Neverwinter Nights 2 replacement?

[Ahriman]

Hey everyone,

I've always been a huge fan of the Bioware RPG games (Baldur's Gate, Torment, KotOR, Neverwinter Nights, etc.) and in particular the Neverwinter Nights series because of their massive modability and the communities dedicated to producing high quality campaign and scenario mods.

I've spend many dozens of hours playing awesome Neverwinter Nights 2 mods.

But that game is pretty old now.

So here's my question; has any RPG been released since then that has a similar mod community in terms of creating scenarios and campaigns, particularly those with lots of text and story and real roleplay opportunity? What's the next step?

Like many others, I was horrified by the sequels to Neverwinter Nights and KotoR being MMOs, but surely there must be something out there for mod communities for single player RPGs?

 

[Maniacal]

Roguelikes and total conversions/major quest mods for The Elder Scrolls games (like Nehrim) might be your best bet, otherwise there is nothing I can think of besides playing Dragon Age: Origins.

 

[Lillefix]

I actually did have some hopes for NEverwinter nights 3 until they changed their minds and said that it would be "free" to play. You have to buy good armor and so on with real money, but the game itself will be free. That is possibly the worst solution I have ever heard of. That game is dead to me now.

Anyway. To answer your question: There isn't any. Not one which is dedicated to mods in the same way that Neverwinter 1 and 2 were at least.

 

[Maniacal]

I actually did have some hopes for NEverwinter nights 3 until they changed their minds and said that it would be "free" to play. You have to buy good armor and so on with real money, but the game itself will be free. That is possibly the worst solution I have ever heard of. That game is dead to me now.

WHAT. THE. F?

I haven't seen anything about it since it was announced, it is dead to me too,

 

[Ahriman]

Roguelikes and the TES games don't really have anything in the way of plot or roleplay opportunity.
And my understanding was that Dragon Age wasn't very modable, and so doesn't really have mod campaigns at all?

Sad that there is nothing released since NWN2 and nothing even on the horizon that I know of.

 

[croxis]

Dragon age, at least the first one, had a lot of modding tools. I don't how it compares to NWN, but it is quite comprehensive.

 

[The_J]

I don't think there are any heavily modded RPGs out there, besides Gothic 3 yuck and the TES series.

There were some mods for The Witcher, but the fan made ones were rather short (but sure nevertheless work intensive, I'd guess).

 

[GoodGame]

Cryptic is working on a Neverwinter Nights MMORPG, that will be free2play. Not sure of the time-frame for release/beta.

I'd take a look at the Oblivion modding community. There's no "Forgotten Realms" mod for it, but there's a some quest-based mods for Oblivion.

 

[Maniacal]

Cryptic is working on a Neverwinter Nights MMORPG, that will be free2play. Not sure of the time-frame for release/beta.

That game is going to be so bad, one way or another (largely because of free to play).

 

[Ruler]

Witchers.

I still keep my hopes up that Neverwinter Night MMO is at least decent. How bad it can be if its CO-OP.

 

[Maniacal]

The Witcher games are a different type of RPG though, but also very good and their choices to somewhat matter.

 

[Ruler]

Dark Souls should be also somekind of single playing RPG.

 

[Maniacal]

Along with every other singleplayer RPG.

 

[Ruler]

Along with every other singleplayer RPG.

There isnt that many fantasy RPGs. Im sure Dark Souls gives alot better campaign than any other Neverwinter Night mod.

 

[Ahriman]

There isnt that many fantasy RPGs. Im sure Dark Souls gives alot better campaign than any other Neverwinter Night mod.

My understanding is that Dark Souls is really an action RPG, with very little actual role-playing?

I should be clear that my interest is in actual role-playing games, where character and plot and dialog are more important than incremental stat boosts and fancy equipment. Western RPGs, and only a fairly small segment of those.

There are some detailed Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign mods with dozens of hours of high quality gameplay.
http://nwvault.ign.com/

I enjoyed The Witcher and sequel as a single-player experience, but I don't think they have much flexibility for modding. You're still just the one guy.

 

[Ruler]

My understanding is that Dark Souls is really an action RPG, with very little actual role-playing?

I should be clear that my interest is in actual role-playing games, where character and plot and dialog are more important than incremental stat boosts and fancy equipment. Western RPGs, and only a fairly small segment of those.

There are some detailed Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign mods with dozens of hours of high quality gameplay.
http://nwvault.ign.com/

I enjoyed The Witcher and sequel as a single-player experience, but I don't think they have much flexibility for modding. You're still just the one guy.

I havent had time to check Dark Souls, but I think if you reall want good RP, MUDs are your best bet I have seen some really awesome stuff there. MUDs are text based so you can imagine only sky is a limit. I'd play them myself if I was excellent at English.

EDIT: Looks like http://www.mudconnect.com/ is still up. Go pick what you like, but its really for real role players. Lots of people who write history and make personality for character, and as its text-based, you can make an appearance exactly how you look like. Its almost like poetry for some.

 

[Luckymoose]

Roguelikes and the TES games don't really have anything in the way of plot or roleplay opportunity.
.

The plot of a roguelike is just as deep as NWN. Roleplaying is in the eye of the beholder really.

 

[GoodGame]

The plot of a roguelike is just as deep as NWN. Roleplaying is in the eye of the beholder really.

NWN1 the starter campaign was pretty shallow. NWN2 picked up in story though. And really the NWN mods that the OP talks about add a great deal of story, characters, etc... e.g. Kingmaker.

 

[GoodGame]

That game is going to be so bad, one way or another (largely because of free to play).

I think that is more a studio judgement than a fair indictment of all free 2 play games.

Cryptic has been successful with turning free2play.
I'd say the big hurdle in free 2 play games is developing the initial fan base and content. Some studios just make crap whether it is free2play or not. Some free2play lets studios that shouldn't be making MMO games to take a stab at it. But some games have great starter content, then go free2play and succeed.

 

[Lillefix]

NWN1 the starter campaign was pretty shallow. NWN2 picked up in story though. And really the NWN mods that the OP talks about add a great deal of story, characters, etc... e.g. Kingmaker.

To add to your comment: NWN1 was initially not even supposed to have a campaign, so the main campaign was really just an afterthought. It was to rest solely on user created material.

I think that is more a studio judgement than a fair indictment of all free 2 play games.

Cryptic has been successful with turning free2play.
I'd say the big hurdle in free 2 play games is developing the initial fan base and content. Some studios just make crap whether it is free2play or not. Some free2play lets studios that shouldn't be making MMO games to take a stab at it. But some games have great starter content, then go free2play and succeed.

It's not the content that's the problem. You can buy(with real money) potions that make you stronger. That's the big problem.