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Rogue Dao Studios - Planescape Trilogy: Purgatorio - Preview

MLMarkland

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
1,663
Location
Malibu, CA
Figured the Codex might like a collection of the links to previews and reports on Purgatorio. Lot's of new screenshots to see and a few music tracks to hear.

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Articles.Detail&id=239
Phineas Ligistra Preview

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Articles.Detail&id=240
Baron and Hellfire's Report from Obsidian

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Articles.Detail&id=242
Maximus' Report from Obsidian

Kalia @ Warcry
http://nwn2.warcry.com/news/view/77002-NWN-2-Rogue-Dao-Studios-Screens-and-Sounds
Sights and Sounds of the Hive

Kalia @ Warcry
http://nwn2.warcry.com/news/view/76963-NWN-2-WarCry-Visit-to-Obsidian-The-First-Hour
Report From Obsidian

And it's not all about Purgatorio either. This is a module that just came out that everyone should download and try:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=185
Hugie's Moonshadows

Hugie is one of the folks working for Ossian Studios on whatever secret project they got going on.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
kingcomrade said:
Makes me wish I had NWN2.

Buy it then. MotB is coming out soon too which looks as if it'll have good roleplaying elements.
 

JoeDirt

Scholar
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
449
Location
Silvertown
i downloaded moonshadows and it phails. i'm still super psyched for purgatorio and MotB though!
 

dagorkan

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
Messages
5,164
Any good NWN2 scenarios already released?

Had a look, NWN2 vault is pretty bare. Just tried the "Conan Chronicles" one (ported from NWN1), very nice graphics but a step back otherwise (more bugs, difficult to control). Hopefully as modders get used to it there'll be more choice. There seem to be only 10 or so mods rated better than 85%
 

JoeDirt

Scholar
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
449
Location
Silvertown
i've played subtlety of thay, corruption of kohoro and moonshadows. i thought they were all mediocre, and all 3 had bad writing.
 

cardtrick

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,456
Location
Maine
I tried my first NWN2 mod a couple of days ago . . . Subtlety of Thay. I'm only three or four hours in, but I've enjoyed it so far. It's nowhere near as good as the best NWN modules, but I think it's a step up from the NWN2 OC. Dialog is generally sort of competent, but uninspired, and there a few sidequests. There have been at least a couple of minor instances of real consequences for your choices, although nothing amazing. The beginning is really bad (you start out in a cave with very little in the way of exposition or explanation), but the mod improves rapidly once you leave it. I don't, personally, know much about the Forgotten Realms, but if you do you might have an even greater appreciation for the module. There are numerous references to places, people, and both current and historical events - all of which does a great job of making the setting feel consistent and real. The level designs are really great, definitely up there with the best user-created content I've seen.

If you decide to play it, bear in mind that the combat is actually pretty challenging. If you follow the suggested minimum starting level (3) and go with a class that's weaker at the beginning (rogue, etc.), you may have trouble. You will be expected, at times, to fight, solo, against enemies above your level with immunities to sneak attack and various damage types. Bear in mind that if you're a melee fighter with no elemental damage available, you *absolutely must* keep an alchemical silver and a cold iron weapon with you, starting as soon as you possibly can. Similarly, stock up on potions and scrolls. The difficulty is well above the OC or most mods; it's not unreasonable (it's actually really fun) but just know what you're getting into. If you played part 2 of A Dance With Rogues, expect combat comparable to but somewhat harder than that.

Also, be warned that the mod is not totally polished. I noticed a couple of typos and a couple of scripting errors. One time while I had a temporary party of 4 for a quest, saving and then loading the game later on made 2 of them vanish.

To summarize: if you play this, it will be for the setting and the combat, both of which are unusually good. It's not a purely hack and slash mod, but the dialog, characters, and quests leave something to be desired.
 

fastpunk

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
1,798
Location
under the sun
Thanks OP. MotB and the Purgatorio are on top of my gaming wish list right now.

And btw, since we're talking NWN2: MotB stuff <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/neverwinternights2maskofthebetrayer/news.html?sid=6179110&mode=recent">here's</a> an informative hands-on from Gamespot. It talks about the story, the setting, the spirit-eater mechanic and how it affects resting and the game's difficulty, and a few details about the epic nature of the expansion.

And speaking of epic:
It's not uncommon to reap hundreds, if not thousands, of gold pieces from a single enemy, and there's plenty of low-level magical weaponry for loot. Nevertheless, you'll need it, because the shopkeepers in Mask of the Betrayer have some truly awesome items for sale, and the sticker shock is mighty. We've encountered at least one item that cost over half a million gold pieces alone.

Yup! Epic levels, epic prices! :D
 

Spectacle

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 25, 2006
Messages
8,363
There must be an order of magnitude more gold circulating in the forgotten realms than there was in medieval europe. Half a million gold pieces would have been enough to finance a small war or rent every house in a city for a year.

I remember in BG2:ToB, near the end you're in this impoverished community up in the mountains, with dwellings cut out of the mountainside. The local inn consists of just two small common rooms, and doesn't even have furniture, just cushions and blankets on the floor to sit and sleep on. Despite this the innkeeper has no problem coughing up more than a million GP in cash when I sell him all the magical weapons and armor I have collected in my bag of holding :D
 

JoeDirt

Scholar
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
449
Location
Silvertown
shop-keepers in NWN2 do run out of money eventually. happened to me a few times during act 3. it was a mild annoyince as i had to walk over to another shop-keeper standing 5 feet away
 

obediah

Erudite
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
5,051
fastpunk said:
And speaking of epic:
It's not uncommon to reap hundreds, if not thousands, of gold pieces from a single enemy, and there's plenty of low-level magical weaponry for loot. Nevertheless, you'll need it, because the shopkeepers in Mask of the Betrayer have some truly awesome items for sale, and the sticker shock is mighty. We've encountered at least one item that cost over half a million gold pieces alone.

Yup! Epic levels, epic prices! :D

God I fucking hate 3E! I want to make a video game just so i can make sure there aren't any magic items for sale, and that at no point will the characters ever walk into a shop with a bag full of "junk" longswords+4 to unload.
 

hakuroshi

Augur
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
589
D&D prices never were intended to have anything with real economics. The cost of loot is just a measure of your power. That it actually can be sold or bought is plain bad design.
Epic swords must be an epic treasure and not an epic merchandise.
 

dagorkan

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
Messages
5,164
Well, according to D&D it should take years for the average adventurer to make level two... instead of the half an hour it lasts in practice. If people stuck to the rules, unrealistic aspects of D&D would make more sense. But people want to play insanely over-powered superhuman characters and every retard expects to make level 5 without having to strain a brain-muscle.

Was gonna play "Subtlety in Thay" - what exactly is the game world like? Low-magic, high-magic, Euro-medieval or what?
 

Callaxes

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
1,676
20060909a.jpg
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
I've played a few NWN2 modules, and while none of them has reached the level of the best NWN modules, I vastly prefer them to what NWN1 had to offer in its first year (unless I'm forgetting some great module).

The one I like the most so far is Dark Avenger, which has interesting characters and is pretty well-written for the most part. The only thing I didn't like about it was a rather combat-heavy final area, which I think was a shame as the author is a pretty good writer.

Nighthowls in Nestlehaven was also a good time, and is the one most liked on the Vault I think. Much to combat heavy all in all for my taste, but some of the battles are quite fun. Kind of reminds me of Baldurs Gate 2 battles. It also has a few interesting aspects in the story.

I'm probably gonna try Moonshadows sooner or later, but it's a real kicker for me that there are no dialogue skills and things like that. Still, I liked Hugies (the author) mod called The Island for NWN1.
 

fastpunk

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
1,798
Location
under the sun
Hehe, I knew that quote would hit a nerve. I'm still thinking about it, does it bother me or not? On the good side, it feels rewarding to find or buy an item that's worth so much. On the bad side, gathering so much money in a 25 hour campaign says easy loot. I don't know, we'll see. One thing's for sure, this is epic, more epic than Pam Anderson's tits in her good old days. :lol:
 

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,878
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
Personally I don't like this whole level scaling that is so prevalent in the latest D&D games. I would like a game with a huge logical gameworld, with low level enemies and high level ones too, spread in different areas or mixed up a bit, instead of this "higher level enemies as the story progresses" scheme. BG had a nice mix, for example, but is Amn a more harsher place that in BG2 the lowest enemy is a level 5 rogue?

Is Rashamen a place of such strong warriors? I wonder why Minsc was level 1 when I found him... I know the gameplay reasons behind this whole system, but sometimes it's so obvious that becomes silly...
 

made

Arcane
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
5,130
Location
Germany
Moonshadows seems ok. Nothing spectacular, just hack & slash, but quite polished for a mod.

Why can't people make more remakes of Goldbox games? I liked the Pools of Radiance remake, although it was very short and the next chapter is nowhere in sight. I'd love to see Pools of Darkness in the NWN2 engine. Just make a 1:1 copy of all the conversations, areas and creatures - should be easier to do than creating everything from scratch.
 

made

Arcane
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
5,130
Location
Germany
Yeah, you're right. Downloading the archive atm, maybe I missed the update that added chapter 2.

Edit: Sure enough, that version contains chapter 2 as well as some preview of ch3. Yay for a few more hours of oldschool goodness!
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
Now that we are talking about it, I haven't tried Pool of Radiance myself. How is it? Care to give a mini-review?
 

made

Arcane
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
5,130
Location
Germany
Well, much like in the original PoR, you set out to reclaim Phlan from the hordes of monsters that took over the town. Only this time you are alone, with one optional henchman at your side instead of a full party, although there are mercenaries all over the place, competing with the player for the bounty on orc heads, later working together with him.

The starting area has a rather cool feel to it. Buildings are being constructed, tradesmen have set up shop in the streets, mercenaries populate the pubs etc. It all felt quite polished and conveyed a fitting atmosphere. Some of the latter areas are quite small, however, with only little to do before moving on.

In its essence, it's a linear "go to next area and clear out the monsters" affair. You liberate the town one location at a time - locations which you might remember if you played the original game - all the while uncovering clues about who/what commands the monster hordes.

The mod description mentions "medium roleplay", although I'm not quite convinced that the occasional diplomacy skill check constitutes as roleplaying. It's basically just hack & slash with some exploration thrown in. The mod's main attraction is its faithfulness to the original (which wasn't the pinnacle of roleplaying either), so if you're like me and like to replay classic D&D games without having to cope with the atrocious engine, you might want to give it a try.
 

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