This could be a new Neverwinter nights type game.

[Legacy_Asymmetric]

               

Hmm, could you link anything official confirming this? In the gameplay videos they shown, there definitely was branching dialogue (well, at least the character could choose to accept the quest, to refuse the quest, or to ask for payment in advance for the quest, as far as I remember). And I thought I heard one of the devs say in one of their demonstration videos that you would be able to add custom companions in your campaigns.

 

Well, there is next to nothing official in the forums or on their homepage. For that one has to watch their stream closely and it's hard to find afterwards. I can only give you forum posts like this or this. Dialog Editing is limited to three text areas: I think it's first talk, accepted and completed for a quest/npc. I didn't catch a good look on that.

The payment in advance thing was from the campaign. You can add a companion from the original campaign (see here or here), but won't be able to create your own. However on other occasions they said only 1 character per player in custom campaigns.

If you want to be sure you'll have wait till next week, when the early access begins. Only then will we have definite answers.

 

All those things seem to be implemented already, as they are in the original campaign but the players don't have access to it. If I had to take a guess they aren't doing it, because they want people to buy their story dlc. Maybe a year from release, after the popularity ebbed away. Still, I feel they are focusing on dm mode and dungeon crawls, which is fine, but not nearly enough for me.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MayCaesar]

               

Well, there is next to nothing official in the forums or on their homepage. For that one has to watch their stream closely and it's hard to find afterwards. I can only give you forum posts like this. Dialog Editing is limited to three text areas: I think it's first talk, accepted and completed for a quest/npc. I didn't catch a good look on that.

The payment in advance thing was from the campaign. You can add a companion from the original campaign (see here or here), but won't be able to create your own. However on other occasions they said only 1 character per player in custom campaigns.

If you want to be sure you'll have wait till next week, when the early access begins. Only then will we have definite answers.

 

All those things seem to be implemented already, as their are in the original campaign but the players don't have access to it. If I had to take a guess they aren't doing it, because they want people to buy their story dlc. Maybe a year from release, after the popularity ebbed away. Still, I feel they are focusing on dm mode and dungeon crawls, which is fine, but not nearly enough for me.

 

Hmm, if this is true, it is a huge letdown. At least, they add "at launch" at the end of the sentence for everything they say, so there is a good chance that branching dialogues and custom companions will be implemented at some point. I can live without branching dialogues for a while, but no custom companions means that I won't be making anything big in the toolset, until such an option appears. Without custom companions, created modules will look more like Diablo than anything else.

 

After careful study of the forums and the official information, I can say that this game seems to be focusing mostly on dungeons and combat, and the toolset is intended for creation of dungeons with little story to them. With some added functionality to the toolset, such as branching dialogues and basic scripts, it should be possible to create large story-based modules... I just hope it is added sooner rather than later.

 

This is the first game in my life I pre-ordered. I hope my incredibly big expectations do not result in frustration.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kamal_]

               

Hmm, if this is true, it is a huge letdown. At least, they add "at launch" at the end of the sentence for everything they say, so there is a good chance that branching dialogues and custom companions will be implemented at some point.

Perhaps I am jaded but I view "at launch..." as 'please buy our game based on vague promises, promises of features we don't intend to implement but by then we'll have your money so too late for you'. Most non-mmo games don't seem to tend to get too many big features patched in after launch.

 

In my opinion they are making the tools for a DMing dungeon crawler, and marketing is issuing vague promises to get some extra sales from the people hoping for deep rpg creation because of the DnD license. There's nothing inherently wrong with a dungeon crawler, I like Torchlight, Titan Quest etc, I even liked the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games. But those games didn't pretend to be something they were not. I get annoyed when marketing promises a game will be all things to all people.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_werelynx]

               

BG:DA (not sure if whole) was remade by Udasu in his FA1: Halls of the High King.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MayCaesar]

               

Perhaps I am jaded but I view "at launch..." as 'please buy our game based on vague promises, promises of features we don't intend to implement but by then we'll have your money so too late for you'. Most non-mmo games don't seem to tend to get too many big features patched in after launch.

 

In my opinion they are making the tools for a DMing dungeon crawler, and marketing is issuing vague promises to get some extra sales from the people hoping for deep rpg creation because of the DnD license. There's nothing inherently wrong with a dungeon crawler, I like Torchlight, Titan Quest etc, I even liked the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games. But those games didn't pretend to be something they were not. I get annoyed when marketing promises a game will be all things to all people.

 

 

Yes, it is often the case... However in this particular case I see that the developers are very enthusiastic about making a game that will appeal to people. I spent a lot of time on their forums yesterday, and there is a real dialog on permanent basis going between the devs and the players. Particularly, tile-to-tile area building and branching dialogues have been noted by one of the game designers in a couple of threads, and it is clear they are going to seriously consider adding them into the game. In fact, they resemble Witcher developers to me a lot in how casual they are at talking to players - and all Witcher games were significantly improved in patches coming after the release.

 

Then, of course, I might be having a wishful thinking. It just pains me to think of how much potential could be wasted by turning this game into a cash cow. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               

I still like the graphics and the ambience +the setting and I might buy it just for the action after i watched 3 episodes of a lets play. But if there are to many "magic circles" appearing here and there almost anytime you do something or anything is placed in a colored whirlwind while in combat I will not. I realy dont like these overused circles of idiocy to tell you how stupid you are in todays "rpgs"...

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MayCaesar]

               

I realy dont like these overused circles of idiocy to tell you how stupid you are in todays "rpgs"...

 

I can totally relate to this. When I watch boss fights in raids in WoW on Youtube, I cannot quite understand what is the point of this all, if all those circles and helper addons tell you every second what you need to do and where you need to move.

 

That said, most RPGs let you turn off things like this, and I doubt SCL will be any different.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               

Hopefully so. But when i remember the lead dev. saying that the "toolset" should be useable by an 8 year old... i dont know. When the toolset is useable by an 8 year old in todays gaming environment and this hint points to the target audience which might be between 8 and 14 be sure that there will be lots of fancy bling blings all over the place while combating. I´ll just wait and watch a lets play before i say anything further in speculation '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MayCaesar]

               

I asked the devs on forums whether they are going to offer the advanced toolset for people that know something about programming and design - but they haven't come back to me with it yet. I really hope that the toolset will be more functional than it is now after a few patches. Let's just wait and see. The game should be out for pre-orderers by the end of the next week, if I'm not mistaken, and I will try to make something in the editor right away.

 

That is, if I don't give in to the temptation to start Planescape: Torment walkthrough I am having right now. If I do, then it is unlikely that I will be out of "no life" mode until the end of this month or so. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Asymmetric]

               

I found an unofficial FAQ. If the campaign is decent and they don't go overboard with DLC I might get it, else I'll wait for a GotY Edition in a few years or so. I'd only play the campaign and otherwise stick to NWN for the foreseeable future.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kamal_]

               

Hopefully so. But when i remember the lead dev. saying that the "toolset" should be useable by an 8 year old... i dont know. 

 

One of my truisms is that if you make a toolset anyone can use, anyone can use it.

 

Basically that boils down to when the tools are usable by anyone, the community gets overwhelmed with quickly, easily produced junk. See for instance the Neverwinter Online Foundry, I was in the Foundry beta, things are so restricted and streamlined I made five quests in two weeks (about 90 minutes of gameplay made in the official game content style). Those quests were an embarrassment by nwn quest standards due to the limits of the tools, but were better than what the community was generally turning out. They got lost under the sheer number of "fight the Power Rangers lol" and the like. There was quality work made by other authors that got similarly buried.

 

When the tools are so complex it takes a team of PhD's to create something, then the community will starve because there won't be any content. When any eight year old can make something, the community will be overwhelmed with content made by eight year olds. The bar is best when it's somewhere in between (as in nwn1/2). If you have to put some thought and effort into creating content, you will think more about and put more effort into the quality of what you are making. The bar of complexity to make something means that only people who are more serious about things can create content, and this means the community gets better average content without needing to wade through so much junk.

 

At any rate, the game is out from under NDA on September 11th for people who are in their pre-order/beta program (not me), so there should be twitch and youtube videos of gameplay and toolset done by actual players and not the devs shortly enough.

 

Incidentally in SCL's case I predict that if the toolset is so simple an eight year old can make content, most content will be made by eight year olds.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

When the tools are so complex it takes a team of PhD's to create something, then the community will starve because there won't be any content.

I need to get my eyes checked. I read that as "a team of PHoDs".

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kamal_]

               

I need to get my eyes checked. I read that as "a team of PHoDs".

The world is not ready for such a thing. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MayCaesar]

               

I think people generally are overly pessimistic about other people's interests. While it is true that the majority of people aren't very demanding in what they want to read, watch, play, listen to and so on, there is a solid percentage of people in, pretty much, every field that are interested in a higher quality mods. I don't know much about Foundry, but I don't think Foundry is the best example, since NWO is an MMO, and MMOs naturally rarely attract people interested in the story or deep gameplay, they are centered around endless and mindless grind. I have played WoW and SWTOR for a couple of months each for the story (KotoR and Warcraft RTS series are among my all time favorites), but the experience was less than satisfactory.

 

SCL is another story. It is a D&D game, with top view, without shiny AAA Witcher 3-like graphics... Far from a mainstream game, closer to the niche category. I'm pretty sure the player base left after a few months of "hot cake period" (I think I just devised a new English slang sentence, didn't I?) will, generally, be quite interested in playing high quality modules, not endless "OMG dragons lololol v. 1.04" cheap "campaigns". At least, there certainly will be a sub-category of players and modders interested in this, so you will always find something interesting to play and someone to play your interesting products.

 

So far reading the forums gives me a lot of hope. Most people seem to be really interested in D&D gameplay, in the lore, in campaign creation. There have been countless petitions to add scripting, branching dialogue, custom model import... Surely, there will be a lot of, as you call it, "junk", but it shouldn't be hard to find what you want to play and to ignore the junk. 

 

The most modding experience I've had was in Warcraft 3 editor. In Warcraft 3, there are hundreds thousands custom maps uploaded all over the Internet. 99.9% or so of them aren't worth looking at. But those hundreds of gems people have made over the years are resting in "halls of fame", thematic compilations, or actively played online. Poor maps die out very fast, while high quality maps persist and, over the years, are noticed by many players, that then carry them in the masses. Again, pretty much like NWN: in NWN1, there is a lot of trash, but you can be sure that playing something from a Hall of Fame, or with a rating of over 8/10 on the old Vault, is probably not a waste of time.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Snottling]

               

NWN was quite limited when it was released, in terms of creatures, placeables and so on. But, it still had a lot more to offer than SCL seems to have. Still, I find SCL intriguing. Most important of all - the setting. Forgotten Realms has been my home for many, many years in gaming. Having played the old gold box games and the EoB series and read a ton of FR novels, I just feel at home in Faerûn. So, when a new FR-game is released, I have to check it out.

 

This particular one has some interesting aspects, like the way an adventure can be set up in a flash. Great for a quick session with friends or family. I'm not a fan of the 4th and 5th edition lore, but I can live with it in a game where storytelling isn't key. To me, this game is a different view of FR. Quick-paced action and on the fly decisions. For me, a new way of gaming, but perhaps a fresh breath of air? NWN has grown a tad old in some ways, but the joy and satisfaction of creating a bit of Faerûn, then populate it and let other players discover and experience the stories that -I- have created, weighs much heavier than random computer generated areas.

 

We'll see. Maybe this game will get better over time, like NWN did and still does. But, hey - SCL is ultimately an FR game. Limited toolset or not. '>