Interview NWN 2: Mask of the Betrayer interview at Eurogamer

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Tags: Feargus Urquhart; Neverwinter Nights 2; Obsidian Entertainment

Eurogamer has interviewed Feargus Urquhart of <a href=http://www.obsidianent.com/>Obsidian Entertainment</a> about the upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, Mask of the Betrayer. It focuses on balance, compromising between source material and the game engine, companions and the Epic levels which will be featured. And it seems no matter how far Feargus and company run, they can't escape Planescape: Torment's ghost as comparisons are present in the <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=76840&page=1>interview</a>:<blockquote>One similarity to the previously mentioned Planescape Torment is that rather than having a mass of companions, there's fewer who are more detailed. "We have come up with a whole new cast of companions that both use some of the new races and classes that we are putting in the expansion and really fit within the setting of Mask of the Betrayer," he says, "But, we have also changed their focus a bit. Instead of much of the story depending on certain companions like in NWN2, in the expansion you have much more freedom to have who you want in the party, or no one in the party." Feargus' personal favourite? "I really like One of Many. I kind of look at him like Morte from Torment's evil step brother and I think it's really cool how you get him into your party."</blockquote>It's too bad this was only a consideration for the expansion since from what I hear, it would have been welcomed in the original.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.eurogamer.net">Eurogamer</A>

 

[Volourn]

PST is dead. Long live NWN2!

 

[Sirbolt]

Torment was about discovering who you were, while Mask of the Betrayer is more about saving yourself. Another difference is the focus on combat with Mask being more about fun combats and Torment more about your relationship with your companions.

Ugh. So it's like Torment but without the stuff that made Torment great? Sounds awesome!

 

[Oarfish]

Another difference is the focus on combat with Mask being more about fun combats

Oh great. Combat in the NWN2 engine is awesome. Lets just hope 'Fun' doesn't mean '3 million goblins with 16 hit dice'. Or 20 warehouses full of kamikaze thieves.

Certain areas change as day goes to night and while you can rest in most places, there are going to be other things to consider as you use up that time

Now that sounds like a step in the right direction.

I think the largest regret that I had about the original NWN2 was the overall look of our levels

Not the badly optimised engine, crippled talker path or the tedious and repetitive combat then?

 

[MountainWest]

Not the badly optimised engine, crippled talker path or the tedious and repetitive combat then?

No. Everyone knows the problem was:

I think lighting was a big part of our levels not being what they could have been.

Imagine NWN2 with better lighting. It'd be like a whole new, better game on all levels.

 

[Top Hat]

PST is dead. Long live NWN2!

Weren't you claiming that NWN2 was dead at some stage?

 

[Volourn]

Eh? I remember calling it good; but overrated. Maybve, I did call it dead because of it not working for me for a bit. But, anyways, it has an expansion coming so it' still relevant unlike PST.... which has been dead since before the turn of the last century. L0L

 

[Texas Red]

Thank god they are aware of the number one problem of NWN 2, that of lighting issues.

Seriously though, I have never *ever* seen this pop up as a problem on the forums. Hopefully this doesnt mean that we will get the same annoying orc caves and warehouses.

 

[Sarvis]

Thank god they are aware of the number one problem of NWN 2, that of lighting issues.

Seriously though, I have never *ever* seen this pop up as a problem on the forums. Hopefully this doesnt mean that we will get the same annoying orc caves and warehouses.

Of course we will, but they'll be better lit!

 

[elander_]

What were they thinking when they decided to do dungeons like that?

Hey one pretty princess and two dumbfucks in a serie. Do i win anything?

 

[Volourn]

Your veyr own Dumbfuck title for actually think that's at all important enough to warrant some sort of 'reward'. R00fles!

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

PST is dead. Long live NWN2!

And how is it dead exactly? It seems to be quite alive in discussions, is it not?

 

[OccupatedVoid]

The orc caves and the warehouse were the worst things in NWN2. I haven't even finished it yet, after those 2 fun 'adventures', I just gave up.

 

[Volourn]

Games are about gaming; not about talkin'. And, no, the 5 Coex dinks and their buddies who still have sex with it once a week don't count either.

 

[aboyd]

Not the badly optimised engine, crippled talker path or the tedious and repetitive combat then?

No. Everyone knows the problem was:

I think lighting was a big part of our levels not being what they could have been.

Imagine NWN2 with better lighting. It'd be like a whole new, better game on all levels.

I hate that Fergus quote. I'm usually OK with the things he says, even when they're a bit dumb. But that comment is almost an admission, "Hi I'm in marketing, I've lost touch with what gamers really want, so let's do shiny stuff!" That's just lame. Perhaps the game will improve despite the distracting leadership he provides.

 

[MountainWest]

Here's another lovely quote from the Obsidian boards:

You're reaching kind of bizarre conclusions about things from what Feargus said. I think the companions in MotB are individually more well-developed than the ones in the core game. They are also (excepting a short period at the beginning) all optional. Core combat in the expansion should be a little easier overall, especially at the beginning, because people are being thrown in with epic level characters. There were battles in NWN2 that a lot of people found challenging. Take Tholapsyx, for instance. Constant Gaw tuned that battle for a long time. A lot of players and testers had a hard time with that fight. I beat her in two rounds. It's pretty hard to tune high level fights so they are fun for both the hardcore player and nubz.

With other words: The battles are tuned for the nubz. That or Sawyer sees himself as something beyond a hardcore player.

///FAKE EDIT: What I really don't get is how someone could find NWN2 hard. Sure, I might not be the person most suitable to comment on it since I never fought Tholapsyx. Out of boredom I quit before that fight. But I did play the game set on hardcore. Up until I quit - at the castle-building-part - I wasn't challanged more than one, maybe two times. I didn't have to use any fancy tactics or buffs - things that I reckon would and should have made the fights even easier. It was just click and kill; using fireball or magic missile if things got heated (or before the fight actually started). Fuck, the more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards the theory that you have to be 1) a child or 2) plain dumb if you find yourself dying in NWN2. There's nothing hardcore about winning a battle in NWN2, it's just about using your common sense. END OF FAKE EDIT////

But, in a flash of brilliance, to remedy this, Obsidian have decided to throw in a couple of optional 'hard' battles. This makes me wonder: If the hard battles are optional, won't the main quest become even easier for the ones who win these optional battles? If not, does that mean there's no reward for winning them? or will the game scale? Will the final battle - because we all know there will be one - be a walk in the park?

Or have they gone the Final Fantasy way and made the fight with an optional superboss pretty much the goal for the hardcore gamer?

Bah, it's always about killing something, isn't it?

 

[Texas Red]

Remember that the game is teh hard for those not familiar with the rules.

 

[The_Pope]

Can I just have win button so I can get the fights over with quickly? They are that bad.

 

[Zomg]

This is how combat worked in NWN2 on this highest difficulty:

1)You run around and let the shitty AI kill everything automatically. This works easily in 95% of fights. We have to fill up this entire shitty map? How about another atactical goblin pile?

2)Occasionally, you die. You reload, cast buffs before whatever fight that killed you, and let the shitty AI kill everything automatically. This works in 95% of the remaining fights. Alternately, you're a patient idiot and you either keep yourself perpetually buffed _or_ manually control all characters over the course of ten thousand shit fights so you can use attack magic without the AI fucking everything up.

3) In one or two fights in the game, you have to manually position your characters after you've buffed them.

It's like every component was designed to interact with the lawnmowing combat to exacerbate any possible weakness.

 

[AlanC9]

Zomg's wildly egaggerating, as expected. NWN2 can actually be difficult if you don't control the companions. And it seems a fair number of players prefer playing that way, so this gives Obsidian a stiff balancing challenge.

Nobody ever went broke by making games a 10-year-old can beat.

Edit: having said that, the lack of combat challenge comes up all the time on the NWN2 boards.

And I think Feargus brings up the lighting because NWN2 took a lot of grief for not looking as good as Oblivion

 

[elander_]

I think they have disregarded usability here. There are no options for people who want to play a challenging combat. Being difficult at times is not really challenging.

Here's an exclusive preview of the the new game options panel for NWN3.

Combat challenge Panel.
(0) I'm too lazy or not interested in combat. Let the game AI play my combat scenes.
(1) Realtime Diablo style click feast combat for uncomplicated noobs.
(2) Realtime Diablo style combat but sometimes you have to position your companions, for boss fights.
(3) Turnbase combat. Companions won't die (just stay unconscious when hp is negative) and are not affected by temporary conditions like charm, blindness, disorientation and so on. Enemies do half damage and offensive spells don't affect members of the same party. Much more safe havens to rest without being interrupted.
(4) Turn base combat similar to ToEE.
(5) Turn base combat in hardcore mode. The player can only save once at special marked places.

The problem would finding a way to balance a game that works in all these modes and we could switch from one mode to the other at any time.

I guess that one way to deal with this would be to consider that noob players don't really bother much with combat tactical realism or combat at all. The only thing they want is to feel powerful, to win most of the time and to watch cool effects and moves with the weapons they brought. So noobs would not bother much if combat at levels (1) and (2) was a bit screwed up.