Travels of "Forgotten Country": Written before the first experience of Bodmen 3

Forgotten Field is the most famous and rich combat background in Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), and it is also one of the most famous aerial worlds in the game history. Many excellent games such as Bodmen, Ice Valley and neverwinter nights are based on it. For many players, Forgotten Country is almost equal to Dungeons and Dragons.

A few days later, on September 30th, the pre-emptive experience version of Bode Gate 3 will be launched soon. At this time, looking back at Bodmen, which was listed on 1998, we found that all of a sudden, those games with the forgotten country as the background influenced a whole generation of China players.

From 65438 to 0975, the Canadian librarian Ed Greenwood began to create his own private "Dungeons and Dragons" campaign, and serialized these settings and stories in Dragon Tales magazine. When Ed's creation lasted until 1987, TSR Company, the copyright owner of Dungeons and Dragons, bought one of his sets and launched it as the official new campaign suit of Dungeons and Dragons, that is, the forgotten country.

As a set of background settings in Dungeons and Dragons, The Forgotten Country not only has a lot of setting materials and adventure modules, but also derives famous novels such as the Elminster Trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy. In the field of electronic games, the works based on it are accompanied by the growth of players all the way, leaving a rich and colorful stroke in the history of games.

The earliest Dungeons and Dragons rule book was published by TSR in 1974.

Double machetes, panthers, dark elves, how many players want to be in the game?

The world of Forgotten Country is called Taurel, and the familiar land of Phelan is the center of the Taurel world and the main stage of most background games of Forgotten Country. The earliest "Dungeons and Dragons" rule game with the story background of "Forgotten Country" was the Pool of Light released by SSI Company in 1988. At that time, SSI had just signed a seven-year authorization with TSR Company, and obtained the copyrights of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (ADnD) and Forgotten Country and Dragon Gun.

The earliest version of Dungeons and Dragons was called the Origin Edition (ODnD), and later it was divided into basic edition and expert edition (BDnD and ADnD). After the acquisition of TSR, VIOS integrated two versions and launched the third version of the rules.

The story of "the pool of light" takes place in the northern part of the Moon Sea in Phelan. Luna Sea is the inland sea of Phelan mainland, and the bay coast in the west of the mainland is called Sword Bay. There are four basic occupations in the game for players to choose from: war, law, grazing and theft. It not only provides a multi-line adventure mission with high degree of freedom, but also has SSI's unique board fighting system. Many classic Dungeons and Dragons system features can be found in this game, such as complex character data, various spells and the setting of restoring spell positions through rest.

The Pool of Light received rave reviews after its launch. It sold 270,000 copies that year and won the 1988 Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Game Award. SSI has launched three sequels, The Curse of the Blue Chain, The Mystery of the Silver Dagger and pools of darkness, which are collectively called the Pool of Light Tetralogy for the sake of the Pool of Light.

This is Elminster in the early game. ...

Subsequently, SSI successively developed two works, The Gate of a Foreign Land and Treasure of a Foreign Land, with Santalin Club, an intelligence organization whose goal is to control Wan Jian's trade and politics, and the Klein Trilogy with Dragon Gun as the background. These RPGs based on Dungeons and Dragons rules are all made by the same engine, and the cover packaging is golden, so they are called "Golden Box" series by players.

199 1 year, Stormfront Studios developed the world's first graphical MMORPG, Never Crossing the Night, by using the golden box engine. The picture and gameplay are similar to the "Golden Box" series that caused a great sensation that year. The maximum number of online games has reached 2000, and the guild system has been created and the PvP system has been improved, which has a great influence on all online games in future generations.

Neverwinter nights 1997 closed and won the Emmy Award for Science and Technology and Engineering in 2008.

When the "Golden Box" became popular in European and American game circles, SSI also joined hands with SIMS to launch the "magic eye Black Boy" series. "The Wings of magic eye" was released on 1990, which led players to enter the Wan Jian area of Phelan and come to Deepwater City, which is known as the "crown of the North". In the turn-based game world at that time, "Kill of magic eye" boldly adopted semi-real-time gameplay, brought unprecedented game experience to players with novel 3D full-view images, and won constant praise after it was released.

However, after experiencing the wonderful game process, players will have a very bad ending: when you defeat the final beholder Boss, you will receive a simple text evaluation and then be kicked out of the game directly. GameSpot once rated this ending as one of the top ten worst game endings in history.

The direct elements of magic eye's murder provided inspiration for the development of Dune 2.

After the great success of magic eye, Ximu immediately developed the sequel magic eye: The Legend of the Hidden Moon. On the basis of the previous work, The Legend of the Hidden Moon has improved the picture, sound effects and puzzle solving content, while maintaining the high difficulty level of the previous work in the battle. The game scene has expanded from the sewer in Deep Water City to the outdoor, and the game content is more abundant, which also maintains the reputation of players. However, the level of magic eye's Murder 3: A Bloody Battle in Zanol, which was produced by SSI alone, has fallen sharply, and the brilliance of this series ends here.

In the golden age of role-playing games, you can always expect the next one to be better.

Time went to 1998, and BioWare cooperated with Interplay's Black Island Studio to launch the classic Bode Gate in the history of games. The Gate of Bode series is a complete story composed of the first generation, Gate of Bode 2: The Shadow of Eminem and the expansion piece Throne of Baal. The trilogy * * * shows a legendary journey of becoming a god. Players started from the unknown rookie of 1, gradually grew into famous adventurers in Jianwan, and finally experienced the battle of sealing gods.

TSR was acquired by VIOS on 1997, and Dungeons and Dragons got greater development in the hands of the latter.

The first generation of "Bodmen" won the best game of the year award after 1998 was launched. The game adopts the second edition of ADnD rules, and the world map is completely open for players to explore freely. The main story of the first generation is very wonderful. Players chase all the way from Candleford, and the plot is interlocking and full of suspense. Finally, they find out their own life experience and face their enemy Schallock.

The game not only has a huge text dialogue and rich adventure plots, but also presents the world of "Forgotten Country" in a real three-dimensional way, bringing unprecedented experience to the players at that time. The first generation of "Bodmen" had a low upper level, poor equipment and few spells, so the intensity of both sides was not high and the fighting rhythm was slow. The game as a whole is not as grand as the second generation, but it has a leisurely experience like a board game.

The success of the first generation laid a solid foundation for later. The Gate of Bode 2: Shadow of Eminem, which appeared in 2000, stood on the shoulders of the previous work and brought this series to the peak of CRPG.

Salofalk is Bodmen's first and last Boss, but he will become a teammate on the throne of Barr.

Since Bode Gate 2, the protagonist's teammates are no longer tool people or cannon fodder. They not only have massive voice conversations, rich independent plots, but also have their own emotional views. They will make corresponding feedback because of the different actions of the players in the story, will take the initiative to have bloody conflicts with people who have different views (including players, other teammates and NPC), and even stage a love triangle with the protagonist.

BioWare attaches great importance to the portrayal of these teammates, making them look like different and energetic adventure partners instead of data in computers. In later similar works, few peer systems have reached such a high level.

Viconia can go from evil camp to neutrality in the expansion, if you fall in love with her.

Bodmen 2 is also a unique adventure experience. There are various powerful enemies in Forgotten Country: beholders, mind snatchers, demigods, red dragons and demon lords, and the epic battles make players enjoy themselves. The famous characters in the novel also appear in the series of plots, such as Elminster, Drizzt du Charlton, and the mercenary leader Jalaso. Players can not only talk and interact with these legends, but also fight side by side, kill each other and kill people, as long as you can.

There are countless classic scenes, such as dark areas, dimensional spheres, forbidden prisons, underwater cities and observer fortresses ... The quality of large and small underground cities is extremely high, and there is no patchwork design, which is still strong.

"Desmulie Xi" has been translated into "Desmulie Xi" in the games of past dynasties, but the accurate translation should be "Desmulie Xi", usually a gorgeous skull. The picture shows the demigod lich in neverwinter nights 2.

As for fighting, with the rules of "Dungeons and Dragons" as the basis, the experience will naturally not be bad. The upper limit of "Bode Gate 2" has been raised to near level 20 (the expansion will continue to be raised to around level 40), the types and intensity of enemies have also multiplied, and there are countless costumes as adventure rewards for players to choose from, so that players' adventures can reach a climax from the prelude dungeon.

The spell system is extensive and profound, including direct injury and immediate death, control and anti-control, protection and cracking, illusion and summoning, as well as various magical magic techniques such as sequence, wish and accident. Just studying the action rules and combination skills of various spells is enough to make you spend as much energy as getting through the game. Bodmen 2' s magic system has complex effects, rich combinations and profound routines. Throughout the history of Dungeons and Dragons, no one can beat them.

Of course, Bodmen also has shortcomings, such as outdated picture quality and action, unbalanced career, poor UI and many bugs, which have been complained by players.

By the end of 2006, "Bodmen" series had sold more than 5 million sets. With it, BioWare became famous and became one of the first-class game manufacturers. The story of Forgotten Country is also known by more players.

After the release of Bode Gate, BioWare continued to cooperate with Black Island Studio to provide the Infinity engine for the production of Bode Gate to Black Island. In 1999, the latter developed the most humanistic work Requiem in a Foreign Land in CRPG history (although this work is based on the module of "exotic scenery"). In 2000, Black Island launched a brand-new game "Ice Valley" based on "Forgotten Country" and R·A· Salvador's novel "Ice Valley Trilogy".

B& Island and BioWare are collectively called B&; Group B and later BioWare fell out with Interplay because of the distribution right of neverwinter nights.

"Ice Valley" takes players to Dulin Town, one of the ten towns farther north than Deep Water City, and starts a new journey of ice and snow. In order to allow players to play online, there are no NPC partners with their own plots in the game, only teammates built by themselves at the beginning, which is controversial among players.

Compared with Bode Gate, Bingfeng Valley pays more attention to combat experience, and the number of monsters and battles in the game far exceeds the latter. Chopper team or bow and arrow team, supplemented by one or two spellcasters and Buff, can make players who love chopping and fighting really refreshed. Coupled with better light and shadow pictures and well-made background music, players enjoy a completely different experience from Bodmen.

The game flow of "Ice Wind Valley" is basically hacked in one underground city after another.

Ice Valley 2, released in August 2002, is the last game developed by Black Island with an infinite engine. Inherited the characteristics of light plot and heavy fighting in the previous work. Monster AI, combat difficulty, and dungeon encounter were upgraded in an all-round way, and the third edition of the rules was adopted at the same time. The tactics profession has been strengthened, and it's more refreshing to cut monsters and kill enemies. Unfortunately, this work failed to save Interplay, which was badly managed at that time. In 2003, due to heavy losses, Interplay dissolved its Black Island studio.

When Ice Valley 2 in Black Island was still using the infinite engine and 2D images, BioWare made neverwinter nights, the first 3D game of BioWare, with a brand-new 3D image technology. This time, players can get a glimpse of the northern Pearl Winterless City and Qian Fan City.

At that time, the 3D images were rough, but in the contemporary view, the expressive force was remarkable.

The story of neverwinter nights begins with a magical plague in Neverwinter City, and players will investigate and solve the enemies of Neverwinter City along the way. In the plot, there is a very striking figure-the paladin Erebus. She is the NPC with the most communication among the players, and also the Tyr paladin who swore to protect Winterless City. But at the end of the first chapter of the game, Farnswick, Erebus's lover, was hanged by the duke as a sacrifice to calm public anger because he mistakenly believed in a traitor. The departure of her lover shook her faith, and ignorant people ignited her hatred. In the end, she took refuge in the villain and embarked on the road of revenge, and was finally killed (or persuaded) by the player.

In the expansion "Ghost of the Dark City", the soul of Erebus will meet the player in hell and become the player's partner, and there are as many as 10 different endings according to the player's choice in the plot.

It's up to you to become a demon completely, return to the right path of Tyre, or fall in love with the player to the end.

In full 3D, neverwinter nights makes the battle more realistic, with independent actions such as chopping, attacking, dodging and parrying, and of course, the spells become gorgeous. However, due to the immaturity of 3D technology at that time, "neverwinter nights" failed to make the magnificent scene in Bode Gate 2, but finally delivered a satisfactory answer sheet with a sales volume of 3 million.

After the dissolution of Black Island, Interplay declared bankruptcy in 2005, but the story of No Winter City did not end. In 2006, Obsidian Entertainment Company absorbed some employees from Black Island and produced neverwinter nights 2. Neverwinter nights 2 adopted version 3.5 of the Dungeons and Dragons rule, which is the most familiar and comprehensive rule for China board game players. The number of occupations in neverwinter nights 2 has reached 37, and the number of part-time jobs is 4 (previously 3). Therefore, there are various ways to portray characters, and the repetition and playability are higher than the previous works of Dungeons and Dragons.

The third edition of Dungeons and Dragons Rules is also called 3E, and the third edition is called 3r, which was modified from the former.

If Bingfeng Valley emphasizes the plot, then neverwinter nights 2 emphasizes the plot rather than the difficulty. The original game was nicknamed "Spring Tour Group" by players because of its low difficulty. Even if teammates hang up and fly alone, there is no pressure. On the contrary, the negotiation options in the whole game are endless, and many tasks have nothing to do with combat skills. The ability of mouth cannon is very important.

There is also a trial of the protagonist in the middle of the game. If you don't use all kinds of eloquence skills, you will be wronged to pieces by Thorio, the "snake of the court". This trial is also the most unforgettable story in the whole game. Threatening, bluffing, acting, persuasion and other eloquence routines all have corresponding winning methods, but they will be staged by Thorio if they are not careful. Of course, you can also die in court and experience the taste of complete failure.

The trial process is extremely long and the content changes greatly, but in the end, players still have to go through a "contest trial"

Neverwinter nights 2 also has a fortress building system, which is the first in Dungeons and Dragons (in Bode Gate 2, players can also manage professional strongholds, but there are only stage tasks, and there is no real building content). After the trial, players can capture the villain's crossroads fortress, where they can train soldiers and develop infrastructure, as an outpost of Neverwinter City, to resist the attack of the final Boss Shadow King. This system was later absorbed by games such as "Eternal Pillar" and "Ruling the King" and made its own "Crossroads Fortress".

Of course, don't forget to build excellent partners in the game. You should know that Ice Wind Valley does not provide plot teammates, and the first edition of neverwinter nights only has uncontrollable mercenaries, so the truly impressive teammate system after Bode Gate 2 is only available in neverwinter nights 2. Because of the improvement of the picture, the interaction with teammates in "neverwinter nights 2" makes the players feel more immersive, and the increase or decrease of goodwill and jealousy disputes also make the game process more interesting.

However, the optimization of neverwinter nights 2 is very bad, and the ending of the original teammate is unknown.

Finally, The Mask of the Betrayer, the information piece of neverwinter nights 2, was created by Chris Avalon, which not only completed the ending of the original book, but also raised the plot to a philosophical level, and discussed the price of faith, love, betrayal and sacrifice with the players. The wall of unbelievers shown in the plot is also a classic setting of the forgotten country.

After the rise of Pool of Light and the peak of Bode Gate, the story of Forgotten Country fell into silence in the video game world after neverwinter nights 2. Although there are some games with related backgrounds during the period, most of them have a mediocre response.

Among these games, the philosopher's stone and dagger valley are all made into ACT, and the evaluation is quite general; Legend of Sword Bay claims to be the spiritual sequel of Bode's Gate, but it is actually selling dog meat by hanging sheep's head, and the plot is not satisfactory. The Metacritic score is 61100; "No Winter Online" was developed by the studio controlled by Perfect World, and the quality was acceptable, but it was only named as "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Forgotten Country". In essence, it was an online game of World of Warcraft, and it stopped taking it after less than two years of public beta.

"No Winter Online" applies the background of "Forgotten Country", and its gameplay is far from that of "Dungeons and Dragons".

The game of Dungeons and Dragons rules is generally difficult to get started, the system is more complicated, the number of texts is huge, it is slow to play, and the player market is not big. Coupled with Visteon's high licensing fee, developers tend to use their own or borrowed game systems. For example, the pillars of eternity and the tyrant are both born out of Dungeons and Dragons, and the "Pioneer" rule used in Pengwang is also based on the 3.5 version of the "Dungeons and Dragons" rule.

So starting from neverwinter nights 2, "Forgotten Country" is still one of the most popular background settings in board games, but I'm afraid it will soon be forgotten by the video game world. Until the E3 exhibition in 20 19, the Belgian game company Larian Studio, which was deified by the Gods: Original Sin series, announced that it was authorized by VIOS, and announced the development news of Bode Gate 3 to the players, and The Forgotten Country returned to the players' field of vision.

Judging from the current news, the story of "Bodmen 3" still takes place in Wan Jian. The game scene includes not only Bodmen and its surrounding areas, but also the dangerous bottomless pit and barto Hell, which are the home of the devil and the devil respectively. Players can even see the horror of "bloody battle"-this is an endless war between demons.

Larian said that the beta version on September 30th was much longer than the process of Happy Castle in Holy World: Original Sin 2.

At the beginning of the game, the protagonist and the initial teammates will escape from the snail-shell boat that captures the demons. However, the brain snatcher larvae have already been implanted in everyone's brain. If they don't find a cure as soon as possible, they will become new-born mind-snatchers ... The story of the players is unfolding in this imminent death battle.

Besides, Larian revealed in official website in February that the villains in this novel may be three resurrected death gods-Barr, Ben and mirko, who have found a new way of living and are now wandering around Fallon as demigods.

Snail-snatching snail-shell boat, behind which Gisyankee and Red Dragon will come after us.

In some previous live demonstrations, we also saw the real game of Bode Gate 3. The game characters have strict rules of moving and attacking, and various dice-throwing tests have also restored the board game running group, as well as elements with strong practicability such as climbing, jumping and environmental interaction. Players can use terrain, objects and spells to cooperate with various imaginative tactics, and the selection of plot branches and demonstrations has also maintained the consistent level of "Holy World: Original Sin 2".

Bode Gate 3 adopts the latest 5E rules of Dungeons and Dragons, which simplifies 3R and is more suitable for newcomers. Although the upper level limit of Bode Gate 3 is only 10, the 5E rule improves the combat effectiveness of low-level characters, so that each level of characters can be qualitatively improved, so we don't have to worry about the lack of strong confrontation during the game.

Obviously, the pictures, music and movements will also be greatly improved on the basis of "Divine World: Original Sin 2"

At present, the controversial point may be that the game adopts turn-based gameplay, because the works such as Bodman, which are familiar to old players, are semi-instant, and such changes may make some people feel uncomfortable. But the rule of Dungeons and Dragons is a turn-based board game system. It can be said that the return to turn-based system in Bode Gate 3 is the best restoration of the rules. Moreover, the combat experience of Holy World: Original Sin 2 is in the forefront, and Larian should not disappoint people.

As for whether "Bode Gate 3" can reach the height of "Bode Gate 2", we can't make a conclusion until the game is officially released. On September 30th, the Preemptive Experience Edition of Bode Gate 3 will be launched on Steam, providing 25 hours of game content. With the latest rules and the next generation of 3D images, we can get a glimpse of the real face of Sword Bay and revisit the once unimaginable "forgotten country".