Giving NWN2 a chance (again) [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Holammer

2008-01-12, 03:26 PM

So, I picked up NWN2 when it was new. Installed it and tried it out. I got furious over the lack of control, the camera was a joke and the controls weren't intuitive at all. I felt that I had zero control over the game. Sure, I found the settings to turn off the so called AI of the game but I still found it to be so bad I never played longer than to the inn where you find the Dwarf aspiring to become a Monk.

So I uninstalled it and threw the box into a dark corner wishing I'd never seen it. I loved Baldur's gate 1 & 2 with it's expansions, planescape torment brought tears to my eyes and I found Neverwinter nights + expansions to be quite excellent. Even the Icewind Dale games were good fun to me. But NWN2 was beyond broken for me. Hell, the game only had three awful dwarven "bling bling" beards for crying out loud!

So fast forward till today. I've read a lot of it's expansion "Mask of the Betrayer" which... shock! horror! Got glowing comments/reviews from the folks at Rpg Codex (http://www.rpgcodex.net/) and those guys are right hard nuts when it comes to this sort of stuff.
So I installed it again, applied patches and figured I might have over reacted last time I tried it. Took me an hour and I was howling and cursing the first-born of the coders that conceived this abomination.

Am I doing something wrong or is the game really as bad as it seems? I can't bring myself to play it. Do I need some mod that fixes the GUI, something critical is missing to get this to become enjoyable.

Closet_Skeleton

2008-01-12, 03:39 PM

SurlySeraph

2008-01-12, 04:37 PM

Your standards for how an RPG should control have been influenced too much by isometric games. Granted, NWN2 does control terribly.
A few things you can do to improve it:

1. Adjust the mouse sensitivity settings so that the camera doesn't leap around all over the place whenever you move to the edge of the screen. You can't make it perfect, but you can make it better.

2. MotB added some new options for camera control. They make things a bit better.

3. Map the top 10 or so commands you use for each character to that talent bar, so you can select them with the number keys. Include the spells you use most, all the items you use a lot, abilities like Power Attack, and weapons combinations. For example, when I have a character you fights with a sword and shield or with a bow, I map the sword and shield to the 1 key and the bow to the 2 key so I can switch weapons without going into the inventory. It's awkward, yes, but it helps.

4. Pause during combat. Take your actions, then pause, figure out what's going on and what to do, then continue. The controls are much more tolerable when you don't have to rush to do something.

5. Don't waste your time trying to figure out the in-game status icons (for Stunned, Paralyzed, level-drained, etc.) Just assume that something bad has happened to the character and keep playing.

6. There are plenty of mods adding new beards and suchlike to character creation, if those bother you a lot. Most of them are a lot better than the appearance options that came with the game.

7. Don't summon a lot of creatures. It makes things too complicated to control.

8. Even though the AI has settings, you need to keep your characters on a very tight leash. Set it to passive (so characters don't do anything until you tell them to) if it bothers you too much.

9. Right-click on everything to see what you can do with it. It tells you about enemies, brings up your attack and spell-like-ability options, thief skill options, etc. Right clicking is very useful.

Tengu

2008-01-12, 05:23 PM

I always considered the campaign to be a secondary feature to online play, for both NWN 1 (which, frankly, had a much, much worse single-player campaign, at least the original - the ones from expansions were decent) and 2 - find a good persistent world and it will be a mini-MMORPG, but with roleplaying and DMs that run adventures for people.

Ashtar

2008-01-12, 05:40 PM

My brother got NWN2 free with his new graphics card, so we installed it on his computer. He was not such a fan of NWN, having only played the first couple chapters. But I had really liked N°1 at the time, finishing the game and the expansions.

As we fired up N°2, I was really expecting to be impressed. I had really liked how the characters fought in N°1, with the continuous movement fighting and was very disappointed to see a static character only acting once per round. The game just didn't seem to capture us the way NWN1 did.

He's had the game three weeks now, so I'll *steal* it from him tomorrow and give it a shot on my home PC.

Gah, I feel the need of more D&D in my life! One session of eberron a week is not enough.

VanBuren

2008-01-12, 10:09 PM

It really is that bad.

NWN wasn't that good either to be honest, but at least it had a toolset to save it, while NWN 2's toolset feels like an unprofesional tacked on product (or at least needs a profesional skill level to use)

NWN 2 is like they took everything bad about NWN 1 and then replaced the good bits with poor Infinity engine nostalger.

The general consensus from the community is that the NWN2 toolset actually allows for a lot greater custom content and flexibility than the first.

And frankly, NWN was a lot worse at this stage.

purple gelatinous cube o' Doom

2008-01-12, 11:28 PM

Besides the movement/camera angles/cutscenes being pretty choppy until I downloaded the updates for the first time, I really didn't have an issue with NWN2. The controls were slightly different than with the original, but once I got used to them, it was fine. I personally think it has a much better story/gameplay than the original.

Closet_Skeleton

2008-01-14, 04:43 AM

The general consensus from the community is that the NWN2 toolset actually allows for a lot greater custom content and flexibility than the first.

It has more flexibility, it's still not as well designed and a lot less intuitive.

SmartAlec

2008-01-14, 06:24 AM

You can configure NWN2's camera to operate almost exactly like NWN1's. You just have to play with the settings.

As for the toolset, I do find it overly complex - and it's why I am sticking to NWN1 for the forseeable future. When you're running a weekly campaign, you need to find time to build areas during the week, and NWN1's toolset is quick and simple, even if it produces areas that are a little samey. I don't have the kind of time to be able to do the same kind of mid-week building with NWN2's more detailed but less convenient toolset, sadly.

DeathQuaker

2008-01-14, 08:07 AM

Personally, I love NWN2, and think especially since Mask of the Betrayer they've done a good job with it. Now, story (especially MotB) is better than gameplay, but the gameplay is decent, in my experience (and I'm running the thing on a two-and-a-half-year-old laptop, so not exactly the highest end thing out there).

As others advise: there are game options to tweak the camera movement, mouse sensitivity, hotkeys etc. The GUI is also somewhat customizable (you can move the stuff around your screen quite a lot). Personally, I had good results turning the thing on strategy mode (camera-wise) and shutting off edge turn and scroll, rotating the camera when necessary with my keyboard instead. Works great for me; YMMV.

As for the toolset: I never got into the NWN toolset, but did start working with the NWN2 toolset when the game came out. It is not a cakewalk, but definitely workable with--you just need to be patient and willing to learn. It's a pretty sophisticated piece of software, not Minesweeper; it's going to have a learning curve. I had never completed a finished mod before, but got up to snuff with it enough that my mod won 3rd place in last spring's mod contest. I am a secretary with a master's degree in literature, BTW, not exactly a math or computer expert.

So--my recommendation is tweak the settings, and go in with it with as open mind a possible if you can. If you had bad experiences with the OC, skip to the MoTB campaign to get a fresh start.

But... if you go in expecting it to suck, it probably will.

Archpaladin Zousha

2008-01-14, 08:25 AM

I confess I'm a rabid fanboy of this game. And I have to agree with what's been said here. The game is enjoyable, but you've got to be patient with it. I personally never understood why everyone complains about the camera, since I never seemed to have a problem with it. I'm probably the only one who's never used the toolset. I just don't have the patience other people have to use it. Also, I don't like multiplayer. Still I agree that NWN2 does have better storytelling, especially when MotB was introduced. It's probably not as good as Planescape: Torment (I wouldn't know, I have yet to find a copy of the game, let alone play it), but if it's better than MotB then it's got to be one stellar game!

DeathQuaker

2008-01-14, 10:17 AM

I'm probably the only one who's never used the toolset. I just don't have the patience other people have to use it. Also, I don't like multiplayer.

You're not the only one--it's not a requirement. :smallsmile: (And frankly, some of the complaints I've seen about the toolset--NOT HERE--are hearsay delivered by people who've never used it either.)

Still I agree that NWN2 does have better storytelling, especially when MotB was introduced. It's probably not as good as Planescape: Torment (I wouldn't know, I have yet to find a copy of the game, let alone play it), but if it's better than MotB then it's got to be one stellar game!

Torment and MotB share some of the same writers and designers, IIRC. I would say Torment is better in terms of story, but I also note that they had a much longer time to develop it, and it is a standalone game, not a 20 hour expansion pack campaign (although Torment isn't terribly long either). I like the companions in Torment a little better, but MotB's ones are fantastic. The feel for the two stories are of very similar quality (yet with very different plots), very dark (but still laced with high-quality humor), very much a "battle against yourself". I'd say if one liked Torment they'll enjoy MotB and vice versa.

Archpaladin Zousha

2008-01-14, 10:27 AM

Nice to see that there's someone out there who can appreciate single player.:smallsmile:

The only multiplayer games I've ever really played were the Super Smash Brothers series and Soul Calibur II and III. And I've always been terrible at those games. I have a bad habit of relying on a combination of button-mashing and luck instead of combos and skill in those kinds of games.:smallredface:

Vilehelm

2008-01-14, 11:09 AM

I got NWN2 when it came out, being a great fan of the original, online (the storyline was meh in singleplayer, and only marginally better in the expansions - never played Kingmaker or any of the other premium modules though). I hated it. I tried playing it, but the pseudo NWN1 controls mixed with a full party made the entire thing a hell to play. Controls in general were unresponsive and the camera was utter crap. I uninstalled it and considered selling it on ebay.

Then MotB came out. I gave in to the temptation after reading positive reviews. I bought it and installed it, and found that a lot of the control and camera issues were solved, allowing a Baldur's Gate style "isometric" viewpoint (with pan control) which made the game much much more enjoyable. Been playing it since, and I must say it is an excellent RPG. Not quite up to Planescape or BG2 but definitely quality.

It reminds me a lot of Knights of the Old Republic 2, which was a less finished (some would say unfinished) game than the original, but in scope and ambition much more interesting.

Of course you get a Tiefling, Githzerai and Walking suit of armor in your party, which is a little too obviously a copy from their old game, Planescape (which is superior on pretty much every level save graphics).

Closet_Skeleton

2008-01-14, 11:26 AM

(which is superior on pretty much every level save graphics).

Depends on how you define graphics. Some of the weapon designs where much better in the Infinity engine games and a lot of the buildings in NWN 2 look really goofy and stupid (though this is more obvious in the concept art than the game). Processing power is only part of a game's graphics.

Dragor

2008-01-14, 12:13 PM

Prophaniti

2008-01-14, 12:47 PM

A little off topic, but I have a technical question I hope someone here can help me with. I recently reinstalled my copy of NWN2, went on fine, no errors. When I try to run the game, the launcher comes up, I click 'play', the loading screen comes up, then it disappears and nothing happens. There's no process related to the game running, no nothing. It's like I didn't even try to launch it.

Add this to the fact that when I run the 'update' program, it quits saying that the game is not installed... Something's wrong and I don't know what. Used to run fine, now it won't run at all. Anyone?

DeathQuaker

2008-01-14, 10:01 PM

I tried to enjoy NWN2, but I just realized what a chore it was. Poor character creation (and I agree on Dwarven beards; surely it was not that hard.) I'm picky with my characters, and I have to say I couldn't get a single one who looked to what I imagined. Animation was kind of sloppy.

The story is okay. Not great, but okay. The party members are a mix of good and bad- Khelgar and Neeshka are good laughs, and Sand stole the show for me. It has many gems in party conversations, but this just can't excuse the poor control granted to the player- no game should be a constant fight to play. The beginning- with or without tutorial- is incredibly tedious, too.

It could have been so much better. One day, in the future, they'll make a free-roam game in Faerun.. *dreams*

Sorry, I do a lot of that.

NWN2 had a lot of potential, but it was simply squandered.

I note that much about your complaints have to do with the OC. If you still own the software for NWN2, I *highly* recommend getting "Mask of the Betrayer." It really fulfills (or at least nearly, leaving room for further expansions and community mods) the potential you claim is "squandered." The fantastic story that everyone's been talking about is that, not the OC (but the OC's story is better than NWN1's OC).

Oh, also, with that, they altered a number of the heads. You might find one more to your liking now.

If you want "Free roam," the closest you'll probably get is a well made persistent world using that software. Faerun's just too huge to get a free roam sort of environment right.

A little off topic, but I have a technical question I hope someone here can help me with. I recently reinstalled my copy of NWN2, went on fine, no errors. When I try to run the game, the launcher comes up, I click 'play', the loading screen comes up, then it disappears and nothing happens. There's no process related to the game running, no nothing. It's like I didn't even try to launch it.

Add this to the fact that when I run the 'update' program, it quits saying that the game is not installed... Something's wrong and I don't know what. Used to run fine, now it won't run at all. Anyone?

You are most likely to find the solution to your problem or someone savvy enough to help you here:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewforum.html?forum=116

If you can't find your problem --AFTER YOU SEARCH -- post it to the forum and maybe also PM one of the Obsidian reps there.

purple gelatinous cube o' Doom

2008-01-15, 12:53 AM

@ Holammer

I just got to playing NWN2 after reinstalling t since I got MoTB(had new Hard drive put in, game wouldn't work, and had get it back on my computer. Lost my game at the very end too *grumble*). Anywho, I downloaded the one or two updates I didn't have, and the game works phenomenally. There must be something you're not doing right.

Ashtar

2008-01-15, 04:21 AM

I've been playing a couple of days now. My (disfunctional?) group has finally in Neverwinter... They squabble worse than a class of 6th grades.

I'm enjoying playing the warlock, it's a class I never tried in paper D&D and having tried it out in the game, I can see how awfully limited they are. But for the game, it's amply sufficient and quite effective due to the unlimited range touch attacks per day.

I'm looking forwards to being able to try out other character concepts... In fact, I suspect I'll enjoy creating and leveling characters more than the scenario itself.

I've got one quibble, it's that since I play in Hardcore D&D mode (which means area spells affect allies and enemies), the AI for the druid character has a tendancy to cast area spells onto my own group.

konfeta

2008-01-15, 05:45 AM

The funniest thing about NWW2 is that it inverts a lot of things about DnD.

Melee is overpowered, god awful level of overpowered. I mean, the only way offensive spellcasting compares is save or die spells (or spamming of stuff like Horrid Wilting/Sunburst, Isaac's Missile Storms, and Bigbys; but even those monsters fall behind in epic levels.). And this is considering the fact that you can recharge spells in the middle of a powerful doomsday ritual.

Sorcerors are actually equals to Wizards. Mostly because both classes can get all the necessary spells; and there aren't any many spells that you would love to be able to cast but don't regularly use.

Red Dragon Disciple goes from one of the most god-awful PRC's known to man to being incredibly powerful and a staple of a vast number of melee builds.

Etc, etc, etc.

The biggest problem with this game though, is it's ease. You need to get a number of modifications to make the enemies challenging (my Berzerker bursts into a room, raging, swinging an axe that glows like a sinister Christmast tree, and the epic spellcasters are casting bloody bless?). Tony's AI buffing is a great start

DeathQuaker

2008-01-15, 08:10 AM

Ashtar - the AOE spells will be even more problematic once you get the sorceress. First, make sure you have all the updates (they improved the party AI) and if they keep causing that problem, go to their "behavior" tab and either shut off their automatic spellcasting or set them to puppet mode and control their casting yourself.

Konfeta -- I'd say at higher levels and especially epic levels, spellcasting rebalances itself with melee, more or less.

Sorcerers are definitely awesome in NWN2. They're actually easier to manage and their increase spells cast per day becomes more noticeably useful than in PNP.

Morty

2008-01-15, 08:53 AM

RandomLogic

2008-01-15, 10:42 AM

I'm looking forward to playing NWN2 again. I just picked up Mask of the Betrayer but I ended up losing my NWN2 Disk! So I'm current looking out for that.

I was hoping anyone could recommend a good melee caster build. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go either gish or cleric. I was thinking Fght2/Sorc4/EldrichKnight10/other stuff or Fght2/ClericX but wasn't sure what build would end up working the best. I usually just played straight fighter in the past so I wanted to switch it up a bit. Anyone have good suggestions?

Ashtar

2008-01-15, 10:53 AM

If I have to do all the control manually for the spellcasting, I would love an auto-pause on end of round. And even preferably a Initiative list on the side of the screen...

Gah, give me turn by turn D&D any day :smallamused:

konfeta

2008-01-15, 02:33 PM

Casters imply have no way match having a Keen/GreaterMagicWeapon buffed dual weilded weapons with four 5d6 damage enchantments each. Throw on Epic Divine Might, and you have a melee build that outputs damage of an empowered Disintegrate crit per round without crits.

I mean, Wail of the Banshee is pretty sweet, Bigby's Hand is autowin against melee opponents, and Isaac's Storm is the great grand-daddy of uncounterable damage; but all of these kill so much slower then a well built melee build. And the game, after all, is a hack'n'slash RPG to a great extent.

As for a melee caster build; Clerics are better; but far more buff intensive. A Cleric will have an incredibly powerful assortment of buffs (Stone Body + Freedom of Movement + Deathward = Win; persistable Divine Favor, Divine Power, Persistable Haste AND Premonition if you take Time Domain) that make it all but impossible to kill in melee, throw in their AoE spells such as Storm of Vengeance, Hammer of the Gods, Blade Barrier and Word of Faith *in addition* to Ethereal and Greater Restoration; they become incredibly dangerous to stay close too and are impossible to kill without a way to interrupt spellcasting. A gish would have some nice buffs, but it's more of a spellcaster that can take out the trash without wasting spells as well as more powerful nuking and crowd control.

Here is a decent list of builds to give you an idea on what are the important things to have -

http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_builds

P.S. Favoured Soul sucks compared to Clerics. It's less versatile, it's a weaker spellcaster, and it doesn't have the very powerful domains in favor of insignificant weapon boosting feats. It's nice for flavor, but it's just weaker.

DeathQuaker

2008-01-15, 02:39 PM

I wanted to play NWN2, as NWN1 was preety decent even though core single player campaign left something(big something) to be desided. But then I heard about annoying fights, shovel-headed NPCs and sucky plot and dialogues. Later I heard that toolset -the feature that along with modules kept NWN1 on my computer far longer than it would stay normally- is worse than in first game, so I gave up on it.

Then you heard wrong.

NWN2's OC is better than NWN1's OC. Its gameplay is not the best in the world, but certainly playable, especially with the updates they've given it. The NPCs are well written as is the dialogues. And anything wrong with the OC's story is more than made up for by what they give you in Mask of the Betrayer.

And the toolset is excellent. It is hard to use, because it is more sophisticated than the first toolset, and they did unfortunately do away with a couple wizards that made things easier (but those have since been replaced by plugins provided by members of the community). But once you get used to it--and if a goofball like me can use it, then anyone can--it can produce things way above and beyond what NWN1 could ever offer.

I was hoping anyone could recommend a good melee caster build. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go either gish or cleric. I was thinking Fght2/Sorc4/EldrichKnight10/other stuff or Fght2/ClericX but wasn't sure what build would end up working the best. I usually just played straight fighter in the past so I wanted to switch it up a bit. Anyone have good suggestions?

For MoTB, I'd keep in mind that you get 2 Divine Casters and 1 wizard as your possible party members who show up first, before you get your choice of 2 tanks. So for pure party tactics, I might stay with the Eldritch Knight idea. However, you also can't really go wrong with a Fighter/Cleric (maybe prestige into Warpriest or Divine Champion).

If it were me, I'd probably pick the Cleric, but only because they have Diplomacy and I like using conversation skills in game.

If I have to do all the control manually for the spellcasting, I would love an auto-pause on end of round. And even preferably a Initiative list on the side of the screen...

Gah, give me turn by turn D&D any day :smallamused:

I'm happy with pressing the space bar as often as I need to...

But of course, no CRPG will ever match up to the glory of tabletop gaming. :smallsmile:

RandomLogic

2008-01-16, 11:38 AM

Ah, I just thought of something. What mods did anyone apply to MoTB that improve gameplay or anything else?

There was one AI mod I found from the bioware forums that looks like it needs to be installed but there were a couple others. I was wondering if any of you had recommendations for mods that improve anything really.

Zenthar

2008-01-21, 03:07 AM

NWN 1 is the best game I have ever played. So I had HIGH hopes for NWN2, but NWN2 is nowhere close the original. Does MOTB have a good campaign even? Because otherwise I wasted 50 euros, pretty much.

VanBuren

2008-01-21, 03:10 AM

NWN 1 is the best game I have ever played. So I had HIGH hopes for NWN2, but NWN2 is nowhere close the original. Does MOTB have a good campaign even? Because otherwise I wasted 50 euros, pretty much.

Let's be honest here. The OC for NWN was just a series of thinly veiled fetch quests in slightly different locales. With all its flaws, NWN2 was still better than that.

That said, Mask of the Betrayer blows them all out of the water. It's true, that it's not on the level of Planescape, but the Devs felt it was the best thing they've done since, and that might not be entirely wrong.

Closet_Skeleton

2008-01-21, 05:33 AM

That said, Mask of the Betrayer blows them all out of the water. It's true, that it's not on the level of Planescape, but the Devs felt it was the best thing they've done since, and that might not be entirely wrong.

Funny, I found it too painful to finnish (gameplay wise) but the part I got to just seemed like a retread of Throne of Bhaal with the addition of the now done to death light/dark world gimick, which the final chapter of Hordes of the Underdark had previously done really well.

It would be nice if the characters had been likable as well. One unlikable character can be good, but don't make them the first one you meet and force you to waste loads of time with her.

Also, I'd hoped the Irenicus' Dungeon skip mods had taught writers not to start the player off in a dungeon with no freedom, but the two KotOR games should have made me realise this wasn't so. Despite the fact that NWN and both its expansions had escaped this in despite that they all begin in the exact same way with you being attacked, you get full freedom of exploration from that moment onwards.

Let's be honest here. The OC for NWN was just a series of thinly veiled fetch quests in slightly different locales. With all its flaws, NWN2 was still better than that.

Ok, I won't defend the NWN OC, despite the fact that I could be bothered to finish it. The NWN2 OC also had plot coupons, which the NWN expansions did it a lot better, Hordes not having them and Shadows of Undrentide using them in chapter 1 and then revealing that most of them were irrelevant.

Zenthar

2008-01-21, 06:06 AM

Let's be honest here. The OC for NWN was just a series of thinly veiled fetch quests in slightly different locales. With all its flaws, NWN2 was still better than that.

That said, Mask of the Betrayer blows them all out of the water. It's true, that it's not on the level of Planescape, but the Devs felt it was the best thing they've done since, and that might not be entirely wrong.

I could never get myself to finish the NWN 1 OC. With saying NWN 1 is the best game I have ever played, I meant online. It was just so amazing in the right group. And if you got tired of roleplaying servers, or 1v1 servers, you could go to these team vs team servers where you get some level at start (e.g 7, 14..) and either you couldn't level up at all or just a few levels. In these you had bases and you needed to steal the enemys flag. This gamemode was really fun, but my favourite was RP.

tape_measure

2008-01-21, 07:54 AM

Zenthars hinting on teh biggie for me, persnally.

I loved NWN for the story, the gameplay, and all of the above (when I finally got a computer that would run it). I guess I'm more in love with seeing Umber Hulks, duergar, and illithids coming to life on my computer screen than anything else. However, when you compare the options for DnD games, NWN has something going for it.

NWN2 has taken that a gone just a bit further for me. I still enjoy the fact that I can see the creatures and characters move on the screen (you can stand next to an adult red dragon with 5-foot-nothig-character for christ's sake :smallconfused: ). I do miss ye olde pen n' paper days, but, after moving a few hundred miles away from my normal group, this is a great substitute. Plus, I can develop a game in the toolset (which has a dozen or more tutorials out there to hold your hand through) and jump online with all of stated group. 'Course it doesn't beat beer, a smoke filled, cramped, stinking, hot room to play in, but it's close enough for jazz for me.

AslanCross

2008-01-21, 08:16 AM

I honestly enjoyed NWN2, though for some reason the performance got worse and worse. I was able to play through the OC three times, and I didn't really feel bad about it.

Then I tried my brother's copy of NWN.

And wondered why in some cases, NWN looked even better (especially when it came to fabric in the characters' outfits). I also realized that most of the music was recycled. :(

Then I started playing PnP D&D. I don't plan on playing NWN2 again until summer, when I'll buy MotB. Did MotB improve the game's performance, though? I hear it did.

DeathQuaker

2008-01-21, 11:12 AM

And wondered why in some cases, NWN looked even better (especially when it came to fabric in the characters' outfits). I also realized that most of the music was recycled. :(

Some of the clothes were retextured ina later update. I'll also note that NWN1 with ALL of its updates looks decent, but if you can compare NWN on its release to NWN2 on its release, NWN2 wins hands down.

I prefer the look of NWN2, largely for facial expressions.

You're right about some of the music recycling, but the new pieces for NWN2 were great (love Ammon Jerro's Haven song), and they did an all new score for MotB, which is gorgeous.

Then I started playing PnP D&D. I don't plan on playing NWN2 again until summer, when I'll buy MotB. Did MotB improve the game's performance, though? I hear it did.

Yes, it did improve the game's performance a great deal (I've got a 3 year old laptop that runs the game pretty well), plus at this points your ability to tweak to make it work best on your system is very well done. You can always look up tweak guides to see how you can improve performance

AslanCross

2008-01-21, 07:04 PM

Some of the clothes were retextured ina later update. I'll also note that NWN1 with ALL of its updates looks decent, but if you can compare NWN on its release to NWN2 on its release, NWN2 wins hands down.

I prefer the look of NWN2, largely for facial expressions.
Truth. At least they actually had faces that didn't look pasted on (and to be fair to NWN2, my character in NWN was wearing that hooded costume, so her face wasn't really visible.)

You're right about some of the music recycling, but the new pieces for NWN2 were great (love Ammon Jerro's Haven song), and they did an all new score for MotB, which is gorgeous.

True. The non-recycled music was pretty good. My favorite was the main theme. It was disappointing how they just used the same battle theme over and over again in the final dungeon, though. I'm used to seeing the last boss have a different battle BGM as opposed to his lackeys.

Yes, it did improve the game's performance a great deal (I've got a 3 year old laptop that runs the game pretty well), plus at this points your ability to tweak to make it work best on your system is very well done. You can always look up tweak guides to see how you can improve performance

Awesome. I'll pick it up when the school year ends.