Maybe it’s because my video card is on the low end of requirements so I had to turn down a bunch of options to get an acceptable framerate, but it’s kinda ugly. Uglier than I thought it would be. I suppose if I could run it at 1600x1200 with all the bells and whistles it’d look a lot better.
Nonetheless it’s an RPG, and it plays like I wanted NWN 1 to play…anything better than Ultima 4-level graphics is acceptable.
Picked up the game on DVD last night and installed. (I’m glad I got ye pre-order in this past weekend, the 20 non pre-ordered copies of the game were sold out according to the Gamesteop guy).
The patch fails for me, as well, even though I’m not D2D. I read somewhere that the patch might require several gigs of hard drive space, so I’ll try to free some more up when I get home to see if that will work.
Playing the game without the patch has worked all right so far (I just finished the tutorial). Visuals seem fine to me, although I’m unsure why the requirements are as high as they are. After recommendations from this board I didn’t even try shadows. Oddly, it gets choppy at the level up screen, while fine in the game itself.
The only thing I’m missing right now is mouse-look. I like all of the camera options, but the WASD stuff feels funny without being able to use the mouse to look around. Maybe I’m missing the option.
So far, I like it, though I hope I can get the patch working.
Edit: Just saw that the middle mouse button should allow mouse-look. I can’t wait to get home and try it… stupid paying job. Why is it that now that I have money to buy all the games I could really want, I don’t have the time anymore to enjoy them?
I agree. Last time I played BG2 and NWN1 I wasn’t knee deep into WoW and used to that style of view. Now I’m having a hard time adjusting to a camera that doesn’t follow me and easily swivel on a right click.
That’s not the devs fault, but it would have made the new closer view of their engine much better if I didn’t have the problems with the camera.
Middle mouse button isn’t so much mouse look as it is simple repositions of the camera. It doesn’t feel anything like the WoW camera. More like the chase camera in DAOC-- ie sluggish and clunky feeling.
Hopefully it’s a patchable thing though. Fortunately the game itself is pretty good (although I’m getting my ass kicked quite regularly right now).
If I ALT-TAB out for any reason then return to the game, my frame rates plummet to about 4 or 5 fps.
So don’t ALT-TAB.
I just got it and installed the patch and for some reason I get a higher framerate with environment shadows on than off. There’s some wacky stuff going on there, but I’ll see how things go once I get past the fair area when I have more time to play. It definately chugs considering what I can see on my screen, unless all the npc scripts running are just murdering my cpu I don’t see a reason for it to be running so relatively poorly.
I don’t really require a super high framerate in an rpg like this, but it’d be nice if it ran a bit faster so the camera movement was more uniformly smooth.
I did end up with the game, but EB/Gamestop still sucks.
(I’d post it here, but it’s really just some whining about EB, and wouldn’t really fit in the thread. Read the whining at your own risk)
As for the game… It managed to slow down my super duper new system. I think I’m going to check my graphics drivers. The patch worked fine though…
I loved the tutorial part though… very pretty, fun and I’m already influencing my companions. That’s a big part of KOTOR2 I loved. And reading Angie’s comments, I can’t wait to make it further!
Lack of sleep, here I come!
Derek, would you mind sharing what that ini adjustment to disable intro movies happens to be?
Heh.
I found that turning shadows to medium and dropping the render distance to halfway helped a lot with my framerate. Towns are still pretty choppy, though.
(My system is a 3.4 P4, 2 gig RAM, GeForce 7900 GT OC).
I think the best way to play this game is top-down like BG2. Trying to play from over the shoulder is not only really bad framerate-wise, but it’s really clunky to control.
Like I stated previously, what I do is hit “*” to get the top-down camera, then when I go into a dungeon I switch to free camera. I really wish that I could toggle exclusively between those two modes, and that it would retain the exact same camera angles when I switch. However, I find the game to be twice as playable by doing this, and it makes it behave almost exactly like BG2.
I’m really enjoying the game now.
It’s a little disappointing, naturally. Mine arrived today. The artbook is about 20 pages longs, the map is not cloth+, and the ring is… unimpressive. The figurine is hateful, but if you like that sort of thing you might not find it so bad. The manual is very short- one of those DVD case manuals.
The first Neverwinter Nights and expansions comes in a card case with serial numbers separately. There is also a free trial for some other Dungeons and Dragons MMO.
I haven’t tried the music/artwork DVD yet.
Sorry, Chris.
+So technically Play.com lied. Not that I’m going to take it up with them.
So if I want to have a melee type character that specializes in speech skills (diplomacy, bluff, etc), I’m assuming a Bard is the best class to use? Are they viable in direct combat or more of a supporting role?
I’ve got a slightly lesser rig (athlon 3800, 7800gtx) and shadows turned down a notch but keeping max draw distance I get an acceptable 20 fps in most areas.
The thing that drives me nuts, and maybe I’m just missing something, is the lack of keyboard controls to pan the camera. I want WSAD to control panning in free camera mode. I’m happy with using the MMB to rotate.
Bards are pretty sucky in direct combat, but they can do all right with spells like Ghostly Visage. You’re probably better off supporting with a bow and songs, though.
A Paladin or Cleric might be a better fit if you want to be in the thick of things, but Intimidate and Bluff won’t be class skills, only Diplomacy. Barbarians get Intimidate (and Taunt), but not Diplomacy or Bluff.
[EDIT]: Also Monk, but that class really limits your toys.
yes, i was a little unimpressed when i opened the massive box that arrived this morning (at least it came by parcelforce 24). still, i ordered it mostly to get hold of NWN1 with all the expansions, as it was cheaper than buying NWN2 and NWN1 platinum seperately.
Unfortunately, no. A very large oversight, but understandable since KOTOR1/2 didn’t have it either. It’s essentially the KOTOR2 engine updated a bit and the stats / combat /spell game mechanics swapped out for D&D 3.5E. Still pretty disappointing though, you would think it would have been a priority.
I’m still irritated at the party AI at the moment though, I’m fighting the fact that when I switch off my bard main character it has a tendency to cancel my currently active song that +1atk/+1dmg’s the party for a single person buff on the main character. Bleh.
Thanks for the tip, I will check it out when I have a chance tonight.
I’m playing a Bard that is the Blade kit (melee focused), and I’ve got 4 levels in it and 1 level of Fighter. Right now I’m really hurting from not having some better armor so I think I need to upgrade from leather to chainmail. The dwarf fighter still kicks butt in melee compared to me, but I’m going to throw 4 more levels of fighter, then 5 of Red Dragon Disciple, then 1 more of Bard, then 5 more of RDD. Hopefully I can tough out these early levels. Some of the fights are somewhat tough right now, but on the second try I usually prevail after modifying my tactics a bit.
** minor spoilers **
I’m still trying to complete clearing the bandit HQ (died last time and realized that I hadn’t saved at all during my progress in it), but I managed to beat both waves of attacks for rescuing their prisoners (before and after the rescue). The tiefling rogue seems like she doesn’t really contribute much in combat at the moment, and aside from picking locked boxes and removing traps she isn’t noticeably aiding my party.
I tried doing the graveyard first and got massacred on the fourth or fifth wave-- that area is extremely difficult if you pull more than one group at a time (skeleton and zombie groups at once, for example).
You can also build a decent talker/fighter with a rogue. You won’t be a frontline fighter, but you can always hit stealth, send you tank in, then come up from the side with nice sneak attacks.
You actually -can- pick party members by clicking on them directly. You have to turn the option “posess on click” to yes in the options. Then you can just click on someone in the viewport and it will select them and you can give orders.
I’ve basically turned off everything in the “behaviors” AI for my characters except attack closest. I usually give orders to all 4 of my guys while paused, just like in BG2. It works great with the “posess on click” option enabled.
I would really, really love for a camera scheme ala WoW. Where the right mouse button turns your character with the camera following. I find myself fighting the goddamn camera and controls more than the enemies.
Also the engine is even more of a dog than I thought the last time I posted.
So far the character/party interaction isnt what I was hoping for. Its better than NWN though, yay.
All of that being said, the game is entertaining so far and it seems like a pretty good translation of the D&D rules to me. Better than any other Bioware/Obsidian effort at least. I find myself constantly wanting to start over as a different class/race/build.