Gromnir

spellcaster ai is... unfathomable. our favorite example were watching as the elf tart woulds try to cast flamer's weapon as an Offensive spell. thankfully those zombie warriors weren't carrying weapons at the time... or maybe they were straight. am not sure. regardless, spellcasters will do some stoopid stuff made all that much worse by fact that their ai seems tied to normal mode. is no fear of using AoE spells. sadly, while Gromnir is resigned to babysit joinable spellcasters, we really hates micromanaging bards... 'cause they gots spells and bardsongs and inspirations, and it seems as if making 'em useful is requirng lots of effort. on the highest difficulty enemies do 200x damage, which seems fair considering fact that pc and party members gets max hps. that being said, some of the bad guy critical hits becomes rather extreme. HA! Good Fun!

some good news: Quote: Posted 01/12/07 23:39 (GMT) by Rob McGinnis The release notes are just a repost of Nathaniel's list. The fix for the Win2k issue will be in the final release of the 1.04 patch. Until that time, you Win2k users can download the .dll file from Microsoft's website, I am told. ----------------------------------- 1. 1.05 is in early process 2. Hide & Invis is intended for 1.05 3. Manyshot should be fixed in 1.04 4. Rapidshot should be fixed in 1.04 5. Practiced Spellcaster should be fixed in 1.04 6. Looping cutscene in Tavorick's manor intended for 1.04 final 7. Quick slots emptying on transition or cutscene should be fixed 1.04 I will try to answer some patch questions here. Check back with this post for updates. ... now, among other things, we still need Grobnar sending party mates into rage spiral fixed... and last time we checked, joinables continue to use potions even if we use ai to disable item use. furthermore, we notice that sometimes the crossroads keep special missions inexplicably discontinue advancing. at what point does special missions stop? is it a time thing or % complete thing or a chapter thing? HA! Good Fun!

no doubt you is correct... but if an appropriate cost v. benefit model for manhours had been in place for nwn2, you might not have a job at obsidian as lead... so be thankful for the ineptitude of those not so easily forgotten. HA! Good Fun!

no new news will be heard for 8 months... thread will be forgotten. then some new bit o' news will appear and we can start all over again. sure as heck no need for a sticky. HA! Good Fun!

to be fair, it is the new stuff that peoples thinks is kewl... new prestige classes and new classes and new 10075 and spells n' such. simply fix all the basic stuff might makes serious d&d fans happy, and would probably please the hardcore crpg fan, but new stuff is what gets folks all giddy. go back and see just how many people on this board were looking forward to playing warlocks. were more than a few... surely more than were complaining 'bout how terrible the cleric domains from nwn1 were. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

fact that umd becomes more powerful at high levels counters the fact that warlock abilities/invocations is most powerful (relative speaking) at low and mid levels. compared to other casters, the unlimited castings at low and mid-levels is pretty powerful up until 'bout 10th or 12th level. 'course by that point mages now gots loads o' spells and they is doing considerable damage with those spells... and that is almost the eaxct point at which umd becomes very valuable. keeps warlocks ahead of curve throughout game. 2 no-brainer feats we seen for warlocks in nwn2: 1) skill focus umd 2) shield proficiency ('cause a small +5 mithril shield o' fortification is nothing to sneeze at,) scroll dcs is rough... but those 3 extra ranks makes a big difference. scroll dcs ain't really proportional. start tough, but not get exponential more difficult as one might expect. as for wand costs... *shrug* is a matter o' perspective. how much does that chime of opening cost from merchant? is pretty expensive. a wand with 50 charges of knock is far cheaper. by 12th level is probably not hard to have wands for most useful mage spells (self-buffing stuff that not have a dc involved,) though absence of mirror image is making less useful. heck, for nwn2 we would reccommend having casavir and bishop taking craft wand feat if you plays a warlock...holy avenger, bless weapon, remove blindness, restoration, death ward, cremove disease, bakskin.... etc. is excellent wand spells for nwn2. in any event, is 'nuff class and race specific items to make umd worthwhile. HA! Good Fun! ps dc for scrolls is 25 + spell level of scroll... if game is hardcore or tougher. so, breakdown typical warlock w/ skill focus umd at 12th level wizards is casting level 6 spells at 12th level. for warlock to cast 6th level spell from a scroll at 12th level requires beating a dc o' 31 15 - ranks in umd at level 12 6 - 18 or 19 charisma boosted to at least 22 4 - deceive item feat 3 -skill focus umd +28 umd at level 12? is not a gimme, but gets easier from there 'cause you goes up 1 rank per level and will gets even greater charisma mods and wizard only gets new spell levels every odd level.

"I like being a bit stingy with gear and magical items" is one reason why Gromnir not play base 3.5 d&d rules. item creation feats and requirements as they appear in books makes so that even if you is stingy, players can makes their own 10075... and they can makes some pretty powerful stuff. a d&d world with item creation as per rules is almost always gonna be monty haul if players want it to be. HA! Good Fun!

"I think it's the dullest base class in NWN2." given the lack of an xp penalty for crafting, not to mention the huge 'mount of gold a party can aquire, umd coupled with warlock invocations makes 'em boring & powerful. dc for 9th level scrolls is 34 or somesuch? am always forgetting new scroll dc for 3.5. regardless, with high charisma and free umd feat, warlock is bestest umd character in game... and interesting takes a backseat to power every single time... which you shoulds know by now. iwd2 kits? is somewhat lucky that most folks not seem to realize just how useful umd can be, or warlocks might be more popular... and as we agree that they is pretty boring, Gromnir not wanna see 'em become more popular. HA! Good Fun!

1 domain spell per spell level. that means ONLY one domain spell per spell level. 1 use of holy smite per day is nice, but nowhere near as useful as is, for example, simply adding call lightning (which is busted BIG time in nwn1 and nwn2,) and chain lightning to your cleric's spell list. is understandable why obsidian not give 9 spells per domain, 'cause that would be wacky busted, but am not sure how they come up with the spells/powers that they did... and am not sure why they not spend a little more time reworking domains to be more like d&d... or less. after all, if you ain't gonna do like d&d, then why not does better? all the talk of brand new engine for nwn2 makes us laugh... 'cause there ain't no way in hell that you makes all new engine for nwn2 and simply does same as nwn1 for domains. developers gots some weird definition for what they means by new engine. and does josh comment mean that there is more stuff gonna be fixed in 1.04 than is listed by nathan? anything noted by Gromnir as busted? HA! Good Fun!

am still curious 'bout why so many things not show up in nathan's list o' fixes for 1.04. missing feats? did developers ever even acknowledge that augment summons and practiced spellcaster were missing feats? posters at bio mentioned that those feats could be added via console, and they not seem to thinks they were broken. were left out for balance maybe? Gromnir checked pretty regular at bio boards before and after 1.03 release... but nothing from developers, 'least not as of a week ago. didn't see nothing in nathan's post 'bout many-shot neither. pre 1.03 patch many weapons that did bonus damage would do positive or divine damage, but those items all seems to do magic damage now? as far as we know, developers never addressed reason for change. undeath to death, meteor swarm, and disintegrate cannot be scribed to scrolls... mirror image can't be scribed or added to a wand... is more than a few other such spells that seems to he unscribable or inappropriate for wands. is no mention in nathan's post 'bout fixing such stuff. is quicken spell still busted? shouldn't be able to have a quicken spell interrupted. bracers o armour and ac bonus stacking in general seems to be busted. is there a reason why some warlock invocations bring 'bout an arcane spell failure check and not others? *quasi patch related* as Gromnir has noted before, nwn2 domains is a mystery to Gromnir... looks like obsidian chose expediency and simply chose smae format as nwn1 cleric domains. fine. am accepting that domains in nwn2 is just as busted as domains in nwn1... but does anybody know of a fix? am not sure why obsidian not adds a feature to makes prestige classes and domains customizable this time 'round, but if somebody knows of such a mod, let us know. let us try to keeps this thread 'bout the patch, eh? HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* repost: "vol never did nothing useful with old nwn toolset, so why he is interested in new nwn toolset?" None of your business. L0LLERZ I use it to jerk off to the sexy dryad models. R00fles! end repost you went south from that point. heck, we were joking, but maybe you does have ADD. oh well, thnks for the non-help with domains. HA! Good Fun!

"vol never did nothing useful with old nwn toolset, so why he is interested in new nwn toolset? " the comment tha, prompted your endless and mostly mindless responses... you complained both 'bout our qualified and unqualified observations 'bout your lack o' accomplishment with toolset. sorry vol, but you cannot now pick and choose. you were worked up already when we said you hadn't done nothing useful, so try to now tries to make some insane last stand on fact that you has done something/anything with toolset is more than a little wacky. is that ADD thinga again, no? you already has forgotten the past couple pages? *chuckle* oh well, is not really worth the effort to try and further educates if you refuse to listen... and am not sure what you thinks Gromnir has to be sensitive 'bout in this thread? am still trying to figure out what we would be "embarassed" 'bout... but vol lives in his own little fantasy world. however, as a true afficianado o' the toolset, maybe you can suggest some mods/alternatives to current cleric domains... that way we can keeps you on-topic. HA! Good Fun!

It's probably the Chinese. :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> wouldn't doubt it... and microsoft probably designed whatever software the chinese use in conjunction with the transmitters. HA! Good Fun!

not really. most threads on this board eventually gets to this level. in any event, Gromnir makes a single comment that vol never did nothing useful with toolset in a post otherwhise devoted to talk of patch... but vol wanted not so much to discuss patch, and he gets offended that we agree with him that he ain't never did nothing noteworthy with toolset. vol has always been... wacky... not normally this sensitive though. typical we would simply let it slide. we has all become so familiar with vol wacky levels that we all pretty much accept as the norm. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

maybe you shoulds recheck our first post on the subject and see whose reading skills is bent. from very start we has quallified with noteworthy and useful language... if you missed, then your reading skills is the problem, not Gromnir's... but that shoulds not come as a surprise to anybody, eh? HA! Good Fun!

"EDIT: Looked up the thread on the bioboard, and I think they just added spells for every level for clerics. Not quite the same." yeah, Gromnir saw those mods, but dismissed 'em as munckin bait. disintegrate as a single domain spell slot choice is a far different thing than is adding to spell list. practiced spellcaster is a feat that nullifies penalties for multi-classing your spellcaster. the feat boosts effective spellcaster level by up to 4 (if our recollection is correct,) but no greater than actual character level. example: bob plays a rogue/wizard... took 3 levels in rogue. bob is now a 3/8 rogue/wizard. with practiced spellcaster his effective wizard level is 11 for purposes o' determining durations and damages and overcoming sr n' such. however, bob is not an 11th level wizard for purposes of getting spells and feats n' such. if bob were a 5/3 rogue /wizard, his effective wizard level for spell durations and overcoming sr n' such would be 7... 'cause practiced spellcaster nullifies no more than a 4 level disparity 'tween character level and caster level. makes sense? am not sure what is wrong with archery... though we recently noticed that following a battle, bishop and sand had used the exact same number o' arrows. am gonna have to check on that... seems wrong that bisshop and sand would have had = number of attacks. HA! Good Fun!

... it is like you don't even read what Gromnir writes... must be that ADD again. and we guess that we is gonna have to take your word that you did something noteworthy with the toolset.... thogh lord only knows what you sees as a cause for emberassment. nevertheless, if you simply enjoys tinkering with toolset to no avail, that would no doubt be 'nuff reason to have interest in toolset... 'course as vol is such the nwn crafter... request for new patch: add a way to customize the cleric domains... 'cause the bioware/obsidian domains is mostly terrible. HA! Good Fun!

huh? am just curious as to why vol worries so much 'bout a toolset he ain't never used to complete anything... and given how confused and irrational his posting is, we has a hard time believing that he would ever be able to complete a substantial project with the toolset... nwn1 or 2. what is this, ADD sufferers of the world uniting? geez. on-topic... this beta not address any of Gromnir's lingering concerns... not one. performance and bugs were what we were hoping to see fixed. HA! Good Fun! ps it is fact that vol seems to have attention span of a gnat that makes us thinks ADD, not simply that in 4 years of him going on and on 'bout his module he ain't never completed nothing.

Nah, you really need a proofreader for your text. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> now that IS a surprise, eh? well, no doubt vol's imagined module is chock full o' role-play goodness. ... wowzers. HA! Good Fun!

lord only knows what vol would come up with if he didn't have ADD... prevents him from finishing his +4 year project o' making a nwn module... example dialogue: "LOLLERZ! Is that a dargon i see, or a fat lizard wif wigs?" "ROOFLES! You are SO funnie! HAHAHAHAHAHA! PLEAZ tell me that you R jocking." save us the opportunity to critique. HA! Good Fun!

vol never did nothing useful with old nwn toolset, so why he is interested in new nwn toolset? in any event, most o' stuff we were hoping for in a patch didn't make it. is a whole bunch o' spells that cannot be scribed to scrolls or used to makes wands. is missing feats. am trying to know why damage type for some weapons gots changed to Magic (as 'posed to divine or positive.) grobnar still sends some characters into rage spirals with his area effect spells, (and grobnar, with his inspirations, is the one spellcaster we would want computer ai to handle. ) bracer o' ac bonus still seems to stack with actual ac bonus from armour. etc. God is in the details. HA! Good Fun!

"The exception being Peryite's realm, the developer explained that to me as Peryite willing it to be the way it was to comply with the current concept of Oblivion." 'course the more likely explanation were simply that the developers took an understandable shortcut and then came up for a 'possedley plausible rationale. in a fantasy universe you can always come up for reasons to explain away developer shortcuts. bethesda went more in direction o' diablo for their crpgs, which is maybe the smart thing to be doing given how popular diablo were. oblivion has lots o' repetitive locations that provide many opportunities to kill & 1007. heck, as multiplayer ain't an issue in oblivion the developers not had to worry overmuch 'bout balance concerns (and it is obvious that they did not worry at all.) also, story and quests is kinda secondary concerns. make a diablo in a sandbox world w/o multiplayer... throw in some handful of very simple quests and 1-dimensional characters and you ends up with oblivion. *chuckle* we will note once again that in spite of fact that oblivion ain't our cup 'o tea, we is glad that it were made. all those candy-arse developers at obsidian and bioware and other places who liked to tell us that 80 hour games were no longer possible and that 40 hour games were soon gonna be out of reach were looking kinda silly after oblivion were released. oblivion helped slow the increasingly disturbing trend o' developers and publishers making ever smaller crpgs. HA! Good Fun!

there ain't much to do in neverwinter that ain't part o' the critical path... 'least not in chapter 1. btw, the worstest respawns in game for Gromnir were in the portion o' the game that for you is coming up next... but things gets better after that. if you is gonna use crafting, then crank difficulty up a notch to max... even so, crafting can break this game real easy if you let it.... specially as a warlock with high umd. wands for any occasion coupled with an enchanted mithral small shield, some uber armour, and one of those nymph cloaks +6 or +8 can really kills any challenge HA! Good Fun!

am not sure what game people is recalling when they talk of bg1 difficulty. yeah, the first 3-4 levels could be tough 'cause you not necessary get max hps and 'cause is SSSSSOOOOOOO easy to die at levels 1-3 in d&d. most d&d games following bg1 has done away with low levels... effectively start you out at 3 or 4. level 1-3 o' d&d is terrible... just as levels over 12 is equally poor balanced. in bg1 from the moment you can summons critters ('round level 5) the game is over. 1) summon a horde o' defenders (undead prefered as they stick 'round for a long time and 'cause they is immune to much stuff.) 2) cast web or entangle or grease or some combo when enemy is sighted. 3) if you gots zero patience or is having to fight sarevok or drizz't, cast haste... 4) destroy enemies with ranged weapons every single battle could be defeated using same basic strategy... as enemies gots tougher, your number o' summons increased and your ranged weapons skills more than compensated... and it not matter what difficulty level you got game set to, 'cause to kills a lowly skeleton still is requiring at least 1 attack... and you could always summon more skeletons or other critters. totsc, iwd and bg2 were slightly tougher 'cause developers took into account the over-power o' ranged weapons and summons... at least to some degree. as for nwn2 difficulty... have been down this road with spider a few times, so we won't revisit yet again. HA! Good Fun! ps... would really kills balance to lets you be able to use joinable npcs for social skills. in d&d pnp you control 1 character, not a party. sure, we knows some folks who willful tank their character's int... 'specially fighters, but rare is you seeing such a thing with a vet dm at the helm. skills shoulds be useful, and the party dynamic o' a game likes nwn2, where you controls a party and not just a character makes it so that with 4+ party members you coulds easily max out all useful skills even if every non-wizard npc had an int of 8 or less... which is bad balance. one of the things obsidian did right were to make sure that all social skill dc were based 'pon the pc's skills. 'corse crafting is still busted...

diablo were a pretty popular crpg that had limited character customization options and gameplay were offering little save for an opportunity to kill hordes o' baddies and gather 10075. story? pretty damn shallow. quests? *chuckle* character interactions. HA! list Gromnir's favorite crpgs and diablo ain't gonna make top 10... or 20. regardless, the blizzard guys managed to creates a gameplay formula that were mighty popular with most gamers in spite o' fact that there were little in diablo that Gromnir would wants in a crpg. oblivion reminded Gromnir o' a sandbox version o' diablo. no doubt this is reason why it weren't popular with Gromnir, but were popular with many fans and reviewers. names the number o' game reviewers that gots journalism degree from an ivy league school... or has written reviews for new york times or a similar publication. any fat arsed couch jockey with an internet connection can becomes a game reviewer. you suprised that reviews seems unprofesh-nul ? oblivion is a crpg... says so on box. reviewer likes oblivion. so, oblivion obviously gots all those qualities that makes for a good crpg. reverse is equal bad. just 'cause oblivion not got many qualities that Gromnir believes is integral for making a good crpg not mean that oblivion is a bad game. Gromnir didn't like oblivion, but we didn't like diablo neither. that being said, we can see why some people did like. sidenote: as much as oblivion were not our cup-o'-tea, we is glad that bethesda made it. for how long has developers at places likes obsidian been telling us that makings a really big game just weren't possible nowadays... we started hearing talk o' sub-thirty hour crpgs becoming typical. all of a sudden it seems that bigger games ain't so impossible after all. HA! Good Fun!