Haer'Dalis or Not?

[Domi]

Heh, actually, I chose 'no', and said so a couple of posts ago And well, one of the great advantages of custom NPCs that there won't be the 'It's not in character/it's in character" arguments, with extensive quoting of BioWARE/Interplay material and emotions running high. I might go to Cambion instead of a Tiefling, just to avoid the Male Tiefling = Haer'Dalis association. Just a whickedly smart fiend. That's obviously if I do Chimeras. I most probably won't - there is simply not enough interest at the moment.

[Raven_Song]

That's obviously if I do Chimeras. I most probably won't - there is simply not enough interest at the moment.

 

I think that at the moment your task is to convince many players that the potential for IWD2 is the same, or perhaps even greater than that of BG2, by making the NPC project as successful as possible. This in turn might get players and modders thinking about waht else can be achieved with the game and generate their interest.

 

To be fair to many players IWD2 has always been little more than hack'n'slash dungeon crawl, rather than a true role-playing experience so they need time to come round to thinking of it as anything but. If I hadn't participated in some of the early NPC testing I would probably still be sat thinking of it as such, instead of seeing the potential there.

[berelinde]

I have no opinion about Chimeras.

 

Why, you might ask?

 

Because I never got that far!

 

I lost interest in IWD for the same reason I lost interest in BG without NPC Project: no NPC interaction!

 

Why not put that off for a bit, and wait to see what people say once they can get their heads around the idea of NPC interaction making the game more worthwhile.

[Domi]

I know I'm thinking in terms of post IWD2NPC. What fries my noodles is how much has to be there initially to make IWD2 worth playing for a BG2 player. Ie is resolving the silent NPCs crisis is sufficient, or linearity has to be addressed at the same time or no matter what is done in the NPC department, the game will still fail to appeal (ie a player gets to Chapter 3 and dialogues or no dialogues, the story doesn't keep him/her and s/he goes back to his/her 111th run through Baldur's Gate 2).

[Raven_Song]

I think have "interactable" NPC's will help a lot, although you might be right in that it might not be enough. For me the killer with IWD2 is the Ice Temple, I really loathe that section of the game, and if I'm going to quit at any point it will be there. I seem to recall there being discussion about least favourite sextions of the game (possibly at Gamebanshee) and it was frequently the middle chapters that were the most unpopular.

[Domi]

I introduced a shortcut for Fell Forest, the section that I've heard lots of complains about - I hope it will help. Maybe if I ever decide on doing that Priestess of Talos I talked about, she can be anointed with the short cut through the ice temple. Hopefully, with NPCs I can lure more people into playing IWD2, and then there will be more ideas on how to make the game more upbeat, address the slow-down portions etc. Though I have to say that BG2 suffers from the same problem (Underdark for example with its mandatory 'spend time' directive). ANyway, I'd better go back to work to get those NPC talking

[berelinde]

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

 

A: One bite at a time.

 

Interactable NPCs *will* help. Linearity issues can be Phase IV (after romance), or phase XLIIIviii, however it works out. And once you get people playing, you'll have people modding, and you won't be doing all the work yourself.

 

There are bound to be more people like me who just couldn't get into IWD because of the lack of interaction. The IWD2 NPC Project will keep them happy for a while, trying out different NPC combinations, until you figure out what to do with other parts of the game.

[BigRob]

Interaction with/between the NPCs will be amajor bosst for the game. Linearity will be something that can be solved in phases.

 

For example, your ideas to enable the party to make deals with certain factions within the world will break up the flow of the game quite a bit. You might have to go from place to place in a certain order, but at least you'll be able to change how things turn out, instead of chatting uselessly with plot NPCs before the inevitable exchange of violence.