NWN:EE on Google Play & App Store feedback thread 4
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
Now when there's a new patch released, we're opening the 4th feedback thread.
First thread.
Second thread.
Third thread.
First thread.
Second thread.
Third thread.
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The latest beta version is 8193A00008. The new live patch is 8193A00008, so it's the same build.
On the positive side, the game is quick to load, saves are quick, and the game looks good and runs smoothly enough so far (though I haven't tried maximising the graphical options).
One thing which immediately bothered me is that the game exits after a while when the tablet is "off" (that is, asleep). After a short while asleep it does wake up showing the menu screen and allowing to continue, but after a longer break the game is just gone. I was quick to notice this because it's the way I usually play, and why I prefer a tablet. As a parent I got used to playing a little, taking a break and continuing, perhaps elsewhere, perhaps while doing something else (say, preparing food). Having the game just exit is a bother (and, I assume, a bug).
When I started the first time I went for a pre-made character. After I started playing with her, I realised at some point that she was level 15. I later checked and saw that the pre-made characters were either level 1 or level 15. Far as I remember, level 15 isn't a suitable starting level for the original NWN campaign. I think that level 15 characters shouldn't be shown for that, or, better, have both a level 1 version and a level 15 version, with the level suitable to the campaign showing.
The tutorials have some stuff that doesn't fit the tablet UI and controls:
- Bim talks about right-clicking. Only after letting me to try it does he switch to 'long tap'.
- Bim talks about a spells tab in the character sheet, and I couldn't find one. There's a spell icon that's later shown and that does show the spells.
- Several things are described as "to the right of your character portrait" by Bim and Olgerd. Tapping the portrait itself brings up the character sheet. The other icons are at the bottom.
- Jaroo says that after selecting a spell the cursor will change to display the spell icon. There's no cursor in the mobile version. (Well, perhaps there is if one is playing with a controller?)
I found the overlayed UI a little too transparent at times, showing too much of what's behind it. I couldn't find a way to change the opacity, though it might exist.
I'd also have liked a way to see which weapons available to buy are relevant to my class. I can tap each and then cancel the buy dialogue or long tap and then long tap something else, but that's not very convenient and I once ended up buying a weapon by mistake.
It would also be nice to have a button that brings up the menu which is brought up by the 'back' action. 'Back' is rather cumbersome to execute in modern Android, involving sliding down from the top to get the back button.
That's all for now. I'm only part way through the tutorial. I might have more comments later.
The game closing when the tablet is asleep is probably caused by the Android OS itself. Most mobile devices try to conserve battery so they close apps that are consuming battery when the device is asleep. On some versions of the Android OS, you can disable this behaviour (often on a per-App basis) by adjusting the battery settings (exactly how to do that varies greatly depending on the Android variant).
You shouldn't need to use the Android Back button at all during play. The in-game menu is displayed by tapping the wavy lines on the bottom menu bar (same icon as desktop).
Using 2019 iPad, iOS
Can you please provide a screenshot and repro steps?
Music can still be heard but it doesn’t register any inputs.
Followed the steps, no dice, still crashing on the multiplayer menu.
Thanks. I will use the wavy lines from now on.
As for Android OS closing the game, that's certainly possible. I remember seeing other games restarting when I go back to them after a while. I just don't remember games just disappearing.
Also, I realised what I really want: mouse hover. I just tried the Windows version to make sure (I own all your games on Windows, too, you know, just in case), and yes, that shows what the icons are, and what can be interacted with, and all the things that the game easier to understand and interact with.
Android versions of adventure games often have a way to show all the objects that can be interacted with. Do you have anything similar? If not, can you add it? Either just a button that shows all the stuff that can be interacted with as if the mouse is over it, or a way to change to hover mode where interactions show the hover functionality rather than do stuff. Though I'd prefer the former.
What is the iOS device type and operating system version?
Are you logging into Game Center when the Multiplayer button is pushed? If so, try connecting earlier if possible.
When the game if frozen, does returning to the home screen and then resuming unblock it?
What is your device and operating system? Try reinstalling the game.
The iOS device is an iPad 7th generation running iOS ver 13.1.1
Returning to the home screen and resuming does nothing, it is still frozen
I believe I am logged in to game centre when the game boots
iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 14.5.1
Does it mean your problem is fixed, sorry?
From your description, we assume that a crash log file is not produced (it sounds like the game is still running just not taking input). But, if there is a crash file and if it's possible for you to look for it, we'd like to see it.
Open a Finder window on your Mac. Navigate to your iPad. Click on Files at the top. Expand NWN:EE to see all the user files including crash logs.
To verify that I dug out my GPD Pocket and tried what I called "battle of the inconvenient gaming devices". That's an Intel Atom based device with a 7" 1920x1200 display, which was challenging, but I eventually managed to define a custom 960x600 resolution which made the game playable. It also has a nub for controlling the cursor, which is what I used. By the way, I was impressed that the game ran well on the device (though I guess that running at 960x600 is one reason).
Having played to about the same place, I can say that although the smaller screen (7" vs. 10") makes things less comfortable, having a mouse cursor as well as cursor keys to rotate the camera definitely makes things much easier.
I was about to suggest some solutions (following up on what I already said), but then remembered that you already offer a console version. That's a version I don't own, but I found a page describing the controls, and it looks to me like you already have all the needed stuff implemented. "Highlight all" plus "switch focus" will go a long way towards making the game more playable, and on-screen controls matching some PC keys or controller buttons will also help.
It's obviously not trivial to cram a lot of controls on a display when they need to replace physical controls, but I don't really think it's that bad. I'm not using a lot of keys while playing the game, and the only ones I really miss are the rotation keys. Apart from that it's only the highlighting and selection that need to be addressed. Selection is the less trivial if one wants to allow touching and then refining it, but if having no direct touch selection of objects is the simple solution, that would still be more workable than the current scheme.
(Another options is to simply provide touchpad emulation. I've played like this in emulators, and it works reasonably well, although it does make the game feel less tablet-native.)
I hope that you make such changes in the future. I'm happy that you've done all these Enhanced Edition versions for mobile, I just feel that they don't do justice to the originals because they're less playable, and in particular NWN, that was problematic in terms of views and selection even when it was originally released on PC.
I think you were right. It now works with the "X-Plore File Manager" ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lonelycatgames.Xplore&hl=en&gl=US ).
When it recently updated, it asked for one new file permission (I think the one you mentioned).
So I decided to try it on the NWN (I have Galaxy M51 with Android 11, NWN is on the SD Card). It worked - I got without any problems to Adroid/data/com.beamdog.nwnandroid... on my SD card and I could copy files without any problems
(There was in past workaround for the Android/data in the internal storage, but that did not work for the Android/data on the SD card, so I was stuck - as described in the previous thread).
Though so far X-Plore is the only file manager I found working for the Android/data on the SD card. I tried Total Commander or Cx File Explorer and these did not work. I guess the authors did not update them yet for that new permission.
Well, I lost a few hours of play of NWN saves (while trying to reinstall the NWN in past hoping to get it to the state where I can get to the directory with saves), but that is a small problem. The end is good, all is good. :-) Just showing that having always the newest system is not the best idea. If only Samsung was slower with its Android 11 update of my phone, I guess I would not have encountered this problem at all (I assume that in time all decent file managers will be adapted to have access to all files).
I've seen Beamdog people answer or comment on other suggestions but I have not seen them comment on this one. Was there a reason for not including it/removing it?
I've got X-Plore and have given it all the permissions, and also tried the built-in Files app (using the com.marc.Files shortcut 'app'), but the 'user' folder is empty. I downloaded the free modules from the store in-game, and saw that a 'pkg' folder was created with a .txt file for each module, so I definitely have access to the folder.
Incidentally, while testing I could also see that the /Android/data/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededdition/files folder was visible but empty (I had yet to make any saves in that game). When I started a new game to create a save, even the files folder has now disappeared in X-Plore.