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Toolset |
The
Neverwinter
Toolset is the module creation utility included with Neverwinter
Nights that will allow Dungeon Masters to either recreate their
favorite classic AD&D module or create new ones from
scratch. |
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Description |
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Intuitive
and easy to use as possible, the Neverwinter
Toolset will be powerful enough to recreate most home campaigns
and classic modules. While you may not be able to faithfully
recreate every trap in the Tomb of Horrors and there may not be
models for this item or that exact monster or terrain type, the
Neverwinter
Toolset should be able to create an easily recognizable
facsimile of that special tale or imaginary world you've grown
to love, whatever it may be.
You will be able to
draw from extensive libraries of pre-existing content or create
your own. All buildings, terrain, and dungeon spaces, can be
painted down using intuitive and context-sensitive tiles. At the
same time, the powerful, Neverwinter Scripting Language allows
you to weave your stories and create characters that behave in
an intelligent fashion (this includes engaging in fully
customizable conversations and dialog chains that you create).
You will even be able to create new creatures and items based on
templates provided for your convenience. And after the initial
game ships, additional artwork and content is planned to be
added expanding the capability and allowing more and more things
possible over the course of time.
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Tilesets |
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A
module will be made up of one or more areas. Each area
represents a single location such as grasslands or the main
floor of an inn and is constructed using a tileset. Each tileset
is comprised of hundreds of individual tiles with dozens of
different textures that represent different parts of the area.
At this point, the maximum area size of 1024 tiles (32x32).
Tiles are 10m x 10m
with a height of either 0m, 4.5m or 9 m. Additionally, tiles can
be stacked to create even taller structures. Instead of
positioning a particular object on a particular tile, tiles
include objects like buildings, trees, walls, rocks etc. Since
tiles are ten meters square, the smallest building essentially
fills one tile. Larger buildings are groups of multiple tiles,
while some structures like castles are sub-tilesets of a larger
tileset. By making each floor or level of the
building/castle/dungeon a separate area, there is really no
limit the the size of a module.
To speed up the module
creation process, each building comes with its own default
custom interior. There will be a small degree of customizability
of these interiors but for the most part it will be limited to
swapping in a small number of variant tiles (such as an optional
subterranean access). If you so choose, you can take the time to
mix and match different exteriors and interiors. This allows
custom buildings such as a tavern inside an old manor house or a
door in a wizard's tower that leads to a massive illusionary
forest.
The list of terrain
tilesets includes (but is not limited to):
- Castle Neverwinter
- Castle Luskan
- Dungeon Sewer
- Dungeon Mines
- Dungeon Crypt
- Dungeon Evil
- Terrain Rural
- Terrain Cavern
- Terrain Forest
- Interior Rural
- Interior City
- Interior Neverwinter
Castle
- Interior Luskan
Castle
Each terrain tileset
includes suitable buildings, streams, waterfalls, coastlines,
impassable chasms, forests, and bodies of water on three
traversable height levels. Beyond these, Neverwinter Nights will
include a wide variety of buildings and structures of both a
unique and a generic nature, a number of special tiles, a large
number of variations on basic tile models, and, of course, some
plot-specific tilesets that will be keep secret.
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Portals |
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Neverwinter
Game Servers can be linked through "Portals." Portals
are gateways between two Game Servers, allowing players to
travel between worlds simply by stepping through them. When a
character comes across a portal, they can examine it much like
any other object. The portal description will include all of the
target server settings like PvP [player killing] and death
options as well as indicating the approximate lag to the server.
If the character does not meet the requirements of the target
server, the player is not teleported and re-appears beside the
original server's Portal. If the server on the other end is
currently not operational, the Portal will appear closed.
Additionally, when a Vault character passes through a portal,
the character is checked back into the vault and then
immediately checked back out to the new server.
Two types of portals
exist: one-way and two-way. When a character travels through a
one-way portal, they appear at the entry point of the module on
the target server. This would be same as if the character had
logged off the first server and then logged into the second.
One-way portals do not require permission from the target server
since normal login restrictions apply.
A two-way portal is
established when one server requests the link and the other
server grants it. Once a Portal is created, it remains until
removed by one of the server operators. Once the portal is
connected on both servers, characters can step back and forth
between the two worlds.
A portal is placed as
any object on the terrain is placed, you simply select the
location and drop the portal. It will be possible to flag an
edge transition as a portal to another server and when the
character walks off the edge he/she will be asked if he/she
wishes to travel to the new server. For a group of servers
sharing a server character database, the yes/no can be disabled.
The implications of
this Portal system are pretty mind-boggling. By distributing the
different areas and population load over a number of computers
with decent Internet connections, the game world can know no
boundaries. On a smaller scale, a player guild or adventuring
party can link a chapter's worth of BioWare's story-based
modules to each other, allowing them to adventure freely through
the larger story environment by passing from Portal to Portal.
Freewheeling MUDs and MUSHes could also emerge where people
cobble their different creations together into a larger,
cosmopolitan world of adventure. Neverwinter Nights is all about
getting people together and Portals allow that to happen on a
grander, even more exciting scale.
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