Direction the world will take

[Wolfarus]

I set this topic up, mainly so that people can leave questions about where the world is headed once all the bugs are fixed, content is fully implamented, and we work thru alpha, beta then final release. Also to pose any questions that may pop up as more of the world is explored and new things discovered.

My first question regards starting out. I read somewhere in this forum that its planned to have all players come thru the song portal thats in the cave, in the cross-roads. Im curious as to why this route was taken. I have to admit, the way newbs were started out on NS4 was pretty much perfect. You had your faction rep's there waiting for you, you chose your side and you were ported to your own area of the world. This helped players get some experience with the game/world, while giving them their own area's for low lvl hunting / leveling. If we're all coming out of the same location, exposed to the same newbie hunting grounds (the area's around oltimor) wouldnt that really create a problem for leveling and getting your feet wet?

[Kromix]

what about a main starting area where new chars start out as Popped in with storyline splashed a bit, then on that area or sets of area they are given the choice to be recruited by the factions after the faction leaders find the characters strong enough to become worthy of a faction... this can leave chars faction-less if they choose. and faction choosing areas based on travel area, like going into caves finding a SL or RK, going highlands finding AO and that NC, remote island with MA and forest area with circle. but have to find your way to them thus earning a few levels... and an exit where you choose no faction so you are not trusted by any city.

[Flailer]

Having players start underground near that song portal may not be the best starting place (we should probably decide on that internally huh? ). I'd like to have players start in a fairly neutral location and not be thrust immediately into hostilities before they're ready.

Having plenty of low level hunting areas when you first start out like NS4 - agreed, that was really nice. What we couldn't do with NS5 is start out with that many low level areas to begin with. Developing 7 different areas of the same level in NWN2 would be a bit of a challenge with the resources (hardware and developers) we have.

So, the workaround was to be the random encounter areas again - using those, there should be no shortage of encounters you can have. Plus, the Meddia shard should only tide you over on the 1-2 or 3 levels, leaving 3 different shards for the 3-6 level range after that.

Also, the faction plan is to allow you to join factions as you go along rather than having your faction in different areas. So, you'll have faction 'representatives' on each shard in different areas. Like a arcane faction, rogue faction, undead faction, etc.

[mining]

There were 3 of us, and one of us DIED going into Memoria. Given you can't recover dead people (>=0 HP = dead, should bleed a little) this means areas like that are hard enough with a group.