NWN2: Storm of Zehir is out!

[Pidesco]

How does dialogue work in co-op?

[Llyranor]

It's the same dialogue popup for both players. You can only select the characters you own. Wouldn't really work except as a LAN or with voicechat.

[Jaesun]

I have spent that last 2 days, doing nothing but fully exploring the 1st overland map, and doing every quest there. I also discovered 3 hidden feats, for doing certain things, which was pretty cool.

 

Now off to the second overland map!

[Meshugger]

It's the same dialogue popup for both players. You can only select the characters you own. Wouldn't really work except as a LAN or with voicechat.

 

Wuh? There's co-op? How the hell did i manage to miss/forget that?

[Marcus]

"Storm of Zheir" feels like a cross between Final Fantasy I-III and The Legdand of Zelda. Its weird.

 

I only have six nags:

 

a. There are too many random enemy attacks. Makes progress feel constraint or hindered.

b. Not enough variety in standard items. (Store based).

c. Overworld Map and Level Map camera style inconsistancy is a nag. I keep wanting to rotate the Overworld Map.

d. Too many similar taverns. Variety would have been nice, but I haven't found any use for them.

e. There are a few quests with journal entries that are too vague in how to proceed.

f. 30 minutes on the Overworld Map can get you up to level 7? Too fast on level obtainment?

 

Everything else looks pretty nice so far. Outside of the character level progression, I don't have any other way to measure success. Journal entires help in story progress, but it lacks something that would give players a sense of fulfillment.

 

I love the character customization of your main party. I have three other dones plus my main character. Sweet!

Edited November 23, 2008 by Marcus

[Starwars]

a. There are too many random enemy attacks. Makes progress feel constraint or hindered.

 

What dude are you using as an Map leader? I *highly* recommend using someone with high skill in either Hide or Move Silently as it will enable you to get past almost all encounters if you don't want to fight them (of course, sometimes you just roll a bad roll).

 

b. Not enough variety in standard items. (Store based).

 

You mean just different weapon types and such? I haven't really investigated this but there are a lot of merchants to be found in the game. Also, crafting is good in this game.

 

c. Overworld Map and Level Map camera style inconsistancy is a nag. I keep wanting to rotate the Overworld Map.

 

Hehe, this is true. I also wanted to rotate the Overland Map. Got used to it after a while though.

 

d. Too many similar taverns. Variety would have been nice, but I haven't found any use for them.

 

This is true. Taverns are basically just a place to pick up quests and rest in the game. I'm fine with that, but could've done with just a bit more variety.

 

e. There are a few quests with journal entries that are too vague in how to proceed.

 

Hm, I didn't have any problems with this. Also (just in case you didn't know), many quests will add a map marker for you on the overland map (use M key) when you get it.

 

f. 30 minutes on the Overworld Map can get you up to level 7? Too fast on level obtainment?

 

I found level ups at the start of the game to be fairly fast as well but they slow down after a while. Also, if you have fewer party members you'll get more exp (it's divided). Still, I ended up not fighting many random encounters. I imagine one could grind levels that way but it'd be a bit of a pain. I ended the game at level 16 by the way.

[Rosbjerg]

I thought the level up was a bit fast as well, but I was getting my bottom handed to me at most enocunters, so I really appriciate the fact that I level up rather quickly - after level lvl 10 it got alot slower though, because you need to do alot of other things that doesn't net you as much xp.

[Nick_i_am]

Yeah, the game is advertised as being 1 player only but it works nicely in coop as long as one person don't mind another walking them around on the world map.

 

There were a few bugs early on though, but i'm not sure if they were specifically because we were trying to multiplayer it or just bugs.

[Wombat]

Off Topic Warning

Zur did compose for IWD2 and didn't do a good job at all IMO.

How about

?

Soule however was sublime with IWD1, for my taste much less so with his later work.

So looking forward to next week, finally I'll be able to play... (However bad other things are waiting for me next week, so I'll only be able to play if I survive these *sigh*)

I agree with you that Icewind Dale's Soule was great with numbers such as

and

.

I don't know why but music for Bioware products is not my cup of tea even with the same composers. They are bit flashy for my taste.

 

PS I briefly searched for my another favorite, Mark Morgan, and have found he is mainly working on music for TV nowadays.

[Arkan]

 

Mark Morgan

[Pop]

So after getting a few levels with my Grey Orc Monk / Half-Drow Warlock / Human Ranger / Human Thief party and totally sucking, I restarted with a Human Favored Soul / Half-Drow Warlock (same character as first party) / Halfling Rogue-Swashbuckler-Duelist / Human Bard-Fighter party. I'm doing much better, mostly due to the inclusion of the Favored Soul, who has healing powers. Storm of Zehir's death mechanics are certainly unforgiving of cleric-less parties. Meanwhile the warlock continues to be a decent ranged power hitter (and the fear blast, never really useful in the OC, gets a lot of mileage in SoZ) and the Bard-Fighter is one level away from becoming a Red Dragon Disciple. The 1 Bard / 4 Fighter / X Red Dragon Disciple build is the most powerful I've run across in NWN2, I'm sure I'll have lots of fun with it in SoZ.

[Lare Kikkeli]

God damn I want to play this, but I got a weird error while installing. The game wouldn't patch with the autopatcher, got some kind of error. When I tried to start a new game the SoZ campaign had no name and in char creation the new races had no description or other text. Then when I uninstalled and tried to reinstall, my DVD drive ****s itself and disconnects itself from my computer in the middle of the install. The gods are against me I guess

Edited November 24, 2008 by Lare Kikkeli

[MrBrown]

Reading about the death mechanics almost made me give up playing it, but I'll probably give it a chance soon.

 

How necessary are rogue-skills or arcane magic stuff in SoZ?

[Pop]

Rogue skills are about as necessary as they are in the other games - if you've got a wizard with Knock, you've got part of it substituted, but you're still susceptible to traps.

 

But more importantly, most of the skills, particularly those having to do with detection, are put to good use during overland travel. Hide / Move Silently are also useful if you don't like the hassle of combat. The skill with the highest modifier is the one counted, so if you're not actually using stealth in the rest of the game (and let's face it - why would you?) it doesn't make sense to put points into both of them. Choose one, I don't think it matters which, I haven't seen any special dialogue options relating to either, or the like.

 

Gotta hand it to Obsidz, they put a lot of effort into making the skills more useful, and they well succeeded, I think.

 

Also I think I may have fashioned a broken party. Or at least, it's certainly broken now that I managed to complete 3-4 quests in one excursion out on the map and came back to the tune of 15,000 gold or so. They made enchantment way too easy. Party's level 8 and all my fighters are using weapons that do an extra 3 or 4d6 elemental damage. The useful wondrous items all take special ingredients or spell memorization, but all it takes to add a d6 to damage is gold? Tsk tsk, Obsidz.

Edited November 24, 2008 by Pop

[Nick_i_am]

Survival is actually useful now.

[deganawida]

Okay, am I the only one that's had the urge to start over about 20 times so far? Normally I can pick a character and roll with it for the entire game, but there is something about having the ability to create an entire party that makes resisting the temptation that much harder. I'm currently on my third group with an Air Genasi Rogue, Water Genasi Cleric, Fire Genasi Ranger and an Earth Genasi Fighter.

 

No, not the only one. I'm level 10, and I have the urge to restart with a party called "The Underdwellers", consisting of a drow fighter, gray orc cleric, duergar rogue, and svirfnelbin wizard. I'm fighting the urge right now, though, because I want to actually see more of the game than just the first major area.

[Rosbjerg]

I like the fact that the game is still somewhat challenging even if you get overkill equipment. I still need to be somewhat tactical with encounters otherwise they will overwhelm me. Also it's nice to be dropped in a world that doesn't seem to be tailored to you and your abilities. In the OC campaign I always felt like I could take on anyone at anytime because I could win every time - that's not the case here, there are some places that I simply can't go because I'm too weak and have to run away screaming Cthulu style.

[Amentep]

As an inveterate restarter, I'd hoped being able to do my own party would cut down on this, but I've restarted 5 times over the weekend.

[Gromnir]

Okay, am I the only one that's had the urge to start over about 20 times so far? Normally I can pick a character and roll with it for the entire game, but there is something about having the ability to create an entire party that makes resisting the temptation that much harder. I'm currently on my third group with an Air Genasi Rogue, Water Genasi Cleric, Fire Genasi Ranger and an Earth Genasi Fighter.

 

No, not the only one. I'm level 10, and I have the urge to restart with a party called "The Underdwellers", consisting of a drow fighter, gray orc cleric, duergar rogue, and svirfnelbin wizard. I'm fighting the urge right now, though, because I want to actually see more of the game than just the first major area.

 

 

am recalling that a developer (probably josh) mentioned that the game really punished his drow-inclusive party early 'cause of ecl. he restarted... sans drow.

 

*shrug*

 

we don't have game and haven't played.

 

am planning on having a human rogue/ranger/swashbuckler (as team leader), an assimar cleric/doomguide, a vanilla gold dwarf paladin (or fighter), and a halfling mage/candlekeep scholar as our initial party o' four. wanna take advantage of some of the new stuff in game, so we ain't optimizing... but it sure sounds likes feedback from players recommends having a skillz monkey as team lead.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gorgon]

As an inveterate restarter, I'd hoped being able to do my own party would cut down on this, but I've restarted 5 times over the weekend.

I don't know what it is but I always seem to restart an RPG about 10 times before I actually get going.

 

By the way, is there any way to set the appearance of the armor, leather looks good on a thief, but if you multiclass to fighter for instance, your precious armor suddenly gets dipped in the ugly bowl. The shoulderpads on warrior armor also seems to flap around as if trying for a takeoff on most warrior classes.

 

These little details bother me so much I base my class choices on them. Anyone have any idea where armor appearance can be edited.

Edited November 24, 2008 by Gorgon

[Amentep]

As an inveterate restarter, I'd hoped being able to do my own party would cut down on this, but I've restarted 5 times over the weekend.

I don't know what it is but I always seem to restart an RPG about 10 times before I actually get going.

 

I restarted 3 times on Fallout 3, but for some reason with NWN2 I restarted about 20 before I got a character I ran through the game with.

 

I was hoping I wouldn't be as restart crazy with picking my 4-party group...but I am.

[Enoch]

am planning on having a human rogue/ranger/swashbuckler (as team leader), an assimar cleric/doomguide, a vanilla gold dwarf paladin (or fighter), and a halfling mage/candlekeep scholar as our initial party o' four. wanna take advantage of some of the new stuff in game, so we ain't optimizing... but it sure sounds likes feedback from players recommends having a skillz monkey as team lead.

 

HA! Good Fun!

As I understand it, the designation of a lead character at the start of the game (i.e., the first character you create) is only important in that you can never switch this character out of the party. For the purposes of the overland map skills and the teamwork benefit feats, you can designate the nominal leader of the group as whoever you want.

 

Anyhow, my game is currently being delivered to my home, so I should get to try it out this evening. The group I have dreamed up is quite similar to Gromnir's. The human Ro/Sw/Ra and the halfling wizard are essentially the same (might do a 1 level rogue dip on the Wiz), but I was thinking about making the Cleric an Elf (for bow proficiency and for the 'group trance' teamwork feat) and the fighter a Genasi of some kind (because I haven't played one in NWN2 yet), angling towards some Frezerker levels.

[Azure79]

I bought the game on Friday evening at Best Buy. I spent that night making and remaking parties because I couldn't settle on just one combination. I did the same thing the next night then I had to fly out for Thanksgiving for a week.

 

So I have the game but I haven't actually played it yet.

 

But the music is good from what I've heard, (the title screen) which gives a sense of adventure!

 

I can't wait to get back and play the game.

[Oerwinde]

The trading system is bugged. I need a bunch of resources to upgrade my trade company so I trekked out to each town to get enough of all resources, and sent them back to Crossroad keep, but when I got there it had each of the resources, but no quantity.

[Starwars]

Yep, the rare resources thing is a bug and confirmed by OEI. Rob said there'll be patch today or tomorrow fixing the issue where MotB wouldn't play properly, not sure if there'll be any other bugfixes in it as well.