Neverwinter Nights: Days of Open Hand
Previewed by Banshee on 7/19/00

Article Discussion Forum

Glance at the news and it's easy to get depressed by the prevalent, monotonous march of business consolidation: Infogrames may soon gobble up Eidos; the always-pervasive Microsoft just devoured Bungie (and Halo) to feed its X-Box habit, and the business scene in general seems to be moving toward William Gibson's world of megacorps and monopolies giving consumers no options and no voice.

Before worrying that we're all in Blade Runner, though, there's a bit of good news.

As we head into the new millennium, a few innovative developers seem determined to challenge the old school corporate style by engaging in direct dialogue with fans to find out what they really want. It may not be coincidence that these same developers have made tools that give creative gamers the power to alter game worlds with never-before-seen flexibility. Prior to these newcomers on the RPG scene, only programmers or designers with access to expensive tools with high learning curves had that level of control.

No more.

The arrival of the previously-covered Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and the forthcoming Neverwinter Nights may signal a landmark change in the way new games are designed. Only time will tell if it also foreshadows an important shift in the way gaming companies interact with their consumers. BioWare's Communications Manager Brad Grier spoke with me about their corporate philosophy. I also interviewed Neverwinter Nights' Producer Trent Oster about the game itself.

When I expressed my surprise and delight at the open exchange between BioWare and its fans, Grier responded:

"We believe in an open philosophy. Yes, we design the game, but the game can only get better by getting input from the fans, and allowing them to feel this sense of ownership in the game. Yeah, we make the best game we can, but it's also the best game we can make for the fans."

"It's not for everyone though. Some companies do like to listen to their lawyers a bit much, and keep the lid on everything. It's not our culture, and if we ever did have to do something like that, we'd have to modify our culture quite a bit. There's no such thing here as 'just a common fan."

Being friendly with users seems to help in designing a user-friendly interface for the Neverwinter tool set (formerly known as Aurora, formerly known as Solstice):

"I know that the guys are studying the tools very closely, and are striving to make them as easy to use as possible. [They're] even planning to use wizards. They want it to be easy to use, very accessible to anyone. One of the programmers keeps imagining his Mom trying to design a dungeon, and improving it so she could, if she wanted to, " Grier explained.

Producer Trent Oster added his perspective on usability in the tool set as well as a comprehensive overview of the game.

Overview Questions

What are you most proud of and what was the most fun to design?

I'm the most proud of the goal of the project. The idea of bringing D&D to the computer with all the functionality of the pen and paper system. The user interface is probably the most fun to design, however. The interface is going to be crucial to the longevity of this game, and I'm really pushing for a system that is easy to use, yet also powerful and fast.

How much of AD&D's personality will be reflected in the game?

We are extremely loyal to the D&D rules and we are very dedicated to keeping the rules as close to the pen and paper game as possible. We want the 3rd Edition Players Handbook to be a perfectly valid reference for NWN and we want NWN to be great reference material for the 3rd Edition rules.

Interface

Tell us a bit about the Dungeon Master interface. How much will the DM be able to control the game? Is it possible for the DM to switch camera views to see different world areas, or to find separate party members?

We are still in the middle of designing the DM interface and a large number of possibilities are still up in the air. Our goal is to allow the DM to interact with the game with the same omnipotence he/she would have in the pen and paper system. To this end, the DM has to have quick access to all the creatures in the game, so a quick encounter should be easy to drop in on an unsuspecting party. The DM also has to have a method for keeping an eye on the players and watching their progress.

Our original vision was to have a finite number (four or so) different camera windows the DM could attach to the players in the game. The top of the screen would have three small windows that could be swapped with the main window by clicking on it. The cameras for the windows could be placed at a specific location, or attached to a player or party. There are still some technical issues to be resolved with such a system so it will be a while before our current research reaches a point where it can be tested in the actual game.

Are any members of the team who worked on the Baldur's Gate interface involved in designing this project?

Yes, the lead programmer for Baldur's Gate, Scott Greig, is the lead programmer on NWN and he has been injecting his ideas into the design all along. In addition we have involved many of the other senior development members from the BG team in our design discussions.

Multiplayer and Technical Accessibility

Do you see Neverwinter Nights changing some of the traditional MUSHes and MUDs out on the 'net? Will the tool set allow these groups the flexibility to bring their text world into a graphical medium?

I do hope that NWN changes some of the traditional MUSHes and MUDs by allowing a larger percentage of the population access to the kind of gaming these people have enjoyed for years. We are striving to add as much functionality to NWN as possible but it will be impossible to match some of the features found in some MUDs simply due to the sheer number of years they've had to develop and evolve their technology.

Our goal with the tool set is to offer everyone the power to create an exciting adventure, regardless of technical ability, while still providing under-the-hood access to those that have technically savvy or highly customized needs. I think it will be possible to translate some text-based or graphical MUDs over to NWN, but the feel of the game will change. For some MUDs, that won't be a good thing but, for others, NWN is going to be a great framework on which to hang their adventures.

It is my understanding that the network architecture allows up to 64 servers to be connected to each other to host a game. In a large game world, a party may move transparently from one part of the world to the other, but what's actually happened in the hardware is that they have switched servers. We know that in general, there may be more than one DM in a game. In this situation, does there have to be one DM per server, or may a single DM be in charge across multiple servers? How is this handled in the interface?

Yes, we are planning on up to 64 "users" per server. (DMs count against the total, too.) The ability to move between servers is through the "portal" system, which allows the players to move without having to log out and then log back in to another server. Each server can support multiple DMs, but moving from one server to another as a DM is going to require setting up the same DM password on both servers and may require logging out. In other words, it will be possible, but, for security issues, it may not be as seamless as it is for the player.

Considering Neverwinter Nights' portal technology, will the game support use through firewalls?

Yes, NWN will support out-of-the-box game play through some firewalls. Depending on the firewall, however, it may require some work on the server operator's part to get things into optimal running condition.

Tool Set

From the movie I saw, the Neverwinter tool set (formerly known as Aurora) looks much easier to use than many of the map creation programs that currently exist. That's exciting news for users without a background in programming. Will it also be flexible and extensible? In other words, if a user wanted to create a new type of building that differed in appearance and texture from those that ship with the game, or wanted to customize lighting levels in an area, how simple a task would that be?

Thanks. Our goal with the tool set is to make it possible for anyone, regardless of technical ability, to create a basic adventure. The immersiveness of the RPG experience you create, of course, will still depend on your ability to weave a good story and provide your players with interesting and meaningful choices. With that in mind, the tool set is built on two levels of functionality. New users will be guided through the necessary or common elements of the process by a series of useful and user-friendly help 'wizards.' More experienced users can still draw on those wizards to help optimize their workflow but they will also be able to pop the hood to perform more customized work (we'll be providing full access to our powerful, C-based scripting language, so the sky's the limit, really).

All in all, a lot of thought is going into simplifying and optimizing the workflow within the tool set. If a user wants to set the lighting level of an area, for instance, he or she can simply click on the area properties and set an overall illumination value and color and then go into each tile and adjust the lighting on a tile by tile basis. A large number of options will be customizable in this fashion - just pick the object and set the properties.

In the tool set, we are including the ability to paint down the tile-based footprint of the building you desire. As the resulting building will still use the models and textures from our library, however, it won't look completely unique. If a user wanted to create a new type of building which differed radically from any offered in the game, it would require the use of a 3rd party 3D modeling tool, which is obviously beyond our ability to officially support. However, we won't place any arbitrary restrictions on such activities and will do what we can to support them on an unofficial level. However, our primary goal is still to provide a large variety of interesting tiles with the game so people don't have to create their own.

Will the tool set allow users to channel their creativity by changing objects, or making entirely new items such as clothing and weapons for use in games? How difficult a task will this be, and how would those new items get to the party members playing in the chronicle?

Yes, completely. For a user to create a new item in the tool set, he or she first has to pick the "base type" of the item. This base type determines what the item is and what it does. Say we want to create a magical long sword: We would first pick the base type (long sword), which handles all the default damage and abilities of such a weapon. Next we assemble the visual look of the weapon from component parts, picking a hilt, then a crossguard, and finally a blade. We want to make it magical, so we apply a "+1 to hit" effect to the sword and decide to attach a blue glow effect, as a final touch. This basic system will apply for all the items you can create in the game: you pick the base, then the appearance, and then add any required effects and powers.

Besides customizing chronicles through the game interface, it is my understanding that the Dungeon Master can also use some sort of scripting language.

The scripting language is integral to the module implementation. Scripts are what define the module's victory conditions, tell the "actors" in the game what to do, and so on. The scripting language is what offers all the power and extensibility to the end user. When you set up a villain to attack the party, the villain is actually executing a script, first looking for the party, choosing the best means of attack, and finally executing the attack. We'll be providing a library of basic scripts to draw from, as well as a number of wizards to set up victory conditions, subplot types, and the like but we also feel that it is important to keep the scripting language open and accessible to those who can make use of it. The open nature of the scripting language and the customization it offers will allow end users to create situations, scenarios, and even entirely new gameplay options that we could never have foreseen. The DM is not really going to use the scripting language while the game is ongoing, but to develop truly complex plots in the editor it will be essential.

What additional capabilities will the scripting language provide (above and beyond what's provided to the DM through the GUI)? How easy will it be for the DM to move back and forth when controlling NPCs as a puppet master?

The DM can easily switch between controlling a character and any other modes by "releasing" the possession of the character. If the DM doesn't require exact control over a character's actions, the DM can simply click the NPC or group of NPCs, issue a command and move on.

What level of control will the Neverwinter tool set provide the DM? Is the tool set incorporated in the game, or is it a separate program?

The tool set is a separate, stand-alone program. The tools allow anyone to create their adventure, using the drag-and-drop, paint-down interface, the various plot and scripting wizards, or even the direct use of custom scripting.

Will a player who buys Neverwinter Nights be able to get up and running after opening the box? How hard would it be for someone who isn't a developer to create a new spell, for example?

At BioWare, we feel that it is very important that players are able to get up and running in our game as quickly and as pleasantly as possible. In NWN, a new user should be able to install the game and jump into a single player or multiplayer game with only a few clicks, quickly and easily. Creating a module will require a bit more time, but with the wizard system guiding you through the creation process, step by step, a simple dungeon crawl should take under an hour to create. The development time of more complex modules will scale accordingly.

Customizability

Tell us a little bit about phenotypes. It's my understanding that you plan to offer the ability to play as one of four phenotypes: ectomorph (skinny), endomorph (large), mesomorph (muscular) and another group called normal?

Correct. We want the players to be able to customize the appearance of their characters to a large degree, allowing a sense on individualism within the community. We are also offering over 2000 different options in terms of clothing and armor, in addition to a color customization system that will allow the user to independently define six different user colors.

Will BioWare consider female gamers in marketing Neverwinter Nights? Will each one of the seven races allow you to choose the gender you play? Is it true that for the NWN female models, the full plate mail covers the whole body, rather than being just a metal bikini?

Yes, we are very interested in getting the other half of the population playing our game. With the level of control over game play and story provided by the tool set, it's about more than just making sure there are both types of player models. Yes, we are offering both sexes for all seven races. Female players should have the same variety as male players in terms of models, colors, and clothing types.

As for armor, we've taken the approach that, in order for armor to actually protect a character, it has to at least cover that character. We are building the females in the same manner as the male armors. The armor choices will vary from a modest set of beggar's clothing to a head-to-toe set of full plate mail, complete with a solid helmet, with lots of variety in between.

Okay, last question. Just for fun, tell me a little bit about "Dana Scully, Warrior Princess."

Dana Scully, warrior princess, was the character in our original GenCon demo. She was supposed to be a female thief, dressed in leather armor. After a large number of discussions and revisions to the armor we came up with the character of Dana. When she was completed I noticed some resemblance to a few television personalities, noticeably a slight facial resemblance to Dana Scully, and an armor set that looked suspiciously like that of Xena, warrior princess. Thus was born Dana Scully, warrior princess. Sadly, Dana won't be making an appearance in NWN as she is an old data format and doesn't fit into our new armor customization scheme. Despite the fact that she received a lot of press coverage, Dana was not a great representative of what the female armor in the game will actually look like.