Just got this working the otherday after getting it via steam, so far all is well but I know sometimes steam stuff runs crappy compared to a stand alone version.

So from a player on a server point of view does the steam version hold any issue? would I be better off with a stand alone version or is all well in steam land?

I have had no problems with it at all. My frames and ping rate are solid 99% of the time running in 1080p

The Steam version of NWN2 should be fine. There's no issues that I know of.

I have two large problems with running this game, one of which is definitely steam's fault. First: It takes forever to load. It seems to want to install the .net framework every time i load up. This is especially troublesome with my next problem: crashes. It is hard to say the cause of the crash, but it does seem to be in response to activity (once i crashed when I was set hostile, and I JUST crashed watching a duel, possibly when knockdown mode happened). The second problem probably can't be helped, and is just unlucky random crashing. But does anyone have a solution to the first? Installing .net framework takes forever. Sometimes it is as long as 15 minutes.

I play this and nowadays pretty much every other game I have through Steam with no issues whatsoever.

I haven't experienced any Steam issues but I know there are some problems with Steam in general..

I had some crashes related to the steam chat interface but it can be disabled.

Steam is fine.

I use a non-steam version an my game crashes everytime I'm shot by a beholder.

Both games have their issues it seems.

There is a way to fix it installing it over and over, the .net framework, google it, its either in this forum or the steam forums

My game works same with and without steam.

Solution to the frameworks problem is fairly simple, it seems to be an issue of windows 7 (I believe it uses 4.0 by default so its a redundant installation anyway). In the steamapps folder for neverwinter there's a folder called 'override', there's the frameworks.net installation app, delete it and it'll skip the process from then onwards (it'll still prompt it but skip the actual action).

If you're having frequent crashes however, id verify your game cache before doing this as you might have some file corruption. (dont do it after deleting the contents of the override folder as it'll re-download the frameworks msi file.)

From http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1685037.html

Try that out and see if it helps you.