NWN2 1.07 beta patch notes (and review of MotB).

[Sir_Brennus]

I didn't mind Minsc, but with all the fanboyism and crap spouted about him ever since, the shine started wearing thin.

What a narrow-minded approach. I, for one, am immune to popularization. Jon Irenicus is also gushed over at every corner, but does that make me like him less, as a character? what kind of a hypocrite and "elitist" it takes to start disliking something you've prviously liked ONLY because other people like it too? It sounds way too childish / "tru-metal"-kind of way, really.

Thank you, Atrokkus. Exactly what I wanted to write.

Why is it so, that so called "Hardcore" communities tend to migrate from their point of interest and make "hype" whinings, the moment the former "cult" gets popular?

I adore Italien Spaghetti Napoli, like everybody else. Do I like them less, because of of other people eating them? No?

Of course not, because their flavour remains unchanged.

See, how easy an moronic concept can be deconstruced.

 

[burrie]

I just tried out the beta patch, and I have to say... there are some very nice improvements. The framerate finally seems to be stable on my computer now, and the new character/strategy mode is ace, a better control scheme than their earlier attempts.

To test the new scheme, I quickly started a new game and went to the battle of West Harbour. I customised the Strategy Mode to be much like Baldur's Gate(free camera, left-clicking selects/targets a character, holding the left button selects multiple characters) and it works like a charm. Faster, efficient, less of a chore.

Some folks are prolly gonna mention that it should've been like that to begin with(and I can't entirely say that they're wrong), but I think this is a good step in the right direction for Obsidian.

 

[Starwars]

I agree, I've been playing around a bit more with the patch, and I'm actually quite impressed. The game seems to look sharper somehow as well, and some of the graphical options are very useful (the option for not rendering shadows that are far ahead for example).
I still got a bit of a slowdown in Neverwinter city though, but I guess that will always be there.

I'm not sure on this, but the spellcasting AI seems to have been improved as well. And I can't remember if these options were there before, but there are several different "Behaviour" options relating to spellcasting. One "scaled", one "medium" and one "overkill".

What a narrow-minded approach. I, for one, am immune to popularization. Jon Irenicus is also gushed over at every corner, but does that make me like him less, as a character? what kind of a hypocrite and "elitist" it takes to start disliking something you've prviously liked ONLY because other people like it too? It sounds way too childish / "tru-metal"-kind of way, really.

I don't think Ladonna means that people should start to hate on Minsc consciously just because he's popular. It's just that when you have Baldurs Gate fanboys rambling on for the last 10 years at how outrageously funny a certain character is, I for one tend to A) watch that character a bit more carefully to see if he really IS that funny, and B) just get tired of hearing about him all the time. Same thing happened with the killer droid in KOTOR.
I think it's a pretty human reaction.

 

[made]

Just to confirm the performance increase. I'm finally getting nice, stable framerates. However, imgage quality seems to have suffered. With everything on max (except shadows), textures look a bit washed out, mainly those further away. I'm also sometimes seeing big black blocks instead of fire/smoke effects from spells - seems like a shader issue.

Strategy mode works like a charm, with the exception that I can't seem to set the camera to rotate when I move the mouse to the screen edges. Any ideas? Can't comment on the AI as I always play with puppet mode for all characters.

I managed to finally finish the campaign, which was much less of a chore now that the game doesn't play like a slideshow. I'm actually looking forward to the expansion now. Time to install some mods while waiting.

 

[Xi]

I've played until I have reached the city of NeverWinter. Is this game worth finishing? I even tried to play it Multi-Player with my brother but the game seems to be designed for single player with multi being shoe-horned in after the fact.

Does the game pickup at some point? Performance wise it's been ok on my rig, I'm just not impressed with the game itself. I think I've pumped 10ish hours or so by starting over a few times and trying different classes. It all seems so lifeless.

 

[Starwars]

Act I is really boring.
Picks up a lot at Act II if you ask me, though mileage varies. I personally found it to be quite good from Act II, but many Codexers think the entire game is rubbish.

 

[Texas Red]

No, it picks up. At quite a later point in the game you will get a castle and lands. You will have to make choises what to build(the castle is ruined), how to handle your subjects, how to tax etc. Often there will come people to ask aid of you, demand something or like that.

For example, a halfling came to my court and asked help for his village that was raided by bandits. I decided to send out a few men. Unfortunetly the village was still raided and the men dead, because I sent inexperienced rookies.

I also enjoyed gatheric the evidence and the trial itself. Definitely worth playing.

Dont know what comes after the Keep because I could never finish the game as I got bored with my character and wanted to try something else.

But yeah, Act 1 is not very good. Personally I would transport the Keep managing to Act 1 instead of leaving all the goodness to the later part of the game.

 

[RK47]

umm it's all nice and all, but it hardly gave me any feedback on the consequences, I fully upgraded my castle, and decided to craft, after I'm done with my main char gear, I didn't even want to try doing the others, terrible crafting system

. Basically carrying a magic bag filled with a hundred+ trash and having a party wizard just sifting through the recycle bin to craft is a bit time-wasting.

There are also several inconsequential dialogue choices such as:
1. (Macho response to an order to retreat)
2. (Willing response to retreat order)
3. (Uncaring response to retreat order)
which leads to the same thing: retreat.

 

[Xi]

But yeah, Act 1 is not very good. Personally I would transport the Keep managing to Act 1 instead of leaving all the goodness to the later part of the game.

So far the game feels like it's trying to be an action game with pause. The problem for me is that the D&D rules are terrible for action elements. They were designed for a turn based system where you think about your actions. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think I've spent more time trying to determine how my characters will develop then I have worrying about the story, or listening to the badly voice acted dialog. It's to the point that I'm trying to power level hoping that the game will become more interesting as time progresses.

From some of my reading the story is supposed to be some type of political intrigue, and quite good from some of the reviews I read. Of course, I'm not seeing this yet as the beginning of the game is utter shit. Seriously, wtf were they thinking? Make it more interesting or get the fuck out of developing video games. I think most of the development time for this game was spent on recreating D&D rule sets and graphics then on actual gameplay. I'm so fucking tired of developers doing this kind of shit. It's fucking pathetic.

So I was fed up with single player and I even decided to try out Multi. Multi-player is even worse then single because it was simply added to the game without any type of real work. You play the same single player campaign but you get an extra couple of toons to roll around with. You're stuck with all of those worthless ass NPCs no matter what you do. Fucking worthless they are. Obsidian should have put some effort into the multi-player beyond simply making it possible. Anyway, I am pretty disappointed with this game. I was hoping for a breath of fresh air when I bought it, but it's been anything but that.

I swear to god, this genre is fucking dead. Dead in the same way that punk rock died back in the late 80's. We're just feeling the steady decline as it slowly becomes something else. I guess I will go back to finishing Might and Magic 7 as I think it's a fantastic game, especially for its age.

 

[JoeDirt]

how perceptive

 

[Human Shield]

Why is it so, that so called "Hardcore" communities tend to migrate from their point of interest and make "hype" whinings, the moment the former "cult" gets popular?

Because you start to notice the shitty points you didn't mind before when idiots start liking it.

 

[Xi]

how perceptive

The action/pause of NWN has always been its weakest link for me. D&D rules just don't seem to handle that very well. It was designed specifically for turn-based. Going action based has always cheapened it for me. NWN2 just seems clunkier then the first one did in terms of action elements. Same system, but it's not as fluid. I don't know, maybe it's the graphics and the terrible camera system. Either way, this is what has always turned me off from these games. I guess I was hoping it would feel even more refined, but it just doesn't. Maybe it gets better after act one, but I don't think I'm masochistic enough to play it out.

Lol, I guess that's what I get for being tired. Haha.

 

[Ladonna]

I don't think Ladonna means that people should start to hate on Minsc consciously just because he's popular. It's just that when you have Baldurs Gate fanboys rambling on for the last 10 years at how outrageously funny a certain character is, I for one tend to A) watch that character a bit more carefully to see if he really IS that funny, and B) just get tired of hearing about him all the time. Same thing happened with the killer droid in KOTOR.
I think it's a pretty human reaction.

Aye, spoken well.

Atrokkus and Sir Brennus,

Perhaps you should take your favourite song, play it ad infinitum over and over and over again. Now if you turned on the radio and all you heard playing was your favourite song....well, if you don't eventually get sick of it I would be very surprised. As soon as the name 'Minsc' is uttered, some arsehole just has to throw the same lines in...and then gush over the character.

Then a million other people will chime in, and say 'IS MINSC GOING TO BE IN THIS?KTHNXBYE'. After that comes the 'I hope Boo really is a giant killer hamster, and can wreak havok in the game! Oh, I hope Minsc will say that same line he said a million times before! Etc etc'.

And by the end of it all, you know...just know that if Obsidian, or Bioware put Minsc into something, the character would become a total cliche, spouting lines that make the simple people laugh all the day long. :wink:

Nothing to do with Elitism. Plenty to do with being so over hearing about it like it is a broken record.

 

[Elwro]

Hm, I just realised casting Stoneskin on all party members is practically equivalent to godmode in the later part of Act I.

 

[Jasede]

Once you have wizards working with fighters and no DM to control the enemies, this is true for all D&D without a DM.

Fighter + Haste + Flame Weapon + Magic Weapon + Stoneskin + Improved Invisibiltiy (!) = death to everything that moves.

I haven't played NWN 2 but my guess is that would work even without a wizard in the party since chances are you'll get a lot of gold to buy life-saving consumables, like barkskin potions, potions of blur, haste, invisibility, etc.

 

[JoeDirt]

xi, the reason combat in nwn2 seems a step back from nwn1 and more click-and-wait is because they did away with all of the combat animations. if you'll notice, in nwn1 and in kotor1/2 there is a set of combat animations that plays while characters cool-down and attack again, this was removed from nwn2. you'll only see "lively" looking combat when you're in act 3 and everyone in your party has 3 or 4 attacks.

 

[Xi]

xi, the reason combat in nwn2 seems a step back from nwn1 and more click-and-wait is because they did away with all of the combat animations. if you'll notice, in nwn1 and in kotor1/2 there is a set of combat animations that plays while characters cool-down and attack again, this was removed from nwn2. you'll only see "lively" looking combat when you're in act 3 and everyone in your party has 3 or 4 attacks.

Ahh I see. They removed those animations because it would have looked terrible later on when the characters are more developed and performing more sequence of attacks at once. So they hamper the beginning of the game to promote the later systems. Hrmm....

Well, maybe I will try to get into act 2 and continue on. The game just feels like it needs more umph. Whatever you want to call it.

 

[sabishii]

Geez, graphics whores. NWN2 combat takes a step forward because you have 6 characters to watch over instead of waiting on one. NWN1 is much more of a waiting game. How the fuck is less animations a step back?

 

[JoeDirt]

it isn't. it seems like a step back to many, many people though. i for one love nwn2's combat system.

 

[Starwars]

Of course it's a step back in terms of how things are presented. I don't care much personally, but I don't see how having worse graphics/animation in a sequel is somehow not a step back. Whether it's in an area you particularly care about or not.

Like I said, it doesn't bother me much personally. But I do think it's a good addition for games such as NWN or KOTOR, that are generally so easy and/or uninvolving that much time is just spent looking at the battles playing out.

 

[OSK]

If someone could mod the combat to be turn-based, it'd be awesome! I wonder if that's even possible.

 

[Bah]

I installed the beta patch, and I'm actually interested in playing the game again. I only got part way through act 2 previously. I think the problem was I got so frustrated with trying to control the party and dealing with the camera, that I couldn't enjoy any other aspect of the game. Now that all those issues are gone (for the most part), I'm finding I'm enjoying it more.

On the other hand, now that it's easier to control my characters and doesn't take so long, I'm finding combat even easier.

 

[JoeDirt]

bah, download tony k.'s a.i. mod and evenfw's "no resting allowed" mod. game is unplayable without 'em

 

[Starwars]

The MotB site just went up. As is customary for 'official game sites', there is no new information whatsoever that I can find. But one can view all the released screenshots in one location at least.
http://www.atari.com/nwn2/motb/US/index.html

 

[Texas Red]

The MotB site just went up. As is customary for 'official game sites', there is no new information whatsoever that I can find. But one can view all the released screenshots in one location at least.
http://www.atari.com/nwn2/motb/US/index.html

NWN 2 official sites are awful. NWN 2 site hasnt been updated since November, basically after a few weeks the game was released some genius CEO decided it wasnt worth updating it. Great business sense. Somebody wants to find info on NWN 2, goes to the official site and discoveres that theres pitifully little of anything and the sites been actually dead.