[Slightly OT] Neverwinter Nights A Failure? [Rant]

[Swack-Iron]

At any rate, I interpret "as much as possible" to mean "as much as possible while still creating a fun, bug-free, balanced computer-game experience within a reasonable timeframe and for a reasonable expected profit." I don't know whether they'll adhere to this, but I can guess that they tried to keep this in mind. Their reason for getting rid of illusions makes sense to me; I hope that, once I start playing the game, their reasons for adding in skills such as taunt, discipline, and parry makes sense to me.

I think your interpretation is reasonable. I've been following the development of this game for a long time, and regularly read nwvault.com, plantenw.com, and other game sites. The producers of the game have stated repeatedly a few points:

* Many of the developers play and love 3e.

* They know they'll get roasted by the hardcore 3e community if they stray too far from the core rules (PHB, DMG, MM), and have therefor tried not to as much as possible.

* It is impossible to stick to the 3e rules 100% given the limitations of a computer game as a medium. So they will stray outside the lines (as they did with Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, both of which are great games IMO).

One member of our gaming group works for one of the companies involved in the production of this game. He's played it most of the way through, and he *loves* it. He is a very rules-savvy person.

Most of the members of our gaming group (who are all 3e rules savvy) have signed up and been accepted into the beta test program. If we see anything that strays far from the 3e rules, especially anything that seems unbalancing for no particular reason, you can bet we'll point it out to them.

 

[Teneb]

Bioware isn't keeping in line with the PHB.......hmmmm. Perhaps that's because they started working on the game BEFORE 3e was put out? They've said on several occasions that, with the spells in particular, they were working from a "beta" if you will of the PHB. One could make the argument that 3e has been out for awhile now; I wouldn't disagree. However, maybe we should cut them a little slack?

Also, the reason the familiars are so strong. The game is being designed as a single player/multiplayer game. If you play single player, its just you. No party, like in Baldur's Gate. Now imagine being a lone mage at low levels with no party to back you up. Life's kinda rough for you, ain't it. They beefed up familiars, in part, to "balance" the mage to the other classes IN THE GAME. You see, they have several problems. They have to keep the 3e rules balanced in the translation to computer game, and they have to keep the classes balanced with relation to each other within the game.

I'm not trying to blindly defend the game (I haven't seen it, just like you haven't). However, some of this "the sky is falling" stuff is overblown.

 

[Hejdun]

With EQ, you have to pay a flat fee every month to play, thus giving the designers and programmers the incentive to continue to fix and balance the game. There is no such payment plan for NWN. Once the game is done, it is likely the game is done for good.

Not quite, it depends on the people who are running the show.

For example, Diablo II doesn't have any monthly payment, but the people at Blizzard have been ironing out problems with it for a year after the expansion is out. Just because there's no incentive in a financial sense, it's never good marketing policy to piss off your customers.

 

[reapersaurus]

MoH -
so rogues got the shaft?
Good.

Really - are we planning on using rogues that much in a computer-based RPG?

Their skill-set just doesn't work that well in that context.

No big loss in my eyes.