I’m starting a new campaign project and there are a few things that have always bothered me with NWN2, including the somewhat static and bad looking dialogs.
I don’t know if I’m making myself clear: the small dialog box on the side (when it should be right in the middle and at the bottom, in my opinion), the in-game model that doesn’t move…
How do you do, on your side, to make the whole thing a little more immersive? Animations ? Sounds ? Camera moves? Baldur-like user interface ?
According to your description, the conversation is using the NWN1 style (it’s an option you can tick in the toolset).
The screenshot below is in French but should give an idea of what to look for:
In fact I don’t use the NWN2 style dialogue, because without voice actors, all silent, it’s not pleasant. So I prefer the box. Only, I don’t like any character animation to indicate who is talking, nor any camera movement towards the speaking character… I think it’s “indémerdable”. Perhaps just a “yes” head movement of the talking character would fit.
If you still would like the conversation lines to be displayed at the bottom, maybe you could try the NWN2 style, but force the scene to use a static camera far enough to remain like the exploration mode.
In my opinion NWN2 does not use the right engine to create action oriented cutscenes. The models are not made for close up camera shots, the vanilla animations are bad, the whole animation blending not made for cutscenes, and there’s no camera control tool besides static angles and the workaround to focus on a creature for a paning shot. Can’t do much with this.
Just write engaging text and use NWN1’s box style dialogue most of the time. If you don’t like its look or placement, drag it around and/or write your custom dialogue window in XML.
NWN2’s cutscene mode can be used for a special shot or a small and simple scene now and then.
Look at the Infinity Engine Games. They had no close ups or camera shots and were fantastic games still.
