Neo said:
items like helms not appearing on the NPC's very basic cheesey oversight, Influence thing again like Trance mentions with regard to the NPC's you just don’t seem to learn anything about them, also if things start going backwards influence wise their aren’t enough actual instances to turn it around so a couple of off decision choices and you may as well forget that particular NPC as far as conversations go as you AREN'T going to learn anything full stop.
What you are asking for and classify as a "cheesey oversight" is, in fact, a CRAP LOAD of 3d modeling work. Each head in the game would have to receive one additional model, per helm model in the game.
I don't have the game on this computer I am writing from, but this "cheesey oversight" is certainly in the order of 500 additional models, at least.
There are technical reasons for these decisions. I appreciate that you think the priority Obsidian attached to this is unsatisfactory. Fair enough. But this is not a "cheesey oversight". Not in the least.
Camera control is hideous and far too often obscured by stuff, requiring constant tweaking..which is annoying. Also NPC's getting stuck in corridors and rather than repositioning themselves so they can attack a foe they simply stand there in a combat stance and do nothing... so you have to pause, select them, move them yourself and unpause...which can be tedious.
It's not wonderful, but I've gotten used to it. I tend to use the free camera. Please note that when in Free Camera mode, you can hold down control and left drag your mouse to slide the camera to a new position. Combined with holding down the mouse wheel to reorient the camera - this gets me through things quite serviceably.
Also the lack of appearance customisation during character creation beyond choosing a face, hairstyle and colours was a disappointment especially in a game that will be so massively played online as "Individuality" in a sea of others needs to be more extensive than just name.. lol Cant even make a fat dwarf anymore
I gather that what you wanted to see was a facial system like Oblivion's combined with phenotypes as existed in NWN1?
Phenotypes add massively to model overhead, worse than open-faced visible helms do. That said, I understand the desire. Request is duly noted.
NPC levelling.. to be honest if I cant multiclass them as "I" choose I dont really see the point of being able to level them as the decision isnt really mine..its the stories.
Yes and no. Moreover, I suggest you get used to this, as this will be the case in the vast majority of community created mods as well.
This game is not NWN1. From a designer's perspective, you have
no idea what a relief that is.
In NWN1, because there was no direct control of henchmen, certain abilities, skills and definitely spell use could not be assumed to be "party assets". This meant, from a practical perspective, that
the designer had to create a module that could be played by any one single class and race.
This "one size fits all" design forced by NWN1's limitation broke the underlying assumption in D&D's rules which assumes a party based game. Where the PnP rules balance rules for a party based approach - that same approach broke the underlying design of NWN1.
To make a module challenging for one class and yet completable for all others became an elaborate strait jacket on module design. We HATED this. And don't mean just a little - we REVILED this design limitation. Worse, the difficulties this presented increased vastly as the level of the characters went up. There is a term we used to describe this "feature" in NWN1: it was called "suckage".
NWN2 relieves the designer from having to face this problem. Companions are controllable and all spells, feats and skills that the designer assumes will be in place in the party are, in fact, usable and reasonably in place.
What you, as a player, want to be able to do is to interfere with the leveling options for the NPC and thereby have complete control over the NPC character build. While that is understandable, the problem it presents is that by giving
you that power, it also enables
you to mess up the designer's plans and to unwittingly remove - by your own choice - an assumed ability, skill, feat or spell from the party.
Your choice will, as often as not, break the design of the module. You are, in fact, exchanging choice for enjoyable and balanced gameplay.
So - while I understand your desire, you better get used to it. You are in for a lot more of the same from well crafted community modules. And there is a damn good reasons for it too.
Graphical Improvement, they are nice the game is undoubtedly pretty..(though much of it is non interactable window dressing) perhaps I havent gotten that far yet but I had hoped to see some weather?
Weather is being enabled in a patch. It was removed during the beta cycle when a problem arose.
NPC control... can be a bit frustrating at times, I may be missing something but if i choose the rogue and want to scout ahead with her..how the heck do I stop the rest of the party from following the lead once she gets so far away..? Also item control is pretty much integral once the npcs get a few items but I found iof they have craft alchemy skill and components it kinda shoots you in the foot as they start using components flask of acid, thunderstones etc... it would have been nice to have a use items but not craftable components option in the AI behaviour. I also wanted to be able to have someone specifically use just ranged weapons in combat but the ai tends to have them switch out instantly and charge into melee? I guess what im saying is the AI behaviour controls are fairly disappointing in how much can be controlled..you essentially have to switch everything off and micromanage every npc yourself in order to get any real effective or sensible use out of the npc's. Its not bad so much as far too limited in how much say you can have on thier activities.
No AI will make everyone happy. One option for you to explore is to activate "puppet control" over all NPCs. This puts you in direct control off everyone in the party and the game plays much more like BG2.
It permits you to choose strategies and tactics within combat that actually work. Potions and spells are kept in reserve, fighters hold the front line and a Wizard hangs back (reliably) and waits for his moment, etc..
In short, it plays much more like a PnP session of D&D.