Initial thoughts from a new old player

[Zebranky]

Hi all, wanted to introduce myself and write up some of my first impressions while they're fresh in my mind.

It's been a while since I've been active with NWN, but nostalgia hit hard recently and Arelith was the first PW I went with this time around. Back in the day, I hosted another PW, though it was never nearly as big as Arelith, and honestly I'm amazed at the level of activity I see here. I also did a decent amount of NWNx dev work in those days. I notice my tweak to hide player classes/levels on the character selection screen is still in use, and I believe I recall a lengthy rave thread when that change first came out. I still get warm fuzzies remembering that.

On to my current notes, though:

• Death is... annoying, and not really well explained to new players. I don't know if it's just that my corpses have all been looted before I got back to them, but it seems like my corpse is never where it should be, even when I don't get "your corpse has been [picked up/dropped]" messages. Fortunately, I've been using the bank for most of my gold, but I'm not sure if I should be going back to collect my corpse's gold, or if it's supposed to disappear when I respawn through the Path to the Wall portals (with the corresponding gold gone forever). It's fine if that's how it's supposed to be, but none of the documentation I've found says anything either way, and that's just confusing.
• On a related note, it's really easy to die just outside of Cordor! IC, I plan to advocate for better guarding of the road between Cordor and the Arcane Tower at the very least, but on the OOC side... maybe take a look at rebalancing the encounters along that road for lower level players. There's a difference between "this road isn't safe" and "you better be able to run fast or you'll probably die", and my experience falls unfortunately heavily on the latter side, which is really skirting the edge of a fun challenge and slipping into something that feels poorly designed.
• I'm not used to the "fixtures" system, and the dialog where sometimes there's a "[Use Object]" option and sometimes there isn't has caused me to accidentally pick up a few signs and other objects. I have a very specific suggestion there: keep the dialog options consistent, even if a particular fixture isn't usable (i.e. dialog option 1: "[This object can't be used.]"). They're also really hard to put back down in the right place, so I feel like I've screwed up a few carefully placed objects. I apologize for the slight mayhem I've caused in my accidental movement of people's signs and such, which I'm sure were originally placed with much fiddling.

I'm not sure how long I'll stick around here; I doubt I'm going to get back into NWN for years and years (though it's possible). The RP I've had so far has been lovely, the module is beautifully built, and I can tell at a glance that the tech is pushing the very limits of what NWN can do. In short, Arelith is pretty great from what I've seen so far. However long I spend here, please take this as candid feedback with the goal of making the place even better.

[Lorkas]

Regarding death: your corpse disappears the moment you click the light to respawn. Unless you are raised from the dead without someone looting your body first, or a party member grabs the gold from your corpse for you, that GP is lost to you forever. This isn't a "run back to where you died" server.

The encounters you face on the road between Cordor and the north actually depend in part on how well-patrolled the forest areas just off the road are. If plenty of people are killing hobgoblins and goblins, then the population of those creatures will be low, but if people go too long without culling them, they actually spread to the surrounding areas and make it more dangerous to travel. Arelith is a dangerous island!

The third point is just something you get used to, I think. It's not a widespread problem as far as I know. There are a few console commands to help with positioning fixtures: -move_fixture and -rotate_fixture. Type "-" without the quotation marks in-game to see the full list of possible console commands and how to use them.

[kittenblackfriends]

Death is... annoying, and not really well explained to new players. I don't know if it's just that my corpses have all been looted before I got back to them, but it seems like my corpse is never where it should be, even when I don't get "your corpse has been [picked up/dropped]" messages. Fortunately, I've been using the bank for most of my gold, but I'm not sure if I should be going back to collect my corpse's gold, or if it's supposed to disappear when I respawn through the Path to the Wall portals (with the corresponding gold gone forever). It's fine if that's how it's supposed to be, but none of the documentation I've found says anything either way, and that's just confusing.

That is intentional. There's a script that sweeps all object-entities whenever an area is empty of players. So if you respawn and no one else picks up your corpse, that gold is gone forever.

On a related note, it's really easy to die just outside of Cordor! IC, I plan to advocate for better guarding of the road between Cordor and the Arcane Tower at the very least, but on the OOC side... maybe take a look at rebalancing the encounters along that road for lower level players. There's a difference between "this road isn't safe" and "you better be able to run fast or you'll probably die", and my experience falls unfortunately heavily on the latter side, which is really skirting the edge of a fun challenge and slipping into something that feels poorly designed.

Directly outside Cordor, you should be running into wolverines, as well as wraiths and allips at night. It shouldn't be that dangerous. What class are you playing?

[Liareth]

Old name!

I also did a decent amount of NWNx dev work in those days. I notice my tweak to hide player classes/levels on the character selection screen is still in use, and I believe I recall a lengthy rave thread when that change first came out. I still get warm fuzzies remembering that.

We have a *lot* going on with NWNX right now. I can't talk about it (yet), but if you're interested in returning to development work, keep your eyes open over the coming weeks. There is a lot of work to be done and very few people who can do it.

[Zebranky]

Thanks for the quick and helpful responses! The answers re: death make it a lot clearer -- but I maintain that they're poorly communicated. I might edit them into the wiki myself, but they're important and universal enough that I think the IG journal should be edited to cover that information too. It's not something one can necessarily assume... and I came from "run back to where you died" servers, so I definitely had some confusion there!

Directly outside Cordor, you should be running into wolverines, as well as wraiths and allips at night. It shouldn't be that dangerous. What class are you playing?

Also running into goblins, which are the biggest problem (the goblin shooters make it really hard to run far enough before I die). But I'm playing a wizard, so it's certainly at least partly my own darn fault for being squishy.

[Zebranky]

We have a *lot* going on with NWNX right now. I can't talk about it (yet), but if you're interested in returning to development work, keep your eyes open over the coming weeks. There is a lot of work to be done and very few people who can do it.

... huh! I'll get caught up on those forums. I would definitely be interested in dusting off my NWNX dev skills for a little while. PM me over there if there's something just hush-hush enough that that's appropriate.

[kittenblackfriends]

Yeah, you should have a summon out if you're travelling alone as a wizard.

[Zebranky]

Yeah, you should have a summon out if you're travelling alone as a wizard.

It definitely helps, but I <3 my raven buddy and don't want him to be tanking everything while I run away. And only being able to summon once per rest makes things a little tougher, though by no means insurmountable. It's a survivable road, just not quite fun as a lv3 wizard. But, like I said, maybe I'll just address it (especially the goblin infestation) IC... when I'm a little more capable of not-quickly-dying-to-a-few-goblins.

[kittenblackfriends]

Summon Creature I?

[Liareth]

We have a *lot* going on with NWNX right now. I can't talk about it (yet), but if you're interested in returning to development work, keep your eyes open over the coming weeks. There is a lot of work to be done and very few people who can do it.

... huh! I'll get caught up on those forums. I would definitely be interested in dusting off my NWNX dev skills for a little while. PM me over there if there's something just hush-hush enough that that's appropriate.

I sent you a PM here.

[Iceborn]

Thanks for the quick and helpful responses! The answers re: death make it a lot clearer -- but I maintain that they're poorly communicated. I might edit them into the wiki myself, but they're important and universal enough that I think the IG journal should be edited to cover that information too. It's not something one can necessarily assume... and I came from "run back to where you died" servers, so I definitely had some confusion there!

I got this one, chief.
*Goes like a baws to handle the wiki. Trips, breaks his neck on the conveniently placed neck-breaking stairs*

[Mouthy Expert]

I think the IG journal should be edited to cover that information too.

On this note, the journal help entries are laughably outdated; the spell changes tab still says you need a deity to cast high level spells and mentions the old deity power system, neither of which have been a thing for years.

[MissEvelyn]

[*]On a related note, it's really easy to die just outside of Cordor! IC, I plan to advocate for better guarding of the road between Cordor and the Arcane Tower at the very least, but on the OOC side... maybe take a look at rebalancing the encounters along that road for lower level players. There's a difference between "this road isn't safe" and "you better be able to run fast or you'll probably die", and my experience falls unfortunately heavily on the latter side, which is really skirting the edge of a fun challenge and slipping into something that feels poorly designed.

I actually came from a RP Nwn2 server where all roads were free of any hostile monsters and bandits. It was dreadful. I hated it. There's no realism (especially not in the Forgotten Realms) of not having dangers on the roads. It's boring, predictable, and it feels more like an MMO/Action server. You walk from grinding area to grinding area with the roads between being free from monsters. Monsters are just contained in their areas.

In my opinion, that's not right for a RP server. I LOVE the way Arelith has it. There's dangers everywhere. Exploring actually comes at a risk. As it should.

It also opens up for more escort RP opportunities.

UPDATE: To me, it is not poor design. It may be in an MMO-mindset, but when it comes to realism, this could, in fact, not get closer to realistic.

[Shadofury]

sounds like more goblin and hobgoblin culling is needed

[CragOrion]

Theres ways to get around one summon per rest also. Wands, scrolls, or one of my favorites, play a weavemaster sorcerer! Check into some of the custom classes they've added in, they're pretty sweet!

[Mr_Rieper]

I actually came from a RP Nwn2 server where all roads were free of any hostile monsters and bandits. It was dreadful. I hated it. There's no realism (especially not in the Forgotten Realms) of not having dangers on the roads. It's boring, predictable, and it feels more like an MMO/Action server. You walk from grinding area to grinding area with the roads between being free from monsters. Monsters are just contained in their areas.

In my opinion, that's not right for a RP server. I LOVE the way Arelith has it. There's dangers everywhere. Exploring actually comes at a risk. As it should.

It also opens up for more escort RP opportunities.

UPDATE: To me, it is not poor design. It may be in an MMO-mindset, but when it comes to realism, this could, in fact, not get closer to realistic.

It would be better if we were able to influence the spawns. Removing them entirely is dull, having full spawns on the road constantly is irritating for both high and low level players who are just trying to travel from A to B. Right now it feels like civilization is getting reclaimed by the wilds at certain points. Or like the settlements are under constant siege from monsters.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

I would hazard a guess that the OP shares my woe of not having access to conjuration spells. (I'm a specialist wizard, Evocation. I believe three different specialists give up Conjuration for their specialty).

Some helpful tips, if this is the case!

1: Shelgarn's persistent blade will ignore the occasional poison proc if the gobbos happen to be carrying poison ammunition. It will also ignore a good chunk of the damage. Be careful, though. It only lasts ninety seconds at level 3.

2: Find a lesser book of conjuration. It's an imbued magic item (like a potion) rather than a spell-completion magic item (like a wand or scroll), and with it you can use SM I, SM III, and SM V. 5 is the dire spider, and it will help you out quite a bit until level 10 or so.

3: Level 13 - Mordenkainen's Sword. You can enchant its weapon. It's basically the only summon in the whole game that you can cast greater magic weapon on. I mean... I believe you can enchant a shelgarn's too, but why? Edit: (Afterthought- you might also be able to enchant the skeleton line of necro summons' weapons if they have them. I don't know... Astarial doesn't animate!)

"Who needs an elemental when I have Sharpie?"

[MissEvelyn]

It would be better if we were able to influence the spawns. Removing them entirely is dull, having full spawns on the road constantly is irritating for both high and low level players who are just trying to travel from A to B. Right now it feels like civilization is getting reclaimed by the wilds at certain points. Or like the settlements are under constant siege from monsters.

This system is already in.

The encounters you face on the road between Cordor and the north actually depend in part on how well-patrolled the forest areas just off the road are. If plenty of people are killing hobgoblins and goblins, then the population of those creatures will be low, but if people go too long without culling them, they actually spread to the surrounding areas and make it more dangerous to travel. Arelith is a dangerous island!

The more monsters are being killed, the less they will spawn.