Scott Shicoff Shares Info In Neverwinter Underdark Interviews

For Scott Shicoff, who took over as lead designer after the massive personnel changes surrounding the launch of the troubled Elemental Evil module, the next release might be the first one he is fully responsible for and therefore will be measured against. In preparation of the release, he gave interviews to MMO-Play.com, MMORPG.com and MMOBomb (there’s another one with producer Lindsay Haven at MMOGames.com). You can read them entirely or just scroll down for a brief summary of the interesting tidbits.

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://mmo-play.com/mmo-blog/neverwinter-underdark-interview”]For this particular module, the focus will be on Mantol-Derith, a non-combat zone in the Underdark and gathering place for those wishing to battle Demogorgon. This new hub serves as a marketplace for all the races of Underdark, where players can also visit new shops and interact with Drizzt Do’Urden.[/su_quote]

Despite some contrary or misleading comments from Strumslinger and the official Twitter account, this is another confirmation that Neverwinter Underdark will indeed be coming without a full new adventure zone. The Salvatore quest could be played in instanced dungeons, because there’s not really a decent way to use old content for such a high-profile story.

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://mmo-play.com/mmo-blog/neverwinter-underdark-interview”]Masterwork professions are an expansion to the existing profession system. They contain difficult new recipes for high-quality items that are competitive with equipment from content like epic dungeons and the Greed of the Dragonflight. Think of masterwork as endgame for professions.[/su_quote]

First of all this is a good sign. Professions other than Black Ice Crafting are endgame irrelevant ever since Module 3 basically and maybe they even come up with some Masterwork Recipes to revitalize Artificing and Weaponsmithing. It currently looks like only players with a developed Stronghold can really efficiently participate in Masterwork Professions however, which is a major downside. Also the problem that other than Leadership all professions below level 25 are generally non-viable remains.

[su_box title=”Get our latest on Neverwinter Underdark” radius=”0″]Want the latest about Underdark? Click here for more posts about Neverwinter’s upcoming module.[/su_box]

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://mmo-play.com/mmo-blog/neverwinter-underdark-interview”]Underdark will see the addition of two new sets of armor, Dusk and Drowcraft, as well as a plethora of new artifact weapons and some unique new rings with interesting bonuses.[/su_quote]

Scott continued to lay out additional details. The Dusk set seems to be sort of a ‘paid’ set that you can acquire from the ZEN market (Companion Bundle), the new Tradebar Store and Lockboxes, while Drowcraft will be the capstone set that comes with a set bonus and the can be upgraded through the Black Ice profession to item level 140. The ability to buy into the gear progression has a sour taste, but at least the set you have to play for is stronger. The new powers of the Exotic Rings have already been previewed in our forum and we will have more information available when the first build is on preview.

[su_quote cite=”Lindsay Haven” url=”http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/neverwinter-underdark-interview-producer-lindsay-haven/”]We have two new skirmishes, which are basically shorter five minute instances. And those do have replayabillity. The Demogorgon fight will come in both a normal and epic mode.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/634/feature/10206/A-Peek-into-the-Underdark.html/page/1″]We have a couple of skirmishes that have variable play and variable rewards based upon how well you do. We also have a large group fight with Demogorgon, which is a 10 player fight against a large monster with coordination and multiple phases.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://www.mmobomb.com/interview-neverwinters-upcoming-underdark-expansion/”]For Underdark, we want to enhance the endgame experience. As such, we have built replayable content, like scaling demonic heroic encounters (difficulty and rewards increase with more participants), variable demonic skirmishes that reward based on how well your group does, and a large-group battle against Demogorgon himself.[/su_quote]

These are answers to the replayable vs. repeatable feature and the new group content. There will be new Underdark themed Skirmishes and it’s also safe to say that we’ll see no new dungeon, but that was about to be expected anyway. If implemented the right way, the feature should make replaying content more fun. It highly depends on whether it really intelligently rotates different mechanics or patterns to make it a unique experience or just uses some conditions to shake things up. Developer asterdahl added on the forum that the ranking system will not use any of the variables that made Heroic Encounter rankings so annoying and inaccurate during the previous modules.

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://mmo-play.com/mmo-blog/neverwinter-underdark-interview”]We are not updating the Foundry with this release, but hope to do so in the near future.[/su_quote]

It’s not so much about the fact that the foundry will not be updated this Module, which was already known, but that they currently not even have plans to update the foundry should be another nail in the coffin for one of the former main features of the game. It’s incredibly sad that in a D&D game the ability to be a dungeon master is pretty much nonexistent. Players interested in customized D&D content might have to switch to other games like Sword Coast Legends to fill their needs.

[su_quote cite=”Scott Shicoff” url=”http://www.mmobomb.com/interview-neverwinters-upcoming-underdark-expansion/”]We’re brainstorming ideas for the next class in Neverwinter, but I can’t say any more than that just yet.[/su_quote]

Translation: The next class is at least two modules away.

If that’s not enough to get you stoked, you might want to monitor the preview server today. The devs already brought up the alternate ‘Owlbear’ server to handle the Stronghold patches in the upcoming weeks, which is a sure sign that Underdark will hit the preview sooner or later. And Friday is the patch day for the PTS so that players can test the content over the weekend.