f13.net

Since the combat is still real-time, I'm just not that enthused.

I'm facing the dillemna of having friends that want to do the main quest as a multiplayer party. Will I be able to hold off just playing through it single player? Gonna be tough.

You could always pause and give orders in NWN.  I'm sure it's the same here.  Same as every Bioware/Black Isle/Obsidian game, ever (or a game like Freedom Force).

I don't get why people have such a bug up their asses about this kind of combat.  If you want it to be turn based, then just keep pausing.

And pausing and pausing and pausing. Unlike Freedom Force, NWN felt really jumpy when pausing. I didn't like the pausing aspect, and like Way said, it killed multiplayer. Not to mention the toolset took almost a year to get stable, and Bioware's not even the main architect on this one, Obsidian is. Based on reports about KOTOR 2 (also by Obsidian), I'm not that confident in its ability to not be a buggy POS.

I'm messing around in the editor tonight and it's very, very cool.

The suspended tile ceiling sort of breaks immersion.

Never seen a tiled ceiling like that before?

Really, it's been downhill since Planescape.

My friend has a copy of the editor. He said it is magnitudes harder that the original one. Before you could make some thing you could run around in, in about an hour. He said with the new one, it will take several days to get to that point. He also said the tilesets are MUCH more customizable, and you can stretch and morph the tiles.

In Neverwinter Nights 2, not everyone is created equal. Each race has its own flavor as well as a unique set of abilities and penalties. The most powerful races actually advance in level more slowly to compensate for their incredible ability score bonuses and powers. Four of the most powerful races you can play in Neverwinter Nights 2 are the Drow, the Aasimar, the Tiefling, and the unassuming Svirfneblin.

Drow (Dark Elf)
Driven underground ages ago by their kin, the drow, also referred to as the Illythiiri or just “dark elves,” comprise some of the most powerful spellcasters throughout Faerun. Though typically quite evil, the drow possess a complex and rich culture. Drow are swift, cunning, and innately resistant to magic.

Stats: +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution

Spells: Darkness, Light, See Invisible.
Special abilities: Darkvision, Spell Resistance, all elven abilities.
Level adjustment: +2.

These elite races are just one of the many new character options available in Neverwinter Nights 2. Their unique abilities – and the corresponding handicap – make them ideal for the truly hardcore player looking for a new and exciting challenge

If you are experienced with the Aurora engine and NWN1 toolset, then you will find many familiar features in the NWN2 toolset. The toolset you have now has been redesigned, however, to make the most of new features and technology that is available for NWN2. Some of the new features include:

World Creation
Terrain Painting. You can sculpt the terrain and apply textures, water, and animated grass. Various brush sizes are available for initial sculpting/painting and refined work.

Trees. You can quickly generate unique and animated trees.

Weather Control. You can set sky color and cloud density and velocity.

Dynamic Day/Night Cycle. You can set various weather and lighting conditions and the game will dynamically move between them as time progresses. For example, you can have a light fog roll in during the dawn and then burn away as the sun rises.

Special Effects Editor. The toolset comes with the special effects editor that was used for the NWN2 spells.

Armor Customization. With over 100 different greaves, vambraces, and more, you can custom tailor armors to create your own unique-looking magic items or uniforms. All armor pieces can be individually tinted with multiple colors.

Object Scaling. You can scale most placeables and creatures easily, allowing you to make a tougher looking bugbear chieftain or a cat-sized giant spider hatchling.

Enhanced Camera Controls. New camera features allow for more cinematic cut scenes.

Global Scripts. The NWN2 toolset has a much more robust collection of global scripts that are ready for use in your own modules.

Usability
Customizable Workspace. You have much more control over where various tools and windows are located and how much space they take up, allowing you to adjust the toolset’s layout as you wish.

Improved Conversation Editor. You can pass parameters to scripts and assign multiple conditional and action scripts. A “main question node” feature makes it much easier to construct certain types of conversations.

Level Baking. A semi-automated baking process creates the walkmesh for your level, which causes placeables you specify to automatically block movement without dealing directly with the walkmesh.

Multi-tasking. You can have multiple areas, conversations, and scripts open simultaneously, allowing for faster content creation.

Campaign System. Multiple modules can now share resources and journal data.

Flexible Categories. NWN2 has no item palettes, allowing you to organize your blueprints and instances in whatever categories you’d like.

Plugins. You can create plugins for the toolset, much like you can for Photoshop or 3DS Max.

Waaaaaaayyyy to hard.

Waaaaaaayyyy to hard.

Where did you hear it was mediocre?

Where did you hear it was mediocre?

My impression of that is b/c it's not really a huge departure from NWN1.  People, including me, wanted something that was a) not so tied to D&D core rules, b) easier to create true custom contant for, c) better persistant world support, d)paced differently, or e) some or all of the above.

NWN2 is generally perceived to be "just" a graphical update to NWN1, thus the expectation that it will be mediocre.

We shall see, starting tomorrow.
Xilren

[EDIT] Also, how did alignment play out in NWN exactly? I don't recall. In NWN2, it's kind of KoToR-esque. All kinds of NPC dialogue will alter it. You can also influence party members too (depending on their alignment).

Can you be a monk?

Yes.

Hello everyone,

We have a breif update fropm Atari and Obsidian for you concerning issues you may be seeing regarding Patch 1.

Box Retail: The English v1.01 patch is now available via the in-game autoupdate utility.

Direct2Drive Customers: For those of you who purchased the game via Direct2Drive, we have identified the issue with the autopatcher failing to complete the install for the patch, and are working diligently to resolve the problem. We do not anticipate this taking any longer than end of the day Wednesday, November 1st, Pacific Standard Time and apologize for any inconvenience.

In the interim, we invite you to fire up the single player game and start playing!

I love me some monk.

Yes, it's the same gameplay as NWN

Some RPGs are balanced in such a way that the player's interaction doesn't matter so much as the die rolls.  That was my main beef with NWN, not enough influential player moves to really earn success or failure over a given encounter.

Min/Maxing improves the odds in a D20 game, but a well-balanced scenario never lets it reach the point where I can guarantee freedom from the loading screen.

Hold up, there's supposed to be full party member control.  Is it possible that will save NWN 2 from falling absolutely and utterly in NWN's D20 destined corpse hole?

To elaborate on my angst, it's not that I can't see some value in the original NWN in that it granted players powers to make their own modules with fairly elaborate features (such as spawn tables and traps) and then play it out with up to 64 players, serverside stored characters, and player DM intervention.  My issue was rather that Dungeons and Dragons computer games that are overfaithful to the rule books play something like this:

1. Exploration/Story progression
2. Encounter!
3. Fail saving throw! Half the party dies to a fireball!
4. Reload saved game.
5. Foe succeeds in saving throw and now you're out of spells!
6. Reload saved game.
7. The battle was going swimmingly until that critical hit left your fighter mortally wounded.
8. Reload saved game.
9. Looks like you won this time.
10. Save game.
11. Loop to step #1.

Some RPGs are balanced in such a way that the player's interaction doesn't matter so much as the die rolls.  That was my main beef with NWN, not enough influential player moves to really earn success or failure over a given encounter.

wordy motherfucker

if you do decide to make a module, try not to ask so many rhetorical questions will ya?

Well, with a decent DM, you don't get the "half the party dies to a fireball, game over" because he manipulates events in such a manner that the entire party doesn't die to one spell.

I am reminded of one pen and paper game where my mage looked for a spare room in a deep dungeon to rest and relearn spells. Unfortunately at the wrong moment there was always some noisy orc or kobold or something. "What, you think this is some goddamned Gold Box computer game? NO SLEEPING IN THE DUNGEON!"

Oblivion's faces were worse than EQ2. I saw a screenshot of NWN today on a press site and that was it for me. I canceled my preorder. Too ugly. Somehow - SOMEHOW - worse than oblivion.

I still don't get where this "EQ2's graphics are good" thing comes from.

Min/Maxing improves the odds in a D20 game, but a well-balanced scenario never lets it reach the point where I can guarantee freedom from the loading screen.  Even with the best gear, you've stilll a 5% chance of taking a critical hit every time the enemy hits you and ideally spell resistance doesn't exceed 19 either.  All I ask is that I never see that screen unless I made a mistake - is that so wrong?

I found a potential "fix" for the camera issue I've been hating:

In your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\ folder, open up nwnplayer.ini, and find the line "CameraFollowAlways=0". Change this to "CameraFollowAlways=1". This will cause the Camera to always follow you - even when standing still.

That's my biggest bitch with the camera. I want it to work more mmoish, so if I rotate my character the camera rotates with him.

Is anyone playing a warlock? I almost made one and am considering restarting and making one. They look so cool for spellcasters.

That halfling has a nose that could bring a shabbat service to a screeching halt.

Any one interested in getting a game going online?

Drow take more exp because of their innate abilities, supposedly.

Im playing as a Aasmir Paladin. I usually play through these D&D games as a Chaotic Neutral Rogue/Warrior, so I thought I would go a different path and try a pally. Having a good time so far despite having a few CTDs. The game does seem really really buggy. I had some wierdness happen. At one point, I got my hands on a greatsword, so I gave my fighter friend my shield. Right after that I zoned in to the first dungeon, and noticed I had no weapon in my hand, so I pulled up my character sheet, and saw that I had my greatsword equpied AND my shield, which my friend was also using, and I was unable to unequip it. Some how it just disapeared in like 2 minutes, after I had to hand to hand a few mobs to death.

Im not sure how I feel about the exp curve for more powerful classes. I dont see why the Drow takes 3 times more exp to level than the other classes. I mean, the Drow need a LOT of exp. I think for a normal human its 1500 to get to level 2. For a Plaintouched its 3000 to level 2, and fro a Drow its 6000 to level 2. Thats a big difference.

Any one interested in getting a game going online?

How is that better than, say, a 16 Cleric/4 Fighter?

Why is a cleric so great?

Sorry, I'm a newb.

Ah, but is anything worse than Bard?

Very true. Most people make amazingly shitty bards. The best part about finding/using a powerful bard build is that it is very unexpected.

Anyone can post minimal specs? I'm curious if old PC can take it so I can play it with my S.O.

I'm not talking about builds though. I'm talking about this shitty game.  :-)

My main problem is that it doesn't seem to be built for how encounters work in a video game setting. As if it's only suitable for a PnP setting, and not how AI, aggro, gamemaps play out (I wish I could articulate this better).

Unequipping armor. No offense, but that sounds lame. Is there any other way to have fun with this class?

Anyone can post minimal specs? I'm curious if old PC can take it so I can play it with my S.O.

Starting you basically at lvl 3 helps jump the "low level d&d sucks" part, and decent loot helps too.  I'm  not sure if the loot is static or random.  (Without being too spoilerish, did everyone get that flaming mace from the lizardman chieftan in the side swamp caves?) But thus far i've gotten several bard instruments too, which seems odd somehow.

I hate zombies. Damn disease with no cleric.

Hmmm - maybe I will have to go buy the box.

I skipped that fight with diplomacy so I don't know. :)

Not that one (where you're after the shard and the lizardings), the side one which is past the inn and has full blown lizardmen.  You notice the difference when the shaman cast at you :)

Oh yeah, tons of traps so far.

It was our own sense that it could be perceived as an unfair review because of the many criticisms he made of D&D itself. I don't even necessarily think his opinion was "wrong"---I just feel it should have gone through another round of editing/rewriting so that it wouldn't be perceived that we had someone review the game who would have been inherently predisposed to NOT like it from the start.

There's a reason why games like Diablo, Zelda, and Dark Alliance are considered some of the best crpg's ever.

Too bad, I didn't see the review...

Not sure what you're asking...

Sure, they're on consoles, but they're still computer rpg's.

Again.. what? When I think of great computer RPGs, I don't think of something that's ONLY BEEN ON A CONSOLE.  Zelda isn't even remotely computerish.  I really don't know where you're going with that terminology, it's wrong.

Anyhow, I'd counter that action rpgs are the way to go with: great games are the way to go.  It's hard to make a great game when you're married to a particular set of hard and fast rules that may not fit the presentation you've chosen or if you implement those rules in an overly burdensome manner.  PS:T, BG:2, etc have risen above their ruleset.  NWN really hasn't.

Actually, I favor deeper, more complex RPGs over your so-called "action RPGs." Surely, that's a personal preference, but I believe there's plenty of room for both.

And besides, all games have rules...just in some, the rules are more obvious and open for analysis.

I agree with the pulled review. So there's a truckload of new spells / stats / classes to toy around with, that wasn't really the weakness of NWN in the first place though. The game is also crazy linear, it can only be played one way, that is to follow the story. However the immersivenes is nill so I couldn't care less about the story. Streamline the rules and remove all the useless jibberish, rework the combat system and then turn it into a hack n slash experience and I'd be all over it. Or better yet, rework the combat system to something resembling console action games.

Again, maybe this particular sub-genre is not for you.

I've seen and read enough about this game.

It isn't, and I've said that a billion times at this site. But.....I tend to forgive Bioware because they're good storytellers. Bad RPG's sometimes make decent Adventure games. There's just too much shit I can't ignore about the NWN series though.

Just to pick a nit...It was Obsidian who did this one mostly. Sure, they did Planescape, but they also did IWD 2, which more than few people here have a problem with.

So let me get this straight...you don't like the kind of game NWN is (faithful D&D recreation, in theory). You're also dissatisfied that you can't use it as some sort of ...um...non-D&D adventure game or something? I really don't know what you're trying to do, or what you expect to be able to do with NWN if you don't like the systems around which the game is built. Trying to turn a game into something it's not generally does not work very well, just as it does with people.

KOTOR had almost no combat depth.  Jedi or bust; no positioning; if in doubt- stim up.

Rules for the sake of having rules?  What is that, precisely, in a game modeled around the D&D experience?  That's the problem with the review- what was he expecting? Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, the ideal form of 'RPG combat' is found in a big ol BGII melee, but that's just my opinion!

Sorry, my bad. I forgot that my Nintendo ran on wood chips. Not computer chips. Or was it potato chips? I forget.

I've never played pnp D&D so I'm just judging the game on its merits as a game. So what's so good about pnp RPG that the D&D ruleset and all these games manages to do so good? I mean your average JRPG is much more immersive ( or atleast that's my opinion )

The average JRPG is meant to be played alone so the player can follow a mostly linear story through from beginning to end.  It's immersive in the same way a movie is immersive, although I don't think that video games will ever be well suited to telling a good story for various reasons.  Or rather I think that any story could be better told in another medium.

Diablo II had 14.5 million box sales.

You're serious?

Diablo is a fun game series.  The first was pretty shallow, the second improved upon that a bit by adding skill trees.  Neither ran in higher than 640x480 resolution. They both owe a lot to the Roguelike games, the main Diablo innovations being space-based inventory, variable stat loot, simplified RPG mechanics, and graphics.  On game mechanic merit alone it wasn't mindblowingly good, but it's surprising how many people get fished in by a slick GUI.  Then again, a popular industry saying is that the GUI is the Game.

Neverwinter Nights, the original, was a game that everybody got some fun out of.  Like many games, most people got bored of it in time, while some continued to play and enjoy it.  Perhaps the best part about NWN was the easy module creation for functionally unlimited community content.  For those who continued to play it, I could see them quantifying it as being the "best" because it was an unlimited RPG joy machine for them.

NWN2 was an attempt to replicate and improve upon the original, nothing more.  Except for the bugs, higher system requirements, and harder to use toolkit, they've mostly met their aim.  It's only been three years since the first one came out, I'm not too surprised NWN2 hasn't massively restructured.  I'm told the included campaign gets better and better as you keep going, but I haven't made it past Act I so far.  Considering it sold out everywhere immediately, I'd say the PC game audience considers it pretty close to "best", even if I havent' found lasting sustainance in the NWN series.

The biggest problem with the NWN series, in my opinion, is simply that it's based on a D20 system that was intended for PnP play.  Just because something translates playably doesn't mean it's the best use of the computer platform.  A ten year old computer nerd could write better game mechanics if they started from the ground up - this example is intended to imply that the developers are limiting themselves by trying to convert an existing PnP game.  Good D20 PC platform games are usually good because of the story: KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment.  The only ones that were particularly good from a gameplay standpoint, again in my opinion, were the ones that kept the turn-based mechanic (Dark Sun, Temple of Elemental Evil) or adapted as different of gameplay as possible (Hillsfar).

Nothing might as well be an RPG then. Unless it says D&D on it. I'm not Darniaq, trying to argue that FPS's are RPG's, but shit, you have to draw the line somewhere. Diablo is more RPG than it isn't.

Re: Diablo I "Skill Trees".  I don't call the spellbooks such as they were entirely linear and not tree-like, and also not particularly accessible to the Rogue or Warrior.  (Well okay, Rogue it wasn't that hard to pump their Int stat - they were intended to know a couple.)

Re: 800x600 res.  They must have patched that in.

But this game seems to want main characters to be on the frontlines. There doesn't seem to be any way around that.

I can almost recommend this game if you want to be on the frontlines though. Feels like KoToR. Kinda.

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7592798&publicUserId=5380367

People write reviews for people that are already interested in the game? Are you fucking kidding?

What is this? Amateur hour? You write reviews to inform the uninformed. God. Damnit.

(think proc-based rogue assassin in SB if you played that)

Agreed, it's the fucking gong show over there at least on this topic. Quit now. Pretend NWN2 never launched and move on.

I played a proc/mage assassin (when procs were based on INT). Best rpg class ever.  :-)

Sounds interesting though.

Yeah, i had several MA's but they were bolt based, did a dex/int rogue proc assassin that became my fav char ever heh - crazy fun class.

My MA was bolt based too. I just equipped him with proc daggers. All I had to do was be in was melee attack mode when I opened up a fight, and the procs would still hit from range.

The best lowest level daggers with procs only required like 40% in dagger training...Which high intel assassins had close to anyways. The actual damage of the proc was based off of INT. At high levels on a mage, they hit as hard as your frost bolts. So in essense, it was like having extra frost bolt attacks in between your actual frost bolt attacks. It was even more crazy if you were lucky enough to get vampiric daggers (health drain -> transfer).

Natually, it was nurfed.

Heh...

I know I said I hate how spellcasting has worked out, but....

Lightning.

Always liked lightning based characters. What's a good way to go about it? Are Clerics the only ones who have access to those type of spells?

Man, all I know is that melee messes. A lot. Seems like I spend half of each fight just watching them swing and miss, and then all of a sudden, hit hit hit hit hit, and some one dies. I think they might have a few bugs in their random number generator. Also, is is just me or is this game a LOT harder than the last one? Im level 8 warrior now, and I get my ass kicked all the time.

In my experience so far you have to be really conscious of your Base Attack Bonus and what attribute modifies your attack roll. For instance in the melee warlock I was talking about above I have the feat Weapon Finesse which makes the character use the dex modifier for to hit and then i use the +4 dex buff to get a +5 mod. Otherwise I miss constantly. The game seems a little stringent on the attck mod benefits...

Since I no longer "own" NWN2, I decided to give Stormreach a try.

After 2 days of playing, I think Stormreach is a better game.

Funny enough, at level 5 Wizard before I've even had a chance to take Eldritch Knight levels, I'm already a pretty good meleer thanks to spell enhancements.  I've a natural +2 strength mod, and after throwing Bull Strength I'm getting a +8 to hit - better than a fighter of the same level, although they'd probably get a second attack/round. 

And you stuck it out with a Bard, right?

You told me about your build already, but how exactly do you play your build? I wanted my guy to be a typical ranged/chanting/casting/buffing bard (and then move into Harper later).....But this game seems to want main characters to be on the frontlines. There doesn't seem to be any way around that.

I can almost recommend this game if you want to be on the frontlines though. Feels like KoToR. Kinda.

In my experience so far you have to be really conscious of your Base Attack Bonus and what attribute modifies your attack roll. For instance in the melee warlock I was talking about above I have the feat Weapon Finesse which makes the character use the dex modifier for to hit and then i use the +4 dex buff to get a +5 mod. Otherwise I miss constantly. The game seems a little stringent on the attck mod benefits...

*Very Mild Spoiler below*
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The Thugs in the warehouse and in the level merchant house just fucking destroy me. There is no way these guys should be this tough. I managed to beat both levels, but only by buffing the shit out of my party with tons of potions. But I think I have now bought up all the potions in Neverwinter, and im not sure what Im going to do for the next level.

The story remains "OK" but I hate HATE HATE the "influence" system.  I hated it in KotOR II and I hate it more here.  Is there some way to bump up my influence through the console?

The original Neverwinter Nights is so immersive that it continues to attract new fans to this day, but the time for a true sequel has arrived and thankfully, Neverwinter Nights 2 delivers. This extremely enjoyable action RPG contains fabulous visuals, plenty of options, and incredible gameplay. Neverwinter Nights 2 is truly one of the most epic adventures found on a PC, and it should be purchased without hesitation.

This review appears in the January issue of Games For Windows: The Official Magazine.

----

As everything-the-original-did -- and more -- follow-ups go, Neverwinter Nights 2 deserves a banner&something like "mission accomplished." Think the sequel to Jurassic Park, where Spielberg's all "You want more dinosaurs? I'll show you more dinosaurs..." As a contemporary CRPG, on the other hand, NWN2 leaves a lot to be desired, and that's too bad, because these are the guys who brought us Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale 2...and therefore they are the guys I'm least inclined to take issue with.

But issues exist, and defining them is really no more complex than saying, "Hello D&D superchrome, buh-bye storytelling and character development (you know, those things you're supposed to "immerse" yourself in)." The idea seems to be that we're meant to rah-rah about a superabundance of feats, spells, races, prestige (advanced) classes, and math-equation tickers full of the usual "I attack you with a +4 sword of --" booooooring. Fine, sure, dandy...but when is a "role" not a "role"? Simple: when it's a rule to a fault.

Ever loyal bites
I'm cruising for a bruising (don't I know it), but NWN2 is a splash of cold water to the face: A revelatory, polarizing experience that -- in the wake of newer, better alternatives -- makes you question the very notion of "RPG by numbers." It foists Wizards of the Coast's latest v3.5 D&D system (a molehill that's become a mountain at this point) onto your hard drive with stunning fidelity, then tacks on dozens of artificial-looking areas vaguely linked by forget-table plot points you check off like grocery to-do's.

Sure, the interface is sleeker with context-sensitive menus and a smart little bar that lets you more intuitively toggle modes like "power attack" and "stealth," but with all the added rule-shuffling, NWN2 seems like it's working twice as hard to accomplish half as much. Worse -- and blame this on games like Oblivion -- NWN2's levels feel pint-sized: Peewee zones inhabited by pull-string NPCs with no existence to speak of beyond their little playpens. Wander and you'll wonder why the forests, towns, and dungeons are like movie lots with lay-about monsters waiting patiently for you to trip their arbitrary triggers. As if the pencil and paper "module" approach were a virtue that computers -- by now demonstrably capable of simulating entire worlds with considerably more depth -- should emulate. It's like we're supposed to park half our brain in feature mania and the rest in nostalgic slush, and somehow call bingo.

The dungeons feel especially stale, so linear and inorganic they might as well be graph-paper lifts filled with room after room of pop-up bogeymen (Doom put them in closets; NWN2 just makes the closets bigger). Maybe you'd rather chat with the dumb NPCs that speak and sound like extras in a bad Saturday morning cartoon? Oh, boy -- there's the portrait "plus" sign! Time to shuffle another party member (improved to four simultaneous) through the level-up grinder, which you can click "recommend" to zip past...but then, what's the point?

Rule-playing game
In all fairness, it's not entirely developer Obsidian's fault. D&D certainly puts the "rule" in role-playing, and a madcap base of D&D aficionados is no doubt ready to string me up for suggesting that faithful is here tantamount to folly (to these people, I say: "Go for it, NWN2's all you've ever wanted and more"). Call me crazy -- I guess I'm just finally weary of being led around on a pencil-and-paper leash and batting numbers around a glorified three-dimensional spreadsheet in a computer translation that should have synthesized, not forklifted.

That five-of-10 is actually a hedge, by the way. For D&D fans who want to play an amazingly thorough PC translation of the system they're carting around in book form, it's proba-bly closer an eight or nine. But if, like me, you want less "rules for rule's sake" and more depth and beauty to your simulated game worlds, you can certainly find more exciting prospects. Part of the reason we call them "the good old days" and think fondly of games past is that it's always easier to love what we don't have to play anymore.

That 1Up review reads a little truer to my feelings, but when I try to boil it down to what it's saying it basically says, "I wanted a more immersive feeling game."  It's a fair request, but there's more to potential focuses to gaming than immersion.  Considering that NWN2 is more immersive than the original NWN, I can see this as being a classic, "The developers added something, but didn't make it their primary focus, so reviewers that got hooked on it found it lacking."

Damn, Clerics are crazy. I'm playing an underlvled Aasimar, without any means to identify loot (so I'm still using that newb +1 club I got from my hometown)....Domains are Air and Magic, with focus in Evocation so far (but only one useful evoc spell). No lightning as of yet, so I'm just depending on gimp melee, Magic armor, and cleric buffs.

I love it. Why do you dislike it so much?

So I decided to look on the NWN 2 Technical Support (Self-Help) forum and this is what I found (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=512809&forum=116).

So I traded out the druid in the party for a Sorc, and Oh. My. God. the game is so much easer. This chick just blows the shit out of everything. Now I wish I had made a magic user, Sorc or Warlock, they make my pretty badass melee guy look like he is in the minor leagues.

If by "the bard", you are referring to Deekin, I wish to say that Deekin is no mere Bard.  His cowardly subserviance with an unusually brave core (for a kobold) has wormed its way into my gut.

I am really not liking my fighter, and I didnt spec him for any prestige classes, and I think his int is to low for weapon master. I really dont want to start over a third time. Im going to keep pushing, but if it doesnt get better, ill probably just put the game aside.

That does sound ugly.

Have I asked if you can pause and give orders?

Plays out exactly like KoToR, Sky. The skill and combat systems are more deep/complex/convoluted though.

What I wouldnt give for the camera and interface to work like KotOR.

My cleric is underwhelming - I went for wretched cleric that hell-bent of doing nasty things... and well at 4 fighter 4 cleric I do fuck all damage with any of my cleric abilities. If anything I use bless, silence and sound blast (stun) and that about it. Harms do fuck all damage with 19 wis.

Also did I mention 7 (SEVEN) splash screens at a startup?

Don't get me wrong I like this game, but some things about it just drive me crazy.

It's a combo of all those things, not just the damage or benefit of one spell. Go into a fight with all buffs on.

I find that my main character *can* die, a change from most RPGs. I went fighter/cleric for survivability.

That being said I have few questions:

1) I made a mistake picking weapon masteries, I mis-applied one of my weapon masteries. Is there any way to fix it?
2) Defensive casting - does it affects melee at all?

So this is like NWN1 but with better plot?

Rerolled my cleric to Air and Water this time. I dropped the idea of having one dmg focused and one utility/shield focused domain (was Air/Magic before). I'm gonna try full damage -- Both Air and Water have high dmg Evocation spells (lightning, cold storms, acid rain).

Gonna take Armor Crafting this time. It's worth it.

So far it seem most party combo will work pretty well so long as you have 1 AoE person.

...But this game has different quirks for different hardware configurations it seems. My problems are not yours, and yours are not mine.

Yeah, I noticed it works different for different people.  I am finding that if I pause it seems I can alt tab.  Wierd engine this game has.

And what the hell is up with [Slit Throat]?

It's wrong.  Even for my goddamn Rogue Assasin, it's wrong...

Xilren
PS Cheddar, sorry you hate it.  As with most pc games, the techincal issues seem to be very computer specific.  I've have a grand total of 2 crashes so far, and no bugged scripts/quests, and my performance is great with all the sparklies turned on.  Course, i also have a pretty new machine (dual core, 7900 geforce).

Holy snot, XFire majorly lags NWN2?!

Sure enough, shut it down before launching the game and my frame rate about doubled, maybe tripled.  Apparently there's executables for the game that are optimized for different chipsets and XFire prevents the right one from being launched.

Drivers?

so I guess I'll be sheperding her through it with helpful advice like 'Nah, what the fuck are you choosing a God for ?'

you can stop lots of apps from sucking up your CPU etc. by running msconfig.exe
e.g. check tab "services", select hide all MSFT apps,  see what else is running and disable it for a new profile.  You can restore the original profile when you don't want to play (and reboot obviously).

It's like some of you guys are game-impaired.

Maybe I'll roll up my monk.  Weapon focus/specializtion in unarmed, circle kick.

Not sure on the other feats, maybe cleave/greater cleave, or power attack, maybe imp crit? I dunno.

Isn't Weapons Specialization a Fighter feat only, or is it based on your INT mod (or something else)?  I'm always tempted to give my monk a few fighter levels, and I thought this was one of the reasons.  That, plus the extra feats, extra base attack bonus, and the bug (?) that used to exist giving you an extra attack.  All at a cost, of course.

Keep in mind that NWN doesn't follow D&D to a T. I'm not sure about monks, but some other classes are implemented kind of half assed. PnP based guides don't help a whole lot.

Edit:  By the way, does anyone know exactly what Power Critical does?  It says something convoluted, like "+4 to confirm if a target is a threat" or some crazy shit. 

Ok, when you roll a potential crit, say a natural 20, it is only a potential crit. They call it a threat in D&D. You then have to roll again, if you hit again (you just have to hit) THEN it is a critical and I believe the terminology is confirming the critical. Power Critical gives you a +4 to this roll so it makes it easier to actually critical.

Ah, yes, I had forgotten that.  Still, it seems like it would only be useful in early levels when your to-hit bonus is low, or against enemies with insanely high AC?  A good PvP skill maybe?  I can't really see the usefulness otherwise, but then I'm always doing everything  I can to get my attack bonuses as high as I can.

Honestly, PC gaming these days is a fucking joke.  I do more tech support at home than I do for my fucking users.

I've seen nothing yet that wasn't already there with NWN.  I honestly think new people who haven't played either would have done better to purchase the NWN collection with all the expansions.

What a crock of shit this is :  New money for old rope.

Anyway, my point was that people would be BETTER OFF buying the original.   I don't think the enhancements are worth the shite that comes with it.

Obsidian does it again and rushes a game without freaking finishing the main story.

I tried the game and can't see how you guys got past the shitty ass control system? ... Thanks to the braindead camera programming I never got to buggy quests or scripts or missing npc's though so I guess I came out ahead on that.

In your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\ folder, open up nwnplayer.ini, and find the line "CameraFollowAlways=0". Change this to "CameraFollowAlways=1". This will cause the Camera to always follow you - even when standing still.

That's my biggest bitch with the camera. I want it to work more mmoish, so if I rotate my character the camera rotates with him.

The last area and final boss battle design were crap, the resolution of the story was left open, followed by a "we threw this together at the last minute" slide show instead of a custscene or movie, with a voice over from Timmy the package relocation specalists, and ending with a lame "cliffhanger".

Can't agree more. While some keep fights were very enjoyable end battle was horrible, with party AI removing any traces of fun. Sideshow and cliffhanger was simply not excusable.

Are there any good download or persistent modules out yet?

Can't agree more. While some keep fights were very enjoyable end battle was horrible, with party AI removing any traces of fun. Sideshow and cliffhanger was simply not excusable.

Are there any good download or persistent modules out yet?

Oh well...The game is shit anyways.