier for us to manage the thousands of blueprints that were already created. Now, the person running the DM Client is not guaranteed to be on the same computer as the server. This means the server would have to transmit the entire structure of each palette to the DM Client when it connected. This is very, very BAD. Our decision, therefore, was to provide empty categories that the module creator could then use as he or she saw fit.