NWN2 Discussion

[Shir'le E. Illios]

[quote="Vendrin":1fjphq0m]I really dislike the adopted parent cop out[/quote:1fjphq0m]
True, but how else were they going to explain all those races (needed some ‘parents’). Another option would’ve been not referring to the parents at all, but that rather drastically changes the story since you can’t start in West Harbor anymore and the events of the past can’t have had such an effect on you ([i:1fjphq0m]someone[/i:1fjphq0m] needs to have raised you).

Overall it works fairly well I think.

[quote="Vendrin":1fjphq0m]and the fact by the time that you leave your village you are level 3 or 4.[/quote:1fjphq0m]
Yeah, I don’t like that at all either. If you do the majority of side-quests you’ll probably be somewhere around level 18-20 by the end of the campaign, which seems way too much, way too fast (even though the game is quite big). Personally I would’ve preferred if they’d kept the entire game within eight levels or so.

[quote="Vendrin":1fjphq0m]Also, game is buggy and rushed, though the community should iron out the problems.. But unfortunately it's what I've come to expect from Obsidian when Atari act like greedy bastards and force the game out early.[/quote:1fjphq0m]
I can’t comment on forcing the game out or not, except to say that it’s a very rare game developer who can push their deadlines back indefinitely; I don’t think Atari’s ‘greed’ has much to do with it.

Beyond that I’ve encountered a few bugs so far, but only one that forced me to reload an earlier save (some cutscene wouldn’t start at the end of combat) and the game hasn’t crashed even once even though I’ve had the game running constantly over the last weekend (including at night). Maybe I’m just lucky.

Then there’s a number of things where I feel they’ve taken a shortcut to a solution and I feel that there’s quite a bit of polish missing here and there. Had that polish been there then there’d be, I think, no doubt in anyone’s mind about this being a classic. People are already comparing it to Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment (not always something I’d find a favorable comparison), and some better polish would’ve help convince people to put it ahead of those.

Obsidian is already showing their dedication to continually support the game; having already released a first patch and working on a second one. Whether they’ll continue to patch and fix issues as much as NWN1 had (which is [i:1fjphq0m]still[/i:1fjphq0m] getting patches) remains to be seen, but I think that the outlook is good that they’ll fix a great number of problems people are having (like not being able to quickslot a dual-wield combination).

[quote="Vendrin":1fjphq0m]Oh. and no portraits, I hate having no portraits.[/quote:1fjphq0m]
I’m quite happy that they’ve done away with the 2D portraits as I could never find any that suited my characters unless I made it myself (or made the character to suit the portrait), in which case you run into issues with having to share that with others. With the 3D portraits at least the character looks exactly like they look in the game.

But then for me portraits have always been a functional thing, just there as a handle to the actual character. From my understanding for a lot of people the 2D portrait was something through which to individualize their character more and convey certain nuances about their character’s personality (which I tend to use the background description for).

Of course there’s also currently the issue of character customization being somewhat limited; the game could definitely use more faces and hairstyles. Hopefully Obsidian will help some there and I’m also certain that the community will provide additional heads/hairs like they did with the original game.


Tastes differ of course and I know that there’s a number of issues for NWN2 to resolve, but I can also say without a doubt that I haven’t enjoyed a game this much since KotOR (the first one) at least. In many ways I enjoy it even more than that game.


[quote="Alak Xiltyn":1fjphq0m]Shir'le I could kiss you.[/quote:1fjphq0m]
[i:1fjphq0m]<kisses back>[/i:1fjphq0m] You’re welcome.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

[Nedylene]

Heck Im of the opinion every level counts...i usually keep the game at medium difficulty but i have had to cut it down to easy cause my rogue kept getting her behind kicked...Maybe I just suck, but some of the quests in neverwinter have been tough..

[Alak Xiltyn]

From playing around with the toolset it appears as though creating a new prestige class will be a comparativly simple process on the down side it looks as though the number of classes will be severly limited

What I'm planning on creating is my beloved Spellsword (The version from the "Complete Warrior" book), setting up the BAB, saves and the like shouldn't be hard it's the Arcane Spell Failure reductions and spell channeling that have me worried.

[quote="Vendrin":2dlx7f2n] I really dislike the adopted parent cop out [/quote:2dlx7f2n]
I seem to recall people saying the same thing about Baldur's Gate, it's an over used plot device in RPGs because it works, if you leave out the parents the story will seem to lack any personal connection and won't be as moving.

[quote="Shir'le E. Illios":2dlx7f2n] Yeah, I don’t like that at all either. If you do the majority of side-quests you’ll probably be somewhere around level 18-20 by the end of the campaign, which seems way too much, way too fast (even though the game is quite big). Personally I would’ve preferred if they’d kept the entire game within eight levels or so. [/quote:2dlx7f2n]

While I agree whole heartily with you on this, many would have felt as though keeping the game at such low levels would have failed to showcase the full glory of the game or DnD for that matter. The cheif cause of the shift away from games inwhich you were held to low levels (Baldur's Gate for example) to Higher level cap games is the state of roleplaying today.

[rant]If the circles those of you who play pnp games play with are anything like the ones I do then I'm sure you've noticed that about 3 out of every 4 people is a PURE power gamer and the sessions are dominated by a few role players while everyone else sits around and waits for the next fight. Now I say "pure power gamers" because I too am a powergamer, but I'm also a roleplayer, my problem with them is that they don't seem to be able to be both.[/rant]

[quote="Shir'le E. Illios":2dlx7f2n] I can’t comment on forcing the game out or not, except to say that it’s a very rare game developer who can push their deadlines back indefinitely; I don’t think Atari’s ‘greed’ has much to do with it. [/quote:2dlx7f2n]

Having worked the retail end and having friends on the development end of the video game industry I can comment on this. There is only one developer out there which can truely be called greedy, and it's not Atari.

[quote="Vendrin":2dlx7f2n] Also, game is buggy and rushed, though the community should iron out the problems.. But unfortunately it's what I've come to expect from Obsidian when Atari act like greedy bastards and force the game out early. [/quote:2dlx7f2n]

You have to bare in mind that the developers are trying to get YOU what YOU want as quickly and as high quality as possible, if that means rushing things a bit, so be it, if that means cutting a few corners, it happens. Also bare in mind that sometimes they mess up on their estimates as to how long it will take them to finish something... okay so they ALWAYS mess up, the point is that if there wasn't someone rushing things the game would never be realased. Working at a Video game specialty store can be eye opening, especially the first time you see a grown man throw a temper tantrum because Street Fighter ultra hyper mega edition XXXXVI or this year's Madden NFL has been delayed a week.

oh and about bugs, as a general rule of thumb for every 1 you solve you create 5.

[quote="Shir'le E. Illios":2dlx7f2n] <kisses back> You’re welcome. [/quote:2dlx7f2n]

[Unen_Stealthfoot]

[color=darkred:11osfghd]Oh, gods, not Madden. Half the people in my english class are completely phsyco about that game. Of course, I could say the same thing about myself and BGII or NWN.[/color:11osfghd]

[Nedylene]

blah..i hate sports games..if i want to run around and bash people into the ground I will go to the park with some friends..sports exercise the body not the mind..lol..

[Unen_Stealthfoot]

[color=darkred:1zq3wynp]100% agreement, Ned.[/color:1zq3wynp]

[Alak Xiltyn]

[quote="Unen_Stealthfoot":3fgjai3r][color=darkred:3fgjai3r]Oh, gods, not Madden. Half the people in my english class are completely phsyco about that game. Of course, I could say the same thing about myself and BGII or NWN.[/color:3fgjai3r][/quote:3fgjai3r]

atleast NWN has a story to tell and can spawn creativity, Madden creates hostility that would have not just been prevented but would have allowed for the release of such frustrations had they instead gone outside and actually played football. I wouldn't be shocked if in the next 10 years the NFL's name is changed from the NFL to Madden's league.

Back on topic, is anyone else having troubles with the camera getting stuck circling in a certain direction? opening the console seems to fix things for me but it's still very annoying.

[Jubilee]

Aside from it running really slow on my X800, i'm not havin problems .. I could use much more to write my bio, they cut that limit in half this time, but i've fit what I needed in. But I love all the dynamic character options in it, how they actually conform and react to your choices.

All the rest I see here are personal gripes that have no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the game. I wanna portrait, I dont like being high level, I dont like my parents .. criminetly the grass isn't exactly like real grass either, and the swords are out of balance, and real villigers dont dress like that, and the people are ugly, and and and .. if you want dislike something you will find every excuse you want.

Now none of ya have an excuse not to play online, better see at least a dozen !!

[Unen_Stealthfoot]

[quote="Jubilee":1bym4773]All the rest I see here are personal gripes that have no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the game. I wanna portrait, I dont like being high level, I dont like my parents .. criminetly the grass isn't exactly like real grass either, and the swords are out of balance, and real villigers dont dress like that, and the people are ugly, and and and .. if you want dislike something you will find every excuse you want.

Now none of ya have an excuse not to play online, better see at least a dozen !! [/quote:1bym4773]


[color=darkred:1bym4773]Oh, yeah? I can't even play the game, period.[/color:1bym4773]

[Jubilee]

Note the fact that you commented after I posted, thusly I had no idea of your dilemma, and thusly you are excluded from the "griping" list, and definately have a damn good reason to be cranky.

Might add mine keeps crashing now .. might be graphics drivers, i'm lookin for older ones, i'd suggest you try rolling back yours too, a lot of times i've seen that help if the game is coded as wonkey as this one, far as optimization goes.

There is also a site that does custom drivers, they are usually a couple releases behind but right now they are current, and theirs are proven to boost performance because they are just that good at coding. [url=http://www.omegadrivers.net/:3e1kcv4n]Omega Drivers[/url:3e1kcv4n]

I'm tryin em again now, I used to use em .. letcha know how much it helps.

[Jubilee]

Okay, it runs a bit faster, and crashes just as fast. *bangs head* 3 crashes tonight, and I gave up, without even playing at all. I haven't even got out of west harbor. I think the patch made my game worse. I still love the gameplay .. but I want to strangle the graphics coders.

[Shir'le E. Illios]

It’s odd. I just finished the game yesterday (took me about a week-and-a-half, including two full weekends of very intense playing) and I’ve only had it crash once; during an area transition (right before which it auto-saved, so the only time I lost was restarting the game). I also had one game-stopping bug with a cutscene that didn’t want to start, but that bug has since been fixed in patch v1.02.

While I admit that there might indeed be something wrong with the coding of the game; do consider that it might be your system. Either that it’s simply not strong enough to run the game or that it’s a bit of a mess. I’d suggest defragging the harddrive (with something good like [url=http://www.diskeeper.com/:ve9fyyc6]Diskeeper[/url:ve9fyyc6] instead of the shoddy built-in defragmenter), making sure your computer is malware and virus free, updating everything to the latest drivers (and not just the graphics card), etc.

Still, I’m not saying that there aren’t problems with the game, but it might be something worth trying to get things running a bit better.


I hope people can get the game to run stable enough, because I can say without a doubt that this is, for me, the most enjoyable game since Knights of the Old Republic.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

[Nedylene]

Im not really having many problems with it at all. Even with our awesome system it still runs a little bit slow, but not enough to be a problem.But I havent finished it yet..so we will see, and shirle , since you have beat it, can I pm you for walkthroughs when I get lost? lol..

[Jubilee]

First thing I did was run system mechanic, on full defrag, hardrive and ram. *sigh* Anyone else with an ATI card havin any problems?

[Shir'le E. Illios]

[quote="Nedylene":10aooxt7]shirle , since you have beat it, can I pm you for walkthroughs when I get lost? lol..[/quote:10aooxt7]
Of course.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le