NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer - Interview @ Sorcerer's Place

Sorcerer's Place has a nifty interview with Obsidian's Nathaniel Chapman on NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer. Here's an excerpt on the refined influence system:

SP: The influence system is said to have been improved or even redesigned. Could you please cast some light on this?
Nathaniel Chapman: The influence system is something that we’ve used in all of our games so far, and it’s something we’ve given a lot of thought to in Mask of the Betrayer. We’ve done a lot to improve both visibility and reactivity. In Mask, you can open up any of your companion’s character sheets and see your influence level with them. In addition, influence is broken down into broad levels based on the current value, and at higher levels companions will both gain feats that make them stronger and grant the player feats that make him or her stronger. Additionally, if you lose enough influence with companions, they may choose to leave your party, or even attack you. As a result, the companions feel much more responsive and you feel a lot more rewarded for currying favor with them.

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More information.

Like the look of the new Genesi race. I expect they'll be letting you play a githyanki before the series is through.

I am starting to look forward to this, though. After that cliffhanger ending, maybe I do need "closure" with Casovir( not to mention the plot).

I am very hopeful with this one ... c'mon, Obsidian, now wait until it is *ready* before releasing it!

SP: In the same interview, Feargus Urquhart said the story picked up where the original game ended, but the story is meant to make it equally playable for those who haven't played the official campaign first. That also means new companions. New companions probably means new romance. Will the old active romance with Elanee or Casavir be concluded somehow before a new one begins or is it left totally for the player's imagination to figure out?

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OK, really, what is the deal with people? This is important? Romances in games are completely one dimensional and don't do anything. How do people have any feelings for those characters? Why do these people think it's such a great idea in these games when it's so poorly implemented?

mactbone said:

OK, really, what is the deal with people? This is important? Romances in games are completely one dimensional and don't do anything. How do people have any feelings for those characters? Why do these people think it's such a great idea in these games when it's so poorly implemented?

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Yes, for me the companions and the romance were important. Actually the most important bit of the game and the only thing that had me finish it, because the story and the combat weren't that good.

I won't pick up the expansion, couldn't care less for it to be honest. The only reason would have been to continue the story with the party my character had built up, and since that won't happen I'll wait for the next Bioware game, rather then buy yet another unfinished product by Obsidian.

mactbone said:

OK, really, what is the deal with people? This is important? Romances in games are completely one dimensional and don't do anything. How do people have any feelings for those characters? Why do these people think it's such a great idea in these games when it's so poorly implemented?

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I do like them quite a bit - like all of the inter-party banter, really. No they aren't great, and yes they are basically a Q&A quest, but it is still fun ... for me anyway.

Q&A?

Übereil

Ubereil said:

Q&A?

Übereil

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Question and answer - like with Bastilla or any of the ones in BG2 ... you say the right things, ask the right questions, and you advance the 'quest'.

Questions and Answers.

LE: nvm

OK, thanks.

I've started playing the game again, have done the first quests in Neverwinter, and it's only in act 2 you started running into them. Before this is was fetch the item/person quests and clean the area quests, which are even more uninspiring IMO.

Nothing wrong with Q&A's. The problem in NWN 2 is that they're too simple IMO.The first time I ran into them was in the Neverwinter Watch quests, where you were to check into four quardposts and find out if the guars were being bribed. Not exactlly difficult to do this when the first thing the guard said was "I'm being bribed and I love it!"... I mean, the important thing with quests (IMO) is that they challenge you, and when it comes to Q&A's that means they have to be tricky. Talking to one guy who straight out sais what you want him to isn't exactlly tricky. Especially not as they've allso only included three options to say (one stupid, one good, one evil).

Übereil

I remember a game I once played ... I thought I had given the "right" answer to express my rather neutrality ... it turned out that I was wrong and the NPCs tuurned relatively hostile on me (it was an adventure game).

That way I learned the leson that some answers must be formulated in a way that they are absoluttely CLEAR in what they mean - and don't allow too much interpretations which won't fit into the scheme/pattern/story of the people who developed the game. Mis-interpretations. Unexpected ones.

Many years later, this thought led me to the rule that a slight exaggeration (of a formulation) is good, because it makes things clearer - like satire, for example.
I once read a text explaining netiquette - and I learned far more about it than any text book would be able to do it - because it was highly ironic and exaggerating.
It was like Magerette's "let's try to do a contest of how many topics a thread can hold !"