Opinion on the mod so far Options

[Patrick_hindman]

I have to say i'm finding this to be the best mod of baldurs gate 2 i've ever played, the battles to me always feel fresh having to switching tactics and not using the same one every time like in the vanilla game till it became a chore to even complete it (congrats on the ai, its the best i've experienced). I have to say after beating torgal i have not had such a adrenaline pumping battle since ascension (and i'm eager for more as i go through the mod). I like how its all balanced and nothing seems overpowered in the game. Though i would make a criticism in that the most frustrating part was probably starting out since most battles were too difficult for low level parties and finding doable battles was hard so i would suggest you mod in some extra content for lower level parties (such as the slavers encounter at the beginning which was pretty good).

Oh i know that you've been bugged alot about this already but i would like some more evil content in the game ie. items and quests. For starters why not allow evil characters to work for firkraag. As i have never modded before and this is too much of a demand just ignore it but keep up the good work you've done an excellent job so far.

[Sikret]

When an enemy has (say) 50% resistance to a damage type, you can still hurt him with that damage type; the resistance just makes him more durable.

If an enemy happens to have 100% resistance to a damage type; there is surely a "purpose" for giving him such a high resistance against that damage type (perhaps to encourage you to think and find alternate tactics; perhaps the creature must be impervious to that damage type due to its nature, etc). Now, adding spells which can reduce damage resistances will be quite out of place and will nullify that intended purpose completely. This is exactly why whever I wanted to add new spells to the game and asked players to give suggestions, I emphasized that any suggestions of spells which reduce damage type resistances won't be accepted for sure.

As for Mencar's party, I checked them and can report the following points:

1- They don't have any innate MR or elemental resistances.

2- They use various potions, but the player can use remove/dispel magic as counter tactics.

3- The unlimited stoneskins you have encountered in your game is due to a typo in the mage's script and is a bug, albeit a bug which will show itself very rarely and that's why none of us had spotted it in our games. Players who play actively and agressively will not notice that bug at all, because they will kill that mage before he can cast more than a couple of stoneskins (and no, they are not contingencied ones and can be interrupted when he is casting them). You said that your battle with them took so long that the mage ran out of all of his spells. This kind of slow battle was actually the reason you noitced and spotted the bug. I just fixed it locally for IA v6. Thanks again for reporting it.

By the way, if having personal items will satisfy you as a justification for resistances (similar to what you suggested for Sorcerous Amon), then you can just imagine that he had one, but the item was torn or destroyed during the battle before he was killed (though, better explanations and justifications are offered in the mod's FAQ. Those resistances to physical damage are legal in IA's atmosphere and rule set; the player can also gradually acquire them during the game).

The main point is whether you enjoy playing this game or not; arguing with me over such things will be fruitless for both of us. You said "this mod is nice", but after that everything you wrote about the mod was negative. I can't comprehend what was nice in the mod in your opinion. If a player enjoys 90% of the mod, he can criticize the 10% he doesn't like and hope that his criticisms may make some changes to the future versions of the mod; but if a player doesn't like (say) 90% of the mod, there is no point in talking to me about them, because he can't convince me to change 90% of the mod or make such serious and fundamental changes to the mod and my general viewpoints.

Edited for grammar and typo

This post has been edited by Sikret: Jun 12 2008, 04:00 PM

[Vuki]

When an enemy has (say) 50% resistance to a damage type, you can still hurt him with that damage type; the resistance just makes him more durable.

If an enemy happens to have 100% resistance to a damage type; there is surely a "purpose" for giving him such a high resistance against that damage type (perhaps to encourage you to think and find alternate tactics; perhaps the creature must be impervious to that damage type due to its nature, etc). Now, adding spells which can reduce damage resistances will be quite out of place and will nullify that intended purpose completely. This is exactly why whever I wanted to add new spells to the game and asked players to give suggestions, I emphasized that any suggestions of spells which reduce damage type resistances won't be accepted for sure.

Yes, that sounds reasonable but the same should apply to MR and it is not true. There is a spell to reduce it and even there is a spell to give such an ability. My opinion is that a new spell or new type of weapons (such as the axe I mentioned above) should give the players more possibilities and more flexibility. But it is up to you, I just would like to show you a new and different viewpoint.

As for Mencar's party, I checked them and can report the following points:
...

I do not see it as very important problem because I think it has an influence only to the "philosophy" of the game. I got an explanation and thank you for it.

By the way, if having personal items will satisfy you as a justification for resistances (similar to what you suggested for Sorcerous Amon), then you can just imagine that he had one, but the item was torn or destroyed during the battle before he was killed (though, better explanations and justifications are offered in the mod's FAQ. Those resistances to physical damage are legal in IA's atmosphere and rule set; the player can also gradually acquire them during the game).

The main point is whether you enjoy playing this game or not; arguing with me over such things will be fruitless for both of us. You said "this mod is nice", but after that everything you wrote about the mod was negative. I can't comprehend what was nice in the mod in your opinion. If a player enjoys 90% of the mod, he can criticize the 10% he doesn't like and hope that his criticisms may make some changes to the future versions of the mod; but if a player doesn't like (say) 90% of the mod, there is no point in talking to me about them, because he can't convince me to change 90% of the mod or make such serious and fundamental changes to the mod and my general viewpoints.

I can also sum up the good points in your mod and the list should be much more longer than the two points that I criticised. I thought it is pointless because a lot of people already mentioned them and for sure you know them already. But here is a short list of them including the most importants but definitely not all of them:

- really challenges and interesting battles, player should develop and use different tactics in different battles, no cheesy and general method to win them

- nice role playing additions to the game (like the scroll that I found in slaver headquarter which also gives nice reason for the appearance of the assassins)

- lots of bugs of the vanilla game were fixed

- enemies are really clever and not stupid monsters anymore

- new and really interesting items, classess and monsters

- nice new spells and spell combinations (like spell prot.: divination + impr. invisilibilty)

- generally speaking it give a new type of gameplay to the BG world that never existed before. It is sometimes frustrating but always interesting and challenging.

And I am not really advanced in the game, so I saw only a small portion of the new developments and I am really eager to find them. But I do not think that you've learnt anything from this list because I am sure that you already know all of them. These were really the reasons why you start to develop this mod. Maybe my comments were too general and you cannot do anything with them, however I still think that they can be implemented (if you agree to them and if you have an intention to make them). But of course if I am the only one who criticized these points in the game then it is only my personal problem.

Upd.: I fixed some grammar errors and clearify some points.

This post has been edited by Vuki: Jun 12 2008, 06:50 PM

[Sikret]

When an enemy has (say) 50% resistance to a damage type, you can still hurt him with that damage type; the resistance just makes him more durable.

If an enemy happens to have 100% resistance to a damage type; there is surely a "purpose" for giving him such a high resistance against that damage type (perhaps to encourage you to think and find alternate tactics; perhaps the creature must be impervious to that damage type due to its nature, etc). Now, adding spells which can reduce damage resistances will be quite out of place and will nullify that intended purpose completely. This is exactly why whever I wanted to add new spells to the game and asked players to give suggestions, I emphasized that any suggestions of spells which reduce damage type resistances won't be accepted for sure.

Yes, that sounds reasonable but the same should apply to MR and it is not true. There is a spell to reduce it and even there is a spell to give such an ability.

They are a bit different. As I said resistance to damage types are sometimes connected with specific purposes. Pure MR, on the other hand, doesn't usually play such a role. Let me first give you an example of a similar case in another mod (namely, Tower of Deception):

There is a creature in ToD who has 100% resistance to all damage types for some very specific purpose. The player needs to find one single and unique way to destroy the creature. Now, if there had been some kind of spell to reduce resistance to damage types, it could ruin the intended plot in that mod (but see below*).

There are plenty of similar (though not exactly similar) cases in IA where some certain creature have resistances for very specific purposes.

Of course one can say that we can add those resistance lowering spell but then make the specific creatures immune to it; but then, players will return to complain why the spell doesn't work. It's much better not to add such a spell from the beginning rather than adding it and then make people immune to it.


* I was the creator of that specific creature in ToD and I was cautious enough to make that creature immune to any possible spell some other mod might add to the game to lower damage resistances; so Valiant doesn't need to worry . Even if another mod adds such spells, they won't cause problems in ToD.

Also, thanks for the list of good things you wrote about IA. I was not really asking for such a list. My point was to make sure that you are not one of those who disagree with everything in IA, because as I mentioned before, if someone disagrees with/dislikes most of IA's content, there is no point for him to talk to me about them, because he can't hope to convince me to change so many things (or even few things which have fundamental importance in the mod).