NWN2- Putting my foot in it.

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

- NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT series or higher video card (or equivalent ATI card)

7800s are the best cards on the fucking market. Bar stewards. How do you expect it to run on a 6800GS?

What about 7900s?

Eh. Close enough. Aren't 7900s pretty much the same? The price range is similar, depending on the exact model...

 

[Voss]

Ok, in rough order from my last post.

Twinfalls- definite side quest potential. I've got... 3 or 4 (depending on how you count) them at a waystation of sorts along the road. They are somewhat inter-related, but there are also have already been two areas that I'm exploring/have explored for the heck (and XP) of it. And I could have pushed on to my destination a while ago.

The maps so far have been small to not quite medium. Though one of the purely optional side areas has two crypts, and one turned out to be far larger than I expected. The mini-map proved to be nice by not auto-mapping interior areas- it opens up more as I explore.

jeansberg- I moved the difficulty up to hardcore. Like NWN1 there are 4 settings- easy, normal, hardcore, and challenging(?). Hardcore is the full D&D ruleset- criticals on the player, fireballs hit your party members, etc.

Wittyname- Probably.

Whipporwill- The graphics are rather good, and there is a lot of rendering going on.

Neal & jeansburg I really doubt my graphics card has 512MB, and the game runs. Though I am at Low quality with no shadows, and capped the max light sources at 3. However, that spec list is out of date- there is an update version floating around somewhere.

jimbob I'd check around on the NWN2 forums for that. They seem a bit mixed at the moment, as far as how the game runs.


As a word of advice, if any of you are the kind of person that has to run a game at the highest graphical settings and it has to run perfectly, you may want to rethink this game. Unless you have an utter cutting edge and up to date and $$ system. It takes a lot to run it well.
For me, I don't care. Even on low, the graphics are a step up from NWN 1. A bit better than Bloodllines, I'd say.

 

[Texas Red]

Just out of curiousity, what character are you playing? And what can you tell us about the class?

What is your opinion on the dialogs? Are there many aligment based choises? Are they the usual generic black and white or are they more realistic and focus on law and chaos as well? Any neutrality in it? Compared to, um, Arcanum for example, is there more smooth talking?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Voss]

At the moment, I'm playing a LE halfling warlock with the bully background. I'm impressed with some of the implementation of the class (but they don't have the ability to make magic items because of the way crafting was implemented, I think).

I like the way they did the eldritch blasts, if you drag an essense and blast shape invocation to the same hotkey, you automatically use both when you activate it with that key. (For example, I currently have a draining eldritch spear attack- increased range, and it slows the target if they fail a will save. In addition to doing damage).

I need the combat casting feat, however, for times I'm being attacked in melee.

Dialogs so far... I touched on them briefly before. Some down sides, since the standard evil=asking for more money is there. However, the dialog is fairly extensive. Options for threatening, bluffing, cajoling, etc is in there.
Sometimes it looks like you're stuck regardless of dialog options, however. I ended up not being able to talk my way out of helping a dwarf fight some thugs, for example, despite saying I didn't care about the situation. On the other hand, with the second NPC I ran into, it at least felt like I could have left her to die. There were a lot of choices to the that effect (including, 'Do you want me to help murder her?')

I've gotten a chaotic shift from dialog, but I've seen good/evil more often. Neutral options do exist, but they just don't shift your alignment in a direction.

Outside of dialog, there is some reaction in the environment. I was just exploring a crypt, and after opening a door, gates opened and zombies spawned next to sarcophogai.

Oh, NPC note. At the moment, I can't level the 2 NPCs I have in anything but their chosen class. For the time being (that may change, since the fighter is journeying to Neverwinter specifically to be trained as something else), the fighter is a fighter, and the rogue a rogue.

And you can talk to party members- fairly standard, tell me about you, what do you think of other NPC, etc.

Some of you will hate the second NPC. I suggest seeing if you can leave her to die. She's bubbly and somewhat emo, all at once.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

The Warlock class sounds... interesting. Not being up-to-date with the new D&D classes, how exactly does it work?

 

[suibhne]

Oh, NPC note. At the moment, I can't level the 2 NPCs I have in anything but their chosen class. For the time being (that may change, since the fighter is journeying to Neverwinter specifically to be trained as something else), the fighter is a fighter, and the rogue a rogue.

Would be very cool if they only allowed you to switch classes once you get a real in-game excuse for it, as in any halfway-intelligent PnP campaign.

 

[Texas Red]

Oh no, Volourn has NWN 2!

 

[Whipporowill]

Oh no, Volourn has NWN 2!

So that means peace and quiet for a week?

 

[suibhne]

Oh no, Volourn has NWN 2!

game of teh century imo

 

[Voss]

The Warlock class sounds... interesting. Not being up-to-date with the new D&D classes, how exactly does it work?

Basically, its an alternate caster concept. d6 hit dice, medium attack progression, low skills, will is the only good save.

The core of the class is the eldritch blast and the warlock invocations, all of which can be done at will, as a standard action.
eldritch blast is a magical ranged touch attack that scales with level (d6 damage at 1st, +d6 for each odd level... I just made 5th, so mine does 3d6 damage).
You also get invocations- spell like abilities that you can use at will. You only get 12 over 20 levels, so you have even fewer options than a sorcerer. There themed like, well, a traditional warlock. (The class idea is that you or an ancestor made a pact with a demon/devil for power, so you're powers come from an infernal/abyssal source). They cut out some of them for computer game balance/implementation reasons.

Some of the invocations modify your eldritch blast either changing its nature (from generic magical damage to fire/cold/acid, or adding other effects onto the damage slow, fear, blind, etc). Others change the way the blast is fired (from the extended range I currently have, to making it a cone, a chain attack, or even a blast). The blast is also subject to spell resistence (though one of the higher level invocations allows it to bypass SR, though it always inflicts acid damage in that case)

The other invocations are fairly general. Low level ones include- a save boost, a boost to speech skills (a whopping +6 to bluff, diplomacy and intimidate) see invisible, and others. The invocations are broken into 4 levels that you gain access to at higher levels.
the second tier include things like invisiblity and animating the dead, the third things like insect plague or wall of fire, and the fourth, Dark foresight gives you DR, Word of change (which is altered) transforms you into a devil/demon.

I like the class, and the implementation isn't bad. Some things have changed (and I understand why). One invocation was essentially a short range, at will dimension door, that also left an illusion of your where you were. That was changed. They could also use UMD to fake spells (any spell) for magic item crafting. Thats gone, which is sad, but probably balancing.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

- NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT series or higher video card (or equivalent ATI card)

7800s are the best cards on the fucking market. Bar stewards. How do you expect it to run on a 6800GS?

What about 7900s?

Eh. Close enough. Aren't 7900s pretty much the same? The price range is similar, depending on the exact model...

7800's aren't made anymore, the reason they're so expensive is because the shops are trying to get a return on their investment....retarded i know. But the 7900 GT is round abouts equivilent to a 7800GTX and the 7900GTX is of course faster, but it's IIRC a die shrink as well, so it brought all sorts of benefits to nvidia.

 

[Xi]

This sounds promising. I think I will continue to wait on some other codex reviews, or a full review, but my interest is peaked atm. *crosses fingers*

It's about damn time we get a good RPG anyway. Hopefully Obsidian pulled it off. We need a good developer these days. I'll start the wager at $100 that NWN3 will be a sellout though.(Fucking Publishers)

 

[suibhne]

my interest is peaked atm.

I'm not putting my INTERNET GRAMAR NAZI OMGLOLOLOL hat on just to target you, but that's one of my all-time pet peeves. The word is "piqued", not "peaked".

:wink:

 

[spacemoose]

The Warlock class sounds... interesting. Not being up-to-date with the new D&D classes, how exactly does it work?

Basically, its an alternate caster concept. d6 hit dice, medium attack progression, low skills, will is the only good save.

so basically a rocket launcher?

 

[Volourn]

The warlock is garbage. Anyone who prefers it is a FAKE role-player.

Period.

 

[aboyd]

If you go to IGN, they have 5 videos of the game in action, just posted last night. The person who is playing the game set up one of the characters to be a warlock. So you can check out the videos and see how much of a "rocket launcher" he is. My impression is that it's great to be able to cast magic constantly, without needing rest, but he appears to be a bit of a one-hit wonder. Same spell, over & over. I guess at higher levels he might be a bit better than a ranger as far as ranged damage goes. But probably everything will have resistance at that point, so meh. I still think the Sorcerer is the sweet spot for spellcasters (but I'll try a Warlock, that's for sure).

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

The warlock is garbage. Anyone who prefers it is a FAKE role-player.

Period.

Do elaborate. I thought it sounded pretty decent.

 

[Deacdo]

When they added control over your companions in combat, didn't they allow you to control them ala Baldur's Gate? WTF is this right clicking rubbish? You can tell them to use a feat, but can't prevent them from wondering int areas that will kill them?

That doesn't seem to be much of an improvement.

 

[Volourn]

You are an idiot. You can control them 100%. Fucking moron.

 

[Lyric Suite]

When they added control over your companions in combat, didn't they allow you to control them ala Baldur's Gate? WTF is this right clicking rubbish? You can tell them to use a feat, but can't prevent them from wondering int areas that will kill them?

That doesn't seem to be much of an improvement.

Interesting point. Can anybody clarify on the level of control you have over your NPCs?

 

[Jasede]

After all of his last posts, I think it is safe to trust Volourn in these matters.

 

[Jim Kata]

- NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT series or higher video card (or equivalent ATI card)

7800s are the best cards on the fucking market. Bar stewards. How do you expect it to run on a 6800GS?

What about 7900s?

Eh. Close enough. Aren't 7900s pretty much the same? The price range is similar, depending on the exact model...

7800's aren't made anymore, the reason they're so expensive is because the shops are trying to get a return on their investment....retarded i know. But the 7900 GT is round abouts equivilent to a 7800GTX and the 7900GTX is of course faster, but it's IIRC a die shrink as well, so it brought all sorts of benefits to nvidia.

Yeah, the 7900gts (what I ahve) are faster than two 7800gts interleaved. Of course they will be 'utter shit' in six months, somehow.

 

[Inziladun]

7800s are the best cards on the fucking market. Bar stewards. How do you expect it to run on a 6800GS?

What are you smoking?

 

[piydek]

- NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT series or higher video card (or equivalent ATI card)

7800s are the best cards on the fucking market. Bar stewards. How do you expect it to run on a 6800GS?

i expect it will run completely ok on 6800gs from what i've read from people who already have the game. it seems that NWN2 has quite a few options to tweak that DO make a difference performance-wise and supposedly, it doesn't look bad even at the lowest settings.

 

[Voss]

When they added control over your companions in combat, didn't they allow you to control them ala Baldur's Gate? WTF is this right clicking rubbish? You can tell them to use a feat, but can't prevent them from wondering int areas that will kill them?

That doesn't seem to be much of an improvement.

Interesting point. Can anybody clarify on the level of control you have over your NPCs?

You can directly control them (either click on their portrait or use F2-F4). And there is a sub-menu on in their character windows where you can specify lots of options. I just went with the default, and have yet to really experiment with them. I do take control of the rogue to deal with traps and locks. My PC is also control heavy (at least the way I want to play it) so I haven't been keeping a tight reign on the NPCs, and only pausing intermittently.

Fake roleplaying, Vollie? Not up to your usual trolling standards.

It has a lot of class abilities and wanders an edge close to overpowered, but I like the mechanics of the class, plus the RP potential-
Where does the power come from? Do you have to pay for it some way? Can you do good with corrupt power? What sort of lovely fate do you have to look forward to after death? Was this something you chose, or an inheritance that will curse your line unto the last generation?
Or for the character I'm actually playing, is the power worth it? I can crush my enemies and impose my will on my immediate surroundings, but will the power and its price drag me down in the end?


6800 works. Here are the current requirements:

Neverwinter Nightsâ„¢ 2 Download Minimum System Requirements

* Operating System: Windows 2000, Windows XP
* Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4® or AMD Athlon® equivalent
* Memory: 512MB RAM
* Hard Disk Space: 6.5 GB free
* Video: ATI Radeon 9800 or NVIDIA GeForce 600 or higher
* Sound: DirectX® 9.0c compatible sound card or higher
* DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c (included) or higher

Neverwinter Nightsâ„¢ 2 Download [b]Recommended [/b]System Requirements

* 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4® or AMD Athlon® equivalent
* 1.0 GB RAM
* ATI Radeon X800 or [b]NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or higher[/b]

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

* ATI Radeon X1900 series
* ATI Radeon X1800 series
* ATI Radeon X1600 series
* ATI Radeon X1300 series
* ATI Radeon X850 series
* ATI Radeon X800 series
* ATI Radeon X700 series
* ATI Radeon X600 series
* ATI Radeon X300 series
* ATI Radeon 9800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 7900 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 7600 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 7300 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
[/quote]

 

[Nael]

One interesting thing of note in concern with the difficulty levels is that on Hardcore and Very Difficult your party members can die. So you aren't necessarily limited to the KOTOR'ness of self resurrecting party members. Now that makes me wonder if the Resurrection spell is in, making Clerics important for a party in Hardcore and above *shrugs*

I know that if I play on Hardcore it's going to frusterate me, but I've always felt that Resurrection/Clerics are a core aspect of the party system in D&D and uhhh... sorta makes a D&D game a a D&D game.

EDIT: Wait a minute, it just says "Player can die" and is in effect for the Very Easy setting as well. I misinterpreted that I think. Sorry