Neverwinter Nights 2: NWN 2 Developer Q&A

The Killer Betties have posted a seemingly belated Q&A with the Obsidian Entertainment folks. Covering characters, prestige classes, the toolset and the campaign, the 'ground' is unsurprising but it's a good reminder of all the things that -did- make it into the game.

8. What are all the user interface changes have been made to the game? And can you talk more about the new control scheme that allows for a more RTS approach and how it is incorporated into the game and used?

[Anthony Davis] First of all, the GUI is modifiable and skinnable. The community has already released several modified versions of the GUI, including bigger hotbars and vertical hotbars.

The radial menu was replaced with a context sensitive menu. This is very similar to a regular Windows™ context sensitive menu. In other words, when I bring up the context menu on a game object, my only options that are allowed are the ones that are actually applicable for that object.

The Quickcast Screen is a new GUI screen we added that allows spellcasters to *VERY* quickly access all their prepared spells and cast them. This even works with the new prestige class, the Warlock, and allows for combining of essences and shapes very quickly.

The hotbar system was revamped to bring it in line with modern games. Every party member now has their own hotbar with up to 120 buttons. The buttons are accessible both with a mouse click and with a key press (1 through '='). Players can rapidly change the hotbar they are on by pressing 'shift' plus the corresponding number.

We added a fourth camera to the game, the free camera, which allows the player to move their camera around freely without being attached to their controlled character. Most players will recognize this as the same type of camera from many RTS games and the Infinity engine games.