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

[octavius]

I've had 60,000 hits on my blog for this month alone.

Have you considered YouTube?
You'd probably get millions of hits there.

 

[Makabb]

Enhanced!

 

[DeepOcean]

IWD is not a roleplaying game in the sense that you play a role. You control a party. PST, MOTB, BG, and TOEE have roleplaying but they suffer by having the player controlling the party. FO - while its npcs are dumbfucks sometimes ebcuase of poor scripting - is true to the roleplaying silver rule of 1 player = 1 character. Same with NWN.

Dear God, the idea of playing something like PST and MOTB with other people would be a nightmare, they don't suffer at all that other people aren't playing with you and you are controlling everyone, they actually only exist because there is no one playing with you so you can enjoy them at your pace and don't have some assholes that love to skip dialogue and hate to read like 99% of the human population is.

Dear God, imagine you reading out that conversation with Myrkul while you having a friend of yours infuriating you, whining and whining that is so boring and skip the dialogue. There are HUGE differences between PnP and the PC and when a system is ported from the PnP, it will ever be the same on the PC so keeping the same expectations is silly.

Fuck, if I wanna play some DnD, I have the stuff on my house, call my friends, if they have the time, they come over and we start right away, if we try to do the same on the PC, I will need to call to my friends, try to convince them why playing a game where the characters look like lego deformed monsters is a good idea, then I will need to convince them why reading all that stuff is a good idea when we could have a DM that sum up all the interesting parts right away for us and why playing on a persistent world is a good idea if we could have our little session of DnD hassle free without connection issues or installing garbage on the pcs, DnD multiplayer on the PC is just fucking awful, the PC experience can't be like the PnP and shouldn't have the same expectations.

About Ai controlling the other people on the party, yeah, sure it is more like PnP Dnd but is it a good idea? On PnP, if some player act like a retard like charging a dragon with a rusty dagger, the other players could pressure him to stop being such a tard and play decently, playing with the Ai is like being stuck with the worst PnP group ever and you can't get rid of them. Sure, it all sounds cool on therory but how long would it take for you desiring to murder the designer and his family for thinking up that system would add "personality" to the Ai.

 

[FeelTheRads]

My God, I was enlightened, so Baldur's Gate 1, 2, PoE 1, Icewind Dale 1, 2, ToEE, Dragon Age, Kotor 1 and 2, NWN 2 were all wargames all those years and I didn't notice... mah God.

I was talking about the real D&D, you retard. It is a fact that a party controlled by a single player is not part of the original game, but simply a gaming mechanic chosen by some devs.

Right, so those games are not wargames, therefore your wargame parallel was... retarded?

Yes, in the "real D&D" you typically control only one character, but you are also typically a member of a party. And it's part of the game that as a party, you discuss what to do, how to approach encounters and so on. Therefore, a party-based game is much, much more similar to the "real D&D" than a piece of shit like NWN with its boring, shit encounters designed for only one character.
There is no "roleplaying" in NWN that can't be done if playing a full party. Unless for you roleplaying MUST be limited to one character, in which case, kill yourself. That's for you as well, Volourn. Or maybe NWN is the shittiest RPG ever made since it couldn't use at all this amazing roleplaying advantage of having just one character instead of a party.

 

[Infinitron]

Lilura Why do you keep deleting your posts (even when they're not that bad!)

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Maybe this is worth keeping in mind the next time anyone waxes lyrical about the greatness of the NWN community and how wonderful it is that the EE will give it a new lease on life...

I praise virtues and criticize flaws; it's all over my blog and on neverwintervault.org and the Beamdog forums. Your trollish comment will be lost in the shuffle and barely read whereas I've had 60,000 hits on my blog for this month alone.

If I was really trying to be a troll, I’d say something like, “why would you immediately assume I was referring to you? I’m shocked—shocked!—that you would jump to that conclusion, a clear sign of a guilty conscience.”

But since we’re being honest, I didn’t realize it was necessary to keep track of your entire online corpus in order to make a point about what you’ve been posting here. Are there even people who do that? I can’t imagine there’s much overlap between the Beamdog forums and the KKKodex aside from a handful of modders.

Look, you were effusive about the community, at least on this forum, before they disappointed you on the full party control issue. And I remember reading lots of very positive stuff about the community on your blog a couple of months ago. If you say the negatives (specifically with regard to the community) were in there, too, I believe you, but exactly how much of your extensive NWN content would a reader have needed to go through in order to see them?

If you want to be an influential voice in some subset of the genre—and all signs suggest that’s very much the case—then, “I wasn’t really doing that, not if you also read my blog, especially the footnotes” just doesn’t cut it. Is it really so hard to say, “I may have momentarily let my enthusiasm get the better of me?”

Also, since you brought up your circulation, a million plus for the year but only 60k for December, even with the Trent Oster interview?? Did he actually hurt your numbers? Wow.

 

[DeepOcean]

Look, you were effusive about the community, at least on this forum, before they disappointed you on the full party control issue. And I remember reading lots of very positive stuff about the community on your blog a couple of months ago. If you say the negatives (specifically with regard to the community) were in there, too, I believe you, but exactly how much of your extensive NWN content would a reader have needed to go through in order to see them?

To be fair with Lilura here, I really hate Planescape Torment combat but mostly praise the game because I don't see much of a point of criticizing the bad parts as nothing can be done about it but let's say someone comes and say:
"Guise, we are making an Enhanced Edition for Torment and we are taking suggestions."
And I said:
"You know, the biggest problem that torment had was the combat and the character system that was way too hardly tilted to the storyfag attributes, Torment had a bit too much of the all or nothing design on stat checks that I think is a bit too restrictive.
Then some fucks came and said:
"Nah, we think Torment is a great game but what I think that can make Torment better? Pets and romances, that is what we want. The combat that is there is great already as it isn't a combat wargame anyway and fits on a storyfag game, I think the pace of the game was made for the shitty combat and it would hurt to make a combat that isn't shitty."

I would just want to bludgeon this person to death.

 

[Cael]

Also, since you brought up your circulation, a million plus for the year but only 60k for December, even with the Trent Oster interview?? Did he actually hurt your numbers? Wow.

Given the kind of nasty crap it pulls here, I am surprised that it even got 1 million views. But I suppose even jerkwads need a place to congregate. I wonder how many of those are unique views, though...

 

[Alex]

My God, I was enlightened, so Baldur's Gate 1, 2, PoE 1, Icewind Dale 1, 2, ToEE, Dragon Age, Kotor 1 and 2, NWN 2 were all wargames all those years and I didn't notice... mah God.

I was talking about the real D&D, you retard. It is a fact that a party controlled by a single player is not part of the original game, but simply a gaming mechanic chosen by some devs.
And yes, I'm also a fan of classic party rpgs.

I have to insist, controlling multiple characters was present in D&D from the very beginning (it did, after all, branch from a fantasy wargame). Here is what In Search of the Unknown, one of the first D&D adventures published, had to say about this:

Important: non-player characters may vary widely in personality. The Dungeon Master plays their part to a great degree, although the players indicate what instructions or orders they are giving to the non- player characters during the course of the adventure. The DM can choose any personality he wants for a non-player character, or can determine the various aspects by rolling for the categories of attitude, disposition, courage, and loyalty on the following chart. Players are never informed of the exact personalities of non-player characters: they will discover them through interaction with the characters (as portrayed by the DM) and by observing them in the course of the adventure.

Of course, different DMs could and did interpret what "great degree" meant differently, and used different rules to determine how orders were given in combat. But personally, I let the players control the NPC unless the situation needs me to do it differently, like the NPC betraying the PCs or failing a morale check.

I think, as long as we are talking about computer games, it would make sense for a computer RPG to remove direct control from NPCs if you had some well designed "order relaying" system, where you could take into account the personality of the NPC, the combat situation, the morale as affected by how the others are faring, etc. A problem with such a system is that it might become tiresome to give orders indirectly to the NPC. But a good interface might be able to circumvent this. However, NWN certainly isn't an example of that. It has been a while since I played it, but I remember the NPC partu control scripts being clunky and the AI itself being rather annoying. So, I really don't know why anyone would want to keep such a system.

 

[Lilura]

If you want to be an influential voice in some subset of the genre—and all signs suggest that’s very much the case—then, “I wasn’t really doing that, not if you also read my blog, especially the footnotes” just doesn’t cut it. Is it really so hard to say, “I may have momentarily let my enthusiasm get the better of me?”

Why would I say something that isn't true? I made it abundantly clear in my write-up that I'm still enthusiastic about and supportive of Beamdog's Enhanced Edition, regardless of whether or not they employ full party control. Afterall, it gets more people playing the great community content that's out there.

Also, since you brought up your circulation, a million plus for the year but only 60k for December, even with the Trent Oster interview?? Did he actually hurt your numbers? Wow.

You're trying too hard here. My traffic tends to drop off when I cover Aurora and shoot up when I cover Infinity. The reasons for the discrepancy should be obvious. December has seen me exclusively cover Aurora; thus, the traffic dropped off. From that you might gather, maybe I'm not all about "the hits"; instead, maybe I prefer to cover whatever tickles my fancy, with no thought given to popular appeal? And maybe from that you might think, why am I being a snarky lil' troll to Lilura? That said, the interview has been the most popular post of the month.

 

[Infinitron]

NWN:EE puff piece: http://www.pcgamer.com/how-devs-and-fans-are-coming-together-to-rebuild-neverwinter-nights/

How devs and fans are coming together to rebuild Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights was always about the community, and now they're helping bring it back to life.

"Neverwinter Nights changed my life," Tony 'Andarian' Donadio tells me. Donadio adapted his college Dungeons & Dragons campaign to create a module for BioWare’s 2002 D&D game, Neverwinter Nights, thanks to its dev kit being made available to players. The Aurora Toolset let players make their own modules, campaigns, and even miniature MMOs called 'Persistent Worlds'. It's mainly thanks to these fan-made works that Neverwinter Nights is still fondly remembered.

Donadio's creation, Sanctum of the Archmage, features a compelling story, impressive visuals, custom scripts, and well-designed puzzles and combat. It’s one of the highest-rated modules on the Neverwinter Vault to this day, and Donadio now writes books based on it.

When Beamdog’s Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition was announced I contacted several prominent community members who all shared a passion for the 15-year-old RPG. I also spoke to Trent Oster, Beamdog CEO and the original game's designer and producer, who is well aware of Neverwinter Nights’ unique position as a game carried by its fans.

"Neverwinter Nights is all about the community," Oster says. "We went to the community even before we had the license." Oster looked for active leaders, going as far as to hand out non-disclosure agreements and extending employment offers. Those superfans turned consultants became known as the Advisory Council.

It takes a village
"I think this approach of bringing on community members and seeking feedback was exemplary," says Bernhard 'Niv' Stockner. "I wish more game studios would do that for EEs, sequels and remasters. Especially with NWN having built up a solid, opinionated community, doing it this way was absolutely necessary."

Like Donadio, Stockner credits Neverwinter Nights as a major influence and turning point in his career. Stockner helped develop the popular script extender mod NWNX, ran one of the largest German Persistent Worlds for 13 years (Silbermarken, now defunct), and is the technical administrator for the Neverwinter Vault, the repository for all custom-built content. His work with Neverwinter Nights sparked a passion for programming and community relations.

Shortly after joining the Advisory Council, Stockner was hired by Beamdog as a software developer. He also acts as a liaison between the community and the developers. "It's sometimes a bit of a stretch to balance out community needs and Beamdogs' needs," he admits, "but I relish the challenge."

"Literally hundreds of original, high-quality, full-length adventures have been developed over the years," says Donadio. "The key challenge NWN: EE faces is to focus on, and nurture, what truly made the game unique and special: its modding community."

That's why backwards compatibility with existing modules and other community content was an absolute must. "The biggest challenge is to figure out where to take NWN:EE without breaking everyone’s favorite toy," says Stockner. "We can’t expect people to buy a game that carries the name Neverwinter Nights and break everything along the way."

Breathing new life into a 15-year-old gaming community takes some work. Fortunately, Beamdog can take advantage of digital distribution methods unheard of in the early 2000s. "We were optimizing the game around dial-up," Oster says of the original. "Modules had to be tiny, two or three megabytes. Now people have 10mb/s connections. So much has changed."

The Steam Workshop is an obvious way of delivering new mods—the kind that might be slightly bigger than a couple of megabytes. Both Stockner and Oster are quick to note that Steam isn’t the only thing they're planning to use, however. "One of our goals it to make sure Steam doesn’t run away as the home platform," says Oster. "If Steam Workshop is working well we’ll need a parallel for people who buy the game through Beamdog or GOG that can offer roughly the same functionality."

During the current Early Access/Head Start period Beamdog will be testing tools for browsing servers and downloading user-made content with their own Beamdog Client, including top 10 lists for modules and Persistent Worlds. "Having a functional multiplayer server list again will help a lot," says Stockner. "We’re looking at options for seamless automatic downloads of community content." Eventually their goal is to include an option to auto-download any required 'hakpaks' or other required resources directly through the client.

Persistent Worlds
It’s impossible to discuss Neverwinter Nights without touching on Persistent Worlds. While there were hundreds of quality single-player modules and content, it was the online, player-run Persistent Worlds that galvanized the community. "They are mini MMOs in themselves, each one having their own community and core rules," explains Laura 'Liareth' Gauthier. "In my experience, there is simply no equal, or even viable alternatives."

Gauthier was brought on by Beamdog as a programmer for on Stockner’s recommendation. Gauthier worked with Stockner on NWNX, rewriting and maintaining its code. Now with Beamdog she’s porting that functionality directly into the Enhanced Edition.

"NWNX is a framework which developers can use to extend the game beyond what the toolset offers," says Gauthier, calling it "integral" to the game's success. "Examples range from adding new scripting commands, to integrating different programming languages as a scripting environment, or changing how core mechanics in the game work."

Gauthier was also an admin on Arelith, one of the biggest and longest-running Persistent Worlds. Arelith, currently run by Daniel 'Irongron' Morris, has hosted over 15,000 people throughout its lifetime. "It remains special because these are entirely non-commercial games, run and staffed by RPG enthusiasts," says Morris, who is also another member of the Advisory Council.

Morris is quick to downplay his own involvement, instead praising the staff and community that have made Arelith beloved for over a decade. "We have published writers on staff and professional game developers; people who pursue this as a labor of love. I’ve witnessed players from across the world meet on Arelith who went on to get married, collaborate in writing or artistic projects, or just to call in on each other. PWs provide a roleplay environment that in many ways surpasses even pen-and-paper roleplaying, and a large part of the magic is to truly explore being someone else. No other game before or after has taken that to the same level."

Morris has nothing but praise and excitement for the Enhanced Edition, and what it means for Persistent Worlds. "This is nothing short of a resurrection. Neverwinter Nights was running on fumes. The EE means switching from a game that doesn’t work to one that does. Arelith will switch immediately, and I’d strongly encourage other PWs to do the same."

Enhancing Neverwinter's nostalgia
While there has been some demand for a graphical overhaul, most of the people I talked to would rather see improvements to other areas, such as online connectivity and server tools, more modability, and better hardware support for modern PCs. "The Aurora Toolset can still produce incredibly beautiful content," says Morris, noting that player-made creations already advanced the visuals beyond the original campaigns. "The visuals are fine," adds Stockner. "They are charming, even, in their own blocky way. The game's value is in the flexibility and room for dreams it provides."

The most immediate area of improvement is the dated UI. "The current UI is almost completely rigid in both its appearance and functionality," Stockner says. "We’d like to allow module authors and servers to add new widgets, windows, and theming."

Beamdog also plans on implementing a new DLC system. "My biggest hope would be for a community-driven return of something like the premium modules program, which was tragically ended before its time," says Donadio.

The original premium module program began late in the game's life. Premium modules were developed in-house by BioWare in lieu of full expansions. They were individually priced DLC years before Bethesda would release their infamous Horse Armor. The program was extended to include some BioWare-approved community modules, but was abruptly canceled before their release, with most eventually released free via the Neverwinter Vault.

Oster hopes to produce quality premium modules that lie somewhere between BioWare’s original idea and full expansion packs like Hordes of the Underdark. "That happy spot is a self-contained adventure with new art content," says Oster. "We will build new content going forward that will radically change the look of what is possible in Neverwinter Nights, and I think we can do it at a pretty good price point." He compares them to the self-contained adventures for pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons, with the same scope as module booklets of older editions.

"It’s almost like being in a band and launching a new album," says Oster. "We see what people are gravitating to and what they don’t. Once we find the pulse of the community and what they respond to, we’ll find the content we should be making and refocus our effort."

Beamdog maintains good relations with D&D's publisher, Wizards of the Coast. Oster, along with the rest of the original Neverwinter Nights crew, was part of the initial announcement of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, which it was the the first videogame to implement. He’s a passionate D&D player, and praises the current 5th Edition as one of the best yet. He’s particularly receptive to adapting the 3.5 rules featured in Neverwinter Nights 2, which was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released in 2006. "We could un-hardcode portions of [Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition] to allow people to do more of a 3.5-style implementation," Oster says. "I think it’d be awesome."

But both Oster and Stockner caution that any change to the ruleset is still a long way away. "I can see turning it from a 3.0 toolkit into a platform-toolkit, where authors can rewrite the ruleset to fit their specific needs," says Stockner. "But that is a very involved project that will take a long time, and we’re not even planning it out yet."

Open development
Beamdog is actively soliciting feedback during the Early Access/Head Start period, and Oster is frank about having no set release date in mind. "We’re trying to reach that point where we have really good offering," says Oster. "Getting community feedback helps us get our priorities. Once we have big priorities nailed down we can decide on which features need to be done for 1.0."

The company has a strong track record of supporting their games post-launch. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition is five years old, and received its latest patch in December. They’re embracing the era of open development and weekly developer livestreams. "There’s no shortage of stuff to talk about," says Oster.

Everyone I spoke to agreed that one of the biggest problems plaguing the decade-and-a-half old RPG is public awareness, and the Enhanced Edition is already solving that. "The death of the master server meant that it was impossible for players to organically find new Persistent Worlds to play on, and the lack of publicity meant that new players were rarely introduced into the community," says Gauthier. "With the Enhanced Edition, Beamdog have fixed these problems. They have breathed new life into the community, and that’s what really matters to me."

Will this signal a return for famed module builders like Donadio? "I would very much like to return to creating new modules," he says. "The news about NWN: EE certainly motivates me to, and I am seriously considering it. With the kind of enhancements Beamdog is planning, I believe many of the fans would be eager to return to Neverwinter Nights."

"Beamdog isn’t just slapping ‘Enhanced Edition’ on there and putting it out as a finished product," says Paul 'FP' Humeniuk, co-admin of the Neverwinter Vault. "They’re opening up the box again and filling it with new toys. A number of old and familiar names have resurfaced to announce a return to their old projects, offer suggestions for the direction of Neverwinter Nights, and have been offering their support and good will toward the project. That’s pretty exciting."

And for Oster, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition offers a unique chance to revisit his old work, clean it up, and fix things about one of his favorite games that have been bugging him for years. "There’s so many things I didn’t have a chance to do when developing the original game, and now I can," he says. "This can be my Neverwinter Nights 2. And 3, and 4, and 5!"

 

[Zed]

Sounds like they aren't doing shit but making it run on Windows 10.

 

[Lilura]

And for Oster, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition offers a unique chance to revisit his old work, clean it up, and fix things about one of his favorite games that have been bugging him for years.

Full party control omission bugged people when NWN went gold, has bugged people for the last 15 years, and will continue to bug people until it is employed.

Note that FPC is not on their Trello board for consideration, which I why I posted my own poll. On my poll FPC shot straight to the top to sit alongside populist eye-candy enhancements, just as common sense prediction dictates.

Vote on my poll, Codexers; you always bitch and moan about Beamdog not enhancing anything. Well, this is our chance to get them working hard on a concrete enhancement. Also, don't forget to acknowledge my agenda.

 

[Lilura]

puff piece

In other news:

Savant has just completed his overhaul for the Aielund Saga, which is a flagship campaign for the Aurora platform due to its overall polish, sweeping scope and incorporation of custom content. He's fixed a ton of bugs and added reactivity options, high res skyboxes and some of the best new tilesets to appear since the old days, among other things. Aielund received 1420 votes on the old IGN vault, with a score of 9.7/10.

 

[d1nolore]

And for Oster, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition offers a unique chance to revisit his old work, clean it up, and fix things about one of his favorite games that have been bugging him for years.

Full party control omission bugged people when NWN went gold, has bugged people for the last 15 years, and will continue to bug people until it is employed.

Note that FPC is not on their Trello board for consideration, which I why I posted my own poll. On my poll FPC shot straight to the top to sit alongside populist eye-candy enhancements, just as common sense prediction dictates.

Vote on my poll, Codexers; you always bitch and moan about Beamdog not enhancing anything. Well, this is our chance to get them working hard on a concrete enhancement. Also, don't forget to acknowledge my agenda.

In your poll full party control is the most voted single option but if you add up all the votes its only a small part of what people chose and not the landslide feature people want. Plus you stated earlier that you get more fanfare for infinity engine content than for Aurora content thus there would be an obvious slant to your polls towards party based games. If this is the one and only feature you feel so strongly about then I would say you are out of touch with the NWN1 community as reinforced by full party control not being on the Trello board.

NWN is first and foremost a multiplayer game like the original Neverwinter Nights which was what the first mmo or something?
Thus NWN departs from the infinity engine games in that your party members are controlled by other players, this was always the intention of the game and most of the fanfare NWN enjoyed over the last 15? Years is based around playing multiplayer and not single player. This is why a lot of people hated NWN because the original campaign sucks, and if you were looking for a continuation of the single player BG2 like experience then you'd be sorely disappointed.

Full party control would require a large restructure of the engine and would suck up a lot of time which would reduce the other features EE could bring. It would be a colossal waste of time and energy for something only a minority of single player focussed players are calling for. You are basically calling for NWN to be brought inline with single player party based games which NWN was never meant to be. The expansions added better companion control and options for use in the expansion campaigns, the community used these extended abilities to develop better companion control systems. So Online modules already have tools for controlling summons/minions and the NWN community would heavily favour opening up hardcoded restrictions from the game to allow the builders and modders to change the game more as they require.

So you are wrong. The community will vote on much easier changes/additions that they really want which will make a bigger impact to the game. Full party control is something talked about by people who don't play NWN generally.

 

[Zed]

Doesn't matter what the community want, they will not commit to doing costly or demanding changes.

 

[octavius]

Doesn't matter what the community want, they will not commit to doing costly or demanding changes.

In other words, they are just patching, not enhancing. And people pay for it...

 

[Zed]

Doesn't matter what the community want, they will not commit to doing costly or demanding changes.

In other words, they are just patching, not enhancing. And people pay for it...

Correct!

 

[d1nolore]

I get where you guys are coming from and I would generally agree as I've yet to buy a Beamdog game or "enhanced" game but... From what I've seen the nwn community unanimously agreed to support and switch over to EE based simply off the potential of new or returning players. They are looking for enhancements to what they have already and not a new game. Plus the in game server listings. If they open up the hard coded stuff and make it easier to change the base game then the builders/modders will do the rest. Its pretty much a slamdunk for Beamdog really. Though I doubt their dlc stuff will work.

 

[Fedora Master]

Personally, I can't wait for the all-important "sub-gender" feature that truly let's me play as an attack helicopter stuck in the body of a halfling.

 

[Lhynn]

45 upvotes in a weeks old thread. 25 upvotes to "party control" in a reddit from a game that features party control.

That has to be the single most pathetic sample i have ever seen.

 

[aweigh]

lack of copmanions in NWN when it debuted was a huge part of why i didn't get into it. nwn2 was always me jam and it was only due to getting hooked on nwn2 and its expansions that i eventually decided to give nwn1 a shot and ended up enjoying its two expansions (though not nwn1 oc).

dressing up party members, choosing party composition and detailing how my party is built and advances and develops is like, 60% of the reason i even like RPGs to begin with and i know i'm far from being alone in this. "single character" rpgs are a huge waste of potential in a full-fledged traditional RPG that has good itemization and encounter design.

 

[Lilura]

45 upvotes in a weeks old thread..

Short of official announcements, that's about as many upvotes as an article-based post can expect on that reddit. I think the max I got was 60. Also, you don't understand how reddit works: the upvotes have to come thick and fast to climb, before they get buried by new threads. On that reddit, it's about a day or two and then no one reads it (thus, your "weeks old" is just a shit-comment). The example here is about as much as one can expect. My polls are more popular, of course. And my FPC write-up has more views than any thread on the NWN Beamdog forums.

25 upvotes to "party control" in a reddit from a game that features party control

Posted it there to gauge interest; to highlight the reason BG fans didn't gravitate. I acknowledge my agenda, Captain Obvious.

 

[Lilura]

A Full Party Control card is now on the Trello board.

So yeah, make yourself useful by registering there and casting your vote for FPC.

Also, more experimental shader stuff; it's early days yet but one can see potential in this sort of thing.

And here are some monocled ideas that I have for NWN:EE.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

That's dumb. We already have BG/IWD and other D&D total control RPGs. NWN already has AI in it and a system that can be greatly improved. What sense does it make to go completely in the opposite direction of that?

Fucking people man.

Have fun navigating all those sub groups in the combat UI for each character.