Missing Overall Story?

[ulfghuld]

I searched through the forums to find what I could, but no luck. I have read several of the previews from the Beta and watched quite a few beta videos and a common topic is the lack of story. Everyone seems to build a character and just get thrown into the game and there appears to be a missing story element to progress through.

I have yet to play, but will be in the Beta in March. My hope is that this part of the game is just being hidden and will not be available until the game launches.

To me this makes sense, cause the last thing I want to do in Beta is already find out all the story elements and not have anything to look forward to once the game launches. Forgotten Realms has always been my favorite D&D campaign setting thanks to R.A. Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, and Douglass Niles to name but a few.

Please alleviate my fears and tell me we will have an amazing storyline to follow in the game!

[raugar]

I have yet to play, but will be in the Beta in March. My hope is that this part of the game is just being hidden and will not be available until the game launches.!

well if u think that, you'll be disappointed. u can already play from 1-30 in the betas, and of course you play all the available content in those levels.

[spellwarden]

There is a foundational story present when the game ships. But the emphasis here is DnD characters that survive through heaps of campaigns. The foundry will constantly generate story-archs, and cryptic will surley update with their own archs to a lesser extent. There will be additions of classes and races. And I am willing to bet that they will continue to develop the assets and tools of the foundry. Which should give a "flavour of the week" dungeon. But also allow for creative ideas and campaigns to be continuously generated. Think the opposite of CoD. There is no overarching story with side-quests. All side-quests are story-archs.

Not a 100% accurate description. But I think it will change your mindset enough so you wont judge the game unfairly based on preconcieved notions.

[chili1179]

It's not a single player campaign, there is no single story to the world but rather a period of time in the Forgotten Realms that are mainly focused around the events unfolding in the Neverwinter Area of the world. The game is directing it's own campaign to unveil the content provided for the players to create and add to the world.

It's not a simple "here's the bad guy, here's what he's done and here's what you need to do to stop him" game.

[faleth77]

I think there should be at least a beginning story. You start a character and upon entering the world it cuts to a story scene, that explains the background of the game or the overall premise that you will ultimately fullfill at or near level cap. Hell it could just be still pictures of the main antagonist and plot of the overall story of the game while a narrator speaks in the background. It does need something like this either at the beginning of the game before making a character or just before entering the world the first time.

[xervai]

I ignored most of the story to not spoil it for myself during beta, but from what I quickly read everything is area/quest hub driven. I'm hoping there some overarching epic storyline that has solo/grouping components. I know its an old relic and "forced grouping", but I really enjoyed a difficult end game storyline similar to EQ2.

[sparjam007]

I do understand what you are saying, as with STO they told us at the beginning what the basic storyline is. However with NWO the basic is going to be on the line that Neverwinter is recoving from the plague that nearly destroyed it and the battles that followed. The city is in need of help and as usual, adventurers stand ready to assist. Then again that could just be the voices in my head. . .there are so many they are hard to follow sometimes.

[ulfghuld]

I completely understand how the Foundry fits into the game and what we will be able to accomplish. I am extremely excited to create and play through content with it.

I however find it disheartening that Cryptic and Wizards of the Coast would not pull from the vast amount of scenarios/storylines available to them in the Forgotten Realms Campaign and implement a strong base storyline in the game. From the intro cinemas it seems like there is with the Lich and undead army, so here is hoping!

[faleth77]

However with NWO the basic is going to be on the line that Neverwinter is recoving from the plague that nearly destroyed it and the battles that followed. The city is in need of help and as usual, adventurers stand ready to assist.

That is good, throw some pictures and narration in with it, or better yet a short video cut scene with narration or voice over and boom you have a overall story.

Though personally I'm hoping for something to tie together why Valindra is present, explain the presence of the Shadowvar, ect.

[lanessar13]

The story line up to level 20 seems to be that of a low-level adventurer, being given odd tasks as adventures, rather than a linking overarching story line.

[spoiler]Even through the tower district with the orcs, the linking story line is sort of "find out where the orcs are coming from" culminating in the Cloak tower instance.

Thereafter, each area has its own plot line, as you discover something amiss with a random problem, delve deeper and then come up with (insert villain that you defeat here) as the culprit, defeat them, and move onto the next area via Sgt Knox.

Plot starts entering in about level 20, where you deal with a spellplague victim, and things sort of roll from there (no spoilers) into finding an overall plot to do evil things. This sort of extends through two areas in the world. That was sort of where I ended off, so there may be more to it (and the villain who escapes twice) or you could end up defeating him and moving onto the next plotline. That remains to be seen, but the spellplagued aspect seems to go on for longer than previous storylines, and sort of entwines itself through a number of areas. I personally enjoyed how the spellplagued "line" plays out so far, it's been entertaining. [/spoiler]

The story line does have a somewhat predictable story, though, so don't expect amazing things - it's about what you would expect from an RA Salvatore short story. I don't consider Salvatore a great author, just FYI, not to disrespect the man. His writing just isn't at the "amazing" level for me as far as plot lines go. I sort of enjoy his characters, his descriptions of things FR, but an engaging, complex story isn't one of his strong points (for me).