A Land Far Away

Indeed. As we are tackling the ongoing effort to compile a somewhat sensible NWN 2 document, we could need volunteer help with testing and confirmation.

These are not big tasks and questions, but helping out would save hollyfant, Curm and me some testing time, and would add another verifier.

So, let's start off with an easy one:

- Does the "unlimited ammunition" property on a missile weapon exclude the use of other ammunition?

And a tricky one for the more advanced testers:

- What equipment properties transfer to shapechanged forms, for druids, wizards, and so on? Does it make a difference what spell / transformation you use?

And, one for everyone, that might actually be fun to do:

- Moonshaes! Log in, test! The beta vault is not tied to the live vault, so now is the time to play two characters... within ALFA! Your reports of what seems sketchy, bugged or broken are very valuable to accelerate the live launch.

This thread will be updated with more questions and test queries as they arise, so stay tuned.

Cheers and thanks in advance to those helping out,

One thing you should be aware of about unlimited ammunition is that it is sometimes possible to get full stacks or individual ammo in your inventory, which you can then sell. Any unlimited ammo better than basic ammo can be a money minting machine. Trying to put alternative ammo into the bow would necessarily produce a situation where you were potentially creating stacks of the unlimited ammo. My experience is it works inconsistently.

Sometimes, also, special unlimited ammo loses its properties until you log out and back in. I've even heard it requiring a server restart to fix.

It may or may not be possible to put special ammo into a bow with basic unlimited ammo and get it to glitch and give you unlimited special ammo. That would need to be tested, but the behavior of the feature is very inconsistent so the bug might not appear without repeated playtesting.

It's just an all around buggy feature in NWN2.

Veilan wrote:- What equipment properties transfer to shapechanged forms, for druids, wizards, and so on? Does it make a difference what spell / transformation you use?

Are we talking within ALFA, or just Base NWN2?

As I understand it, for certain items, most properties transfer:

http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Wild_Shape

Need a playtest to see if shapechange follows the same basic rules there as wild shape. I'm working on a job app and some RL stuff, but would be happy to see what kind of old load game I've got I can playtest with when I get time.

NESchampion wrote:Are we talking within ALFA, or just Base NWN2?

Base NWN 2 suffices for now, apart from the Moonshaes beta, obviously .

Happycrow wrote:As I understand it, for certain items, most properties transfer:

http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Wild_Shape

I cut 'n' pasted this once from a discussion on the BioWare board:

Armor includes armor (chest item), shield and helmets. However, as all these properties are copied onto your hide item when you're shapeshifting all +X AC, even different types, convert to Deflection bonus (since that's what a hide item has). Thus you do not gain +10 AC by using a +5 armor and a +5 shield. Finally, no shapes merge bracers/gloves/gauntlets.

As I recall, the discussion was about how the NWN2 wildshaping was similar to NWN1. But it's clear extensive testing is needed.

Interesting... my understanding was that shields didn't transfer in the slightest...

Regarding druids, i don't think that armor or shield bonuses should be transferred to wild shape.

Why should shield effect your animal form?!?


I think that only magical properties of items should be effective.



I also noticed that some druid spells were toned down from the NWN2 version to 3.5Ed. version. I would like to see the spell re-incarnation being implemented for druids, i think it could add some flavor(in rare cases). Of course "implemented" might be in the RP level not necessarily by code. If the spell "approved" in ALFA, it would be nice if with DM support a player would be able to use it.

Please note it's not a discussion thread .

Veilan wrote:- What equipment properties transfer to shapechanged forms, for druids, wizards, and so on? Does it make a difference what spell / transformation you use?

I'll test the Warlock's Word of Changing.

Results so far:

• AC
  • mundane armour - no effect
  • Armor AC - no effect
  • mundane shield - no effect
  • Shield AC - no effect
  • Natural AC - no effect
  • Dodge AC - no effect
  • Deflection AC - no effect
• Ability boosts - no effect
• Weapon OnHit effects - no effect
• Regeneration - no effect

Is there any limit to what needs to be tested? We could be at this for a while...

Regarding the Unlimited Ammo property:

After Extensive testing I could not find the bug Regalis speaks about. I created several bows with unlimited arrows and of different types too, changed them, while shooting and out of combat and never got a bundle of arrows in my inventory that i could sell.
I'm not sure where he experienced.

The way Nwn2 works with the unlimited ammo, created a persistent 99 bundle of arrows of the type we select and that is impossible to be removed from the arrows slot. So you can shoot at will and it will always remain as a 99 bundle, not possible to removed from the slot, which prevents the ability to sell the arrows.

This impossibility also means that it is not possible to use of types of arrows while using a bow with unlimited ammo property.

Because of this situation I have brought the issue up with both AL and Hollyphant, there is an item in canon called "Quiver of Anariel"

In all essence it is a bundle of arrows that works with the unlimited ammo property, allowing for other types of arrows to be used with a bow. The description is as follows:

Quiver of Anariel: Quivers of Anariel appear to be typical arrow containers capable of holding a score of arrows. However, the quivers automatically replenish themselves with standard or magical arrows, such that they are always full.
Once an arrow it taken from the quiver, it must be used within 1 round or it vanishes.

Moderate conjuration; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, magic weapon, minor creation ; I.E. - Price 28,200gp for alchemical silver arrows; Weight 1 lb.

The code for this item is available and tested and AL told me it should be a fairly easy implementation after being addressed by standards. We would be looking at an item that occupies the arrows slot so it is usable and equipable.

Thought it made sense to bring the situation up since we are talking about this.

Was your extensive testing only in a single player module?

You need 2 people. One to host the module with the server, another to log in and playtest. Run a software developer's tool designed to simulate increasing load on the server's machine. Once you get to the point that characters begin the slight "rubber banding" effect, as sometimes happen on TSM at least, I think you will begin to see what I describe.

The quiver is the better solution anyway.

No I did not test under extreme conditions for that we would need a DM to bring IG the item while theres several players IG I suppose.

Though from what I have seen TSM is running quite stable, and even with mass spawns from DMs it seems to hold his own. Something to test IG I supose... Testing module alone won't do the trick. IMO

Many thanks to Rion of Erb, who submitted this:

Rion of Erb wrote:Testing the item properties when wild shaped (only the four basic animals were tested, not dire shapes nor plant or elemental shapes) gave the following results.

In general spells and special abilities that require clicking on the actual item are not accessible while in wild shape (due to the fact that the item is not accessible, even it put into a quickslot.)

Using an items properties before wild shaping do seem to persist once the PC wild shapes however.

Also I was not able to check things such as resistances etc (basically anything that does not show up on the character sheet)

Armor - retain AC bonus of the base armor, AC bonuses, skill bonuses, ability bonuses

Robes - retain AC bonus of the base armor, AC bonuses, skill bonuses, ability bonuses

Shields - AC bonuses, skill bonuses, ability bonuses (do not retain AC bonus of the base shield)

Helms - AC bonuses, skill bonuses, ability bonuses

Boots - do not retain any item properties

Belts - do not retain any item properties

Bracers - do not retain any item properties

Cloaks - do no retain any item properties

Amulets - do no retain any item properties

Rings - do no retain any item properties


I will test the dire animals and plant and elemental shapes when I have more time.

Rion of Erb

And a new challenge:

Bastard Sword
Battleaxe
Dagger
Dwarven Waraxe
Great Axe
Falchion
Flail
Great Sword
Halberd
Hand Axe
Heavy Crossbow
Heavy Flail
Kama
Katana
Kukri
Light Crossbow
Light Flail
Light Hammer
Longbow
Long Sword
Mace
Morningstar
Quarterstaff
Rapier
Scimitar
Scythe
Short Bow
Short Sword
Sickle
Sling
Spear
War Hammer
War Mace

Which weapons are missing that are available in NWN 2? Are there any listed that are not in NWN 2?

Next, how about your ALFA experience? Which weapons have you seen in ALFA that are not listed? Which weapons that are listed have you not seen within ALFA?