First IA experience, Thoughts from a new player, and some (hopefully) constructive criticis Options

[Zarion]

I just found this mod a few weeks ago, and I've been playing this mod for about a week. In my current game I've just left the Underdark with my Evil Party (m/f, Korgan, Edwin, Viconia and Valen(without her lvldrain)) everyone have at least 4-5 high-level abilities and so far I've enjoyed the mod. The scripts are well done and make most battles more challenging. The upgrades are really cool, and the components from “harder” enemies makes them seem deserved.

But even though I like the mod I won't be using it after I'm done with this run-through. This is mainly due to the way you have made the enemies more challenging. You seem to have taken the use of resistances to the hearth, and that is ofcause one way of making the game harder, but I must admit I dislike it. At the moment the only spells Edwin and Viconia gets to cast are “pre-battle-buffs” and dispel effects since almost every (challenging) enemy I'm meeting are very resistant, not only to magic, but to most elemental and magical damage as well. For me that drastically cuts down on the “fun”, since it takes away the “group feel” where every class is needed to win a battle and have something to do during the battle... other then standing in a corner hiding so they won't die.

My suggestions to improve the feeling of the mod is to cut down on some of the 100% resistances this mod adds especially on “none-boss-fights” (ie insane dwarf, Firkraag-party ect.) and give them 75% resistances if you still want them to be “hard” or perhaps 50% with one or two 100% so the player have to try a bit before finding the right type of magic. Another way to do it could be to build up the resistances though the use of “forcecast” scripts on certain hp percentages. Ie; the opponent starts with 25% resistances to none melee damage, and then builds up to 50% at 75% hp and so forth.

The constant use of regeneration also bugs me a bit, especially in groupbattles where you it foceres you to focus on one target at a time, but it keeps the pressure on the player, since it means no more running out of combat to get healed, and that is a good thing .

Well, I think that is about all I have to say, unless I find anything to add at a later time , thanks for the mod, and all the hard work put into it.

[amendara]

Well I joined the forums just to offer my thanks for this great mod. So much to it and so much polish, it definately is one of the best mods out there. Some of the encounters were the most fun I've had in this game, especially the hilarious "snake gauntlet" which was just wild (and hard too).

Generally I agree with Luan. I'm not an "ultimate challenge" type of player, but I like challenge balanced with realism/immersion. That makes the contrast between nonIA encounters and IA ones rather disturbing. To have a team even remotely capable of defeating anyone improved, you just melt through everything else like butter. Also, the insane resistances and regeneration every enemy has mixed with the massive number of golems really breaks my immersion meter. Its a shame there is not a way to make the game more challenging without jacking up these supposedly rare abilities/creatures, but I do not think its possible. With its aim of making ultimate tactical puzzles and encounters, IA succeeds very well.

The quests were very finely done and interesting too and what is particularly nice after playing other tactical mods (such as BP) is the low amount of bugs. Very professionally made.

One last request I might offer is if its possible to reduce the melee dependency a bit? High magic, missle, poison, and backstab resistances pretty much streamlines combat variety of IA into two "super fighters" with 10 attacks per round and protection from magic weapons. The other character sort of play support for the meleers. I would like to see many more creatures vulnerable to poison, traps, backstabs, death magic, and missle weapons, and the melee resistances raised by these creatures to balance the challenge. Some battles would then require melee, some missle, some poison, some death magic, some backstab/traps. As it is I would say 95% of the damage done through IA was with my two main melee fighters and this starts to get monotonous after a while. Or maybe this is not possible as evertying except melee damage becomes too cheesy after a while for ultimate challenge?

Anyway, thanks again Sikret and testers. A really wonderful addition to a wonderful game you have made.

Kudos