Neverwinter Nights is 15 years old!

[Lilura]

Revisiting NWN and Interview with Trent Oster.

Also, best NWN and NWN2 mods.

 

[Urthor]

But it wasn't even that good? Way more effort was put into it being super moddable and allowing players to make campaigns than was put into it being actually fun.

In 50 years it'll be remembered solely as that thing some guys made Mask of the Betrayer on.

 

[Lithium Flower]

>Lilura thread

But [NWN] wasn't even that good?

 

[felipepepe]

But it wasn't even that good? Way more effort was put into it being super moddable and allowing players to make campaigns than was put into it being actually fun.

And then modders made fun campaigns & mods! Don't you wish modern BioWare was like that, instead of a fantasy dating sim company?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Time to roll another barbarian I guess.

 

[Infinitron]

In 50 years it'll be remembered solely as that thing some guys made Mask of the Betrayer on.

Who remembers Mask of the Betrayer today?

One of this community's blind spots is that seems to think that Mask of the Betrayer is a much bigger thing than what it actually was - a little-known expansion for a game that kind of sucked.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

fuck now I feel old af

 

[ERYFKRAD]

lol, who remembers Mask of the Betrayer today?

We do.

One of this community's blind spots

a little-known expansion for a game that kind of sucked.

Except it was a great expansion for a game that kinda sucked.

 

[Andhaira]

But it wasn't even that good? Way more effort was put into it being super moddable and allowing players to make campaigns than was put into it being actually fun.

And then modders made fun campaigns & mods! Don't you wish modern BioWare was like that, instead of a fantasy dating sim company?

There wasn't any fun campaign, simply because the underlying system was broken. You couldn't have a proper party, only 1 hireling.

 

[Roguey]

I'm with Andhaira, single character D&D by the rules is a snoozefest. The "best" campaigns are the ones that ignore the system entirely and are just walking and talking sims.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm with Andhaira, single character D&D by the rules is a snoozefest. The "best" campaigns are the ones that ignore the system entirely and are just walking and talking sims.

Yep, I've said it before - NWN's true and sadly under-realized purpose was to provide a platform for creating Fallout 1-like single character "adventure RPGs" based around dialogue, exploration and skill use, with combat as a secondary element.

 

[Barnabas]

Actually it came out June 18 so you're a day early. That's kinda rude

 

[laclongquan]

I have installed NWN1 for a month.
I reluctantly played around with OC for 1 hour in creating characters.
I reluctantly played around with Hordes of Underdark for 1 hour in creating characters.
I rather played to completion a so-so game, UFO Extraterrestrial. The game is worse than UFO Aftershock and Afterlight.
I rather reinstalled and played for 2 hour Fallout Tactics, Redux mod, something I am not actually that positive about (Redux modder's philosophy is a bit unagreeable to me)
So yeah, there's huge problem with NWN1 and the way it draw my interests.
Say what you will about NWN2OC, but it's more attractive than 1.

 

[Lilura]

Who remembers Mask of the Betrayer today?

Just me and Ventilator, I guess? Done a few recent blog write-ups.

One of this community's blind spots is that seems to think that Mask of the Betrayer is a much bigger thing than what it actually was - a little-known expansion for a game that kind of sucked.

Haven't read any posts in that vein. Mostly it just gets praise for being monocled. Top 5 campaign for me. Better than PS:T. Also, by far the best campaign Obsidian has made.

But this post is about NWN, not NWN2. 15 years for NWN2 is in 2021.

 

[hellbent]

Guess it's time for another playthrough. Probably spent hundreds of hours in NWN modules during the dark years with few, if any releases of new RPGs.

The repetitive stock PC voices have become endearing to me in a way. I'll always remember using the Prince / Little Richard / Brother Love "High Strung Evangelist" voice on my PC:

Spoiler

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Making an overpowered Arcane Archer character for HotU was p awesome. And you can also romance Aribeth or that homo tiefling dude. And you get to collect "true names" of a shit ton of characters and make them do w/e sick shit you can think of.

Best NWN campaign, would install again.

 

[Volourn]

NWN = DA BEST GAME EVA.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I remember when I launched NWN for the first time. I just sat back and listened to the awesome main menu track. And then I went to the character creation menu and looked thru all the portraits. Such high quality stuff.

IIRC they replaced the menu track with another one in one of the later patches. Come to think of it, the game received a shit ton of updates, e.g. they added proper sky boxes for the people who play the game zoomed in, and there were also official creature packs included in the updates, like they would add a bunch of high quality models for the creatures that don't even appear anywhere in the game, just for use in the user made modules.

 

[Infinitron]

I remember when I launched NWN for the first time. I just sat back and listened to the awesome main menu track. And then I went to the character creation menu and looked thru all the portraits. Such high quality stuff.

IIRC they replaced the menu track with another one in one of the later patches. Come to think of it, the game received a shit ton of updates, e.g. they added proper sky boxes for the people who play the game zoomed in, and there were also official creature packs included in the updates, like they would add a bunch of high quality models for the creatures that don't even appear anywhere in the game, just for use in the user made modules.

It's a funny thing about both NWN games that installing the expansions (only the second one in the case of NWN1) changes the main menu theme FOREVER. People who buy the complete editions today might never hear them.



BG2 got this right by giving Throne of Bhaal a separate main menu.

 

[Roguey]

They also had to change some of those portraits on account of their being traced http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Portrait#Changed_portraits

 

[Lilura]

Making an overpowered Arcane Archer character for HotU was p awesome.

Hell yes. My Hordes write-up as AA.

 

[hellbent]

Arcane Archer + Boots of the Shifting Sands = Easy Mode

I know I should just ignore dem boots, but I can't help myself and will always get the Boots of the SS or Boots of Speed just so I can make the backtracking MUCH more tolerable.

 

[Lacrymas]

One of my favorite games of all time. People have to realize that NWN's potential is basically unlimited, it very much depends on the creativity and skill of the creator of any given campaign. The game deserves an in-depth write-up, but Lilura is already on top of that and I really can't add anything else that hasn't been said a million times. Here's to another 15.

P.S. Go play Swordflight.

 

[Delterius]

a little-known expansion for a game that kind of sucked.

Basically the perfect official module for a Neverwinter Nights.

 

[racofer]

Remember: A Dance with Rogues, the best mod ever.