NWN2 devchat in 2 hrs

[Kaftan Barlast]

[03:58] *** [OEI]nchap has joined #warcry

[03:59] <[OEI]nchap> Hey guys, what's up

[04:00] <Shadowstrider> Okay, Nate, off the record; does NWN2 suck?

[04:00] <Llyranor> you can refuse to answer!

[04:00] *** Shadowstrider was kicked by DelmarWynn (Dumb question to ask)

[04:00] <Llyranor> rofl

[04:00] <[OEI]nchap> NWN2 is pretty cool guys.

[04:00] <Kaftan_Barlast> lollerskates

Edited April 14, 2006 by Kaftan Barlast

[Llyranor]

The chat is done. Post-chat.

 

Mad rush to get all info in. I had to go through a lot of crap to gather these.

___________

 

Llyranor will be the dialogue window be expandable to include more text without scrolling?

 

[OEI]nchap Llyranor - you can get a bunch of stuff in the text window.

 

Llyranor thanks, and can a modder customize the size?

 

[OEI]nchap Llyranor - Oh, also I can learn 2 read. Yeah, you can resize it. I don't know if that's moddable, but you can just click and drag it to resize it.

 

Lowlife if you increase the size of the monster, with that tool thingie, does it increase the monster's strenght/ toughness??

 

[OEI]JESawyer Lowlife: No, not inherently.

 

Pal_X Are there Cats?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Pal_X: Yes.

 

[talusDM]Mekerek I still wanna know if there is going to be any DB integration.

 

[OEI]JESawyer Mekerek: Sorry bud, DMon is the master of DB questions.

 

AelrynBloodmoon Can any of the Dev's comment on how Wizard Spell School Specialization is being implemented/handled at this time?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Aelryn: Should still be the same as the original NWN.

 

Talwyn Have you planed to developp some more stuff in expansions, such as mountables horses for example ?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Talwyn: We're trying to stay focused on the core game right now, but mounts would be great if done well -- of course!

 

Django The animation question was asked before to a degree, but I'm curious as to the repetitiveness of combat animations. About how many animations for each different method of attack are there? Do the Dual wield animations vary much from each other?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Django: Each weapon stance has four total attack animations (excluding special animations for wacky attacks). The first two are always available, but a third is cycled in at +5 BAB and a fourth at +10.

 

ALFA-Inaubryn Will more Dragons be in other than the Red Dragon?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Inaybryn: You'll have to wait and see!

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Lanthar, we use a variety of in-house plug-ins for our dev purposes, but I don't knwo what will be released in terms of how to develop your own.

 

weby Can the world maps be called up by a script?

 

[OEI]nchap weby: Yes, they can.

[OEI]nchap weby: World maps can be brought up through script, and the icons that appear on them appear based on script conditionals

 

AelrynBloodmoon Sawyer, Thanks. I'm curious, was there any discussion booted around of adding a way to choose the opposing schools instead, or was it a task that was set aside due to difficulties integrating with the NWN client

 

[OEI]JESawyer Aelryn: I think the issue was just one of plain ol' time. Sorry.

 

Targeter Do we get real custom content passive feats (not using the character hide), and are they fully scriptable as far as being permanently addable and removable?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Targeter: Sorry I haven't answered, but I just don't know enough about that.

 

Sesshomurai Can we add waypoint destinations to the worldmap from script?

 

[OEI]nchap Sess: Yes.

 

PentaneOnMirc Something I'd really like to be able to see in NWN2 is being able to use the <I> and <B> tags for player chat. Having the abillity to use italic and bold words when roleplaying is a true boon, it allows so much more depth of expression. I understand we will have italic and bold in in NPC conversations, will this functionallity extend to PC chat?

 

[OEI]nchap Pentane: I'm not sure if it's supported in player chat, but it IS supported in dialogue. You can say goodbye to *asterisks* for emphasis now that we have italics in dialogue.

 

AelrynBloodmoon Thanks again, Sawyer. ) One last question in regards to mechanics on my end... "Active" combat feats cancelled each other out in NWN1 (like expertise and flurry of blows.) Will this be the case in NWN2?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Aelryn: They did, but I think we've fixed all of them. ALSO, THEY STAY ON EVEN WHEN COMBAT ENDS!

 

[OEI]nchap Sess: I can't stress enough how cool the worldmap is. You want to know an even cooler part?

[OEI]nchap Sess: The world map hotspots don't just teleport you to an area. They actually just launch a script.

 

ALFA-Inaubryn Sawyer: I suppose I will wait and see. Okay... last question from me. Cleric Domains and granted Powers: Close to 3.5?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Inaubryn: Eh... not that close.

 

ALFA-Marklos has the question on the quality of Obisdian monster/NPC AI been addressed? Will "believeable" creature AI depend on the community as the game's predecessor (sp?)?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Marklos: I think it's a lot better, to be honest.

[OEI]JESawyer Marklos: So far I haven't seen any really dumb stuff, so I guess that's an improvement!

 

PentaneOnMirc Will Mage Staffs cast spells with full caster bonuses (from feats and int modifiers and caster level) as according to the 3.5 rules?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Pentane: To be honest, I don't know. I haven't looked into that.

 

[COA]Falon can passive feats be scripted and then be added permanently to a PC via script?

 

[OEI]nchap COA: Not sure, sorry

 

[COA]Falon can passive feats be scripted and then be added permanently to a PC via script?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Falon: If I understand you correctly, I don't think so. I think that adding feats needs to reference a feat ID in the 2DA...

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Falon, I think that the answer to your question is 'no', but you can always apply a combination of effects to a creature on a permanent basis.

 

[OEI]JESawyer You guys and your database questions! DMON, SAVE US!

 

LaCrampe Did the crafting system will allow Modder to create new receipe?

 

[OEI]JESawyer LaCrampe: Yes, you can create a zillion (well, not that many, I guess) recipes.

 

[bbnwn]Baldurien other question 'bout NWN2 : do you prefer mySQL or pgSQL ? :>

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Baldurien, some work has been done to improve the performance of the VM, but sadly, arrays are not available. It would be a blessing, but alas.

 

Vulcano this goes back to an earlier question, but will Discipline and knockdown remain, or be replaced with trip and an opposed ability score check?

 

[OEI]JESawyer No, I'm pretty sure all that stuff is still in -- for better or worse.

 

LaCrampe For PW : Are we gonna be able to disable/customize unwanted feats such as HiPs or Dev.crit?

 

[OEI]JESawyer LaCrampe: I'm not sure, to be honest.

 

Arshoon Question: With pieces of armor showing now, how difficult will it be to make custom pieces, crests and so on and add them to the game?

 

[OEI]JESawyer Arshoon: I don't know how difficult attachments will be... probably easier than other things because they are not skinned...

 

[DLA]BryanBlaire Don't know if this has been asked, but: Will the merchant functionality be more robust than the current version within NWN?

 

[OEI]JESawyer BryanBlaire: Pretty much the same, sorry.

 

[OEI]nchap Arshoon: I am not 100% sure on the pipeline for attachments, but I can say that in general the skill requirements for making models in NWN2 will be higher than NWN. It's just a fact of life in making a "next-gen" game with stuff like normal mapping, tintmapping, etc. etc.

 

Talwyn Will an OnClientTalk or something else be avaible, like an evenement when a player speak a sentence ?

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Talwyn, are you talking about capturing when you type in the chat window? If so, then yes, there's an event handler for OnShout, which can be scripted to capture shouts.

 

Arshoon Not skinned? How do you do the textures of armor pieces? Lets say I want to make a custom breastplate and add the Purple Dragon of Cormyr to it.

 

[OEI]JESawyer Arshoon: You should be able to set that up entire in Max, I believe.

 

[COA]Falon will there be underdark tilesets or are they with the new hieght maps as well

 

[OEI]JESawyer Not underdark tilesets specifically, no.

 

[nwnx]Lanthar whoa whoa whoa. bfox... you partially answered my BIGGEST question. are there event scripts now for all player speech events in the module level?

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Lanthar, we still have the OnConversation event and the afrementioned OnShout event. Could you be more specific?

 

Llyranor still no official dev response on whether we need external tools for drawing the world map

 

[OEI]nchap Llyranor: The worldmap uses a .tga file I believe, so you'll need one of those.

 

[OEI]nchap You don't need a hak to import a map. They are contained on the campaign level, I believe.

[OEI]nchap Actually, that may not be correct, don't quote me on that. You may need a hak.

 

[OEI]nchap There's 27 people in QA on NWN2 right now internally, and more at Atari.

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Reputation system has been changed. And by changed, I mean mostly removed. Factions remain in place and can be expanded in the toolset. Not by script, unfortunately.

Miru Hey Devs, where was MCA today? Just too tired to bother with this kind of chat? ;P

 

[OEI]JESawyer Miru: He's a busy guy.

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Syrsnein, we kept all the original events and added a few more, like OnClientEnter and OnShout.

 

[DLA]Syrsnein [OEI][C4][C4]BFox have you listed them anywhere by chance, I'm rather interested in the specifics if that is possible

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Syrsnein, they aren't listed anywhere and some area still under dev. They aren't a big secret, I just don't want to misquote at this time.

 

[DLA]Syrsnein [OEI][C4][C4]BFox and will OnClientExit allow us to fully access the PC object before it goes away .. unlike NWN1 right now

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Syrsnein, that was a concern at one time, but it may still happen. We'll have to wait and see!

 

bewildered_ronin One more thing about maps; we can have multiple maps, correct?

 

[OEI]nchap ronin: Yep.

 

[nwnx]Lanthar ***** BFox, here you go again : Is something like OnPlayerSpeech(available vars: speaker object, spch mode, possessing obj if any, string, target person if tell) in the module events?

[nwnx]Lanthar that captures all speech modes. not just shout

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Lanthar, are you proposing that there be an event fired when the PC talks to a creature or are you looking for a way to capture voice chat?

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox There will be no voice chat support in the game. Sorry.

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Doesn't preclude you from using a third-party client, but it can't be integrated in the game from an event side.

 

NorD_fr Fox - Will the system to generate sky/weather/fog be fully accessible through script? (exemple: allowing us to go from day to night or change speed and colors of clouds in real time)

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox NorD, not currently. The day/night cycle is responsive to scripted changes in game time, however.

 

[talusDM]Mekerek [OEI][C4][C4]BFox: So if i say "*sits*" in talk.. will there be an even trigger for something like that?

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Mekerek, yes, provided you setup the proper listening patterns.

 

[DLA]Syrsnein [OEI][C4][C4]BFox say .. something like OnPickPocket, OnPickLock ... using the OnAcquireItem event to work with pick pocketting is a pain

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox There won't be any rogue-related events, but in most cases thaey can be captured in existing events, like OnInventoryDistured, etc.

 

PentaneOnMirc What about the Campaign Override, BFox? What kind of things can we change with it?

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Pentane, Campaign Override, if I understand correctly, is really just a set of game/module options that can be set exclusive to your campaign.

 

[nwnx]Lanthar when you say set up the proper listening patterns... you refer to npc onConversation, right?

 

[OEI][C4][C4]BFox Lanthar, yes OnConversation is one way. OnShout is yet another. I'm not too expereinced with the OnShout at this time, so I better not misquote.

 

And that's all.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Llyranor

[funcroc]

Awesome!

 

<[OEI]nchap> There's 27 people in QA on NWN2 right now internally, and more at Atari.

[metadigital]

Crap. I tried to login using the java client, but it seems to crash after every few minutes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There were scores of people logged in when you appeared and disappeared, maybe related to bandwidth ..?

[Judge Hades]

Shadowstrider should have known better to ask that.

 

Thanks for posting the chat here.

[Darque]

[03:58] *** [OEI]nchap has joined #warcry

[03:59] <[OEI]nchap> Hey guys, what's up

[04:00] <Shadowstrider> Okay, Nate, off the record; does NWN2 suck?

[04:00] <Llyranor> you can refuse to answer!

[04:00] *** Shadowstrider was kicked by DelmarWynn (Dumb question to ask)

[04:00] <Llyranor> rofl

[04:00] <[OEI]nchap> NWN2 is pretty cool guys.

[04:00] <Kaftan_Barlast> lollerskates

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Judge Hades]

When Bethesda holds a Fallout chat and SS is there JE or Lawson should show up and ask if Fallout 3 is going to suck.

[Haitoku]

When Bethesda holds a Fallout chat and SS is there JE or Lawson should show up and ask if Fallout 3 is going to suck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Like we all don't know the answer to that...

[Cantousent]

Llyranor, you're an okay guy. This is great. I don't have the patience to go to these online chat things, but I sure appreciate the fact that you kept a transcript.

[Volourn]

Yes! Knockdown and discipline are likely still in! WOO HOO! I like them a lot, and I like them even more knowing thatc ertain people dislike them. They are 100% better than the lame trip from pnp! (of course, now, Obsidian will do their upmost to remove them before release :D )

 

WOO HOO!

 

 

"BFox Reputation system has been changed. And by changed, I mean mostly removed. Factions remain in place and can be expanded in the toolset. Not by script, unfortunately."

 

What exactly does this mean? Factions were basically the only reputation system there was in NWN1 so uh?

 

 

 

"Don't know if this has been asked, but: Will the merchant functionality be more robust than the current version within NWN?"

 

NWN merchants w/expansions are very functional, and very revust. Only a few more things would be nice to be seen added to them, anyways.

 

 

"Will Mage Staffs cast spells with full caster bonuses (from feats and int modifiers and caster level) as according to the 3.5 rules?"

 

This was in NWN1 (as per 3.0 rules, of course) so I'd be mighty surprised if it wans't in NWN2.

 

 

"They did, but I think we've fixed all of them. ALSO, THEY STAY ON EVEN WHEN COMBAT ENDS!"

 

Sounds cool. The expansion fixed half the problem (keeping them going during the battle); but it being more constant until the player decides to turn it off is even cooler.

 

 

The QA thing is awesome.

 

Good chat, overall.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Volourn

[Llyranor]

Now I just need to find some bloody mapdrawing program or something.

[Fenghuang]

GOD DAMN ****!

 

I was at work then you bastards.

 

Oh well, maybe I can BS with them next time, I'm unemployed now.

[Gromnir]

question: why do they even bother to list chrisA as a participant at these things?

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Cantousent]

Dammit. What I mean to say was that he should show up if he says he's going to be there. It's just poor form. On the other hand, the chat was informative and his absence was largely irrelevant. I suppose we can just write off seeing Avellone at these things.

[kirottu]

Chris A does so much other interviews that I don

[Musopticon?]

Thanks Llyrsaurus.

 

Tabs? Awesome! :cool:

[Kaftan Barlast]

[OEI]BrianLawson We've used 3D Studio Max exclusively for this project. At this point in time that's the only package we have plug-ins for in terms of getting data out of. I believe there are plans for eventually releasing the exporter plug-in. This should cover all non-skinned objects. We're still currently investigating a solution for skinned objects (i.e. creatures).

 

 

This is rather worrying because without a way to export models/textures into NWN2, there is no way to create custom content. Even more worrying ist he part about skinned/textured objects, its difficult to know what he meant but it sounds like the plugin can only import the meshes.

[Dark_Raven]

[03:58] *** [OEI]nchap has joined #warcry

[03:59] <[OEI]nchap> Hey guys, what's up

[04:00] <Shadowstrider> Okay, Nate, off the record; does NWN2 suck?

[04:00] <Llyranor> you can refuse to answer!

[04:00] *** Shadowstrider was kicked by DelmarWynn (Dumb question to ask)

[04:00] <Llyranor> rofl

[04:00] <[OEI]nchap> NWN2 is pretty cool guys.

[04:00] <Kaftan_Barlast> lollerskates

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LOL That Wynn person sounds like a great person.

[Shadowstrider]

Shadowstrider should have known better to ask that. 

 

Thanks for posting the chat here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Who says I didn't? Besides, the Dev got the joke.

 

The warcry folks just had a huge stick up their collective rears.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Shadowstrider

[Surreptishus]

Yeah I got the joke too, those warcry folks seem a little gothy.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Surreptishus

[Ellester]

Thanks Llyranor! theres some good stuff here.

 

...and I'm shocked they have 27 people in q&a. Obsidian sounds like a real developer now. lol

[WinterSun]

Yeah I got the joke too, those warcry folks seem a little gothy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You think that's bad?

 

Interesting chat. Definitely looking forward to this one.

[Llyranor]

Sticks up collective rears

 

Hmm, what's the best tool for turning a crappy drawing into a water painting on parchment? Photoshop? Any open source program instead?

[Kaftan Barlast]

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

 

 

Still, Id recommend you get a friend who can draw to do it instead. Anyone whos ever used PS or any such program will cringe when they see youve just used filters to make your map.

[Llyranor]

Oh, I'm not trying to make my maps look professional. They need to reek of Llyranor style. That means 5-yo level awesomeness.