Preview NWN2 preview with Uncle Feargie at Hexus

[jiujitsu]

And another thing...

In Baldur's Gate 2 Githyanki make a few appearances. In it they attempt to recover a sword blade that was given to the PC by Saemon Havarian, the slimey ship captain. The Githyanki, who you first meet in the Underdark, ask for the blade and you can choose to give it or keep it and fight. They come for it again when you leave the Underdark. The sword itself is pretty powerful when completed at the end of the game, but this all makes me wonder why the Gith love swords so damn much that they'll cross planes to recover them. Make a new sword. It's cheaper and less of a hassle.

 

[Drakron]

They are special weapons only given to the knights ... I dont recall the D&D planar lore much but they are important because of that.

Besides the one you see in BG2 suffered from BG2 not implementing everything, one of the abilities of those swords was to cut the silver line that connects a planar traveller to his body when he crossing the "whatever that plane name is" and the Githyanki live in that plane.

Besides you think vorpal weapons grown in trees?

 

[Spazmo]

It's kind of like saying that if some guy was the steal the original copy of the US Constitution, well, what's the big deal? There's tons of copies around. Githiyanki swords are very, very important items in their culture.

 

[Seven]

It's kind of like saying that if some guy was the steal the original copy of the US Constitution, well, what's the big deal? There's tons of copies around. Githiyanki swords are very, very important items in their culture.

Yes, but can you say that in Klingon?



All this is kind of interesting, where do ya'll get your knowledge of this stuff from?

 

[DemonKing]

I dunno - at least it seems like you don't have to go around collecting the sword shards like a lot of other recent CRPGs - I'm prepared to hold judgement.

I wonder if you're allowed to decide where the shard is on your body during character generation? Could be fun to see how many guys have it sticking out of the middle of their forehead.

 

[Justin Cray]

All this is kind of interesting, where do ya'll get your knowledge of this stuff from?

Are you kidding? I thought D&D (pen and paper that is) was common knowledge (if you are a nerd, wich you are since you are reading this), and afaik the Githyanki appeared in various monster compendiums.

 

[aboyd]

Rushed? Hasn't it been in development, from a pre-existing engine, for over 2 years?

Beats me, I don't think Obsidian has it for much more than 2 years ago. There were significant engine changes as well, and a lot of people working on it didn't work on NWN. Google turns up lots of debate on the bioware forum over the development length, so I don't think I'm out on a limb here.

They got NWN2 at roughly the same time that they got KotOR2. Yet KotOR2 is out, NWN2 is still in development. If anything, NWN2 has had more time for development than usual.

-T

 

[Seven]

All this is kind of interesting, where do ya'll get your knowledge of this stuff from?

Are you kidding? I thought D&D (pen and paper that is) was common knowledge (if you are a nerd, wich you are since you are reading this), and afaik the Githyanki appeared in various monster compendiums.

I guess I'm a disgrace to nerds every where. I only played P&P once (in grade 8) and I remember getting yelled at for asking too many "stupid" questions, so these compendiums that you speak of are foreign to me.

 

[DamnElfGirl]

Some of us nerds had fewer opportunities to be connected to nerd culture than others. Being a OMG REAL GURL, I tried D&D as a high schooler, but 15 year old boys and girls have veeery different ideas about how to play D&D. Also, some of them smelled funny. I stuck to PC games instead.

I've had chances to play PnP games since, and I enjoy them, but I certainly don't have the encyclopedic knowledge of people who spent their allowances on sourcebooks.

I also think there are a good number of strategy game nerds on the Codex. This particular brand of nerd is more likely to play Axis & Allies or Dipolomacy (my personal favourite!) in their non-computer time.

Embrace the diversity of nerdocity!

 

[HotSnack]

I've played dnd once or twice when a friend invited me to a game. I played a dwarvish bard, and remember fondly the time I crit a kobold with my footstool or serenading, or that time I conspired with the rest of the party to spike all of the paladin's drinks with orgasmo juice (I think it was called dream spittle, apparently it's an actual item listed in one of supplementary books), or that other time straight after where I convinced the party to help me drag the paladin into the fast moving river, while he was busy having fits of rapture (this was also the time the DM decided to change my alignment to CN).

 

[Spazmo]

And then nobody asked you to come and play again? That's because you're a terrible player.

 

[HotSnack]

I was only acting in character guys! Honestly!

Well no, the campaign was a short joke campaign to begin with. Another player had used wish to summon up a laser gun and the DM happily obliged.

 

[themadhatter114]

Leaning more toward Diablo than NWN? As in, NWN, the horrible game you referred to earlier? Wouldn't it be a good thing to be leaning away from NWN? And just how is it shaping up to be anything like Diablo?


Logic isn't your forte is it? If I don't like peach ice cream, does that imply coating it in chicken gravy will make it better? Besides, NWN was bad because it tried to squeeze a party-based RPG system into a diablo-clone. The addition of the Warlock or whatever the new mindless nuker class is is a good example of the action-rpg-ification. I really can't express how much I hated NWN, I tried many times to play it, I even waited several years for all the good expansions and player-content, but still couldn't get into it.

What else makes it anything like Diablo? Adding a class, which you don't have to use, and which will have no bearing on the gameplay of the other character types, is a bad thing? That makes it suddenly more actiony than NWN was? Adding character types is infinitely better than actionifying the other classes. Is that the only example???

 

[Justin Cray]

I stand corrected. Man what I would give to be 17 again and playing Planescape P&P.

:/

 

[zenslinger]

That there be a Githyanki. Githezari (?) were their arch-enemies, being CN alignment.

I remember when the original Fiend Folio came out, pooping my pants with desire for it. A lot of UK D&D contributions in it. I wonder if PnP is alive there today.

The NWN2 plot sounds cool. Remember, it has to be something that can make any kind of person (sex/race/profession) a main character around whom a story can revolve. You're chosen in this situation but not Chosen, that's what I like. Could still be done poorly, but I don't think it's a bad starting point.

If you think it's cheesy, let's hear your suggestion that conforms to what's neeeded for the game.

 

[Volourn]

Man. It's been a long time since I've looked at the Folio. And, man oh man, that's a horrible drawing of a githyanki. Did a kid draw that or do I? Horrible, horrible, horrible.


'If you think it's cheesy, let's hear your suggestion that conforms to what's neeeded for the game."

Easy. The stupid sword piece isn't stuck in you. You are defined by your choices; not the fact that some junk metal is imbedded in your ass.


Game over.

 

[zenslinger]

I'm not sure what is so stupid about the sword piece. I'm not trying to flame, I'm honestly trying to understand. I mean, it's supposed to be a story.

For example, once there was a Prince in Denmark, and his uncle married his mother and became king when his father died.

It's a nice place to start a story, because there's suspicions, and drama already simmering. Is it stupid because he's a Prince and not a commoner? Or because it's improbable that all these dramatic things would happen to the same guy? Is he a cliched Chosen One because his father's ghost appears and demands revenge?

Or do we just want a blank slate? You grow up in a village, unknown, you make some choices, eventually you become someone of middling significance, and you achieve something...something that has nothing to do with what happened earlier in the story? Or before the story began?

Maybe you get thrown into a conflict and end up being able to decide it one way or another, that's a good blank slate story, like Deus Ex. But I like some connection to the beginning and the backstory. I mean, for this kind of story and this kind of game, I don't think the Child of Bhaal idea was bad either. Not a bad framework. It's just something many of us have grown tired of through playing those games a lot.

 

[Volourn]

"Or do we just want a blank slate? You grow up in a village, unknown, you make some choices, eventually you become someone of middling significance, and you achieve something...something that has nothing to do with what happened earlier in the story? Or before the story began?'

Well.. that's what Obsidian had said the story would be.. that you'd be unimportant until YOUR aqctions made you important. Now, you are important ebcause you got a piec eof sword stuck up your ass.

 

[Zomg]

I'm not sure what is so stupid about the sword piece. I'm not trying to flame, I'm honestly trying to understand. I mean, it's supposed to be a story.

Mechanically, it's not any worse than the crash and the gnome's ring in Arcanum. However, stylistically it's such a trashy high fantasy plot element that I would bet my right arm that this has been the plot of a paperback with a dragon on it at some point. The zero backstory all-purpose plot hook just gets more blatant the more times you see it, too, which is why character vignettes, delayed main plot (Darklands-style), or setting-heavy backstory (Gothic I) are good ideas that should either be the norm or innovated past.

 

[themadhatter114]

You're important to the enemy because you have a sword up your ass, but you're not necessarily important to Neverwinter, which is what was really implied by everything Obsidian has said. They didn't like the idea that cities would be counting on some level 1 pussy from an 'Adventurers School' to save the world, so you have to prove yourself to Lord Nasher, who probably won't have any knowledge of the sword. Your character probably won't, either.

I think there's quite a distinction between being the Chosen One to save the world and being the Chosen One that the bad guys want. The sword idea does seem kind of lame, but it doesn't have to be executed poorly.


I'm still wondering how the King of Shadows is involved in all this? At first they were all talking about how some shadowy, ghouly characters were going to be terrorizing Neverwinter and everything else, and now they're talking about Githyanki marching around stomping everyone's asses. How are they connected?

 

[Gromnir]

the story idea might be lame, and it could turn into Chosen One, but based on the material from the interview it is NOT a Chosen One story in any way, shape or form. is there a reliance on the highly improbable to makes the protagonist a focus of Epic forces? sure does, but there ain't no suggestion that the protagonist is the child o' prophecy, or that he is being called 'pon to save the world or galaxy... maybe not even being called 'pon to save the city o' nwn.

ain't no suggestion of earth shaking destiny.

ain't no evidence that if protagonist fails the world ends or even suffers.

ain't no implication that the sword fragment gives you special powhaz neither.

bob sees a crime. is an accident that he is a witness. now there is an assassin who wants bob dead, and a mob boss, and some dirty cops and crooked politicians to boot. bob gotta find a way to hide from the bad guys or bring 'em down 'fore they kill him. sound familiar? no doubt, but it ain't chosen one... and it is almost identical to what we know 'bout nwn2.

keeps in mind that Gromnir am a fan o' robert e. howard and the original conan stories far more than we likes modern fantasy. we would much rather sees our character make himself important rather than having the fates or happenstance intervene. nevertheless, if Chosen One stories inherently does deserve the scorn you jokers seems to attach to ‘em, then you is attaching to wrong game… or at least you is doing so for wrong reasons. nwn2 is NOT a chosen one story. spaz screwed up. no biggie.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[crufty]

What killed NWN for me wasn't the plot, but the henchmen. I see that appears to be toast in NWN2, so we are on the right road.

And the chosen one plots aren't ALL bad. I mean, what game aren't you a chosen one--or at least the pc that saves the world? The masses don't want to see a movie about Alfred, Batman's butler--they want to see Batman!

ps. I'm not saying the plot in NWN was fantastic or anything. But there were some enjoyable bits, like the undead village.

 

[kingcomrade]

What killed NWN for me was how boring it was.

 

[LlamaGod]

UR OUR ONLY HOPE MR LEVEL 1

 

[Twinfalls]

I wonder if you're allowed to decide where the shard is on your body during character generation? Could be fun to see how many guys have it sticking out of the middle of their forehead.

Hahaha!

<stuff>

Jesus Christ Gromnir, for all your laboured in-character speak (what the hell is that, some kind of rapping hillbilly?), can you not understand the point here? It's not the you're the 'chosen one' in the prophecy sense (only Bethesda are so stupid and lacking in imagination to pull that shit these days), it is, as Volourn put it:

Well.. that's what Obsidian had said the story would be.. that you'd be unimportant until YOUR aqctions made you important. Now, you are important ebcause you got a piec eof sword stuck up your ass.