Some More Goodies

Gamer asks a little of everything:

I have a few questions about modules in general. I am new to the board and didn’t have much luck searching form the answers, (O’riley’s Webboard search algorithm leaves something to be desired) so sorry if these have been asked before.

1. I understand the concept of the multiplayer modules run on a server wither with or with out a DM, (which sounds great) but I am if users of the toolset will be able to make games/modules in the same style as the single player game that will ship with NWN. I mean I don’t always have a bunch of friends that to play with, nor do I always have the time to spend playing a long session with friends. I see doing multiplayer probably once a week at best. I am hoping that myself and others will be able to create solo adventures.

2. How is movement from area to area handled? Will there be hotspots like in older games that will bring you to the next area (like Fallout) or will there be an edge that once you reach it you click on it to go to the overland map. (like BG) Which leads me to another question… Will you be able to create an overland map with multiple cities and dungeons etc that are hotspots… How will movment over large areas and choices on place to go be presented to the players?

3. I understand that we will be able to create in engine cut scenes. I also understand that we cannot climb in the game. I am wondering if it would be possible to make a few climbing animations so that DM’s could at least simulate climbing. Here’s an example…
A party moves forward an comes to a chasm that happens to be a verticle entrance to a dungeon. There happens to be a rope going down to the bottom. Now I am guessing that we will be able to do a hot spot like once the players click on the rope or the chasm they load the next area. I know that they can’t actually climb, but it would be nice to show a cut scene, instead of just changing the scenery from grassland to dark cave.

1) Actually, the “single player” game you mention shipping with NWN isn’t; single player designed that is. It’s a multiplayer game that *can* be played solo. The game is designed to dynamically scale to match the number of players playing it, that includes the number “one” ;-). The only real difference with the single player game is that you will have more NPC hireling opportunities and that you’ll be able to pause the game without the DM doing it. So, to make a long story short, you can design modules for one player specifically, or set it to scale to meet the needs of varying numbers of players from one, up to as many as your server can support.

2)You may set up area transitions pretty much however you please. You can make a door a transition point, a single tile edge or the entire edge of the area. You can set up teleport points as well. Because NWN is a real time multi player/ multi party game there will not a be a overland map where you click and travel from point to point and time passes, this would cause players to get out of sync on the clock. When you cross a area transition you will merely step into the linked area on the other side immediately. Travel time will have to be directly controlled by a DM if it is desired.

3)Since the cutscene editor will use the game play content and there isn’t any climbing, I doubt they’ll include any extra climbing cutscene animations. After all, they would have to include an animation for all of the possible models to really make it “suspend disbelief”. That would take a rather large chunk of the artists’ time for a limited use feature. So, we’re probably going to have to rely on imagination in this case, and wait to see what we can do with camera angles in the editor mode….

Cord Grimwinder