WCoC

[taks]

after getting thoroughly pissed at daggerford, i went browsing around and noticed that bioware had released another premium mod. apparently this one, Wyvern Crown of Cormyr, was the closest to done, and seemingly in possession of the most professional "polish." i guess daggerford lacked that when they were doing their final reviews (it was pretty buggy, btw).

 

anyway, the first thing i noticed was the price, $11.99. dang, all these mods have been $5.99 but only 5-8 hours of play time. does this mean they finally did a mod that has 10 hours or so? no, not 10, but 18-20!!!!!!!!! cool. that's primarily why i never bought the others. i couldn't justify getting psyched up for a mere evening's worth of fun. 18-20 hours, however, is reasonable as many full-length games are only this long (well, some, and certainly not many that i was happy about... but you get the point).

 

anyway, a quick 235 MB download later and oila. new mod to play while i pine away for NWN2.

 

short result: wow. well worth it. very cool so far. not nearly as easy as daggerford, and the story is, so far, much more complex. apparently it's pretty tricky to do many quests. pick up one henchman, and suddenly opportunities for previous quests go away because a key NPC refuses to talk turkey. interesting, albeit annoying, to say the least.

 

i've put about 5 hours into it so far and it has been mostly a joy the whole way. the music is very gripping and relevant to the situation. the quests are a bit more than fedex (though what would a game be without the occasional fedex... don't worry, they're there). plus, another cool feature, horsies. yup. and ya get to joust on 'em to boot. unfortunately, the means for using horsies is a bit contrived (not hard to realize why), and i managed to lose my horsie in an area i cannot get back to. i'll just have to buy a new one.

 

besides jousting, there are other minigames including a battle tournament (very easy if you're not on hard-core rules), an archery competition, and even a darts mini-game in one of the inns. DLA put some thought into this one.

 

anyway, i just thought it was worth mentioning. too lazy to see if anyone else had...

 

taks

[metadigital]

I saw it on the official page, but have been reluctant to coff up the sheckles in case it was just like the others. And I have not had NwN installed for many moons.

 

Good review, I am almost tempted to get it ... :D

[Llyranor]

How would you rate the writing/story from a scale of 1 to 10 - 1 being Bethesda and 10 being MCA?

[Arkan]

I will definately pick this up. Hell, it's only ten bucks, as long as a regular game, and sounds good, ta boot?

 

Just need the checks to start rolling in

[Volourn]

Release it in stores, BIO/Atari, or it's not worth money.

 

That is all.

[taks]

so far, i'd say the writing is better than the OC, SoU and HotU. i've only played about 4-5 hours but it is pretty solid. i have a hard time rating a game, or story, on a scale. either i like it, and i'm involved, or i don't. i like this story and i feel involved. your motivation is dependent upon how you want to role-play it, btw, and i'm after the revenge factor (actual dialog choices in the beginning). you have good reason to choose particular movitivations as well. so it's not a "i'm here as the chosen one to save the world" scenario, but in my case the "you wronged me in a bad way for <insert reason here> and you're gonna pay!" scenario. of course, along the way you get caught up in the bigger picture, but that is required for any real involvement with just about any story... good enough?

 

there are annoyances, such as not being able to revisit certain areas, but not many and not a real issue.

 

they also have an alignment thing. by that i mean if you play to your alignment, you get experience. sometimes your choices are conflicted, but i think that is true in real life as well (i.e. the "good" option is more important from a role-playing standpoint than the "law" option, etc.). also, if you successfully use a skill, you get experience. neither provides a lot, but 30-50 exp here and there is kinda cool.

 

my favorite mod to date, and probably my favorite NWN experience overall.

 

taks

[Xard]

Sounds very cool (*considers installing NWN, SoU and HotU*). How are roleplaying options in dialogues?

[taks]

Sounds very cool (*considers installing NWN, SoU and HotU*). How are roleplaying options in dialogues?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

so far, there seem to be plenty. i'm not sure about diversity, however, as i'm a neutral-good character and most of my options seem to be leaning towards good. it may play differently for evil aligned, or chaotic/law. i.e. the options may be different. you definitely get choices, however.

 

taks

[Llyranor]

Okay, so how would you compare it to non-NWN Bioware fare?

[taks]

again, hard to say. in the end, it is NWN. however, it has a good story, good mechanics, lots of fun. the nice thing is that it is NOT very BG-ish. at least, daggerford keeps getting compared to BG-style play, which i think is silly. the ONLY way NWN could ever be BG-style is if you had a party, not just a couple henchmen.

 

daggerford is BG-ish simply because you get 50 stupid quests dropped in your lap immediately upon entering the town. not so with WCoC. there are certainly side quests, and at one point i had several stacked up, but the order in which i received them made sense, and many are tied in some fashion to my overall goal anyway.

 

in fact, the one that i can no longer get to (because i have a certain party member which precludes the informant from tipping me off), is a direct result of contact with another informant that is advancing the story line. he gave me a side quest as a thank you, i.e. "i trust you, do this favor and i will pay you in spades!"

 

dunno what else to say... engaging, maybe, but most of all, fun.

 

taks

Edited October 10, 2006 by taks

[Tigranes]

Ah, well, damnit. I liked Daggerford and that means I'd probably want to try this one.

 

Just after I uninstalled NWN and thought I won't need it again.

[Pop]

If only I had $12 of disposable income.

[Maria Caliban]

Llyranor:

How would you rate the writing/story from a scale of 1 to 10 - 1 being Bethesda and 10 being MCA?"

 

It's good to meet someone else who appreciates the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's written words.

[Judge Hades]

Release it in stores, BIO/Atari, or it's not worth money.

 

That is all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Agreed. They should release PotSC, Inifinite Dungeons, and WCoC on a CD and ship it out like they did Kingmaker.

[taks]

Ah, well, damnit. I liked Daggerford and that means I'd probably want to try this one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i quit after the stupid wizard's tower. i'm sorry, but the "logic" they used in the julap portion was retarded. someone needs to tell them that "infinite" does NOT mean "infinitely small, or infinitely large." there is another word for infinitely small: infinitesimal. "infinite" does indeed mean infinitely large. infinitely small is one over infinity. duh. morons. one of the other riddles was devoid of proper logical reasoning as well, but i don't recall which...

 

taks

[taks]

btw, if anyone does get WCoC, there's a bug with one of the henchmen, detialed here. the fix is in the link.

 

taks

[Tigranes]

Well, I didnt really enjoy Daggerford's endgame. The opening was alright then I loved exploring the optional areas, but the main plot was 'meh' (and Alustriel is a horrible character, she constantly flaunts the line between Break-The-4th-Wall commentator and clear goodie-two-shoes with an extravagant extension of goodie-humour. It's subtly painful.), and the final battle was a joke. Nothing epic or difficult, etc.. although I could say that with the HOTU big baddie, too.

 

I mainly finished it since after I did all the optional reas/quests, I had already invested so much into it. I tend to do that.. I mean, the endgame in Arcanum was horrible (all the button-depressing at Tulla, and monster-bashing in Vendigroth / Void), but I've finished it twice now. (though even I didn't finish Lionheart).

 

How far are you up to in Wyvern now, then? Does it follow the standard format of 'opening up' things in that fat middlep ortion?

Edited October 11, 2006 by Tigranes

[taks]

uh, what do you mean by that last line?

 

anyway, i just completed the, uh, "fort" quest to advance the story a bit. i was suffering the NPC levelling bug, so my level 10 wizard was fighting right along side a level 8 paladin. we'll just say i had to reload often on the "normal" difficulty setting... of course, i found the fix right after finishing the hardest part. i also suffered an alignment setback (lost a point towards evil) for one of my actions that i felt was actually "good," but in the grand scheme of things, i should have chosen differently to maintain my alignment as the world sees me. it wasn't an easy choice, either, given that i actually felt i did the right thing, but knew it would penalize me (there's no real repurcussions, btw). the cool part about some of these situations is that you get an option to consult your companions. they have dialog to convince you one way or another. very slick.

 

i have no idea how far i am. i know most of the main plot now (at least, who is behind the troubles and some inkling as to why), but i think there are several major areas left to tackle. i'm 11th level, btw, and i've put in maybe 8-10 hours not counting the reloads (when an NPC dies, he's dead). supposedly there are more NPC options, but i have only found three so far...

 

taks

[Arkan]

This is sounding pretty good.

[taks]

very good. it could have been a standard expansion pack ala SoU or HotU. been either too tired, or studying, which has prevented me from playing any further (at least since i got my henchman to level... the bug only effects one guy, btw).

 

taks

[Xard]

Who is that guy that is affected?

 

But the fact that henchies stay dead is awesome

 

I can use goody-goody paladin as cannon fodder for my evil mastermind and sacrifice him/her when time is right

 

Damnit, if I would not leave for Crete tomorow I would install NWN again and start playing

[taks]

Who is that guy that is affected?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

goody-goody paladin.

 

taks

[taks]

since i'm playing a wizard (i nearly always do the first time through), life without said character in this module is difficult. he's the closest thing to a "tank" to be found (at least, where i'm at in the module).

 

taks

[taks]

i finished the game last night. pretty cool. the ending wasn't as hard as i had hoped, but i was playing on normal and the bad guy DID in fact, kill me once. i respawned and i think he got stuck or something and his protections were down. so, the main baddy wasn't weak, i just had an accidental "cheat" of sorts.

 

i'm replaying now with a fighter type, and a true neutral alignment hoping to pick up some of the other quests. i'm also hoping i'll get different henchies as i'm no fan of the goody-goody paladin types (any, not just the one in this game). but, i picked neutral good last time and that's probably why my options for a tank were limited to him. dunno. oh, and there was one main quest i did not do, and it was directly related to the main plot, but not required. i need to resolve that as well to see what i come up with...

 

taks

 

PS: probably 15-20 hours, more if i did the stuff i missed.

Edited October 17, 2006 by taks