Neverwinter Nights: EE - Signup for the Beta

HiddenX

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From the Recap: You can now signup for the NWN: EE beta on Steam:

February 9 Livestream Recap

Today’s livestream with Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Studio Director Phillip Daigle revealed two big updates for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - new character models and news about the NWN:EE beta on Steam! They also shared news about the open beta for the upcoming 2.5 patch for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition.

Missed the stream? It's on YouTube and Twitch!

[...]

  • Throughout the coming week, we will be rolling out early invitations to the NWN:EE beta on Steam. If you hop over to our special Discord channel you will be able to request a Steam key. Invitations will be limited on a day-to-day basis. On Feb 16, we plan to email all Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Head Start owners beta keys.
  • Activating a Steam key doesn’t disable your Beamdog version. When the beta is over, beta Steam keys will deactivate and Head Start owners will be supplied full NWN:EE steam keys for all NWN:EE content purchased.
  • The NWN:EE beta on Steam will support the Steam Friends List. It’s as easy to use as you could think: on your Steam overlay you choose the Friends List and invite a buddy into your game, without any port-forwarding on your router.
[...]
Thanks Farflame!

More information.
 
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Just not that interested in this game. Never liked it as much as the infinity engine games. Maybe it will be good for mods? Am I the only one?
 
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It's already good for mods. There are tons of great campaigns and modules that already exist for it. Check out stuff like Swordflight, Aielund Saga, Saleron's Gambit, etc..

While I prefer the Infinity Engine in some ways, NWN has some great D&D content to play through when you've maxed out on the IE content.
 
Just not that interested in this game. Never liked it as much as the infinity engine games. Maybe it will be good for mods? Am I the only one?

Most people weren't playing it for regular campaign, as it was somewhat bland (although I enjoyed it at the time). The user made modules were far superior.
 
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I can't see the point of that remaster unless they massively improve the way the game looks because the original is still working fine.
 
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because the original is still working fine.

How many times will this myth be repeated? Tune in next time, as we rehash the same false points time and time again in Beamdog threads! :D

(btw, they're already improving the graphics by improving normalmapping, increasing amounts of parts that can be used to create models, etc. etc.. They also have plans for high res textures and a lot more.)
 
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Just not that interested in this game. Never liked it as much as the infinity engine games. Maybe it will be good for mods? Am I the only one?

I'm with Fluent on this. I much prefer Infinity Engine but the modding community produced really excellent modules, highly recommend The Aielund Saga personally.

How many times will this myth be repeated? Tune in next time, as we rehash the same false points time and time again in Beamdog threads! :D

How is it false? Because it differs to your opinion? ;) Gloomseeker said "he" can't see the point and frankly neither can I. At least at this point anyway.
 
How is it false? Because it differs to your opinion? ;) Gloomseeker said "he" can't see the point and frankly neither can I. At least at this point anyway.

The myth is that the game is still working fine on modern systems.
 
You for one should know it's a great thing they're doing, blobby. They're opening up the modding engine and making a bunch of modding enhancements so modders can do amazingly cool new things (they are already busy making mods with it.) Long-term they are opening up and will likely replace the UI with a more modern one. Some graphics enhancements are already in place (high contrast/sharpness effects, vibrancy color effect, scaling to 4K res, where the game looks great, btw), increasing resolution of character models w/ the "parts" system so people can craft better looking models, and they have plans to do high res textures and more. They have Steam Workshop set up already for sharing mods quickly and easily. They have rewritten the multiplayer servers so you will be able to find multiplayer games again as if it was 2002 again. They're exploring ways to incorporate some of the really cool fanmade "persistent worlds" that have been created over the years, which are almost like private "for your friends MMOs". All this already with a lot more to come.

You know this is good stuff. I wish more IE stuff would be made (maybe long term? I hope!) but enhancing NWN right now is the best second option IMHO. All the current stuff will be backwards compatible, too, without effort needing to port the modules to the EE. So yeah, they're doing some work there. It's impressive so far.
 
That is true, it is 15 years old already. I think I mentioned it somewhere already but all I really want from NWN: EE is resurrection of modding community - not the cosmetic mods but great adventures like The Aielund Saga and alike. A chance for people to bring their wonderful ideas and skills to life for all to enjoy.

I'm lukewarm about the remodelling - it looks good but kills imagination somewhat. Since they started on it, hopefully they will put in the same amount of effort for all character models and also the environment - right now, Aribeth stands out too much against the background too.

Edit: @Fluent; - you know I don't really believe in Beamdog's skill nor their business ethic. But yes, if they can pull it off, and bring back the modding community and let them produce tones of great modules again, then I will definitely agree it is a great project. Only time will tell. I will keep watching out for updates.
 
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Sounds good, blobby. :) I'm with you on most of those points.

My biggest excitement is also for new mods and campaigns. I still have a lot of the old ones to go through but there isn't a game out right now that has the breadth of content NWN currently has, or the way to easily make content yourself. Heck, I might even dip in a bit and try to make a module myself (wanted to mod the IE but it seems like it might be too hard for a first-time modder.) And I'm still a diehard "old-school D&D" fan in general.

I also needed the UI scaling to 4K since the UI mods did not work on my PC. I had to play Swordflight in 800x600, lol. I had a bunch of issues with the Steam Controller working with it (NWN uses a unique and archaic version of OpenGL) that Beamdog should fix. So I will keep checking those updates, too.
 
Well I guess I should have specified I like the games mods but never really liked the main campaign nor the engine/graphics/atmosphere. The camera is not the atrocity as NWN2 but not a big fan.

If this invigorates the modding community then it would be a good thing. I didn't realize it didn't work well on some modern machines as it works fine for me.
 
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How is it false? Because it differs to your opinion? ;) Gloomseeker said "he" can't see the point and frankly neither can I. At least at this point anyway.

Thank you Purpleblob.

I'm not against Beamdog, I'm not on a freaking crusade either.

Now if they ask me to part with my money then they have to make it worth it for me.

Nostalgia is all well and good but it's just how business works in the real world and last time I checked Beamdog were running a business.

I did buy NWN twice, once in French and once in English and I did grab the game on Gog as well. The game works fine on my computer and so far (stress on these words) I haven't seen anything that would convince me that it's worth it for me to buy it one more time.

So no need to cry bloody murder because I'm voicing my opinion thank you very much.

For the record if they do indeed manage to come up with better models and textures l will be more than happy to pay for this but at this point it doesn't look like this is going to happen (and I'd be happy to be proven wrong).
 
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I can't see the point of that remaster unless they massively improve the way the game looks because the original is still working fine.

Which they are! The new specular and dynamic lighting, as well as higher poly models are looking pretty good for this antique. And they're hinting at doing a lot more, as well as improving the animations. All while not breaking anything compatible with the original.

BG1-2018-feb-9-013.jpg


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BG1-2018-feb-9-006.jpg


BG1-2018-feb-9-028.jpg


And if you have an older machine (like REALLY old), the enhancements can be turned on or off.
 
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There's other stuff too. One of the first things they did was get the server browser up and running again. Plus, via Steam integration, you'll be able to one click install mods and easily do multiplayer using Steam friends. And there is talk of new content leveraging the modern bells and whistles. So there's a combination of in game and game supporting stuff going on to bring it all up to modern standards.

Listening to Oster it sounds like this EE has been on the cards for a long time. He mentions it was part of the negotiations from back when they were starting to look at BG:EE. As you can probably tell this is the only game release that's gotten me interested in a long time so I hope it all succeeds.

Edit - Caddy's confirmed you don't need to own the headstart for access to the Steam beta.
 
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Which they are! The new specular and dynamic lighting, as well as higher poly models are looking pretty good for this antique. And they're hinting at doing a lot more, as well as improving the animations. All while not breaking anything compatible with the original.

BG1-2018-feb-9-013.jpg


BG1-2018-feb-9-009.jpg


BG1-2018-feb-9-006.jpg


BG1-2018-feb-9-028.jpg


And if you have an older machine (like REALLY old), the enhancements can be turned on or off.

Granted I didn't watch the entire video but what I did watch didn't impress me.

With that being said, unlike the infinity engine games NWN didn't age gracefully so if they do manage to massively improve the graphics l'm in. ;)
 
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Actually you weren't sharing an opinion Gloom, you were sharing something false like it was a fact.

The fact is the game does not work well on many modern setups. A simple Google search will show you that. I personally had several issues getting the original working recently to the point I had to give up trying to play in high resolution. At that point I was happy to just play without it crashing.

So when I see stuff like that I like to correct it. Nothing personal. I hope more people find it worthwhile to buy the EE. For selfish reasons. I want more epic campaigns. :D
 
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