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

[deama]

So, does A Dance With Rogues work fine on NWN:EE?

The original author went all out and did a "remaster" of ADwR specifically for NWN:EE. She used some of the models from the Beamdog HD pack (I think, though it could be community assets) which means much nicer boobs on your player character (no one likes low-polygon, blocky boobs). Unfortunately, if she used Beamdog's HD pack, I'm sure it runs like shit on even the most powerful rigs because that HD format for the models is just not ideal or optimized for any system. I found the microstutter using the Beamdog HD pack quite unacceptable and immediately uninstalled it. I played a few minutes of the ADwR remaster but it was mostly cut-scenes. It looks great but stutters terribly of course.

It worked fine for me on my old system, ryzen 3600 and 2060 super.
I played through the whole thing and only real drops in fps I noticed was in the city wondering around, but wasn't that big of a deal.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

So, does A Dance With Rogues work fine on NWN:EE?

The original author went all out and did a "remaster" of ADwR specifically for NWN:EE. She used some of the models from the Beamdog HD pack (I think, though it could be community assets) which means much nicer boobs on your player character (no one likes low-polygon, blocky boobs). Unfortunately, if she used Beamdog's HD pack, I'm sure it runs like shit on even the most powerful rigs because that HD format for the models is just not ideal or optimized for any system. I found the microstutter using the Beamdog HD pack quite unacceptable and immediately uninstalled it. I played a few minutes of the ADwR remaster but it was mostly cut-scenes. It looks great but stutters terribly of course.

It worked fine for me on my old system, ryzen 3600 and 2060 super.
I played through the whole thing and only real drops in fps I noticed was in the city wondering around, but wasn't that big of a deal.

Glad to hear that since I hope to play it someday. Regarding non-NWN:EE, I have a vivid memory of that cut-scene in HotU where the vampire mage (always the toughest class of opponents for me to beat in NWN and its modules) dramatically makes his entrance. The first time i played the expansion, I found him truly invincible and actually had to flee the encounter. 2nd time I played HotU, he was my bitch. I wonder what I did right.

 

[deama]

So, does A Dance With Rogues work fine on NWN:EE?

The original author went all out and did a "remaster" of ADwR specifically for NWN:EE. She used some of the models from the Beamdog HD pack (I think, though it could be community assets) which means much nicer boobs on your player character (no one likes low-polygon, blocky boobs). Unfortunately, if she used Beamdog's HD pack, I'm sure it runs like shit on even the most powerful rigs because that HD format for the models is just not ideal or optimized for any system. I found the microstutter using the Beamdog HD pack quite unacceptable and immediately uninstalled it. I played a few minutes of the ADwR remaster but it was mostly cut-scenes. It looks great but stutters terribly of course.

It worked fine for me on my old system, ryzen 3600 and 2060 super.
I played through the whole thing and only real drops in fps I noticed was in the city wondering around, but wasn't that big of a deal.

Glad to hear that since I hope to play it someday. Regarding non-NWN:EE, I have a vivid memory of that cut-scene in HotU where the vampire mage (always the toughest class of opponents for me to beat in NWN and its modules) dramatically makes his entrance. The first time i played the expansion, I found him truly invincible and actually had to flee the encounter. 2nd time I played HotU, he was my bitch. I wonder what I did right.

Probably just better meta game knowledge, first time I played through swordflight I was getting stomped, second time, years later, it felt easier.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

So, does A Dance With Rogues work fine on NWN:EE?

The original author went all out and did a "remaster" of ADwR specifically for NWN:EE. She used some of the models from the Beamdog HD pack (I think, though it could be community assets) which means much nicer boobs on your player character (no one likes low-polygon, blocky boobs). Unfortunately, if she used Beamdog's HD pack, I'm sure it runs like shit on even the most powerful rigs because that HD format for the models is just not ideal or optimized for any system. I found the microstutter using the Beamdog HD pack quite unacceptable and immediately uninstalled it. I played a few minutes of the ADwR remaster but it was mostly cut-scenes. It looks great but stutters terribly of course.

It worked fine for me on my old system, ryzen 3600 and 2060 super.
I played through the whole thing and only real drops in fps I noticed was in the city wondering around, but wasn't that big of a deal.

Glad to hear that since I hope to play it someday. Regarding non-NWN:EE, I have a vivid memory of that cut-scene in HotU where the vampire mage (always the toughest class of opponents for me to beat in NWN and its modules) dramatically makes his entrance. The first time i played the expansion, I found him truly invincible and actually had to flee the encounter. 2nd time I played HotU, he was my bitch. I wonder what I did right.

Probably just better meta game knowledge, first time I played through swordflight I was getting stomped, second time, years later, it felt easier.

Yeah, nothing like a great ball of Greater Dispel Magic or Mordenkainen's Disjunction thrown at even the evilest and toughest NWN magic-users to take the piss, the shit, and the vinegar out of them to make them fodder for even your shortest of short swords. I tended to underuse my arsenal of counter-magic spells in my early days of playing NWN.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Summons are king in NWN. Basically, those with haste have you covered for 90% of encounters. Dunno how it is for Swordflight though.

 

[Lacrymas]

The problem with summons in NWN is that they eat your xp.

 

[0sacred]

The problem with summons in NWN is that they eat your xp.

what's the ratio here? I haven't even noticed it. It couldn't be 50% or something close

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

The problem with summons in NWN is that they eat your xp.

People make too much of this, as well as with companions for that matter. I did all the content with a companion and was never lacking in XP, I was not max level at the end of the game, (lvl 16) but I also didn't need to be. As for summons, it's not as if you'll be using them for every encounter, but they mostly trivialize the tougher ones.

 

[Sarathiour]

The problem with summons in NWN is that they eat your xp.

It doesn't fucking matter because anything that got a single level less than you isn't going to give shit, going single-classed without any summon will just give you 1 ahead anyone else at most.

 

[Lacrymas]

I've never known exactly how this works, but there are two options that are floating around in my brain. It was either the xp was split between party members (so 50% for you and 50% for the summon) or the summon dropped the CR of encounters, making them give less xp. Maybe both, who knows. Nevertheless, the fact remains that summons do steal xp. People might not notice it in modules with huge amounts of quest xp, but it's quite noticeable in combat-heavy romps. Iirc, the difference between having a henchman and not in the OC was around 2 levels. There was another factor at play in the OC, however, the game spawned in more enemies if you had a henchman, so you got slightly more xp for that too.

 

[Sarathiour]

unless shit has been massively overhauled since the last time I checked, it was a gradient xp penalty depending on the number of party member and summon, and the maximum was maybe -35 or -40% if you got two henchmen and a pet.

Iirc, the difference between having a henchman and not in the OC was around 2 levels.

Ordering of quest should matter even more, I ended up with a level more on my dual-classed characters compared to a sigle classed one, probably because I did things a bit different.

 

[Gargaune]

There was another factor at play in the OC, however, the game spawned in more enemies if you had a henchman, so you got slightly more xp for that too.

Much of NWN's combat is typically set up using Encounters, which are configurable spawns that will, within the set boundaries, scale to the estimated challenge rating of the player's party. They're used widely from the OC to Swordflight, though to varying degrees, to control for non-linear progression, variable party size and co-op.

Encounters can be single-shot or repeatable, have a difficulty level, specify a minimum and maximum number of enemies spawned, and the list of creatures they can draw from, including whether any of them should be unique. For example, testing with a default Moderate Demon Encounter:
1) a solo level 1 Rogue will spawn 2 Succubi (the encounter's minimum);
2) a level 1 Rogue with a Summoned Dire Spider (Summon Creature IV) will still spawn 2 Succubi;
3) a level 1 Rogue with a single level 15 Cleric henchman will spawn 1 Bebilith, 1 Succubus and 1 Doom Knight or Vrock;
4) a level 1 Rogue with three level 15 Clerics will spawn 3 Bebiliths;
5) a level 1 Rogue with a Summoned Balor (Gate) will spawn 3 Bebiliths and 1 Balor;
6) a solo Fighter 14 / Blackguard 8 will also spawn 3 Bebiliths and 1 Balor (the encounter's maximum).

 

[anvi]

My first play through I used summons galore because I didn't know, still beat the game as a high level superhero mage.

 

[Poseidon00]

I've never known exactly how this works, but there are two options that are floating around in my brain. It was either the xp was split between party members (so 50% for you and 50% for the summon) or the summon dropped the CR of encounters, making them give less xp. Maybe both, who knows. Nevertheless, the fact remains that summons do steal xp. People might not notice it in modules with huge amounts of quest xp, but it's quite noticeable in combat-heavy romps. Iirc, the difference between having a henchman and not in the OC was around 2 levels. There was another factor at play in the OC, however, the game spawned in more enemies if you had a henchman, so you got slightly more xp for that too.

Spawning in with a henchman and a summon only to dismiss them both and hog the XP for yourself is a galaxy brain strategy (it will have minimal effect)

 

[anvi]

In some fights I click unsummon on the pets while the spell that kills the enemy is in the air. Definitely makes a difference to xp, getting about 200 with pet but 300 with no pet. But I don't think it matters. Even leaving all pets alive I think there would still be enough exp. I beat the game when it was new and I don't think I knew about xp sharing so I was using as many pets as often as I could. I still ended up a Supermage at the end.

 

[Sarathiour]

I've never known exactly how this works, but there are two options that are floating around in my brain. It was either the xp was split between party members (so 50% for you and 50% for the summon) or the summon dropped the CR of encounters, making them give less xp. Maybe both, who knows. Nevertheless, the fact remains that summons do steal xp. People might not notice it in modules with huge amounts of quest xp, but it's quite noticeable in combat-heavy romps. Iirc, the difference between having a henchman and not in the OC was around 2 levels. There was another factor at play in the OC, however, the game spawned in more enemies if you had a henchman, so you got slightly more xp for that too.

Spawning in with a henchman and a summon only to dismiss them both and hog the XP for yourself is a galaxy brain strategy (it will have minimal effect)

It probably happened to me quite a lot, especially for boss or difficult encounter, given how useless most of the henchman are.

 

[Gargaune]

Spawning in with a henchman and a summon only to dismiss them both and hog the XP for yourself is a galaxy brain strategy (it will have minimal effect)

It probably happened to me quite a lot, especially for boss or difficult encounter, given how useless most of the henchman are.

Usually, encounter triggers are set up in relatively close proximity to the spawn point, like on a funneling corridor or in front of a door, so unless your associates kick the bucket or you're deliberately dismissing summons during combat, it's unlikely to turn out that way.

 

[Gargaune]

Also, it's probably not always accurate to say that summons "steal" XP. Yes, a summon will indeed take a share of the XP reward, but to the extent that a lot of NWN's combat uses Encounters to scale to the party, the total XP to be shared may also scale up. I say "may" because it depends on the how exactly the algorithm weights associates in the party's challenge rating and XP distribution (dunno) and the Encounter's limits and granularity. Expanding on the previous test, I set up a Moderate difficulty encounter that can spawn between 1 and 8 (max per spawn) Human Bandits (level 1 Fighter):
1) a solo level 1 Rogue spawned 1 Bandit (min);
2) a level 1 Rogue with a level 3 Summoned Dire Badger still spawned 1 Bandit;
3) a level 1 Rogue with a level 3 Summoned Dire Badger and a level 3 Dire Badger henchman spawned 3 Bandits;
4) a level 1 Rogue with two level 3 Dire Badger henchmen spawned 3 Bandits;
5) a level 1 Rogue with a level 7 Summoned Dire Board spawned 8 Bandits (max);

Bottom line is that yes, summons, like other associates, will sometimes cause XP to be lost between the cracks in the math, but other times they'll scale up the XP take overall. Though, seeing as how common perception is that soloing campaigns will net an additional level or two overall, the former case is probably prevalent.

 

[Sarathiour]

unless your associates kick the bucket

that was what I was implying,

 

[Late Bloomer]

Came across this interesting video.

 

[Gargaune]

Came across this interesting video.

Awesome find, man, thanks for sharing! Straight from the horse's mouth with what NWN was about, quite telling that they start the presentation with the Toolset and it's a lot of fun seeing the old interfaces. Also, is it me or were some of those spell effects more "spectacular" in that early build? Reckon they were too distracting or it was necessary to optimise stuff here and there?

 

[Gargaune]

Another even older one, from the prior E3:



"The game Neverwinter Nights, the whole idea behind it was to take, basically, pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons to the PC... verbatim, exactly as it is."

I am very smug about this issue.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Press kits of the day were also very clear about that. Vampire The Masquerade Redemption had blindsided them quite a lot.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is the EE worth getting now that it's peanuts on GOG?

 

[BruceVC]

Is the EE worth getting now that it's peanuts on GOG?

I replayed all the NWN EE campaigns about 12 months ago and I really had a good time, the expansions like HotU are better than the OC but thats a minor criticism