Combat
While I said I would include more combat in a sequel, I'm not planning to go overboard. As far as I'm concerned, a role-playing game should offer role-playing. Neverwinter Nights 2 is a role-playing game, and any module that I claim is going to be a role-playing module will be just that. As Fate of an Empire is the sequel to Fate of a City I want it to contain just the same amount of role-playing, if not more.
While I have ideas for other modules that might take on different forms, I don't have plans to turn Fate of an Empire into a hack-and-slash festival. I've played quite a number of mods that have had enough hack-and-slash to make the average Diablo player happy, and while I do like Diablo, I'm not playing NWN2 module to get my Diablo fix. While I like NWN2 combat more than NWN1 combat, it's still not the reason I play the game.
I believe the main difficulty in using combat well in a module has been explained perfectly others, in that combat should be there for a reason. Now, of course, the reasons are many and varied, but I don't believe that the hero or heroes should be wading through hordes of enemies without breaking a sweat. Of course, there is an exception to this if the enemies are meant to be weak in comparison to the almighty adventurer, but then surely the sight of the adventurer might be enough to inspire terror in those same enemies?
There will be sections in Fate of an Empire that will have a level combat closer to the keep assault in Fate of a City, but that's due to two main reasons - the increased flexibility for fights in this level range, and the increased scope of the module. I'll let you know now that the beginning of the module will start off a little more combat oriented, but the roleplaying won't take a backseat in the module.
The one thing I will say is that I'll do everything I can to make combat interesting and different. I tried to do this in Fate of a City, for example the mixed enemies in the keep assault or the confrontation with Kaladyr. Another example of trying to do things differently is the fight with Sergeant Mallum and his summoned shadows at the conduit. And finally, there are fights that don't actually need to involve combat at all, like the confrontation with the Shadow Being.
I'll be aiming to deliver more variety and unique fights given the increased durability of the heroes and the broader scope of Fate of an Empire.
2 comments:
I hope you'll forgive me for the repost, but since it remains highly germain:
"For God’s sake don’t go the route of Bethesda’s Oblivion, that is, don’t scale combat to level!
There is nothing that takes the purpose and fun out of *earning* levels and becoming a bigger and better badass than an enemy system that scales to level. If I go to place X and get in over my head, I deserve to get wiped out (especially if the role playing end makes it abundantly clear that what I am doing is suicidal). But, if through exceptional planning and luck I manage to overcome a combat that I was not meant to, there is nothing more rewarding to the player in terms of self-satisfaction, to say nothing of loot gained.
In short, please, please, please do not go the rout of level scaling."
Tauschitz
Tauschitz: My next post is going to be about scaling. Don't worry, you won't see any Oblivion style scaling.
I'll explain in full very soon, perhaps tomorrow - and I'm fairly sure that you shouldn't be disappointed.
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