Shadows of Undrentide Interview

GameSpy has a new Q&A up with Trent Oster and Darcy Pajak, the producer/project director and assistant producer of Shadows of Undrentide, the upcoming expansion to Neverwinter Nights. The new features of SoU, which we first mentioned a while back are touched on, including a more engrossing plot, prestige classes, new tilesets (snow! finally!), new feats, henchman inventory control, and more.

ick

[pb]

That is some nasty page-widening HTML.

Can we say "browser testing"?

Re:ick

[simoniker]

I've actually mailed Gamespy about this problem (which happens in Mozilla?), since we've been linking to a number of Gamespy previews and articles, and it's been happening in a lot of them.

They haven't got back to me yet - anyone else who wants to mention it to them, feel free.

Yep.

[pb]

It does indeed happen in Mozilla; probably some 'clever' CSS trick that "works in IE"...

more more more

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe I am still playing as much Neverwinter Nights as I am. Between some great user mods and a pretty good multiplayer experience I haven't bought an RPG since. The additions SoU make are pretty well-timed for me....

What a great job Bioware has done these last few years. NWN has given me a lot of bang for my buck but I still think the Baldur's Gate series was more enjoyable overall. In a day and age where most $50 games take 20 hours to finish, these games have given me years of enjoyment.

Finally!

[DarkBlack]

It's good to see that they are adding back in the ability to manage your henchman's inventory and lootable corpses a la Baldur's Gate Series Games.

Neverwinter Nights lost some of the verisimilitude that the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games had. It's also nice that Bioware has admitted that NWN was a bit lacking in the story department. The later chapters were decent, but Chapter One was way too slow.

A lot of the feats look good and I like the idea of Prestige classes being added. I hope the implementation goes well for these as I look forward to the Arcane Archer Class.

As an aside, I would like to say "Please fix your Page layout GameSpy! It looks like crap in a Gecko based Browser!"

Re:Finally!

[reaper20]

*sigh* You're missing the point of the game. It's single player game is like Quake3's ... to teach you how to play.

Grab 3 friends and a dungeon master and play a campaign together. Or head over to Neverwinter Connections [neverwinte...ctions.com] and find a game. You won't miss henchmen and you'll find the real strength of NWN, multiplayer.

Re:Finally!

[DarkBlack]

Forgive me if I am a bit disillusioned by the behavior of many of today's gamers while playing on the internet. While there are a few who like to play a game like this and roleplay their characters, many, it seems, are intent on "power gaming" and pumping stats.

You are correct that I have not played multiplayer, since the linux client just gained the ability to play via the internet, I have not tried it yet. I know that there are players out there that enjoy roleplaying their characters and I look forwar

Tilesets, Hench Inventory, and... Databases!

[2Flower]

Yep, with SoU (and technically with the normal 1.30 patch for regular NWN) we're going to get persistent data storage. Just the thing for an online world to be more and more MUDlike, or for a single player campaign to store data inbetween modules -- lord knows I could've used that with Penultima, instead of the cheap inventory hacks I did...

NWN has been growing and maturing ever since release. If anybody gave up on it because of the fairly weak single player campaign it shipped with, you may want another look -- a 'game' like this lives or dies by its community, and the community's living quite well. Even if all you want is singleplayer, that's provided for by the community... and SoU looks like it'll have a good SP experience too.

(Yes, the Linux and Max clients aren't fully prepared yet, and no, they didn't ship with the box. But the game is still one of the most complete community development driven RPG experiences you will ever find.)

Re:Tilesets, Hench Inventory, and... Databases!

[gmhowell]

I gave up on it after about three months of no modules worth a damn. Everything I found was of the same average quality/completeness of a Sourceforge project. I uninstalled it about a month ago in order to install... Something. Can't remember:) But, if I can find the discs and key, I may reinstall for this expansion.

Or not.

Re:Tilesets, Hench Inventory, and... Databases!

[Ochobee]

Trust me, it's worth it just for 2flower's modules alone (Penultima series, Elegia Eternum), but there are now many many good single and multiplayer modules out there.If your looking for good multiplayer then head on over to NeverwinterConnections (too lazy to link, it's in another post).

Re:Tilesets, Hench Inventory, and... Databases!

[TrueBuckeye]

You may actually get me to reinstall this game. I played like a fiend when it first came out, but got bored with the single player and it felt the the mp was just the sp all over again, and again, and again... If there are decent mods out now, it may be worth a fresh look.

NWN Linux one-year anniversary

[Apostata]

Yes, it's almost been a year since this "multi-port" was released...and there isn't a non-beta Linux client yet.

Re:NWN Linux one-year anniversary

[smeat]

Have you even tried the Linux beta? I will tell you right now the beta plays better than most final release games I have seen. Give it a try, see for yourself.

smeat!