Game Mechanics you NEVER knew

[Isadora]

I've been playing this game for years, obviously, but even still, I kind of crashed into it without reading the manual very thoroughly... I didn't even finish the OC, just jumped into multiplayer. As a result there are surprising things I'm STILL learning over the years, like

Did you know you can use the [ and ] keyboard buttons to skip inventory tabs... I used to just drag stuff... dear god.

Did you know you can double click on a magic item in your inventory to use its power? Chargeable items, scrolls, potions. I used to just use the radial menu... geez.

Maybe I'm dumb but I can't be alone!

[LadyAwesome]

I never did either for the start, then I done the starting thing of the oc.
I learnt about the alt and ctrl button things so you can have more in your quick slots.

[Manuel the White]

Thanks for the tips!

[Zerub]

I've been playing this game for years, obviously, but even still, I kind of crashed into it without reading the manual very thoroughly... I didn't even finish the OC, just jumped into multiplayer. As a result there are surprising things I'm STILL learning over the years, like

Did you know you can use the [ and ] keyboard buttons to skip inventory tabs... I used to just drag stuff... dear god.

Maybe I'm dumb but I can't be alone!

I never read the manual. I never played the stand alone game. I jumped right into Avlis because of a friend. Heck, I had never played 3rd edition. I had always played 1st edition.

I guess I am really dumb, because I am not sure what you mean by using keys to skip inventory tabs.

Scott

[Jazz]

Here's a nice tip also, that a lot of people don't seem to know: you can continue typing when you're transitioning (and are looking at the loading screen). Saves some time/boredom


I knew about the [ ], but not about double clicking on items!

[Zerub]

Here's a nice tip also, that a lot of people don't seem to know: you can continue typing when you're transitioning (and are looking at the loading screen). Saves some time/boredom


I knew about the [ ], but not about double clicking on items!

Oh!!! I thought she was using the [] to mean to use the AND sign i.e. &. Reading too much into it.

Scott

[Ferria]

The best is one that Buddha taught me; to use the numeric keypad for accessing the radial menu. I use several but I'm typing in 046 all the time, especially when dungeon crawling ... and it doesn't work in NWN2 which is very annoying.

[GunnJ]

We had another thread like this running round, anyone remember what it was called?

[tindertwiggy]

I live by the tab button for highlighting everything. I think it is tab. Also spacebar to stop current actions if I want to cancel a spell midcast or for some reason I dash across a room to sock Kassha in the jaw.

But this is controls-based stuff. When I think game mechanics, I think:

• Set using the taunt skill to break greater an opponent's sanctuary. Hilarious.
• Equip a range weapon to avoid making automatic attacks of opportunity. This especially helpful for squishy mages who are using invis.
• Some spells and spell/metamagic combinations bypass spell mantles entirely. Fireburst or Greater Fireburst comes to mind. I am not sure if they still work, or if Nob fixed them. Find someone and test.
• There used to be some metamagic combinations that would not trigger the counter-spell script, so you could cast despite being counter-spelled. Not sure if this still is true.
• Mind Fog doesn't break invis.
• If baleful transposition doesn't work, use dominate + regular transposition.
• Gust of wind is the best dispel vs area-effect spells in the game. It works 100% on EVERYTHING. Goodbye storm of vengeance.

[loki70]

Here's a nice tip also, that a lot of people don't seem to know: you can continue typing when you're transitioning (and are looking at the loading screen). Saves some time/boredom


I knew about the [ ], but not about double clicking on items!

You can also shift-click a location and your character will walk to it giving you time to type something out. Don't know how many times I've had a ton of text in the window waiting for the person I'm talking to to trans on their slower connection.

[Gorgon]

...waiting for the person I'm talking to to trans on their slower connection.

Connection speed may not be the reason many times. Area files in the mods can get over 500k in size, and sometimes over a meg, but most of that info is only used by the server. Clients only get a small amount of data when loading a new area (and only need a few KBps while in them most times), then use their local resources to fill in the details. This is why we can override all sorts of stuff like how things look, since we are loading it from the haks we downloaded or nwn files, not from the server.

How fast they load the resources for the new area because of the speed of the machine/drive they use is probably why some load slower. I know it is in my case with the PoS I play nwn on. It takes a while (long while for a few areas) to finish with the progress bar and tell the server "Ok, I'm set for the next area". Areas with a billion different tile or placeable models are super slow (though a billion of the same ones is fine because of how nwn caches files). I can only imagine how much fun I would have with a real machine when doing toolset work on Avlis. Loading areas in that can take a long time, and major builds are an overnight event (if I'm stupid enough to try it...thankfully I don't have to) This is also why slower machines can have fairly noticeable pauses when new encounters come into view, since the new creature models have to be loaded from the drive. A lot of sources say using a large memory cache setting for nwn doesn't help after a certain point (64 or maybe 128 meg), but it does quite a bit for me on Avlis. If you have a few gigs of ram, setting it to 256meg or more may do wonders.

[RCon]

I don't know... I upgraded my machine to a blazer about a year ago, and NWN didn't get any faster. I think switching to Windows 7 and running NWN in compatibility may limit how much of the resources it actually uses.

[Grunt]

I don't know... I upgraded my machine to a blazer about a year ago, and NWN didn't get any faster. I think switching to Windows 7 and running NWN in compatibility may limit how much of the resources it actually uses.

Without upgrading my PC, I switched to an SSD instead of a conventional hard drive, and found my loading times and game performance were much better.

Also, twiggy, I think the Gust of Wind thing is a bug.

[solitude_peace2]

Also, twiggy, I think the Gust of Wind thing is a bug.

Bite your tongue!

[Nighthawk4]

Also, twiggy, I think the Gust of Wind thing is a bug.

Bite your tongue!

Not back to the Elven for fart are we?

[Gorgon]

Also, twiggy, I think the Gust of Wind thing is a bug.

Bite your tongue!

*Has a proposed fix in CCC for this*
Poor twiggy

[Sora]

Did you know you can use the [ and ] keyboard buttons to skip inventory tabs... I used to just drag stuff... dear god.

God. Such an old post and I see it only now. Real pain in the... neck

[tindertwiggy]

Also, twiggy, I think the Gust of Wind thing is a bug.

Bite your tongue!

*Has a proposed fix in CCC for this*
Poor twiggy

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I found out you can bind a walk button (not run). Mind blown.

[Soshus Eblum]

I found out you can bind a walk button (not run). Mind blown.

I just have search quick-slotted and use that. *edit* "Detect Mode" I mean.

[navink]

I just have search quick-slotted and use that. *edit* "Detect Mode" I mean.

Unfortunately that is not possible for us pure elves

[Thelo]

As tindertwiggy wrote, you can just change key binding. I have the "f" button for walking, so I can move with WASD, and Walk with F (pretty handy and works with Elfs too), furthermore I put two radial menu buttons to T and Z: The former is the upper-left menu button (this is for playing a pure psion and comes in handy if you have to browse through 5+ radial menu pages to get that darn ESP and T is for the right button in the radial menu, so you can right click on things and buy/sell them. Saves time and nerves when buying baits for fishing...

From other game mechanics you might not know, this one springs to mind:
Some AoE spells bypass the saves vs. spells your oponent has (e.g. grease, IIRC Stromg of vengeance), same counts for some psionics (e.g. telekinesis), so their dc is much higher.

Btw is there a way to automatically start certain combat feats like rapidshot or flurry of blows in combat?

[maxinion]

Some AoE spells bypass the saves vs. spells your oponent has (e.g. grease, IIRC Stromg of vengeance)

There might even be IC reasons for why that is the case

[Grunt]

Some AoE spells bypass the saves vs. spells your oponent has (e.g. grease, IIRC Stromg of vengeance)

There might even be IC reasons for why that is the case

Also, Max hates conjurations~

[Cougar]

Something I've not seen anywhere else is the command to have your summons do emotes and speak if they are able to is the ; key.

Nothing like summoning a lich and have it look menacingly at the goodies around you and then bow to your character!