Hordes of the Underdark Goes Gold 221
MattW writes "Bioware announced that Hordes of the Underdark has gone gold. This is the second expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights, and the first to be developed in-house by Bioware. It's also the first CRPG to feature 3rd Edition epic levels. Looks like it will be fun. Some of the biggest requests from the custom content community are in, like custom talk-tables, that should allow for a much better level of customization for the game." I can't say enough good things about the Neverwinter Nights titles, but if this game is anything like the last couple, it's going to steal a lot of my time. I hope I manage to make it home for the holidays.
HotU Opinion (Score:5, Interesting)
I ordered my copy today, and I am still mad at Bioware for not releasing a Linux toolset (editor) for the game as they had promised.
About the only feature that I am really missing is... spellcaster prestige classes. There's a bug in their code that doesn't allow them to do "casterlevel +1" for a prestige class. This is really sad.
Sorry if this sounds like an advertisement, but I am really excited about HotU (much more than I was over SoU). You should really check out Bioware (http://nwn.bioware.com) or the Vault (http://nwvault.ign.com) for some info.
Development Still Too Complicated (Score:5, Interesting)
The endless customizations are awesome and it really is the closest thing to tabletop D&D. But it takes way too long to put together a quality module, on the order of hours of work:minutes of gameplay. The defenders will say "Yeah, but I, as the DM, can just roleplay the characters and other things I didn't have time to add." True, but you still can't match the open endedness of a PnP game, where all you need is your imagination.
Again, love the idea, but still waiting for something that truly replaces tabletop. This isn't it... yet.
Thats the point. (Score:2, Interesting)
My thoughts. (Score:4, Interesting)
I really enjoyed the fact the Linux client came out for it. Once I switched over to Linux I have little reason for Windows anymore. Right now the only thing keeping Windows alive on my other machine is the fact I need the NWN Toolset. I really, REALLY!, wish they would put out a toolset for Linux. I feel sorta cheated for not having it.
I'll definatly pick up the HoU expansion but I won't be buying any new titles from Bioware or any other game company unless there's direct Linux support and no half way, "Oh here it is a day late." type deals either. I just hope they keep the HoU release in step with both Windows and Linux.
As for the client on my Linux Mandrake box, thing runs better then it did on Windows with the same graphics resolution. I'm flat out amazed and the picture seems slightly sharper and things are snappier for me. Nice job and keep it up and make things better! By that I mean make a toolset for Linux!
NwN Multiplayer is where its at! (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally I never finished the OC, never even bothered to play the SoU campaign. The game sat kind of idle for a while until I tried out multiplayer, but now I feel like I am seeing NwN as it was envisioned to be. Wait until you are in an army of 20+ high level characters attacking some epic fortress, it is fantastic!
I'm not going to mention which PW I play on because I don't want all of you slashdot dorks ruining my fun. I leave it to you to find a suitable campaign which suits you.
Go back and play again (Score:5, Interesting)
BG2 was like: Wow, this is totally mind-numbingly amazing. It reproduced tons of fun kits, all the crazy spells like limited wish and contingency that we'd never seen in a game before, and the impossible hugeness of the game... you could play it 3 times and not find all the quests or read all the funny comments from the NPCs.
NWN, partially because of the huge success of BG2, had huge expectations attached. It definitely fell short, largely because the OC was just rather weak, partially because of a story that felt somehow mechanical, and partially because there were just too damn many chests... it literally slowed the game down.
Go back and play BG2 now though, and you'll realize without pause, its nearly impossible to control 1 character, let alone 6, and you'll find you REALLY want to rotate the screen around to see things from another angle... I find myself wanting to do that with ToEE all the time.
I would love to know how the sales compared to their expected sales... personally, I'd like to see them build on it. With a graphical update and a bunch of engine enhancements, NWN2 could be to NWN what BG2 was to BG. NWN already has a LOT of staying power: the City Of Doors and Dragonlance Adventures teams are producing projects far more impressive in scope than the OC, and containing more custom content than the first expansion pack. They've released custom modeling tools, creatures, and tilesets already. So there's actually a LOT of longevity left in the game -- because the biggest, best of the third-party projects are only going to start coming out now.
NWN is the future (well maybe not) (Score:2, Interesting)
And for those who complain that hours of developement in NWN equal minutes of game time. Yes, you have to expect this.
If you want a system that provides REAL customization and expandibilty then it is going to be complex, and take time.
I do agree that NWN is far from replacing PnP, but it will be MANY years until a system is developed that could do so, and when the system does come out, it will probaly be 5x more complex than NWN currently is.
Anyway, you need games like NWN to get the ball rolling and show that there is an interest in end-user modding and it is a very good attempt. I enjoy it.
HotU looks awesome and has more expanded features than they could possible even advertise.
Dumbed down combat (Score:2, Interesting)
Bioware took lots of liberties in the combat and game mechanics. It's not even close to following the D&D v3.x ruleset.
If you like proper D&D tactical combat, you owe it to yourself to check out Temple of Elemental Evil. The game, as a whole is great, although there are a few bugs which are supposed to be addressed in an upcoming patch. It has THE BEST tactical turn-based combat engine I have seen, and it follows as closely to the letter of D&D 3.5 as you can get. As a matter of fact, the developers list (in the maual) the rare circumstances where the D&D ruleset is abandoned, why, and how it effects gameplay.
The combat in ToEE is D&D combat bliss.
Re:A truly long lasting game. (Score:5, Interesting)
Unless Hasbro unloads the D&D license to another company, I expect D&D games to slowly fade out. I very much doubt that the folks who made Temple of Elemental Evil really want to repeat the experience they had with them, and Bioware seems to be tiring as well.
[OT] I'm glad someone mentioned Baldur's Gate (Score:2, Interesting)
Jaysyn
Re:Development Still Too Complicated (Score:3, Interesting)
Neverwinter Nights is fantastic for making combat *fast* and exciting. None of this pussy-footing around waiting for 5 other players wondering which square to step in to gain maximum advantage shit -- get in, put yourself where you'll think you'll do the most good, and the let the computer role the dice. Turn-based playing can be simulated with the pause key if you really need it, but most of the time "I swing -- do I hit?" is good enough.
A DM who is sufficiently nimble with the interface can take nothing but a landscape and a few stock characters (like shopkeepers) and turn it into a lush world that you'd never know wasn't scripted. I've seen it. It's amazing.
A DM who is sufficiently nimble with the rulebook can do the same thing in tabletop, but it may take longer.
Either way, I love tabletop and NWN both. I'd really like to get some good desktop machines, put them in a room, and do the roleplaying on the table while combat, shopping and other chart-heavy rules actions happen on NWN. That, my friends, sounds like a match to me.
GMFTatsujin
Re:Community Content is awesome too (Score:1, Interesting)
Other NWN series you'll want to check out are "Penultima" and "Penultima Rerolled" (by Stefan Gagne - 5 modules each), and "Shadowlords" and "Dreamcatcher" (by Adam Miller - also 5 modules each).
I could list more great ones like "In The Company of Thieves" and "A Harper's Tale" but just go here [ign.com] for a more comprehensive list.
Re:HotU Opinion (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't get the attacking of a company that support Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It seems to me they are doing the right thing, you should praise them for the support and critizes other that do not support your OS at all. I does not give a warm fuzzy to developers if all they get is hate back when the go out on a limb to support a program on a non-dominate OS.
Re:Go back and play again (Score:3, Interesting)
There are some major pieces of work here (e.g. The Darkest Day and Shadows over Soubar weigh in at over 300MB each) - and the most interesting project, The Big Picture [teambg.net] combines the 3 largest mods (The Darkest Day, Shadows over Soubar and Tortured Souls) with several smaller ones (and some substantial AI improvements for tougher battles) to greatly add to BG2. This has been through over a dozen updates and has its own forums at PlagueZone [plaguezone.com]. Download and enjoy!
BG2 was sooooo much better (Score:1, Interesting)
(Single player of course).
BG2 was all about pausing, manual reading, thinking, making your move. That to me is the essence of D&D. I don't need realtime. I need to geek out with lots of stats, spells and most importantly: my own pace.
It was (sob) just (sob) f*cking (sob) beautiful...
Re:Go back and play again (Score:2, Interesting)