HotU

First, I'm not advising anyone not to buy the game. If they download lots of modules, participate in campaigns others run online, great; I don't think even most people who play the game online do that. And I think most people who play the game online will be very surprised that the official campaign doesn't support multiplayer. I don't see how it's misleading to provide simple information, including a link that explains things in great detail.

By "multiplayer" I mean playing the game concurrently with friends online. That's been something Bioware's made a big deal of with NWN, and they didn't inform people it wouldn't be in this expansion. Not only was the campaign not designed for multiplayer, but it won't work in multiplayer at all. Unless, of course, you want to dig into the system and figure out how to fix it. That's not something people should have to do IMO.

 

HotU provides some new elements for multiplayer too, just the campaign is single-player only. If you install HotU, you're indeed unable to play multiplayer games with people who don't have it. At present, you just need to dual-install or you can download the 1.60 beta patch from Bioware. They also have an uninstallation program for it, so don't panic.
http://www.sorcerers.net/#newsitem1070671908,61231,

Generally, SP frontpage news section has everything you need to know. About the patch, about the campaign being single-player only etc etc. Don't tell me no one reads that

 

I'm playing it right now and enjoying it a lot. The fact this this campagn is not multiplayer is no problem because it won't take long for some new modules to come out that are. I'd recommend getting it because of all the great new content.

 

Does it run sluggishly on anyone else's computer? I've got a 2.2 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM and a 64 MB graphics card and it's painful just how long it takes to move from A to B. And when there's a fight going on I give commands and have to physically sit and wait for anything to happen.

My old computer - 800 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM and 32 MB graphics card - ran both NWN and SOU without too many problems (the odd slowdown here and there but nothing that affected gameplay much).

I've got the resolution cranked down to the minimum, refresh fresh to the minimum and switched off every advanced feature I can find - and STILL it's sluggish to the point of being impossible to get anywhere. My player runs along a passage in jerks and spells (fireball for example) tend to display as a flickering around my character and then an explosion on the far side of the room with nothing in between.

Anyone else have these problems or is it just me?

 

I've been playing it on a 3000 Athlon XP, 128mb graphics card (not sure which because I'm using a mates computer but it is a v. high end Geforce one and it is overclocked). 1GB Corsair memory, raided SATA drives, and lots of cooling!!! Basically this computer can run anything full detail, 4xAA and 8xAnisotropic filtering.

Unfortunately sometimes in HotU (not always) it starts jerking. Its not a real problem and it is far from unplayable but it does make me wonder if there isn't something wrong somewhere to make a pretty old graphics engine run so slowly.

 

Ahh I got HotU today, just like the SoU ****ing disk doesn’t work and it happened since I updated it "again", what the **** is with this ****? I mean please? Another 30 minutes waiting time for the game to start that is just 1337 uber ****ing ownage

Any idea how to get rid of this?

Securom or so I think its called but they done it again, why do this AGAIN?

*cries*

[ December 08, 2003, 15:07: Message edited by: Sarevok- ]

 

I actually experienced a great sense of relief when HOTU came out. Why? No more NWN after this! Hopefully the designers will get around to writing a decent game next and leave the flashy piss poor graphics out in favour of a decent storyline.

Sorry if that sounded a little ratty but when you spend £20 on a game that won't run properly on your computer, even though you're WAY over the minimum specs, I think you have a right to be ratty.

 

I spent all day trying to get it to work, five minutes ago it worked, its all due to that ridiculous **** called SecuROM, how ironic is that I paid for the game and end up having to search for a crack to play the god damn thing. I played it for 10 seconds (once it worked), just to see how well it runs, seemed ok, there is a BIG drop in fps, I can run ut2003 in 1600x1200 with max graphics and have great fps, I cannot understand how this game is eating fps, it is still playable of course but there is something wrong.

 

Neverwinter Nights is far more processor intensive than UT2003. If you have a good graphics card UT2003 will run well as the only processor intensive part in it is the body physics. Neverwinter Nights has loads of scripts and far more happening on screen usually than UT2003 so better graphics cards won't help you. In HotU especially there are some very big battles which means your processor is working very hard.

 

Eventhough I was never impressed by Drow, Beholders, Epic levels and other stuff I often relate with 'munchkin', I bought this addition and can't wait for the weekend to play it.

It's unlikely I will add some Prestige Classes to my character, unless there would be a Hierophant, Divine Disciple, or other divine Prestige Class that would be usefull and interesting for my fighter/cleric. And no, I don't worship Torm, so I won't take the Champion-class, even if it's only the name that that annoys me. (Too much a paladin-thing)

I can't wait to bring some light to Undermountain. The Morninglord would be proud of me

 

Could some of you folks who have had an opportunity to actually play this game post some critical reviews of it? I would very much like to hear what you think of the story line, the new creatures, spells, classes...etc. After ending up somewhat dissapointed with both the OC and SoU, I would like to see some real comparison to those.

I don't really care about hardware problems, most of the time that is a driver or install problem...lets hear about the game.

 

No respect for newsfolks' hard work

 

No, I appreciate all the hard work, I just don't get the info I want from "Official Reviews" at Gamespot and IGN. They seem to be more of a rehash of new tilesets, more polygons, new classes, added features...but not a real person who had played all the games and can comment on how much they enjoyed them. That is all I was getting at by my earlier question, a comparison of the "gaming" experience between HotU and OC / SoU.

Don't need someone to tell me I can go to level 40, found that out at SP months ago .

 

They end up there the moment I spot one. In some Forum News, there's a reference to a review that a guy wrote on Bioware boards right after finishing the game. Perhaps that's the first-hand experience you want.

Eh, you know what? I'm too good. Just too damn good Here's the link I've dug up for you with these very hands. Have and enjoy.

http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=288818&forum=82

 

Excellent, chev, that is exactly the kind of review that I have been looking for. More of a "gamers" testimonial than a programmers analysis. It said a lot to me in another thread when Fade said that he was going to play through again . That is the kind of feedback I have been waiting for.

Remember, this is Christmas, and I need to decide whether to ask for HotU or a new Weed Whacker.

 

Well, I just loaded HoTU and it crashed my system within 5 minutes of playing it. The mouse action is so delayed that when I select a dialogue choice, the new dialogue appears 3-4 seconds later. Also, the first and only cut scene I saw was nothing more than a series of stills, jerkily strung together, with a person's dialogue appearing about 4 seconds after the person was supposed to be speaking. The video card I have worked fine with NWN and works with every other game I own, including Morrowind, which is a hog in and of itself. This is utter CRAP....and a total waste of money for me.