Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

[Borealis7]

i've had enough! cant take it anymore! please sombody make the pain go away!

oh...hello there let me just say before i start ranting that i am a big NWN2 fan. i've played the original campaign through its bugs and i loved MotB, so naturally when i heard a new expansion is out i was excited. i didnt read a word about it because i wanted to be surprised and i trusted the guys at Obsidian to make a game i would enjoy, as i have the previous ones they made.

so i install it and start playing. its been a while since i played NWN2 but i rememberd everything i needed. and over the course of about a week i played and learned about the fundamental changes they had made to the game.

the thing in this expansion is that you go around in a world map similar to a FF game and have "encounters". which is all fine and dandy, until you start to realize you spend more time in loading screens then in the actual game!

the NWN2 engine is neglectfully unoptimized for encounter-based gameplay. in previous games, large areas are loaded and there were far less loading screens because you would play in a single zone. here, in SoZ, you switch zones all the time! see a monster? loading screen to fight it and another to return to the map! and each loading screen lasts for about 10-15 seconds!

now you could argue its my slow hardware but the game itself runs pretty smooth and the loading screens are just so annoying!

the final straw in the coffin confused: ) was the lack of autosaves. i cant blame the game developers for this, this is my fault, but i played for about 2 hours one day and died. having so many encouters i lost track of time and forgot to save. when i realized that my only save was 90 minutes ago i just broke. i quit the game, uninstalled and went to take out my rage on my girlfriend (well..."figuratively").
if only there were autosaves at the end of every encounter i might still be playing but that doesnt take away from the fact that making NWN2 encounter based is simply a bad idea from an engine standpoint.

Thanks for listening, Children. This is Three-daaaawwwgggg...

 

[StinkyPinky]

I shot three-dog in the head and watched his jaw bone fly across the room.

Oh yeah, MoTB was awesome. The new expansion sounds like a step back to me. I'd suggest downloading some of the free mods instead.

 

[s44]

I have no interest in this expansion whatsoever.

I wish Mysteries of Westgate would get released already.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: s44
I wish Mysteries of Westgate would get released already.

Its already a year late.

Borealis7, you could have used the quick save function, a fast save done with one of the function keys.

MotB annoyed me towards the end with some of its puzzles so I never really finished it. I think I left off I some mephit puzzle where you needed to get all the mephits on one side of the room or something.

Edit - There's also a beta 1.22 patch available. Text

 

[Borealis7]

yes i should've used a quicksave but still all the loading times just kill the gameplay experience. this engine was not designed for this type of encounters.

and its a shame you quit MotB. usually the BioWare puzzles (dating back from Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale) are pretty easy. on the other hand...im pretty smart j/k
i remember that puzzle but not that i had any special problems with it.

the end is a real shocker though (i shed a tear). you should complete it.

i might give it a second chance after i cool off a bit and play something else.

 

[Martimus]

I really liked the original NWN2 (funny calling a sequel "the original"), where the only thing I didn't like was the arbitrary party limit. I actually found MoTB boring. I really hated how they changed the camera angles, and made it so that looking up was impossible (this made the stages where you has to fight up large hills or mountains a pain.)

Storm of Zehir sounds kind of dumb. I can't believe that they are making it an encounter based game. That just doesn't make any sense. If they wanted to make an encounter based game, they should have made one from the beginning rather than use it as an expansion for a completely different kind of game.

 

[Borealis7]

its mroe than an encouter based FF with D&D rules type of game. its also a trading game like a fantasy RPG tycoon with fighting. and they made the conversation skills more important in SoZ they really do affect the game much more than before.

i think this game would really benefit from an SSD drive with >1ms access time since it loads so much data from the hard drive.
how about an article on Anandtech looking into SSD and level loading performance?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Borealis7

i think this game would really benefit from an SSD drive with >1ms access time since it loads so much data from the hard drive.
how about an article on Anandtech looking into SSD and level loading performance?

Don't current SSD drives have limited writes? Might be better with a RAID 0 array using traditional drives.

I do plan on beating MotB eventually, I've beaten all previous NWN titles, except for SoU.

Also, NWN2 is likely going to be the last DND3.5e CRPG we'll ever see. Any future DND games will be 4e based, which really kinda stinks in comparison. Its really been dumbed down for the average console and WoW gamer.

Edit - What I'd like tosee WotC do is open the licenting terms for all their d20 products including DND. Let developers make their own CRPGs around the rules, rather than charge them for the license and privilege of using it. This would increase exposure to d20 and DND and in turn increase the sales of other WotC properties.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Edit - What I'd like tosee WotC do is open the licenting terms for all their d20 products including DND. Let developers make their own CRPGs around the rules, rather than charge them for the license and privilege of using it. This would increase exposure to d20 and DND and in turn increase the sales of other WotC properties.

I don't see a reason to even use the D&D rules. You can easily make your own rules for your own game. I like NWN quite a bit, but it wasn't because it used D&D rules. It could have been something similar and I would have liked it just the same.

 

[you2]

I purchased this expansion but havent' started yet. It sounded similar to icewind dale(2) which I liked. MOTB was ok but the mephit was a pain in the butt - one of them just wouldn't move when I played but after a while he finally came around. There is a new game from a german company - demo was release a couple of weeks ago that might interest you. I tried the demo and the graphics were nice but the controls were a bit of a problem for me (I wanted to click a spot for party to move and this didn't seem to work right - the game really wants you to use wasd for movement). Other than controls the demo seems very interesting - full game is not yet available in english - it was release in german a year ago with lots of success - not sure how they bypass atari - maybe it is not 'dnd' but 'dnd' like or maybe it will be published by atari (hope not). Hum. So many games so little time.

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: Martimus
and made it so that looking up was impossible (this made the stages where you has to fight up large hills or mountains a pain.)

You keep saying this, but you're wrong. You can look up just fine in character mode.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Edit - What I'd like tosee WotC do is open the licenting terms for all their d20 products including DND. Let developers make their own CRPGs around the rules, rather than charge them for the license and privilege of using it. This would increase exposure to d20 and DND and in turn increase the sales of other WotC properties.

I don't see a reason to even use the D&D rules. You can easily make your own rules for your own game. I like NWN quite a bit, but it wasn't because it used D&D rules. It could have been something similar and I would have liked it just the same.

DND and d20 rules are familiar for most RPG players, they know what to expect from character classes and how to build a decent character. The rules are well tested, documented, and refined, excluding the consolized 4e rules.

Yes you can make your own rules, and Bioware is doing just that with Dragon Age, partly because they didn't want to muck around with WotC's licensing terms hampering their creative control.