Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

As the title reads

I've been wondering, how far does convenience go before you've lost all immersion?

I cant really complain about things like the recent addition to the caravan system, thats a convenience that adds, since it takes more players around the server meaning that more players meet up which equals more rp. <- good shit!

Convenient things that detracts from gameplay which i've posted about before is Mudds auction, it takes away rp, but its already so ingrained, it would just lead to more complaints than the hassle was worth it to remove.

One thing i think could be altered without anyone having a reason to cry about it is day and nighttime length on the server, which i think now is around 20-30 min or so in total (someone will correct me) it could stand to be increased to 1hr for day 1hr for night, my argument for this is that nights and days are so short that during the span of a conversation in game the day and night cycle spins around so fast it goes by several times, giving the day and night cycle no weight.

An addition to this would be to make nights more special by adding scripted night events such as bandit holdups on roads, wild animal attacks, stronger alternative monsters during night, more monsters during night and so on. (note that there are a few such events already scripted, but they could stand to be bettered.)

a great reason for people to seek groups and initiate roleplay, It would add greatly to the athmosphere and it would make for a more exciting world to travel within.

I'd be glad to hear your thoughts about this, whoever reads this!
I'll post more later, depending on if you guys out there want to hear more of my thoughts on what i think could be better as this is only one of my many many ideas of what i'd like to see on the server.

I love this idea! I don't know how long the day/night currently is but I agree that the cycle feels pretty insignificant. Having the nights be 'more dangerous' would be a lot of fun-- maybe even taking the caravan at night could have a chance at getting stopped by bandits (adjusted for the parties level) where you have to defend it .

My only fear though is it may be a lot of work for the staff when it feels like most people just teleport around, or now, ride the caravans. Not to derail from your suggestion here, but... if there was some sort of discouraging factor to always fast traveling around as the regular mode of transportation: maybe a cooldown, or the cost raises with each use until a server-reset. Teleport1 cost 850, Teleport2 1700, Teleport 3, 3400, Teleport 4 and beyond maxed at 5,000 but resets when the server-resets, Caravan a similar deal. This may encourage people to be like "hey it's not that far, maybe we should walk it and deal with the horrors of the night!". Although thinking this through again... This may primarily hurt new players, so maybe characters less then level 25 are exempt from cost increases

Anyways to circle back around, adding a little more variation depending on whether its day or night sounds like a great idea to me!

I would not mind if more areas were teleportation locked, Teleportation does trivialize and damper potential rp, it fits in on my ongoing Convenience vs immersion theme as well! (I'll be making more posts soon, same theme!)

MissClick wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:39 pm

I personally prefer the explanation of Teleportation over the handwave of travel time on foot or by wagon. It happens, we all make allowances and find ways to accommodate it, but I do find the latter more immersion breaking than the accuracy teleportation affords on a maps as large and far reaching as ours.

That is not to say I do not find enjoyment walking the roads, it is quite the opposite: the organic potential for roleplay in such a manner is often sought and well-received. However, to speak my opinion in relation to urgency or character action that would be otherwise restricted by time constraint, it is better explained and accomplished through magic. Is it narratively cheap? Yes, but may also be more realistic - or as realistic as something can be in a fantastical setting.

When time can be afforded a bubble and wandering is done in the spirit of adventure and interaction and/or the journey is roleplayed around in some degree - be it wagon or steed - that is when it is at its best. When several players have Haste and run through several transition because a DM has indicated some strange phenomena via shout and the answer to any question related to the speed of arrival is "we ran", that is when immersion is weakened.

Unfortunately, due to the distance and spread of the server's destinations there is no easy way to resolve those inaccuracies.

I cannot help but agree, the ingame maps cover an insanely large part of the coast for what we physically have displayed via the ingame areas, I'm always taken out of the immersion whenever someone says they ran as quick as they could a distance that would take weeks if not months by foot, but teleportation leaves little actual roleplaying to be had if everyone just keeps teleporting to wherever they want to go why do we even have a big beautiful world out there?

I'd like to have some kind of middleground say, established teleport hotspots say you can teleport from wherever but you can only teleport to certain anchor spots, example would be a specific building within baldurs gate, for that immediate area, and similar for other areas.

Immersion does not always have to be comfortable.

Hey that Anchor idea sounds like a really good one! I like that, maybe the "Wizard Towers" have set teleport locations that are needed to 'land in'. Example:
Baldurs Gate Eastgate wizard tower
Gullykin Wizard Tower
HighHedge Estate
Candlekeep
Even Bentley has been holding out on us with his Shady portal in the basement
I'm sure there are several other magical portal places that would make sense too--- that was just off the top of my head.

Everything I've learned about D&D rules has been learned in playing here, so I'm not sure if making teleport work in this fashion is just a blatant disregard for D&D lore? I'm sure many would be upset losing that ability to set locations using that 'mark location' scroll too, so maybe not such a good idea...

It would be nice though to see less of:
1) Teleport to Skull gorge, kill loot
2) Teleport to Wide, Sell sell sell,
3) Teleport to Pirate Stronghold, kill loot
4) Teleport to Wide, sell , Auction
5) Adventure over Logout.

But I also recognize that maybe that is how some wish to play the game, and that's totally okay too. We are all here to have fun and that's what really matters. BG is just starting to feel a little more like that "City of Doors" world where everyone just hangs out in 1, 2, or maybe 3 spots for RP, then steps through the various portals (in our case teleport scrolls) for dungeon runs.

I also recognize though it's just the sign of the times of having a smaller population than what I'll call the 'golden era of nwn2'. . I'm sure many people remember those days of clicking the "connect" button over and over when the world was 96/96 hoping that you will luckily get in! Okay I'll quit while i'm ahead, the nostalgia is setting in! ( I never thought I'd miss that "Server is Full" notification.... but here we are!)

Coming back around to the original post though, those anchor points would also encourage people to get out and walk more between destinations and deal with the horrors of the night!

Well, I’ve read all the horrible things you’ve written — at least up until you all started going completely crazy.

Teleports: They already suck enough as it is. Losing 850 gold, seeing the teleport fail, and having to wait 15 minutes to rest and recast it — I think that’s the shittiest thing that can ever happen to you in life. But we’ve had it worse: Me, Zorn, and two others wanted to get closer to Grey Peaks. We cast 5 — FIVE — teleports, and every single one failed!!! They bounced us all over the area, dealing us a ridiculous amount of damage. Did we roleplay it? No, we just got pissed off.

Caravans: They’re fine as they are — in fact, there are even too few of them. Spending 250 gold sometimes annoys even me, and I have millions of gold — imagine a poor low-level character who has to manage their economy? Well, they’ll hardly use the caravans, you know why? Because it’s more efficient for them to travel all areas on foot, kill everything, and earn XP to level up.

Now for the best part — don’t touch the auction!!!
Do you know what the problem with the auction is? It’s that there’s an endless supply of items for sale that are crap! Useless junk nobody wants. All items with AC3 or lower, all those with stat bonuses less than +3, are trash. Who are these items for? Who’s supposed to use them? Certainly not a level 30 character — maybe characters level 15 and below, but there are fewer and fewer of those.

Okay, now let’s get to the real problem with the server:
There are many, many, MANY more level 30 characters than new low-level characters.
First of all, I have my level 30 character — I only play that one and have no interest in creating others, so I want to progress with that one.
Me, like a lot of other people. And I’ve even seen people with 4-5 level 30 characters!!!
The problem is: there’s no content for these characters!
Don’t tell me there are plenty of areas — it’s not true!!!
If it were true, I wouldn’t only be grinding around Reaching Woods and Skull Gorge!
Not to mention that you can reach Holy Blessed Reaching Woods at level 25 or even lower — and stay there for the rest of your life!
There are plenty of areas if you need to grind XP and reach level 30, but the characters who need to grind are fewer and fewer!
What we need, in my opinion, are many, MANY more areas with a better difficulty/loot ratio for level 30 characters. High-level areas exist, but in some, it’s not worth the time — like the Wyrm Forest. It’s not that I ignore it because it’s difficult (though it kinda is), but because there aren’t enough chests to justify the effort. And since Skull Gorge takes me over an hour anyway, time is what it is — I’ll always choose Skull Gorge.

We need to do more for level 30 characters.
Every time I find AC3 items, I try to auction them off at ridiculously low prices, thinking, “Well, maybe some low-level player will be happy to get this powerful item for their level at a cheap price”…
Yeah, right!!! That’s not true! Nobody buys them!
Because that guy with the level 6 character already has a level 30 character who’s already passed down all the epic gear that character doesn’t use!!!

I repeat: we need to do more for level 30 characters.
In fact, I’ll throw out an exaggeration now: Every new character is automatically boosted to level 30. We’re all level 30 — there are no lower-level characters to grind with.
After all, my level 30 character, who has the power of a god on earth to dominate half the globe, is treated like an uncommon commoner! What’s the point of levels? Certainly not for the “roleplay” you hold so dear. If you’re just sitting on a log typing on a keyboard, the character’s level doesn’t change a thing for you.
This is a bit of an exaggeration — I wouldn’t want to take away anyone’s pleasure in leveling.

As for items, I don’t know what the right solution is.
When I create an adventure, for me, the real game balance lies in completely removing magical items, ensuring they don’t replace the innate abilities of characters. If I have a magical item that gives me AC, I won’t bother using spells that increase it, because they don’t stack! And so, many spells and abilities are conveniently replaced by a magical item that anyone can have.
Obviously, you can’t have a server without magical items — otherwise, there’d be nothing to do, no treasures to conquer, only the “so-called roleplay” left. So I think those who value it most shouldn’t have anything to oppose or complain about.
Neither do I — my character is a god; without magical items and with the server rebalanced, he’d be even more of one.
But it’s obvious that this isn’t the solution — I’m not as crazy as you guys, proposing random nonsense.

In the end, I don’t know.
I’ve highlighted several issues, but I don’t have real solutions that don’t turn everything upside down.
In the short term, the quickest thing to do to address the addiction and the need for something for level 30 characters is to increase the number of chests.
There are areas like the Lich Cave in Cloud Peaks — if I think about going there for just 3 chests and a boss, I lose all motivation.
I know it’s absurd, but for me, the time it takes to get there, the scarcity of treasure, and how quickly the dungeon is finished just aren’t worth it. Literally, I have to travel across the entire world, only to enter a cave, open three chests, and be out in less than five minutes — immediately afterward asking myself, “Okay, what do I do now?”
On the other hand, there are huge dungeons with the same number of containers, where you basically waste time exploring them for nothing.
In short, I don’t like small dungeons, and I don’t like huge dungeons that are full of monsters but scarce in loot and chests.
And then I feel insulted by the gold piles you find with only 30–40 coins inside. I’d rather not find them at all — because if what I find in a gold pile isn’t even enough to buy a potion, I might as well just find a potion directly.

zavox wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:54 am One thing i think could be altered without anyone having a reason to cry about it is day and nighttime length on the server, which i think now is around 20-30 min or so in total (someone will correct me) it could stand to be increased to 1hr for day 1hr for night, my argument for this is that nights and days are so short that during the span of a conversation in game the day and night cycle spins around so fast it goes by several times, giving the day and night cycle no weight.

When it comes to day and night cycles it sort of depends on it. Right now it is 6 hour days. 3 hour light 3 hour dark. 15 minutes per hour. It's always cycling at the same time every day because it's synced (SO 3PM your time will always be a specific time in game). As an example
. . . etc. Because it's 6 hours, this loops four times. Making 24 hours . . making the times always synced to our real time clocks, only 4 times fast (AKA four cycles per day.)

Sometimes I do feel it is too fast for my type of RP but at the same time - if it does change heavily it probably shouldn't be synced to time anymore and to something else, because you don't want a day/night cycle where when yo login at 3PM EST to 3AM EST it's always dark. It would be completely convenient and annoying.

You can easily go to 4h day 4h nights. Instead of 4 day/night cycles you would get 3 day/night cycles. This can probably stay synced as it is too. You'd just modify it to be 20 minute instead of 15 minute cycles. Not much would have to change there and does squeeze a little more day/night.

Going past this however, I would start to not keep the server synced with real time. And it becomes a bit complicated but possible. 5h/5h or 7h/7h, unsynced. This means that the times would change daily - it would no longer be the same time when you logged in anymore, but you would get both day and nights if you always played at the same time. You'd have to do it this way, otherwise people who play at the same times are always going to experience full day or full nights, unless there playing for 5h+ more at a time or whatever time we set it too.

Personally I don't know how I feel about it. Three hours to cycle to night time or day time means that people get to see both day/night. Four hours is pushing it but is probably do-able even synced. Maybe people would prefer longer day/nights of 5 or 7 hours. If we were go to unsynced, I'd do 5 hours max so that in some cases you'll still get to see a day/night (dawn/dust) cycle.

I think many players ignore in-game day/night cycle and RP whatever the situation feels like.

If I'm logging out I Roleplay "Going to Sleep/Reverie" Even if it's like 10 AM on the game clock.