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NWN Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - Beamdog's final enhancement - now with new premium modules

fantadomat

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Only enhancement I'm remotely interested is controllable henchmen, Ai controlled henchmen is the single most fucked up idea Bioware had that pretty much turned NWN 1 combat on a snooze fest. They can implement this, their lame excuses sound like they don't wanting to actually work hard on this, you can just have a system where the option isn't activated by default on the OC and old mods with modders deciding to allow it or not on the toolset.
Don't worry beamdog will outdone them on the retarded front.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


http://blog.beamdog.com/2017/12/december-15-livestream-recap.html

December 15 Livestream Recap


Full of ideas about NWN:EE? - Share them on the Beamdog forums, vote on the Input board, and watch the progress of the game development on the Roadmap board!

During today’s Twitch stream, Beamdog Studio CEO Trent Oster and Studio Director Phil Daigle shared recent news about Infinity Engine Enhanced Editions and plans for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. They introduced the new trello system for NWN:EE, and played A Harper’s Tale - Prelude, a fan-made NWN module created by Dave Mason more than 10 years ago and runs perfectly in NWN:EE.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch!

Here's a quick summary of the highlights from today’s livestream:

  • The 2.5 update open beta for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is available on Google Play, Steam, and Beamdog. This patch is all about fixing Multiplayer, so we need a ton of Multiplayer feedback. Share your feedback in our Survey. If you can play the open beta on Android, connect to the PC version, spend time playing Multiplayer, and reflect on it in the survey - we’ll be very, very grateful.
  • The open beta and survey will run over the holidays, through to January 8th, with the possibility of an extension. Try new features, like the Shaman class introduced into Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition!
  • After the 2.5 patch we plan to move Siege of Dragonspear to tablets. 2.5 needs to be as solid as can be so that SoD is an excellent experience for those trying it for the first time.
  • We have a big sale going on currently for all our Infinity Engine titles on GOG, so check it out!
  • If you still haven’t joined Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Head Start, do it now. By pre-ordering the game from Beamdog and participating in the Head Start, you can shape the future of NWN:EE.
  • We now have a live Trello board for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition which we call the Roadmap board. The Roadmap board is a public read-only board where interested parties can inform themselves on what is going on in the NWN:EE land, development wise. You can find larger features and updates that we are considering, are in development, or are nearing completion.
  • There’s also another live Trello board - the Input board. This board is something that will be filled with cards based on community feedback. Neverwinter Nights fans can vote to prioritise features and fixes. Once the development team is ready to investigate a feature request or are working to implement it, they will pick cards from the Input board and move them to the Roadmap board.
  • To nominate a feature for the Input board, please, visit the Beamdog forums and share your ideas there. Key members of the community will then create a corresponding card on the Input board so fan can vote or subscribe to the feature.
  • If you’re interested in helping us make Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition better, go vote in the Input board and share the feedback on the Trello board discussion forum. There also will be separate threads for every card from the “Needs More Discussion List”, so that you could provide more details and feedback about how this or that feature should look like.
  • We aim to be conservative in what we are putting on our Roadmap board, but there are no guarantees of features getting implemented. We sometimes even might stop working on a feature, move it to the Icebox or remove it from the Roadmap altogether.
  • We have four guiding principles with regards to Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition:
  1. Do not break backwards compatibility;
  2. Do not change - unhardcode and open up for modding/extension, and add new functionality;
  3. Step forward slowly and try to keep it stable;
  4. New content is king.
  • If you have a suggestion for a fan-made module you'd like to see played on the stream, let us know on Twitter, Facebook, or in the forums!
  • We have no plans for the boxed version of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition as of yet. Right now we’re focused on making NWN:EE the best it can possibly be.
  • Currently Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition doesn’t support EAX. We’re rolling out OpenAL first. We’ll keep looking into bringing EAX to NWN:EE.
  • We updated Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition with the latest version of the C++ builder, and we will be very careful with the builder so that we don’t break stuff.
  • We are open to expand the current Neverwinter Nights scripting, and updating it is not off the table. Go to the forum and create your requests, we need to know the details of what you would like to see.
  • We’ve had a lot of discussions about a potential clash between old Neverwinter Nights assets and new assets we could create. A potential clash is why we are not revising the existing assets. But when we look at the new content we could do, we want it to become something to show the future we anticipate for Neverwinter Nights.
  • The story of the official campaign of Neverwinter Nights has been told. What we would prefer to do is create new story content.
Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream next Friday!
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
Only enhancement I'm remotely interested is controllable henchmen, Ai controlled henchmen is the single most fucked up idea Bioware had that pretty much turned NWN 1 combat on a snooze fest. They can implement this, their lame excuses sound like they don't wanting to actually work hard on this, you can just have a system where the option isn't activated by default on the OC and old mods with modders deciding to allow it or not on the toolset.

I disagree and here's why.

There are plenty of:

1 - Turn-based party RPGs where you control every member of your party
2 - Real-time-with-pause party RPGs where you control every member of your party.

NWN's style is actually an interesting one, precisely for the lack of controllable companions. Since the companions act on their own AI, you will often get unpredictable actions, both good and bad. This makes the game more interesting and surprising at times.

Example, I was playing Swordflight recently, an excellent module for NWN (probably the best one I've played yet.) It has a bevy of skill-checks, puzzles, choice & consequence, etc. etc.. The main companion is a very quirky female Bard with a well-developed personality. Thus, her AI control actually makes her *more* interesting as a companion.

Once in awhile you'd be fighting some cave bats, and all of a sudden they're all sleeping. :) Or she'd use some scroll, wand or what have you that was totally unexpected and cool. It felt like she was doing her own thing (which she was) and more like a real companion in the game, if that makes sense.

Now, unpredictability like that already makes the game a different (and differently interesting) experience. So, here's where it gets really cool. If the AI could be more based on the character's stats or skills, let's say, Lore or Intelligence. If the character has a high Lore skill, a Sorcerer let's say, then you will see the Sorcerer do smarter things against higher tiered enemies, quicker. On the other end if you have a character with poor intelligence, no knowledge of lore, etc., maybe they would fumble a bit more and not be as effective against some enemies (attacks might be weaker, or vice versa, stronger.) I can go deeper with it but you should see what I mean. Higher INT/Lore characters would know strengths/weaknesses of rarer/harder enemies and the like and use strategies according.

Other than that, I think the NWN experience is great. Sometimes you don't want to micromanage an entire party, not only for the fact you can focus on your main character but also for the sheer fun of having AI companions. They have their own personality, motives, abilities, etc., and they use them at their discretion (mostly, you can influence them via dialogue of course.) But that's a cool experience. It's different. And Baldur's Gate, etc., already exists...
 

hell bovine

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Controllable henchmen AI doesn't mean you can't have your henchmen "do their own thing". E.g. Dragon Age had AI options you could set, depending on conditions and leave them to that (and there was a mod exapnding these options even further, I think), or you could control them directly.

Because the thing about NWN "do their own thing" AI? It is shit when it comes higher level spellcasters. Swordflight is no exception, I didn't even finish the last part, because that bard became such an annoyance at higher levels.
 

Thorsson

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More user choice can only be a good thing and that includes the ability to take over henchmen, however if you could fully control henchmen in existing material it would likely make it a lot easier and therefore destroy balance. And it has no bearing at all on Multiplayer. As such I wouldn't see it as a priority. Something in the middle like control their inventory and level up would be nice.

Better AI would be great, though there are mods that purport to do this already.
 

getter77

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I understand their having an Icebox on the Roadmap board, but they would be better served to show a bit more enthusiasm/vision/etc as it seems they are excessively hedging against perceived difficulties and requests despite many being obvious things they should've anticipated from the start to bake in to the initial pitch---especially those not of a highly technical nature.
 

DeepOcean

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Messages
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Other than that, I think the NWN experience is great. Sometimes you don't want to micromanage an entire party, not only for the fact you can focus on your main character but also for the sheer fun of having AI companions.
Let's say what you find "cool and random behavior with personality", I find it infuriating behavior that don't allow me to make any basic tactics whatsoever that depends on the shitty Ai, you don't want to control a whole party and I just don't see the point of controlling only one character if you are playing a single player game module and on DnD, more characters means more options and more options means greater diversity on gameplay. Why shouldn't I have the option of actually playing on a way I don't find mind numbing torture especially if you are playing with a melee class? Don't you want to control the whole party and want "personality" on your companions? Fine, activate the Ai control option that is available since Baldur's Gate 1 and even on decline RPGs like Dragon Age Origins.

Sorry, I'm smelling the bullshit from Beamdog from afar here. They are actually charging for patches that any modder would have released for free, there are ALOT of older games that receive those kinds of compatibility patches and graphix improvements by modders that actually worked harder than Beamdog that is charging for it.
 

Lacrymas

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The tragedy here is that they have access to the source code, but don't do anything substantial with that, while much more talented modders don't, so they can't really stretch their muscles and show what can be done.
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
Other than that, I think the NWN experience is great. Sometimes you don't want to micromanage an entire party, not only for the fact you can focus on your main character but also for the sheer fun of having AI companions.
Let's say what you find "cool and random behavior with personality", I find it infuriating behavior that don't allow me to make any basic tactics whatsoever that depends on the shitty Ai, you don't want to control a whole party and I just don't see the point of controlling only one character if you are playing a single player game module and on DnD, more characters means more options and more options means greater diversity on gameplay. Why shouldn't I have the option of actually playing on a way I don't find mind numbing torture especially if you are playing with a melee class? Don't you want to control the whole party and want "personality" on your companions? Fine, activate the Ai control option that is available since Baldur's Gate 1 and even on decline RPGs like Dragon Age Origins.

And you're missing the point. That still gives you a lot of control, and I understand RPG players are Control Freaks (like myself) but damn. How about one game that is a bit different where you don't do that?

Controllable henchmen AI doesn't mean you can't have your henchmen "do their own thing". E.g. Dragon Age had AI options you could set, depending on conditions and leave them to that (and there was a mod exapnding these options even further, I think), or you could control them directly.

Because the thing about NWN "do their own thing" AI? It is shit when it comes higher level spellcasters. Swordflight is no exception, I didn't even finish the last part, because that bard became such an annoyance at higher levels.

Then Beamdog should work on improving the AI. I gave suggestions as to things they could do. There are several Lore skills in the game dealing with different creatures and elements. They can tie "intelligence" of the AI to those skills along with stats or even new skills they create (Combat Awareness, Quick Thinking, etc..) D&D 3.5 has tons of ways they can do it.

That would be way more interesting than just another RPG where the player again is a Total Controller of everything they touch.
 

Popiel

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
The tragedy here is that they have access to the source code, but don't do anything substantial with that, while much more talented modders don't, so they can't really stretch their muscles and show what can be done.
They can't. Meddling with the source code would most probably break most modules and persistent worlds. That's not the deal worth making.
 

roll-a-die

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Messages
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The tragedy here is that they have access to the source code, but don't do anything substantial with that, while much more talented modders don't, so they can't really stretch their muscles and show what can be done.
They can't. Meddling with the source code would most probably break most modules and persistent worlds. That's not the deal worth making.
Quite.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I suppose it might be possible to add henchman control as a feature that needs to be enabled in new modules, the same way the ability to equip your henchmen was added in the expansions but never patched into the original campaign.

It sounds like something that could potentially be very hard to implement, though. The entire engine must be built around controlling a single character. Think of the UI swapping you need to do when switching characters, etc.
 

Immortal

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The tragedy here is that they have access to the source code, but don't do anything substantial with that, while much more talented modders don't, so they can't really stretch their muscles and show what can be done.

They are modifying the source code..
They completely overhauled the renderer to support shader based rendering and rewrote the networking code to fix performance issues and overhaul security between server and clients.

I'm as disappointed as anyone but at least be accurate in your complaints. Also releasing the source code that is owned by WoTC / Hasbro is a pretty unrealistic request. Do you actually think beamdog has the sole rights to open source NWN1?

Let's be intellectually honest here.
Your critique should be around Beamdog being lazy cunts who hire modders to do their work for them - then try to turn a quick buck.

(They could of budgetted out an art team that creates new assets for NWN1 that are far far superior then what's there now, utilizing the shader based rendering. But instead they just sit around with shit eating grins - hoping the community picks up the tab while they sell copies for as little cost to them as possible)

I suppose it might be possible to add henchman control as a feature that needs to be enabled in new modules, the same way the ability to equip your henchmen was added in the expansions but never patched into the original campaign.

It sounds like something that could potentially be very hard to implement, though. The entire engine must be built around controlling a single character. Think of the UI swapping you need to do when switching characters, etc.

Trent has basically said that Obsidians direction of a party based game was not the direction he thinks NWN1 should go. He wants party's to be focused around multiplayer. AKA each person plays one character.
 

octavius

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I've played very little NWN, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the game designed primarily for multi-player, with henchmen as subsitutes if you wanted to play SP instead? So in practice one guy controling several characters should be the same balance wise as several players controling one character each?
 

Immortal

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I've played very little NWN, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the game designed primarily for multi-player, with henchmen as subsitutes if you wanted to play SP instead? So in practice one guy controling several characters should be the same balance wise as several players controling one character each?

Trent said that the initial reason that Henchmen were ever added was purely for the OC so that characters who had gaps in their skillset (Lockpick , Tank , whatever) could progress through the game.

It evolved after that to allow you to control their inventory ect. But their initial creation OC they are basically just NPC's who follow you around with some dialogue to control their AI and shit.
 

rogueknight333

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A lot of people here seem to be saying that, on the one hand, Beamdog cannot be trusted to do anything right, and, on the other, they ought to be doing a lot more, claims which seem a bit contradictory. Any change they introduce increases the risk of introducing bugs, issues with backwards compatibility, and generally messing things up, so it is just as well if they do not try to do anything too radical. The best way to introduce changes would be to just reduce the hard-codedness of the game and let the existing modding community go to work.

On AI-controlled henchmen:

1) Like them or not, NWN is hardly the first or only game to use such a system (Fallout and Arcanum come to mind), and some people do actually prefer and find role-playing advantages to such a focus on a single character. Ironically, given that I am mainly known for working with NWN, I am not one of them, and would have much preferred a system with full party controls (at least if it were a good system, see 3, below), but working with what I have I found it quite possible to make tactically interesting combat within the confines of such a system. Bioware did not make the combat in their official campaigns boring because this system forced them too, but (apparently) because they did not actually understand the mechanics of their own game.

2) NWN was originally designed to be primarily a multi-player game, and still is a strong multi-player platform, a context making full party control much less of a priority.

3) Full party control is not a panacea if it is badly implemented. NWN2 theoretically implemented full party control, but the mechanisms for it are so kludgy and difficult to use that they are hardly worth it. If we are talking about Infinity Engine style party controls that would be one thing. But if you get something more like NWN2 I am not sure it would actually be an improvement.

4) However desirable such a feature might have been if it were in the game from the beginning, implementing it retroactively would be problematic. If we are dealing with modules with easy combat (which would be most of them), it is not really needed, and the difficult ones would just have their balance thrown completely out of whack. Speaking as an NWN module-builder, I would have been delighted to have such a feature from the beginning. If I had, however, I would have designed a completely different campaign from what I am in fact making, which assumes the presence of the existing system (and actually takes advantage of it in some ways, making the inevitable stupidities of the henchmen an additional tactical challenge to overcome).

5) I suspect it is actually not practical to implement such a feature, given that it has long been a much requested item yet neither Bioware back in the day, or Beamdog now, has shown any interest in pursuing it. Naturally without access to the notorious source code we can only guess, but it seems likely.
 

Lacrymas

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Immortal, it seems like you are trying to disprove a claim I didn't make. I didn't say they aren't modifying the source code, I said it's a tragedy that they have access to it while modders don't.
 

Thorsson

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3) Full party control is not a panacea if it is badly implemented. NWN2 theoretically implemented full party control, but the mechanisms for it are so kludgy and difficult to use that they are hardly worth it. If we are talking about Infinity Engine style party controls that would be one thing. But if you get something more like NWN2 I am not sure it would actually be an improvement.

That there are issues with NWN2's implementation of full party control shouldn't distract from the fact that it's better than NWN's henchmen. Nor should you forget that NWN2 was also primarily designed as a multiplayer game. The main problem in NWN2 is the same as in NWN - the AI sucks. It's why Beamdog shouldn't spend overlong on SP improvements if they're not going to fix that underlying issue.
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
So make the AI better. Why do we need yet another RTWP where you control the whole party? Serious question. 3.5 adds a lot more options than BG/IWD for combat and it would be too slow. And there already exists several other RTWP full party control RPGs.

Urge Beamdog to greatly improve the AI like I suggested. Have them tie awareness in combat to various stats and behind-the-scenes skill checks. Let them or others add more skills to the skill list (which Beamdog is making easier for modders to do) that tie to the awareness and AI in various ways. There's already what, 5 or 6 different Lore skills? It's a perfect opportunity to try something like that. But let's try something different instead of the same stuff that other RPGs already do. There's potential there for something new and interesting.
 

Immortal

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Immortal, it seems like you are trying to disprove a claim I didn't make. I didn't say they aren't modifying the source code, I said it's a tragedy that they have access to it while modders don't.

Releasing the source code that is owned by WoTC / Hasbro is a pretty unrealistic request. Do you actually think beamdog has the sole rights to open source NWN1?

Also many of the more prolific modders and the developers behind NWNX, do have the source code and are working on the game under Beamdog. So technically you're wrong on that point also.

To say implementing a Shader rendering system in NWN1 isn't substantial is also wrong.

I know you generally have low quality shit for posts.. but at least like do a tiny amount of research.
 
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Lacrymas

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Here's a low quality post - shut up, you aren't being smart by totally misunderstanding what I mean and arguing semantics.
 

DeepOcean

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So make the AI better. Why do we need yet another RTWP where you control the whole party? Serious question. 3.5 adds a lot more options than BG/IWD for combat and it would be too slow. And there already exists several other RTWP full party control RPGs.
I don't think this will be any easier. The only way to make the Ai work is to implement an extensive system like Dragon Age Origins where you can fine tune the Ai on great detail like: when they should use health potions, which spell to use and when, which enemy to attack and when, if they implemented this system and allowed you to mess with the spells and abilities of the henchmen, I would see this as an acceptable compromise but this will mean big changes, new Ui elements and alot of new Ai code. Dragon Age Origins even had an Ai setup where you could say to the Ai to only use area spells when more than one enemy was close together and setup attacks depending on the percentage of health the enemy had.

They way it is, even Dragon Dogma has better Ai than NWN, at least the Ai on Dragon Dogma can be fine tuned by you removing spells you don't want to be spammed and giving spells to the Ai you wanted to be used, even an small degree of fine tuning like this could make a huge difference but still, the companions still suck because you can't setup more complex commands like on Dragon Age.

I don't think any developer let alone Beamdog can develop an Ai that is able to do decent tactical decisions on its own without extensive fine tuning by the player, maybe something like DeepMind by Google could do it but we are talking of a machine learning Ai that costed millions and millions of dollars and whole years to develop.

At least give me an option to get on the Ai by the hand and force it to do the right thing when I need it.
 
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Deleted Member 16721

Guest
So make the AI better. Why do we need yet another RTWP where you control the whole party? Serious question. 3.5 adds a lot more options than BG/IWD for combat and it would be too slow. And there already exists several other RTWP full party control RPGs.
I don't think this will be any easier. The only way to make the Ai work is to implement an extensive system like Dragon Age Origins where you can fine tune the Ai on great detail like: when they should use health potions, which spell to use and when, which enemy to attack and when, if they implemented this system and allowed you to mess with the spells and abilities of the henchmen, I would see this as an acceptable compromise but this will mean big changes, new Ui elements and alot of new Ai code. Dragon Age Origins even had an Ai setup where you could say to the Ai to only use area spells when more than one enemy was close together and setup attacks depending on the percentage of health the enemy had.

They way it is, even Dragon Dogma has better Ai than NWN, at least the Ai on Dragon Dogma can be fine tuned by you removing spells you don't want to be spammed and giving spells to the Ai you wanted to be used, even an small degree of fine tuning like this could make a huge difference but still, the companions still suck because you can't setup more complex commands like on Dragon Age.

I don't think any developer let alone Beamdog can develop an Ai that is able to do decent tactical decisions on its own without extensive fine tuning by the player, maybe something like DeepMind by Google could do it but we are talking of a machine learning Ai that costed millions and millions of dollars and whole years to develop.

At least give me an option to get on the Ai by the hand and force it to do the right thing when I need it.

Again, you're missing the point of what I'm suggesting.

This would not be DA:O. DA:O is a "full party control RTWP RPG" OR a "set the AI so basically it's still full party control just without micromanaging RPG". My idea of NWN + AI would be "fully autonomous companions who will handle themselves based on their own, unique traits, skills, stats and so on 85% of the way, with only minimal input from the player. Stuff like "conserve your spells", "stay stealthy" or "throw everything + the kitchen sink and this next enemy" and so on. And the AI scripts behind the scenes wouldn't be tight scripts like in DA:O, but more be like "emergent behavior ideas" the characters would have, either set by the developers to match companions' personalities (until you can further level them up when they level, although that would be a choice the devs would make, if they wanted to add manual leveling of companions. RPGs like The Last Remnant, your companions actually *ask* you what you think they should do and focus on, and they handle the specifics with your minimal input.) Or the AI could just use general skill-checks mixed with possible AI behaviors.

Yes, that's already there, but as Trent said, the game was designed for multiplayer so the henchmen stuff is basic in the game. However, this is why I think it's actually a blessing and could be expanded upon. It would be taken to real companions level, i.e. a lot deeper, with their own unique AI and personalities to match their character more.

I don't think it would be that difficult. Take a look at this video at the 1:06:02 mark.



There are 5 Knowledge skills in D&D Tactics for the PSP, a handheld RPG that came out in 2006. There are even choices and consequences in this game and other crazy stuff, but notice how the knowledge skills work. There are checks in the game for each one as well and different times they are useful. This is also 3.5 D&D, by the way.

So take those Knowledge skills and add them to NWN. Now, a Sorcerer may choose to have better knowledge of Undead rather than Arcane. So that knowledge could be reflected in the game, checked behind the scenes. If the companion encounters a powerful Mummy at early level, maybe a dice is cast against his skill and it determines how "smartly" he will handle this encounter. A successful roll means he/she will know the mummy's weakness, without wasting a spell or two in the process. Or maybe he/she will use the wand they have in their pack in a wise way to blind the mummy (don't remember off top if mummies are resistant to blind, but you get the idea. They probably are. :))

Then, these encounters can also tie into the in-game bestiary. Next time you view a Mummy with a right click, you will see more strengths or weaknesses of the mummy from experience. That would be based on a small amount of experience in-game and a larger amount on the knowledge skill of the character. 25/75 % or something, off the top.

Let's say your Fighter has knowledge of Undead. Perhaps he can get a +1 to his attack or damage rolls. Perhaps a higher critical hit %, since he/she may have inherent knowledge of the mummy's weaknesses. On the contrary, if a companion doesn't have knowledge of this type of creature (or even specific creature in a category of creatures, remember that in-game encounter experience plays into this as well), then they may waste a spell or two trying to figure out how to damage the beast. Or a Fighter may have a higher chance to fumble their weapon, or not strike a great blow because they don't know the weak points. Stuff like this. And stats can play into it as well. Wisdom + Intelligence and the like would have some sort of input. A character with a 5 in Intelligence wouldn't be quick to learn any of this stuff and so on.

So yeah, it would be a task to implement, but RPGs have already implemented "progressive bestiaries" based on experience in-game (Lords of Xulima comes to mind), as well as skill-checks when dealing with enemy encounters and much more than that (see D&D Tactics or plenty of others. The Swordflight module for NWN has a glorious amount of awesome checks. Even Detect Evil, when you're walking past a building you may detect something going on inside and so on.) This would just also be extended to combat encounters.

Also, speaking of Swordflight, my idea came when playing it. The female Bard was so lovable, and, slight spoiler,
she accidentally nails you with a crossbow bolt early on. It's scripted.
From then on, her AI was unpredictable, but it was an awesome sort of fuzziness I got when she'd do something great. We'd be fighting cave bats and all of a sudden they're all asleep! :D I loved that. It added so much personality, and the fact she was a bard who was also quite naive and not great with her skills (obviously, read the spoiler) it just made it something that RPGs DO NOT HAVE right now, a totally different thing. It felt like a real companion with her own mind, motives, abilities, etc.. And when she did something stupid, that was alright too. Because while the Total Control Freak inside of me would be like "y u do dat.", the RPG gamer in me was like, "sheeit, it's all good" because it adds unpredictability as well. It gave her personality, and added a feeling of adventure because you can't just micromanage and totally control every aspect at all times. You actually have to rely on them. And it was great.

The difference with DA:O is that I could script the companions, so their behavior, while quirky and fun to see executed, was still based on my direct, total control input. Which is fine, that is *a different type of experience* and there is room for that (plenty.)

But this idea I'm trying to explain taken to the next level would be a hell of a thing, IMO. I'd love to see it. And again, we already have tons of RTWP RPGs that let you do Total Control. This thing would be a different experience, and done well, could be very interesting and fun.

In my humble opinion.
 
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hell bovine

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Also, speaking of Swordflight, my idea came when playing it. The female Bard was so lovable, and, slight spoiler,
she accidentally nails you with a crossbow bolt early on. It's scripted.
From then on, her AI was unpredictable, but it was an awesome sort of fuzziness I got when she'd do something great. We'd be fighting cave bats and all of a sudden they're all asleep
The bard's AI isn't unpredictable, it's the default "caster stupid" that NWN assigns to spellcasters. It can deal with low level spells, because bards get only few of them at low levels, but that's about it.

I'd rather have NPCs that show their personality through dialogues, then through their AI in combat, because the end result of "minimalizing input from the player" when it comes to party control would be a system where the computer plays against itself.
 

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