NWN Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - Beamdog's final enhancement - now with new premium modules

[Lacrymas]

NWN2 has one of the best cameras in RPG history, so why would that trigger me.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, Beamdog managed to fuck up volume settings, huh? The VO volume slider doesn't do anything.

 

[Lacrymas]

Also, I love that you can sell the baby you rescue to the red wizard, I've totally forgotten about this little gem, lol.

 

[Lacrymas]

After playing for a bit to get my bearings around the EE, I started to notice that something feels a little bit off. The snow is piss yellow when it wasn't before, the metal armors look super strange and the worst part is lighting sources don't illuminate character models, which makes them super dark constantly. I messed around a bit in the options and it turns out everything is due to the "enhanced lighting" option. It's not enhanced, let me tell you. I turned that shit off and it's so much better. However, character models are still a little bit dark and they are super dark when light sources (including the sun) are shining at the camera. Are there ways to fix this issue or was it like this in the original too and I'm just now noticing it? Case in point -

 

[Gargaune]

Hey, ds, any chance of getting that pnl_dialog.mdl text dump? I'd be curious about it myself.

After playing for a bit to get my bearings around the EE, I started to notice that something feels a little bit off. The snow is piss yellow when it wasn't before, the metal armors look super strange and the worst part is lighting sources don't illuminate character models, which makes them super dark constantly. I messed around a bit in the options and it turns out everything is due to the "enhanced lighting" option. It's not enhanced, let me tell you. I turned that shit off and it's so much better. However, character models are still a little bit dark and they are super dark when light sources (including the sun) are shining at the camera. Are there ways to fix this issue or was it like this in the original too and I'm just now noticing it? Case in point -

That looks a bit off, but like it's down to your personal settings. The Hilltop areas in SoU have a very stark profile between light and shadow, I quickly grabbed some screencaps with what I had on hand.

This is on the EE, and I'm using the postproc shaders, including high contrast stuff:

This is on the DE:

And for reference, this a snowy area in TotM, you can tell the lighting setup is very different:

As for the other stuff - metal parts in the EE have a new specular effect if that's what you mean, I quite like it, but I can't see any piss-coloured snow in your screenshot. In fact, your stuff seems to have a notably bluer tinge than mine. Have a look at your Advanced Frame-Buffer Effects and what you can tweak there, you can also see my own settings on the previous page.

Also, for the record, I tested my Voices volume slider and it works fine.



P.S. Just 'cause I wanna rant - for some reason, I just discovered that ALL of my custom nVidia Control Panel profiles got nuked, including NWN's. And that's a day after I found Intel XTU had reset my CPU's undervolt. I'm pissed.

 

[Lacrymas]

The screenshot I posted is with the enhanced lighting turned off, so the snow isn't piss yellow anymore. What my problem with it is that the character models are way too dark when the sun is shining at the camera and not behind it. The bluer tinge might be due to other settings in the EE (compared to DE) which I haven't messed around with. Also, is there a way to remove the terrible barkskin/stoneskin effects? There was a mod once, but it seems to have been nuked from the internet.

 

[Gargaune]

The screenshot I posted is with the enhanced lighting turned off, so the snow isn't piss yellow anymore. What my problem with it is that the character models are way too dark when the sun is shining at the camera and not behind it.

That's just how the lighting was set up in those areas, you can see in my own DE screenshot that the PC is nearly pitch black in the shade, but it does look like there's something off on your end, the image is too stark. Advanced Frame-Buffer Effects appear to be independent of Lighting Enhanced, so tick all of them off first. Then turn up your Gamma and if you find you need to compensate, maybe try turning on High Contrast and playing around with its Intensity and Midpoint under Advanced.

Also, is there a way to remove the terrible barkskin/stoneskin effects? There was a mod once, but it seems to have been nuked from the internet.

Don't recall ever seeing one, but please do share if you find anything, I'd be very interested in it too.

 

[Lacrymas]

After fussing about with the settings, it turns out vibrancy is the one which causes the bluish tint. As for the character models being dark, it depends on the lighting settings in an area and it's part of the atmosphere, I guess.

 

[Lacrymas]

Btw, I managed to kill Rimgut (on core D&D rules, obviously) when you meet him for the first time in order to save Princess Peach the dwarf lady. I made him fall asleep by playing his drinking game, summoned a wolf from the ring you get by speaking to the herbalist's pet (alongside my own animal companion), then attacked him while he was still asleep. You don't get a coup de grace, but you do get one free hit which is a plus. I checked the walkthrough on Gamebanshee and the guy said he hasn't managed to defeat him, so here's a way. Rimgut gave me 450 xp and enchanted gloves (and also a unique warhammer? I don't remember where I got it from, so it's probably from him), it's definitely worth it. He is lvl 12 as far as I've managed to figure out, so I don't think a no-summon approach would be very viable. Or any non-cheesy tactic for that matter. I don't know whether you can have both the ring summon and a summoned creature out at the same time (I didn't have a summon creature spell prepared), which will be even more coconuts.

 

[volklore]

Done with SoU, latest bosses were kind of underwhelming. The shadow lich killed itself with his own spells after I dispelled his magic protections. Same with heurodis who killed herself with all her area spells after I broke the ring protecting her.
Kinda disappointed with Wizard thus far. Basically, buff and summon + a bit of dmg here and there felt like the most efficient approach. Any enemy I would want to use save or suck/die spells or level drain was immune, also didn't find any big int items (only a +1 ring in ch1). So in the end supporting deekin with flame weapons and a truckload of buffs ended up being the most efficient strategy. Hopefully I'll get more use of save or suck/die spells in HoTU because that's what I like arcane casters for.

 

[volklore]

Are bosses who are starting dialog at low hp (surrendering) just coded as immune to instant death spells like finger of death or petrification ?
Fighting the fairy queen in early HoTU, and she didn't have any immunity to death spells or petrification, was failing her saves, animation for spell success played but nothing happened. She does surrender when she's low. Is that what is happening?

 

[Gargaune]

Are bosses who are starting dialog at low hp (surrendering) just coded as immune to instant death spells like finger of death or petrification ?
Fighting the fairy queen in early HoTU, and she didn't have any immunity to death spells or petrification, was failing her saves, animation for spell success played but nothing happened. She does surrender when she's low. Is that what is happening?

I was curious, so I checked - she has the Immortal flag enabled until you go through that conversation.

Per the Lexicon:

Remarks

Immortal creatures take damage, but can never be killed. Personally, I'd consider it bad form to use these too much, and never without giving the PC a clue that they might not be able to kill this particular monster. Nothing is more annoying than struggling to get a creature to near death, and then fighting it for ten more minutes before you get up, since the creature could actually never be killed.

The immortal effect also makes you immune to most complex effects that utilise statescripts.2da, similar to being plot. This presumably is to also make it so they can't change faction or run away.

A list of effects immortal characters are simply immune to (no feedback is presented to the creator of the effect, or the creature who is immortal):

EffectCharmed
EffectConfused
EffectDeath
EffectFrightened
EffectTurned
EffectDazed
EffectStunned
EffectDominated (although EffectCutsceneDominated works)
EffectParalyze (although EffectCutsceneImmobilize and EffectCutsceneParalyze works)
EffectPetrify
EffectSleep

Other negative and positive effects should work fine although EffectDamage of course is capped so they never fall below 1HP.

If your quest design absolutely needs a final soliloquy from an enemy, there's probably better ways to do it by hijacking the OnDeath script, but this was BioWare's standard approach.

 

[Lacrymas]

Tip for J'Nah since the Gamebanshee dude said he had trouble killing her without "the powder" (no idea what that refers to) - tell her you are on her side so she doesn't attack you first, then force attack her with whatever summoned creatures and pets you have (you get an elemental summoning incense in the room before her f.e.). If she's able to get her buffs up, she's basically unkillable even if the gnolls come to help you out. Party controls are a godsend for this game, lol. Now that we have them, I can't imagine playing without them anymore.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Tip for J'Nah since the Gamebanshee dude said he had trouble killing her without "the powder" (no idea what that refers to)

Tymofarrar offers you a magic powder that makes her substantially easier, but I believe you have to ask him for it. Interrupts her actions for 4 seconds and deals a bit of damage.

 

[volklore]

Tip for J'Nah since the Gamebanshee dude said he had trouble killing her without "the powder" (no idea what that refers to)

Tymofarrar offers you a magic powder that makes her substantially easier, but I believe you have to ask him for it. Interrupts her actions for 4 seconds and deals a bit of damage.

Got her to near death on a lucky streak without the powder which I forgot I had, but never managed to kill her without. Funnily enough the gnolls said they'd help but never came. That probably would have made the difference because I couldn't deal with her adds since you really have to nuke her before she gets everything up.

 

[Lacrymas]

It depends a lot on what class you are imo. Since I'm a Druid, I have an animal companion (which can sneak attack) and I summoned the elemental from the incense. I have Xanos with me, but Dorna would be a better choice because she can interrupt her spells better. I burst her down pretty easily with everyone focus firing her, then the gnolls came and helped me out with the adds. She's the toughest fight in chapter 1 of SoU imo. Maybe Tymofarrar is harder without the phylactery, but I didn't try to kill him without it. There's a belt sold by the Thayvian wizard if you let him set up shop that makes you immune to fear, so getting it would be priority number 1 if you want a go at the dragon without the phylactery. The other item that makes you immune to fear is the mask you get for killing him, so it's not an option. I kept all the artifacts, but the mummified hand seems pretty pointless. All in all, chapter 1 is ok, nothing spectacular or particularly noteworthy, just like I remember it being. It's like a microcosm of the typical Bioware structure - get 4 things from 4 different places. The two major dungeons shouldn't have both been caves, but whatever. Now that I think about it, most of the chapter takes place in caves, there's like 2 quests/side activities that don't. The shadow elk and the crypt you get the mummified hand from. I did like the different recipes you can craft in the grinder, though.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeap, NWN is still a very good game. I'm surprised I'm pouring all my free time in it again, and that's only SoU. Who would've thought it would still engross me so much 15+ years after I first played it. It also shows how well 3/3.5E can work if it isn't overly bloated like it was on tabletop and then Pathfinder 1E. The other change I'm in love with is how the usual spellcasting prestige classes aren't actually useful to spellcasters due to the inability of the engine to progress the spellcasting of the base class, so you have to start getting creative with your build ideas. Amazing.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, my Shifter isn't the best ;d The class itself is quite sus because it might turn out that the forms are weaker than your char. The fact you can lose stats is the problem. If you could retain your values when they are higher than the forms', it would immediately bump up the class a bit. It's still fun and the most creative of the prestige classes, but it's certainly weak and it requires a very carefully planned build to extract its full potential at every level. If you are planning to combine Druid with Weapon Master, going Druid/CoT/WM would be the more appropriate approach.

 

[Fedora Master]

If you are planning to combine Druid with Weapon Master,

 

[Lacrymas]

If you are planning to combine Druid with Weapon Master,

I'm trying to be creative with my builds ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Druid is always one of my favorite classes and I'm trying to push its limits. We all know pure Druid is strong, but SoU/HotU aren't hardcore campaigns, so you can afford to be less than optimal.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

If you are planning to combine Druid with Weapon Master,

jaheira build

 

[Lacrymas]

So, I just finished SoU and it was a weird experience, let me tell you. No wonder I don't remember this campaign at all. First of all, Bioware are deathly afraid (and rightly so) of leaving their comfort zone of "find 4 McGuffins" because they tried it with the second chapter of SoU and it was bizarre. The first thing they defaulted to was an MMO-style kill 10 mobs quest and that's worrying. Dragon Age Inquisition doesn't seem so shocking and surprising anymore. Second of all, the "dungeons" in Undrentide (the city) were some of the most awful and confusing ones ever put in a video game. All of them had these gimmicks that were either circumvented by using a single item or needed a bunch of reloads because they require luck more than anything. They tried to be all quirky with them too, like the talking rat and the literally pointless fire elemental in the cage (like, seriously, what was that about?). Third of all, the city didn't feel like a city outside of some street names that popped up here and there. It also didn't feel like we are flying, it almost felt like we were underground for some reason. Heurodis was a Saturday morning cartoon villain with incomprehensible motives and plans, it wasn't clear at all what she was doing or, more specifically, what she hoped to achieve with it.

The balance was all over the place too. Most of the time you are breezing through encounters, but then you get one that is a huge step up from everything else (Shadow Lich, Heurodis) that requires a bunch of reloads to get right and it never felt like it was entirely fair. It seems like it's expected of you to use the consumable items the game gives you, which is great and that's the way it should be, but since everything else is so easy it's almost as if they fucked up the balance rather than it being a deliberate design decision. What I had also forgotten is how much the game expects you to spam healing kits, so much in fact that it feels like a crutch, but I distinctly remember it being this way whenever I played it. I never minded it that much back then, but it bothers me now because of how much it feels like cheating. Healing kits don't trigger attacks of opportunity, unlike potions, and they heal a lot more than potions even in combat, so it's inelegant at best, combat-system-ruining at worst.

There are some other nitpicks I have, like the golems you have to kill 10 of being immune to magic, so unless you are metagaming and know about the ring to deactivate them, you are potentially fucked if playing a spellcaster with Xanos as a companion. Speaking of companions, they don't have much content. You speak to them each time you level up and they kind of go on their own tangents and find their own solutions to their own problems. Xanos is a perfect example. He was sort of arrogant but in a fun way at the beginning, you talk to him a bit, he decides you are his friend and totally changes his perspective of himself because of it. I kind of get what they were going for with him, but the execution is a bit lacking and the events which lead to his 180 personality change fall flat. Wow, the dwarf mentor dude you've talked to for a single paragraph before he fell unconscious is dead, oh no, such a tragedy, he meant the world to me (even though I talked shit behind his back constantly) and now he's gone, etc. etc.

All in all, I wouldn't exactly recommend SoU. It's not particularly bad, but it has weird pacing (it starts off as a mundane adventure and it escalates to epic proportions in the blink of an eye) and it's somehow short yet drags on for too long at the same time. The devs just didn't have a clue what they were doing with this story and just threw every idea they had in there. If I'm allowed to be a bit controversial, I'd say the OC is more memorable than this. Not that I'd recommend playing the OC over SoU, SoU still has the better gameplay and pacing in its first chapter, but it goes downhill very fast after the interlude.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

If I'm allowed to be a bit controversial, I'd say the OC is more memorable than this.

An unpopular opinion, but absolutely correct.

 

[whydoibother]

If I'm allowed to be a bit controversial, I'd say the OC is more memorable than this.

An unpopular opinion, but absolutely correct.

Protagonist-man, you are now in the center. Please go north, west, south and east, and retrieve one item from each direction.

 

[Lacrymas]

If I'm allowed to be a bit controversial, I'd say the OC is more memorable than this.

An unpopular opinion, but absolutely correct.

Protagonist-man, you are now in the center. Please go north, west, south and east, and retrieve one item from each direction.

Chapter 1 of SoU is literally the same thing. Chapter 2 of SoU is also the same thing except one of the directions is swapped out with "kill 10 of these specific mobs". The OC at least has some memorable characters like Aribeth and some of the companions. Who remembers master Drogan or Heurodis from SoU?