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Topic: Post 1.03 Patch DM Client (Read 132 times) |
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R00kie
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Oh...I see Demetrious beat me to it.
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| « Last Edit: on: Dec 4, 2006, 10:32PM » |
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Poetic Colossus
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I tried this out last night with the beta patch - worked like a champ! I could easily see running NWC styled games now with this patch in place....
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R00kie
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Okay..I've just given it a go and 1.03 is a huge improvement. Compared to the 1.02 DM client the difference is staggering, but there is still functionality missing.
The ability to run through closed doors, combined with the new improved run speed almost make up for it, but there is still no way of jumping to a location without going through the chooser, and this still makes many areas innaccessible to the DM. The DM needs to be able to right click and Jump to location as well as objects.
Creature control needs a lot of work. We cannot select a creature (or group of creatures) and move them. We cannot make something attack without possessing it. We cannot enable or disable the AI from right clicking it on creatures, or change faction, which means we have no way of initiating, or stopping combat from occuring.
We do not currently have the ability to select multiple objects (either in the chooser or in the main window) meaning that for example, sending a group to limbo involves sending each one seperately.
We do not have the ability to interact with the inventory of Players or Creatures without possessing them.
Finally we cannot use the quickbar for any DM functions. There is currently no way of getting your DM commands down there, and they will not accept Script commands.
Overall though I have to say 1.03 is a fantasic improvement over 1.02.
Now I'll go and post on the official forums..
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Lazybones
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on Dec 4, 2006, 10:33 PM, Poetic Colossus wrote:| I tried this out last night with the beta patch - worked like a champ! I could easily see running NWC styled games now with this patch in place.... |
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Yeah, I gotta disagree, PC. As R00kie noted, you cannot even budge a creature an inch without direct possession, or move around a group. That's pretty fundamental; I cannot see even setting up a simple encounter with a couple of orcs without this ability.
I just ran some tests in a module I've been working on. For some reason, the Chooser didn't work at all; I could not use it to transport around, and while it registered a creature I spawned in right in front of me, I couldn't affect it in any way with the Chooser commands.
Basic inventory control is also missing. I know this wasn't included in NWN1 at first either, but I'm so used to it now that I cannot imagine running a game without it.
I agree that 1.03 has some good features, but we've still got a ways to go before we're ready for primetime. But we're getting closer, which is good.
Ah, I just noticed that all my plug-ins are broken again as well. I know that these are community-provided features, but they provide functionality that, IMO, should have been included in the game to start with (you know, creature wizards, item creation, heck, even a tool so that trees aren't walked through by players by default). I am starting to think I should have just skipped the "beta" and picked up the game six months in. Oh well, at least I'm part of the learning curve. 
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R00kie
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As posted on Bioware forums..
Okay, I’ve had longer to play with the DM Client. I should emphasis that as yet I haven’t attempted to GM with it. I know that it is nowhere near ready and I wouldn’t even consider inflicting it on players. Here are my updated comments on version 1.03
The Chooser (Priority: Highest)
Unfortunatelty the 1.03 patch introduced a very serious bug in the chooser. The Chooser is broken in 1.03. Currently whatever is under the pointer is selected meaning that it is impossible to select something, and then with it still selected get the mouse pointer to the buttons at the top. This has a number of knock on consequences. It is now impossible for the DM to jump to a location, or to in anyway affect things in Limbo. It is still possible to right click on something in the same location as you and affect it that way. This needs to be fixed.
Selecting Multiple Creatures (Importance: Very High)
In the original DM client multiple creatures could be selected by holding down Control and dragging a box around them. All creatures within the box were selected. A similar result could be achieved by holding down shift and selecting multiple creatures in the Chooser. Actions such as moves, or sends to Limbo could then be issued to the group.
The GM should also be able to select all the party at once for things like granting XP, moving them to a new location etc.
Creature Movement (Importance: Very High)
In the original DM client moving a creature was a simple as selecting it (either by clicking on it or be selecting it in the chooser), and then shift-clicking on the ground where you wanted it to go. This function worked with groups of creatures and they walked as a group. This functionality is absolutely required
Combat Control (Importance: Very High)
The DM requires the ability to instigate or prevent combat. Ideally this would fall into three abilities, all applicable to groups of creatures.- The DM needs to be able to tell single creatures, or groups of creatures, to attack a particular target, either by shift clicking on them, or by right clicking on them and choosing the option from the context menu. The DM needs to be able to end combat by selecting creatures and telling them to move a remote location. The creatures should then run away.
- The DM needs to be able to Enable/Disable the AI on creatures so that they don’t attack until told to. Ideally this would be a global setting, so if for example during a town adventure the players had aggravated the guards, and the whole town was breaking into outright warfare the DM could hit the panic button and then try to sort out the mess.
- DMs need to be able to change creature faction. As a minimum then need to be able to switch creatures between a Hostile and a Neutral faction. That way the DM could have the creatures set to Neutral whilst their leader negotiated with the players, but switch them to Hostile if he wanted them to attack. Being able to switch between all factions (including custom) would be nice, but between Neutral and Hostile would be a minimum.
Inventory manipulation (Importance: Medium/High)
Ideally the DM needs to be able to manipulate characters and creature inventories more closely. He should be able to interact with creature inventories and manipulate item properties without having to possess them. Ideally the DM would be able to:- Open player and creature inventories from the right click menu
- On creatures mark items as Pickpocketable or Droppable
- On both creatures and players mark items as Plot
- Examine the properties of an item (without identifying for the player)
- Identify objects in player inventories for them
- Drag straight from the Creator to player inventories or onto player portraits
- Destroy items
The interface (Priority: Medium with one Very High element)
There are several issues with the interface. NWN2 runs incredibly slowly on my machine in anything over 1280x1024 so that is the resolution I run in. At that resolution the screen is very cluttered and much of the clutter is stuff a DM will never use.- The Quickbar needs to accept the various DM commands. In addition we need to be able to place short phrases, or console commands on here. (The Priority on this one is Very High)
- The Mode bar should be minimisable. Most DMs will only ever use this when possessing creatures. It would be nice to have three options: “Never appear”; “Only appear while possessing” and “Always appear” to allow for different DM preferences.
- All the bars, the Mini-map and the action queue should be drag-able
- The Party bar should also show the players location (which map)
- There should be feedback in the Chat Window when the DM modifies a player (grants XP, Gold, an item etc)
DM Movement (Priority: Medium)
My original assessment that DM Jump to isn’t implemented was incorrect. It is available through * on the Numeric Keypad. It would be nice if this was added to the right click context menu when the DM clicks on the ground.
There are many other things which would be nice in the DM client many of which have been implemented as Player produced tools in the original NWN community. It might help the Obsidian designers actually understand the needs of the DM better if they downloaded the old NWN Tutorial
DMFI 101: So You Want To Be A DM
[url=http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=3837]Click Here[/url]
and played through it, and then read:
The Neverwinter Connections Community Guide to Dungeon Mastering
[url=http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Other.Detail&id=498]Click Here[/url]
Between these two you would get a good idea about the needs of the DM.
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| « Last Edit: on: Dec 5, 2006, 8:48AM » |
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maxxis
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Ran few tests my self on the new DM client, well if the 1.02 DM client was in "Alpha 01" stage this one is "Beta 01" , still with couple of improvements to be done to make the DMs life easier.
heck...in 1.02 patch a DM cant even give out XP :/
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R00kie
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Well the chooser is mostly fixed again. If you run the updater you'll notice a small patch from 1.03.835 to 1.03.840.
After this update you can now select creatures or waypoints, but not locations. It does mean that you can jump to any loacation which has either creatures or waypoints, but you'll need to burrow down that far. Also (and I cant remember if this has always been the case in NWN2 but it feels wrong, and definately wasnt the case in NWN) you have to double click on the icons at the top to make things happen.
Anyway, the DM client is looking better.
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| « Last Edit: on: Dec 7, 2006, 12:39AM » |
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