New Neverwinter Nights Title?

[Anks]

Fourth edition on the other hand was MADE for a video game. Better balance, better action,

More individual parties. (Inside joke that problably only a few people might get.)

[Zoberraz]

The Neverwinter game's updated website and forums just launched.

http://www.playneverwinter.com/

Me? I'm pretty thrilled to see it. The shown artstyle is growing on me, and the overall quality of what I see looks to me - thus far - like there were a lot of lessons learned since the launch of Star Trek Online that are being applied. Still color me as optimistic.

[Saulus]

It looks okay but I think its just going to be another generic MMO. You're not going to have the ability to customize like we can with NWN2.

It's not the same kind of game they are trying to make it seems.

[Lothoir]

I'm looking forward to use their 'adventure creator' to make printable maps for PnP.

[Artemis]

I am don't think I am too quick to transition over this new game. I mean think about it. We are used to a franchise that has almost a decade of conditioning. If all else, yeah maybe the game will be new and nice to play but in comparison I can not see this game ever beating or changing NWN forever. There was too much work and dedication in the game and expansions and quite frankly, I can not think of any other game that could make it better in a DnD setting.

[Doubtful]

I'd expect much better visuals from a contemporary game engine, the screenshots shown look about average for a game released 2-3 years ago.

[Chipmunk]

I'd expect much better visuals from a contemporary game engine, the screenshots shown look about average for a game released 2-3 years ago.

I can live with that if they manage a good camera.

It's surprising to see how few games these days feature a pleasant-to-use camera system that you simply don't notice.

[Shedboy]

meh. from what you guys have said it sounds shit. WOC have muntbar'd the realms, making it even more of a mosaic than a vommited supreme pizza after a night of mixed drink and last years undigested carrots. sif it wasn't already an earth beaten with an egg whisk!

I was hoping they'd release a game based on pathfinder.

very disappointing

[Zoberraz]

Shedboy, I think there's a sizeable difference between "looks like shit" and "not to my tastes", the latter being prevalent in the comments I've seen thus far - along with a healthy bit of understandable conservatism.

It's somewhat too early for gloom and doom posts about the game, seeing that it remains a work-in-progress. Maybe the game may disappoint certain expectations for some people, but it's hard to please everyone while trying to innovate (and different people have different perspectives on how to innovate). Regardless, I'm fairly sure that the game's developers didn't wake up one morning telling themselves "hey guys, let's make a really bad game to follow up the Neverwinter D&D franchise".

Then again, I also work in the gaming industry, so I might have a more personal take on it.

I've been corresponding with one of their lore writers, Alivet on the official forums, for quite some time and she's always struck me as someone whom was putting painstaking attention to details, someone whom was passionate, and dedicated. I think that kind of hard work and spirit deserves benefit of the doubt and as much respect as a Sundren player could extend to the hardworking people here at Sundren that made it a quality place to roleplay as well.

Me, I'm grateful that there's going to be a possibly nice D&D game based on Neverwinter Nights in late 2011. It's better than having none at all. Maybe it will be good. Maybe it won't - and then people can just vote with their feet/wallets then.

[roguethree]

For most of us, DnD is about a persistent world (whether online or PnP) in which our actions have impact. Doesn't seem like Neverwinter's going to deliver that.

[Kaybrie]

For most of us, DnD is about a persistent world (whether online or PnP) in which our actions have impact. Doesn't seem like Neverwinter's going to deliver that.

This.

I'm still waiting on an RPG maker formatted game, where the entire program is just a way for regular joes to make online persistent worlds, like mini mmo's to their hearts content. When that day comes I'm sure the communities of NWN2 and NWN1 will reunite and journey forth onto a new horizon.

Until then though, not holding my breath on Neverwinter.

[Zoberraz]

Then your standards are higher than mine.

To me D&D is about me roleplaying with a group of friends about having medieval fantasy adventures in daunting locales, crossing blades with creatures large and small - for the sake of knowledge, the glory of having defeated powerful foes, experiencing a nice story and the lure of treasure.

Since the game offers the ability to create guilds, nothing stops a player from joining a group of talented roleplayers to form something similar to the collective playerbase of a persistent world. That guild can choose to base itself around any of the possible hubs in the gaming world and call it 'home'. Officers of that guild wishing to produce content could go and create themselves modules that they could then offer to other members of their guild for entertainment (and Neverwinter should feature the ability to DM over such, according to the interviews).

To me, that covers most of what a person could get out of a persistent world. The Foundry - from what I've seen of its use in Star Trek Online - would certainly allow to have your "Second Wind Inn" to be purely a socializing module one day (you select the module and go to it just like you area travel in Sundren), and the next be swarmed over by lizardmen depending on module alterations, iterations or DM functions.

"Actions that have impact" have impact because other people acknowledge it. Within a small community with arbitrated adventures, that's seems just as possible to me in Neverwinter - the Sundren persistent world in NWN2, or the "Sundren" guild in Neverwinter... there can be very little difference. All it takes, like here on Sundren, are enterprising people willing to animate, referee and communicate these things. Each NWN2 persistent world, after all, is a kind of clique pretty similar to a guild.

Yeah, that would take effort... but it also took a lot of effort to get Sundren started from scratch too, and it took time for it to evolve into what it is today (I can still remember when Port Avanthyr was the main hub, with the Sharahan hills/Gate of the Sunderer being the lowbie areas, the Mossclaw Meet/Aquor caves being the 'high level areas', that earned XP from monsters had us top off somewhere around level 8, and that the next big thing as far as dungeons went was the necropolis).

So, yeah, conservativeness. I can understand that. But your roleplay won't suck because it's a different game. Heck, anyone properly motivated enough could roleplay in the first Diablo game and have fun doing so.

[Saulus]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...rwinter/715882

Oh yeah that's great customization... bleh. I can make a mission in their pre-defined world.

[Artemis]

Ok, yeah, it looks pretty but I don't know. Seems very graphically dependent so people better have a very nice robust machine to run it. I fear that the customization and world building will be simplified. That includes the classes too. I sense they will probably put more time into how it looks rather than the gameplay itself. I've seen a lot of MMOs in my experience, and they tend to go this direction. It's one big hype and when it releases people start to realize how much it sucks, i.e. Star Trek Online. Biggest bust ever. The graphics are amazing but the gaming is limited and have too many holes for improvement.

[Kaeldorn]

Yeah, called it.. They're still not promising anything more than creating mini quests in an already existing area, to which you can apply a template for pre-generated looks and possibly dump a couple of flavour objects in for decoration. That's so minimal, I doubt the editor's full features list will be anything spectacular.