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Neverwinter Nights (2002 video game)

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"NWN" redirects here. For other uses, see NWN (disambiguation).
This article is about the 2002 BioWare game. For the 1991 AOL MMORPG, see Neverwinter Nights (AOL game).
Neverwinter Nights
File:B00005NZWS.02.LZZZZZZZ-1-.jpg
European Windows version box art
Developer(s)BioWare
Publisher(s)Infogrames/Atari
MacSoft
EngineAurora engine
Platform(s)Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
ReleaseWindows

Linux
Mac
Genre(s)Computer role-playing game
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Neverwinter Nights (NWN), produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames (now Atari), is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that is based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms rules. It was originally to be published by Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial difficulties forced the change. Infogrames released Neverwinter Nights for Windows on June 18, 2002. BioWare released the freely downloadable Linux Client in June 2003 (purchase of game still required). MacSoft released a Mac OS X port in August 2003. Two expansion packs were released in mid and late 2003, and a third in 2005. On October 31, 2006, the sequel Neverwinter Nights 2 was released followed by its first expansion in late 2007 and its second one at the end of 2009.

The game was based on the concept of building a internet-like model for a massively multiplayer game, allowing the end users to host the server. The belief was this model would create a potentially infinite massively multiplayer game framework. The game was named after the original Neverwinter Nights online game, the first graphical MMORPG, which ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL.[citation needed]

The core release includes the game engine, a campaign that can be played as single player or multiplayer, and the Aurora toolset (for Windows only) used for creating custom content based on the same engine.

Description

Play centers on the development of a character who becomes the ultimate hero of the story. In the original NWN scenario supplied with the game engine, the player is single-handedly responsible for defeating a powerful cult; collecting the four reagents required for stopping an insatiable plague; thwarting an attack on the city of Neverwinter, and many other side quests.

The first and final chapters of the story in the official campaign deal with the city of Neverwinter itself, but the lengthy mid-story requires the player to venture into the countryside and then northward to the city of Luskan. Neverwinter is a city on the Sword Coast of Faerûn, in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons.

Plot

The story begins with the player character being sent by Lady Aribeth to recover four monsters needed to make a cure for the Wailing Death, a plague that is sweeping the city of Neverwinter. With the help of Fenthick Moss, Aribeth’s love interest, and Desther, Fenthick’s friend, the player character is able to retrieve the monsters. As he is collecting these monsters, he is attacked by mysterious assassins from the cult that is behind the spreading of the plague.

As the cure is being made, Castle Neverwinter is attacked by Desther’s minions. He takes the completed cure and escapes the castle, with the player character and Fenthick in pursuit. When they catch up to Desther, he surrenders after a short battle. Desther is sentenced to burn at the stake, and Fenthick, despite being unaware of Desther’s true intentions, is sentenced to hang.

Final showdown with Queen Morag. The encounter is complete with dynamic graphical effects.

The player character meets up with Aribeth and they begin searching for the cult responsible for the plague and the attack on Neverwinter. With the help of Aarin Gend, Neverwinter's spymaster, the player character retrieves diaries of dead cultists and letters from a person named Maugrim, which convince Aribeth that the cult's headquarters are in Luskan. Aribeth goes ahead to Luskan, and the player character follows after speaking once more to Gend.

When he arrives in Luskan, the player character hears rumors that Aribeth is joining with the cultists. These fears are confirmed when he finds her meeting with Maugrim and Morag, Queen of the Old Ones. They seek magical relics called Words of Power.

The player character retrieves all of the Words of Power except for one, held by the cult. He discovers that the words open a portal to a pocket world inside the Source Stone, where Morag and the other Old Ones are. He confronts Aribeth, and depending on how he handles the meeting, she either surrenders to the player character or he is forced to kill her. He then confronts Maugrim for the final word. He uses the words to enter the Source Stone and battle with Morag. After Morag's death, he escapes the stone as the world inside it implodes.

Original plot

A posting at the Neverwinter Nights 2 Vault on June 4th, 2008 contained information from what appeared to be original Neverwinter Nights documentation. At the BioWare forums, Live Team Designer Rob Bartel confirmed that the "series of excerpts from the game's design doc" were not a hoax. When asked if the plans were altered due to time constraints, Bartel referenced various legal difficulties that the company was working through.[2]

Gameplay

As in Dungeons & Dragons, the first thing a player must do is create a character. One can choose the character's gender, race, character class, alignment, statistics (strength, dexterity, etc.), abilities (skills, feats, etc.), appearance, and name. There is a great deal of customization involved - one can be, for example, an outdoorsman (Ranger class), healer (Cleric class), and then choose the skills and feats that would help them the most (a Ranger might want the Animal Empathy skill, for example, while a Cleric would choose the Combat Casting feat).

The game is lengthy (original NWN has three CDs, while the expansions each add one CD - Later productions moved the entirety of the game to a single DVD). Following a small prelude, there are four "chapters" in the original game, with each chapter consisting of a general storyline (the first chapter, for example, deals with a mysterious plague in the city of Neverwinter), and within each chapter, there are many quests, subquests, and mini-storylines. Depending on specific quests completed, and specific items kept, some storylines are continued throughout the entire game (such as Henchman or Aribeth's tales). Completing many of the side quests will give your character more experience (and special items), making him/her level up faster and continue to make the game easier as you progress. For example, completing all quests in the first and second chapters will start you in Chapter 3 with a 13th level character, instead of a 10th.

The game's actual mechanics are based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rule set – most important actions (fighting, persuasion, etc.) are based on a die roll. For example, when a fighter attacks, he would roll a 20-sided die (called a d20 in-game) to determine if he hits the target and then roll another die determined by the type of weapon (an 8-sided die (d8) for longsword, two 6-sided dice (2d6) for greatsword, 10-sided die (d10) for dwarven waraxe etc.) to determine damage dealt. Although nearly all actions are based on a dice roll, the player does not see the dice roll and it is calculated "Behind the scenes".

Multiplayer

The robust multiplayer component separates Neverwinter Nights from previous Dungeons & Dragons games, as there are many servers for players to choose from. Each server, depending on hardware and bandwidth, can support up to 75 players on the same server application, additional players can join the same machine, on a different server, on a different port of the machine to give more player capacity, although this reduces game quality on low end machines. NWN game modules run as a variety of separate genres and themes, including persistent worlds (which are similar to MUDs), combat arenas (player versus player modules), and simple social gatherings similar to a chat room. The campaign included with the game can be played with friends, for example, or a team of builders can build a virtual world similar in scope and size to commercial MMORPGs for example Bruehawks. BioWare insists that these persistent worlds be free of charge, primarily for reasons of copyright law.

Many persistent worlds are still actively run with updates and improvements; notable examples include Amia, Avlis, Arelith, Arkaz, Thain and Layonara. Servers can also be linked together, allowing the creation of large multi-server worlds. Two early examples include A Land Far Away and Confederation of Planes and Planets[3].

Because Neverwinter Nights lacks a global chat function aside from the supported Gamespy, players typically join "pickup" games through the game's multiplayer interface, or schedule games in advance with friends. Matchmaking sites, such as Neverwinter Connections, facilitate scheduling of games, and the experience is much like traditional Pen-and-Paper roleplaying games. Persistent worlds do this work for them by inviting players to visit their website and continue to roleplay there.

One important feature of Neverwinter Nights is the 'DM' or 'Dungeon Master' Client, a tool that allows an individual to take the role of the traditional 'Dungeon Master', who guides the players through the story, and has complete control of the server. While not the first game to utilize this feature (one previous example is a more basic version in the game 'Vampire the Masquerade', based on the printed gamebooks published by White Wolf), Neverwinter Nights had the most evolved version of this feature and thus arguably created one of the most 'immersive' RPG experiences currently available in CRPG gaming. The DM Client allowed players to participate in regular campaigns, while also allowing persistent-world servers to flourish by permitting the Dungeon Masters of those servers to possess NPCs 'on-the-fly' for added realism.

Custom content

Neverwinter Nights ships with the Aurora toolset, which allows players to create custom modules for Neverwinter Nights. These modules may take the form of online multiplayer worlds, single player adventures, character trainers or technology demos. Additionally, several third party utilities have further expanded the community's ability to create custom content for the game. Custom content creators are known as builders in the Neverwinter Nights community.

The Aurora toolset allows builders to create map areas using a tile system; the appearance and surface textures of the area are defined by the area's selected tileset. Builders can overlay placeable objects onto areas, and use the built-in scripting language NWScript to run cut scenes, quests, mini-games and conversations. NWScript is based on C.

Third party utilities allow builders to create custom content for most aspects of the game, ranging from new playable races and character classes to new tilesets, monsters and equipment. Custom content is added to the game in the form of hakpaks. Builders have used the Aurora toolset in combination with hakpaks to create playing experiences beyond the scope of the original campaign. Despite the game's age, the Neverwinter Nights custom content community remains active.

Additionally, it has allowed for the creation of a number of ongoing persistent worlds, one of the largest and longest running being Amia.

The Aurora toolset is not available for the Linux and Macintosh versions of Neverwinter Nights. The open source project neveredit aims to port the toolset features to these platforms.

In terms of sheer user-created content, however, the major player is certainly the team that produced the Community Expansion Pack (CEP). Overseen by a small group of Neverwinter Nights builders, the CEP project was an enormous collection of player-made items, creatures and character appearances compiled into an interconnected series of add-on files. Content is only added to the CEP after being tested and approved by the CEP team, giving rise to one of the most widely-used player-made enhancements ever created for Neverwinter Nights, and (thus far) the only one to have received its own page on BioWare's official site.

Due to the extreme success and popularity of the CEP, a sister-project was started several years after the CEP's release. Dubbed the Community Tileset Project, it is attempting to duplicate the CEP's success, but the focus of the CTP is to create a collection of user-made tilesets, which are used to create a basic Neverwinter Nights map. While progress has been slow, the team itself is still working together.

Those who purchased the Macintosh version of the game have complained that the editor is not included, even though it is mentioned in the manual and advertised on the case.

Expansions

File:Neverwinter-nights shadows-of-undrentide.jpg
Master Drogan fights off a kobold attack at the start of Shadows of Undrentide.
  • Shadows of Undrentide (SoU) — This expansion scenario pack was released in June 2003. It adds 5 prestige classes, 16 new creatures (two of them available as additional familiars), 3 new tilesets, and over 30 new feats and 50 new spells, as well as additional scripting abilities for those who use the Aurora toolkit. It features a story line concerning a student sent out to recover some stolen magical objects. The story begins in the Silver Marches, eventually moving toward the desert of Anauroch and the old Netherese city of Undrentide.
  • Hordes of the Underdark (HotU) — Released in December 2003, it expands the level-cap to level 40 (epic levels), and adds a number of spells and items appropriate to such characters, as well as adding further tilesets, prestige classes, feats, and abilities, and compatibility with the Intel Pentium 4 Processor, which was unsupported in previous versions. The story continues where Shadows of Undrentide ended, with a character of at least 12th level (if you start this expansion with a character below level 12, the game will level you up to 15), and leads into the vast subterranean world known as the Underdark. The first chapter of the story takes place in the Undermountain dungeon beneath the city of Waterdeep.
  • Kingmaker — includes three premium modules, Kingmaker, Shadowguard, and Witch's Wake.

In March 2004, an expansion known as the Community Expansion Pack (CEP) based on community material was released. This freely downloadable expansion was compiled by members of the Neverwinter Nights community. It combines a selection of previously released custom content into one large hakpak. BioWare had no involvement in creating content for the CEP, but provided resources to help promote it. Players must add the CEP to a module with the toolset to use CEP content.

Though not actually expansion packs, Atari released subsequent editions of the game following its first release in 1999. These editions are: Neverwinter Nights: Gold, which combines the original game with the Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack; Neverwinter Nights: Platinum (in Europe called Neverwinter Nights: Deluxe Edition), which combined all three NWN products and came on a single DVD-ROM or four CD-ROMs; and Neverwinter Nights: Diamond (in Europe called Neverwinter Nights Deluxe: Special Edition), which includes everything in the Platinum edition plus the three additional modules from the Kingmaker Expansion Pack.

As well, in early December 2003, the Players Resource Consortium released the PRC, which is a group of hakpaks combined, which added classes, races, skills, and spells to the game. As of May 20, 2006, the PRC now has roughly three times the number of prestige classes the original game had. It also adds dozens of epic spells, and many normal spells that make better use of BioWare's Aurora engine. These include: Teleportation, Transposition, Mazes, Summoning Houses and more. As well, psionic powers have been included, which are essentially spells, but done with "power points", akin to the sorcerer class. Much of the PRC pushes the engine in ways that the designers never intended, so caution is advised when making use of the hakpak.

Premium modules

In late 2004, BioWare launched its online store and started selling what it called premium modules as part of its digital distribution program. This initiative was spearheaded by BioWare's Live Team Lead Designer, Rob Bartel. Though technically not expansions, these smaller-scale adventures introduce new storylines and gameplay. They often include new music and art that BioWare claimed[citation needed] would be integrated into future patches and updates to the core game. The most recent patches, 1.68 and 1.69, include much of the art and music that can be found in the premium modules.

According to BioWare, the revenue generated is used to support their fan community and provide ongoing updates and improvements to the popular game. The modules that are sold in the BioWare store require an active internet connection to play, even when played in single player mode. The modules in the Kingmaker expansion were stripped of this requirement but are only for Windows. The modules included with Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition do not require Internet access to play.

  • Kingmaker — In November 2004, BioWare announced their flagship premium module, which later received the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences 'PC RPG of the Year' award. The player is called upon to defeat the evil at the Keep of Cyan, and win the throne.
  • ShadowGuard with free Witch's Wake — At the same time as Kingmaker's release, BioWare also offered a bundled pair of shorter premium modules which included ShadowGuard, created by community member Ben McJunkin, and Witch's Wake, a remastered version of Rob Bartel's popular story-oriented module by the same name. The remastered version added new subraces, music, and substantial voice-acting throughout.
  • Neverwinter Nights: Pirates of the Sword Coast — In June 2005, BioWare announced the upcoming release of a new premium module. The story begins in the city of Neverwinter, and leads to a lengthy ship-borne, swashbuckling-style adventure. Characters start at the 5th level.
  • Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker (Premium Modules collection) — Atari released this CD-ROM expansion pack in September 2005. It compiles the premium modules Kingmaker, Shadowguard and Witch's Wake.
  • Infinite Dungeons — In May 2006, BioWare released this premium module which takes place in Undermountain below Waterdeep. The main feature is randomly generated dungeons, which are suitable for all levels of adventurer. The module is designed for single and multiplayer gaming. With the exception of the ability to respawn one's character, ID is very similar to a 3-D roguelike.
  • Wyvern Crown of Cormyr — In September 2006, BioWare announced a new premium module produced by the DLA team. It features fully ridable horses, flowing cloaks, tabards and long coats, a new prestige class (the Purple Dragon Knight), and extensive new art, creatures, and tilesets. Characters start at the 6th or 7th level and module offers an approximate 18 to 20 hours of gameplay.

Previously canceled modules

  • Tyrants of the Moonsea — In July 2006, Alazander released the first cancelled premium modules to Neverwinter Vault. The story takes place in the Hillsfar area and includes gladiatorial matches. Characters start at the 12th level. Artemis Entreri makes an appearance in this module.
  • Darkness over Daggerford — In August 2006, Ossian Studios Inc., headed up by Alan Miranda, a former producer at BioWare, released the second canceled premium module to the Vault. The story takes place in and around Daggerford and has been compared favorably to Baldur's Gate 2 in terms of its scope. Characters start at the 8th level.
  • Witch's Wake II: The Witch Hunters — The sequel to the popular Witch's Wake premium module, this canceled module has never been released for download, free or otherwise.

Neverwinter Nights 2 was released on November 4th, 2006, and new support for the premium module program is unlikely to continue. Development resources for premium NWN content is likely to be redirected to BioWare's new Dragon Age RPG.

Final patch

Patch 1.69 with features such as rideable horses was released on July 10, 2008, ending official support to NWN from Bioware. However, the patch is presently only available in the English and Polish (both unofficial and official) languages.

Versions and re-releases

The game was also released in Collector's Edition (2002) format, with various collectible items included in the box. The Gold (2003) version included Shadows of Undrentide in addition to the main game. The Platinum (2004) and Diamond (2005) versions included Hordes of the Underdark and Kingmaker as well. The collections Atari Collection: Rollenspiele (2005), Neverwinter Nights 2: Lawful Good Edition (2006), Neverwinter Nights 2: Chaotic Evil Edition (2006), Ultimate Dungeons & Dragons (2006), Rollenspiele: Deluxe Edition (2007) and Neverwinter Nights 3-Pack (2007) all were released containing copies of Neverwinter Nights, Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, as well.

Awards

  • E3 2000 Game Critics Awards: Best RPG, Best Online Multiplayer
  • E3 2001 Game Critics Awards: Best Role Playing Game
  • E3 2002 Game Critics Awards: Best Role Playing Game

Since the original release of Neverwinter Nights, several in-game portraits have been modified in patches due to their having been copied from outside sources.[4] In another instance, the Canadian Red Cross complained to BioWare about the appearance of the Red Cross symbol on the in-game item "Healer's Kit", not wanting the Red Cross to be associated with the game's violence. This resulted in the Red Cross symbol being removed from the Healer's Kit through patches.[5]

Educational usage

Neverwinter Nights is used for educational purposes in West Nottinghamshire College in the United Kingdom as a means of delivering Key Skills and of showing IT designers how to understand the coding in the game.[6]

Also, the game itself and the Aurora toolset have been used as part of a level design course, given at the Ubisoft Campus in Montréal, Canada.

It is also being used as part of the Applied Computer Science (ACS) program at Contra Costa College (CCC) in San Pablo California. The ACS program is a core component the of CCC Tech Prep outreach to Middle College High School. Additionally, Champlain College is currently using the Aurora toolset as part of a Sophomore game design course.

The Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University has used it as a basis for the creation of Arden: World Of William Shakespeare, where Shakespeare's dramatic history of Richard III and The War of the Roses can be interactively explored.

Sequel

A sequel to Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, a company which has a long history of association with BioWare. According to BioWare, the change of developer is due to BioWare's business with other titles, such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

NWN2 shipped at the beginning of November 2006 prior to 4 November in the US and most European countries, and on 16 November in Australia.

Legacy

Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a role-playing game based in the Star Wars universe, was also released by BioWare using a heavily modified version of the Aurora engine of Neverwinter Nights. The sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, also used this modified engine. Because of this, modders have been able to modify these games using some Neverwinter Nights modding tools.

The Witcher

The Witcher, a computer role-playing game by the Polish company CD Projekt, is based on the Aurora engine of Neverwinter Nights. Its development was highly publicized within the NWN community.

Reception

Neverwinter Nights was generally met with very positive reviews. GameSpot referred to it as "one of those exceedingly rare games that has a lot to offer virtually everyone, even if they aren't already into RPGs", and praised it for its campaign, its Aurora toolset, and its graphics.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Patches and Updates
  2. ^ Neverwinter Nights: NWN Original Plot Outline
  3. ^ "Confederation of Planes and Planets". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  4. ^ "Portrait". NWNWiki. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  5. ^ Doctorow, Cory (2006-02-09). "Canadian Red Cross wastes its money harassing video game makers". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  6. ^ "Computer game to boost key skills", BBC, 2007-01-07, retrieved 2007-11-17
  7. ^ "PC Neverwinter Nights Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
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