I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I think Neverwinter Nights would have been much more successful if it were more like an MMO, specifically World of Warcraft, and I'm going to explain why.
First, I want to say that I really love Neverwinter Nights because of what it stands for: a pen and paper mentality to computer role-playing. Single player campaigns and custom modules, and a multi-player side that can be used on a LAN with friends, or online in a persistent world. It is brilliant in ways that no other computer game has ever been.
Unfortunately NWN fell short in many ways, and it is frustrating because there is no reason for it. It comes down to bad design and poor decision making. It wouldn't be a problem if where it fell short didn't impact gameplay in such a negative manner.
There are a few major areas I want to touch on: Graphics, Camera, The Interface, Content Generation, Multi-player experience.
Quickly, I think it is time that computer-based D&D switch over to the mana system for spellcasters. I think it would make casting smoother. A spellcaster would be allowed to prepare X amount of spells depending on their level, and they would receive X amount of mana between rests. They can cast any spell they have prepared as many times as they want until they've used their mana. That way you can mash magic missile as needed while in combat, but if not in combat you could use your mana to identify enchanted gear.
{ GRAPHICS }
The beginning of the problems with NWN 1 & 2 start with the graphics. If graphics had been approached in a fundamentally different manner, NWN would have been a very different experience.
[ Maps & Character Models ]
Maps and character models affect each other so thoroughly that I can't separate them. The differences in the character models and maps NWN and WoW are extreme to say the least. Characters in NWN move stiffly and are stuck to safe, flat terrain. They can't jump, swim or fly. While in WoW, characters move very fluidly across most of the terrain, in water, and through the air on flying mounts. You can jump off a mountain and use an ability to float to safety all the while watching the world pass by underneath.
I believe the style of graphics are the critical factor here. The NWN engines, especially NWN2, are much more demanding than WoW, yet WoW still manages to create a more beautiful 3D world. I think WoW's more illustrative style is less demanding on systems, allowing for many more options. Some players might not like the ?cartoony? character models as much, but I think they would still appreciate the environments if they were more interesting to move about in.
The current NWN graphics engine has consigned fantasy world characters to living in boring brown towns and gray cities. What about the exotic tree-bound cities of elves, or dwarven fortresses carved into mountains?
[ Equipment ]
Equipment in WoW is a lot more interesting to look at as well, and works better in the game because it is more illustrative. The possibilities are pretty amazing. Anybody who has played WoW will understand how cool matching armor sets are, and nearly every piece of armor is immediately noticeable on the character models. The possibilities for illustrating weapon enchants are also much greater, and could be logically extended to any other piece of equipment. So much of any role-playing game is seeking and enjoying the loot, so why not make it more beautiful?
Mounts can also be included in equipment. Besides having mounts for transportation, imagine riding a huge red dragon as part of a quest. That would be fantastic.
[ Loading Screens ]
I could see NWN having the ability to work with large seamless maps as well as loading screen transitions. It might be quite a bit more difficult to create a complex cave system that loads seamlessly and doesn't interfere with the above ground, but small caves and buildings shouldn't be too much of a problem with pre-generated placeables. For very large sub-maps you could use an instance portal, which would go to a loading screen, but once loaded it could be another massive map, similar to large instances in WoW. If it can be done on a game that is played online, it sure as hell can be done on a hard-drive based game.
Ultimately illustrative style graphics could lead to the fantasy worlds that D&D wants to be, yet fails to be in the digital world.
{ THE CAMERA }
The camera in NWN is by far the most frustrating part of the game for me. It is difficult to control, and nearly impossible to use with any precision. The camera in WoW on the other hand almost feels like a tool, rather than just a view of the action. Within a short time of playing, most players will be controlling their character while swinging the camera around with the mouse to get a better view of the action and the world it is taking place in. With more practice a player in WoW can use the camera to keep track of a 40-man raid while still controlling their character without too much difficulty. NWN would be much improved if the camera simply worked the same way that it does in WoW.
{ THE INTERFACE }
The interface is a pretty big concept, but there are things at work in both interfaces that make them relatively comparable, with a very different approach to accomplishing certain things. First, I will simply say that the speed and responsiveness of the WoW interface cannot be beat. Most screens are hotkeyed and pop open without any kind of hesitation. The XML interface offers a seriously ridiculous number of options for customization as well. NWN has a customizable XML interface, but out of the few modifications that are available, none of them are really that good.
[ Action Bars ]
Buttons are always better than menus. WoW works so well because every command can be placed into the actions bars and either clicked or activated with hotkeys. Those buttons can show cooldown times, inventory counts and range. There is simply no need for any menu-driven interface in NWN. The spellbook could work very similar to WoW in that commands could be organized by specific type. You drag the ones out that you use frequently, and for infrequent commands you pop the spellbook open and find it. This would make organizing feat-based abilities and high level abilities easier to find and utilize.
[ Inventory ]
I feel that the inventory system in NWN is superior to the unmodified inventory in WoW, though. However, I think both games should have the entire inventory visible in one screen. Multiple inventory screens are very inefficient. However, you would still need a container interface in NWN to handle bags of holding.
[ Crafting ]
Crafting in the WoW interface also makes so much more sense. You could run the entire crafting system of NWN off of one crafting window. You would learn recipes the same way as in WoW, by finding them in books or whatever, and learning them. Then if you had the necessary items it would show that you could make an item and you could do whatever was necessary to craft it. The system could be tweaked in any number of ways to allow characters to specialize in different kinds of crafting, just like WoW.
{ CONTENT GENERATION & MULTI-PLAYER EXPERIENCE }
If NWN had less demanding graphics, user-generated content would be easier to create and be higher quality. It would be easier to create very large, detailed maps. More time could be spent creating interesting scripted encounters, and developing truly epic campaigns and persistent worlds.
I think the above changes would lead to a much more satisfying multi-player experience because the world would be more immersive, and DMs would be able to create more detailed content for their players to go through. Maps would be more forgiving and allow for more individual exploration as well.
{ CONCLUSION }
I had no idea how long this post was going to be, so I apologize for that. This really wasn't meant to be a NWN hate post, because I really love NWN and what they are supposed to be. After all that I can see all of you saying, ?If you like WoW so much why don't you just play WoW?, but I really don't like MMO gaming. There is no reason why D&D roleplaying games like NWN can't be massive, fast and dynamic like an MMO. In fact, they should have been that way long before MMO technology was achievable.
My hope is that one day we might have a single player or small scale multi-player D&D game that has a style that is truly indicative of the high fantasy setting.
First, I want to say that I really love Neverwinter Nights because of what it stands for: a pen and paper mentality to computer role-playing. Single player campaigns and custom modules, and a multi-player side that can be used on a LAN with friends, or online in a persistent world. It is brilliant in ways that no other computer game has ever been.
Unfortunately NWN fell short in many ways, and it is frustrating because there is no reason for it. It comes down to bad design and poor decision making. It wouldn't be a problem if where it fell short didn't impact gameplay in such a negative manner.
There are a few major areas I want to touch on: Graphics, Camera, The Interface, Content Generation, Multi-player experience.
Quickly, I think it is time that computer-based D&D switch over to the mana system for spellcasters. I think it would make casting smoother. A spellcaster would be allowed to prepare X amount of spells depending on their level, and they would receive X amount of mana between rests. They can cast any spell they have prepared as many times as they want until they've used their mana. That way you can mash magic missile as needed while in combat, but if not in combat you could use your mana to identify enchanted gear.
{ GRAPHICS }
The beginning of the problems with NWN 1 & 2 start with the graphics. If graphics had been approached in a fundamentally different manner, NWN would have been a very different experience.
[ Maps & Character Models ]
Maps and character models affect each other so thoroughly that I can't separate them. The differences in the character models and maps NWN and WoW are extreme to say the least. Characters in NWN move stiffly and are stuck to safe, flat terrain. They can't jump, swim or fly. While in WoW, characters move very fluidly across most of the terrain, in water, and through the air on flying mounts. You can jump off a mountain and use an ability to float to safety all the while watching the world pass by underneath.
I believe the style of graphics are the critical factor here. The NWN engines, especially NWN2, are much more demanding than WoW, yet WoW still manages to create a more beautiful 3D world. I think WoW's more illustrative style is less demanding on systems, allowing for many more options. Some players might not like the ?cartoony? character models as much, but I think they would still appreciate the environments if they were more interesting to move about in.
The current NWN graphics engine has consigned fantasy world characters to living in boring brown towns and gray cities. What about the exotic tree-bound cities of elves, or dwarven fortresses carved into mountains?
[ Equipment ]
Equipment in WoW is a lot more interesting to look at as well, and works better in the game because it is more illustrative. The possibilities are pretty amazing. Anybody who has played WoW will understand how cool matching armor sets are, and nearly every piece of armor is immediately noticeable on the character models. The possibilities for illustrating weapon enchants are also much greater, and could be logically extended to any other piece of equipment. So much of any role-playing game is seeking and enjoying the loot, so why not make it more beautiful?
Mounts can also be included in equipment. Besides having mounts for transportation, imagine riding a huge red dragon as part of a quest. That would be fantastic.
[ Loading Screens ]
I could see NWN having the ability to work with large seamless maps as well as loading screen transitions. It might be quite a bit more difficult to create a complex cave system that loads seamlessly and doesn't interfere with the above ground, but small caves and buildings shouldn't be too much of a problem with pre-generated placeables. For very large sub-maps you could use an instance portal, which would go to a loading screen, but once loaded it could be another massive map, similar to large instances in WoW. If it can be done on a game that is played online, it sure as hell can be done on a hard-drive based game.
Ultimately illustrative style graphics could lead to the fantasy worlds that D&D wants to be, yet fails to be in the digital world.
{ THE CAMERA }
The camera in NWN is by far the most frustrating part of the game for me. It is difficult to control, and nearly impossible to use with any precision. The camera in WoW on the other hand almost feels like a tool, rather than just a view of the action. Within a short time of playing, most players will be controlling their character while swinging the camera around with the mouse to get a better view of the action and the world it is taking place in. With more practice a player in WoW can use the camera to keep track of a 40-man raid while still controlling their character without too much difficulty. NWN would be much improved if the camera simply worked the same way that it does in WoW.
{ THE INTERFACE }
The interface is a pretty big concept, but there are things at work in both interfaces that make them relatively comparable, with a very different approach to accomplishing certain things. First, I will simply say that the speed and responsiveness of the WoW interface cannot be beat. Most screens are hotkeyed and pop open without any kind of hesitation. The XML interface offers a seriously ridiculous number of options for customization as well. NWN has a customizable XML interface, but out of the few modifications that are available, none of them are really that good.
[ Action Bars ]
Buttons are always better than menus. WoW works so well because every command can be placed into the actions bars and either clicked or activated with hotkeys. Those buttons can show cooldown times, inventory counts and range. There is simply no need for any menu-driven interface in NWN. The spellbook could work very similar to WoW in that commands could be organized by specific type. You drag the ones out that you use frequently, and for infrequent commands you pop the spellbook open and find it. This would make organizing feat-based abilities and high level abilities easier to find and utilize.
[ Inventory ]
I feel that the inventory system in NWN is superior to the unmodified inventory in WoW, though. However, I think both games should have the entire inventory visible in one screen. Multiple inventory screens are very inefficient. However, you would still need a container interface in NWN to handle bags of holding.
[ Crafting ]
Crafting in the WoW interface also makes so much more sense. You could run the entire crafting system of NWN off of one crafting window. You would learn recipes the same way as in WoW, by finding them in books or whatever, and learning them. Then if you had the necessary items it would show that you could make an item and you could do whatever was necessary to craft it. The system could be tweaked in any number of ways to allow characters to specialize in different kinds of crafting, just like WoW.
{ CONTENT GENERATION & MULTI-PLAYER EXPERIENCE }
If NWN had less demanding graphics, user-generated content would be easier to create and be higher quality. It would be easier to create very large, detailed maps. More time could be spent creating interesting scripted encounters, and developing truly epic campaigns and persistent worlds.
I think the above changes would lead to a much more satisfying multi-player experience because the world would be more immersive, and DMs would be able to create more detailed content for their players to go through. Maps would be more forgiving and allow for more individual exploration as well.
{ CONCLUSION }
I had no idea how long this post was going to be, so I apologize for that. This really wasn't meant to be a NWN hate post, because I really love NWN and what they are supposed to be. After all that I can see all of you saying, ?If you like WoW so much why don't you just play WoW?, but I really don't like MMO gaming. There is no reason why D&D roleplaying games like NWN can't be massive, fast and dynamic like an MMO. In fact, they should have been that way long before MMO technology was achievable.
My hope is that one day we might have a single player or small scale multi-player D&D game that has a style that is truly indicative of the high fantasy setting.