无冬之夜：奥罗拉工具箱与模组 Neverwinter Nights: Aurora Toolset & Modules p.320

（奥罗拉）工具箱影响了游戏制作中的许多决策。地块。使用基于地块的系统完全是为了工具箱的易用性考虑^[1] 。我们希望开发者想要进行创作时，不必先去学习 3D Studio Max^[2] 之类的软件，而是坐下、制作、游玩、测试，然后享受它。

The toolset has affected many, many decisions along the way. Tiles. The entire reason to use a tile-based system was for the toolset, for ease of use in creation. We don't want people to have to learn to use an app like 3D Studio Max if they want to create an adventure. We want people to go in, create an adventure, jump, test it and have fun.

Trent Oster
《无冬之夜》首席设计师

Trent Oster,
NWN's lead designer

这一切也付出了相应的代价：五年中，大部分时间都用在了制作引擎而不是游戏内容上。可以说，就游戏成品而言，内容过于草率。

故事围绕一场席卷无冬城（Neverwinter）的毁灭性瘟疫展开，玩家必须寻找罪魁祸首，并在最后击败惯例的远古邪灵。游戏流程就像是被拖长了一万倍的 D&D 新手模组，玩家被游戏驱赶着去收集没完没了又毫无意义的“麦高芬”（McGuffins）^[3] 。与之相伴的还有极其糟糕的战斗设计，几乎都是滥竽充数，这让人感觉像是一个试玩版（demo）。

还好 BioWare 在 2003 年推出了两个拓展包，证明了他们能做出高质量内容。《古堡阴影（Shadows of Undrentide）》拓展包中玩家要寻回导师失窃的文物，从等级 1 开始，踏上一次全新的冒险，体验上中规中矩。第二个拓展包《幽城魔影（Hordes of the Underdark）》中，女皇瓦尔纱蕾丝（Valsharess）带领着卓尔（Drow）^[4] 军队进行入侵，玩家将挺身而出，拯救世界。

But all of this came at a cost – most of the five years of development was spent on the engine itself rather than the content. The result was that the game's campaign was phoned in, to say the least.

The story revolves around a devastating plague gripping the city of Neverwinter – you must find the culprits and defeat the mandatory ancient evil at the end. The whole thing feels like a starting D&D module that drags on for far too long, aggressively ordering you to collect countless McGuffins. Combine this with some absolutely abysmal encounter design, where the vast majority of combat can only be described as filler, and you have something closer to a tech demo.

Fortunately, BioWare released two expansions in 2003 which showed them getting better at creating quality content. Shadows of Undrentide begins a new Level 1 adventure, as you hunt for a series of artefacts stolen from your tutor. Competent but nothing special. Hordes of the Underdark pits you against a Drow army invasion lead by their queen, the Valsharess.

由于 Interplay 方面的财务问题，BioWare 转而选择了 Atari 作为发行商，这导致游戏的规划发生了巨大的变化。一份泄露的文档表明原本的规划更具野心，其中包括了疯狂计量条、每个职业的教程以及更加波澜壮阔的故事。

Financial issues at Interplay made BioWare change publishers to Atari. This led to big changes in the game's plot. A leaked document shows it was much more ambitious, with a madness meter, class-specific tutorials and an epic scope.

《幽城魔影》被视为 BioWare 最好的几款作品之一，故事章节主题明确，无论是在 D&D 世界里传奇的地脉迷城（Undermountain）中冒险，还是探索神秘的幽暗地域（Underdark）并寻访当地的可怖居民，这一切都能带给玩家美妙的体验。

如果你无视后面的更新内容，只看《无冬之夜》的初版，很显然这就是个三流玩意。但 BioWare 大张旗鼓地向玩家宣传，不要只关注游戏本体，《无冬之夜》本质上是一个搭载了无数奇幻冒险的平台。

是金子总会发光。游戏本体的内容确实最好忽略掉，不过一口气通关两个拓展包的话，这趟从 1 级开始直到成神的旅途绝对可以超出你的期待。之后玩家就可以选择游玩小巧精致的游戏模组或是尝试些制作精良的大型 mod。

请记住一点：BioWare 为实现这些功能而做出的巨大牺牲是它们如此优秀的一部分原因。

HotU can easily be described as one of BioWare's best works – each chapter is laser focused, whether it's dungeon-crawling through the legendary D&D location Undermountain or exploring the mysterious Underdark and its terrible denizens.

If you take the launch version of Neverwinter Nights, bereft of all the content that came afterwards, then it's clear that it's an underwhelming product. But BioWare aggressively advertised that you weren't buying a simple game inside a box – NWN is above all a platform for countless adventures.

And it paid off. While the original campaign is best ignored, playing Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark back-to-back will give a more than satisfying journey from Level 1 to godhood. From there you can jump to the smaller premium modules or try some of the greatest mods ever made.

Just keep something in mind: they are that good in part because BioWare sacrificed so much for them to be possible.

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¹ 译者注：这里的工具箱指《无冬之夜》中附带的 mod 制作工具奥罗拉工具箱（Aurora Toolset），该工具箱制作地形时以地块（tile）为基本单位。
² 译者注：三维动画渲染和制作软件，用于为娱乐行业制作 3D 动画，模型，交互式游戏和视觉效果。
³ 译者注：这个词本身毫无意义，常用于编剧中，可理解为故事里人物的动机和剧情发展的诱因。
⁴ 译者注：卓尔精灵，又称黑暗精灵，是 D&D 中定居地下的邪恶生物，母系社会，生活在幽暗地域（Underdark）之中。
⁵ 译者注：在D&D 规则中存在的概念，允许玩家通过以不同方式施法（如施法方式复杂化或施法时间延长等），增加法术威力。
⁶ 译者注：在采用即时战斗的游戏中，可随时按下空格键暂停，进行战略部署，由《博德之门》系列首创，这一设计受到开发者和玩家们的广泛认可，并沿用至今。