"Good Old Games"

peacedog · 2010-11-05T11:35:21.000Z

triggercut:

One of the reasons I stopped in IWD was that I killed a monster that was part of a quest before getting the quest, and then when I went back an area to get that quest I couldn’t. Here’s hoping they fixed that.

No idea, honestly.

peacedog · 2010-11-05T11:40:05.000Z

Matt Perkins:

I don’t remember for sure, but I believe in the second expansion, you could indeed get two companions instead of the one from the OC and the first expansion.

I think you are correct. Though that still blows.

Mordrak · 2010-11-05T11:56:54.000Z

peacedog:

Nope (well, the 2nd expansion, shadows of urinetide, might have. I honestly don’t recall). There were mods that added more party members and there were scenarios built around that. By that I mean, single player scenarios giving you control of a larger party. Of course there were multi scenarios as well.

Why do you call Undrentide the second expansion? It came out first, at least in the US. They really weren’t that far apart at least.

peacedog · 2010-11-05T12:40:03.000Z

Mordrak:

Why do you call Undrentide the second expansion? It came out first, at least in the US. They really weren’t that far apart at least.

Whatev.

I don’t remember which was which. I didn’t like NWN at all.

Quitch · 2010-11-05T13:25:52.000Z

Unfortunately, the minimal companion thing is something that Bioware has stuck with in favour of the large party system of yesteryear. That makes me sad inside. I look forward to the day when I fire up Mass Effect 7 and have five squad mates with me all bantering amongst themselves ;)

malkav11 · 2010-11-05T13:27:37.000Z

Hordes is the second expansion and adds the ability to have two AI-controlled henchmen, and Shadows did improve your level of control over them, but it barely matters. You still can’t control them directly or have a D&D optimal party of 4+ characters, and in my experience most fan modules had not implemented the Hordes dual henchmen option, if they bothered having henchmen at all, which they frequently did not.

Cl_Flushentityhero · 2010-11-05T15:06:29.000Z

Slainte Mhath:

I’m pretty sure that’s what Bioware intended, as they always talked about how great the build tools and DM functions in NWN were and how enterprising groups of players could use it as a virtual D&D game. I played like that with some friends for several months and it was great.

Pretty much the best “Pen & Paper” type campaign experiences I’ve had were in NWN. There are also plenty of killer fan-made singleplayer modules and addons.

peterb · 2010-11-06T04:53:17.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Oohh, Wizardry 8, yes please. One of my favorite RPG’s ever.

Wizardry 8 had that “rotten mackerel by moonlight” nature, if you know what I mean.

peterb · 2010-11-06T08:10:10.000Z

The interesting thing about IWD, BG, and to an extent NWN is it kind of shows the conceptual weakness of the D&D “You get this many spells per day, then you have to rest” scheme. It kind of breaks mimesis for me to fight a tough combat in IWD and then we sleep for 32 hours in the middle of the dungeon just so I can heal up. “Three months later, our heroes exit the crypt…”

Rock8man · 2010-11-06T08:22:35.000Z

peterb:

The interesting thing about IWD, BG, and to an extent NWN is it kind of shows the conceptual weakness of the D&D “You get this many spells per day, then you have to rest” scheme. It kind of breaks mimesis for me to fight a tough combat in IWD and then we sleep for 32 hours in the middle of the dungeon just so I can heal up. “Three months later, our heroes exit the crypt…”

Woah. You could sleep in the dungeon in Icewind Dale? That’s pretty lame. I just never tried, assuming that I couldn’t. Of course, I played through the whole thing as a ranger in multiplayer/LAN so sleeping in the dungeon wouldn’t have gone over well as an idea anyway with the other people in my party.

Shadari · 2010-11-06T08:44:17.000Z

Rock8man:

Woah. You could sleep in the dungeon in Icewind Dale? That’s pretty lame. I just never tried, assuming that I couldn’t. Of course, I played through the whole thing as a ranger in multiplayer/LAN so sleeping in the dungeon wouldn’t have gone over well as an idea anyway with the other people in my party.

I’ve always imagined the “sleeping” that one did in a D&D game was more an abstraction of taking a breather in between battles – doing things like cleaning wounds, fixing up broken equipment, studying spells, etc.

Coreander · 2010-11-06T08:46:07.000Z

triggercut:

One of the reasons I stopped in IWD was that I killed a monster that was part of a quest before getting the quest, and then when I went back an area to get that quest I couldn’t. Here’s hoping they fixed that.

I was a pretty rabid IWD player back in the day, and I don’t think it’s actually possible to do this without being bloody-mindedly stupid (aka killing everything in sight just for the hell of it).

It does a pretty good job of sorting out “stuff you kill” from “stuff you talk to” and making it obvious which is which. Also, hardly any of the quests are required.

Quitch · 2010-11-06T12:15:59.000Z

BG was vicious about sleeping and I guess that IWD probably was too. Once you hit BG2 it was easy to sleep wherever you felt like it (and the game became a million times easier once I realised). The whole rest system from D&D is pretty rubbish and I rather liked the system that was to be used in an indie game called The Broken Hourglass where you invested mana points. Want to stoneskin? That’s 5 of your 20 mana points, so you can’t cast the 20 mana fireball anymore.

BrianRubin · 2010-11-06T13:58:29.000Z

peterb:

Wizardry 8 had that “rotten mackerel by moonlight” nature, if you know what I mean.

Um…I don’t?

Relayer71 · 2010-11-06T15:53:35.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Um…I don’t?

He’s talking about Wizardry 8, so I’m assuming that “rotten mackerel by moonlight” means something like: “really fecking awesome!”

BrianRubin · 2010-11-06T16:06:54.000Z

Relayer71:

He’s talking about Wizardry 8, so I’m assuming that “rotten mackerel by moonlight” means something like: “really fecking awesome!”

I would CERTAINLY hope so…

rhinohelix · 2010-11-06T16:27:34.000Z

The DotEmu games on special now I have never seen before but their cover art reminds of me of smaller-publisher/Euro RPG products I used to see ads for in Dragon back in the day™. It’s a nice nostalgia moment.

Strato · 2010-11-06T18:09:08.000Z

rhinohelix:

The DotEmu games on special now I have never seen before but their cover art reminds of me of smaller-publisher/Euro RPG products I used to see ads for in Dragon back in the day™. It’s a nice nostalgia moment.

I didn’t know who DotEmu were until I saw Raptor included. Saving $1.80 for only one game isn’t much, but it was enough for me to buy it. 30% off for not buying the pack. Plus, I really should make the most of the Australian dollar’s strength.

nKoan · 2010-11-06T18:14:59.000Z

I remember Goblins being lots of fun back in the day. A puzzle type game, mostly.

triggercut · 2010-11-06T20:51:29.000Z

Coreander:

I was a pretty rabid IWD player back in the day, and I don’t think it’s actually possible to do this without being bloody-mindedly stupid (aka killing everything in sight just for the hell of it).

It does a pretty good job of sorting out “stuff you kill” from “stuff you talk to” and making it obvious which is which. Also, hardly any of the quests are required.

As someone who is smarter than you are, I can assure you that it is quite possible to do, even while playing carefully. Or was, at least.