kris
Arcane
First let me warn that it will be some light spoilers in this, while I will try to keep out direct references to the game at least the parts about the keep may be spoilerish.
If there is some things I noted several times in NWN2 then it had been those moments I saw something that really could have been great, innovative or even a game in itself. But alas it either was not or not fully as great as it could have been.
Training/Apprentice
There was this moment where you told or could tell a character that you would be his/her trainer, train that person to be a hero/choosen one/adventurer/asshole. I was directly thinking "cool", too moments later realising that person was in fact a fighter the same level as me. any hope for any conversations as to affect that characters development was also crushed.
Now here is something where they really could have made something, not just with this person in the example, but as a gamefeature in a RPG. Having someone as a trainee or apprentice, learn them what you can (by "training" and conversations) or affect them to learn what you think is best. If we talk about a youngish person or as for that person really looking up to you then you should be able to affect their personality. while I rather have that as an compassionate/joker/rude than the classic "good/evil" (read: don't want money/want money up front). There is so many ways this could tie into the gameplay and maybe for once we would really get a emotional connection to that character and fear any possible demise.
Keep, Lord of the lands
Don't get me wrong here, I liked the things they done with the keep (in the game I am about to come to the conclusion of that) and they gone further than most things we see as for that. Of course there is a BUT! There are to few real choices. when it comes to people working for you I think it would have been best with the "should I choose him or her for that position"? I would want that throughout, in NWN2 there is basically only two choices like that. Lets go on, there should be choices what to bring and fill in on all parts of the castle, choices that holds important consequences. In NWN2 I am sure things with the castle will look pretty much the same every time you play, sure you can be slightly evilish with taxes and how to treat the population, but your castle and your men will be upgraded in the same way unless you are tight with your money.
Herein comes the problem with a Adventure party financing building a castle, their more or less endless supply of gold (only limited by the lack of content and no random events) take away so important decisions to "in what order do I want to build stuff?".
To go beyond NWN2 I would say it could be made a whole game built around this aspect, have events after how you play an how you lord your keep/land. Have revolts if you are mean, have invasions if you are to rich or weak. Have choices that leans your keep/land towards being better in some ways and not as good in others. have even a court, make and change laws, be a hypocrit, hire men with good and bad traits, juggle the treasury. Yup, I could write a long design document around a game built entirerly around being a lord. why not even play a dynasty? NWN2 tapped into the pool of all the fun and cool things you could do, but was restrained by resources/story.
Crafting
Yesterday I played around a lot with crafting. Now while I was frustrated about not planning my characters well enough for this, I instead came thinking about the lack of experimenting allowed. As it is in NWN2 now there are a couple of recipes that gives certain abilities, quite many. You usually put together a piece of jewelry/gem, one or two pieces of essence and an armor/weapon/material, last use a spell.
What I would want is something more flexible, let me give an example with a magic sword:
Put a normal sword to be enchanted.
you then put a gem/jewelry there.
if ruby = fire damage, if emerald = acid damage, if rogue stone = Damage undead
After that you put a essence there, the power of the essence(s) affect how powerful the damage effect will be.
The more powerful you try to make it, the more skill do you need to succed. I would find this much more elegant than the implemented system.
all for now.
If there is some things I noted several times in NWN2 then it had been those moments I saw something that really could have been great, innovative or even a game in itself. But alas it either was not or not fully as great as it could have been.
Training/Apprentice
There was this moment where you told or could tell a character that you would be his/her trainer, train that person to be a hero/choosen one/adventurer/asshole. I was directly thinking "cool", too moments later realising that person was in fact a fighter the same level as me. any hope for any conversations as to affect that characters development was also crushed.
Now here is something where they really could have made something, not just with this person in the example, but as a gamefeature in a RPG. Having someone as a trainee or apprentice, learn them what you can (by "training" and conversations) or affect them to learn what you think is best. If we talk about a youngish person or as for that person really looking up to you then you should be able to affect their personality. while I rather have that as an compassionate/joker/rude than the classic "good/evil" (read: don't want money/want money up front). There is so many ways this could tie into the gameplay and maybe for once we would really get a emotional connection to that character and fear any possible demise.
Keep, Lord of the lands
Don't get me wrong here, I liked the things they done with the keep (in the game I am about to come to the conclusion of that) and they gone further than most things we see as for that. Of course there is a BUT! There are to few real choices. when it comes to people working for you I think it would have been best with the "should I choose him or her for that position"? I would want that throughout, in NWN2 there is basically only two choices like that. Lets go on, there should be choices what to bring and fill in on all parts of the castle, choices that holds important consequences. In NWN2 I am sure things with the castle will look pretty much the same every time you play, sure you can be slightly evilish with taxes and how to treat the population, but your castle and your men will be upgraded in the same way unless you are tight with your money.
Herein comes the problem with a Adventure party financing building a castle, their more or less endless supply of gold (only limited by the lack of content and no random events) take away so important decisions to "in what order do I want to build stuff?".
To go beyond NWN2 I would say it could be made a whole game built around this aspect, have events after how you play an how you lord your keep/land. Have revolts if you are mean, have invasions if you are to rich or weak. Have choices that leans your keep/land towards being better in some ways and not as good in others. have even a court, make and change laws, be a hypocrit, hire men with good and bad traits, juggle the treasury. Yup, I could write a long design document around a game built entirerly around being a lord. why not even play a dynasty? NWN2 tapped into the pool of all the fun and cool things you could do, but was restrained by resources/story.
Crafting
Yesterday I played around a lot with crafting. Now while I was frustrated about not planning my characters well enough for this, I instead came thinking about the lack of experimenting allowed. As it is in NWN2 now there are a couple of recipes that gives certain abilities, quite many. You usually put together a piece of jewelry/gem, one or two pieces of essence and an armor/weapon/material, last use a spell.
What I would want is something more flexible, let me give an example with a magic sword:
Put a normal sword to be enchanted.
you then put a gem/jewelry there.
if ruby = fire damage, if emerald = acid damage, if rogue stone = Damage undead
After that you put a essence there, the power of the essence(s) affect how powerful the damage effect will be.
The more powerful you try to make it, the more skill do you need to succed. I would find this much more elegant than the implemented system.
all for now.
