Neverwinter Nights Coming in June

dextr0us writes "The apocalypse has come. Neverwinter Nights beat Duke Nukem Forever to the release floor. According to Neverwinter Nights Official Site it seems that they are taking pre orders, and the official date for the pre orders is 6/25/02. As a fan of pen-n-paper, without the geekiness, Neverwinter Nights solves my dilemma!" Update: 03/25 12:38 GMT by Hemos :Just a small note: I'm still available for beta-testing. *grin* CT: Hemos is not available for beta-testing. He has work to do first ;)

Comments

Re:The answer to our prayers?

[argStyopa]

While I understand at a gut level that you might be disappointed in the engine, I'd disagree that it's a big deal.
To implement "swimming" sounds simple, but realize that they have MILLIONS of combinations of body types (you will be able to mix & match to make a new creature out of an orc with long draggy arms f'rinstance). Swimming (like horseback riding also not included) would entail a HUGE investment in new models, motions, AI programming for relatively limited gamevalue return. Remember, every monster would have to constantly make the calculation 'can i get there quicker by cutting across the stream rather than use the footbridge?' along with commensurate risk evaluations.
Ditto climbing, and in fact probably WORSE.
So it was a matter of resources. And yes, they've been doing it a long time, but it's a HUGE project.

To dash a little more cold water on the subject of swimming (ha ha, sorry) IMO swimming is very much one of those categories of events that DM's fudge, and that is going to be an area where NWN is weak - especially for those of us running persistent 24/7 servers ala [shameless plug/]www.alandfaraway.net. [/shameless plug] Look, in a PnP game, you (as the DM) are constantly tweaking and managing NPC and environmental changes in response to all the unexpected crap PC's come up with. While NWN is implementing everything they can to allow DM's to deal with this, the nature of the beast is such that players can play while you're NOT THERE, meaning every dialogue, every event, every potential NPC reaction will have to be scripted or risk 'breaking' your precious scenario. In the case of swimming, I can't for a moment think of a published module in which making a swimming check is indispensable; failing it is simply too save-or-die for most DM's and players. Usually it's more like "the ship sinks in a storm and you get washed ashore - make a swim check to see how much of your stuff you could save" - which obviously could be handled in a variety of other ways.
Climbing, being more critical to a specific class, is somewhat more missed. But the various forum boards have already pretty much addressed the issue, and AFAIK Bioware IS contemplating adding both of these to an expansion/sequel....but people now just want the darn game in their sweaty paws and would rather omit these than wait longer!

The critical VALUE to NWN that makes it so much better than BG or IWD is 1) the implementation of D&D 3e rules set, meaning a HUGE player base familiar with the rules and system, 2) a distinct and major effort by Bioware to make the game customizeable and usable by anyone to build anything they want...paralleling the value of RPG's in general, and addressing the main weakness of CRPGs.