October 26 Livestream Recap

A little preview of NWN:EE on mobile. “Plays pretty well!” ~ Trent

Last Friday Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Community Manager Sarah Dawson shared the latest Infinity Engine and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition news. They also briefly showed off an early build of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on Android.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch! Here's a quick summary of the highlights:

• Halloween has come to Beamdog.com! Treat yourself to devilish bargains: our Infinity Engine titles are at 50% off, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is at 30% off! Snatch up these deals by Halloween Night!
• Don’t want to miss on our sales, news, and contests? Sign up for the Beamdog newsletter!
• We now have more than 7000 followers on Twitter! Beware, Trent, the official account is going to pass you soon!
• We’re looking for plenty of talented people to join the team! Programmers, technical artists, quality assurance testers, web developers - find our current openings on the career page, and apply!

“If I were a major Forgotten Realms character, I’d be Bane!” ~ Trent

• Patch 8183 for the Development branch of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is out on Steam and the Beamdog Client. Check out the full list of fixes and features, including the return of Gamma functionality here. We'd like to thank all the volunteers who have spent time testing the previous patch! Any testing, feedback, and criticism you provide is invaluable.
• The Ravenloft - Prisoners of the Mist server for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is kicking off a “Halloween Play A New Character” event. It’s a great time to get started on that server! Check out the details here.
• The Arelith server for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is continuing their project to put all-new art on their loading screens. A very cool touch on a very cool server.

“NWN:EE on Android might be coming out some time this year!” ~ Sarah

• The 2.6 patch for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is reaching closer. It will be released alongside the Dice, Camera, Action! voice and portrait pack, and include multiple spell and rules fixes, as well as the ability to see DLC portraits in multiplayer.
• Vote on your favourite features for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on our Input Trello board! Have a new suggestion not on the Trello? Share it on our forums!
• We are planning to start looking at the backlog of requests for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition after the big features have been shipped: NWSync, 64 bit, and the Android version of NWN:EE.
• Before we can make a solid evaluation of audio improvements for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, we need to work around a few OpenAL limitations.

Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream this Friday!

October 19 Livestream Recap

With NWSync coming to Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, players will be able to join persistent worlds without this error!

During today’s stream Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Producer Luke Rideout shared the latest studio news and updates on Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and the Infinity Engine Enhanced Editions. They called Technical Director on the NWN:EE core team, Bernhard Stöckner (@niv), who showed off a very early version of NWSync, a much-anticipated feature for NWN:EE! They then announced NWSync will be shipped in today’s Development Build.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch! Here's a quick summary of the highlights:

• Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition on Android and iOS is nearly 80% off this week! Start adventuring in this legendary RPG on mobile for just $1.99!
• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is available on GOG! NWN:EE and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Digital Deluxe have both been in GOG’s top 5 “Popular” titles since launch!
• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Digital Deluxe on Beamdog.com has been split into individual DLCs. All owners of the the Digital Deluxe were provisioned with the appropriate DLCs. If you still don’t own them, and planning on purchasing, you can still get a -10% bundle discount if you buy the base game and all the DLCs at once!
• If you’re looking for a new adventure, get in touch! We just added a new posting for an in-office Quality Assurance Tester to help with currently released and upcoming games.

“If you want to have Trent screaming in your Baldur’s Gate party, you totally will be able to!” ~ Luke

• The 2.6 patch for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is on the way, but not ready just yet. Among other things, it will include a lot of spell data and code fixes. The 2.6 patch will also add support for DLC portraits and voicesets in Multiplayer.
• The Dice, Camera, Action! voice and portrait pack is on track! Trent and a few Beamdog crew members also recorded new player soundsets for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. The packs for each of the games will be separate because of different file formats and compatibility issues.
• The Faces of Good and Evil portrait pack will come to Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. The Heroes of Neverwinter portrait pack will in turn come to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. We expect they will be rolled out for all the games on the same date.

NWSync will allow for much easier joining servers in Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition!

• A surprise announcement during the stream is that the much-anticipated feature for NWN:EE, NWSync, will be shipped in a new Development Build for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition today. We would like server admins of NWN:EE persistent worlds to take a look and share feedback on NWSync in the forums!
• See the full patch notes for Development Build 8182 here.
• We have prepared a detailed user manual about NWSync. Check it out, we’d love your feedback!
• The Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Roadmap Trello board will soon be updated! Once we finish working on the mobile version of NWN:EE, expect movement on many of the short-term active features.

“NWSync will lower the barriers to join persistent worlds!” ~ Luke

• Beamdog COO Cameron is poking in the NWN:EE renderer to see if support for open face helmets is possible.
• Making all head mdls loading on character creation, or making it a 2da sounds like a fix we can do, but we’d have to look at it a bit first. Like with all feature requests, share your suggestion on the forums, so that it could appear on the Input Trello board.
• The UI refactor for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition can be separated into two components: short-term and long-term. Rescaling of the UI and the True Type Font support will be ported to NWN:EE on PC from the mobile version. A full rewrite of the UI, however, is our long-term goal, and work on it is still being evaluated.

Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream next Friday!

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition NWSync Early Look + Beamdog.com DLCs

Exciting news for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition fans waiting for NWSync!

We merged in experimental support for NWSync in the recently released Development Build 8182. The first implementation of this allows transparent multiplayer server content downloads, and requires special setup by the server admin to make functional.

The preliminary manual, including instructions and system details, can be read here.

Note that if you are from The Future, then this URL might have changed or disappeared. Please check the official documentation in lang/en/docs instead.

Again, this is experimental, and we are shipping this to the development branch early so persistent world admins and interested parties can test it. This is a very complex technical feature and we fully expect that we will have to ship more development patches to address found issues. Please let us know any feedback you have regarding this feature in the Beamdog forums!

Speaking of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, on Beamdog.com we’ve broken out the Digital Deluxe package into individual DLCs! Now owners of NWN:EE can purchase Wyvern Crown of Cormyr, Infinite Dungeons, and the rest as they like. You can still get a deal by buying everything in a single bundle.

Next week, we’ll be removing the current NWN:EE Digital Deluxe bundle from sale. All Beamdog.com NWN:EE Digital Deluxe owners have had the base game and individual DLCs added to their accounts.

If we’ve missed your account, please let our customer support team know via support@beamdog.com and we’ll make sure a correction is made. 

October 12 Livestream Recap

Trent, Sarah, and other Beamdog team members have been busy in the V/O booth creating new player soundsets for BG:EE, BGII:EE, IWD:EE, and NWN:EE.

Today Beamdog Producer Luke Rideout and Community Manager Sarah Dawson shared the latest studio news and updates. They talked about Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition finally coming to GOG, the latest development progress on NWN:EE for Android, and an upcoming voice pack.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch! Here's a quick summary of the highlights:

• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition on Android and iOS is 80% off this week! Hurry up, and get it for only $1.99!
• During the next 2 days grab Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Official Soundtrack for 50% off at Beamdog.com! The soundtrack now includes music from Heart of Winter.
• We’re still hiring! If you’re a developer, programmer, or technical artist, come and wort at Beamdog! Keep an eye on our jobs page!
• Don’t miss out on Beamdog sales, updates, contests, and more! Sign up for our newsletter for the latest.

“Working at Beamdog has been the most rewarding job I’ve had in years!” ~ Luke

• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is now available on GOG! Don’t miss these awesome launch discounts: 25% off NWN:EE, and 35% off the Digital Deluxe Edition which includes several adventure modules, the game's Soundtrack and the Heroes of Neverwinter pack! For a limited time, owners of the Diamond Edition get an additional 25% off when purchasing Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Digital Deluxe on GOG.

“Future patches for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition will be released on all platforms (Beamdog, GOG, Steam) at the same time.” ~ Luke

• Trent, Sarah, Dan, Andrew, and Elyse have been recording new player soundsets for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. You’ll want to hear that Trent yelling as a chaotic barbarian!
• In addition to directing the Beamdog crew, Mark Meer has also been recording new lines as drow sorcerer Baeloth Barrityl and that most major of the modern minor mages, Alveus Malcanter!
• Alveus Malcanter is coming to BG:EE, BGII:EE, IWD:EE, and NWN:EE as a magic item merchant with special wares for Dice, Camera, Action! voice and portrait pack owners. More news on that soon!
• Everyone loves Baeloth. Everyone wants to be Baeloth. Soon you’ll be able to assign special soundsets of Alveus and Baeloth to your party characters! Again, more news soon™.
• We generally contract V/O artists for projects. If you have a portfolio and want to work with us, send it to contact@beamdog.com, and we'll pass it on to our creative team.

“NWN is a great platform for new stories!” ~ Luke

• The core UI pass for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on Android is nearly done. On Monday we’ll be moving to the final bug gauntlet. Stay tuned for future public beta news!
• The way NWN:EE on Android will handle hak content is very similar to installing haks on PC. The file system on Android is quite open and allows having override and mod folders.We're considering “NWSync” for this in the future, but for the immediate future, “NWSync” is a tool to help with connecting to servers.
• Players on Android will be able to play NWN:EE on PW servers with custom content thanks to “NWSync”. Mobile players will be able to connect to multiplayer games similarly to PC, and multiplayer will be cross-platform. Modules can be installed through the file system. You’ll need to have some extra space on your mobile device, though, to download custom content, so it could be potentially space-intensive.
• Minimal spes for NWN:EE on Android are still TBD, but we recommend devices that came out in the last 3 years at least.
• In-between UI size is already possible for NWN:EE on Android. For example, players will be able to resize UI to 1.7., or 1.9, or whatever fits the screen. This feature, along with the True Type Font support, will be ported to the PC version.
• Achievements for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition are progressing. We have created a list of achievements, as well as the ability to track and award them. One of Luke’s favorite achievements is “Don’t believe his lies!” - which you will get by succeeding a hard bluff check.

Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream next Friday!

October 05 Livestream Recap

“Congratulations, GOG, on the 10th anniversary!” ~ Trent

During today’s livestream Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Producer Luke Rideout shared the latest studio news and updates on Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and the Infinity Engine Enhanced Editions. They called Technical Director on the NWN:EE core team, Bernhard Stöckner (@niv), to talk about the recent patch and what’s next for NWN:EE.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch! Here's a quick summary of the highlights:

• Beamdog.com now supports bundles! Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Digital Deluxe is being broken up into individual DLCs and will be rebundled. All owners of the current Digital Deluxe will be provisioned with the individual DLCs.
• The Faces of Good & Evil portrait pack will appear on Beamdog.com soon!
• Don’t want to miss on Beamdog sales, updates, and contests? Sign up for our newsletter!
• Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition is on its biggest sale yet on Google Play and the App Store! Get PST:EE for your Android and iOS device at 80% off, and venture forth into the Outer Planes! Act quick, the sale ends Sunday.
• GOG is celebrating its 10th anniversary! Get all our Infinity Engine Enhanced Editions and soundtracks at up to 75% off!
• More than 40 people work at Beamdog and the team keeps growing! Check out our current open positions! If you’re a web developer, programmer, or technical artist looking for a new adventure, get in touch!

“After we’re set at the new office, we might stream a tour around it!” ~ Trent

• The Dice, Camera, Action! voice and portrait pack is well underway!
• The 2.6 patch for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition will ship at the same time as the Dice, Camera, Action! voice and portrait pack. It’ll include lots of data fixes to spells and resolve a few old bugs, such as the incorrect amount of HPs while importing multiclass characters.
• We’re happy to have such a fantastic team of volunteer translators! All these people are awesome. If you want to help translate our games, find out more here.
• While we’re focused on new stories, it doesn’t mean we rule out additions to existing campaigns. That said, we have no current plans to expand the content of Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition.
• Our best selling title in 2018 is Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition! So many fans bought a copy during the Stream of Many Eyes!

“It’s just fun to work on Neverwinter Nights!” ~ niv

• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition was updated to version 1.77 this week. Check out the full patch notes here.
• We’re focused on major new features for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition: 64bit support, “NWSync”, and bringing NWN:EE to mobile.
• About 2/3 of our team is currently working on Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.
• We’re coming to the end of our core UI pass for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on Android. We’re adding new features, such as letting players see characters through objects (eg. a pillar).
• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on mobile will support “NWSync” - we want mobile players to fully enjoy online gameplay!
• We’ve got a gold candidate of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition for a GOG release. The GOG crew is currently busy with their big anniversary. Stay tuned!
• New character and weapon models for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition are getting closer! As soon as we’re ready, we’ll be sure to share a few amazing screenshots!
• Ultimately NWN:EE players will be able to choose between using new enhanced models and legacy models (for older computers).

Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream next Friday!

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Update 1.77

Attention adventurers of Neverwinter. Your nights will now be filled with version 1.77!

Read on for a complete list of changes in this patch.

Features:

• Three new player-selectable portraits; Heavyline, Skandii, and Lanteri

Fixes:

• We fixed certain armor pads (specifically, belts and shoulder pads) disappearing when re-equipping a item
• We fixed a floating point inaccuracy that made the player character skew aside ever so slightly when WASDing.
• The conversation UI has been fixed to not shift off screen when using UI scaling and having the Inventory/Char sheet open at the same time
• We fixed a double-free in the PLT system, which has lead to crashes when multiple objects with the same texture would show
• We fixed held equipment not becoming transparent when the character model did so (for example, when casting Invisibility.)
• The game now asks you for a CD key, instead of erroring with a confusing message, when Steam CD key retrieval fails for any reason
• HW Mouse is now the default on Linux, as to avoid WindowManager-related mouse click point offset issues resulting from UI scaling
• We made all DLC portraits now show up for character creation in all modules, regardless of portrait.2da entries

Content Creation Changes

Features:

• Toolset: The script editor now shows variables and constant declarations on double click
• Toolset: The recent modules list has been expanded to 10 entries
• Toolset: The compiler include limit has been bumped to 128

Fixes:

• Toolset: Area ambient sounds and music has been brought back to life
• Toolset: We removed the requirement that the mouse be over an object to translate it on the Z-axis (with Alt+Left Mouse Button)
• Toolset: The tile properties light select color UI is no longer truncated when using windows-native screen scaling

Server Changes

Fixes:

• Server resource management on Linux in certain memory configurations has been fixed
• Crashes in nwscript functions resulting from bad parameters have been addressed: CopyItemAndModify, GetNearestCreatureToLocation
• A crash when reloading LTRs was fixed
• Linux only: Database names are now case-insensitive, so DestroyCampaignDatabase() now works as expected
• Linux/Mac only: We fixed the server spinning a thread needlessly if stdin gets closed