Neverwinter Nights

1
Neverwinter Nights

• AI and NWScript

2
How is AI used in Neverwinter Nights?

• AI is used to control most of the aspects of the
  game.
• Actions or reactions to player characters
• Pathing movement around doorways
• Dialog between non-player characters
• Combat how non-player characters respond
• Spells what order they use spells and how do
  they use them
• Abilities picking locks or detecting traps.

3
What AI techniques are used?

• Scripting
• NWScript the technique used by BioWare is based
  on C coding.
• NWScript is based off of BGScripts which was a
  simple set of if/then statements created for some
  of their earlier games. BGScript was designed for
  simple combat rules.
• Neverwinter Nights is a scripting game. All
  aspects of the game use scripting. NWScript is
  the toolkit used to make the game and other
  modules that are player made.

4
What tools are used to implement the AI?

• Toolkit
• Neverwinter Nights was created by BioWare using
  the toolkit they designed to allow end users to
  create modules on their own.
• The toolkit contains functions and objects that
  contain scripting for every object and the
  capability of modifying those scripts or adding
  new scripts.

5
What are the strength and weakness of this AI?

• Strengths
• Modifying the scripts can be done without
  corrupting the game play code.
• Scripts can be modified to fit special
  circumstances.
• Scripting is easy to use by those who dont have
  formal programming experience.
• Weakness
• Character personalities are hard coded and
  brittle.
• Conversations are limited with the same
  responses.
• Characters cannot react to unexpected stimuli.

6
How affective is the AI in improving game play?

• Users can create modules in a relative short
  amount of time with the toolkit and the scripting
  is intuitive allowing new games to be created and
  distributed easily with a majority of the work
  done for the user.
• A list of pre made functions are available to
  assist in creating unique scripts.
• While conversations with the NPCs are limited
  every character has their own personalities.
• Every module is different and unique due to
  scripting options and modifications.