Dev Blog: The Foundry
By Stormshade @ September 21, 2012 at 7:00pm
Cryptic’s ground breaking UGC Toolset, The Foundry, was recently shown to the Press at PAX Prime in Seattle, and you’ve doubtlessly been reading all the coverage that’s come from that. But there’s so much more to The Foundry than what can be shown in the small amount of time a press appointment actually lasts.
Let’s break this thing down into some more details:
Playing Player Authored Content
There’s a number of ways for players to find content which has been created by the Neverwinter Community. Popular or spotlighted missions will be advertised on the in-game landing page, an in-game UI element which conveys a plethora of information, including quests, dungeons and events that you can do at your level, in addition to other things, such as Foundry Content. You can also find player authored content at one of the many job boards that are located throughout the public zones… You might also find a Harper Agent, members of a semi-secret society dedicated to the preservation of lore, and fighting the forces of evil, on your travels through one of Neverwinter’s many adventure zones. These agents will be able to point you towards player authored content near them – in almost the same way as standard quests are offered.
One thing you’ll notice once in-game and playing through these adventures, will be that you’re hard pressed to distinguish a player authored adventure from one that Cryptic’s own development team has created. NPC’s, objects, and monsters within public and adventure zones are all available to be incorporated into a Foundry author’s quests and campaigns. Foundry content can involve the Cryptic world as much or as little as the author wishes – from entirely taking place inside Adventures zones to being completely isolated in the author’s world. We felt that this amount of integration was very important for a number of reasons, but one of our key goals was to promote immersion. We really feel that any Dungeon Master who wants to add to the Forgotten Realms should be able to, and we don’t think their content should “stick out” in any way.
The Editor
The primary purpose of The Foundry is to allow players to create, and publish, their own quests and story lines within the world of Neverwinter. The Foundry Editor is what allows you to do this. By giving you some of the same tools that our own designers use to create the world of Neverwinter, it allows you to create some truly unique content for all to see and play.
Using The Foundry editor, you’ll be able to create your own maps, and set the adventures that take place within them. More importantly, you’ll be able to do this right away, with very little experience with the tools. Whether you want a simple delivery type quest, or intend to create your very own, with multiple hand created maps, a plethora of customized NPCs, pages of dialog, and a truly epic story, you can. Everything you need is right at your fingertips.
The interface is a series of fairly simple to use drag and drop style editors. This doesn’t mean that mastering The Foundry is easy. While you can dabble, and be successful, much of the full potential of The Foundry takes some time to fully grasp. The tools and your quests are really as simple, or as complex, as you wish them to be.
Community Features
Obviously The Foundry is a very powerful tool for the community to utilize, and we plan on supporting our Foundry Authors, and players, a great deal. We’ll be publishing guides and video walkthroughs for The Foundry as we get closer to launch. We’ll be working with fansites, and other groups to help the community grow, and you’ll see some hefty in-game features as well.
By playing through player authored content, you’ll receive similar rewards of experience, items, and other loot as you would playing through content created by our own development staff.
By creating content, you’ll also have the ability to unlock rewards for yourself. Perhaps an in-game or forum title should you create five adventures rated 5 stars by the community? There are a plethora of different options which we’re considering. We’d also really like to hear what you think. So please head over to the forums and discuss what kind of incentives you’d like to see for playing, and creating, Community Authored Content in Neverwinter!
tendice @ Mar 21st, 2013 3:42PM
I'm wondering how to loot system will work in a player created dungeon Randomly Placed ? or none at all i mena how do the system prevent people from getting free Loot ?
uncleremus86
the loot probably won't be generated based on area... it will probably depend on the enemy strength of a mob and grabbed from that mobs item drop table ;)
fritzdesu @ Mar 21st, 2013 7:30AM
would be good if the open beta starts now xD hahaha
iamtruthseeker @ Oct 12th, 2012 10:49PM
Just a reminder folks speaking as one of the new Moderators here, that beta HAS NOT yet started, and keys are not regularly released yet. Just register with PWE and join the Neverwinter Community Forums for a chance to win a future key! But for now, short of entering a Forum contest or winning one at a convention, keys are not being handed out yet. As we get closer to actually starting Closed beta, we'll post more ways to get keys. If you must check the latest methods people have gotten keys, my Sticked FAQ in Forum Neverwinter Discussion can give you more info. Thanks!
amrah1 @ Oct 11th, 2012 1:26AM
this was always a great game! Where do i get a beta key for Neverwinter? Ive been waiting a year for it to begin?
amrah1 @ Oct 11th, 2012 1:25AM
Where di i get a beta key fro Neverwinter? Ive been waiting a year for it to begin?
deathtr0ll @ Oct 7th, 2012 12:30PM
OMG its Getting Hard to Wait Knowing its So Close. Wish i could of been selected for Beta
eldilan @ Sep 28th, 2012 11:11AM
Hi all. It is great to have news about foundry. As a NWN1 and NWN2 game player I have to say that I have spent much more hours at aurora than what I did inside the game. Actually I am still running my own personnal persistent NWN1 module (spanish one) since 2004... and it is very surprising I still have some players coming in. Anyway, you are correctly guessing that my question is regarding around scripting capabilities... I wouldn't have spent so many hours without the scripting posibilities, the hardcore rules, the fugue plane, the private job trades, database access to mysql web, complicated and intrincated puzzle entrances to newer instances... so many things that are far beyond just droping tiles, sounds and monsters...
synix @ Sep 24th, 2012 11:34PM
Can't wait till Neverwinter will be finally released. I got so many ideas for dungeons. And it would be interesting to know if it will be possible to make pvp dungeons? If yes there would be so many possibilities to make some "minigames". I just can't wait xD
deathssickle @ Sep 24th, 2012 8:53PM
Well I will love getting to make content
neutralevil @ Sep 24th, 2012 5:54PM
Iam very excited ! I am also wonderinghow we will be able to avoid running the vast anount of crappy stuff that will be made? Also-will there be 100's of npc questgivers clogging up taverns etc?
hughwmallalieu @ Sep 24th, 2012 4:52PM
Just a thought, would someone be able to start small, say a room. Then post that to a hosted "open" dungeon. For a beginner something small where feedback may be recieved could help encourage participation.
klavis @ Sep 23rd, 2012 6:28PM
What about support for scripting like NWN and NWN2 had?
iamtruthseeker @ Sep 23rd, 2012 3:55AM
For liability reasons, you cannot create custom audio, but Cryptic is looking into pre-recorded clips to use in your game (like BG and NWN did.)
gillrmn
Are you sure it is due to liability reason? I don't think they have ever "said" officially what reason is (though you are right that liability may actually be the reason).
dylanjstan @ Sep 22nd, 2012 11:45AM
As a writer and hobbyist game designer, I'm very excited about this ... I wonder, will we able to incorporate our own voice acting into our custom made adventures? That would be a nice touch and really add to the immersion factor.
valistarius @ Sep 22nd, 2012 4:09AM
The concept of player created content is awesome. I just hope that there will be some sort of monitoring going on to prevent too much rubbish getting in game. Further, I wonder whether we'll get access to the coding so that we can create custom scripts specificly designed for our own campaigns, or whether we're "stuck" with a list of premade scripts, which limits the diversity in the custom content we can create.
alsaroth @ Sep 22nd, 2012 3:39AM
Sounds nice and all. However, I can't shake the feeling that the story in the game will be rather weak, like in Dungeons and Dragons Online (is there even a story?).
gillrmn
They have a good story going on. Check out the lore videos. And check the story in trailer. Its FR, not Eberron - remember
master4ever @ Sep 22nd, 2012 2:02AM
Oh man...I pre-ordered and buy 2 copies of Torchlight 2 (for my girlfriend and me) the day of the release...I did not know about the key I could get for that. So unlucky :(( Sad...
salle123 @ Sep 22nd, 2012 1:57AM
foundry is most epic thing some MMO released and this game have chance to become something huge if market place dont ruin its balance...im gonna work with foundry probably more then i gonna play the game and i know that when i install this game im never gonna delete it =p.I think that supporting players that create contents is vary good way to promote game cause people will create more and more,any sort of rewords players whould welcome ^^
cerberusfilms @ Sep 21st, 2012 7:17PM
Make sure you guys keep an eye on TavernUGC.com (still working on the graphics) for all the latest on the Neverwinter Foundry as well as Tutorials, interviews and Podcasts. (You may also be interested in Starbaseugc.com, our sister site dedicated to the Star Trek Online Foundry toolset)
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crazyjackass2012 @ Sep 21st, 2012 7:10PM
I cant eait for the beta to come out, does anyone know how to sign up for the beta?
urbanskill1991
well. If you already register. You are automatic add to pool of Beta-tester. If you pre-order Torchlight 2. You will get beta key for NW. But that offer is expire two days ago. Keep in mind. You might wont be choose for beta-testing. They are random choose limit number of peoples to particulate in NW beta. Only those people who went to PAX east and play demo, STO/CO lifetime subber or people pre order Torchlight 2 will get in beta.
gillrmn
Check FAQs in forum by truthseeker for details.
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