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Neverwinter Nights Coming to Linux
Lurker writes "Neverwinter Nights is coming to Linux!
BioWare, the developer of the hit roleplaying game, Baldur's Gate, recently unveiled their next big project at the annual GenCon conference in Milwaukee. Neverwinter Nights, their new title, will be a multiplayer roleplaying game based on TSR's new 3rd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® ruleset. Set in and around the cities of Neverwinter and Luskan, in the far northern reaches of the Forgotten Realms® gameworld, the game will ship with a strong story, a powerful editor suite dubbed the Solstice Toolset, and the ability to enter the gameworld and modify it in real-time as an omniscient Dungeon Master. Neverwinter Nights will be powered by a variation of Omen, BioWare's own 3D engine developed for their visually stunning action game, MDK2, and will be published by Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay.
Make sure to read the last line of the About NWN page
"We are developing simultaneously for PC, Mac, and Linux." "
Possibly because some of us think that Quake* sucks (or at least prefer playing Doom2). Not counting Quake, there's Civ:CTP and MythII, and soon to be Neverwinter Nights. 3 games is not exactly a great selection. I'll stick with my Dungeon Keeper 2, Sim City 3000, and Doom2, thanks.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I've been waiting for a game like this for a long, long time. Particularly one that lets you run your own server and DM your own campaign.
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I think you and I are not the only ones who have become frustrated by the shortcomings of MMRPGs. MMRPGs are far from ideal because:
- Anonymity encourages (or at least does not discourage) disruptive behavior. I'm part of a pen-and-paper AD&D group. If someone were disruptive to the group, we'd ask them to leave. There is no such incentive when people pay you to be on their server. Even putting aside the PKing (which is a real problem, especially on UO), UO and EQ seem to be largely devoid of role-playing, and are more like irc with pictures.
- Server lag seems to be an inevitable part of MMRPG-ing. I have friends who took a liking to Everquest. They felt that the massive scale of EQ would prevent the kind of lag seen in Ultima Online. Still, they play sometimes at 2 AM to avoid server lag.
- Campaigns/plots do not really exist in MMRPGs, because there is not a DM available to run such a campaign. When you pay to spend 4 hours/day fishing, I'd say there's a plot problem.
- Monthly fees, even if they're low, is still a drag.
I've stayed away from UO and EQ, for the most part, because they don't run under Linux. It's not so much of a religious OS thing, as a practicality thing. I just don't feel like wasting the space on a Windows installation, and I keep my box up 24/7 and run services on it. These would be interrupted if I was dual-booting to Windows.This will allow me to play AD&D with gaming friends who have moved away. For this reason alone, I am anxiously awaiting this game. I hope they announce a ship date soon.
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If you find this commercial Neverwinter Nights game interesting, you will probably find the WorldForge project (www.worldforge.org) interesting. If you are a good artist, musician, or programmer, and have time to dedicate to helping, we'd love to have you. And we're of course always open to positive encouragement!
The WorldForge Project is building systems for massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, to be released freely under the GPL and OpenContent Public License.
WorldForge's approach is not to create a single game but instead a flexible framework that can support a variety of different kinds of servers, clients, rule sets, worlds, and so forth. We are developing a standardized protocol called Atlas to permit a "common language" between the various programs.
The screenshots and music are definitely worth checking out. We've also got a prototype demo client/server put together, which you can snag from our CVS archive if you're interested. We'll release distros and such in a week or so if there's interest.
-- Bryce
I'm just sick of AD&D period. It's TRITE. Every fantasy RPG land, and especially the CRPG's are worlds where every commonor reads, where every town has a weapons and armor shop, a magic shop, and a half-dozen generic taverns. Lands infested with generic monsters (in the mines when I started BG, I thought, "how about that... a DUNGEON").
I've seen D&D GM's (DM is considered an insult) pull out some amazingly well-crafted and creative stories out of these worlds, mostly by just overlaying their ideas of what makes a decent gameworld over the dross supplied by the authors. I don't have the same amount of faith in the makers of Baldur's Gate, that's for certain.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
I don't know why people are saying there are no games, I'm having a blast.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Yeah, but it's also full of non-dweeby fuckups and non-fucked-up dweebs, not to mention a lot of people who just give a damn about software. Sometimes I get the impression that we're not welcome in the clubhouse. Other times I don't get that impression at all, but I just feel like being an asshole; that would be today, for example :)
;-)
;-)
:-)
/. ... their superior attitude and assumptions do get to be a bit grating, espically when you're looking for intelligent discussion and all you find is their crap. So, to borrow something from Chris Rock, when it comes to you acting like an asshole "I can't say I approve -- but I understand"[2] ;-)
:-)
hehehehe...AC, whomever you are IRL, I hear you
When I was in my early teens, I tried D&D. I sat down with the books for about a week, tried to decipher the rules so that I could play with my (then) friends. I gave it an honest shot. After playing a couple of games, I said I really didn't like it, and when they asked why, I gave a few reasons. They proceeded to *scream* at me, and their arguments basically came down to that because there was more of them, their tastes were correct and mine weren't. Have you ever seen this type of argument on Slashdot?
I can say I have. When there was a discussion of Tolkien, I stated in one thread that I really didn't like LOTR, and I asked if anyone felt the same way. I remeber one person replied, and he stated that I was the only one that didn't like it, and then proceeded to insinuate that there was something wrong with me. It was like a flashback form my past.
Am I perfect about remaining calm and objective? Heck no. When someone says something bad about DMB[1], I do get a bit miffed...I try not to let it get to me, but if they continue pestering me with childish arguments, I'm not always pleasent. But, I keep *trying* to remeber that its their tastes, and they are entitled to their own opinions. So, Joe Reader, remeber, just because we have similar intrests and read the same web site does not mean we're one and the same.
Now, as far as acting like an asshole goes, well I can't say I approve. But, a certain resentment does build up to the zealots on
[1] Dave Matthews' Band...*duh*
[2] I *think* this was the phrase...
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But for all who haven't been paying attention to r.g.f.d (*tsk tsk*), here's a very quick summary of the changes (that I can remember, anyway):
The core books (PH, DMG, MM) are slated for release in one month intervals beginning *next* August, priced at $20US. There will conversion rules, but there were hints that WotC is encouraging DM to "wind their campaigns down" before switching. (In other words, it may not be possible to convert everything.)
As for NWN, there is an article here and a much more informative interview here.