Information Neverwinter Nights 2 + Expansions Available on GOG

[Renegen]

So that's what GoG has turned into, setting the price floor of discounted games at $20. I had fun buying NWN2 for $2.50 on Steam, good times.

 

[Dorateen]

I love Storm of Zehir.

The crown jewel of the Neverwinter franchise.

 

[Gozma]

Too much for SoZ and MoW, does GoG have supar blowout salez four times a year?

 

[Arkeus]

Too much for SoZ and MoW, does GoG have supar blowout salez four times a year?

Pretty much everything was at -75% once during the winter holiday.

 

[Zed]

Fuck it. I did the good old hit-a-brick-wall-and-only-use-one-save, and I'm not gonna replay the last couple of hours again with this character. Playing a fighter was boring anyway. I'm considering a sort of cleric or paladin build because really that undead part in the beginning has some of the shittiest design ever and I just want to fly through it. Maybe I shouldn't play on highest difficulty level (if that makes any difference) because the encounter are so god damn undeserving of my time anyway. Crack a million urns and kill million HP ghosts that take forever to kill? Yeah, "fun".
Also this time I'm gonna eat the fucking ghost bear because he's the worst fucking NPC I've ever had in a party in any game including Myron.

 

[Excidium]

Maybe I shouldn't play on highest difficulty level (if that makes any difference)

Why would you play on anything but normal? Masochist?

 

[Zed]

Maybe I shouldn't play on highest difficulty level (if that makes any difference)

Why would you play on anything but normal? Masochist?

I always do.
*Turn off bloom, *Turn on highest difficulty level
^Every game.

 

[Excidium]

I don't know why you would intentionally make the games more tedious, but if you have fun with bloated enemy stats who am I to judge.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Also, NWN2 doesn't have bloom but it does have some nice lighting and shadow effects. I also use a HD texture pack, can't remember what it's called, but it makes the OC look a lot better. MotB looks awesome by default but the textures in the OC, particularly the grass, haven't aged so well.

 

[Kirtai]

*Turn on highest difficulty level

Not every game calls Easy mode Normal and many have such bad scaling they should call it "Tedious" instead of "Hard"

 

[Zed]

I don't know why you would intentionally make the games more tedious, but if you have fun with bloated enemy stats who am I to judge.

Not every game calls Easy mode Normal and many have such bad scaling they should call it "Tedious" instead of "Hard"

Yes, I've come to realize that this is the case with NWNs scaling. What I want is more positioning and tactics, not meticulous metagaming.

 

[Cynic]

Already got it from Steam, damn.

Wait what the fuck is this pretty princess for real?

 

[Roguey]

Yes, I've come to realize that this is the case with NWNs scaling. What I want is more positioning and tactics, not meticulous metagaming.

Use Tony K's AI mod (the one that came with SoZ is busted) and set it to core rules. Hard just makes enemies hit for double damage.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Use Tony K's AI mod (the one that came with SoZ is busted) and set it to core rules. Hard just makes enemies hit for double damage.

That mod fixes none of the core issues since those are a result of the RTwP than the AI.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yeah, everything good about 3.5 combat is lost in NWN1&2 since it's RTwP with no grid. Puppeting your NPCs is tedious but manageable and you better do it, because on their own they are quite unpredictable and unreliable, even with Tony K's AI Pack. But combat in IE-games is much more fun and fluid.

 

[Rake]

I said 'gameplay', not 'visuals'. The gameplay in the BG and IWD games is combat heavy, and IE combat is a miserable experience. PST didn't have as much emphasis on combat (until the last few areas), and was focused more on skillchecks and conversations, so it had the best gameplay of all the IE games - but I still prefer MotB to it.

http://neverwinter.nexusmods.com/mods/31
This mod is for you then.
IWD in NWN2 engine.
Why would someone ruin a good game is beyond me through

 

[sea]

Playing Mysteries of Westgate now.

At first I liked it. The single city setting is cool, the premise of a mask you can't get rid of is interesting potential for investigation, etc.

However, from there it loses its way. I found very early on that the game is completely littered with skill checks that don't actually check your skills, for instance. Doesn't matter what your persuade/intimidate/charisma/dexterity/whatever is, there are times where you will always pass or always fail simply if the plot demands it, and they only give you the skill "checks" to broadcast the illusion of choice. There is almost no point to getting any non-combat skills because the few situations you do get "real" skill checks, the outcomes aren't significantly different whether you pass or fail.

Same applies to quests. Pretty much all the quests are 100% linear and proceed exactly the same very time regardless of character build. You don't have a choice to side with X or Y characters, no chance to use your special skills, nothing. Whenever you do have a choice, the outcome is identical every time. The only choice I can see is that you can side with the church or a criminal organization - but these quest chains are very short and uninteresting, usually just involving one small location with a fight or two.

Alignment and influence seem to have no significant effect. Alignment for me hasn't been altered once (I'm neutral evil and working for the Lathander church with no alignment shift, durr?) and hasn't affected any choices I've made. Companion influence seems to have no effect anywhere and from reading online, there are only two points in the game where it ever makes a difference (and it's tiny).

The number of side quests is quite limited, but the ones that are there are actually more fun and more extensive than the main quests I've done so far. The city itself is very small and there is pretty much no exploration to speak of. There are almost no non-quest NPCs to talk to, almost every door you find is locked until it magically opens for a quest, and so on. Only three districts, four if you count the Undercity or whatever it's called. So far the best thing in the game has been the semi-hidden "Order of the Ferret" quest with one of Boo's, uh, space-hamster-friends.

Really lacking in polish. Could use a bit more voice-acting, especially in the main story scenes and for major characters, yet there is very, very little except for the intro of the game. Some of the cutscenes you do get border on incomprehensible because the camera/animations/etc. are really glitchy. The environments are almost all universally dark and it can be very hard to see anything, even with night vision turned on. I have a feeling their level designer had some sort of gamma-boosted monitor, as all the official screenshots look way brighter than the actual game.

Best part of it is the combat. It's actually challenging, you don't get too much loot to imbalance everything, and I needed to use strategy more in it than any other NWN game. Unfortunately there is no mage companion, and you can't multi-class followers, which means that if you don't pick a spellcaster for your main character, you are fucked.

Long story short, feels like a mod made by 1-2 people that received almost no outside testing and feedback before release. Probably was, knowing Ossian Studios, however, as a paid product I have to say it's pretty underwhelming. It's not even that bad, just missing that extra 20% that comes from play-testing, non-critical content, etc. Could have been good if it wasn't for the above problems.

 

[Infinitron]

sea I think the plot is better if you pick the other faction. The story doesn't come together as well if you choose the Lathander church.

 

[sea]

Yeah, working for the completely corrupt church and being forced to do quest stuff that has virtually no bearing on the story whatsoever (I have to protect a golden statue? who the fuck cares? why?) is pretty lame. But to be fair I was kind of forced into it - spoke to Opid and I said "yeah I guess I can help" not realizing it would immediately cut me off from the other story path (which I had planned to take). Still, what's done is done, and now I've reached the part where I assume the story paths converge anyway.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, working for the completely corrupt church and being forced to do quest stuff that has virtually no bearing on the story whatsoever (I have to protect a golden statue? who the fuck cares? why?) is pretty lame. But to be fair I was kind of forced into it - spoke to Opid and I said "yeah I guess I can help" not realizing it would immediately cut me off from the other story path (which I had planned to take). Still, what's done is done, and now I've reached the part where I assume the story paths converge anyway.

Yes, they converge, but, well, you'll see.

I agree with you that MoW is overrated. Certain elements on the Codex have an irrational hard-on for the "urban adventures with lots of sidequests and C&C" genre of RPG.

 

[Semper]

The environments are almost all universally dark and it can be very hard to see anything, even with night vision turned on. I have a feeling their level designer had some sort of gamma-boosted monitor, as all the official screenshots look way brighter than the actual game.

while i can agree with most of your points this one is bullshit. there are dark environments, but they're far from being pitch black. if your night vision ain't enough why don't you equip a torch to light your way? btw the dark areas are very rare so there has to be something wrong with your monitor (e.g. gamma settings).

 

[sea]

while i can agree with most of your points this one is bullshit. there are dark environments, but they're far from being pitch black. if your night vision ain't enough why don't you equip a torch to light your way? btw the dark areas are very rare so there has to be something wrong with your monitor (e.g. gamma settings).

The city itself is quite dark at nighttime, as are a lot of the "regular" indoor areas, like taverns. Maybe things are constantly overcast or something as part of the art direction. Still, I shouldn't have to keep infravision on because it's raining.

I think shadows are also buggy, that is, they don't display properly compared to those in the main game. Everything has a very bland look, like the shadows are either being projected over everything at once, or not at all. It's like the weather is constantly overcast.

My monitor is properly calibrated and I am using the standard sRGB colour profile. No other parts of Neverwinter Nights 2 had this problem for me.

It's ultimately not that big a deal, just a thing that, to me, sticks out as being a bit weird compared to the standards set by the rest of the campaigns.

 

[Zed]

sea
Thirst vs. MoW, which is better and why?

How long did it take you to play through MoW?

 

[sea]

sea
Thirst vs. MoW, which is better and why?

How long did it take you to play through MoW?

I am not finished it, but according to what I'm reading online, I'm about halfway through after... maybe 3-4 hours? It doesn't appear to be very long.

I'm not eager to compare Mysteries of Westgate directly to my own work, however I will say that in its current state Thirst has (subjectively speaking) much better C&C, far more non-combat options, longer and better dungeons, and a better story. In terms of the amount of content available, Thirst is very comparable to Mysteries of Westgate, maybe even bigger. Some of the same complaints about Mysteries of Westgate apply to my own work (especially under-developed companions), however mine is neither 100% finished yet, or something that people pay money for.

That said - when judged as a mod, Mysteries of Westgate is very good, one of the best NWN modules I've played. It's just that when you expect people to pay $20 for it or whatever, it's asking a bit much. I like it, I'm just a bit disappointed given the amount of praise I have seen some people around here give it.

 

[Zed]

Okay. I'll give it a go after MotB.