19 years on: NWN:EE - the HD characters & equipment patch

[Knighted]

edit - update as of 22/02/2022 - it's recommended that you use the community's version of the official HD pack, as it has fixed a large number of issues with the original (beta) pack from Beamdog:
Userpatch version on the Neverwinter Vault: https://neverwintervault.org/project/nw ... nity-fixes
Alternative Steam Workshop install: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2663081007
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Hey all

Hope it's OK to post this here, please remove if not, but I thought it might be interesting for ALFA players generally.

Recently, Beamdog surprised the NWN:EE community by releasing a large update patch, which replaces all the original NWN player character models, and all the original armour and weaponry, with new up-to-date models and textures. The pack is still in a 'beta' state with more upgrades to come hopefully in the not-too-distance future. But the results are pretty great:




To me it was quite incredible news, given the age of the game and the fact BD aren't really making any money off it anymore - although I understand it may have been part of their original promises for NWN:EE way back before launch.

In any case, it has been awesome to see this old game getting a surge of media coverage even now, 19 years on from launch:
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/41gb-of-hd-m ... d-edition/
https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/ne ... ck-3107060


Here's the link to the Beamdog announcement post on Steam for anyone interested.


What's also cool is that with a few other visual upgrades from Beamdog and elsewhere, NWN does look half-decent these days (in my opinion - but then again I've always liked the look of it even though it's extremely retro looking by modern standards!).

A few quickly snapped shots from original (2008) areas on ALFA 050 - The Moonshae Isles:

Corwell Marketplace


Cantrev Myrrdale


Corwell town near the north gate

...and another couple from ALFA 034 - Daggerford (currently in Beta):




Anyways, hope all you ALFAns out there are doing well. The 'unofficial' ALFA NWN 1 Waterdeep, Moonshaes and Daggerford (beta) servers are up and running for anyone who wants to come check em out *waves*

[Veilan]

Great to see NWN1 still getting love. The ease with which it could be modified and allowed you to be creative even as an amateur really set it apart, in my opinion.

I'll go grab the update and see if it makes a difference for myself.

[Knighted]

Great to see NWN1 still getting love. The ease with which it could be modified and allowed you to be creative even as an amateur really set it apart, in my opinion.

I'll go grab the update and see if it makes a difference for myself.

I recommend these two small override packs to folks playing on MS, they make a HUGE difference to loads of areas (although Waterdeep city areas look a bit odd with the cities override, for various reasons):
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nw ... rride-pack
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nw ... s-showcase
...just download and put the contents of both straight in your /Documents/Neverwinter Nights/Override folder.


Re: NWN1's versatility... it honestly still boggles my mind how much can be done with it. Then again I only just started building stuff in NWN in earnest... in January 2021
But the fact we ever got a tool like this is absurd & I'm pretty sure we'll never see its like again. The fact it's still being updated and maintained (a new patch for it came out literally just yesterday lol) is even more ridiculous.