Interview NWN - Eye of The Beholder Module Interview at HomeLanFed

[Mistress]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights

<a href="http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLanFed</a> have posted an <a href="http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=11152">interview</a> with the creator of the <a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/files/110000/117606.shtml">Eye of The Beholder module</a> for <a href="http://nwn.bioware.com">Neverwinter Nights</a>, <b>Rick Francis</b>.
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<blockquote>HomeLAN - First, what was your reaction when Neverwinter Nights was finally released?
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Rick Francis - I was very excited, I was one of the original beta testers for NWN and we got to test the game all the way up to the end of chapter 1. I couldn’t wait to play the full game and see how the rest of the story unfolded. BioWare did an outstanding job on NWN, and to this day is without a doubt one of the best RPG games on the market.</blockquote>
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Oh well....

 

[Croaker]

He actually wanted to see more of that awful story? Doesn't make me feel to good about his own storytelling abilities.

 

[Spazmo]

Is the module any good, though? I know the original was good, but sloppy modding + general sloppiness of NWN could make it stink.

 

[Mistress]

Is the module any good, though? I know the original was good, but sloppy modding + general sloppiness of NWN could make it stink.

I'll let you know when I've played it, probably in the next day or so.

 

[Mistress]

He actually wanted to see more of that awful story? Doesn't make me feel to good about his own storytelling abilities.

My sentiments exactly....I can understand him being into the game from a module creating point of view etc, but actually being motivated to see the rest of the story....I could barely bring myself to play past chapter 2....it was a struggle.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Is the module any good, though? I know the original was good, but sloppy modding + general sloppiness of NWN could make it stink.

MrBrown said the dialogue was pretty sloppy in it. Here's the part that bothers me though:

HomeLAN- How hard was it to create the module you wanted to make for the game?

Rick Francis- It has been very hard; with our mod we had to make many changes to keep up with the players expectations of the current era. We have created over 200 new magic weapons and armor along with many magic items. We have taken a lot of heat because of all the items we placed in the game, when we started out to make Eye of the Beholder; we created it for a multiplayer game only so we placed a lot of items, the one thing I hated when I played Diablo was playing with greedy players. When you killed a boss, you had to be really fast at grabbling as much as you could. So we placed many items to try and defeat this type of player.

There's another part where he talks about adding a lot of ph4t l3wt because he wanted to make the bosses tougher in it. So, rather than keeping the formula the same, he just makes insanely powerful boss monsters and counters it with insane drops.

It's not much wonder he likes BioWare's games.

 

[Jed]

Something I noticed in this interview was the only thing Mr. Francis seemed to lack enthusiasm about is the number of available monster models included with the game. This, of course, leads me to wonder why Bioware wouldn't have included some of the most enduringly popular monsters in the initial game: Kobolds, Mind Flayers, and Beholders?

Though I'm sure I already know the answer...

 

[Deathy]

Something I noticed in this interview was the only thing Mr. Francis seemed to lack enthusiasm about is the number of available monster models included with the game. This, of course, leads me to wonder why Bioware wouldn't have included some of the most enduringly popular monsters in the initial game: Kobolds, Mind Flayers, and Beholders?

Though I'm sure I already know the answer...

This also shits all over the "D&D Toolset" argument that Bioware fanboys have for NWN.
If it was a "D&D Toolset", how come many popular monsters are missing? How come they restrict the setting to Neverwinter and nearby areas through a lack of tilesets?

Basically, the answer to all of this points to one thing.
NWN is a game with a packaged toolset, not a toolset with an example campaign, although the shoddy campaign would be somewhat excusable if it were.
Even as a demonstration of what you can do with the toolset it is fairly poor.
What about variables that carry on through modules?
What about dialouge that effects the outcome of events?

And I'm not going to even start with the limitations of the game engine itself.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Something I noticed in this interview was the only thing Mr. Francis seemed to lack enthusiasm about is the number of available monster models included with the game. This, of course, leads me to wonder why Bioware wouldn't have included some of the most enduringly popular monsters in the initial game: Kobolds, Mind Flayers, and Beholders?

Though I'm sure I already know the answer...

They claimed the Beholder was too hard to make with their model animation system, so they didn't include one. Basically, the same excuse BioWare gave for cloaks and other things. It'll too hard for them, so the mod community can do it.