Interview Mysteries of Westgate interview at RPG Vault

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate

In case you missed the announcement, <a href=http://www.ossianstudios.com/>Mysteries of Westgate</a> is a NWN2 "adventure pack", being developed by Ossian Studios, led by a former Bioware developer better known for Darkness over Daggerford, a NWN premium module. Here is an <a href=http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Interviews.Detail&id=311>interview</a>:
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<blockquote><b>4) Why was the Dragon Coast in general and Westgate in particular chosen for the setting for NWN 2: Mysteries of Westgate?</b>
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Luke Scull: The Dragon Coast has been described as a nest of vultures and thieves, a place where anything goes, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Westgate, the most powerful city in the region. We really wanted to tell a story brimming with intrigue and mystery, where myriad factions all tussle for dominance and the player is never sure where his or her true allies lie. With its cutthroat nature and complex political structure, Westgate was a perfect fit. It also represents a new and relatively unexplored setting for players who have had their fill of the Sword Coast over the years.
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Alan Miranda: As Luke has said, the nature of Westgate itself is of a cutthroat metropolis of great racial diversity, which offers an ideal backdrop to weave an adventure into. We were looking for something different than the previous NWN1 games as well, and the challenge of doing a city-based game (vs a countryside exploration like in Daggerford) was an attractive one. I think city-based adventures require a lot of work to keep areas from feeling like non-interactive, empty backgrounds, and the team has really tried its best to develop significant sidequest content within the scope of the game.</blockquote>Sounds promising.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</A>

 

[cardtrick]

Everything I read about this "adventure pack" sounds quite solid, although I hope dialog has been improved since Daggerford. I love this apparent trend towards seldom-seen regions of Faerun; Westgate sound ideal and I really love large cities in RPGs. I would be excitedly looking forward to this if I wasn't neck deep in The Witcher and planning on an evil playthrough of MOTB, but it still sounds like it will be fun whenever I get the time.

 

[Trash]

Sounds great. It's about time we get to see some good modules for nwn 2. Most of the stuff I've played was rather dull at best.

Well, this and that planescape one sound quite good. We'll see.

 

[Shannow]

Darkness over Daggerford was in production as a premium module. But it was never finnished as such. When it came out it was a free module.
You might consider correcting that.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Alan owes me an interview (he backed out of the indie developers interview we did awhile ago). So, assuming he'll agree to chat with us, is there anything specific you guys would like to know about the game?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

VD, why did you leave out the part where they talk about the plot revolving around a curse on yourself that you must get rid of? Sounds too similar to MotB to me.

 

[Vault Dweller]

They started working on the game before MotB was announced, so the similarity is not intentional. Besides, it's a cursed object - a rather common DnD concept, not an ancient "curse" that's not really a curse.

 

[cardtrick]

A couple of questions for Alan:

How does the adventure pack compare to MOTB? How closely was Ossian in touch with Obsidian during MOTB's development?

Does the game support an interesting evil/chaotic path?

What's in the future for Ossian?

 

[Vault Dweller]

How does the adventure pack compare to MOTB?

I doubt they would answer that. They can't really say it's as good as or definitely not as good. You'll most likely get a generic response here.

How closely was Ossian in touch with Obsidian during MOTB's development?

"What we receive from Obsidian is mainly technical support and help with questions that we have about NWN2."

Does the game support an interesting evil/chaotic path?

Good question.

What's in the future for Ossian?

Considering their ties to Bio/Obsidian/Atari, I'd say more modules/adventure packs. That's a very safe path and they would be suicidal to do anything else.

 

[cardtrick]

How does the adventure pack compare to MOTB?

I doubt they would answer that. They can't really say it's as good as or definitely not as good. You'll most likely get a generic response here.

I didn't mean in terms of quality; obviously I don't expect them to say their game is better or worse than MOTB. The question could certainly be better phrased. Obviously there are several superficial similarities between MOTB and Westgate; what I wanted to know was how similar are the games, really, and in what ways do they differ.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Gotcha.

 

[roshan]

1. How big is Westgate? How many maps will the city cover?

I hate it when cities are ridiculously small, like Neverwinter in the OC.

 

[cardtrick]

Or like Daggerford in DOD, which is perhaps more relevant . . .

I agree, good question.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Btw, what were Daggerford's good and bad sides? Can someone enlighten me?

 

[Starwars]

I didn't finish Daggerford, and I can't remember to much of it. But I remember that the biggest flaw of the mod is that it just felt somewhat uninteresting. It was solid, worked just fine etc, but there was just nothing about it that really grabbed me. It felt like it lacked personality.

I also remember that it really reminded me of Baldurs Gate. The exploration side felt very similar to Baldurs Gate 1 I think, and was pretty nice.

This setting sounds a lot more promising. Hopefully they'll provide a good experience.

 

[cardtrick]

Yeah . . . I didn't finish it either. It basically was Baldur's Gate in the NWN engine, with fewer (but more talkative) NPC companions available. Exploration was fun, art was great, the World Map was totally innovative at the time (first NWN module with one), combat was easy, dialog was competent but uninspired, quests varied widely in quality, main plot was totally uninteresting.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

I really liked it, to be honest. Nothing incredibly special about it, but it was large, it was occasionally quite interesting, and it... worked, I suppose. Good for a few bored nights.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Alan agreed.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Btw, what were Daggerford's good and bad sides? Can someone enlighten me?

The henchmen were great in concept but rather poorly executed. Their backstory never integrated seamlessly into the main plot. The main plot was a little to obivous from the beginning and the castle management part was even more underwhelming that Crossroad Keep in NWN2.

I loved the nice countryside feel of the game and of course the BG1 like map. There was so much to discover that helped the atmosphere but your were only forced to do very few things. The combat was albeit a little on the easy side.

Daggerford could have been bigger and there was absolutly no faction system, which they seem to plan for Westgate.

 

[Catalina]

I'm excited about Mysteries of Westgate, and can't wait to play! However, my concern that it might have a online validation you have to go through each time you want to play.

 

[Saxon1974]

After playing MOTB I am glad they are going to keep making more modules\expansions.

It doesn't make sense to me how many companies spend 2 years + on making a new engine and game and then abandon it after initial game sales. Wouldn't a game engine like NWN2 be good enough to make and sell decent expansions for a couple of years at least? Then RPG fans would not have to wait so long in between games wither.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

After playing MOTB I am glad they are going to keep making more modules\expansions.

It doesn't make sense to me how many companies spend 2 years + on making a new engine and game and then abandon it after initial game sales. Wouldn't a game engine like NWN2 be good enough to make and sell decent expansions for a couple of years at least? Then RPG fans would not have to wait so long in between games wither.

So true. But don't forget the MSM. They just want shiny picsies for the previews and trade show videos. They want to promise the Next Big Thing to the readers and not nothing that could be called same old, same old.

Take The Witcher: German magazines were quite hopeful about the game, but never ever failed to mention that the game was based on the NWN1 Aurora engine that is "already 4 years old" and "dusted". And in this case CDProject Red actually turned the graphics department completly upside down.

See, it's a problem of publicity.

 

[Saxon1974]

After playing MOTB I am glad they are going to keep making more modules\expansions.

It doesn't make sense to me how many companies spend 2 years + on making a new engine and game and then abandon it after initial game sales. Wouldn't a game engine like NWN2 be good enough to make and sell decent expansions for a couple of years at least? Then RPG fans would not have to wait so long in between games wither.

So true. But don't forget the MSM. They just want shiny picsies for the previews and trade show videos. They want to promise the Next Big Thing to the readers and not nothing that could be called same old, same old.

Take The Witcher: German magazines were quite hopeful about the game, but never ever failed to mention that the game was based on the NWN1 Aurora engine that is "already 4 years old" and "dusted". And in this case CDProject Red actually turned the graphics department completly upside down.

See, it's a problem of publicity.

This really does not work out well for gamers, and I honestly wonder if games would sell better and they could make more money this way.

Say that take a game engine like NWN2 and then release 4 or 5 real quality expanions over a 2 or 3 year period and they are real popular and sell well....Wouldn't that make them more money and make fans more happy?

Probably not or they would do that.

I dont need the next latest and greatest, give me old school goodness please.