Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

[Pavlos]

Will there be a sort of "fast travel" feature in SoZ? I'm just thinking that if I have a quest which demands that I move from city X to city Y (which is on the other side of the continent), the last thing I want to do is have to wander through the wilderness for five minutes...

[Monte Carlo]

Even Darklands really was a late-comer to the overland map scene, so to speak. I think that's where a lot of us at Obsidian draw most of our inspiration from when thinking about it, but overland maps go back to earlier games like Phantasie and (more importantly) Ultima.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Ultima1-3.gif

 

I never played Ultima, I didn't get into computer gaming on the PC until the early 90's.

 

And in the early 80's this was the only overland map I was gaming with:

 

Pen & paper overland mapping goodness

 

Would love to see a modder do this with the SoZ tools, complete with the 'A' series modules (Slavers), my all-time favourites.

 

Cheers

MC

[Pop]

Has our gaming culture really lost so much of its (short) historical perspective that Final Fantasy is considered to be the original franchise to feature an overland map?

Plenty of games have overland maps, but the only game that has a overland map in which you can see monsters and other entities roam around in "real-time" that I can remember is FF. Most games either have an overland map that you walk around in and hit invisible encounter triggers or a map in which you can see potential encounters but is governed by turns.

 

I don't really like FF at all (which is the only reason I wouldn't call your post condescending), but it's the only reference point I can think of.

Edited July 19, 2008 by Pop

[Jaesun]

Actually, the overland map works and looks exactly like Ultima 1/2/3.

 

In that, the game has a huge overland map in which you explore, find items, fight monstars. And when you are on say a City tile, you hit a key and then the city area loads up.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Looks good, I'm mildly excited...

[crakkie]

Since there have been so many overland maps in RPG history, can you share any specifics about SoZ's?

 

What's actually going to happen when I run into an enemy or a caravan in the overland map? Does it start the battle in a regular (small) map or do we talk it out in the overland map first? Are there battle maps for each environment? Can I fight on the bridge? And the "hidden areas", are they actual locations ala Fallout or are they just little "chests" that might pop up depending on your Spot skill?

 

And the overland map looks quite awesome.

[Xard]

Will there be a sort of "fast travel" feature in SoZ? I'm just thinking that if I have a quest which demands that I move from city X to city Y (which is on the other side of the continent), the last thing I want to do is have to wander through the wilderness for five minutes...

 

Why? That defeats the whole purpose of it

[Pidesco]

Has our gaming culture really lost so much of its (short) historical perspective that Final Fantasy is considered to be the original franchise to feature an overland map?

 

 

 

Final Fantasy got its world map thing from western RPGs so what's the big deal? You could say that Storm of Zehir has an Ultima style world map and it would be the same thing.

 

Some people haven't lost their gaming culture...

 

*toot toot* :own horn:

[J.E. Sawyer]

Will there be a sort of "fast travel" feature in SoZ?

Nope.

[~Di]

So... Gfted1 has no interest in what one could (arguably) call one of the best RPG experiences in the past 5 years? Granted, some people don't like NWN2 combat, but that aside Mask of the Betrayer is a masterpiece.

 

I frankly am not a MOTB groupie. I found too many design decisions (and changes from NWN2) just plain annoying. The whole SE concept and implementation left me flat. *shrug* There was a lot of good about it, I enjoyed the quests, the companions, the overall story... but when I recently completed a replay of NWN2 and automatically exported my character to MOTB, I felt nothing but drudgery in dealing with all the SE machinations and dreary black-and-white stuff. I just didn't bother to finish it a second time.

 

I know most folks on this forum adored it, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks it isn't exactly a "masterpiece". I'm hoping the next expansion will return more to NWN2's roots... but we'll see.

 

Edit: Wow, I just watched the trailer. Graphics look great, overland map is intriguing, and creating our own party... shades of IWD! I'll miss the fully-developed characters and interactions that provided, but I really loved creating my own party in IWD so I'm getting kind of jazzed about this expansion. It'll be different, that's for sure. Should be interesting.

Edited July 21, 2008 by ~Di

[taks]

I felt nothing but drudgery in dealing with all the SE machinations and dreary black-and-white stuff. I just didn't bother to finish it.

that's why i turned it off. you just had to re-add all of your feats at appropriate times to make sure to get the right dialog options (some things require the SE feats). not too difficult, and certainly much less annoying than the danged SE curse.

 

taks

[Xard]

So... Gfted1 has no interest in what one could (arguably) call one of the best RPG experiences in the past 5 years? Granted, some people don't like NWN2 combat, but that aside Mask of the Betrayer is a masterpiece.

 

I frankly am not a MOTB groupie. I found too many design decisions (and changes from NWN2) just plain annoying. The whole SE concept and implementation left me flat. *shrug* There was a lot of good about it, I enjoyed the quests, the companions, the overall story... but when I recently completed a replay of NWN2 and automatically exported my character to MOTB, I felt nothing but drudgery in dealing with all the SE machinations and dreary black-and-white stuff. I just didn't bother to finish it a second time.

 

I know most folks on this forum adored it, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks it isn't exactly a "masterpiece". I'm hoping the next expansion will return more to NWN2's roots... but we'll see.

 

Edit: Wow, I just watched the trailer. Graphics look great, overland map is intriguing, and creating our own party... shades of IWD! I'll miss the fully-developed characters and interactions that provided, but I really loved creating my own party in IWD so I'm getting kind of jazzed about this expansion. It'll be different, that's for sure. Should be interesting.

 

Wait, what black and white stuff? You mean Shadow World?

 

That was just pure awesomeness

 

Anyway, I'm one of those that just don't get the whining about SE. It is really simple to deal with it. Heck, in my current Evil playthrough I have maxed it meaning it is as tricky to play around as possible and I still survive

 

I play as Wizard/Fighter/EK btw, meaning I must rest regularly

[Gorgon]

There were a lot of things about the Spirit Eater thing that made no sense at all. This is probably because the alignment system is already pretty silly, as if all you had were 8 or so choices for psychological and moral makeup.

 

In a sense it was the bipolar jedi syndrome all over again. Either you are propper jedi, meditating several times a day and keeping you hands above the covers when you sleep, or you fillet babies and swallow their souls.

[Xard]

Umm, you had to do neither

 

Those were just the rear ends with their own penalties and beneficts

[Gfted1]

The overland map looks great and I was even a little impressed by the firelight flickering in the shipwreck scene. So am I to assume that the huge pillar of light coming down in the overland map is the spot skill doing its job?

[Gorgon]

Umm, you had to do neither

 

Those were just the rear ends with their own penalties and beneficts

You could take the gray path, but if you did with a somewhat alignment dependent character, Ranger, Druid, etc, the game could shift you too far for no apparent reason and you would lose the ability to advance in your class. Only Evil or Good were safe from the system screwing your build up.

Edited July 21, 2008 by Gorgon

[Xard]

They removed the lawful/chaotic shifts IIRC

 

And really, they were 1 point shifts. You'd have to make a lot other non-aligment fitting choices to create discrepancies

Edited July 21, 2008 by Xard

[Gorgon]

If you imported your character chances were pretty good it could happen anyway.

[Xard]

btw, Ranger and Druid only has problems with shifts towards lawful - which were removed

[Tale]

Plenty of games have overland maps, but the only game that has a overland map in which you can see monsters and other entities roam around in "real-time" that I can remember is FF. Most games either have an overland map that you walk around in and hit invisible encounter triggers or a map in which you can see potential encounters but is governed by turns.

 

I don't really like FF at all (which is the only reason I wouldn't call your post condescending), but it's the only reference point I can think of.

Final Fantasy games, pre-XI, had no visible enemies on the world map, instead doing random encounters (with "invisible triggers" as you might call it). They've only had one title that wasn't an MMO that featured the world map behavior you speak of.

Edited July 21, 2008 by Tale

[Sand]

I do like that overland map. Looks pretty sweet.

[GhostofAnakin]

That walk through trailer looked pretty sweet. I chuckled when that big ogre dude was swinging his great axe in that crowd of people.

[Gfted1]

heh you are not alone dude. Like, just last week.... I learned that Divine Spellcasters (Cleric/Druid/Spirit Shaman) do NO have Arcane Spell failure when wearing armor or shields.

 

I never knew this. I feel really dumb. :/

 

You're like a wise sage in comparion to me. Im that special kind of ignorant that actually used the "recommend" button.

[Pidesco]

Plenty of games have overland maps, but the only game that has a overland map in which you can see monsters and other entities roam around in "real-time" that I can remember is FF. Most games either have an overland map that you walk around in and hit invisible encounter triggers or a map in which you can see potential encounters but is governed by turns.

 

I don't really like FF at all (which is the only reason I wouldn't call your post condescending), but it's the only reference point I can think of.

Final Fantasy games, pre-XI, had no visible enemies on the world map, instead doing random encounters (with "invisible triggers" as you might call it). They've only had one title that wasn't an MMO that featured the world map behavior you speak of.

 

The only console games I remember with visible enemies before encounters were Lufia and Chrono Trigger. And those weren't on the world map.

[Gromnir]

josh seems to have a preoccupation with snakes/yuan-ti. religious iconography aside, am wondering what freud would say.

 

HA! Good Fun!