Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Most games are going the way of In-Game Purchases, even after and up-front cost, so.....

But if the NWN:EE team are totally down with supporting the PW community and the Custom Content community, that's great. I'll believe it when I see it though!

Yes, in-game purchases are the way things are going; that's because some people are spending daft money on them (I saw a developer quote $45,000 paid by one individual recently on one of his games, so it's no wonder that everybody is doing it - it seems a money tree can exist).

Beamdog have never done this though. I do expect them to produce some sort of add-ons, but that's what you used to be normal.

The fact that is going on Steam and fixing the multiplayer client will be worth it. That alone will provide a lifeline for the game and I expect a big influx of new players to NWN servers. Where will that leave NWN2 multiplayer community, will be interesting to see. The only shame is that there is no graphic improvements.

Don't worry they will eventually make a newer version of NWN2. Cant upgrade one game in a series and not upgrade the rest, its just not how things are done.

V'rass wrote:Don't worry they will eventually make a newer version of NWN2. Cant upgrade one game in a series and not upgrade the rest, its just not how things are done.

Beamdog's CEO is a Bioware alum, who has been working on previous Bioware titles.

NWN2 may not be in that reach.

Oh it prob wont be for another 3 or 5 years but i suspect it will happen eventually.

They announced the release date, March 27th (this year, yeah?!). Seems awfully soon, but I am eager to try it out. Oh and they changed their minds about graphics, they are going to eventually redo most of the character models and tilesets. They already released couple of new character models, like Aribeth. Looks fantastic.

Even with graphical updates to some of the textures and everything else, it is still only capable of going so far within the limits of the original game. I don't believe this will make up for the gap between what is currently capable in NwN2 with community contributions in order to make it a superior platform for PW RP.

Although I used to mess around with the old school toolset and felt like making custom content/dungeons/items was a ton easier, it was also much more limited.

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I'm no necromancer, this was just a little buff since there were significant news around

I read somewhere that they explicitly said no NWN2 EE

There is only to be a nwn1 ee... goodbye nwn2 PWs... everyone will flood back to nwn1, which still has 10x the poulation..

Reckeo wrote:Even with graphical updates to some of the textures and everything else, it is still only capable of going so far within the limits of the original game. I don't believe this will make up for the gap between what is currently capable in NwN2 with community contributions in order to make it a superior platform for PW RP.

Although I used to mess around with the old school toolset and felt like making custom content/dungeons/items was a ton easier, it was also much more limited.

The things that NWNX2 (server extender, if you will) is capable of have stretched what the original game was able to do. With it, I was able to hook into skills used by players (see open lock, animal empathy, pickpocket, and even stealth). I was even able to make visual effects occur for only one person on the server to see (For example, consider using detect evil and evil PCs flash red and no one else can see that but you). The fact that NWN:EE has the source code and a Bioware Dev, they have the ability to go far beyond what the original can do.

The Witcher was made with the Aurora engine from the original NWN and the graphics in that game look nothing like it. I remember when I first got it how amazed I was it used the same engine. If beamdog does something similar with EE I would imagine that NWN will see a huge boost and likely NWN2 PW's will take a hit. Not sure what it'll mean for BGtSCC, but I imagine it'll still be around for a while longer yet.

Dagesh wrote:

Reckeo wrote:Even with graphical updates to some of the textures and everything else, it is still only capable of going so far within the limits of the original game. I don't believe this will make up for the gap between what is currently capable in NwN2 with community contributions in order to make it a superior platform for PW RP.

Although I used to mess around with the old school toolset and felt like making custom content/dungeons/items was a ton easier, it was also much more limited.

The things that NWNX2 (server extender, if you will) is capable of have stretched what the original game was able to do. With it, I was able to hook into skills used by players (see open lock, animal empathy, pickpocket, and even stealth). I was even able to make visual effects occur for only one person on the server to see (For example, consider using detect evil and evil PCs flash red and no one else can see that but you). The fact that NWN:EE has the source code and a Bioware Dev, they have the ability to go far beyond what the original can do.

I don't mean to sound so dismissive up front, I do rather enjoy the Beamdog remake of Icewind Dale:EE, with zoom effects, kits, and various other changes.

However, long before EE, I had downloaded various mods from the awesome, and I do mean awesome, NPC project called the Gibberling Three, which is still up and running to this day. Their contributions BREATHED LIFE into Baldur's Gate Tutu edition, long before Beamdog ever jumped into development, and it's free. This meant, kits were available, and new scripts were written. I never kicked out the bard Garrick (he knows more lore about the land than anyone should, even recites poems, and this completely altered my previous conception of bards), and Kivan (elven archer), who's story I actually got to complete (which was dramatic in its telling, and talking about makes me wish to reinstall Tutu edition), were, and as far as I still know, NOT part of EE by Beamdog, but it was ALL COMMUNITY.

At this point, I am not discrediting Beamdog, but truth be told, unless it is a massive (and I do mean MASSIVE) overhaul, my money is that the Community, and its dedicated fans, will outshine what limited budget Beamdog has to work with. Black Isle made some artistic pieces at the time, and changed the face of CRPG's with their systems. I feel like Beamdog is riding on the coat tails of the success and continuation of the community in the name of profit.

3d fizzled on the story telling and writing because 3d required more financial investment into the graphic project, which drastically reduced writing investment. I realize to a large section of our community, NWN was their first exposure to D&D as a system, and possibly RPG's as a whole. Mine was the original Baldurs Gate, from 1998, that brought me to this server, just so I could explore and see how the developers interpreted the setting into a 3d setting, which is why I have remained and fallen in love with some of it's depiction.

Take Skyrim, and the Mod Nexus community. They have completely altered the game, including updated meshes/textures (before Bethesda could even do the same), added permadeath, armor, weapons, skills, complete overhauls, new areas, new monsters, you name it, its been implemented. Hell, I can even play a bard at inns and level up my music skill, get a free room to sleep in and some gold to ward of the real cold that threatens to freeze my character to death. Also, drinking and eating is a thing, diseases are lethal....it goes on and on. At this point, community > publisher.

Time will tell.

And its supposed to be "Game over man, game over", Bill Paxton from Aliens, RIP.

If they can get NWN1 looking half as good as NWN2, so I can tolerate the graphics, and they can get the ruelset updated, Ill be back in NWN1 in a heartbeat. Oh one can dream...