Real Breaking News: Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

[Oerwinde]

Whats an homunculi?

 

I believe its a tiny magical construct. Basically like a half foot tall golem, with a tad more intelligence.

[Spider]

Not much new there, but they did reveal the new base class to be Favored Soul. At least I haven't seen that before. Anyone with more D&D experience who care to comment on that one? Is it good, is it fun? Personally I like the idea. I have much love for sorcerers, and the idea to have a cleric that goes by similar rules is very appealing to me. I hope one of the companions has that class (my first playthrough of the expansion will be with the same character as I played in the original campaign, so no cleric for me).

[Tale]

NX1 A-KON Presentation Report at NWVault

They were down here for A-Kon?

 

Crap, I was considering going this year.

[Volourn]

And, a heck of a lot weaker. They're created by wizards to be familiars.

 

Anyways, some thoughts:

 

1. So, a priestly sorcerer type. Not surprising. Sound slike a better new base class than Warlock.

 

2. Gah. No new dwarven subraces. That's bullocks. I want my urdurninn, artic, and jungle dwarves.

 

3. Homunculi are cool familairs though it be nice to have a few more; but they made a solid choice for a new one.

 

4. One of Many? Why steal a name from PST? Otherwise, coolios.

 

5. PrC still cna't get past level 10 (or 5); gah. I thought Obsidian was bragging about how their epic rules would be closer to pnp than BIO's? L0L

 

6. RROT as any race? Hmm..

 

 

Anyways, coolio beanios.

 

 

EDIT: Forget the RROT thing. Mr. Sawyer stated on the BIO baords that he errored and you had to be pureblood human to qualify. Neateo.

Edited June 4, 2007 by Volourn

[Oerwinde]

Favored Soul sounds like Cadderly.

[dunniteowl]

All other aspects of the upcoming expansion aside, all I really hope for it is that there are plenty of new assets in the way of placeables like new architecture, new textures for the grounds, new plants from Speedtree!, fixes for the scripts that allow a greater latitude for making new or original Classes/Races and other such things.

 

Of course, I would love to have a more playable game experience as well. I have had too few worthy games cross my sights since the last Bladur's Gate series. Even in this age of MMOs and 3D FPSs, I find myself spectucularly unimpressed with the overall gameplay of most of these games. I hate clickfests and while I am not opining to go back to text based adventuring, there is still plenty of room for things like "flavor text" on mouse overs of placeables, on-examines and when attempting to determine the nature of things. Some things can be more easily shown than others, however, smells, little tiny details and things that might only come up with a successful Skill Check ought to still be posted as a text box when it makes more sense to do so. I think the examples I cite above are where that still exists as a reasonable place to add some text. I love that we can do things with greater graphics and I am so looking forward to having this expansion.

 

I have had a great deal of fun with NWN2 and NWN, even though I find aspects extremely lacking in certain areas. It is always something of a tradeoff whenever you have a new way to create a game as some developers focus on things that others ignore or think unnecessary. So I am hoping that the Developers, with their promise of an improved toolset experience will give us the tools, literally, to develop even more interactive and interesting stories that deviate from the plots, hooks and storylines they focus on with the OC and Subsequent Expansions.

 

I am sort of going off track here and I apologize. Thay, Rashemon and other locations in the Unapproachable East all have great potential for new gaming venues. In fact, as far as someone mentioning horses, there are some very fiercely independant tribes and nations states that are more lilke Mongols than about anything else, which means horses mean the world to them.

 

I would also like very much to see implementations of the rideable mount beyond horses (Griffon Riders are known in the areas around Rashemon from what I have read.) Orcs are treated and accepted in Rashemon and the abject level of total slavery of Thay and the brutal way it is used is something that can be the foil of many more CC modules that ought to allow folks willing to play Downloadable Modules from the Community. In fact, if you folks want to adventure in Thayvian areas, there are some CC Modules in the making already and some are in beta and at least one is already available on the Vault: The Subtlety of Thay which is now #3 on the Vault's top 10.

 

You can also visit The NeverWinter Citadel Project and peruse the forums there. You can see that there are some really talented people already hard at work making Thayvian modules. Track the progress and enjoy. Most, if not all the Thay/Rasehemon modules are likely to be released before the Expansion. Of course, don't hold me to that, I am only watching their progress, as can you following the lnk.

 

regards to all,

dunniteowl

[kirottu]

dunniteowl

 

Why hello there Mr. Shatner.

[metadigital]

Whats an homunculi?

 

I believe its a tiny magical construct. Basically like a half foot tall golem, with a tad more intelligence.

homunculus (also homuncule )

n noun (plural homunculi or homuncules) a very small human or humanoid creature.

 

ORIGIN

C17: from Latin, diminutive of homo, homin- 'man'.

 

Here is some better historical info:

Homunculus

 

An artificial man supposedly made by the alchemists, and especially by Paracelsus. To manufacture one, Paracelsus stated that the needed spagyric (a term probably coined by Paracelsus implying an alchemical process using ****) substances should be sealed in a glass vial and placed in horse dung to digest for 40 days. At the end of this time something will begin to live and move in the bottle. This is sometimes a man, said Paracelsus, but a man who has no body and is transparent.

 

Nevertheless, he exists, and nothing remains but to bring him up—which is not more difficult than making him. This may be accomplished by feeding him daily (over a period of 40 weeks, and without extricating him from his dung hill) with the arcanum of human blood. At the end of this time there should be a living child, having every member as well proportioned as any infant born of a woman. He will be much smaller than an ordinary child, though, and his physical education will require more care and attention.

 

Early in the twentieth century, magician Aleister Crowley wrote a novel that deals with the production of a kind of homunculus he terms a Moonchild, the name under which the novel was eventually published. Crowley wrote of a magic rite to induce a particular type of spirit to incarnate in an embryo, which a woman would then carry until birth.

 

During the 1940s, Jack Parsons, head of the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) lodge in Pasadena, California, carried out this sexual ritual with Marjorie Cameron and a third person who acted as a seer for the process. Crowley, angered by reports of what Parsons had done, ordered an investigation of the lodge, by which time the operation had been completed.

[Volourn]

Outside of both versions being artifical creations; it's not even close to being the same as the D&D version. Dictionaries are often poor sources to use tod efine D&D/fantasy things because the original meanings are changed/fantasized...

Edited June 6, 2007 by Volourn

[Sand]

I don't think the expansion will be worththe money. Its only suppose to be 15 hours long. Not long enough to even be worth putting on disk. Its Heart of Winter all over again.

[Xard]

that F3 thread really made you depressed, geez

[Sand]

I am just doing my best Xan impression.

 

We're all doomed!

[Lare Kikkeli]

I am just doing my best Xan impression.

 

We're all doomed!

 

Why do you bother posting these things over and over and over again? Almost every thread about an upcoming game has you saying that it's not gonna be worth your money or your time.

 

We get it.

 

If the only thing you can contribute to a topic is to state that you're not gonna buy it/are not interested then please do not post anything.

[Sand]

You are right, Lare.

[Lare Kikkeli]

Sorry for the backseat moderating but it just irks me to go through these +5 page threads and see that half of them are just you and volourn trolling each other.

 

 

As for the game, i still haven't started NWN2 although i bought it on the day it was released and i'm planning on waiting for the expansion before i do. And also waiting for a new computer.

Edited June 6, 2007 by Lare Kikkeli

[Sand]

Waiting for a new computer I can understand, but waiting for the expansion?!?!?

 

You really should give it a go. It is a very fun game.

[Morgoth]

While the Expansion surely will be shorter, I expect it's OC to be tremendously better than the Original, since Obsidian now can focus solely on the content.

[Sand]

More than likely. It is sad that I won't have Neeshka. *sniff*

 

I do hope we get more base classes than just Spirit Shaman and Favored Soul. I would love to have Duskblade and Scout as well. Also we need some Warlock friendly prestige classes as well as the Archmage and Mystic Theurge. I am just glad that Obsidian hasn't dropped the ball on post release support. I have no complaints on that.

[Lare Kikkeli]

Waiting for a new computer I can understand, but waiting for the expansion?!?!?

 

You really should give it a go. It is a very fun game.

 

 

I know, i've just got a lot of things going on in my life right now, and it runs like sh*t on my current rig. 10-15 FPS with everything turned down, plus the occasional slowdown if there's a lot happening. I actually did play about halfway down Act 2 and decided i'd just better wait to avoid frustration. I don't really mind waiting, i'm a patient man

[Sand]

Well, real life takes priority over gaming unfortunately. The only reason why NWN2 can run as decent as it can is because I have a Radeon X1900 as my video card. Without it my Sempron would have blown up by now. Soon I shall have my Intel 6600 Core 2 Duo. Soooon!

[Musopticon?]

The game was so slow on my computer that I had to keep my viewpoint on the ground through the first chapter. Then I realised that dropping the amount of shadows objects and creatures can emit significantly boosts performance. And I gave up on trying to always use 1184x resolution with everything.

 

Now it runs just fine on my Athlon 2100+ with a gig of RAM and Geforce 6 600. Just fine.

[Morgoth]

The Aurora Engine always felt clunky. And that's not just the framerate.

 

Here's my official exclamation to Obisidian for the Alien RPG: Please don't make it clunky, but fun. Thank you.

[Volourn]

"see that half of them are just you and volourn trolling each other."

 

Only one trolling is you. Why do you post stuff just to get a reaction out of others? I just post my opinions. Don't cry because you disagree.

[Musopticon?]

It is a testament to the fun I've had with the game that I bared with fps issues trhough the first chapter.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

The Aurora Engine always felt clunky. And that's not just the framerate.

 

So so true...

 

It's one of the most horrible engines I have actually seen in a popular commercial game. It's a side effect of it's user friendliness I believe.

Edited June 6, 2007 by @\NightandtheShape/@