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Topic: NWN2 First Impressions - MP (Read 997 times) |
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Lazybones
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Last On: 12/31/11
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Some of my regular players and I have started playing the NWN2 OC together, and I thought I'd start this thread to discuss impressions of the multiplayer portion of the new game. This can counterbalance the existing thread on SP issues, and general discussion of the campaign's plot should probably remain in that thread.
Thus far, I have only a few comments:
- The thing where the whole game freezes for everyone when one person is in a conversation is annoying.
- Ditto for everyone being forced through an area transition at the same time.
- Inability to resize the chat windows is just inexplicable. Plus the typing window blocks the chat window when you are entering text.
- Lots of little interface changes; it took us a while to get used to how things worked. Very different from NWN1.
- We couldn't figure out how to transfer the henchmen from one PC to another.
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Drengist
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Good to see that most of the problems only seem to happen on heavily scripted MP-Games.
D.
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deathchild
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Someone drop me a note when the first patch is out, I don't have the patience for first-release bugs.
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Mulu
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Apparently the UI is moddable in XML and there are already mods available that move the chat window so it doesn't block the text, also some that show four quickslot bars at once.
I can't figure out how to drag and drop bardsong to a quickslot, or item functions, and the quickspell feature was lost on me. I'll have to futz around this weekend and try to figure everything out.
Apparently you can send tells manually by typing /w player text. *shrugs*
This game leaves a lot to be desired. I think multiplayer roleplaying was the absolute last thing on the design team's mind.
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| « Last Edit: on: Nov 10, 2006, 5:24AM » |
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Von Stalhein
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on Nov 10, 2006, 5:23 AM, Mulu wrote:| I think multiplayer roleplaying was the absolute last thing on the design team's mind. |
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It's hard to disagree with that. I cannot escape the feeling that NWN2 is more like KotOR-with-a-toolset than NWN with upgraded toolsets: it's made to be a great singleplayer RPG, with a toolset just as powerful (if admittedly not so intuitive) as its predecessor.
Personally, I am more than happy with NWN for my campaigns at the moment. Even if NWN2 was perfect for DMed games, I know that my areas would feel better in NWN, since all NWN2 module makers will have to have a good eye for terrain design.
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Mulu
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Well, I played through the tutorial and the part of OC we ran as a group. I figured out how to quickslot everything, though accessing other quickslot bars is slower than in NWN1.
I've decided that combat *requires* using tab and the "t" key to fight enemies, it was simply too hard to mouse target them. That of course means it's going to be very hard to be selective about your target. You'll have to tab through every one if you are, say, trying to go after the enemy spellcaster first. I assume the same will allow use of combat feats on the selected enemy. Playing a bard I haven't been able to playtest feats like knockdown.
I have not figured out how to remap keys. I would rather the space bar be the target function, and I'm pretty used to tab being the highlight key.
The icons for items are very small and vague. I can't tell my crossbow from much of anything else; it looks like a stick. Everything looks like a stick.
At this point I'd have to say the game is not better than NWN1 as far as playing goes, and even assuming future bug fixes and features I don't think it will never match NWN1 for roleplayability. So the real test is the toolset. If the new features on the toolset are worth migrating for, then it's an upgrade to the game. Otherwise, it's just a half-assed remake with better graphics (though uglier PC's) and a better OC (like we care about the OC).
I do like the 3.5 ruleset, especially the changes to bards and rangers.
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| « Last Edit: on: Nov 10, 2006, 7:55PM » |
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Virthe
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on Nov 10, 2006, 5:23 AM, Mulu wrote:
I can't figure out how to drag and drop bardsong to a quickslot.
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Open the character sheet and find the feat which gives the ability you want to quickslot (Countersong, Fascinate, Haven Song etcetera.)
Drag the feat icon to the quickslot you want to use, and you are done. You can now use the bardsong from the quickslot.
I've noticed that using the song cancels the (passive) inspiration and you have to reactivate that if needed, so in all it will take you two rounds of use if you want to keep the inspiration along with the active song.
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GateCrash
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As far as I can tell, you can only remap keys by selecting "Options" from the pre-game screen. Selecting it from the in-game pause screen lets you adjust graphics and such, but not remap keys. Kind of a shame.
I second the notion that it's very, very difficult to target enemies using the mouse, though I'm not yet sure why that's so. Are they more mobile than in NWN1? Shorter? Shiftier? I haven't played with the targeting keys yet (since one of the first things I did was to remap the Highlight function to the Tab key), but clearly I'll need to.
I think I will like the new quickbars better as soon as I get used to them. It's only one extra button press to get to a different one (not sure if it was a documented feature or if I found it accidentally, but Shift + (#) brings up that number's quickbar), and I like being able to put movement modes on one, combat feats on another, rogue feats on another, etc.
That said, I don't care for the delay imposed by having to hold the right mouse button to pull up a context-sensitive menus. To echo what others have said, it's another case of something done without any thought given to its MP consequences. So far, I preferred the radial menus.
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Lazybones
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I think we'll see a community patch in about six months that totally revises the UI, bringing a lot of things back to the way it was in NWN1, and focused on the needs of multiplay. Not coincidentally, I think that's also about when a lot of decent MP modules will start hitting the Vault.
I have done hardly any building at all thus far and I doubt I'll have anything ready until February or March at the soonest. Fortunately, I think my current Star Wars campaign will last until about then.
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Venture
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on Nov 10, 2006, 8:38 PM, GateCrash wrote:| That said, I don't care for the delay imposed by having to hold the right mouse button to pull up a context-sensitive menus. |
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I agree much needs to be done to make this game playable in multiplayer. As far as the right-click delay, you can adjust this in the game options to be nearly instantaneous. I'm having trouble getting used to the fact, though, that you're then "stuck" on that target until cleared. It makes one more thing I need to do before re-targeting area of effect spells.
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Forrestwolf
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Not sure if we're going to discuss the DM Client here, but I've got to vent 
And before I go off on that tangent - I've played MP with my brother on the OC, and it worked fine, more or less. Yes, targetting and such were tough, but I think they'll get it working - plenty of hope that MP without a DM will work fine.
Now, that said, I'd heard horror stories about the current DMC, but I hadn't tried it yet (kept having issues finding my own server!). Got it to work tonight, using the new DMFI tools (which are grea), and was horrified - I understand now - the current DMC is utter drenn.
They'd better clean it up a lot - and I know they have the best of intentions - but they've got a lot to do.
Thank you, LB and others, for pushing those lists of bugs on the official boards - I hope they're listening.
I'm once again waffling about whether NWN2 is going to work for us at all. Drat.
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| « Last Edit: on: Nov 15, 2006, 2:17AM » |
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Conor Knoxx
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well... seems its one extreme or the other...
I tried out a plugin on the vault to change the default "everyone's locked" in every conversation. You have to open each module of the OC in the toolset and modify it, to do this.
Well... it works. Now I can move around and talk while another in my group has a convo.
HOWEVER... they now totally miss the cutscenes (i'm hosting) so when we transition to a new area, and there's a cutscene, they see the text/conversation in the chat window, but only I see the actual cutscene.
This seemed unacceptable to me, so I put my backed up mods (*wink* yes, I backed up before changing them!) - the unmodified ones - back in place, and the cutscene problem went away.
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