On the bright side, if the art is specifically being left alone so that mods for textures/models/UI will still work, it means that things like CEP, Project Q, and NWNCQ should still work.
NWN graphics are subpar. I bought IWDEE, BG2EE and BGEE as soon as they were announced. I'm hesitant here.
"they wanted to preserve compatibility with old mods" is not important or really the reason to me. If they updated the graphics then people would be motivated to update their mods or create new mods. They didn't want to hire artists to redo the existing graphics. To me that's a big reason to buy the EE in this case - or not.
While I still think more graphical improvements would have been preferable to backwards compatibility, I too am extremely excited for an enhanced NWN. This was THE game that solidified me as a long time DnD gamer on PC and tabletop. And I even still have the file for a module I put many hours into, just for fun, but never released. Now i'm tempted to get it running again.
If the graphics were updated to a better extent, even if it broke all previous mods, as long as it included the toolset it would breathe a whole new life into the modding community.
Seriously, no additional content besides few filters and better resolution support? :v I could understand that approach for Planescape: Torment, but not for other games...
Seriously, no additional content besides few filters and better resolution support? :v I could understand that approach for Planescape: Torment, but not for other games...
Do you really think it's just a "few filters and better resolution support"? Did you watch the live stream and/or read the patch notes?
The new patch starts up right where 1.69 ended. There are bug fixes and huge quality of life improvements (one that stood out to me because I had to get so hackish about it with my advanced-age players is that haks/tlks now preload before character creation).
That combined with jumping to 64-bit and updating the graphics engine could allow modders to make truly modern overrides. I believe it was mentioned that material shaders are in early testing.
In the stream they said the reasons for not redoing the graphics were to not mess up textures that modders used for their mods and also because the cost would be too high to redo all the graphics for the NWN+expansion content.
This.
If the EE engine allows it there is nothing to stop the community from releasing an hd texture pack later. It has happened to many other games, such as Fallout and Skyrim, for instance.
I was wondering about something. There must have been SO MANY modules out there for NWN 1 - but eventually NWN2 came along. There MUST HAVE been people who ported their NWN1 modules to NWN2, right? I cannot imagine that nobody at all would have ported (or at least tried to do so) their module from NWN1 to NWN2. So would that not be possible? To port NWN1 into the engine of NWN2. The engine of NWN2 is based on the one of NWN1 after all.
Pretty much no. I looked into this thoroughly a decade ago when I was considering transitioning my mod(s) from NWN to NWN2. I also had a good knowledge of what was released for both games from my work with the Academy for Modding Excellence. Porting a NWN mod to NWN2 was essentially a non-starter.
The CC differences between the two were substantial, so much so that the effort was closer to re-implementing from scratch than it was to porting. There were a few mods that had versions built in both games, but even then it was often a prototype in NWN that the author did the "full" version of in NWN2 (like with Adam Miller's Dark Waters campaign).
Seriously, no additional content besides few filters and better resolution support? :v I could understand that approach for Planescape: Torment, but not for other games...
There is still plenty of content at the $20 tier. NWN plus the expansions is a lengthy trip. I know that you could have picked it up on GOG for less than that, but what I find important is the work they're doing under-the-hood.
I think that PST:EE is something of a testament to their dedication. After it was ported to an active codebase, it had to receive such a thorough UI rebuild that it almost looks like they didn't do a thing. Sometimes it may not look like much, bu maintaining the game for modern systems is a way of bringing these stories to a whole new generation of computers and players.
I don't have a lot of faith that the original executables will work forever, but as long as Beamdog keeps at it, I feel that they're carrying the torch forward.
Congratulations. I just received my e-mail receipt for pre-ordering via the macOS Beamdog Client. I too fondly remember this and the Infinity Engine games from their original releases, even with their idiosyncratic performance and support on MacOS. I look forward to restored and improved playability of this game too on modern macOS. I’m also putting my money where my mouth is: I enjoy Beamdog's other games on my iPad, and if it is technologically feasible, I would like to play this game on iOS someday too. Thanks.
In the stream they said the reasons for not redoing the graphics were to not mess up textures that modders used for their mods and also because the cost would be too high to redo all the graphics for the NWN+expansion content.
This.
If the EE engine allows it there is nothing to stop the community from releasing an hd texture pack later. It has happened to many other games, such as Fallout and Skyrim, for instance.
Mods have made Morrowind, which suffers from similar early 3D graphic syndrome, to be much more pleasant to look at, so maybe there is hope.
The games looks virtually the same, like garbage. Without a real graphical enhancement, there is no reason to spend money on this. This is by far the least effort put in to make an old game better and expecting it to be "enhanced".
To be clear. The IE enhanced graphics as of 2.xxx look much better and are worth the price of the enhanced.
If it's a choice between a thousand half-arsed modules you may never try and updated graphics of the base game, expansions and premium modules, I'd take the second. It's not like you can't go back to the original NWN if you want to play those modules.
like others i to was hoping an enhanced edition of NWN was going to come out with improved graphics ( like using the NWN 2 graphics for example) but to me the game looks the same in both versions, and i never had any problems with NWN 1, so hopefully they will do an enhanced version of NWN 2 eventually and if they do, that will be the one i will get
Basically, this is going to be the rebirth of NWN. The community has waited a long time to bring the game back from the brink. No matter what happens, NWN survives. Cheers!
Oh man. This is a big news to me. Over 10 years ago I spent alot of time playing Neverwinter Nights with a very weak laptop. I spent more hours with NWN than I ever did with World of Warcraft or any other games. I beat the original campaign only once solo, but I remember doing multiple playthroughs of it with people/friends I met in community servers of NWN. The multiplayer was the big thing for me. I normally don't enjoy multiplayer games, but for some reason I loved the community of NWN.
Why the "Enchanced Edition" matters to me so much? I met my closest friends and among that, so many other amazing people while playing Neverwinter Nights. Before I started playing Neverwinter Nights, I was a loner. I never had any close friends during my school times before I started playing NWN. With the release of NWN:EE ... the multiplayer will hopefully breath life again. I don't care if there are not any updated graphics or anything else. I just want to see that server browser again.
Oh... I also wanted to share this. I took this tattoo couple of years ago. I haven't played the game for 5-6 years and I don't think NWN is the "best game ever made". But the reason I took this tattoo is how NWN changed my loner life.
I buy EE's to not have to mod games myself. I am lazy when I can so for me this sounds a bit underwhelming. I loved the add-ons for NVN, SoU and HoU, and would have loved to play them through again with enhanced graphics and some other tweaks, but if I have to spend many hours modding the game to make it next level, I might as well install my old discs (though they are in the attic somewhere.. ) and do it myself.
But if the community creates a huge mega-mod that installs a ton of mods all at once, then this can indeed be something very, very good. Traveling again with my best bud Deekin would be epic indeed
So holding my thumbs and looking forward to see what will come out of this!
NWN:EE sounds good to me! I like that they're wanting to get the community involved with new features to implement for release too. My #1 pick, is make those graphics better. It was a fun game and the toolset was fun to play with, but the game hasn't aged well. It doesn't have to look like current video games by any means, but the graphics definitely need some work. Very excited for this one. Good choice Beamdog.
Oh and keep looking for that source code for Icewind Dale II. I'm still holding out hope that we'll see IDII:EE some day even if it has to be rebuilt from the ground up, but NWN:EE will do for now.
If the graphics are not completely overhauled then it's a deal breaker for me. As it stands the game makes me want to dig my eyes out with a fork. Looks like someone went through the world with a bucket of paint and dumped it on the ground. "Oh that's grass and rocks!!" they say. I loved the EE versions of BG and IWD. Personally I don't care if the mods don't work they can always be recreated or used in the Diamond edition. Please Beamdog!! Update the graphics!!!!
I feel like this more of a passion project for Trent Oster than anything else. Looking a the response of people who played multiplayer and all the persistant worlds is so different from new players or just the single player casuals like me. This is clearly a work of love for the community, rather than you standard commercial release.
I think the approach of recieving detailed technical input from the NWN community is right headed and more important than a graphical upgrade to preexisting single player content. I have very limited experience with PW's but the response from the PW players in the stream was impressive. I pre-ordered and would be glad to offer my perspective as a layman-noob type to the online experience lol
I've seen the trailers - looks like NWN. NWN is/was a great game - ideal CRPG for PnP-Players - with VERY BAD graphics. I have loved it.
But (at least as Win user) why do I need NWN:EE? - Using NWNCX most of multi-player runs fine again... - Very bad graphics - as before... - Some UI-Improvement - US$ 20?
I think Beamdog's mistake was not including at least 1 "shock and awe" element in their early tease. Upping the game to 64-bit and extending the graphics engine could have potentially allowed them to plug in something like a higher poly, higher res model that would have showcased the improvements better than vanilla assets from 15 years ago.
That would have at least assuaged some naysaying like the well-intentioned @egbert who might not understand the technical implications of having the source code under active development again.
Comments
NWN graphics are subpar. I bought IWDEE, BG2EE and BGEE as soon as they were announced. I'm hesitant here.
"they wanted to preserve compatibility with old mods" is not important or really the reason to me. If they updated the graphics then people would be motivated to update their mods or create new mods. They didn't want to hire artists to redo the existing graphics. To me that's a big reason to buy the EE in this case - or not.
If the graphics were updated to a better extent, even if it broke all previous mods, as long as it included the toolset it would breathe a whole new life into the modding community.
The new patch starts up right where 1.69 ended. There are bug fixes and huge quality of life improvements (one that stood out to me because I had to get so hackish about it with my advanced-age players is that haks/tlks now preload before character creation).
That combined with jumping to 64-bit and updating the graphics engine could allow modders to make truly modern overrides. I believe it was mentioned that material shaders are in early testing.
The CC differences between the two were substantial, so much so that the effort was closer to re-implementing from scratch than it was to porting. There were a few mods that had versions built in both games, but even then it was often a prototype in NWN that the author did the "full" version of in NWN2 (like with Adam Miller's Dark Waters campaign).
I think that PST:EE is something of a testament to their dedication. After it was ported to an active codebase, it had to receive such a thorough UI rebuild that it almost looks like they didn't do a thing. Sometimes it may not look like much, bu maintaining the game for modern systems is a way of bringing these stories to a whole new generation of computers and players.
I don't have a lot of faith that the original executables will work forever, but as long as Beamdog keeps at it, I feel that they're carrying the torch forward.
To be clear. The IE enhanced graphics as of 2.xxx look much better and are worth the price of the enhanced.
If it's a choice between a thousand half-arsed modules you may never try and updated graphics of the base game, expansions and premium modules, I'd take the second. It's not like you can't go back to the original NWN if you want to play those modules.
My opinion on the announcement of NWN:EE.
Basically, this is going to be the rebirth of NWN. The community has waited a long time to bring the game back from the brink. No matter what happens, NWN survives. Cheers!
Why the "Enchanced Edition" matters to me so much? I met my closest friends and among that, so many other amazing people while playing Neverwinter Nights. Before I started playing Neverwinter Nights, I was a loner. I never had any close friends during my school times before I started playing NWN. With the release of NWN:EE ... the multiplayer will hopefully breath life again. I don't care if there are not any updated graphics or anything else. I just want to see that server browser again.
Oh... I also wanted to share this. I took this tattoo couple of years ago. I haven't played the game for 5-6 years and I don't think NWN is the "best game ever made". But the reason I took this tattoo is how NWN changed my loner life.
Seriously,
Thanks for doing this Beamdog.
But if the community creates a huge mega-mod that installs a ton of mods all at once, then this can indeed be something very, very good. Traveling again with my best bud Deekin would be epic indeed
So holding my thumbs and looking forward to see what will come out of this!
Nighthawk4 - Elder DM on Avlis The World of Avlis
Oh and keep looking for that source code for Icewind Dale II. I'm still holding out hope that we'll see IDII:EE some day even if it has to be rebuilt from the ground up, but NWN:EE will do for now.
NWN is/was a great game - ideal CRPG for PnP-Players - with VERY BAD graphics.
I have loved it.
But (at least as Win user) why do I need NWN:EE?
- Using NWNCX most of multi-player runs fine again...
- Very bad graphics - as before...
- Some UI-Improvement - US$ 20?
I don't know.
That would have at least assuaged some naysaying like the well-intentioned @egbert who might not understand the technical implications of having the source code under active development again.