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Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update June 20th, 2007 Another busy week has gone by. Since the last update, we have been playing on the 1.06 patch. Things are definitely improving and I am sure many of us are thankful for the undo functionality added to the toolset. [Edit: I was just sent a PM from JasonNH on the Bio Boards. Unfortunately, there appears to be an issue where Undo removes water. This was not reported in the beta, so some investigation is underway. New information: This is fixed in later builds. - Rob]. This week, we are going to talk about a new DM Client feature, the Model/Animation viewer, a couple toolset improvments, some great mods by Heed and Charlie and a little bit about the Red Wizard of Thay class in the expansion. DM Client Facelift One of the areas we have spent considerable time on for the 1.07 patch is the DM Client. In this first pass we are trying to get the DM Client to be useable for DM-led events and adventures. For 1.07 you should see console commands accessible, a new UI for changing players' alignments, and notes will be visible in the creator (The stuff between the {} brackets in the toolset) among many other changes. We have also added a new feature to the Player List for DMs. This new feature will allow you to apply a filter to your Player List to only show the players you want to see. That means, say you are a DM on a server with 60+ players; you can select the players in the event you are running and filter your Player List to only show those few players. Here's a screenshot to illustrate The shot above is a picture of a Work In Progress. The portrait on top will be the portrait of your DM Avatar. It will always remain at the top. The two buttons below the portrait are for showing the selected players and showing all the players. The pic also shows the checkboxes for selecting the players. Model/Animation Viewer By now, those of you that have been using the toolset should have seen the new Model & Animation Viewer plugin included with the 1.06 patch. This tool is leading the way for the Granny export tools that will allow Custom Content Creators to create custom animations for creatures and objects. The Animation Viewer will allow you to see what animations are available for each model, frames and much more. Toolset Improvements Coming up in the 1.07 patch we'll see a few more toolset improvements. Two of those improvements are the ability to switch between male & female models in the Armor Set tab for armor properties, and the other is the SetLightActive script that will allow modders to turn lights on and off through script - without having to create and destroy them all the time. Heed's PC Tools Heed's PC Tools is a GUI driven suite of tools allowing player characters to perform a variety of functions. The majority of the functionality will likely be of most interest to those playing multiplayer games. PC Tools allows players access to common functions such as saving the character, displying an "AFK" visual effect, checking the game date/time, unsticking the character from unpathable locations, creation of campfire or tent objects, a full emote studio including visual effect props such as mandolin, flute, shovel, rake, etc., a dice roll pane for rolling standard die rolls as well as ability, save and skill, 9 custom buttons for end user addition of functionality -- and more! The interface is collapsable down to a core element which can be left open on screen by the player without excessive obscuring of the available screen space. Further minimization can be done so that entire menu collapses into a single icon. Charlie's Item Appearance Changer Tired of your gear looking like everyone else's? Change it! Charlie's Item Appearance Changer is a UI-driven system that allows you to select from a range of item appearances for your visible equipment! It can be installed for use in the official campaign, or added to your new module or online world. You can preview different armor, weapons, cloaks, helms, boots, gloves and shields. Both Heed's PC Tools and Charlie's Item Appearance Changer are available on Neverwinter Vault. The Red Wizard of Thay In the expansion, we are including the Red Wizard of Thay prestige class. This long-awaited class is a very welcome addition for me, and I am sure it is for many of you too. So, I thought I'd take a moment to go over the Red Wizard and how it's implemented. Requirements: The Red Wizard prestige class requires that you be human and have any non-good alignment. You must have 8 ranks in the Spellcraft skill and at least one metamagic feat or item creation feat (other than scribe scroll). Other feats you must have are Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration, too. On top of all that you must be a specialist wizard with the ability to cast at least 3rd level arcane spells. Class Features: The Red Wizard uses the d4 Hit Die, just like a normal wizard and has a low base attack bonus (BAB). Her high save is Will. Red Wizards gain no armor or weapon proficiencies and gain 2 skill points, plus intelligence modifier, per level in skill points. The special features a Red Wizard gains are as follows (not listed in any particular order): 1. Red Wizards continue to gain spells per level as though gaining a level in Wizard. 2. Enhanced Specialization: Upon becoming a Red Wizard, the character becomes even more skilled at casting spells from his chosen school of specialization. 3. Specialist Defense: A Red Wizard gains a bonus to defending against schools from his specialist school. 4. Spell Power: The Red Wizard's effective caster level for determining level-dependent variable checks is increased by +1. 5. Wizard Bonus Feat: Red Wizards gain a bonus metamagic or item creation feat. Unfortunately, we were not able to implement the Red Wizard's ability to perform Circle Magic for the expansion. Given the time we had, and the complexities involved, we felt it would be better for everyone if we spent time on other features for the expansion. Even with this in mind, the class is great fun to play... and... well... who doesn't want to be a Red Wizard? For more information and background on the Red Wizards, checkout their Wikipedia Entry. Persistent World Spotlight Each week, we would like to do a spotlight on a different Persistent World in each Community Update. I invite all of your Persistent World admins and owners out there to write up a small description of your world and to go over its high points. You also should include a section that answers the question "Why would I want to play on this server?" This will be a great opportunity to really "sell" the virtues of your PW to all those players out there. You can PM your write-ups to me here on these boards. Next week, we will be taking a quick look at The Frontier. That's about it for this week's update. It would have been up earlier today, but I just wanted to be able to tell you that stealth and perception should be greatly improved with 1.07. In essence, it works like it did in NWN1, but there may need to be some adjustments due to the Companion system. Tschuz!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update June 13th, 2007 NWN2 Game Update Version 1.06 Released! That's right, the 1.06 game patch has been released. French-language users may have a little trouble downloading the patch. You can download the patch from the NWVault Official Patches page while we work on a fix. As always, we want to hear about any issues caused by the patch. You can let us know here, in the announcement thread on the Bioware forums. We Have a Winner! Congratulations to jclef, the winner of our first mod-making contest for NWN2. His module, Grimm Brigade, was a lot of fun to play and very original. But, I have to say, competition was pretty tough and the results were quite close. Second place goes to Maerduin for The Birthday and third place goes to Death Quaker for The Rampion Champion. As I said, judging was quite difficult. We looked at a lot of different things: story, originality, polish, custom content, technique, fun factor and generally just how much effort seemed to go into the building of the modules. All of them were quite good. Some were confusing or didn't really follow the theme of the contest, so they received lower scores. But, overall I think the contest went well and the modules submitted were great! jclef, you should be receiving a tarnished spoon, some Macaroni & Cheese and an old bit of pocket lint as your prize pretty soon. Oh yeah: it is being send C.O.D, so make sure you have $15.95 to cover the shipping expenses. Fan Art Contest So now it's time to announce the next contest! With the fun we had with the mod-making contest, we thought we would hold a contest for the non-builders. The best one we could think of will be a Fan Art contest. This contest will go a little longer than the mod-making contest and there will be two main categories. The first category is Your Favorite NWN2 Companion (Khelgar, Neeshka, etc.) or NPC (Lord Nasher, Wolf, etc.). The second category is Your Favorite Creature or Monster in NWN2. All art must be two-dimensional and will be uploaded to NWVault. The exact location will be announced shortly in the NWN2 General Forums as will any size limitations or specifications. The rules are basically the same as for the mod-making contest. The deadline for entries will be July 31st at noon Pacific Time (GMT -8 hours ). All work must be your own original artwork. Artwork will be judged by Obsidian and the Community. Entrants are limited to a maximum of two pieces of artwork per category (4 pieces total). By entering, you are making your artwork available for Obsidian's and public use with NWN2 at no cost. I can't wait to see the talent we have in the community! Bridges Everywhere! I just saw this: TD Mephisto has some great bridges now on NWVault! You can check them out here. That's about it for this week's update. Hope you found the information interesting.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update June 7, 2007 For this week's Community Update, we'll take another look at some of the great community creations out there. NWN2 Community Representatives In Europe Working with Atari Europe, we are expanding the Community Representative program to Europe. Currently, we are testing the system with the French-speaking part of the community and, if all goes well, we should be expanding it to other languages as well. We have a great bunch of people out there as Community Reps: Zantigui, mostal, argyl, Elynehil and Drakolight. You can find many of them in our Community Rep IRC channel, and they have started an IRC channel for French-speaking Community members as well. Item Modification Made Easy Normally if you want a special item in game you have to find a store that sells it. Chances are that unless you are after something fairly common you will have to settle for something that is only close to what you want. Module designers must specify every item that goes into a store, so making a mod that is suitable for the many classes (and races) can be daunting. Instead of this approach, Charlie's Item Modifier gives you a dynamic approach to item design. The player can specify what properties she wants on an item. Much work is taken off the module builder and the player gets a wide choice of equipment, to suit any style of play. Charlie's Item Modifier uses a custom UI, which is much more powerful than other conversation based item modifiers. You can see what properties your proposed item has, the level required to use it, and how much it will cost to make. You can continue to make changes until you are happy with the result, before confirming any changes and committing your hard won gold. You can find Charlie's Item Modifier on NWNVault. Patcha's Custom Rest System This custom rest system will expand your roleplay enjoyment. It includes systems for resting, praying and studying! The system is activated by using objects, such as the old widget system we had in NWN1. Per Patcha's comments, the english may be a little rough, so contact Patcha on the Bioware Forums if you want to help out with translations. Patcha's rest system can be found here, on NWVault. Placeable Weapons Kivinen has spent quite a bit of time to bring us this great set of placeable items. This hak pak has lots of item models converted to placeables with several different orientations. There are orientations for hanging things on the wall (dn, up, dw, uw), leaning weapons etc against wall (dl, ul), and putting them flatly on the ground (fl). This can be used to replace the boring loot sacks with base item type specific model on the ground. You can find Kivinen's Placeables hak pak right here, on Neverwinter Vault. That's about it for this week. Unfortunately, I have no secrets to tell this time, but hopefully I should be able to sneak in and get something for next week. Have Fun!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update Welcome back to another Community Update. Today we are going to spend a little time talking about the 1.07 patch. Of course, I can't give everything away, but I will give you a little peek into what's coming up. NWN2 Worlds Down? You may have noticed that the Persistent World-focused site NWN2worlds.net has been down for the last few days. Strauss is in the middle of moving and assures me his site will be up and running again shortly. If you haven't checked it out already, the site is about Multiplayer and Persistent Worlds in Neverwinter Nights 2. I have a feeling he may have an interesting Dev Q&A posted when he comes back online too. Hellfire at it Again The guys at Robinson Workshop have been working on their sewer tileset some more. Here's a few screenshots to drool over: And my favorite, not related to sewers; what looks to be a really tall tower. Buff and Rebuff Tired of casting all your buffs over and over again? LostCreation has created this little UI Enhancement to make your wiggling fingers do some resting. This UI mod allows you to basically record your buffs and play them back again easily. A Peek Behind the Curtain As many of you know, the DM Client has been a weakness of NWN2. When we released the game, we released it as a beta with the intention of working with the community to give them a DM Client the way they want it. We wanted to fill the gaps that DM had with NWN1 and incorporate some of the features that were made available through the use of the DMFI tools. In essence, we wanted to create a more fully functional DM Client with NWN2. Obviously we ran into a few roadblocks. The release of the game didn't quite go as we hoped as compatibility issues came roaring at us. So, unfortunately, that left us dealing with some serious issues in the game. We knew the DM Client needed work, but there was just never enough time to actually focus on it. We tried to give some other small fixes that would not require a full review of a system, as the DM Client would, in the meantime. So, for the DM Client, we sat down in a chat with some of the community members and got their input on some of the issues with the DM Client. It was a great meeting and we received a lot of great suggestions. We are hoping to get as many of those suggestions in as we can, in the time allowed, but I am sure we will not see all the fixes in one patch. But, until then, here's some of the fixes that we should see in 1.07. As a reminder, some of this may be a work in progress and could change: * Hot keys on the numeric keypad should now work as intended. * Dead player characters will now appear on the chooser, and should be interactive. * The floating text from DMs will no longer give away the DM's position. * DMs will move silently. * There will be an interface for setting a character's alignment And one thing I think you will all be happy about: Chat windows will be easily moveable (dragable), without resizing the windows. That should be about enough to hold you over until next week. I hope you've enjoyed this week's update. Remember, if you have anything you would like included in the community update, just send me a message on these forums, or the Bioware forums.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update May 16th and the year is flying by. Time for another update. There's been a lot of action on the vault lately. I'm going to focus on the player-made shtuff again for this update. Stained Glass Windows Ar_Pharazon has created a great hakpack with some stained glass windows. If you have been looking for that special touch for your church or cathedral building, here it is. Great work. Prestige Class Wizard Thankfully, this plugin was updated by its author, Ville Alasaari. This tool helps you to create custom Prestige Classes. Give it a try and provide feedback to the author. NWN1-style Lighting Effects If you miss the sparkling lights or the many colored spotlight effects that were in NWN1, Thomas_B has created a great set of visual effects that fill that gap. Vines Sometimes, it's the little details that make the mod. These vines, made by Camb (the same Camb that brought us the blood splatters in an earlier update), will surely add some life and detail to your mod. Check them out on the Vault. Fan Art I have a great appreciation for any Fan-made creations, be they mods, models, effects or Fan Art. I was browsing through the forums a while back and came across this great little piece of Fan Art by Lollu: Lollu goes by a different name on DeviantArt, but you can see more of Lollu's art here: Artist

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update Welcome back to the Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update. This week's update will be a little on the short side and delayed due to workload. Because of this I am adding a little secret surprise at the bottom of the page. I think it may be well worth the wait. Patch 1.06 Released as Beta On Monday we released the 1.06 patch as a beta to the community. It contains a lot of fixes and new features for the builders in the community, chief among them the addition of the terrain undo functionality. With this undo capability, you now have five levels of undo when working with terrain sculpting, texturing, water and grass. Other things you may find range from script additions for builders and DMs to a nice little toolset feature that allows you to create a blueprint out of a spawned in creature in the toolset. Slowly but surely, we are getting there. You can find the discussion for the patch here Journey to the Underdark Many of us have been watching Botumys' progress over the last few months as he worked on some Drow Cave settings and objects. Well, it looks like his work has made its way over to the vault. You can check it out here, in the blueprint prefab section of the vault. Oh yeah, here's a little picture of it as well. Secret Surprise So, the contents of this 3 MB RAR file you will need to download might give you a smile, or it might not. Based on your requests, we are working on something - in fact the object of the video is a work in progress - and I just wanted to show you that we are listening to you. The video was smuggled out of our development labs by a crack team of gnomish commandos, so the quality isn't that great, but I think you will get the picture. There are many more things in the works... this is only one of them. You will need FRAPS to view the video (http://www.fraps.com/download.php). So, here's the file: Surprise You can also try this link, if the first one doesn't work for you. Thanks to one of our IRC friends for the link. Well, I need to bring this week's update to a close. I will try to bring you a larger update next week. Have fun.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update Well, it's that time of week again, where I need to dig into the production list and scour the community for those things that may interest you. Mod-Making Contest Complete Monday was the last day for submissions to the mod-making contest. The theme for this contest was Grimm's Fairy Tales. We have quite a few submissions and, after playing a couple mods yesterday, I think the competition is going to be pretty fierce. The exteriors I have seen so far are nicely done and the storylines have been pretty fun. You can check all the mods for yourself here, on Neverwinter Vault. We will be playing through the modules this month and, hopefully, should be able to announce a winner at the beginning of June. Granny Gets Her Wings So, the Granny beta is moving along swimmingly - or should I say soaringly? We had a little breakthrough this week, but I think it would be best if you read the words of one of the beta testers, when he was motivated to experiment a bit, yourself: So he experimented a bit with placing some soaring birds in a module. The result was actually quite good. So much so, in fact, that it led the beta tester to say this: Oh.. you probably want to see the result too. Here you go. By the way, we hope to release the Granny tools with the 1.06 Final Version patch. Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover Your Vault tidbit for today is this little Book UI change. This UI mod, created by clubok, changes the UI to look like a book when you read one. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Sneak Peek at 1.06 The patch is currently in QA and we hope to have it out for beta testing pretty soon. So far, things are looking good, so hopefully we can get a beta out next week. Here's just a quick peek at what we have in there. Of course, this is not everything. -New texture for cliff faces -Five levels of Undo in the Toolset -The Flatten Tool has been made a little more flexible -Key commands have been added for the brushes in the toolset New Scripts functions: -SetLockKeyeRequired() -SetLockKeyTag() -SetLockLockDC() -SetLockUnlockDC() -SetLockLockable() -SetTrapActive() was fixed to work on Doors and Placeables as well as Triggers. -GetAreaSize() -Export Characters (single and all) That's about it for today's update. As you would guess, things are pretty busy here so see you all next week.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update Hello again, everyone. This week I thought I would dedicate the update to a few of the community works. Just a warning, though: There's a lot of screenshots in this one, so it may take a while to load fully. Formations, Formations, Formations (Not to be confused with the famous "Developers" speech, from a certain MS guy). Jasperre has been working on a great little AI script that allows for formations! After watching the video, I asked him if he wanted to write a little something up for the Community Update, and here it is: Granny Beta and Custom Content I know some of you have been waiting to see what the Granny beta has yielded. Here's a few examples to whet your appetite: RogueDao Strikes Again We have been following RogueDao Studios' work on their Planescape mod, Purgatorio, for quite a while. They have given me some screenshots I think you would all like to see (as a reminder, this is all work in progress)... Blood Effect And, on my travels through the vault, I found this great Blood Splatter effect by Camb. The screenshots are a little dark, but I think you'll get the picture. Next Week Be prepared for some 1.06 news!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update So, based on the feedback from the Bioware NWN2 forum, it seems we have been neglecting the news side of things. One of the issues is that we give out information in so many places, it's difficult to remember what information was given where. Hopefully we can change that with this Blog. Starting today, I plan on releasing some news every week, when there is news to give. If there is no news, I will probably post about some of the cool things I have seen in the community so that others can experience it to. So, without further a-do, here's the news for this week: Granny Beta Underway! That

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update Here we are with the second installment of the Community News. It's been a busy week, to say the least. Update to the 1.05 Game Update Update I think it's fair to say that the 1.05 patch has been my least favorite patch so far. Not because of content - the content of it is great - but because it has been a thorn in our side like no other. When we released the patch to everyone, a seemingly small issue was found that caused the toolset error out on startup. There was a small workaround for this, but that workaround may cause bigger issues in the log run. So, rather than take chances, we decided to pull the patch to find and fix the issue. This turned out to be more troublesome than originally expected. Thanks to Tanita for finding the workaround which led us to the core issue. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Announced! Well, our PR guy Shane let the big secret out: we are working on an expansion. As I am writing this, we are pretty far along in working on the expansion. You probably already know that it takes part mostly in Rashemen and that there are going to be a bunch of new textures, creatures and what-all in there. Check out Kevin Saunders' interview on Game Banshee as he lets some more secrets slip. I would tell you more, but Feargus is standing over my shoulder and - what? Get back to typing... right. Top Mods Translated to Spanish Neverwinteros.com and clandlan.net are taking an initiative to translate the best mods into Spanish. They're working right now with Pool of Radiance Remastered and the next will be Tragedy in Tragidor. Both mods are great fun, so if you haven't tried them, head over to The Vault and check them out. For the Spanish translations, Neverwinteros.com will be updating their progress on their website. HotTA PW Featured in UK Magazine The folks of the Persistent World Heroes of the Third Age, were recently featured with some single player mods in PC Gamer UK magazine. Not sure when it's hitting news stands, but it's still pretty cool. Way to go HotTA! You can check out the HotTA PW here, along with the article. Adam Miller's Dark Waters Released This is one of the mods we have been watching and waiting for since the toolset beta. I expect to be diving into it soon. You can find it on the vault here. Dark Waters is set in a world on the edge of change, recovering from a war that flooded all but the highest peaks. The Gifted that once ruled with the power of their minds are long dead, leaving the ordinary folk to struggle to survive. Where once only science held reign, now magic and faith seep into the world, changing everyone they touch. Other top modules you may want to check out are Tragedy in Tragidor and Pool of Radiance Remastered. New Textures Lord Sullivan has uploaded some new and reworked textures to the vault. You can get his texture pack here. The pack contains snow, beach sand and a couple great cobblestone textures. I really encourage those of you new to modding to check out NWVault. There's a lot of great stuff out there made by the community already. Here's a few places to check there: Prefab Areas These are pre-made areas waiting for you to set them down in your mod. Exteriors and Interiors can be found in this section. Prefab Blueprints These are pre-made creatures and objects. Using these will speed up your building and make things a bit easier. Visual Effects Visual Effects made by community members. Would be great to see more of these, but the ones that are there now are pretty cool.