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Template:Future game

Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2) is a computer role-playing game currently in development by Obsidian Entertainment and to be published in October 2006 by Atari. It is the sequel to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights (NWN), a successful game based on the Dungeons & Dragons system. Where NWN was based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules, NWN2 will be based on Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition), somewhat changed to adapt to real-time gameplay.

Production, promotion and release

The original Neverwinter Nights was developed by BioWare. Rumors of a sequel came to fruition in July 2004, when Obsidian Entertainment announced they had begun production. Obsidian was founded by members of the defunct Black Isle Studios, which had worked with BioWare on the Baldur's Gate series. In December 2004 Obsidian released Knights of the Old Republic II, sequel to another BioWare game. NWN2 is being built using a significantly rewritten and updated version of NWN's Aurora engine, now called the "Electron engine". BioWare provides technical assistance for the engine.

Obsidian decided to switch from OpenGL to Microsoft's DirectX Graphics API for NWN2, anticipating an Xbox 360 port of the game that never came to pass . Consequently the sequel will be Windows-only, unlike its predecessor which also ran on Linux and Mac OS X. .

Release was initially expected to be some time in 2006. On April 12, 2006 an Obsidian spokesman said that a soon-to-come press release would specify a September 2006 release date.

The official website was launched on March 28, 2006, though as of April 2006, it contains very little new information. However, in the interviews that developers have given, they have mainly been very proud with their work and confident that the community will enjoy the game. The first official screenshots were small black and white images of early models and were published in the manual of Atari's Dragonshard game, released in September 2005. The first full-size color screenshots were exclusively granted for an article in the December issue of the PC Gamer magazine, available in some US stores from October 10, 2005. The general response to these screenshots from the community has been very positive.

Various screenshots and low-resolution videos have surfaced in the weeks leading up to, and during E3 2006. Most notably, an official trailer was released to the game's website immediately preceding the event. Unlike the lower quality videos circulating on the internet, the trailer shows no actual gameplay, but appears to be the game's opening cinematic.

Production Team

• Frank Kowalkowski - Lead Programmer
• Josh Sawyer - Lead Designer
• Ferret Baudoin - Lead Designer - Left March 2006 to join BioWare
• Tramell Ray Isaac - Lead Artist
• Darren Monohan - Producer

Features

The following is a list of features which have either been confirmed or excluded. Information here has been compiled from the official website forums

General

• Gameplay
  • Very similar to original game
  • Rules for Dungeons & Dragons upgraded from 3E to 3.5E
• Software specific
  • Windows-only
  • Completely re-written graphics rendering engine (Electron engine)
    • Uses Microsoft's DirectX 9 and Pixel Shader 2.0b, 2.0a and 3.0
      • Although only 2.0 will be required to play the game as well as a 128mb video card

Game Client

• Interface
  • More flexible and customizable game interface and camera controls
    • Windows can be resized, customized, and dragged around via XML
    • Inventory icons are now all same size
  • Original radial menu system now replaced with context menu system similar to Fallout 2
• Party Support
  • Multi-player support
  • Party control has been improved with full party control confirmed with up to 3 NPC's
    • Party system revised to include 'Companions' rather than 'henchmen'. Commands are now easier to issue.
• Character Creation
  • Advanced character customization
    • Scaling of characters and monsters
    • Deeper equipment customization
  • Support for subraces
  • Portraits are removed and replaced with 3D avatars of the player, similar to KOTOR
  • All base classes from NWN
    • Addition of warlock base class
    • Confirmed that characters can choose up to 4 classes now instead of 3 (one is reserved for a prestige class)
  • All prestige classes from NWN (Except the Shifter which has been removed)
    • Addition of the Arcane trickster
    • Confirmed Champion of Torm renamed to Divine Champion
    • Confirmed Harper Scout renamed to Harper Agent
  • High level spells such as Timestop will not be included
  • Level cap is 20th level
  • Support for many of the Forgotten Realms deities based on characters alignment, race and class
• Skills
  • A more complete Crafting system has been implemented using appropriate skills
    • Visual customization of weapons and armor can only be done when the item is created

Dungeon Master client

The current plans as of Wednesday, May 17th in regards to the delay of the DM client shipping with the finished game were posted in this forum topic here.

An excerpt from the above link addresses the DM client issue in official capacity:

"We looked at a number of different scenarios and the best one that the team decided upon is to release the DM Client in full as a download the same day of the release. So while it will not ship in the box it will come out with the game. That's the official word as of today."

Toolset

• Completely re-written using C#
• Improved to allow for multiple windows to be opened at once
• Design your own modules to distribute to others or host on the Internet for online play
• Some game content, including NWScript and dialogs will be directly importable from Neverwinter Nights
• Exteriors now use a heightmap instead of tilesets

Official Campaign

• General
  • A pool of 10 NPC's are available to join your party
  • Players will be able to build their own strongholds
• Subraces
  • Shield dwarves
  • Gold dwarves
  • Grey dwarves (duergar)
  • Dark elves (drow)
  • Moon elves
  • Sun elves
  • Wood elves
  • Deep gnomes (svirfneblin)
  • Rock gnomes
  • Lightfoot halfling
  • Strongheart halfling
  • Aasimar
  • Tiefling
• New characters
  • Jalboun of the Two Blades
  • King of Shadows
  • Lord Nasher Alagondar will return
• Locations
  • The city of Neverwinter
  • A new village named West Harbor
  • Mere of Dead Men

Confirmed exclusions

The following is a list of confirmation about features which will not be in the initial release. It remains possible that some or all of these features may be added in future expansion packs.

• Epic levels have been removed.
• The Shifter Prestige Class has been removed.
• Modules cannot be directly imported (builders can import scripts and dialogs, however).
• Psionics will not be implemented, although illithid NPC's will have psionic-like powers. (This was considered a design decision; psionic abilites would require the addition of a separate ruleset).
• Riding will not be implemented in the initial release, although non-rideable horses may be included.
• Skills such as sense motive, climb, swim, and jump are not included.
• Flight and levitation will not be included. The Electron engine uses 2.5D geometry like the original, meaning that while rendered in true 3D, the dimension of height has no impact on gameplay.
• There will be no Mac or Linux versions at initial release, and Atari has no plans to create them in-house. A porting developer would need to obtain a license from Atari and rewrite their code.

Official campaign

The official campaign will be set around the City of Neverwinter, although it will not be a continuation of the NWN campaigns. It has been stated that a character playing through the official campaigns of NWN and its two expansion packs will have reached around level 30, so there is little that will be a credible 'challenge' to those players. In the NWN2 campaign, players will start from level 1, and there will be a level 20 maximum. The official fact sheet says:

Bards sing tales of heroes from ages past, but never have the Forgotten Realms so desperately needed a champion. Years have passed since the war between Luskan and Neverwinter, almost enough time for the wounds of war to heal. But the brief peace the Realms have known may be at an end. Tension growing between the mighty city-states means the Sword Coast again teeters on the edge of open war. Unnoticed, a greater danger stalks the City of Skilled Hands. Unbeknownst to the denizens of the North, deep in the Mere of Dead Men, dark forces from across the Realms have been rallied under the banner of a legendary evil. If left unchallenged, all of the North is doomed to fall under its power.

Even in this darkest hour, hope remains. A mysterious relic is borne to Neverwinter in the hands of a lone hero so that its secrets may be unlocked - secrets that carry the fate of all the North. So begins an epic tale of shattered alliances, noble acts and dark deeds to be told across the Realms for generations to come.

References

1. TVG Interview with Feargus U on DirectX
2. NWN2 Forums: The Linux/Mac Sticky
3. Forum topic indicating release date
4. Nwvault article
5. Neverwinter Nights 2 Official Forum
6. "ToTheGame - Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC) - Previews, Reviews, Interviews, Screenshots, Cheats, Release Date". Retrieved 2006-03-17.

External links

• Official site
• Official NWN2 forums (hosted by BioWare)
• NWN2.Warcry (NWN2 community)
• NWVault Factsheet
• NWN2Wiki Neverwinter Nights 2 Wiki
• NWCitadel Community content collaboration site
• Sorcerer's Place (extensive coverage of all modern (A)D&D computer games)
• NeverWiki Neverwinter Nights 2 Wiki
• E3 Coveage 2006 15 minute on camera interview with Patrick from the E3 2006 Show Floor showing off the game and toolset.

• 2006 computer and video games
• Neverwinter Nights
• Windows games