I finished the Run with the Following Party/Protagonist

[Ladile]

Happy to help! And yeah, I've found that it's kinda difficult to plan out a party because there's apparently the main romance conflicts, minor conflicts depending on the PC's race, NPC subplots, interactions that can involve many NPCs at once, etc. I'm a little curious though, was my group an unusual configuration? I'm getting the impression that it was, or that at least Valeero was an odd choice to have with all the others or something

[Domi]

No, not really. I was hoping that all combinations will be valid, and tried to make sure that there is as wide a variety of interactions as possible, so the player is always entertained by something going on out there. The only combination I would not advise to have until V2 is Hildury-Nord-Diriel, because Hildury's small subplot with them is bugged, and I'd rather people see it in a fixed form, heh. It shouldn't be that long before V2 is out, and with Diriel's romance will probably give a nice inscentive to see that one too. Hildury and Nord is the only couple I don't recommend splitting, because it results in a significant loss of content for both.

[Ladile]

That makes sense. Originally I was just thinking about taking along the 5 NPCs that I didn't use the first time, which would've been Nord, Hildury, Diriel, Peony and Prachi, but since Diriel's romance is in the works and since his deal with Nord & Hildury is bugged, I'll wait and try the three of them when you release V2. It probably works out better that way anyway, since now I can try the Rizdaer romance and still take Peony and Prachi along

[Simbul]

Well, sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I'm not exactly a fan of starting a new one, so i've figured out I can use this topic for writing a sort of review

I've posted some of my thoughts about the mod in the other topics, but there are enough left, and no reason not to share them. First of all, as I've already stated, I really like your work, Domi - so kudos from me for giving us such a well-written and well-thought out project As much as I respect BG series, there are only so many times you can play through these games and the mods before eventually tiring of them (well, there are games which I can replay seemingly infinite amount of times, but none of BG-s are good enough for me). Still, it's a shame that most other RPGs don't use the party a-la BG2, because it's a fairly compelling concept and many people tend to like it. It seems to me the most modern RPGs can manage are a couple of party members who occasionally put in a word or two during a dialogue with an NPC but mostly don't interact with each other (as in NWN2, for example), and usually have little in the way of background, beliefs and goals.

So, to the matter at hand I've finished the game with NPC Project two times, although I didn't think I could manage it (clearly, the absence of Internet access forces the person to do things he wouldn't have done else). I really consider IWD2 to be a terrible game. It has a very linear, boring plot, 95% of the gameplay consists of slashing your way through the hordes of monsters, those few quests and dialogues which are present aren't very spectacular, and many of the areas are taken from the first IWD, although redone. And you have to create your party. Awful. The only redeeming quality is music.

Still, the addition of party made wonders to the gameplay. At least you start to feel there is a *story* going on - not just monster-grinding, level-uping and finding kewl loot. And the most brilliant thing about the party - especially the one that appears to be "core" (I mean the one you seem to have created first - Nord, Hildury, Jaemal, etc.) - is that it really seems to be a *party*. Almost all of the characters seem to have realtionships with the others, their own opinions. They don't just speak about the same things with every other character (as in BG2). Actually, I don't remember a game where I got a similar impression. Even Planescape Torment, although it had awesome characters (I still consider them the golden standard of NPCs) couldn't create such a feeling.

Secondly, the characters - even those who were obviously cliched - were written very well. Although I still prefer those with some "layers" and a level of depth My favourites were, predictably, Diriel (only romanced, though) and, unexpectedly, Prachi. I'm a fan of games which have some philosophical matters woven into the story, and I haven't yet seen a character like her (well, the roots of the philosophy are obvious, but still...). It's a real pity she has so little content, and I even think that she would fare much better in a game with less combat and more philosophical dilemmas than IWD2 - it just couldn't show enough of her development.

The ones I didn't like were Peony and Jaemal - I've found both very annoying, especially Peony (yep, I understand she was supposed to be annoying, but she was also so bland I couldn't stop hating her). I also didn't like Hildury very much, mainly for her manner of speech - I just prefer intelligent characters Still, I was happy for her and Nord (at last, I wasn't wasting time trying to reincarnate her as a human )

By the way, Diriel's speech was brilliant Well, you've clearly made an effort to make everyone talk differently, but with Di, success was the most spectacular. Superb work.

I also didn't care much for Valeero, but she doesn't seem to be as popular as Jaemal, so no surprises here. Rizdaer seems to be the first normal drow in IE-based games - BG2 had lots of repenting dark elves (even *evil* Viconia behaved like a sissy in the romance). Mistress relationship was quite fun and an interesting and original idea, although I played a proper romance. Sir Nord... his "mystery" seemed too expected; otherwise, a nice idea, I just hate those "proper knightly" types, especially those who romance the PC and call her "my lady". Makes me want to punch them in the face immediately. Unfortunately, they seem to be popular, so looks like there will be no shortage of them in future games. *Sigh*

The voicing was mostly all right - I thought Nikosh had the best voice-acting, Salomeya's, Rizdaer's, Nord's seemed fitting, too. Didn't really like Peony's and Hildury's, and Diriel's one didn't seem to match the character.

 

Also, during playthrough, there were several moments that just rubbed me the wrong way. I'll mention some of them

- Nobody reacts after Hildury's reincarnation. That just seemed plain wrong - I definitely could see Nord reacting, Salomeya, and maybe Diriel if Hildury became an elf (heh, he'd probably kill her himself and cast the spell once again - and elf with the soul of an orc, that would be sacriledgious);

- You couldn't taunt Peony with the dirty anecdotes about Lady Alustriel (and I'm sure there are lots of them!);

- After Jaemal tells PC he loves her, you couldn't tell him "Huh, you're an eunuch, back off!" (or something like that). Well, for most of my characters, that would be the first reaction

- The whole Salomeya-seducing-Nord thing just seemed to end up with nothing;

- Load times were impossibly long, and slowdowns forced me to turn off the AI sometimes

[Domi]

Heya, thank you for your notes. Well, I do not avoid the love 'em or hate 'em characaters; no point imo, because every character has a chance to be liked or disliked by someone. Variety is more important for me. Of course there are a couple of characters missing to round off the set, and I will probably feel that way no matter how many are there.

 

Nord, Hildury, Jaemal, Salomeya and Nikosh were written initially as the only 5 characters to be in a mod (a different mod too, lol, a total conversion that miserably failed) so they all related to one another closely. I tried to introduce special relationships between other characters as well, as I was adding them, but as the group size grows larger, it is more difficult to do it without repetitions and too many layers of reactions/complexity.

 

Prachi has as much content as everyone else, if she feel under-developped it's because I got myself over my head with her nature. It sounded pretty good in theory; in practice I have always avoided philosophy as philosophy per se, so a couple of entry-level books can't mask the depth of my ignorance.

 

I agree with the stuff you think is missing, particulary the reactions to Hildury's ressurection.

 

But because of the thinggie you quoted last - the game is being slowed down by the mod, and because the only way it seems to run is from one gigantic script, I don't think I should be adding anything extra in the IWD2. The mod is killing the performance, and I dislike that fact. Once I am done with my first stand-along mod for NWN2 I will look into using that game's Toolset to address not just the lack of NPCs in IWD2, but its monotonous story-line, heavy reliance on the H&S and the lack of the optional content.

[Neferit]

Finished the game and completely forgot to post here...

 

So...

 

Female PC: Nord, Nikosh, Diriel, Jaemal, Salomeya. Jaemal = romantic interest.

 

Planning to try Rozdaer and then Diriel. Aww, don't know if I should skip Rizdaer and play right with Diriel...

[Domi]

Thank you for letting me know I think we are stable enough now for me to keep asking for this info. I will see if I can lock the poll to prevent the confusion.