Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Interview
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GB: How many new spells and feats are being added with the expansion pack? Additionally, can you tell us more about the new Teamwork Benefit feats? Justin Reynard: We added over 90 new feats, epithets and Teamwork Benefits to Storm of Zehir. We've worked hard to make sure that there's something fun for just about every category to help make Storm of Zehir the richest D&D experience possible.
I was a big fan of the Jurassic Park movies (well, the first one, at least) so the addition of Dinosaur Companion is definitely one of my favorites.
Also, when creating your new characters don't miss the new Draconic, Fiendish and Fey Heritage Feats. These feats define your (lineage) so the first feat in the series can only be taken at level one. This leads to such future feats as Fiendish Power which increases your caster level for evil spells and warlock invocations by 1 and is great feat if you plan on trying to master the new Hellfire Warlock class...
We've also added nearly 30 new spells and over 25 class and racial abilities, many of which will have a defining impact on your Storm of Zehir experience. I'm not a very good NWN2 player, so personally the new spell Stabilize (2nd level Divine spell for Clerics and Paladins) which does an area heal effect for 1 hitpoint, stopping any of your characters from bleeding to death, has saved my party a few times.
GB: In addition to our customized four-member party, how many different "cohorts" will be available for us to recruit in Storm of Zehir and how will we gain access to them?
Brandon Adler: To help round-out the party constructed during character creation, you can encounter up to eleven cohorts - each with their own unique personalities. One thing to remember: encountering a cohort does not necessarily mean that they will follow you into battle. Some will only require that you ask for their help. Some may demand your assistance in completing a task. Others are little more than mercenaries. Regardless of which cohorts a player adventures with, he can always find a companion that fits within the group's dynamic.
GB: How different will the Storm of Zehir campaign be from the perspective of an entirely good party vs. an entirely evil one? Will there be multiple endings that depend on the choices made during the campaign?
Homer Parker: As with the other games in the Neverwinter Nights 2 series, your actions in the campaign will affect how NPCs treat your party in a variety of situations. Storm of Zehir, even more so than our previous games, allows the player to choose how he wants the adventure to unfold. Almost every problem can be resolved in multiple ways. Some may not be immediately obvious. Some may not be as simple as bad or good. Truly villainous players may indulge their selfish whims and augment their party by bargaining with a familiar evil.
The resolution of major plot arcs will, of course, have a significant effect on how the party's tale is told. I think that players will be pleased to find that even seemingly trivial decisions made during lesser plot arcs will help to tailor an ending that accurately depicts how they weathered the Storm of Zehir.
GB: Storm of Zehir, Mysteries of Westgate, and Patch 1.14... what order do you anticipate these being released in? Are there any additional tweaks that you'd like to make that aren't going to make it into v1.14?
Rich Taylor: The next Neverwinter Nights 2 product to be released is going to be Storm of Zehir. The version of the game that will be on the DVD is going to be called 1.20. This release will include the authentication system that was determined to be a pre-requisite by Atari before Mysteries of Westgate could be released. Last I heard from Atari's QA department, everything should be ready for MoW with the release of Storm of Zehir. There will be an update on the day this new expansion releases in order to update all of the clients with Neverwinter Nights 2 installed that don't have the new expansion. This will bring all installations up to version 1.21. The next update after 1.21 will be released sometime in the next few months and will be referred to as 1.22. There's a number of exciting changes planned for the 1.22 update, but we'll wait until its contents are a more definite thing before going into much detail on them.
GB: What's next for the Neverwinter Nights franchise? If approached, would Obsidian Entertainment be interested in working on a Neverwinter Nights 3 or even a Neverwinter Nights Online MMO?
Rob McGinnis: Well, after Storm of Zehir is released (and a short break), the patching will resume. We have some great things coming out for NWN2 in the patches, such as the autodownloader system by community member GrinningFool. This feature will allow players to automatically download content from a multiplayer server whenever they connect. No more searching for the server's website. No more cryptic error messages.
I think a Neverwinter Nights 3 would be a great opportunity for Obsidian. We have learned a lot over the relatively short time we have been involved with NWN. We have done some cool things with the Neverwinter series, but we have made some mistakes as well. I think that if we were to work on a Neverwinter 3 we would do a lot of things differently. We love Dungeons & Dragons and we really enjoy making a community-focused game. A NWN3 set in the 4th edition Forgotten Realms would be interesting to say the least - the Spellplague and other disasters have left the cities of Neverwinter and Luskan in ruins, rifts to long-forgotten worlds have opened, Thay has transformed... That is the perfect setting for one of our dark stories.
A Forgotten Realms MMO is an interesting concept, too. I wouldn't mind working on it. I am sure others here would like to as well. But for now, Obsidian's involvement with MMOs is on the player side of things.
So, is there a third expansion or a Neverwinter Nights 3 in the works? Time will tell...
Thanks for your time, guys!
