[MUD-Dev] Re: Neverwinter Nights

[Rob Bartel]

On Tuesday 29 May 2001 21:52, John W Pierce wrote:

> This looks like it may have potential as an engine for small
> graphical MUDs.  Does anyone have any solid information on

>  1. What the licensing will be like? In particular, will people be
>  able to charge players for playing in the game world they create?

>  2. What the scripting language looks like? I don't suppose it's
>  going to have the power of LPC, ICE or LambdaMOO, but is it going
>  to at least be better than, say, the language used with the
>  Baldur's Gate II engine?

On Thursday 31 May 2001 16:17:38, Dave Rickey wrote:

> Well, *what* you can script is pretty limited too.  You can create
> content within certain limits, but as near as I can tell you cannot
> add graphical assets, nor can you make any significant change to the

> D&D3E ruleset, or create one of your own.  Contrast this with an FPS

> like Tribes, where literally everything up to and including the
> physics engine can be over-ridden in scripts, and graphical assets
> added.

> Where you see those form-based tools, you're looking at hard-coded
> aspects of the game that can only be altered in certain ways.

Neverwinter will be using NWScript, a robust, C-based scripting
language - many times more powerful than the one we developed for
Baldur's Gate. Due to the length of time they've been around and the
inherent focus of their design, however, some of the MUD community
languages may still be more suitable to your needs. For more info,
check out NWScript.com, a NWN fansite tracking all of the latest
information released about our scripting language. Also, feel free to
drop by the official forums on www.neverwinternights.com and check
around with folks there. We try to field questions there whenever
possible.

Regarding questions of flexibility, the key thing to remember is that
the Neverwinter Tools are layer-based. The average user interacts only
with the outer layer where flexibility is limited in exchange for ease
of use (plenty of help wizards, default settings, and the like). More
advanced users can pop the proverbial hood and interact with the
middle layer, where there's a lot more flexibility but a certain level
of skill and familiarity is assumed (using the scripting language,
modifying parameters on objects, etc). We don't talk about the inner
layer much because it's targeted only towards the elite - there's
limited documentation, plenty of complicated processes to follow, and
more ways to break things than to fix them. That said, this inner
layer is the domain of the professional developer, the hacker, and the
hardcore mod-maker. New geometry, fundamental changes to the way the
game functions, and so forth are all possible... provided you know
what the heck you're doing. These sorts of elite modifications become
part of the "hack pack" that will be required by both client and
server in order to run. We're hoping to have a graceful method of
handling these hack packs in place by the time we ship but, if there
just isn't enough development time, we'll be patching it into the game
shortly thereafter. It's important to us and important to our
community.

As for licensing issues, the basic EULA will probably restrict
for-profit use. That said, we're open to discussing custom license
agreements with serious parties (Black Isle, for instance, licensed
our Infinity Engine for use in Torment and Icewind Dale). In short, if
you want to profit from NWN, we're going to ask you to pay a little
more than the $50 box price. ;o) If you'd like to discuss custom
licensing with us, I'd recommend contacting Trent Oster, our Producer,
at <trent at bioware.com>.

I hope that clarifies things a little,
Rob Bartel
Co-Lead Designer
Neverwinter Nights
BioWare Corp.



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