NWN WTF: Baldur's Gate recreated entirely in NWN2 engine

[Gord]

Man is this thing buggy...
While the main quest works fine so far (chapter 5 now), several of the side quests don't work properly, usually due to the quest giver not recognizing that you brought him what he asked for, or being reopened becasue there are multiple entry points for a quest, which however don't recognize that you have already finished it.
I have installed the latest patch, but even supposedly fixed bugs are still there. Then again it might be that I would have needed to restart for some of them...

 

[Dreaad]

You actually playing this?!!!! I'm impressed, I would rather play through the enhanced remake than this. Can't imagine lvl 1-8 for 40 hours in the NWN2 engine.

 

[Lhynn]

You actually playing this?!!!! I'm impressed, I would rather play through the enhanced remake than this. Can't imagine lvl 1-8 for 40 hours in the NWN2 engine.

There are shittier engines dreaad, and for curiosity sakes it cant be bad.

 

[DalekFlay]

I wish I had the free time to try this out of boredom or curiosity.

 

[Gord]

You actually playing this?!!!! I'm impressed, I would rather play through the enhanced remake than this. Can't imagine lvl 1-8 for 40 hours in the NWN2 engine.

The real problem are levels 1-3, but that comes with the system, not the engine. DnD is simply horrible at the first few levels.
From level 4 upwards, gameplay gets much better, and you should reach that after ~8-10 hours. From what I've read, the reachable level without grinding is roughly 10 or 11.
Overall I'm quite impressed with their work, whatever you think of BG or NWN2, you have to admit that they managed to finish a very ambitious project.
Given the age of NWN2, they nevertheless managed to make it look relatively good within the limitations of the engine (but YMMV).
The bugged side-quests and some balancing issues weight it down, though.

 

[sea]

Man is this thing buggy...
While the main quest works fine so far (chapter 5 now), several of the side quests don't work properly, usually due to the quest giver not recognizing that you brought him what he asked for, or being reopened becasue there are multiple entry points for a quest, which however don't recognize that you have already finished it.
I have installed the latest patch, but even supposedly fixed bugs are still there. Then again it might be that I would have needed to restart for some of them...

It depends on what the bug was.

If the bug is with something stored in the save file, like a variable not being set when you completed the quest's requirements, if there is no special scripting added to check for the bug and fix it when you start the game, then you will need to replay the fixed section.

On the other hand if the bug is with a script that runs that is not part of the player's save, but something that happens when triggered, then you just need to replay that part while meeting the requirements and it should work.

However, in that engine, the state of a level is saved in the player's save file. So if the bug fix is to actually change something in the level itself (like the positioning of a trigger or placement of an NPC), but it's already been saved, then the player will need to restart from a point before entering the area for the first time... unless, again, special measures are taken to insert the fixed content into the level regardless of whether it's been saved or not. I would expect a modder to not bother with those methods.

 

[Gord]

I've almost finished it - basically I only need to go after Sarevok now, but I decided to do Durlag's Tower first.
While I have to admire their work overall, unfortunately it's buggy as hell.

Should have been polished for a few months more.
Seriously, it seems that about half of the quests are affected by some kind of bug, many of which prevent the quests from finishing properly.
Recently I've also been afflicted by some kind of data corruption that causes meshes and strings to be attached to the wrong items or spells (non-sensical stuff like spells with descriptions for items, good luck with guessing what the spell does).
I'll push through now, unless it gets completely unplayable, but clearly in the current state its hard to recommend as a real alternative for BG1/BGT or even BG:EE, I guess.

 

[Lhynn]

Well, most NWN2 mods are unstable, at least for me. He shoulda done it on nwn1 engine if we was set on doing it.

 

[Gord]

I'm through - took me a while longer as real life catched up and I could not play much in the last 2 or so weeks.
In the end, I was level 10-11 with my group. Good level range to have some fun in DnD.

Overall however, I have a mixed opinion on it.

The good:
Faithful reproduction of Baldurs Gate, including TotSC
One has to admit that it's an impressive feat for a team of ~4 people (according to the credits)
Good usage of the NWN2 engine (fuck the haters)
BG with 3.5 edition
Some additions where it makes sense, e.g. (hidden) usage of NWN2's skill system

The so-so:
BG is an ok game, but not exactly the greatest RPG out there. Still fun to play once in a while. BGR felt a bit "faster", too
Balance is wonky. Early game is frustrating, but with the exception of some bosses or extended fights, it gets relatively easy around level 4-5
Certain changes might be controversial, e.g. some classes are different (e.g. Dynaheir is a Sorceror now)

The ugly:
Bugs, bugs, bugs:
I estimate that 1/3 to 1/2 of the quests have some sort of bug, ranging from missing or wrong journal entries to quest givers refusing to recognize that you completed the quest (thus, no xp)
TotSC especially needs polish. Some spell descriptions and items are screwed up in the expansion, Durlags tower has a lot of objects that don't work properly, spelling errors, etc
Aec'Letec had me raging hard. Not only is he extremely difficult (for better or worse), he's also invincible, since it seems his script is bugged as he doesn't die when he reaches 0 hp (even after killing the cultists).

I give them in the current state and 4/

 

[SwiftCrack]

So has anyone played the latest version (1.31 afaik; https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/794/?) at all? How does it compare to the release client?

 

[SwiftCrack]

Updated: 18/12/2014 - 10:23PM, assuming that is when they uploaded the latest patch.