Neverwinter Nights (Windows)

Neverwinter Nights
Developer: BioWare Publishers: Infogrames (US/EU), Sega (JP) Platform: Windows Released in JP: March 20, 2003 Released in US: June 18, 2002 Released in EU: July 3, 2002 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text.

Released by BioWare, Neverwinter Nights was a Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition role playing game that heavily relied on community content, thanks to its included toolset. It had three expansions: Shadows of Undrentide, Hordes of the Underdark and Kingmaker.

Original Campaign

Prelude

Early version

Final version

Early Desther Design

Race: Human, Male
Class: Cleric, Level 1
HP: 11

An early version of Desther is present in the game files, which looks noticeably different from the final version.

Chapter 3

Unused Creatures

CREATURE001

Race: Aberration, None
Class: Aberration, Level 1
HP: 4

A rather simple test creature taking the appearance of a Hook Horror.

Chapter 4

To do: There's a good bit more to this chapter, other subplots (planned puzzles), scripts, etc.

Past Life Trap

While in the Source Stone, the player would've been transported into a false alternate reality where they were the leader of a slave resistance against the Old Ones. Quite a bit was left over from this concept, with only the areas and the dialog missing, indicating the plot was pretty far into development before it was canned.

Journal Entries

[0010]
This entry presumably would appear in your journal when the player entered the trap.

Part of you wants to flee this place, but you know to do so would be certain death, for that is the punishment of a slave caught in the streets breaking curfew. Perhaps you are just nervous, as the Creator Race are growing ever closer to discovering this place - the headquarters of the slave reistance. Yet you know there is something more to these strange feelings. Perhaps the notebook you always keep in your inventory can help make things more clear.

[0020]
This entry would've appeared once the player escaped the trap.

You have escaped the Past Life Trap by proving the world around you was not real, thereby dispelling the illusion.

Unused NPCs

Gedry

Race: Human, Male
Class: Fighter, Level 1
HP: 12

Description:

Gedry has been your best friend and closest ally in your efforts to free the slaves from the tyranny of the Old Ones.

He has a conversation loaded (m4q01c08past), but the text, if there was any, has been erased. He's equipped with a Warhammer and a Key unique to this plot, analyzed in the section below. He uses a generic template (Male 02).

Wilbur

Race: Human, Male
Class: Monk, Level 1
HP: 11

Description:

The Keeper of the Ravens has been a valuable ally to the slave underground, yet you cannot help but feel something is amiss when you look at him.

Comments:

Guy who talks about the ravens.

He has a conversation loaded (m4q01c17wilb), but the text, if there was any, has been erased. He is equipped with only a Battleaxe. He uses a generic template for appearance (Bartender).

Unused Items

Interestingly enough, most of the unused items in this game are classified as "Unfound" within the comments.

Notebook

Description:

This notebook is written in your own hand and describes your life as a slave at the hands of the cruel lizardman masters. It details your escape from the slave pens of the Creator Race and describes how you organized other escaped slaves and set up an underground network to free your fellows from the bondage of the Old Ones. Of particular interest is the last entry: "The revolution will fail. I know this - I can sense our doom is near. It's like I'm caught in a trap, a terrible looping pattern repeated in a never ending cycle and there is no way to break out. "I had the dream again last night. I dreamt I was not a slave, but another person in another time, where the Old Ones no longer ruled. Sometimes the dream seems more real than this terrible nightmare. "But I know this world is real - the evidence is here in this notebook, written in my own words."

Comments:

This is the notebook used for the past life plot

This notebook would appear in the player's inventory once they entered the trap. It uses a default portrait.

Note

Description:

This is a simple note in your own hand, though you have no recollection of writing the message. It says simply: "Beldar is a traitor."

Comments:

Note that beldar is a spy

A simple note about a conspiracy. There's no reference to a character named "Beldar" anywhere else in the game.

Key

Description:

You recognize this as the key to the front door of the headquarters of the slave resistance.

Comments:

- this is a key that will let the player out of the past life trap (but start over again)

This is the key Gedry would give you that would ultimately help the player escape the trap.

Past Life Key

Description:

This key is unremarkable in design, yet each time you gaze upon it you get the distinct feeling you have seen it somewhere before.

Comments:

Third key from Past Life plot

This is probably the same key as the above, but meant to be seen from outside the trap.

Unused Creatures

Norieriston Thel

Race: Human, Male
Class: Sorcerer, Level 15
HP: 69

Comments:

jsut a test monsetr

This...rather strange .utc file can be found when the module for Chapter 4 is loaded. When summoned in-game using the dm_spawncreature function, he appears with the default human skin without any armor and is equipped only with a dagger.

Game Over

Race: Animal, Both
Class: Animal, Level 1
HP: 6

What otherwise seems like your generic run of the mill badger has a defeatist twist. It has a script, labeled "JUNK_JUNK", that has it say the string "Game over" on every heartbeat. It's unclear if this pessimistic animal ever had a purpose.

Hordes of the Underdark

Chapter 1

Disabled Dialogue Options

• The giant fairy queen in the first chapter had an unused dialogue tree in which she would try to seduce you as a distraction while you were deciding how to deal with her, with three possible responses. Interesting enough, the filename refers to her as a nymph.

The fairy eyes you carefully for a long moment, and then smiles in a seductive manner. Her hand catches your attention as she runs in along her thigh slowly. "There is no need for us to be enemies, <race> man," she croons. "I would gladly reward such a handsome creature as yourself, in exchange for my life..." "Not interested." Her eyes linger upon you for a moment longer, then she sighs heavily. "As you wish. Will you at least allow me to bargain for my life?" "And allow you to use your fairy magic on me? Not a chance." A wry smile appears and is gone a moment later. "You are smarter than you seem. Very well, then. Will you at least allow me to bargain for my life?" "Now that's the kind of proposal I like!" She smiles coquettishly. "How I do adore a man with... good sense. Very well, then, my pet. Come to me..."

The second response requires a high intelligence check. If the player does choose to go with her however, a short cutscene is played, after which the player finds half their gold removed.

Chapter 3

Developer Commentary

Early placeholder text appears at the beginning of several of the game's dialogue files, mostly for the dev team to keep track of what files were used where. While most are just placement descriptions, one in particular stands out:

h9_mephistophele: MEPHISTOPHELES. HE'S BIG, HE'S BAD, THE GIRLS ALL THINK HE'S DREAMY...

Unused Strings

In addition, there were several early text entries for endings in dialog.tlk, in particular relating to the Knowers. You only meet two such Knowers in the game, and there's little further info as to what was planned:

6223

[KNOWERS - FATE 3] Meph returns or devils are not reined in. Angered by the role played by the Knowers in their master's downfall, lynch mobs of vengeful devils began to scour the Wastes of Cania, finally hunting the Knowers to extinction. The Knower of Places was the last to be found but even she could not hide away from the world forever...

95596

[KNOWERS - FATE 2] Freed from persecution. Freed from persecution, the handful of surviving Knowers emerged from hiding and reclaimed their homeland, rebuilding it as a hidden plane of advanced learning and esoteric knowledge much sought after but rarely found...

95597

[KNOWERS - FATE 1] Names & Places involved in Sleeping Man love triangle. With the Knower of Names' newfound freedom, the long-standing tension that existed between her and her sister, the Knower of Places, soon dissolved. They resolved their differences regarding the Sleeping Man and it was rare to see one without the other ever since...

• Extra ending for Deekin. Very informative.

95618

[DEEKIN REACHES END BATTLE - FATE 4] He lives out the remainder of his life.

Disabled Dialogue Options

• When leaving for the final battle, the player has the option to use the true name of each party member he's bought the name of to command them in some fashion, one of which being to remove the taint from the devil-blooded Valen. However a disabled option would have allowed the player to force Valen to love them in return. In the final game, you can only do one or the other.

"Good. Now, in repayment, you are to become my lover forever." He stares at you in confusion. "I am grateful, my lady, but... you would force me to love you? Even though that is not truly love at all?"

• Originally, you could use Mephistopeles' true name to turn him kindhearted, order him to be your henchman, order him to turn Cania over to the Knowers, or even to become your chambermaid at an inn, complete with post-game text and fully voiced. All are available as dialogue options, but a script disables them.

"Repent of your crimes! Become kind-hearted and good!" "Yes, <Master/Mistress>! Of course! As you command, all evil will be purged from my soul..." [MEPHISTOPHELES - FATE 2] Becomes kindhearted. Commanded by his True Name, Mephistopheles had no choice but to obey. Every goodly act festered like a wound upon his heart, driving him to madness. Yet every good act begat another and another and threefold more until all that was devilish within him was consumed...

"Serve me to the end of your days!" (98887: "You will serve me as henchman for all my future adventures!" is an alternate here) "A henchman? ...It is as you wish, <Master/Mistress>. I will follow you into every danger and we shall walk, homeless, across the planes..." With Mephistopheles bound to your service, you quickly grew in power and status. Bards penned songs of the Devil Tamer and, through your adventures, you came to live a long life of wealth and privelege. Some loved you, some feared you but all gave you their respect. You were the Devil Tamer, the Hero of Waterdeep, a legend in your own time...

"Surrender Cania to its original inhabitants, the Knowers!" "The Knowers? Damn you, <Master/Mistress>, you leave me with nothing... Very well, Cania is theirs, and Baator's Hellish claim on it is hereby forfeit! It is as you command..." As for Cania, Mephistopheles surrendered it to the Knowers as you had commanded him. When the last of the devils had retreated through the Gatehouse, it is said that Cania finally slipped its moorings and became a separate plane once more, no longer the frozen Hell of Baator. Some stories claimed that other devils waged a long war in the years to come to retrieve it, but whether or not it was re-conquered is unknown. The Knowers held your name in reverence for ages to come, a mystery that scholars of the planes found intriguing as so little else was known of you...

"I'll open an inn and make you the chambermaid!" "A... A chambermaid, <Master/Mistress>? But I was meant for greater things! You would reduce me to turning down bed sheets and emptying the chamber pots of drunken mortals? ...It shall be as you wish..." As promised, however, you built an inn of your own in Waterdeep and people came from miles around to torment the fallen devil that was its chambermaid...

Unused Graphics

Placeholder images for the GUI and several items, from the GUI_32bit.erf archive.

Placeholder images used in the map development, from the Tiles_Tpa.erf archive.