Topic: NWN 2: Storm of Zehir - Update: Patch 1.22 Released

[Xessive]

Wait... so there are NO OTHER NPCs that can join your party? That's ridiculous, and it is what I hated about IWD.

I think D mentioned that there is one more NPC, created by Obsidian, that can join your party.

It sounds interesting enough but right now its price tag is too high.

[Pugnate]

Rubbish. I am not going to create an entire party in a single player roleplaying game. How boring.

[MysterD]

I think D mentioned that there is one more NPC, created by Obsidian, that can join your party.

I am not sure if there are more Obsidian-created "cohorts," which is the one extra you can have along with your band of four. "Cohorts" can only be found within the gameworld itself.

You can have a party of four + one "cohort" (for a total of five party members).

Rubbish. I am not going to create an entire party in a single player roleplaying game. How boring.

When I went to create a party in the beginning, if I recall, there were a few Obsidian "already-created" NPC's that can be a part of your party of four. You probably could just select one of them.

I wonder -- have many people uploaded their Level 1 or Level 5 characters online somewhere? You probably could import those and start with one of those, since this is NWN...

[Pugnate]

I mean proper NPCs that you pick along the way, and can have conversations with, that add to the storyline.

[MysterD]

I mean proper NPCs that you pick along the way, and can have conversations with, that add to the storyline.

Unfortunately, naw -- none of those.

It probably would've been more interesting if the game would allow for say your self-created party of four AND say two proper NPC's as "cohorts". Maybe even creating three self-created and then finding three proper NPC's as "cohorts" would've been cool, too.

There's a lot of advantages to creating a party, of course -- with gameplay and all of that jazz. But, yeah -- there's a lot of dialogue, and whatnot you'd miss b/c...well, the company didn't tailor-make every facet of interaction for your character; you'd have to do that for a mod or something, I'd say.

Your "cohort" might make a comment, when you're questing -- likely, won't be voice-acted, either. It'll just appear over their head as dialogue -- a la Guild Wars.

Regardless, hey -- I like Storm, as it feels reminiscent of old school (i.e. the gameplay, way you traverse the world, having bigger parties), even though some of it feels really quite modern (i.e. the graphics).

[Xessive]

Y'know what I miss? Final Fantasy man. J-RPGs are where it's at. FFVII being my favourit and FFIX being a close second (haven't played any FF after that).

I hope someone makes a FF mod for NWN2.

I can't frickin' find Crisis Core FFVII for PSP anywhere (for a reasonable price)! I found it at Virgin but it's $60 for some odd reason!

The World map just totally reminded me of FFVII.

[MysterD]

Y'know what I miss? Final Fantasy man. J-RPGs are where it's at. FFVII being my favourit and FFIX being a close second (haven't played any FF after that).

I liked FF6 and 7 the best.
I liked FF9, but nowhere as much as the other two.
FF5 was good -- Job system rocked.

The World map just totally reminded me of FFVII.

Actually, yeah -- that's a good comparison here.

Though, in NWN2: Storm, you can actually see your enemies on-screen (especially if you're a ranger, you'll see them even sooner), before you run into them -- well, or before they run into you.

[Pugnate]

Wait D, did you actually play the game. I looked around a bit, and it looks like you have a party of three, and pick one as the main character. The two cohorts are like regular NPCs it seems.

[MysterD]

Wait D, did you actually play the game. I looked around a bit, and it looks like you have a party of three, and pick one as the main character. The two cohorts are like regular NPCs it seems.

Yes, I have spent a good deal of time with this -- according to XFire, I've spent 13 hours with it. So...

Create four at the start and then you can add one cohort. I dunno if you can say create less at start (like three) and take more than one cohort around (and take two cohorts -- to make five) -- it's possible that you probably could.

The two Cohorts I've seen are Inshula and Umoja. I don't know if there's any others in the world -- that'd be cool, if there is. I couldn't put Inshula in the group, since my party was full.

But, they still rarely speak to you -- they might make comments in a quest and in areas, like Umoja did when I did the Singing Caverns Quest in that cave; but that's about it from what I've seen.

Here's some videos I've taken.
NWN2: Storm of Zehir - Battling Shadows in a Mine
NWN2: Storm of Zehir - Bugbear Tower Battle

Screenies coming.
That's Inshula, who couldn't get into my party -- it was full.




The bottom guy's portrait, the dude w/ the dreads -- that's my "cohort", Umoja.






Some zombie killing




Before I got Umoja into my club.

[Xessive]

Hahaha her name is "Inshula Sar Mashewe" ?! In Arabic that literally means "Hopefully it's become grilled"

[MysterD]

Hahaha her name is "Inshula Sar Mashewe" ?! In Arabic that literally means "Hopefully it's become grilled"

Yeah, that's her name.

Dude, are you serious?!?!?!? 
Is that literally what it means?!?!?
LMAO!
If so, she must be a "tank" to have in your party!
She must *grill* all her enemies!

She should automatically get an extra +3 THAC0 (to hit armor class zero) with a name like that!

EDIT:
Pug would be pleased to know -- yup, I've found a third cohort in the gameworld, which you can have join your party.

[Xessive]

I tihnk they've set it up so you have a level of choice between the party members you create and the cohorts you find along the way.

Can you switch back and forth between cohorts and original party members at the inns or is it just original party members? I guess what I'm really asking is if you kick a cohort off the team do they leave for good or do they hang out at the inn?

[MysterD]

I tihnk they've set it up so you have a level of choice between the party members you create and the cohorts you find along the way.

Can you switch back and forth between cohorts and original party members at the inns or is it just original party members? I guess what I'm really asking is if you kick a cohort off the team do they leave for good or do they hang out at the inn?

Okay, I just went to the Inn and looked at the Log Book there, which is where you manage your clique. So, I checked this out.

To answer your question, you can have a party of five PERIOD -- mixed with anything you've made and/or "cohorts" that Obsidian made.

To add/remove YOUR self-created member, select "Register Your Party."
WARNING: Make sure you EXPORT A Party Member before you REMOVE them from the group (if you've got them leveled-up quite a bit and all), if you want to bring them back at a later date into your party at their most recent state -- or else they'll be gone from your party forever or you'd have to load an earlier saved game where this member was actually in your party.

To add/remove Obsidian's in-game characters you've found to the party, select "Add or Dismiss Cohorts."

[Pugnate]

But what's the point of cohorts when they add little to the story?

[MysterD]

But what's the point of cohorts when they add little to the story?

Ummm...they make little comments that add a little personality to the game sometimes, when doing certain quests (while your created characters won't say anything)?

*shrug*

[Xessive]

I guess the other end of the spectrum is a companion like Elika from Prince of Persia. She's there, she's critical to the story, and you can't get rid of her. She's pretty hot and so is her voice actress so it's ok.

[MysterD]

I guess the other end of the spectrum is a companion like Elika from Prince of Persia. She's there, she's critical to the story, and you can't get rid of her. She's pretty hot and so is her voice actress so it's ok.

Yeah, Elika was outstanding in every regard -- the looks, character depth, voice-acting, and anything else I can't think of.

Hey, who did the voice-acting for Elika in the English version of POP 2008?

It would've been cool if the Storm "cohorts" had more of the usual typical banter and deep conversations we're just to in pre-made characters in recent years.

[Xessive]

That was Kari Wahlgren, her voice ahs been all over gaming and TV animations.

Looking it up I just found that Nolan North was the voice of the Prince. He was also the voice of Nathan Drake from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

[MysterD]

That was Kari Wahlgren, her voice ahs been all over gaming and TV animations.

Holy crap, that girl gets around! Look at that resume -- whether doing additional voices, minor roles, or major roles -- she's there!!

Hmmmm....She did some voice-acting in both GWEN and GW: Nightfall...cool.

Looking it up I just found that Nolan North was the voice of the Prince. He was also the voice of Nathan Drake from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

Cool.

Hmmm...he was in CoD2 and SWAT 4 + expansion, as well.

[MysterD]

Screens coming revealing cool location and plot developments in the game.
SPOILERS coming...

The Black Market is run by....
[spoiler]THE DROW!!!!





[/spoiler]

And there's a nice return of a certain location...
[spoiler]CROSSROAD KEEP!!!





Another "cohort" that can join your club...


[/spoiler]

[MysterD]

Rob McGinnis of Obsidian speaks on what is going on currently with Patch 1.22 -- and why it has not been released yet.

Here's the deal...

Originally the patch was delayed because of some translation fixes that were requested. Then Atari asked for some additional fixes to go in. Now we are waiting on a fix from SecuRom.

But, this delay has not gone to waste. We fixed a couple additional things and may fix a couple more for this patch. A couple of the fixes we made should clear up the problems people have been having with the Trial by Combat.

We are evaluating some ELC issues with Yuan-ti and the Favored Soul. Those may be fixed in 1.22 as well, or they may move off to 1.23 if it looks like it will take too long to fix them.

The patch has not gone to QA yet. Once it does, you can expect it to be about 2 weeks before it is released.

I will let you all know as soon as it goes to QA.

Rob in this thread talks about why "area caching" was not introduced in SoZ.
If they did a NWN3, they said they would probably go the "streaming areas" route.

Area caching was something we looked into for SoZ. We would have had to re-write large portions of the engine to accomplish this - which means SoZ probably still wouldn't be released now. The NWN engine is extremely complex and making even a small change ripples through and causes problems elsewhere.

If we ever do a NWN3, we would probably do streaming areas - but that would make the toolset and area creation even more complex for modders.

[MysterD]

Rob McGinnis makes no promises here, but he hopes to get Patch 1.22 out by Feb 18th

Here's what he said:

Update time:

I would like to get the patch out to you on, or around the 18th of February. No promises, of course. If something really bad crops up in testing, we will have to delay again.

[MysterD]

I made my way to the final battle and...
*******SPOILERS COMING***********
[spoiler]...this is one of the most ridiculous battles I've had in RPG gaming history.

It's extremely epic in every sense. I'm Level 16 here and it's very easy to get your ass handed back to you in a matter of no time; seconds.

The game itself, it's been for the most part not too hard -- yet not too easy, either. It's been challenging but hell -- this goes off the meter. This sudden difficulty curve for basically just the final battle is wicked.[/spoiler]

[MysterD]

Patch 1.22 Released for all NWN2 Owners.

A lot of release notes listed here, so if you want to see the amount of fixes, changes, and additions -- click this link.

[MysterD]

I finally nailed down, after leveling up here and there past few days, and finished this one not too long ago tonight.

That last battle is so epic, it ain't funny. Level 18 and I was able to put it away -- and not easily, either. Only 2 party members were left standing.

You're given the option, after you finish the Main Quest, To Retire or Keep On Going. I should note -- you can Retire at anytime you want, if you so want, to get whatever Ending(s) you've earned.

The ending(s) -- once you agree to Retire -- are LONG and epic. I love these kind of endings, as your decisions in the game have an impact on what ending(s) you receive at the endgame screens.

Cohort SPOILERS
[spoiler]Also, it matters what Cohorts you had found along the way, as it tells you how certain ones ended up, if you found them.[/spoiler]

LORE Spoilers (for those with High LORE Skills)
[spoiler]
If you're LORE Skill is high enough, after you receive your earned ending(s) and all, you are given another option -- you can say to the ending section's narrator Volo -- "Wait! That's not how it ending! I'll tell you how it happened..."

And you can basically make all the choices right here on the fly right here at the very end (instead of in the entire game) and see all the ending options and decide which ones you want to see and everything instead of replaying the game and trying to earn them! LOL!

Awesome.
[/spoiler]