Patch adds official content to Neverwinter Nights

BioWare has announced that the latest patch for Neverwinter Nights will expand the role-playing game by adding new official content. In addition to the patch's regular bug fixes and tweaks, there will be two new monsters and an official installer for user-made content. The two added monsters are the lizardlike kobold and the brutal feline malar-panther. Both of these monsters are intended for use in user-created modules, but they are also featured in sample modules that accompany the patch. A kobold creature profile and a malar-panther creature profile can be found on the Neverwinter Nights Web site.

BioWare says the new installer, which has been dubbed the "Neverwinter Nights Content Installer Creator," was developed to make distributing and installing user-created content for Neverwinter as easy as possible. The NWNCIC allows users compress all the separate files used in user-made content into one single, compressed, self-installing file. For example, instead of assembling and then transferring multiple files for each user-made adventure, all the files can now be combined into one executable, which will then install all included files automatically to the correct places. BioWare says the utility works much like WinZip. There is an official tutorial for the NWNCIC that teaches users how to use the new tool.

BioWare also says that the new content added in this patch is the first in a planned series of similar updates. Neverwinter Nights, released this summer, was specifically designed to allow and promote user-created content. BioWare claims the community has so far created more than 1,400 new adventure modules, more than 100 new creatures, and more than 500 other game content items, and these releases are aimed to help further foster the community's content creation.

The 7MB patch, which brings Neverwinter Nights up to version 1.25, can be automatically downloaded with the in-game updater. GameSpot Complete members can also download the file from the link below.