NWN2: Forumite Impressions

[Spider]

And you have no mods installed?

 

But since it's beta it's a bit hit and miss, I guess. Some people have even reported problems with the game they didn't have prior to patching.

[Deraldin]

I can't install the patch. It gets to silver_sword_atk.utc or something and says the file is wrong and cancels.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I got the same problem. Just re-installed/re-patched and it installed perfectly. Don't know what caused it. The only thing that I can think of is that I did some fiddling with some of the campaign modules in the toolset. Didn't actually change anything, but it would autosave every five minutes.

[metadigital]

Don't forget that you now can but two weapon combos in the quick bar and turn off the confirmation dialogue at merchants.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That will save me from injesting more of the several microns of enamel that have been a byproduct of interaction with the merchants.

 

I found another nit to pick: using a magic bag, if you drop an item of which there exists a stack of similar items in it, then the later item doesn't stack. In fact, it doesn't stack in the main inventory, either, after extracting the two (stacked group and individual). It is left to manually placing one on the other, to combine them.

[Cantousent]

I don't know if I'm lucky, but my rig has no problems with running the game. No stutters. No slowdowns. Nothing. At least not yet.

 

As far as the graphics go, I don't think they look dated. Do they look as good as Oblivion? Weighing everything together, no. Oblivion looks better. however, the graphics are well done.

 

The only criticism that remains throughout the game is the weird resting and dying schemes. The problem I have with them is that it verges away from DnD in a particularly jarring way. That was part of NWN, so it's not like we haven't had time to get used to it.

 

As far as bugs go, I remember a slew of them from NWN. One gave me unlimited spells in one of my spell slots. A bunch of silly things like that. I'm usually pretty careful about discounting other folks complaints about bugs, but I can't speak for them either. I haven't had any game stopping bugs so far. If I do, I'll let you all know. In the meantime, I'm glad that, once again, I've managed to escape the nasty bugs that seem to plague other folks when they play these games.

[Darque]

Speaking of bugs, NWN still has them even after all this time... as I just found out.

 

Comparitively, I've encountered far fewer with NWN2

[Dark_Raven]

Speaking of bugs, NWN still has them even after all this time... as I just found out.

 

Comparitively, I've encountered far fewer with NWN2

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What incarnation is NWN at, 1.68?

[Deraldin]

Speaking of bugs, NWN still has them even after all this time... as I just found out.

 

Comparitively, I've encountered far fewer with NWN2

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What incarnation is NWN at, 1.68?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

At least. That's what it was last time I checked.

 

EDIT: Yup 1.68

Edited November 25, 2006 by Deraldin

[Weiser_Cain]

yeah but the one's ive seen in nwn2 were killer

[Darque]

Other than the save eating bug (thank goodness it hit me on my second playthrough and not my first) I haven't really encountered any bugs.

 

At least nothing I can go "hey, that's a bug" about anyway.

[Darque]

Speaking of bugs, NWN still has them even after all this time... as I just found out.

 

Comparitively, I've encountered far fewer with NWN2

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What incarnation is NWN at, 1.68?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not sure, whatever the Diamond edition is... I didn't update it past that.

 

But this is an old bug, I remember it from when I played old vanila NWN

[Dark_Raven]

Diamond would be a couple below it. But still thats 68 patches and it still has bugs?

[Darque]

Not to mention an old and obscure one.

 

If you turn undead when the zombies in the crypt under the beggar's nest are talking... they start attacking you and are invulnerable.

 

very very not cool.

[alanschu]

NWN runs fine on my computer, but for some reason it has issues on one of the lab computers at school/work.

 

THe game looks nice, but there's a stutter to the entire game. About ever second too. And it doesn't go away if you reduce the game to minimum details. I wonder if it might be a dual core processor issue (which I just thought of now). I don't know if his computer is a dual core Pentium or not, but it might be.

[roshan]

NWN runs fine on my computer, but for some reason it has issues on one of the lab computers at school/work.

 

THe game looks nice, but there's a stutter to the entire game.  About ever second too.  And it doesn't go away if you reduce the game to minimum details.  I wonder if it might be a dual core processor issue (which I just thought of now).  I don't know if his computer is a dual core Pentium or not, but it might be.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

This is the exact problem that I have. After patch 1.03, I am now running with 6x AA (Or at least suppose that I am, it doesnt actually look much better) turned on, with the exact same frame rate as with it turned off. And whether pre or post patch, absolutely NOTHING in the settings menu has any effect on my framerate at all, with the exception of a very minor performance increase from turning down resolution.

 

I have a hyperthreaded PC, and I noticed yesterday that when NWN2 was minimized, it was only using about 500 mb of memory(I have 1 GB of RAM) and about 45% of the CPU. However that is most likely just because I minimized the game. Ive been meaning to experiment and see what happens while I am actually playing.

[Cantousent]

Maybe we should have a "rig specs for NWN2" thread. I mean, I've got a pretty hefty rig, but it's some 6 months old or so. I'd figure that some of you would have something a lot more powerful. I keep hearing about how NWN2 runs poorly even on high end rigs. That doesn't make sense. I've got a fairly high end rig that handles NWN2 just fine. Oh, there are things that I don't like all that much, the way terrain effects the camera when you first enter some areas. Still, the game looks good.

 

Even Oblivion, which is the sort of graphical benchmark of the day for CRPGs, isn't really all that and a bag of chips when it comes to character creation. It was good, but I could never get the exact look I wanted. Hell, even Tiger Woods 2004 had a better character creation model.

[Tigranes]

absolutely NOTHING in the settings menu has any effect on my framerate at all

 

Seems to happen with most games nowadays, but then I have a crappy card. Usually shadows and HDR are the only things that really change it - that and super-AAx8.

[Spider]

Thanks for the voice of reason spider, nice to see some thought going into a reply.

 

The camara is atrocious, like lotsa reviews state. AI of groupmembers is not very good either(but I understand they are trying to remedy that). The UI has been questioned as well. Game reviewers will explain it better than me, hence the links.

 

One example, why does a party member run over traps to attack a distant enemy? Should they not be more willing to avoid activating traps?

 

While I agree that the AI is awful, that is hardly anything that Oblivion does better. Whenever I had a follower in Oblivion I would grind my teeth. Until I realized mos tof them can be told to stay behind while I clear out the cave. And NWN1 is just as bad, or worse, when ti comes to AI. So hardly a point in any games favor. If anything, I'd give the point to NWN2 since there I can turn off the AI and control my party myself (which is what I basically always do).

 

I think the camera is wonderful. I play in free camera mode and have no problems with it at all. Although I am used to that type of camera since playing Silent Storm, so it's possible it's worse than I give it credit for. I also think the UI is very good (now that weapon combinations can be added to the quickbar).

 

As for the trap thing, yeah that is a bit stupid, but on the other hand given how harmless most traps are, you're probably going to take more damage (from archers) by NOT charging over it. But it should probably have been a toggle.

 

But I'd still like to hear why you think Oblivion is a better game for people with no experience in the genre, something the reviewers won't answer.

 

(it's quite possible that you're right since Oblivion is a much less complex game, although NWN1 was fairly complex as well and that managed to become fairly popular)

[The Named One]

All the reviews that you linked in the other thread were an 8 score or above except for the 1up one. Heck, he even linked to an 8.6 review as proof of people not liking it. The reviews are by and large either very good or good, while never perfect or amazing.

 

Also, BF2 was a great game.

Edited November 27, 2006 by The Named One

[Musopticon?]

The ratings falls are from the fan base.....for gods sake!

http://www.gamestats.com/objects/012/012077/

 

So, the fanbase hates the original?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:D Ouch ouch ouch

 

This has nothing to do with the Why oh why-topic, but I think most of the comparisons between original NWN and the successor are rather flawed, since the latter one hasn't had much in the way of patches not to mention expansions. And there's hardly any mods for it yet. NWN 1 on the other hand... Let's do the comparison after the odd four years when NWN 2's status as the supreme online rpg experience has been established. Just wait till the first elegiaeternums start to pop out.

Edited November 27, 2006 by Musopticon?

[astr0creep]

I was disapointed by NWN2. It was big, slow, somewhat boring.

 

Until I met Kelgar 2 days ago. (w00t)

[Dark_Raven]

The npc AI was fine with me in my first game. This game they are pissing me off. They stand back like a bunch of idiots while I'm getting ganged up on. They have done this a couple of times in my second game. Screw 'em. I'll let them go off and attack whoever they want, I just won't help them out. If they die, to bad. I'll stay back and pick the bodies and conatainers of loot.

[Solonlinroos]

I was disapointed by NWN2. It was big, slow, somewhat boring.

 

slow and boring...

 

The graphics engine is crappy, sorry Brian Lawson but your graphics development team are the joke of the month where I work and ILM.

Add into that zero-collision detection, added that you didnt even have to code any physics, the path-finding is mildly functional but not very robust.

The game is hardly an improvement an we miss hearing your defence speak at

 

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com

 

Please respond at our Sour Grapes Thread.

 

 

The graphics engine looks more like a hobby project than something a professional engine team has used time on. Shadows, hmm..... dont get me started, we have bettles which are casting larger shadows than main characters, flickery scenery on walls, highly aliased (jaggy shadow lines)! We have z-fighting on tile sets.... the engine is in such a poor shape I now understand why there was no presentation priori to launch at all the respect development conferences.

 

Obsidian is the joke of the month!

 

You guys are gonna have a short life span, believe RPG people aint that forgiving!

[Diamond]

Ah, another troll. Prepare acid arrows, lads!

[Sand]

Slow? SLOW?!?! My god man, it is going to fast. Especially in leveling. Leveling in the game went way to fast. The length of the game is good if the max experience only allowed up 8th to 9th level.

 

The game is hardly boring, but way too liberal with the experience and loot.

[Dark_Raven]

Riftworm has more alts??

 

Slow and boring eh? Mario Cart may be your speed?