Topic: NWN 2: Storm of Zehir - Update: Patch 1.22 Released

[MysterD]

Obsidian has NWN2: Storm Of Zehir coming.

This is another NWN2 Expansion from Obsidian.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Unveiled [June 09, 2008, 4:20 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
Spanish NWN2 website Neverwinteros has news on Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, an expansion for the D&D RPG sequel that Neverwinter Nights 2 Vault has confirmed with developer Obsidian Entertainment. Word is:

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir hearkens back to the days of the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale franchises by including full party customization, dungeon crawling, and free exploration of a non-linear game world via an Overland Map. The gripping storyline foreshadows the events that will take place in the Forgotten Realms with the coming of release this June of the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game.

    In the aftermath of the defeat of the King of Shadows, the Sword Coast is in the midst of an uneasy economic recovery. Trade syndicates have sprung up to exploit the post-war confusion for their own ends. The players’ party will wade into this uncertain environment; in order to increase their own fortunes, they can either ally with a syndicate to create a trade empire, or cut their own path through Faerûn by preying upon caravans and selling the goods on the black market. As they attempt to extend their influence, players will become aware of a new faction working behind the scenes: the evil, shapeshifting, serpentine Yuan-Ti.

    In addition to trading and economic manipulation, the Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Overland Map allows players to explore the Chultan Peninsula and Sword Coast in a non-linear manner never before seen in any of the Neverwinter Nights games. Exploration will take players from well-known locations, like Neverwinter and Crossroad Keep, to more exotic areas, such as the xenophobic jungle nation of Samarach. Groups of highwaymen and monsters populate the Overland Map and the farther from civilization the player roams, the more difficult the encounters become. The 15-hour campaign in Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir is also packed with new classes, spells, creatures, and playable races.

    Fans of the compelling multiplayer features of Neverwinter Nights 2 will also be able to take advantage of new improvements to the multiplayer experience, while modders will be able to take advantage of the power and flexibility of the Overland Map and Trading System features along with other world-building enhancements.

        Game Features:

            · Travel the Sword Coast and Samarach using the open ended exploration of the new Overland Map. Use skills like Spot and Survival while on the Overland Map to avoid ambushes and even find hidden locales and lost artifacts.

            · Create your own full party of adventurers. Devastate your foes with a squad of fireball-flinging Sorcerers, form a solid wall of steel with a party of Fighters, or strike the perfect balance in your party by spreading out the classes you choose for your characters.

            · Improved party gameplay including streamlined party conversations, a new Teamwork Benefit System, and powerful party feats.

            · The world's economy reacts to your adventures and choices. And, through trading and quests, you can expand your merchant company into a massive trading empire.

[Xessive]

I'm still waiting for Mysteries of Westgate!

[MysterD]

Interviews on NWN2: Storm of Zehir with Kevin Saunders of Obsidian
One from Action Trip
AND Another from Strategy Informer

EDIT, June 21, 2008:
Interview from RockPaperShotgun.com with Kevin Saunders of Obsidian:
RPS Interview w/ Saunders.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Interview
Written by Kieron Gillen on June 19, 2008.

The grab's from the original NWN2, I stress. Man, factual captions. Who'd have thunk it?

No sooner than we heard that Obsidian were at work on another NWN2 add-on, with a more party-customisation adventuring approach, we dropped ‘em a line. NWN2: Storm of Zehir’s producer, Kevin Saunders, took a few minutes from measuring the merit of monsters to answer our questions. Below the cut you’ll find a little about what Storm of Zehir’s approach allows (And what’s lost), his memories of playing early D&D games, what the overland map allows and how the fifteen-hour-main story perhaps isn’t everything…

RPS: With its full party customisation approach, it seems to owe more to things like Icewind Dale and even older RPGs (Gold Box and earlier, to Bard’s Tale and similar). Most modern party based games go for the pregenerated NPC character model, making it a rarity in the modern marketplace. Why did you choose to re-explore this terrain? What strengths does this kind of approach offer which the pregenerated NPC model loses?

Kevin Saunders: With this approach, you completely own your character(s). This complete customization of who your alter ego is at the core of what pencil-and-paper role-playing is all about. For me personally - and I suspect this is true for many - my first memory of role-playing is creating my character. I was five and my older brother (9) had bought the Basic D&D book - the red set with the warrior slashing at a red dragon on the cover. I chose a halfling - probably because I was about that size - who I creatively named Nivek. I don’t even remember what adventures he went on, but I do remember him. With a pregenerated character, you lose that magical sense of ownership that’s at the core of role-playing.

There are major trade-offs in making a game that allows character customization. The amount of work required is staggering. Armor, weapons, attack animations, etc. must all be adapted to work with each race. The story must be flexible enough to embrace a wide variety of characters. And there are many other considerations: once you let the player create their own character, you set many expectations that are challenging to meet. It’s much easier to create a great game with a specific character/role the player fills - that’s part of why so many games go that route. The problems can compound when you’re talking about an entire party instead of a single character. But it’s not what D&D and the Neverwinter Nights 2 franchises are about.

Obsidian’s past games have given great customizability in terms of your character. With Storm of Zehir, we wanted to expand that to an entire party (as was done in the older CRPGs you mention).

I've been recently wondering where the "party-based" RPG's have gone -- such as the old school bigger parties you could have in BG series, Dungeon Siege games (which will not include the planned eventual DS3), Fallout series (if you have a high enough Charisma skill, you can get more in your party), and Icewind Dale series.

I'm currently playing Icewind Dale, and it feels fresh again to have a game with bigger parties -- as so many games been focusing on the single-hero; such as Divine Divinity, Titan Quest, Gothic series, Elder Scrolls series, etc. Many other that once didn't do it will eventually do so -- DS3 and Fallout 3 come to mind. 

RPS: Reading between the lines of the press release, Zehir seems to be embracing the old school D&D of dungeon crawling and adventure. Would this be a right impression?

Kevin: I would say that your interpretation is accurate, yes.

Cool.

RPS: Equally, reading about the encounters in the wilderness… while you talk about a fifteen hour campaign, I get the feeling that refers to the central arc involving the Yuan-Ti, and there’s lots of room for random hack and slash. Am I reaching or onto something?

Kevin: Again, I’d say you’re on target. =)

Cool.

RPS: Heh. Okay - what sort of strengths does the new exploration map offer?

Kevin: We initially experimented with the Overland Map as a novelty. Toward the end of Mask of the Betrayer, designers Eric Fenstermaker and Jeff Husges played around with the idea a bit just to see what would be possible. As the feature developed (primarily through the work of both Jeff and Nathaniel Chapman), we realized how much value it could add to the game.

The first appeal of the Overland Map was the exploration aspect and how it would support a more open-ended type game. We wanted Storm of Zehir to still be story-driven, but to allow more flexibility and be less linear than Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer (MotB). Having a world to wander around was a great way to embrace this direction. And, as you’ve noted already, the exploration aspect embraces some of the classic D&D and CRPG feel that hasn’t been emphasized in a Neverwinter Nights game before.

I like the sound of this.

Kevin: The Overland Map also freed us artistically. Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer established a fairly realistic artistic style. While we’re increasing pleased with the areas we’ve been able to create, because the Overland Map is its own “mode” we could stretch our artistic creativity further and develop a different style and feel for it.

Another benefit from the Overland Map has been our D&D rules implementation. We’ve never been thrilled with the role Skills have played in Neverwinter Nights games. They are not as well integrated into the gameplay as we would have liked. On the Overland Map, skills like Spot, Survival, and Listen could all be given gameplay effects that would be fun and interesting, clear to the player, and more faithful to their D&D implementation.

Nice.

RPS: Basic questions, which I suspect you won’t be able to answer, but I have to try - what classes and playable races are you planning on adding? Why did you choose them? What about the Party Feats?

Kevin Saunders: Yeah, we’re not really discussing this sort of thing (races and classes) just yet. Having party-centric feats seemed like a natural extension of the party-based campaign. Neverwinter Nights 2, especially with Mask of the Betrayer, already has a fairly robust selection of normal feats and we felt we could add more to the game by looking into Teamwork Benefits. We’re still working on them, but expect they will work similarly to how they are described in the Player’s Handbook 2.

Okay.

RPS: On a racial question, what attracted you to the Yuan-Ti as an adversary?

Kevin: We felt that the southern jungles would be a great area to explore in a second NWN2 expansion - this choice of a future setting was one we made long before we even knew if there’d be a Storm of Zehir (the astute noted references to Chult in Mask of the Betrayer). Jungles would open up a new terrain for the mod community and would give us an excuse to add dinosaurs to NWN2. =) The yuan-ti are a key player in that part of the world and are also an interesting and classic (if slightly exotic) D&D opponent.

Cool.

RPS: Finally - the economic trading aspect sounds a fascinating thing to try. How will that work in the game? What inspired you to try such a thing - I’ve been very interested in Indie games like Mount & Blade which works with similar dynamic systems, so it all sounds enormously interesting.

Kevin: We’re also not ready to talk about the details of the Trading System just yet. It seemed like a natural way to develop and utilize the Overland Map. For example, it helps us tie traditional NWN 2-style quests into Overland Map gameplay.

Hmmmm...I can't wait to hear more on this Trading System.

RPS: And I suspect that’s more than enough. Before I go - flipping it around, a previous question - what sort of things have you lost which you kind of miss?

Kevin Saunders: Insightful question. Perhaps the biggest thing we “lost” was the involved companions we’ve had in previous Obsidian titles. Storm of Zehir will have Cohorts, each of whom has their own background and personality. But they are much more optional and are not integral story components. They also do not have the expansive dialogues that some Knights of the Old Republic 2, NWN2, and MotB companions have. There will be quite a few to choose from and they’ll comment on what’s going on in the game (as the Mask of the Betrayer companions did) and bolster your custom-created party. This approach with Cohorts felt like it fit the Storm of Zehir gameplay better and allowed us to expend more creative energy on creating a reactive and interesting world to explore.

Interesting.

So, we can create parties and even pick from their already-made Cohorts to join us. Hmmmm. That's interesting. So, in a sense, you got some of the strengths of both worlds -- with pre-made Cohorts, they'll interact with your party. With your own custom characters, yeah -- well, they're basically your own characters that you created.

RPS: Thanks for your time.

We’ll bring more on Storm of the Zehir as we approach its release near the end of the year.

[MysterD]

CVG Interviews Obsidian on NWN2: SoZ Expansion
ComputerAndVideoGames.com talks w/ Obsidian's very own Tony Evans, a Lead Designer on NWN2: Storm of Zehir.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
25-Jun-2008 Interview: We get the latest on the expansion pack
4 Comments
Ever since its launch in 2006, Neverwinter Nights 2 has been a mixed affair.

While the toolset provided a wealth of opportunities for RPG fans to create their own adventures, the original game campaign was seen by many as lackluster.

So when the second expansion pack was revealed last week, we dropped lead designer Tony Evans a few questions to see how this would improve on what had gone before.

CVG: SoZ seems to be catering for the neglected hardcore role-playing fans. Is this a case of casual players need not apply?

Tony Evans: Though many elements in Storm of Zehir are a "return to roots" which we think hardcore role-players will appreciate, we're also adding refinements that help make the game easier to play and more accessible to casual gamers.

The end result will be a blending of traditional RPG gaming and sandbox-style gameplay.

Cool.

CVG: In SoZ, you're dealing with a postwar society. How to plan to deal with a gritty subject matter whilst staying true to the licence?

Evans: The Realms may be falling apart around the party, but this just makes for interesting opportunities to explore and make an impact on the world.

The noble party will delight in solving problems, assisting the downtrodden wherever they go, and reaping gratuitous rewards for their good deeds.

On the other hand, a party of mischievous or greedy adventurers can choose to take advantage of the misfortunes of others, either for fun or for profit.

To accomplish this, the party has the freedom to get involved in the troubles of the lands they explore as deeply as the player wishes, but players also have the freedom to remain aloof and go off and do whatever they wish.

I like the sound of all this freedom/decision making.

Evans: In terms of staying true to the Dungeons & Dragons license, we have a few people on the team that I would consider experts on the subject.

One of our goals is to come as close to the experience of table-top roleplaying as we can on a computer, while keeping the game accessible to everyone.

Trying to mix hardcore and casual gamers -- eh, that ain't the easiest thing to accomplish. We'll see about that one.

CVG: It's not hard to argue that Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of the Zehir are far more interesting than the original Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign. Why save up your best stuff for the expansion packs that less people will play?

Evans: We haven't been "saving up" our best stuff, but rather have been able to create better stuff through experience.

Through the process of developing those previous titles, we learned a lot about how to improve and refine our gameplay, art style and technology. As such Storm of Zehir is able to deliver the "best stuff" to our loyal fans.

CVG: How much does morality play in the game? Will players be tied to the "Spare your money, I will help you / Pay me money and I'll help you / Give me money or I'll kill you" decision making that was prevalent in the OC.

Evans: Players can decide the morality of their party however they wish. Storm of Zehir offers significantly more choices than in our previous games, with lots of different rewards and reactions to the player's actions.

One of the ways we are doing this is with our new Party Conversation system, crafted by another NWN2 veteran, Anthony Davis.

Party Conversations offer different player responses and reactivity based on the numerous choices players make when creating and levelling-up their party members. This includes race, class, alignment, gender, deity, attributes and more.

That should make the game quite replayable, if gamers want to come back to it.

CVG: What level will the players start at?

Evans: The cap is the same as Mask of the Betrayer - level 30. The party begins at level 3, and we expect the average player to reach level 15 or higher throughout the Storm of Zehir campaign.

Okay.

CVG: Crossroad Keep is featured in SoZ. Can we expect it to work out what happened in the player's own story in a similar manner to KotOR 2 and MotB?

Evans: The tale of the Knight Captain of Crossroad Keep is famed throughout the Sword Coast.

Depending on the party's Lore skill, they may or may not be familiar with the Knight Captain, or the Shadow War that brought Neverwinter to its presently sorry state.

Regardless, several characters the party meets will know tidbits of the legend and the fate of the Knight Captain and company.

Ooooh, I'm glad to see The Keep is back in SoZ.
It was one of the things I really did like quite a bit in NWN2: OC.

CVG: You've mentioned full party customisation, dungeon crawling, and free exploration. Can we therefore expect it to be light on role-playing?

Evans: To the contrary, Storm of Zehir will feature more role-playing than our previous games. One example is party customization itself.

Players can design a full four-person party, each with their own individual attributes. The party can be customized further with a party name, motto and bio. We'll also be including several premade characters and parties to select from.

That sounds pretty cool.

Evans: As the player advances in Storm of Zehir, their party will gain fame and reputation as a group, which will attract the interest of cohorts. Cohorts are interesting characters that can be recruited to shore up any weaknesses the party may have. The party can also earn Teamwork Benefits, which are special feats that affect the entire party.

CVG: SoZ has multiple PCs and party NPCs. How do you deal with the increased amount of variables in the group whilst still maintaining character interactions and development?

Evans: One of Storm of Zehir's main strengths is how it will handle all of those different variables.

We focus on giving players maximum reactivity based on how they play and how they customise their party. No longer will you put points in a skill like Survival and then not be able to tell what effect it has in the game.

As players explore Samarach and the Sword Coast and interact with its many fascinating characters, the player will reap the benefits, and drawbacks, of their choices.

CVG: You used the phrase 'hearkens back' when referencing Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale in the announcement. Isn't there a danger that you're just retreating old ground instead of moving forward?

Evans: Nope. We're very confident that Storm of Zehir will be an awesome new gameplay experience, with a revitalizing approach to old school role-playing.

CVG: The interior environments in NwN 2 still could do with an improvement, both graphically and what can be done with them in the toolset. Can we expect an update to this or other environments in general?

Evans: The focus of the Storm of Zehir team is to create a newer, better Forgotten Realms adventure.

So we won't be going back to our older games and renovating their environments. However, in Storm of Zehir, the party will revisit several locales in the Sword Coast.

These areas will feel familiar to those who played the original Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign, but they have been "upgraded" to match our ever-increasing, high standards for environment art.

[MysterD]

GameBanshee interview w/ Obsidian
GameBanshee has an Interview w/ on Storm of Zehir w/ Obsidian

Matthew [of Obsidian]: We can't say much about the storyline at this point - suffice to say that Zehir himself is mentioned in some of the D&D 4th Edition manuals. While our game utilizes 3.5 Edition rules and takes place before the 4th Edition in the chronology of the Forgotten Realms, we still foreshadow some of the events of the new D&D edition.

....

GB: The expansion will continue to use the 3.5E ruleset, but you mentioned in the press release that the storyline will "foreshadow" events that will take place in the 4th Edition version of the Forgotten Realms. Care to elaborate? Any chance that there will be other tie-ins to 4E?

Matthew [of Obsidian]: As mentioned above, most of the 4th Edition tie-ins are plot-related, and playing Storm of Zehir will allow players to get a better feel for how some of the events of 4th Edition came to pass.

That sounds cool.

GB: Although the storyline is completely new, might we see the return of any significant NPCs from NWN2 and/or NX1?

Matthew: You may come across a familiar face or two as you explore.

Nice!

GB: How many new classes, races, spells, and feats do you intend to introduce in SoZ? Any examples you can give us?

Matthew: Well, we can say that we've been working on the Doomguide of Kelemvor, a specialist in fighting the undead, as a prestige class. It's perfect for anyone who harbors a particular hatred for skeletons, and they're handy to have in your party when you come across a necromancer's crypt.

Ooooh...I'd like to concentrate on battling the undead. Always is cool to fight the undead and skeletons. That class sounds pretty cool to me -- probably something right up Que's alley, too.

GB: Does Storm of Zehir share any new content or other assets with Ossian's Mysteries of Westgate, or are these add-ons being treated as two completely independent projects? Will SoZ also utilize Atari's new security system?

Matthew: Storm of Zehir and Mysteries of Westgate are completely separate projects, and no content is being shared between them. Since Storm of Zehir will be a retail product it will likely utilize the traditional cd-key protection instead of Atari's security system. That system was developed specifically for Adventure Packs like Mysteries of Westgate, which can't use the cd-key system since it's a digital download.

Bleh @ Mysteries not getting a CD/DVD hard-copy release; only digital.
I hope Mysteries' digital release is protected nasty like say a validity check every time you load or save a game like NWN1: Premium Mods you bought digitally would do.




 

[MysterD]

Anthony Davis, a programmer for Obsidian, explains the Party Conversation System for NWN2: Storm of Zehir a little bit on RPGCodex and gives examples on it.

From Anthony Davis:

I've been busy so I didn't have time to check this thread.

I am still implementing and tuning the Party Conversation System so all of this is subject to change depending on how the gameplay works or technical limitation we encounter.

Here is the example though.

Here is my party:

When I start the game, I select (or create) what the Aurora/Electron engine refers to as the Player Created Character. This operates exactly like NWN1, NWN2, and NX1.

Player Created Character is NOT functionally the same thing as the Party Leader, though they are frequently the same creature.

I select Grubs, my half-orc monk.

Once in NX2, we have access to the Party Creation Screen.

To complete my party, I select a cleric , a smarty pants mage, and a rogue to cover everything else.

So my party now looks like this:

Grubs the Monk (PCC and also currently the leader has a BLUFF of 5)
Oswyn the Cleric (has DIPLOMACY of 10)
Karak the Mage (has LORE of 10)
Reylene the Rogue (has BLUFF of 10)


I'm going to get a little bit more technical here, but it has to be done.

Every conversation node has a series or replies. Each reply has or can have conditional scripts that fire that determine if the reply node should appear. It worked this way for NWN1, NWN2, and NX1.

For example, if I put a conditional on a reply node that says APPRAISE > 5, that reply node will ONLY appear if the player character talking to the NPC has an APPRAISE skill greater than 5.

Conditionals can be ANY script out there as long as it returns a TRUE or a FALSE.

Got it?

Moving on...

Let's pretend we talk to some dude, and his conversation tree looks like this:

>Sup, what can I do for you guys?
1. Hey, nothing.
2. (If BLUFF less 10) Gimme your money. !Failure!
3. (If BLUFF greater than or equal 10) Gimme your money. !Success!
4. (If DIPLOMACY greater 5) We come in peace!
5. (If LORE greater I have heard of you!

(The words between the !'s represent comments that would not be shown in game)

Whatever, you get the idea. Talking to this guy will bring up the new Party Conversation System.

The new Party Conversation System looks similar to the Quickchat Screen from NWN2, except for a series of tabs that allow you to switch between current party members.

In our case, it is Grubs, Oswyn, Karak, and Reylene. Grubs is currently the active/highlighted tab because he is the party leader.

Grubs has the following dialog options:
1. Hey, nothing.
2. (If BLUFF less 10) Gimme your money.!Failure!

If I click on Oswyn's tab, I am in effect allowing Oswyn to talk for the party. I will then see Oswyn's dialog options:

1. Hey, nothing.
4. (If DIPLOMACY greater 5) We come in peace!

Karak:
1. Hey, nothing.
5. (If LORE greater I have heard of you!

And finally, Reylene:
1. Hey, nothing.
3. (If BLUFF greater than or equal 10) Gimme your money. !Success!


Flipping through the tabs will allow you to see what options each character might have if you chose to allow them to speak for the party.

Remember, my example is weak sauce compared to what the real designers do, afterall, I'm a programmer.

[MysterD]

GameTrailers - E3 Vid
NWN2: Storm of Zehir vid from E3

Thunderbolt - Preview
Preview from Thunderbolt

GameSpy - Preview
Preview from G-Spy

[MysterD]

Obsidian on their blogs talks about NWN2: Storm of Zehir (Expansion)

Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Update
August 8, 2008

Well, it's been a long time since I have done an update. I have been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to research anything for the community works section, but I wanted to come here and fill you in on some of the progress we have been making.

If you haven't heard already, we have an expansion in the works. Yes, it's true! The expansion (which we refer to as NX2) is titled Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir. With this expansion we will be doing some things that haven't been done in a Neverwinter game before.

Things are moving along pretty well on NX2. We just hit Alpha and we are pressing on to Beta, with a few internal milestones in between.

One of the cool things to happen with NX2 is that the Snake & Skull image will appear on the box. This is the first time a full-color image will appear on the box art for a Neverwinter Nights game.

The team has been working hard on some great improvements to the game. Probably the biggest of these improvements is the Overland Map system.

In previous incarnations of NWN2, players warped around the world by selecting nodes on a 2d map. In many ways this broke the immersion of the game. With SoZ, players will negotiate their way around the world through the use of the overland map - which has a special UI done by Jay Bakke and Nathaniel Chapman to further set the map apart as a different section of the game. I expect you will be seeing more screenshots of this after GenCon.

One of our goals with NX2 is to make some of the less utilized skills more meaningful. The overland map really helps support this goal by presenting the player with a lot of random monster, treasure, dungeon and quest spawns - many of which will only be encountered by characters with certain skills and feats. For instance, characters with a high enough score in the Listen skill will be rewarded with a "hissing box" encounter. If you have enough points in the Disable Device skill you will be rewarded with a trap encounter, where the parts of the trap can be recovered and sold.

Another new set of features are the party creation and party conversation systems. Like the overland map, the party creation system is a groundbreaker for the Neverwinter franchise: For the first time, players will be able to create their party of four completely from scratch in a Neverwinter Nights game, with the same character creation capabilities as you have for your own player character. We will round the party out occasionally with a couple story-based companions, but the created party will be the core of the game.

To go along with the party focus, Anthony Davis has been hard at work implementing the Party Conversation system. This new feature will expand the party-based feel of the game by allowing players to capitalize on the skills and backgrounds of the entire party, not just the party leader, as in previous NWN2 and NWN1 titles. Based on each character's skills and background, different conversation options will be available simply by selecting a different party member's portrait in the conversation.

Something else we are doing with NX2, that hasn't really been done in a while with CRPGs is we will be recording a lot of the music from a live orchestra. Unfortunately I don't have any samples to share with you now, but we are talking about making a track or two available, just like we did with Mask.

I am pretty excited about the changes and features Storm is bringing to the franchise. From box art to gameplay the game is evolving.

Here's NWN2: Storm's box art...

[Xessive]

Not the most creative cover art but at least it's consistent with the two current covers (NWN2 and MotB).

I think when I get it I'm gonna make my own little pack for all three discs.

I feel that SoZ will be to NWN2 what Dark Crusade was to Dawn of War.

[MysterD]

Not the most creative cover art but at least it's consistent with the two current covers (NWN2 and MotB).

I think when I get it I'm gonna make my own little pack for all three discs.

Cool.

Usually, if I got few of the game-cases w/ the long pole inside it to stack discs on top of each other, I'll rip game-cases of the same series apart and put them together into one game-case of those. Then, I'll usually have an empty case to put other game series together in a game-case w/ the long pole.

I feel that SoZ will be to NWN2 what Dark Crusade was to Dawn of War.

Given how great I heard Dark Crusade was, I hope you're right on that analogy.

[MysterD]

From Kotaku...
Some new screenies and a new trailer released for NWN2: Storm of Zehir

[MysterD]

New trailer for Storm of Zehir released

[Pugnate]

I should get around to starting the first expansion.

[Xessive]

Haha I love how we're the only three actually interested in this

[MysterD]

I should get around to starting the first expansion.

NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer was great for an expansion, actually.
NWN2: Mask Campaign was better than the original NWN2: OC Campaign.

It's funny that the best NWN campaign, I think, have came as expansion packs -- NWN1: Hordes and NWN2: Mask.

It's pretty dark, deep RPG type of stuff -- a la Planescape: Torment.

[MysterD]

IGN goes hands-on with this NWN2: Storm of Zehir expansion.

They talk about some of the new features, the story, new quests, new Prestige classes, new spells, new feats, and new races in the game.

We even recruit one extra NPC party member as well, bringing our total group up to a respectable five members. Once we hit level 6, we can open a slot for another NPC party member by taking the Leadership feat.

Some Quest Spoilers

(click to show/hide)

We don't want to spoil the further development of the game, but the story goes a lot of different places from here. In just the first hours of the game we've encountered a black market run by Mind Flayers who are using gnome prisoners as brain food, a lumber camp where the labor force is made up of clockwork golems, and a terrifying creature known ambiguously as One of Many. We've dug into the mystery of the shipwreck, hunted dinosaurs in the jungle, and even been attacked under suspicion that we're Yuan-ti spies, which, again, is kind of hard to deny. Beyond this, our party's involvement with the noblewoman's trading activities will lead us to join up with one of a number of merchant guilds that have their own rewards.

[MysterD]

GameSpot interviews Tony Evans from Obsidian Entertainment

GameSpot: A big new addition that Storm of Zehir will make to Neverwinter Nights 2 is the ability to create your own party. Tell us about that decision.

Tony Evans: We decided to go with full party creation in order to give you ownership over several characters and to offer the tactical and role-playing benefits of controlling a full party. Party creation emphasizes the unique nature of your party and gives you more options to infuse it with your own personality and imagination.

Another consideration for party creation was to design it in such a way that it lets the community create their own party-based campaigns.

A lot of players love creating their own party, and will spend hours in the beginning of the game just fiddling with characters and finding the perfect matchup of different party members. Some players prefer not to spend as much time on creating characters. For them, we have a full variety of premade characters to choose from, as well as the recommend button, which allows you to blitzkrieg through character creation by selecting all the default options for your chosen classes.

However much time you spend on character creation, you can be assured that we are not factoring that time into the average gameplay length of Storm of Zehir, which weighs in at over 30 hours! That is right. At the low, low price of $29.99, you will get more than one hour of mind-blowing entertainment per dollar spent on Storm of Zehir. The only way you could get more bang for your buck is by packing your buck in gunpowder and setting it on fire (not recommended).

GS: Now that we know the expansion will let players create an entire party, what kind of customization options will be available for party members?

TE: In addition to the same detailed character creation of Neverwinter Nights 2 that players have come to either greatly enjoy or skip past with the recommend button, we have a new party-creation interface, programmed by Anthony Davis, who is also responsible for our sexy party-conversation interface, which I'll talk more about later.

In the Party Creation window, you can create new party members and add up to four of them to your party. You can also write your own party name, motto, and description--though there is absolutely nothing wrong with the default party name, motto and description, which I painstakingly wrote myself. But if you think you can write something better, go right ahead. Don't worry about hurting my feelings or anything.

Storm of Zehir includes two new races, the Yuan-ti Pureblood and Gray Orc. Yuan-ti are like gnomes except that they descended from humans and snakes, and aren't like gnomes at all. They tend to be evil and deceptive, but your Yuan-ti characters could be good if you're lame like that. The Yuan-ti Pureblood has a great deal of bonuses, including several new racial spell-like abilities, such as animal trance and cause fear. The Gray Orc has long gait, granting increased movement speed, and scent, which enables the Gray Orc to detect hidden enemies nearby.

There are also three new classes, the swashbuckler, doomguide, and hellfire warlock. These are described in detail below.

After you have created your party, if it turns out that your Yuan-ti Doomguide and Gray Orc Swashbuckler aren't working out too well, you can use the guest book in any tavern to remove the weakest links from your party and replace them with new party members.

That's cool. I can always recruit Xessive, if say Que isn't just doing the job good enough in my party!

GS: We understand that Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition rules come into play on the new three-dimensional overworld map, and skills such as search and listen come into play. Why the decision to switch from the two-dimensional map from the previous NWN games, and how does the new 3D map improve the experience?

TE: I don't think you'd find any argument at Obsidian if you came to our headquarters and threw a rock through our window with a note tied to it that reads, "Dear Neverwinter Nights 2 team: Your 2D map sux!" (Although you will probably have to pay for the window.) With the exception of our decision to reveal the Wendersnaven (I swore to protect their secret), there is nothing I have disliked in Neverwinter Nights 2 more than the 2D world map. I have always wanted to add one more D to it, but I had to bide my time--patiently, patiently--until the other lead designers at Obsidian either died off, devolved into producers, or accepted jobs at BioWare. What follows is an actual email to Ferret Baudoin, lead designer of Neverwinter Nights 2:

"Hiya Ferret, I betcha you're freezing your tooshy off in Canada aboot now, eh? Haha, did you notice how I misspelled 'about' because Canadians talk funny? Be sure to bundle up in your Bunny Hug, you Canuck!"

Anyhoo, aboot the overland map. I knew from the moment that our veteran area artist Scott Everts finished his first pass on the Sword Coast overland map that I was right all along: 3D is better than 2D. And when I returned from the hospital after recovering from the severe sprain I got from attempting to pat myself on the back, I ordered designers Nathaniel Chapman and Jeff Husges to begin the laborious process of tweaking the overland map until it was just right.

There are a lot of awesome things about Tony Evans' Storm of Zehir (What? If Sid Meier and American McGee can do it, why can't I?), which you'll learn about as you read the rest of this interview, but the Overland map really stands out. It enhances the feeling of exploration and adventure. Traveling on the Overland map, you will come across various encounters, hostiles and neutrals alike, and you can choose to evade them, attack them, or parley with them. You can visit numerous different towns and trade goods between them. Also, if your party is brave enough to stray off the beaten path, you can find a wide variety of deep dungeons, deadly crypts, and monster-infested caves, each with unknown treasures waiting for you to, um...know them.

Pretty much all of your characters' skills are useful on the Overland map. Some are more useful than others, such as survival, which increases the speed at which you traverse the varied terrain of the Overland map; search, which increases your chance of finding hidden locations; and hide, which allows you to avoid hostile encounters.

GS: On the overworld map, merchants travel the land, hoping to sell their goods. Tell us about the dynamic economy and how savvy players can earn some serious gold by following the fluctuating prices of valuable items. Can certain event in the game like, say, an oil crisis, raise the value of certain items like, say, a Prius?

TE: First off, I am so glad I bought a Prius. They are especially handy in California, with the carpool sticker that lets me whiz past all the gas-guzzlers stuck in the slow lane.

Now regarding Trade... Unfortunately, some of the big plans we had for a dynamic economy were, well, downsized due to the recent troubles with the Waterdhavian stock market. Storm of Zehir still has many other neat trading features that will earn players some serious gold. One cool thing is the ability to create caravans to travel between nearby cities where you have built trading posts. The caravans travel along the Overland map in real time and can occasionally get waylaid by bandits if you are not there to protect them. When a caravan takes too much damage, it can no longer move and requires repairs. You can bring the materials needed to repair the caravan to get it back on the road again. You can also upgrade your caravans so that they stand a better chance against bandits.

GS: You've added three new classes: the swashbuckler; the doomguide, and the hellfire warlock. What are the strengths and weakness of each, and are these classes included in the party-creation system?

Fire -- including hellfire -- will be featured prominently in Storm of Zehir.

TE: The swashbuckler is a warrior of finesse who shuns the use of bulky armor in exchange for deadly grace in combat. One of the many cool things about the swashbuckler is insightful strike, an ability they gain at level 3 which allows them to do more damage based on their intelligence bonus. The weakness of the swashbuckler is that most of the class abilities only work when wearing light armor or no armor, so they can be vulnerable to enemies who manage to land a lucky blow on them.

The doomguide is a prestige class available to clerics and paladins who are faithful to Kelemvor, god of the dead. The doomguide is the guy you'd want by your side if Dawn of the Dead ever became a reality. He is a holy warrior whose mission is to make the undead...just dead, as well as stomp out necromancers who are responsible for creating the undead. Many doomguide abilities are perfect for smiting undead, such as the bond of fatal touch, which gives the weapon they wield special bonuses such as disruption and undead bane. Doomguides are ideally suited for dealing with the new undead creatures we have added in Storm of Zehir, including the wight and the drowned, that were brought to frightful un-life by artists Roger Chang and Jay Bakke. The disadvantage of the doomguide is that some of their abilities are not so useful against living foes.

The hellfire warlock, a prestige class for Warlocks, is my personal favorite of the new classes in Storm of Zehir! How cool is it to be able to play around with fire and hurt yourself to slay your foes? One of the things I like most about the hellfire warlock is summon baatezu, a new ability that Wizards of the Coast let us add in to replace another ability, hellfire infusion, that works better in PnP D&D than in a computer game. Summon baatezu, which was deviously implemented by Justin Reynard, allows you to summon a powerful devil from the Nine Hells to wreak havoc for a limited time. The specific devil you get is randomized, so casting this spell is like reaching into a box of chocolates, only the box is on fire! Those who played Neverwinter Nights 2 may recognize some of the devils who come forth to do your bidding. Just be sure to put that thing back where it came from, or so help you, they may get loose and slaughter your entire party. The main disadvantage of the hellfire warlock is that the prestige class is so powerful that it is only available to higher-level warlocks who meet certain prerequisites. But trust me, the Hellfire Warlock is worth the wait.

GS: We understand the expansion will have a new party-conversation system. Tell us how this works. Can you give us an example?

TE: The party-conversation system allows for much more varied interaction in conversations than you have experienced in a computer role-playing game (with the possible exception of LARPs). Conversations in Storm of Zehir were written to take advantage of party conversations by providing a lot of customized response options based on various attributes of the characters in your party, including skills, race, class, gender, alignment, feats, and ability scores.

In a party conversation, you can change the speaker of the conversation to any member of your party. If a party member that is not currently the speaker has something different to say, then a speech bubble will appear on their portrait. This prompts you to see what that character has to say.

One good example is a conversation with the renowned author Volo that occurs near the beginning of the game, after the party survives a shipwreck only to be endangered again by a tribe of cannibalistic Batiri. If your party includes a character with high intelligence, you will be able to suggest fashioning equipment you need to survive from the surrounding wreckage. Another party member who has a weapon-focus feat in the weapons being wielded by the other shipwreck survivors will be able to convince them to give over their weapon to someone who knows which is the pointy end. A party member with a lot of wisdom will be able to command survivors to head to nearby defensible positions. This is but a few of over a dozen options in this conversation alone, and most of our hundreds of conversations in Storm of Zehir have even more than that.

Party conversations encourage and reward you for creating a balanced and diverse party of characters, and is one of the many ways in Storm of Zehir that we are making your choices more meaningful than ever before.

GS: Rather than heal all dead party members after a battle, you've implemented a new death system. How does it work, and why do you think it's better than the old system?

TE: In previous games, when one of your party members falls in battle, they pop right back up again after the battle is over. Players could also rest pretty much wherever and whenever they wanted to in order to restore their spells, hit points, and abilities. This encouraged players to just throw all their party members into the fray and let the AI cast the most devastating spells with wild abandon, because all that matters is [that] one of your party remains standing at the end. The end result of this is that a lot of players gave little thought to combat in Neverwinter Nights 2, seeing it as mainly a bothersome distraction to the story and collecting loot.

I have long been inspired by how fun it was to fight baddies in the old-school role-playing games that I played when I was younger, such as Pool of Radiance and the other gold-box games, Wizardry, Might and Magic, and Ultima, just to name a few. The choices you made in combat in those games had serious ramifications, and required more strategy than any modern RPGs I can think of. The only problem with those games is that, by modern standards, their interface and combat systems are lacking a lot of the cool new bells and whistles that gamers have come to expect. Well, this may come as a surprise to some, but combat in Neverwinter Nights 2 actually has all the depth and strategy of those old-school games I just mentioned, as well as a wide assortment of cool bells and whistles that have gone unnoticed and underappreciated...until now.

Death and dying in Storm of Zehir is closer to the original 3.5 rules, with some 4.0 augmentations. When a party member falls below zero hit points, they begin dying, bleeding out until they are stabilized with healing. If a dying party member's hit points fall to negative half their total hit points, then they will die (if they have 40 hit points, they die at -20). Once dead, they can be brought back to life with a raise dead or resurrect spell, or with a coin of life, a special item purchased from temples of Waukeen, goddess of wealth. If you don't have any of these handy, then you can take your fallen party member to a temple to have their life restored.

In addition to this, we've also done a lot of other things to make combat more enjoyable in Storm of Zehir. With the incorporation of community member Tony K's AI scripts, along with our own special touches, we have greatly improved our artificial intelligence, so that your party members and monsters alike will be...well, less artificial, more intelligent. Resting is more meaningful, because now you must either pay to rent a room at an inn, or brave making camp on the Overland map, where you are likely to be ambushed while you sleep. Finally, we have put a lot of forethought into the individual combat encounters themselves--something that will become abundantly clear from the beginning of the game, where you face off with that tribe of menacing Batiri I mentioned earlier.

With the additions of "real" death, less artificial and more intelligent AI, realistic restrictions on resting, and meticulously designed encounters, battling monsters in Storm of Zehir is the most fun you will have yet in a Dungeons and Dragons game.

GS: How does crafting work? We're told you can create new items straight from the inventory screen rather than visit a specialist in town.

TE: We have taken the depth of crafting in Neverwinter Nights 2, combined it with the ease of use of Mask of the Betrayer to create our best crafting system yet. Crafting in Storm of Zehir is based on the PnP rules of D&D with a few major differences. The PnP game uses experience points (XP) as one of the key ingredients of crafting magical items. For Storm of Zehir, we decided that we did not want to take XP away from a player for crafting. Just about all of the items in Storm of Zehir are crafted from tangible ingredients that you either find in your adventures, collect from exploring the Overland map, or acquire by trading with towns. These range from standard trade goods such as timber and ore to rare resources like darksteel and adamantine that most towns don't have access to until you uncover a source for them by exploring adventure areas near towns. Many items also require ingredients that you collect from monsters. For example, you can craft a wondrous item called a gem of seeing: a magic gem that can cast the spell true seeing. The key ingredient for this item is a hag's eye that can be obtained from...killing a hag. The lower-end crafting professions are based on skills. These include nonmagical weapons and armor, traps, and alchemical throwing weapons. The higher-end items require feats to use. These include magical weapons and armor, wands, potions, scrolls, and wondrous items. Crafting is really flexible, allowing you to create the exact gear that is best for your characters. For example, you can make a +3 Adamantine Flaming Undeadbane Dwarven Waraxe if you are so inclined.

The crafting recipes you will find in Storm of Zehir were created and balanced by Bobby Null, who really went above and beyond the call of duty to give fans literally several hundred recipes! (Actual conversation--Tony: "Bobby, what the fudge?! I asked for a couple dozen crafting recipes, and you put in the entire contents of the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide?" Bobby: "Yeah, sorry. I'll do my best to go below and within the call of duty next time.") Recipes for most items can be purchased through vendors, while some of the more powerful ones need to be found while adventuring. Crafting recipes are stored in different crafting books in your inventory for easy access. When you have the necessary ingredients, and any of the characters in your party meet the skill and feat requirements, you can click on the recipe of choice in your book and BAM...you just crafted some stuff! (Disclaimer: It doesn't actually go "BAM"--our game is actually very stable, unlike some of the people who created it.)

One final thing worth mentioning is that our ace system designer Nathaniel Chapman (or "Champ Man," as we call him) designed Storm of Zehir's Crafting system from the ground up to be open and extendible by the community with their own recipes, crafted items, ingredients, etc.

GS: Will rideable horses be included?

TE: The following answer can be sung to the tune of the William Tell overture:

N-n-nope, n-n-nope, n-n-nope nope nope
N-n-nope, n-n-nope, n-n-nope nope nope
N-n-nope, n-n-nope, n-n-nope nope nope
N-N-NOPE, n-n-n-nope Nope NOPE!

[Xessive]

That's cool. I can always recruit Xessive, if say Que isn't just doing the job good enough in my party!

Haha I am hypothetically awesome! I don't know if Que will even read this

Y'know I'd love to create party members based on you guys! I wonder if we can create characters then export the character file so anyone can use it or add it to their party.

[MysterD]

Haha I am hypothetically awesome! I don't know if Que will even read this

If I probably did put Que in my party and kick him out -- even if it was temporarily -- I'd probably wind up with him (going all NWN2: Mask on me, like the lead character can do) and try to devour my soul.

Y'know I'd love to create party members based on you guys! I wonder if we can create characters then export the character file so anyone can use it or add it to their party.

The NWN games allow you to export your main character, if you wish -- for usage in SP, MP, other people's games, whatever.

With this party creation thing happening in NWN2: Storm, I'm guessing you probably could export a character and/or a party. That'd be damn cool.

[MysterD]

Well, this is interesting.
In earlier builds of SOZ Obsidian was working on, you could import old official NWN2 characters (from say NWN2: OC and Mask) right into SOZ!

But, those characters won't have any personality tailored to the level they did have in the other campaigns -- b/c those characters did not have conversations tailor-made for the SOZ Campaign at all.

Of course, when any character's exported, you take their stats and level and whatnot with you.

Matthew Rowie of Obsidian has said that they don't know if this will make it into the final cut, though.

Just found this interesting, myself.

[Quemaqua]

I don't know if Que will even read this

My inner eye sees all.

[MysterD]

My inner eye sees all.

D'oh!

[MysterD]

GameSpy preview of Storm of Zehir

[MysterD]

Wired takes on SOZ in their preview

This versatility extends beyond combat as well. If you (hypotheticaly) happen upon a vain woman who can only be convinced to help your party if you stroke her ego, but your main character lacks the charm to woo the lady, it's a simple matter of switching to whichever of your party members happens to be the most suave and carrying on the conversation that way.

Usually, in these RPG's, you control just the main character when dealing with conversations with NPC's, regardless -- and sometimes, you can order a NPC to take over a conversation (but the game's AI does the rest for you in this ordeal). That's cool that now, if say Derick don't have enough Charm skill to stroke someone's ego, the player can play God (so-to-speak) switch over in conversation to party member Xessive and the player now make decisions as Xessive.

Most impressively, the expanded party system doesn't seem to bog down computers that can comfortably run the original Neverwinter Nights 2. There is a slight framerate drop caused by having more entities on screen, but it's nothing too terrible.

I'm glad NWN2 isn't running as bad as it once used to...sheesh....

The other big addition to SoZ is the inclusion of an interactive world map.

In previous NWN games, long-distance travel was accmplished with a click on a 2-D plane which would automatically send you to your destination. SoZ, however, forces you to actually travel the world, through a detailed map. As you travel you may encounter any number of hazards or boons, including random enemy encounters, treasure or dungeons.

After the decades of overlapping D&D storylines, I found it fitting that I would stumble across random dungeons in the woods that have no bearing on my particular story.

Unfortunately, it seems that these two new systems took quite a bit of re-programming to implement, so neither will function with the original Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign or that found in the Mask of the Betrayer expansion. It's a small flaw, but after playing through SoZ with a full party and an interactive map, you'll never want to go back to the old ways.

Storm of Zehir currently lacks a solid release date, though publisher Atari claims the game will hit shelves this Winter.

I don't think it's a big deal that the Overland Map isn't in NWN2: OC nor NWN: Mask, myself. Probably would've been hell to get it to reprogram the game to get that map to work with those campaigns.

But, hell yea -- I can't wait to see that Overland Map in Storm.

[Xessive]

This versatility extends beyond combat as well. If you (hypotheticaly) happen upon a vain woman who can only be convinced to help your party if you stroke her ego, but your main character lacks the charm to woo the lady, it's a simple matter of switching to whichever of your party members happens to be the most suave and carrying on the conversation that way.

See that makes perfect sense to me because in almost every party based game (mainly NWN2) I found myself switching to the character I believed was more skilled at a certain task expecting them to carry on and do better than my main character at it, but the failed attempt always disappointed me.

Another example involved using the 'appraise' skill when I was bartering.. One of the characters in my party had a much higher appraise skill than my main char, but I was always handicapped by main char and wound getting screwed by every merchant. If you, Pug, and I were trying to bargain with a shopkeeper I'd let Pug do the talking rather than jumping in myself failing miserably. It's just common sense to play your strong suit.

[MysterD]

See that makes perfect sense to me because in almost every party based game (mainly NWN2) I found myself switching to the character I believed was more skilled at a certain task expecting them to carry on and do better than my main character at it, but the failed attempt always disappointed me.

Another example involved using the 'appraise' skill when I was bartering.. One of the characters in my party had a much higher appraise skill than my main char, but I was always handicapped by main char and wound getting screwed by every merchant.

If you, Pug, and I were trying to bargain with a shopkeeper I'd let Pug do the talking rather than jumping in myself failing miserably. It's just common sense to play your strong suit.

Wait...so you wouldn't let me do the talking then...?
Hmmm....good thinking! 

[Xessive]

Wait...so you wouldn't let me do the talking then...?
Hmmm....good thinking! 

If you've ever seen Pug haggle you'd be more than impressed! hehe

[MysterD]

GameBanshee Preview
GameBanshee got an interview on Storm of Zehir.

Involved in this interview are lead designer Tony Evans, programmer Justin Reynard, lead QA Brandon Adler, producer Rob McGinnis, marketing and PR producer Matthew Rorie, designer Nathaniel Chapman, artist Jay Bakke, asset manager Homer Parker, and lead programmer Rich Taylor.

GB: Storm of Zehir, Mysteries of Westgate, and Patch 1.14...  what order do you anticipate these being released in?  Are there any additional tweaks that you'd like to make that aren't going to make it into v1.14?

Rich Taylor: The next Neverwinter Nights 2 product to be released is going to be Storm of Zehir.  The version of the game that will be on the DVD is going to be called 1.20. This release will include the authentication system that was determined to be a pre-requisite by Atari before Mysteries of Westgate could be released.

Last I heard from Atari’s QA department, everything should be ready for MoW with the release of Storm of Zehir. There will be an update on the day this new expansion releases in order to update all of the clients with Neverwinter Nights 2 installed that don’t have the new expansion. This will bring all installations up to version 1.21.

The next update after 1.21 will be released sometime in the next few months and will be referred to as 1.22. There’s a number of exciting changes planned for the 1.22 update, but we’ll wait until its contents are a more definite thing before going into much detail on them.

EDIT, Oct 30, 2008:
1UP Preview
1Up Preview on NWN2: Storm

[MysterD]

NWN2: Storm goes GOLD.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Goes Gold

Return to Blue's News

    New Adventures Draw Near as 'Neverwinter NightsTM 2: Storm of Zehir' Goes Gold

    Development Complete on Second Expansion Pack for Celebrated Role-playing Title, on Target for Worldwide Launch November 2008

    NEW YORK, Oct. 31: Atari and Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS), today announced that development is complete on Neverwinter NightsTM 2: Storm of Zehir. Developed by world-renowned studio Obsidian Entertainment, the second expansion pack for the acclaimed Neverwinter Nights 2 delivers thrilling original D&D® adventures made even more exciting by a host of new gameplay features.

    Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir builds on the strong tradition of Dungeons & Dragons computer games by marrying old-school concepts like full party customization and dungeon crawling with new innovations, such as a fully 3D Overland Map feature which allows for free exploration of the non-linear game world. The gripping storyline foreshadows the events that devastate the land of the Forgotten Realms in the Fourth Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Role-Playing Game, released in June 2008.

    The Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Overland Map feature lets players explore the Chultan Peninsula and Sword Coast in a way never before possible in any Neverwinter Nights game. Players will explore well-known locations, like Neverwinter and Crossroad Keep, alongside lesser travelled areas, such as the xenophobic jungle nation of Samarach. Vicious monsters and groups of bandits populate the Overland Map, and the farther from civilization the player roams, the more difficult the encounters become.

    The 20 to 30-hour campaign in Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir introduces new classes, including the fearsome Hellfire Warlock and the daring Swashbuckler, as well as brand-new spells, creatures, and playable races. Fans of the compelling multiplayer features of Neverwinter Nights 2 will be able to play through Storm of Zehir's campaign in the online cooperative mode, while modders can use the included editor to create their own campaigns and Overland Maps to share online.

    Game Features:

        * Travel the Sword Coast and Samarach with the open-ended exploration of the new Overland Map. Use skills like Spot, Survival, and Hide to avoid ambushes and even find hidden locales and lost artifacts.
        * Create your own full party of adventurers. Devastate your foes with a squad of fireball-flinging Sorcerers, form a solid wall of steel with a party of Fighters, or strike the perfect balance in your party by spreading out the classes you choose for your characters.
        * Improved party gameplay with a sophisticated party conversation system, full party creation, and Teamwork Benefits.

    Atari is committed to the continued success of the Neverwinter Nights series. The work that Obsidian has done in creating Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir is a result of listening to the fan community, working to deliver on their requests and constantly improving the experience.

    More information about Neverwinter Nights 2 and access to the Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir site can be found at www.nwn2.com where visitors are encouraged to become part of the highly active Neverwinter Nights community and contribute their feedback.

[Pugnate]

If you've ever seen Pug haggle you'd be more than impressed! hehe

haha when did I haggle infront of you?

[Xessive]

haha when did I haggle infront of you?

Our trips to Toronto were few but enlightening! Plus there were tehse various little shops in St. Catharines. Great times. I'd also include the KFC incidents

[MysterD]

Storm of Zehir game manual in PDF format

[MysterD]

When To Expect NWN2: Storm
Rob McGinnis of Obsidian mentions when to expect the NWN 2: Storm expansion in stores.

Initial release will include English, French, Italian, German and Spanish next week (starting the 18th).

As to what countries, I am not sure. That is more of an Atari question.

We are planning for the patch release on the 17th.

EDIT, 11/12/1008:
About Storm's music
Alex Brandon of Obsidian talks about Storm's music.

[MysterD]

B+ from 1UP, who praises the insane amount of freedom the game gives you, despite the story being nothing spectacular (in terms of depth).

[MysterD]

GameSpot review
6.0 from GameSpot.

Artificial intelligence is a big problem. You can switch between having full control of your party members and letting the AI handle things, but neither option works all that well. If you go for total control, you're constantly pausing the action to wrangle with an interface geared for looking after just one character. The pull-down menu that never worked smoothly for the original Neverwinter Nights 2 is far worse when dealing with at least four characters. A proper turn-based interface would require a lot less messing around and investment of your time. You can turn on the AI to automate party decisions during combat, though this can lead to even worse results. Leaving the game on its default settings leads to suicidal melee attacks and all-out magic assaults that can empty your spellcasters' arsenals in moments, often in battles with piddly opponents, such as a swarm of bats. Actions can be thoroughly customized, but it's tough to come up with a formula that works in all battle situations. You can find yourself fussing with the settings so much that it makes more sense to simply shut the AI off and do everything manually.

...

The voice acting, however, is awful. With the exception of the subtly slimy take on Forgotten Realms' ne'er-do-well Volo, the actors here seem to have just two gears: way over the top and dull monotone. It's a long way from the stellar acting found in the original Neverwinter Nights 2.

...

Storm of Zehir isn't a terrible addition to the D&D gaming canon, although it is a lot less refined than you might expect. You have to suspect that this is the result of straying too far from the original Neverwinter Nights 2 formula, and ultimately this expansion pack isn't as enjoyable.

IGN Review
8.3 from IGN.
Reviewed by Jason Ocampo

And that brings up one of the weaknesses of the expansion: load times. The cost of a bigger world and more locations is that each of those locales is a lot smaller than what they were in NWN2. Many towns consist of just an inn and a temple that you can visit, dungeons are a lot smaller than before, and even the big cities consist of just a single district. Any time you transition to battle or to and from the world map or enter or exit a building you hit a load. And since you do all those things constantly, you'll see a lot of the loading screen. Plus, you have to save early and save often, as there's nothing more annoying than to survive three or four battles and then run into a foe that crushes you on the battlefield, wiping out all that progress (and those loads) in a heartbeat.

...

The audio features some epic, Hollywood-esque fantasy music, but the small amount of voice acting is nowhere near as good as Neverwinter Nights 2. The other down point is that the cinematic conversation system from Neverwinter Nights 2 has been replaced with tiny text boxes that feature static portraits. It's nowhere near as involving as the cinematic camera system, and it doesn't help that the text is tiny and presented in a small box in the corner of the screen. And, alas, the game does suffer from some stability issue, as it can and will crash periodically.

[MysterD]

Review from G4TV
4 stars from G4TV (out of 5)

3rd NWN2 Expansion possibly coming from Obsidian
And, it's possible that Obsidian might be working on another NWN2 Expansion

NWN2 - Third Expansion Possible?
by Dhruin, 2009-01-10 10:45:09

The latest NWN Podcast includes an interview with John Mamais and Raphaël Boyon from Atari Europe.  Among the questions asked are the release of Mysteries of Westgate, to which the response is "we're currently reworking our online strategy" but that "could be subject to change and we could release it sooner than later".

On the subject of another NWN2 expansion pack, John responds "We don't have anything signed but we are discussing doing another expansion pack with the team.  And I'm pretty sure it's gonna happen." Presumably the "team" is Obsidian.

Finally, on more Adventure Packs / Premium Modules, John says "noone's proposed or approached us about doing more Adventure Packs" (not surprising, because any potential developers have seen what happened to Mysteries of Westgate).

Head over to listen to the full podcast (~26Mb, 51 mins).  The interesting bits with Atari Europe can be found around the 26 minute mark on.

[Xessive]

Cool.

I haven't picked up SoZ yet as it's around $45 USD here, which I consider a lot for an expansion.

MotB costs about $5 USD now.

There's a full pack with NWN2, MotB, and SoZ going for about $70 here but since I already have NWN2 and MotB that'd be a waste.

Hopefully they'll make another expansion.

[MysterD]

Rumor has it SoZ will be $20 at BB on sale next week (starting tomorrow, Sunday).

[MysterD]

I've been playing this quite a bit since I got it. And so far, I do like it quite a bit. It might not have the incredible depth of story and awesome story that Mask had going on, but Storm's story is still good, so far.

Since you create a WHOLE party (of four) from scratch, which gives it that Icewind Dale feeling, you might not have the level of interaction and banter from party members as any of the other NWN's. But now in dialogues with NPC's, any party member can now talk into the mix (instead of just your lead member) -- and you can do the talking as any party member. Based on your skills, stats, and whatnot -- certain party members might get extra dialogue options when talking with NPC's. Along with your party of four that you create, you can have ONE extra in-game "cohort" join you (that Obsidian made, that you can find in the gameworld) -- to get a party of five going, which you will also have full control over.

At inns, you can create party members and swap out party members and whatnot, as you see fit. Very cool.

I really miss the cinematic style talks w/ NPC's were handled -- as that is gone here, for some reason; even with the more important NPC talks that are still voice-acted, it's not done cinematic-like. It basically goes back to the old NWN style -- since probably some of the game is voice-acted and some isn't. Seems odd for it to have gone this way, but it still is fine and all. So far, yes -- the voice-acting is pretty good from NPC's that actually have voice-overs.

Overland map is...interesting. You traverse the map Fallout 1 + 2 style, basically -- where you click and point where you want to go. This world feels quite open to explore -- as you can explore the map to unlock locations. Based on your skills and stats, you might find extra areas, extra items to take, etc etc while on the map. Also based on stats, you might see enemies from further away and be able to dodge running into them. If you run into enemies, depending on who and what they are, you might be able to bribe them away, evade them completely, or fight them -- up to you. It's best to also have a ranger in your party, as they are pretty much necessary to be able to avoid battles.

Technically, the game performs even better than it did before -- and it looks much better now, since you can run it with WAY more graphical bells and whistles turned on.

So far, I'm liking this.

From what I've played so far, I hope it's true and Obsidian does do another NWN2 Expansion -- and can use this as a template for their next campaign and expand upon it. I hope their next campaign, it's more epic-level based, though. If you start Storm of Zehir fresh with a new character, you will be jumped up to Level 5 and you can spend the points as you see fit, of course.

[Pugnate]

Wait... so there are NO OTHER NPCs that can join your party? That's ridiculous, and it is what I hated about IWD.