NWN 2 Community Blog Update: December 7, 2007

The Obsidian Community Blog has been updated and, before launching into the particulars, the most exciting news is that Rogue Dao Studios' own Monty Markland has been hired by Obsidian! Here's what he had to say:

Obsidian Entertainment is awesome.

I started working here on Monday. The past five days have been the coolest experience I've ever had. For everyone out there thinking, "It must be rad to work in the game business." I can tell you that, yes indeed, it is rad.

"Who are you and why do we care?"

Well, I've been the public face of the Planescape Trilogy project for the past 15 months. I felt like it was important to let everybody know that my arrival at Obsidian doesn't threaten the completion of Purgatorio or the rest of the Trilogy at all. There are 23 incredibly talented ladies and gentleman currently working on Purgatorio, folks such as: Kevin Chow, Scott Douglas, Johnny Taylor, Courtney Keene, Ryan Placchetti, Daniel Haas, Andrej Bartulovic, Heather Kirk, Jason Ng, Michael Cipriano, Will Sprinkel, Bruce Hayles, Matthew Roeder, Sampo Narhi, Gabor Valasek, Robert Fletcher, Atte Laitenen, Marko Radojkovic, Ryan Farnsworth, Andres Cruz, Johnny Ree, and Kris Hammes. I also continue to work on the project in my own time.

If anything, I think my working at Obsidian will make the Trilogy and the community stronger.

Rogue Dao Studios has now proven itself to be a pipeline into paid game industry jobs. This will make recruiting new talent from outside the NWN2 community an easier task. More talent working on the Planescape Trilogy will mean a better gaming experience for everyone. New talent joining the NWN2 community will be a win for everybody involved.

I've been bullish about NWN2 since its release. I'm bullish about NWN2 now. I'm bullish on the Toolset. I'm bullish about Mysteries of Westgate. I think Mask of the Betrayer demonstrated the true potential of Neverwinter Nights 2 and I think even more exciting things will be revealed in the future.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

This is indeed heady stuff for me having met Monty recently and with our long association with the Planescape Trilogy. CONGRATS, Monty!

Here's what else you'll find:

• Harp & Chrysanthemum - A Custom Module by Maerduin: Harp & Chrysanthemum is a custom mod created by Maerduin. While you are reading his summary below, you can start downloading the mod here.
• Weapon Packs by MWMDragon: MWMDragon has created quite a few weapon packs and placed them on the vault.
• Deepsnow Prefab Area: This prefab includes a pretty cool feature that makes it appear as if your character is walking in... you guessed it... deep snow. SGK73 has also included a script that will slow your movement speed in some areas.

Also included is this interesting note:

Clearing the Air

We have been making some changes to the way we will be handling patches moving forward. While I can't give you full details yet, I will let you in on some of the changes: We will be working on a six week schedule for each patch, starting with 1.12. This is a tighter schedule and that means that the number of fixes and features included with each patch will be reduced when compared to the average patch in the past. This, however, does mean that you should be seeing patches more often and at a more predictable rate. We are setting our goals pretty high with this new plan. We will be attempting to address some pretty important, but very risky fixes and features as well.

As part of the new plan, I hope to make our patching process more transparent. I would like to tell you much earlier what we plan to work on in the patches and keep you much more up to date as to how the patches change as we go through each phase: from production, through testing and, finally, to release. I will start this process by posting our primary goals for each patch in this blog. These lists will not be complete lists of what we plan to address as we would still like to put a few surprises in and we will still be keeping exploits a secret so as not to make PW Admins' lives more difficult. The lists will start out pretty general in nature and, as we discuss each patch internally, the lists will become more refined as we add and remove fixes and features from the goals list. Eventually, I would like to be able to post a plan for up to three patches out, so you have a general idea of where things are heading.

* Eliminate the errors caused by transitioning with familiars summoned.
* Fix the issue where the Use Magic Device skill takes priority over caster levels.
* Allow Warlocks to be able to take crafting feats.
* Eliminate area transition crashes.
* Fix the issue where swapping spells on level-up makes characters invalid.
* Update the Dedicated Server Creator to install NX1 files and model directories.
* Provide more detail in the Multiplayer "missing file" error message.
* Eliminate the item identification price discrepancies between the toolset and the price displayed in-game.
* Fix 75 spells.
* Make appropriate spells able to be scribed to a scroll.
* Allow Armorrulestats.2da to be readable from hak pack in-game.
* Implement stealth animations for playable races.
* Add in about 20 more spells.
* Bind the player list to the P key.
* Implement the UI feature to change portraits in-game.
* Implement multi-server portal support.
* Increase the dedicated server player limit to 120.
* Implement the ability to change the loot bag appearance.

Now, as I said, this list can change. We are feeling pretty confident about it now, but in game development there are always snags and issues that prevent some things. It is also important that you realize that this is not a promise of what will be fixed and when, but more of a list of goals that we hope to achieve. Some of the items on this list are so risky that they could bump some items to a later patch.

Also, just because you do not see the issue that is important to you in this list does not mean it has been forgotten. Chances are your issue is scheduled for a later patch.

Personally, I am pretty excited about the new changes. Hopefully you are too. We are currently scheduling the first patch to be released around February 11, but there are some things that may push this back a bit.

VERY professional sounding and an exciting plan! Thanks, Rob and the Obsidian guys!

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