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Attendees:
Will you ever include a /emote text function so players can have custom emotes displayed differently from normal text?
We have a strong desire to support a custom emotes system. But we have a number of other items on the priority list first. All features go onto the live features list and they get sorted by priority and time to implement.
Are there any plans to implement systems that allow PWs to be more persistent? Such as an SQL interface or the ability to read from a file?
We are interested in giving all module creators access to some sort of permanent data storage. We are investigating a number of different ways, but we have no concrete plans, nor an ETA right now. Its not just PWs that would benefit, but module creators that are doing a continuing story line, too.
What are Bioware's plans for saving variables on characters and not being able to update servers? While this is not a main concern for everybody, for PW builders it is very important.
Our hope is *IF* we can get the database support in the database will be the place to store all data.
Given the Witchwork series is likely to continue for some time and is already looking good, have you other NWN developments running parallel to this?
At this point, I'm the only designer on the Live Team. We've discussed some other ideas that we'd like to pursue but it will depend largely on whether or not we can justify adding another designer to the team.
Are there plans to include more tilesets? (desert , winter , etc)?
The Live Team is looking into adding a tile in a future update. Creating a new tileset is not a trivial thing and we don't have an ETA nor have we picked what Tile to do. Tilesets along with creatures are some of the most requested things to be produced either by the Live Team or in any possible expansion packs that may come out. You can be sure that if plans move forward for any kind of expansion to NWN they will include a new Tileset. Details do not exist right now but it is far too large a demand to ignore. It is, however, a huge amount of time and resources and may be beyond the Live Team's abilities to do a completely new Tileset.
What's the word on custom voice sets for monsters and henchmen?
We don't have a pretty way of supporting them right now, but this ties into our goal of improving the custom content end. Right now you can find out the file names and override existing sets, but there is no pretty way to add sets
Any plans to make it possible (even though it'd obviously be unsupported) to make it so it's possible to create custom races/spellcasting classes?
With regard to custom races and classes we don't have any plans to support them. Right now we are having a hard enough time keeping custom content straight without allowing major rules / character modifications.
Does Bioware have any intention of making an ITP/GUI/etc editor, or will I have to actually get mine working?
I'm afraid you'll have to get yours working. Our internal tools are quite ugly on the gui side. I Wouldn't want to inflict them on anyone, even new Bioware employees. That and some of our Tools are tied to local network resouces and won't work outside our walls. Please make your editor.
Could any of you shed some light on how the shadow algorithems work? We've had some problems with both architecture and skinmeshes.
The shadow algorithm in our engine works by calculating the edges of an object based on the light angle. We didn't get into a lot of the issues with skinmeshes as they were added late in development. The important this is your object is sealed and doesn't have any non-manifold edges (if it passes an STL check in Max the mesh should work). I know this isn't a great explanation, but I can't really go into detail here.
How has all the amazing work and mods done by the NWN community inspired and/or effected you? Did you ever think some of the things being done would be possible or happen so fast after release?
I think that I have seen it all as far as what people will come up with but there is always something crazy that shows up. Seeing all this great stuff has gotten me very interested in attempting to pick up the scripting side of things. Your options ramp up a 1000% when you can do even simple scripting. We all were standing around Robin's computer looking at Mr.X's tree city tiles. Really amazing stuff. The speed at which stuff shows up used to amaze me... now I'm spoiled I guess and expect things to be developed instantly out there. :)
The NWScript API seems to be missing a large number of functions, for instance the ability to find out the magnitude of a damage resistance effect. GetResRef was added in 1.25. Are more functions going to be added in the near future?
The scripting language is a work in progress. We will continue to add features and extend the language as the needs come up. There are some limits to the scripting language access to rules specific data. We tried to make the language as open and powerful as possible, but some functionality is coded into the engine and isn't accessable from scripting.
Seeing how the community has developed towards the NWN game to provide a gaming experience that is much closer to the Pen and Paper DND 3rd Edition rules, what is your point of view about this? Will future expansion pack(s) move towards the Pen and Paper DND 3rd Edition rules? Or?
I think it's important to distinguish between the active NWN community and the larger NWN market. For the community, which is largely the Live Team's domain, we're definitely wanting to push the Pen & paper angle as much as possible. With the help of some of the prominent DMs in the community, I'll be working hard to make the Witchwork series is DM friendly. As for potential future expansion packs, those decisions will have to be made by the dev teams responsible. Perhaps it will be a priority, perhaps they'll focus more on the traditional single-player cRPG experience.
Are there plans to make an expansion dedicated to adding small, new, commoner like animals, and are there any plans to add in Rideable horses that both Creatures, and Players can ride?
While we don't have ridable horses in the works at this point but there are plans for new creatures to be released by the Live Team. Kobolds and the Malar Panther are two examples from 1.25. We've got more in the works, some of which include small, common animals. Riding is a much huger issue, however, and not something likely to be addressed by the Live Team directly.
Now looking back on the work was done, what would you guys do differently in developing NWN, and what have you learned during the process of its creation?
I would get the programming done a lot earlier. I would also sleep more during the development ;-) We'd keep Dups away from the paint fumes. I learned there is a real limit to parallel tasking. Only so many people can touch something at one time without breaking it.
Any plans to allow auto-download from a server of custom content (including player pics, hak-pak equivalents)?
Auto downloading of Haks is one of the things we are looking at for a future live team release. We want to improve the whole custom content experience but it will take us a fair amount of time as we are quite limited in terms of resources.
There is still the question of how to convert DDS graphic files into something Photoshop can read - the DDS plugin that is available doesn't support the DDS files that come out of your tool.
For us the creation of certain files (like DDS files) is a one way process. We might be further ahead by releasing a template of the source file. We still have some issues to sort out though.
What are the Future plans for this community, as Bioware sees it?
The future of the community really depends on what people ultimately end up using NWN for. We can make predications, and we do, but since we find something surprising everyday it gets hard to predict what the community as whole will do. Right now we would like to move into seeing where a need will soon develop and jump on it instead of just reacting. I would love to see more coordination between talented people to produce larger more professional-quality content. I think that is a natural extension of what we are seeing now. Larger teams getting together to produce something. And eventually monkeys. Lots of monkeys.
What's the word on the Linux client?
Underway. As the Linux folks know we have a page dedicated to bringing them weekly updates. We have shuffled a few resources around recently so a few schedules got changed but the work continues. As for when it will be done- not sure. I have taken the screenshots myself so it's working fine thus far.
Do you plan the encounters to be able to pick creatures with CR30 or more, it seems stuck to CR27 at most?
Bloody hell man!!! What do you need CR 30 or better creatures for? Seriously this will change in the mid term future. As we need tougher critters to kill off the players.
What new features of the toolset are you guys working on at this moment?
We are working on a farily large feature for the toolset right now, but we can't really offer any details yet. Before we talk about it I really want it to work ;-)
If you had to put a rough estimate on the amount of time required to produce a 10-hour long module that had the same level of gameplay and "polish" that your Official Campaign had, what would that estimate be?
Hmm. For Witchwork, I'm estimating about a month of development for a 2-3 hour module. But my estimates of gameplay length are usually a little short. Level of polish is also a very ambiguous thing. For instance, I'm trying to create something that's more polished and focused than the OC had been. We'll see if I succeed or not, but that could also explain some of my extra time. But in general, we have 5-10 designers working on different aspects of the official campaign and we created it in maybe 6 months from engine solidity to design lockdown. A hard thing to judge.
The first step for pushing the Pnp angle in NWN wouldn't be to add some auto-pause feature (as in BG)? What do you think?
Maybe. I like the idea of having the DM do the pause. We figured with only controlling one player it is possible to do things at a faster pace. There would be issues with building a robust system which allowed each character a turn
Will Bioware do a Gamasutra/Game Dev Mag postmortem?
Yup. Matter of fact it is done and going into print fairly soon.
What do you think of the proliferation of adult-themes in NWN mods?
I believe that adult themes can have a place in entertainment. There's a substantial portion of our audience that is in the over-20 age range after all. For me, I'm not a fan of gratuitous adult themes (I really dislike the fact that we've included prostitutes in every single product we've released except MDK2... ;o) But, if used responsibly, I think they can lend a lot of depth to a story.
Is Bioware fixing/fixed some exploits with servervault that allows people to spawn items or level up with every feat from local 2da changes?
We've identified this as a major issue for the Live team. The problem is where the fix lies in code. A fix has the potential to really break things, so we have to tread lightly and spend a good deal of time verifying the fix doesn't cause any issues. We really strive to support the game with our live effort and we really regret when something doesn't get fixed properly or in a timely manner.
Will there be future games developed for the Linux platform or is NWN the last?
We have not announced any plans for future Linux titles...but we're not ruling it out either :-) The market is a hard one for Linux titles at the moment. We had to really push to support Linux with NWN. It is still an uphill fight. I really hope we can do further Linux support in the future, but that's just me.
Does Bioware intend to include the content contained in the Epic Level Handbook?
The Epic levels look very cool and it is somewhere I'd really like to go.
