Unexpected things whilst testing the game
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2002 11:40 am
Wacky QA Stories
Greg Z.
I killed a goblin - he fell over, and after he died (and the xp message was given), he stood back up, used a healing potion on himself, and then disappeared. I thought, 'hmmm I didn't know the game had potions of teleportation.' (It doesn't.)
Nathan F.
We at one point had a problem with helmets. More specifically, putting one on, and then swapping to another one, without taking the first one off. The end result?
Your head disappeared.
Derrick C.
Druids get a cute little animal companion, i.e. a familiar, which is named by the player. For those players lacking in imagination we even have a random name generator that generates names for your pet using some sort of a letter combination probability system, that I don't fully understand. It generally does a decent job of producing unique names though.
Anyway, I was generating a Druid character one day and I got to the step where I had to name my badger familiar. I press the Generate Name button, and not being happy with the resulting name, I press it again, a few times. Next thing I know, my badger's name is a four-letter word that refers to things relating to someone's 'back end.' Think 'canal,' but without the 'c.' I thought to myself, whoa, that's not a very nice name for a Badger, so I made note of it, and then I pressed the Generate Name button a few more times, fearful of what name my Badger would receive next. I get a few more names that aren't all that special, but then my badger's name is a four-letter word that rhymes with rock and refers to the male sexual organ. At this point I was laughing quite hysterically. Of course, this issue was reported and the generated names are now filtered so that no player will ever have to see such vulgar names for such a cute little creature.
Jay W.
I was locked in battle with some goblins the other day when playing through the prelude. Each time I struck the goblin for damage with my longsword they would blast straight up and off the screen. They fall back down, I would strike them again, and they would shoot off again. I thought this was hilarious, as looked like I was smacking them around like ping-pong balls. I had my character do the scratching head emote after that battle.
Trent O.
Plot Critical characters (cannot be killed) can be Imploded (a spell). They detonate and disappear but keep speaking their dialogue and you can't click on them.
Chris P.
I was testing a system of caves infested with orcs, goblins and bugbears. My paladin was quietly walking from cave to cave, through tunnel to tunnel, cautiously poking his head into the next cavern, looking for monsters and then entering if it was safe. I had just killed a couple of goblin guards and opened the door to the room they were guarding. I looked in. All I could see was an empty room with a door off in the left hand wall and a pile across the room on the floor that I hoped was treasure. So I entered the room.
Suddenly I was under attack! Without warning, from behind, my PC began to take a serious amount of damage. I spun around to see what it was since I had thought the room was empty. And what did I see? Yes, I was being attacked by the door that had sprung to life, charged across the room and was kicking my chainmailed butt. I'm not talking about a door with a trap on it or a monster in the shape of a door, but an honest to goodness, doorknob-and-hinges door.
I was laughing so hard that my PC almost died. But I thought I better run away as this thing is pretty tough. So as I ran, I called to Stan Woo to come and see what was happening, and we both had a good laugh watching my paladin run down the corridor being chased by a blood-thirsty door. In the end I ran into a cave with no exit and the door killed me.
So the next time you play NWN and your PC is killed by a low level monster, think to yourself "At least I didn't get killed by a door. Cuz that would be pretty lame."
Nathan F.
One of the more entertaining things I have seen was right after they had changed to a more optimal format for the model files.
The file format worked well, however, the animation system wasn't translating well with it. More specifically, the arm and leg animations got crossed over. Initially, it just looked like the poor guy I was using had suffered a stroke, as he was kinda walking funny.
Then I tried the wave animation. And he kicked himself in the chin. Spell casting animations looked like some kung-fu movie gone bad, then put into a matrix-mode camera. The character lifted both legs up, contorted into some awful positions while waving them around, and finished up with some sort of bizarre kick.
Preston W.
The impact zone for Giant used to be set in their groin. Which makes things like Lightning bolts very funny. Well, not that funny...but very funny anyway.
Greg Z.
I was testing out the Prelude and following a big battle I was curious to see what would happen to the characters already present in the module. One of the results of the preceding battle was that all characters throughout the module were assigned an 'attack enemy' script so when they ran across enemies they would autonomously attack them.
I happened to walk into a room occupied by a few NPC combat trainers and not much else. Upon entering the room the NPC yelled, 'defend the Academy,' and drew his sword. I was quite concerned because there was nothing animate in the room except me and I was afraid he was going to attack me as he ran toward me waving his sword. Fortunately he ran past me to a combat dummy and starting laying a beat-down on it and kept yelling, 'defend the Academy!' Suffice to say this was quite funny and surprising. A good time was had by all.
Damn that is funny
Greg Z.
I killed a goblin - he fell over, and after he died (and the xp message was given), he stood back up, used a healing potion on himself, and then disappeared. I thought, 'hmmm I didn't know the game had potions of teleportation.' (It doesn't.)
Nathan F.
We at one point had a problem with helmets. More specifically, putting one on, and then swapping to another one, without taking the first one off. The end result?
Your head disappeared.
Derrick C.
Druids get a cute little animal companion, i.e. a familiar, which is named by the player. For those players lacking in imagination we even have a random name generator that generates names for your pet using some sort of a letter combination probability system, that I don't fully understand. It generally does a decent job of producing unique names though.
Anyway, I was generating a Druid character one day and I got to the step where I had to name my badger familiar. I press the Generate Name button, and not being happy with the resulting name, I press it again, a few times. Next thing I know, my badger's name is a four-letter word that refers to things relating to someone's 'back end.' Think 'canal,' but without the 'c.' I thought to myself, whoa, that's not a very nice name for a Badger, so I made note of it, and then I pressed the Generate Name button a few more times, fearful of what name my Badger would receive next. I get a few more names that aren't all that special, but then my badger's name is a four-letter word that rhymes with rock and refers to the male sexual organ. At this point I was laughing quite hysterically. Of course, this issue was reported and the generated names are now filtered so that no player will ever have to see such vulgar names for such a cute little creature.
Jay W.
I was locked in battle with some goblins the other day when playing through the prelude. Each time I struck the goblin for damage with my longsword they would blast straight up and off the screen. They fall back down, I would strike them again, and they would shoot off again. I thought this was hilarious, as looked like I was smacking them around like ping-pong balls. I had my character do the scratching head emote after that battle.
Trent O.
Plot Critical characters (cannot be killed) can be Imploded (a spell). They detonate and disappear but keep speaking their dialogue and you can't click on them.
Chris P.
I was testing a system of caves infested with orcs, goblins and bugbears. My paladin was quietly walking from cave to cave, through tunnel to tunnel, cautiously poking his head into the next cavern, looking for monsters and then entering if it was safe. I had just killed a couple of goblin guards and opened the door to the room they were guarding. I looked in. All I could see was an empty room with a door off in the left hand wall and a pile across the room on the floor that I hoped was treasure. So I entered the room.
Suddenly I was under attack! Without warning, from behind, my PC began to take a serious amount of damage. I spun around to see what it was since I had thought the room was empty. And what did I see? Yes, I was being attacked by the door that had sprung to life, charged across the room and was kicking my chainmailed butt. I'm not talking about a door with a trap on it or a monster in the shape of a door, but an honest to goodness, doorknob-and-hinges door.
I was laughing so hard that my PC almost died. But I thought I better run away as this thing is pretty tough. So as I ran, I called to Stan Woo to come and see what was happening, and we both had a good laugh watching my paladin run down the corridor being chased by a blood-thirsty door. In the end I ran into a cave with no exit and the door killed me.
So the next time you play NWN and your PC is killed by a low level monster, think to yourself "At least I didn't get killed by a door. Cuz that would be pretty lame."
Nathan F.
One of the more entertaining things I have seen was right after they had changed to a more optimal format for the model files.
The file format worked well, however, the animation system wasn't translating well with it. More specifically, the arm and leg animations got crossed over. Initially, it just looked like the poor guy I was using had suffered a stroke, as he was kinda walking funny.
Then I tried the wave animation. And he kicked himself in the chin. Spell casting animations looked like some kung-fu movie gone bad, then put into a matrix-mode camera. The character lifted both legs up, contorted into some awful positions while waving them around, and finished up with some sort of bizarre kick.
Preston W.
The impact zone for Giant used to be set in their groin. Which makes things like Lightning bolts very funny. Well, not that funny...but very funny anyway.
Greg Z.
I was testing out the Prelude and following a big battle I was curious to see what would happen to the characters already present in the module. One of the results of the preceding battle was that all characters throughout the module were assigned an 'attack enemy' script so when they ran across enemies they would autonomously attack them.
I happened to walk into a room occupied by a few NPC combat trainers and not much else. Upon entering the room the NPC yelled, 'defend the Academy,' and drew his sword. I was quite concerned because there was nothing animate in the room except me and I was afraid he was going to attack me as he ran toward me waving his sword. Fortunately he ran past me to a combat dummy and starting laying a beat-down on it and kept yelling, 'defend the Academy!' Suffice to say this was quite funny and surprising. A good time was had by all.
Damn that is funny