10/31/99 - Latest News
NWN's Art Director
Berendir @ 8:50 pm EST
The art director of Neverwinter Nights is Marc Holmes.
I'm the Art Director for NWN. As lead artist on NWN I'm sort of a mentor/manager for a team of very talented people who produce concepts, models, textures and 2D art. I probably draw 75% of the concepts and about half of the promotional art myself, everything else is made by the other artists. So, my most important role involves guiding the 'shared vision' for the game; making the adjustments, constructive criticism, and 'judgment calls' required to reach the level of quality and detail we're after.
If your interested in seeing the rest of his profile, check it out Here
10/29/99 - Latest News
World Forge Screen Shots
Berendir @ 9:33 pm EST
The project Worldforge is game that will enable people to create their own worlds. The game isn't out yet, but there are some screen shots availiable Here.
It is interesting to see the screen shots, and follow this project because it might be a great way to build a Middle Earth world once this project is out.
10/28/99 - Latest News
Rejected MEO ideas may find a home
Berendir @ 2:29 pm EST
There was a question asked on the Hero's Journey Dev Board recently. It was:
Do you guys at Simutronics have any words for the 'axed' members of the Middle-Earth Development team?
The response from the Hero's Journey Dev team was:
We're going to mooch all their good ideas. Yes, COME JOIN OUR TEAM. We're hiring. I was very disappointed in Sierra. I was extremely curious to see how some of the more "edgy" design decisions would work out. ;) Contact Bruce...he'll take all the talent he can get.
Promising news that some of the ideas that many wanted to see in MEO, may end turn up in Hero's Journey.
News on Neverwinter Nights
Berendir @ 2:17 pm EST
Heres a few different pieces of news from the Neverwinter Nights Vault.
The first news in on Custom Portraits, if your really concerned with how your character is seen:
To display custom character portrait, the player will have to download them. When you join into a game and your character has a custom portrait, the character will first appear with a stock or blank portrait while the client uploads the portrait to the server in the background. The game client will have an option to download custom portraits or not. If the option is on, the portrait is downloaded to the client and displayed. If the option is off, the portrait is ignored and a default is used.
The next piece of information is on scripting possibilities, and I'm guessing its talking about NPC's, and the creator of the world's ability to control their actions:
You can script an orc war party to patrol a specific area and you can even script a blacksmith in town to go home at 5:30 pm every day. Illusions are quite difficult to model in a computer game. We haven't ruled out illusions, but we are still trying to find a decent implementation.
The following news is on Modules, and your abliity to control how they work, and even creating competetive modules:
It will be possible to set up multi-party games where two parties compete towards the same goal (or towards opposing goals, if you choose to structure it that way). However, if you and I both download Module X from a fansite and host the module on our own computers, then we've just created two entirely separate games. The actions of you and your friends will have no impact on my game and vice versa. It would be just like having two games using the same StarCraft map.
As you set up the server running the module, you can specify if it behaves in a persistant model or a reset model. If the game is set persistant, the game will remain in the last state it was in. If the game is not set persistant, the world can be set to reset when there are no players logged in. You can also set the module to reset when it is completed and you can even set the server to automatically load another module when the current one is completed.
10/27/99 - Latest News
Middle Earth E-mail
Berendir @ 2:19 pm EST
If your interested in Roleplaying in Middle Earth, using E-mail, then check this out.
Middle-Earth E-Mail
Another Poll in Favor of Perma-Death
Berendir @ 2:03 pm EST
On the most recent poll on the Middle Earth Vault, Permadeath was chosen to be the feature that most people wanted to have kept for the new design of the game.
On a recent poll on the Gaming Havens Permanant Death was chosen by almost seventy percent of the voters to be the preferred style of death in a Middle Earth game.
So I think its safe to say that the next Major mutli player online game, based on Middle Earth, should have Permanant death as one of its features.
10/26/99 - Latest News
Mapping in NWN
Berendir @ 5:39 pm EST
Some more news from the Neverwinter Nights Vault.
It explains a bit about the mapping process, and screenshots of a map, here it is:
Spinning rooms will probably be impossible and maps will probably not be animated. The exact nature of the mapping hasn't yet been decided but one thing I'd like to do is allow the module designer to make their own maps (essentially a screenshot of the area, zoomed way, way out and probably annotated). If they wish to misinform, they alter the area (switch a few tiles around, fill that forest clearing in with trees, etc) before taking that 'screenshot'. The map can then be attached to a map item or simply made available to the player via some GUI. Now remember, these are just my thoughts on the matter and the issue has not been decided in any way. We're not worrying about this kind of stuff until we actually have some game areas up and running anyways.
10/25/99 - Latest News
NWN Beta Testing
Berendir @ 3:22 pm EST
More news from the Neverwinter Nights Vault.
If your interested in Beta Testing Neverwinter Nights, which is always fun to test a game, and to learn more about the game sooner, then heres some info:
We want to set up a limited public beta test before the game ships. This test would cover all the facets of playing the game, playing, DM'ing and module creation. Our hope is to have a number of servers ready to run when the game launches, with experienced DM's ready to go. We are thinking about setting this testing up a month or two before ship, but we won't set it up until the game and editors are solid.
More on Arda Nights
Berendir @ 2:14 pm EST
Theres been some more updates to the Arda Nights guild page.
Enoreth created a great logo for the guild, however it says Arda Online, not Arda Nights. So I'm not sure as to if the official Guild name is Arda Nights or Arda Online yet.
Theres also some new news to check out, and some more members. If you were interested in playing Middle Earth Online, and dissapointed at what happend to the Dev team and its production, check out Neverwinter Nights and consider joining this guild.
Neverwinter Nights is a game in production that will allow other worlds to be created with seperate rules and creatures. The worlds would be built using the a toolset within the game, it would be entirely possible to create a Middle Earth like world to play in.
10/24/99 - Latest News
Roleplaying Poll
Berendir @ 6:40 pm EST
Just about 70 percent of people agree permemant death is the way to go in a Middle Earth Game, and only four percent thought that there should be no penalty.
Well on to the next poll. This weeks poll has to do with what sort of character, out of the ones availiable to choose, would you like to roleplay.