Tigranes

But roshan, I thought you couldn't finish the game because it was so unplayable. How would you know about that? "

I meant forced party members, btw, not the number of party members. In the latter case, it would be gameplay - I believe that even with all the modificaitons, NWN2 at heart is designed to be a single-character game (they couldn't even implement drag boxes or Select All, many players play without pause, and other small things I'll go into if you want.), so that too many (i.e. 6,7...) was too ungainly; on the other hand, they did want to implement squad combat, and all that focus on party members is kinda silly if you can only carry around one or two party members.

That's because the game wasn't very hard. :whistle: I think the difficulty in balancing comes from the fact that an experienced player always knows what's going on (not as easy for a casual player to notice, say, that Bishop's arrows are doing the creature no damage when there's a billion other things going around), and they can prepare adequately by manipulating the copmlex system of buffs. Experienced players IMO can give themselves a sizable advantage the second time they fight an encounter; if they fought unexpectedly the first time or were just mauled, next time they know what to do differently. I would say that this is partly because of the superpowered rest mechanism, and partly because in most encounters you can see the enemy long before they see you, and you nearly always get to prepare then throw a few fireballs in there before they can retaliate. More ambushes, more dispel spells by the enemy (modern games seem to really skimp on enemies using dispel / breaches), and so forth. Uh, anyway. Yeah, party member restriction thing had nothing to do with anything else but the story IMO.

Added City: Luskan Added Quests in City: Luskan Added Possibility that mainchar has relinquished involvement in plot to every dialogue and quest: Check Luskan Spy quests: Check Traiders and bodyguards quests: check Alternate verisons of all main plot areas to reflect fact that mainchar is no longer, say, the man to rescue the emissary in OOW: Check I would say that that is extremely time-consuming. The point htat I've been making is that it all depends on the plot: NWN2's plot was designed so that it is not incompatible with sidequests or such alternate possibilities, but it does not cater for them enough, so that to add them would take a lot more work than it would in, say, Fallout. What it could have had was individual offshoots such as De'Arnise Keep.

Problem being that they'd needed about 4 more months at least to do that. Such wild off-the-charts tangents would be excellent, but at the moment unrealistic. The spoiler'd point about continuing past the ending.. there is a point there, though, if still falilng under the budget curse.

NWN2's plot was about as linear as BG2, imo. The only difference is that BG2 had Chapter 2's "get 20000 gold" expanded onto a huge sidequest compendium, whereas if NWN2 ever had that kind of requirement you'd only have 2-3 things to do, and usually in a specific order. Also, a large part of NWN2 feeling 'oppressive' has to do with forced characters.

Depends on which project he is next Lead Designer for. "

Dungeon Siege => Dungeon Siege 2 Oh wait.... " As Sawyer said, the capabilities for nonlinearity as we currently understand is dependent on the style and direction of the plot - whether it is designed to build a universe that accommodates such 'nonlinearity'. The most blatant (and worst) example is NWN1OC, where you eventually had to get 4 sticks of power to progress, but you could visit each area however you wanted. The cost of this was, of course, that each of those 4 sticks and 4 areas had no relations to each other (indeed, they were independent dungeons for the most part) - so it's all about having that scope for nonlinearity in the back of the mind from the very start, then designing the plot that way. I really think Obsidian should at some point recycle BG2's "Get 20,000 Gold": firstly it makes money a little more realistic and integrated into the gameworld, whereas usually it's removed and the adventurers work on a totally different monetary scale to the rest of the world; secondly, it provided a reasonable link to the main story without hamstringing any nonlinearity, and thirdly, it is much better than the "we just have to wait until X happens" thing. I'm sure there are other, better ideas out there.

I'd rephrase that and say that in DR's opinion, those games were so fun and so good, that the flaws they had were either unnoticable or infinitely forgivable. Certainly, the flaws in BG series never really distracted me at all - I was very rarely frustrated by BG, bugs or flaws or whatnot.

That's amazing, roshan. Who'd have thunk that people would have different opinions? I gave a 9 but that was too soft - should be 8 tottering on 7, really. It's a semistep up from KOTOR2 IMO, all in terms of characters, plot, etc, what they focused on - as well as gameplay. It's still not the classic that we know they can make, but it's certainly good enough to play. But it's too linear in terms of exploration, too many plot stuffs were unfulfilled (esp. KOS, which really hurts the story imo) and just a little too many stale, uninspired areas (Gem Mines, Nolaloth, Mere Crypt, Highcliff Castle... not that most of them are bad per se, but they all follow the same formula, and provide little in the way of surprises.)

The trick is having either high AC or regeneration, IMO. If you run around in circles Lorne will only hit you sometimes, and if you are hasted (or are a monk or have Dash feat), you'll outrun him enough to stop and take a potion every once in a while. I found him really difficult with a wizard, and eventually used Khelgar, with whom it was a piece of cake. Just carry some potions, then run around while Lorne's on superrage.

Except half the creatures in the game have superspotchecks that see through invisibility...

Yeah, that would be cool. Pity all we ever got was Lilacor. Actually, Lilacor was pretty darn cool, if you never talked to him and just let him banter fromt ime to time.

Looks like somebody just screwed up dollars and cents, then this was compounded by the computer database program and the numerous other people who failed to catch up on the error. Verizon can't get out of it and should pay up as there appears to be written and spoken evidence- and then give a tongue-lashing to the sillies. No big deal, really, just your usual incompetence and bureaucracy.

Wrong method of delivery though. If you are under time constraints or budget constraints or whatever and can't do a full FMV or even a cutscene, then at the very least have 1/ a narrator that doesn't soundl ike a **** and 2/ none of the stupid real-time voices. Was easily the worst part of NWN2. The battle wasn't even really important to the plot in any way, was it?

That's one part I hadn't found - it's a Gem Mine ghost dialogue, right? I absolutely freakin' hated that stupid area (you try and play it in 10fps and getting ghosts LOST.), so I kinda skipped that part. Anyhow, yeah - the Gem Mines did plant the *seeds* of a very compelling villain, but I think the proportion was a little off in the plot - Garius had been built up a little too long and there was not enough time or narrative impetus left to sufficiently explain KoS. Zhjaeve's discussions do not really touch on this area, either. It's a pity because I really think he could have been compelling - sympathetic for some, pathetic for others, or perhaps merely intriguing. But definitely more fleshed out than Sarevok #16.

Well, you are Volourn. Just making sure. What was so good about the Silver Sword of Gith again? On a pure damage scale I don't remember it being so special, although that may be because my only real melee fighter was Khelgar with his hammers with the appropraite bonus feats. Putting the sword on the wizard wasn't really wise, and probably not for my current rogue.

Crap. If that was directed at my previous posts, completely irrelevant. I was talking about how compelling he is - and I did say that he shouldnt get the soap drama "But I'm still Good in ma heart and to ma mam" treatment. If not, fire away, not the topic I want to go into.

The function of the Guardian was, always, to protect the Netheril Empire in a proactive sense. The Guardian recognised the events immediately after its corruption as an invasion and destruction of the Netheril Empire. Now, upon its foundations, live people and exist civilisations that are completely unrelated. In the Guardian's line of "thinking", rather like a computer program, it recognises that the Netheril empire and its people are no longer free, in power (or even alive), and sees all occupants of these lands as threats to the resurgence of the Netheril. Of course, both because the empire is extinct and because KoS is all darky darky now, the only way it can accomplish this is through a sort of undead-ification of the land and a creation of some perverse undead shadow of the Empire. This would in the KoS's line of "thought" qualify as a suitable reconstruction of the Empire, and therefore an active fulfilment of its eternal obligation.

BG2 Silver Sword was better. Sarevok + Vorpal. :whistle: Last page someone commented about... ah, yes, KoS. He really needed a better dialogue section; I feel that coupled with the Arvahn Gem Mines, he could really have been a cool enemy. As it is, the nature of undevelopment was such that the background ended up being hackety and artificial, stupid and ineffective. You know, yeah, sure, he has all this stuff, started off Good, and evil forces, blah blah. Didn't have to be that way though - I'm not talking about KoS having "human attributes" and having all the memory of before and begs for death and release or something silly like that. You would still be speaking to a KoS that has lost his humanity (or somethinganity) and much memories, and is more like a construct wound by conflicting and unreasonable obligations and duties, which create that giant which is blind to its own contradictions and tragedies, and can only inexorably, insentiently, even, march on (to your pointy sticks of doom). As it is, it was merely a precursor to the stupid ending.

yep, kr_roster_edit is going to be as dear to me as Ctrl+Y. Stupid Ebon Hawk System. As for magic bags, I'd say even with 24 they needed a better system, but with 140+, even more so. Alternatively, they should have made crafting essences and gems weigh a LOT less, so that, say, Zhjaeve or Sand or Qara isn't screwed as craftmule because of a lack of *strength* to carry all the materials.

Magic bags are incredibly easy to find. I never use them though, because i hate the fact that they use a KOTOR2-style 'one-by-one' lists for all containers. It's even harder to navigate than the Baldur's Gate bags of holding, and certainly miles behind NWN1 system in this case. I just use the inventory to order things properly (e.g. Earth essences row, Water...)... magic bags are too much of a hassle IMO. They'd be lovely if they opened up another inventory window where you could drag and drop.

Obsidian hasn't established as good a system with rollback patches and critical rebuilds, unfortunately. My computer now stores, separately saved, 100-101, 101-102, 102-101, 102-103beta, 103beta-102, and 102-103. I found hardly any difference between 1.03beta and final, but 1.03beta had been quite a good upgrade from 1.02 (making camera not lag when the game does was a brilliant move). Uh, by 'good upgrade' I mean from 10fps to 13fps. In x800 XT. GAH. Even overclocking ze GPU didn't do much. Obsidian is doing its best to make the game itself as optimised (or whatever they do) as possible, but the fact is that from the very beginning, NWN2 is a game where 2 people with exactly the same specs have wildly diverging performance-related experiences, and that's often not something a patch can completely fix.

I loved the Blood War dialogue. I usually skim read it after the first couple of times, but I have fairly good memory and I do that with most games. The point was that he was, as far as I remember, an OPTIONAL npc and an OPTIONAL dialogue. 1/ At any poitn you can terminate the long dialogue and say 'goodbye', can't you? 2/ You never have to talk to him. 3/ It was, I believe, the Symposium. The setting prepared you for lots of lore. Pretty much, it was like going to an Elder Scrolls Library and finding about 50 books, except they weren't crap like most of the ES books are (seriously, 13-year-old-Tolkien-fan-fantasy). I have no idea why you could pick on this to complain. Sure, PS:T had way too much dialogue; I think someone arguing this would have much better luck with pointing out stuff that everybody does come across. And i would agree. But I don't think PS:T should have been made any differently. With less text and more discipline it might have been a better game, and certainly a better sale; but like a wild genius or an uncultivated gem, PS:T as it is is a wonderful game and unique in its own right, so for those who love it it is certainly one of its kind. In the perspective of Black Isle it might have been better to make PS:T more marketable and disciplined - but for gaming and for games, no.

Aah. I only craft what I need, I don't make for resale. That makes more sense then.