So how buggy is NWN2?

[Atreides]

I'm getting the gamet his Weds right after my exam, so no spoilers pls!

 

Well I've been reading the feedback and there's good and bad news. How buggy is NWN2? What patches have been out and have they fixed the major problems?

[deganawida]

It's been running fine for me. I had one CTD after playing for 6 hours straight (long night Sat. night). Haven't really noticed bugs, mostly because I'm enjoying myself too much.

[Spider]

It depends a lot on your system and on how lucky you are. My first playthrough I only encountered two bugs that were severe and one that was annoying.

 

The severe ones were:

 

Khelgar is a badger - somehow Khelgar (one of the NPCs) merged with an animal companion effectively removing him from the game. I'm not sure what would have happened if I had kept playing, especially in regards to cutscenes where he has input. Afaik this has not been fixed, but I'm not sure how frequent it is.

 

Cutscene failure - some cutscene required you to have control of the main character or they wouldn't trigger. When this happened you'd be unable to progress in the game. This one has been fixed in the 1.02 patch.

 

The annoying one has to do with the camera. Sometimes when moving the camera around (or when selecting another character) the camera would look straight up into the sky and zoom in as far as possible. Note that this is an angle the camera can't have normally. So all I'd see is a screen full of sky (or ceiling when indoors) and it can't be moved in any way. Although it jumps out of it again fairly quickly if one keeps trying to tilt it. The reason it's annoying is because it happens fairly frequently in certain areas. Like in the end areas as soon as I'd select a different character it would happen, severly disrupting the flow of the game. haven't seen other complaints about this so I don't know if it's just me.

 

There was also a quest that was broken without using the console, but that was an optional one so no big deal (and I did manage to complete it)

 

On my second playthrough I wanted to see if my computer could handle textures set to high instead of medium and while it could, this caused the most sever bug I've encountered so far. All of a sudden when I was leaving an area the game would hang during autosave. Any previous autosave was deleted as part of the process, but no new one was made. So a restart with a save deleted, causing an hours replay (I really don't quicksave enough). So when I get to the same spot, I quicksave, which goes fine, and then leaves the area upon which the game hangs on autosave again. But not only that, it also corrupted the quicksave I just had made. This is a confirmed bug (as in other people have this problem) and is avoided if playing on medium texture settings. The save is still corrupted though.

 

And then there's the (very minor) bug of Bishop (another NPC) not getting the proper feats.

 

Those are all bugs I've encountered. On my first playthrough it didn't crash once, just a couple of failed cutscenes that forced a reload. Other than that it was incredibly stable.

[Sand]

My main bugs happen when I reach Neverwinter. The game would go to Autosave then crash to desktop, so I have learned to take precautions and save often. Beyond that it works just fine. There are also minor bugs, typoes, and such here and there which I am sure Obsidian's patch team will take care of. Right, Obsidian?

 

[Pidesco]

I've had three crashes to desktop, so far. One of them was I alt-tabbed. And that's all. Yet.

[taks]

i'd have to say this is one of the least buggy games i've played in a looong time. most of the bugs are very minor and not noticeable unless you're really looking for them. some bugs are simply annoyances like the odd way the camera deals with buildings or your character jumping 10 feet back. other bugs, such as the badger thing, or camera stuck in a strange view, are hit and miss, and i've not seen them. i've also never run into the cut-scene or save-game issue. i did have the game almost hang once or twice, but i smacked a few keys, hit alt-tab a couple times and it sort of recovered. onward i went.

 

taks

Edited November 13, 2006 by taks

[roshan]

If I switch the game to widescreen resolution, the game crashes on startup the next time I try to play it until I restart my PC.

 

When I restart, all the games graphical settings are reset to their defaults and I need to adjust pretty much all of the settings again.

 

Another problem is that there seems to be a very bad memory leak as when I play for a long time it starts lagging tremendously.

 

Also, the engine does not seem to be optimized. Whether I run the game in max graphical settings or the minimum settings, there isnt much impact on the performance. I would say that performance at the minimum settings is only about twice as good as the max. (I have a low end PC)

 

The game has a lot of graphical glitches specially those involving character animations. Characters magically slide across the screen with their knees bent as if skating on ice. Sometimes I move a character to a place, select another character, and then select the first one again and the character teleports back to its original location.

 

There are also a lot of very noticeable typographical errors. Its quite obvious that no one proofread the games script.

 

The interface of the game is a clunky as it could possibly be considering that it is supposedly a modern A title(Refer to my complaints in the interface thread). Standard interface features that have been developed years ago and have been tried and tested in countless games are not found in NWN2.

 

The game shouldnt be out on a shelves in its current condition. Its a beta version at best and needs a lot of playtesting, debugging, optimization and improvement.

Edited November 13, 2006 by roshan

[Jorian Drake]

I'm getting the gamet his Weds right after my exam, so no spoilers pls!

 

Well I've been reading the feedback and there's good and bad news.  How buggy is NWN2?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

one word: very

[taks]

my guess then, is that widescreen is not properly supported. i don't run in widescreen mode, so i don't care. my settings never reset, but that may be tied to the widescreen mode. nearly every game i've ever played suffers from the long-session lag problem. most other software i use has that problem as well (like Matlab). i'd chalk it up to winders strange swapping method before calling it a leak.

 

changing settings other than shadows and lighting do very little. this means that texture mapping and whatnot are probably not the issue. i'm guessing that the slow performance is not due to the GPU at all. it is probably related to the way the game sets up everything for handoff to the GPU. shadows and dynamic lighting seem to be CPU intensive as well. dunno for sure, since i cannot comment about specifics of the engine (none of us have the code).

 

taks

[Sand]

Overall the game is less buggy when NWN1 was first released.

[Lare Kikkeli]

a lot if not most of the complaints have been about the game features (or the lack of), not bugs. the game is really stable for a CRPG.

[Atreides]

If I switch the game to widescreen resolution, the game crashes on startup the next time I try to play it until I restart my PC.

 

When I restart, all the games graphical settings are reset to their defaults and I need to adjust pretty much all of the settings again.

 

Another problem is that there seems to be a very bad memory leak as when I play for a long time it starts lagging tremendously.

 

Also, the engine does not seem to be optimized. Whether I run the game in max graphical settings or the minimum settings, there isnt much impact on the performance. I would say that performance at the minimum settings is only about twice as good as the max. (I have a low end PC)

 

The game has a lot of graphical glitches specially those involving character animations. Characters magically slide across the screen with their knees bent as if skating on ice. Sometimes I move a character to a place, select another character, and then select the first one again and the character teleports back to its original location.

 

There are also a lot of very noticeable typographical errors. Its quite obvious that no one proofread the games script.

 

The interface of the game is a clunky as it could possibly be considering that it is supposedly a modern A title(Refer to my complaints in the interface thread). Standard interface features that have been developed years ago and have been tried and tested in countless games are not found in NWN2.

 

The game shouldnt be out on a shelves in its current condition. Its a beta version at best and needs a lot of playtesting, debugging, optimization and improvement.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow.

[Jorian Drake]

If I switch the game to widescreen resolution, the game crashes on startup the next time I try to play it until I restart my PC.

 

When I restart, all the games graphical settings are reset to their defaults and I need to adjust pretty much all of the settings again.

 

Another problem is that there seems to be a very bad memory leak as when I play for a long time it starts lagging tremendously.

 

Also, the engine does not seem to be optimized. Whether I run the game in max graphical settings or the minimum settings, there isnt much impact on the performance. I would say that performance at the minimum settings is only about twice as good as the max. (I have a low end PC)

 

The game has a lot of graphical glitches specially those involving character animations. Characters magically slide across the screen with their knees bent as if skating on ice. Sometimes I move a character to a place, select another character, and then select the first one again and the character teleports back to its original location.

 

There are also a lot of very noticeable typographical errors. Its quite obvious that no one proofread the games script.

 

The interface of the game is a clunky as it could possibly be considering that it is supposedly a modern A title(Refer to my complaints in the interface thread). Standard interface features that have been developed years ago and have been tried and tested in countless games are not found in NWN2.

 

The game shouldnt be out on a shelves in its current condition. Its a beta version at best and needs a lot of playtesting, debugging, optimization and improvement.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you want to play an MMO i suggest City of Villains, it has great character costumization

[aVENGER]

I've experienced a few stray bugs here and there but no real show stoppers so far. Well ok, there was that one time when a plot critical cutscene couldn't trigger because I wasn't directly controlling the protagonist but I hear that's patched now anyway. Besides, it only took a relaod to fix it.

 

IMHO, while NWN2 does have its share of minor bugs and interface annoyances in general it's quite playable and, more importantly, a very enjoyable game. Personally, I haven't had so much fun playing a proper cRPG in a long time. So, while NWN2 may be a bit buggy it's a been great game for me so far (just starting Act 3 right now). It's also very reminiscent of the classic BIS cRPGs so if you're a fan of Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate 2 I think you're going to love this game.

[roshan]

a lot if not most of the complaints have been about the game features (or the lack of), not bugs. the game is really stable for a CRPG.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thats only because this isnt a CRPG like Baldurs Gate 1/2, Fallout or Torment. Hell, it cannot even be compared to games like Icewind Dale.

 

There is nothing to this game except the critical path. You cannot enter any of the houses. You cannot attack anyone at all except those marked hostile by the game. The areas have only one route through them that you must follow and there are almost no optional places to visit. You cant even decide who you want in your party, characters are forced on to you by the game.

 

Unlike any traditional RPG, there is 0 freedom in this game. Other RPGs are hard to test because of so many options and so much freedom given to the player. There is really no excuse for this game to be riddled with bugs.

[Big Bottom]

I've had a couple of minor bugs here and there (the teleporting thing roshan mentioned, a regular bug where the minimap screws up and the bug they fixed with 1.02) and one CTD that happened when I tried to save and lost the file so I had to replay an hour or so. NWN2 isn't a perfect release but I've seen worse.

[astr0creep]

I'll try before I buy... "

[roshan]

The minimap is awful, I find it impossible to find my way around. When I zoom it is too close and therefore becomes useless and when I zoom out everything is so small that its impossible to see anything. The minimap is not much more usefull in low resolution. Since I run the game on high res anyway, I just use the regular map and keep it at the corner of the screen.

 

There is a bug where the minimap disappears and all characters and locations are arranged in a straight line running accross the blank, transparent minimap. You can hide the minimap but it keeps popping back up.

 

I just had a bug where my characters could walk right through a chest. But thats a trivial issue, of course.

[Volourn]

"Overall the game is less buggy when NWN1 was first released."

 

I'd agree if I was just taking the early game into account; but as I played on; more and more bugs started to creep up. Usually some minors ones; but it includes a few major ones too. There are less bugs on the whole; but I'm not too surprised since it's based on an otherwise well manged and kept up Aurora engine.

 

As far as stability goes, it's very stable for me. i've only outright crashed once which is impressive.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Estonian Forests in the middle of summer, that's the only thing I can think of with more bugs than NWN2, all said, it's rather stable.

[Volourn]

The Tmeple of Seasons seems to be majorly bugged. That whole area seemed ruined by me being able lockpick a certain door. R00fles!

[taks]

apparently so. i assume you were supposed to make your way through each of the timed battles to the final statue room. has anyone done this? if so, do you miss out on anything other than the battles? are there other rooms as well, such as phat lewt rooms?

 

taks

[taks]

btw, the snow in the first room was a killer on the fps. stutter mode even though i'm normally over 30 fps. this is why i'm leaning towards a CPU limited engine, not GPU limited.

 

taks

[Volourn]

There was no snow. Just a 'wintery' look. Meh. I feel gip. Temple of Seasons was one of the maina reas theyw er eusing to pimp the game, and I didn't even really experience it. LOL!

[alanschu]

The temple of seasons worked fine for me.