The much talked about
CEP has now been released and is ready for download. Worth a look if you like to build.
Also saw this interesting post on BW's future direction from Rob Bartel as it relates to any more NWN expansions or future non-tile based games
BioWare's Future:
First of all you have to recognize that, at 175 employees and 3-5 separate projects, BioWare doesn't abide by a single unified vision for where and what we want our games to be in the future. Some teams are working on console titles, some are on PC titles, some are taking approach x, some are taking approach y, some are focused on this aspect of the larger problem while others have focused on other aspects. In other words, don't read too much into Darcy's statements in that interview or Georg's comments in this thread, or mine either, for that matter. We're all approaching the notion of game development from different angles and it will all come together by the time our games make it into the hands and hard drives of our fan community.
What I can promise you is that the Live Team is focused on all issues surrounding you, the community. During the three years that I led the design on Neverwinter, the concept of a community such as this was always foremost in my mind. Tile-based area development is just one result of that having been a priority. Overall, I feel Neverwinter has done a stellar job of building and sustaining BioWare's present community, even to the point of blowing away our own high expectations. What can I say, you guys are phenomenal and that's why I made the choice to join the Live Team and continue pushing the envelope with Witch's Wake and our (hopefully) upcoming DD project.
But Neverwinter can't be the be-all and end-all of this community. We have every intention of growing, adapting, and changing over the coming years and ultimately that will mean helping this community migrate over to future BioWare titles. Games like KotOR have been great games and highly successful but, from the Live Team's perspective, they haven't contributed in any direct way to the BioWare community and the BioWare community hasn't been given any substantial means of contributing to it. The same will likely be true of Jade Empire, though there may be a little more potential there given the fact that it's based on our own intellectual property.
Ultimately, the Live Team is setting its sights on BioWare's upcoming secret PC project as 'the next big thing' for this community and we're going to be working alongside the core development team to make that happen (after all, our jobs and the continued existence of the Live Team kinda depend on it! ). We've learned a lot from NWN's development and will be putting that experience and insight to use over the coming years.
So what does this have to do with tiles? Well, as Darcy has said, the art and design teams for KotOR and our upcoming titles are considering a return to the BG tradition of heavily customized, art-driven landscapes. There's a lot to be said for that approach and the Live Team fully supports them in that decision. As rtrifts has suggested, however, relying solely on that framework is not going to be in the best interests of this community and of the Live Team. And rtrifts should know, as he's leading the very impressive DLA mod team with which I'm sure most of you are already familiar. Ultimately, my personal hope is that the Live Team will be in a position to put our proverbial money where our mouth is and hire the necessary personnel to develop community-oriented tools and resources capable of plugging directly into the tools being used internally by BioWare's core development teams.
This may or may not involve tiles. Imagine a push-me-pull-you (PiMPY) sort of terrain editor, for instance, that's capable of rapidly generating very organic, non-tiled landscapes. What if you are then able to import arbitrary chunks of 3D geometry (whether from a library that ships with the game or downloaded from an equivalent of the Vault) into that landscape. Then consider the option of being able to spray-paint waving grass or budding flowers or entire forests of trees onto that landscape with ease. Tiles aren't the only means of achieving ease-of-use so don't lock yourself into that mindset.
Now maybe none of the above will prove feasible or maybe the Digital Distribution project won't generate sufficient revenue to enable it or maybe other complications will arise along the way. Regardless, the Live Team is here to ponder and address these sorts of questions so that the core development teams can focus on developing fun games and getting them out the door in one piece with the minimal amount of grief, loss of life, and spontaneous combustion. They have their jobs to do and we have ours. Personally, I think it should work out pretty darn well for everyone, yourselves included.
Xilren
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