Completed Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark and Aielund Saga

[Lilura]

burnt out on NWN. That was always part of the problem for me. I never uninstalled NWN 1 or 2 but it's easy to play it for a week and then hate it for a month *shrugs* maybe that's just me. Always come back to them though, there was just so much content released it's hard not to be pulled back.

Yes, so true. I'm not burnt out yet, though, cuz straight after beating Meph I started again with another build and got half-way through, already lol. Maybe I'll do Aielund Saga, I've only gone through 10% of the first module, and have the full install zipped up, so it's ready to roll and I can easily start again.

ok, so there's four acts to Aielund Saga, Act I starts at lvl1 and Act IV starts at about 22-23 - so should be good. Gonna go for it before I change my mind. Build is gonna be pally/fighter/CoT mix for max average dmg and sword n shield.

 

[Insane Psychic]

Sounds great Lilura! This has been a very nice read, and I look forward to the next one.

 

[Grimwulf]

it's easy to play it for a week and then hate it for a month *shrugs* maybe that's just me

Same here. However, it happens to me only while playing NWN1. Never got burned out on NWN2 or its add-ons, playing them to teh end with a single run.

straight after beating Meph I started again with another build and got half-way through, already lol.

Are you King Leonidas?

 

[Lilura]

Same here. However, it happens to me only while playing NWN1. Never got burned out on NWN2 or its add-ons, playing them to teh end with a single run.

I get burned out with NWN2's shit-house engine. I love what Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir were able to do with the engine (spirit meter for the former; total control in combat and leveling, party of six (with Leadership feat), marquee select, strategy view, the overland map, trading and crafting system, the party dialogue system, Teamwork feats, the epic end-game boss encounter and overall oldskool feel of the latter, but the unoptimized engine just lets it down for me. XML UI was powerful with context sensitivity, but clunky to use. Most people still can't even play with shadows on if they want 60fps, even with a fucking OC'd i7 (NWN2 is very CPU heavy, overall) and high end display card...

NWN is just cleaner, smoother, has better inventory and UI system, icons are the best drawn ever, fast intuitive radial menu, had Linux support and just way more was done with it. Animations and spell effects looked better, too, even with the low poly count, low res textures and primitive VFX.

 

[Grimwulf]

Same here. However, it happens to me only while playing NWN1. Never got burned out on NWN2 or its add-ons, playing them to teh end with a single run.

I get burned out with NWN2's shit-house engine. I love what Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir were able to do with the engine (spirit meter for the former; total control in combat and leveling, party of six (with Leadership feat), marquee select, strategy view, the overland map, trading and crafting system, the party dialogue system, Teamwork feats, the epic end-game boss encounter and overall oldskool feel of the latter, but the unoptimized engine just lets it down for me. XML UI was powerful with context sensitivity, but clunky to use. Most people still can't even play with shadows on if they want 60fps, even with a fucking OC'd i7 (NWN2 is very CPU heavy, overall) and high end display card...

NWN is just cleaner, smoother, has better inventory and UI system, icons are the best drawn ever, fast intuitive radial menu, had Linux support and just way more was done with it. Animations and spell effects looked better, too, even with the low poly count, low res textures and primitive VFX.

Yes, the engine may not be as comfy as in NWN 1. Then again, NWN 2 doesn't have nearly as much combat as NWN 1. Besides, it's d&d 3.5 - not too many games based on that edition. In fact, are there ANY games on 3,5 besides NWN 2 and add-ons?

 

[Lilura]

Temple of Elemental Evil is probably the best. You really should play it. Turn-based, radial menu, feedback of every action, basically includes the 3.5 SRD in-game, sweet artwork and animations. Game has shit story, shit voicesets and sound, shit quests and writing and is very, very, very buggy, though. I recommend the unofficial Co8 lite to patch it up.

 

[Grimwulf]

Temple of Elemental Evil is probably the best. You really should play it. Turn-based, radial menu, feedback of every action, basically includes the 3.5 SRD in-game, sweet artwork and animations. Game has shit story, shit voicesets and sound, shit quests and writing and is very, very, very buggy, though. I recommend the unofficial Co8 lite to patch it up.

I played it, but was it actually 3.5? I remember some kind of major game-breaking bugs that didn't allow to complete the game. Maybe I'll give it another shot, since you mentioned a patch.

Anyway, it didn't have warlock class. I'm 99% sure about it.

 

[Dreaad]

Same here. However, it happens to me only while playing NWN1. Never got burned out on NWN2 or its add-ons, playing them to teh end with a single run.

I get burned out with NWN2's shit-house engine. I love what Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir were able to do with the engine (spirit meter for the former; total control in combat and leveling, party of six (with Leadership feat), marquee select, strategy view, the overland map, trading and crafting system, the party dialogue system, Teamwork feats, the epic end-game boss encounter and overall oldskool feel of the latter, but the unoptimized engine just lets it down for me. XML UI was powerful with context sensitivity, but clunky to use. Most people still can't even play with shadows on if they want 60fps, even with a fucking OC'd i7 (NWN2 is very CPU heavy, overall) and high end display card...

NWN is just cleaner, smoother, has better inventory and UI system, icons are the best drawn ever, fast intuitive radial menu, had Linux support and just way more was done with it. Animations and spell effects looked better, too, even with the low poly count, low res textures and primitive VFX.

Yeah the combat in NWN 2. Nightmare of movement collisions and iteruptions, terrible animation, swing and hit effects as bad as some fighting games. All in all it was almost impossible to see anything but colorful bursts of light from any angle. Still Storm of Zehir was great as long as you had a druid/ranger to escape monsters. There was that mod too, 'white plume mountain' or something, that was amazing.
I think another part of the success of SoZ and MotB was the majorly reduced filler combat. In OC when you first got to Neverwinter you had to kill something like 1000 assorted guardsmen, assassins and thugs. Then straight after that off you go to kill 500 orks in an empty cave.

The patience necessary to go through all that was nigh impossible.
Anyway sorry to derail your thread

 

[Grimwulf]

In OC when you first got to Neverwinter you had to kill something like 1000 assorted guardsmen, assassins and thugs.

You must be speaking about NWN 1.

Spoiler

 

[Grimwulf]

Simply damn awesome!

Dante kinda reminds me of Bishop, but maybe it's just early game. Also, chaotic char speaks of "duty" - it's a trap!

Farmers son disguised as a cow? I'm afraid to ask, how did he make a costume exactly? That's some nasty redneck stuff.

What are Nellise's stats? Any point of making her a half-decent fighter/Champ of Torm? Or maybe going for some sorceress levels if CHA is high enough? I can't see a pure cleric making much of a difference for a high-level pal like you in endgame.

 

[Lilura]

Yeah, Dante is good entertainment value, so far.

I actually had a disturbing vision of Ace Ventura crawling out of a rhinoceros's backside...

Current stats:

Spoiler

Nelisse has Strength and Healing domains, and pumps Concentration and Heal. She looks to be building as capable in melee, too.

Dante has the obvious Stealth skills and Discipline. Weapon feats are for Greatsword, sort of matching his personality I guess.

I'm hoping there are other Henchman, but I won't be that bothered if there aren't. A wizard would be great, though.

 

[Dreaad]

So pleasing to see the improved armor textures that don't all look like skirts.

 

[eremita]

Links to all the shit I'd use are here.

There doesn't seem to be much interest on the Codex for either NWN (Volourn's probably the most knowledgeable, after me... haha) or for Origins (Codex is just filled with dumbfucks who know nothing about it).

I'm definitely interested in NWN mods! I'm messing around with it ATM, so I'd like to see with what community came up with...

 

[Lilura]

So pleasing to see the improved armor textures that don't all look like skirts.

The CEP armors do indeed look slick (wait till u see me decked out in masterwork), and the cloaks. Placeables are pretty sweet, too. Enemy models and textures aren't quite Project Q level in a few cases, but they're still serviceable and look decent. I downloaded a separate .dds hak thing-a-mie for ship interiors, and just got to the docks in Culdeny to check them out: real nice. Will post pics in next update.

My NWN1 install size is 11GB, not counting savegames which can easily grow to 4GB. nothing by today's standards, but this is actual content for a 2002 game (not just bloated sound and cutscene files).

 

[Dreaad]

So pleasing to see the improved armor textures that don't all look like skirts.

The CEP armors do indeed look slick (wait till u see me decked out in masterwork), and the cloaks. Placeables are pretty sweet, too. Enemy models and textures aren't quite Project Q level in a few cases, but they're still serviceable and look decent. I downloaded a separate .dds hak thing-a-mie for ship interiors, and just got to the docks in Culdeny to check them out: real nice. Will post pics in next update.

My NWN1 install size is 11GB, not counting savegames which can easily grow to 4GB. nothing by today's standards, but this is actual content for a 2002 game (not just bloated sound and cutscene files).

Mine is only 10 gb. Guess yours is longer

Can't remember how tough Aielund Saga is later on, still some decent beasties in chapter 1, should be quite challenging on harder difficulties. Paladin was a good choice, I usually cheese build Paladin's with one or two levels of monk for tumble and WIS bonuses. Fighter is great too, more feats is always nice.

One thing to note, in case you didn't is that Nallise's face model is that of Bastilla from KotOR, what has been seen can not be unseen

 

[Lilura]

Can't remember how tough Aielund Saga is later on, still some decent beasties in chapter 1, should be quite challenging on harder difficulties.

I refuse to play any NWN campaign or module at anything below D&D Hardcore rules, I dunno, it just seems profoundly wrong to have party-friendly AoEs and nerfed spells and attacks for the enemies, I'm just physically incapable of lowering the difficulty in that way, always have been. So yeah, hardcore or go home. One thing about Aielund is that it can be brutal, first time I played just to Culdeny but made a detour into the Calespur ranges, party got absolutely pulverised by an ogre berserker over and over. this time, I'll go better because i'll be doing all the quests to get money, and not going anywhere remote until i have decent gear for +AC.

Paladin was a good choice, I usually cheese build Paladin's with one or two levels of monk for tumble and WIS bonuses. Fighter is great too, more feats is always nice.

Actually sort of glad I took pally, I didn't meta-game with Henchmen in mind so it turns out good Nellise is LG and Dante's got a good heart. I'll be taking pally + fighter mix until about clvl7, after which I'll me mixing in Champion of Torm and pally for the rest. Gonna have max average dmg (Divine Wrath and Divine Might stack), high saves (sacred Defense, divine grace) and solid AC (divine shield, sword n shield). Hopefully i can get one or two +CHA items because I'll sort of be pumping STR and CON to 16 and WIS to 14 for 4th lvl spells if I can get high enough level. at least, that's the plan. we'll see how we go...

One thing to note, in case you didn't is that Nallise's face model is that of Bastilla from KotOR, what has been seen can not be unseen

Thought she looked familiar, but couldn't put my finger on it. Ah, well. I haven't played KotOR in eons, so it won't bother me.

 

[eremita]

Hey Lilura, maybe you can help me? So I was messing around with NWN1 mods for improved visuals and I totally fucked up my game with NWShader (had to reinstall)... Since there's no way knowing if I'm not doing anything wrong (or at least I didn't find any installation guide), I though I'll ask you about it. I downloaded the "chronepsis" and "patch" files. I simply put all the files from chronepsis and patch in the folder with the game and that was it... Am I missing something?

And since I'm bothering you anyway, are you using the whole CEP package?

 

[Lilura]

Try running NWN GUI found in .\chronepsis_0.2.2.3\nwshader

Also try without that patch, it seems to fuck things up for some people. I've put NWNShader on the backburner atm, it was a little too temperamental for my tastes. NWN would sometimes not run after tweaking the settings. I just don't have the time to mess around with it during a Let's Play. Also, back up your install first this time. Good luck!

As for CEP, yeah, I've got the whole of CEP24a.7z from NWVault.org thrown into my install. Aielund probably only taps into a fraction of it, but whatevs. Really enjoying the new content.

 

[Dreaad]

There's definitely dungeon crawling in all the acts more towards the last half of each one. They sort of build up the loose threads of plot/conspiracy then the shit hits the fan and combat/looting ensues. It really is the classic D&D experience, with

Spoiler

barbarian invasions, pirates, a princess, dwarves and giants, dragons, secret masters behind secret masters, diabolical overarching plot etc, it's all in there

I'm mainly finding it interesting because I never realized there were some low key alignment checks in how people react to you and in your PC's replies. Some class checks too, but those are more obvious.

Fun read! Forgot about the goblin leader running away to his death not even a little showdown. Looking forward to your battles in mines.

 

[Grimwulf]

"Did I say 500? Because I meant 600." (c) Lilura the Paladin.

Why does it look so GOOD? Damn, that fog!

 

[Lilura]

"Did I say 500? Because I meant 600." (c) Lilura the Paladin.

I lol'd hard. Reflexive action, what can I say. I haven't entered any buildings or rooms I have no business being in, so I'm tryin'.

Why does it look so GOOD? Damn, that fog!

Culdeny having a docks, I believe it to be armor-rusting seaspray.

Looking forward to your battles in mines.

Crawling through them now, the low level combat in Aielund is pretty engaging. Need Knockdown, but won't be taking it until my 2nd pally level (lvl6).

 

[GarfunkeL]

Huh, never bothered with Aielund, interesting to see how this unfolds.

 

[Dreaad]

That rusty armor you picked up for the cleric. I believe it can be repaired (can't remember exactly how it improves) at the blacksmith in the bigger city, mentions it in it's description. So can the dwarf armor but no one can wear that anyway.

 

[Lilura]

Shit, I missed that.

Yeah, the master smithy in Culdeny can repair the rusted full plate for 2,000 GP, it removes the -2 AC penalty and polishes it up visually. thanks for the tip!

Dorum's full plate and bull's helm can also be polished up for 20 GP each, but their stats don't change.

 

[Grimwulf]

"I need a healer. I should not fall to these wounds", (c) Nelisse Sanneman the Cleric.

The wyvern encounter was rather creative for NWN 1 mod. Actually, the whole pacing and story is pretty damn amusing. Or maybe it's your writing.

Say, you got some nice loot for archer and mage types. Do you sell it all, or keep some especially nice pieces in hope of meeting other henchmen in future?