Neverwinter Nights 2: Patrick Mills on PWs & a DM Client

Where I'm going with this is that when running a UO shard you have very little in the way of tools. You cannot modify terrain without using very difficult to use, hacked together tools. Any change in the actual terrain data of the map results in a gig (yes, gig) download that is absolutely mandatory. New scripts are essentially impossible to write with most server emulators and have to be done at a very deep level in the code- again, requiring a client patch every time things change. DM Tools re virtually non-existent, you can teleport to players, create/possess monsters, throw your voice, use a "hack-mover" to place objects (that incidentally cause client-side lag because objects placed in this way are dynamic and have to be streamed to the client. Every shard, with few exceptions, requires a separate version of the UO client since the hacks are so severe.

The emulators themselves are mostly written in Python and other high level scripting languages, they aren't very efficient, and most of them offer limited functionality compared to a real UO server. Some emulators have boats working but no buildable structures. Others are the other way around. Some have elaborate crafting systems but only the most basic magic rules, and so on.

And yet despite this, my server had a total of 400-500 registered players, with anywhere from 15-40 playing at a time. As a GM I got to tell some fun stories and run some really great adventures. It was a really great experience for me and, with the exception of the inevitable drama bombs that float around the RPG community, everyone had a lot of fun. As far as I am aware, the server is still up and running and is still pretty active.

My point isn't that you guys should suck it up and take whatever we give you. I have no doubt that our DM client is going to be superior to the DM tools I used on my UO server. It's hard for them not to be. Will they be better than the ones in NWN1? I hope so, and think they will be. Will other things be different? Most definitely. You will have to adapt and learn to do things a little differently. I don't know all the technical details of how the original servers were run (I was busy with UO,) but I suspect that anything resembling weekly content patches might have to be staggered a bit more. More planning might have to be done between patches, just like a real MMO. Whatever, I can't comment on the specifics, it's way out of my field of expertise.

Essentially what I'm trying to get across is that if I could do so much with so little, I find it hard to believe that any of the changes being talked about as though they were the death of the PW scene could possibly be that bad. Things will change, they always do, but I trust that you guys are able to adapt.