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

[Kyl Von Kull]

BG wasn't turn based, and there wasn't a cryout for it to become turn based. People followed on from BG2 to NWN, still no cry for turn based. People get bored of the same shit over and over so why the fuck do you think people would want every game to be turn based with FPC. AoD turn based with no party, fucking awesome game. Arcanum RT/TB with no party control, fucking legendary game. BG2 rtwp and FPC, epic game.

Lilura you cry about democratising game design but you also want to tell game designers they must make all DnD games TB with FPC. How about we let the Devs do their thing.

Oh and NWN is more of a RT game with no pause because multiplayer disables pause obviously. But some of you guys wouldn't know that because you don't play NWN.

??? Lots of AD&D fans bemoaned that BG wasn’t turn based. They got over it, mainly because the full party control and the sheer breadth the of the magic system offset the widespread distaste for RTwP. The Baldur’s Gate series is almost universally adored by RPG fans. Neverwinter Nights is not. The people who love it mainly appreciate other peoples’ content, not Bioware’s. Of course there will be more calls to change a deeply flawed game than there were to change a beloved classic.

And adding an FPC mode would represent a major improvement. Instead Beamdog is phoning it in, lending more credence to the idea that everything they do is a halfway fraudulent cash grab.

 

[Sherry]

Hi.

gosh. wtf is going on right? When I got the game for free from gog because it was free and not for sale I turned to Lilura's blog for help on understanding how to install what they call modules and haks okay? super duper helpful for someone not playing the game since it came out and there is a lot of information there so go check it out! There are polls you can participate in and even leave comments about articles and chat with others there who also participate and post too.

But gosh I do not understand so I am truly asking as a reader of your blog why? Why? WHY? okay so all these interviews you can read from gaming magazines about the new enhanced edition right? They all ask the same kinda questions and get the same nice response but do you know what they did not have? okay I will tell you. Your kind of interview Lilura of inside scoop right? They write for magazine and get a link to a game to write up about it and probably do some googling about the game and look at images and other reviews from back then and ask their polite safe interview questions.

Then there is your interview right? It had questions gaming sites do not ask and then it had questions from authors who make content for the game who know about the games insides and all that which was so unique and offers a perspective those gaming websites interviews did not have. So why? Why? WHY? gosh your site is full of thought and information plus you have this inside scoop with content makers and are free to ask interview questions that those gaming sites would stay away from so WHY?? now I read you are banned and do not care and that is okay if you get banned somewhere but here you had the option to ask hard questions and have inside scoop with builders what they want and could approach the company to get an interview and be unique but you got banned and probs blacklisted from getting anymore good interviews.

I can understand you not caring as a person but your site has great content and is known for that so I do not understand why you closed that door for your faithful readers when you have that insight and knowledge of these games to ask questions other sites just do not ask. I was very happy to see your interview because as a reading fan I saw it as a next step in your blog with sharing information from a knowledgeable source.

Gosh your blog is growing and getting recognition and you promote it and are proud of all the hard work you put into it right, so why not continue that with its growth? Please do not yell at me I just do not understand shutting the door closed on expanding what already is a great source of information.

Thanks,
Sherry

 

[deama]

What's FPC?

 

[d1nolore]

??? Lots of AD&D fans bemoaned that BG wasn’t turn based. They got over it, mainly because the full party control and the sheer breadth the of the magic system offset the widespread distaste for RTwP. The Baldur’s Gate series is almost universally adored by RPG fans. Neverwinter Nights is not. The people who love it mainly appreciate other peoples’ content, not Bioware’s. Of course there will be more calls to change a deeply flawed game than there were to change a beloved classic.

And adding an FPC mode would represent a major improvement. Instead Beamdog is phoning it in, lending more credence to the idea that everything they do is a halfway fraudulent cash grab.

People who don't like NWN don't like it for a number of reasons, and lack of FPC isn't the main reason. Adding FPC would be a huge gamble in an attempt to bring in players who don't own NWN already or who haven't played it in a decade. I stated numerous times that you need to realise that there will be very limited FPC content on release so it will be a slow sell and people who don't currently like NWN will likely move on pretty quick.

There's 1000's of players who over the years have played more NWN in one month than people like Lilura have played ever. These players like/liked NWN and have little desire for FPC.

You tell me which is a wiser decision:

change and sell your product to people who historically don't like your product, don't use the product, and might not even bother to try it again. They also won't stick around long adding value to the product.

Or sell to your products current and former fanbase, people who invested a lot of time into the game, own all expansions, create content. They already like the game so they'll most likely buy it and any future expansions.

The people they want to go after are the fringe people who never played NWN because it's old, and the people who stopped playing years ago.

You guys are really on the outside of NWN and have no idea what you are talking about. Thinking NWN was a failure? It was successful enough for two expansions, and at least an attempt at premium modules.

 

[Lhynn]

And adding an FPC mode would represent a major improvement.

Nope

change and sell your product to people who historically don't like your product, don't use the product, and might not even bother to try it again. They also won't stick around long adding value to the product.

Yep

 

[Cosmo]

What's FPC?

Full party control.

 

[Immortal]

You can pause in LAN games. You can't pause only in persistent worlds.

You can pause in PW's. It's a server setting that defaults false. For the obvious reason they don't want players pausing the entire server.

Anytime someone claims that something no-one has ever done is easy to do, they are talking out of their ass. If converting NWN or NWN2 to TB with only scripts was possible, it would have been done already.

This is a retarded conclusion to draw..

But nothing that has never been done before is easy and you stated that it would be technically easy to do, just time-consuming. Recreating Baldur's Gate in NWN is technically easy but time-consuming and has been done.

Creating a turn based system in NWN2 will take lots of time and testing and see very little value of return. Not many people want that system in NWN2.
Is English your second language or are you just retarded? I feel like I'm repeating myself here.

Lilura has gone insane. This meltdown is hilarious to watch.

Far from meltdown, I incline ever more steeply both as a 'Dexer and a commentator.

Someone in a state of meltdown would not have written off Beamdog and stopped commentating on their garbage. That is fucking inarguable incline.

As well, just posted a write-up on Best All-time Bugfixes. Incline.

Purging blog of critics of FPC/TB. Incline. Continual purging of shit taste in general. Incline.

Ramping up criticism of RTwP, regardless of which RPGs fall victim. Incline.

Declaration on prime page that Fallout is the greatest RPG of all-time (no one will dare devalue its legacy on my blog). Incline.

Getting better at assertive writing with each blogpost. Rare cases of "I just think that" will change to "This is how it is". Incline.

I continue to refine and assert my already cultivated taste in RPGs. This is foreign to a faggot like you, I know.

Proof:

In 2014, you started posting on the 'Dex. In 2017, your posts were no better than they were in 2014; you have stagnated: still just an impotent creep.

In 2014, my blog was getting no traffic at all. In 2017, I got a million views by covering three antiquated engines. INCLINE.

You need to stop thinking you are remotely on par with me in this sphere. You are a literal non-entity, a Nothing. Just remember that and you and I will get on just fine.

Oh god please keep posting. What timeline is this?

 

[Ninjerk]

Lilura for Commissar of RPG Gulag 2018

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

??? Lots of AD&D fans bemoaned that BG wasn’t turn based. They got over it, mainly because the full party control and the sheer breadth the of the magic system offset the widespread distaste for RTwP. The Baldur’s Gate series is almost universally adored by RPG fans. Neverwinter Nights is not. The people who love it mainly appreciate other peoples’ content, not Bioware’s. Of course there will be more calls to change a deeply flawed game than there were to change a beloved classic.

And adding an FPC mode would represent a major improvement. Instead Beamdog is phoning it in, lending more credence to the idea that everything they do is a halfway fraudulent cash grab.

People who don't like NWN don't like it for a number of reasons, and lack of FPC isn't the main reason. Adding FPC would be a huge gamble in an attempt to bring in players who don't own NWN already or who haven't played it in a decade. I stated numerous times that you need to realise that there will be very limited FPC content on release so it will be a slow sell and people who don't currently like NWN will likely move on pretty quick.

There's 1000's of players who over the years have played more NWN in one month than people like Lilura have played ever. These players like/liked NWN and have little desire for FPC.

You tell me which is a wiser decision:

change and sell your product to people who historically don't like your product, don't use the product, and might not even bother to try it again. They also won't stick around long adding value to the product.

Or sell to your products current and former fanbase, people who invested a lot of time into the game, own all expansions, create content. They already like the game so they'll most likely buy it and any future expansions.

The people they want to go after are the fringe people who never played NWN because it's old, and the people who stopped playing years ago.

You guys are really on the outside of NWN and have no idea what you are talking about. Thinking NWN was a failure? It was successful enough for two expansions, and at least an attempt at premium modules.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Beamdog as a business (just not as a game developer). If I were Trent Oster, I would be trying to make as much money as possible with the least amount of investment, which is his totally rational gameplan. I haven’t played the NWN since it was new, and I distinctly remember being let down, but I don’t care about multiplayer so maybe I wasn’t the intended audience.

Still, it’s a cash grab. The point of running a business is grabbing cash, so fair enough. But how many players are still active in the NWN scene? How many people want to play it now but can’t because of combatability issues? How many former players will come back with better looking graphics? When it came out I remember thinking that people liked this game for being pretty—I don’t see many of them coming back without upgrades so extensive that the best user generated content won’t be compatible anymore. As for multiplayer, I suspect it will be hard to lure many of those people back from real MMOs.

The problem with the EE model is that unless they do a lot of enhancing, people will gradually stop buying them—as seems to be the case with Beamdog’s latest releases. Maybe trying to win over people like me, who are on the fence, wouldn’t be such a crazy idea. I would buy the enhanced edition if I thought I was getting something enhanced enough to justify spending the money rather than popping over to my brother’s place and requisitioning our fifteen year old CD.

But the point I was actually making should not be controversial. Do you really think NWN is as good as the Baldur’s Gate series? I sincerely doubt it. Yet you compared it to Baldur’s Gate 2, Arcanum, and Age of Decadence. This is laughable.

 

[Immortal]

But the point I was actually making should not be controversial. Do you really think NWN is as good as the Baldur’s Gate series? I sincerely doubt it. Yet you compared it to Baldur’s Gate 2, Arcanum, and Age of Decadence. This is laughable.

Honestly. NWN1 has given me hours more enjoyment than BG2.
The custom module scene is really a gold mine. You have literally infinite hours of content to enjoy.

Your acting like BG2 or Arcanum is some like gold standard of the community. One is a buggy mess and the other is hated by like half this community for being rtwp romance simulator.

 

[YES!]

But the point I was actually making should not be controversial. Do you really think NWN is as good as the Baldur’s Gate series? I sincerely doubt it. Yet you compared it to Baldur’s Gate 2, Arcanum, and Age of Decadence. This is laughable.

Honestly. NWN1 has given me hours more enjoyment than BG2.
The custom module scene is really a gold mine. You have literally infinite hours of content to enjoy.

Your acting like BG2 or Arcanum is some like gold standard of the community. One is a buggy mess and the other is hated by like half this community for being rtwp romance simulator.

Are you really saying Arcanum is a buggy mess?

 

[Infinitron]

http://blog.beamdog.com/2018/02/february-16-livestream-recap.html

February 16 Livestream Recap


“The plan for persistent world servers support in NWN:EE is that you don’t have to do a preparation work - hack packs will download automatically.” ~ Phillip Daigle

During today’s livestream Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Studio Director Phillip Daigle discussed the latest Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition news and what players can expect during the second part of the 2.5 patch open beta for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. Jacob Burgess, voice of Glint Gardnersonson from Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, joined Phil for a live D&D adventure.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch!

Here's a quick summary of the highlights from the livestream:

• The 2.5 update for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is moving along. The second part of the open beta will come soon with fixes, features, and localization updates. IWD:EE is getting a Shaman class and there may be a new kit coming.
• We need beta testers on tablets! Humans, elves, dwarves, barghests, half-elves, half-orcs, full-orcs, double-orcs, gnomes, and aasimars who are interested in helping us lay siege to our next mobile release - sign up with the form here.
• This week, the Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Head Start program has come to Steam. All Head Start players - your Steam keys for NWN:EE are now available on Beamdog.com. If you redeem these keys on Steam you will enter the beta and the game will be added to your Steam library. Help us test Steam features and share your feedback on the forums.
• The new 8159 patch for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition focuses on bug fixing. Check out the full patch notes here.

When on Steam, you can opt in the “development” beta.

• We’re making it easier for those who buy Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and want to upgrade to the Digital Deluxe. Watch out for an update on Beamdog.com.
• We plan to release new builds for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition every two weeks. But you can opt in the “development” beta on Steam which will get updates more frequently. Caution: the “development” beta can be less stable.
• Conceptually, we like how the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition deals with switching between original and improved graphics by clicking one button. We’ll see if something like that is plausible for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.
• We have just started poking into the NWN:EE toolset. It’ll be awhile before we make progress on it, but we’re excited to get to it.
• The new model of Aribeth de Tylmarande was a test character. There will be further graphical updates for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition rolling out for next couple of years. Eventually, we are going to facelift everything (characters/tiles/weapons, etc), but it’s going to take time.

Phil the Paladin and Kraak the Kobold Barbarian acting out scenes suggested by the community.

• Custom shaders for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition are in the active development. As soon as we’re happy with how they work, we’ll document how to use them for modders.
• Software extension adding VOIP to a party or area are something we’ve discussed, but it makes more sense for players to use tools that already works like Discord, allowing us to focus our efforts on other features.
• We’re torn on the subject of extra henchmen functionality for the OC in Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and would like to reach out to the community about their suggestions on better ways to execute it. Share your feedback on our forums!
• Recruiting for our open job listings is still going on and we’re continuing to accept applicants. Send us your resume!

Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream next Friday!

 

[d1nolore]

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Beamdog as a business (just not as a game developer). If I were Trent Oster, I would be trying to make as much money as possible with the least amount of investment, which is his totally rational gameplan. I haven’t played the NWN since it was new, and I distinctly remember being let down, but I don’t care about multiplayer so maybe I wasn’t the intended audience.

You missed the boat, multiplayer was the main attraction at release and it was amazing what builders did with online mods so quickly. The skill of builders now is amazing and the worlds are really good. But thats ok, not everyone like the multiplayer experience.

Still, it’s a cash grab. The point of running a business is grabbing cash, so fair enough. But how many players are still active in the NWN scene? How many people want to play it now but can’t because of combatability issues? How many former players will come back with better looking graphics? When it came out I remember thinking that people liked this game for being pretty—I don’t see many of them coming back without upgrades so extensive that the best user generated content won’t be compatible anymore. As for multiplayer, I suspect it will be hard to lure many of those people back from real MMOs.

Lots of players dropped off over the last 10 years at differing times. If they were graphics whores they'd have left after about 1.5 years. MMO's are fucking terrible, except EVE. NWN multiplayer is a different experience.

But the point I was actually making should not be controversial. Do you really think NWN is as good as the Baldur’s Gate series? I sincerely doubt it. Yet you compared it to Baldur’s Gate 2, Arcanum, and Age of Decadence. This is laughable.

BG1&2 are far superior campaigns. NWN is a different experience and honestly as much as I loved BG2 I've spent 1000 times more time in NWN. But I never compared AoD, BG2, Arcanum to NWN. What I was saying was look at these great games that aren't Turn-Based with FPC, why must every game be TB with FPC? Cant we have variety. That was my point.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Is English your second language or are you just retarded? I feel like I'm repeating myself here.

You're actually not repeating yourself, not exactly, because you are moving the goal posts constantly. Just like a good autistic retard who cannot admit they posted some poorly thought out drivel to boost their ego.

 

[rogueknight333]

In other news, I have just banned one of my blog authors for having the insolence to call FPC "cancer"... on my blog. In addition, I called him a nasty name, deleted his anti-FPC posts and blocked his comments from appearing in my Top 10 commenter widget. I am sure that he is devastated...

But for some reason you left my post agreeing with him there? Though it now appears out of context and makes much less sense. In other words, among other things, you derailed a conversation in which you were not the only participant. If you want your blog to have comments as well as views arbitrary actions like this are not going to encourage them.

You have also made me curious how you would react to a comment arguing that Fallout was a terrible game because it did not have FPC.

 

[d1nolore]

In other news, I have just banned one of my blog authors for having the insolence to call FPC "cancer"... on my blog. In addition, I called him a nasty name, deleted his anti-FPC posts and blocked his comments from appearing in my Top 10 commenter widget. I am sure that he is devastated...

But for some reason you left my post agreeing with him there? Though it now appears out of context and makes much less sense. In other words, among other things, you derailed a conversation in which you were not the only participant. If you want your blog to have comments as well as views arbitrary actions like this are not going to encourage them.

You have also made me curious how you would react to a comment arguing that Fallout was a terrible game because it did not have FPC.

What do you think about a NWN:EE, do you have any plans to create mods for NWN:EE?

 

[rogueknight333]

What do you think about a NWN:EE, do you have any plans to create mods for NWN:EE?

To summarize my thoughts on NWN:EE briefly, it has the potential to provide two things NWN could very much use: better compatibility with modern operating systems and a marketing department. However, to be a positive development it is very important that it maintain backwards compatibility with at least most of the existing content, and the more numerous and significant the changes Beamdog tries to make, the higher the probability that bugs and compatibility issues will be introduced. If it were up to me they would not do much beyond a few bug-fixes and reductions in the hard-codedness of the game to expand the options for community modders.

I have no current plans to make any modules for the EE specifically. I intend as of this writing to complete the Swordflight series in a format compatible with the original non-enhanced NWN, which should also be playable in EE as well if it actually is backwards compatible. Thus, players of either should have access to it. It is of course possible that something could happen to make me change that plan (e.g., I might at some point need to acquire a new computer with the most up-to-date systems and find myself unable to get the original NWN working on it). If the EE ends up adding significant new functionality to the toolset I might make a short EE module to try it out.

 

[Sykar]

But the point I was actually making should not be controversial. Do you really think NWN is as good as the Baldur’s Gate series? I sincerely doubt it. Yet you compared it to Baldur’s Gate 2, Arcanum, and Age of Decadence. This is laughable.

Honestly. NWN1 has given me hours more enjoyment than BG2.
The custom module scene is really a gold mine. You have literally infinite hours of content to enjoy.

Your acting like BG2 or Arcanum is some like gold standard of the community. One is a buggy mess and the other is hated by like half this community for being rtwp romance simulator.

I sincerely hope you are not basing this on the modules created by other gamers, because that would be a faulty comparison and an invalid conclusion.

 

[YES!]

In other news, I have just banned one of my blog authors for having the insolence to call FPC "cancer"... on my blog. In addition, I called him a nasty name, deleted his anti-FPC posts and blocked his comments from appearing in my Top 10 commenter widget. I am sure that he is devastated...

But for some reason you left my post agreeing with him there? Though it now appears out of context and makes much less sense. In other words, among other things, you derailed a conversation in which you were not the only participant. If you want your blog to have comments as well as views arbitrary actions like this are not going to encourage them.

You have also made me curious how you would react to a comment arguing that Fallout was a terrible game because it did not have FPC.

I'd like to see an argument that shows how the lack of FPC made either real FO a better game, especially without the fan patches that make it way, way more functional. There was at least a 66% chance you needed to reload in either in combat because you got sprayed in the back by your companion/s or they just did something utterly wrong. The real FOs were awesome games, but that was despite lack of FPC in combat.

 

[Lilura]

What faggots you all are.

 

[d1nolore]

What faggots you all are.

It'd be nice if you left the thread. You add nothing of value and just keep derailing it with your trolling.

 

[Lilura]

Btw, did you guys watch the Shit-stream? Trent will likely open up FPC potential for community. Looks like he might hook in some people with bad taste who prefer to play non-authoritative, non-original incarnation of Aurora.

 

[Immortal]

Is English your second language or are you just retarded? I feel like I'm repeating myself here.

You're actually not repeating yourself, not exactly, because you are moving the goal posts constantly. Just like a good autistic retard who cannot admit they posted some poorly thought out drivel to boost their ego.

What goal post did I move?

Btw, did you guys watch the Shit-stream? Trent will likely open up FPC potential for community. Looks like he might hook in some people with bad taste who prefer to play non-authoritative, non-original incarnation of Aurora.

He actually said he wants help from the community to back port inventory management to SoU / OC from HOTU.
It's not clear that FPC is on the table as a consideration. He seems to be kind of dodgy in how he answered that full henchmen control topic.

 

[grotsnik]

• The new model of Aribeth de Tylmarande was a test character. There will be further graphical updates for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition rolling out for next couple of years. Eventually, we are going to facelift everything (characters/tiles/weapons, etc), but it’s going to take time.

You know, I can appreciate the commercial sense of taking the Infinity Engine games, giving them a lick of paint, and billing them as ‘accessible and modernised’ with a flurry of press coverage to hook in new players.

What I don’t understand is how Beamdog hopes to retain press and player interest for two years with piecemeal graphical updates to a game that already had a ton of modded makeovers available.

A few core-audience creeps cooing over a new Aribeth is one thing, but you’re going to hit a natural cap of player interest long before your announcement of ‘New! Hi-Res Boddyknock Glinkle released!’ in 2020.

What, are they just going to keep selling portrait packs in the meantime?

 

[rogueknight333]

...You have also made me curious how you would react to a comment arguing that Fallout was a terrible game because it did not have FPC.

I'd like to see an argument that shows how the lack of FPC made either real FO a better game, especially without the fan patches that make it way, way more functional. There was at least a 66% chance you needed to reload in either in combat because you got sprayed in the back by your companion/s or they just did something utterly wrong. The real FOs were awesome games, but that was despite lack of FPC in combat.

I actually agree that Fallout would probably have been better with FPC (to clarify in the event you misunderstood my comment to imply otherwise), at least if encounters were rebalanced to take that into account. Though it does seem the fact that many proponents of FPC also love games lacking that feature such as FO constitutes evidence indicating how simplistic it is to judge games simply by going down some checklist of desired features, with no regard for how they are implemented or how they interact with other elements in the game. NWN also might well have been better if FPC had been included from the beginning and the whole game designed around it being there (though in NWN's case it is a more complicated question since one would also have to consider how it would have affected the multi-player system, among other things). My main concern there is about implementing it retroactively, which if done is more than likely to result in a kludgy, barely useable system, which none of the existing modules are designed to work with, while incidentally introducing all sorts of bugs.