Neverwinter Nights Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Z-Layrex)

David Gaider, Designer

DM Client Issues: Both of these are not simple matters, but we are working on them. The one you will see sooner is a change where the DM can select one of three buttons (Friendly/Neutral/Hostile) to determine his current 'stance' towards players (which will carry over to whatever creature he possesses). This requires a new GUI, however, but will shoot down a lot of birds with one stone. As far as the chat system goes, there are numerous changes that are being discussed. We probably won't be seeing any changes to the chat system for awhile, however. For those who are interested, I've been keeping track of some of the bug fixes in the next two versions coming out (1.23 and 1.24) and there are numerous fixes to the DM Client coming down the pipe that take care of some niggly badness... some GoTo fixes as well as a bunch of fixes for possession/unpossession and the DM's quickbar.

Custom Content: Well, one thing you have to realize is that some people on the Live Team have different skills and responsibilities. For instance, the Live Team has a designer now (Rob Bartel), who is the one working on the modules and little extras. He could probably help out with custom content no more than I could. Same goes for the web guys, who run the community site and are working double-time towards future upgrades to its functionality. The people who can help the most with custom content are unfortunately the ones who are busiest with the bug fixing.

As well, when and if tutorials are going to be put up, there's a lot of consideration that has to be put into it... as this is (more or less) the 'official' method. We have to make sure that all the tools exist to perform the operation, that the methods are official (no tutorials that involve .2DA or resource hacking, for instance, unless *absolutely* necessary) and that we are certain this is not only the best way to do it but it works 100%. The audience is also a factor. There is custom content info that is good only for the 'hardcore' (you know who you are) and the kind of custom content that is more widely in demand (like portraits) by people who wouldn't necessarily come to this forum or even know that there is info available on it. Since time is limited right now, we'll start with the easier stuff that's more in demand and work our way up to the harder stuff that's more specific, simply because the harder stuff involves impugning more and more on the time of someone who should be bug-fixing.

Regardless, the good news is that the bug team is slowly easing out of emergency mode. I have heard the Live Team having big powwows on CC for the first time, which is really good to hear, and when Ray and Greg get back from a trip they're on currently we should see some more movement on this. As always, however, this is going to take time and is not going to come all at once (you are not going to wake up one day and see a tutorial for everything you ever wanted to know on-line along with all the needed tools). The trickle of stuff you see now will start to expand and before long the waiting will be a memory. Whether you chose to believe us is up to you. The proof's in the pudding, sure, and all you guys have to do is tear your hair out, waiting. Even if you demand we do better, we can only continue as we have and do the best we can.

More:

Quote: I wait only for a thing... the 3ds plugin, this is all i need Ps: Of course also a way to insert the new models without editing the dialog.tlk. But i think you wait for this things too Polyhedral

Editing the dialog.tlk file is a big issue. We obviously want to avoid that as much as you content creators do. Really the only power you need is to provide a label in the toolset by which your model can be identified. We've already provided that ability in the ambientmusic.2DA and the tileset .set files... so the question, then, would be do we wait to release our 3DSMax tools until the appearances.2DA is patched with this kind of ability or not? Realistically, I suppose you could call your model by any string in the dialog.tlk... it doesn't matter if your model is called 'Hello! My name is George!' or 'Kobold' except to aesthetics, since when you use a model you assign a name to the creature in the toolset anyway. Still, it would seem like only half the capability was given to you guys in that case, wouldn't it?

And then, too: "Okay, I've got the ability to put a creature into the toolset... how do I give it its own soundset?" Totally different issue, but not, since the question will arise.And won't the 3DSMax script need instructions? It's not exactly set up for ease-of-use... there's no 'press this button to import model into game' and you're done. Not to mention that I suspect the maxscript might be only of immediate benefit to user who have 3DSMax 3.X (not sure of exact version). Do we wait until we can make different scripts for different max versions prior to release or let the community do it? Do we wait until we have a GMax gamepak ready and release them altogether? Should we even be releasing a maxscript... would releasing a GMax gamepak alone be preferential? These are the kinds of considerations that have to go into this sort of thing. In the meanwhile, everyone on the Live Team is super busy already working on bugs and whatever else... and those that can are working on tutorials for less involved matters which, while some of you may already have figured out for yourselves or have a workaround for, the 99% of the users that Polyhedral mentions still don't know an official method exists for.

We may still just go ahead and release the 3DMax script (I still don't know if that includes the plugins, as well, sorry) and get you the rest as soon as we can, I don't know. Which is better? (Hearing your feedback on this would be worthwhile.) There are lots of models which we know you guys are just itching to get into the game (and so are we), so that may very well happen. I do know that the answers to these questions on many issues are slowly being worked out, however, and we will see the answers soon enough. Not soon enough for some, perhaps, but like I said once before: for those who only can wait, the time no doubt drags on and makes you frustrated. For us, however, it seems like there's only so much time in a day to get all that needs to be done accomplished.

Challenge Rating: Just to update you on the CR toolset issue:

The problem appears to be due to the last-minute adjustments to item property values that were made prior to ship. If you paint a creature (all of which were made before the adjustments were done) and then edit its instance, the CR is re-calculated automatically... which now takes into account those raised values, and if the creature has a hide item with resistances and/or immunities, the CR shoots up. I *believe* if you then save that edited instance, the creature would actually have the new CR and affect experience, but I don't know this for sure (I am not the person investigating the bug).

We've got a plan in place to change slightly how the CR is calculated and replace the old creature list... but that will probably be implemented a while from now as we need to make sure that we don't screw around with anything else in the process. Either way, the CR problem only affects the list of pre-made creatures, and again only if you edit the instance after placing it. Thanks to those people who pointed this out here and reported their findings... we were a bit baffled by this, at first.

Don Moar, Tools Programmer

Map Directions: At this point, there is no representation of the compass inside the Toolset. When an area is first loaded, North is the top of the map. If you've found that your directions are not what you want, you can rotate the area using the Edit | Rotate Area command, in the Toolset.

Waypoints: With the 1.22 update, it is possible to simply select the (single) creature you wish to setup waypoints for and right click anywhere else in the area. This will draw out the path the creature will attempt to walk. NOTE: This is not necessarily indicative of the path the creature WILL walk as the lines are drawn directly between waypoints and do not take into account any required pathfinding (ie around a bolder or across a bridge) the creature will perform during play. That being said, it's still a lot easier to set up waypoints now than it used to be.