I'd like to see a sort of massive enhancement/makeover of the OC, as a single, unified download which can be easily installed, no downloading a ton of different visual hackpacks or whatever, created by the community.
The main purpose is to add re-playability and additional role-playing options, but additional side purposes would be making much of the graphics and sound options and settings more attractive. Including additional voicesets, particularly nicer sounding ones and some more less gruff female ones, and some that are more appropriate for charismatic good characters of either gender. Also including extra and/or replacement heads, given how many completely ugly heads there are, and expanded color options, but still within racial limits, rather than going the full united colors mode. A bunch more hairstles and such might be nice too.
The primary purpose wouldn't be the graphics and sound stuff mentioned above though, that should be secondary to the main purpose, just, if they manage to get it compatible, it should be part of the main download and install.
The main purpose is a re-working of the entire campaign. Fixing plot holes, adding extra options, dealing with AI issues, adding more romance plots, adding more character development to the companions, adding stuff to the keep, adding more items and crafting options, and more support for races and classes from the expansions. Increasing the possibilities of many dialogues based on PC character's race and class, and adding a bunch of potential plot branches.
In particular, I'd like to see these potential plot branches:
1. Amie survives: If you can get Amie to survive somehow, perhaps by convincing her not to jump in, or having her cast endure elements or something beforehand, make it possible for her to either become a full fledged compainion with behavior and dialogue throughout the OC, or perhaps just an optional Sergent for your keep like Bevil, or maybe becoming an optional mage/shopkeep for a magic tower in your keep.
2. Save Shandra's farm, some kind of way to stop the Lizardfolk from burning down her farm, perhaps a survival check while you are approaching which will reveal the Lizardfolk tracks, or a spot/listen check during the dialogue to catch them early and be able to confront/chase-off/capture and interrogate them or something. Saving Shandra's farm would later make it easier to talk with her and convince her to escape with you later, and have the conversation about stuff before she gets kidnapped.
3. Shandra's kidnapping: there should be a way to stop this, perhaps an wisdom check to allow you an option to set guards, with spot/listen checks or spellcraft checks to prevent their entry into Shandra's room and save her. You'd still chase after their main base to find out why they've been harassing you after Bishop discovers where they came from.
4. Shandra survives: Some way to save Shandra and have her survive, possibly influence checks when telepathically communicating with her, combined with certain dialogue options, or maybe having certain spells or items on reserve when you reach her to be able to heal her if you are 'fast' enough getting there in some way. Maybe even preventing her from freeing the demons and devils in such a way that it allows you to properly explain the situation to Jerro, and allow him to keep his Haven, in which case he doesn't join your party yet, but stops working against you and will reinforce you with summoned demons and devils during the attack on your keep, and only join your party as you start to re-forge the sword, or at some point coming to the keep and telling you that his Haven was attacked and destroyed by the King of Shadow's forces, and he is now forced to work with you.
5. Use truename scrolls yourself: this should be an option if you have enough ranks in spellcraft and/or lore and are of an appropriate spellcasting class such as cleric, wizard, warlock, or bard, although probably not druids or sorcerers.
6. Give up shards to Zeirre: This would involve some pretty tough skill checks, including diplomacy, and likely involve your character being evil, or at least cause you to become more evil and cause you to lose influence with characters like Elanee, Shandra, and Khelgar. But you can completely give up the Shards and convince Zeerie that you never intended to get involved in this mess in the first place, and your fusion with the shard in your chest was accidental. You would not be able to make or use the Silver Sword, at least that one, but might be able to gain a githyanki ally for the final battle against the King of Shadows who wields a Silver Sword, or have to find another way to defeat the King of Shadows.
Also this would have to likely have completely new voice-work for all the characters given the extra dialogue options added, and doing this would open up the chance for some of the characters to be re-worked. As it is, there is some issues of character alignments being inaccurate, and why some characters would be accepted into the party at all. In particular, Qara often behaves more like chaotic evil than chaotic neutral, it's hard to imagine a good PC tolerating Bishop's presence and behavior, especially if they are a ranger themselves and could theoretically track the Githyanki without him, and other issues.
Personally, I'd kinda like to see a nicer variation on Qara, still cleverly insulting and fiercely independent, but less kill everything with fire, trying to make her more properly Chaotic Neutral.
I'd also like to see adjustments to much of the dialogue options and plot-options that are supposedly 'chaotic' seem less evil, irresponsible, or chaotic-stupid. Chaotic is not irresponsible, chaotic isn't defying the law for the sake of defying the law, chaotic is not ignoring responsibilities. Chaotic is placing personal freedoms and independence above the order of society, chaotic is not being beholden to the nominal rulers of the land just because they are in charge, chaotic is questioning authority with impunity, chaotic is not holding yourself to a hard and strict set of rules, but making things up as you go along and depending on the situation.
Other alignments aren't so accurately represented either, although not as badly as chaotic. They actually did 'good' pretty well, but a lot of the evil often seems over the top, or even outright bloodthirsty, with little options for a subtle charismatic or sneaky evil character, or a selfish neutral evil character who only outwardly follows the rules and sucks up to authority (besides the various bribe accepting plays in the whole joining the City Watch thing). Why can't the player be like Torio or something, manipulative, clever, snide, sarcastic, but with terrible goals and secret actions and difficult to catch in the act.
Or some lawful evil options, where you'd stick with the City Watch but be such a stickler for the law and use the easiest loopholes and stuff to sadistically punish any law-breakers far beyond their crimes, and become a terrible tyrant with strict laws and heavy taxes in the keep.
I'd also like to see options and possibility to catch Bishop when he tries to desert, and perhaps execute him if captured or just kill him in a fight or something, and keep him from ever reaching the King of Shadows, either by catching him and talking him out of it with influence checks and diplomacy and such, or just killing him or holding him prisoner.
Some romance options I'd like to see might be:
1. Qara romances for male (and possibly female) PCs of compatible races and of the Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock classes.
2. Grobnar romance for female gnome (and maybe halfing) characters with high influence with Grobnar who believe in the Wendersnaven.
3. Kelgar romance for female dwarven characters.
4. Sand romances for elven and half-elven female lawful non-evil characters with high influence with Sand who did the court case fully (rather than just letting Sand do it automatically) and did so well and successfully, possibly with some class restrictions.
5. Neeshka romance options for male (and possibly female) PCs with good influence with her if she has become the best thief in Neverwinter and you or her have Leldon's Lucky Coin.
6. Possible female PC Elanee romance that is slightly different from the male version, maybe with an option to keep the romance secret from the other companions.
(Sorry if it seems sexist that I only brought up female homosexual options, I'm a straight guy here, and I've only played through the OC as a female character so far, and none of the male characters seem to give hints of being gay or bisexual, while some of the female characters, particularly Neeshka, seemed to occasionally hint at feelings towards the female PC... I would not be opposed to someone making a male homosexual romance option, but I'd want it to be believable and fit the character, which might require removal or modification of some existing dialogue to change their sexuality and make it noticeably homosexual or perhaps bisexual or vague)
I'd want all romance options to make sense and have more depth and character development. My experience running the game with a female PC I went ahead and allowed the Casavir romance on the rooftop, but I never really felt like there was any actual development up to that, and the whole thing seemed to be over in a moment, and never really brought up again except allusion by Bishop in a rather jealous-like manner.
All the OC companions need more character development in general, which would require some serious writing skills. Khelgar is okay, he's actually got a lot going on, and Neeshka seems to have plenty of past, but little actual development and/or change through the course of the campaign, just learning to trust the PC if you develop your influence with her, and her resistance in the endgame to stick with you if you have the influence.
Elanee doesn't have much details to her past, you kinda wonder how she became a druid and stuff, what her childhood was like, things about her animal companion, how her circle was different from other Druid circles, and so many other possible avenues of character background. She also has little development, mostly just influence matters with your PC. She might not have great flaws like Khelgar to get over, but that doesn't mean she can't have character development, even just becoming a stronger druid more in tune with nature could be turned into character development if done right (perhaps along with options to help you purify druids and animals and the land from shadow-influence if you do some extra side-plot that could be added in just for her).
Zhajive is downright annoying, but what makes it worse, is she is terribly boring and generic. She is Ms. Sterotypical Githyanki cleric build. There is nothing that makes her unique other than her race, to the point she is more like a race than an individual. Changing her speech patterns to make her less annoying I think would be a cop-out, so probably a bad idea, instead, she needs a history, and maybe a hint of character development (not much time for it given how late you get her though). What was her childhood or at least recent past like, what was she doing when she found out about the situation, who taught her, who were her parents, what was it like living in limbo or adventuring on the astral plane fighting against Githyanki plots, how hard was it for her to live as a captive to Black Garius?
Grobnar is like a living joke. Even his Wendersnaven quest makes him less appealing to most players. He makes Kender bearable by comparison. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have room to grow. Where did he come from? Who was his family? What stories does he have from what adventures he has before meeting you? What is his relationship with Construct like (other than insane suicidal devotion to the umm... dear thing?)? How did he get training as a bard, how did he learn instruments and songs? From what libraries did he learn lore from before you met? An extra grobnar side-quest or two would also be nice.
Qara I'd like to see developed through developing the Academy. I'd like to meet her family (or at least hear about it) and the teachers and students there. See them argue with Qara and/or Sand or perhaps sometimes get along with Sand. I'd like to have mini-quests for your character if you are a wizard, and possibly some other classes related to magic, possibly even an option to join the academy after you have full access to Blacklake, and gain some additional resources and options from that for Wizard characters. I'd also like options to be able to mellow out and change Qara through difficult diplomacy and other checks throughout the game, possibly resulting in her becoming chaotic good alignment if the PC is good and succeeds at all this and some special Qara quest, and if you succeed at this, you can even keep both Qara and Sand on your side against Garius in the final fight against him.
Also, I'd like to see some class specific bonus quests. I'd like to see tracking related stuff for rangers, or specific quests against some common favored enemies if you have those enemies.
I'd like to see special wizard options when encountering magic stuff, including spellcraft checks and stuff like in the Wizard's Apprentice module, and being able to join mage guilds, and set up wizarding type wards around your keep, inscribed into the stones with a special quest of sorts (to gather the materials) and checks (to put in the wards).
I'd like to see special cleric (and paladin) quests for common deity options, or at least those where there is a temple to your deity in the game. I'd like to see options to place divine magic wards about your keep for good clerics which help weaken and repel the undead during the keep assault as if it is sanctified grounds via a special quest (to gather materials) and checks (to perform the necessary ceremonies and rituals to purify the lands, possibly needing to remove the summoning circle from the basement).
I'd like to see fighting class character quests where the PC seeks or is saught for training revolving around various NPCs, or perhaps is noted for history with your town milita and their developing martial skill, and test-battles to prove their martial skills in various venues.
I'd like to see more special monk training, quests, and such, possibly some extra/modified Kelgar talk for monks, particularly monks of Tyr.
I'd like to see more pickpocket stuff for rogues, and more of a purpose and options for the whole setting traps thing. I mean really, they toss out those traps like candy, but it seems all you can do with them is sell them. I'd kinda like to see some of the quests where you are guarding a place or person and stuff be more set up to allow you to set traps, perhaps traps at Shandra's room she is warned about (to keep her from hurting herself) in the Sunken Flagon could stop the Githyanki from kidnapping her.
I'd like to see more options for bards to entertain on the streets of Neverwinter and other locations for money or other quest goals, like amusing certain characters who are otherwise troublesome (perhaps entertaining a certain Red Dragon to help escape, or other such options).
Extra racial options might be nice too, possibly even for elven and half-elven characters actually being Dhaegun's real blood daughter, or for dwarven characters being of the Ironfist clan from some of them who fought in the battle of West Harbor or something. Being recognize as having Illfarne bloodlines for half-elven, elven, or dwarven characters including extra plot options and an extra free 'feat'. Extra interactions and dialogue with Neeshka for tiefling characters, possibly even being an actual cousin to her. Some of these options might have to be covered by new background options at the start of the game.
I'd also like to see more effects of some of the background options later in the game, rather than just in West Harbor in the early game.
This project would be a large undertaking, likely needing a large team, and probably some people able to do a lot of voice acting (which I might be able to do for some male voices), and some very skilled scripters and writers. Even some animators for some of the extra dialogue paths and such, and some CG people if it includes graphical improvements.
Again, the purpose is to make a better version/expansion to/of the OC, perhaps like Obsidian might have made if they had another year to add extra finish to the game. Something with more options, better character development, extra finish, smoother story, and more attention to detail (possibly removing some bugs still existing in the OC even after the latest patches along the way). Something that would perhaps only add an extra hour or two to an individual play-through, but which would add a ton more re-playability for someone who wants to mess around with different classes, races, alignments, skills and such.
Alright, in the romance department I'd like to list a few suggestions; mostly where lesbian and gay romances are regarded ---while I agree with Divine_Aurora that such an implementation should be belivable, we as editors may take certain liberties with the content. I'll last the possible gay romances here, concidering how Divine_Aurora have already listed the lesbian ones.
Bishop: This guy appears to be straight, thats quite plain to see. So how could we make this belivable? Bishop is a rather seclusive character, which means that he's unlikely to reveal much about himself, in fact, he reveals more or less nothing to the player, this lack of information may leave alot to interprentation.
So when it comes to Bishop, his alignment is described as chaothic and he is a very free and independant person, which means that while he wouldn't actively attempt to pursue a romance with the male PC, the PC might get the option of flirting with him, sure, they'd be refused, mocked and humiliated the first few times, but after some time. Bishop might start to get curious and things may slowly start to happen - of course, there'd be alot of complications, Bishop being Bishop and all and the male PC would likely need to keep the "relationship" a strict secret under the threat of being killed by Bishop should he reveal anything.
Posted by Divine_Aurora at 2011-08-28 09:41:18 Voted 10.00 on 02/07/11
Looks like the legal issues between Bioware, Atari, Obsidian and WotC have been solved, and there is even a chance for a final patch or a release of the source code to the community! Hopefully this will inspire new or renewed interest in NWN2 and we'll get more interest in this project.
Divine_Aurora, you should not give up, your idea is really good.
Posted by Divine_Aurora at 2011-02-07 15:37:11 Voted 10.00 on 02/07/11
I'd like to note to the other commenting people a thank you for their positive comments and offers of possible help. (GothGithzerai and Baron Isaac) I'd also like to add that I have no scripting skills myself, and I can't even get the toolset to boot on my computer (it crashes when I try to open it). What I can contribute myself is direction to the product, some voicework as I have some moderate voice acting ability, and some photoshop work of various sorts, as I have experience and training with photoshop (perhaps I could help with some texture mapping and stuff, although I have little experience with 3D stuff).
What I have the most experience with is D&D, I've got great familiarity with 3.5, some with 2nd Edition and 1st edition, a hint with 4th, and I've played Baulder's Gate some. With regular PnP D&D I've run a few successful campaigns as a DM which my players enjoyed, and I know how to balance combat with role-playing pretty well, and I've also played in several different games as multiple different character classes and races under several different DMs.
Thanks to this I'm quite familiar with D&D rules in general, and due to playing through the campaign of NWN, I'm also familiar with how the rules are different in the game.
Anyone who wants to contact me by e-mail regarding this project can contact me at:[email protected]
Impressing intentions, if you will fulfil this project this campaign will be far more better. At the moment this campaign is far, far worse than Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. You must be an experienced D&D player since in contrast with many other you know meaning of being chaotic in Forgotten Realms. I am particularly interested in plans about Qara and other characters.In any case, I hope that you will manage to fulfil this plan.
I can be contacted via email:[email protected]
Regards.
I am relatively new to the toolset, so I'm rather useless on that front. However, I would be more than happy to expand upon Zhjaeve's character, background and add a touch to make her less generic. Just let me know if there is anything in particular you would like. I can be contacted via email: [email protected]
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