Sammael's NWN2 Experience

[Jorian Drake]

'noble' and 'smith' and 'librarian' would I like  ^_^

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is damn hard to be a noble living in the swamp village for the whole life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But the game was not just made for THAT scenario!

 

 

Don't forget future expansions AND mods. Most of them have atleast one big city, and don't describe your past from the start.

[Shadowstrider]

'noble' and 'smith' and 'librarian' would I like  ^_^

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is damn hard to be a noble living in the swamp village for the whole life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But the game was not just made for THAT scenario!

 

 

Don't forget future expansions AND mods. Most of them have atleast one big city, and don't describe your past from the start.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually, it was made for that scenario. If modders want to add background feats they can.

[Jorian Drake]

'noble' and 'smith' and 'librarian' would I like  ^_^

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is damn hard to be a noble living in the swamp village for the whole life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But the game was not just made for THAT scenario!

 

 

Don't forget future expansions AND mods. Most of them have atleast one big city, and don't describe your past from the start.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually, it was made for that scenario. If modders want to add background feats they can.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, but i would like more possibilities from the start, and in the source of it

(I mean: included into the game by Obsidian and not modders)

[Darque]

Well, it's a little late now.

 

As a side note: I'd love to play a game with an intro like TOEE... but done right.

[Volourn]

"I even had a priest of Tyr say "We may not worship the same god but I'm going to help you..."

 

R00fles!

[Sammael]

Having completed the tutorial and the first battle last night, here are some more impressions.

 

The tutorial was perhaps the best tutorial I've ever seen in a CRPG; it relayed all the important information about playing the game (not that I needed it) without being in-your-face with popups every five seconds. I managed to win all four contests and I got the cloak.

 

Then came the "defend the village" part. I wasn't too fond of it. First, I disliked the scripted death of your female companion. I'm not sure if it can be avoided (by leaving her somewhere before approaching the mageduel) or not. Waves of duergar and bladelings were ridiculously easy to defeat. I think I got hit once during the entire battle. Anyway, the battle was drawn out a bit too much for my taste. Oh, and did they really have to put the "collect'n'heal five poke-militiamen" quest in? FedEx quests to start with?

 

Pathfinding is very bad. I clicked on a spot that was maybe six feet away from my character; instead of going straight ahead, he turned right, and circled around to the spot. I checkd whether there was an invisible obstacle of some sort, but the path was completely clear. Bizarre.

 

Leveling - I got to level my main character once, since he is a tiefling.

 

Graphics remain nice. I was impressed with the rendering of the githyanki mage (he seemed much better done than the human NPCs from the village).

 

I've noticed a number of recycled sounds, and the music is forgettable.

Edited November 18, 2006 by Sammael

[Tigranes]

The githyanki indeed is impressive lookin'.

 

There are a couple of nice new music pieces later on in the game, but mostly it's going to be NWN1 music, and new ones that are very similar. It's not going to be anything more than average.

 

Myself, I wasn't annoyed so much with the 'FedEx' nature of the 5 villagers reporting, but the alignment/roleplay options. Firstly, you can't get 5 villagers without 'saving' some of the wounded with moss; you have to heal at least 2 of those. Yet you get +3 Good for doing it. What in the world of hell? I want to heal these ugys so that they can help ME not get killed and mutilated by little bearded thuggers. Not because I'm a 'nice person'. It was simply Biowarian in that they assume that even when your village is on fire you'd slit the throats of your own wounded (thats not evil, thats just retardced). If anything, the "I'll loot you first the heal you" option should have been both Chaotic and Evil. That's the part I was disappointed about.

 

Other than that, Sammael, you shouldn't expect too much of opening level fights. Even with a tutorial they're always going to have to ease you into it or have people complaining that their wizard can't get past thep lace.

[roshan]

I wouldnt expect any difficult battles. Im in chapter 3 now and there has only been 1 fight so far that has made me reload.

 

The companions are the best and also the worst (well, one of the worst since theres a lot wrong with the game) part of NWN2. There are many cool party members but crappy ones are always forced into your party. One who is probably the most one dimensional and stupid character in the history of RPGS is forced into your party for a third of the game.

[aVENGER]

The only difficult battles I've had on my first playthrough were the ones where waves upon waves of enemies spawn out of thin air, usually behind your party. I really didn't like that, it kind of made Tracking and scouting useless. I mean, I'd check a seemingly empty area and right after I bring my PC there a bunch of enemies would insta-spawn everywhere. Sometimes it even happened that when I save a game in an empty room, and load the save at a later time, I'm suddenly surrounded by enemies!

 

This was most evident in the

Thieves' Warehouse (weapon shipment)

and the

hidden Githyanki base (inside the city of Neverwinter)

quests.

Edited November 18, 2006 by aVENGER

[Sammael]

The only difficult battles I've had on my first playthrough were the ones where waves upon waves of enemies spawn out of thin air, usually behind your party.

Memories of IWD2 Hook Horrors abound...

[aVENGER]

Yeah, but sadly the cheap insta-spawning seems to be used much more often in NWN2. Still, this kind of stopped bothering me once I got my party up to the teen levels, since by then they would routinely mop up everything that happened to cross their path. :cool:

 

It's much more annoying at the beginning when your characters are still low on hp and suddenly get jumped by a dozen of sneak-attacking rogues. :ph34r:

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

for those who have tieflings and want a tail here is how you can do it

 

works nice too

 

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewt...tiefling%20tail

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Looks crap. :crazy:

[roshan]

The only difficult battles I've had on my first playthrough were the ones where waves upon waves of enemies spawn out of thin air, usually behind your party. I really didn't like that, it kind of made Tracking and scouting useless. I mean, I'd check a seemingly empty area and right after I bring my PC there a bunch of enemies would insta-spawn everywhere. Sometimes it even happened that when I save a game in an empty room, and load the save at a later time, I'm suddenly surrounded by enemies! 

 

This was most evident in the

Thieves' Warehouse (weapon shipment)

and the

hidden Githyanki base (inside the city of Neverwinter)

quests.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I dont think that this was intentionally planned.

 

I think that this was just due to really crappy area design on Obsidians part, because I noticed that the enemies normally spawn behind you in the very few areas where you can take multiple paths. I think this is because you can set of the triggers twice, or even more times, if you pass through the area in the wrong way.

 

In the

orc caves

, I had the exact same encounter THREE times, because each time I entered the room through a different path or door!!!

[Pidesco]

I think that in the orc caves there were at least a couple of places where the spawning behind the characters was intentional.

[Sammael]

UPDATE: Having completed VTM: Bloodlines and Heroes V: Hammers of Fate (Farmers of Hate), I finally got back to NWN2. Right now, I'm in Neverwinter, doing errands for the Watch (the next one being to protect the informant).

 

Some more observations:

 

I like Neeshka, although I think her alignment is off. The dwarf and elf are... forgettable. I didn't feel like taking a psychopathic pyromaniac with me. One thing I don't like is how the NPCs are pretty much forced on you. They also argue a bit too much for my taste.

 

Is it just me, or does Bishop bear a striking resemblance to... someone?

 

Alignment shifts are decidedly WTF. Chaotic++ for telling the guards to go to the Sunken Flagon to relax? Wha? I don't get it. This is just one of about five different alignment shifts I've seen that left me scratching my head in wonder.

 

The game is linear, but not horribly so. There are more choices than in NWN1, although still not enough for my taste. For instance, why is the only way to deal with the Bandit Camp by slaughtering all the bandits? Why wasn't there an option to infiltrate them, bluff them, join with them? Perhaps I could have bought the prisoners off them to avoid the confrontation? Meh. I really thought the bandit camp quests were poor (and exceedingly difficult, what with re-spawning bandits), when compared to the other beginning quests.

 

Also, the Neverwinter quests are a bit more linear than I would have liked them to be. Why didn't I have the option to infiltrate the thieves after siding with the watch? Also, some dialog options that rely on skills are obviously set up to make you fail regardless of how high your bonus is. I think I should be able to convince a common thug to do something reasonable with my +20 bonus on Diplomacy, but the game designers obviously didn't think so.

 

I personally don't mind the lack of perma-death at all. I think the game is a whole lot more playable this way, and I am sure as hell reloading a whole lot less than I did in SoU or HotU (NWN1 OC was a joke even at hardest difficulty).

 

Graphics remain very nice. The camera gets annoying at times, but not horribly so.

 

I have yet to try crafting, and, frankly, I think they went overboard with complexity. As it is, I am finding it completely unappealing to not only have to hunt for obscure components, but also recipes AND item molds. WAY too involved for my taste, regardless of the quality of items you can craft.

 

To be continued...

Edited January 5, 2007 by Sammael

[Tale]

Alignment shifts are decidedly WTF. Chaotic++ for telling the guards to go to the Sunken Flagon to relax? Wha? I don't get it.

They were still on the job. You told them to abandon their duties and get drunk. You don't think that's a little chaotic?

Edited January 5, 2007 by Tale

[Sammael]

The way I looked at it, I was asked by a superior officer whether I knew of a tavern nearby, and I replied truthfully.

Edited January 5, 2007 by Sammael

[aVENGER]

Is it just me, or does Bishop bear a striking resemblance to... someone?

 

Sawyer? :D I kind of thought that was an in-house Obsidian joke as his nick used to be Bishop, IIRC.

 

For instance, why is the only way to deal with the Bandit Camp by slaughtering all the bandits?

 

Never tried this myself, but I've heard that you can convince some of them to join the Fort Locke guards if you visit the Graveyard first and discover the shadow priest's plans.

 

As it is, I am finding it completely unappealing to not only have to hunt for obscure components, but also recipes AND item molds.

 

In the beginning you can buy most molds from the smith at Fort Locke and once you get the stronghold you'll have a nearly unlimited supply of molds and metal bars. Sand and that merchant near the Temple of Tyr have most of the component's you'll ever need.

[Sammael]

Never tried this myself, but I've heard that you can convince some of them to join the Fort Locke guards if you visit the Graveyard first and discover the shadow priest's plans.

That makes some sense, although it seems a bit unintuitive. There should have been the option to talk to the bandit guards regardless of whether you've visited the Graveyard or not - if for no other reason, then to learn a bit more about them in-game.

 

In the beginning you can buy most molds from the smith at Fort Locke and once you get the stronghold you'll have a nearly unlimited supply of molds and metal bars. Sand and that merchant near the Temple of Tyr have most of the component's you'll ever need.

That's fine, but I still find it too complicated, as you still have to satisfy five conditions to be able to craft: feat and/or skill, recipe, mold, special component(s), and workbench. Too much micromanagement for my taste. Still, it's a non-essential component of the game, so I'm hopefully not losing anything by not crafting items.

[kalimeeri]

Never tried this myself, but I've heard that you can convince some of them to join the Fort Locke guards if you visit the Graveyard first and discover the shadow priest's plans.

 

They won't join, but they will let you free the hostages and walk away. It's tough to impossible getting the villagers out alive if you have to fight your way out (assuming you want the XP for that quest). But you're right--you have to go through the graveyard first, or the conversation option never comes up--the bandit leader is a hostile the minute you see him. It's not obvious why at first. But I think Commander Tann being back has something to do with it--at least he wasn't hunting them down for the sake of killing them.

Edited January 5, 2007 by kalimeeri

[aVENGER]

Still, it's a non-essential component of the game, so I'm hopefully not losing anything by not crafting items.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

IMO, crafting makes the game a whole lot easier. While you can get along fine with the weapons you find/purchase there's only a few of them that can measure up to a Holy Adamantine weapon, especially later in the game when you'll be facing undead opponents 90% of the time.

 

 

BTW, there's plenty of resources to go around so feel free to craft +2 and +3 weapons, you can always upgrade them later on or make new ones if you prefer. Also, besides the other advantages, armor crafted from Mithral properly counts as one category lighter in NWN2 so it can be quite useful for characters with fewer armor proficiencies like warlocks, bards and druids.

[aVENGER]

They won't join, but they will let you free the hostages and walk away.

 

Ah, so that's what really happens. I've picked up a few hints about an alternative solution on the BIOboards but they didn't go into much detail.

 

It's tough to impossible getting the villagers out alive if you have to fight your way out (assuming you want the XP for that quest).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Nah , just have your main character stand near the pallisade enterance and the prisoner's won't move from that spot as they only follow the PC. Then order Khelgar, Neeshka, Elanee and her badger to attack the insta-spawned bandits untill they are all killed and you can walk out safely with all of the prisoners unharmed.

[alanschu]

I thought I was able to convince the bandit leader to become a lieutenant at Fort Locke. I can't remember though.

[Sand]

I convinced him to join the Fort Locke people with my paladin/cleric. It is a fairly difficult Diplomacy check at that level. However you only get that option if you rescued the commander first.

Edited January 5, 2007 by Sand

[Tigranes]

Yep, its possible and I did it on my second runthrough. It's probably one of the most difficult diplo checks in Act 1, scale-wise.