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

[vonAchdorf]

They should have outsourced it to some Russian hax0rs.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Wtf is NWN renderer and why did they try to rewrite it? The game is and was ugly, rewriting renderer won't make it look pretty.

I would've personally cursed them with small pox had they tried to change my beloved blockiness. I don't care about the EE and have no intention of buying it, but that blasphemous outrage can't be overlooked.

Nah NWN blocky graphics are really bad and don't age well at all. The game is still not that good regardless so any work on the engine is a wasted effort, but at least some fan module can look nicer if they managed to fix the blocky graphics.

 

[DavidBVal]

The effort required to make NWN1 3D look significantly better is simply not worth it. It would be better to invest that money and time in a new NWN3, then they can migrate the old electron and aurora engines content to the new engine as DLCs. Heck, if they manage to make conversion automatic, it would mean all the old custom content would be compatible, it would be a bomb.

The NWN series has one notable feature -at least in intent-: its Toolset. The ability to create persistent worlds for instance, would be in high demand in nowadays gaming world. I think one of the big obstacles behind making a Toolset-centric game a few years back was it would not be ideal for consoles, hence the ridiculous toolset they added to SCL. But apparently console games that enable user-generated content are now becoming big.

 

[Lacrymas]

Nah NWN blocky graphics are really bad and don't age well at all. The game is still not that good regardless so any work on the engine is a wasted effort, but at least some fan module can look nicer if they managed to fix the blocky graphics.

Literally the other way around. The blockiness is great, love it, will die for it. The gameplay is fine, it just needs full party control. Something Beamdog aren't capable of doing.

 

[Gargaune]

Does Beamdog have any plans to do NWN2?

No, at least they didn't the last time it was brought up. Must've been about a year or so ago when Oster stated during a stream that they had no intention of remastering NWN 2 at the time.

The effort required to make NWN1 3D look significantly better is simply not worth it. It would be better to invest that money and time in a new NWN3 a lot less time and money into adding basic party controls to NWN.

There was a small, little micro-issue with your post, I fixed it. There's little point in discussing any sort of hypothetical NWN 3, Beamdog just doesn't have the size for a project of that scope, but I don't get why they keep steering clear of the much tastier, lower-hanging fruit that is an expanded set of companion controls. New renderer features and visual assets would all be well and good for attracting new customers, but party controls and new modules would likely yield more interest from the established playerbase.

 

[Infinitron]

It's funny because what happened with NWN2 back in the day was that Obsidian spent a whole lot of effort developing a new renderer for it and ended up regretting it.

 

[AliceAlcina]

I want NWN3, but it seems Hasbro only hear outcry for BG series.


I believe Obsidian own right to NWN2, but they aren't interested in making a enhanced edition. If I do have buttlock of money, I would wave in front of Microsoft/Sawyer to sell it to me, then I would hire CD Projekt Red to sort of the mess. We can only dream...

 

[Daidre]

Nah NWN blocky graphics are really bad and don't age well at all. The game is still not that good regardless so any work on the engine is a wasted effort, but at least some fan module can look nicer if they managed to fix the blocky graphics.

Literally the other way around. The blockiness is great, love it, will die for it. The gameplay is fine, it just needs full party control. Something Beamdog aren't capable of doing.

I never understood why implementing switch between current active character alike to KotOR in NWN would be such a problem. Especially when version of it already present in the game in the form of directly controlled Familiars. That would do the wonders for playability of all those endless community created modules. Alas, it looks like UI-upscaling was ever a ceiling for Beamdog's technical ability.

 

[JarlFrank]

Full party control would be the one thing to turn NWN from "total shit" to "absolutely worth it for all the user modules".

But Beamdog are a bunch of incompetent hacks who don't even care about properly enhancing their games beyond what modders already did much better a decade ago.

 

[AliceAlcina]

I'm under impression GOG/CD Projekt might own IWD2 source code, along with NWN2 one and they never spoken up because they are EU company with EU company brain.

 

[Bester]

It takes a month to write a new renderer for old games generally. Am I understanding correctly that instead of writing a new one, they decided to "upgrade" old one and failed? Why not write new one? Their programmer needs to appear and explain himself.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm under impression GOG/CD Projekt might own IWD2 source code, along with NWN2 one and they never spoken up because they are EU company with EU company brain.

The IWD2 source code is lost to time as far as we know.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Their programmer needs to appear and explain himself

I think they put that dude in the same place as the iwd 2 source code.

 

[Gargaune]

I never understood why implementing switch between current active character alike to KotOR in NWN would be such a problem. Especially when version of it already present in the game in the form of directly controlled Familiars. That would do the wonders for playability of all those endless community created modules. Alas, it looks like UI-upscaling was ever a ceiling for Beamdog's technical ability.

Never played much with familiars but I think there's a little extra work there - I seem to remember posessing a familiar and still having to wrestle its AI for control once combat started? Surely doable, just not a matter of using the exact existing feature.

In any case, either a KotOR-style henchman posession system or even just an integrated, targetted command interface (similar to what modders have already showcased) would be a massive improvement for tactical gameplay and overall user experience, making it a definitive selling point for the EE over the old Diamond Edition, and it would assuredly be less work than overhauling the renderer or a comprehensive update of 3D assets. But Beamdog have been surprisingly resistant to this community request, time and again filing it under a "maybe, we'll see" or "perhaps, but only for new modules" (which would effectively nullify it as an immediate selling point) while pursuing new platforms, backend optimisations and labour-intensive gambles like this new renderer, which is all rather disappointing.

P.S. Here's another, more recent evolution of the companion control mod, just couldn't find the video earlier.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'd think there's a (hopefully valid) reason Beamdog haven't added full party control. It's probably too difficult or time-consuming.

 

[Gargaune]

Lacrymas, if that was sarcasm it went over my head like a plate of hot wings at a vegan party. If it wasn't, click on those Youtube links.

Doubt it's technical, rather unfortunate prioritising and/or design considerations, I know there was concern among some module authors that adding companion controls might affect balance or scripted interactions. I don't find either argument particularly persuasive all the way through, but even taking them as such, with source access, Beamdog can implement the functionality as an optional override to toggle in the settings menu. Beyond that it's caveat emptor.

I actually just got curious to have a poke around that demo module for the second video and it's quite fantastic, works like a charm. Check it out if you have the EE.

 

[Lacrymas]

There's a whole gulf between what those mods do and full party control, I'm sure you realize.

 

[pm_675]

Wasn't the first Witcher game made with the Aurora Engine? I mean if they are too small/incompetent to write one from scratch couldn't they buy the one from CD Project red?

Lol, what bunch of incompetent and ameturish "developers".

 

[Zer0wing]

They should have outsourced it to some Russian hax0rs.

'sup drogs shill.

 

[Lacrymas]

Wasn't the first Witcher game made with the Aurora Engine?

Very heavily modified, but yeah.

 

[Gargaune]

There's a whole gulf between what those mods do and full party control, I'm sure you realize.

Quite:

I never understood why implementing switch between current active character alike to KotOR in NWN would be such a problem. Especially when version of it already present in the game in the form of directly controlled Familiars. [...]

[...] In any case, either a KotOR-style henchman posession system or even just an integrated, targetted command interface (similar to what modders have already showcased) would be a massive improvement

Don't let the letters scare you, they're more afraid of you than you are of them.

 

[JarlFrank]

Their programmer needs to appear and explain himself.

They have a programmer?

 

[Bester]

Their programmer needs to appear and explain himself.

They have a programmer?

I know the prevalent idea is that "IT'S EXTREMELY COSTLY TO HIRE A GRAPHICS PROGRAMMER AND THEY'RE SO RARE!!!", but the reality is that if you look at freelancers, you'll find a competent one with 7 years of experience and he'll work for you for 4-5k/month and one month will be enough to rewrite the entire renderer from scratch. Reality. Zero exaggeration.

Another prevalent idea is "MUH TIMEZONES!!!" and "How are we gonna have a daily scrum meeting in the corridor if the guy works remotely?!" Reality: nobody needs scrum, products were made before zoomers invented it.

American gamedev companies refusing to hire freelancers are shooting themselves in the head. Their shortsightedness should be exposed.

 

[JarlFrank]

but the reality is that if you look at freelancers, you'll find a competent one

That requires you to
a) know what you want
b) know what you're doing

It's Beamdog we're talking about tho.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Trent has no idea what the code does.
Trent has no idea what he wants.
Trent has no idea how to get from A to B.

Naturally, he has nobodies in his team.