Old Basement

From Neverwinter Pedia

Frans' Old Basement

Remember that Frans' first inn was burnt down by fire. But when Frans discovered that most of the original basement where he stored his food and supplies were still in tact, he only happy to join the two basements together to gain more storage space. As for the burnt area, Frans opted for the easy way out. He blocked off the unusable area using some empty crates and broken furniture to create a simple barricade.

[Note: Reasoning — As you planned your narrative, try to make it convincing not only for yourself but also your audience. In whatever you design (as in this case, the basement), try to find a reason or justification for doing so. Frans may not be wise in reusing part of a burnt structure, but you can't fault him for wanting to "save" money, given his character. If you can place yourself in the shoes of your characters, you will likely create a more convincing story.]

The following is (an example of) the basement to Frans' Inn. Using the skills you have learned so far, try and create a basement for the story. You may want to group barrels (of wine) and sacks (of grain) into their respective areas and designate rooms for cooking utensils. Put yourself in Frans' shoes and image how he would build a basement to store the supplies.

The Layout

On one end of the room (top of the figure), you can find the stairs to Frans' inn. On the left of the figure, you will find the burnt area and the collapsed stairs leading to the original inn. The entire burnt area has been blocked off using empty crates and broken furniture.

On the north-east side (upper right hand corner) of the old basement, you will find a burnt area containing a collapsed staircase that led to Frans' old inn. In his attempt to save money, Frans had decided to block off the area with some empty crates and broken furniture – to create some semblance of a barricade – instead of demolishing it.

[Note: As you re-create the barricade, make sure the placeables are situated close to one another to form a continuous "wall". We certainly do not want any player to "squeeze" through the barricade accidentally.]

At the furthest corner of the basement (north-western, upper left-hand corner) from the new staircase, place a secret entrance to the underground tunnels.

[Reasoning The purpose for placing the secret entrance at the further point from the staircase to Frans' new Inn should be obvious: How else can the game designer "convince" a player to explore the basement in its entirety?]

Create some kind of makeshift passageway into the uttermost corner. You can create this easily by lining up several large crates and leaving a meandering path in between the crates. At the end of the passageway, situate a large "crevice" on the wall and partially obscured it with a bookcase (or more crates). You should make it looked like someone (or something) has broken through the wall into Frans' old basement and had tried to cover up the entrance.

To give the player a clue that this crevice is traversable, place a small floor trigger in front of the crevice. In the toolset, the trigger is drawn using a simply polygonal tool. The same rectangle will show up as a glowing blue marking on the ground, resembling a world map. The blue world map marking indicates to the player that the crevice led to new area in the game.

Searching for a Model

There is a Search function in NWN2 Toolset to help game developers (or modders) to quickly find the correct blueprint for a placeable (i.e., the 3D-models used in the game). It would appeared that a search for "Crevice" or "Crack" yield no result. (You are welcome to try searching using other key words...)

It would appear we now have a problem because the NWN2 toolset did not have a ready-made model suitable for "wall crevice"... You will probably find the model for "cave"...

[Reasoning: Can we use a cave as a substitution for crevice? Now, why would there be a cave entrance in Frans' old basement? Could it be that Frans was a spy who had created the secret tunnels for some shady purposes? Noticed that the lack of a certain model might easily "persuade" you to adjust your storyline accordingly. Publishers of AAA games usually have a few hired 3D-modelers to help them take care of such problems. Sadly, not so, for the indie developers.]

But before you gave up on the wall crevice entirely, let's check and see if there is any existing model that can be "customized" to fit our purposes. (Take my word for it: the NWN2 Toolset is much more versatile than NWN1 Toolset in just this aspect alone!)

Creating a Wall Crevice through Customization

It's time we get a little bit creative... After all, a crevice is just a very "skinny" cave, is it not? Since the scale property in NWN2 allow you to change the "width, depth, height" of any placeable, we can take advantage of this feature to "slim down" a cave to the point that it appeared like a "crevice"... like the figure below!

Replace the default size of the "crevice" to create a narrow crevice: change it from "1,1,1" to "0.5, 0.2, 1".

Then "push" the newly created crevice, as far back as you possibly can, toward the back of the (old) cellar.

The purpose is to "encourage" players to explore every room in Frans' basements. You may wish to place some crates in this room to create a makeshift passageway leading to the crevice.

One explanation that both Frans and Bennay had failed to notice the crevice was that it was located in an "abandoned" section of the old cellar long before it was burned down. You can make up some conversation threads between the player and the NPC (either Bennay or Frans) to fill them in with the backstory. It would be apparent to the player that somehow the rats has found their ways into the old basement, and stayed on due of the abundant food supply.

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