Project status

[Nolan Silvermoon]

doh

[PeregrineV]

Does this include fire and acid damage being not regenerable?

[kyllroy]

On the subject of warlocks, there are some creatures that, despite the abilities and nature of the eldrich blast and its many forms, resist all but one of the blast types. Hags are notorious for resistance to the Chilling Tenticle spell as well as being immune to fire. That leaves only acid or a low power blast that will harm them in the least. Ice Giants are powerful enough that if faced, as any caster with a blow in melee, a warlock dosen't stand up. Special immunities within factional battles would have to be studied to deal with visits from hostile warlocks, but as before, universal saves for a melee fighter, for instance will allow closing with warlocks and negate one or two blasts which will be plenty unless they are protected by meat shields of their own.
Test battles with unrestricted warlock classes should be completed before nerfing (ruining) the class IMO.

[Aarkon Draco]

its been a while since we had a update on public beta release and progress having tried to make some maps for the mod i know how involved they are. for thoes that dont basicly however large the map is you have to make the terrain and features twice the size meaning your adding trees rocks ect for parts that toons wont even be able to walk on. one out door map takes about 3 or 4 days to complete with spawn points placables walkmesh lighting sounds ect ect.

more exspierenced map makers can cut the time im shure but its still a tiedious process.

so let us all take that in to consideration on the time it takes for the beta.

that being said how goes the effort guys?

[dave blythscum]

hi guys

As with the above post, i understand that making ns5 is a long process, but that said i have upgraded to a new pc now and im ready to play ns5. Watching the shattered realm beta server line on the NWN2 game spy log in screen (In red bloody password) is killing me. so in the intrest of compassion how about a date for the launch.......you know you want too.

Dave The Gamer (PB)

[Flailer]

Sorry - was holding off a bit til I had something more meaty to announce...but if you insist in a post now...

Work on NS5 is coming along, but just due to the nature of things, it's hard to pin down a launch date. With a paid project, you can be fairly certain that you're going to have so many 40 hour work-weeks thrown at a project and can estimate it's completion. With something like this done in people's free time, it's almost impossible to predict.

That being said, we've made a lot of progress. We've got several of our core scripting systems in place and dozens of new areas since last report. Just last week we got our first spawns occuring in the mod (NS5 uses a substantially more complicated spawn system which will allow us to do some more flexible spawns). So, when those get fully populated, we'd be at the stage where you can run around the mod, buy gear, fight monsters, level up, etc.

So - I think that's where the 'soon' comes from - as the devs, we can see that if a few tantalizing pieces fall into place, you'd have something functional.

As always, the mo' bodies we have to help with things, the mo' faster we can go. If anyone is able to help in the following areas, it'll help us to move along faster:

• Scripting (including NWScript, SQL, and Java)
• Interior area design
• Exterior area design
• Creature/NPC creation
• Dialog and quest construction

If you've got time and willingness, there's always something you could help out with!

In other NS5 time related news, I'm about to become a dad here in a couple of weeks ( ), so not sure how that'll effect my time. Seeing that a couple of our most active devs have multiple kids are are still able to contribute, it can be done.

[cely]

In other NS5 time related news, I'm about to become a dad here in a couple of weeks ( ), so not sure how that'll effect my time. Seeing that a couple of our most active devs have multiple kids are are still able to contribute, it can be done.

Congratulations Flailer and Mrs. Flailer! I hope everything goes well with the last couple of weeks of pregnancy and of course the delivery.

[kyllroy]

Thanks for the kind update. I will want to tell you that as far as your time goes, when the baby arrives, is a mute point..... you won't have any. All of your quality time will be spent where its needed most. This brings up the issue you mention, more people scripting and such. I will put word out to see if there are any available on the yahoo message board and on the Thieves_guild.net. God knows these types are rare and should be kept celibate and under lock and key...

[Aarkon Draco]

gtz Flailer that is a special time and yes you will have hardly any time for the first fiew months baby, baby,baby,sleep,baby,baby,work,sleep,baby is what your in store for lol


on the help front i tried my best to work on outdoor areas and found it infuriating and annoyingly complicated to say the least however monsters NPCs and unique flavor writing im sure i could help in some way. having run manny a night of 1st and 2nd ed PnP ive always had a gift in setting a sceene and making the NPCs memorable. a certian bar in Arabel with a minataur bouncer named Jack provided quite a bit of hijinx and hillarity to my players for ex.

feel free to PM me some wants and needs in thoes departments and ill get to work on it STAT.

[kyllroy]

Here is the notice I posted on Yahoo/Groups Neverwinter Nights Crazy: More than likely flawed but what do I know?

Scripters wanted-

You who receive email notice a weekly reminder that Neversummer north is open and friendly and needing players for your NwN1 playtime.
Well, they have for some time been working on a version for NwN2 and need areas, creatures, scripting and a host of dirty scrubbing done on their test servers. Look here for the details. http://www.nsrealm.com/public/ns/viewto ... 9&start=15

I believe it to be an advanced multiplayer module with some factions to join due to an aim at true drama within the gameworld. The exact nature of these factions, their attitude toward one another and possible alliances are known only to the developer team. I do know it is already near its second year of development and is already large.
Thanks,
Nathan/Moderator

[Flailer]

Okay - so, the forums had a malfunction and some posting content got nuked.

Because I'm apparently completely OCD, I've pulled an exchange out of my browser cache which I'll paste below...

---

It doesn't seem like a very good time to begin unveiling NS5. Latent bugs from 1.13 abound within failed promises. Atari has no intention on fixing the basic flaws in the main engine. All they are providing is yet another expansion on the money wagon called Storm of Zahir.
I honestly feel for this development team. How in hell can you make headway with no backing from the main company to fix built in camera bugs and multiple crashes on startup? And people complained about Bioware... we now know they were absolutely wonderful when they had control.

Bottom line here is that you should have run the open Beta a year ago instead of keeping the door closed. Now you basically need the SoZ expansion to see what the future portends.

Wow - someone needs a hug.

I'd be interested in knowing specifically what kinds of problems people have had with NWN2 PW servers. I talk to a lot of PW operators and OEI staff, and generally it seems that if there's problems with the PW, it has more to do with the inexperience of the staff than the game itself. There's also several plugin components done by the community (in the NWNx4 server extension - the same sort of extension that was developed for NWN1 that allows PW's to exist in the first place) that catches a lot of the bugs that might cause a server to crash. I've talked to the author of that extension and OEI worked very closely with he and others to provide as information as possible to lend to greater stability.

Undoubtedly, NWN2 servers are not perfect experiences (nor are NWN1), but if they're run properly by staff with a sufficient clue, they're stable. And, our PW probably has as much man-years in NWN PW server clue than just about anyone around.

OEI took a fairly impressive step for the upcoming patch 1.23 (patch 1.21 will be released in a few days with SoZ is out) where they contracted with a 3rd party in the community to develop and integrate an autodownloading tool of PW content where, for the player, the experience will be very similar to a NWN1 PW: you join, content downloads in the background while you're creating your character, and the player is hardly aware of the vast amount of data they're downloading and complexity of setup that they're being spared.

In my opinion, OEI has been more helpful, forthcoming, and innovative than Bioware was.

So, unless you'd like to be more specific, I'd say withhold your judgement til it's out. There's plenty of folks out there already that are running stable, successful PW's and things are only going to get better.

First, I have been with a NwN2 PW from the beginning and crashes, although annoying, tended to be lumped into items within your nwn override folder or running on an older PWC file, before Worldgate or Audolo auto downloader programs.
This time it was the 1.13 patch and since we waited a year between patches and loved most of what came in it, nobody wanted to whine and pout. Problem is that now it is a regular occurrence. The nwnexe crashes just before updating and usually stabalizes on the second try. It is not surprising when it takes 3-4 tries. I don't believe it is the particular PW because it began happening right after 1.13 was put in. The "fixes" they did with the camera settings went unnoticed by me. Whatever settings I choose, there are still quirky exceptions. People started suggesting light programing fixes to the file and I think that is laughable.
I do believe the transition crashes that happened often, ended with the new patch.
I'm not about to get picky with my favorite pastime and hope NS5 is wildly successful.
Fact is, in all of the history of NwN1, I never knew the dev team to miss things like this one has...ever. That is why I made the Atari/Bioware comment.
For instance, I had an issue, followed protocol and contacted support at Atari, received the canned response and file number to await help for my question, and never heard from them again. I began the habit of checking the spam mail list...what a waste of time.
The rare times I had contacted Bioware were satisfying, professional and prompt. Huge difference on the user side.
I also didn't mean to be critical of this huge project you are doing. It was a warning to look at the weeks following the release of SOZ and not to take them at their word. Test it yourself and then decide.
After all, I figure your team won't release even a Beta version until every pixel is in place... So its so much water under the bridge even mentioning it. Just make sure it comes out before the release of NWN3... Then give me the hug...

I would like to say a few things as well. While I don't like Atari (formerly Infogrames) any more than the rest of the population, they did rescue NWN1 from Interplay's financial troubles in 2001/2002. Without Atari we might have never been able to play NWN1 much less NWN2. Also, referring to expansion packs as money wagons is certainly justified for games that are shipped incomplete feature/content wise. I would argue that neither NWN1 nor NWN2 shipped feature incomplete, but of course that's just my opinion. No matter how evil you feel expansion packs are, remember that they are the only way game developers are allowed to continue support for their games well past their typical shelf life. Atari and Bioware continued to release patches for NWN1 well after the initial game release with the final patch being delivered SIX YEARS after NWN1's release. Most PC games barely see six months worth of patches. No one in their right mind would support a PC game that long unless there was some sort of financial incentive to do so... and where did this financial incentive come from? You guessed it! Expansion packs (and premium modules).

With regards to Obsidian Entertainment, they are much more accessible and interactive with the community especially where multiplayer is concerned. Yes, there are bugs in NWN2. With a product as large and complex as NWN2, there are bound to be lots of bugs that just take time to resolve. They are doing their best with the resources they have been given - which of course is afforded to them by revenue generated from expansion packs.

There aren't very many RPGs out there like NWN1 and NWN2 (multiplayer, toolset, dm client). Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption is the only other one I can think of. We should be thankful that there are gamers out there (who happen to work for game development companies) that like the same types of games that we do and are in a position to create those games. Let's spend less time complaining and more time enjoying their products.

[Umpa]

How's everything going?

[Mops]

I think I'll sum up the whole status of NS5 with this one line:
WE WANT TO WORK YET WE DO NOT HAVE TIME. ;_;
Help us...

[Flailer]

Yeah, it's been a crazy last month or so - a lot of us have been super busy at the same time it seems: moving, finishing semesters at school, busy with work, caring for kids, general holiday busy-ness, etc.

Even in the midst of it though, we've managed to add a few more areas, a few dozen creatures/items, and Mops made some good progress on a database driven quest system.

Hoping to get some time over the holidays and afterwards when life gets more back to normal to make some progress and move to an Alpha opening. I'll post more project status info in a week or two.

[Umpa]

I'd be willing to help if you need it. What do you need, I can script, build, I'm kind of working on a PW startup, just posted some stuff on nwvault. Username Kanbyen on the vault. I can test also,which I'd be happy to do if you would like.

-U