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

[Popiel]

In the future, I might have to post a write-up comparing the alazander FR Trilogy with Swordflight.

They should just throw cash at rogueknight333 and publish Swordflight. It's better than any of the premium modules and arguably better than some of the official addons. That they won't ever do that is just a testament to their hackery. Nevermind that Swordflight has beaten me when I came to replaying it lately.

 

[Lilura]

Swordflight is the greatest NWN module series, and one of the greatest D&D campaigns, full stop. Chapter 2 alone destroys everything else on Aurora.

 

[Sergiu64]

Is it really that much better than Aielund Saga and Dance with Rogues?

 

[Popiel]

Is it really that much better than Aelund Saga and Dance with Rogues?

Yes and no. But wait for Lil' Lil to chinksplain to you why it's simply ze best.

 

[Roguey]

Those new character models do look good. Looking sharp and high quality while retaining a blockiness that allows them to fit with the old art. Unlike that uncanny valley mess that was Beamdog's Aribeth.

 

[LESS T_T]

Here it is:

Out now.

 

[Infinitron]

Eagerly awaiting the Lilura review.

 

[Morality Games]

It is ... beautiful.

 

[Skdursh]

When is it coming to GOG? Anyone know? I'm not buying NWN:EE again on Steam just to play a remake of a module I've already played.

 

[Fedora Master]

Im... acquiring... this Moonsea shit as we speak. This better be good, I haven't checked out the "progress" Beamdog made with the EE in years.

e: Wait wait wait wait... They STILL HAVEN'T MANAGED TO UPDATE THE CHARACTER MODELS? Fuck me.

 

[Lilura]

Eagerly awaiting the Lilura review.

I'm halfway through a playthrough. I can say already that the claim of being second to Mask of the Betrayer in terms of epic campaigns (or even Swordflight Chapters II, III and IV, which are also epic) is shaping up to be an utterly ludicrous one, and that the claim of "best-looking" is an overstep as well.

 

[Popiel]

I can say already that the claim of being second to Mask of the Betrayer in terms of epic campaigns [...] is shaping up to be an utterly ludicrous one

What the fuck did you expect from marketing speech.

 

[Lilura]

Update:

So I may not even bother reviewing this, or even playing on, because I'm sorry to say, it's really quite average so far.

The visual and aural improvements are there, of course, just like EE Daggerford (in fact, much moreso in regards to terrain sculpting), but the author doesn't seem to have evolved his designwork in the last 17 years. This is a doddle, a casual plod, just like EE Daggerford.

I guess these guys don't know about Swordflight, and how far its pushed Aurora, because they seem to think EE Tyrants is the "best epic campaign since MotB"; a laughable claim when I see what's going on before me.

The campaign has been extended beyond Elventree, but I'm just so bored with it at this point, and it's barely blog-worthy the way I feel right now, so I'm going to take a break and post some screencaps on the 'Dex.

There is a voice-narrated FMV intro. Nothing new to see here:

And here we have the overworld map, inasmuch as I've explored it:

It's nice, isn't it. But it doesn't have waylays/ambushes like the DoD one does.

There are issues with the snowfall line at a certain camera-tilt angle:

And by the way, we have way more draw distance, fog completely off and +cam flexibility through NWShader already with DE.

The trees are nice but not a big improvement on the best of the tilesets:

Nice foliage density in the Great Forest:

Nice mist outside a reworked waterfall cave:

The arena is cool but it's duels are still a complete snoozefest:

I mean, visually it's nice. Let's sell the visuals a bit more with some comparison screencaps of Diamond Edition Tyrants and Enhanced Edition Tyrants:

DE:

EE:

DE:

EE:

DE:

EE:

You get the point. Yeah, it looks better. Whoop-de-doo.

They added lots of VOs and +OST. They added portraits. But at the end of the day, it's still the same dull, flat, outmoded module from 2006 that has been surpassed by Swordflight; it's not even in the same ballpark as Swordflight and MotB, which are both broad-vision modules made by experts.

Moreover, and I'm shitting you not, the loadtimes and savetimes are 5 times lengthier than the DE version of Tyrants, no doubt due to the +placeables and +textures (which don't even look as good as the original in some cases; for example, some of the brickwork).

I'm just... not feeling much here. Beamdog/Ossian need to up their game. They need to realize we've got Swordflight and MotB that have lifted the bar far, far, faaaaaarrr beyond the heyday of NWN.

 

[luj1]

I bet Milkdog can just repeat this unto eternity. Wave after wave of achievements, portrait packs and refurbished mods at the price of a full game.

 

[Popiel]

I bet Milkdog can just repeat this unto eternity. Wave after wave of achievements, portrait packs and refurbished mods at the price of a full game.

Fortunately they can't. List of modules which failed to become premium is preciously short. Unless they'll dip in fan modules - and this can actually benefit them (The Prophet, Swordflight, Aielund Saga...).

 

[fantadomat]

Lilura feed this storyfag a bit . How is the story/writing,any timed quests/things(really hate those) ?

 

[Reinhardt]

What about romances?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

the loadtimes and savetimes are 5 times lengthier

Hahahaha why even bother with EE

 

[Luke Scull]

Update:

So I may not even bother reviewing this, or even playing on, because I'm sorry to say, it's really quite average so far.

The visual and aural improvements are there, of course, just like EE Daggerford (in fact, much moreso in regards to terrain sculpting), but the author doesn't seem to have evolved his designwork in the last 17 years. This is a doddle, a casual plod, just like EE Daggerford.

I guess these guys don't know about Swordflight, and how far its pushed Aurora, because they seem to think EE Tyrants is the "best epic campaign since MotB"; a laughable claim when I see what's going on before me.

The first act of the game - up until Elventree - is largely unchanged from the original module from 2006 (albeit with graphical enhancements, new music & VO, and large scale system changes, such as the addition of a world map). I'd have liked to have revised it entirely, but we added around 20 hours of additional content which took priority. Redoing the first act would have delayed us by several months and potentially introduced a fuck-ton of bugs. Everything from Elmwood onward is new content.

I played Swordflight a long time (around 10 years?) ago. I think it was possibly the last of the 400 or so modules I played back in the day. I liked it. I'll have to check out the subsequent parts. I remember seeing Rogueknight speak warmly of my novels, so he's clearly a man of taste.

I said Tyrants of the Moonsea is the best high-level D&D videogame since Mask of the Betrayer. If you can think of a better one (other than Swordflight?), please mention it because I'll be all over it!

 

[Lilura]

Hahahaha why even bother with EE

The EE AE just isn't there yet (and neither is the EE IE, for that matter). I can see optimizations taking a few more years, tbh. Beamdog are a small company with a lot on their plate. Framerates are also lower than DE. I have them both currently installed, so comparisons are easy.

Also forgot to mention: they fixed the notorious arena bug. But there are a couple of bugs like being able to farm alignment shifts through dialogue loops, and companions attacking the wrong faction.

 

[Infinitron]

Update:

So I may not even bother reviewing this, or even playing on, because I'm sorry to say, it's really quite average so far.

The visual and aural improvements are there, of course, just like EE Daggerford (in fact, much moreso in regards to terrain sculpting), but the author doesn't seem to have evolved his designwork in the last 17 years. This is a doddle, a casual plod, just like EE Daggerford.

I guess these guys don't know about Swordflight, and how far its pushed Aurora, because they seem to think EE Tyrants is the "best epic campaign since MotB"; a laughable claim when I see what's going on before me.

The first act of the game - up until Elventree - is largely unchanged from the original module from 2006 (albeit with graphical enhancements, new music & VO, and large scale system changes, such as the addition of a world map). I'd have liked to have revised it entirely, but we added around 20 hours of additional content which took priority. Redoing the first act would have delayed us by several months and potentially introduced a fuck-ton of bugs. Everything from Elmwood onward is new content.

I played Swordflight a long time (around 10 years?) ago. I think it was possibly the last of the 400 or so modules I played back in the day. I liked it. I'll have to check out the subsequent parts. I remember seeing Rogueknight speak warmly of my novels, so he's clearly a man of taste.

I said Tyrants of the Moonsea is the best high-level D&D videogame since Mask of the Betrayer. If you can think of a better one (other than Swordflight?), please mention it because I'll be all over it!

Oh hai Luke Scull.

Are there going to be more NWN modules from Ossian?

 

[Luke Scull]

I bet Milkdog can just repeat this unto eternity. Wave after wave of achievements, portrait packs and refurbished mods at the price of a full game.

Fortunately they can't. List of modules which failed to become premium is preciously short. Unless they'll dip in fan modules - and this can actually benefit them (The Prophet, Swordflight, Aielund Saga...).

I believe the well of cancelled premium modules has now run dry. The community modules you mention are an interesting idea, but non-FR mods (Prophet, Aielund, Hex Coda) wouldn't get WotC approval and hence could not be released as premium modules. Besides, charging money for previously free content that wasn't once slated as premium content is a risky proposition. I'm not sure the community response would be favourable.

 

[Luke Scull]

I'm going to follow up on the load time issue. A fivefold increase does not sound right at all.

 

[Popiel]

I bet Milkdog can just repeat this unto eternity. Wave after wave of achievements, portrait packs and refurbished mods at the price of a full game.

Fortunately they can't. List of modules which failed to become premium is preciously short. Unless they'll dip in fan modules - and this can actually benefit them (The Prophet, Swordflight, Aielund Saga...).

I believe the well of cancelled premium modules has now run dry. The community modules you mention are an interesting idea, but non-FR mods (Prophet, Aielund, Hex Coda) wouldn't get WotC approval and hence could not be released as premium modules. Besides, charging money for previously free content that wasn't once slated as premium content is a risky proposition. I'm not sure the community response would be favourable.

It's not dry yet, as far as I know there's Hex Coda (but it won't be tackled probably, for the exact reasons you wrote about).

And don't act as if community response would count for Bimcurs.

And welcome to the 'Dex. Have fun with Lil' Lil.

 

[Lilura]

I remember seeing Rogueknight speak warmly of my novels, so he's clearly a man of taste.

You know your Realmslore, that's for sure. Welcome to the RPG Codex.

I said Tyrants of the Moonsea is the best high-level D&D videogame since Mask of the Betrayer. If you can think of a better one (other than Swordflight?), please mention it because I'll be all over it!

Well, Swordflight Chapter II destroys your entire FR Trilogy all by itself. The Aielund Saga is superior to your modules, too.

Everything from Elmwood onward is new content.

Where is the content, though? You have Elmwood and River Lis, which are sprawling, and I can count the NPCs on one hand. How many areas are after Elmwood?

Does the campaign get better?