Wistrik
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Posts posted by Wistrik
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I've given Grobnar a chance by letting him tag along for a bit. Initially he does blather on annoyingly, very annoyingly, but he gets quieter later on because other NPCs keep telling him to shut up. That's funny. He is a nice guy, underneath all that chatter. His alignment is more attractive to me than Jan's was, and nothing Jan said or did ever came across as funny to me. Annoying yes, funny no.
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I'm not trolling, just offering my observations and opinions, like everyone else is allowed to do.
I'm doing quite well with Elanee this time around, got my influence with her up to 18 now, but she still won't tell me why she failed her test. I think it's hard-coded to wait until we get to the corrupted circle. I'm a ways off though because I'm taking my time. I just finished the trial and am in the process of cleaning out Aldenon's estate. Torio's outfit sure looks drafty; good thing it's 'Neverwinter'. :D
You can be really friendly with Shandra, and Elanee won't comment on it so long as your influence with Shandra is less than your influence with Elanee, which mine is this time around. Even if she does comment, you don't lose influence points with her because of it. Or at least I didn't in my last game.
There's a second story graphics flag in nwnplayer.ini but it isn't recognized in NWN2. I tried setting it to 1 to see if it would phase out upper-floor graphics so I could see where my party was going, but it didn't change anything.
There are times when a first-person view would be real nice, but for some reason the NWN/NWN2 developers don't like doing that. I don't know why; Ultima IX did it and it came in really handy. I asked for it before NWN2 came out and was told "no". I don't know why when older games did it well enough.
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You had the music on, which might be why the narrator didn't bother you. I had the music turned off long before I got to that point, so to me it sounded like one of the devs reading a script into a Creative microphone. I'm spoiled by the narrators for the BG series, the IWD series and NWN's campaigns.
There's more than enough ore to be found in Act 3 if you look for side quests that'll open up quick visit-once areas; most of these have one ore deposit in them. Nolaloth's area has one too. As I mentioned before, I finished the game with three or four extra ore deposits, and that's not counting the bugged, non-functional ore deposit in Logram's cave. It's a good idea to spin around when you first enter some caves, because sometimes an ore deposit will be right next to the entrance.
I thought the King of Shadows looked rather silly compared to his movie rendition; at least Ammon kept his appearance pretty much the same over the years. The KoS' shadow and greater shadow servants look more believable, with the shadowy fog that surrounded them. In contrast the KoS had a stark outline where his black body gave way to the background, with no blurring or fog or anything else. Sort of like a cartoon character. He also never creates his own weapons from shadow like he does in the movie, which would have been cool.
The only thing 'tough' about the battle with the three shadow reavers is that they had perma-knockdown every time one of my characters hit them. Typical developer cheese (helps hide their MINHP1 dev trick until you read the scrolls). I beat the fight easily by leaving the party back where the third reaver spawns. Once the conversation was over, I had my character high-tail it back to the third reaver spawn point. This left one of the first two reavers standing still in his original location, though his buddy gave chase. I immediately got Ammon busy reading one scroll targeting the third reaver while Z read the other scroll targeting the second reaver. Both fell shortly afterward. The remaining reaver was a simple case of rinse and repeat.
I enjoyed most of the quests, some of the characters, and definitely the keep. It's given me ideas for my own module, as well as a good idea of what the engine is (and isn't) capable of.
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#1: Elanee
She's more dignified, mature, and level-headed than many of the other characters. I always include her in the party. Thank you Obsidian for creating at least one character whose company I can enjoy without reservation.
She'll be upset if you woo Shandra, but will remain at your side after Shandra's gone.
Runners up: Khelgar (initially unbalanced, funny and likeable), Sand (witty and just, but not a do-gooder), Shandra (naieve but pleasant, gets a raw deal all the way around
)So-so: Casavir (agrees with me all the time, but that's all), Qara (immature know-it-all), Ammon (evil, businesslike, stubborn), Zaehre (gith with Persian veil, speaks like a philosopher, friendly), Grobnar (annoying voice, overly silly, friendly), Neeshka (whiney loudmouth, selfish and greedy)
Utter Failure: Bishop (token evil character, must've been abused by his aunt or grandmother)
Too bad this wasn't AJ's descendant instead. I'd bleed him and leave his carcass for the animals, then use his blood to enter the haven. Thus I'd improve the world at least four ways: remove an idiot from society, feed the animals, fertilize the land, put an end to Ammon's twisted methods. :D
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It works so long as you don't have five images or more. I did that once and got links instead of images. Your image works great.
Looks like someone stuck a chest down and forgot to update the walkmesh.
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Hmm, oh well. I'm not upgrading for NWN2, though that game will certainly run/look better because of it.
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I would have the guy castrated. Without the extra hormones coursing through him, he'd be far less dangerous. It would also prevent him fathering children in the future, a right he gave up with his first attack.
I feel terrible for the woman. I deal with mild depression daily and that's bad enough, I can only begin to imagine what she must be going through. Those emotional scars will be with her for the rest of her life.
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Video memory makes a big difference if you're running hi-res with quality textures. For example, if you want to run the Cinematic Mod (hi-res textures) in HalfLife 2, you're going to need a card with lots of memory because the textures are huge.
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Ah, well I never make clerics, so no wonder. A shame it's ignored on other classes.
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Yeah, Neeshka's "HAW!!!" when she attacks gets old rather quickly; just another loudmouth I can do without. I get a kick out of Elanee's attack sounds though, much more enjoyable.
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I wish they had more background feats. None of the current feats fit my character so I always pick No Background, which seems lame. In keeping with
Elanee's
descriptions of my character while growing up, which I feel represents me well, I would like to see a Reserved Guardian type of background feat. (Name stolen from soundset of same name, for lack of a better idea at the moment.)
My characters respect the land, tend to be introspective and mild tempered, love to learn new things, stand up for what's right, don't tolerate evil, protect their friends and look out for their interests. Haven't taken the time to figure out the bonuses/penalties yet.
Usually I take one of those unique level one only feats to make up for it, like Luck of Heroes or Blooded.
Diety has never had an impact on anything in the game. I even tried Ao once to see if anyone would notice. Nope. Nada. Nil. My race has been mentioned a few times, but not too much; after all, most creatures are used to seeing one humanoid race or another wandering around.
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It's one reason I want to move up to NVidia's 8800GTX. It has the option to 'force' FSAA (and other features) on applications that don't use it by intercepting the data and applying the necessary changes. Really, really fast, of course.
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This was never an issue for me in NWN.
Yes it was. It happened on my ATI 9800 and it happened when I got my 7800GT as well.
I said 'for me'. I'm sorry it happened for you, but that doesn't mean it happened to me too.
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I've noticed this game seems to use an old BG2 trick called MINHP1, which in that game was an item that prevented an NPC from dropping below 1HP and dying. When the time came, a script removed the item so the NPC could be killed. It has been the cause for many a cheesy battle where a competant party should have killed the NPC immediately if not sooner. Sad to see NWN2 using a similar tactic.
Jerro/Z only read the names the first one or two times to show you how it's done. After that quick tutorial, I always had to tell them to read the scrolls, even if they said they would do it. I just chalk it up to the usual weak AI.
I just had Bishop forced into my party for early Ember, so I let him die during battles. He's such an idiot. Qara is not much better; I have a 14 year old friend who is more mature than she is. Pathetic. Neeshka might work out for some folks, but we don't see eye to eye and I get tired of her perpetual whining, especially when Elanee joins the group or says anything later.
Your stronghold was better by a little bit; I only had 112 recruited, but we kicked ass. I set my standards to the same as Greycloak and left it there.
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I agree about the graphics, they are nice. Keep in mind not everyone knows the intricacies of tweaking their video card for the best possible display.
The game looks wonderful on my computer with a relatively old 6800GT.The animations do need work. When characters run they have about 15% glide built-in, so it doesn't look right. And when the game lags internally and warping fails to kick in, you can watch them glide along the ground without moving their legs. Had this happen to several orcs in one battle, and it looked ridiculous. This was never an issue for me in NWN. (Overall I prefer NWN2's graphics, but NWN's animations.) Too bad developers can't leave what works alone.
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Wistrik: yeah, but I wanted to show off the UI mods.
That particular area would be 15-20fps. Indoors, it would be 5-10.
; I only leave normal mapping & high textures on because there is no fps change. Not that normal mapping seems to DO anything.Kouraboros is awesome.
Ahh, didn't notice UI mods. World images are what I look at.
On my 6800GT normal mapping makes a big difference; textures, especially land textures, look washed out without it.
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Looks good.
Did you know you can hide the GUI for taking screenshots, by pressing the H key? (It toggles the GUI on and off.)
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I was going to get an incremental upgrade (GeForce79xx video card, faster CPU same socket type) but decided I would be better off spending some extra cash and getting a major core upgrade. Of course it all depends on what a person can afford, but I've been saving my pennies.
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Actually zooming out helps performance. Zooming in hurts it because levels of detail (LOD) increase when you do that. Besides, with the walls and taller objects getting in the way all the time, I usually play zoomed out quite a ways.
Forgot to add that my FPS can go up to 30+ on occasion, but only outdoors.
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Well, I'm guessing that this game's code is not very well optimized. They probably turned on compiler optimization and let 'er rip. That's not good enough if you want to be competitive. It would explain the heavy dependence on CPU speed, because unoptimized code is going to hit hard in that area. Once you get the data to the GPU, the video card can do its thing just fine, but if your code sucks, your GPU is going to spend a lot of time waiting.
Uh, I posted what I have and what I get for FPS ranges...
It could be that torches affect me. All I know is if an area is heavy with objects, including creatures, the FPS drops like a rock. If I swivel the view around to a less cluttered area, the FPS shoots back up to around 20. I could make it higher if I turned off shadows completely and did a few other things, but then the game starts looking really ugly. So I sacrifice performance a bit in order to have an enjoyable view.
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I get about 20 FPS indoors and outdoors so long as I keep the camera over and behind the party (30FPS if I look straight down while outside). If I'm indoors and bring the camera down to a horizontal level behind the party, the FPS can drop as low as 8, which is ugly. Maybe Obsidian should look into BSP trees or something.
Here are my current specs. Feel free to laugh.
CPU: Athlon64 3200+ (2 Ghz average clock speed)
Mobo: NVidia Nforce4 SLI
Memory: 1 Gb PC3200 DRAM
Memory Bus: 200Mhz
HyperTransfer1 Bus: 1Ghz
Video: 1 NVidia GeForce 6800GT PCIE
Sound: onboard Soundblaster 24-bit (this has worked suprisingly well)
Drives: 2 250Gb SATA hard drives configured RAID 0, DVD R/W
Net: 1 NetGear card (onboard net locks up so I disabled it)
Spell battles, and battles in general, don't affect this system much. Rendering the map/graphics hurts more than anything. High resolutions, shadows, and water are FPS killers on this system.
I'll be upgrading most of the core hardware when I move up to the GeForce 8800GTX, in particular the power supply which must have two video power outputs capable of sourcing 12V at 30A when connecting to the 8800GTX.
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Yeah you'll finish the preparation with everything maxed out and have four extra ore deposits if you find them all.
Kana mentions how well your forces handle themselves and attributes it to training and equipment, if they're well equipped.
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Here's Bevil and my character exploring ruins.
Unspoken feelings barely hidden.
Unfortunate combination of game load positioning and a greatsword.
I apologize for the low resolution (1024x768).
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You can have two miners, Pentin from Old Owl Well, and a woman from the inn in Port Llast. She'll manage the financial side of the mining. To upgrade your soldiers' equipment, you need to find an armorer and weaponsmith who'll come to the keep. Once you have them, talk to them about upgrading equipment. This is tied directly to how much ore you find, so keep looking. I usually have five or six ore deposits discovered by the time I'm done rescuing the emissary near Old Owl Well. Several more appear later. (Edit: I just click on the ore and it always works (you get 50 XP if it works), except for the bugged one in the bottom of Logram's caves.)
At some point a mysterious/quiet merchant will visit you and ask to set up shop, no questions asked. As Torio will indicate, if you show her mercy, you have the option of setting the guard tower up for him. (He'll establish a gambling joint.) When you save the drow woman from the fire giants, you have the option of sending her to work for this gambler. If you don't set aside the guard tower for him, she'll end up running a shop in the merchant building (if you've rebuilt it). That building is also where Deekin ends up if you invite him.
The other options for the guard tower are an archmage, who none of the good members of my party recommended, and the Neverwinter Nine, who use it as a field office (complete with a shop).
Hope that made sense, I'm falling asleep.
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Volourn's Wowwy Journey With NWN2:Spoiler Edition
in Computer and Console
Posted
Wow, you must've seriously irritated her. I grew up on a farm so I find it fairly easy to understand a D&D druid, which is probably why Elanee and I get along so well.
I get a kick out of Nolaloth; sort of reminds me of the Spectator Beholder in BG2. In fact that whole area is fun to visit.