But being a werewolf also needs to be fun. To that end, a
werewolf can do things a normal player can't. A werewolf's
only weapons are his claws, and these do physical damage to
NPCs and creatures, where a normal NPC could only damage fatigue.
Werewolves are strong, fast, and agile. They run fast and
jump far. They have the ability to see in the dark and to
detect other creatures. And they get the oddest dreams when
they sleep-since they can't normally speak with NPCs, this
is how they get quests. It should be a totally different experience
playing a werewolf, and we think it'll be a good time.
Another major decision we made was to do separate quest paths
for both normal player characters and werewolf characters.
We wanted the story to remain the same, but allow it to be
viewed from opposite sides of the conflict. This is something
we hadn't tried to do to such a large scale in previous quests,
and it proved to be challenging to manage. It makes for more
open-ended gameplay, though, and gives a bit of extra replay
value. In the end, it works well. For a good chunk of the
main quest, players will have to choose a side. Regardless
of which side is chosen, the same events will take place in
the world-the player will just have the opportunity to view
them from a different angle.
In order to make this happen the way we wanted, a lot of
scripts were needed, as well as some new scripting functions.
One that should make modders happy is the new PlaceAtMe function.
It works much like the PlaceAtPC function, but can be used
at an activator instead of the player. This became really
handy on one of the werewolf quests. I wanted a steady stream
of Skaal warriors (the Nords native to the island of Solstheim)
to attack the werewolf player. But, too many onscreen at once
could be crushing to framerates. It's possible to just activate
new instances of the warriors, but I didn't want the player
to see the new instances popping into the world, because that's
just, well, tacky. The new function allowed me to make three
"teleport sites," activators that checked distance
to the player and used PlaceAtMe to spawn a new warrior at
the site farthest from his location. The PlaceAtMe function
should be a versatile tool for the mod community to play with.
And this barely touches on what went into the
programming aspects of player werewolves, or the art, or the
animation, or the testing. A lot had to be taken into account,
from how the player's stats would be stored, to how menacing
the werewolf should appear, to how a werewolf swims backwards,
and how this all affects the gameplay balance. Making these
beasts work has taken a lot of work from all the members of
the Bloodmoon team, and we hope the results will please Morrowind
fans as much as we think it will.
Of course, werewolves are only a part of the story of Bloodmoon.
There's still a whole new culture to explore, a colony to
be built, books to read, ingredients to find, and quests to
discover. There are bears and wolves, spriggans and horkers,
and some other nasty creatures that will remain nameless for
now. There's snow and ice, and some cool new spells that you'll
find yourself casting. Now if I could only find a way to work
in Todd's wool shorts and phony leather….
I've gotta get a better cube. |
