Neverwinter Nights 2: Community Update #12

1) How deep are the interactions with NPCs? Do they impact the storyline and the outcomes of the game? What about romances? Are they definitely in? If yes, are we looking at more traditional BG2 type romances or are they a little weird (sorry I really can't think of better way to phrase it) like in Kotor2?

RR: The interactions are pretty deep. Depending on what elements of the story you have accomplished and how you did them will effect what the NPC's reactions and dialogue. As for the romance, we have that in the game. We don't force the player into it though. Basically you can choose to become involved with one of several persons or you can snub them and not deal with it at all. Know that a romance with one person might tick off another person - This keeps the player from flitting around from person to person.

2) In what way will the players reputation impact the story? Will it effect more than just shop keepers, perhaps giving persuade/intimitate bonuses or opening up side quests? Or to phrase it in a more general question, how much impact can the players actions have on the world surrounding the single player campaign?

RR: Reputation is an important thing. If, for example, you did a really mean thing to a character early in the game, in the mid to late stages of the game what you did could come back to haunt you. I am trying to be vague here on purpose because I don't want to spoil any key plotlines of the game, but when you finish the game there will be clear representation of how you played the game.

3) What's the layout of the single-player campaign going to be like? The NWN singleplayer campaign layout eventually got a bit repetitive. (Go to one of three locations, get one of three items, repeat for other two places, etc.) Are you going to attempt to diverge from that, or are you sticking with a similar setup?

RR: The single player campaign is fairly linear in comparison to some open-ended RPGS that have been released in the recent past. There are many side quests and things that you don't have to do for the critical path of the game but we really wanted to make sure the player is the Hero of the game. Heroes don't have time to be bored, so we hope we got rid of the repetitive tasks...Unless you like the repetitive task of kicking butt.

4) What method are you using for dealing with death/respawn/resurrection?

RR: We want the player to be invested in the characters so we are trying something new here. If the main character or any of the party dies we remove NWN2 from the players system and format their C: Drive. We believe this will make people rethink how they would do that encounter the next time they play and hone their strategy while they are reinstalling NWN2.

In all seriousness, there only needs to be one party member alive for the other characters to revive. Imagine a particularly nasty fight where your party of four loses three of its members (including the main character) but manages to hang on and win the combat, all the knocked out characters come back to life with 1hp. If your entire party dies, well it goes back to the last autosave or player saved game, whichever was created last.