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Persistent World Higher Ground and the Big Transition Profile by Jay Watamaniuk
Do you have a place to hang out discuss NWN2?So, you have plans in store for NWN2?
Definitely! We've gathered together PW creators from five other PWs, and are planning the early release of a brand new PW, again set in the Forgotten Realms, for NWN2. It's tentatively called HG2: The Vale of Tears after the spiritual notion that this world is a series of sorrows to be left behind when we transcend this plane. We decided the quest for immortality was too critical a piece of Higher Ground's being to be abandoned altogether, so we're putting a fresh layer of paint on the idea. Players will seek an artifact known as the Veil of Tears, from which is said to hang the stars of the night sky, and which allows its possessor to transcend the Realms and take their place amidst the stars. There's a big plot twist, but I'm not going to tip my hat. It's tentatively set to take place in Anchorome, a place obscure enough in Realms lore to allow us substantial liberties. Our dev team now includes builders from England, Denmark, Italy, and the US. What are the main topics of discussion in your NWN2 forums?Well, I'd like to be able to say that we are hammering out the fine points by now, but it just wouldn't be true. Because we have so much development left to do on the first Higher Ground, we are still in the early planning stages for NWN2. We know we will be set in the Forgotten Realms. That was an easy choice, because most of us know it well and love it dearly. We have also tentatively selected our locale, Anchorome, after some debate, because we wanted to have pretty broad discretion in our creative efforts, and therefore needed someplace relatively unknown in Realms lore. Spell Effects ClipsView some interesting effects from Higher Ground in these lo-res clips:
Illithid (WMV 6.0 MB)
Pyramid (WMV 5.9 MB)
Ssithrak WMV (6.0 MB)
We also discussed the physical environment, and so far are planning to go with a vale. They have natural boundaries, and that suits us well because at this point no one is sure just how many overland areas a single module will be able to support lag-free. They will most likely be larger and in shorter supply than in Neverwinter 1, if the forums are any indication, so we wanted someplace that could accommodate a smallish overland area without seeming forced. If it turns out we can have more outside areas, there will always be the port (the vale will be open to the ocean on one end), which will allow much flexibility in terms of varied environments - players could realistically sail to a desert oasis, a cold northern territory, and so on. The main point of conversation at this time, however, is game balancing. We want to be very careful in setting up both Player vs. Machine and Player vs. Player combat. That was one of the harsh lessons we learned in Higher Ground 1 - you just can't affect one without impacting the other. We lost sight of that, and allowed player armor class and defenses to get out of reach of player attack bonuses, to a certain extent. It wasn't a huge problem, as we aren't really a PvP server, but it meant we had to rely on AC dropper items for guild combat, which had sort of an artificial feel to it. So we are setting up progressions, and building a test module to test hit percentage rates, conceal, soak, damage amounts, and DCs at various numbers of enemies and player levels, to determine what feels right. Once we have rough damage per round dealt and taken numbers, we can extrapolate that to hit percentages, armor classes, and other relatively static numbers (players get only so much in the way of saves, for instance). That, in turn, will let us know what out highest enchantment bonus on armor, weapons, and so forth will be, and allow us to start making plans for other systems, like a custom spawning system and a custom crafting system. What can someone do to get ready for the release of NWN2 if they want to run a persistent world?
Well, we've been told that pretty much the only things that will be portable from Neverwinter Nights 1 to Neverwinter Nights 2 will be scripts and conversations. Because we are planning to do a completely different setting, many of our conversations are of little value to us. For someone who is rebuilding their current world, however, or someone who just wants to have the basic conversations ready, they could start making them. There are also 'system' conversations, like the legendary leveler script, that will, quite possibly, be useful as is. Our team is planning to hold off, however, at least until we get a peek under the hood, because we expect some new capabilities that could easily make NWN1 conversations look a bit clunky, such as the ability to determine in a script what conversation node the PC selected from the available options. That single capability would enable non-dynamic conversations to save many, many script resources, and to be written in much more efficient fashion. It would also allow some dynamic, token-based conversations to be rewritten to be less-resource intensive. Our team feels that we simply don't know enough at this phase to start work on conversations. Scripts, on the other hand, are a great place to start. You can get your core systems nicely lined up and ready to go, because there likely will not be any one or two big changes that completely alters how most things are done via script. There is still some big potential for change, however. I haven't had the time to go carefully through all the detailed screenies from GenCon yet, but I did do a fast feat count, and saw around 1800 - roughly 700 more than in current nwscript constants, if memory serves. There's also a big question mark when it comes to NWNX. NWNX should be able to hook into NWN2's code, but we just don't know how easy it'll be yet, or how many NWNX plugins will be useable how soon after initial release, so all of our NWNX-reliant systems (which is most of our big ones, including legendary levels, subraces, the market, the bank, quests statuses, SIMTools, and so on) are still a bit up in the air. Our team is preparing what we can based on what we know, and others planning to run NWN2 PWs certainly can prepare scripts as well. Some types of systems may be better left to wait, however, until we have the final product installed on our computers at home. Of course, we may well wind up having or wanting to rewrite some of those systems based on new functions becoming available, but we'll at least have something to use in the interim. Is there a resource of technical specs that can be used at this time, before release, with which to do some of the planning?
Probably the best source of information out there is the official forums, at this point. They have an FAQ containing answered questions, as well as much discussion of the answers we don't have yet. After seeing the community reaction to some past news, I wouldn't blame Obsidian if they wanted to keep their cards pressed tightly against their chests as long as they could, but more and more information is becoming available as we get closer to release, and the deluge of information from GenCon is still being digested by the community. OE has been releasing some great stuff recently, and I finally had my thirst for new screenies slaked - at least temporarily. :P As far as other resources, I've found the Persistent World forums set up by NWN2 Warcry to be a valuable source of ideas, and a place to get a level-headed perspective on some of the changes coming for PWs in NWN2. Rather than dire predictions of doom, which are a bit too common for my tastes on the official forums, you see unbiased evaluations, and contingencies being evaluated. The outlook there seems to me to be that yes, persistent worlds will be different than they were in NWN1, but by no means worse. There's more focus on the positive aspects of changes than the negatives, and less bemoaning of the things we'll have to change. Lastly, there's the Neverwinter Vault. Maximus has done a great job of collecting and cataloguing all the various tidbits of information about Neverwinter Nights 2. The Vault is where I go after I check in on the HG forums, every day, to see what new tidbits he has gleaned. What is the biggest thing you are looking forward to with regards to running a PW in NWN2?Without a doubt, the eye candy. I have seen some rather unfair attacks claiming that NWN2 is 'just a graphics upgrade,' which it isn't by any means; but let's face it, graphics are important. I simply cannot wait until I can create my own verdant landscapes, filled with amazing detail. The amount of customization that we've seen available is already staggering, and we don't even have the game yet! Scaling, textures, tinting, the options seems nearly infinite at this point. Nwscript already gives us the tools we need to create nearly any system we please, for ourselves and the community, so I think that much time and attention has rightly been focused on delivering the game in a stunning graphical package that will stand the test of time. And then there's the effects creator! More than anything else, the ability to create brand new effects will offer some stunning possibilities. Our team has been able to do some utterly fantastic things with the relatively small number of visual effects constants in NWN (and I do mean relatively, as there are hundreds!). But because we opted to stay away from hakpacks other than the CEP, we weren't able to fully indulge our artistic inclinations. Now, with the advent of forced player downloads of walkmeshes, there's little to no reason not to use a hack pack. On top of that, we have an amazing effects creator! About the only thing that concerns me in this department is the amount of constant suffering I will be inflicting on my poor graphics card. How to reach us:
~
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