Neverwinter Nights 2: French Preview and Interview

*Note by the translator : I started with the idea of translating the whole thing but eventually mostly wrote down the main ideas and news. When you see (*), this is my comment. If not, all the rest can be read in French and reflect only the opinions of the original author. Enjoy...

Context

Neverwinternights.fr in partnership with Atari successfully negociated a preview for the community. [They could meet F. Urquhart, discuss with him about NWN2 and see the game irself].

The Preview

The Characters

Animations

- Eyes move.
- Lips move.
- Chest moves up and down to simulate breathing.

Customization

- Hair : You can modify the color, reflection (*I am guessing this is a secondary color) and hair style.
- Skin : You can modify the color.

Note that subraces have a limited set of colors for their skin.

- Eyes : You can modify the color.
- Name generator : Virtually limitless. Now the same name won't come back several times.
- Equipment : Way more customizable than in the first. One of them noted how each different piece (*of armor) move independently.

Character Creation : Max level 20 and multi-classing on 4 levels (*not sure what he means here).

Races : All the same.

Subraces :

- Elf : Drow, Sun elf, moon elf, wood elf.
- Human : Aasimar, Tiefling, Human.

Note : Some subraces will be more powerful but will gain less experience (this disadvantage will diminish with every level though). Feargus gave Drow as an example, saying that to get to level 2, it would take the equivalent of experience that a basic race would need to get to level 4.

Classes :

Barbarian, Rogue, Fighter, Wizard, Sorcerer, (*that new spellcasting one which I can't remember the English name of), Cleric, Paladin, Bard.

Note on bard : They felt that it was more interesting in pen and paper than in a multiplayer online game so they will be buffed a little (more songs, more influence in battle).

*Note by the translator : Where the hell are monks and druids?

Prestige Classes :

- Harper Scout
- Sacred Fist
- Shifter
- Shadowdancer
- Shadow thief of Amn
- Magus
- Warder
- Weapon Master
- Red Dragon Disciple (*not again!)
- Arcane Trickster

Alignments : All the same.

In the single player campaign, the player will have a castle to manage. His alignment will influence what will happen at the castle (nature of the henchmen that the player can hire, attacks on the castle, etc).

Predefined backgrounds :

In the single player campaign, this will influence the reaction of some NPCs and how the story evolves. The choices are : farmer, militia, bully, troublemaker, natural leader, etc.

Skills : Quite similar to NWN1 but more crafting skills are there which were feats in NWN1. These skills seem to really be related to creating something rather than modifying a skin only. More details later on...

Feats : They are distributed in sub-menus.

Single player campaign :

The first chapter of the story is some kind of tutorial but it is included in the story itself. Obsidian just didn't want to make a boring tutorial. All begins in West Harbor with an unknow character who needs to make a reputation for himself. The first quests are more neutral oriented and aim to grow a reputation for your character rather than being an actual part of the big picture.

All major dialogues are made as cutscenes. The screen turns in 16/9 format. It seems similar than in KOTOR.

Note about your castle : Siege engines are in.

Game layout :

- They only saw a temporary interface.
- Icons have all been redone and are more representative than in NWN1.
- The music isn't done yet. In fact, they haven't chosen the composer yet (*poor guy, always told at the last minute).
- All GUI windows are moveable (all but the character's icon itself).
- Quickslots : 12 by layer, 12 layers.
- Skill menu : Contains everything that can be used in game (search, etc).
- The rest is the same but can be moved.

Environment :

SUN

- Shadows are determined by the 3 axes (x, y, z) with cursors on a sliding bar.
- Luminosity
- Fog

SKY

- Clouds : There are three parameters that can affect them : speed, height, density (more or less cloudy).
- Color : You can choose two colors for the sky.
- Reflection color : One color of reflection of the sky on the ground.
- Fog : As in NWN1 (color, density and distance).

WATER

Placeables are truely reflected in water.

Parameters :

- Turbulence
- Speed
- Color of the ground under the water (which will alter the color of the water itself)

Henchmen :

- Like in KOTOR, you can isolate a member of the party to use his skills.
- While paused, you can set a number of actions to your henchmen.
- You can assign henchmen spells to your quickslots.
- AI : There is a set of predefined AI for your henchmen, so we will probably be able to modify these with scripts.
- You can modify henchmen's spellbooks and inventories.

SPELLS

- The spell icon appears on top of the character's head when the spell is cast.
- Spells still cannot affect the environment (no burning of forest with a fireball). In fact, by default, no placeable can be destroyed.
- The area affected by spells can be previzualized. (ex.: A red circle for a fireball). Note that you will be able to place Wall of Fire to your liking.

TOOLSET

Sadly, we didn,t have much time left for the toolset. All different windows in the toolset can be moved and support "multi-screen".

Tilesets :

- Castle : Have a visible, very high ceiling.
- Countryside
- House interior : Note that has the sun is moved outside, shadows move on the wall.

(*these are the only three tilesets they have seen.)

Outside terrains can be modeled very easily, bringing it up or down.

To model water, you first define a hole for the course of a river, for example. Then, with the "paint water" tool, you define the height of the water in the hole. You then define the parameters as described earlier.

Scaling of creatures :

- You can modify the size parameters of creatures (x, y, z)
- You can also modify placeables the same way (houses, etc). You can also modify placeables' colors (two colors).

Personnal comments on the game :

- No jumping, flying, go up a ladder, ride a horse or swim. I was disappointed about this since there are no changes since NWN1. But lately we were told "the engine supports it but we didn't have the time". So we never know...
- I was also disappointed because I was hoping to see more new classes. But maybe they will release some in later expansions?

- I was very impressed with the graphic quality.
- A good point for the single-player campaign is the way dialogues are done.
- The toolset seems very powerful, with many customizable parameters.