Game News Sword Coast Legends, a new Dungeons & Dragons RPG, announced by n-Space and Digital Extremes

[Durante]

I think UI "bloat" is not an issue when you have the degree of customization NWN2 offered. It allows everyone to control the game as they see fit, which I consider an advantage.

 

[Rostere]

From all we've seen this looks like it's basically WoW with pause and optional singleplayer, set in the FR which 4th ed. raped and shat upon. I'm getting a clear enough vibe this is a shit game that I won't bother discussing it more. Have fun with your $250 dumbfuck edition games folks.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yes, that rotating camera totally screams Baldur's Gate.

Anything from IE games that didn't make it into PoE wasn't important to the "IE feel", but lucky they kept the camera, that's what makes is a true successor.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, that rotating camera totally screams Baldur's Gate.

Anything from IE games that didn't make it into PoE wasn't important to the "IE feel", but lucky they kept the camera, that's what makes is a true successor.

Oh, ffs. People were saying it LOOKS like Baldur's Gate. As in, visually. I'm not talking about the gameplay or the overall package.

 

[eremita]

Actually, the NWN2 interface was great, but this doesn't look at all like it. What made the NWN2 interface great was how modular, customizable and feature-rich it was.

It would give gamers used to modern-day consolitis a headache:

It had 9 quickbars of 12 slots each, but also other ways to quickly access any skills, such as the quick cast interface (brought up with a simple keystroke). It had 3 separate modes for different situations. It had keyboard shortcuts for everything.

Oh, and as you can see at the top, it allowed you to queue actions, tracked all queued actions for each character, and you could cancel and replace any of them at any time before they went active. The latter is like the single most convenient feature in any RTwP game, and still people often don't implement it (I think the only DA game which had it was DA:O).

I do agree that NWN2's aesthetic were crap, but this actually looks quite a bit better in that regard.

The aesthetics are much better in expansions. I'm playing SoZ right now and I have to say it's a beatiful game apart from horrendous faces and hairstyels. But even that is slowlz changing: http://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/212/?

I have to say after fucking around with NWN2, it seems to me it's quite underrated on the codex. The game just age well imo.

 

[Shannow]

Yes, that rotating camera totally screams Baldur's Gate.

Anything from IE games that didn't make it into PoE wasn't important to the "IE feel", but lucky they kept the camera, that's what makes is a true successor.

Oh, ffs. People were saying it LOOKS like Baldur's Gate. As in, visually. I'm not talking about the gameplay or the overall package.

Well, it looks more like BG (moved to 3d) than Daaoh did. Which was a self-claimed "spiritual successor". So there is that.

 

[Irenaeus]

From all we've seen this looks like it's basically WoW with pause and optional singleplayer, set in the FR which 4th ed. raped and shat upon. I'm getting a clear enough vibe this is a shit game that I won't bother discussing it more. Have fun with your $250 dumbfuck edition games folks.

I paid $35. We'll see.

 

[Durante]

The aesthetics are much better in expansions. I'm playing SoZ right now and I have to say it's a beatiful game apart from horrendous faces and hairstyels. But even that is slowlz changing: http://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/212/?

I have to say after fucking around with NWN2, it seems to me it's quite underrated on the codex. The game just age well imo.

It's nice to find someone who agrees, in most places when I say that NWN2 actually had many good ideas and features in its UI people look at me like I'm insane.

Yes, it was perhaps feature-rich to the point of "bloat", but I much prefer that (paired with lots of customization options) to any interface lacking important features.

It was certainly very very clearly a PC game. The amount of stuff you could do quickly with the keyboard, and the important information you could get by mouse hovering over various elements was exemplary.

 

[Athelas]

The aesthetics are much better in expansions. I'm playing SoZ right now and I have to say it's a beatiful game apart from horrendous faces and hairstyels. But even that is slowlz changing: http://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/212/?

 

[Irenaeus]

 

[Raapys]

It's nice to find someone who agrees, in most places when I say that NWN2 actually had many good ideas and features in its UI people look at me like I'm insane.

Yes, it was perhaps feature-rich to the point of "bloat", but I much prefer that (paired with lots of customization options) to any interface lacking important features.

It was certainly very very clearly a PC game. The amount of stuff you could do quickly with the keyboard, and the important information you could get by mouse hovering over various elements was exemplary.

I'd say a bigger problem with the NWN2 UI is simply how ugly it looks. It's just not appealing at all, as if the game's still in beta or something. The various IE-game UIs might have come up lacking in many other areas, but they definitely had looks on their side.

 

[Durante]

I guess I don't really care what a UI looks like if it's functional (and not completely terrible, like the first WL2 iterations).

I also don't see a point in unnecessarily cutting off parts of my games with "solid"-type UIs, but I know some people here have very strong opinions to the contrary

 

[Irenaeus]

NW2 UI is fine. I wish this game has something similar, but it seems it will be much simpler.

 

[Delterius]

I've been told more than once that NWN2's floaty UI just doesn't feel as reliable as the solids from ten years before. It is all so bizarre that I think people got the overall shittiness of NWN2's combat imprinted on them and just perceive the UI on the same manner.

 

[twincast]

'Twas obvious it would be D&D. Hoped it wouldn't be Forgotten Realms.
But oh well, the trailer looks even better than I expected. So me likey.

 

[twincast]

I wouldn't know, but haven't they been biased against reprints of old settings, in the past?

That was in the foolhardy "4E or the highway" days (which in turn at least saw Dark Sun next to Forgotten Realms and Eberron).
They've been releasing stuff on dndclassics.com (a DriveThruRPG mirror) rather steadily for a couple of years now*, and they at least namedrop pretty much every notable setting across the 5e PHB and DMG. (Only ones that might be missing completely are Spelljammer and Mystara; everything else I clearly remember having read. I'm pretty sure even Birthright gets mentioned.)

*Excluding the three core books of every edition for some inane reason. They have deluxe reprints for those in print, though.

 

[twincast]

From all we've seen this looks like it's basically WoW with pause and optional singleplayer, set in the FR which 4th ed. raped and shat upon. I'm getting a clear enough vibe this is a shit game that I won't bother discussing it more. Have fun with your $250 dumbfuck edition games folks.

To be fair, they went back on pretty much all of the lore rape other than the fact that the timeline jump forward a century. But then again, Minsc and Boo somehow feature in comics set in the present day, so it seems like they just want everyone to forget any of that ever happened.

 

[m_s0]

There is not enough footage to know if this sucks, show me the character creation screen.

Character creation screen?

Oh, I get it, you must mean the store

 

[tuluse]

I've been told more than once that NWN2's floaty UI just doesn't feel as reliable as the solids from ten years before. It is all so bizarre that I think people got the overall shittiness of NWN2's combat imprinted on them and just perceive the UI on the same manner.

If buttons are on the edge of the screen, they're much easier to click. You have an unlimited number of pixels in one direction you can move in the mouse in and still click the button.

I don't remember now if the small border in BG would count as the button when you clicked though, so this might be irrelevant.

 

[Raapys]

I guess I don't really care what a UI looks like if it's functional (and not completely terrible, like the first WL2 iterations).

I also don't see a point in unnecessarily cutting off parts of my games with "solid"-type UIs, but I know some people here have very strong opinions to the contrary

A UI can add to or detract from the atmosphere though. NWN2's UI does the latter, IE games usually the former. For me it doesn't necessarily have to be solid, it just has to fit with the game/theme well and preferably have most stuff at the edge of the screen, like tulu mentioned.

Underrail just made a neat addition to its UI; area lighting level affects how much lighting your character's portrait is exposed to. A small thing, but it nonetheless made the game feel a tiny bit better to play by making that UI feel more a part of the game world.

 

[Irenaeus]

That's a good idea.

 

[JasonNH]

Looks like Neverwinter MMO with pause and single-player option. Also, in before Wizards of the Coast goes into PMS mode and pulls the license right before an expansion pack is supposed to come out and the game dies in a blaze of infamy.

 

[twincast]

Anyway, anyone wanna bet what the 5th race next to the WotC-proclaimed "Core Four" (those with LotR counterparts other than half-eves) will be?

• Half-elves? Most popular.
• Tieflings? WotC's been having a hardon for them since 4e.
  
• Gnomes? Mechanically the same as the core races other than human.
• Half-orcs? Classic ugly/brute race.
• Dragonborn? Most unique/bestial in looks.
  
• Aasimar? Back after 4e shat on them, but relegated to the DMG with little fluff and no picture.

As for the six of twelve classes: The classic foursome, of course, plus any two of the others, although I'd guess Paladin and Ranger.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Drow - they are a separate race in the Neverwinter MMO. Though they would also be a prime candidate for a DLC-race.

 

[vorvek]

Actually, the NWN2 interface was great, but this doesn't look at all like it. What made the NWN2 interface great was how modular, customizable and feature-rich it was.

It would give gamers used to modern-day consolitis a headache:

It had 9 quickbars of 12 slots each, but also other ways to quickly access any skills, such as the quick cast interface (brought up with a simple keystroke). It had 3 separate modes for different situations. It had keyboard shortcuts for everything.

Oh, and as you can see at the top, it allowed you to queue actions, tracked all queued actions for each character, and you could cancel and replace any of them at any time before they went active. The latter is like the single most convenient feature in any RTwP game, and still people often don't implement it (I think the only DA game which had it was DA:O).

I do agree that NWN2's aesthetic were crap, but this actually looks quite a bit better in that regard.

NWN2's interface was okay. What was bad was how clunky the characters felt, or how you had to do some unnatural mouse gimnastics, like right-click to select an objective and then using the skills. It felt unnecessarily MMOish and somehow less responsive than NWN1. Also, character animations and movement were kind of off as well. Apart from that, character models were ugly as fuck with their awkward standing poses.

However, the moddable UI was great, and in general, from a modable point of view, NWN2 improves NWN1 in pretty much every aspect (scripting, mapping, distributing the content to clients) and has a more faithful to pnp set of rules by default.