New Neverwinter Nights Title?

[Kaizen]

No attack rolls because everyone is wearing bikinis instead of armor.

i fail to see the problem here.

[Cornuto]

No attack rolls because everyone is wearing bikinis instead of armor.

[Doubtful]

Oh dear.

It'll be like playing in an overly sexual YES album cover.

The Fallout:BOS of the NWN franchise?

[roguethree]

Knowing the art direction is nice, but without visual reference just refering to it as...
Quote:
We're trying to get some of the qualities that some of the Spanish fantasy authors have done in the past: your Vallejos, etc.
...doesn't tell me what to expect.

Hypersexualized. NSFW:Google-Image search Boris Vallejos, unless boobs offend you or aren't appropriate where you are right now. His art is highly sexualized fantasy.

Combat system sounds very Oblivion.

Makes sense they're not going pure D&D. Many of the 4e powers are impossible to implement outside of a turn-based strategy system.

[Zoberraz]

RustedIron, Final Fantasy made SquareSoft - now SquareEnix, immensely successful. They might need to redress their business model and how the promote and do thier games, but there's no denying that Final Fantasy was a smashing hit that lead to other very excellent games like Final Fantasy 4,6 and 7 - from the top of my head.

And, about friendly fire, they pointed out they were going to do it... so your concerns don't appear to be well founded at all. you're griping because it was in question... but game developpers are artists, and they've got a right to a range of creative liberties. Maybe there are choices they should not make to provide the best result possible for the source material, but that's doesn't incriminate them for considering it.

New article:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ders-interview

There's some new stuff in regard to progress reports, but the source material is starting to feel like it's been wrung dry. I think the most controversial thing I noticed was this:

Eurogamer: How are you interpreting the Dungeons & Dragons rules?

Jack Emmert: I would say we're being inspired by D&D, not slavishly trying to copy. Where possible we're trying to use the abilities and powers and monsters and some of their behaviours. But it's not going to be a one-to-one correspondence.

For instance, there's no two-hit roll. We've used boons in a slightly different manner. Hit-points aren't exactly the same. But, by and large, the structure is similar. It's not turn-based.

Eurogamer: Oh, it's action-based? Are there discernible turns - is it all based on a dice-roll system?

Jack Emmert: There are dice rolls going on, but it's not turn-based in the sense that you can pause it. You target something, you attack, you swing. The random aspect is going to be how much damage you do, and that's affected by your feats and abilities.

It's not an action-RPG, but it's also not straight D&D where you roll a die to hit.

No To-Hit rolls? I thought at first is was just that the game would hit the game mechanics and stat crunching from the player... but are we actually referring to automatic hits? What in the Nine Hells are the Defense scores (AC, Fort, Ref and Will) are going to be useful for?

Knowing the art direction is nice, but without visual reference just refering to it as...

We're trying to get some of the qualities that some of the Spanish fantasy authors have done in the past: your Vallejos, etc.

...doesn't tell me what to expect.

A subscription model past buying the game box could be a huge deterrent to people going to buy the game, I think. Probably wiser to go the Guild War/Neverwinter Nights business scheme for them. Making it free-to-play as a model, though, would make it too much like DDO, I think. honestly, who'd want to play a game very similar to DDO that has less content and that you have to create it? Especially if the game charges you a subscription for either hosting or playing on a persistent world.

Well, I'm glad the details aren't ironed out. As things are, I'd rather a decision not be reached than a wrong decision being advertised this early. Probably wise of them to put a lid on that.

[rustediron]

So, they originally thought of magic as ally friendly... and one person on staff pointed out the difference between 'targets creatures' and 'target enemies' in the effect listing of the source material... and that's bad when they're about a year away from bringing the game out? You're turning molehills into mountains. x_x

Of course it's bad! It's a prime example showing that the developing team clearly have only the faintest of ideas of what these games are all about! I'd not be happy with some noob who doesn't think to move out the way of my fireballs developing my games :S

(ex.: SquareSoft made Final Fantasy, and look at them now)

I couldn't agree with this more, their recent games (bar perhaps 8 and 10) have been AWFUL.

[Zoberraz]

So, they originally thought of magic as ally friendly... and one person on staff pointed out the difference between 'targets creatures' and 'target enemies' in the effect listing of the source material... and that's bad when they're about a year away from bringing the game out? You're turning molehills into mountains. x_x

Are you guys interested in a new and hopefully more engaging successor for the game to come out, or just interested in being conservative and griping about anything that seems to offend or stir thought on your zone of comfort?

Some of the gripes I've read since this thread opened up have been pretty far out. Expressions of pessimism due to the track record of Cryptic studio and worries about world building no longer being in to support persistent world communities I can understand.

Heck, from the looks of it, you're not even hoping this might be good; you're damning it already based on press releases. One would think you could reserve the vitriol for when Neverwinter would have a forum up for it, herein which you could voice your worries and miscontentment to some constructive ends. No one goes out in the videogame industry and goes to make bad games, expecially on their last breath (ex.: SquareSoft made Final Fantasy, and look at them now) and Cryptic Studios, for all thier flaws, have shown the ability to make great live improvement on their games - it stands to say that they are quite capable of making quality stuff, especially if they admit mistakes over past design methodology and make efforts to attend to it (I see the admission as an honest one, not one made to sucker us into buying another game from them - Atari can't afford that).

*shakes head* Seriously guys. Instead of reacting, why don't you focus on the things you'd want this to have, and then express those hopes? Those touching likeminded minds and then communicated over feedback fonts such as Facebook and Twitter could only serve in time to better fulfill your own preferences. Odds are the negativism isn't helping you get the game you'd want to be worth purchasing. I suggest we use this thread to discuss over the things they announce in light of what we'd like, wouldn't like to have in the game rather than merely use it to express wordy 'facepalm' equivalents.

[rustediron]

OPG: Magic in the older games had an area of effect and anyone within that area of effect usually got hurt as much as the enemy. Will friendly fire be possible with Area of Effect Spells and Objects?

Jack: Currently, no, but it’s interesting because that idea just came up internally!

*sound of something plummeting, very, very fast.*

[Kajae]

A lot of my pessimism is directed at the interviews themselves more than the actual game. I just don't like the people they choose to interview.

[Zoberraz]

New interview:
http://outpostgamez.com/index.php/co...inter-nights-3

[Zoberraz]

They're probably - considering the classes/builds available are likely to be strongly based on the Essentials products - going to give you Domain selection; from which point you probably can pick whatever you want to represent the deity you wish to represent. Domain and Channel Divinity feats are really where clerics in 4E differentiate themselves so they might leave it to those to do the job (somewhat like DDO, which also offers no deity selection).

As for the good and evil axis... would you rather they do like in 4E, and make you from Unaligned to Lawful Good? 4E isn't a made simulation: D&D 4E is a game where you go and play heroes. Not forcing an alignment on you actually allows you to act 'evil' far more credibly. Besides, few if any powers in 4E are identified to the good/evil axis.

And the quest developer isn't ripped. Likely inspired from, but they know that half-assing it will likely put a nail in the coffin for them. If it was really ripped, then us over at Star Trek Online likely would have had it sooner. Nope - they really do have to build it from scratch (especially considering how the CoH mission architect came out after CoH was given over to NCSoft - meaning Cryptic actually wasn't involved in that).

I think you guys are going overboard with the pessimism considering how little information we have already. I'm fairly confident that things are not going to be so set in stone the moment the Neverwinter game website gets its own forum.

[Kajae]

Neverwinter

Right now, clerics are generic. Deities are a roleplaying choice, rather than a game one.

Where clerics are all the same.

Neither alignment nor factions play a role in Neverwinter

Where it doesn't matter if you're good or evil.

For novice users, the focus for FORGE will be creating quests. One option will definitely be to hook it up to the persistent Neverwinter world, but we are discussing the ability to create your own campaign world on its own virtual server...
At the moment, we’d control the XP/gold/items dropped, so that eliminates some level of manipulation. Definitely players can control the spawns and their behavior – to a degree – so we are trying to make sure there isn’t a situation where a level 1 character can kill a Red Dragon! We’ll be using rating and sorting tools not dissimilar to You Tube. Most recent, most popular, high est rated, etc.

With a quest developer tool ripped straight from City of Heroes' Mission Architect!

[Merick]

The demo for it is alright, though it's tons and tons and tons more simple than it's predecessors and feels more like a western "Yay you play our game grats you're a winner" console based game rather than the european "Everything kills you if you're not on the ball, but if you are you can free roam like mad!"

So eh, we'll see how it goes really. Looks pretty anyway and it runs a hell of a lot nicer than three ever did.

Still The lack of punishing difficulty, though there are difficulty levels now but that's not the same thing, and the RPG standard giant neon signs pointing out where you need to go feel a farcry from the original. I miss where it opens with you getting your face pounded in for no reason after being dumped in a penal colony without a damned clue what you really need to do. Made actually progressing feel more rewarding.

Still a bit off topic.


I really wish they'd be clearer describing the new neverwinter nights. The details on customization remain so very vague. Which is troublesome for a series that traditionally was pretty open about its modding features - hell they both trumpetted a powerful toolset openly from the get go. Regardless of progress on the game itself they made it a known goal of the design - I remember reading about a powerful toolset for neverwinter nights when I first saw news of the product being created back in BG or BGII.

They're really buckled down tight about it and it's frustrating, but I'm of the opinion that if it's not going to offer the same complete freedom the last two did then they should just give it a different name entirely rather than carry on the franchise name for the sake of it.

To just post a quick reply, I do somewhat agree with you, challenge was great in those games...

The upside? The company that did the previous titles is notorious for not supporting their games and releasing buggy to all hell games that crash or worse. Also the combat system in Gothic 3 was nice.. however in certain situations I recall creatures that would spam attack me over and over before my character could recover resulting in 3/4 of my health being gone almost instantly.

I love the open world ideas where you can walk into a village and earn their love or slaughter them all. Also the intro of Gothic 3 was great.

A little direction in these games is nice.. but not too much. I enjoyed walking in random directions not know what to expect and finding new worlds and lands that were never explained about.

A little direction in these games would help to get you back on point when you get lost though.. I hate walking in circles looking for stuff.. They should be optional tips though.

Oh and NWN3 still looks disappointing at best. (back on topic)

[Twisted-Indoctrine]

The demo for it is alright, though it's tons and tons and tons more simple than it's predecessors and feels more like a western "Yay you play our game grats you're a winner" console based game rather than the european "Everything kills you if you're not on the ball, but if you are you can free roam like mad!"

So eh, we'll see how it goes really. Looks pretty anyway and it runs a hell of a lot nicer than three ever did.

Still The lack of punishing difficulty, though there are difficulty levels now but that's not the same thing, and the RPG standard giant neon signs pointing out where you need to go feel a farcry from the original. I miss where it opens with you getting your face pounded in for no reason after being dumped in a penal colony without a damned clue what you really need to do. Made actually progressing feel more rewarding.

Still a bit off topic.


I really wish they'd be clearer describing the new neverwinter nights. The details on customization remain so very vague. Which is troublesome for a series that traditionally was pretty open about its modding features - hell they both trumpetted a powerful toolset openly from the get go. Regardless of progress on the game itself they made it a known goal of the design - I remember reading about a powerful toolset for neverwinter nights when I first saw news of the product being created back in BG or BGII.

They're really buckled down tight about it and it's frustrating, but I'm of the opinion that if it's not going to offer the same complete freedom the last two did then they should just give it a different name entirely rather than carry on the franchise name for the sake of it.

[Merick]

Its called Arcania: A Gothic Tale. Its still a sequel I believe, but its not made by Piranha bytes like the last ones.

Gothic 4

Thank You so much, found this sucker on steam and it is already pre-ordered.

Thanks for feeding my RP starved ass.