Suggestions for future versions of IA Options

[rbeverjr]

I'll be making several suggestions (or at least bringing ideas) to the appreciated, great IA game developers. Even if you don't like my idea, maybe it will spark one of your own. Critto can let me know when he's no longer interested in hearing these ideas from me.

My first idea has to do with weapon proficiencies. Simply put you get more proficiency slots as you spend more time with weapons. Dual classes would get slots according to whatever class they are currently.
Maximum weapon proficiency slots per weapon type:
1 for wizards and sorcerers;
2 for clerics, druids, thieves, ranger-cleric mc, thief-cleric mc, and bards;
3 for caster-melee types (rangers, paladins, multi-class caster-fighters);
5 for straight melee classes (all fighters and barbarians).
Wizards/sorcerers can’t have combat styles, but all others can. APR increases are not limited to warriors. Kits can’t increase the number of proficiency slots, except in very rare cases. For instance, rangers in more modern DnD versions can specialize in the use of 2 weapons or in archery. Consequently, it makes sense to me that a ranger specialized in archery can have 5 slots in bows.

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: Feb 22 2019, 12:20 AM

[critto]

- Blackblood Club (component for Treefolk's Arm) (Gaal, Torgal, Priest of Cyric (slaver compound))

If randomised to Priest of Cyric, you'll get it only in ch6 when Treefolk's kinda obsolete already. Otherwise it is simple to do.

Reduce or remove gold/gem/XP gains from gem/coin golems summoned by elemental or greater elemental golems. To compensate, I'd bump the XP for each of the summoners, perhaps by 20k, and have them drop 1.5k gold and a diamond, star sapphire, and rogue stone (used in crafting recipes). While the other gems add flavor, they just contribute to inventory clogs.

This was discussed in the past. Somebody did propose a solution to decrease the rewards gradually from summoned golems. Of course, your approach is much simpler and probably more sensible overall.

@ Critto - how many people do you think are playing IA based on downloads? Also given your and sparrow's time constraints, do you have any sense of timing for additional content (e.g. druid stronghold) - 3 months or 12 months or more? Just curious.

Well, the download statistics are public knowledge: http://dragonshoard.blackwyrmlair.net/download.php I don't think that Baronius resets them when I ask him to re-upload a new release. So at best, 1k people are playing. Realistically, I think maybe 30-40? The majority of people who are active here and probably some "lurkers" / silent players. I haven't seen any meaningful activity discussing IA on any other large of the English-speaking community forums (and there are reasons for that beyond sheer popularity). I know that Chinese community has a decent IA following, but no idea about the numbers. Maybe Chaser or c4_angel could help out here with the numbers? I didn't study bg forums in other languages but I doubt I'll find much. It's a very niche mod for a 20 years old game. New gamers who came with the release of EEs are probably playing SCS and other mods.

The key problem with the druid stronghold is to come up with a coherent story, to be honest. We've been dancing around it for ages and while there are some solid ideas there's no finished comprehensive design document. My time is extremely limited so I these last few years I usually find some time occasionally that I divert from my other activities and spend it on IA. Small fixes, content additions and tweaks are obviously easier to accomplish, so I do them. They too, however, take more time each year since even in EE the engine is a mess of workarounds and gotchas one has to remember. For instance, it was pointed out a couple of days ago here about the opcode that allows/prevents usage of items based on char's alignment. Why on earth when it's a specific alignment, zero means it's allowed, 1 means no and vice-versa when it's a mask? You have to be constantly involved to remember things like that.

Anyhow, to answer your question, if there where a completed story and encounters that are thought out I'd probably be able to implement it in a short span of time.

@ rbeverjr I think its pretty remarkable that any development on IA is still being done. This has generally been a pretty quiet forum - only in the past few months (since release of 6.4) has there been a lot of chatter.

This is true. There are many things that could be accomplished but the technology is limited. I like the uniqueness of how IA approaches difficulty, but if someone want truly clever AI within the constraints of the game I'd recommend checking out SCS, it's engineering is superb and we cannot expect to surpass that.