Nwn 2

[Harovan]

Ah yes, Brother Merrin (or whats his name), he's supposed to heal you after you brought back his holy tablet.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph

As for joining your guild, well... as far as I understand, it's some kind of "über" guild. Keep in mind that I'm practically a newbie, wearing 2 years old gear (and not even fancy farmed stuff), having only the skills of 2 professions (E and Me) completely capped, not owning Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North and not understanding most of the new concepts and even most skill abbreviations. There's not much I could offer such a guild. I would be rather a drag and I would hate the feeling to be one.

I think you are overanalysing - there aren't uber guilds in the same way as there are in MMOs. To the extent Req is good it's in PvP experience and skill (though I haven't checked in for a while and don't know how active we are), and with the metagame shifts you wouldn't take that long to catch up I think.

[Dis]

hmm well I was starting to get into the game, but can't seem to switch modules now. Kind of a game stopping bug.

I'm not sure if it's between chapters, as they don't announce which chapter you are in. I get a message the module started successfully, but then I'm dumped to desktop.

The point I'm in is transitioning from the docks district in neverwinter to the merchant district. I was following the city guard line of quests to try to find a way into the blackwater district. I had completed the patrol and talking to the guards, then went back, the guard building was on fire. Then headed out of the city (had a few encounters along the way). That's where the game is dumping me when I try to go to merchant district.

I was starting to get into the character interactions and story a bit. I think they did a pretty good job with the characters. Not as good as a game such as Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, but pretty good. More humor in this game than the first one imho. Some of the voices definately sound like the voice actors from kotor 1 and 2. I'd have to look that up.

oh well, I'll see if I can figure it out. if not, the game will have to be shelved. Sucks I can only play 1 chapter.

edit: it looks like I'll have to manually patch this. http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums...0311&forum=116 this really sucks. I don't see why they couldn't have fixed all the problems in one gigantic patch. But now I'm so into the story, I guess I'll uninstall and see if I can do this. I used the auto updater for all my patches previously.

[Harovan]

What? They still didn't fix this? Double shame on them. As I suggested, the game itself isn't that bad, what bad is, that its shortcomings don't improve. Do I sense the lack of funding from Atari here?

You're still in chapter 1 by the way, and will stay there for long, until you're permitted into Blacklake. When you are permitted there, take yourself at least an hour, as it's a pretty long sequence of talks, forced zoning and little opportunity to save.

[Dis]

I got it working. reloaded the autosave, went to the tavern first (and this caused a conversation with my party members insulting each other), then left the tavern causing a confrontation with the academy guys (but that one mage got kicked out, so I don't know why they would defend her), then took a different world map exit. this worked. did some stuff in merchant district, and the crypt thingy. I promised not to loot it, but forgot and looted anyways. Didn't seem to do anything to me. And I cleared the alleyway. That's enough for tonight. bout ready to head into that warehouse now.

I do need to read up on dnd rules. I'm clueless on druids. the animal companion seems stuck at level 5, don't know how I get a higher level one. The animal forms don't seem real great, they don't seem to do more damage than her +2 longsword, so I almost never shift into form. My mage main rocks, but I already knew that. . Phantasmal killer is a cool spell. Occasionally they save that spell (have to overcome 2 saves for the insta kill), but not often.

I'm not sure what tests I have to do for my fighter to get him into monk. Not even sure if monk has much synergy with a fighter, but I want to do it for roleplay reasons, but I don't want to look this stuff up and spoil it either. Hopefully I didn't screw up and miss that.

I still haven't manually patched, as I don't want to uninstall the game. But when I autopatched, it seemed like it did do them one by one kinda like you are supposed to manually do it, so maybe they fixed the autopatching sequence (I hope). I think when I was autopatching, I had 4 patching sequences iirc. So we'll see.

[Harovan]

That "insulting" cutscene is the best part in the game, IMO, at least as far as conversations go. I always save beforehand, so I can watch it again.

As for the druid, I always turn "use abilities" off in the AI for the "Badger queen", so she doesn't shift into that useless form if you don't control her yourself. I use her as buffbot, her barkskins and later stoneskins (use both for the best effect) make your party practically invincible and last much longer than a potion, too.

Phantasmal killer rocks and will get even better as you level up and your DC increases (higher INT). I used it in HotU up into the mid-20 levels and it still struck most of the time, especially for rogue types (low fortitude and will), but for fighters too.

Spoiler:

In NWN2 it's good in the first 2 chapters, after this forget about all mind affecting stuff

You need high Khelgar faction to make him a monk (which may spoil your faction with Elanee and Neeshka) and need to do his sidequests that you were given in the temple. That's in chapter 2 or even 3 and you can't really miss it, so don't worry for now. Just from time to time talk to him about it, to see if there are new options. EDIT: By the way, you don't need to make him a monk, though, it's just a matter of flavor. He kicks butt as monk and fighter equally well.

Spikey - Yea may be I "overanalysed"; feel free to PM me a contact person. I can't promise if I apply soon, though - started an EQ2 nostalgia trip yesterday, but I don't know yet if I can stomach the game again.

[DrSpike]

Didn't you swear to never again play EQ2?

[Dis]

messing around with a chaotic neutral (now evil) barbarian yesterday. This game is very biased in favor of melee classes (or I suck at mages ). I totally annhilate everything between me and the dwarf fighter. The biggest advantage is not having to rest to regain spells (which you can't do in many crypts and stuff unless you go outside).

It was like I was playing on ez mode. I had to check the settins to make sure I was still on dnd hardcore rules.

although I had to turn down the evilness as I'm hoping to do the romance option with the druid. I'm hearing the druid is the only romance option for males, (the paladin for females). I'm hearing they aren't nearly as involved as bg2, but I'll still do them if I can. I'm not sure if a chaotic evil player can romance a neutral good player, but I'll try. I'm usually not good at romances (as in real life) and always say the wrong thing. So we'll see if I can do this.

But I did go back to playing my mage a bit. The toughest part is she's targeted alot. Hard to keep mobs off her.

[Harovan]

You can very well play the first two chapters with a caster, just cast Protection from {your alignment} (if you're not neutral) on everyone, especially Neeshka, then sleep/paralyze/otherwise disable everyone and let your party coup-de-grace the buggers. Arcane casters begin to suck in chapter 3, though. But the game is so easy, that you still can finish it.

When I play a caster, the melee types are my least worry, that's what Ghostly Visage, Improved Invisibility, Stoneskin & Co. are for.

I played through with an Arcane Archer, who rocked in all 3 chapters. An archery specialized, longsword wielding Ranger ("Aragorn style") rocks too, if you choose the right Favored Enemies with improved favored and favored power attack. Just dont let him dual wield but give him a heavy hitter in one hand without shield for the most time, so that he gets the 2-hand bonus for favored power attack. Buff based meleers (like a 50-50 fighter/cleric) are also a very good choice.

Dexterity fighters and classes depending on sneaks and crits (like weapon masters, duelists, rogues) suck in the end game too.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Didn't you swear to never again play EQ2?

I'm usually not a friend of "never" statements, so hardly.

I bought the newest XP (another one coming soon) and must say, that it has become a very enjoyable game now, with 3 years of polish. I did a reroll in a new starting area (the initial two became boring with the time) and even met some of my old friends, who are still (or again) there.

I'm in MMOG mood and had the choice to play EQ1, EQ2 or Vanguard. The first ist a bit too old and the worst grind of the three too, which is important as I planned a clean reroll (as opposed to a twinked alt). The last seems not to have much improved, sadly. EQ2 was the best choice and, being back for 2 days now, I don't regret it at all, at the countrary. Not even the six hours long patch orgy could tick me off (I installed from the original DVD as I deleted my installation).

[Dis]

okay now my caster is a higher level, I do seem to be doing better (if I can prepare). sometimes I just caster mirror image, ghostly visage and go to town with aoe's and leave my party behind. There's a 5th level spell that's similar to starfire (can't remember name right now) which is pretty cool. cone of cold, fireballs, it's all good. Overall I like mages as it's more interesting casting spells with the pretty lights and all that .

Though one battle had a conversation, and I had no buffs on, everyone in my part except Khelgar died. And he single handedly took on 7 or 8 mobs by himself and won (I did drink one potion of moderate wounds). Including ghouls who stunned him. This was in the mirror lake zone I was running back, had 2 water elementals chasing me, ghouls came from somewhere, a shadow priest and his cohorts. they killed the rest of my part real fast. But I just got done with a huge crafting session and got Khelgor's AC up to 26. Nothing could really touch him. His AC is even higher now as I found a better tower shield for him (he uses a crafter dwarven waraxe for his weapon). Crafting is time consuming, but fun. I really don't mind the time it takes. I like creating items I want (and it's cheaper too)

As for the game, I'm really liking it. Not sure why I didn't play it much when I got it last year. I think the sluggishness was one reason. Lowering textures to medium helped out there. Most of the other settings were already at minimum. My video card is actually slightly below the minimum required. I have a 9600 XT radeon and they recommend 9800 ati. And that's min requirement, not recommended.

It's a pretty good game. The bugginess (and long load times) is an issue. A few times when changing zones (that require loading a module) my game has crashed to desktop or froze up. Camera controls are clunky, but I set it up similar to how I did it in NWN1. It's a lot of micromanagement camera work though. I manually control the camera through everthing. But I prefer it this way. With multiple chars having a chase type cam (as in wow) just doesn't work for me. And the chase type cam isn't as good as other games. graphics don't seem that bad to me (compared to other rpg's). Despite it not being true 3d, it looks better than wow in some regards (though it's also a lot newer, so it should I suppose). Graphically Arx Fatalis was better of course, but I didn't care for the combat system in that game at all.

The game is good, I like the story. NPC followers are good. I know I can never expect a game as in depth as BG2. The only thing I'm comparing this game to is NWN1 (and expansions). And it holds up well. given the limitations of the engine (as it was designed for user created mods), I don't expect too much. They pushed the engine as far as it will go I assume. As I said BG2 is a legend, and nothing will ever match that.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


I'm usually not a friend of "never" statements, so hardly.

I bought the newest XP (another one coming soon) and must say, that it has become a very enjoyable game now, with 3 years of polish. I did a reroll in a new starting area (the initial two became boring with the time) and even met some of my old friends, who are still (or again) there.

I'm in MMOG mood and had the choice to play EQ1, EQ2 or Vanguard. The first ist a bit too old and the worst grind of the three too, which is important as I planned a clean reroll (as opposed to a twinked alt). The last seems not to have much improved, sadly. EQ2 was the best choice and, being back for 2 days now, I don't regret it at all, at the countrary. Not even the six hours long patch orgy could tick me off (I installed from the original DVD as I deleted my installation).

I was meaning to ask whether they fixed VG yet - I see the answer is no! Interesting you've gone back to EQ2 though - I suppose the stuff you disliked like the easy soloing they introduced is still there?

Might be better off waiting to see what Conan and Warhammer bring.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I was meaning to ask whether they fixed VG yet - I see the answer is no!

Opinions on that vary. Server population is ok now - after they made out of about a dozen servers four. A lot of things are said to have been improved. But as it stands, stability and performance still are issues. And rangers (my main) still don't have tracking yet - and that was one of my "return indicators".

Interesting you've gone back to EQ2 though - I suppose the stuff you disliked like the easy soloing they introduced is still there?

Yea, I had to swallow it, as there's no alternative in sight. In a way I even profit from it now, as the newbie zones are very underpopulated (pretty much everyone is level 70). So far I didn't need anyone even for the bosses. I'll have to group later in the dungeons, of which EQ2 has some most excellent ones. It's basically WoW now with a more mature average playerbase.

Might be better off waiting to see what Conan and Warhammer bring.

Conan is supposed to have Oblivion style controls; no targetting, you hit where you aim. Enough to tick me off, an FPS player (which I am not) may like it though. But I predict issues with lagging players.

I don't know much about Warhammer.

[DrSpike]

It's basically the spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot - a rare PvP based game that worked.

[Dis]

don't tell me EQ2 is wow with more mature players. I might be tempted to start it again (after I build a new system of course). I just got too tired of the gold beggers, and general *******s in WOW. But ultimately, I'm bored of the gameplay. It's so repetitive now.

I just didn't see that much that could be solo'd in EQ2, but perhaps I didn't play it enough. i got a character up to level 10. Unless you go around just killing monsters for experience. But that is boring. I need quests to keep me interested. I just remembered getting stuck on a quest that had several grouped mobs around the objective. And I just can't take on 3 mobs at once. I really didn't give eq2 that much of a chance, it was too hard on my system. While the game would run well at first, after I did about 3 area transitions, serious game lag would occur. There was some kind of memory leak or something.