"You can import your BG2 character into Neverwinter Nights!"

Ignatius_J_Reilly

Remember this loading screen tip from the original BG2? Of course, it's obvious why it was never implemented - not only was there a transition from AD&D 2e to 3e, but your character would have been at an extremely high level by the end of BG2, making a play-through of NWN a breeze.

That said, I'm curious as to what BioWare's original intent behind this "feature" was. How was the difference in levels going to be handled? Was there going to be some sort of "plot hook" to tie the BG story into NWN? Or was it simply an idea that was discarded very early on?

Aewyrven

Nwn wasn't released yet. It was the *expansion* to the baldurs gate series. Bg bg2soa bg2tob are respectively *another book in the series* continuation of your story line from bg1 candle keep to ToB you becoming a god. Nwn is the aftermath of baldurs gate with a new set of hero's and a new story. *a new series set in the same world*

There were issues due to the rules etc changes back then but there were also coding changes to take into consideration. (Full 3d vs top down) (rulesets) ect.

Think of bg series more as the hobbit series and nwn as lotr. Same world. Different plots. Can't cross char it except for camos.

SharGuidesMyHand

I may be wrong, but I believe one of the reasons that this wasn't implemented was that Black Isle dissolved after ToB and another studio took over the making of NWN.

Also, the only reason that I bought NWN was because of all those promises that I could import my character into it. You can imagine my disappointment/anger when I discovered that I couldn't.

Stormvessel

The thing that ticks me off about NWN is the first expansion was made for a low level character. It's like - what's the point of even going through the first game now? The expansion was better anyway.

marzbarz

If anything it would just reset the character to level 1 and most likely just use that build for a new game using the backstory for making a new guy?

That's my guess. I doubt it would have been anything fancy lol

chaosapiant

SharGuidesMyHand said:

I may be wrong, but I believe one of the reasons that this wasn't implemented was that Black Isle dissolved after ToB and another studio took over the making of NWN.

Also, the only reason that I bought NWN was because of all those promises that I could import my character into it. You can imagine my disappointment/anger when I discovered that I couldn't.

Black Isle had nothing to do with ToB or NWN. Bioware made those games. Black Isle handled the Icewind Dale games and Planescape: Torment.

Feilakas

Stormvessel said:

The thing that ticks me off about NWN is the first expansion was made for a low level character. It's like - what's the point of even going through the first game now? The expansion was better anyway.

Actually the two expansions were based on the fact that it was an entirely different character than the one in the OC.

Somewhere in the 2nd (And far better IMO) expansion, Hordes of the Underdark you come across a certain character that was instrumental to the story of the OC and that character did not recognize you, that happened even if you DID use the same character for both stories and even if you did carry with you a certain personal item of said character.

marzbarz said:

If anything it would just reset the character to level 1 and most likely just use that build for a new game using the backstory for making a new guy?
That's my guess. I doubt it would have been anything fancy lol

Since I did in fact use the same character I can tell you it didn't reset or indeed touched him in any way.
As a result, SoU became boring as I was OP through most of it but by HotU I was level-appropriate, actually after the 1/3 it had become increasingly challenging.

Vitor

Can't we have a Neverwinter game in IE? I really hate the 3D in Neverwinter Nights...

Feilakas

Can't agree, I didn't mind it one bit, granted I played it as zoomed-out as possible, didn't see the point in 3rd perspective with a group

Ammar

The main thing that struck me about NWN is how absurd the story began. There is a mysterious plague and the solution they try is building some sort of Academy for Heroes?

JumboWheat01

I was always of the opinion that the academy was already there (perhaps to try and make mercenaries and adventurers more "by the rules,") but I do say it's absurd to think that there was any secrecy there at all to hide things to help cure the plague there.

Halfwise

@Ammar

The OC certainly had its rough patches, but the expansions: SOU/HOU... those were gold.
*misses Deekin*

toolarg

Ammar said:

The main thing that struck me about NWN is how absurd the story began. There is a mysterious plague and the solution they try is building some sort of Academy for Heroes?

The academy was already there but the plot was still absurd. The PC just graduated and they choose him to go after all the creatures and try to save the city. In the meantime Aribeht and co do jack shit.

Also, Aribeth was a paladin right? how didnt she sense the evil of the false helmites? they were all around the city and their leader was right next to her.

JumboWheat01

Perhaps she simply wasn't focused enough. There's certainly enough evil in the city to muddle the sense of certain characters being evil. Perhaps the plague itself gave off an evil aura, messing with that sense as well.

Or perhaps she was just so naive in thinking that there's no way a Helmite could be evil (which they can be, following Realms worshiping law.)

As for sending along a lowly low-level adventurer out to do all the good in the city, yeah, that is quite silly. There must be SOME high-level adventurers they could use to make absolutely sure.

Halfwise

IIRC, I believe the reason they chose the PC to go after the Waterdaevian creatures was because when the academy was attacked, everyone else was slaughtered, and they were the only student to not only survive, but also fight back and make it out.

Then there are lots of other things going on in the city... the undead, the prison break, riots... and your technically not supposed to deal with those. You are supposed to get the creatures and get back. But these problems happen to be in your way, so your like "no worries everyone, I got this."

I think canonically, the mercenaries also played a stronger role than we really saw. In later expansions, they helped save the city. In the OC, all except one is sitting in the bar on their thumbs.

JumboWheat01

That's definitely a point of story/gameplay segregation. NWN had a horrible party system (especially the OC, where you couldn't even change their equipment!) one thing I'm glad they fixed in the sequel.