Spider

I think part of the answer lies in player experience. I've played enough D&D computer games by now that I have the mindset down in how to approach tougher fights. I have a decent grasps on what buffs and debuffs are good and so on. What I'm saying is that fights I found to be very difficult back in the BG1 days, I kinda laugh at now. I actually can't recall the last time I found a fight in any D&D game to really be challenging. Maybe something in ToEE, I'm not sure. Otherwise it must have been something in BG2. What I'm saying is that someone who makes their first foray into computer D&D with NWN2 will probably find some of the fights plenty challenging. Bottom line, game companies wants people to actually be able to finish their games and making them challenging to veterans may go against that desire. Hell, in order to make a D&D game actually challenging to me, they'd probably need to have encounters like those found in the BG2 tactics mod. But those would make newbies cry (some of them actually make me cry to this day). So fights of that difficulty is probably best avoided. Unless they're made completely optional (in regards to the main story) and plenty warning is given in-game. That could actually be kinda interesting.

The dragon never joined me when I made a deal with it. When I came back to it, it was still talking about going to kill firegiants. I got totally creamed the first time versus the dragon (to the level I was wondering how the hell I was going to beat it), but the second time, it just died. Better buffs and all, but it went down so easily I wondered how the hell it beat me the first time. All in all, there aren't any fights in NWN2 that are particularly difficult if you prepare properly for them. My second playthrough I had to reload once due to party KO and that was more due to me being careless and not paying attention rather than the fight being difficult. (it was the two dragons and I had one on the last sliver of HP which I assumed that my fighter would take care of, so I concentrated on the other one. It's just that my fighter had been knocked down and was no longer targeting the dragon, just standing there getting chewed to pieces and then two dragons made short work of the rest of the party. Had my character kept attacking the dragon after the knockdown, I wouldn't have to releoad a single fight) (oh, and my party was something like Grobnar, Zhjaeve, Bishop and Neeshka at that fight, which is why they got creamed when they had to deal with two dragons)

Electron is the graphics engine which is brand new and written from scratch. Nothing of Aurora in that. Modified Aurora deals with everything else. So NWN2 uses both Electron and Aurora.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Three for weapons, four for armor iirc. There are three deposits when you do the dwarf allies quest which should go a far way. One in the well in ember that can still be reached in act III if it was missed, another one in the Wendersnaven area.

As far as I know, that's only been me. And I didn't really say that they were useless, just that my party was tough enough to handle the siege without them. And even unbuffed, not a single one of them went down during the siege engines or gate battles. I don't think they killed more than 5-10 opponents total during those battles either. But I'm sure they can be formidable, but it would have been nice if having crappy soldiers would actually make the siege more difficult. You only get one or the other in regards to Sand or Qara. Their dislike for eachother is fierce enough, regardless of how much influence you have with them. I don't think Jerro can betray you, since that would kinda mess up the whole reason for him being there in the first place. Bishop left during the siege, but at the final battle I convinced him to leave. It'll be interesting to see what happens with my evil character who actually has a lot of influence with him. Can he be persuaded to rejoin my side I wonder. Apparently the Construct can betray you if your influence with Grobnar is too low. I think Elanee and Khelgar are always safe though.

I got that. You don't need all that much influence with her to get that one. I didn't even notice that one was influence based, it comes when you ask her why she wants to go with you and why she thinks you can stop KoS or something like that. It was a nice reference though.

Yeah, but still... I could easily have done both the courtyard stuff and the siege engines without the dwarf detachments I had with me. Seriously, in the courtyard the shadows usually didn't even reach the dwarves with Qara greeting them with fireballs and me mopping up the survivors. Same with the siege stuff. My character would typically handle one tower by herself while Qara and Zhaejve held down the next (with the dwarves, but again they weren't really that helpful). There was never more than two towers at the walls at the same time. The troops may as well just not have been there. As for the slashing resistance etc. Does that EVER come into play? It's not like you get any strategic troop deployments or anything. You fight and get some buddies to fight with you. I get the feeling that there was intended to be more of an actual battle (where you were commanding instead of on the front lines) but that it got cut.

The question is if it even affects the difficulty of the coming battles in any significant way.

Which is why I'm thinking all this keep stuff is just fluff. Very cool and entertaining fluff, but fluff none the less. (not that I mind fluff, I actually loved having the keep)

Edit:

I didn't patrol the roads much. Or at all, actually. My character had strong allegiances to the Shadow Thieves and they said not to. The surrounding lands, on the other hand, were extremely safe. But no one ever came to me requesting help.

I personally (which I've posted somewhere already) didn't like the ending at all. Basically I really disliked everything from when you teleported to the final area.

Have you actually tried? But my point is that it wasn't exactly anything particularly difficult about defending the keep anyway. The Greycloaks did about bugger all during it all, my characters could easily have taken care of by themselves. Besides, if you have the alliance with the dwarves you can get Dwarven fighters (or Lizardmen) instead, so no need for Greycloaks at all. Building up the keep did net 2000 xp at the beginning of the siege, as did having two alliances. Ignoring the keep will have to wait for a third playthrough though, since my current character has gotten too far with it as is. Not sure when that'll be happening. But it will be interesting.

The liquid is found in the glowstone cave if you have Grobnar with you. The Golem is a party member though, not something that is an extra ally in a battle. As for the keep stuff, I'm not sure that there is really any point to it. Other than the XP. I mean it's fun and all, but will the game play differently if your keep sucks? You still have to take care of business yourself. I think I'll ha to try and go through it one playthrough and just completely ignore the keep to see what happens.

If it was planned to be included but cut there is a chance there are still fragments of it left in the game, possibly enough to piece something together. Like the Kotor2 restoration project and BG2's unfinished business mod.

A lot of the performance-based issues goes away if you have a decent computer. I don't recall the slow-down in the sewers, but can't say for sure. The boat escape is definitely fixed though. Exactly what are you referring to with Chinatown and beyond? It's still a hackfest if that's what you mean. I find the game to be very playable with the second patch (although I tend to shy away from the fan ones since they not only patch the game but mod it as well, in ways I'd prefer they didn't in some cases).

Spoiler tags, JUST for Volourn.

Yes for Lizardmen and Dwarves. Dwarven scouts gets repopulated in Act III. There is nothing there you can do in Act II if you've already cleared it, although you can clear it in Act II rather than Act I I think.

Yeah, she does. Forgot about the other one though, so at least two can do the bracers.

Can't be done.

I was waaaay off. It took me about 50-60 hours to complete I'd estimate, although that is with some reloads and restarts. But 40-50 hours start to finish for sure. I'm glad I was wrong.

Even without his clan equipment he is pretty good (didn't want him to use it since I didn't care about the warhammer and there were better options available for the other slots). He didn't seem to take much damage at least, that's for sure. He may not be dishing out as much as when he was a fighter, but he definitely kept going longer.