Shai Orc Cave Bugs -Some Spoilers Ahead-

[obsoletenihilist]

I'm going to list them in the order I found them.

Talon Captain Artus Fenell seems to give the quest to anyone that asks, but at level 11 my quest log did not update with the quest. If I speak to him after "getting" the quest he asks me if I've killed the chieftan and taken the headband even though I really don't have the quest because it's not in my log. The level 12 in our group did have her quest log update.

The level 1 entrance is bugged and cannot be used to leave. The door has a transition highlight on it, but it just doesn't want to activate on click.

Certain Shai Spirits continually say " SMITE_EVIL " over and over when I'm assuming they are using smite evil on you.

The trippy dreamworld outside of the building where the Chieftan is, is a total killer on frames per second. It looks amazing, but it might want to be toned down enough so those of us without great machines can navigate it better.

Finally, the no resting allowed in this cave part seems like it may be a "good" idea but it makes it fairly difficult for people to keep what they've worked towards with the save option being built into the rest option.

[Depheant]

Talon Captain Artus Fenell seems to give the quest to anyone that asks, but at level 11 my quest log did not update with the quest. If I speak to him after "getting" the quest he asks me if I've killed the chieftan and taken the headband even though I really don't have the quest because it's not in my log. The level 12 in our group did have her quest log update.

We know the problem here, it'll be fixed.

The level 1 entrance is bugged and cannot be used to leave. The door has a transition highlight on it, but it just doesn't want to activate on click.

The should be fixed in the next reset.

Certain Shai Spirits continually say " SMITE_EVIL " over and over when I'm assuming they are using smite evil on you.

This is an Obsidian thing. They have the Smite Evil ability. I don't know why the say it, and the only way to get rid of it would be to remove that ability from them. Needless to say, it only works on evil creatures.

The trippy dreamworld outside of the building where the Chieftan is, is a total killer on frames per second. It looks amazing, but it might want to be toned down enough so those of us without great machines can navigate it better.

I'm running the game (and building) on a P4 1.7 Ghz from 2001, 512 MB RAM and a nVidia GeForce 5900 128MB card. You could make it run better by lowering your settings a bit, but I'll take another look at that area.

Finally, the no resting allowed in this cave part seems like it may be a "good" idea but it makes it fairly difficult for people to keep what they've worked towards with the save option being built into the rest option.

The point of the no resting is so it makes it hard and makes a party of just casters for instance, useless. That's probably not going to change to be honest. Balancing the areas took a long time and it was balanced for no-rest.

Maybe we can get a way of saving that doesn't require the Rest command.

[Wyvern]

Your character is saved, even if you cannot rest (ie you attempt to rest, but it says "you cannot rest for x seconds", your character will still be saved). Though it might be worth seperating it from the actual rest option and having it as a separate option on the rest menu.

[obsoletenihilist]

I just wanted to add that I loved the area otherwise, the unbalanced group I was with decided to try and press on to the very end heedless of how many deaths we encountered in hopes of a back door, but we lost a man in the dreamworld and 2 of us couldn't make it to the very end.

As for my specs I'm running an Athlon XP 3000+ ( 2.0 ghz freq ), 2 Gigs of RAM, and an Nividia GeForce 7600 GT 128mb graphics card. My settings are far from maxed out, but for some reason whenever I change them from the exact tweaks they are currently at the whole game goes extremely choppy.

the two I was with for this testing also said it was hard to play in that area, this could be a mixture of lag and system strain from the area. I just figured it was system strain because I hadn't experienced any lag prior to there.

Also, the big barrel is amazing. Nrungg fell in love with it. I'm sure you know what barrel I'm talking about.

[daniel.alcantara]

Your character is saved, even if you cannot rest (ie you attempt to rest, but it says "you cannot rest for x seconds", your character will still be saved). Though it might be worth seperating it from the actual rest option and having it as a separate option on the rest menu.

When my rest timer is still running, i get this message. But in the Shai caves, the only thing that appears is "No resting is allowed in this area", making me assume it really doesnt save your character

[obsoletenihilist]

Your character is saved, even if you cannot rest (ie you attempt to rest, but it says "you cannot rest for x seconds", your character will still be saved). Though it might be worth seperating it from the actual rest option and having it as a separate option on the rest menu.

That's not what I meant Wyv, it literally does not let you rest in there. You hit the R key or the rest button and it says "You cannot rest here". No window to prompt the rest/emote/etc options, no way to actually save your character inside the dungeon untill you get to dreamland.

[Wyvern]

Ok, got you. It sounds like the case for what I suggested (detatching the save option from resting) is getting stronger.

[Jehannum]

I'm sure we can come up with a character save solution in this area one way or another.

[ConcordDawn]

Yeah sorry about that obsoletenihilist, I was down to about three frames an hour in the dreamworld. That combined with bad lag and my ninth(!) death was just too much for me.

I really enjoyed the dungeon actually, I just hope I don't get level locked out of it before I can do it without dying so much.

It seems to me with regards to system performance, that framerate is circumstantial. By that I mean to say my FX5900xt is fine in a lot of places where my friend's 9800pro struggles and vice versa. Both cards are woefully underpowered for NWN in my opinion, but some kind of cross platform lowest common denominator needs to be found.

One other thing, and maybe its just my setup, but upon entering the caves for the first time, my ears just about imploded. Some kind of ambient sound layering there? The volume went through the roof when what sounds like high winds or something began to play.

[Depheant]

. Some kind of ambient sound layering there? The volume went through the roof when what sounds like high winds or something began to play.

All the sounds are around 35 in value, but I'm not sure if the game actually takes notice of it.


Also, the transition is still broken back out, I think it migh have to do with the exterior door being up on a hill. We'll fix that, but it'll be sometime later tonight.

I know why the transitions worked in testing (flat land) and not now in the live version.

[k9burn]

I also feel the visual effects were a bit too much of a strain on my machine. The detail was great...and in the perfect world it would be nice to have all the effects we want, but given a wide player base, I feel toning down the effects is best to satisfy the masses (and their machines).

When I tested it the ambient sound was extremely loud. You said it was set to 40 in the module. If thats the case, I think 20 would be about right. 35 is probably too high (assuming a linear scale).

[EdCase]

Having just finished said quest.(Some nice touches in there I must say)..

I only have one grumble.. The ambient sound in the latter stages is intrusive,annoying and induced a headache.

[Kazak]

Tend to agree about the sound. Still pretty loud.

[Media Brad]

Agreed on the ambient sound being too loud.