Bill Bisco - My Testing, Testing for experienced players Options

[Vlad]

Yes, you get most of the good items you need from quests. No need to rob poor store keepers. You're still at the very beginning and telling me that you're lacking items. My answer is - of course! You're close to complete Kresselack's quest. See the items you get from him and from the Vale of Shadows. You sell 20 long swords +1 and 10 long bows +1 - each about 200-500 gold. Aldwin gives you good prices if you're in agreement with him. I finish the first part and return to Dungeon with 300k gold, all party members are well equipped. Firkraag is an immediate target. Eventually, thieves are indeed worthless, in my opinion. I need only one for locks and traps. With high level party, I even don't need backstabbing. Melora is a good thief and good archer, but Imoen will replace her scenario wise.

This post has been edited by Vlad: May 30 2015, 09:46 PM

[Bill Bisco]

Am I supposed to meet this priestess of Auril at the Tavern? She is nowhere to be seen.



If you're going to nerf Pick Pocketing by removing stealing from stores, it'd be nice if the people in these towns (especially the shop owners) had more items to steal. Currently there's hardly anything on these people!

[Vlad]

Bill, you're supposed to meet Lysan in that tavern. If you didn't talk to her, but went and cleaned the Vale of Shadows, she escaped already to her ice cave. Return to that cave, and she'll be there.

The people you want to rob are poor. That's why I don't like thieves.

This post has been edited by Vlad: May 30 2015, 10:09 PM

[Bill Bisco]

This guy certainly has a lot of magical potions, weapons, armor, and spells to be poor!

Which Ice Cave is this? The one nearby where the goblins were? To get there you had to move to a new area north of the tower with the ogre? I went there already and it was still bare.

Edit: Nvm. I think I may have found it. Overlooked this the first time.

This post has been edited by Bill Bisco: May 30 2015, 10:21 PM

[Bill Bisco]

I never met this woman as a barmaid (in fact I completely overlooked the fact that there was a tavern in Kuldahar until I was told there was one. I suppose you'll tell me that I don't have to choose this option. The problem is that it's the only dialogue option to move forward in the game. It breaks the roleplay since I never actually met this woman before

Just another thought. Is there any reason I can't just lie to this undead spirit Kresselak and be believed? That'd be a nice option as well.



I can totally pickpocket yeti hides off of Yeti. Yay! Don't nerf that too please!



This lady tells me to leave, but I can totally rummage around her cave.



If you attack the Blue Yetis instead of talking to Lysan first, Lysan will cast spells and attack you but Shadows will never be summoned automatically appearing.



Kresselak doesn't seem to be fighting back. Only Hrothgar can easily damage him



Yaya, the evil conqueror is dead. I get no journal entries nor key to his tomb. My guess is that the game is screwed now.



It's sad how you get almost as much quest xp for being Kresselak's errand boy/girl as you do for just offing Kresselak



His Coffin magically opens after you talk to Kresselak and he tells you that he knows nothing. It'd be nice if it magically opened even if I killed him before I talked to him. In fact it'd be nice if the game let you just off Kresselak and take his coffin items without bothering the Priestess of Auril First and this let you move on storywise.

Oh, and can I kill Kresselak now?

[Vlad]

I'll rearrange the order of things a bit to account for your unusual walkthrough. In addition, I'll make the fight with Kresselack another challenge.

[Vlad]

Bill, correct me if I'm wrong.

1) You've never visited the tavern (no starting cutscene in the tavern meeting Lysan there).
2) You have received the quest of Kresselack to remove the priestess of Auril.
3) You have visited the ice cave - no Lysan there.
4) You have visited the tavern - Lysan is not there (no starting cutscene).
5) You have returned to the ice cave, and Lysan is there.
6) You have succeeded to leave the dialogue with her without confrontation?!
7) You have attacked Yetis, and she turned hostile

[Bill Bisco]

Bill, correct me if I'm wrong.

1) You've never visited the tavern (no starting cutscene in the tavern meeting Lysan there).
2) You have received the quest of Kresselack to remove the priestess of Auril.
3) You have visited the ice cave - no Lysan there.
4) You have visited the tavern - Lysan is not there (no starting cutscene).
5) You have returned to the ice cave, and Lysan is there.
6) You have succeeded to leave the dialogue with her without confrontation?!
7) You have attacked Yetis, and she turned hostile

I never visited the tavern in town before getting the quest from Kresselak. After I got that quest, I went to the tavern and there was a brief cutscene that started and quickly ended. Nothing happened in that cutscene. After getting that empty cutscene I visited the ice cave and Lysan was there.

If rather than talk to Lysan and you decide to attack a Yeti, she'll cast some summoning spells and all the Yetis and Lysan will go red on you. You will have no conversation with Lysan in the ice cave. However, the game is not broken. After Lysan's death I went to talk to Kresselak and he confirmed that the Priestess of Auril was dead. The only thing that is lost is the sudden appearance of all these undead in the ice cave if you talk to her.

A Kresselack that fights back would be nice. Thanks.

[Bill Bisco]

This Large Shield +1 requires 15 Strength while this Large Shield +2 requires 10 Strength. Very weird.





All these Virbeeg have no equipment or items or anything. Yeah they're giant. Their stuff is probably hard to use but still.



I'm beginning to suspect that the plot twist is that Our Druid Quest Giver is not our friend.

Arundel keeps on telling me he'll mark a location on my map. But, it's never marked on my map. He did this with the Virbeeg temple too



A Standard tactic is to summon skeletons and then put a stinking cloud or a cloudkill over them (which can't kill the skeletons). I'm most disappointed that my own summoned skeletons are turning red against me.



This post has been edited by Bill Bisco: May 31 2015, 12:23 PM

[Bill Bisco]

Imoen can still totally die offscreen (poison in this case)

[Senka]

Arundel keeps on telling me he'll mark a location on my map. But, it's never marked on my map. He did this with the Virbeeg temple too

Because this is IWD plot.

Imoen can still totally die offscreen (poison in this case)

You didn't chose her new kit during installation did you?

[Bill Bisco]

Arundel keeps on telling me he'll mark a location on my map. But, it's never marked on my map. He did this with the Virbeeg temple too

Because this is IWD plot.

Imoen can still totally die offscreen (poison in this case)

You didn't chose her new kit during installation did you?

Did the original IWD have a worldmap and Vlad just didn't implement it here?

I installed every component including Charming Rogue Imoen.

[Senka]

Did the original IWD have a worldmap and Vlad just didn't implement it here?

IWD has. But Vlad cannot.

I installed every component including Charming Rogue Imoen.

Your screenshot says opposite ) This is her original phrase when she lost a lot hp

[Vlad]

Shield: Logic says that higher enhancement makes the shield lighter and requires less strength.

Verbeegs: animation restriction. Taking off their spears and shields should remove them from the image as well, but that doesn't happen. That's why I've decided to make those items undroppable.

Word map: agreed, that reference should be removed.

Beetles: dangerous, protect your group members.

[Bill Bisco]

Senka, I definitely have the Charming Rogue here and it was definitely installed. Vlad hasn't modified Imoen's kick-out dialogue to reflect that we're in a whole other time period similarly



Vlad, any chance we could get the world map icons restored and this area put into the BGT-BP Map mod?

Regarding the Large Shield. The issue is that shouldn't the Large Shield +1 have a lower weight and Strength requirement relative to the Large Shield? Currently the strength requirements for the Large Shield and Large Shield +1 are equivalent



I could have sworn I saw a polymorphed Bombadier Beetles still send off its noxious clouds. I'll do some more testing.


Erevain? The elf in the tavern in Easthaven? He had on Elven Chain Mail in town. His corpse here has regular chain mail. Will he still appear here even if he's dead in Easthaven? By the way, nice touch on making him Xan's cousin




I hope these complaining captured villiagers understand that there's no way I'm entering this cavern unprepared. I'm totally going to rest and come back refreshed. Those bombadier beetles nearly destroyed my party.

[Bill Bisco]

You know Vlad, I was just thinking. It would really be nice if we could recruit Erevain back in Easthaven as an NPC. I think he'd make a great Fighter / Mage given that he starts with Elven Chainmail. It would be cool if he doesn't join that we find him dead in the Dragon Caverns later and makes us think the consequences of not recruiting people: they don't stop being heroic just because they're not travelling with us.

It'd also be nice because it early on gives us a mage. If we think about it, we actually only get a Thief if we keep Imoen a Charming Rogue or Dual Class Shar Teel. Even if we dual Imoen to a Mage like I did, it'd be nice to have someone else to give scrolls to when Imoen already has them. I'm sure that you have a Mage coming up later, but it'd be nice to have another non-human NPC joinable (Dar is the only non-human so far).

I realize that that means another NPC and more work, but I think it'd fit well to have him join and would be a fitting tribute to Xan like you had a tribute to Branwen with Accalia : The more things change, the more they stay the same kind of thing.

[Bill Bisco]

Just a thought Vlad. Couldn't the Verbeeg carry an armor and spear even if they didn't have them equipped? They could have one set equipped and one not equipped.

I led that slow moving Lizard King out of his cave while I slowly waited for his protection from magical weapons spell to wink out. Then I pelted him with missiles and summons until he was no more. This guy would be a little scarier if he was hasted. Then at least we couldn't run away as easily while his protections quickly faded.



These Lizardmen could use some throwing spears. Right now I can play chicken with summons. The summon lures the slow moving Lizardmen to my party until they are pummelled with missiles. You should seriously look at the Vale of Shadows again, that one cave where you're surrounded by Skeleton Warriors with Arrows. That was too much but furthered the notion of packing a punch with missiles




I guess this is also a classic game problem. I can lure out a couple of enemies at a time rather than fight a whole room full of them



I think I found a better xp farm. 4 Lizardmen spawning for 3600 xp each. That's 14400 xp or 2400 xp each for a party of 6. Resting in this little corner makes it so that only a couple can attack at once.




I take it back. THIS PLACE is a much better farming location. I can literally talk to this lady whenever I want to really rest and hit the rest button regularly when I want to farm. I don't even need to use Missile Weapons. Just infinite melee all day, when I get too hurt, rest for real!

[Vlad]

Bill, nice suggestions - map, new NPCs, different scripts - but that would be mods for NeJ3, and I welcome anyone including you to work on them, to write the story, dialogues, banters, interjections, to make a new map etc etc etc

[Vlad]

I never visited the tavern in town before getting the quest from Kresselak. After I got that quest, I went to the tavern and there was a brief cutscene that started and quickly ended. Nothing happened in that cutscene. After getting that empty cutscene I visited the ice cave and Lysan was there.

Bill, this is not what happens. You are misleading me here. Lysan is in the tavern. You cannot get rid of her, and she won't leave without having a dialogue. The tavern is small, the cutsene starts, Lysan is immediately approaching you and talks. You cannot avoid this dialogue. If you do break this dialogue and she leaves without saying a word, tell me how did you succeed to break it?

[EDIT] It doesn't matter when you enter the tavern for the first time (before or after getting the quest of Kresselack) - Lysan-barmaid will always be there as any other creature assigned to that area, for the first visit, and you'll meet her and later recognise her as Lysan in the ice cave. I think you either forgot about this encounter, because she was a regular barmaid, or just broke the dialogue somehow in your unique style, so she left without saying a word.

These Lizardmen could use some throwing spears.

What's that? Have you seen such range weapon in BG series?

This post has been edited by Vlad: Jun 1 2015, 05:47 PM

[Vlad]

Okay. The following improvements according to Bill has been introduced:

1) Kresselack will respond to attack now, and will probably slain the whole party instantly.
2) No lizard farm any more - green lizardmen with halberds are now very powerful.
3) Arundel does not mention the world map any more.

[EDIT] All the material of the mod (except some additional quest-related dialogues of Leina) has been written by Jan, a British novelist and my co-author. Unfortunately, she cannot write anything for the moment, and I'm not a writer myself. So, it's completely up to you or anyone else to write the additional material for the mod.

This post has been edited by Vlad: Jun 1 2015, 06:15 PM