Screenshots #5

Shots today feature the 'Hall of Pleasures', where you'll briefly stop off in pursuit of your enemy. It uses the Estate tileset to make a giant demonic palace, with exterior views- we're adding more complicated lighting, so it will look less starkly red.

Daernvan, the paladin companion, is also featured. We wanted to get away from the 'typical' paladin- this is a man whose idea of 'lawful good' has been stretched to the limits, manning an abandoned Neverwinter colonial post by himself out of a sense of duty.

Also a few shots of the 'Neverwhen' major time-travel sidequest...you'll get to go back to the just-founded Neverwinter Docks (we thought a bit of a 'Wild West' feel) and help your future fellow hero out by stopping an Old One attack hoping to retrieve a certain artifact....

Screenshots #4

Jon- These are actually old shots, from the first chapter of the game; enjoy.

Godlike Abilities

Nick: Our little way of making the KC bigger and better. Some brave soul in the future may dare to break the level cap...but in the meantime we're getting around it with Godlike Abilities.

You'll receive these much like the history feats, but with very obvious benefits (and disadvantages) and they'll reflect your own state of character. Nobody will be able to get them all- for instance, if you slaughter a villageful of Th'ungi women and children and become 'Stuff of Nightmares', you're unlikely to be able to get the 'Protector of the People' ability later on- and if you do it the other way round, you'll probably lose the PotP.

Basically we wanted these to reflect your ever-growing power and, as importantly, the ever-growing legend around you; so the first ability you'll receive will be the 'Legendary Stature', which gives you dialogue and combat advantages against the speaking races (monsters, it's assumed, don't listen to folk tales).

In other news, we're all busy playing through MotB to make sure we have a couple of acceptable test characters rather than the scary Battle of the Builds titans we've been using up until now. And I'm betaing my Hallowe'en entry. Life goes on...

Custom Parties

Jon: The screenshots below are me playing with a 'custom' team of non-plot companions; Nick's got a lot of feedback from people saying they'd like a chance to ressurrect the old gang, so we're putting in an additional Custom Area at the beginning where you can also gain levels and collect some equipment if you want to create a new build. There will also be easter egg NP-companions- legendary heroes and familiar faces- who require certain conditions to be 'unlocked'. :P.

As you can probably tell, both areas are far from ready, but it was still fun to have a go. The ruins battle is the site of an old Neverwinter colonial bastion you visit, the Neverfall- an integral location to the campaign. The jungle battle takes you onto the northern borders of Samarach to fight, amongst other things, the ape king Ghan.

Screenshots #3

Second Screenshot batch

Nick- From Andy's work-in-progress, the Hardcastle colonial settlement, plus a few shots of a Shaar Hyena attack.

The Making of New Harbor

Andy: The campaign begins in 'New Harbor'. For the purposes of the introduction, we wanted the PC to return home for an opening which echoed the very beginning of the OC and gave the series a 'rounded off' feel. So my job was to recreate West Harbor as it might have changed over the years since it fell into shadow.

Our theory was that WH went unoccupied, a place of fear, until the news that the KC was alive was transmitted back to the Sword Coast. Since then, it's been steadily rebuilt by an enterprising architect by the name of Shuckholt, who's hoped to encourage settlers by capitalising on the fact that the new village is built on the remains of the KC's home.

New Harbor was constucted on the OC's design- the 'dead harbor' format, as we figured the earth would be permanently scarred. Creating a new area from an old's actually pretty fascinating, because the basic groundwork is done and you have space to be creative. So younger trees are now taller, older trees have become stumps, grass has begun to grow, a very different sort of house is under construction- I even widened the meander of the stream where it would have eroded over the years.

While the Farlong home has been reconstructed, certain houses- the home of the ill-fated Starlings, for instance, have been left in ruin; even the naive, fresh-faced inhabitants of New Harbor want nothing to do with it.

First Screenshots