http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/11/20/beamdog-announces-neverwinter-nights-enhanced-edition-for-pc.aspx
This could be huge. It's available to wishlist on Steam. If NWN goes to steam that's massive.
Looks cool. I'll watch with careful pessimism.
Beamdog fumbled a bit with their last project. Hope this one is better!
Suppose I needed an excuse to get a new NWN cdkey...
While it doesn’t really look like it’s being enhanced, I guess it’s cool that they scaled up UI to 4K and are going to provide a replacement for GameSpy.
The big thing is not what this is going to do for those of us still playing this game, it’s how many new players are going to find it once it hits steam.
I finally get to FD some noobs again
If it remains backwards-compatible with our existing haks/mod here, would we move EFU to NWN Enhanced to make use of the Master Server they'd set up for online play/listings? Or play out the chapter to it's conclusion first and have the next one on NWNE?
From the livestream (and I'm reporting this second-hand from sop in IRC), the clients and servers will not be cross-compatible.
That seems to mean that if EFU wants to get the most out of the surge of new players that come with the EE (many moons from now, to be sure), all of the EFU playerbase will have to make the $20 purchase to switch over.
For what it's worth, I would be fine with that.
https://www.beamdog.com/nwn_faq
Interesting snippet:
QuoteWe've done a thorough security audit of the codebase, removing all known exploits and crash issues in the process. We have also addressed a great many engine, game and rules problems, as well as improved server performance significantly.
On the big feature front, we have done work as well. In addition to things mentioned elsewhere, you can expect to see a collection of new scripting commands and ini configuration flags, hak loading before character creation, area instancing, and much more as the beta will progress and bring in feedback.
Last, but not least, we've approached the NWNX developers and are actively helping them with a clean and complete rewrite of the codebase to the new release, so that the majority of server transitions will go as smooth as possible. Future patches will receive the same loving attention!
The tidbit about addressing "game and rules problems" is semi-worrying.
I am very much for this, but yes, any such changes and system upgrades, while cool, could certainly cause chained reaction of many issues in existing mods.
There is also the incompatability between the new version and the regular client. Meaning we convert and lose all players who do not want to pay 20$ for a game they have had for a decade, or stick to what we have and get no new players from the re-release. Beamdog also have a tendency to hide the old game behind a purchase of the new game. I.e. planescape torment on gog.
There were definitely some promising notes in the live stream. Mostly that the community would be driving development and patches, nwnx is getting officially supported, they're doing bug/crash/exploit fixes, they're putting up a master server to find games with a list again, and the things that others above me pointed out.
I am cautiously optimistic, and if this could bring in new players I would be all for making the switch (which should be fairly painless, but we all know how that can turn out.)
Our only chance lies in the Talalir-pahacharlatan Golem of Code-forging to challenge the demon-beast of forward incompatibility, armed with weapons of cascading-bugs and armored with layers of dependency-hell...
We must make our golem strong indeed. The ritual cannot be delayed...
Quote from: Pentaxius;n685367Our only chance lies in the Talalir-pahacharlatan Golem of Code-forging to challenge the demon-beast of forward incompatibility, armed with weapons of cascading-bugs and armored with layers of dependency-hell...
We must make our golem strong indeed. The ritual cannot be delayed...
That was the best line I ever saw.
It doesn't look enhanced at all, though support for all platforms past XP from another provider than GOG is good for business. If the servers get hosted on steamworks, all the better.
If they fix the trident bug, some AOO bugs and the web bug, I will be as happy as a clam. If they go a step beyond and give purpose to the weapons like as they are in tabletop (flail disarm/trip, spear reach, halberd trip, etc), I will be happy as can be.
I'll quote Tala here who said it well. It is indeed enhanced edition, it is not extended edition. I highly doubt they will do massive reforms on the game itself, or the engine. And even if they do small fixes, what is certain is this:
It will not be cross-compatible with current version. If we would move server to it, it would require everyone to buy the new enhanced version. Any engine changes and modernisation will require the server to be in same state, and nwn engine is extremely rough with requiring client and server to have identical files and core systems. And that is the danger there as well.
I am happy see there is attention on this and someone intending to go and improve the game, but I am keeping my distance and me head calm until I know more about the technical details of what they intend to do, how far they will go, and what consequences those changes will have to our existing systems. I have left many of the great current DM's to their own vices, and they are the ones who have earned credit of many great new things in recent couple years for certain.
But I intend to be here and return to efu for many things, when I know it does not take my time from things I absolutely must do, and my life has had great many good and less good things, both which have grown my personal experience professionally and as a person. When this would come out, I don't know, but if they intend to do big things, I can't imagine it is immediately? So we shall see what comes, and then we will know. And if the server would decide to move to it, I will certainly be here for it if possible.