NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer

[s44]

Originally posted by: aCynic2

Also, do they add any extra critters?

Yes.

 

[Mem]

RPGVault peek preview of MoB.

It takes place in Rashemen, an area widely known for its fierce berserkers and the spirits that protect the land. Its ruler, the Iron Lord, resides in the capital of Immilmar, but true power resides with witches called hathran. Neaby, the powerful nation of Thay, home to a mix of humans, gnolls, orcs, dwarves, goblins and halflings. Controlled by the dreaded Red Wizards who practice potent circle magic, it's a realm that is seldom peaceful.

 

[Mem]

Short preview@[url="http://www.theg33ks.com/neverwinter-nights-2-mask-of-the-betrayer-coming-soon-04092007/"]Theg33kS[/url]

Those disappointed by the level cap of 20 in NWN 2 will definitely be happy to hear that it?s gone 10 levels up, and that you can also multiclass your character using up to 4 classes as in NWN 2. While we?re discussing classes, Obsidian has announced that there will be 2 new base ones, Favoured Soul (?a sorcerer version? of the cleric) and Spirit Shaman (a ?sorcerer version? of the druid), and 5 new prestige classes, amongst which are the Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep, the Invisible Blade, or the Stormlord.

 

[shortylickens]

Did the move to Epic Levels also include the activation of the Epic Feats and classes?

When I was poking around the innards of the game I noticed they had the epic feats in the engine, they just never used 'em.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Did the move to Epic Levels also include the activation of the Epic Feats and classes?

When I was poking around the innards of the game I noticed they had the epic feats in the engine, they just never used 'em.

Epic feats you can get when leveling.

 

[Mem]

Here's info and list of epic feats link.

 

[Mem]

New Classes and Races clips can be found here@IGN.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Mem
Here's info and list of epic feats link.

OMG FLAMING MONK! FUCK YEAH!!!

 

[Mem]

Peek 2 preview@RPG Vault .

 

[aCynic2]

A question on this...Is this a continuation of the original campaign? Do you get to use your original character? Do you get to have the NPCs of the original campaign (Elanee, Kelgar, Sand, etc)?

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: aCynic2
A question on this...Is this a continuation of the original campaign? Do you get to use your original character? Do you get to have the NPCs of the original campaign (Elanee, Kelgar, Sand, etc)?

It starts very shortly after the first main NW2 campaign,ie...

The new title begins shortly after the events of the base game. Following the climactic battle against the King of Shadows, the player character, which can be imported, awakens deep within the bowels of the earth, alone and with evil spirits all around. Thus begins an adventure said to offer approximately 25 to 30 hours of play, culminating in the revelation of the protagonist's true destiny. Some new elements that seem worth noting are three races, several classes, six companions, each with roughly twice the dialogue of their predecessors, shadow portals leading to alternative dimensions, and an overhead tactical camera mode.

Yes you can export your main character to MoB,as to your campanions,I can't say much without spoilers so will just say you'll find out what happened to them and more .

 

[novasatori]

I am eagerly awaiting my copies to arrive.

I only just beat NWN2 last week so this will be fun to play, however after looking at the epic feats I kind of want to make a char with Sneak attacks and get the sneak attack feat.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: s44
There's a BG1 total conversion mod (for NWN2) in progress.

Anyone who complains about AI is playing the game wrong. The latest patch adds a 'turn off AI' GUI button. As in BG2, you should use it in every nontrivial battle.

Thats all well and good to put in an essential feature a year after the game is out, but we havent been playing the game "wrong" if it was fucked for a whole year.
Its not us.
Its the game.

Please stop trying to cover for a company who released a shitty product.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: s44
There's a BG1 total conversion mod (for NWN2) in progress.

Anyone who complains about AI is playing the game wrong. The latest patch adds a 'turn off AI' GUI button. As in BG2, you should use it in every nontrivial battle.

Getting back to MoB I just replayed the game near the end(can't say why without spoliers) and the AI needs some serious work,I was fighting a wizard and my Paladin just stood there doing nothing(even when I was giving orders or clicking to fight ) ,first I thought he was stunned ,dazed but nope he had no enemy spells on him ,this was frustating in serious battles and believe me some of the fights are tough.Daze ,stun spells balance seems to be wrong too,I had my level 29 Tank Paladin(uber gear too) floored for a full 1 minute by a wizard (my pally has a lot of Epic Feats too like Epic toughness,dex,constitution etc..) .Game balance as I said needs fine tuning and getting back to AI, party does not always follow you,you may get one or two stuck and even "follow me" command does not always guarantee they will follow.

Official MoB issues thread is now on part 2 .Anyway to recap I enjoyed the story/game for all its faults and frustrating problems etc...

 

[you2]

If MOB has been out in europe since the end of Sept how come there are no major reviews ?

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: you2
If MOB has been out in europe since the end of Sept how come there are no major reviews ?

Probably see the reviews start to appear once its out in the US (which is only 2 days to go).

Technically its only been out in Europe for just over a week now.

 

[Mem]

Hehe thought this bug was funny that a guy posted in their MoB issues forums,

Another annoying bug is that one of the old npc heads (N-Human head 19)now looks really wrong (with a nose sticking out the back of his head and teeth on the back of his hair). It looks so bad I'm sure it's not intentional (or at least I hope it wasn't).

I emptied my override folder before installing the expansion pack so there wasn't anything in there interfering with it.

Here's a few screenshots.

Link.

Link.

 

[s44]

Wow, that's horrifying.

Could come in useful in a horror mod though

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

MotB is an improvement in story from the OC and the characters are more mature, thankfully, but overall, it leaves me with a meh again. I hate the narrator's voice... and yes, all you get is a black/white slideshow at the end. The balance is goofed a bit, but towards the end, it's really a cakewalk if you slap all the enchantments on your gear, like +5D6 damage, which stacks multiple times - fire/electricity/acid/cold, and +8 regeneration, etc.

The environments and lighting/water/particles have been improved a bit, but the rest looks pretty much the same. I agree about the overdone spell effects - sometimes it's just a big white-out, which makes it difficult to select characters, etc. The AI is slightly better, but it still sucks. I just used puppet mode most of the time.

NWN is too confined... small, penned-off areas, no map z-axis, almost no interactivity. Maybe this is due to the D&D ruleset. Oblivion/Gothic/Two Worlds/The Witcher are wide-open, and I definitely prefer that kind of gameplay.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: Mem
Yes you can export your main character to MoB,as to your campanions,I can't say much without spoilers so will just say you'll find out what happened to them and more .

I may not be buying it. At least, not for quite some time. The game is too buggy and they are applying cosmetic changes rather than fix the problems.

One big problem I've encountered a few times is the game won't respond to the keyboard. I have to click on a character. I'm also seeing the inventory disappear again. I have to save and reload to get it back.

There is also the "no-hitting" bug where both sides are swinging away and no one gets hit (even when rolling high numbers). I have to actually break combat and run a distance away, risking an AoO, to fix that one.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Also, the animations are terrible, especially when shapeshifted. Monsters will often glide around with no walking animations and attack animations are out-of-sync at least half the time.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Also, the animations are terrible, especially when shapeshifted. Monsters will often glide around with no walking animations

I see that a lot with orcs.

and attack animations are out-of-sync at least half the time.

Yeah, kind of a where-did-that-come-from moment.

However, these don't endanger play. They won't actually cause you to lose a game. The bugs I cited will. If you're swinging back and fourth with an antagonist and you're not hitting, a second comes up that is hitting, you can lose.

Losing your inventory in a fight may make it hard to find that potion or wand you need.

Any zero kb response is a sure way to lose from not being able to pause the game and reissue new orders (especially in a non-trivial fight).

 

[aCynic2]

One last jibe on NWN2. It seem few are using it to run privately made campaigns. Looking on neverwinterconnections.com, there is hardly anyone running NWN2 has their DnD engine. I think I know why...

Both the complexity, coupled with the lack of good documentation, and poor performance of the NWN2 toolset makes it prohibitive to making individual campaigns. I've tried. Trying to work the NWN2 toolset is a real serious PITA. Trying to open up new windows to view properties and switching between fields taxes the patience (and I have a fairly major piece of HW).

It's just not possible to make campaigns in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, the toolset has it's own bugs that can crash it before you save what you've done.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: aCynic2
One last jibe on NWN2. It seem few are using it to run privately made campaigns. Looking on neverwinterconnections.com, there is hardly anyone running NWN2 has their DnD engine. I think I know why...

Both the complexity, coupled with the lack of good documentation, and poor performance of the NWN2 toolset makes it prohibitive to making individual campaigns. I've tried. Trying to work the NWN2 toolset is a real serious PITA. Trying to open up new windows to view properties and switching between fields taxes the patience (and I have a fairly major piece of HW).

It's just not possible to make campaigns in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, the toolset has it's own bugs that can crash it before you save what you've done.

Funny that you say that as a plethora of excellent campaign modules are appearing.

Moonshadows just arrived about a week ago. Purgatorio, the 800lbs gorilla of NWN2 mods, is due for release in November. Mysteries of the Moonsea is coming out in a month. A quick stop at either the NWVault or the NWN2 forums reveals plenty of mods.

Remember that it took some time for NWN1 to really take off, NWN2 is beginning to blossom now.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Moonshadows just arrived about a week ago. Purgatorio, the 800lbs gorilla of NWN2 mods, is due for release in November. Mysteries of the Moonsea is coming out in a month. A quick stop at either the NWVault or the NWN2 forums reveals plenty of mods.

That is not developed by an individual making their own campaign world. It is made by a team. I'm having trouble browsing out from work, so perhaps you can tell me the disposition of the module and team that developed it...professional or a bunch of weekend warriors calling themselves Rogue dao studios?

From the site:

Over two-dozen area designers, composers, 2D & 3D Artists, web gurus, writers and voice-over actors contribute their efforts to the project.

Yeah, how many people are going to have 24 staffers to help develop a private campaign world?

When I was making a campaign for NWN, it was I and one other. He did a fine job at creating areas for the random encounter engine I was developing, I was scripting a random encounter engine and writing the storyline.

It was going well, until something went wrong...I think I got divorced, but it's hard to remember.

I stand by my statement that the toolset suffers from poor performance and a complexity that prevents it from being usable by anything less than a well staffed team.