NWN2: Thoughts?

[stray]

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?

1) Don't know about one. I think El Gallo posted some respec hack on the previous page.

2) Defensive casting.... Is that the toggle skill? I never use it. I thought it was used to boost Concentration checks anyways (I probably should be using it, if that's the case).

All I know is that I can take on a dozen enemies solo with buffs and a potion or two....In melee. And I don't have one melee centric skill or feat. I don't even have any points in parry.

[Cheddar]

So this is like NWN1 but with better plot?

[stray]

So this is like NWN1 but with better plot?

More like a NWN1-KotoR-steep-learning-curve-hyrib with a better plot.

[geldonyetich]

Saying something is like something else risks the danger of being unable to see the original something for what it is. </Zen>

Suffice to say, NWN1, Kotor, and NWN2 are all based on the D20 system butchered to play in real time and pausable with a space bar.  Pretty much the Bioware standard since Baldur's Gate.  There the similarities get sketchy.  Unlike NWN1, NWN2 takes place at a more immersive perspective with an awkward camera but great skybox support, like KOTOR does.  Compared to NWN1, I've found NWN2 is a bit buggier and has steep system requirements, although XFire turned out to be part of the problem for me.   KOTOR's combat mechanic, despite being very similar, I think is better in terms of entertainment value.  NWN2 does have a bit more sophistication to the rules in play, however.

[sinij]

Do not patch your NVN2 to 1.02!

New patch was recently released, Atari broke something in copy protection (any idea what are they using?) and now there are large number of people, including me, that can't run the game.

[MrHat]

So, I made my Chaotic Good Human Warlock (after trying a few other races, I'm too ding oriented).  Haven't gotten very far at all, basically the first battle of Act 1.

I slit that guys throat and my warrior buddy was all like "you didn't need to do that".  The options were "let him go" "slit his throat" "leave him to die".

If I let him go, he's gonna go rape and pillage some more.  Leave him to die didn't seem very humane.  I thought I did the good thing...

[stray]

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).

Also, it's more consistent "rp-wise". Now he's an Aasimar Cleric of Valkur (god of seas, winds, sailors, etc). Even made a cheesy biography for him. Heh.

Not that any of that matters.

I'm going to try not to bother with melee as much as possible. STR: 10 Dex: 10.

Gave him an INT of 14 for more skill points. I was only getting like 4 per level before. Hope it wasn't a mistake...?

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

[Xilren's Twin]

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.
I'm sticking with a melee type (either the dawrf fighter or chaotic evil bow ranger), the bard, me the cleric, and the mvp, the sorceress.
Stoneskin + fireballs = luv.
The bard is my trap disarmer, and if he can't pick a lock I use the sorceress' Knock.  Luckily, most traps i critical fail are not lethal (stoneskin helps with that too).

Though I will say at lvl 11 im running into more complex battles where things like stripping enchantments/spells and holy damage are more important.
Still in act 1, though I think im nearing the end.  Lootapalooza. 

Xilren

[stray]

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

I'm not sure if there's a better combo of AoE'ing than what my build is, but it looks to be pretty damn good at it. Call Lightning, Chain Lightning, Ice Storm, Storm of Vengeance, Earthquake, and Firestorm. I probably won't even need to use 6 AoE spells half the time.

Too bad they haven't exactly followed D20 to the letter though. Looks like this Cleric would have even more tools in a pnp game: Whirlwind, Acid Fog, Horrid Whilting, plus....Water elementals, Air elementals, and Celestial pets.

[Strazos]

Don't you risk hitting yourself with that stuff?

[stray]

In Hardcore mode they do.

But I'm a newb, and like AoE'ing.

Besides, this isn't a strategy game....No matter if real DnD is strategic or not. Combat and campaign maps are more along the lines of "slightly intelligent hack and slash".

[MrHat]

5bard/1red dragon, I'm finding I'd like to attack faster/more attacks, what should I do?

[stray]

Beats me. Weapon Finesse and daggers might help?

I've tried Bard three times. I just can't get a feel for that class. They seem shitty on spellcasting, shitty on melee, and not very fun for support (nor is it easy to stay clear of mobs to do so). If I ever attempt it again, I might try the Bard/Duelist route.

[Nija]

fighter 4 / bard 16. pick a huge 2h weapon and get the associated feats, stay with 8 dex, cast bulls strength, ghostly visage, that sort of stuff on you pre-battle with your armor off. right click your armor on the hotkey bar, equip, fight. Sing your songs.

or the reversal, huge dex instead of str, bow (Deekin sells a great +3 +3 mighty bow that gives +performance), point blank shot. Stay in light armor so you can cast without penalties.

Equal opportunity bard rape. There's even a wacky setup with a few ranger levels for dual weapons but I'm not too fond of it.

[geldonyetich]

After seeing NWN2's bards in action, I've revised my opinion on them sucking.  This is because of their inspirations, which weren't in the first game, and offer some pretty nifty benefits.

As for jacking up a Bard's attacks/round, you could stick with a pure Bard or Bard/Red Dragon hybrid and just cast Haste on yourself.

[Cheddar]

Sigh.  I got this game and highly recommend people wait a month.  Took me 2 hours to get through the opening sequence.  Crashed on alt tab, crashed on alt tab again, had the main scripted NPC disapear twice,  etc.  I hate the targetting.  A slight twitch to reposition my character STOPS THE MOTHER FUCKER FROM ATTACKING.  I do love all the choices we have now.  It is enough to get my motor revving; I <3 NWN1. 

My 2 cents, lacking tons of details and whatnot.

[Tebonas]

But to be fair I could make you a list of all the games that act up when you alt-tab. Thats asking for it!

[stray]

I alt tab all the time with it. No problems.

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

[Cheddar]

...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.

[Ironwood]

Bombs on the laptop.  Will have to try it at home rather than while away the work hours.

Drat.

[geldonyetich]

It's not terrilby alt-friendly on me, so I switched to windowed mode.  Runs fine there.  (At least after XFire was patched so it didn't leech 20 FPS.)

[Xilren's Twin]

Act2: Oh the courtroom drama.

Minor side quest spoiler
Had a party wipe from a pair of female gnome werewolf entomologists in an anti magic zone.  First time since like level 4.  I'm so embarrassed.

Xilren

[Trippy]

...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.

Obsidian can't even support refresh rates properly so it's not surprising that Alt-Tab is screwy. Heck if I didn't know better I would think the engine was still using OpenGL since those are the kinds of problems OpenGL games typically have.

[geldonyetich]

Confronting Shiree apparently broke my video card.  Accursed inter-planar bitches.

[Ironwood]

Played this for about ten minutes last night.

Fucking horrible.


Everything's TINY TEENY TOTEY, You're a goddamned orphan with a destiny (again), the AI on the party members sucks balls and so far I've seen fuckall that couldn't be done with the original NWN.  Also, there's a hell of a lot of information flying at you, even for a D&D expert like myself.  The wife took one look at character creation and thought 'Fuck That', so I guess I'll be sheperding her through it with helpful advice like 'Nah, what the fuck are you choosing a God for ?'

Also, I probably did it wrong, but for the entire ten minutes I spent my time running around punching things.  Where's ma sword ?

A more helpful writeup is going to occur when I've got time to sit down and play the arse off this, but for the moment my first impressions are W, T and F.

Also, where the fuck did the radial menu go ?  I LIKED it.


EDITED :  Oh and for goodness sake, what is up with the reusing of voice samples that have been there since Baldurs gate ?  I'm sick of hearing the same crap voices for my characters.  None of them sounded even remotely plausible the first time so why am I dealing with them again ?  ESPECIALLY the guy who has an orgasm every time you ask him to move "YES, YES, YES"

arg.

[rk47]

They slowed down the pacing a lot , either that or my rig is slow.
I really thought I had to lower the details cause my fighter is moving so 'slowly'. But it turns out that it's the default movement speed  that really made the game dull..escpecially in combat where you can't feel any urgency coming out of your party as they stroll leisurely towards the enemy. And the dorf fighter just G-Cleave instantly with no gibs and gore...I didnt' even hear the impact. Just red numbers and dead NPC animation. 

[Ironwood]

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

That shouldn't be included in every conversation up to and including my Gran.

Hello, Gran, good to see you !
1 - Sorry I didn't call on your birthday, I'm quite busy these days.
2 - These curtains go well with your new carpet
3 - Young kids these days, eh ?
4 - [Slit Throat]

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

[Cheddar]

I am over this buggy piece of shit game.  Between broken quest scripts, random crashes, and mysterious frame rate issues I cannot believe I wasted 50 dollars.

Avoid this shitty ass game.   Maybe in 6 months they will patch the shitty out of it and drop the price.  I wish I had bought the latest NWN package instead.

[Xilren's Twin]

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

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

Um you do know that conversation option only shows up BECAUSE you're an evil rogue assassin right?  My goody two shoes cleric gets plenty of Diplomacy choices, with the occasional intimidate or bluff, but has only gotten a slit throat/bash head with rock choice maybe twice in the whole game.  "Help, i'm being stereotyped as an evil assassin!"

And of course you should choose a god; have you not read the lore on the loading screen yet that tell what happens to the faithless?

Btw, RK47, there is a gore slider too....

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).

[Cheddar]

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).

I have a great system.  This is the first game I have been required to turn ALL graphic settings down to low since I did a complete overhaul of my system (5 months ago, I think?).  Shit, I run  with full EVERYTHING and have yet to notice any performance issues. 

Maybe its a Radeon thing.  I noticed many people with issues have been running ATI cards.  As far as the quests; I have 4 or 5 I cannot complete due to NPC's/Mobs being missing.  I am mainly disapointed because I thought I could get my D@D freak on, but instead was forced to curse and waste hours repeating shit due to crashes.

[Strazos]

Drivers?

[Soln]

So I decided to look on the NWN 2 Technical Support (Self-Help) forum and this is what I found.

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.

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).

[Cheddar]

Drivers?

I thought of that.  I loaded up the latest OMEGA drivers, and it did not help.  I may just dig through my boxes and find the original NWN; it has a special place in my heart anyhow!  I spent many almost all my free time (what little there was) during Iraqi freedom on it!

[Morfiend]

Chedder,

Turn off all the shadows. There should be two or three different shadow thingies in options. If you turn those off, you should be able to run at max settings on everything else. From what I was reading, they have a problem with their shadows and it is majorly lagging any computer.

[stray]

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

Lucky it isn't real D&D. I've been doing some research into that. In PnP, one can't even gain access to various skills without some kind of patron God. For Clerics, you're restricted on Domains depending on your god and alignment.

In some ways, that might be cool, I guess.....But it's a good thing Obsidian didn't go that far.