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

[volklore]

I started my first playthrough of SoU on a wizard and man getting my pixie to attack shit without having to run into every ranged attack first is going to be rad.
I can't believe they made a fucking Enhanced Edition and not made this feature default or at least in game menus.

You're gonna love it. I think it's still formally a partial development, it looks like they probably still meant to polish it some more, but I say it's good enough for prime time, just sign off on it and make it a standard feature. I also know some builders have been anxious about party controls in general, but it's really not the case here, the tactical advantage isn't of such a nature to fundamentally change the challenge of encounters. It doesn't magically turn the game into ToEE, just takes some of the frustration out and consolidates non-tanky playstyles.

Oh, one caveat - careful about using it on mages wielding melee weapons because the attack instruction itself translates to a weapon attack! The mage will resume his spellcasting the next round and probably continue with the target you assigned them (unless the AI processes a higher threat), but that first attack on command will be a weapon one.

Do you have any options tips? EE has a lot of incomprehensible graphics settings (at least to me).

 

[Gargaune]

Do you have any options tips? EE has a lot of incomprehensible graphics settings (at least to me).

Number 1 would be to force V-Sync in your GPU driver. You don't wanna leave your FPS uncapped since it'll rev up your card, but nor do you wanna use the in-game FPS Limiter because it's choppy. Not having V-Sync also makes the Test function in the Toolset practically unusable.

Beyond that, it's a matter of personal preference. You can see my settings below, blue is stuff I changed and the biggest difference is gonna be from those configs under Advanced Frame-Buffer Effects. I wanted to add a bit more colour vibrance and the DoF is only there to smooth out the geometry, I wish I could make it static. The Toon shader is an idea with potential, but it's not ready yet without a function to normalise for luminosity.

P.S. Also, you can force Anti-Aliasing through your GPU driver. It works fine, but you'll get a thin white outline around objects viewed over water if you have the wavy water effects enabled. I like both the AA and the wavy water, so I just got used to it.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I noticed Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete is still 2006 last update. I guess it isn’t EE.

Release date:
October 31, 2006

Is it somehow worse than the original, Diamond Edition, or EE?

 

[rogueknight333]

At this very moment, I'm only interested in replaying SoU and HotU because they and the OC are the only modules available in Spanish. But if the EE is super worth it down the line, I might as well get it now that it's 4 euro. I'm assuming Swordflight isn't and isn't going to be EE-exclusive?

The existing Swordflight chapters can all be played on Diamond edition, and my intention is that the upcoming 6th and final chapter will also not require the EE. It is theoretically possible something might happen to change my mind about that (e.g., I get a new computer with the latest operating system at some point and find I am completely unable to get NWN Diamond to work on it), but not very likely.

... you need to enable it in the config file manually, but the EE also has a basic new feature for henchmen controls - it's just "move there" or "attack that", but it can make a huge difference in anger management if you want to play off the front line ...

Another option along these lines added in the latest patch (also not available by default and needs to be configured) is the ability to make multi-class characters using more than the three classes that are the maximum in Diamond (potentially up to 8). This potentially gives one a lot of new builds to play around with. I am not very enthusiastic about either of these options, as they can seriously imbalance a lot of existing content (probably also why Beamdog declined to make them available by default), but they definitely constitute significant new features.

I noticed Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete is still 2006 last update. I guess it isn’t EE...

Is it somehow worse than the original, Diamond Edition, or EE?

Yes, it is worse. In any case, NWN2 is basically a completely different game from the original, not really an updated version of it.

 

[Lacrymas]

More than 3 classes might make basically unused prestige classes like Harper Scout and Purple Dragon Knight at least somewhat viable. When was the last time anyone made a build with these classes? 8 is a bit much though. This also has the (unintended) side effect of making 1 level dip classes like Monk, Paladin, Shadowdancer even more bonkers and mandatory.

 

[volklore]

Welp tried the henchmen control feature and it's really great.
Best being not having to bother with the horrendous door LoS or worse having to walk through it and facetank ranged attacks to get the henchman through, just send henchman in and start combat.

 

[Orud]

It's quite fantastic, really, I've played a couple of modules with it now. It's more pertinent to ranged characters and mages, obviously, but it can be occasionally handy to frontliners too so you can focus fire. And after twenty years of NWN, I might finally see the potential in making glass canon mages. The tech works reasonably well and across the board, henchmen tend to follow instructions most of the time, though the AI can still reprioritise targets on a turn-by-turn basis after engaging, as always. And if you want to move your henchman ahead of you, you might wanna issue a Stand Your Ground order first, or they'll return to you right afterwards.

But I can't oversell it, if you're playing NWN EE without this thing enabled, you're missing out. And if you're still on the DE, this feature really is worth the plunge - you might not use it all the time, but when you need it, it's golden.


P.S. Beamdog, if you're reading, this is your killer feature right here, a prime USP for the EE. Don't let it languish in the config file, put it in the game's Options and feature it prominently! The control scheme can stay as-is, with CTRL and Shift, just make sure the option's widely visible to new players because it makes a huge difference for the better.

Holy shit. You can also select your own character along with your henchmen, so you can play it just like an IE game. 20 god damn years too late, but this must be the best thing I've heard all year.

I can't express how excited I am for this. Now if they can only move the damn dialogue window from the top-left to the bottom-center or something... .

 

[janior]

probably the only decent EE beamdog made

 

[rojay]

Glad I check this thread every month or two. This could fix my main issue with combat in NWN.

 

[volklore]

How fucked am I exp wise if I start using more summons (SoU)? I've been using the pixie buffed with flame weapons, cat's grace (wizard), and protection from evil while casting color spray/cloud of bewilderment/dmg spells/shooting bolts but she gets insta gibbed sometimes and it's all downhill from there. Having more buffer in those cases would be nice.
Didn't pick expertise feats because I thought that wouldn't work when spellcasting... noob mistake I guess.

 

[Lacrymas]

The XP curve is a very complicated topic and basically no-one knows how it works, but summons do eat up xp. They also cause more mobs to spawn, however, which mitigates some of the xp lost. On top of that, they only affect combat xp, not quest xp, so it depends on how combat-heavy a module is. Iirc, the difference at the end of the OC with and without a henchman was 2 levels.

 

[Old Hans]

I already have the Diamond edition, I want to know whether the EE actually enhances anything (5 years after initial release) or I'm better off just playing the original like I've done for the past 15 years ;d

You can activate these soulless ass HD models and some other graphical improvements. Other than that I haven't noticed anything either.

reminds me of the newer, uglier models they introduced back in the Shadows of Luclin Everquest expansion.

 

[Gargaune]

Another option along these lines added in the latest patch (also not available by default and needs to be configured) is the ability to make multi-class characters using more than the three classes that are the maximum in Diamond (potentially up to 8). This potentially gives one a lot of new builds to play around with. I am not very enthusiastic about either of these options, as they can seriously imbalance a lot of existing content (probably also why Beamdog declined to make them available by default), but they definitely constitute significant new features.

You're right, the extended multiclassing could be a selling point, I just didn't think to bring it up it since it's a builder-oriented feature and I assumed Lacrymas wasn't really interested in that. I'm not aware of any modules that use it as of yet, unless it's been deployed to some PWs.

More than 3 classes might make basically unused prestige classes like Harper Scout and Purple Dragon Knight at least somewhat viable. When was the last time anyone made a build with these classes? 8 is a bit much though. This also has the (unintended) side effect of making 1 level dip classes like Monk, Paladin, Shadowdancer even more bonkers and mandatory.

It's not a universal feature like the henchmen controls, the engine now supports extended multiclassing but it still needs to be enabled using a custom ruleset.2da, so it's in the hands of the module author.

Holy shit. You can also select your own character along with your henchmen, so you can play it just like an IE game. 20 god damn years too late, but this must be the best thing I've heard all year.

Yes, thank you, I forgot to mention that! You can issue party-wide instructions in a single go that way and I've done it often enough. Keep in mind the reversed click-to-walk/double-click-to-run thing applies, though you'll typically only use it for attack.

How fucked am I exp wise if I start using more summons (SoU)? I've been using the pixie buffed with flame weapons, cat's grace (wizard), and protection from evil while casting color spray/cloud of bewilderment/dmg spells/shooting bolts but she gets insta gibbed sometimes and it's all downhill from there. Having more buffer in those cases would be nice.

If you're not too far in and willing to start over, I recommend the Mischa Waymeet mod for SoU, you can have her take your frontline. I've long wanted to integrate this mod with raising the henchman limit to two, balance be damned, but Mischa's implemented a little differently from the default companions and that's a little harder to suss out.

 

[Gargaune]

Also, volklore, following up on what Lacrymas said about XP scaling, see the tests I did on variable encounter challenge ratings a couple of pages back, here and here. It's not a linear affair and we indeed don't know exactly how it's calculated, but my gut instinct would say go for it and use summons as you like.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

reminds me of the newer, uglier models they introduced back in the Shadows of Luclin Everquest expansion.

WTF?!?!

What did they have against bikini crotch and mega codpiece? Fucked up face & tits too. The dude in the second pic is even disgusted. He’s like “UGGHHH!!! WTH!! YOU’RE FUCKING UGLY AS HELL! Uh bitch???

 

[Lacrymas]

Sooo, is there really a way to move the dialogue box more to the center of the screen? Given how big/wide monitors have gotten, it's actually starting to become a bit annoying to have it at the top left.

 

[Gargaune]

Sooo, is there really a way to move the dialogue box more to the center of the screen? Given how big/wide monitors have gotten, it's actually starting to become a bit annoying to have it at the top left.

Actually, there might be, check this out...

There's general a UI reskin called Reborn UI that features a wider dialogue panel.

The interesting part is that the author also includes the following directions:

Moving Dialog Window:

You can change dialog window position by doing the following:
Go to where this mod is installed - "Documents\Neverwinter Nights\override"
Open - "pnl_dialog.mdl" with notepad++
Go to line 11 - position 0 0 0
Increase first number to move window to the right (example) - position 2.8 0 0
Increase second number with a minus if you want to move it down (example) - position 2.8 -3.80 0
Save file.

Now, I gave this a quick go and you can use the wide dialog panel on its own, without the rest of the UI mod, just copy pnl_dialog.mdl into your Override. However, I tried editing the position parameters and that didn't work, it's possible that's leveraging a different function that's only present in the mod. Nevermind, just make sure you also copy ctl_dialog_entry.mdl and ctl_dialog_reply.mdl and it'll work.

I didn't try installing the whole thing 'cause it ain't my jam, but give it a go and let us know. If you want a prepackaged patch hak instead of using Override (and I think you would), you can find it here and just ignore the NIT wizard, install it manually. One thing in the comments is that you shouldn't move the dialogue panel to the bottom of the screen, BG-style, since it can expand with dialogue options, you'd best stick top-centre.

Orud, you were asking about this as well, weren't you?

 

[Gargaune]

Aha! Lacrymas, Orud, figured it out, you need to copy all three of these files from Reborn UI and install via Override or patch hak:

ctl_dialog_entry.mdl
ctl_dialog_reply.mdl
pnl_dialog.mdl

Then you can edit pnl_dialog.mdl per the instructions provided and it'll work, you can move it around on your screen.

 

[Lacrymas]

It works, but now the dialogue window is too big, lol. More precisely, it's too wide.

 

[volklore]

How fucked am I exp wise if I start using more summons (SoU)? I've been using the pixie buffed with flame weapons, cat's grace (wizard), and protection from evil while casting color spray/cloud of bewilderment/dmg spells/shooting bolts but she gets insta gibbed sometimes and it's all downhill from there. Having more buffer in those cases would be nice.

If you're not too far in and willing to start over, I recommend the Mischa Waymeet mod for SoU, you can have her take your frontline. I've long wanted to integrate this mod with raising the henchman limit to two, balance be damned, but Mischa's implemented a little differently from the default companions and that's a little harder to suss out.

I was a bit too far for that. I reached the interlude alright (J'nah was a struggle but it's because I forgot the item that the dragon gave me :/). I'm using deekin with shortsword/shield + medium armor and it's been working alright. His AB really sucks though, even with bull's strength/GMW.

 

[ds]

This is how I have it set up:

I don't remember if I started with Reborn UI or some other UI mod. Sucks that you still have to do this manually - usability fixes like this is really what Beamdog should have focused on rather than DoF or other useless shaders and half-arsed model replacements.

 

[Gargaune]

It works, but now the dialogue window is too big, lol. More precisely, it's too wide.

The entire model is in text format, so you should be able to just adjust its dimensions if you can be bothered to suss out the parameters. The narrow BioWare window might also take position adjustments, but you'd have to dig it out of the game's assets and possibly decompile it to find out.

But...

I don't remember if I started with Reborn UI or some other UI mod. Sucks that you still have to do this manually - usability fixes like this is really what Beamdog should have focused on rather than DoF or other useless shaders and half-arsed model replacements.

Does the lower edge stay fixed if dialogue options exceed it? Yours looks narrower, you could share it with the class, just copy-paste the contents of pnl_dialog.mdl here and Lacrymas could copy it and then tweak the position to his own screenspace.


On a tangent, Lacrymas, Options -> Resolutions and UI Scaling is your friend on the EE after you've figured out your panel.

 

[volklore]

Man the rest rules are stupid in this. At some you can rest all the fucking time simply because there is a room with a door and sometimes you can't rest at all even when you should be allowed to. Got started in chapter 2 of SoU and you can't rest anywhere in the slavers camp, you get a prompt that enemies are nearby... Was it so hard flagging that place safe.
I have no spells because I did not rest before taking the goddamn portal and of course the game doesn't give you a refresh during the transition.

 

[Gargaune]

Was it so hard flagging that place safe.

Actually, it might've been... Enemy proximity for resting is as-the-crow-flies and I don't recall there being any way to script around that for the standard Rest action. You can script alternative rest mechanics using the ForceRest function, and HotU does precisely that, but that wasn't added until v.1.64 and I think SoU was before that. They were still getting their bearings with the first expansion.

Anyway, try heading through the iron door on the western side of Ashtara's chambers and see if you can rest right up close to the cave-in in that corridor. Or head past the bed through the open doorway to the east and try squatting on that smoking grate there, that might be far enough away. If not, you're gonna have to take care of some business first:

Spoiler

Head through the open doorway to the east, follow the corridor north until you hit the intersection and take the route west there. At the bend along that hallway there's a room with a portcullis and the guy interfering with your beauty sleep.

 

[Lacrymas]

ERYFKRAD, tell me how much this character idea triggers you - female elf Barbarian/Wizard