Neverwinter Underdark Interview with Producer Lindsay Haven .

We had the opportunity to speak with Lindsay Haven about Neverwinter’s upcoming Module, Underdark. The Underdark is a vast underground area of the world and for the module they’ve brought the creator of Drizzt Do’Urden, R.A. Salvatore. Neverwinter Underdark is expected sometime during the Fall of 2015, though no date has been pinned down yet. Keep reading to learn more about Underdark from Lindsay Haven, one of the producers of Neverwinter.

How big a part of the story is R.A Salvatore?

R.A Salvatore’s quest line is the introduction to the new zones. So you will have to finish that before getting into the new campaign, and that questline will take you a couple of hours. Then the characters who are a part of that story will continue on into the Rage of Demons story that comes with the module.

 

When did R.A Salvatore come into the picture?

We actually had him involved even before the launch of Neverwinter. We have had this questline planned for a very long time, just waiting for the right time to tie those characters and story into one of our modules. And with the Rage of Demons story we thought it was the best time. As soon as that was decided he was brought back into the game.

 

If we only talk about the new story, how much game time will that alone bring?

The introduction will be a couple of hours for the average player. The module itself will take between a month or two to go through, depending on how you play.

 

Can you expand on the concept of replayable content instead of repeatable?

The idea is that when you repeat something you will in the end memorise everything, like old platforms. We didn’t want that that much, so imagine you are in a phase fight and one of the phases will vary in what it produces for you. It is not entirely random, but there is a variety in what you will see there. Hopefully players will have more variety when they replay that content.

 

Will the Underdark bring anything new for lower level characters?

You can start engaging in the R.A Salvatore questline at level 60 and some of the heroic encounters we bring in start at 60 as well. You can´t start the campaign until level 70 though.

How are the plans looking for expanding the lower level content?

About this time last year we brought Tyranny of Dragons which introduced a campaign at level 35 and that is still an ongoing campaign for lower level characters. We are thinking about it and are aware of players starting alts wanting new content but cannot talk about those plans just yet.

 

Will we see new currencies coming with the Underdark expanding the already big variety of currencies?

We will be adding a new campaign currency like the previous modules have brought with them, so that you can by new things connected to the campaign, have been making them easier to manage.

 

How much of the Underdark will we see with this new module?

While the Underdark is unlimited in the lore and only a fraction has been charted, so we will not see all of it. But we will be taking you to a few places in the Underdark. We will be fighting the Demogorgon in his lair, there is a black market called Mantol Derith that we will take you too. The new skirmishes will take you to a couple of less known places in the Underdark. We wanted to take players to Menzoberranzan, but they are very protective about that now and no one is allowed in at this moment.

 

Seeing how demons play a huge part of the story, what demons and creatures can we expect to fight?

Seeing how we finally can add demons to the game, which means a lot of work considering completely new models. So you will mainly be fighting demons and they will also appear in other zones above the ground as heroic encounters.

Will there be any new PvP content coming with this module?

We only just released Strongholds a couple of weeks ago, and most players are still getting used to that so we are feeling good on the PvP front at the moment.

 

What new PvE group content can we except from the Underdark?

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.

 

Will we see any changes to the current game with the patch bringing the expansion?

I can´t think of anything major. We have done some bug fixes, just overall quality of life improvements, but no new content.

 

Is there going to be a new level cap? Or ways to spec your characters like the Boon system?

No new level cap, we raised the cap earlier this year and there are a lot of new levelling zones that players can get into. We are trying to add more ingame content know since the level is so new. We will have the Boon system that will change characters and gameplay a little.

Any new class or species coming with this module or in the future?

We will not see anything new with the Underdark, but since classes and species are a huge part of the meta mechanic in Dungeons and Dragons are about. It is absolutely something we are thinking about.

 

What is coming after the expansion? Seeing how this seems to have a higher focus on the story, will the next be more into PvP again? Or something else?

We will be talking about that when we feel ready. At the moment we are focusing on the Underdark and the story content coming with it.

 

When is it going to be released?

Cannot comment on that yet. But you will be the first too know.

 

It was great talking to Lindsay and shedding some more light on the upcoming module and Cryptics future plans for Neverwinter. Underdark will be Neverwinters 8^th module since its release and is expected to come in the fall 2015. As soon as a date is announced and as soon as more information rises about the Underdark, you can read right here on MMOGames.