Suggestions: Good things to be ported from Nehrim to Endreal

[Bastion of Reason]

Here's a list of things that I think worked well in Nehrim that I think should be kept and improved in Endreal.

- Loved the way the whole game’s voices were in German. I’m Finnish and I don’t speak German but German voices were very believable and exotic because you don’t often hear German in video games. I don’t think I had ever heard it in a video game before. Plusses for that, it made Nehrim a unique experience that I still recall well. It puzzles me how people complained about the lack of English voice acting, to me it only made the game better. I even learned some German on the way and I appreciated it because I hadn’t spoken a word of it before. It was a win-win, although I as a Finnish person am of course used to playing games in other than my mother tongue, almost no game is in Finnish. So my attitude is probably only in people who are used to play games in other languages besides their mother tongue.

- Liked how in Nehrim dungeons had powerful unique items that wouldn’t change every playthrough. That way you knew a dungeon delve wouldn‘t end up as a worthless dive so you were more likely to do them. I humbly request the same in Endreal. You could also plan your next game ("Next game I'll play a mage and totally come to get this amazing wand here"). That way you knew you'd find items which are good for you specifically and had an identifiable goal in visiting the dungeon, increasing motivation by a lot.

- Liked how in Nehrim the areas of the world were of somewhat static level. Absolutely hated how all enemies in Oblivion scaled to your level so ultimately you’d have laughably tough rats fighting you. That was not good. Liked how you could in Nehrim know in advance what the level requirement of an area was simply by looking next to its name so you always knew if you wandered to a tougher place. At the same time you could willingly make tougher forays if you felt you were up to fighting in a higher-level place than your level. Having the level-text written next to the level was a good thing

- Please implement Skyrim-like unique dungeons. By that I mean that in Skyrim most dungeons had a unique feel and theme. But you should go deeper than Skyrim did. By that I mean that when creating these dungeons, think of a mood for each and express it in the dungeon. If for example is the feel of the place menacing, benevolent, unpredictable or mysterious? Each dungeon should also have a secret, even if it’s just a small one. That way you know there’s something there for you to find, that paying attention will be rewarded instead of just trying to find secrets that aren’t there and eventually just giving up doing so for all dungeons because you’d been disappointed so many times in the past. Have for example a story reward for secrets that reveals something for you (If you don’t want to give rewards, it could even be something like a dead body with a unique but useless book or letter or a character that you’ve heard of previously who’s been trapped in the dungeon and can’t escape).

- Plotwise, don’t make things proceed too smoothly for an entire Chapter. One of the greatest things in Nehrim was that most chapters ended in a plot-twist, so you should end each chapter in Endreal with a major twist. In Nehrim I don’t think there was any major setback or plot-twist which made the player’s side change strategy in the chapter with the war against Baratheon. It all went too smoothly and predictably even up to the confrontation of Baratheon himself.

- I want to repeat that don't make things too smooth for the player. Nehrim had well-crafted quests but in most of them you could see too much how the quest was going to proceed and end

- Absolutely loved the way Baratheon would at one point of the game taunt Narathzul from his tower even though he wasn’t literally present next to you. Loved the booming voice from far away talking to you, it was an unexpected and clever way of having a conversation even when the two people having it weren't present in the same place at the same time.

- Loved the way how you were a fugitive from the law at one point of the game. It was great to run through forests with a purpose and find caves to hide in as you ran from the law and made your way to your destination. I loved the higher level of organization and power of your enemy and how you were the underdog. It wouldn’t have felt the same to play as some kind of imperial agent propping up a flawed and already-established power structure (like how Skyrim tries to make you do if you join the Empire). There was a special feel to constructing your own thing. Even better would have been if you could have somehow managed your empire first-hand and made your contributions and choices visible, say, in the chapter about the war on Baratheon you could have had the player choose in which order to do things and the quests would be slightly different and harder if you tried to do them in the wrong order.

- Liked how Baratheon wasn’t a senseless dictator but had his side of the story too. It would have been cheap if he was just a super-villain intent on world-conquest. Please bring those multiple and (at least somewhat) principled or (somewhat) justifiable perspectives to the same thing in the motivations of the people in Endreal.

- Loved the missions in Nehrim where you visited places that weren’t on the map. I was especially pleased with the trip to Arktwend because I honestly did not expect such an extended foray into an entirely different continent. Loved it, do something similar (as in off-map parts of the main quest) in Endreal.

- Players want more choices, but you've also got to make those choices visible in the game world.

- If you include something totally random and crazy, please reference it elsewhere in the game world. The soul train in Nehrim for example came completely out of left field and wasn't talked about ever since, you could at least have made some random book about it somewhere so I'd feel it really belonged in the game.

- We don't want a forced tragic ending, we want the ability to through your choices ensure at least a moderately tolerable ending that in order to reach it you'll have to play the game many times in order to make the right decisions. The best games, those you play over and over, are ones that you can't exhaust with one play-through and which you feel you can improve by making better decisions throught the game, not just by striking a few better blows in combat

[Hazzmat]

I read it all and you mentioned some good points but I got no time to discuss them all. Rest assured they learned from Nehrim And I'm sure Enderal will be even better than Nehrim by a large margin. I only hope it retains the same qualities that made Nehrim so good and continues from there. e.g. some aspects from skyrim are better than in oblivion and vice versa, we don't want that.

[colper89]

I still think the Pure German language in a Skyrim game is a turn off for several reasons, it breaks immersion to the fullest. I wouldn't mind people speak German in the game in a logical sense, like it's a society of Germans. But then again they speak English towards you (in a standard Skyrim English version). If the character really want to know what the NPCs says.. well add a language mod where the player learn certain words/sentences so the subtitles can supplement the "inner analog". That's immersion and something that can be followed by trainers that teaches you German, and with that you can bargain with the NPCs much better. The more accustomed you are with talking the language the more friendly the NPCs become.

Just ideas.. but the point was, no JUST German in the mod.

[Imryll]

As an English speaker I love the German voice acting. I'm sure it helps that I studied German in school (40 years ago!), but the different sounds and rhythms contribute to the sense of Nehrim being an exotic world. That said, I very much want English subtitles and in-game texts.