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

[Jvegi]

I'm going in. I want to relive that sweet disappointment from 20 years ago. After 5 minutes I think I'll be going with 1360x768 resolution, 1080p with UI scaling looks pixelated.

Any essential mods for the EE? If something is good for the second playthrough then give it to me. I'd like it to be as bearable as it can.

 

[Fluent]

I just finished Act 2 of a trilogy of modules. I finished Beneath The Spine Of The World with my Barbarian, and then act 2 was Return To The Spine, imported the same character and beat that one as well. Good modules thus far, fun and interesting and not too epicly long or anything but really quite short and to the point.

Now I'm playing Chronicles Of Elnor: Book 1 and it's been fun. There's some good level design going on here and some interest in the story and overall plot. Pretty cool module thus far, I'd recommend it, and this one offers a bit more content than the previously mentioned modules and it all revolves around a certain town in a not-D&D world.

Love returning to this game to play some modules I never played before. I have over 300 of them installed and every one of them seems good/interesting, and when finally getting around to playing them they almost always deliver.

 

[BruceVC]

I'm going in. I want to relive that sweet disappointment from 20 years ago. After 5 minutes I think I'll be going with 1360x768 resolution, 1080p with UI scaling looks pixelated.

Any essential mods for the EE? If something is good for the second playthrough then give it to me. I'd like it to be as bearable as it can.

I think you making the right decision and keep us updated of your experience

 

[CaesarCzech]

Anyone knows what is the status of swordflight 5 ?

 

[Gargaune]

Anyone knows what is the status of swordflight 5 ?

As of 29.10.2021:

Bad news first: I indicated earlier that I hoped to have Ch. 5 out by the end of the year, and I am not going to make that self-imposed deadline. I am definitely getting closer to completing it, and I might well even have a complete "first draft" done by the end of the year, but even if so it will still require a few additional months of play-testing before it is ready for release.

The good news (perhaps) is that the delays are not due entirely to my laziness and incompetence (though those have played their role) but also because I decided to add in some additional material that should hopefully improve the quality of the final product. This includes, among other things, a lot of extra class-specific stuff beyond what I originally planned, including mini-quests that will allow Blackguards, Shadowdancers, and Palemasters to upgrade their summoned allies in a similar manner to the upgrades to Familiars, Animal Companions and summoned Elementals.

Chapter 5 is getting there, but unfortunately there is still a bit of work to be done on it.

 

[Jvegi]

I think you making the right decision and keep us updated of your experience

I think I'm playing a very shitty version of Dungeon Siege. I'm tempted to go straight to HoTU. I remember SoU being so much better than the OC when I played it back in the day. Not mechanically though. Story is fine when you're twelve, but nowadays, I need good mechanics in my crpgs.

 

[Gargaune]

I think I'm playing a very shitty version of Dungeon Siege. I'm tempted to go straight to HoTU. I remember SoU being so much better than the OC when I played it back in the day. Not mechanically though. Story is fine when you're twelve, but nowadays, I need good mechanics in my crpgs.

Design's all around better in SoU as well, plus having a semi-functional henchman unlike the OC. I'd recommend Vulcano's mod that implements Mischa as a henchman so you have a warrior companion option, but I'm guessing you're not about to restart the campaign for that. I'd like to modify SoU for a 2-henchmen limit and Balkoth's Minion Control, HotU as well, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.

Oh, and by the way, if you're playing NWN EE you'll want to force V-sync on your GPU, just do it and you can brofist me later. You can also force AA on through the GPU, but you might get a minor bug with a thin white outline when overlapping water.

 

[BruceVC]

I think you making the right decision and keep us updated of your experience

I think I'm playing a very shitty version of Dungeon Siege. I'm tempted to go straight to HoTU. I remember SoU being so much better than the OC when I played it back in the day. Not mechanically though. Story is fine when you're twelve, but nowadays, I need good mechanics in my crpgs.

I mentioned I played NWN EE three weeks ago and the mechanics are vastly improved in SoU and HotU, I played the OC because of nostalgic reasons but its nothing I would rate highly

HotU is definitely worth it and SoU is a good precursor to this game so maybe start on SoU ?

 

[Cael]

I think you making the right decision and keep us updated of your experience

I think I'm playing a very shitty version of Dungeon Siege. I'm tempted to go straight to HoTU. I remember SoU being so much better than the OC when I played it back in the day. Not mechanically though. Story is fine when you're twelve, but nowadays, I need good mechanics in my crpgs.

SoU suffers some of the same problems of the OC: Long ass slow "running" through empty landscapes. It is not as bad as the OC, but it is still there.

HotU eliminated most of that for the simple reason that you have a Boots of Speed or its equivalent by the time you get to HotU. So, it is less bothersome.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

So, I just finished the NWN OC last night and I feel pretty okay about it. Standout moments were how dark some of the minor story-beats were. Fenthick being hanged for no good reason sending Aribeth into a downward spiral at the end of Act I. Didn't really make a whole lot of sense since Nashor trusted Desther just as much and I think he even went to bat for him after I pointed out how he was obviously the villain of Act I. Don't know why they'd even need to appease the plebs with a lynching when they could have just put his ass on a cart and dropped him a few miles outside of town saying he died in the fighting. Very contrived. Still, didn't think they'd go there. The Castle frozen in time because of a mass child-sacrifice to summon a demon was pretty dark too.

The only interesting C&C that presented itself was the quest with the runaway/kidnapped mayor's daughter in Act II. I was surprised when they left it ambiguous whether she really was passed around by the whole tribe of orcs or whether she convinced the orc to take her with him since she seemed desperate get out of Port Llast. In the end I believed the Orc, but killed him anyway because I gave my word to do so when I took the bounty. I thought it was going to be an obvious ransom scheme with the girl convincing the orcs to get some coin out of her father or something since she was a gold-digging whore when you first interact. Expectations slightly subverted.

Other than that, the hardest foe in the game was the aforementioned companion A.I. by a wide margin. Not having the ability to set them to "Don't cast spells." was deeply annoying. Half the fights they'd get caught in between casts when I'd inevitably have to pull back to put distance between myself and whatever was chasing me down, out of range they'd get stuck trying to catch up to target me when they should have just been auto-attacking with all the buffs I'd specifically apply to them for that purpose. It was the worst on Sharwyn and Linu.

Close seconds were anything with save vs. death magic and the Red Dragon which surprisingly failed to save against my own death spell after a few failed attempts. 30 Skeleton warriors b-lining it toward me was annoying in Act I as well, just due to the attrition of having to rest and rebuff every three minutes. It took me about 120 hours to finish a completionist run. At least 10 hours of that was watching a loading bar tick up while my character was just sitting there convalescing, something that should have remained instant like it was in the IE games. 10 hours was just inventory tetris. And another 2 hours was replaying certain sections because the game doesn't auto-save often enough and you get complacent after having the monk in your party for any length of time. Overall, nothing of value would have been lost if the prison section of Act I had been cut. It was the most boring and ugly to look at. Beggar's Nest was there with it visually, but thematically the act needed a heavy plague zone. Act II was enjoyable if not a few hours too long with a few too many Orc cave sections. Act III was shortest but felt long because of the awful time-travel dungeon with annoying puzzles. The Dragon fights were cool at least. The Act IV finale did nothing for me.

Honorable mentions for the minor annoyances of there being too many damned quest items that don't get auto-removed from your inventory upon completion and there being no way to pass the time to day or night. For a game that takes place in dark caves at least 50% of the time it would be nice to be able to see some daylight occasionally without having to tab out for 20 minutes.

Anyway, it's a 6.5/10 for me. Very paint by numbers quest design which is about what I expected remembering next to nothing. Now that I've played it, I don't think I ever made it past Act II as a kid. Too much I didn't remember. If anyone plans on giving this a go for the first time, look into mods that add combat scripts and remove the time-out upon resting. These will improve your experience if they exist.

 

[Cael]

So, I just finished the NWN OC last night and I feel pretty okay about it. Standout moments were how dark some of the minor story-beats were. Fenthick being hanged for no good reason sending Aribeth into a downward spiral at the end of Act I. Didn't really make a whole lot of sense since Nashor trusted Desther just as much and I think he even went to bat for him after I pointed out how he was obviously the villain of Act I. Don't know why they'd even need to appease the plebs with a lynching when they could have just put his ass on a cart and dropped him a few miles outside of town saying he died in the fighting. Very contrived. Still, didn't think they'd go there. The Castle frozen in time because of a mass child-sacrifice to summon a demon was pretty dark too.

The only interesting C&C that presented itself was the quest with the runaway/kidnapped mayor's daughter in Act II. I was surprised when they left it ambiguous whether she really was passed around by the whole tribe of orcs or whether she convinced the orc to take her with him since she seemed desperate get out of Port Llast. In the end I believed the Orc, but killed him anyway because I gave my word to do so when I took the bounty. I thought it was going to be an obvious ransom scheme with the girl convincing the orcs to get some coin out of her father or something since she was a gold-digging whore when you first interact. Expectations slightly subverted.

Other than that, the hardest foe in the game was the aforementioned companion A.I. by a wide margin. Not having the ability to set them to "Don't cast spells." was deeply annoying. Half the fights they'd get caught in between casts when I'd inevitably have to pull back to put distance between myself and whatever was chasing me down, out of range they'd get stuck trying to catch up to target me when they should have just been auto-attacking with all the buffs I'd specifically apply to them for that purpose. It was the worst on Sharwyn and Linu.

Close seconds were anything with save vs. death magic and the Red Dragon which surprisingly failed to save against my own death spell after a few failed attempts. 30 Skeleton warriors b-lining it toward me was annoying in Act I as well, just due to the attrition of having to rest and rebuff every three minutes. It took me about 120 hours to finish a completionist run. At least 10 hours of that was watching a loading bar tick up while my character was just sitting there convalescing, something that should have remained instant like it was in the IE games. 10 hours was just inventory tetris. And another 2 hours was replaying certain sections because the game doesn't auto-save often enough and you get complacent after having the monk in your party for any length of time. Overall, nothing of value would have been lost if the prison section of Act I had been cut. It was the most boring and ugly to look at. Beggar's Nest was there with it visually, but thematically the act needed a heavy plague zone. Act II was enjoyable if not a few hours too long with a few too many Orc cave sections. Act III was shortest but felt long because of the awful time-travel dungeon with annoying puzzles. The Dragon fights were cool at least. The Act IV finale did nothing for me.

Honorable mentions for the minor annoyances of there being too many damned quest items that don't get auto-removed from your inventory upon completion and there being no way to pass the time to day or night. For a game that takes place in dark caves at least 50% of the time it would be nice to be able to see some daylight occasionally without having to tab out for 20 minutes.

Anyway, it's a 6.5/10 for me. Very paint by numbers quest design which is about what I expected remembering next to nothing. Now that I've played it, I don't think I ever made it past Act II as a kid. Too much I didn't remember. If anyone plans on giving this a go for the first time, look into mods that add combat scripts and remove the time-out upon resting. These will improve your experience if they exist.

The whole Fenthick thing is right up Nasher's alley. He is a politician through and through, and a fucking asshole who'd throw everyone under the bus to save his own hide. He is as bad, if not worse in NWN2. The fact he keeps going on and on about justice and Tyr just makes him the typical hypocritical politician. He has form in this, though. His actions in Treasures of the Savage Frontier back in the Gold Box days were the same.

I have always read the whole mayor's daughter thing as she DID get passed around. The way she talked when you met her again, seems to indicate some pretty deep trauma. She was naive and stupid and ended up in a situation where she got a pretty harsh lesson. My impression was that both sides was telling the truth in that one. She did do what the orc said as some sort of teenage rebellion. And she didn't get what her fantasies expected.

There is a mod that changed the stupid 10 second rest into 1 second or something like that.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

The whole Fenthick thing is right up Nasher's alley. He is a politician through and through, and a fucking asshole who'd throw everyone under the bus to save his own hide. He is as bad, if not worse in NWN2. The fact he keeps going on and on about justice and Tyr just makes him the typical hypocritical politician. He has form in this, though. His actions in Treasures of the Savage Frontier back in the Gold Box days were the same.

I have always read the whole mayor's daughter thing as she DID get passed around. The way she talked when you met her again, seems to indicate some pretty deep trauma. She was naive and stupid and ended up in a situation where she got a pretty harsh lesson. My impression was that both sides was telling the truth in that one. She did do what the orc said as some sort of teenage rebellion. And she didn't get what her fantasies expected.

There is a mod that changed the stupid 10 second rest into 1 second or something like that.

I'll take your word for it on Nasher. I don't know, it just seemed out of left field that a guy who was singing the praises of the bastard just as much as Fenthick wouldn't go down with the ship too. If they were going for an execution as a scapegoat to appease the unwashed masses, both should have swung or neither of them. I get that Nasher is the lord of Neverwinter, but the game made it sound like only Fenthick was being tried in the court of public opinion for whatever reason. Assuming that the public was that aware of the doings of one of the top men handling the plague, I find it unlikely they also wouldn't be aware of Nasher's finger in the pie. Aribeth was really the only one who came out clean. Weak as the Neverwinter regime seemed to be after it all, I don't see why the mob would accept anything other than both of them if they really were ready to revolt.

In regard to the mayor's daughter, it may have just been the order that I spoke to them in. I think I encountered the Orc first, so I never had the chance to question whether the allegations of her gang-rape were true. Not that he would have told me the truth anyway. I can't confirm it, but I sincerely doubt new lines of questioning would be unlocked with the orc had I found the girl first anyway. I doubt even the Bioware of back then would allow those lines of inquiry to exist, anything more than the innuendo was probably further than they were willing to go. For my own part, I thought that she was just making it up so that you would get her out of trouble with her father and possibly to garner sympathy (and pity money) from the town upon her return. She was pretty weepy though, so maybe I was being uncharitable.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The Castle frozen in time because of a mass child-sacrifice to summon a demon was pretty dark too.

I think this is the only thing that stands out in the entire OC.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

The Castle frozen in time because of a mass child-sacrifice to summon a demon was pretty dark too.

I think this is the only thing that stands out in the entire OC.

The ending was was pretty interesting. The different options of absolving the mage or the cleric or blaming the demon. I chose to blame the demon which caused the town to decay with the passing of time and become ruinous, but freed all the spirits trapped there. Felt good to see that. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to keep the demon and the greedy mage contained but there was no justice in imprisoning innocent souls for the sake of preventing other evils. I was somewhat disappointed that there was no option to just free the individual spirits in the town and perhaps the cleric since they were only put there because of Lathander's godly influence in the first place. It should easily be within the power of the God who is the jailer and maker of the prison to free whom he wills. It did make it a hard choice though, even if only artificially.

 

[Cael]

The whole Fenthick thing is right up Nasher's alley. He is a politician through and through, and a fucking asshole who'd throw everyone under the bus to save his own hide. He is as bad, if not worse in NWN2. The fact he keeps going on and on about justice and Tyr just makes him the typical hypocritical politician. He has form in this, though. His actions in Treasures of the Savage Frontier back in the Gold Box days were the same.

I have always read the whole mayor's daughter thing as she DID get passed around. The way she talked when you met her again, seems to indicate some pretty deep trauma. She was naive and stupid and ended up in a situation where she got a pretty harsh lesson. My impression was that both sides was telling the truth in that one. She did do what the orc said as some sort of teenage rebellion. And she didn't get what her fantasies expected.

There is a mod that changed the stupid 10 second rest into 1 second or something like that.

I'll take your word for it on Nasher. I don't know, it just seemed out of left field that a guy who was singing the praises of the bastard just as much as Fenthick wouldn't go down with the ship too. If they were going for an execution as a scapegoat to appease the unwashed masses, both should have swung or neither of them. I get that Nasher is the lord of Neverwinter, but the game made it sound like only Fenthick was being tried in the court of public opinion for whatever reason. Assuming that the public was that aware of the doings of one of the top men handling the plague, I find it unlikely they also wouldn't be aware of Nasher's finger in the pie. Aribeth was really the only one who came out clean. Weak as the Neverwinter regime seemed to be after it all, I don't see why the mob would accept anything other than both of them if they really were ready to revolt.

In regard to the mayor's daughter, it may have just been the order that I spoke to them in. I think I encountered the Orc first, so I never had the chance to question whether the allegations of her gang-rape were true. Not that he would have told me the truth anyway. I can't confirm it, but I sincerely doubt new lines of questioning would be unlocked with the orc had I found the girl first anyway. I doubt even the Bioware of back then would allow those lines of inquiry to exist, anything more than the innuendo was probably further than they were willing to go. For my own part, I thought that she was just making it up so that you would get her out of trouble with her father and possibly to garner sympathy (and pity money) from the town upon her return. She was pretty weepy though, so maybe I was being uncharitable.

Nasher is the guy who is more than happy to claim he was tricked and throw Fenthick to the wolves as one of those that tricked him. Notice how he kept going on and on about how Fenthick is Desther's best friend after the whole thing came apart.

In NWN2,

Spoiler

he sent one of the Nine (his bodyguards) to try and deceive the guy killing a group of nobles without telling you. Note: you are the main person trying to solve the damned thing and who has proven to be the only one with enough firepower to actually defeat the bad guy's minions. So he sends in one woman, alone, undercover and made her safe house the local brothel. And without telling you that she is holding on to the MacGuffin that the bad guy is looking for. Cue the bad guy not being deceived at all, send a delaying force at you, enact Friday the 13th at the local brothel and got away with the MacGuffin.

What does Nasher say when you confront him with his deception and stupidity? "I am the King and I don't have to tell you everything. Now, concentrate on finding the bad guy and forget about all the dead innocents. And never talk about how stupid I was in not giving the MacGuffin to the one guy in the entire fucking city who could have prevented it from being taken."

He also.

Spoiler

railroads you into serving him with threats and blackmail. Why? Because you disagree with his stupidity and want to try something different.

My level 20 Paladin at the end of NWN 1 Act 3 would have let the fucker burn and his whole city with him by simply walking away. "Here are your Words of Power, Mr Spymaster. And since we are outside of a besieged city with none of your armies and other innocents around, see ya later."

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I find it funny that there's such depth in the characterization in the OC, the part of the game commonly thought to be mediocre at best. Kid me didn't think much about the story, just about stabbing things and levelling up. I remember more about the backstories of the henchmen and the two main quest characters from Chapter 2 than Nasher's thoughts and motivations, let alone some random NPC in the game. Heck, I barely remember the frozen castle quest and the mayor's daughter doesn't even register to me at all.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I find it funny that there's such depth in the characterization in the OC, the part of the game commonly thought to be mediocre at best. Kid me didn't think much about the story, just about stabbing things and levelling up. I remember more about the backstories of the henchmen and the two main quest characters from Chapter 2 than Nasher's thoughts and motivations, let alone some random NPC in the game. Heck, I barely remember the frozen castle quest and the mayor's daughter doesn't even register to me at all.

I literally remember none of the things that have been talked about lately other than the main story beats of Fenthick, Desther, Aribeth, etc. It almost makes me want to revisit it to see if my opinion changed until I remember how terrible NWN feels to play. As a bonus, it also looks like ass.

 

[Jvegi]

I'm going to remember the enormous amount of closed chests, cupboards, tables and sacks with almost nothing in them.

 

[Lacrymas]

Fenthick being hanged for no good reason sending Aribeth into a downward spiral at the end of Act I.

Oh, you are going to have a field day with this in HotU.

 

[Gargaune]

Other than that, the hardest foe in the game was the aforementioned companion A.I. by a wide margin. Not having the ability to set them to "Don't cast spells." was deeply annoying.

Radial Menu on the henchman -> More Actions -> Toggle Spellcasting. I'm not 100% sure it works on the OC's script set, but I think so. I don't have an encounter on hand to test and there's no visual or textual feedback to the toggle, but your henchman should stop using spells until you toggle it back on. Just remember you did it.

Two more tips for future reference: 1) if your henchman in any campaign gets a Greater Invisibility spell, have them spend it on you after each rest, the AI clocks out if it thinks you can't see it, and 2) you can feed your henchmen potions by dragging them onto their portraits. I mention that last one because I went twenty fucking years playing this game on and off with no clue until someone pointed it out here on the Codex.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

I literally remember none of the things that have been talked about lately other than the main story beats of Fenthick, Desther, Aribeth, etc. It almost makes me want to revisit it to see if my opinion changed until I remember how terrible NWN feels to play. As a bonus, it also looks like ass.

The three things I listed storywise are the only things that stood out to me and before I wrote my first post up last night. I went back and skimmed through a list of quests just to make sure I wasn't forgetting to mention anything that stood out. If you're that curious I'd just YouTube the particular segments. About an hour of good content is not worth 100+ hours of gameplay if you didn't enjoy it the first time around. Shaldrissa (Mayor's Daughter) is at the end of a chain of bounties in Act II, the Demon Castle is a quest called "Charwood: The Village of Eternal Night".

I'm going to remember the enormous amount of closed chests, cupboards, tables and sacks with almost nothing in them.

It's pretty bad in Act I, but you start getting more by Act II. Many of the containers are randomized from a table based on player level but it tends to be you get something geared toward your class. I was never short of crossbows, staves, cloaks, rings etc. playing a mage. I think I must have found four pairs of Boots of Speed by the end of the game. Admittedly, I opened everything though. Got to the point where I wouldn't even bother checking for traps. Took too long, easier to just spring them with your body. Same with lockpicking, most of the time I'd just lightning bolt the chests into splinters to avoid the traps altogether.

Radial Menu on the henchman -> More Actions -> Toggle Spellcasting. I'm not 100% sure it works on the OC's script set, but I think so.

Edit: It works.

 

[Gargaune]

Many of the containers are randomized from a table based on player level but it tends to be you get something geared toward your class. I was never short of crossbows, staves, cloaks, rings etc. playing a mage. I think I must have found four pairs of Boots of Speed by the end of the game. Admittedly, I opened everything though. Got to the point where I wouldn't even bother checking for traps. Took too long, easier to just spring them with your body. Same with lockpicking, most of the time I'd just lightning bolt the chests into splinters to avoid the traps altogether.

This is one of those supposedly small things that really ballooned into a major annoyance for me in the OC. Room after bloody room filled with several chests, all locked, all trapped, all taking a full, 6-second real-time turn to unlock and another to defuse. And (almost) all for some randomised rubbish spawned within. SoU and HotU improved on this among many other things, hand-placing more loot and trimming down the containers density, and it really makes a difference in flow.

You were right that the OC was very "paint by numbers", and that's 'cause it was built in a rush to demo NWN as an authoring platform, the Toolset and coop had been BioWare's priorities through development. Levels are generally barren, straight out of the tile brush, populated with tons of identical encounter triggers and dynamic lootables. Scripting is also minimal, so much quest logic is checked against posession of inventory macguffins instead of local variables, certainly with a view towards development expediency and multiplayer robustness. Basically, the OC is a showcase of how to make a functional campaign with minimum effort... just not a very good one. And I suspect that's intentional to a point, the first part anyway. With the expansions, BioWare and Floodgate took a hard turn back towards developing more compelling single-player experiences.

Today, the OC (or The Wailing Death, as it's been rebranded) would be a prime candidate for having the everloving shit enhanced out of it, but I suspect Beamdog's kinda done with first-party content for NWN EE, new or otherwise. Just like I suspect we'll never see an engine-level solution for henchmen controls either, which makes me very sad.

 

[Roguey]

You were right that the OC was very "paint by numbers", and that's 'cause it was built in a rush to demo NWN as an authoring platform, the Toolset and coop had been BioWare's priorities through development.

This is one of those things that turned out to be not-really-accurate https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/nwn-oc-plot-was-cut-possibly-due-to-publisher-meddling.74097/

Troubled development, they had to significantly scale back their ambitious ideas.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

This is one of those supposedly small things that really ballooned into a major annoyance for me in the OC. Room after bloody room filled with several chests, all locked, all trapped, all taking a full, 6-second real-time turn to unlock and another to defuse. And (almost) all for some randomised rubbish spawned within. SoU and HotU improved on this among many other things, hand-placing more loot and trimming down the containers density, and it really makes a difference in flow.

I've never been a fan of randomized loot either, at least not in games like these. The only one I ever found decent was Icewind Dale where only certain chests were randomized and the loot table consisted of like four items at most. You could just savescum to get whatever you were after, or it would provide enough variety between playthroughs throughout the years just rolling with what it gives you. All of those containers were hand-placed as well. Neverwinter Nights went overboard with lootables, no question there. It's a wonder the various enemies didn't blow themselves to hell mistaking one crate for another in the night. Traps don't make sense unless they're on sarcophagi in forgotten tombs or otherwise on chests holding really important quest items or prized-possessions hidden off the beaten path. Putting no thought into what's appropriate to protect as a game designer is lazy.

In regard to the OC being enhanced, I really couldn't see them putting any effort into sprucing it up. There's just not much there that's worth the trouble of repairing. Might as well just make a new campaign and recycle the few interesting quests from the OC. The zones, even though already made are just not very interesting be in. For a city as well-known and renowned as Neverwinter, it was like medieval brutalism. Nothing stood out.

 

[Gargaune]

This is one of those things that turned out to be not-really-accurate https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/nwn-oc-plot-was-cut-possibly-due-to-publisher-meddling.74097/

Troubled development, they had to significantly scale back their ambitious ideas.

Yeah, I read that (somewhat) recently, I don't mean they intended to make a poor campaign. Rather that I suspect that some of the "simplistic" design and technical implementations might've been pushed to the fore to showcase the platform's ability to "stand in" for a human designer. Like "you don't have to manually populate each container, this handy script will do it for you." Or, on the multiplayer side, that henchmen use a "token" to identify their master isn't that much quicker to implement for a developer than checking a local variable, but it's much easier for a novice Toolset user to replicate the pattern with an inventory object and the Script Wizard than write and debug a variable under the hood when something goes haywire.

I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but there's bits and bobs in the OC that seem too facile to just blame on crunch.

In regard to the OC being enhanced, I really couldn't see them putting any effort into sprucing it up. There's just not much there that's worth the trouble of repairing. Might as well just make a new campaign and recycle the few interesting quests from the OC. The zones, even though already made are just not very interesting be in. For a city as well-known and renowned as Neverwinter, it was like medieval brutalism. Nothing stood out.

A proper "reimagining" might be something, rebuilding some of the external areas, reworking some quests, most of the dungeons and encounters, the henchmen... Imagine the city of Neverwinter rebuilt with the latest TotM edition Medieval City 2 tileset, that would be pretty sweet. But yeah, never gonna happen. Even though the licensing might be easier than doing a new campaign, they wouldn't be able to charge for what would look like an "update" to a campaign.