Why This Game Bothers Me

[EZ_Tarissa DR]

1) Bad Pathing
2) Patch breaks special creator abilities
3) DND 3e rule inaccuracies (two weapon styles, light weapons, offhand weapons, etc for starters)
4) Darkstone quality graphics for terrain
5) NO ROBES! (Thx for jumpsuits)
6) 8,849 chest per dungeon, some trapped, most locked. Treasure: 1 light healing potion, and 2 gold. Or a 20gp gem. The catch: 1 out of 100 has a plot item or great item. You are cursed to open them ALL.
7) Stupid AI commands. Where is the 'stand next to me, don't get into trouble, don't engage anyone' command?' I seem to just get the follow me, attack random things, and guard me one.
8) Annoying method to open locks with familiars of henchmen. Sometimes they just stand there.
9) Multiplayer bugs gallor. Friend joins. Oh neat there are *2* of him now. Autosaves or saves while players zoning crashes the server. Save games have totally wrong states, corrupts your plot progression, or just corrupts the game completely. Crash bugs.
10) Control of only 1 character, *wheter you like it or not*. At least BG had this thing called AI ON and AI OFF.
11) Walking into other areas puts you ONTO other people, and PUSHES you back out.
12) Zoning into a room and facing BACKWARDS! And walking out. And your friend doing it. And him pushing you back. And you zoning back into the house. And he runs in to. And then pushes you back out. And you scream :|
13) Imbalanced powers in PVP and in game (Clerics... monks stunning fist (no disc. checks on that), etc..)
14) Saving your character makes a string of characters with number appended after them... no I don't need 16 versions of my character because he/she has leveled a few times.
15) No Bioware "battle.net" like persistent server. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but so far it seems like character progression is meaningless for the most part. Everyone is using local characters, because no one is going to invest time in a server from someone which could just go down in a day. And you can cheat galor with the editor and DM client. No real feeling of accomplishment.
16) Inventory bugs that corrupt characters and put them into bogus states. Drag something and both become shaded out. The item is now locked into place permanently on your character. One fix I found was to summon a familiar - even thogh one was already summoned, to get away from this hitch. I wonder what fighters do. I tried reloading and every save game prior was in a messed up state corrupting the plot. Neat.
17) No, a 3 charge wand should NOT cost me 15x more than 3 scrolls of the same type... neat.
18) WEAK main module! Wow, a new town... with 4 exits. Of which I progress upon in linear order. To a finale. And so on. Wow. Nice. Where are the colorful characters, neat subplots, and non-linearity the good storytelling of BG1/2 had? Not present. Just stereotypes for NPCs too.

The good:
1) The DM client and editor will mean some neat adventures to come. I see potential there, but the graphics are already 2 years old. Don't expect to be wow'd by them. DS blows them a way, but is a flawed shallow game in its own way.
2) It is fun to play another attempt at 3rd edition DND. Well, it's enjoyable for the first time. Pool of radiance was a horrid game.


I guess this is my official piss and moan thread. I play this game. I have fun doing it. But I'm *so* upset at its inexcusable shortcomings. I thought they were going to be onto something big, but for Bioware, this game is one step forward, and another step back - possibly 2.

It appears to be exactly what I guessed it would be by seeing some screenshots before its release - Vampire meets Dungeon Siege... with all of the good and bad that implies.

There better be a nice BIG patch out, and soon, or this game will die after a handful of cheesy mods. Tarissa Doveshadow - 60 Assassin
Druzzil Ro - Hoss
Author of Real-Time EQ ParserEdited by: Tarissa DR at: 6/27/02 2:46:14 am

[EZ_Keyno Nokey]

For the most part, I would have to agree with you.

The Toolset is so limited, it drives me nuts. Maybe I'm spoiled from Morrowinds WCS.

Really wish they would of atleast gave the option of first person view.

Now just need to get Morrowind/NWN smashed together, that would be one fine game.

Keyno

[EZ_Icebreaker]

1) ya it is pretty weak
2)that will be fixed
3)don't see the problems with the ones you mentioned ..and well to expect 100% translation of 3 core books is silly its closest there has been so far and the changes they made do make sence in the context of a change of medium.
4)Oh please so not true...but really everyone that followed this game at all knew it was a tile based engine so people could make their own modules easily and not need to spend 2months doing a building interior ala Qradiant3 ect.
5)ya guess it sucks but never was one for robes i'm sure someone will make a model to change that(check out what poly has done so far quite amazing)
6)heh doesn't bother me just don't open the small ones that aren't trapped or near a quest npc and your pretty safe..besides its only the shipped adventure thats like that..gotta have all those healing potions for certain classes to solo really.
7)talk to henchmen tell em to standclose heal at 50% ..don't help open doors(if you don't need em to)..then the commands are...follow me,stand your ground,and standyourground again.
i guess never had a henchman do the work of anotherperson..multiplayer group is more fun ..but AI does need tweaking.
9)again ya there will be more patches.
10)should have read about the game in the last 4years its been said that it was singleplayer or groupbased multiplayer since they started.
11)haven't had this problem except when using driving control method from a zoneline clickin gon the ground somewhere seems to stop this.again no biggy
12)haven't had this problem except when using keyboard to moveforward.
13)DnD isn't or will ever be balanced for PvP...try UT2 nuff said.
14)umm real inconciquential nitpick really...so deleate the ones you don't want later or don't save your toon everyfive minutes.
15)don't need a battlenet. this isn't diablo,only thing stoping people from cheating is their own comman sense...just like DnD ...so don't play with the 12year olds that MUST have duelwield vopal swords at 1st level.
Feeling of accomplishment comes from working together with your friends advancing your toon while adventuring thru modules.Cheaters will get bored and leave in a month....EXCELENT!
16)never seen that
17)and why shouldn't it? that 3 charges a day perhaps? my rogue sure does like some of those wands i must say.
1 hmmm umm ok you must be playing a different game then me cuz there are tons of sidequests to do..not as much as bg2 but definately in line with bg1.
I find the story going into chapter3 quiet entertaining so far.

good
1) from what i've seen of custom tilesets and models so far i'd say its gonna friggin rock graphics are great for the type of game it is...just accept the fact its tilebased and move on...its not as bad as your making it out to be.
2)best translation to date ..and as people tweak the game scripts some get closer to the real deal as well(the nice new dieing script at -10hps is great).
For the most part the things changed make sence the things left out(like prestige classes) are understandable due to timeconstraints and needing to ship someday.
I expect alot will be added to this game via addons and expansions and a ton by the fanbase.

OH please it will die out to those that wanted diablo3 or DSmeetsBauldersgate ect..
The friggin editor is amazing tiles are limited in someways but its easy to work around that..and hell you can make your own tilesets so shrug no biggy.

NWN is as much a system as a module that it shipped with
don't forget that.



ya honestly this is a rant hall post really isn't it.

[EZ_Aelodyn]

NWN is going to be around for a long time, and a lot of people are going to play it. What shipped in the box is just the tip of the iceberg.

[EZ_Tweil]

Exactly....NWN is like Quake/Half life so on. The game will only be as good as the community around it. If Half-Life had no mods, would people still play it?

NWN is the best game I have played in years and it will only get better. The Napping Druid
Tweil Firestorm
Solusek Ro

[Koru]

I dunno about the NPCs, after I managed to get the game working on my old machine (finally you bastard copyprotection from hell!) I thought it was kind of cool how you could get that halfling barbarian Tomi at the start. I'm kind of confused though, he's obviously a barbarian but is he multiclassed as a rogue too? He seems to be able to pick locks as well. And I am getting a bit pissed at the way he'll do that berserker-run-in-hacking thing across half the map when I try to sneak past. So I'm sort of thinking about replacing him. I wonder if this game also has a pack mule, such handy creatures....

[EZ_Andurian]

First couple hours, "OH look another chest! woohoo!"

Now "what will i get this time 1gp or a kick in the nuts?" "I do smoke, and if this bothers anybody I recommend you looking around the world in which we live.. and shutting your f***ing mouth." - Bill Hicks

[EZ_Telurinon]

10) Control of only 1 character, *wheter you like it or not*. At least BG had this thing called AI ON and AI OFF

Thank god. I friggin' HATE real time games where I have to control more than one character. This is the main reason I have not played BG2, IWD or the other Black Isle games. This is the ONY reason I did not play Freedom Force.

18) WEAK main module! Wow, a new town... with 4 exits. Of which I progress upon in linear order. To a finale. And so on. Wow. Nice. Where are the colorful characters, neat subplots, and non-linearity the good storytelling of BG1/2 had? Not present. Just stereotypes for NPCs too.

Black Isle had little or nothing to do with NWN and their designers were the ones primarily responsible for the clever plots and NPCs in the Baldurs Gate Games.


Telurinon Aelvenborne, 52nd Rake of Black IsleMangore Orcsplitter, 40th Warrior of Black IsleDewin gan'Bran, 28th Wizard of black Isle
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day.

[Jeters]

The voices are annoying =/

laydey arrreybeth, pahladin of teeeaah

[EZ_Vaclav Romanov]

Tarissa:

Re: 1, 7 and 8...

7 - Takes some work, but I can control my NPC perfectly now had to set half of a page of hotkeys to NPC commands, but it's been a long time since they ran off and got me in trouble.

1, 8 - The problem with the locks is has to do with them pathing into the right position, so both of these are one in the same... and I've found that playing 1-2 hr sessions saving then dropping to desk and rebooting NWN seems to help TONS with the pathing AI for some reason...

[EZ_Tweil]

Thats kinda odd...I noticed rebooting often helped in Pool of Radiance II when pathing started to suck. The Napping Druid
Tweil Firestorm
Solusek Ro

[EZ_Braid]

Is that on windows 98?

[DarthEnder]

I don't get it why anyone would be overwhelmed playing multiple characters anyway? In this game, or BG2.

Theres this thing, called the spacebar. It pauses the game instantly.

But not totally, you can click all your menues and tell all your people what to do. Then, when they all have their orders, you click the spacebar again and watch them go crazy.

I've never felt overwhelmed myself.

[EZ_Vaclav Romanov]

my experience with rebooting helping is XP

[Loreleli]

"6) 8,849 chest per dungeon, some trapped, most locked. Treasure: 1 light healing potion, and 2 gold. Or a 20gp gem. The catch: 1 out of 100 has a plot item or great item. You are cursed to open them ALL.
"

I am playing a rogue, of course I open them all =P

anything and everything I see is mine!

when I looted and saw 1 gold, I was like ..wtf? then I realized how brainwashed I was to expect 4pp 8 gp 12 silver xx copper per kill.

As for pickpocket in the game, don't ask me why, but in towns it reminded me of old France. Dirt poor, plague ridden - so of course people would hide what little gold they have.

I *seriuosly* love playing this game.

I now *wish* I had saved my level 33 master of persuasion rogue from Arcanum ( I forgot to save it when I formatted my drive) That rocked as well, pickpocket was a bit overpowered in that game, so it being toned down here is at least more appropriate to me.

as for #15, cheating - that seriously ruins game for me. any ninny can do that. I will only play with friends in MP.

I was just glad they finally released the game!

Loreleli Da'Rath
level 10 rogue elf - true neutral NWN - blue skin baby! Grrr!

Persephinie Nocturne level 42 rogue EQ
Persephonae Bittermoon level 54 cleric


In my next life, I wanna be an elf...

[EZ_Syllestrae FV]

Just a side note, but I'm playing on a server-character-only server right now.

Could it vanish? Sure, but it's D&D, not EQ. If it vanishes and I'm really attached to the character I'll just fire up the DM client and re-make him as a local server character.

Personally, I think the risk of losing the character outweighs having to play with goobers who gaves themselves infinite gold or whatever.

Mostly I'm just getting a feel for things right now anyways. Have every intention of moving to a game w/ some RL friends in a few weeks once we all have the game setup and our DM has his world ready enough to play in.

- Syll