NWN2 progress

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » November 24th, 2006, 13:12

Well, my early thoughts (a few hours in).

Fairly underwhelmed narf. The graphics are dreadful, the camera is enough to drive you to suicide and the interface is pants.

Even on my system I have to turn everything down to get anything other than a slide-show, even then the camera pan is very jumpy. The NPC's seem to have their own agenda and often decide not to follow the main, I have to switch to one of them in order to get the group to move as a whole (tried fiddling with AI thingy, still no joy).

On the plus side, the story seems fairly in depth and the good old D&D skill set allows for plenty of scope for future interest in my character. I just hope I can get used to the interface and camera. I don't remember Baldur's Gate being this annoying.

Post by **deject** » November 24th, 2006, 16:43

Sheriff Fatman wrote:Well, my early thoughts (a few hours in).

Fairly underwhelmed narf. The graphics are dreadful, the camera is enough to drive you to suicide and the interface is pants.

Even on my system I have to turn everything down to get anything other than a slide-show, even then the camera pan is very jumpy. The NPC's seem to have their own agenda and often decide not to follow the main, I have to switch to one of them in order to get the group to move as a whole (tried fiddling with AI thingy, still no joy).

On the plus side, the story seems fairly in depth and the good old D&D skill set allows for plenty of scope for future interest in my character. I just hope I can get used to the interface and camera. I don't remember Baldur's Gate being this annoying.

You probably still have the X-fire in game messaging turned on. I also had to turn everything off and still had terrible FPS until x-fire was disabled for NWN2. Yeah the AI is pretty dense. They will run right into traps that have been spotted and, especially with my monk who moves faster than everyone, they lag well behind.

Stick with it at least until you get to Nevewinter, the game picks up considerably. Near the end of Chapter 1 the story hits full speed.

Post by **Joose** » November 24th, 2006, 17:23

Ive found that turnning on the "protect party leader" option in the AI options helps a lot. It stops them spazzing off to do their own thing at the drop of a hat, without turning them into mindless tits that do nothing unless you tell them.

Post by **FatherJack** » November 24th, 2006, 20:27

If you can be arsed, there are tips on modding the AI on their support forums, although it's a tradeoff between running to disarm traps, and not bothering at all. There are also a few threads on graphics settings and config, but we've covered most of them here, and in the NWN2 review thread.

In short:
GFX:
Turn of XFire's in-game messaging for NWN2.
Disable both water effects options.
Turn off vsync on nvidia cards, either globally using cpanel just while playing NWN2, or specifically for nwn2main.exe (you have to add it) in nHancer.
Take it easy on the summoned beasts - I hit 10 characters at one point, and it got a bit choppy.
Controls:
Bind 'select nearest' to something that works ie: not '\', and use it combined with 'attack target' to avoid click-running past the enemies.
Use mouse clicks to move, rather than WASD and have some handy keys set like Z and X to keep the view facing forward, and/or use WASD/etc and set the 'always follow' option in the ini file in the folder under 'My Documents'.
Use PgUp/Down to raise/lower view when switching from outdoors to tight corridors.
Or check their support forums for the WoW-like control hack.

Edit: RMB view spin hack here: http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... 20controls

The option for camera follow is in My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\nwnplayer.ini and is:

Code: Select all

[Game Options]
CameraFollowAlways=1

Post your mods/results as I'm okay with the Z+X keys and the default, so haven't tested it. People seem to have had positive results with the camera lag speed at 0 in that ini, too.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » November 26th, 2006, 21:28

The Camera .ini file and RMB mod thingies have helped a lot, thanks FJ

I don't play single players with x-fire so I doubt that was an issue, however, after twiddling the graphic settings a bit more it seems a bit more playable. I'll have a hunt around tomorrow for the latest nvidia drivers and see how much that helps.

One more thing; is there any sort of party management tool/option? I am playing a rogue and as such, it would be nice to not have them follow me everywhere whilst I am trying to do a reccy in stealth. I can't seem to stop the buggers from following me everywhere.

Post by **deject** » November 26th, 2006, 22:02

Sheriff Fatman wrote:The Camera .ini file and RMB mod thingies have helped a lot, thanks FJ

I don't play single players with x-fire so I doubt that was an issue, however, after twiddling the graphic settings a bit more it seems a bit more playable. I'll have a hunt around tomorrow for the latest nvidia drivers and see how much that helps.

One more thing; is there any sort of party management tool/option? I am playing a rogue and as such, it would be nice to not have them follow me everywhere whilst I am trying to do a reccy in stealth. I can't seem to stop the buggers from following me everywhere.

You can get the party commands by just holding down the right mouse button and going to broadcast commands. I also needed to find that out.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » November 27th, 2006, 0:35

Bah!

Seems so bloody obvious now

Cheers Deject.

I need to get out of Baldur's Gate mode. I was looking for for a button in the HUD :/

Post by **FatherJack** » November 27th, 2006, 0:56

The issuing of commands is a bit convoluted, if anyone knows an easier way, let me know.

Steath ON
- turn on Puppet mode for all (click ALL button in Behaviour in character screen)
- switch to stealth character
- right click (hold) on each of the other party members and select stand your ground

This is a global setting, so if you now swtich to another character, the stealth character will follow you but others won't, so

Steath OFF
- make sure you still have stealth character selected
- right click (hold) on each of the other party members and select guard me, don't select follow me or they will just stand and watch you fight
- turn off Puppet mode for all (click ALL button in Behaviour in character screen)

Post by **deject** » December 3rd, 2006, 0:59

I finally beat the Iron Golem in the Test of Summer room. I've gotten 3 of the ritual blessings and I've done quite a bit more is fixing up Crossroads Keep.

The problem is I don't know how to equip my Greycloaks at the Keep with better stuff. Anyone else this far in the game?

Nickface · Post by **Nickface** » December 3rd, 2006, 5:25

I just got to chapter 2.

Post by **deject** » December 3rd, 2006, 5:45

I had to waste my last blastglobe to kill that golem though, the damage absorption they have is insane, not to mention it's nigh impossible to hit.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » December 4th, 2006, 12:44

How are people getting on with Prestige classes?

I can't really say many of them sound very interesting. It seems the higher level abilities you have to forego from your main class are in many cases as good as the ones you receive from the Prestige class.

I was hoping they would be more like multi-classing, but to meet the pre-reqs for the PC's you are almost forced into picking a particular class in the first place. I realise this is probably how it's supposed to work, and stops people creating super characters, I just feel a little disappointed.

In other news, I have started a Lawful Evil Warlock who is awesome. Light armour, handy with a weapon and decent blast spells. Only four skill points per level though, wah!, my rogue gets ten.

Post by **FatherJack** » December 4th, 2006, 13:26

Sheriff Fatman wrote:How are people getting on with Prestige classes?

Didn't even look at them, assuming you had to be level 100 or something to get them and that I would be playing something else long before then. Been mostly clicking "recommended" for feats as well, so no idea what it is progressing towards.

Nickface · Post by **Nickface** » December 4th, 2006, 16:24

Sheriff Fatman wrote:How are people getting on with Prestige classes?

I dinked around with it a little bit on another character, I only got to level 1 weponsmaster, but he already got a, what I assume, was a class unique ability. I haven't played with him enough to get him to the next level, though.

Post by **deject** » December 4th, 2006, 23:25

I've gotten a level in Shadowdancer with my Monk, and I'll probably get one or two more, as it compliments my monk's abilities well. I'd also like to get a few levels of Neverwinter Nine just for shits & giggles. I definitely recommend not going for a prestige class until you're fairly high levelled already, because the benefits just won't be as good as a high level regular class.

However, my monk can now just hide in plain sight, which can be very handy I guess.

Post by **deject** » December 4th, 2006, 23:26

Also, fuck dragons hard. Bastards are pretty much impossible to kill...