Game News Dark Dreams of Furiae is a new Neverwinter Nights premium module based in the Planescape setting

[Deleted Member 22431]

It was Tumblr/sjw culture fault.

 

[Zeriel]

No, pretty sure Obsidian came to that inclusion all on their own; as have many other developers.

DivDiv and Divinity 2 had nothing like that; it was goofy and silly but not in this "modern normie internet talk" way. The goofiest it got there was the repeating "Maxos!" bit, which while silly was not a copy-paste of a twitter post.

Though Original Sin 2 had some of this as well, that I attribute more to the general state of "video game writers" than any one company. It's much more pervasive than just Obsidian/Larian.

The worst part is I saw a recent interview with the guy at Larian who wrote DKS and the interviewer basically showered praise for their recent ("quirky") work and lectured him for his work on DKS, which was great, and worst of all, the guy agreed. There's no escaping this decline when the artists themselves yearn to hate good writing.

This is basically trickle down of social and cultural forces.

 

[JarlFrank]

No, pretty sure Obsidian came to that inclusion all on their own; as have many other developers.

DivDiv and Divinity 2 had nothing like that; it was goofy and silly but not in this "modern normie internet talk" way. The goofiest it got there was the repeating "Maxos!" bit, which while silly was not a copy-paste of a twitter post.

Though Original Sin 2 had some of this as well, that I attribute more to the general state of "video game writers" than any one company. It's much more pervasive than just Obsidian/Larian.

It's probably just a common style all millennial writers share.

Check the people behind the names in major writing teams, and you'll see young men and women between 20 and 40 who are left-leaning and dress like hipsters. And if they look like hipsters and smell like hipsters, they also write like hipsters.

 

[TrueNeutralPaladin]

I didn't need to know that.

-snip-

Oh, and the word "fascist" is actually used. Not in-game though, I think, but in the introductory ""cinematics."" I think it's used as a shorthand for "Legal Evil" and the Devil's rule of the city or something.

 

[Fenix]

What the fuck, man?

Lol.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Lol.

Did I missed something and Infinitron actually a woman?

 

[Fenix]

He is actually promoting mainstream shit.
Maybe it's some kind of ELABORATE PLAN ON DEFENDING THE SITE and increasing traffic, attracting new users etc, but for now it looks like it looks - promoting mainstream shit.

 

[Roguey]

Overall Reviews:
Mostly Negative (12 reviews)

Looking like it's well-deserved.

 

[Infinitron]

Yep, I guess they knew it was shovelware, hence the price. What an absurd product. Siege of Dragonspear's retarded Neverwinter Nights cousin.

 

[jac8awol]

I literally cannot *stand* it when characters IN A GAME talk like this. Like, why can't writers just get that?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I literally cannot *stand* it when characters IN A GAME talk like this. Like, why can't writers just get that?

If only writers had some way to emphasize text in a videogame.

 

[Gargaune]

I don't know if this was added in the EE or it's something new for this module but I don't remember it from the original NWN. Your character has like a bubble around him that lets you see through walls.

Ah, so that's the new "keyholing" effect they're talking about on the Beamdog forums, thanks for putting a face to the name. Looks awful. You can actually see it kicking in in some of your other screenshots, when it doesn't even serve any purpose, and I don't understand why it was needed when the NWN platform already has infrastructure for hiding tileset tiers.

This happened a few times. See this crate? It seems clickable. And it is, but nothing happens. I almost clip inside so I assume it's some kind of bug. [...] The conversation abruptly ends without any [End Dialogue] and without even being able to read what he says and he sneak attacks me.

Well, placeables in the Toolset have a "front" side to interact with, so the crate is likely facing the wrong way, you can bash it if you really want what's inside. As for the premature ending of the conversation, the designer probably just forgot to add the [End Dialog] node. Both of these are minor fumbles, really, not very flattering for the QA but hey.

One of those papers mentions slavers involved in the smuggling of worldwine so I get into their warehouse through a SECRET backdoor that is actually just a normal door on plain view and unlocked.

Now that's just lazy. There's already ways to do secret doors in NWN, there are literally a couple of placeables called "Secret Door." Throw one of those here, a bookcase there, put a trigger down and you're done. It's one thing to skip on a new tileset for a minor piece of DLC, another not to bother using what's already in the box.

If Beamdog wants to sell modules, they should just hire the guy that made Swordflight or any other expert modders out there.

rogueknight333, Swordflight Enhanced Edition when?

That quirky style you refer to is one of the worst things to infect gaming, and particularly RPGs. Reading text that sounds like a bad copy-paste from a Tumblr post or a reddit thread just absolutely kills any joy.

Deadfire had a lot of that too; complete with a "YOUR FACE" response to one of the gods. Just... shit.

And that's the first reason I was skeptical of the announcement. I know I'm gonna get buttoned hard for this, but I don't share the Codex's allergy to Beamdog, I like their Infinity Engine stuff (pathfinding debacle aside) and I even think NWN EE adds good value with TotM and letting Ossian finally make a buck off DoD. This thing, though... my only contact with the Planescape setting was Torment itself, but while Avellone did a magnificent job with it, its themes of insanity and perception-shaped reality are practically an invitation to modern "lol random" hipsterist writing. I gather that might not have been far off the mark...

 

[Fenix]

I literally cannot *stand* it when characters IN A GAME talk like this. Like, why can't writers just get that?

Because they are retarded soy eating vegans-morons, with brains formatted till 0 by modern "education system" and media?

 

[eric__s]

I literally cannot *stand* it when characters IN A GAME talk like this. Like, why can't writers just get that?

It's a crutch for people who don't have their own voice in writing. The template already exists. All you have to do is plug the words in.

 

[Murk]

Having replayed IWD 1 (and 2) shortly after playing Deadfire, the contrast is quite great.

IWD always had serviceable but relatively short and simple dialog. Coupled with pretty darn good voice acting, it did a lot to give a sense of mood and tone to an otherwise very simplistic story in both games.

I'll take that any day over the paragraphs of absolutely pointless descriptive text that Deadfire throws at you.

I guess many take verbosity and grammatical fluency for a mark of quality, but knowing when to cut short is something missing from the writing team of Deadfire. Add in confusing and tonally awkward voice acting...

 

[luj1]

Infinitron I always trying not to give you bad ratings for bad news, because it's not your fault if some retards create shit mods/games, you are just post news so people can laugh and shitting on them.
But I noticed that UAP 2.0 for Arcanum already out long ago and I haven't seen this in news. And now you post news about mod for NWN (and nwn wasn't even that good from start) that looks so shit and just awful in general. What the fuck, man?
Did terrorist organization sjw infiltrated Israel and held you as hostage, so you can post this shit?

Because sucking up to devs who release paid content goes a longer way than sucking up to modders who do everything for free/donations? Like he can actually get keys and shit?

 

[luj1]

Siege of Dragonspear's retarded Neverwinter Nights cousin.

This cockroach actually implying Siege of Dragonspear was good

 

[JarlFrank]

Having replayed IWD 1 (and 2) shortly after playing Deadfire, the contrast is quite great.

IWD always had serviceable but relatively short and simple dialog. Coupled with pretty darn good voice acting, it did a lot to give a sense of mood and tone to an otherwise very simplistic story in both games.

I'll take that any day over the paragraphs of absolutely pointless descriptive text that Deadfire throws at you.

I guess many take verbosity and grammatical fluency for a mark of quality, but knowing when to cut short is something missing from the writing team of Deadfire. Add in confusing and tonally awkward voice acting...

Back then:
Lisanna grabs the document and hands it to you. "Here's the contract. Bring me Rolof the Robber, dead or alive. That bastard wiped out three merchant caravans and I want him stopped. 500 gold when you return with him - or his corpse. Good luck, adventurer."

Now:
Lisanna graciously moves her hand through her hair, combing it with her fingers, while her other hand rummages through the desk searching for the document. Finally, her fingers grasp the rolled-up parchment and close around it. She drags it out of the compartment in her desk and holds it out to you. A short glance at the document shows you the name Rolof the Robber and the sum 500 gold.
"The bandit I mentioned goes by the name of Rolof the Robber." She taps a finger against her forehead and offers you a smile. "He got that byname because he robs caravans. Clever, huh? He's a real bastard, this Rolof. Attacked three caravans, killed all the merchants, took their wares. One merchant had his wife and daughter along with them. Rolof killed them all. The girl was only twelve... that bastard doesn't even shy away from murdering children." She shakes her head and casts her eyes to the floor, clouded with sadness. "Anyway, I sent the town guards to look for him, but no dice. Five patrols went out, but they all returned empty-handed!" She crosses her arms in front of her chest, and her toes tap up and down in frustration in her sandals. Tap, tap, tap they go against the hard leather soles. A grimace wanders across her face. Her expression is one of frustration, anger, but also cold determination. "I want you to put an end to this bandit's crimes. Find him, capture him, bring him to me. I'd rather have him alive so we can give him a proper trial, but if you end up killing him I won't shed a tear over it. But even if he's dead, I want his body. He should hang in the town square for all to see. Of course, you will be generously rewarded for this job." She taps against the document, drawing your eyes to its writing (which you had already glanced before). "Five-hundred gold pieces for his capture. Dead or alive. A handsome reward, don't you think?"
She hands you the document and you pluck it from her dainty fingers. The material is thick and sturdy. It's high quality parchment, the kind used for royal documents.
"Return with Rolof's body, adventurer," says Lisanna with determination in her voice, "and I shall welcome you as heroes."

 

[Murk]

^ Scary due to accuracy. Jesus man, you'd be a great shit-writer if you wanted.

Please don't want it.

 

[Roguey]

Reminder that Beneath a Starless Sky revealed that the only reason BG didn't have descriptive prose is because it would have blown up the localization costs. Non-English readers and budget-minded Fargo saved us from worse writing.

 

[rogueknight333]

If Beamdog wants to sell modules, they should just hire the guy that made Swordflight or any other expert modders out there.

rogueknight333, Swordflight Enhanced Edition when?

If Beamdog has any interest in such a project, they have yet to inform me.

I do wonder if anyone involved with this particular module had any previous experience with the NWN toolset. It comes across as very amateurish. By contrast (if they paid me enough for such a project to be worth the effort) I could probably crank out a 10 hour module in several months whose quality would be at least as high as many of the existing premium modules. There are other experienced NWN modders out there too, at least some of whom would probably be happy to work for peanuts just for the prestige of becoming an actual professional developer.

It is also very strange and amateurish that they are apparently not using custom tilesets, etc. to make it look more like Planescape. There is even a bunch of Planescape-related content already available on the NW Vault, though it makes sense that they would not want to use that (probably potential legal issues if they appropriate some random modder's free stuff for a commercial project). But you would think actual professional developers could make their own custom tilesets and models if they had to.

 

[Roguey]

A no-budget attempt at a cash-in.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

A no-budget attempt at a cash-in.

It is a bit odd though. Why would Beamdog agree to this? For the last five years they've actively been fighting against their reputation as bottom-feeding recyclers/re-sellers of work created by more talented people . Why would they now just change tack and give a potentially big tie-in (well, for D&D standards these days) to an unproven studio (that I can't imagine submitted a stellar proof-of-concept)? Maybe this is just the end-of-support cash-grab for NWN:EE, but it still feels... distinctly weird. Something very strange happened to allow this project to be officially greenlit.

 

[Roguey]

A no-budget attempt at a cash-in.

It is a bit odd though. Why would Beamdog agree to this? For the last five years they've actively been fighting against their reputation as bottom-feeding recyclers/re-sellers of work created by more talented people . Why would they now just change tack and give a potentially big tie-in (well, for D&D standards these days) to an unproven studio (that I can't imagine submitted a stellar proof-of-concept)? Maybe this is just the end-of-support cash-grab for NWN:EE, but it still feels... distinctly weird. Something very strange happened to allow this project to be officially greenlit.

Another bit of comedy: they have a Beamdog dev posting replies to the negative Steam reviews thanking them and asking them to file bug reports (I guess so they can fix them?). Dunno why it's even worth the bother.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Another bit of comedy: they have a Beamdog dev posting replies to the negative Steam reviews thanking them and asking them to file bug reports (I guess so they can fix them?). Dunno why it's even worth the bother.

Well, this is actually their Customer Service doing their goddamn job so that's a plus for them. The module is cheap, buggy shit. But they released a paid product and as far as the CS department goes, it is their responsibility to support it (until told otherwise by management).