Hi there! I haven’t played much of NWN EE in the last time, but a friend of mine (new player) wanted to give it a chance in co-op mode and we’ve made a lot of preparations and looked forward to it, but when we finally found the right module to play and had everything set up correctly, we ran into this bug where all NPCs standing on waypoints will turn to face east at some point. It’s very immersion-breaking, and it was quite the disappointment for us to see the game behave this way …
I remembered noticing a post on the Steam forums about it recently and checked, and indeed, it seems that this is a known problem that is supposedly going to be fixed with the next patch - BUT apparently it exists in the EE for a long time already. There hasn’t been a patch in over a year and it seems this bug was present in the EE versions directly preceding it as well. That’s quite shocking for me to see, after defending and praising the EE so much lately - and admittedly they did a lot of good, I was happy to notice some things that are possible with the EE now even during our preparation phase. But this bug to me has the potential to ruin the whole experience, as it interferes with the careful design of past module authors. According to the post on the Steam forums, it even happens in the OC …
So my questions:
Does anyone know since when this bug is around? Was it in 1.69 already and/or in early version of EE (why did I never notice it before then?), or was it introduced with one of the more recent patches?
If it’s something comparatively new, does anyone know how this happened, what caused it (in terms easy to understand for players without much experience in coding)?
Does anyone know if this is actually going to get fixed? A commenter on the Steam forums wrote “This is fixed for the next patch release 8193.35: ‘- Fixed creatures facing east when standing on _POST waypoints.’”, but it doesn’t seem fixed in the current development build - if that’s even different from the last patch version. If it is fixed in .35, does anyone in this community have a clue how long we still have to wait for this fix to go live?
Does anyone have an idea how widespread this bug is? Did we just get unlucky with the old Cave of Songs module or would we likely encounter this in everything we play (the mention that this is present in some parts of the OC, too, seems to suggest there is no escaping it)?
I’d be grateful for any insights helping me to understand the extent of the problem, thanks!
It’s pretty cool that the people working on it are so dedicated that they do it in their free time, but I suppose that also means that Beamdog as a company has more or less abandoned the game now in a state worse than before, regarding this single issue? I get the basic realities of business and making a living, but still, that’s disappointing for the fans of the game.
So if I understand correctly, I would have to join the Discord server and ask for a preview key for me and my friend(s) in order to get access to a beta/EA version where this is supposedly fixed, and then we should test whether it actually works?
We are simple players though, not really able to discern whether any issues we would encounter are due to changes in .35, previous versions of the EE, errors or compatibility issues in the module or our own setup … Hm.
From my experience, it’s hard work to try and get new players to see the appeal of NWN in the first place. Things like this certainly don’t make it any easier. Oh well.
Read through the first document I linked to because that particular bug was apparently fixed before January 6th this year. From what I can see, this update may end up being the EE equivalent of the 1.69 patch was for the pre-EE game.
BTW, if you want and can easily get on Discord how about trying out
there are some serious bugs that have been introduced to the game that show up in the demo module. I have mentioned it before but having an extra report written by someone who could feasibly been a quality control person (i.e. you) would add weight to getting it fixed. To be clear here, I am not talking about the program itself (it worked fine in 1.69) but the bugs as they present themselves in various parts of the demo. Thanks.
Would you recommend using the latest preview build for playing? Or did you notice other things break in it that might make the experience worse than using the latest official patch?
Whoops, I misunderstood. It’s much easier than that. No need to join the Discord server and ask for anything, just type in the code “previewpreview” in the BETA tab of the game’s Steam properties and you get access to the preview build. So far it seems to work fine.
(Of course, users of the Beamdog and GOG version get the short end of the stick again, but I switched to the Steam version long ago because of that.)
I bought the game on Beamdog but ‘abandoned’ the Beamdog client long ago after the problems started. I kind of felt forced to use Steam but I’m happily using Steam now as there are so many options of being able to download preferred versions of the game like the preview version or the 32 bit version or the stable version. It’s just simpler and easier to use.
As for the 1.69 version I’ve had it for years from a boxed version gifted to me by my brother long ago and patched and updated. I went and bought the GOG version of EE when it was on sale and got the 1.69 version for free again (kind of overkill but I got new 1.69 keys thinking I might play online which i never did)
I use 35 for building and playing. Only time I roll back to 34 is when I’m doing commisioned work for other projects as what I make for them has to be 34 compatible.
I picked Baldecaran’s The Cave of Songs. We’ve upgraded to the preview build now, so for us the issue is resolved, but if you want to see the problem in action, this module is a good demo, because it starts in an inn, where all NPCs that are meant to face each other or the room, will soon turn towards the east, even if it means staring at the wall (most striking: the group of three dwarves in the corner and the merchant near the side wall).
I built my two nwn1 modules since 2020 using windows xp and nwn 1.69 but playtest my modules on my phone using newest/ beta version of nwn EE and I haven’t noticed any of my npcs facing the wrong direction. Are all modules you play doing this or just that one module The Cave Of Songs? I tried The Cave Of Songs on NWN EE about a year ago and didnt notice any npcs facing the wrong direction so maybe an update for EE in the last year messed something up…
Cool I think I only used 1 Npc with a post waypoint in my first module ( I mainly use nonmobile animations in spawn script slot if I need npcs to stay in one place) and that npc is just walking a loop around a small spot so I never noticed if he faces east or wherever, plus he is outside so guess its not as obvious as inside where he might be facing a wall. Edit: Actually I think I used WP_ not POST_ so guess my modules are ok.
Currently, the official 35 patch seems to be the way to go and the new preview build is not recommended to stay on, as we noticed that the leveling up process is broken for certain classes - it won’t move past the screen for picking a familiar / companion anymore (“OK” is greyed out).
Does anyone know the best way to let the team know or check if it has been reported already? I joined the developer Discord that TR linked to in his first reply at the beginning of this thread, but it looks kind of “professional” scary for a simple player like me, like I’m not meant to be there …
Yes, stay on .35 it been well tested and for the most part people are having little trouble using it. Preview is for latest testing for .36 by people who want to help the main team narrow down issues and test new features. Me, Pstemarie and number of others are on preview to see how things are going and give feedback. Not being able to choose your familiar is a know issue on preview .36 so yes the team knows. Thanks for the mention. If you have question(s) or need help with .35 come on discord, also there a lot of friendly people to help with CC, scripting and workflow etc…
Oh well.
