作者：Josh Wittenkeller

《无冬城》的问世已经长达20年之久了，并因此成为了《龙与地下城》发展史上寿命最长的一款游戏。喜欢科幻内容的玩家之所以会长时间支持这款游戏便是受到其有趣的角色扮演故事所吸引，特别是AOL上的经典《无冬城》以及《无冬之夜》系列。后者的内容创造更是帮助游戏有效地吸引了广大玩家的注意，而当《无冬城》将以免费MMO形式再次与观众见面这一消息传出来时，很多粉丝都不免担心游戏的主要创造性元素是否仍会保持不变。

在PAX展厅，用户将有机会去测试新的《无冬城》战斗系统。尽管从表面看来这一系统是有序，可行的，但是我们已经经历了许多次MMO不能有效地将资源整合进战斗中的情况。在2012年西雅图游戏展上，我们很荣幸能与该游戏的首席开发者Andy Velaskez进行交流，并进一步了解《无冬城》的Foundry创造系统是如何像免费MMO那样扩展资源。

在《龙与地下城》圈子中《无冬城》拥有极高的名气，特别是《无冬之夜》系列。我们是否能在这款新游戏中看到之前游戏的角色扮演元素？

这并不是《无冬之夜3》，而是一款名为《无冬城》的MMO游戏。但是有趣的是当我们决定基于这款老游戏而创造MMO时，我们便需要决定利用老游戏中的哪些元素；其中一点便是用户生成内容。就像《无冬之夜》的极光工具箱便仍然能够在现在的游戏中起作用。

Neverwinter(from gamezebo)

《无冬城》的背景是设定在《无冬之夜2》之后100年的时候。这将为玩家呈现出怎样的世界呢？

因为一场巨大的灾难，“无冬城”已经被彻底摧毁了，而它迫切希望能够出现英勇的冒险家去重建这座城市，这便是玩家角色在第一个级别中所面临的情况。

你是如何在MMO游戏中保留定制内容创造？

玩家创造任务是这个永恒世界的重要组成部分。就像你在我的屏幕上所看到的，我已经拥有了一些任务。而你可能未意识到有些属于Foundry任务，也有些属于Cryptic（开发者所创造的）任务。我们所明确的一大会议议程便是创造Foundry内容（基于游戏内部的编辑器）——区别于Cryptic内容。对于玩家来说面对哪个内容并不重要，因为我们希望玩家能够与我们一起创造内容，而不是背道而行。

能否跟我们详细描写下Foundry系统？玩家将如何经历其他玩家所创造的任务？

一种方法便是打开登录页面。每次当你开始玩游戏时便会弹出相应窗口，并突出Foundry内容。每一天我们都会强调优秀的内容，并说道“你应该尝试这一内容，点击它并看看结果吧。”除此之外游戏中还有星星评级系统和过滤器能够让你根据玩家级别，所需级别以及作者等元素进行任务划分。

Neverwinter(from gamezebo)

说到级别，你是如何决定哪些玩家（如拥有多少经验）才有资格创造任务？

我们是基于玩家级别和任务难度进行设定。所以完全有可能出现Foundry内容中只有最高级别玩家的可能。我们设置了一定的范围以避免玩家滥用这一系统，并且到目前为止这也仍是一种有效的缓和手段。我们同样也拥有测试版游戏，从而能够帮助我们更好地解决这些问题。

玩家能够使用什么样的创造工具？

易用性是我们在提供Foundry系统所强调的特性。当你在使用其它编辑器时，你可能会花费6个小时去观看教程视频但却仍然不清楚该怎么做。而我们所采取的方法便是添加一个巫师图标（帮助快速完成任务）。当你拥有完成任务所需要的内容时，整个系统将能够实现动态更新。

所以MMO游戏中的经典任务是什么？在一个永恒世界中你需要与某些人进行交谈，他们将把你带回家中去杀死那些偷走了自己雕塑等物品的人。每个人都将执行这一任务，所以我该如何设置？我放下了Cryptic地图，我们将让你与其他人进行交谈，对方将带给你一张新的地图，而你将杀死其他人，并点击一个目标。这一系统将帮助你完成所有复杂的任务逻辑。

Neverwinter(from gamezebo)

所以这一工具能够帮助玩家快速找到直观的创造界面。但是对于那些想要创造出特殊任务和世界的资深玩家来说，他们又该如何深入使用这一工具呢？

我们希望创造出真正简单的内容，但同时我们也不想放弃资深玩家所希望看到的深度内容。在此你能够看到高级的对话编辑器，这便让我们能够为玩家的任务创造出复杂的决策之树。在玩家完成特定的任务或收集到特定道具前你可以将对话功能设置为不可用。你们可以在此看到所有DM所需要的复杂性。

说完了对话，我们接下来要开始制作地图。最快速且最简单的方法便是使用预制地图。定制地图的编辑非常有趣——需要结合室内和室外元素。而这之所以能够吸引我的一大原因便是它能够唤醒我在创造纸笔《龙与地下城》时的记忆。那时候，每座地牢，洞穴，房屋以及走廊等都是定制的。我们甚至整合了成千上百种的道具。

定制战利品又是怎样的情况？它们是否是定制任务的奖励？

这是我们接下来需要解决的大问题：我们当然想要创造这样的内容。不管是写着“你拥有20个级别所以你能够在这个战利品上添加X功能”的菜单，还是其它内容，这都是我们在游戏发行前迫切想要实现的。

Neverwinter(from gamezebo)

《无冬城》将以免费模式与玩家见面。那么是否所有玩家都能够访问Foundry系统？如果可以的话玩家又需要为此花多少钱？

当然可以。当我们着眼于谁是游戏内容的创造者这些相关数据时，我们会发现他们只是整体用户基础的一小部分。我们并不打算基于Foundry进行盈利——这与玩家购买地图包或角色包并不相同。我们并不想约束这些本来就少得可怜的高产作者对于游戏的贡献。

比起为内容创造者扫除障碍，我们选择提供给他们必要的帮助。对于我们来说作者们能够在《无冬城》中出名是件非常重要的事。当你仔细浏览目录时将会注意到作者的名字都被明显地标注了出来，并且我们还设置了其博客页面的相关链接。如果玩家喜欢他所创造的任务，便可以支付相关费用去支持他。对于作者们来说这便是真正的游戏内部奖励。以内容创造而出名的游戏也会具有一定的局限性（游戏邦注：如《小小大星球》中所出售的道具和皮肤包便是如此），而在这点上《无冬城》将会正视开放的创造性社区表现出最明确的立场。在游戏世界中有许多极具潜力的MMO因为缺乏独创性而遭遇重创，但是Foundry系统的出现将能够帮助这些MMO游戏更快速地走向成功之路。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Neverwinter lead Andy Velaskez talks the importance of player-created content [interview]

By Josh Wittenkeller

The Neverwinter name is over 20 years old, and has become a longtime piece of canonical history in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The lands have been long regarded by fantasy fans for its excellent role-playing history, specifically across the classic Neverwinter on AOL and Neverwinter Nights series’. In the latter content creation played a big part for most players, and when word came out that Neverwinter would be seeing release in the form of a free-to-play MMO, fans were worried that this major aspect of creation would remain untouched.

On the PAX show floor, users were given an opportunity to test through the new Neverwinter combat system. And while the system certainly looked sleek, polished, and accessible, too often we MMOs fail by trying to put all of their resources into battles alone. At PAX Prime 2012, we were given the opportunity to speak with lead developer Andy Velaskez, and learn exactly how deep Neverwinter’s Foundry creation system plans to expand the resources a free-to-play MMO can offer.

The Neverwinter name is huge in D&D circles, particularly with the Neverwinter Nights series. Will any of the role-playing elements from the older games make their way into this new title?

We are not Neverwinter Nights 3, we’re just an MMO called Neverwinter. But interestingly enough, when we set out to make an MMO from this legacy, we had to decide what to carry over from it, and one of the things we decided to bring was user generated content. The [Neverwinter Nights] Aurora Toolset is still live and active now.

Neverwinter is set one hundred years after the events that took place in Nights 2.  What kind of world can players expect to arrive in?

The city of Neverwinter has been wiped out by a cataclysm (that, if you’ve read the most recent novels, Drizzt may or may not have something to do with), but it’s being rebuilt, and there’s been a call for any adventurers to come and help rebuild Neverwinter, and that’s where all level 1 characters begin.

How do you retain custom creation in a Massive Multiplayer Online game?

Player-created missions become a part of the persistent world. As you can see [on my screen], I already have a few missions. What you probably aren’t aware of is that one of these is someone’s

Foundry mission, and one of these is a Cryptic [developer-made] mission. One of the big agendas that we have is making Foundry content – our in-game editor – indistinguishable from Cryptic content. It shouldn’t matter to the player which is which. We want players to be creating content along with us, and not against us.

Could you tell us more about The Foundry? How will players be able to play through missions created by others?

One way is by opening up the landing page. It’ll pop up every time you start playing the game, and prominently featured is The Foundry content. We’ll be highlighting great content every day and say “this is something you should check out, go click on it and see what’s going on.” [In addition], there’s a star rating system and a filter that allows you to sort all missions by player rating, required level, by author, that sort of thing.

Speaking of level, how do you determine how much experience is granted for player created missions?

Yes, we entirely control that based on level and difficulty equations. It is entirely possible to max level a character on Foundry content alone, if you chose to. We have a bunch of limits in place to prevent players from [abusing this system], and it’s been very helpful at mitigating that in Alpha so far. We still have Beta to go through and work out those kinks, so we feel pretty comfortable about it.

What kind of creation tools will players have at their disposal?

Accessibility is our keyword for how we want users to enter The Foundry. When you enter other editors it’s like six hours of tutorial videos and you still don’t know what the hell you’re doing. One big thing we’re doing is adding a wizard icon [for quick completion]. Once you have something that is required for the mission to proceed, the entire system will dynamically update.

So what is a typical quest in an MMO? You talk to someone in the persistent world, they send you to his house to kill some guys who stole his statue or something. Everyone has played this quest, so how do I make this? I drop down the Cryptic map, we have you talk to someone, it gives you a new map, you kill some guys, and then click on an object [note: Andy, by the time he finished that sentence, had inserted all aspects of the quest into a drag-and-drop menu. The jaws of every press member in the room then proceeded to visibly drop]. All that complicated mission logic, this system will do for you.

So the tool is clearly very fast for players looking for an intuitive creation interface. But how deep is the tool itself for experienced editors looking to create a very specific mission or world?

We wanted to make things really easy, but we didn’t want to take away that depth that advanced modders are expecting. Right here, you can see the advanced dialogue editor, which allows us to make complicated trees of decisions for your quests. You can even have options of dialogue not available until the player has completed a certain quest or collected a certain item. All the complexity that you know DMs are going to want is right here.

So that’s dialogue, now we have to make our map. The fast and easy way to do it is to take a pre-made map. But custom map editing is sexier – indoor and outdoor. For me, this is one of the things that is also very exciting because it’s very evocative of my pen-and-paper D&D experiences. Every dungeon, cave, house, corridor, everything is customizable. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of tools to mess with [note: He isn’t kidding. When viewing all items at once with no filter, the scroll bar is just a sliver that barely moves as you try and view everything. Even simply typing “book” will narrow the focus down to dozens of book objects you can place].

What about custom loot? Is that a possibility for a reward with custom quests?

That’s our next big problem to tackle: We certainly want to do at least something. Whether that is like a Chinese-menu style menu that says “you’re level 20 so you can add on X enhancements to this loot item”, or it’s something else, that’s on our short list of things to really push for before launch.

Neverwinter is going to be released in a free-to-play model. Will all players have access to The Foundry? If so, how much access?

Absolutely. Specifically, we found when we look at the data for who our content creators are, it’s usually a small fraction of the userbase. We’re not doing any monetization on The Foundry – it’s not like players will have to buy map packs or character packs. We don’t want to put anything gating those few prolific authors from being able to contribute.

Instead of removing road blocks, we’re even helping [content creators]. It is very important to us that authors are able to make a name for themselves in Neverwinter. When you’re going through the catalogue, you’ll noticed that author’s are featured, and every creation links you back to an author’s specific blog page. I can subscribe to that author, so that every time they make a quest, I’m notified. I can donate currency to that guy, so if I like his missions, I can donate money to support them. There will be true in-game rewards for authors.

While even the games most noted for their content creation can still come with limitations (such as item and skin packs for sale in Little Big Planet), Neverwinter is taking a drastic stance toward an open creative community. And in a world where even the most promising MMOs can fall due to a lack of uniqueness, The Foundry just might be the building blocks to a successful MMO franchise.(source:gamezebo)