From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg


I was never a huge fan of the 2002 "Neverwinter Nights" game. It was
okay, but it felt like a huge step backwards after the "Baldur's Gate"
games; an attempt to chase after the action/RPG fans rather than cater
to the people who adored classic CRPGs. Its promise of creating a
framework that could be used by DMs to curate their own online
adventures for friends, mixing traditional PC gaming and tabletop
gaming into one new and unique mixture, never really came to fruition
either. I played the games, gleaned what fun I could from them, but
ultimately found them fairly forgettable.

Still, others were not so sanguine and --thanks to their can-do
attitude-- the game has had a lifespan far in excess of even what the
original devs probably expected.

Case in point: a new expansion, "Doom of Icewind Dale" is currently on
sale today. Yes, it requires the 2018 "Enhanced" edition of NWN, and
ultimately is just a third-party mod that the developer is trying to
make a few bucks on... but the fact that this is still seen as a
viable business strategy says a lot about the core game.

Is it good? I've no idea. I've not played it and -quite honestly- I've
no real desire to do so. I've tried to get back into NWN but I found
the engine just too clunky for me to stick with it very long. (The
"Icewind Dale" setting isn't all that attractive to me either. I was
always more of a fan of the Dalelands).

But I can appreciate the love people still have for this old game.


If you're interested, the mod's available for a tenner on GOG https://www.gog.com/en/game/neverwinter_nights_doom_of_icewind_dale
(and probably Steam too)



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I was never a huge fan of the 2002 "Neverwinter Nights" game. It was
okay, but it felt like a huge step backwards after the "Baldur's Gate"
games; an attempt to chase after the action/RPG fans rather than cater
to the people who adored classic CRPGs. Its promise of creating a
framework that could be used by DMs to curate their own online
adventures for friends, mixing traditional PC gaming and tabletop
gaming into one new and unique mixture, never really came to fruition
either. I played the games, gleaned what fun I could from them, but ultimately found them fairly forgettable.

Still, others were not so sanguine and --thanks to their can-do
attitude-- the game has had a lifespan far in excess of even what the original devs probably expected.

Case in point: a new expansion, "Doom of Icewind Dale" is currently on
sale today. Yes, it requires the 2018 "Enhanced" edition of NWN, and ultimately is just a third-party mod that the developer is trying to
make a few bucks on... but the fact that this is still seen as a
viable business strategy says a lot about the core game.

Is it good? I've no idea. I've not played it and -quite honestly- I've
no real desire to do so. I've tried to get back into NWN but I found
the engine just too clunky for me to stick with it very long. (The
"Icewind Dale" setting isn't all that attractive to me either. I was
always more of a fan of the Dalelands).

But I can appreciate the love people still have for this old game.

If you're interested, the mod's available for a tenner on GOG https://www.gog.com/en/game/neverwinter_nights_doom_of_icewind_dale
(and probably Steam too)

Does your description change about NWN II? I've got that in my
collection yet haven't played it.
--
No heebies, creepies or hallucinogenics It's the height of paranoia
Male, white, mid-to-late thirties
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

Tahitian pearl <j63480576@gmail.com> wrote in news:m26f9jFnfk6U2@mid.individual.net:

Does your description change about NWN II? I've got that in my
collection yet haven't played it.

I thought the engine for NWN2 was vastly improved, and I quite enjoyed the original campaign
as well as the add-ons.

It never became as popular as NWN1 for reasons I have never understood, and NWN1 is still
more popular today.

There were some fine fan-made campaigns created for NWN2, several of which I worked on
as a tester and most of which can still be found at the Neverwinter Vault (https://neverwintervault.org/).

Mark.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

On Wed, 26 Feb 2025 17:05:26 -0000 (UTC), "Mark P. Nelson" <markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Tahitian pearl <j63480576@gmail.com> wrote in news:m26f9jFnfk6U2@mid.individual.net:

Does your description change about NWN II? I've got that in my
collection yet haven't played it.

I thought the engine for NWN2 was vastly improved, and I quite enjoyed the original campaign
as well as the add-ons.

It never became as popular as NWN1 for reasons I have never understood, and NWN1 is still
more popular today.

NWN2 was actually fairly well regarded at release. It got good reviews
and sales. It just didn't have the same longevity as its predecessors.
And, in some ways, it _was_ the worse game. It's combat was less
satisfying; more flash, less animation. It utilized (from what I
vaguely recall) a new camera system that a lot of people disliked.
Looking at older reviews, I see a lot of people complaining about poor optimization and bugs (but then, really, what game didn't suffer those complaints). Apparently mods were also more difficult to create, with
more powerful but less accessible tools. Throw into that a rather
unexciting and very traditional fantasy story in an utterly generic
setting, released into a market rife with such things and it's no
wonder that NWN2 struggled to remain relevant.

I think NWN's lasting popularity over its younger sibling had more to
do with the fact that it had a head start in mods, and that NWN2
didn't offer enough advantages over the first game for all the modders
to start over for the new engine. In fact, from what I recall, that
was one of the biggest complaints about NWN2; it just didn't seem to
do anything that much newer or better than the first game.

So while NWN1 felt fresh, NWN2 felt like 'more of the same'. Throw
into the fact that a lot of infrastructure had already been built up
around NWN1's modding community and that modding the first game was a
lot easier, and it's no wonder NWN1 remained pre-eminent. Especially
after the second game's biggest advantage --it's slightly improved
visuals-- became less noticeable as the years went past (and NWN1
Enhanced upgraded the original).

But really, neither NWN really struck a lasting chord with gamers.
It's got a niche of dedicated followers and modders, but it's not one
of those, "You gotta play this old classic game" that gets trotted out
like "Ultima 7", "Diablo II" or even "Fallout 3".



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

On 2/26/2025 9:05 AM, Mark P. Nelson wrote:

Tahitian pearl <j63480576@gmail.com> wrote in news:m26f9jFnfk6U2@mid.individual.net:

Does your description change about NWN II? I've got that in my
collection yet haven't played it.

I thought the engine for NWN2 was vastly improved, and I quite enjoyed the original campaign
as well as the add-ons.

It never became as popular as NWN1 for reasons I have never understood, and NWN1 is still
more popular today.

The module creating was much buggier and harder to use. I tried to
create an adventure in NWN II, but couldn't get it to work. I think
that's all the explanation that's needed.

The module creating in the original was quite easy and worked well.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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