Neverwinter Nights Expansions

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(Originally posted by Mollusken)

BioWare will announce two new expansion packs for Neverwinter Nights tomorrow. The first one is called The Shadows of Undrentide, and it's being co-developed with FloodGate Entertainment. The second one, which is developed by BioWare, does not have a name yet. GameSpot has got two interviews with the developers of each of the expansions, with Paul Neurath and Rick Ernst from FloodGate Entertainment and Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka from BioWare. Here's a few of the questions from each of them.

Shadows of the Undrentide:

What does the title "Shadows of Undrentide" refer to?

Rick Ernst: In the Forgotten Realms there was once a nation of powerful wizards called Netheril. So great was Netherese magic that they lived in massive cities that would float through the air. Unchecked ambition destroyed their civilization and sent their cities crashing into the ground (doesn't it always?). Generations later the ruined cities are still filled with powerful magics and fell beasts. Undrentide is one of these cities.

The announcement of an official expansion to Neverwinter Nights comes as little surprise, since you've always stated your intentions to expand upon the core game. What are the biggest changes that players can expect from this expansion?

Paul Neurath: Well, we're really not trying to change the game so much as expand it. The initial Neverwinter Nights game covers a lot of ground, but even so, the Forgotten Realms is an amazingly rich fantasy world. Most everyone who's played Neverwinter Nights has a favorite monster, spell, or weapon that they'd like to see added to the game. So what we're doing with the Shadows of Undrentide expansion is adding a stack of new material and then building a new campaign to show it all off. The biggest additions would have to be the three new tilesets we've cooked up, a winter version of the rural tileset, plus a new desert and ruins tileset.

Second untitled expansion:

We weren't surprised by your announcement of the Shadows of Undrentide expansion for Neverwinter Nights. But we're a bit confused about why you would announce another, unnamed expansion at the same time. Can you enlighten us?

Ray Muzyka: Like our publisher Infogrames, at BioWare we have long-term plans to support our Neverwinter fan community with the BioWare Live/Community Team, and the two expansion packs we've announced are part of this plan. The first expansion pack is being developed in collaboration with another developer (FloodGate), and we have also been working on an expansion pack that is in development solely at BioWare, planned for release months after the FloodGate expansion. We wanted to let our fans know about both expansions at the same time because the features of both are very cool. We're excited about both expansions, and we wanted to let our fans know about the long-term plans for the franchise.

Will players be able to import their high-level Neverwinter Nights characters into the game, or will they start over with a new character in the expansion? Will the hireling system remain as is, or will players have control over more characters this time around? Will the character level cap be raised? What can we expect in the way of new skills, feats, or even character classes? What kind of new monsters will we be up against? What kind of new loot or new magic can we expect to run into?

GZ: The best way for us to answer this big bunch of questions with regard to XP2 is to say that the D&D 3rd Edition rules are exceptionally broad, with a huge amount of potential content that we can access in both the first and the second expansion packs. We're watching the various message boards and online polls on feats, classes, and skills, and we're choosing new content based both on the desire of the fans and the technical feasibility of the features. We've got some big plans we're putting into action with these two expansions that we'll detail further in the coming months.

A few specifics to mention include some of the improvements to the henchman system--we're working on improving henchman AI, as well as giving the player control of the henchman inventory. The first expansion pack will be similar to the original Neverwinter Nights where the player will have one henchman accompanying them on the journey, though we have an additional goal of making the henchman much more interactive, and we're exploring the possibility of having more than one henchman in the second expansion pack. BioWare's upcoming Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will feature an expanded party system, as will the new PC intellectual property we're currently working on, but not yet talking about.

With regard to the new monsters, they can best be described as "bigger and scarier!" As Ray mentions above, we are able to pull out all the stops in our expansions and sequels as the designers have greater skill and experience they can apply to creating new content. Not only will the monsters in this second expansion pack be bigger and cooler, but they will also be considerably smarter as we have plenty of time to design new and powerful AI systems for creatures and enemies to use.