Neverwinter - Interviews @ OnlineWelten, JeuxVideo

Dhruin

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Lucky Day points out a couple of Neverwinter interviews from international sites. German site OnlineWelten has both English and German versions, with Jack Emmert covering some new ground. On how user-generated content will be accessed:
Onlinewelten: We’ve heard about a system codenamed ‘Forge’, which will allow players to literally forge their own content. Can you explain us how this system is going to work?

Jack Emmert: We’re translating versions of our internal design tools into something usable by the public. It’s a robust set of editors that allows people to layout their own adventures and quests. Most of the things we can do internally will be possible in forge.

Players will connect their adventures to a NPC in the persistent world and/or specially designated entrances (for example, a cave). Players will always know if they’re about to access user generated content. Naturally, we’ll also include rating tools so that players can sort content by what’s most popular, most recent, etc.
There's also a French article at JeuxVideo, and a Google translation here.
More information.
 
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German article has some good stuff

Onlinewelten: What about those powerful and flexible character customization tools you were using in Star Trek Online and Champions Online, which Cryptic is quite well known for. Will this come into play in Neverwinter?

Jack Emmert: Definitely! I don’t foresee Cryptic ever straying away from this. We believe that players should be able to create the character they envision, not select from some preset group of faces.

so, good character design but I wonder if anything can be changed dynamically like using dyes, etc.

Onlinewelten: Which races and classes will be playable?

Jack Emmert: At launch, Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Cleric and Ranger. We’ll add more each month and probably do polls and what not so that players can vote on what they’d like to see. For races, we’re definitely covering humans, dwarves and elves – and a few other surprises that I don’t want to spoil yet.

surprising other race? Half-Orc anyone? New playable class every month? Seriously? Is that going to be the type of pay to play content?

Onlinewelten: Are there any persistent parts in this game? Or is it just about jumping right into the action with your friends and having fun in this or that dungeon? Is there any storyline?

Jack Emmert: Yes, Neverwinter is broken down into a number of persistent zones that contain various characters and storylines. It’s an extensive narrative that stretches throughout the game; some details learned in the beginning don’t come to fruition until hours later. We’re revolving our entire development process around the storyline. I instructed the lead designer to map out the game exactly like a D&D module so that our team could understand everything at once. EVERYTHING in the game – no matter how small – should support the story.

the "persistence" word comes up but I don't think its in the context that I'm looking for.

Onlinewelten: Since Neverwinter is a licensed Dungeons & Dragons product, can you explain how the tabletop game systems affect the gameplay? And which ruleset are you using?

Jack Emmert: We’ve looked to 4th edition as an inspiration for the game mechanics. Now, some things don’t translate exactly, but we’ve done our best to connect the two. Nearly all the class powers are straight out of the 4th edition Player’s Handbook. Our item system is taken right from 4th edition Adventurer’s Vault. The creature types, Artillery, Controller, Brute, Minion, are straight out of the Monster Manual.

But things aren’t exactly copied from D&D. Our hit points are roughly 3x what you’d see in 4th edition. We reworked Action Points so that they fuel Boons, rather than being spent on rerolls. The game isn’t turn based liked D&D; it’s real time.

details on what is from the 4th edition but the HP modification will be 3x.

Jack Emmert: We’re translating versions of our internal design tools into something usable by the public. It’s a robust set of editors that allows people to layout their own adventures and quests. Most of the things we can do internally will be possible in forge.

Players will connect their adventures to a NPC in the persistent world and/or specially designated entrances (for example, a cave). Players will always know if they’re about to access user generated content. Naturally, we’ll also include rating tools so that players can sort content by what’s most popular, most recent, etc.

this sounds odd. rather than starting up a server you connect your server to an object already in the existing server.

Onlinewelten: Will it be possible to ‘forge’ on the fly - like being a dungeon master behind the scenes, while other people just ‘play’ your dungeon?

Jack Emmert: NwN 1 and 2 had DM tools, and it’s our intentions to have these too: you'll be able to dynamically modify the game experience through these tools.

Qu'est que c'est!? I missed this the first time around. Will it or won't it have DM Clients/Tools? Since there's a typo between pages 5 and 6 I'm thinking this was a late add! The debate will rage!

Jack Emmert: Everything, by default, is accessible by all players. All the content is put onto Cryptic’s servers – which then can be played by anyone logging in. It’s no different than how people access the content we make.

We might add switches so that people can make content playable only by their guild or friends or something.

might or will? this was a definite in other interviews but now its a maybe? how do you keep morons from jumping in and ruining your experience by killing anything that talks and gives XP?
 
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