Heresiarch
Prophet
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,451
I remember when I was playing NWN1 on a hardcore PW (City of Arabel, one of the most popular PW), even though you can't pause & plan, and I was playing as a wizard who must do very careful aiming of spells, as friendly fire fireballs will kill team members which is a Bad Thing in a PW with hardcore rules; I could still do the character and camera control smoothly, and even though there was no AOE circle to see when casting area effecting spells, I could still fireball stag beetles without hurting the tanks standing right in front of the beetles (mi skilz rulez).
But now in NWN2, everything just feel so wrong. I just don't understand, as the NWN2 engine is supposed to be improved from NWN1, the control seem so awful.
1. The camera. Oh god the camera, I've never have a more awkward camera control experience. The camera rotation is very slow, and playing the game without rotating the camera like most RTS is very painful, as there are too many walls and decoration blocking the view. Another thing is the area you can see even fully zoomed out is just too small. So even in a fully zoomed out strategy control mode, I need to move around alot, rotate a lot, and then point 2 kicks in...
2. The character control, from target clicking to spellcasting to the dumbass party AI.
First thing, clicking on the right target or area for my spells is just damn difficult to do. Because the game always "help" me to snap my target circle on the target I'm not desired in. So when I want to choose a single orc standing in the middle of the group, I must move my cursor alot to choose the correct target. It's even worse when I want to cast AOE spells, because I almost always just want to cast them on an empty area, yet the stupid interface always force my target area centered on the closest enemy, unless I zoom in the camera a lot to precisely point my mouse on a empty space. That's some micromanagement which is sluggish and unenjoyable but also forced.
Next, even when I made the right target, casting the spell with the desired result almost need too much luck. Because the real time combat, smallish combat area, fast moving melee characters, overpowered melee attacks, always maxed out HP for everyone, mages really suffer alot, compared warriors who would just do crazy attacks 4 or more times per turn; while mages in NWN2 lacked Spell Sequencers, Contigency, Time Stop, working Quickening Spell feat, spell cap past level 20, and easily get interrupted because lack of 10' step and enemies can move (fast) while you are casting the spell, and even they made it, the damage is so pathethic compared to a warrior full round attack.
Third, both the AI of companions and enemy is retarded. Companion wise, ok, I just put them in puppet mode and live with the awful control and camera, but the enemies, especially enemy spellcasters, are such pushovers. I still remember the horrors when fighting spellcasters in BG2 and Darksun, in which a lich or defiler can wipe out my party in a single turn, and enemy mages are completely untouchable to my warriors unless I breach their defenses (fast). Yet in NWN2, I can't remember a single enemy mage worth to fight, all they would do is casting random spells which either does pathetic damage or have pathetically low DC. And they die just too fast when my warriors close in.
Last thing, the spell effects in NWN2 is way much worse than in NWN1. All it have is flashy stuff which make the battlefield extremely difficult to see and bring down the frame rate, while some of the greatest effects like Phantasmal Killer, Weird, Wail of Banshee got dumbed down to a random rainbow flash.
All in all, combats in NWN2 is probably one the worst in all DND CRPG. The final battle in the OC for example was a just a huge mess, my companions would often just standing next to the KoS doing nothing. The only good fight I remember is during the siege defense, because the area is big enough to do effective spell casting.
I hope SoZ with their comparedly low magic level and character level, mages can have a more effective role.
BTW, serious question: is there any way to make target clicking easier? Especially if I want to put my AOE center on a space inside a group of enemies, but NOT on someone of the group.
But now in NWN2, everything just feel so wrong. I just don't understand, as the NWN2 engine is supposed to be improved from NWN1, the control seem so awful.
1. The camera. Oh god the camera, I've never have a more awkward camera control experience. The camera rotation is very slow, and playing the game without rotating the camera like most RTS is very painful, as there are too many walls and decoration blocking the view. Another thing is the area you can see even fully zoomed out is just too small. So even in a fully zoomed out strategy control mode, I need to move around alot, rotate a lot, and then point 2 kicks in...
2. The character control, from target clicking to spellcasting to the dumbass party AI.
First thing, clicking on the right target or area for my spells is just damn difficult to do. Because the game always "help" me to snap my target circle on the target I'm not desired in. So when I want to choose a single orc standing in the middle of the group, I must move my cursor alot to choose the correct target. It's even worse when I want to cast AOE spells, because I almost always just want to cast them on an empty area, yet the stupid interface always force my target area centered on the closest enemy, unless I zoom in the camera a lot to precisely point my mouse on a empty space. That's some micromanagement which is sluggish and unenjoyable but also forced.
Next, even when I made the right target, casting the spell with the desired result almost need too much luck. Because the real time combat, smallish combat area, fast moving melee characters, overpowered melee attacks, always maxed out HP for everyone, mages really suffer alot, compared warriors who would just do crazy attacks 4 or more times per turn; while mages in NWN2 lacked Spell Sequencers, Contigency, Time Stop, working Quickening Spell feat, spell cap past level 20, and easily get interrupted because lack of 10' step and enemies can move (fast) while you are casting the spell, and even they made it, the damage is so pathethic compared to a warrior full round attack.
Third, both the AI of companions and enemy is retarded. Companion wise, ok, I just put them in puppet mode and live with the awful control and camera, but the enemies, especially enemy spellcasters, are such pushovers. I still remember the horrors when fighting spellcasters in BG2 and Darksun, in which a lich or defiler can wipe out my party in a single turn, and enemy mages are completely untouchable to my warriors unless I breach their defenses (fast). Yet in NWN2, I can't remember a single enemy mage worth to fight, all they would do is casting random spells which either does pathetic damage or have pathetically low DC. And they die just too fast when my warriors close in.
Last thing, the spell effects in NWN2 is way much worse than in NWN1. All it have is flashy stuff which make the battlefield extremely difficult to see and bring down the frame rate, while some of the greatest effects like Phantasmal Killer, Weird, Wail of Banshee got dumbed down to a random rainbow flash.
All in all, combats in NWN2 is probably one the worst in all DND CRPG. The final battle in the OC for example was a just a huge mess, my companions would often just standing next to the KoS doing nothing. The only good fight I remember is during the siege defense, because the area is big enough to do effective spell casting.
I hope SoZ with their comparedly low magic level and character level, mages can have a more effective role.
BTW, serious question: is there any way to make target clicking easier? Especially if I want to put my AOE center on a space inside a group of enemies, but NOT on someone of the group.
