12/11/99 - Latest News
Body Types and Prestige Classes
Berendir @ 9:09 am EST
Heres some more info from the Neverwinter Nights Vault.
Prestige Classes
Just for the record there has been no decision on what prestige classes, if any, will be included in NWN (other than the assassin class). We haven't got the list of the Forgotten Realms prestige classes (if there are any), so we won't be deciding what to inlcude for a while yet. We can't actually discuss the details of these classes due to our NDA with WOTC. When we have more information on this and we are allowed to talk about it, we will let you know.
Race Based prestige Classes
Our choice not to make our prestige classes race-based stems from our underlying design philosophy. In NWN's initial release, we want to provide everyone with as much potential and possibility as possible. Race-based prestige classes means race-based exclusion and, for now, at least, we feel that would be counter-productive.
That said, race-based prestige classes are something we'd be more than willing to consider for any future expansions.
Heres a a few options on body types:
Your body type options are:
(Choose one of each)
:Male or Female
:Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, or Half-Orc
:Normal, Heroic, Portly or (possibly Thin)
:one of many head models
As you can see, there will be quite a number of combinations available to you.
12/09/99 - Latest News
NWN Dwarven Citadel
Berendir @ 8:46 pm EST
Theres a new project going on for Neverwinter Nights. Its a Dwarven project, called the Dwarven Citadel.
From what I understand, it is suppose to set up an envirenment that will attract Dwarves from all over NWN to interact in the same place. To be able to train in battle, smithing, and RPing.
In NWN there will be Modules that are based on all types of worlds, from Middle Earth, to Forgotten Realms. This could provide a place for Dwarves from all those worlds to meet.
If your interested in this, go check out the Dwarven Citadel.
War Craft III
Berendir @ 2:50 pm EST
War Craft III is schedualed to come out around the end of 2000, and it looks very promising.
The game is going to be a RPS, which they describe as a Roleplaying Strategy game. Combining the best elements of strategy and roleplay.
Theres many different races this time, and if you choose human, that includes Dwarves and Elves as well. So each category has others with it. Races released so far are Humans, Orcs, and Demons.
The system of towns is interesting, since theyre will be neutral towns already set up, where anyone on the map is welcome to buy things, upgrade, and train soldiers.
The FAQ has alot of other info in it, and if you want to take the time to read it. Check out the site Here.
12/06/99 - Latest News
Neverwinter Nights Interview at Gamelinks
Berendir @ 8:35 pm EST
There was recently an interview with Trent Oster at Gamelinks.
Heres a piece of that interview, go to the link to see it in the whole thing:
GAMELINKS.NET: Will the game incorporate a type of "reputation building" whereby the game keeps track of the actions of a character or party and adjusts certain encounters in the game appropriately?
TRENT OSTER: : Yes, the reputation system is actually composed of three parts: Alignment, Fame, and Epithets. Alignment is chosen when the game is started and defines the moral attitudes of the character. Fame is constantly earned and lost through the game. Every monster killed, every treasure looted, every pocket picked adds to fame. Long periods of inaction cause fame to decrease. Alignment and fame will act together to determine NPC reactions to the character. A lawful good paladin with high fame will be adored by good NPCs and will be despised by evil NPCs. An evil rogue with high fame may not be served by good aligned shopkeepers, but will get a great deal in the local thieves' guild. The final reputation component is epithets. Epithets are titles attached to characters that perform particularly heinous deeds. Murdering innocent NPCs will add an epithet to the character. City guards and bounty hunters will always attack a character with an epithet on sight. If the character continues killing innocents, more powerful bounty hunters are sent on the trail until the character is killed. In short, roleplaying an evil character in NWN will be a perfectly viable option but excessively destructive and disruptive gameplay will be quickly curtailed.
12/04/99 - Latest News
Review Section Update!
Berendir @ 10:40 pm EST
Smaug's first two MUD/MUSH reviews have been posted up in the Reviews section of the Gaming Havens.
Theres a positive review on Mordor, and theres also a fun review about the Lord Mud, which according to Smaug sounds like a train wreck of a game.
12/02/99 - Latest News
Stored Characters in NWN
Berendir @ 7:48 pm EST
Heres a few pieces of info from the Neverwinter Nights Vault.
Storing Characters
There are three places that your characters can be stored. The first is on your local machine. These are local characters. The second is on a specific game server. These are server characters and can't be transfered to other servers. The third is on the character vault. These are vault characters. You can always export a server or vault character as a local character but you can't convert a local to vault or server.
The server characters provide the highest level of security against cheating because they never leave the server. Vault characters provide limited security (you could get a DM to pump up your character but you can't advance any faster than a legitiment player) and local characters which provide no security but are useful when you want to play in special unlimited modules.
Heres something interesting about comparing 2d to 3d, and about how it works in NWN.
About comparing 2d/3d.....both styles have strengths and weaknesses. We (Bioware) still support both kinds of game.
BG2 contains some awesome 2D artwork. I'm franky quite jealous of the guys over there, they can draw anything they please and boom-it's made. There are no limits to the kind of art you can dream up for a 2D game. Any kind crazy complex thing you can imagine, you can do...
ON the other hand, 3D gives NWN an amazing amount of freedom for animation and effects. When you build your first NWN module and see it moving, with characters running around, dynamic lighting, shadows, fog and weather, great 3d sound and all the magic of 3D...you're going to be blown away....
I can't wait for this thing to get out there! I'm looking forward to seeing what DM's do with the game, and playing through the stories they come up with....
12/01/99 - Latest News
Info on NWN
Berendir @ 6:17 pm EST
Heres a few cool bits of info from the Neverwinter Nights Vault
Standard Rates of Progression
We have an internal plan for how much xp our modules will deliver. We'll post a guideline before we ship.
Items will be valued acoording to permanancy as well as power level, frequency of ability usage, number of abilities, etc.
Racial Problems
We were just talking about the "factions" system yesterday. The idea is you can go in and get the halfling community all angry and the Dwarf community may not care. Additionally you could have the dwarves and halfings hate each other and attack the other race on sight.
11/30/99 - Latest News
Interesting Article on Neverwinter Nights
Berendir @ 6:50 pm EST
Theres an interesting article about Neverwinter Nights at the NWVault. Heres a piece of the article here:
Role playing is about community. A community of people who come together with a common interest: To have some fun...as a team. Even the DM was part of that team (although we all had our doubts at times). That experience, that feeling of community, can still be lived out on-line. Sure it will have its challenges, but eventually time will tell who are the old-fashioned RPGers and who are the "I'm tired of Quake 3, I need a different shoot 'em up"ers. When you find that group (or guild) dance with celebration. You have just found your latest online companions! You will journey with them through new worlds and share those victories and losses of old. Feeling any better? I hope so.
Theres alot more of the article, and you can read it in its entirety Here.