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Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir announced
dowon
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http://nwvault.ign.com/#42139
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=634176&forum=128
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir hearkens back to the days of the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale franchises by including full party customization, dungeon crawling, and free exploration of a non-linear game world via an Overland Map. The gripping storyline foreshadows the events that will take place in the Forgotten Realms with the coming of release this June of the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game.
In the aftermath of the defeat of the King of Shadows, the Sword Coast is in the midst of an uneasy economic recovery. Trade syndicates have sprung up to exploit the post-war confusion for their own ends. The players’ party will wade into this uncertain environment; in order to increase their own fortunes, they can either ally with a syndicate to create a trade empire, or cut their own path through Faerûn by preying upon caravans and selling the goods on the black market. As they attempt to extend their influence, players will become aware of a new faction working behind the scenes: the evil, shapeshifting, serpentine Yuan-Ti.
In addition to trading and economic manipulation, the Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Overland Map allows players to explore the Chultan Peninsula and Sword Coast in a non-linear manner never before seen in any of the Neverwinter Nights games. Exploration will take players from well-known locations, like Neverwinter and Crossroad Keep, to more exotic areas, such as the xenophobic jungle nation of Samarach. Groups of highwaymen and monsters populate the Overland Map and the farther from civilization the player roams, the more difficult the encounters become. The 15-hour campaign in Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir is also packed with new classes, spells, creatures, and playable races.
Fans of the compelling multiplayer features of Neverwinter Nights 2 will also be able to take advantage of new improvements to the multiplayer experience, while modders will be able to take advantage of the power and flexibility of the Overland Map and Trading System features along with other world-building enhancements.
Game Features:
· Travel the Sword Coast and Samarach using the open ended exploration of the new Overland Map. Use skills like Spot and Survival while on the Overland Map to avoid ambushes and even find hidden locales and lost artifacts.
· Create your own full party of adventurers. Devastate your foes with a squad of fireball-flinging Sorcerers, form a solid wall of steel with a party of Fighters, or strike the perfect balance in your party by spreading out the classes you choose for your characters.
· Improved party gameplay including streamlined party conversations, a new Teamwork Benefit System, and powerful party feats.
· The world's economy reacts to your adventures and choices. And, through trading and quests, you can expand your merchant company into a massive trading empire.
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=634176&forum=128
Q: What kind of start of the campaign can we expect? Is it a highly personalised story, where our pc is the chosen one, some mercenary rising to the occasion, some classic prison break?, or maybe at some wizard school, a bad tavern, or what?
A: Adventurer(s).
A: As Jeff stated, straight up old school fortune and glory seekers.
Q: Is there any hope for such special and challenging 'jack in the box'?
I have high hopes for the following to happen:
My far too low-levelled party walks off in an entirely wrong direction and thus gets to bite the dust in a bloody awful way, much like how me first BG1 party far too soon entered into Ankheg fields and were crushed over and over.
A: Oh, yes. Very much yes.
Q: Proliferation of magic stuff or a more scarce approach?
A: More scarce.
Q: In light of the fact that Zehir is a new 4.0 edition god, what ruleset will SoZ be using?
A: It will be the same 3.5e that was in NWN2 and NX1.
Q: Is this a brand new story or does it continue with your character and storyline from NWN2 and MotB?
A: This is a new story with new characters, though some old faces might be seen, and some old story threads might be re-visited.
Q: So, who's working on this expansion, anyway? Is it the same team that did MotB?
A: Several members from MoTB and NWN2 are working on SoZ (NX2) as well as some new folks.
Q: Will this be more designed the way Icewind Dale was e.g. lots of locations and dungeons, not that much story and conversation but lots of fighting?
Or will it be more like Baldur's Gate e.g. lots of places to visit but a great immersive main story with lots of talk and lots of missions and less focus on the fighting?
A: Little from column A, little from column B, little from (mystery) column C.
dowon on
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This makes me very giddy... though I'm not sure why it should...
I see what you did there and it would have been funny and apt if this was 6 months ago before NWN2 got patched and had an expansion which fixes every single complaint with the vanilla version.
I have the expansion. The only complaint it fixes is the terrible story.
I am excited. MotB was leagues better than NWN2, and this sounds delightfully "old school." I really like the customizable party bit.
Mask of the Betrayer was fantastic, and I am greatly looking forward to more NWN2, and more classes and races to make more crazy multiclass combinations.
I may give it another shot later, but not at this time.
Burn through it to get to the great stuff on the other side.
Lots of games suffer this flaw. Witcher is another good example of this introductory mess.
my only problem with NWN2 was too much undead. I want to backstab everything!
PSN: super_emu
Xbox360 Gamertag: Emuchop
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
No and yes.
It's cool that they're going to tie it into the 4th edition FR shift, but I was kinda hoping they would announce a game that actually used 4e rules. Though I guess it's still a bit early for that.
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Maybe ought to get back into the game and finish the OC so I can actually get around to playing the expansion.
New announcement is good news nontheless.
I'd imagine a fully fledged Neverwinter Nights 3, based on 4th edition rules is in the works - somewhere.
The franchise has been very lucrative for Atari and Obsidian since 2 launched.
Also, Westgate has ben 'in the can' for like 9 months and delayed due to Ataris copy protection thing. What a fucking mess.
Id imagine this expansion is a proper, boxed expansion while Westgate seems like a content update.
I can run Crysis on very high, but NWN 2 turns into a slideshow if I even dare touch the shadowing options. And the framerate still goes crazy sometimes for no apparent reason. It's a good game, great at times, but it has some of the worst technical problems this side of Ultima 9, even when fully patched.
I know this game had a lot of complaints, but I must have been one of the few people who LOVED it and MotB, and they both ran fantastically on my computer. It would chug at some moments but for the most part it was great.
might give it a shot later today
Start as a bard, who knew?
I am going to make a party comprised entirely of tiefling thieves. 8-)
Just make a Forgotten Realms line already. They can add 7 colons if it'll make them feel better.
Man when they do D&D toolset game 3 I really hope each expansion is an entirely different setting. Planescape, Eberron, Darksun etc... god that would be fantastic.
I will buy this I am sure. I still haven't finished NWN2 and despite buying it haven't even started MotB yet, but I will. Oh yeah I will.
My last guy started out as an online build, but I did some tweaking. He would've ended the with something like 38 STR as a monk/sorceror/red dragon disciple, and been somewhere in the early thirties by the end of the original campaign if the invisible cap hadn't been there. It was a pretty fun concept, too. Red eyes, bald, tattooed, taller than everyone around him. Didn't speak either, just nodded his head at random intervals -- NPCs had to interpret whole sentences from his odd bobbing.
The UI sticks out in my memory more than the story did. *eyes Mask of the Betrayer* And I've heard the expansion's pretty cool. Hrm.
I am finding the combat in the expansion to be rather boring. The first three NPC's that join your party are all spellcasters, and now whenever a fight starts I'm stuck watching a slideshow as AOE spell after AOE spell rips apart my enemies as my arcane trickster runs around and tries to stab people.
This is still exciting news, but from reading the DnD 4th edition books I can't help being sad this is not a new game based on that system. Guess I will be stuck with the only viable character concepts being the pure caster and the melee/ranged damage powerhouse for a while yet.
Well, I fully expect a Neverwinter Nights 3 to be in the works using the 4th Edition rules, but an expansion pack for NWN2 can be released faster than a brand new game. I honestly wouldn't be surprised though if they put the Dragonborn and Eladrim in as new races to tie it into 4th edition, and somewhat less likely, but possibly shoehorn the Warlord class into 3.5 rules.
MotB spoiler:
The reason they continue to make neverwinter games is because it takes no effort, the engine is already there. Hell, NWN 2 is just a slight graphical update to the first NWN 1's engine.
Also, they can sell based on the name. NWN was pretty popular, sold as much as BG, IIRC. Kind of like how they named those console games "Baldur's Gate" because its an established name. Even though it has nothing to do with previous titles.
Haha, yes. Back in NWN I went Cleric/Sorc/RDD. I was a god. This sounds really awesome with all the trading empire bits it'll have. I'll enjoy ransacking my competitor's caravans!