valdaintheking: .
Basically, the point I learned about real time party games is this-the only ones worth playing through are Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 and Planescape. Other than that, the rest are just crap. Real time combat doesn't work and is too unpredictable. If this was turn based like fallout 1 and 2, my character would not have run into these problems.
Coelocanth: Well, all I can say here is there are legions of fans of the game that would disagree with you on this point.
valdaintheking: Real time combat is just too unpredictable. Since when is a character who puts all his points in strength having trouble hitting an enemy. If it takes more than 2 swings to hit an enemy, the game is doing something wrong. The turn based d and d games are more like this. The real time ones have better visuals but thats about it.
Coelocanth: Are you basing this on the combat log or on the visual? Don't make the mistake of the latter, since you'll see the character swing on-screen a number of times, but that doesn't mean you actually have an attack. As well, were you buffing your character? Potions and items help a lot in this game. I'm just finding it odd that you are reporting this kind of problem with a STR-based character that (I assume from your post) is built to concentrate on STR.
valdaintheking: The games crash on start 1 out of 5 times and when changing music as well. On top of this, computers in the past wouldn't run it without major problems.
Coelocanth: I have to disagree with this statement. I played the game on an old Dell system, a system I built myself (Asus mobo with an AMD 3200+ processor), another self-built machine with a dual core Intel (E6750) and have it installed on my self-built Win7 64-bit rig (Intel i7 920 processor) and an array of video cards from a lowly nvidia FX5200 right up to a GTX 560ti (and one old Radeon card in the Dell machine). Although I can't claim the game never crashed, it certainly didn't very often. It was a damned rare event.
valdaintheking: That undead fight if you don't save vs. fear you run away for like 5 rounds (Also not in the original baldurs gate, ice wind dale and ps T).
Coelocanth: That fear effect in NWN is completely ridiculous and one of the things you could add to Hickory's list of 'What were they thinking?' (although I disagree with the camera complaint - not sure what the issue is with that) But by that point you should have items and/or potions to protect against the fear effect.
Having given up before reaching the undead fight in question (to echo earlier sentiments, "oh dear god, the camera!" and add a dash of "oh dear god, the plot!"), I can verify that the real time combat style at play here definitely makes the outcome drastically different from a turn based system like Fallout, or for that matter, even the IE games (with which I have many a bugbear). Ok, sure, IE already produced results that never would happen in a PnP D&D/Fallout or even Wasteland system, but it at least the action wasn't nearly as chaotic as it was here.
To give an example, I rolled up some stats for a Rogue; she wasn't exactly the strongest thing ever, but I made sure to invest in traps and took weapon finesse. My plan was to scout ahead, and when the enemy found me, turn tail and run; upon following me, the enemy would find my henchman and I lying in wait at a doorway, blocking anyone from coming in and flanking us while we cut them down (maybe getting in a few attacks of opportunity on people who moved up to replace their fallen comrades), and if things started to go tits-up, we would retreat down the corridor I had laced with traps, repeating our schtick at the next doorway. Not exactly the most elegant plan, but I was going for more of a stealth-based character, and doing that requires pulling a few dirty tricks to make combat less awful.
Problem is, it would have definitely worked if the game went turn by turn (well, assuming I had more control over my henchmen), and it could have even worked under IE what with everyone standing still while they fought. In NWN 1, the PC and henchmen keeps dancing about with five foot steps, despite my best attempts. That might not sound like a problem, but when it results in one of the party moving forward through the doorway and getting flanked murdered, it definitely gets a bit grating. That's not even mentioning all the other ways that this can result in accidental flanking during combat.