NWN - Hordes of the Underdark in Stores

morcego writes "BioWare has done it again. Another expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights has been released. This time, it's Hordes of the Underdark, in case you haven't been following. Reviews are already available, including it being rated 4.5/5 on GamesDomain. Atari (the publisher) also have a press release about it."

Comments

Note to Linux users!

[Cyph]

The expansion CD does not have a native Linux installer yet, and the binaries necessary to play this game on Linux haven't been released yet. Their ETA is "early next week", when they release the 1.60 patch for Windows users to get the games in sync. So if you're going to rush out and buy this expansion, don't expect to be able to play it immediately, as it will not work just yet.

Re:Note to Linux users!

[Jeff_at_RAD]

What spat with RAD? This is completely untrue.

I love the Bioware guys - they are one of the best developers we get to work with.

They have never evaluated Bink for Linux and we have never quoted them a price, so there hasn't been anything to disagree about, even if we wanted to.

And in any case, one Bink license fee (which is way less than six figures), is nothing compared to the amount of money Bioware spends to create the Linux version of their game in the first place (it's pretty cool that they spend all this time and money actually, since the Linux gamer user base is so tiny - even compared to Mac).

They just put this expansion pack together very very quickly (for all three platforms at once even!), so they didn't have time to integrate any major new stuff yet.

->Jeff
RAD Game Tools

Mac?

[Nermal6693]

There's no official Mac version of SoU, but it's possible to install the latest update for original NWN, then copy the SoU data files into it. I wonder whether this will also work for Underdark?

Re:Mac?

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

AFAIK, that's the official install procedure for Mac. I run Gentoo on my gaming box (apart from when I'm forced to run XP... and no, zealots, I won't refrain from playing a game I want just because it's not available on Linux) but I have an iBook as my work-issued laptop and I'll have to try there to see what happens.

Re:yes!

[smeat]

There is a camera hack for NWN, but it has not been updated to the latest versions.


Nwvault camera hack page.


smeat!

Re:I know this is offtopic but,

[Daemongar]

Their quality is from, I think, the timing of their first game. The first quality game from Bioware was BG1 - which had the good fortune of being released when there was backlash against poor quality/rushed cRPG's (Daggerfall, Descent to Undermountain, etc.) The attention to quality/immersiveness set them apart from other standard cRPG fare and gave them a market edge.

The company, Bioware, was actually comprized of doctors in Canada who really enjoyed gaming. I know this because I used to be a regular poster to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg and when Bioware was in it's infancy Dr. Ray Mazurka (one of the founders) used to post all the time with updates to BG and whatnot. Fun guy ;)

He doesn't post there much now, but Bioware has already established itself. BTW: I just started NWN a week ago and love the damn thing...

www.nordock.net

[XorNand]

NWN by itself is an average game. What extends it as one of the most amazing games of all time is it's unprecedented "hackability". Nordock.net is an excellent example. It started as a small module written for the friends of the creater, Marc. It's since grown into a three server, persistant world with a user base of several thousand. There are typically 10-20 people in-game at any given time. This makes the game much more friendly, IMHO, than commerical MMORGs; there are much less powergamers and more role-playing. Plus they have about a dozen DMs, most of which are really cool and regulary run spontanious quests.

If you want to give it a shot, here are the server addresses:

nordock1.nordock.net:5121
nordock1.nordock.net:5122
nordock1.nordock.net:5124

They all share the same character vault, so you can play on any of them.

Re:Does anyone else find these games a bit linear?

[dubiousdave]

Look through some of the user-written modules in the Hall of Fame or in the Top-Rated section of the Vault. Some of them are written specifically for evil characters. Some give you options that are more interesting than the good/evil options you described. In some you get experience for accomplishing goals, rather than for killing monsters. In some you have completely customized systems of magic. It really depends on the creativity of the module designers. The engine is amazingly flexible.

If you want an experience more like pen and paper D&D, play multiplayer with a Dungeon Master. The DM has a great deal of control over what happens in the game, and can directly control NPCs to help eliminate the bad Turing Test feel of some dialog scripts.

Re:yes!

[Maul]

IIRC, there is finally full control over the camera AND fog distance in HOTU and the upcoming patch for non-HOTU installs.

Module creation

[MilenCent]

I wasn't too thrilled with the "official campaign," (but I'm something of a game snob), but the module creation ability *really* mades this game. I even made a Roguelike module for the thing (though it required a lot of working around of Roguelike-unfriendly design assumptions, and I haven't had time to work on it much lately).

Also, I hear that the Hordes of the Underdark finally lets your characters advance to epic (over 20) levels. *That* is cool.

Re:Anyone disappointed at NWN

[ShakaUVM]

I (a big BG player back in the day) was stoked when I read about NWN. The day it came out, I pressured my roommate to buy the game at the same time, so we could run through the game together.

Then, two days later, we were both repeating:
"Never again."
"Never again."

It will be a cold day in hell before Bioware gets another hundred dollars out of us for a sequel to a product so inferior in every possible way.

I think the brightest memory I have of playing NWN was running around getting chased by my cohort, who had decided he wanted to kill me. "Run!" "Run, Bill, he's crazy!" ... sign, nothing better than being killed by a crazy cohort. And if I'd raise him, he'd immediately start trying to backstab me again. And I couldn't get a new cohort.

So I made a new character, this time the half-orc fighter, which in retrospect, was a bad mistake, since a couple hours later when this cohort decided to kill me as well, he did a lot more damage than the crappy thief.

And NWN had glowing reviews in the press, too. Underdark 4.5 stars my ass.

Never again. You hear me Bioware!

Camera can be unlocked already!

[WWWWolf]

The camera can be unlocked already in all modern versions, they just made it unlocked by default in HotU.

To unlock, go to console (tilde) and type "unlockcamera 1", or go to the talk bar and say "##unlockcamera 1".

To make it permanent, edit nwnplayer.ini - add "UnlockCamera=1" to [Control Options] section

Official Campaign not multiplayer

[The_great_orgazmo]

Beware though, unlike the other two releases, the official Hordes Campaign cannot be played in multiplayer mode, so as far as i'm concerned the coolest part of these type of games, Roleplaying, isnt possible in this release (not in the official campaign anyway) If you check the bioware forums you'll notice alot of pissed off people posting.

Re:No need to wait, here's the torrent

[rkhalloran]

People, the Bioware folks have worked hard to give us a strong, true-to-the-rules AD&D on our PCs, Linux support for a tier-one game, given us free toolkits, game servers, and modules for expansion; for Ghu's sake, open your damn wallets for once.

I'm all for file-sharing, but these guys deserve some support...

Linux registration

[michaelsimms]

If you plan to play on Linux, make sure you either send in your registration card with windows scribbled out and Linux handwritten in, or buy from http://www.tuxgames.com/details.cgi?gameref=115 where we will report each sale as a Linux sale.