Volourn's Wowwy Journey With NWN2:Spoiler Edition

[Tigranes]

I don't think so.

 

Anyway, at least you dont have to carry Ammon around in your party for 10 hours like you do with Sandra.

 

I'm in t he final dungoen now and it SUCKS NUTS you can't rest AT ALL. Apparently every once out of about 10 tries you CAN, but all the other times you get swarmed by stupid minions. What i hate about final dungeons is that they try to make it hard by spawning lots of enemies, but allt hose enemies suck. I ran out of spells a long time ago, and Khelgar alone has killed about 50 shadows, shadow priests, mummies, blade golems and crap.

 

And now I"m about to fight some Reavers except I CANT REST. Gah. Just tried 10 rests, 10 spawned monsters.

[Pop]

I don't think so.

 

Anyway, at least you dont have to carry Ammon around in your party for 10 hours like you do with Sandra.

 

I'm in t he final dungoen now and it SUCKS NUTS you can't rest AT ALL. Apparently every once out of about 10 tries you CAN, but all the other times you get swarmed by stupid minions. What i hate about final dungeons is that they try to make it hard by spawning lots of enemies, but allt hose enemies suck. I ran out of spells a long time ago, and Khelgar alone has killed about 50 shadows, shadow priests, mummies, blade golems and crap.

 

And now I"m about to fight some Reavers except I CANT REST. Gah. Just tried 10 rests, 10 spawned monsters.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You don't think it's just me, or you don't think Mr. Sawyer was being mischevous?

 

I didn't have any problems with the last dungeon as far as resting went. Clearing out a room took awhile, but as long as you didn't encroach into new areas resting was okay. There were times when my spellcasters ran out of juice, but as long as I had a cleric with buffing spells I could have my fighters clear out the enemies in an area and rest. Is there some amendment to the rest system on higher difficulty settings? (I played a normal game)

[Volourn]

"I keep getting the feeling that Shandra's death was a big middle finger from JE Sawyer to those RPGers that demand love interests, given his expressed contempt for the concept of romance. But it could be the case that he had nothing to do with that particular part of the story. So it's probably just me."

 

Eh. I don't think he was a writer; just Lead deisgner and chances are most of the main plots - and, I'm sure Sandra's part in the game was considereed major - was put in palce before his evolution into Big Huncho.

 

Besides, Elanee's a romance interest anyways so that's kinda moot.

 

 

 

"Anyway, at least you dont have to carry Ammon around in your party for 10 hours like you do with Sandra."

 

Well.. at least Shandra didn't try to murder you before she forced join you. LOL That's an auto leg up on a mass murdering psychopath who just slaughtered his granddughter in a hissy fit than faked sorrow afterwrads.

 

I'd just rather throw him in the Dungeons, and if he truly wants to help; he can give his absolutely USELESS info to me through the bars.

 

 

R00fles!

 

 

P.S. No resting in the Final dungeon sound slike it will be awesome unless it's like 10 levels! L0LLERZ!

[kumquatq3]

My group is now carrying about 60 heal potions as well as other sorted magics.

 

You need to heal? Minus the last dungeon, you can just rest.

 

 

I'm playing one level above normal difficulty level and I don't need to heal (minus the occasional boss fight)

 

I'm in t he final dungoen now and it SUCKS NUTS you can't rest AT ALL. Apparently every once out of about 10 tries you CAN, but all the other times you get swarmed by stupid minions. What i hate about final dungeons is that they try to make it hard by spawning lots of enemies, but allt hose enemies suck. I ran out of spells a long time ago, and Khelgar alone has killed about 50 shadows, shadow priests, mummies, blade golems and crap.

 

And now I"m about to fight some Reavers except I CANT REST. Gah. Just tried 10 rests, 10 spawned monsters.

 

I hear you, in fact, I am saved at that very spot. kelgar and my guy are doing everything because the spell casters with me are plumb out of spells.

 

Hey, for these reavers, do you need to read their true names? Cuz I have, but this one keeps repairing himself with this weird nova like ability. Annoying.

Edited November 14, 2006 by kumquatq3

[Tigranes]

Mainly I had the problem with the final dungeon because I got lost and ended up fighting every single critter in the place. Then I tried to rest about 10 times. Then I fought the Reavers.

 

Still, yeah, it's good to have one area like that that screws you over.

 

Gonna go out, but Ive just killed Garius and about to fight the King of Shadows. I still get 10fps indoors so managing 10 party members is a beach whale, but it's fun.

 

Speaking of betrayals, I had

Bishop betray me back at the keep, Sand betray me since I have high influence with Neeshka and got her to resist demon thing, Qara stays thanks to influence, Ammon stays thanks to influence. Looks like all or mots of them could have turned on me. O_O

 

[kumquatq3]

did you rest? and do you have to read their names?

[Tigranes]

You have to, yes. I had to have Khelgar use res-rods to get someone to read the names, then lure the reavers to Khelgar. It was really hard because effectively i had only Khelgar fighting 3 people and keeping Ammon alive. Could have used more rods, but not much my mage or Qara is going to do with no spells. Same with the cleric.

[Volourn]

"You need to heal? Minus the last dungeon, you can just rest."

 

Not really. And, I don't rest randomly. I avoid resting at all in the middle of dungeons. It's illogical to do so. I only force myself to rest if the dungeon is more than 2 areas large.

 

 

"I'm playing one level above normal difficulty level and I don't need to heal (minus the occasional boss fight)"

 

I'm playing on hardcore as well. I don't need to heal really except after traps because I don't bother with that crappy rogue you get, and the new stupid 'can't undo traps with a non rogue above 20 DC.' It's a dumb pnp rule as well.

 

I collect heal potions just for one 'cause they're so cheap. i've used 2. Once against the Trial Combat when Khelgar had to wait to murder the berserker, and the other when enemies decided to rush that poor Z gal whose a big wuss in melee for a cleric.

 

Resting all the time is for wussies.

Edited November 14, 2006 by Volourn

[Pop]

I used Khelgar, Casavir, Sand, Githgirl and myself (a monk) and I can say with all certainty that the last dungeon was pretty easy

 

Just for clarification: Is Walton Simons narrating the epilogue? I'm trying to place the guy, but it really sounds like our good FEMA friend

[Tigranes]

In dungeons I make sure to only rest once at least one level is clear. Ideally I wouldnt rest at all in a single dungeon, but the OC's dungeons are way too long and it's not fun to fight 30 enemies without spells. I also dont rest if the story puts me on a time limit (i.e. rescue that person) or if there is a boss right in front of me. It's stupid that they'll just stand there and let you rest, and its more challenging anyway.

 

Also, excessive resting makes clerics and potions pointless. You haven't known excitement until you are down to your last freakin potion and 3 people have 1hp.

 

Volo, arent you the one that claimed traps do laughable damage? I certainly think so, after a while I stopped bothering to wait 5 seconds to disarm traps even though I like Neeshka and keep her around. In this aspect Oblivion was excellent, you'd get hit by something out of nowhere and it could kill you in early levels. A "Deadly" trap should do at least 60 damage.

[Pop]

No no, I figured it out. The epilogue narrator is the same guy who played Romero in Bloodlines :D

[Tigranes]

Oh dear God. Just fought the King of Shadows and finished the game; the ending is about as good as K2's.

 

 

The threefold boss battle was pretty decent, if not great. Your standard first incarnation, then you get swarmed by the second, the neat thing was the little KoS would teleport around all the time making it really difficult to shield your mages. Of course, theres STILL the oddness where if you fight in a corner (tactically sensible), then half of the KoS linger somewhere else, and your dead guys all revive on their own. Anyway - then the third guy, which was alright because the big KoS would send big energy waves so you're really panicking to get those statues down. In the end everyone was dead and all my res spells / wands were out, so I was reduced to 350hp/40AC Khelgar tanking it up while Qara used just about every spell on her staff of the magi and Ammon made Eldritch Blasts.

 

Whatever. So I can understand not having the budget for FMVs and instead having a narrated ending; but that was just about the worst method of delivery for the story. If you have the PC and the others 'die' or 'disappear' as the fortress falls down, then have it IN GAME. Have your character run away and have falling boulders and stuff kill NPCs; then have quick dialogues before eventually they are lost under falling boulders. Or take a leaf from FF6's ending, and show it in in-game cutscenes. Without something like that all immediacy is lost, and it seems really stupid to say "the PCs died / disappeaered" in one sentence.

 

Also, did'nt like the narrator, couldn't stand to listen to him - but thats just my personal opinion. Obsidian also seems to be building up a convention of telling you what happens elsewhere, and thats cool. But while narrated picture-slides work for those, for the actual PCs "Dying"... hell, hell no. It really really deflated me, even more so than K2's ending.

 

Edited November 14, 2006 by Tigranes

[CoM_Solaufein]

Oh dear God. Just fought the King of Shadows and finished the game; the ending is about as good as K2's.

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am ignoring the rest of the post in case it has spoilers on the ending. As good as Kotor2? Kotor 2 being a dull and incomplete ending, I would hope that NWN2 is better in that regard.

[Tigranes]

Ooh, sorry. I thought it'd be okay since, you know, this is the spoiler topic. Yes, the rest of the post is massive spoilers and I'll cover them up now.

 

Anyway, I meant that I am just as disappointed; however, no, it's not exactly the same as K2's. I'm sure somebody would come and say they loved it.

Edited November 14, 2006 by Tigranes

[Dark_Raven]

Yay I have my own keep to rule from! Now, how ruthless should I be with the little people?

[Spider]

I actually hated the ending. All of it. From the moment you left to the last area until the game was done, it just felt like a chore. The endboss battle was extremely frustrating.

 

 

especially the teleporting part since it kept resetting my fighters targeting in puppet mode and I had to retarget KoS again, only to have him teleport a few seconds later. I ended up just letting him kill every non-fighter while the fighters had AI turned on and I controlled my main character.

 

Actually, I did like the part where your party could betray you depending on influence. That was kinda well done.

 

 

And the actual ending, yeah that was kinda crappy to. I just felt cheated in some way.

 

 

If there's an expansion, as the ending hints to, it'll all change of course. Then it was a good set-up. But right now, it's really unsatisfying

 

 

It's a shame that a game I had so much fun with would have an ending like that. I actually even preferred the KotOR2 ending, but that could be because I was prepared.

 

I still think the game was really good though and will play it at least once more (I am already underway). I just wish for a more satisfying ending is all.

[alanschu]

As for her grandpa. Bah. Another retard gets forced on me! BOOOOO!!!!!! The guy is a scumbag, and deserves hard justice!!!!!

 

Well, just quit the game right then and there and go play something else, because it'd be essentially the same as if you had killed Ammon Jerro.

 

I suppose you could have this epic, futile struggle, where eventually the King of Shadows wins because you killed the last piece that was required to kill him, but I'd wager that most people wouldn't be happy with an ending that was that anti-climactic.

[Spider]

It's just that you don't really NEED him. He's a nice addition and his ability helps out a lot, but I'm sure the game can be beaten without him.

 

 

Also, can't he be one of those that betrays you?

 

[ramza]

ok, so who are the NPCs that may betray you? I will be careful enough not to have them in my party...

[Spider]

Answer to Ramza:

 

 

You won't have a choice since at that point you'll have all NPCs in your party.

 

Edited November 14, 2006 by Spider

[Wistrik]

I agree it would be interesting if NPCs betrayed me, but only if I had specifically invited them to adventure with me and then consequently mistreated, slighted, or neglected them.

[Volourn]

Stop with the hiding of spoilers everyone!

 

 

"Volo, arent you the one that claimed traps do laughable damage?"

 

Yes, for the most part it is true. But, they do add up when you ignore them for awhile.

 

 

"Well, just quit the game right then and there and go play something else, because it'd be essentially the same as if you had killed Ammon Jerro.

 

I suppose you could have this epic, futile struggle, where eventually the King of Shadows wins because you killed the last piece that was required to kill him, but I'd wager that most people wouldn't be happy with an ending that was that anti-climactic."

 

A. I doubt you really *need* him. Secondly, if Obsidian was deisgning the game with actual real role-playing in mind; they wouldn't design in sucha way that an npc would be forced on you. Period. And, btw, that even includes the npcs I actually like.

[Wistrik]

Hmm, I've been posting a lot of bugs and gripes about the game so far, so I thought I'd make something of a balancing post to highlight the things I've enjoyed.

 

Highlights:

 

- Sand attempts to scry the two shards for me and the three of us are knocked to the floor. Cracks me up every time.

 

- Elanee introduces herself. (My kind of woman.)

 

- Khelgar's humor. Sure, he's a bit thickheaded early in the game, but some of his comments are hilarious.

 

- Sand at the trial. Especially his responses when I cause Torio to throw a fit, and when she exposes him as a former Luskanite.

 

- Aldenon's absentmindedness and way of speaking.

 

- Shandra Jerro's character - well written.

 

- Ammon Jerro's voice. Dunno why, I just like it.

 

- Finally killing Bishop. What a waste of NPC.

 

- Seeing Garius' surprise when I off his summoned Nightwalker.

 

- The scene of the restoration of the Silver Sword.

 

- The purification ritual.

 

- The way the Web spell's projectile bounces along the ground.

 

- Dragons are appropriately huge.

 

- Nolaloth, the crystal dragon

 

- Blooden, damn pretty (screenshots I've seen so far don't do her justice; she looks much better in my game)

 

- Crossroads Keep, as my stronghold. Once I figured it out it was a lot of fun, and we spanked the shadow army.

 

- If you build a monastary in your stronghold, you get a nigh-immune Greycloak monk in your party while you're in the Vale of Meredelain, up until you enter the room with the Shadow Reavers. You can't control him, but he will fight fearlessly and won't take damage.

 

- I had a blast (literally even) fighting the siege ramps. Note that flaming weapons work well in the absence of fireballs.

 

- Shadow Reavers are awesome, and the power of truenames should never be forgotten.

 

- Mephasm, the friendliest devil I've ever encountered.

 

- Scenery. Some places are good for sight-seeing. It'd look better with shadows and at high res, but that'll have to wait until I figure out how I want to upgrade my computer.

 

- Cutscene dialogs; the majority are well done and look great.

 

- The 'showfps' console command. This allowed me to fine-tune the game settings for a compromise between good looks and performance. I will sacrifice everything else to play this game with high quality textures; they help that much. Thankfully all I had to sacrifice was shadows (aside from drop shadows), water effects, and high resolution. (Using 1024x768 for now, but with high quality textures it still looks very nice.)

 

- The music is well done.

 

- Characters have mouth parts and eyeballs. Though they're mouths don't move as realistically as mouths in Half-Life 2, and their teeth tend to show from behind their lips when not speaking (might be a resolution issue), it's still a nice touch. When Elanee looks at me with those green/hazel eyes...

 

- The sounds Shadow Priests make when they die... hilarious!!!

 

- The 'Butcher of Ember' trial. Good stuff.

 

That's it for now.

[alanschu]

It's just that you don't really NEED him. He's a nice addition and his ability helps out a lot, but I'm sure the game can be beaten without him.

 

 

Also, can't he be one of those that betrays you?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

He was the one that performed the ritual on the final statue, not you.

 

 

And I don't think he will betray you. I never had him in my group, outside of having him chant the true names of the Reavers, so I didn't gain much influence on him. Which would make sense, because his entire life purpose has been to destroy the King of Shadows, I'd be very surprised if, now that you have finally tracked him down, he suddenly decides to turn on you and fight with Garius and the King of Shadows. If he were to betray you, I'd roll my eyes much more at Obsidian than forcing him to be an NPC party member.

 

 

I think it may have been a bug, but he was the only one that could recite the true names of the reavers as well. I thought it said that the Githerzai Cleric could also do it, but I couldn't get her to use the scroll for some wierd reason.

Edited November 14, 2006 by alanschu

[Deraldin]

I think it may have been a bug, but he was the only one that could recite the true names of the reavers as well.  I thought it said that the Githerzai Cleric could also do it, but I couldn't get her to use the scroll for some wierd reason.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Could be a bug. I got the githzerai to recite the true names. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have gotten through the last Shadow Reaver fight without her helping out. First thing I did was tell both Jerro and the Gith to read the truenames so that I could actually take down two of them as fast as possible.