IWD:EE - My Theory to Satisfy Everybody
Ward
Member Posts: 1,305
EDITEDIT: Can you guys please give reasons for your vote? No point in voting if you can't speak.
I enjoyed Icewind Dale and I speak as one who is not a regular gamer. I lack such time for playing and the few games I have played are of such quality, regardless of their irrelevant and simple design (most of them being very old).
The story of IWD is one of such quality, but it's not cared for only because of some minor complaints. How do we remedy this now?
So we need to find out what makes a quality game. There are many games on the market now, but they don't serve the purpose they would have 12 years ago. We've reached a height in gaming technology and this allows us to enjoy new features.
These games are highly detailed, articulated and conceived, their programmers are clever in the fields of design and business. These games are marketed for a mass audience, therefore variety is required, as well as artistry which does not conflict with your taste.
This is the mark of a quality game, artistry. Games such as Diablo 3, Dragon Age, Skryim, Call of Duty Series and NWN2 lack artistry, because of their market.
Icewind Dale features:
-> Customly hand drawn area artwork, not generated by a 3D engine.
-> Smooth and sound 2D animations, featuring inbuilt lighting, shading and shadow (rather than a 3D engine's area lighting and plain animations).
-> Attractive 3D effects for explosions and spells.
-> Complete and original musical score devised to compliment gameplay.
-> Voice acting, featuring Jim Cummings (Arundel and Hrothgar). Other superb voices come from Yxunomei, Kresselak, Larrel, the Narrator and Poquelin.
-> Portraits by the wonderful Jason Manley, featuring artwork done in a medium such as watercolour and not 3D generated.
-> "All of these little things, like the story of Everard and understanding Jerrod. The betrayal of the shopkeep in Easthaven. The fisherman drunkard sobering up and you coming home to find him drunk again. The magical sword which you use to defeat the demon. The story of Kresselak, Yxunomei, the Severed Hand, Dorn's Deep and everything from there."
These are things all the games of today lack. Artistry is the foundation of a game, without it, it has no soul. What are the things which IWD lacks, for many of, the players today?
-> Custom six player games are time consuming to create.
-> No NPCs in the game to join, to allow light conversation.
-> Not enough side quests and ability to roam.
-> Not enough kits, items, general build related qualities.
-> Not enough 'main story', the plot is watered out by fighting.
These are all fair enough, despite that I disagree with half of them. What can we do to make us happy?
1. Add more pregenerated characters to import, or entirely pregenerated parties as featured in IWD2. For interactions, add 'generic banter' to the creation process of your characters. This will cause certain characters of your choosing to initate in a set of pre determined banters at random times.
2. Carefully design believable NPCs to place sparingly throughout the game. Due to the size of Easthaven and Kudahar, this limits the number of possible choices. 10 - 20 is not an option.
3. Add more side quests in the towns, such as the 'drunkard fisherman in Easthaven'. Add more areas which expand outwards from the snowy game.
4. Create new kits specific for the setting and borrow some from BG.
5. Don't remove the fighting, add more opportunities for the main story to become relevant during the game.
I enjoyed Icewind Dale and I speak as one who is not a regular gamer. I lack such time for playing and the few games I have played are of such quality, regardless of their irrelevant and simple design (most of them being very old).
The story of IWD is one of such quality, but it's not cared for only because of some minor complaints. How do we remedy this now?
So we need to find out what makes a quality game. There are many games on the market now, but they don't serve the purpose they would have 12 years ago. We've reached a height in gaming technology and this allows us to enjoy new features.
These games are highly detailed, articulated and conceived, their programmers are clever in the fields of design and business. These games are marketed for a mass audience, therefore variety is required, as well as artistry which does not conflict with your taste.
This is the mark of a quality game, artistry. Games such as Diablo 3, Dragon Age, Skryim, Call of Duty Series and NWN2 lack artistry, because of their market.
Icewind Dale features:
-> Customly hand drawn area artwork, not generated by a 3D engine.
-> Smooth and sound 2D animations, featuring inbuilt lighting, shading and shadow (rather than a 3D engine's area lighting and plain animations).
-> Attractive 3D effects for explosions and spells.
-> Complete and original musical score devised to compliment gameplay.
-> Voice acting, featuring Jim Cummings (Arundel and Hrothgar). Other superb voices come from Yxunomei, Kresselak, Larrel, the Narrator and Poquelin.
-> Portraits by the wonderful Jason Manley, featuring artwork done in a medium such as watercolour and not 3D generated.
-> "All of these little things, like the story of Everard and understanding Jerrod. The betrayal of the shopkeep in Easthaven. The fisherman drunkard sobering up and you coming home to find him drunk again. The magical sword which you use to defeat the demon. The story of Kresselak, Yxunomei, the Severed Hand, Dorn's Deep and everything from there."
These are things all the games of today lack. Artistry is the foundation of a game, without it, it has no soul. What are the things which IWD lacks, for many of, the players today?
-> Custom six player games are time consuming to create.
-> No NPCs in the game to join, to allow light conversation.
-> Not enough side quests and ability to roam.
-> Not enough kits, items, general build related qualities.
-> Not enough 'main story', the plot is watered out by fighting.
These are all fair enough, despite that I disagree with half of them. What can we do to make us happy?
1. Add more pregenerated characters to import, or entirely pregenerated parties as featured in IWD2. For interactions, add 'generic banter' to the creation process of your characters. This will cause certain characters of your choosing to initate in a set of pre determined banters at random times.
2. Carefully design believable NPCs to place sparingly throughout the game. Due to the size of Easthaven and Kudahar, this limits the number of possible choices. 10 - 20 is not an option.
3. Add more side quests in the towns, such as the 'drunkard fisherman in Easthaven'. Add more areas which expand outwards from the snowy game.
4. Create new kits specific for the setting and borrow some from BG.
5. Don't remove the fighting, add more opportunities for the main story to become relevant during the game.
- IWD:EE - My Theory to Satisfy Everybody74 votes
- I like these concepts and would like IWD:EE on this basis.47.30%
- I like these concepts, but would like to change a few things or add something else.25.68%
- I don't agree with these concepts, but I want an IWD:EE4.05%
- I don't agree and I don't want IWD:EE22.97%
Post edited by Ward on
4
Comments
Regarding BG kits (as I've said before), I'd much rather have the IWD2 engine applied to IWD1. Including the aforementioned improved/greater two weapon fighting, extend/quicken/empower etc spell and prestiges. If possible. The issue I have with Baldur's Gate kits is that IWD2 - like BG2 has it's own seperate gameplay style, it seems a shame to apply the BG2 format to IWD instead.
Using the IWD2 engine just makes more sense to me. It may be harder to implement but I stand by it. It also seems the more natural option, BG1 gets the BG2 benefits and IWD1 gets IWD2s.
The only issue I have with IWD2 is the GUI, which sucks HARD. Plus I prefer 2nd ed. I never played IWD2 purely because of how bad the GUI and how 3rd edition application was.
The problem, at least for me, is that in the absence of actual characterization, you don't feel any particular attachment to your party members. I mean, this is the same studio that made Planescape Torment, where I literally had tears in my eyes at the end when your party members start dying one by one. But IWD 1 and 2 doesn't allow that - no banter, no relationships, no personality quirks, just six generic adventurers doing exactly what you tell them to do at all times. The game is what it is, but I wouldn't object to having characters you can actually care about...
If one would add a few (not necessarily many) NPCs of a quality of BG2, then alone
this game would double in awesomeness.
If they should release an IWD EE then as Add-On, which contains bug fixes (e.g. negative hitpoint increase on level up is very annoying). The add-on part could either be a new low level, mid level or high level campaign. That would be up to the designers to decide. Of course the OPs suggestions could be considered for this new content.
After all IWD would offer more options for additional (either short, medium or long duration) campaigns. Probably as DLC? Create a party and play the level appropriate campaigns you like with the same party.
one of the things i loved about disgaea was that it had auto names. They were generic, but that's fine. i suck at naming things. when i write, i usually name them char 1 char 2 fchar 1 flovechar1, and then later ask people what i should name them. it's a pain, but we all have our faults.
Other then that, i 100% agree
Jason Compton (Kelsey, Dungeon-Be-Gone) was one of the modders involved in their creation and voicing. (Yes, they're fully voice-acted, not perfectly, but pretty well). You start the game with the party already together in East Haven, and you use them by importing their saved character files onto the game creation screen.
The only drawback to the way they had to do it is that the PC must stay in the party leader position for the whole game in order for the NPC's to run their comments to the player. That means it's really hard to play any non-tanking class. They will still run their banters and interesting stories with each other even if you don't lead, though.
I can find and post links if anyone is interested.
PS - Click "like" if you know and love Olver, Teri, Nella, Severn, and Korin; or Sir Nord, Hildury, Valeroo, Jamael, Rizdaer, Salomeya, Diriel, Nikosh, Peony and Prachi.
I do wish they had chosen more logical weapon proficiencies for the characters - most of them don't come with ANY ranged weapon proficiency, which is suicidal for low level characters. So I always use Dalekeeper to tweak them just a bit into tactically useable characters.
You can get a *little* bit of rpg feeling by using the vanilla voicesets and your imagination. Some of the lines are quite memorable - "A little fire and lightning should liven things up!" "(Lilarcor's voice): Welp, it looks like I'm going to have to go on a killing spree!" "(Deadpan and ironically sultry and flirtatious female voice): You should fear a woman's wrath."
Still, I'm at peace with IWD's deficiencies - it's just one of those things you accept when you pick up the game. That's not to say I wouldn't be thrilled if IWD:EE had NPCs, but... it is what it is, I guess.
I actually had a grand old time creating my party, a day well spent ensuring that they were all ubermensch.
I probably enjoyed IWD2 more than the first, just because it was completely different to BG/BG2/IWD1. Great battles, impressive eye candy and the weapon system was great too. Good story as well, despite what some people say.
It's a very different poll if you assume no delay in BG3.
Make good IWD:EE, Torment:EE (I don't like Torment, but I think they should do it) and THEN do BG3.
That said I agree with you, more side quests, and more kits/races would be nice.
I mention it because I just had a thread shut down by a moderator because I said something about IWD in it. Ironically, I was thanking them for letting us discuss IWD.
I guess I won't talk about it any more unless I see some kind of clear green light that it's okay to discuss IE games in general.