Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Neverwinter Nights – Tyrants of the Moonsea

[Jack Of Owls]

Used to love playing druids or shape-shifters in NWN modules so I could polymorph. Even a low-level acid drake the size of a border collie could reduce the biggest end-game bosses in a module to a puddle of McDonalds pink slime in 2 or 3 huffs 'n' puffs

I would love to play The Bastard of Kosigan series but I'm just not prepared to play a group of modules where you need a walk-through because if you so much as stray off the correct path for a minute to take a leak, you break the quest and the main game

 

[Crispy]

Hit CTRL+Shift+F12, expand the Debug tab, check the DM box, hit Login and you'll now be able to just drop the item from your inventory. Then hit Logout and CTRL+Shift+F12 again to get rid of the Debug UI.

This worked perfectly, by the way. Thanks again.

 

[Crispy]

Gargaune, do you happen to know how to disable the graphical effect for lesser ioun stones? I've already tried BigfootNZ - Ioun Stones VFX and Visualeffects.2da. Neither work on the lesser stones, apparently.

I want to use them but I can't stand that gigantic swirly effect they use.

 

[Gargaune]

Gargaune, do you happen to know how to disable the graphical effect for lesser ioun stones? I've already tried BigfootNZ - Ioun Stones VFX and Visualeffects.2da. Neither work on the lesser stones, apparently.

I want to use them but I can't stand that gigantic swirly effect they use.

You don't wanna start hacking away at visualeffects.2da for this, you might break other shit or introduce conflicts. The way to resolve this would be to edit the impact scripts referenced in spells.2da - currently, the scripts apply a linked effect combining the stat bonus and the visuals. The best way to do it would be to split the applications with their own durations, stat bonus stays as-is and the VFX goes to a short display, so you still get a visual feedback on application. It could lead to little confusion sometimes since Ioun Stones cancel each other out and NWN doesn't break down the individual sources of all stat modifiers, but meh.

The scripts to edit would be:

x2_sp_is_drose
x2_sp_is_pblue
x2_sp_is_sblue
x2_sp_is_blue
x2_sp_is_dred
x2_sp_is_pink
x2_sp_is_pgreen

Actually, I might have a look at this later today, the Ioun Stone persistent VFX have always bugged me too. Stay tuned.


P.S. CCOHEE has, under its Visual Effects branch, a VFX Editor and an Auto-Remove toggle, but some quick testing had the effect reset after Rest for the former and the latter I couldn't figure out.

 

[Gargaune]

King Crispy - done, download this and load it as a patch hak. Lesser Ioun Stone VFX have been separated from the stat bonus and will only play briefly on application. If you have one active on your save, you'll see the difference after you next rest. Only tested briefly but I don't think your PC will up and kick you in the balls, it's a simple change.

 

[Crispy]

Oh, sweet! Thank you!

 

[Crispy]

Gargaune, another question for you. Have you been able to figure out how to get antialiasing to work in NWN:EE? I've tried changing the anti-aliasing-mode setting to 3 in settings.tml, forcing AA in Nvidia Control Panel, even turning DSR mode on to attempt to upscale it but nothing seems to make any difference whatsoever.

The game looks fine, but those jaggies do irritate me.

 

[Gargaune]

Gargaune, another question for you. Have you been able to figure out how to get antialiasing to work in NWN:EE? I've tried changing the anti-aliasing-mode setting to 3 in settings.tml, forcing AA in Nvidia Control Panel, even turning DSR mode on to attempt to upscale it but nothing seems to make any difference whatsoever.

The game looks fine, but those jaggies do irritate me.

Not anymore, unfortunately. Though it was officially unsupported after the new renderer came along, I used to be able to force AA through nVidia Control Panel (at the expense of a minor glitch causing a thin white outline around objects overlapping the new water shaders), but that's stopped working since the latest major patch. You can still apply FXAA but that looks like dogshit, I'd rather begrudgingly put up with the jaggies.

How are you getting on, by the way? Post some impressions when you're done with TotM, I'm curious how my assessment tracks with others'.

 

[Crispy]

Difficulty has decreased significantly after gearing up, as you mentioned it would, but I've only just now reached Hillsfar.

I have to be careful, especially as a Transmuter, when and where to use my best spells, because I have no idea when my next resting opportunity will be. I also have to carefully take into account the temporary loss of spell slots if I do polymorph into a troll or umber hulk, for example, due to the temporary loss of Intelligence, so it's a fine balance. But for my piece de resistance, Tenser's Transformation, especially when Hasted and Greater Stoneskinned, nothing's been able to stop me so far. Even the banelich and the shadow dragon went down in heaps relatively quickly using that technique.

It's always fun knowing when to prepare for a big fight and not knowing when to, hoping that after you've already used your best spell(s), you're not going to need it/them again until after you'd found a place to rest. Playing a wizard in a high-level module like this is probably thus the most fun.

 

[Crispy]

Gargaune I actually solved my own antialiasing issue. Somehow, I was hilariously not actually applying the 4K resolution setting in NWN:EE after enabling DLDSR in the Nvidia Control Panel! . Now that I've done it correctly, I'm enjoying a much better looking image:

Much less jaggies.

To anyone curious, Nvidia has a feature called Deep Learning Dynamic Screen Resolution that allows your GPU to upscale the resolution your game runs at, then downscale it again to match your monitor's resolution (in my case, run the game internally at 4K, but display it to my 1440p monitor in its native resolution). The result is enhancing or, again in this case, making up for the lack of anti-aliasing in the chosen game. AMD/Radeon has something called "Virtual Super Resolution", but it's not the same thing and from what I can tell doesn't come close to the same results. DLDSR is supported on all Nvidia RTX cards (2000 series and up).

 

[luj1]

Gorgeous screenshot, this game always had a ton of charm for a blocky game

 

[Crispy]

Well, thank you, luj1!

Obviously, that's zoomed in almost to the extreme just to show off the detail. Zoomed out at "normal" camera distance, NWN:EE actually looks quite good. It can nearly be played like BG that way if you don't use "driving camera".

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Screenshot does look better than I remember NWN:EE was capable of. Haven't played it since that massive community update though. I learned to avoid Project Q-type texture packs/graphics mods in NWN for anything other than the OC and official expansions and you could probably make any module look and run right. Otherwise your polymorphed Umberhulk might not fit through that exit door then you're screwed and can't progress.

 

[Gargaune]

@Gargaune I actually solved my own antialiasing issue. Somehow, I was hilariously not actually applying the 4K resolution setting in NWN:EE after enabling DLDSR in the Nvidia Control Panel! . Now that I've done it correctly, I'm enjoying a much better looking image:

Cheers! I'd actually tried a 1.5x DSR once and it didn't make a difference so I ignored it, but now I've given 4x a go and you're right, beautiful, crisp image without the jaggies. For anyone else wanting to try it, turn your DSR - Smoothness factor all the way down to avoid menus getting blurry and use the EE's UI scaling option.

Anyway, I knew I bought that 4070 for a good reason - to play NWN!

 

[Grunker]

What’s with all the love for NWN lately? This game is one of the most bland pieces of crap ever made. Did we just get an influx of newfags with nostalgia for the game or what?

But actually finding it aesthetically pleasing? That requires a level of mental degradation I didn’t think possible

 

[razvedchiki]

the most unappealing gameplay feature is the one man army, having a basic 4 man party and balancing the game encounters around it would definetely make me replay everything that has nvn nights 1 on it.

 

[Cohesion]

Anyway, I knew I bought that 4070 for a good reason - to play NWN!

 

[Crispy]

Take *THAT*, asshole!

Edit: Not sure why this one looks a little blurry. I'm guessing the conversion to .jpg using GIMP caused it.

 

[Gargaune]

Aw, shit. King Crispy, don't suppose you've ever tried running the Toolset's Test Module feature with nVidia DSR, have you? On my end, it generates two problems:
a) performance tanks badly, both loading and rendering;
b) even worse, the Toolset locks up underneath when launching the game with a Super Resolution, regardless of whether it's via Test Module or a separate launch.

So it looks like if you ever wanna do Toolset work, you gotta remember to swap the game back from DSR to a regular resolution beforehand.

By the by, graphics-whoring aside, did you finish TotM in the end?

 

[Crispy]

@King Crispy, don't suppose you've ever tried running the Toolset's Test Module feature with nVidia DSR, have you?

No, I've never messed with the toolset.

By the by, graphics-whoring aside, did you finish TotM in the end?

I'm fairly close to finishing it. At the point of assaulting the keep, and I'm in the inner courtyard.

 

[Gargaune]

I'm fairly close to finishing it. At the point of assaulting the keep, and I'm in the inner courtyard.

Ah, yes, final stretch is close now.

 

[razvedchiki]

Gargaune is there a way to increase the difficulty of the encounters you know of?

 

[Gargaune]

Gargaune is there a way to increase the difficulty of the encounters you know of?

Aside from the Difficulty slider? Maybe TonyK's Henchman Inventory & Battle AI Mod for smarter enemies (and henchmen), but not editing encounter CRs themselves.

 

[razvedchiki]

thanks man, also do you remember if in this or the other ossian modules make use of custom modded armors/weapons like ie in Aeilund saga?

 

[Gargaune]

thanks man, also do you remember if in this or the other ossian modules make use of custom modded armors/weapons like ie in Aeilund saga?

What do you mean by "custom modded?" If you mean new visual models, both TotM and DoD brought a couple of new assets, but they've since been included as part of the default Toolset palettes. But it's just a couple each, not like Luke's SoS EE which uses a complete set of weapon model overrides.

If you mean custom properties like Unique Power On Hit, all post-OC modules have tag-based scripting enabled, but those special effects only work in their own modules because only they have the bespoke scripts. So, for example, if you get a custom +2 mace in a module that's scripted to spawn a gold piece whenever you hit an enemy, you can import your PC into another module and they'll still have that +2 mace, but the gold-spawning won't work. Same goes for visuals, if that mace had a custom haft that wasn't a default model in one module, then the haft will be invisible when you import it into an unrelated module, even though the item still works.