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

BioWare, 2002
Windows, Mac 和 Linux

BioWare, 2002
Windows, Mac and Linux

无冬之夜(Neverwinter Nights)的游戏流程很长,但这不重要,重要的是 Bioware 制作它的“工具”。这套工具的出现意义非凡,重要性却很容易被忽视。《无冬之夜》的玩家如果有制作游戏的才能且愿意投入时间的话,便可以利用这套工具来制作一款品质上乘、独一无二的 RPG。

多年来,玩家们制作了成千上万款游戏模组,其中有十几个(至少)佼佼者甚至可以比肩那些由从业者制作的 RPG。购买《无冬之夜》可能是你在 RPG 史上做出的最划算的一笔交易了,花一份游戏的钱,得到无数份游戏的快乐(游戏在不断产出高质量的自制 RPG 战役)。

Neverwinter Nights included a long campaign, but also, and more importantly, the exact toolset used by BioWare to make that campaign. This was highly significant, but its importance would be easy to overlook. It meant that owners of the game were being given all the tools they needed to make a professional quality RPG of their own, if they had the talent and were able to devote the time.

In the years since, many have done just that, producing thousands of modules, of which dozens (at least) of the best compare quite favourably to professionally produced RPGs. This makes the purchase of NWN perhaps the best deal in the history of RPGs since, by obtaining this one game, one gains the ability to play a huge and still expanding number of high-quality RPG campaigns.

强大的物品编辑器可以将多种武器和装备融合,创造出独特的装备,然后设定数值和特效。

The powerful item editor allows you to mix and match several pieces of armour or weapons to create unique equipment, then customise all its stats and powers.

奥罗拉工具箱的强大与专业的功能和易用性是它如此特别的原因,例如图中展示的对话编辑器。

Part of what makes the Aurora Toolset special is how it offers powerful professional tools that are easy to use, such as its Conversation Editor.

当然,《无冬之夜》并不是唯一包含工具包或是地图编辑器之类的游戏。可其它编辑器往往功能受限,不能满足创作者天马行空的想象力,扼杀了媲美专业级作品的诞生。另外一些使用难度极大,要么需要超强的技术力,要么得靠多人团队合作开发,这都是业余 mod 制作者无法企及的。

《无冬之夜》想要在这两个极端之间找到平衡点:一方面,奥罗拉工具箱允许玩家对游戏内容高度自定义,Bioware 能做什么,玩家就能做什么,且操作相当简单,玩家能轻松编辑游戏内容,打造一个与原版截然不同的游戏体验。另一方面,工具箱的学习成本也相对较低,从玩家自制游戏的速度也可见一斑。最最重要的,也是最容易被忽视的一点:对时间有限的爱好者来说,做 mod 是出于兴趣,不能当成工作来干。

当然,奥罗拉工具箱也存在限制,尽管可以制作海量的 mod,可核心都是使用相同的底层结构——基于第三版 D&D 规则。因此,有游戏创作天赋的玩家想用奥罗拉来制作一款完全不同的原创游戏是不太现实的。不过《无冬之夜》有它不可忽视的优点。

之前提过,第一个优点是:熟练使用工具箱的玩家能快速做出游戏内容。就我个人而言,这一点更重要。与市面上主流的一些商业游戏相比,我渴望做出一款规模更大,更加复杂的 RPG,同时也希望能尽快做出一些东西来。

Of course NWN is hardly the only game to include some sort of toolset, map editor, or the like. Frequently, however, these editors are too limited in what they can do, not allowing users to make fully fledged campaigns with all the features the professionals can include. Others are too difficult to use, requiring either greater technical skills or a larger team than the typical amateur modder can be expected to possess.

NWN managed to avoid both these extremes. On the one hand, it was an enormously powerful tool allowing one to do everything BioWare did to make its campaigns, as well as making it fairly easy to alter many aspects of play to create campaigns of a very different type as well. On the other, learning how to use it is relatively easy. This ease of use also extends to the speed with which one can make content with it, another crucially important, and easily overlooked, feature for amateurs with limited time to devote to what is after all a hobby, and not a full-time job.

The NWN toolset does of course have some limitations, as, though extensive modifications can be made, any modules made with it will at their core be using the same fundamental system, one based on 3rd Edition Dungeon & Dragons rules. Therefore, for someone with creative game-related aspirations attempting to make a fully fledged indie game would certainly be an alternative to consider. NWN does offer two advantages over such a course, however.

First is the aforementioned speed with which a skilled toolset user can make content. In my own case, this factor in particular was a crucial consideration. I had ambitions to make a large, complex RPG campaign, comparable in length and scale to major commercial games, and I also wanted to release something this decade.

GameDB 相关游戏: 无冬之夜

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