1st time playing - Controls are odd

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I know this is no longer a Bioware game, but man the controls stink. I am playing through with a Pal(2)/Favoured Soul(x) build. Good times with a high Charisma hero, but the game itself is, for a lack for a better term, all over the place. The NPC controls/AI are crap. I have played around with the behavior settings, but the healer just charges into combat? Crappy design there. Are there any patches/mods for this game yet that help with the AI? I have updated the game upon loading it up recently, but it doesn't seem to help much.

Other than that though, I have enjoyed the OC so far. My character is now level 11(2/9) and is kicking some major butt. He buffs and charges, wrecking havoc with his Greatsword. I very much want to add a PrC, but nothing seems ot fit. Is there another resource other than the expansions, I have MotB and SoZ loaded as I purchased the platinum box, that can provide more PrCs? Possibly a site like the Players Consrtium for NWN1?

 

I haven't explored mods for this game, so I can't speak to that, but the best way I've found to prevent your followers rushing into combat is to keep them in "follow mode" until you wish them to rush into combat (by putting them into "attack mode") or you directly control them to attack.

It's not widely known, but you can create shortcuts on your quickbars for such broadcast commands. You do this by pressing "V" which bring up a menu of several broadcast commands for which you can drag the icon into your quickbar. I usually have "stand ground" "follow" and "attack" in my quickbar. If you put them in the 1 - 10 spaces of your primary quickbar, that should allow you to use them as hotkeys. This is the "best" way that I've found, but it's still far from perfect.

You're right, party control is a major weakness of this game. I posted as much in this forum in the last day or two myself.

 

I almost exclusively use top down view, this way it plays very similar to the Infinity games.
As a result, I don't have any concerns with the controls.
Pan with moving mouse to the screen borders like in BG2, select and move character by simply clicking.
Doesn't get any easier.
Marceror's tips are very useful, too.
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Here is a nice resource for plenty of new Prestige classes:

Kaedrin's PrC Pack v1.40.4

 

Is there anyway to coax the camera into emulating the way the top-down view worked in NWN1 without the viewpoint shifting as you move and suddenly have obstacles obscure your view of the action or have it decide to zoom in on a close-up of your character and you can't see what's ahead or around you?
It is especially annoying when the camera control keys stop responding just as it zooms in.

Is there any way to stop that annoying bug too? I'm on the 1023 (1765) (FINAL) AUG 17 2009 172945 patch.

 

With tactical view you should seldom have any problems.
Works exactly like in the Infinity games, e.g. Baldur's Gate.
Make sure you are as far zoomed out as possible.

In the occasion of obscuring view just switch with one button press to exploration mode.
In this mode you can also have a close up view of your characters if you so fancy.
Then switch back to tactical.

The 3rd view, character view, is totally messed up, imho, don't use it.

That's the way, I play the game and I think it is better than the NWN system.
But for someone who dislikes a top down view, the NWN2 camera is indeed messed up.

 

I put my characters in puppet mode (character sheet -> behavior tab -> first option on the list), which effectively disables their AI. I play from a top-down perspective and give every single order individually. Just like I used to play infinity engine games.

The one real issue for me is the lack of a button or shortcut to select the whole party, which makes it difficult to regroup when the party is scattered.

Another big frustration for me right now is the following scenario:
Accidentally click on a summon, fail to notice it is selected
Select a party member
Select the healing spell
Watch the character cast it on the summon when what I wanted to do was select another target.

 

I forgot to put an alert for this thread, too much dependence on alerts.
The problem with the tactical view is that I can't seem to "zoom out" far enough. Especially indoors. It's worse in battle that BG was before the "auto pause on enemy sighted" was.
Is there something I can modify in an .ini file to let me zoom out a bit more?

It does remind me a bit of the "tactical combat" from the Gold Box games when it's like that, but the Gold Box games were turn-based, allowing me to look around and choose actions. Plus, they revealed enemy locations (provided they weren't invisible) when the moved and attacked.
I also had control of the party, and the "quick" mode AI was far more intelligent, even if it tended to blow my most powerful spells and equipped items' charges on canon fodder leaving me helpless for the stronger foes.

 

IIRC, there's an option somewhere in the camera menus that restricts your camera height to the height of the ceiling of the building/dungeon you're already in... turn that off, and you should find the game more playable. Just be aware that the terrible camera controls aren't necessarily the least of NWN2's problems.