I'm sure this is probably very bad etiquette but I posted a suggestion in the builders forum that, on hindsight, should probably have been posted here. It's got basically no views (because it seems hardly anyone goes into the scripting forum) and would actually appreciate some feedback on it from people who aren't massively into scripting. The usage examples are what I'd be most interested in getting comments on.
Favored Enemy: Ooze has been missing since the type was introduced in HotU. I believe NWN:EE should rectify that, as to my knowledge there's no reason it shouldn't be there.
Hello. In my introductory post, I made a suggestion that probably would have been more appropriately posted here. Please allow players the option to select Unarmed Strike as a Weapon Master's weapon of choice when meeting the prerequisites for the prestige class. To my knowledge, this option is currently unavailable due to a game engine limitation in both NWN1 and NWN2. Per the rules of Sword and Fist: A Guidebook to Fighters and Monks, a Weapon Master may select any melee weapon he/she has Weapon Focus in or Unarmed Strike if that is the character's main method of attack. Within the D&D 3.5 core ruleset, a monk's unarmed strike counts as both a manufactured and natural weapon. This only gives credence as to why this option should be available to players in both games. Something else I forgot to mention, Intimidate should be a class skill for fighters in addition to barbarians. D&D 3.5 had addressed this rules oversight as well. It makes sense that a warrior clad from head-to-toe in heavy metal armor while holding a shield and brandishing a large weapon would be an intimidating sight to behold. Thank you for reading, and happy gaming to all.
I'd like NWN to have a few more pathnodes to make pathfinding a bit better.
There are pathnodes with combinations of three lines and one line and combinations of two lines and one line, but there are no combinations of two and three lines. Pathnodes lower case q to lower case z are still unused. I'll include 8 PNGs that show suggestions for pathnodes q to x which will make path finding easier in newer tilesets that have things like walls where people can walk at the top.
Some kind of charge functionality, maybe along the lines of a single-targeted special attack "feat" available to all classes at level 1 that gives +50% movement speed, +2 attack, and -2 AC for 1 round would be very useful, especially since it could then be used as a platform for some missing feats from pen and paper such as the mounted feats Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge.
There should probably be a distance check when the target is clicked, so that it can't be used if the character is too far away or too close to effectively charge, but I'm not sure what exactly those distances should be. There should also be a check for a melee weapon equipped, unless the character has the feat Shot on the Run (if included) which would allow the bonuses and penalties to apply while the character is using a ranged weapon.
Also, it should be possible and relatively easy (since one or more mods to the original game were able to do so) to change ranged weapons to allow both enhancement and damage bonuses, rather than the original game's solution which gave the attack bonus portion of the enhancement to the weapon and damage bonuses to the ammunition.
I'm seconding the charge functionality Venator just mentioned. I think it'd be a great combat angle worth discussing.
I've tried to simulate a charge using a player tool for my boar and minotaur shapes but the limit on speed bonuses, among other things, makes it not work very well.
I mean the scenario where you "save" your skill points on level ups and then pick one level of Rogue at level 17 to instantly pump Tumble from rank 0 to 20. Or one level of Fighter to jump Discipline from 0 to 20. Or any other cheese to get a non-class skill to maximum level by exploiting the NWN system.
Solution: Force all skill points to be spent on each level up.
I'd like NWN to have a few more pathnodes to make pathfinding a bit better.
There are pathnodes with combinations of three lines and one line and combinations of two lines and one line, but there are no combinations of two and three lines. Pathnodes lower case q to lower case z are still unused. I'll include 8 PNGs that show suggestions for pathnodes q to x which will make path finding easier in newer tilesets that have things like walls where people can walk at the top.
Please make holy avenger dispel properly and improve some of the Paladin buffs/abilities. Paladins are so underpowered compared to Clerics it's not even funny.
On the subject of traps, can we decouple the Rogue class from high DC traps? The way NWN 2 does it is that high DC traps require the "Trapfinding" feat, which Rogues get at first level. Doing something like this would make it much easier to make other classes that can work with high DC traps like Scout and Ninja.
Suggestion: Allow the option to remove Multiclass Penalties from campaigns and single player modules.
The biggest and most popular persistent world servers in NWN today have removed Multiclass Penalties, and with good reason. The mechanic is absolutely useless and does not serve any purpose but to hinder creative builds in the campaigns. I suggest an option that toggles the penalties (for single player modules and campaigns only), so that those who do enjoy playing with the experience penalty can do so if they want to.
I have a few suggestions. I'm sorry if these are mentioned before but going through all these pages may drive me nuts.
*The ability to collect traps after placing them on the ground. *The ability to choose a deity just like NWN2. *Being able to choose a background coming from NWN2 as well.
In the OC campaign having 15 charisma and higher means that you are good looking. I was wondering if it is possible to have your looks based off background rather than on charisma points. I can imagine that this may be incredibly difficult to do but I am no programmer so I don't know for certain.
I'd love players to be able to 'name' objects, including PCs, NPCs, and some placeables. I'd love this name to be applied only for the PC who's set it.
Right now, we can change the name of an object (except a PC) using SetName. However, that changes it globally, so once it's changed every player will see the changed name.
Example 1: PC sees an NPC standing by a wall. Hovering shows the name, "an elderly human female". He can choose to talk, in which case the builder can have created options for the NPC to reveal her name (or a fake name), or not, to the PC. If NPC does give a name, the player can then enter that name as the name by which THEY know this NPC. Other players will still see "an elderly human female" unless they decide to give her a name. They can get her name from her, from overhearing, from someone else... or they can just give her a nickname until they find out her name. Or they can just shrug and walk on, leaving her an unnamed human female.
Example 2: PC1 meets PC2 in MP game. Hovering PC2 gives the name "a RACE GENDER", where RACE and GENDER are filled in. (Note that the PC actually has a 'real' name, that was chosen at creation). PC1 introduces himself, bowing. "Well met. I'm called Biff." PC2, if the player chooses, can nod, and say, "Heya. I'm Celeste." PC1 targets PC2 with the Intro tool, and types in Celeste. Now this PC will show up as Celeste, but only to PC1 (or any other PC who's named her Celeste. Of course, PC2 could have given a fake name, or refused to give a name, or ignored, or whatever. Even if PC2 wasn't aware of it, PC1 could target and give a name to her. Later, the name could be changed, if PC1 finds out her real name, or for any other reason.
Example 3: Builder has placed, let's say, a small bush placeable along a roadway. It's usable (or a small invisible placeable at its base is usable as proxy). At first, the name shows as "a small bush". But the PC might recognize it (or think they do. Or be lied to by someone about what it is), and want to give it a name. So, they do. But this name "Azalea" only shows up to the PC that named it that.
An option for builders to set objects as 'name fixed' would prevent known NPCs or other objects from being renamed by players.
Boy, sounds worse than it is. It's really a very nice, immersive RP element to a MP game, and one which I think is impossible right now because the name is changed for every player when it's changed.
By the way, this isn't my original idea. Introduction systems and name databases similar to this were found on many good MUDs back in the day. Faerunmud. Best online RP game ever.
I'd like many of the base classes in the game to get a "balance check".
While they all generally scale alright from 1 – 20, for many of them there is little, if any, point in investing further levels after 20. Other than in cases where you have a "pure" caster (i.e. Druid, Sorcerer, Cleric, Wizard) the progression system currently overtly favours multi-classing shenanigans, apart from Monks (arguably), and perhaps Barbarians. I think it is completely fine that multi-classing eventually opens up more powerful combinations for players, however single classes shouldn't be left in the dirt in the process.
To give you some examples:
– The only benefits the Paladin gets from going over 20 are: improved smite evil, improved lay on hands, improved turn undead, and better dispel protection. Effectively none of their spells scale beyond that point, and Holy Avenger – one of the main reasons to play a Paladin – has a horrible dispel check and grants pitiful spell resistance. Their epic feat selection is horrendously bad, and doesn't include "great charisma" so you're more or less forced to sacrifice AB/Damage if you want to go the route of a smiter. – Rangers are probably in a bit better place than Paladins, with their scaling animal companion, but good god are their spells useless. – Fighter feat selection at epic levels is completely horrendous. – Bards more or less completely stop scaling after a certain point. Their song tapers out and very few of their Arcane spells get any better.
Fighter feat selection at epic levels is completely horrendous.
Devastating Crit? It's prolly the most op epic feat. Additional epic spells are needed more than anything. And of course more spells for druids, rangers, paladins, bards. The only class with a really robust spell list in nwn is wizard.
I'm not asking for Sawyer levels of balancing between the classes, just something to give the ones that barely scale at all 20+ a bit of a boost so you don't feel like you're gimping yourself or have to multi. Opening up the epic feats a little bit and improving some of the spells so they're more useful at high levels would go a long way towards that.
Also I sorta tend to disregard Dev Crit as a feat. It's so incredibly broken why would you even bother, but to each his own I guess.
On the subject of various high level balance... it seems to me to that most of these could be fixed with a few files dumped in your overide directory (or inside a hak for your module).
Bonus feats, available feats, available spells, what levels classes get spells at and how many spell slots they have are all trivially editable by adding/editing a few rows in 2da files. Caster level scaling is a bit of a trickier thing. You CAN sort it, but it requires editing every spell script. There's not even a common pattern in the spell scripts you can search for and do a find and replace on. It's doable but painful.
Given that we CAN do these things already, is it really a good use of Beamdog's resources to implement them in engine? Wouldn't it be better for someone to make a balance mod to fix these issues instead?
The only things listed that I think really require Beamdog's attention are scaling class features themselves; a lot of them are hard coded and can't be progressed without completely binning them and reimplementing them from the ground up (this isn't always possible and is often a pain to actually use them).
I don't know if changing the balance and fixing a lot of stuff has to be mutually exclusive. Maybe you're right though – modders love this game and they'll probably find a way.
Comments
It's pretty basic for any modern (or enhanced) RPG. :-)
There are pathnodes with combinations of three lines and one line and combinations of two lines and one line, but there are no combinations of two and three lines. Pathnodes lower case q to lower case z are still unused. I'll include 8 PNGs that show suggestions for pathnodes q to x which will make path finding easier in newer tilesets that have things like walls where people can walk at the top.
There should probably be a distance check when the target is clicked, so that it can't be used if the character is too far away or too close to effectively charge, but I'm not sure what exactly those distances should be. There should also be a check for a melee weapon equipped, unless the character has the feat Shot on the Run (if included) which would allow the bonuses and penalties to apply while the character is using a ranged weapon.
Also, it should be possible and relatively easy (since one or more mods to the original game were able to do so) to change ranged weapons to allow both enhancement and damage bonuses, rather than the original game's solution which gave the attack bonus portion of the enhancement to the weapon and damage bonuses to the ammunition.
That and the option of giving PCs average HP (rounded up) on level ups.
I've tried to simulate a charge using a player tool for my boar and minotaur shapes but the limit on speed bonuses, among other things, makes it not work very well.
I mean the scenario where you "save" your skill points on level ups and then pick one level of Rogue at level 17 to instantly pump Tumble from rank 0 to 20. Or one level of Fighter to jump Discipline from 0 to 20. Or any other cheese to get a non-class skill to maximum level by exploiting the NWN system.
Solution: Force all skill points to be spent on each level up.
The biggest and most popular persistent world servers in NWN today have removed Multiclass Penalties, and with good reason. The mechanic is absolutely useless and does not serve any purpose but to hinder creative builds in the campaigns. I suggest an option that toggles the penalties (for single player modules and campaigns only), so that those who do enjoy playing with the experience penalty can do so if they want to.
*The ability to collect traps after placing them on the ground.
*The ability to choose a deity just like NWN2.
*Being able to choose a background coming from NWN2 as well.
In the OC campaign having 15 charisma and higher means that you are good looking. I was wondering if it is possible to have your looks based off background rather than on charisma points. I can imagine that this may be incredibly difficult to do but I am no programmer so I don't know for certain.
I'd love players to be able to 'name' objects, including PCs, NPCs, and some placeables. I'd love this name to be applied only for the PC who's set it.
Right now, we can change the name of an object (except a PC) using SetName. However, that changes it globally, so once it's changed every player will see the changed name.
Example 1:
PC sees an NPC standing by a wall. Hovering shows the name, "an elderly human female". He can choose to talk, in which case the builder can have created options for the NPC to reveal her name (or a fake name), or not, to the PC. If NPC does give a name, the player can then enter that name as the name by which THEY know this NPC. Other players will still see "an elderly human female" unless they decide to give her a name. They can get her name from her, from overhearing, from someone else... or they can just give her a nickname until they find out her name. Or they can just shrug and walk on, leaving her an unnamed human female.
Example 2:
PC1 meets PC2 in MP game. Hovering PC2 gives the name "a RACE GENDER", where RACE and GENDER are filled in. (Note that the PC actually has a 'real' name, that was chosen at creation). PC1 introduces himself, bowing. "Well met. I'm called Biff." PC2, if the player chooses, can nod, and say, "Heya. I'm Celeste." PC1 targets PC2 with the Intro tool, and types in Celeste. Now this PC will show up as Celeste, but only to PC1 (or any other PC who's named her Celeste. Of course, PC2 could have given a fake name, or refused to give a name, or ignored, or whatever. Even if PC2 wasn't aware of it, PC1 could target and give a name to her. Later, the name could be changed, if PC1 finds out her real name, or for any other reason.
Example 3:
Builder has placed, let's say, a small bush placeable along a roadway. It's usable (or a small invisible placeable at its base is usable as proxy). At first, the name shows as "a small bush". But the PC might recognize it (or think they do. Or be lied to by someone about what it is), and want to give it a name. So, they do. But this name "Azalea" only shows up to the PC that named it that.
An option for builders to set objects as 'name fixed' would prevent known NPCs or other objects from being renamed by players.
Boy, sounds worse than it is. It's really a very nice, immersive RP element to a MP game, and one which I think is impossible right now because the name is changed for every player when it's changed.
Thoughts?
-JFK
Faerunmud. Best online RP game ever.
-JFK
I'd like many of the base classes in the game to get a "balance check".
While they all generally scale alright from 1 – 20, for many of them there is little, if any, point in investing further levels after 20. Other than in cases where you have a "pure" caster (i.e. Druid, Sorcerer, Cleric, Wizard) the progression system currently overtly favours multi-classing shenanigans, apart from Monks (arguably), and perhaps Barbarians. I think it is completely fine that multi-classing eventually opens up more powerful combinations for players, however single classes shouldn't be left in the dirt in the process.
To give you some examples:
– The only benefits the Paladin gets from going over 20 are: improved smite evil, improved lay on hands, improved turn undead, and better dispel protection. Effectively none of their spells scale beyond that point, and Holy Avenger – one of the main reasons to play a Paladin – has a horrible dispel check and grants pitiful spell resistance. Their epic feat selection is horrendously bad, and doesn't include "great charisma" so you're more or less forced to sacrifice AB/Damage if you want to go the route of a smiter.
– Rangers are probably in a bit better place than Paladins, with their scaling animal companion, but good god are their spells useless.
– Fighter feat selection at epic levels is completely horrendous.
– Bards more or less completely stop scaling after a certain point. Their song tapers out and very few of their Arcane spells get any better.
You could go on I suppose.
Devastating Crit? It's prolly the most op epic feat. Additional epic spells are needed more than anything. And of course more spells for druids, rangers, paladins, bards. The only class with a really robust spell list in nwn is wizard.
Also I sorta tend to disregard Dev Crit as a feat. It's so incredibly broken why would you even bother, but to each his own I guess.
Bonus feats, available feats, available spells, what levels classes get spells at and how many spell slots they have are all trivially editable by adding/editing a few rows in 2da files. Caster level scaling is a bit of a trickier thing. You CAN sort it, but it requires editing every spell script. There's not even a common pattern in the spell scripts you can search for and do a find and replace on. It's doable but painful.
Given that we CAN do these things already, is it really a good use of Beamdog's resources to implement them in engine? Wouldn't it be better for someone to make a balance mod to fix these issues instead?
The only things listed that I think really require Beamdog's attention are scaling class features themselves; a lot of them are hard coded and can't be progressed without completely binning them and reimplementing them from the ground up (this isn't always possible and is often a pain to actually use them).