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Baldur's Gate MORPG
GAME TRAILER
STORY TRAILER
- a persistent multiplayer virtual world inspired by single player game Baldur's Gate and based on Neverwinter Nights 2
- online 24/7, launched 6-7 years ago (no character wipes)
- a big non-instanced open world (with 150-200 maps)
- core game (Neverwinter Nights 2) developed by Bioware and Obsidian Entertainment, and the multiplayer virtual world (Baldur's Gate The Sword Coast Chronicles) has been created by 20-30 developers over the course of 8-10 years
- regular new patches and new game content every year
- offers massive multiplayer moments (usually when groups of 20-40 player characters travel and battle together during some massive events or wars between armies or kingdoms in global storylines managed by dungeon masters)
- genuinely free-to-play (no cash shops, no gold bots, nothing at all that can be bought for real life money)
- items don't bind to character or account, almost all items can be dropped on the ground
- global auction house like in many MMORPGs, players can leave items for sale at the AH for up to three real life days
- challenging old school PvE
- open-world PvP possible based on immersion and role-playing (conflicts and tensions between servants of good and evil, surface and the Underdark, conflicting agendas of famous NPC/Player Character factions, guilds and organisations from single player Baldur's Gate and D&D)
- established player character/NPC guilds and organisations like the Order of the Radiant Heart or the Zhentarim with their own strongholds in the world
- global storylines, events, adventures, wars, encounters managed by teams of experienced live human dungeon master teams
- a partially dynamic world (game maps change during summer/winter seasons and sometimes as a result of events taking place in the world)
- very deep character building and customisation
- a lot of curious classes and character builds in addition to traditional D&D classes: conjurers, shapeshifters, necromancers, warlocks, blackguards, shadow dancers, dread pirates, blood mages, master alchemists, ghost-faced killers, Black Flame zealots, bodyguards, Flaming Fist patrolmen, dragon slayers, solar channelers, warriors of darkness, bear warriors, breach gnomes, dwarven battleragers, dwarven defenders, arbalist snipers, elemental archers, red wizards of Thay, stormlords of Talos, harper agents, whirling dervishes, swashbucklers, duelists, monks of the Long Death, wilderness stalkers, berserkers, arcane scholars of Candlekeep, techsmiths of Gond, stormsingers, silverstars of Selûne, and many more
The Defense of Candlekeep - 3rd Hammer, 1352 DR
The Siege of Baldur's Gate - 9th Hammer, 1352 DR
Midwinter Festival - Day One - 12th Alturiak, 1352 DR
Midwinter Festival - Day Two - 13th Alturiak, 1352 DR
Everwatch Knights Tribunal - 21st Alturiak, 1352 DR
Elder Circle Cleansing Ritual & Tree Planting Event - 5th Ches, 1352 DR
Selûnite Werewolf Ceremony - 6th Ches, 1352 DR
Some random screenshots
Post edited by Yanocchi on
Comments
1. Buy Neverwinter Nights 2: Complete at GoG.com.
2. Install the game.
3. Download NWN 2 patch files from Atari's ftp server:
ftp://ftp.atari.com/patches/nwn2/NWN2_gold_plus_Zehir/
4. Place the patch files in C:\Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\
5. Launch the game with NWN2Launcher and select Update in the menu. The game updates to version 1.023 (1765) (Final) Aug 17 2009.
6. Launch the game. Select "Multiplayer".
7. The next window is Bioware Community Login. Invent a Bioware Community Name and type in something random for password. (Character protection is on Baldur's Gate server and uses your game's CD-keys, so the password in this window is irrelevant. Remember your bioware community name because Baldur's Gate server will recognise you by that account name). Press "Sign in".
8. Select "Direct Connect". Server IP address is 158.69.123.65:9999. You can always check the server's IP address at the website of the Baldur's Gate Server.
9. The game will automatically download all of the Baldur's Gate server files during your first connection to the server. It can take a while because there are additional 5 gigabytes of files for the Baldur's Gate server that will be added to the original NWN 2 files. Sometimes the NWN 2: Baldur's Gate development team does updates or adds new content just like in MMORPGs. The game automatically downloads the patch files when that happens when you connect to the game server.
10. Select "Create Character" to make your first character. The character will be stored on the game's server for many years just like in MMORPGs.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
* The maximum level is 30.
* You can build a multi-classed character with up to four different main classes or prestige classes.
* Some classes are limited to a certain race, alignment or even deity. For example, paladin can only be lawful good, blackguard is evil, druid or bard cannot be lawful, dwarven defender is obviously a dwarf, and techsmith of Gond worships Gond.
* Cleric must choose a deity which fits the character's alignment. For example, a cleric of Talos must be chaotic evil and must take Air, Chaos, Evil, Destruction, Fury or Storm as its spell domains. If character's alignment, chosen deity or selected spell domains do not fit each other correctly, cleric's spells will fizzle and the cleric levels of the character will be practically useless.
* There are two types of spellcasters: arcane and divine spellcasters. Arcane spellcasters include wizards, sorcerers, bards and warlocks. Divine spellcasters include clerics, druids, shamans and favored souls. For spellcasters there is a mechanic called "spellcaster level". It is possible to multiclass a spellcaster with non-spellcaster classes (wizard/thief, cleric/fighter etc.) or classes from the other type of spellcasting (wizard/cleric, bard/druid etc.). However, your "spellcaster level" will be lower as a result and your protective spells will be easier to dispel and your offensive spells will be easier to deflect in that case when your character advances beyond level 20. This is not always a disadvantage because you can get some other powers or characteristics at the expense of having lower spellcaster level.
* Stealth is most useful for rogues and rangers, but it is possible to make other types of stealth characters by taking a class that gives "hide in plain sight" feat. The main class that gives the feat is called Shadow Dancer. It is best to take some levels of rogue, ranger, bard or some prestige class that helps to meet requirements of becoming a shadow dancer.
* Warrior builds can be quite elaborate with 50-100 combat feats to choose from. For example, for shield alone there are Shield Bash, Shield Charge, Shield Slam, Shield Specialization, Shield Weapon Focus and Specialization. Combat feats are mostly for active attacks, combat modes, passive proficiencies, enhancement of certain fighting styles or group play tactics.
* If you want to play with a "tank" character, one interesting alternative to traditional "tank" builds is to take man-at-arms, paladin or cleric as main class or bodyguard as prestige class. Bodyguard and Man-at-Arms has an ability (called Guarding the Lord) that distributes 50% of incoming damage to him and 30% damage to the protected ally. For example, another player character gets hit for 10 points of damage. If he is protected by a bodyguard or man-at-arms, he receives only 3 points of damage and bodyguard or man-at-arms receives 5 points of damage (and remaining 2 points of damage are avoided). Paladins and clerics have a similar magical spell (called Shield Other) that distributes 50% of incoming damage to the target and 50% of damage to the caster.
* Certain character builds are good at both soloing and group play, while other ones may be better for group play than soloing.
* There are some advanced builds which are not advisable for beginners. For example, it is almost impossible to start the game with a rogue who defeats enemies with traps or an alchemist who crafts explosive potions. These types of builds are possible only after you have played the game and have accumulated sufficient amount of gold to afford to use traps or bombs. Another challenging build is shapeshifter or shapeshifting druid because each shapeshifted form has its specifics, strengths and weaknesses.
* Spellcasting classes are less reliant on items than non-spellcasting classes. It might be easiest to start the game with a divine caster build.
* You can find some good items at certain NPC vendors throughout the world or on the auction house. Any monster in the world has a tiny chance of dropping a really good item. In fact, you'll most likely find some of the best items while you hunt ordinary monsters. There is a system that randomly generates positive or negative properties on an item. The best items come from level 20-30 monsters because the system generates more powers or better values on loot dropped by higher level monsters. Exceptionally good items don't have any negative properties, have three or four positive properties and some of those properties have the highest possible bonus. Looted items must be identified (based on Lore skill). It is advisable to carry some "Remove Curse" potion or scroll with you because some items may be cursed and it will be impossible to remove them until you use remove curse.
* One of the best items in the game is Mithral Full Plate. It is incredibly rare and offers the best armor class protection out of all armors because it has better dexterity-based armor class modifier than other types of armor. Other great rare items include items with +4 armor class bonus or weapons with +4 enhancement bonus and with two or three other good bonuses. If you are playing with a high-level priest, you can get +5 bonus on your armor, shield and weapon with spells. If you are not a high-level divine spellcaster and don't have divine spellcaster companions, +4 bonus is the maximum you can get and that's if you succeed in finding one of those rare +4 items. The advantage is that the bonus on the item cannot be dispelled like a magical spell cast by a cleric.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Edit. I didn't realize the toolset is that flexible to get a working AH very nice.
Staff constantly burn bridges & decisions are extremely inconsistent leading to the server having many enemies, which has resulted in non stop ddos attacks for the past few years. The only thing that is consistent is the bias toward spellcasters. Everything happens really slow, you'll have dedicated area builders making dungeons far better than the current ones but it will take years for staff to actually add them.
* Basilisk is one of the nastiest monsters because it always has a 5% chance of permanently petrifying you even if you are a paladin or blackguard with the blessing feat that greatly enhances saving throws (roll 1 on a 1d20 dice for automatic epic fail). It usually casts its petrifying gaze at least 2-3 times when you fight it. If it turns you into a statue, it is usually better if it also kills you after that, so that you are sent to the realm of the God of Death and can begin your journey back into the living world. But the basilisk is so nasty that it sometimes decides not to shatter your statue after turning you into stone, leaving your character standing there. In that case you may need need someone with Turn Stone to Flesh (wizard or someone with a magical scroll), or someone to arrive and destroy your statue and send you to the realm of the God of Death. It is best to walk around a basilisk in stealth mode or under invisibility spell if you cannot go around it some other way, unless your character can deal a lot of damage with a ranged weapon very quickly before a basilisk can approach you to cast its gaze.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
It has to be one of the most expansive modules for NWN 2 because so many people participated in its creation. Popularity of single player Baldur's Gate could be the reason.
They obviously have some scripts to enhance AI, but it is rare to see monsters do something really unpredictable if there is no dungeon master lurking behind the scenes. In a few places they have monster spawns where monsters act in a group against you and have different AI behaviour to simulate group tactics. Some monsters are equipped with special abilities, feats, combat modes or spells, which makes fights against them less straightforward. However, most of the monsters usually have a pattern in which order they perform different actions.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
They had some incidents with irresponsible DMs many years ago but I believe they have learned from their mistakes. DMs usually act responsibly and besides enhancing immersion with different events, they also offer some "customer" support if a player encounters a problem. A portion of the player population plays the game like any MMORPG and never really gets influenced by anything related to DMs. Maybe the staff make bad decisions sometimes, but bad decisions happen in commercial MMORPGs too. For example, Neverwinter has angried a lot of players over the past half a year with their changes to coalescent wards among other things, not to mention the "caturday" and other exploits a long time ago or inability to deal with gold bots and rune farmers.
It is an incredibly impressive project if you consider that it is not commercial. The main advantage is that it has no pay-to-win of any kind and no costs involved other than the $20 one time purchase of NWN 2. I payed $150 for NWN 2 and its expansions myself when Atari released them as boxed versions. It is the only purchase that has given me online multiplayer entertainment worth every single cent. I've been impressed by all the immersive and high-quality stuff that people cannot get even in pay-to-play MMORPGs.
In the case of Baldur's Gate world it is also impressive how their world is dynamic, with map designers making a lot of changes to existing maps in order to reflect changes that happen as a result of in-game events. They were not afraid to destroy a whole town and leave it completely in ruins during a war between Amn and Baldur's Gate. They even simulated how the town was reduced to ruins in different phases the same way the simulated in phases construction of the bridge of Baldur's Gate. The town was slowly rebuilt but it wasn't the same anymore. After the war they had also made a lot of changes to some other game maps. For example, map designers reworked one map not far from Baldur's Gate to include an orphanage for the NPC children of NPCs who perished during the war. The orphanage was placed under care of The Order of the Radiant Heart. Long time before the events I describe, there was also a temple of Bane that was desecrated and left in ruins in a forest east of the Friendly Farms Inn. I guess only really old players know what happened over there. As a minor feature related to dynamic world, they constantly change some maps to winter versions and then return them back to summer versions according to in-game calendar.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
also: there's no "update" option for me at all. What does that mean? Options on launch include:
new game
load game
multiplayer
options
credits
exit game
EDIT: fixed this one. Now I get Gamespy, but it appears to be down. How do you connect to your server? Like, mechanically how? Direct connect? It doesn't connect for me that way.
I often struggle with downloading the latest MMO. I know there is no way I'll figure out how to do this.
You need to insert the following when you press "Direct Connect": 23.229.0.132:31337.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
The process is actually a lot easier for NWN 2 than for NWN 1. I just made and uploaded a video which shows what happens when you connect to a persistent multiplayer world server. The game does the different steps for you automatically just like patchers in typical MMORPGs.
This also explains why creators of Baldur's Gate world can so effortlessly make changes to maps and create new content almost every day. In NWN 1 it would be a really big inconvenience to players because in NWN 1 people have to do everything manually outside of the game.
By the way, it downloads 3-5 Gb of files when you connect for the first time to the Baldur's Gate server. Don't worry, the in-game patcher will resume downloads where they ended when you connect to the server next time if you decide to interrupt the process at some point while it hasn't been finished.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
so the randomness of the operators will keep me away.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Another video showing what the game looks like when you enter the game. In the video I visit the Friendly Arms Inn and show how the auction house works.
Another video of my level 17 character going solo and visiting CR 8-12 Gnoll Cave. For those who are familiar with single player Baldur's Gate, the Gnoll Cave is located between Candlekeep and Friendly Arms Inn (around the place where you meet Montaron and Xzar in single player Baldur's Gate 1, except the gnoll cave didn't exist during the time of Bhalspawn Saga). In the end of the video there is a fight against a low-level boss, a beholder named Xenofex. Gnoll Cave is ideal for small groups of 3-5 characters who are level 8-12. The dungeon has three levels. Spellcasters can rest in a hidden room on the first floor if they clear all the monsters nearby. On the first floor there is one or two named gnolls and a chamber with some traps and lockboxes. It's usually very tough or impossible for only one or two level 8-12 casters to get to the beholder without some warriors because they run out of spells on the second and third floor and cannot rest anywhere there. The beholder is quite deadly. I managed to survive solo only because my character was a lot more powerful than intended for that dungeon and because the character has blackguard levels with Dark Blessing feat granting nice bonuses to saving throws against beholders spells and powers.
Somewhere on the second floor there is a fight against a small group of gnolls, two warriors and one spellcaster. Enemy spellcasters may cast offensive spells at you or protective and healing spells on themselves or their allies. In some cases it is dangerous to let mob spellcasters survive for too long.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
It takes at least a semi-professional level of expertise in network engineering, server maintenance, programming, scripting, modding, 3D modelling, art design, game level design, bug-fixing, testing and quality assurance, to create and maintain such a project on an adequate quality level. As far as I know, main admins don't even play the game themselves. The staff have been able to maintain quite a professional-like attitude to the project for quite many years. Everything that was modified, optimised, balanced, fixed and tested, created from scratch and added as new content for the multiplayer world has obviously taken a considerable amount of time and effort. They obviously don't want to risk loosing all that effort and countless of manhours spent on that work by acting irresponsibly and driving players away.
If you look just at all of the updates and patch details from 2009 to the present day, you realise that they have a very serious approach to the project.
I know that projects for NWN have even launched a career in the gaming industry for some people. A decade ago a few people involved in NWN 1 projects were hired by Turbine Inc. to work on Dungeons & Dragons Online, for example. There are also professional programmers, scripters, model artists and other specialists who have participated in NWN projects as a hobby or due to some partly professional interest.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Found a list with 277 arcane spells today.
* more info, screenshots and videos here