NWN 2 Expansion: Storm of Zethyr

[Harkoliar]

Have anyone of you kept an eye out on this expansion? Apparently its a full non-linear storyline + full party character customization (non-npc) + build a merchant guild. Sounds pretty good to me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=17868662

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (NWN2:SoZ) is an expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights 2 developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari. The game is presumed to have been designated by the codename NX2 by its developers.[2] Storm of Zehir hearkens back to the days of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale franchises by including full party customization, dungeon crawling, and free exploration of a non-linear game world via an Overland Map. The storyline foreshadows the events that will take place in the Forgotten Realms with the release of the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons in June 2008.

[Harkoliar]

So no one is looking at out on this game. Alright Ill take the plunge in getting this game

[JrKASperov]

Haha, major error in the title there!

Anyway, I've got it and it improves in a lot of ways on the OC, while sacrificing in some parts to most importantly MotB. Where MotB was strongly character and story driven, using personal choices for consequences, SoZ is gameplay focused, providing (for the first time) challenging combat in the NWN2 engine, usage of tactics and above all a major revival of the usage of skills. There's hardly any skill which is unused or useless in this game.

That said, what makes SoZ great is the old-school vibe. It's a tactics game, using towns as bases for resupply and rest. You go to the overland map, and based on skills see certain encounters and can avoid them etc. From here you can go to other places of interest, if you have the skills to find them. An early example: right at the beginning you're supposed to fight some guys but you have no gear. You can use various skills to fashion improvised weapons or even find slightly better stuff using search/spot. This is handled through a dialogue screen, in which you can select the party member doing the 'talking'. Thus you can spread skills across your party and select whatever is necessary.

So in conclusion, if you like statbased adventuring without so much the fleshed out npc's or grand story, go with SoZ. Otherwise, MotB is still king. I would compare them this way: MotB = PS:T 2, SoZ = IWD 3

[Chewbacca]

I've been pretending this comes out in January, unless somebody wants to pay me to play it.

[Harkoliar]

Originally Posted by JrKASperov Haha, major error in the title there! Anyway, I've got it and it improves in a lot of ways on the OC, while sacrificing in some parts to most importantly MotB. Where MotB was strongly character and story driven, using personal choices for consequences, SoZ is gameplay focused, providing (for the first time) challenging combat in the NWN2 engine, usage of tactics and above all a major revival of the usage of skills. There's hardly any skill which is unused or useless in this game. That said, what makes SoZ great is the old-school vibe. It's a tactics game, using towns as bases for resupply and rest. You go to the overland map, and based on skills see certain encounters and can avoid them etc. From here you can go to other places of interest, if you have the skills to find them. An early example: right at the beginning you're supposed to fight some guys but you have no gear. You can use various skills to fashion improvised weapons or even find slightly better stuff using search/spot. This is handled through a dialogue screen, in which you can select the party member doing the 'talking'. Thus you can spread skills across your party and select whatever is necessary. So in conclusion, if you like statbased adventuring without so much the fleshed out npc's or grand story, go with SoZ. Otherwise, MotB is still king. I would compare them this way: MotB = PS:T 2, SoZ = IWD 3

uhhh whoops in title . Thanks for the notice. I did check out if its available here for NWN MotB but they said it was discontinued until the new expansion comes out . Maybe I could buy both in one go. Hoping anyway

[JrKASperov]

I've been thinking about it some more, and I feel like SoZ is like Pirates! except with DnD stats and dialogue. It has this same oldschool approach with textbased towns and the 'overland' thing going on, going to small maps which we're used to when entering battle.

[CerebroDragon]

What's the max party size JrK? Is it still only four as in the OC? If comparisons to BG are to be completely valid, I think it really should support the classic AD&D party size of six. I've only just started the OC and aren't finding the combat half as interesting as it was in the BG series.

Whilst the character influence system is an improvement from what was offered in vanilla NWN, it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth in the combat department most of the time. Having said that I'm not yet into Act II (up to the Archives).

I've also heard some fascinating things about Storm of Zehir's economic system. Sounds like there's more dynamics and that it's a tad more complex than from previous games. The lack of forced party members sounds like a good thing, as well.

[JrKASperov]

Party size is technically 5, 6 with the Leadership feat. However, only 4 of those can be self-built. There are about 12 cohorts which you can pick up to add to your party. Three of which are available rather quickly: a druid, a ranger and a swashbuckler. I'd say: plan accordingly.

[Micah Foehammer]

I was lucky enough to get an early review copy of the game on the 13th of November and have been playing it since.

There are a couple of nasty bugs in the game though - one related to the trading system, one with a series of related quests and a couple of others.

The trading system one is the most serious but NONE of them are game breakers.

The game is very heavy on exploration and if you did not like the feel of the create your own party in IWD or IWD2 you may not like SoZ.

The use of skills in the game is great. Now your skills are worth a lot more than in other titles and have uses beyond what you might expect when it comes to exploring the overland map.

The trading system, despite the bug, is pretty cool as well.

And they've revamped the crafting system (yes, AGAIN!). It strikes a good balance between item power and character level so you can craft decent items but not the over the top game balance killers that you could in MotB. It has a lot of flexibility as well.

Anyway check out the FAQ and some of the related content on the site.

As far as I know Storm of Zehir hasn't been bundled with the OC or MotB yet.

[wellard]

I have just got NWN2 but could not find the expansion packs anywhere in Sydney or online in Australia

Are the 2 expansion packs available together anywhere?