Comments on: Neverending Nights: New NWN2 expansion

By: trevauld

trevauld — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:40:34 +0000

“you’d have to polish up your cross-language dictionary as well as your broadsword +4 against scarabs to be sure.”

speaking of cross-language dictionaries, ‘zehir’ actually means ‘poison’ in turkish. hence the yuan-ti, i guess.

By: Dean

Dean — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:28:31 +0000

Well the developers employ proper story-writers to give the characters interesting characteristics and situations to deal with that bring them out. Maybe you can do that in your head, most people aren’t so creative.

It’s like saying “What’s the difference between a film and just imagining a story in your head”. For Orson Welles, probably not much. For the rest of us: a lot.

By: CryingTheAnnualKingo

CryingTheAnnualKingo — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:40:01 +0000

“Giving your characters personalities when you’re playing on your own smacks a little too much of imaginary friends to me.”

It’s called creativity. A dirty word, I know.

What’s the difference between characters created by the developer and ones you create yourself? How are developer made characters more “real” and somehow not your imaginary friends? Uh, all fake characters could be called imaginary friends and I like to choose my friends instead of settling for the lame ones other people make…

By: Fumarole

Fumarole — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:26:54 +0000

Don’t forget Lute Hero!

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:52:33 +0000

There’s apparently some very good AI mods for NWN2 which makes it more bearable.

By: Noc

Noc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:07:31 +0000

The problem there is getting a properly functional AI. Unless of course you scripted the hell out of the whole thing . . .

Hmm. I’ve been planning to install NWN2, once I heard (from here) that it can run on a Macbook with some tweakling. I might set my mind to this once it gets working; the idea of populating a high level dungeon with viciously tactical enemies tickles me in ways that must be answered.

By: Subject 706

Subject 706 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:53:54 +0000

Well, the NPCs in NWN2s main campaign didn’t exactly stand out as memorable, interesting or likable. Come to think of it, neither did the whole campaign. MoTB though, was brilliance distilled into ones and zeroes…
Hopefully, this new expansion will compensate the lack of deep NPCs with a deep story. Or something.

By: Homunculus

Homunculus — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:31:28 +0000

Besides, every D&D game, ever, must start with a harvest of kobolds

In Soviet Forgotten Realms, Tucker’s Kobolds harvest you.

Yeah, I dunno why designers insist on opening areas with dull slaughter. With the infusion of a little devious imagination, even the most disregarded of foes can become an intellectually stimulating challenge.

By: Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:53:34 +0000

Since this one is likely going to be pure combat, even more so then the predecessors (MOTB turns into it half way through sadly :( ), they had better polish it up, certainly with the breadth of enemies and people available to kill in various ways…and more unique encounters (make use of non-PC powers for goodness sakes! Example; traps! teleportation! puzzle battle elements! more ways to use non-combat abilities! (anyone else think stealth and pickpocket is useless?) unique item usage! who knows!).

Anyway, will wait till it’s released to decide. Never did play Icewind Dale. With a lack of any other RPG fodder, it might be something to pass the time.

By: WCAYPAHWAT

WCAYPAHWAT — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:30:30 +0000

I honestly can’t imagine Obsidian NOT doing any character development. It’s just not them. Class/gender/stat based dialogues, perhaps?

By: BarkingDog

BarkingDog — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:55:08 +0000

If you don’t embrace the whole “I like to eat people/spirits” philosophy, you get the Bear God Okku, who makes for a pretty solid tank. He is, after all, a bear. And a god. A bear-god.
I like most of the NPCs so far in BG/NWN, although in some cases the voice acting is a little annoying (Nightmares about being chased by someone who only says “Heya! It’s me, Imoen!”, anyone?) so I’m not sure how good this make-your-own business will be. Giving your characters personalities when you’re playing on your own smacks a little too much of imaginary friends to me. But yeah- hugely looking forward to another NWN2 expansion as I wasn’t sure if there would be one! Looking forward to cheating like a filthy cheater to give my character a million extra feats so that they can one-shot everything, with katanas.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:38:06 +0000

My problem with NPC party members isn’t being saddled with someone obnoxious (I’ve mostly grown to like the people I’ve adventured with in the various Bioware and Black Isle titles). It’s the way they feel bound and determined to dole them out one by one over the course of the opening third (or more!) of the game, and are extremely arbitrary in what classes they give you when. If you got to pick NPCs at the start of the game and then never had to switch if you didn’t want to, I’d be much happier. I still can’t get into Mask of the Betrayer because I played a wizard through the NWN2 OC and they then expected me to march through multiple lethal high level encounters with….another wizard. A transmuter, even. (iirc. Not one of the more useful specialists, anyhow.) Yay for going up against eight high level guys including both melee and magic with two glass cannons. :P