SpaceAlex Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 A warning to those who are getting Storm of Zehir but are still playing Mask of the Betrayer. If you install SoZ it will mess up all the cinematic dialogs/cutscenes in MotB. The voiceover/lipsync will be gone and the game will race through the dialog nodes, making MotB rather unplayable. The only solution seems to be to not install SoZ until you're done playing MotB. What's with them always releasing expansions with a broken installer. If my memory serves me right, MOTB broke the OC. Can't they ever get it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web Rider Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 What's with them always releasing expansions with a broken installer. If my memory serves me right, MOTB broke the OC. Can't they ever get it right. Well, at least they're consistent, even if they're consistently wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 Have played for two hours and the game is really great of what i played. Love that you create a 4-man party so you can really decide what you want for the group. And if they have diffrent stats and skills they can give very diffrent dialouges. Have meet two normal joinable NPC but none of them seem any intressing so i dumped them after they joined the party. First i though the system with switchable characthers in dialouges would be a mess to handle, but it works really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arátoeldar Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 Ouch! I imagine that they will fix that...seems like a major issue It looks like if I ever buy it, I will miss Sand even more... I have always liked party members interactions. I can tell you that there are a lot of unhappy people over at SA. Most of them feel like the game is trying too hard to be like a MMORRG instead of a SPRPG. They feel that Atari/OE betrayed them with the lack of reviews before the game came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Monance Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 The one thing that seems to be lacking is any form of interaction from the cohorts. No snappy dialogue - no witty repartee. Even attempting to initiate a conversation gives you zip. Nothing. The cohorts are as silent as the stone heads at Easter Island. Perhaps it's simply a matter of how far I've gotten in the game. While I wasn't expecting lengthy MotB type dialogues, I did expect at least something equal to if not better than the OC. Having nothing so far is surprising. If party interaction is a major driver for you, you are in for a severe letdown. This is a major disappointment.. What the hell? Looks like I won't be playing this after all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 Well, that's not completly true. But it's harder to get dialouges with NPC now then in the normal NWN2. First the cohorts have unique dialouges sometimes in the new dialouge tree, if you switch to there characther they can choose diffrent responses during some of the quests. And you can initiate a dialouge with them by holding shift and right clicking on them, more often then not they have nothing to say but sometimes after quests they have dialouges. The conversations are more like in BG2 where they only peek in sometimes but you can never initiate a conversation with them But since you create a four man party the game focus more on your four main characthers then the cohorts NPC:s, and the dialouge can be very diffrent depending on the skills and stats of your four main characthers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 I can tell you that there are a lot of unhappy people over at SA. Most of them feel like the game is trying too hard to be like a MMORRG instead of a SPRPG. They feel that Atari/OE betrayed them with the lack of reviews before the game came out.goons bitching about something isnt really an indicator of its quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emperor Devon Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Installed the game yesterday and have been playing it for most of today. Some of my first impressions... Pros: - The AI. Enemies, particularly spellcasters, are a lot smarter than they used to be. They'll actually cast spells at you (and themselves in the case of buffs), which is a refreshing change of pace. - The loot is balanced. At level 10 a +3 weapon is something to be excited over. - The overland map, obviously. - Skills matter. Listen and Spot can detect approaching encounters. Survival makes your party move faster in forested areas on the overland map (and in turn help avoid encounters, which despite the XP gain you actually want to do). Search can find hidden loot. Even playing an 18 Int rogue I still couldn't cover everything. - What I've heard of the music so far has been pretty good. There's only a few instances in which pieces from the OC and MotB are reused, and even then they're appropriate ones (such as the Thayan academy music playing in the Neverwinter Thayan embassy). - The game assumes Neeshka is dead, as I've not seen her around Crossroad Keep or heard any mention of her. - Minor tie-ins to the 4e Forgotten Realms. Although I don't like a lot of the changes that were made there, it makes the setting feel less static. Cons: - The new dialogue system. I think being able to take advantage of all your party's skills is overrated, since it ensures a diverse enough group will be able to handle any situation that gets thrown at them. Which in turn takes away replay value and makes the player's chosen class irrelevant. My chiefest complaint with the new system, though, is how there are no longer any cinematic KotOR-style conversations. Why couldn't Obsidian have let you switch between party members in the middle of those? Personally I think it really detracts from the atmosphere. - There isn't a [success/Failure] indicator in front of NPCs' responses to being Bluffed/Intimidated/Diplomacized (I'm sure that isn't a word). This wouldn't be very annoying on its own, but with how there are so many redundant uses of the conversation skills this makes things confusing. For instance, during a conversation with Volo after you've retrieved a certain doodad for him, there's a [Diplomacy] option to say something along the lines of 'the locals will be offended if they see this, you should probably not keep it out in the open'. At the same time there's a non-Diplomatic option which says basically the same thing. With how there's no longer a [success] or [Failure] indicator after you use a conversation skill on an NPC, I can't be sure if said skills are a waste of points or not - each time they come up, there are skill-independent responses that say the same thing. - The story is fairly slow. I'm not saying it's bad per say, just slow - I've spent about half the weekend playing the game, and essentially all I've found out is that the ship at the start of the game was sabotaged by someone working for the yuan-ti . Still absolutely no idea why they wanted to. By this time in MotB I'd have found out my PC is the new spirit-eater. - The cohorts don't have much to say - on their own, that is. One of the disadvantages of the new dialogue system is that if you want to see what they'd quip up with, you have to switch over to them (so switching to a cohort who's a paladin will give a lawful good-ish response to choose from). Even so, it's still impossible to sit down and chat with them like you could with the companions from MotB/the OC. This makes them feel pretty devoid of any personality, but perhaps they'll quip up at a more plot-critical moment. I've not played a whole lot of the main quest yet (running around the overland map exploring caves and dungeons eats up a lot of time). - Random encounters on the overland map are too frequent. If they could have been limited to just one a day with all the rest optional, that would've been super. But combined with how each encounter loads a new area and some of them can be significantly below your party's level (encounters only run away from you if their EL is 6 lower), this can be pretty annoying. I've found the best solution is for a character with a high Hide skill to lead the party around the map, and to switch over to one with high Survival if an encounter notices you (Survival makes your party move faster on the map). If you can give chase for long enough it eventually gives up. - The game assumes Sand is dead, as I've not seen him around Crossroad Keep or heard any mention of him. Unfortunately the same can't be said of Nasher. And that's that for now. Despite my cons list being twice as long as the pros, I'm actually having fun with the game so far - I'm just a lot more verbose when I criticize things than when I compliment them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 - The cohorts don't have much to say - on their own, that is. One of the disadvantages of the new dialogue system is that if you want to see what they'd quip up with, you have to switch over to them (so switching to a cohort who's a paladin will give a lawful good-ish response to choose from). Even so, it's still impossible to sit down and chat with them like you could with the companions from MotB/the OC. This makes them feel pretty devoid of any personality, but perhaps they'll quip up at a more plot-critical moment. I've not played a whole lot of the main quest yet (running around the overland map exploring caves and dungeons eats up a lot of time). Reread my post above, you can get into conversations with them like in NWN2 and MotB by holding shift and click them, but like i said earlier they usally don't have anything to say but sometimes they do. It's not near the same class as in MotB or even the normal NWN2, but you can still talk to them sometimes by not switching to them in conversations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 It's not near the same class as in MotB or even the normal NWN2, but you can still talk to them sometimes by not switching to them in conversations Baldurs Gate II didn't have any player initiated conversation with party members either, but still managed fairly decently to give (a few of) them personality. Will the cohorts do like in BG2 and start conversation with you at the worst possible moments to vent whatever's on their mind? (Still remember an incident in BG2 where we were just about to start fighting a Lich. While the Lich was just about to finish casting Time Stop, Anomen butted in with some conversation about being frustrated with his dad. I half expected the lich to interject with "Do you mind? I'm trying to kill someone here!". ) If the cohorts don't have much in the way of conversation, is there any point in bringing them along instead of your own custom created characters in the party? Do they have anything your own characters don't? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 From what i experince the cohorts have some unique dialoges with some NPC:s, and sometimes after a quest if you initiate a conversation with them they can have something to say about what just happend. I haven't notice that they start conversations like in BG2, you most start it when the moment is right. Sometimes when you enter a area they say something about the area, but do not initiate a dialouge about it. The point of bringing them with you is that you can only have four custom characther, if you have a cohorts with you, you will have five members in the party instead of you custom created four. And a last note, i don't have cohorts with me most of the time, i have only travled with them when i meet them during a quest and they can help you with it, then dumped them after the quest. So they maybe don't have anything to say about anything else then there quests. But to say that they don't say anything is not correct. So the point Emperor Devon made about them feeling "pretty devoid of any personality" i can agree on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yar-El Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 I didn't find this game to be engaging. Obsidian's storytelling is rather dull; however, the Storm of Zehir was not 100% made for that style. I give them thumbs up for inovation; nevertheless, it takes away from Obsidian making exciting and bug free games. I don't think Obsidian has what it takes to become a BioWare or Blizzard. Storm of Zehir is a throwback to the games in the 1990s, but with a twist of modern and yawn. Obsidian needs to put the amount of time they place into inovation aside; thus, allowing themselves some time to complete games and work on better storytelling. Neverwinter Knights 2 is a pretty good game; however, its second counterpart is rather dull and annoying. I'm sure there will be people who think differently; nevertheless, I would not suggest this game to anyone who wants something exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aash Li Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 I like the option to play a Yuan-ti, though I have yet to see how hideous they made the females look... still installing. Well the Yuan-ti dont look halfbad! Congrats to Obsidian for making a race that doesnt make me wrinkle my nose in disgust. lol Although they forgot to mention on the front of the package that you need to have MotB installed as well. >.> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Anyone know how to mod the camera controls back to the original version in nwn2 (or where to find one)? These new controls are making me crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Anyone know how to mod the camera controls back to the original version in nwn2 (or where to find one)? These new controls are making me crazy. You can toggle between the three camera modes with a keyboard shortcut (* is default in my game). Exploration Mode is pretty much the same as default NWN2, if I remember correctly. (You can set some graphics settings and key bindings independently for each camera mode in the options.) On a side note, you can make ridiculous amounts of money in this game. When I sold most of my trade bars I got 4 million gold. Too bad there's nothing to spend it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 You could always retire as a millionare Pretty funny option that you can end the game before you finish it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 you can buy 4 million bone wands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aash Li Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I still wish we could mod the figures to give the females wider hips... breasts are ok size, but the hips look like they forgot to widen them for the female models... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arátoeldar Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Fixes and Workarounds for some of the regularly reported SoZ bugs/issues (last edited Dec 15/08) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Is there a quick way to add cohorts to the party, like a console command or mod ? Im in the middle of nowhere, and meet One-of-Many with my evil party and it would take too long to return to a city too get cohorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 The console command partyadd should work. Just look up the tag of the cohort you want in the toolset or specify an NPC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Ehhm, how exactly do i look up there tags ? Just using the cohorts name didn't work, and i have never used the toolset Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Ehhm, how exactly do i look up there tags ? Just using the cohorts name didn't work, and i have never used the toolsethmm the cohorts i could find are co_<cohort name>, i.e. co_septimund, co_lastri, etc, etc you can open up the toolset then just check the tags of npcs in the blueprints pane on the right side. cohorts are listed when you open up a soz module (they have x2 in the file name) and expand the cohorts branch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Thanks, i try that then. Will report back if it works ^^ Edit: Nope, don't seem to work with PartyAdd co_<cohort name>. Damm, small spoiler about One-of-Many You can sacrifice Cohorts to One-of-Many, but you need to sacrifice multiple of them to get a reward, and he is a really long way from any city so it would take forever to get all the sacrifices to him. Think i will skip that quest now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lantzen Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 Have finished Storm of Zehir for the second time now, and this time with a party just with Monks + Ribsmasher. Was a pretty funny experince, they kicked the **** out of most things and the end fight was a walk in the park. I sacrificed a little of one of the monks figthing skills, and made him INT/DEX focus so he was almost as good as a Rouge in lockpicking and Disable Device with feats increasing those skills, and he had also skills for the overall map. Most of the time when i meet spellcasters my monk was all over him and killed him before he even had time to cast his first buff I really didn't think that party would work out in the long run, but it did and it was a hell of fun playing with it Thinking about replaying MotB now, with a Swashbuckler/Duelist characther, those two seems to be a good fit to combine. Im wondering about the name of the mod, or if it's even a console command that increase the numbers of members you can have in the party. I remember it was so annoying that you had to leave one of the party members behind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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