Musings: NWN and others

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

Oh, must have had some outdated info.

In my eyes NwN never had the *touch*
or the ambition to be a great rpg (nonetheless)
Aurora engine had great potential. The thing
that probably killed my love to NwN was the
lousy scenario. Let's just say it was kinda schematic.
Hope to see that NwN2 will improve on that.

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

Keep on the borderland is going to rock. We all know that.

As for Obsidian, I think they may make some decent games, but nothing that will really float our type of boats here. Oh they will be fun, like KOTOR2, but the TOEE mechanics are what really shout POTENTIAL to me. Don't forget theres a decent editor with Arcanum if anyone here gets the itch for that game.

As for other good games, there are a few decent Indy games that SOUND like they will be great. Ones out now for free actually...just let me dig up the link...

http://www.zero-sum.com/ Its called Prelude to Darkness. Not bad for a couple of guys. Its still being ironed out, but it has been released for a while now.

This game is really starting to get my interest however....

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/ Its called Age of Decadence. Some bloke over at that RPG Codex joint is making it with a few of his boys. From what I have read, it sounds quite impressive and also looks pretty good too. Can't wait for that one.

There more I know of on the horizon, if anyone is interested we could start a sticky in the general discussions area or something. I will leave that to the resident Gods here to decide.

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

I totally agree, but would like to say in NWN's defense (I can't believe I just wrote that) that the first 2/3rds of the second expansion were pretty fun, especially down in the Underdark. I mean, the whole good drow thing was kind of a groaner, but outside of that some of the quests were pretty engaging.

But yeah, letdown doesn't begin to describe the NWN experience as a whole.

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

I couldn't get into NWN; no real control over my NPCs, and the real time approach made me feel like my spellcasters were getting cheated. I'm sure it's better once you're used to the interface, but for a D&D game real time just feels off.

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

dont forgert about Vampire- Bloodlines!!!
GREAT game, with some of the best video game personalities EVER!!!
i also miss the 2d graphics...
why must everything be 3d now?
its a boring trend. i want to see something different.
i would love to see a 2d game developed with the tech we have today.
(sorry a little sidetracked)
im sure i speak for all here, we miss troika.
theres not many more PC devs that create the games that people like me bought PCs just to play...

 

Well, I liked the THUNK maps for H2/H3wog, but I also really enjoy Might and Magic 6. Morrowind was absolutely stellar in its size and scope. And Gothic 1 and 2 were fun. Othere than those, I haven't really found any good rpgs either.

 

I've said it before, but there were a few things that killed my ability to enjoy NWN:

1) The lack of turn based combat, even the semi-turn based stuff you got with the IE games. D&D is designed with turn based combat in mind. Take that away, and the magic system just doesn't work for me, and I say that as someone who loves Daggerfall and Morrowind, both of which were not turn based.

2) Lack of full control over NPCs. Even the best NPC AI isn't usually all that good; if I'm going to use NPCs at all, I want to control them.

3) The Online Bias. Yes, I know that's where the money is. Still, I'm not going to pay $ every month to game, and I don't like gaming with total strangers outside of a face to face convention game (and sometimes not then).

4) Dull, kid friendly story and setting. Again, I know that's where the money is, but I'm old (by computer game standards), and I want a story that's interesting to an old gamer.

Games for my crowd don't exist and won't be made unless other old guys make them as a hobby, in communities like this.

So, here I am at Co8.

 

Too true. Can't add anything else.

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

I agree. I tend to prefer playing spellcasters like wizard specialists or druids, in AD&D PC games with more of an emphasis on single characetrs or one party-leader. With NWN, it was extremely difficult to do real damage to NPCs with my spellcasters, while fighters would just walk through every game, as soon as they got the improved critical feat.

Having said that, some of the NWN mods created by amateurs are absolutely amazing. I highly recommend "The Doom Of Yartar" triology, located on the NeverWinter Vaults page of mods. You get to play a blackguard and fight very powerful NPCs like solars, silver dragons etc. It's a very tough mod, as regards the fights, but also involves solving various puzzzles etc.

I hear that NWN2 is being released. Surely it'll improve things for spellcaster PCs if it's based on the new 3.5 system?


Lastly, I've been replaying the old Baldur's Gate Trilogy/Icewind Dale Trilogy a lot, as well as TOEE, because there doesn't seem to be a decent PC game on the market- the player-created mods are wonderful, but it gets boring playing them several times over. Searching via the Net hasn't helped, as, from experience, I've found that non-AD&D RPG games are a dead bore for me, and I hate the first-person shoot-'em ups that most PC gamers bizarrely love. I've currently bought Hearts of Iron 2 with the extra Doomsday scenario, as I love both strategy war-games and RPG games and am already familiar with the PC game, Europa Universalis 2 . Anyone know of any decent strategy games which don't just focus on one single battle or campaign, or any RPG games which very closely mirror AD&D-style play?

Oh, and what exactly is this "Keep of the Borderlands" thing? Is it a TOEE mod, or a whole new Greyhawk-setting PC game?

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

KoTOR was Bioware, the sequel was Obsidian.

It seems odd for a modding community to judge NWN with little consideration for its mods. Fan modules for NWN have given me some of the best gaming experiences I can remember.

Needs more Wizardry 8 and Fallout/2 :gotmyatte

Other under-the-radar games to watch out for in the future:
http://www.planewalkergames.com/content/view/32/46/
http://www.newdawn-game.com/
http://www.rpgcodex.com/gamedetails.php?id=364
http://www.afterfall.org/ (site currently down, Fallout-esque CRPG set in Europe)

 

Re: WTF happened to the Troika people?

What, do you live in a cave?

Keep on the Borderlands:

http://www.co8.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=45

It has it's own entire forum here for you to read...may I suggest you begin with the description? That'll answer a lot of questions for ya, there, Stron.

 

I bought NWN when it came out. Got maybe 1/4 of the way through then died of boredom (and henchmen frustration). A year later I tried again. This time I got about half way before again dying of boredom. Tried a few of the fan mods and some were good but most were very small in scope and rather amateurish. Most of the ones these days that are claimed to be any good need the various official expansion packs that I won't buy. Recently I dragged out NWN once again (after completing ToEE for the umpteenth time) and, as per past attempts, I got sick of the simplistic, childish storyline about half way though. I switched to playing BG1 (via BGTutu of course) and it's far more engaging.

 

Ok, as an avid gamer of NWN for the last 5 or 6 years, i leap to it's defence

Although in some of it's single player scenario's, it does lack drive, if you manage to struggle through the boring bits, it is really quite a good game. Yes, with the multi-player thing you can get power-gamers, and it does cater to these people, on the other foot, the are user built modules, one of which i am a DM, that are definitely user friendly, where the social actionis the main point of playing.
Yes, TOEE does stick a lot closer to the turn based D&D style that we all grew up with, but the realtime play can be astoundingly fun to play with as well.
There is no feeling quite like finally getting your wizard or sorcerer to a level where your enemies get annhilated by the storm of magic at your command, and when you set your quick slots up properly, it is possible to be the mage that you'd imagine Bigby or
Mordankainen to be.
I am happy to switch from one format to the other, as it suits my mood or needs. One big downfall of TOEE is it's lack of multiplayer capability.
And to those who get bored playing NWN solo, go online and join a game. The difference between single and multiplayer is astounding. Anyway that is my rant over with.:blahblah: