The World of Avlis

Started playing this whilst Avlis was down, and have to say I have been quite impressed!

The options when conversing with NPC's seem better, there are little mini-quests which are fun and have multiple methods of completion (the Kobold siege in the kitchen was a favourite) .... and I love the snow !

The only thing which has been disappointing so far is that it is (at least to start with) the same tired old "find the stolen items" affair ..... oh and the fact that you can't take the paladin babe as your henchman (woman).

PS Does anyone know what level character you create if you do one from scratch, as I imported Aradan and it's a bit too easy to be honest.

I started from scratch 1st level.

I found it fun, though quite short. The snow tileset was decent, but I was hoping for a little more. Oh well.

*SPOILER AHEAD*








Due to the cliffhanger ending, I am guessing that there will be a sequel? I sure hope so. But it's the exact same ending as BG: Dark Alliance had, and theres been no sign of a sequel for that. Speaking of BG: DA, I found it kinda hacknslash, but still fun.

There is a BG: DA sequel, in full swing. Probably out by christmas?

I was on the Interlude, but then NWN went horribly wrong and I had to reinstall. But I liked what I had seen a lot.

Here are the top three things I liked about the solo adventure:

Snow Title set .... Rocks I love this, and can't wait to see something similar in Avlis. I love how you make a little snow crunching sound when you run about....Maybe I just love this cause I live in California about 20 minutes from the beach....

Use of Lore Skill.... At several places you could use the lore skill to decipher runes. This was sweet, and could be used to give you inside information on Avlis quests or traps.

Projectile Traps: Arrow traps, dispell magic traps...all very cool.

I?m not done with the adventure (right about to fight the dxxxxx), but in general I think it?s been a lot of fun.


Bear

Loved the kobolds jumping out of boxes.....oh and you dont have to fight the d*****.

I like that door in the Kobold cave... I want one of those in my house.

And HotU is already in the works, and there are already rumors that it springs from the ending of SoU.

I liked the part where you go through the cave entrance and on the other side, you are near the top of a cliff, standing at the top of a staircase carved into the rock.

Plus, I enjoy whacking the crap out of Skeletal Devourers with a high-level monk.

One of the Winds was a bit tedious - all that passing from one plane to the other.

The ending was a bit tame - although the whole thing is much, much better than the first one.

I've done the same as you Aradan. I've started the SOU campaign in the Avlis downtimes. I have not played much of it because I've spent time online chatting IRC and surfing the boards, but so far, I'm a lot more impressed than the first NWN campaign.

verg~

Vergilius wrote:I've done the same as you Aradan. I've started the SOU campaign in the Avlis downtimes. I have not played much of it because I've spent time online chatting IRC and surfing the boards, but so far, I'm a lot more impressed than the first NWN campaign.

verg~

actually I quite liked the first campaign, but got as far as a big dragon thing and found Avlis ...... and well, have never played it since !

PS A please to people who respond to this thread - no spoilers please ... I haven't got very far into into yet.

PPS I think a level 1 character would have been more of a challenge. Are the Henchmen scaled to the same level as you, as the one I have (the rogue woman thing) has about 130hp

I liked the OC for NWN too, but I know a lot of people who didn't. Personally, I know a lot of people of both those like us who liked it and those who didn't like it who have enjoyed the SOU OC and claimed it is much better.

So far, I'm about level 5, part of the way through the first chapter. I decided as a character I had to do something different than what I do on Avlis. Anyway, I'm going to expereince a day or two of personal downtime here really soon as I move apartments and get the DSL hooked up in the new one. My plan is to play the SOU OC.

Peace


verg~

the merc system sucks IMO, not a spoiler because people should know that 2 of the 3 mercs are dual classed and you have to talk to them to stop taking levels in either class; its impressive scripting wise, but i found it to be impractical and just plane crap. but this is my opinion.

The rest of the game is great, i suggest you buy it; if you cant ring your friends now.

The other side of the story:

I actually thought the henchman system was rather well thought out. You take a character that can potentially become three things: full class 1 or full class 2 or equally dual classed.

The best part is you can switch this with a simple conversation, allowing you to actually build your henchman exactly as you need/want/require it.

This effectively disables the row of numerous henchmen, just so you can find a matching partner and brings it down to only a few which you can build into a matching partner yourself.

Very good work by the scripters there and equally well thought out IMHO.

Oh, and I have to agree with Nighthawk here:

Nighthawk4 wrote:I liked the part where you go through the cave entrance and on the other side, you are near the top of a cliff, standing at the top of a staircase carved into the rock.

Really awesome, my mouth fell open and I must have sat there enjoying the few and rotating the camera for at least a minute or two before venturing on.

henchmen? party? bah, if I wanted one of those I would play Avlis.

WrathOG777 wrote:henchmen? party? bah, if I wanted one of those I would play Avlis.

Right you are. I just had to try it to find out all the things they put into it first hand though. Anything good I want to scrounge into Avlis if in any way possible.

Afterall it took me only a little more than a day to finish that little campaign. Plenty of time left to play Avlis.

the best part was when I went in with my bard to free the cook and got the option "facinate" the Kobalds...thought hmmm why not give it a try...*plink, strum, hum* Kobalds are all asleep.

Truely awesome

Nighthawk4 wrote:I liked the part where you go through the cave entrance and on the other side, you are near the top of a cliff, standing at the top of a staircase carved into the rock.

Which chapter was this in? I am getting ready to start the SoU OC just to see some of the things they did.

I'm surprised that so many others like the snow tileset. I thought it was kinda cheap, it looked like they just made the rural tileset white. It does the job fine, but I was hoping for the snow to actually be snow, not white ground. It doesnt make sense that a guy walks ON TOP of a few feet of powder. That's be hard to fix though... BTW, I liked the part with the Kobold Jumpers. LOL!

Yeah, the kobold jumpers were pretty awesome. Over all, I found the module to be a little short.

I agree... I liked the SoU campaign a lot, it actually kept my interest, whereas I kept getting bored of the NWN OC no matter how hard I tried to like it. The kobold jumpers were great... did you find the secret conversation about cloaks and robes? Also, Deekin was my favorite henchman since Minsc. The scripting and cinematic sequences were very well done, some of the scripted items were amazing (like the power stones, the magic item recharger, the staff that stores defensive spells for you). The ending was kindof sudden and lackluster; it kind of felt like the team didn't have time to do chapter 3 so they just ended it at 2, but it looks like you will have to start Hordes of the Underdark with a 15th level character, so maybe they'll put some special things in for those who import their character over from the SoU campaign or the NWN campaign.

The ending: shit.

Everything else: Spectacular. Some of the dungeons felt a bit too long and tedious, but other than that, it was great. Kudos to bioware, again, and to Looking Gla... err.. Floodgate.

I'm pretty close to the end, courtesy of 4 down days w/o internet and away from Avlis. I've been very impressed with the concepts, scripting and how the campaign is much more engaging than the previous OC. I've been trying to test out as much of the new stuff as well, at least as much as can be crammed into a single character, and of course, to play the only Harper scout I'll ever play.

Anyway, very impressed and looking forward to finishing it up later

verg~

I was having an off day yesterday, so I figured I'd try it out. I started at about 1pm.

Let's just say, I went to sleep at 1am.

Yes, It's a lot of fun, I'll admit it.

Could one person compile a list of cool stuff in it that you would like to see in Avlis?