Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update #10

Obsidian’s public relations manager Shane DeFreest has once again stopped by the official Neverwinter Nights 2 forums to provide us with a tenth community update for the game. The full post:

Well, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks here in NWN2 development land. Now that we are past the hurricane that was E3, the plan is to get back to some form of regularity as we get closer to launch. As many of you know, NWN2 was VERY well received at E3 and there has been a ton of new information hitting the internet just about every day since the show. But while E3 is now over, the month of activities and news on the game is not.

So, this week we’re going to try and load you up with information to help clear the air and set the record straight on a few things. The first being the DM Client. The DM client will not ship with the game in the box. We looked at a number of different scenarios and the best one that the team decided upon is to release the DM Client in full as a download the same day of the release. So while it will not ship in the box it will come out with the game. That’s the official word as of today.

Moving on to the official system specs – Yes, some comments were made at E3 regarding the system specs for the game. The previous comments were not necessarily incorrect as much as they were incomplete. Now, before we give you the current set of specs and supported cards, please bear in mind this may change somewhat prior to launch. But as of today here are the current system specs and supported video cards:

Recommended:
– 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
– 1GB System Ram
– ATI Radeon X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:
– Windows XP
– 512MB System RAM
– 2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
– 128MB Direct3D compatible video card with DirectX 9.0c compatible driver
– CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
– 4.6GB free hard disk space
– DirectX 9.0c (included)
– DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
– Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework for toolset (included)
– Broadband connection for multiplayer online play
– Keyboard, Mouse

Supported Video Cards:
– ATI Radeon X1900 series
– ATI Radeon X1800 series
– ATI Radeon X1600 series
– ATI Radeon X1300 series
– ATI Radeon X850 series
– ATI Radeon X800 series
– ATI Radeon X700 series
– ATI Radeon X600 series
– ATI Radeon X300 series
– ATI Radeon 9800 series
– ATI Radeon 9600 series
– ATI Radeon 9500 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 7900 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 7600 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 7300 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 6500 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series
– NVIDIA GeForce 6100 series
– NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 series
– NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 series
– NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 series
– NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 series

We know this is a lot of information to digest so and we’re going to give the community an opportunity to talk directly with the development team sooner rather than later. Our friends at Neverwinter Vault and Neverwinter Connections are co-hosting this months developer chat with the Obsidian team. The chat will be Thursday May, 25th at 6:00 PM PST. IRC info is as follows:

IRC server: chat.neverwinterconnections.com
Channel: #NWVAULT_NWC_CHAT

Lastly, this week we end Charles Mead and J.E. Sawyer wrap up our crafting Q&A. Next update we will get to your questions on the single player campaign.

Enjoy!

-Shane

1) Will it be possible to make a living from non-magical crafting (i.e. will there still be profit when selling crafted normal items)?

CMM: This will depend on how the components are acquired and to who crafted items are sold. Some components can be found, others must be bought. The weapons you craft can be sold to merchants, but the price they fetch will vary. A clever and persistent crafter should be able to turn a nice profit on his wares.

2) I’ve seen allot of basic crafting questions, but will the Item Creation Feats be included for spell casters? Scribe Scroll, Craft Wand and Brew Potion were nice late additions for NWN1, but the pricing of magic items was way off the mark and either grossly low or overinflated.

JES: Yes, the core (spell storage) devices will all be in NWN1-style. However, we are reviewing the pricing of those items and adjusting them to be more reasonable.

3) Will crafting traps work in the same manner as in NWN1 where you have a set list of traps and used obscure items like Quarts Crystals as components to craft them? Or will we have a more flexible system where the loot that you pick up during play like weapons or wands can be used to craft traps?

JES: You will use obscure items to make traps and they must be crafted at a workbench, NWN2-style.

4) Will crafting require the players to invest skill, or will we be (in the OC) able to hire ‘craftsman’ to make items as part of the stronghold system. Followup: In either case, how will the ability (or either NPCs in the stronghold or the PC) to churn out items be restricted? Through experience point loss, gold piece cost, or time elapsed (perhaps items started in one chapter are not available till the next chapter)? Or (as in the D&D rules) a combination of all three.

JES: In the OC, it’s up to the PC to craft items. A finite amount of (base) items for crafting are distributed throughout the game and gathering more requires a significant amount of work. Of course, NWN1-style spell storage items simply take gold and XP.

5) Will crafting cover none trade skills such as herbalism, making of medicine/first aid kits, none essential cosmetic items, etc and if not, how easy will the system be for builders to modify it to include such items, or exclude selected craftable content they don’t wish to use?

JES: Alchemy covers some of the non-magical items in the books. It would certainly be very easy for builders to modify the formulae as they see fit to create all sorts of items.