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.

[rbeverjr]

Copied from a BG2 forum:

AC. The game engine counts down to -30. The lowest regular AC you can get is -26... possibly -28 if you take the evil path in hell and have two points in single weapon style. Single weapon style is what gets it down to -26. With a shield the lowest is -24. Then there are the modifiers to slashing, blunt, piercing, and missile AC. Missile AC for instance is modified by sword and shield style, belt of piercing, cloak of displacement etc. You can easily get more than -10 in the missile modifier. However lower than total of -30 is useless. (you put the two together, AC -10 and modifier -3 against slashing means effective AC -13 against slashing). There are a few, at least one, enemy in the game with thac0 -20, but, if your effective AC is -30, that will still be a miss 50% of the time. So low AC can be very good, especially combined with regenerating equipment. Monks probably get down to -30 against missiles at the cap for instance. I feel that with the lowest possible AC you don’t get hit very often, even by bosses. Being hit not only damages you and disrupts spellcasting but it also disrupts attacking so it is a good idea to not get hit.