Interview with Scott Shicoff, lead designer for Neverwinter
1. For those who are not very familiar with the lore of Underdark, can you give them an overview of what Underdark is about?
The Underdark is vast, its network of tunnels and caverns spread underneath all of Faerûn. Because of the immensity of these caverns and the dangers they pose, most of the Underdark is largely unexplored. Whole civilizations have risen and fallen here, with the surface world unaware of their passing. Exploration of the Underdark is risky, and those who are unprepared, meet a grisly fate. But those who learn the ways of this realm find a wealth of dark beauty. The ambient magical energy of the Underdark known as faerzress provides a dim ambient illumination, lighting up giant fungus growths. Vast underground lakes and waterfalls shimmer with icy coldness, hiding its watery denizens beneath its surface. The dark elves known as the drow have carved out an empire for themselves here, their city of Menzoberranzan being the birthplace of the renegade drow hero, Drizzt Do'Urden. In this module, players will get to interact with this iconic character.
2. Players will explore Menzoberranzan, an iconic city in the D&D universe. How does the city look like in Neverwinter: Underdark?
Right now, Menzoberranzan is essentially off limits in lore, so players will not be able to enter the city during this module. Inhabitants of the City of Spiders don't take kindly to visitors and the recent horde of demons that have invaded their city has caused them to be even more defensive. They will most likely kill any adventurers who cross their path. For this expansion, players will be able to explore Mantol-Derith, a marketplace for all of the races of the Underdark.
3. Drizzt Do'Urden will be the key character in the campaign. What is he up to this time?
We don't want to give too much away about these iconic characters, but we do want to stress that this is the first part of their story that we want to tell in Neverwinter. Along with their appearances in this module, these characters will have their story continue to grow in upcoming modules.
4. The Strongholds expansion introduced a new guild feature and new PvP mode, so what should we expect with the Underdark expansion?
This expansion will bring a few new features to the Strongholds map, including a new resource-generating plot location and new options for guilds with a stronghold level of 9 and above. We've also added a new PvP tower for players to build, which drops magic healing mushrooms. Watch out for giant fungal growths on the other team's map!
5. Compared to other expansions, Strongholds was more PvP-focused. What did you learn from Strongholds? Will you continue to make PvP a big part of Underdark or switch the focus back to PvE?
Underdark focuses more on PvE, with replayable queued content. This new replayable content includes demonic heroic encounters, demonic skirmishes, and large-group battles against the Demon Lord, Demogorgon.
6. Is the team focused more on Underdark's development or still working on fixing existing content?
Though we are always evaluating the game to see what existing aspects/features/content needs to be improved or updated, we are focused on delivering the upcoming module.
7. Is there a release date for Underdark's PC and console versions?
Neverwinter: Underdark will be unleashed on PC in Fall 2015. The expansion will be available on Xbox One in 2016.
8. Do you plan to release new expansions on PC and Xbox One simultaneously in the future, or shorten the interval of expansion releases between PC and console?
Our goal is to get to content parity as soon as possible. We aren't quite there yet, but it's important for us to get there as soon as we can.
9. Before we conclude the interview, is there anything else you want to share with us about Underdark?
Yes! Underdark features a questline written by New York Times best-selling author, R.A. Salvatore! The creator of Drizzt, Breunor, Regis, and Pwent (to name a few) wrote a series of quests that players will be able to enjoy alongside those iconic characters. Be sure to swing by Mantol-Derith (a secret, underground marketplace where all of the races of the Underdark trade in safety) to hang out with them while you're getting ready to face Demogorgon!
We are also updating the Tarmalune Tradebar Store so players who have been sitting on that currency will have a bunch of new things to check out.
There are a lot of cool new rewards for players to earn in the upcoming module, and we've tried to build a lot of replayablity into the new queued content. We look forward to players helping drive back the demons tearing apart the world below!
