Obs dev IRC chat tonight

[kirottu]

Here

[Nick_i_am]

Good thing this is past my bedtime, else there would be WAY too much 'MARRY ME MR.AVELLONE!'

[Blank]

h4x0r the chat then.  Go incognito with a NWN2 news site nickname, and wait for someone to give you mod access to the channel or something.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

H4X0R TEH CHATZ!!!!1!!!11@

 

SOY BOMB! (w00t)

[Llyranor]

Good thing this is past my bedtime, else there would be WAY too much 'MARRY ME MR.AVELLONE!'

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He's MINE, jerk.

 

Stalking time.

[Gabrielle]

There goes my chance to tell Chris Avellone that he's my hero. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I want to talk to the man himself, Feargus.

[Jumjalum]

Errr it seems the dev chat has already begun, I thought there was an hour to go.

[Llyranor]

First bad news:

 

[OE]DarrenM Sorry, no MCA tonight unfortuntely

[Gabrielle]

Where do you get one of these IRC chat thingys?

[Aurora]

Here

[Llyranor]

I guess you could use a program like MIRC.

 

I just use the Chatzilla extension for Firefox.

_________________

 

Kaftan Barlast: Im asking if you feel that the time you were given for NWN2 was enough to get everything you wanted to in the game? And How long would the ideal development cycle for a game of NWN2s size be?

 

[OE]DarrenM Kaftan: Well, during every game you always seem to want more time - There's no doubt NWN2 is a huge project, but when we ship, I think we're going to happy with how much time we had to work on the game

 

[OE]FerretB Kaftan: In one sense, there's never ever enough time in development. It's like art, you can keep touching up one more thing until Doomsday. We have a solid good team and enough time to make a great game. Would I like more time? Always.

__________________

 

MoebiuZ[nwn2-esp]: You use per-pixel lighting with normal mapping. How this affects community modelers and their new content hak packs? They have to generate normal maps as well?

 

<[OE]TramellI> The process will be a lot more involved but not impossible

<[OE]TramellI> Artist/modders will have to be familiar with the tools that create normal maps

 

[OE]FrankK MoebuiZ[nwn2-esp]: Content will require normal mapped objects. The game is entirely per-pixel lit.

__________________

sly_1: I've heard a lot about the enhancements made to multiplayer. Specifically, I've heard about "mmo elements" making their way into NWN2's multiplayer interface. Care to expand a bit on what has been implemented and what is planned?

 

[OE]DarrenM Sure - We've done a couple things. First our hopeless addictions to popular MMO's out there have leaked a few interface and emote-like commands into NWN2. For example, we offer another 'input' mode for the game, where you can now select objects in the game world much like WoW. We're also adding silly emotes and other visual feedback that wasn't in NWN1

[OE]DarrenM Image /dance.... wow.

[OE]DarrenM err, Imagine.

[OE]FrankK We are talking about streamlining some of the interfaces (trading, conversing) so they are intuitive to the end-user.

_____________

 

nixion: Hey, Q: I think one of the trademarks of the original NWN was the fact that every installment of the game was in third person. In NWN 2 will we have the feature go in First Person?

 

[OE]FerretB There's no first person camera. But there's going to be a lot of flexibility in how you position your camera. Third-person, over-the-shoulder, zoom in, and zoom out. Lots of possibilities.

[OE]DarrenM I was going to say, "While we made a much bigger emphasis on close up cameras and such in NWN2, the game is still very much an isometric/3rd person game. You can swing the camera in though, but it wasn't specifically designed for first person, no

 

Wait, this is old <_<

________________

Salvator: Will the single player Arcs be more dynamic? Playing Evil was not very... evil in the first game.

 

[OE]DarrenM I think the question is, will playing good be fun in NWN2?

[OE]FerretB There is a place for evil all right. It's not all murdering poor widows, many ranges of mean and malicious choices. Some of the design team worries me from some of their ideas.

[OE]FerretB I think we're shooting for more malevolent than psycotic, generally. It can also be quite fun - hee hee.

[OE]DarrenM Frank says the engine doesn't support evil. Hmmm.

________________

Benjamin: A long time ago, it was mentioned that one of Obsidians goals was to create less but more detailed NPC's. Now that the project is further down the track, is this still the general goal, and how is it panning out?

 

[OE]FerretB That sounded good on paper. It really did. But we also want to make it feel like a world. What we wound up with is a series of important recurring NPCs intermingled with many other people.

[OE]FerretB The upshot is that you'll get to know some people really well, and you'll see them at many points during the game. But there is a host of bit characters, too.

__________________

Quake: Is it possible to modify certain aspects of the character creation interface? For example, if in a module I wanted to restrict the alignment choice for a ranger to "good" only, would I be able to have the other alignment choices shaded out (not selectable)?

 

[OE]FrankK There will be some ability to restrict alignment in the campaign settings, but it will be overriden by class restrictions (ie cant force chaotic monks)

___________________

 

Emmental: As a scripter in NWN, I used dynamically created conversations to create menus for player input, which was a little fiddly and complicated. Are there going to be new ways for scripters to get input from players?

 

[OE]DarrenM We've added some basic controls for creating UI's via script... more on that is coming soon

____________________

DelmarWynn BigBottom: I realise music is about the last thing to be completed on a game, but who would be your ideal person for the job?

 

[OE]DarrenM Tramell says either PDiddy or Dr. Dre

____________________

metallix|rpgplanet-ru: How will be monsters and encounters placed throughout the game map, in scaling difficulty, or randomly, as in Gothic?

 

[OE]FerretB We make a lot of use of the encounter system to tailor an encounter based off of the party itself. But we also have a lot of specifically placed critters and beasties for a fight with some more TLC involved.

[OE]FerretB So a combination, really - but it won't be crazy random.

_____________________

<KnightMB> Will less computer savvy people be able to customize the game's music, potraits, facial features, etc without having to result to a little file hacking here and there?

 

[OE]DarrenM We've changed the way data is structured in the game from the original. We don't have .BIF files anymore or other proprietary formats. Our data containers are basically ZIP files now. If you know how to use ZIP files, you can change things easily

[OE]DarrenM Also, NWN2 uses 3D portraits based off your characters current head.

____________________

Drathlin: Will the game involve pornography/adault themes/vulgar language? I want to get it for my son, but I'm not sure on the maturity level?

 

[OE]DarrenM Hi Drathlin, that's a great question. We're shooting for a "Teen" rating on the game, and the folks at Hasbro are sensitive to that as well. NWN2 won't have vulgar language or any form of pornography

[OE]DarrenM Now... the development of the project... that's another story.

[OE]DarrenM (thanks Frank )

[OE]FerretB We're shooting for a Teen rating, so it should be safe for children. The story, however, has real issues and touch upon deep subjects. There won't be any porn or stuff like that - but it'll be hard-hitting.

______________________

DelmarWynn Kirottu: Will the frequence of actions affect chaos/order axis? I mean, if you do something really good and right after it do something really evil, do you get chaos points?

 

[OE]FerretB The alignment system won't keep track of stuff like that. But we have a lot of alignment checks. A surprising amount of real good law/chaos choices through the game, too.

______________________

SteveThaiBinh: In a recent survey of British schoolteachers, a majority said that commercial computer games had educational benefits for children and could even be used in classrooms. What will the player of NWN2 learn, and have you thought about preparing notes to help parents or teachers exploit the game's educational value?

 

[OE]CharlesM If they like it enough and open the toolset, they may learn to be game developers!

[OE]FerretB Personally, I found RPGs seriously educational in my life - no joke.

[OE]FerretB Especially when I was a kid, taught me stuff about literature, medieval times (although watered down), and more. RPGs also can make you have to crack open the dictionary when you're a kid

_______________________

DLA_Bannor: Will the Radial menu system be kept? Will we be able to assign/hotkey something to a custom radial, IE 1 to all your 1st level spells?

 

[OE]DarrenM Yep, we're going to have the new radial menu. We have some new UI bits too that make casting spells really quick with our QuickSpell interface.

[OE]DarrenM Also, the layout of our radial menus are defined in XML, so a modder can change the look and position of the controls.

_______________________

xXNightElfXx: What can you customize on your character? I.e. Blue eyes, green hair, black skin, strong, ect?

 

[OE]DarrenM With our new "Tinting Technology®", you can do some really cool stuff. For example, our hair color supports two tints, so you can make it brown with gray highlights. You can customize the skin color, scale of the character's body, hair, facial hair and more

[OE]DarrenM Frank sez we support per-pixel level tinting. That sounds really cool, but not really sure what that means

[OE]DarrenM We also have a mohawk as a hair choice. I know I know, maybe played out, but hey. It looks cool. Also we have ethnic features for heads as well.

_______________________

Wulf I am an "Older" player and I don't often grasp the full potential of the games I play. Will NWN2 be a good game for those of us who are not looking to rule the world but want to still have fun running around looking for things and killing small animals in the forest?

 

[OE]FerretB There's plenty of story in NWN2, but we try to be cognizant that some folks want to get to the killing. So on the design side of the fence we try and make sure you can "cut to the chase" and get to the action. But hopefully the cinematic cutscenes and writing will rope you in. Hee hee.

_______________________

<DelmarWynn> What improvements have you done on the toolset? Such as performance in loading areas and working with large scale area?

 

[OE]DarrenM One of my favorite changes to the toolset is that everything is now dockable. You can work on multiple areas, with multiple scripting and dialog windows open all at the same time. We put a lot of effort into making sure you didn't have to have modal dialog boxes.

[OE]FrankK there ya go =) there's also the ability to create your own trees, raise/lower terrain, set the day/night cycle colors, set the cloud cover, etc

[OE]CharlesM Oh man! the improvements are many! The ability to work with multiple areas and scripts simultaneously is phenomenal.

[OE]CharlesM Object properties show up in the blink of an eye.

_______________________

Thoronen: regarding the heightmaps in the terrain editor....how much 'resolution' will we have to play with. For example, can we make really crinkly trrain similar to a lava flow?

 

[OE]AdamB The resolution is a fixed size

[OE]AdamB about 1 meter

_______________________

[OE]FrankK thank you all for taking the time, /wave

 

That's the full log.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Llyranor

[Meshugger]

I just logged in, only to see this message: "Well that about wraps it up for tonight. We appreciate everyone's time and even though not all questions could be answered. We hope you enjoyed it."

 

I was late

[Gabrielle]

I couldn't be a part of it since I couldn't find a stupid irc chat program. :angry:

[Llyranor]

Post-chat answers:

 

Llyranor Question: What graphical improvements can we expect from crate technology as compared to NWN1?

OE]DarrenM Llyranor: Expect the most realistic crates of a 3rd person RPG evAR!

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru Will dialogs feature descriptive sentences, as in Planescape: Torment? If not, then will the graphic engine allow for more complex facial expressions (both for PC and NPCs)?

[OE]DarrenM metallix: We'll let you set emotions on a per node basis

 

Lex[WRG] Will we have arrays and structures ?

[OE]DarrenM Sorry no arrays in NWN2 script. But strings are really arrays if you think about it. But yeah, it's haXX0rish

 

Gromnir sooooo... is anything from black hound being used in nwn2? characters, sub-pots, tangetial quests?

[OE]FerretB Gromnir: We really can't, Gromnir. It's a new story. Josh Sawyer did do one of our areas, though.

 

Artevere I have a question. How does it feel to have this great a response from the NWN community?

[OE]DarrenM Artevere: It's incredibly awesome.

[OE]FerretB Artevere: The community really is impressive and it's been great.

 

Lex[WRG] So will we have more permanent character properties editing functions like SetAttackBonus(), SetAbilityScore(), SetACBonus() ?. Doing it through the "effects" is very buggy right now.

[OE]DarrenM Lex: Sorry dunno that one.

 

Artevere of course, you'll make everyone's decade as soon as NWN 2 is released

[OE]DarrenM Artevere: I hope!

 

Gromnir ferret, josh is doing level design again? i thought he was sticking with technical/rules stuff

[OE]FerretB Gromnir: Josh has done a bit of both, he's a talented guy. Smart, too.

 

[OE]DarrenM Other than the Warlock? Nope

[OE]FerretB Pacer776: More prestige classes will be confirmed in the future, though.

 

PaTr0N Will there be a "highlight all" button like TAB in nwn1?

[OE]DarrenM PaTr0N: Yep

 

Llyranor so, how are you finding the job of lead designer, mr ferret? ^_^

[OE]FerretB Llyranor: It's crazy, but in a very good way.

metallix|rpgplanet-ru DO YOU HAVE SOIL EROSION!!?!?!?!

[OE]DarrenM Soil erosion? Of course! Isn't that standard in RPG's since like 1997?

 

Eleazar Are you going to be taking advantage of Render to Vertex Buffer (R2VB)?

[OE]AdamB Eleazar: no

 

Lanessar Are 2da and tlk files being handled differently than in NWN1?

[OE]DarrenM Lanessar: No

[OE]DarrenM Lanessar: But you'll have campaign-level overrides

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru once again, will you try to incorporate grappling, charge, bullrush, and other special attacks/maneuvers?

[OE]DarrenM metallix: Sorry Met, dunno that one

 

Rine Question: Will 1.67 bug fixes be implemented in NWN2?

[OE]DarrenM Rine: They should be. BioWare's going to provide the code changes

 

ShadowM945 Is a collision mesh system used in place of bounding boxes? are TXI files still used?

[OE]DarrenM ShadowM945: Nope, no more TXI's

[OE]DarrenM Shadow: We have two types of collision: Collision boxes for placeables that have various levels, and spheres for skinned objects (like characters)

 

Gromnir do you guys punk the troika refugees

[OE]DarrenM Gromnir: Oh yeah, Brock gets punked all the time

 

Shadowstrider How long are the resrefs of items going to be? Limited to 16 characters, still?

[OE]DarrenM Shadow! Hey buddy, no they're 32 chars now

[OE]DarrenM We were actually going to support full 255 char names, but to keep hash tables small and such, we chose 32

 

Llyranor will time-travelling lizards make a comback

[OE]DarrenM Llyranor: Do you have an inside contact here?

 

MoeB Can you elaborate on the role of Strongholds? How much interaction will we have and can they be incorporated into player-created modules?

[OE]DarrenM MoeB: Can't talk about strongholds yet, but some features on it are coming

 

Benjamin There will be a z-axis

[OE]AdamB Oh oh, Z-Axis has been asked... time to explode

metallix|rpgplanet-ru are the story/dialog finialized?

[OE]DarrenM meallix: Yep

 

DLA_Steel_Wind <[OE]DarrenM> "spheres for skinned objects (like characters)" Pure sphere? - or is oval alowed? (Horses - sphere - not so good )

[OE]DarrenM Steel_Wind: You can put as many spheres on a skinned object as there are joints to get it as fine as you'd like

 

Lanessar How about... What performance increases will we see as far as PW servers with hundreds of areas?

[OE]DarrenM Lanessar: Great question - We haven't yet tried a big PW set up yet.

 

Rolt2000 Question: Has any thought been made for female gamers in the game in anyway?

[OE]DarrenM Rolt: Yes, err, I think

 

weby_ On the overland maps: Are there going to be multiple maps and how are they handled in multiplayer?

[OE]AdamB weby_: I'm still working on the internals of the world map system. Some of it is still up in the air, but we will support multiple maps.

 

Lex[WRG] Will the server client support plug-ins ?

[OE]DarrenM Lex: Dunno, but our toolset does

 

Benjamin Question for all developers: How much do you like your job?

[OE]DarrenM Benjamin: I love it, especially chats

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru Do you feel yourselves constrained somewhat by the publishers and other (economical) factors?

[OE]DarrenM metallix: Sometimes to be honest, but it's all about how you build your relationships throughout the project

 

Grimshok Have you found that you guys have made more stuff customizable than what you first thought, or less, than when you started?

[OE]DarrenM Grimshok: Way way way too much stuff is customizable now

[OE]DarrenM Grimshok: It's actually a problem at the moment because there is SOO much that can be modified. Over the next few months we're putting in all the wizards and helper things into the toolset to hide some of that for general users

 

Asmodae DarrenM: does that mean that you are hiding some features permanently or just from general usage?

[OE]DarrenM Asmodae: From general usage

 

Shadowstrider Okay, this might be answerable: In NWN1, I found a nifty way to make cutscenes using standard dialogues. Has there been any signifigant changes (specifically, to how quickly conversations flow) which could possibly break this?

[OE]AdamB Shadowstrider: We have made massive improvements to the conversation system and cutscenes. You are best off remaking your cutscenes with our new tools.

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru ARe you involved in any indie-projects, or do you plan to?

[OE]DarrenM metallix: I so wanted to be on an Ultima Online Free Server project, but yeah... no time.

[OE]DarrenM NO PK!

[OE]DarrenM Delmar: I played UO as recently as last year

[OE]DarrenM I hear EVE is the new old-school UO

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru now a very tricky one: Do you enjoy doing Bioware-started projects, or are you more interested in doing your original game?

[OE]DarrenM metallix: It's funny I don't really think of it that way so much - It's really exciting to work on NWN2, even if BioWare hadn't made the first. We're currently working on a new IP game right now too

 

BryanBlaire [OE] Are you allowed to comment on the armor situation, and whether it will be piecemeal, like NWN, or full suits this time around?

[OE]DarrenM BryanBlaire: Armor in NWN2 is different, it's a collection of a bunch of pieces.

[OE]DarrenM We have helmet, cloak and boot slots for example

 

[OE]DarrenM I'm looking forward to playing Titan Question, looks great

[OE]DarrenM err Quest

[OE]DarrenM lol

 

Lanessar Darren, just have to say this...THANKS for your guy's work on this title. NWN1 really got me creating when I'd dropped DnD and since, I've gotten a PW together, run well for 3 years, hell, even matched up three friends who got married from eeting in game. It's great to see what you guys are doing for this title.

[OE]DarrenM Lanessar: Wow! That's awesome! Well, you bet - we're super excited about the game that's for darn sure

 

righ Darren: Is linux and mac totally out of the question, I have plenty of friends who might not play because of that. =/

[OE]DarrenM righ: Doh Not totally out of the question

[OE]DarrenM I think having a Linux or Mac server is potentially doable - with the DirectX change though, that makes creating clients on those OS's a lot more work

 

Game Question: Any updates on the combat animations?

[OE]DarrenM We've added a variety of different animations to the game

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru IS NWN2 More nVidia-biased, or ATI?

[OE]DarrenM metallix: Neither

[OE]DarrenM metallix: It's all DX shader language

[OE]AdamB metallix: neither

[OE]DarrenM We run great on both cards

Llyranor: neither, metallix

 

metallix|rpgplanet-ru DOES NWN2 HAVE PATRICK STEWARTT??!?!

[OE]DarrenM NO!

 

Hicks in testing, how many monsters can you have on screen at once and still have playability?

[OE]DarrenM Hicks: Hmmm, we have a test combat module with 30 guys all fighting one another

 

[OE]DarrenM Our pathfinding system is 100% different than the first game

[OE]DarrenM It works much more like an RTS

 

RogerFachin QESTION: I'm not sure if this has been answered: Do boots and gloves show up on your character? Do any other equipped items show up, like rings?

[OE]AdamB Boots and Gloves: Yes

[OE]AdamB Rings: I don't know

 

Shadowstrider Can I have pinstripes or polka-dots on my clothes? I need a court jester for my module named Gromnir

[OE]DarrenM Shadow: You can put in whatever texture you want

 

[OE]DarrenM No more inventory Tetris - That's something I like personally, but some people may prefer that

 

Shadowstrider Will there be hoods in NWN2? Every good Shadowstrider needs a black hood.

[OE]DarrenM Shadow: Yup

 

righ Darren: Will you be allowed single handed weapons to be held in 2 hands and viceaversa?

[OE]DarrenM righ: Dual wielding? Yes

(here I'm not sure if Darren got the question right, so I'm not sure about the answer)

 

Llyranor MARRY ME DARREN

[OE]DarrenM You bet - I actually have to take off though. Thanks a TON for coming out here to chat with us, we'll see you all soon! Be sure to stop bynwn2forums.bioware. com to chat on the forums!

Edited January 27, 2006 by Llyranor

[Diamond]

Sounds awesome so far. I want this game and I want it NOW.

[Blank]

Since nobody else posted it, here is the link to where the whole chat's logged.

 

although, it looks like some dev's stayed around afterward and answered some questions when all the people were allowed to talk. So there is more than what is officially posted.

 

You can read that stuff in the link where it says "raw log". It is tougher to read, but you can sort out stuff with the "find" option if you have it on notepad.

 

Edit: actually you don't need to go to the raw log since they finally got to editing the post-chat Q&A and put a link to it... unless you want your eyes to hurt.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Blank

[Hurlshort]

It's great to see that the regulars here got involved in the chat, and great questions everyone!

[kirottu]

Damn it! I would so wanted to know how many orcs it takes to change a lightbulb.

[Kor Qel Droma]

Damn it! I would so wanted to know how many orcs it takes to change a lightbulb. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

4 regular, 13 if its flourescent

[Atreides]

Thanks for the logs, Lyranor

[Kaftan Barlast]

It's great to see that the regulars here got involved in the chat, and great questions everyone!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I would have expected it to be longer, they only took my first question and in a trunkated form.

 

 

The one I wanted to have answered was if NWN2 would allow a reasonably skilled team of modders to do a complete conversion

[Surreptishus]

I would have expected it to be longer, they only took my first question and in a trunkated form.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The first part wasn't exactly flattering to them and ultimately extraneous

 

The one I wanted to have answered was if NWN2 would allow a reasonably skilled team of modders to do a complete conversion

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You should have put that as your first question.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I was tired when I wrote those questions, I think the whole question ended up as completely inane, its obvious that Devs will always want more time than the publishers agrees to give them.

 

 

And Hey! Just because I happen to name something "question number one" it doesnt mean its the first question "

[mkreku]

Oh well, at least I got a good night's sleep. I SLEPT DAMN WELL TOO!

[CoM_Solaufein]

Well that sucks. It would have been interesting to pose some questions to the developers.

[Ellester]

thanks people for posting the logs and links

 

damn I sat around watching The Island last night totally forgetting about the chat.