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The boys at Firing Squad recently got a chance to visit BioWare's headquarters and
grill Trent Oster, for details
on his upcoming title. Neverwinter Nights is an online RPG, cut in the mold of Baldur's Gate, that boasts the much-anticipated
feature of allowing a dungeon master to edit, create, and host an entire campaign.

The interview reveals copious details regarding the game that should be of
particular interest to gamers watching and anticipating this title. One of the more interesting
aspect of the game's design is that character customization seems to be quite detailed. Hair color, tattoos and other elements of
coloring schemes are all customizable to create a unique aspect to every character. Armor itself cannot be customized, but will come in many varieties, colors, and pieces,
allowing a player to custom mix-and-match armor sets to produce a desired look. Weapons are also
customizable (no doubt many of you are jumping up and down as you read this tidbit). Oster notes:

Swords, axes, maces, polearms all have various hilts, blades and pommels to choose from.
As DM, you can create a weapon from any combination you like.
Want a jagged, evil looking sword, or maybe something more
elegant and professional? It's up to you. Item creation is as
simply as clicking three different buttons to scroll through
available parts.

The interview also brings into focus details on the Dungeon Master (DM) toolset, known
as the Solstice Toolset. Specifically designed to accommodate a DM guiding a party through a game in
real-time, it contains several "dirty tricks," such as a sliding difficulty adjustment tool.
Players whipping your monsters with no problems? Turn the difficulty level up a notch in the middle of combat
and see how they do. Oster also goes into detail on map creation and the scripting language tools.

Of particular interest to Mac gamers is this quote regarding Mac video cards, as well as general release dates:

Mac is somewhat of a question mark. With the impending switch
to OS X, the Mac users with 3dfx video cards will be left behind,
as there are no drivers for it. Hopefully something can be scraped
together, but at the moment ATI and NVIDIA look like safer
choices for the Mac platform.

All three ports are about one to two weeks behind the Windows
version.

Needless to say, this isn't welcome news for Mac 3dfx owners, who have already found themselves left out of the testing process in several upcoming titles. Nevertheless, it is heartening to hear that the Mac port
is only one to two weeks behind the PC version.

For more insightful details into Neverwinter Nights, be sure to check out the entire article. It contains a huge amount of
detailed information and is a worthy read. Neverwinter Nights is currently scheduled to be released at the end of this year.

FiringSquad - A Visit to BioWare

Neverwinter Nights Official Site

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