NWN: Criticizing what I can actually get to!

[Jason McCullough]

Since I can't actually play the game yet:

What the hell is up with the amount of #)$(*#$ movies at the start of games? I need to press the space bar 5 times before I'm actually presented with a "start game" menu. Is it absolutely necessary for everyone involved with the game to spew their logo across my screen?

Hello, if I press the space key once to skip something, it's highly likely I don't want to see anything.

[Jason McCullough]

Quick fix: rename the *logo* and *intro* files in the movies directory, and you only need to press the space bar once. Christ, it's embarassing that I need to do this.

[Jason McCullough]

Oh, and I can actually play the game now; with the fixed exe it runs just fine. The dread lord SafeDisc rears his ugly head once more.

[Tom Chick]

I had a SafeDisc problem with one of my computers and Warcraft III, which wouldn't run until I tried a no-CD crack.

I was also never even able to install Westwood's C&C Renegade on one computer, which I presume was a SafeDisc problem.

-Tom

[Anonymous]

I wanna like this game, but there's so much hassle involved with playing it that I just can't go on anymore. IWD2 comes out later this summer right?

Can't wait.

[Anonymous]

Don't play Eternal Darkness, then.. That game is half cutscenes, and you can't skip them.

[Matthew Gallant]

Won't IWD2 also have SafeDisc? Think about it.

[Jim F.]

On the bright side, NWN doesn't have any mid-module movies in the single player game. There is a movie between each chapter, but those can be skipped (although I suggest you watch them. Very nice story there).

Eternal Darkness is an amazing game, but you're right. Every 5 minutes there is a movie that you have to watch. They really expand the story, but it would be nice to be able to skip past them...especially for those cutscenes that play right before some of the bigger battles. You end up watching the thing 3 or 4 times if you end up reload due to problems with the fight (ie: my tendency to die).

[Anonymous]

My problems with NWN aren't related to safedisc. Im not worried about IWD2, it will totally rock!

[Anonymous]

If IWD2 isn't at least three times the game IWD was it will not be worth having.

[Anonymous]

IWD rocked, I just hope they toned down the druids. They were a bit over-powered in IWD Expansion.

[Samuel Bass]

Don't play Eternal Darkness, then.. That game is half cutscenes, and you can't skip them

Well, why would you want to miss out on the story...especially since you can save at any time, implying that you wouldn't be viewing the cut-scenes more than once 90% of the time anyway.

[Alan Au]

Don't play Eternal Darkness, then.. That game is half cutscenes, and you can't skip them.

So that's why people say the game is creepy. :P

- Alan

[Doug Erickson]

I honestly didn't care about the story, and the cutscenes were just an obstacle preventing me from mindlessly whacking a few more zombies with my enchanted sword and solving puzzles.

I don't like exposition in my videogames unless its concise. As I see it, if a game is going to have large blocks of cinema, it'd better have damn good cinema, up to the standards of, well, moviemaking; if it's going to have large chunks of text, it'd better be well-written text; and, most importantly, if it's going to sacrifice gameplay for a linear story, then it'd better damn well be a great story with great characters and an interesting world because I just paid $45 for what amounts to an interactive movie.

Otherwise, I want the "story" to be as bad or as good as my skill dictates, by providing me with large chunks of meaty gameplay with only as much fixed content as necessary to provide basic context and artistic direction. Stopping my progress every ten minutes and making me watch amateurish cinema only irritates.

[Jim F.]

At least now I understand why Doug hates Eternal Darkness so much; sounds like you wanted an FPS or Diablo style game. 75% of the appeal of Eternal Darkness is the story. If you aren't looking for a story, you're going to hate the game.

[Xaroc]

IWD rocked, I just hope they toned down the druids. They were a bit over-powered in IWD Expansion.

I don't understand this sentiment in games like Diablo 2 and IWD and any other non-MMORPG game. If a character class is too strong and you don't like it ... don't play it. All of the nerfing that happened in D2 was just stupid. It is not a persistant world there should be no reason for nerfs of any kind. Add things maybe but nerfing in a game that supports 8 people per game in pickup games? And nerfing something in a 99% single player game? Don't get me started.

-- Xaroc

[Anonymous]

Why are you getting so pissy. I just hope they toned them down. I like the class but they made areas of the game too easy.

Why should I make the effort to balance when it could be easily done during development.

I swear some of you are just here to go bitch-cakes on people.

[Alan Au]

Kettle -

You're black.

- Pot

[Anonymous]

Ooh Ooh! I wanna be Kettle. I called it first!

[Doug Erickson]

I don't hate story. I like this thing you called story. But I'll be damned if I'm going to settle for a cut-rate story and characterization just because they're in a game. I don't excuse having my time wasted with non-interactive crap; if you're going to repeatedly and consistently break up gameplay to tell me something cool, it'd better damn well be cool.

The more gameplay you take away, the better I expect the cinema and writing to be, proportionally. If I'm going to put up with simplistic gameplay and linear progression, you'd better make that design choice fucking COUNT. And when you do, I like it. A lot. But when it turns out like Eternal Darkness, it can rot.

[Stroker Ace]

On a side note: NWN has interesting anti-theft measures. Or something.

I tested a cracked copy of NWN v1.18, and it was fun. And it locked up a lot. I downloaded the 1.19 patch, and the game didnt load at all. A few days later, bioware's tech support forums posted a list of "reasons your game won't work". without actually MENTIONING piracy, they did say that certain programs such as CD BURNING SOFTWARE (Nero) or CD IMAGE MOUNTING SOFTWARE (Daemon tools) 'might' cause the game to inexplicably crash.

So, I went out and bought NWN (hey, I have a job...) and it works just fine.

However, the win32 NWN standalone server uses 30-50% of my cpu time ALL THE TIME once I load a module, even if there's no one connected to the server.

I have an Athlon 1600+, 512 MB DDR, etc... I don't understand what it is about this server that makes it use that much cpu time. Any thoughts?

[Jason Cross]

However, the win32 NWN standalone server uses 30-50% of my cpu time ALL THE TIME once I load a module, even if there's no one connected to the server.

I have an Athlon 1600+, 512 MB DDR, etc... I don't understand what it is about this server that makes it use that much cpu time. Any thoughts?


Well, I would guess that aside from the rendering, it's just like running the game.

The server runs all the enemy AI, all the scripts, conversations, blah blah blah. You name it. This is necessary because at any time a DM could take control of or change anything except the tileset layout (even placeables), so it can't actually offload that stuff to the client computers.

The upshot to this is that 99% of all games that use custom modules don't even need to be downloaded. You just join some server and "wow! This is a new place!" Which amuses me to no end.

[Stroker Ace]

:shock: well i don't like it :shock:

i'm not extremely familiar with the system overhead of game servers, i suppose. any ideas on how much CPU time NWN uses compared to, say, HLDS (half-life dedicated server)?

[Stroker Ace]

The upshot to this is that 99% of all games that use custom modules don't even need to be downloaded. You just join some server and "wow! This is a new place!" Which amuses me to no end.

p.s. WHERE ARE THESE CUSTOM GAMES? i'm still playing the default campaign with my friends, but eventually i'll finish that, and i can't imagine it will be nearly as much time the 2nd or 3rd or 4th time through.

any predictions on the future MOD community for NWN? it would be great if i could connect to random public servers 24/7 and be assured a good time - like i am with my still-favorite Counter-Strike - but at the moment I've just got small games with friends or alone.

are there fun public servers out there already?

[Legolas Greenleaf]

any predictions on the future MOD community for NWN?

99% solo games, 0.9% slash-n-bash m/p, 0.1% read-a-book m/p dungeons


it would be great if i could connect to random public servers 24/7 and be assured a good time

Add some more text to that and you have a fantasy novel. will never happen.