Interview NWN2 Q&A at GameSpot

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Neverwinter Nights 2; Obsidian Entertainment

<a href=http://www.gamespot.com>GameSpot</a> has posted a <a href=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/neverwinternights2/news.html?sid=6146811&mode=previews>NWN2 interview</a> with Josh Sawyer, who replaced Ferret Baudoin as the Lead Designer and Chris Avellone as the most promising developer.
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<blockquote><b>What can you tell us about the story? We know that the sequel is set sometime after the events of the original game, and that Neverwinter city is different because much of it was rebuilt following the cataclysmic events in the first game. What sort of new places can you reveal to us at this point?</b>
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The story revolves around a dire figure from the history of the Sword Coast known as the King of Shadows. I can't honestly remember a game where the sentient embodiment of shadows is ever a good thing, so that should be a clue about his role in the story.
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Your character starts in the village of West Harbor. It's a pretty peaceful town until the King of Shadows messes it up. Your character is caught up in the attack and has to survive through the assault. The events in West Harbor bring the village, and your character, to the attention of Lord Nasher in Neverwinter. Rulers of cities tend to get nervous when nearby villages are overrun with supernatural creatures, so some of Nasher's mental alarms go off. Your character gets caught up in a political and moral struggle that spans a healthy stretch of the Sword Coast, with some planar meddlers thrown in for good measure.
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Anyway, it's an exciting thrill ride through the Forgotten Realms filled with mystery and intrigue. Sometimes the intrigue is even mysterious. However, those with weak hearts need not worry about the mystery being intriguing. Obsidian knows where to draw the line!
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<b>What sort of system requirements are you currently looking at for the game? Role-playing fans don't tend to have the latest graphics cards or processors, after all, so scalability must be important to you.</b>
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Join us in the 21st century, role-playing fans! It's time to throw out those Righteous Monster 3D cards and bump up to the AGP and PCI Express era. At this point in time, the only hard system spec we want to give is this: Get a video card that supports shader model 2.0 or higher. Without it, the game will not run, and you will cry. </blockquote>Gotta love Sawyer's style
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Thanks, Kthan and Kumquatq3

 

[Nightjed]

im tired of all these "buy a new box for my game or weep" battlecries, the game is so early in development it could need quantum bio-computers when its released in 50 years, and even then i wont even consider buying a new box just for 1 game (that might not even be worth the initial 50 bucks), go to console kiddos for that

edit:

(You may also be able to get e-smooches from your companions if you play your cards right.)

... omg ... i wonder if it will support the dx11 directvibrator engine

 

[Volourn]

Huh? NWN2 is early in development? It''s gonna ahve 2+ years of dev time, and it's likely coming out in like 3 months or so. Can you tell time?

 

[Jora]

This makes me happy:

We're really trying to focus more on the single-player campaign and modding tools. Players and dungeon masters can expect the same level of multiplayer functionality that existed in the original Neverwinter Nights, but I really think that the expanded flexibility of the toolset is what will help make online experiences more enjoyable.

AND:

I thought I was pretty clear in the interview, but okay. We're not focusing on making multiplayer better. We're focusing on making a solid single-player game and a solid toolset while supporting the same multiplayer functionality that already existed in NWN.

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... m=95&sp=75

 

[Balor]

Now, if they'd only got rid of most hateful AD&D... *sigh*

 

[Jora]

They have. It's D&D 3.5 now. :wink:

 

[Walkin' Dude]

Anyway, it's an exciting thrill ride through the Forgotten Realms filled with mystery and intrigue. Sometimes the intrigue is even mysterious. However, those with weak hearts need not worry about the mystery being intriguing. Obsidian knows where to draw the line!

What the fuck does that mean?

 

[Vault Dweller]

That's Sawyer.

 

[Zomg]

The small rebellion from PR newspeak was much appreciated.

 

[Lemon]

Sawyer makes those interviews fun to read.

 

[Jora]

Sawyer's answers can often be... mystarious.

 

[Voss]

Re: NWN2 Q&A at GameSpot

Gotta love Sawyer's style

Not really. Gibbering about intriguing mysteries of strange mystery is something a monkey could do, and King of Shadows = evil villain, because shadows= bad, cuz they're all dark 'n stuff, doesn't make for an impressive glimpse of the storyline.

They're a vague hope in all that mess that the story might involve more than hacking & slashing, with the vague gibbering about mysteries, politics and morals, but have a strange, nagging doubt in that area since *no one* has managed to handle those concepts well in the last decade (at least). Particularly not folks who brought the industry KotoR 2, or the developers that worked on IWD or IWD2.

And, hooray, the level one dumbasses of the world get to survive the mysterious attack that savages a village! Clearly the exceptional minions of shadow are on the march.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Re: NWN2 Q&A at GameSpot

Gotta love Sawyer's style

Not really. Gibbering about intriguing mysteries of strange mystery is something a monkey could do, and King of Shadows = evil villain, because shadows= bad, cuz they're all dark 'n stuff, doesn't make for an impressive glimpse of the storyline.

Well, Sawyer has joined the project recently, so you can't blame him for the shadow stuff. What I do find amusing is his tongue-in-cheek style, like that comment about Obsidian knowing where to draw the line, etc.

 

[aweigh]

AD&D doesn't exist anymore. It only shows your ignorance when you bash AD&D, when what you should be bashing is the D20 rules-system, of which Dungeons & Dragons is an off-shoot.

You should try playing some 3.5E sometime, I think you'd be pleasently surprised.

 

[Voss]

Re: NWN2 Q&A at GameSpot

Gotta love Sawyer's style

Not really. Gibbering about intriguing mysteries of strange mystery is something a monkey could do, and King of Shadows = evil villain, because shadows= bad, cuz they're all dark 'n stuff, doesn't make for an impressive glimpse of the storyline.

Well, Sawyer has joined the project recently, so you can't blame him for the shadow stuff. What I do find amusing is his tongue-in-cheek style, like that comment about Obsidian knowing where to draw the line, etc.

So? The point of the interview was to pimp NWN2. That glimpse of the storyline reminds me too much of the OC from NWN (or the plot of generic fantasy stories #3 to #356,580,589)... which is definitely a bad thing.

As for Sawyer himself... eh. IWD2 didn't impress much, and his bipolar presence on the various boards over the years (either absurdly quirky Sawyer or angry, bitter Sawyer) adds exactly nothing to the actual games he works on.

 

[geminito]

Sounds like another craptastic Bioware plotline. Except it's Obsidian. It's a Nasher alright.

Will NWN2 feel like a bad Diablo clone line NWN did? I couldn't bear it.

 

[Voss]

It also isn't reassuring that they're patching the hell out of the original NWN code (which wasn't very good in the first place, given all the stupid mistakes in there like hard-coded spell advancement).

If I touch this thing at all, it won't be anywhere near the release date. Wait for a patch or two.

 

[Old Scratch]

It's Neverwinter Nights 2...is there really anything to be that excited about? I think Sawyer's attitude was great for that interview. Straight or bolterous marketing speak would've been annoying. It's a hand-me-down game that will hopefully have a little more focus on the role-playing, a more interesting story, and will have some improved dungeon mastering tools. If you're expecting the ground-breaking, single-player RPG of the decade out of NWN2, you're a dumb ass.

Typical marketing speak that doesn't really mean anything:

"We have what we feel is a revolutionary single-player RPG expeience going into the game. Players will embark on an epic storyline spanning all of the Sword-Coast, trying to thwart the efforts of a terrifying, otherworldly menace that threatens the very exsistence of the realm. We've been dedicated to including an astounding amount of atmosphere, mystery, and intrigue into our game that should keep player's on the edge of their seats.

The world will now be even more interactable on many different levels, and the decisions of the player's character will bear a huge impact on everything around them, from eating a loaf of bread to engaging in profound romantic exchanges with their companions. Are you a bad enough d00d?"

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

The interview seems just fine. However, the NWN2 site seems to take it too far on the creature description:

ron golems, as their name suggests, are made out of iron. Not ordinary iron, but sort of this magical, animated iron that allows them to move comfortably and stomp, crush, and mangle the hell out of anything in their path. Fortunately for most adventurers, these nigh-invulnerable guardians are often stationed as sentries and guards for wizards and powerful priests, usually to guard treasure hordes or else to simply guard the mage while he or she is sleeping or using the privy.

Iron golems are basically huge, powerful, well-armored thugs that stand around looking menacing. Oh, and they can breathe poisonous gas on opponents, which sucks, because they really didn't need that to kill intruders in the first place, and it took a lot of dead adventurers before someone took the time to record it and let everyone know to not only up your armor class before going into battle with these juggernauts, but make sure you have poison resistance, too.

Meh.

 

[Jora]

It's Neverwinter Nights 2...is there really anything to be that excited about?

Why wouldn't there be?

 

[Volourn]

Lots to be excited about.

A sequel to the BEST GAME EVER tm?

Damn straight.

 

[kingcomrade]

Fallout 2 has already been done, nub.

 

[Zomg]

Meh.

I think I could go for a game that admits D&D mainstays are silly and played out, instead of trying to dance around it and put lipstick on a pig. I'd appreciate a few winks and nods from developers who are financially forced to go for fetal alcohol syndrome demographics that buy based on licenses and hype. If they try to play elf-dwarf-orc fantasy straight, as though it were still interesting, I'd probably go crazy.

 

[SanguinePenguin]

Meh.

I think I could go for a game that admits D&D mainstays are silly and played out, instead of trying to dance around it and put lipstick on a pig. I'd appreciate a few winks and nods from developers who are financially forced to go for fetal alcohol syndrome demographics that buy based on licenses and hype. If they try to play elf-dwarf-orc fantasy straight, as though it were still interesting, I'd probably go crazy.

I'm still waiting for Bugbears on LOLLErSK8s.

 

[Voss]

Eh. Theres a lot that could be done with fairly standard D&D fantasy settings. The problem is, developers keep falling for 'da epic' storylines with huge cliches (like for some reason, the novice adventurer surviving attacks that kill almost everyone else) and gaping logical plot holes with bizarre villains that don't even fit in the setting.

I mean, come on. FR has a shitload of source material and villains, evil organization, etc. Theres no need for the 'da EVAL Shadow-dood' when a good plot involving Luskan/Orcish tribes/Zhentarim/any number of cults/a scheming dragon/etc expanding its interests in the face of Neverwinter being mauled by the prior storyline.

If they worked with a tight plot (and didn't try to span 20 levels of character advancement) and problems/adventures/quests on a local scale it could be very interesting and very well done. With expansions (all new adventures!) to break out into new ground/prestige classes/levels. The Temple of Elemental Evil could have been a step in the right direction, had Troika bothered to fill out the bare-bones details of the module (and, you know, look for bugs before releasing it). But instead we got a lackluster product (that was completely the publisher's fault, as usual, I know), that probably killed or set back this type of project indefinitely. Sad.

@SanguinePenguin. Sadly, easily done. Take the psionic handbook, give the bugbears levels of psychic warrior and the 'Skate' psionic power, and you've got fast bugbears on psychic skates.