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HotU compared to SoU
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RPGDot Forums > Neverwinter Nights - General

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Aphazel
A Shadow of My Own Self
A Shadow of My Own Self




Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 877
Location: Norway
HotU compared to SoU
   

First when I played the original NWN I loved it, and of course got my hands on SoU once I had finished it. But SoU was a big blow in the face. It is one of the worst games I've ever played (although I do not have more than less a year of RPG experience). I wanted to buy HotU, but after playing SoU I have been more sceptical to buy it. I still haven't gotten my hands on it. How is HotU? Is it the same as SoU? Or will I get this lovely feeling of the original NWN?
Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:58 pm
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Cm
Sentinel of Light
Sentinel of Light




Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 5209
Location: Missouri USA
   

I felt the same way with SoU. But to me HotU was more back to the OC and better. If you liked the original, you will love HotU. It is harder in some ways, but the character choices, classes, ect are so great, it is like having a whole new game each time you start a new character. IMHO anyway.
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Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:12 pm
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Graham 2
High Emperor
High Emperor




Joined: 29 Jan 2004
Posts: 795
Location: Preston/England
   

When I got NWN I got the gold edition with SoU and it came with an invalid cd key so I took it back - repeat 3 times And hey presto NWN had a valid CD key Horay, but SoU doesn't so I can't play it
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Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:16 pm
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Elf Friend




Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES
   

I found the OC got a little old ... maybe it was just too long. Dunno.

SoU was too short but I liked playing with the prestige classes - the frozen in time thing kinda was not so great though. A bad plot trick.

HotU I found to be a blast. Varied, not too long, not too short, interesting story line with lots of twists and turns. A good effort - in my opinion (for what *thats* worth) I found it the best of the three.
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Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:04 pm
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Aphazel
A Shadow of My Own Self
A Shadow of My Own Self




Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 877
Location: Norway
   

quote:
Originally posted by Lintra
A good effort - in my opinion (for what *thats* worth)


Oh. All opinions matters. After only seeing good response to HotU so far I guess I have to buy it soon
Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 8:38 pm
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konny666
Noble Knight
Noble Knight




Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 219
Location: Babylon 6
   

To be honest, I've noticed that the biggest proponents of HotU were those who *HATED* the first official campaign.

Your mileage may vary.
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Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:18 am
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Lintra
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Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES
   

quote:
Originally posted by konny666
To be honest, I've noticed that the biggest proponents of HotU were those who *HATED* the first official campaign.

Your mileage may vary.


Now that you point it out I have to agree. I wonder why that is?
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Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:24 pm
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konny666
Noble Knight
Noble Knight




Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 219
Location: Babylon 6
   

Quite simple really. Well, ok, not really...

NWN was meant to be a primarily multiplayer game. Think Tribes 2.

Of course, 6 months before release the marketers thought that was a bad idea. The game needed SOME sort of single player campaign. So they wrote one up really quickly, which ended up being more of a "toolset demo" than anything else. In fact, it didn't even use half the features/functions which were included in the engine at release time.

Anyways, at that point of time they were literally breaking new ground. It was the first NWN module ever created, so they couldn't look to anywhere else for ideas.

But within a month of NWN's release, the community had already started dishing out mods which greatly exceeded the quality of the OC in a number of departments. Most of these modders really hated the OC; thats why they were already releasing their own mods only a month after NWN's release. Even today if you read mod-builder interviews at the Vault, the vast majority of them never finished the first OC!

In late 2002, BioWare outsourced the development of the first XP to Floodgate, and you can tell they took cue from the community as many of the ideas in SoU are hardly original and were done in community mods first. The second XP - HoTU - on the other hand had the full resources of a Bioware team behind it, including their "star designers" like David Gaider (BG2, Ascension) and a bunch of ex-community people who got hired in 2003. And by the time HoTU was in development, the community was chock-full of some great mods, various module designers were being hired by gaming companies (seriously... check the "Fable" credits for the author of "Lord of Blight") - basically Bioware knew what the community was capable of, they knew what they had to do to make HoTU worth the money. So they did it. And that's the long and short of it.

Class dismissed.
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Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:50 pm
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
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Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
   

I liked Shadows...

However, Hoardes of the Underdark is my favorite of the three, hands down.
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Post Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:44 pm
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konny666
Noble Knight
Noble Knight




Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 219
Location: Babylon 6
   

I also liked Shadows. I wasn't bashing it.

Just pointing out that by the time SoU was released, there were a number of free community modules with a level of quality approaching to/equal to/or greater than, that of Shadows.

*However* by the time HoTU was released, there were no mods with a quality level comparable to it. Only now are such modules starting to come out.

In a sense, thats why the multiplayer community felt a bit "snubbed" with HoTU, as it was tailored specifically for single-player.

HoTU did a great job revitalizing the NWN community. And there appears to be a lot of support for the new BW scheme of "downloadable mini-campaigns which cost a bit of money" which will ensure the engine keeps getting supported and patched (and feature-added) for some time to come.
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Post Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:26 pm
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konny666
Noble Knight
Noble Knight




Joined: 03 Jul 2003
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Location: Babylon 6
   

Oh and BTW... despite the fact that the project goals for NWN was for it to be "primarily multiplayer", I think the single-player aspect of it is DOING GREAT as that's how I usually play it. And probably you as well, I suspect.
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Post Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:28 pm
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Lintra
Elf Friend
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Joined: 23 Apr 2002
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Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES
   

@Konny666 - Thanks for the history lesson. I'd not though it out before. Also, I have to admit that while I really enjoyed the on line experience, I use NWN mostly for business trips when I know I will have a ton of time to kill. That is most likely because I don't have a broadband connection at home, but even then the multi player experience can get more that a little confusing at times *grin*
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Post Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:32 pm
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Cm
Sentinel of Light
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Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 5209
Location: Missouri USA
   

@konny666. I agree, the game is great for sp. I play all the time and love it. I love MP as well, but more because of the group I play with. I think it me to know who I am playing with, makes it fun.
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Post Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:24 pm
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