Improved Anvil 6.6 BETA Options

[SparrowJacek]

Thank you for your input, we appreciate that and well, our experimental BETA version was released to also get more feedback on the changes

They need some buffing, but so do all non-warriors early on (like hexxat, jaheira, haer'dalis).

I believe that some versatility here is a good thing, you can feel more rewarded, when your Swashbuckler or Monk starts shining after some babysitting in the beginning. And all casters need to serve many roles, while warrior types mostly just tank and hit. Also Haer'Dalis will probably be the last one to get any improvements, as a real Bard rebalance is low on our priority list, though we do have some interesting ideas for them.

The other hand spells (cause medium/serieus wounds spells seemed a little too low on damage considering the time investment
False dawn is meh...

In general I try to be very cautious with the changes, thinking of the lowest number of changes and improvements to make something useful. That's probably why some skills are still too underwhelming, but that can be changed. Thanks to your comments and some new ideas, Clerics will be rebalanced further and hopefully they will become more distinct from each other.

[lroumen]

I am still not at HLAs and going through the main sidequests of chapter 2 and 3 first, but I already have the impression that the game is more refreshing with the changes included.
before I would have an R/C dual or Cernd to provide mandatory healing, but now with the shaman and with more offensive roles for cleric kits, there is just more possible within a party without feeling that divine level are a bit of a waste.

[pekkae]

Hi all,

I playtested a little bit, through to underdark but it turned out far too similar to previous runs* so I abandoned it. Anyway, here's some feedback regarding the partial run.

(Playing IA 6.6 + BG2 2.6.6.0 + cdtweaks (multiple strongholds / potion stacking) + iatweaks.


- - Sometimes elementals do not spawn correctly. The spell is cast, but nothing happens. This is not infrequent as we don't get any elementals for about 30% time we cast them. Other summoning spells seem to work fine and we got this problem with both summon fire elemental & summon earth elemental.

- We got 2 blackmists from Ust'Natha encounter. This felt like a little bit silly reward as at that stage we had three weapons +4 (Staff of Rhynn, Water's Edge + Dragon Halberd +4). Plus we had the pieces for the Wave. So we had a scimitar +4, staff +4, two halberd's +4 plus pieces for a additional halberd +4.

- While we're on that encounter, the summoning ritual part wasn't finished, as the door would not open after we whacked the demon (temple @ ust natha). So some script didn't work correctly. We didn't try to replicate the issue though.

- Limited wish globes are broken, only the caster gets a globe.

- Casting DUHM mid fight (Jaheira) healed her completely? (we got the relevant bonuses + a free heal). We were not able to reproduce this though).

- multiclass fighter/cleric can put 2* in sword & shield style, while the c/m cannot.


Some feedback

- Cernd is completely overblown with the revamped level progression table. Aura clensing in chapter 3 is way too powerful. That single ability (+ if you stack casting time items on Cernd) makes some tough encounters quite trivial. like screaming statue is a breeze, Samia with the ability to drop Cernd's spell book completely is just a walk in the park.

- Revamped burning hands looks nice, so do the changes in graphics.

(* and I also misalculated my protagonist the B/M as we forgot a number of important details like the full version of wish being available only to single class mages etc.)

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jul 14 2023, 11:39 AM

[SparrowJacek]

Thank you for your feedback!

We will analyze each case and try to fix what we can, but for now I can say, that some the things you wrote are related to v2.6 version of BG2EE. This version has NOT been tested by us and I am sure that some elements aren't compatible, for example if you have v6.52 of IA and v2.6.6 of BG2EE, then Alicorn Lance works as an AoE spell (fixed in v6.6_BETA). We also didn't touch Burning Hands.

[pekkae]

Haha.

No changes to burning hands? So I didn't realize before it had a similar scope to "cone of cold". I think somewhere along the way there's a change introduced. Last time I cast burning hands was maybe 2-3 years ago . But I could also be wrong.



This post has been edited by pekkae: Jul 14 2023, 11:54 AM

[SparrowJacek]

It's been 7 years since I last cast that spell, so I don't remember it very well But it's been changed in v2.6
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/257...124773728698805

Burning Hands | Burning Hands now correctly casts as an area of effect spell, rather than targeting one creature

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Jul 14 2023, 12:06 PM

[pekkae]

Hi!

I'm toying around with a cleric, again. Going to change the crew a little bit next.

Tempus's holy power & righteous magic seem to be capped, at level 20. Is the planned or? They seem to be non-dispellable now.

Thanks again!

[SparrowJacek]

Hey I am not sure... is there any problem? From what I remember, I just copied the original behavior of those 2 spells and made some changes. I didn't add any further progression than lvl 20 for them, so I think what you describe is expected.

[pekkae]

Well, the spells capped at level 20 limit the usefullnbess quite a lot.

As they are supposed to add 1 hp per level and last for 1 rd per level, so there's a big difference between 20th level and 39th level. It kind of removes half of the benefits at late game .

[SparrowJacek]

Hmm, well, such changes could definitely improve Cleric kits. Making major buffs improve with level would be broken (non-dispellable +13 str/dex/con at lvl 39 ) but minor buffs like +HP and duration scaling tilll high levels might be a good addition. Thank you for that suggestion!

[pekkae]

Hmm, well, such changes could definitely improve Cleric kits. Making major buffs improve with level would be broken (non-dispellable +13 str/dex/con at lvl 39 ) but minor buffs like +HP and duration scaling tilll high levels might be a good addition. Thank you for that suggestion!

I think that's a mjor improvement, though one could always argue that getting +78HP's from holy power/righteous magic is broken (instead of +40), even though I don't think it is. The major improvement from that would be the duration, as it makes sequencing buffing a lot easier so it's mostly a convenience improvement. Well, the HP's can help a little bit as well.

[pekkae]

Regeneration seems to limited to 1 turn as well.

Argh ..... This is the key reason I took a priest with me. Because a regen cast by priest should last for almost 2 turns.

Also, the other spells seems to capped as well.

This changes my plans completely.

This post has been edited by pekkae: Sep 25 2023, 10:07 PM

[lroumen]

In AR1514 I seem to get too many scrolls of memory boosting when I defeat the 3 coin golems in the small room with the chest.
This block seems incorrect since it points to Iaitem but increased Iaitem2.

I suspect both should read Iaitem2?

CODE

IF
    Global("Iaitem","AR1514",0)
    Global("closedDoor","AR1514",2)
    OR(3)
        Class(Player1,LONG_BOW)
        Class(Player1,DRUID_ALL)
        Class(Player1,SHAMAN)
    !Class(Player1,FIGHTER_ALL)
    !Class(Player1,THIEF_ALL)
    !Class(Player1,CLERIC_ALL)
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        SetGlobal("Iaitem2","AR1514",1)
        GiveItemCreate("S!misc01",Player1,0,0,0) // Scroll of Memory Boosting
END

[critto]

This is already fixed in v7 development branch.

[lroumen]

that's great to hear

[lroumen]

I suspect that either I am unable to see the effects of false dawn or it may not affect shades and mists. From the in game text it is supposed to affect shades and undead. However, from the few times I have tried to use it I have seen no damage.
Maybe I am misinterpreting the spell?

[SparrowJacek]

Thank you for pointing that out. The spell is supposed to work on Mists and Shadows, so probably something is wrong with the implementation. Is this the case with all such creatures? Or maybe just some of them?

[lroumen]

I will do some tests. I think I have never seen an effect.

[SparrowJacek]

I will do some tests.

Thank you! v6.6_BETA has low priority right now, as it probably won't be a part of the initial v7 release. But I hope that it will be integrated in the future, then we'll address all bugs and problems + rebalance everything based on our testing and input from your v6.6_BETA journals and thoughts.

[pekkae]

One more note,

Have been toying around with Guardian Angel.

It doesn't seem to mitigate any damage though. Imoen drops 20 HP after the hit, no wounds are closed.

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