Neverwinter's ambitious 25th module is introducing the Drow city of Menzoberranzan which was famously depicted in R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt series. In fact, R.A. Salvatore and his son Geno Salvatore worked directly with the Neverwinter team to make the content in this module as authentic as possible.
"City zones" are always a serious challenge for MMORPG developers, as the level design needs to accommodate numerous players engaging in MMORPG-style questing and gameplay. The inclusion of these environments is always a major milestone for MMORPGs, with World of Warcraft's sprawling Suramar City and The Elder Scrolls Online's Imperial City zones being memorable additions to those games long after their introduction. Game ZXC spoke with Neverwinter's Art Director Chris Frenton and Lead Content Designer Elliot Minner about how they brought one of The Forgotten Realms' most famous cities into Neverwinter.
Neverwinter's Menzoberranzan Needed to Feel Like a Living City
A dark underground metropolis like Menzoberranzan adds to the variety of Neverwinter's fantasy-themed environments that range from lava-filled fiery pits to the vibrant forests of Sharandar. However, creating this environment wasn't without its challenges. Since the city isn't just an open battleground, the zone had to be carefully constructed so that trouble is found mostly when venturing into the city's dark alleys and other hostile areas rather than simply scattering foes around the map.
One of the main things was that, with most of our adventure zones, you show up and basically the whole thing is dangerous. There's a little safe area and then everywhere else are bad guys out to get you. And in our case, we're depicting a Menzoberranzan in conflict, but it's a Menzoberranzan that is still a functioning city, not a battleground. We wanted to make those places that felt safe and then the places that felt dangerous. That contrast I think really helped sell the city's feel. On the level design side, we also wanted to try to be a bit more urban and there's a bit more of a city block and grid kind of feeling in the layout versus just organic rolling hills.
Neverwinter's developers have focused this module on the class conflict between the upper-class Lolth Loyalist Drow in the Dutchloim district and the oppressed Blasphemes from the Braeryn District, which is known as "the Stenchstreets." The contrast between these factions and their respective socioeconomic status allows for some surprising environmental diversity, despite the action taking place within a single city. The diverse city districts emphasize the Drow class disparity while also making the environment more exciting to explore.
Neverwinter's Module 25 Features New Tech and Gameplay
Prior to Neverwinter, Cryptic Studios worked on the widely beloved superhero MMORPG City of Heroes, where players designed their own superheroes to fight crime together in a massive city. Some of the tech that was utilized to populate Paragon City with civilian inhabitants has been repurposed to make Neverwinter's Menzoberranzan feel like a living, breathing city.
But as far as the zone goes, we made a massive new adventure zone. We really wanted to do the parts of the city we could justice. Within that zone, we're doing some interesting new dynamics that we didn't do in previous zones. Since it was a city, we wanted to figure out what urban looked like. We actually brought back some tech from Champions, City of Heroes, that kind of thing, so there’s civilian stuff. We've got tons of Drow and common folk walking the streets and some like main areas, and then all the baddies and fighting is off to the sides in the alleys and the dark corners.
In terms of gameplay, Neverwinter's 25th module will also feature a dynamic lockdown mechanic within Menzoberranzan. The Lolth Loyalists will grow increasingly frustrated with players' actions, eventually deploying extremely powerful Drider house captains to patrol the city streets. These powerful enemies make the region far more dangerous, requiring players to cooperate to defeat them and secure the streets while earning valuable rewards. This push-pull against the Loyalists keeps the city from feeling too static while also making player activities feel impactful.
Neverwinter is free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.