NWN2 Feed Back and Patch Discussion Thread

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
what i find more annoying is when they cast AOE spells without regard for the location of other party members. normally this wouldnt pose a problem, but im playing on the hardest mode, so i can nuke my own party and it WILL hurt

Shiat!
I'm playing on easy mode and even then some spells can affect my own guys, like color spray.
Real nice to get zapped with a spell that can cause both death AND stone.
I dont think its possible to get my saving throws high enough for 6 continuous Color Sprays. Finally just got rid of Qara and stopped having Sand memorize them.

 

[naddicott]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
what i find more annoying is when they cast AOE spells without regard for the location of other party members. normally this wouldnt pose a problem, but im playing on the hardest mode, so i can nuke my own party and it WILL hurt

I just started my 2nd playthrough yesterday. My plan is to get my player character 10 levels of Red Dragon Disciple (immune to fire) and stand in the front lines tanking + then let Qara bomb away while keeping everyone else at range.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: naddicott

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
what i find more annoying is when they cast AOE spells without regard for the location of other party members. normally this wouldnt pose a problem, but im playing on the hardest mode, so i can nuke my own party and it WILL hurt

I just started my 2nd playthrough yesterday. My plan is to get my player character 10 levels of Red Dragon Disciple (immune to fire) and stand in the front lines tanking + then let Qara bomb away while keeping everyone else at range.

what other party members will you have?

i can't stand qara, she's so fvcking annoying. luckily, i'm playing a bow-ranger (3rd - 1st monk and 2nd fighter:Q) and i'll grab sand for some extra ranged support, then let kelgar do all the tanking and neeshka sneak attack people.

oddly enough, my ranger doesn't do too badly in melee since i have 18 STR. AC is hurting, though >-<

 

[naddicott]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
what other party members will you have?

Well, first time through I coordinated my spellcasters manually. This time I'm trying the AI improvement mod (linked elsewhere here) that supposedly stops Qara from automatically nuking the group as well as having bow/crossbow users switch to melee weapons when they get crowded.

I'll be keeping Neeshka around full time for personal and practical reasons. Beyond her, I'll mix and match a bit more and see if I can't trigger a few more NPC side plots.

Mainly I want to choose the other faction in act 2 and see that dialogue. My other to-do for this time around is I want to get my keep into better shape. I never got my roads and lands well secured last time around, and I expect I missed some of the keep related events as a result.

 

[ManBearPig]

are the combat modes useful at ALL? where can i find good items? i have 120,000 to spend and there are no good items to buy, and i cant find any really good items either.

thanks

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Heen05
are the combat modes useful at ALL? where can i find good items? i have 120,000 to spend and there are no good items to buy, and i cant find any really good items either.

thanks

combat modes that are useful:

monk - flurry of blows. no reason to not have it on, as after you get greater flurry, you receive no AB penalty and you get +2 attacks/round.

other melees - if you're hurting on AC, trying using combat expertise. you get +3AC, but -3 AB. not a bad tradeoff if you're someone (like a fighter) with very high AB.

ranger - im just playing a ranger now, and rapid fire seems to work pretty well.

casters - i've never bothered with defensive casting, so YMMV.

edit: i sure haven't used all that combat modes available, this is just what i've had experience with.

there are some good items to buy, but most will either be found or crafted. you can get some pretty mean crafts (crit immune, for example :Q)

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

I'm playing with the AI mod (for both party members and hostiles) and it makes a big improvement. There isn't nearly as much suicide with AoEs, and party members are using potions properly now. Healers will now consistently heal the most injured party member and buff intelligently.

Unfortunately, in the 1.03 patch, the devs made enemies immune to their own AoE spells instead of improving the AI scripts. This is where the complaints of the game being too easy were coming from - enemies would tend to nuke each other to death before anything else. With Even's AI script, enemies are much smarter about AoEs as well, though I guess it doesn't matter now, since they're immune.

 

[ManBearPig]

so any tips in general for the game? for a figher/weapon master? whats a good party?

oh, and should i bump up the difficulty from medium? it seems way too easy.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Heen05
so any tips in general for the game? for a figher/weapon master? whats a good party?

oh, and should i bump up the difficulty from medium? it seems way too easy.

some tips:

diversify your party. having a mix of classes not only offers you flexibility, but will often improve your combat effectiveness in most situations. i generally go with 1 rogue, 1 spellcaster, and as many fighter-types as possible. you might find that some other arrangement works better for you (in terms of game success, or just the way you like the party to handle )

for fighter W/M: don't do two weapon fighting with monkey grip and two two-handed weapons. it looks cool, but the -6 attack isn't worth it . also make sure you don't nuke yourself with fireball/lightning/etc. because a fighter/WM has awful reflex saves, so you'll take full damage, more than likely.

if you find medium easy, go for the next level (or the hardest). i always play BG2/NWN/NWN2 on the hardest possible settings. just be careful you don't nuke your own party with AOE spells.

 

[ManBearPig]

does it say if it affects allies or not? i use greater fireburst and fireburst often....these hurt me? oops lol

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Heen05
does it say if it affects allies or not? i use greater fireburst and fireburst often....these hurt me? oops lol

hurt, and often

 

[ManBearPig]

do all spells that damage enemies damage you too?

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Heen05
do all spells that damage enemies damage you too?

depends on the spell.. .. i know isaac's greater missile storm (IGMS for short) and lesser missile storm will affect your own party members if they are within a certain distance of the intended target. ice storm is a total b!tch - be careful with that one!

in short: count on it

 

[shortylickens]

I'd like tp play on the hardest settings except in BG2 your characters can become "gibbed" and never be revived. I dont like that, especially since all of them have at least one good story element.
Never got too deep into NWN, the useless henchmen always pissed me off.
In NMW2 I am having fun at Medium. Like any well-planned and well-run D&D game its not the game mechanics that make it challenging, its the encounters.

And if you up the difficulty, area effect spells start to hurt your allies. Be careful with the AI settings. I noticed that on even the most conservative one, spell casters have a tendancy to fling high-level magic at everything.

 

[ManBearPig]

are there any good mods/fixes for the game?

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Heen05
are there any good mods/fixes for the game?

i know there are some AI mods to improve party members' behavior. i wish you could move as a party (like bg2) and have full control over everyone.

shortlickens - in nwn2, they were nice and you can't get gibbed, even on hardest

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I'd like tp play on the hardest settings except in BG2 your characters can become "gibbed" and never be revived. I dont like that, especially since all of them have at least one good story element.
Never got too deep into NWN, the useless henchmen always pissed me off.
In NMW2 I am having fun at Medium. Like any well-planned and well-run D&D game its not the game mechanics that make it challenging, its the encounters.

And if you up the difficulty, area effect spells start to hurt your allies. Be careful with the AI settings. I noticed that on even the most conservative one, spell casters have a tendancy to fling high-level magic at everything.

Playing on Hardcore with Even's AI mod I haven't had any terrible self-nukings yet. It also helps to give your casters enemy-only spells, like chain lightning.

Even has also added a rest restriction mod, so that you can't 'take a knee' in dangerous areas, which is nice if you want to up the difficulty.

He also has a 3.5 rules mods which follows PnP better and fixes some bugs in skills/feats.

AI Mod

3.5 Mod

 

[Mem]

so any tips in general for the game? for a figher/weapon master? whats a good party?

oh, and should i bump up the difficulty from medium? it seems way too easy.

I like to have at least two tanks then a rogue,then magic caster either a sorcerer/wizard/cleric class,sort of covers all the bases then.

 

[naddicott]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Playing on Hardcore with Even's AI mod I haven't had any terrible self-nukings yet. It also helps to give your casters enemy-only spells, like chain lightning.

Even has also added a rest restriction mod, so that you can't 'take a knee' in dangerous areas, which is nice if you want to up the difficulty.

He also has a 3.5 rules mods which follows PnP better and fixes some bugs in skills/feats.

AI Mod

Using Evan's AI mod (no 3.5 mod), on scaled casting Qara recently gave my party some closed quarters fireball baths in some act2 indoors areas. My best guess is it was a question of running out of non-AoE spells and preferring the remaining spells in her book to using a weapon. If she's still misbehaving after I give her some more non AoE options during level-ups, she's going back to puppet mode.

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Give Kelgar a short sword, and he's liable to cut himself. Give him a great sword, and all his weapon specialization feats take effect and make him lethal.

*minor spoiler*

If you don't plan on encouraging Kelgar to pursue his dream of Monkhood, I would humbly suggest choosing his specialization feats / improved critical feats for the Warhammer. His family seems to favor that weapon.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: naddicott

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Playing on Hardcore with Even's AI mod I haven't had any terrible self-nukings yet. It also helps to give your casters enemy-only spells, like chain lightning.

Even has also added a rest restriction mod, so that you can't 'take a knee' in dangerous areas, which is nice if you want to up the difficulty.

He also has a 3.5 rules mods which follows PnP better and fixes some bugs in skills/feats.

AI Mod

Using Evan's AI mod (no 3.5 mod), on scaled casting Qara recently gave my party some closed quarters fireball baths in some act2 indoors areas. My best guess is it was a question of running out of non-AoE spells and preferring the remaining spells in her book to using a weapon. If she's still misbehaving after I give her some more non AoE options during level-ups, she's going back to puppet mode.

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Give Kelgar a short sword, and he's liable to cut himself. Give him a great sword, and all his weapon specialization feats take effect and make him lethal.

*minor spoiler*

If you don't plan on encouraging Kelgar to pursue his dream of Monkhood, I would humbly suggest choosing his specialization feats / improved critical feats for the Warhammer. His family seems to favor that weapon.

i did that with the intention of having him use a hammer to begin with (first time i played, and i didnt know anything).. and man, he rocked

 

[ManBearPig]

do i have to go back and refind all the ore i already found (for the crossroad keep or whatever)?

any tips for the place?

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Heen05
do i have to go back and refind all the ore i already found (for the crossroad keep or whatever)?
any tips for the place?

You dont have to refind all the previously found stuff, BUT you do need an oreworker to make use of it.
Read this list:
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=522733&forum=110

The first post has TONS of good info, and he updates it once in a while.

EDIT: I too wish for the same thing as Fenixgoon.
If you could properly control your characters this would be a worthy sucessor to BG2.

 

[ManBearPig]

well how come my workers say there isnt enough ore? is it because ive hired them recently? i think ive found all but 1 according to that list (in act 1-2 at least, not in 3 yet).

 

[Bateluer]

The Devs just launched a sneak peak at what 1.04 will entail.

Version 1.04
New Features

General

? Voice Menu
---Users can now press the Voice Menu key (?V? by default) to activate a menu from which they can quickly access frequently used voice commands and emotes. Users can drag these to the hotbar, as well.
? Added support for bindable keys to change the hotbar page.
? You can now drag and drop buttons from the Mode Bar and Quick Cast Menu onto the Hotbar. This will also work for Spontaneously Converted spells.
? Players now have the option to turn on a second horizontal hotbar and 2 vertical hotbars.
? Users can now select in the options menu whether or not they want left click and hold in Driving Camera to move the character or mouselook.
? All combat modes can now be triggered instantly, except for Parry, Rapid Shot, and Flurry of Blows, which are deferred until the beginning of the next round.
---Your pending combat modes are now displayed on the action queue UI, with a countdown ticker, tooltip, and mouse click support.
---You can now toggle of and off a pending combat mode.
---Combat modes are no longer turned off for party members at the end of their combat round.
? Trees throughout the game should look better as many of the tree textures and models have been revamped to be more visually appealing.
? Localized versions of the NWN1 sounds used in the game have been added to their respective languages.
? Several new loading screen tips have been added to v1.04.

DM Client
? DMs can now drag items from the creator menu to the hotbar.
? DMs can now jump directly to an area.
? DMs can now add and subtract experience points, gold and levels.

Scripting
? EffectDamage() ? A flag has been added to the EffectDamage()function which allows you to skip Damage Immunity, Damage Reduction, and Damage Resistance. The default for this flag is FALSE, so existing scripts will continue to work the same.
Toolset
? A comment field has been added to the Journal Editor.
? More robust undo/redo support has been added to the Conversation and Journal editors.

Bug Fixes

General
? The Mode Bar and Mini-map will now properly retain their hidden or revealed state after area transitions.
? Improvements have been made which reduce load times in some situations.
? The game will no longer crash when attempting to buy when on a blank page.
? The game?s transition to Act 2 would very rarely fail to occur. This has been made more reliable.

DM Client
? DMs will no longer automatically run lore checks on acquired items.
? Feedback has been added for several DM abilities.
? DMs can now spawn items into containers.
? The DM Client should no longer crash on transition to large exterior areas.

Effects/Spells
? Wildshape and Elemental Shape are no longer dispellable.
? Balagar?s Iron Horn radius reduced from 30 feet to 20 feet.
? Greater Fireburst will now do the correct amount of damage.
? Monks will no longer get their class AC Bonus while wearing armor or using a shield.
? Improved Reaction will now properly calculate uses per day.
? Manyshot will now function as described.
? Characters with crossbows can now use Rapid Shot if they have Rapid Reload.

Items
? The game will no longer crash if you drag an item from a magic bag onto the magic bag which contains it.
Toolset
? TRX files are now renamed when renaming their associated area.


I also believe the Server.exe has been made much more reliable and the DM transitioning to some areas no longer crashes the server.

Now remember, let's just keep this information our little secret.

 

[Ultralight]

Thanks Bateluer. If this keeps up I just might buy the game.