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Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update May 2, 2008 It's been a while since the last community update. As such, I thought I would give you a little teaser for some of the 1.13 patch notes, while I write the real Community Update. Please remember that this list is very much incomplete. Bug Fixes General The toolset and game now load hak files in the same order. Skills such as Search will no longer broadcast multiple messages to the chat window while in use. A single message will be displayed when turning the skill on or off. Multiplayer The chat channel will no longer revert to Local when a player transitions to a new area or module. DM Client Fixed an issue where DMs would not receive messages on the DM channel if they were filtering out the shout channel. The console command dm_setfaction will no longer cause crashes. Toolset The toolset and game now load hak files in the same order. Fixed an issue where you could not tint multi-selected tiles. Light spheres shall now display properly. Sound spheres shall now display properly. The creature cache in Area Properties shall now work as intended. Scripting The GetNextItemInInventory() script function should now work properly with stores. Custom Content The Skills.2da file will now accept up to 100 rows of data. New Features Multiplayer The chat system now has a /r command for replying to the last private message a player receives. After receiving a private message, the player can enter "/r" into the chat system which will automatically address a private message to the person that sent the previous private message. Toolset The ItemPropertyActivationPreference property for items is now accessible through scripting. Scripting A SetCollision(object oTarget, int bCollision) function has been made available. This will allow builders and DMs to turn the collision of a creature or placeable object on or off dynamically. This function is only useful on creatures/players/placeables that already have collision and will set collision to NONE if called on an object that never had collision in the first place. A GetCollision(object oTarget) function has been added. This function will return the collision Boolean for an object. The ItemPropertyActivationPreference property for items is now accessible through scripting. A GetBicFileName function has been made available. This function will return the file name of a .bic file in a server vault. New List Box functionality has been added to the game. This includes the following script commands: --ClearListBox --AddListBoxRow --RemoveListBoxRow --ModifyListBoxRow A SetScrollBarRanges(object oPlayer, string sScreenName, string sScrollBarName, int nMinSize, int nMaxSize, int nMinValue, int nMaxValue) function has been added to the game. This function will allow you to set custom values to a scrollbar. A SetFactionLeader(object oNewLeader) function has been added to the game. This allows you to set a companion to be the speaker in a conversation. A GetFirstSubArea(object oArea, vector vPosition) function has been added to the game. This function lets you iterate over the

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update December 7, 2007 Hello again! For this update we will talk about some changes, a custom mod and some community works. Monty is Assimilated! Well, more like he has come to the Dark Side. Monty Markland has come to work for Obsidian Entertainment. "Who is this Markland guy," you ask? He was the head of the Community Modding group Rogue Dao Studios - the makers of that great Purgatorio mod we have all been watching so closely. So, to ease your fears about this change, while we fit him for his cybernetic eye and re-designate him as 110 of 110, I held Monty at gunpoint to get him to write this little message to you all: That really seems like his writing, right? Cool. We welcome Monty to the hive and look forward to the food he brings us. Harp & Chrysanthemum - A Custom Module by Maerduin Harp & Chrysanthemum is a custom mod created by Maerduin. While you are reading his summary below, you can start downloading the mod here.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update December 21, 2007 This is the last Blog for 2007. As we bring a busy year to a close, we'll take a look at a cool product, some shuffling in the Purgatorio team, an excellent modification to the game, another great tileset from the RWS guys and an update on the 1.12 patch progress. An Interesting Product Normally, I wouldn't be on here talking about other products, but we have been having some fun with this one, so I thought I'd share. Matrox has created a hardware device that allows you to connect three monitors to combine them into one big monitor. Here's a shot of our test system showing what it's like: You can find out more by visiting Matrox's website here: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/surroundgaming/en/home/ Additions to the Purgatorio Team So, with Monty coming over to Obsidian Entertainment, they apparently needed to bring on a herd of new people to fill his shoes on the Purgatorio Team. The folks at Rogue Dao have assimilated Baron and Hellfire and have started putting them to the whip to help finish up their Planescape mod. I know all of these guys will be great additions to the team. Crafting Mod in Progress For NWNX4 Carter DC has created a great system for crafting in NWN2 - much like the old NWN1 Crafting System that was made available in one of the expansions. This system will allow you to change and re-color your armor/clothing and much more! You can check it out here on Neverwinter Nights 2 Vault. New Concept from Robinson Workshops The guys at Robinson Workshops have come up with a new concept for their tileset work: Pocket Tilesets. Their newest entry on NWVault, Pocket Citadel, includes an explanation of this new concept: Along with this new concept, the guys at RWS have released their first pocket tileset - the Pocket Citadel. "Originally envisioned as an expansion to the Deep Halls Tileset but it gre to the point where it seemed to make more sense to release it on its own. It follows a more dwarven feel than the Deep halls set." You can find this great tileset here on the NWVault. 1.12 Progress Just a little update on the 1.12 patch. As you know we are attempting to move forward with a new patch process. Some of those changes are a shorter development cycle to allow us to get the patches out to you faster, and a closed beta period where some community members can get a sneak peek at the patch and provide some feedback for fixes and changes. As we release more patches, the process will continue to evolve and improve. The patches themselves will evolve along the way as well. Today, I will bring you the first changes to the 1.12 patch as we remove some items from the list to make room for some other, more urgent fixes. Looking at this list, I still feel it is extremely ambitious, so it may get cut down a bit more. We are also still gathering feedback from the 1.11 patch and Hotfix, ,which will probably alter the list a little more. We are still finalizing things and development on this patch should be starting around mid-January. Well, that brings this Blog to an end. From all of us at Obsidian: Happy holidays to all of you and best wishes in the new year! See you next year!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update February 1, 2008 Just a quick update on the patch progress today since I was out of office for a week+. I will be going through the volunteers for the closed beta next week, so you may receive an e-mail or PM from me. I think next week I will give another update and include some community content and perhaps a PW spotlight, for those of you that have been missing that. So, without further delay...

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update August 8, 2008 Well, it's been a long time since I have done an update. I have been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to research anything for the community works section, but I wanted to come here and fill you in on some of the progress we have been making. If you haven't heard already, we have an expansion in the works. Yes, it's true! The expansion (which we refer to as NX2) is titled Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir. With this expansion we will be doing some things that haven't been done in a Neverwinter game before. Things are moving along pretty well on NX2. We just hit Alpha and we are pressing on to Beta, with a few internal milestones in between. One of the cool things to happen with NX2 is that the Snake & Skull image will appear on the box. This is the first time a full-color image will appear on the box art for a Neverwinter Nights game. The team has been working hard on some great improvements to the game. Probably the biggest of these improvements is the Overland Map system. In previous incarnations of NWN2, players warped around the world by selecting nodes on a 2d map. In many ways this broke the immersion of the game. With SoZ, players will negotiate their way around the world through the use of the overland map - which has a special UI done by Jay Bakke and Nathaniel Chapman to further set the map apart as a different section of the game. I expect you will be seeing more screenshots of this after GenCon. One of our goals with NX2 is to make some of the less utilized skills more meaningful. The overland map really helps support this goal by presenting the player with a lot of random monster, treasure, dungeon and quest spawns - many of which will only be encountered by characters with certain skills and feats. For instance, characters with a high enough score in the Listen skill will be rewarded with a "hissing box" encounter. If you have enough points in the Disable Device skill you will be rewarded with a trap encounter, where the parts of the trap can be recovered and sold. Another new set of features are the party creation and party conversation systems. Like the overland map, the party creation system is a groundbreaker for the Neverwinter franchise: For the first time, players will be able to create their party of four completely from scratch in a Neverwinter Nights game, with the same character creation capabilities as you have for your own player character. We will round the party out occasionally with a couple story-based companions, but the created party will be the core of the game. To go along with the party focus, Anthony Davis has been hard at work implementing the Party Conversation system. This new feature will expand the party-based feel of the game by allowing players to capitalize on the skills and backgrounds of the entire party, not just the party leader, as in previous NWN2 and NWN1 titles. Based on each character's skills and background, different conversation options will be available simply by selecting a different party member's portrait in the conversation. Something else we are doing with NX2, that hasn't really been done in a while with CRPGs is we will be recording a lot of the music from a live orchestra. Unfortunately I don't have any samples to share with you now, but we are talking about making a track or two available, just like we did with Mask. I am pretty excited about the changes and features Storm is bringing to the franchise. From box art to gameplay the game is evolving. Finally, I will finish this update off with a compilation of the E3 coverage for NX2: "Set for release this fall, Neverwinter Nights: Storm of Zehir looks like a solid, game-evolving expansion to the series." - GameZone Video Interview with Matt Rorie Crispy Gamer Article GameSpy Article Thunderbolt Preview GameZone Preview IGN Preview Gaming Nexus Preview The fine print: As this game is still in development, features and functionality may change or be removed before release.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update April 1, 2008 Hello everyone, Today's update is kind of special. We have a great announcement to make and I just couldn't wait until later. NWN2 Expands to the Wii That's right, Neverwinter Nights 2 will soon be available on the Wii! We have been working on this since the release of NWN2 and we are really happy to see it come out soon. It has taken a lot of work and a very dedicated and talented team of developers, but we are finally coming to the end of that project. We just wanted to share it with you here first. Unfortunately, I can't show you any pictures yet - we are still under an NDA - but I was able to get permission to talk about it a bit - though what I can say is limited. Moving the game to the Wii has presented us with a lot of opportunities to integrate the player into the gameplay - and you may have seen some of this in the 2da changes we have been making and talking about. One of the coolest things was the expansion of many of the skills to include some of the kinesthetic aspects of the Wii such as when you need to churn butter to use the new cooking skill or when you have to actually stir a potion to make one. Spellcasting has also gotten more interesting as you have to actually make precise casting motions with your hands in order to cast an arcane spell, or kneel on a dance pad to "pray" for divine spells, or even scribe a pentagram in the air with the wiimote in order to unleash the power of a warlock invocation. It raises spellcasting to a whole new level. Feargus offers this on the move: We even changed certain elements of the original campaign to take advantage of the Wii's unique possibilities: In the tutorial, instead of a fighting match, you must now defeat the Mossfields in a game akin to Wii Sports Bowling to win the Harvest Cup. Additional Evil Sidequests allow you to beat Grobnar into submission using whipping gestures with the Wii remote. Also, with the change to 4E rules, gnomes will start with a gorgeous lair and a badger animal companion. Brandon Adler, Lead Production Tester, says this about the new gameplay elements: The game is planned to be released later this year, but is looking pretty good already. There will be special Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil editions released in Europe that will come with stylized white and black wiimote straps respectively. We will also be releasing the game in a special limited edition "Elminster" package that will come with a WiiStaff - a six-foot long replica of Elminster's magic staff that functions fully with the Red Wizard and Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep prestige classes. I hope to post some pics and more news on this later. April Fool's!

Neverwinter Nights Community Update March 28, 2008 Well, it seems I can't get to this blog in any sort of timely manner. Working on the patches has taken up much more of my time than I anticipated. Because of this, I am going to offer community members the opportunity to send in articles for the Blog. Your articles can be about anything NWN2-related. If there is a bit of Custom Content you like, a persistent world you are excited about, a module that seems fun and interesting, or anything else, and would like to share information about it with the rest of the community, just send the write up to me here via PM. If you would like to include screenshots or pictures, let me know and I will send you an e-mail address to send them to. Today's Update will cover a bit of the 1.13 patch, the MoW authentication delays, some community creations and the NWN2 Area Design Contest. 1.13 Patch Sneak Peek While we are still nailing down the 1.13 patch - the MoW Security work makes this difficult - I thought I would just give you a sneak peek at some of the fixes already planned for the 1.13 patch: The toolset and game will load haks in the same order Ability to tint multiple tiles while multi-selected Allow GetNextItemInInventory to work with stores The dm_setfaction command will no longer cause servers to crash Light and sound sphere sizes will be correct in the toolset Add get and set functions to access the ItemPropertyActivationPreference flag on items The Chat channel selected will remain persistent through area and module transitions Skills.2da will now allow up to 100 rows of data As always, items in the patch are subject to change as need and time dictates. I should be posting a more detailed list in the next couple weeks. We will be doing something a little different and making the lists and the progress updates available in different languages. Mysteries of Westgate Security System There has been a lot of craziness surrounding the MoW Adventure Pack release regarding the online authentication system that is being worked on. To help clear things up a bit, Keehwan Her from Atari has posted the following news in the Neverwinter Nights 2 Forum

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update February 29th, 2008. Being that today is the 29th of February, a slightly different day, I thought I would do something slightly different for today's Blog. For about two hours today Khaveen gathered questions from members of the NWN2 community then passed them on to me for answers. For various reasons, I was not able to answer all of them, but the vast majority are answered below. I am also going to announce a new contest for the NWN2 community. NWN2 Area Design Contest I am happy to announce the next contest for the Neverwinter Nights 2 Community. This contest will be an area design contest. You do not have to put in creatures or encounters, this is simply a contest for the most beautiful areas. All work must be your own and the areas must be built and useable in the NWN2 Toolset. No plagiarism will be allowed. You can submit UP TO THREE (3) areas, packaged in a single module. Entries are to be submitted on the NWVault, under Area Prefabs for NWN2. There is a NWN2 Area Contest category you can submit them under. Areas can be any size, but they must be exteriors (larger areas are better, but not necessary). You can use custom content that is currently on the vault, or you can use custom content that is on the vault by the time the contest ends. Some of the things we will look at would be the best use of space, overall beauty and originality. The top two winners of the contest will receive a brand new Matrox TripleHead2Go Surround-Gaming module. You can start submitting your entries to the vault now and the contest will end on March 31st at midnight, Pacific time. As for the Custom Content contest, I am afraid that the accusations of plagiarism have made it impossible to judge this contest. As such, no prizes will be awarded for it and no winner will be announced. It is unfortunate, since the entries were all very nice. Community Q&A Q: What is the current estimated release date for the upcoming NWN2 Adventure Pack: Mysteries of Westgate? Ossian Studios is working on this project. They would have the best information available to answer this. Q: Atari's business release seems to have hinted at plans for a second expansion pack to NWN2. Any comment? We would love to work on a second expansion. Q: In which patch might we see a fix for the ActionSit() script? Would you consider using existing community hak work in it like Heed's ActionSit()? We have commented on this in the past. Basically, sitting is a lower priority for us than other functions and features in the game. That doesn't mean we will never fix it. I have just seen Heed's ActionSit on the Vault. I will need to check it out more but, if he is willing and it doesn't cause any issues, I might look into integrating it in a patch. Q: How far ahead do you plan when it comes to the patches? The 1.12 patch is currently in beta, so do you have plans in general what focus the 1.15 patch will have for example? How does that work? I have talked about this a bit in the past. I generally plan about three patches out (current patch +2 patches), but the plan stays flexible enough to change things if need be. With the 1.12 patch, there were some things reported by the community that seemed pretty important. We took a look at what we had planned for the patch and realized that we would need to bump some issues from 1.12, so we let community members decide which issues would get bumped. Q5: How many people are on the team that works on the NWN2 patches? We have a core team of about 5 people and we pull in any number of other people when we need them. Q: Was the Mask of the Betrayer expansion a financial success for Obsidian? MoTB did really well for an expansion. It was in the top ten in Europe for quite a while. Though an expansion will never do as well as the main title, we are pretty satisfied with how MoTB was received. Q: Are there any plans for further optimization of the NWN2 engine (load times, performance, graphics)? We are constantly making optimizations to the engine. Q: With the ability to have 2d player portraits, what are the various portrait sizes we need to have? 128 x 128 TGAs Q: After having changed the testing process with the 1.12 beta test, do you think the initial plan of targeting 6 weeks per patch cycle is still viable? Yes. 1.12 was sort of a test to see how much we could do in a given period. Thanks to some delays in the beginning, there is much more content in 1.12 than there will be in later patches - we just kept adding things in while we were waiting for something. After 1.12 is released, I think the smaller six-week patches is very possible. Q: Are there any cool new scripts planned to be added (or fixed or enhanced) in upcoming patches? Can you share any details? There's a couple I can tell you about. In 1.12 we will be making the ability to change the scale of an object available through scripting. Additionally, in 1.13, we will be adding a set of Get and Set Custom Heartbeat functions for both creatures and placeables. This is really powerful for things like custom AI and such... watch for more information on this as we get closer to 1.13. Q: Are you still planning to allow HAKs to load before the character creation? Any timing estimate for this? Currently we are planning that for the 1.14 patch. Q: Do you see Obsidian still supporting the NWN2 community in 2010 (patches, forums, etc.)? Unfortunately I forgot my magic 8 ball at home... Q: Are you planning on adding any base classes, either in an expansion or an adventure pack? If new classes get added, it would most likely happen in an expansion, not in a patch or adventure pack. Q: Will weather ever get fixed/fully implemented in the toolset? I want my raging blizzards and torrential rain falls. It's possible. Right now I am trying to keep us focused on issues that are more core to the game. Q: Is there any possibility that Hide in Plain Sight could be changed to have creatures hostile to the hider (say within 20m) automatically attempt to spot the hiding creature when he uses this ability? This would prevent creatures using HiPS from getting free sneak attacks against creatures that should be able to detect them during that time interval between their hiding and the creature's natural perception event. Creatures should automatically be attempting to spot invisible/hidden creatures. If they aren't, that would be a bug. Q: Is there any possibility that the bug with missile spells shredding spell mantles will be resolved as well as any fixes to the impossible-to-defend-against bigby spells (5 and 6)? It's always possible. As we go through the spell issues and take care of base functionality, we will be better able to address and add "new" functionality. Q: Would it be possible to get functions that would return the AB of creature's highest AB attack, as well a function to get the creature's AC by type (e.g., get its dodge AC or natural AC)? These functions would be invaluable to those of us who write custom AI scripts. I'll see what we can do. Q: Could we get the option to set a creature's school of specialization as well as its domain in the toolset blueprint editor? I'll see what we can do. Q: Will there be officially supported class balances (that is, like giving the Pale Master 9/10 spell progression or making wildshape/polymorph an effective playstyle)? I think things like this can be seen in the future. We have been talking a bit about changes to the Warlock class to balance it and make it a more interesting class to play. I would like to see changes to the Pale Master and Blackguard classes, myself. Q: Is retroactive 'tintability' going to happen (like making the brown bear black, for instance)? Perhaps I am not understanding the question. I believe you can tint a bear that has been instantiated (placed) already. Q: Will there be expanded functionality in the VFX editor? For instance, having 'locked' effects, like polar, but having the ability to change their angle (like cartesian effects). I do not think there are any changes planned for the VFX editor in the near future. Q: Are we going to see new models (placeables and creatures) added in patches, or will they be limited to 'paid products' only? We have a couple things in the works but, as you can guess, the legalities of including community-made content are difficult at best. Q: Do you plan to fix the GetNext*() bug with merchants soon? This is tentatively planned for 1.14, but this item may change as we progress through the patches. Q: Can we expect more fixes for the toolset? Yes. Specifically, we should see a fix for the multi-select crash issue in the 1.13 patch. Q: Are there any plans to add the scripting hooks that were added in later NWN1 patches (1.66 to 1.69 once 1.69 is final)? Yes. Q: When a new module is created, it is missing defaults for most of the module events. Could this be fixed to point to new default scripts (that are simple empty mains) for consistent module development? I'll see what we can do. Q: Could the Wildshape uses per day be incremented when a cutscene strips the effect off (one line code change for both MotB and the OC)? This sounds like a bug. I'll see if we can get this into one of the next couple patches. Q: Can Obsidian provide Tazpn (or anyone else) with any information that would help him with importing animations from .gr2 files? That feature is at a dead end and we could really use it. If Tazpn contacts me, I'll see what I can get to him. Q: is OEI aware of the CopyObject() problem when used with creatures? If so, is it on the Fix list? if not, what does OEI need from us to validate the problem? You would have to be a bit more clear as to what the problem is. Does it not work? Does it copy money and such? Q: There seems to be an issue creating mystic-theurge type prestige classes (seems to require the replacement of the harper agent PrC). Is OEI planning on addressing this (and other PrC class specific CC defects)? We would have to know more about this issue to address it properly. Q: Is OEI planning to implement the ability to create instant action feats (like elephant hide) in the near future? I was just talking to some people about this this morning. I can't promise that anything will be changed, but I am hopeful. That will bring an end to another Blog. Stay tuned for patch news next week.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update February 17, 2008 This week's Blog is dedicated to the fine folks over at the Neverwinter Nights Podcast. Apparently Jay has been missing the community content side of things. Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything on that, so today's Blog will focus mostly on that side of the community. We will also feature another Persistent World spotlight and talk a bit about the upcoming patch. Community Works RWS Pocket Cathedral The guys from Robinson Workshop have released their Pocket Cathedrals product! These guys have been working hard on a lot of architectural packs for NWN2 and this Cathedral pack is just another example of their quality work. You can find out more on NWVault here. BTH Shield Pack A great shield pack from Barry the Hatchet. You can find it here on NWVault. Wicked Leather One of the more difficult items to model for NWN2 is armor and clothing. nzdawghaus brings us some 'wicked leather' armor. You can find it here DMFI Bulletin Board Qkrch has released a great tool to integrate into your modules and persistent worlds. You can check it out on Neverwinter Nights Vault here Persistent World Spotlight: The Known Lands By Deider What is the world known to its inhabitants simply as The Known Lands? ... a world of islands, where continents are myth. These islands dot the Ebon Sea, and are home to mountain ranges with dwarven citadels, forests of elves and fey, and plains occupied by the nations of humans and other races.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update January 11, 2008 Quick update today as things are pretty busy with 1.12 getting underway... 3d Model Contest Just a quick update on the model contest. We received a lot of great entries. Unfortunately, many of those entries also came with the accusation of plagiarism. That means the entries have to be reviewed for authenticity, unfortunately this is proving difficult. I am now planning to announce the winners in February to give us time to review all the entries. 1.12 Patch News The patch is technically in a pre-production phase right now. We may need to do some work to prepare for Ossian's Mysteries of Westgate Adventure Pack and that is delaying the shift into full production phase. In the meantime, some progress has been made. As I said, this update would be short. I plan to do another update next week with a bit more info and our regular community works section.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update November 21, 2007 This week we will take a look at some community content, a single player module and a return of the PW Spotlight. I have also started things off with a look at the 3C project - Something everyone should be interested in contributing to. Community Content Compilation (3C) Follow this link to download: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2H...tail&id=186 for the 3C Forums, and additional information, just follow this link: http://planewalker.eamped.com/community-co...ion-3c-vc6.html Community Works Script: Creatures follow through transitions Ever have trouble getting creatures to chase players through transitions? Take a look at this script by ArPharazon: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2S...tail&id=174 Tourney Field: Just add encounters SGK73 has created another great prefab area for builders to drop into their modules. This time he brings us a tournament and jousting field. You can download the Prefab here: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2P...tail&id=252 on NWVault. Module Spotlight: Sands of Solvheil II: Beneath the Hearleforne by Raith Veldrin To download: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=188 Solvheil Development Blog: http://solvheil.blogspot.com Persistent World Focus: Dasaria II by DM Wired

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update November 2, 2007 Hello everyone. It's update time again. For this issue we will be taking a look at a mod by Chimneyfish that makes the NPC heads available for playable characters. We will also look at an area prefab by SGK73 and we have a small interview of Kaedrin, author of some great Prestige Classes and some expanded spell books for some of the NWN2 Prestige Classes. But first, before we go too much further, please take a moment to answer this poll question. Community Works Playable NPC Heads Looking for some more diversity in your characters? Chimneyfish has made the NWN2 NPC heads available to players during character creation. This mod can be viewed here, on NWVault. Area Prefab: Ritual Sites - Just Add Encounters SGK73 has created another Area Prefab. His prefabs, always tagged with "Just add encounters," allow builders to create modules quickly and easily by providing high-quality, pre-made areas that can just be inserted into your module. You can find out more here. Kaedrin: Custom Classes for the Masses In case you haven't been watching the forums, there has been a great effort underway by Kaedrin to create some Custom Prestige Classes. What started as a wish to improve one of his favorite classes, has turned into him becoming a one-man powerhouse of custom content creation. So far Kaedrin's work has contributed about 50 new spells, some new feats, a handful of prestige classes, spellbooks for Blackguards and Assassins, ammo crafting and ranged combat enchantment upgrades and new and revised spell domains. As community members ourselves, many of us at OEI have been watching his progress with great interest, and enjoying the results of his creations, too. It's always great to see what community members can do in NWN2. So, with all of this in mind, I asked Kaedrin if he would be willing to share his experiences with us.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update October 19, 2007 Hello everyone! It has been a while since the last Community Update. Things have been pretty busy here, with the release of Mask of The Betrayer in Europe and America - with Australia not too far away. The forums are super busy everyone seems to be enjoying the game. This week we are going to take a quick look at some of the community works. Robinson Workshops is close to releasing a treasure chest full of builder goodness and There are some great placeable objects hitting the vault as well. We are also going to take a look at the Neverwinter Citadel community site. A Look at NWCitadel By: dunniteowl

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update September 29, 2007 We have had a busy week with the release of Mask of The Betrayer and the 1.10 patch. As such, the update had to be pushed back slightly, hence the Saturday update this week. For this update we will talk a bit about the 1.10 patch, Mask of The Betrayer and take a look at a veritable cornucopia of community-made custom content. 1.10 Patch The 1.10 patch was released this week. It is the 1.07 patch with only data fixes, to cut down on any issues that could arise with MoTB since MoTB went to the manufacturer and distributor before 1.10 could be released. As always, we would love to hear your constructive comments on it and we have a thread going in the NWN2 general form on the Bioware site for you to report any bugs you may encounter with the patch. As a general rule though, for this patch, if you are having any issues, particularly with performance or graphics anomalies, take a couple moments to rename the Neverwinter Nights 2 folder in your My Documents directory and start the game again to see if the issue is still happening. This often clears out any conflicts you have with files, hacks and overrides and will fix most issues. Mask of The Betrayer Mask of The Betrayer has been released in Europe and our friends over the pond seem to be enjoying it! The story in Mask is quite a bit darker than the previous NWN titles and introduces a new mechanic to the game: your character is cursed! We have also ratcheted up the difficulty in the game and I am hearing that many feel it is the most difficult D&D game yet: they really have to think through their encounters - no more breezing your way through. It won't be long before it is released in America and Australia shortly thereafter. I know it's difficult, but we will have to put up with the European's teasing just a little while longer. MoTB Missing Text Fix Many are reporting an issue with missing text in MoTB. Please see this post in the Bioware forums for a hot fix. Coming Soon! So many of you have seen we have talked about the ability to use custom portraits instead of the default 3d portraits of NWN2. For those with MoTB installed, you can see that we have used this for the companions and other creatures. Right now, there is no easy way to set the portraits for characters as you could during character creation in NWN1, so we started work on a system to allow this. But, after some discussions we felt that Persistent World Players needed something more. For those of you that don't play on PWs, it's important to understand that characters evolve on PWs, as well as the world around them. As such, we felt it would be great if you could actually change your portrait during play. So, once the feature is released in a patch you will be able to double-click on your portrait in the character screen and a portrait selection dialog (shown below) will appear. You will be able to change your portrait as often as you like and, as long as other players have your portrait in their portraits folder (My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\Portraits), they will be able to see the change as well. If you ever want to go back to your 3d game-generated portrait, just click the clear button. Community Works Glacier's Edge Sword by Freeloader This sword model from Freeloader is one of the entries into the Custom Content contest. You can download it here from Neverwinter Nights 2 Vault. New Armor by barrelofmonkeyzz and Runnerduck This armor set by barrelofmonkeyzz and Runnerduck, while it is still only a work in progress, will also be an entry in the Custom Content contest. As it is a work in progress, no download link can be provided, but you can discuss it in this thread, in the NWN2 forums. Both of the entries - sword and armor - look great! Good job guys. Nytir's Building Construction Kit: Oriental Expansion Nytir continues work on his Building Construction Kit by adding this Oriental buildings expansion. You can download it here on NWVault. This package contains 107 parts suitable for oriental adventures. (Or Kara-Tur adventures in the Forgotten Realms) With that, I bring this week's Blog to a close. As always, I will try to answer any questions or comments you may have. See you next week and Happy MoTB, for those of you that have it.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update September 14, 2007 It's that time again. This week we look at the Sacred Fist prestige class, a couple great community mods and the Sundren Persistent World. Mask of The Betrayer Sacred Fist Sacred Fists are independent organizations found within many temples. Their ascetic members have turned their divine magic inward, bringing their bodies and wills into harmony. Sacred Fists have forsworn the use of weapons and heavy armor. They consider their bodies and minds gifts from their deity, and they believe that not developing those gifts to their fullest potential is a sin. Spellcasting does not dishonor them or their deity. Sacred Fists are strong in faith, will and body. Clerics are excellent candidates for Sacred Fist orders. Paladins may also choose to join them, but are seldom comfortable surrendering the trappings of their calling. Fighters, rogues, bards and even ex-monks may make good candidates, provided they have enough levels in a class that grants divine spells. Druids occasionally find the class's combat skills useful, but sorcerers and wizards find little to interest them. Requirements: Base Attack Bonus: +4 Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Combat Casting. Skills: Lore 8 ranks Spellcasting: Ability to cast 1st level divine spells. Class Features: Hit Die: d8 Base Attack Bonus: High. High Saves: Fortitude and Reflex. Proficiencies: Sacred Fists gain no proficiency with any weapons, armor or shields. Skill Points: 4 + Int Modifier. Class Skills: Concentration, Heal, Lore, Spellcraft and Tumble. Spells per Day/Spells Known: When a new Sacred Fist level is gained (except levels 4 and 8 ), the character gains new spells per day as though he had gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class gave him access to 1st-level divine spells. If the caster had more than one applicable divine spellcasting class, he must pick one to improve. AC Bonus: When unencumbered and wearing light or no armor, a 1st level Sacred Fist gains a +1 AC bonus. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level, and +3 at 10th level. Unarmed Damage: A Sacred Fist deals unarmed combat as a monk of equal level. A Sacred Fist's monk level (if any) stacks with his class level for the purposes of determining unarmed damage. Fast Movement: If the Sacred Fist has levels of Monk, his Sacred Fist level stacks with his monk level for purposes of determining Monk Speed. Otherwise he gets the equivalent of Monk Speed at 3rd level, and it progresses identically to the 3rd level monk ability Monk Speed. Sacred Flames: At 4th level the Sacred Fist can invoke sacred flames around his fists. These flames add to the Sacred Fist's unarmed damage. The additional damage is equal to the Sacred Fist's class level plus Wisdom modifier. This lasts 10 combat rounds. This ability initially can only be used once per day, increasing to twice per day at 8th level. Uncanny Dodge: At 6th level, the Sacred Fist retains any Dexterity bonus to AC when flat-footed or when struck by an invisible attacker. Inner Armor: At 10th level, the Sacred Fist can protect himself from harm once per day. He gets a +4 sacred bonus to AC, a +4 sacred bonus on all saves, and a spell resistance equal to 25 for a number of rounds equal to his Wisdom modifier. Community Works Bastard Sword Override by Riuthamus It looks as though Riuthamus has started a series of custom weapon models. The goal looks to be to make more accurate, and less fantastic weapons. His first weapon pack, Bastard Swords, can be found here on NWVault. RWS Bridge Pack by Robinson Workshop The guys at Robinson Workshop have released their bridge pack. You can have a look here on NWVault. Persistent World Spotlight: Sundren by Saulus Mursadus What is Sundren? Allow me to introduce Sundren. Sundren is a low magic Neverwinter Nights 2 persistent world, in the heavy roleplaying category. We are constantly improving our module, as well as the extensive backend we provide for the server. We also provide a community portal with forums and a photo gallery which our users can submit images to. The website is hosted on a dedicated server, as is our in-house client updater and our development server. What this means for you as a player, is that our uptime is nothing short of excellent, and that you will be able to be online when you please, independent of what time zone you just might happen to live in. Our development server and bug tracking system allows us to replicate and respond to the bugs you report much, much faster. Storyline Sundren is set in the Forgotten Realms, using a timeline only slightly altered from the material provided by Wizards of the Coast. The land of Sundren is located south of Icewind Dale, near the spine of the world. Encircled by imposing mountain ranges and treacherous reefs, Sundren is a very recent land in the Forgotten Realms timeline. Having never been plagued by the wars and territory disputes of older kingdoms, Sundren has recently become the focus of several organizations interested in the vast amount of precious minerals the country

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update September 7, 2007 Today's Community Update brings us a look at the Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep prestige class in the upcoming Mask of The Betrayer expansion. We will also get a look at some community-made Visual Effects packs and the Persistent World Spotlight is here again. Also, in case you didn't know, the 1.07 beta patch has been released, so we talk about that a very little bit. Beta Patch 1.07 "Premonition" Released! The 1.07 Beta patch, which we are calling "Premonition," was released on Wednesday this week. There are a lot of great features in this patch and, being a beta, those features need testing. We would especially appreciate it if some Persistent Worlds could check it out and let us know how things go. You can find the beta patch and the thread for reporting issues here. Mask of The Betrayer Today we will take a look at another one of the Prestige Classes for Mask of The Betrayer. Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep Arcane Scholars seek to raise the study of magic to the level of an academic discipline. Their interest is not in researching new spells or finding more specialized uses for their craft, but in understanding the fundamental processes of magic and the inner workings of the Weave, which is the fabric that underlies all magic. The first Arcane Scholars emerged from the dusty libraries of Candlekeep, where they pored through the writings of a thousand long-dead mages, seeking the unifying principles that underlie all magic. But even the archives of Candlekeep have their limits, and not all practitioners of magic have the means or desire to record their experiences with the Art. So Arcane Scholars dispersed into the wider world, observing and recording all the various expressions of magic they could find. Their tradition has gradually spread, and some mages who have never set foot in Candlekeep have adopted their disciplined and systematic approach to magic. By gaining a deeper understanding of magic, and by discerning its underlying principles, arcane scholars become specialists in metamagic. Their spells are more powerful, last longer and can be cast more quickly than those of their peers. Arcane Scholars have also become especially adept at explaining the workings of magic to ordinary folk. Those who travel with Arcane Scholars gain the benefit of their considerable knowledge and are better able to avoid hostile magic. Arcane Scholars do not limit themselves to studying particular sorts of arcane magic. To truly understand the Art, they believe that one must understand all its expressions. Thus all arcane casters are equally welcome to join their fellowship. Indeed, the insights of sorcerers and bards are particularly prized by Arcane Scholars, as such casters rarely have the patience to discuss the deeper workings of magic. Requirements Skills: Spellcraft 8 ranks. Feats: Empower Spell, Skill Focus (Concentration), and Skill Focus (Spellcraft). Spellcasting: Able to cast 3rd-level arcane spells. Class Features Hit Die: d4. Base Attack Bonus: Low. High Saves: Will. Weapon Proficiencies: Arcane Scholars gain no weapon proficiencies. Armor Proficiencies: Arcane Scholars gain no armor proficiencies. Skill Points: 2 + Int Modifier. Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft Alchemy, Diplomacy, Lore, Search and Spellcraft. Spells Per Day/Spells Known: When a new Arcane Scholar level is gained, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as though he had gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class gave him access to 3rd-level arcane spells. If the character has more than one applicable arcane spellcasting class, he must pick one to improve. Bonus Metamagic Feats: At 1st level, the Arcane Scholar gains the Maximize Spell feat. At 5th level, he gains the Quicken Spell feat. Spell Knowledge: At 2nd Level, the Arcane Scholar and any party members gain a +1 bonus to their saves versus spells. This bonus increases to +2 at 8th level. Improved Empower Spell: At 3rd level, the Arcane Scholar becomes especially adept at empowering spells. Empowered spells now only use a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level. Improved Maximize Spell: At 7th level, the Arcane Scholar becomes especially adept at maximizing spells. Maximized spells now only use up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level. Improved Quicken Spell: At 10th level, the Arcane Scholar becomes especially adept at quickening spells. Quickened spells now only use up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell's actual level. Custom Content Contest As many of you know, we have a contest underway for the Custom Content creators. If you are a modeller and would like to try your hand at creating buildings, clothing or whatever for the NWN2 Community, now's the time to jump in. Submissions to the contest do not need to be elaborate and there is a category for all levels of expertise. Here's an example of one of the entries: Legion Blade, by joeboy You can find this model here, at NWVault. Community Works Moongates The creator of this VFX pack, JasonNH says: you can find tthis VFX pack here. Character VFX Pack This pack of "equippable weapons and other objects was created by SilkD. You can find the VFX pack here, on NWVault. Persistent World Spotlight: Moonlight & Shadows - By Soulfiend Darkness descends, falling night Walk with me in the pale moonlight. From humble beginnings to tales of great It is yours to discover, your blood written fate. Over the lands above, or in the darkness below Follow your path through moonlight and shadow. Silver Marches: (formerly known as Luruar) The confederation of the Silver Marches consists of it

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update August 31, 2007 For this edition of the Community Update, we are going to start off with a note from Nathaniel Chapman. He is one of the Assistant Producers on NWN2 and MoTB and is now leading the effort for ongoing support with the game. This is in the patch notes, but I thought it would be good to post here as well. We will also take a look at the Invisible Blade prestige class and some great spears made by community member, Feydakin.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update August 24, 2007 Another week has passed and we are now another week closer to the release of Mask of The Betrayer. This week we will announce the winners of the Fan Art contest and talk about the next contest and contests to come. We get another voice recording from one of the MoTB characters, and we take a look at some of the community creations. Mask of The Betrayer Over the last few weeks we have been seeing quite a bit of discussion about one of the characters in MoTB. So, for today's update, I thought we would tease you a bit more with a bit of the soundset for Gann. This recording is Gann's threat. You may need to right click the link and save the file to your local computer before listening. And the Winner is... Well we had a lot of great entries for the Fan Art contest. Once again we found ourselves faced with a difficult decision on some of these. Art contests are always difficult to judge. But, we sat down and looked through all the entries and were finally able to decide on some winners... so without further delay, the winners are: For the Favorite NWN2 Companion or NPC category... First Place: Meet the Party, by Minttu Hynninen Second Place: King of Shadows Enters the Meredelain, by J. Cullen Lisbony Third Place: Construct vs. Grobnar, by MaeBe For the Favorite Creature or Monster category... First Place: Earth Elemental, by Kamen Anev Second Place: Shadow Reaver, by Vaei Third Place: Ogre Mage, by Laban All of the entries were good and some, like the Tholapsyx! entry, by msykes, were a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone that participated. To view all of the entries, just follow This Link. For the winners, please contact me and let me know your mailing address. We have some prizes and goodies for you! So, now it's time to talk about the next contest. The next competition, is a Custom Content contest. This contest will be much longer than the others, to allow people to work with the Expotron a bit before they have to submit anything. This Custom Content contest will span three months and will cover many different aspects of Custom Content. Contestants can submit up to one entry for each of the following categories: Creature/Monster (requires animations) Weapons Buildings (can have animations if you like, such as a swinging sign, but don't have to) Placeables (can have animations, but don't have to) Clothing/Armor Props & Miscellaneous (equipable items that don't fit into any specific category - such as books and bouquets of flowers) As noted, the only category that requires animations is the creature/monster category. All other categories do not require animation. This contest will be announced officially on Monday, on the Bioware boards - along with full rules and guidelines. All of the models should be able to be added to the game/toolset through the use of the override folder at the very least. Your entries may be accompanied by a hak version as well. All work must be your own, but you may have one person help you out as well. I will talk with the folks at NWVault and have a contest category created for these models. November 30th will be the cutoff date for this contest. Good luck! In the future, we will see some team competitions combining scripting, custom content and modules, such as a "Build a better mouse trap" contest where scripters and custom content modelers will have to team up to build a great trap for NWN2. Start thinking now Community Works Sunlee's Portable Banner cacysunlee has created a great banner that can be carried by players and NPCs. You can find it here, on NWVault. NWN1 to NWN2 tile converter Sothis B has created a great tool for converting your NWN1 interiors into NWN2 interiors. The tool, which can be found here, is in it's early stages, but already promises to be a time saver, per the description on the site: Useful PW Scripts This collection of scripts by Lusitania can save you a bit of time when building your Persistent World and can be quite helpful. The script package includes: XP reward system onAcquire script that announces to the party what an individual picks up Basic PC Scry Dice roller for group members You can get this set of scripts here, from Neverwinter Vault. So we come to the end of another NWN2 Community Update. As always, please let me know if any pictures or links do not work for you. I will be posting some polls shortly in the Blog section here. Please take a few moments to answer the polls as they are posted. Thanks and have a great week!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update August 17, 2007 Time for another Community Update! This week we will take a look at a great Community Initiative, read a bit about MoTB from a player's perspective and check out a couple great community modifications. Community Content Compilation Thunderblade_33 has taken the initiative to develop a Community Content Compilation project. Rather than steal his thunder, I'll let him explain it: I think this is a great idea. You can check out this great compilation here, on NWVault. Mask of The Betrayer A couple weeks ago Khaveen (from the Shadow Thieve's guild, Gallows Bird PW and a Community Rep) stopped by the Obsidian offices to visit during his road trip vacation. We took him out and forced him to eat. Took him around the offices a bit and well... read the rest for yourself...

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update August 10, 2007 Another week, another update. This one should be fun... (Make sure you read to the bottom. That's where the juicy bits are). For The Music Lovers! Many of you have been seeing me prattle on about how much I love the music for MoTB. Well, today you get your chance to hear for yourself. This clip is the main theme from Mask of The Betrayer. Please right-click it and save the file to your hard drive before listening. Alexander Brandon, our Audio Director, gives us a bit of insight into the theme: I hope you find it as enjoyable as I do. Community Works Bridges! The folks over at Robinson Workshop have been working on a bridge pack. You can see more screenshots here. Build your own Castle NWVault member Nytir has brought us something I thought was pretty cool. He has created a system of placeables that will allow you to... well, it's better if he explains it: You can check out this great building pack here, on NWVault.ign.com. Instant Area, Just Add Encounters! NWVault user SGK73 has created a series of area prefabs desinged to make your building efforts easier. From the screenshots, they appear to be well-made and have a lot of character. All you need to do is add encounters and place these areas in your module. SGK73 has made four great Area prefabs: Exterior Ruins Urban Ruins Interior Caves Exterior Forest Expotron (Granny) Animation Exporter Released! Alright animators, the day has finally arrived! Bring your custom creatures to life in Neverwinter Nights 2 with the Expotron plugin for 3dsMax! This plugin, used by the developers at Obsidian, will allow you to animate the creatures, buildings and other objects you create in 3d Studio Max for use in the Neverwinter Nights 2! We are also releasing a series of videos we used internally for learning to work with the plugin. You can find all this artistic goodness hidden away on our website. Dedicated Server Creator Released! We are also releasing the dedicated server creator today! You can find it here. This little application will copy all of the necessary files to run the server by itself into a new directory. This new directory can then be copied and placed on a separate machine. That's about it for this week. The PW spotlight will be continued next week. We just had so much to share, I didn't want to dim the spotlight for them. As always, if you have anything you want to see reported in the Community Update, send me a PM. If you would like your PW to appear in the Community Update, send me a PM. Have fun!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update August 3, 2007 Time for another Community Update. This week we are going to look at some new spell chants for MoTB, a new feature for builders in 1.07 and a great Persistent World. We will also get a small peek at the options screens for the new camera and controls and a great new community addon by cdaulepp! New Feature for 1.07 One of the things we have been trying to do is include some of the improvements from the expansion in the patches. Here Nathaniel Chapman, Assistant Producer on MoTB, shares some information about one of those features: Mask of The Betrayer News New Spell Chants One of the things we wished we could have done in NWN2 is to provide some new spell chants and some variations. With MoTB, we are adding in some new voicesets for players and these include some new spell chants. So, for the new player voicesets, companions and main NPCs in MoTB, they will have new spell chants for each school and the chants will be different for low level, high level and epic level spells. As an example, here's a couple epic spell chants (you may need to right click and saave these files): This first one is Safiya casting the new epic spell "Mass Fowl" which transforms a group of opponents into chickens. Click Here This second spell is Gann casting the Epic Gate spell. Click Here Camera & Control Options We have been talking a bit about the camera and control adjustments we are making for MoTB. Here's a couple screenshots of the options screens. As a reminder, though, these are still works in progress. The first one is for Strategy mode This one is for Character mode Community Developments Random Loot Generator by cdaulepp You can check out his forum posting here. I have not checked this out myself yet, but I am told this is a great little addon for any module. Persistent World Spotlight: Shroudworld - By Segal For eons the Blood God has languished in his cell, imprisoned within a mountain on the mortal plane for crimes against his brother gods. His oozing essence seeps into the ground, and trickles into a small pool outside. An elven traveler drinks from the pool. He is wracked by dreams of violence and power. Soon there are others, a whole congregation of worshippers for the imprisoned Blood God, and the Church of the Shroud is born. Mighty kingdoms fall before the Elders of the Shroud, and their dominion extends over all the realms of men. Yet there is strife within the very heart of the church. The Elders praise their divine lord in public, but make no efforts to free him, seeking instead to make themselves gods in his place. Ancient prophecies have long predicted his release, but who listens to ancient prophesies any more in this age of corruption and debauchery? The Shroud World NWN2 server was born of a proud tradition, our long-running NWN1 server was one of the very first Persistent Worlds to go live. Over the years, we have provided an entertaining and challenging experience to thousands of would-be heroes. We strive to continue that tradition with this new project. This time around, we took the deeply detailed Shroud World storyline and moved it forward fifty years. We wanted old Shrouders to feel instantly at home in the new world but we did not want to simply rehash our NWN1 world. The timeline change allows us to give new life to our old tales and strike out on some completely new paths. For those new to Shroud World, the game-play has some stark differences from what you experienced playing in the single player game. Most progression is driven by quest completion and this impacts nearly every aspect of the character; from level advancement to how NPCs will interact with you. We will soon be adding an advanced character progression system that will allow players to purchase new feats using rewards they have obtained through questing. We chose to establish the quest system as the foundation of our world in order to offer a number of benefits to the players. Since quest completion is the primary source of experience, character classes that are less focused on brute force can often find other ways to resolve many of the quests and gain experience points. The quest system also allows us to better integrate the storyline into the day-to-day happenings of the player. The creative and humorous works of our lead writer, Rheumy Filcher, give the players a reason actually to read the dialogue of the NPCs. And finally, one of our primary goals is for players to have plenty to things to do when they log on: this is made possible by the hundreds of quests available to PCs. When we sat down to outline what we wanted to do with Shroud World, we came up with some pretty straightforward design criteria. I think those criteria are important to present because they are what best defines the world for the new player. Simply put, our design goals are: A Friendly Place to Play

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update June 27, 2007 So this week, we get another peek into one of the new playable races in the Mask of the Betrayer expansion, some great custom prefabs to make your modules more interesting and easier to implement, a couple screen shots from Rogue Dao Studios' Purgatorio mod and the first Persistent World focus for the Community Update. Enjoy! Mask of the Betrayer Secrets: Genasi With Mask of the Betrayer, Genasi will be making their debut. Many people have been wondering exactly what Genasi are. Hopefully I can answer some of that here. As a playable race, per the FRCS: "Genasi are descended from elemental-related creatures, such as efreet, dao, djinn, jann, and marids, among others. Most of them have had no direct contact with their elemental forebears, but the signs of their heritage are apparent. Genasi take great pride in their distinctive features and abilities. Air Genasi (pictured above, in concept art) Air Genasi see themselves as the inheritors of the sky, the wind and the very air of the world. They appear mostly human, with one or two unusual traits reflecting their quasi-elemental nature, such as a light blue color to their skin or hair, a slight breeze in their presence at all times, or flesh that is cool to the touch. Air Genasi have Darkvision and receive bonuses to Dexterity and Intelligence, but they have penalties to their Wisdom and Charisma as well. Earth Genasi Earth Genasi are slow to act, ponderous in thought and set in their ways. They appear mostly human, with one or two traits reflecting their quasi-elemental nature, such as earthlike skin, rough facial features or eyes like black pits. Earth Genasi have Darkvision and receive bonuses to Strength and Constitution, but also have penalties to Wisdom and Charisma. Fire Genasi Fire Genasi are hot-blooded and quick to anger, proud and unafraid to take action. They appear mostly human, with one or two traits reflecting their quasi-elemental nature, such as skin the color of burnt coal, red hair that waves like flames or eyes that glow when the Genasi is angry. Fire Genasi have Darkvision and receive a bonus to Intelligence and a penalty to Charisma. Water Genasi Water Genasi are patient and slow to change, preferring to wear away opposition slowly, but are capable of great violence in extreme situations. They appear mostly human, with one or two traits reflecting their quasi-elemental nature, such as lightly-scaled skin, clammy flesh, blue-green skin or hair or hair that waves as if underwater. Water Genasi have Darkvision and receive a bonus to Constitution and a penalty to Charisma. Community Content Gortan's Magical Fountains Gortan's Magical Fountains is the first installment of the Gortan

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update July 20, 2007 This week's NWN2 News Update was delayed so that we could bring you a certain piece of news. Pool of Radiance Remastered Released in Spanish The folks at the Spanish community Neverwinteros and the Spanish translation group ClanDlan have translated the original Pool of Radiance Remastered by the Hall of Fame author Markus 'Wayne' Schlegel into the Spanish language. The mod is fully translated and available for download in Nwvault here. They will be continuing their translation efforts with Tragedy in Tragidor by Phoenixus. Granny Update For those of you that think we forgot about poor old Granny, rest assured we didn't. We are ironing out some final details and putting things together for release. We want to give you all some supporting files and a little bit of documentation, rather than just release the tool, but those last little details are the hold up. More news to follow as the situation changes. New Toolset Feature with 1.07 With the 1.07 Patch we will be putting in a new toolset feature. This feature enables you to change the textures on walls, ceilings and floors of many of the tilesets in the toolset. Josh Verrall gives us a small peek at how it works Mask of the Betrayer Screenshot Persistent World Spotlight: Talernon 2 by Dragonbane777 A continuation of the Hall of Fame Persistent World from Neverwinter Nights 1, Talernon2 is the evolution of this world and its stories, as well as its successes and failures, a culmination of a highly experienced team working towards the goal of creating a rich and developed campaign setting and story. A heavy Role-Play server, Talernon2 strives to use Neverwinter Nights 2 as an engine for the PnP version of Dungeons and Dragons, trying to achieve more of a table-top feel and less of a

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update July 13, 2007 This week we take a quick look at the NWN2 Fan Art Contest, Some great user-made content and we take another small peek at the NWN2: Mask of The Betrayer expansion. NW2 Fan Art Contest I thought I would show off some of the entires for the NWN2 Fan Art Contest. The contest ends July 31st, so get your entries in quickly. We have two categories you can submit your entries for. The first category is Your Favorite Creature or Monster. The second category is Your Favorite Companion or NPC in NWN2. There are already quite a few entires on the Vault. I would love to show more, but I am limited to the number of images I can include in the Blog and I have a lot to share. Favorite Creature This Pic of an Ogre Mage is by Laban. Favorite Companion/NPC This little comic of Qara and Neeshka is done by SuiSa. You can find more details on the contest here. You can also find more of the entries on NWVault. Community Creations Baldur's Gate UI Mod Trevor Morris has created an excellent Baldur's Gate-stylized UI mod. You can find it here on the Neverwinter Vault. Davion Shores Area Prefabs He describes his first area, Riverbridge as A town perched over a waterfall in an autumn setting. A small pit stop or point of interest for travellers wandering through the forested hillsides. His second area, The Mossy Inn, is described as a possible rest area for travellers trekking through the swamplands. In case you don't know already, prefab areas are works created by other area designers for you to use in your own mods or persistent worlds. They would cut down on building time and, usually, the author of the area simply asks to be credited for the work. Mask of The Betrayer Sneak Peek Here's this week's screenshot to whet your appetite. That's pretty much it for this week. Hope you enjoyed what was here. See you again next week for another weekly update.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update July 3, 2007 Welcome back to another NWN2 Community Update. This week, I am doing the Community Update a day early, due to a Holiday in the United States. Today's edition features some of the Console Commands that will be available to DMs in 1.07, a little information about Multi-Select, some changes to the camera and controls in Mask of The Betrayer, a look at an upcoming Persistent World, and a little surprise for patch 1.07. Multi-Select The Multi-select system is going through a simple overhaul. The first part of which, that you should see, is that now, multi-selected parties should be able to perform their default actions. This means you will be able to open doors, pick locks, etc. without having to de-select your group now. Other changes will be forth-coming, but so far, this is the big change. DM Console Commands in 1.07 I have been receiving a lot of requests for what script commands we are making available to DMs in the 1.07 patch. To answer this question I am going to post a good number of them, along with their descriptions: SetCHA : Set the currently targeted creature to the specified CHA. SetCON : Set the currently targeted creature to the specified CON. SetDEX : Set the currently targeted creature to the specified DEX. SetDieRollMode : Usage: 'SetDieRollMode (0/1/2). 0 = normal random die rolling. 1 = minimum die rolls. 2 = maximum die rolls.' SetINT : Set the currently targeted creature to the specified INT. SetSTR : Set the currently targeted creature to the specified STR. SetWIS : Set the currently targeted creature to the specified WIS. command : 'command <MATCH>' will return all commands that include any characters in the MATCH sequence. commands : 'commands <MATCH>' will return all commands that include any characters in the MATCH sequence. dm_getvarfloat : Returns the value of the specified variable. dm_getvarint : Returns the value of the specified variable. dm_getvarobject : Returns the value of the specified variable. dm_getvarstring : Returns the value of the specified variable. dm_giveXP : Gives the specified amount of XP to the current target. dm_givegold : Gives the specified amount of gold to the current target. dm_god : Turn player character invincible. dm_jumptopoint : Jump to the specified points. Syntax is: float float. dm_modifyage : Your current target will have its age adjusted by the value specified. Positive values will cause an increase, while negative values will cause a decrease. dm_setCR : Your current target will have its challenge rating set to the value specified. dm_setage : Your current target will have its age set to the value specified. dm_setattackbase : Your current target will have its base attack bonus set to the value specified. dm_setfaction : Your current target will have its faction set to the one specified in the command line. dm_setfactionreputation : Where: faction1 and faction2 are the names of factions. x is an integer value indicating the value to set the reputation value to. Description: This function will set the reputation value for how faction2 feels about faction1 (0 is hostile, 100 is friendly). dm_setspellresistance : Your current target will have its spell resistance set to the value specified. dm_setvarfloat : Sets variable specified to the given value. dm_setvarint : Sets variable specified to the given value. dm_setvarobject : Sets variable specified to the given value. dm_setvarstring : Sets variable specified to the given value. givefeat : Usage: 'givefeat FEATID' giveitem : Usage: 'giveitem ITEMTEMPLATE <AMOUNT>' Will create an item and add it to you inventory. If you don't specify an amount, it is assumed to be one. givespell : Usage: 'givespell SPELLID SLOT' givexp : Usage: 'givexp <AMOUNT>' Will give the supplied number of experience points, or enough to level up if no number is supplied logcommands : loggameeffects : Usage: 'loggameeffects' logrunscript : logserverai : Usage: 'logserverai' portraitsave : rain : removefeat : Usage: 'removefeat FEATID' resetlevels : Usage: 'resetlevels <OBJECT> <EXP>' resetpackage : resetstats : resourcestats : rs : Usage: 'runscript SCRIPTFILE <TARGET>' Will run the script. If <TARGET> is a valid object, the script will be run with that object as OBJECT_SELF. runscript : Usage: 'runscript SCRIPTFILE <TARGET>' Will run the script. If <TARGET> is a valid object, the script will be run with that object as OBJECT_SELF. takedamage : Usage: 'takedamage DAMAGE <TARGET>' - DAMAGE can be any number greater than zero. <TARGET> (optional) is the tag of the object you are trying to target unpolymorph : Usage: 'unpolymorph' usebehavior : Usage: 'usebehavior NUMBER' This will change the currently controlled creature to use designated behavior set from the NWN2_BehaviorParams.2da usescriptset : Usage: 'usescriptset NUMBER' This will change the currently controlled creature to use designated script set from the nwn2_scriptsets.2da MoTB Camera Changes In Mask of The Betrayer, we will be implementing something called Play Modes. This will replace the current camera/control scheme in NWN2 with something a little bit more streamlined. Basically, there will be two play modes that can be configured from the Game Options screen - Character Mode and Strategy Mode. These modes will affect both the function of the camera and the controls for each mode, and are designed to be most efficient for the two primary styles of play