Neverwinter Nights 1: Extended Edition

[Karvon]

Looks like NWN1 has been resurrected. New days are ahead of us now

https://www.beamdog.com/products/neverw ... ed-edition

[Carlo]

Thanks for posting that, recently ran across the news item elsewhere (the Escapist thread linked below). So I have to say that the graphics in the screenshots look exactly the same as the current version of NWN on my monitor - or maybe worse, hard to tell. I'm unsure about the value added, over the existing GoG version that runs on modern systems w/o issue (after the 1.69 critical rebuild patch is applied for good measure). I've never had a problem with the UI scaling either.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/ ... ed-Edition

[Vanya Mia]

There's half a dozen threads on it over at https://neverwintervault.org/ that might be worth checking out and/or watching. Messages seem a little mixed at the moment as to how effective the graphics will be and how much you're going to get for you money as at present there doesn't seem much more to it than that for the SP environment.

There are some changes, such as TLK and Haks loading before character creation in a server hosted game, which will be very useful but that's only ever been an issue if you add to or change the classes and skills available for first level - such as in D20 Modern.

There seems to be issues with "patch" compatibility so everyone playing in a hosted campaign needs to update or none. Fine when it was free but not if ... well.

In truth I'm not finding a lot but I've a notoriously short attention span for sifting through this stuff. If anyone cares to and is prepared to give a blow by blow account on changes and how they'd affect 'us campaigners' then I'd welcome it.

[Karvon]

I've not done any extensive tests as of yet, but it seems more stable than NWN1 on my machine as I've been able to load and play at least one module that crashed on attempting to load before. Alas, the camera hak I use to be able to get wider views doesn't work with it, so not so happy about that, though I suppose someone will duplicate that soon enough if EE gets popular.

[Venture]

Bringing this thread back to life, as Neverwinter Nights Enhanced was just released a few days ago. I bought it, and from an end-user perspective it doesn't feel any different than what I remember playing years ago, although they supposedly tweaked the game to work with up to 4K resolution monitors.

For me, the biggest benefit is that it is also available on Mac, except for the toolset. That means if I ever get back into NWN, I could boot into Windows to build, or use a virtual machine, but play on my main machine. I have started playing through the official campaign again, just to refresh my memory.

From reading reviews, Beamdog is viewing this as more of a development platform than anything. We'll see if they live up to it, but they say there are continuing to enhance the game going forward. They've already released a preview of a new Aribeth model, and plan to enhance other models in the game too to be more advanced. I suspect we will also see them sell some new premium modules, too.

Here's a preview of the new Aribeth model:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/704450/ ... 5614907729

Scroll down on the page to see the old next to the new. Not sure I like the look, but it does show off what might be possible.

[Vanya Mia]

The advantages seem to be graphics but from what I read on NWNVault they appear to have damaged if not broken some old custom content options in doing so (there's a big problem with doing so) and have also affected some features of game by not accounting for prior fixes (driving camera distances appears to be one).

The pictures I've seen of improved graphics appear much like they did with NWN Shader and I was never a big fan of that misty look, the models themselves are not that much improved from what is available under 1.69 and updating key NPCs from the original campaign is a lot less useful than say creating new goblin and orc ones.

It's receiving hype but as I'm not interested in new SP content and only in using the platform for campaigns I'm not seeing a great advantage to it, and as I would have to ask others to pay money out for a change with no obvious benefits I'm definitely not convinced. We'd only see if it was more efficient /after/ they all had, and it might not be.

[Karvon]

Actually, they've done a bit of bug fixing and UI/performance tweaking as well. This supposedly makes the game run more smoothly and with less potential lag. As I mentioned in another thread, the camera has been unlocked and fully user configurable so there is no longer any need for the previously popular camera hak - it's built in now. Scripting options have been expanded, but I'm not really sure on all of that as I'm not a scripter. They are in the process of unlocking more stuff to provide more and easier customization options, such as races. I have played thru about a dozen or so different modules and haven't noticed any issues so far with CC.

All-in-all, I've been very pleased with EE so far, and from what I've followed on their forums and weekly streams, I think Beamdog is working to make NWN even better, with a very strong view towards backward compatibility. If there are particular issues you have with EE, I suggest you post them in BD forums, a lot of people are working on it.

regards,

Karvon

[Carlo]

Just recently got hands-on with NWN: Enhanced Edition (NWN:EE) from a builder/DM perspective. Still haven't run an actual game in it yet, but here are some initial impressions.

-- Graphics upgrade actually does make a difference. It now looks much cleaner and sharper in-game, running at native modern monitor resolutions.

-- The UI is now scalable, so that also makes a difference.

-- My main Westgate Campaign mod (48 MB) loads significantly faster and smoother in both the NWN:EE toolset and DM client. Toolset transitions between areas and swapping functions take much less time. (On a modern machine, you now feel like you actually have a modern machine.) NWN Diamond on the same computer was running slower over time and the toolset was really starting to feel unwieldy.

-- NWN:EE (unfortunately) retains the same functionality as the Diamond edition for launching the DM client, namely it's no longer an in-game menu option. You have to instead add the -dmc switch to the game shortcut properties. On my GoG version installation, I also had to delete the original (GoG Galaxy-created) shortcut and create my own shortcut linked directly to the nwmain.exe program for it to work properly.

-- It's very nice to see all the MP internet functions working again, including Gamespy, although all the servers are lumped together in one category; the "rooms" (Roleplay, PW types, etc.)- which still are in the server interface choices - no longer actually exist.