Are there any other isometric rpgs with such extensive toolset as Neverwinter nights on horizon?

[JustLooking]

I think Realms beyond was supposed to have it but since it got cancelled I can't t think of any notable example other than NWN. Do you happen to know about any other isometric rpg that is about to be released or has been released but haven't been yet. I've been thinking about getting into modding community but I'm not sure how alive NWN modding community is now and I would prefer some fresher title so anyone other than my mom would play the shit I would create.

 

[Reinhardt]

kotc2

 

[Abu Antar]

I don't know how robust it is, but you can make modules in Solasta.

 

[curds]

I've been thinking about getting into modding community but I'm not sure how alive NWN modding community is now and I would prefer some fresher title so anyone other than my mom would play the shit I would create.

NWN module community has still been fairly active last few years I'm pretty sure. Probably especially so since the beamdog re-release.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

The NWN toolset is pretty powerful even today. Unfortunately the graphics have not aged well and that’s probably alienating plenty of potential new players.

NWN2 is stuck in a licensing limbo so it’s not getting an enhanced edition.

I feel ya OP. I would love to see NWN3.

 

[curds]

NWN2 is stuck in a licensing limbo so it’s not getting an enhanced edition.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

dos2 ships the editor they use to make the game, bg3 should also

not "isometric" but probably the closest to what you're looking for.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Solasta?

 

[JarlFrank]

Sadly we are cursed with the fact that the most powerful and easy to use editor for an isometric RPG came with literally one of the WORST games ever released in the history of the genre.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Sadly we are cursed with the fact that the most powerful and easy to use editor for an isometric RPG came with literally one of the WORST games ever released in the history of the genre.

What game are you talking about now?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Sadly we are cursed with the fact that the most powerful and easy to use editor for an isometric RPG came with literally one of the WORST games ever released in the history of the genre.

What game are you talking about now?

Morrowind

 

[deama]

The Warcraft 3 world editor was rather formidable and came equipped with graphics that have remained relatively timeless.
I am not certain about contemporary offerings, however, I suppose the new Elder Scrolls game or the Bethesda-developed science fiction title may be noteworthy, although it appears that their toolsets can be somewhat difficult to use despite their considerable power.

 

[JarlFrank]

Sadly we are cursed with the fact that the most powerful and easy to use editor for an isometric RPG came with literally one of the WORST games ever released in the history of the genre.

What game are you talking about now?

Neverwinter Nights, obviously.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

The Warcraft 3 world editor was rather formidable and came equipped with graphics that have remained relatively timeless.

It’s an RTS editor with minor RPG elements. It’s nowhere comparable to NWN. It also got gutted by Activision and I don’t care enough to pirate the original. I haven’t touched bnet for years because of my sheer disgust for Activision’s antics and the insultingly bad telenovela quality of their writing, and I haven’t regretted it once. (I’m in the 80% who only play PvE and I have minimum quality standards when it comes to writing.) I can watch all the extant custom campaigns on youtube and none of them are worth the effort.

If the upcoming Age of Sigmar RTS (there’s one in development scheduled for a 2023 release AFAIK) turns out to have good gameplay and a robust editor, then it could easily replace WC3 in my heart. We all know warcraft is an inferior ripoff of warhammer, so it’s about time the original gots it proper recognition. (I’m not gonna pretend the writing isn’t a mess, but the warhammer factions are detailed and robust enough that you can ignore the characters without losing anything of value. Actiblizz factions are all bland inconsistent zombies that mindlessly obey telenovela characters and can’t stand on their own.)

Sorry for the rant

 

[Gargaune]

JustLooking, RK shared Swordflight's DL figures here if you're interested in what a NWN module might pull these days. Can't have grand expectations for a twenty year-old game, but quality content might still score a couple to a few thousand players.

NWN2 is stuck in a licensing limbo so it’s not getting an enhanced edition.

I know Beamdog said they weren't looking at an EE for NWN2 back when they were still doing their streams, but they didn't elaborate, you got any more info on that licensing situation?

Either way, probably wouldn't be very relevant to the OP. NWN2 could benefit immensely on the player end from an EE, there's a lot of stuff there that's piss easy to improve, but fixing its Electron Toolset would be a much larger undertaking, I don't see that happening.

dos2 ships the editor they use to make the game, bg3 should also

Looking less and less likely. It's not a minor feature, if it were planned I'd have imagined Swen telling us about it by now.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

you got any more info on that licensing situation?

Nope. Something involving the Atari breakup in 2013

Unfortunately, official toolsets for modding are becoming increasingly rare in video games, much less anything that lets you basically make your own game or run mini-mmos like NWN. Part of this has to do with costs, and part of it is because the Unity and Unreal engines that have increasingly taken over game design make it unnecessarily difficult to do. They’re great if you’re trying to make a game from scratch, but absolutely suck for modding.

I find it really stupid myself, because simply from an economic standpoint NWN-style modules and hakpaks would be very easy to monetize.

This is one of the reasons why I have no interest in learning game design. I don’t just want to make a product, I want to share my work and see it inspire others. If making accessible modding toolkits is prohibitively expensive, then fuck game design, fuck the entire games industry, and fuck capitalism for promoting software monopolies.

I can only dream (nightmare) that we develop AI that can code and human programmers finally realize “oh shit, we fucked ourselves.”

Rant over

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Looking less and less likely. It's not a minor feature, if it were planned I'd have imagined Swen telling us about it by now.

Authoring (proper) mods for the engine requires access to the toolkit, and mod support will be available at release.

 

[Gargaune]

Unfortunately, official toolsets for modding are becoming increasingly rare in video games, much less anything that lets you basically make your own game or run mini-mmos like NWN. Part of this has to do with costs, and part of it is because the Unity and Unreal engines that have increasingly taken over game design make it unnecessarily difficult to do. They’re great if you’re trying to make a game from scratch, but absolutely suck for modding.

I find it really stupid myself, because simply from an economic standpoint NWN-style modules and hakpaks would be very easy to monetize.

This is one of the reasons why I have no interest in learning game design. I don’t just want to make a product, I want to share my work and see it inspire others. If making accessible modding toolkits is prohibitively expensive, then fuck game design, fuck the entire games industry, and fuck capitalism for promoting software monopolies.

To be fair, NWN wasn't just a game with a toolkit, it was designed from the start as a platform for D&D on computers, the Aurora Toolset was a central component of the commercial product, not just a freebie like Bethesda's kit started out. But yes, it does suck that the industry's moved away from the concept entirely.

Authoring (proper) mods for the engine requires access to the toolkit, and mod support will be available at release.

I'll hold you to that, Larian employee. If BG3 doesn't ship with a full-featured toolset, I'll make a big thread screaming that Swen lied to us.

 

[JustLooking]

JustLooking, RK shared Swordflight's DL figures here if you're interested in what a NWN module might pull these days. Can't have grand expectations for a twenty year-old game, but quality content might still score a couple to a few thousand players.

NWN2 is stuck in a licensing limbo so it’s not getting an enhanced edition.

I know Beamdog said they weren't looking at an EE for NWN2 back when they were still doing their streams, but they didn't elaborate, you got any more info on that licensing situation?

Either way, probably wouldn't be very relevant to the OP. NWN2 could benefit immensely on the player end from an EE, there's a lot of stuff there that's piss easy to improve, but fixing its Electron Toolset would be a much larger undertaking, I don't see that happening.

dos2 ships the editor they use to make the game, bg3 should also

Looking less and less likely. It's not a minor feature, if it were planned I'd have imagined Swen telling us about it by now.

That's cool, I'm pretty suprised NWN modding community is still kicking. It would be great if BG3 would took the torch and became next isometric rpgs with extensive toolset. As for right now most rpgs that have lively modding comunity are action rpgs. Welp always hoped it would go other way around but I guess there won't be any better chance for going into modding that today