Hello,

I've been playing BG2 for 6 years (off and on), and just installed Improved Anvil -- wow! Great mod! The Copper Cornet quest was much harder and it sure is fun finding new treasures; excellent work on the kits (Auramaster and Riskbreaker) as well.

However, now I have kids, so my gaming time is quite limited. I tend to use Cntl+J to jump around in a map (Entrance of docks to Cromwell, Entrance of WP to Adventure Mart) and I'm wondering what kind of problems that will cause. Your readme talked about the other hotkey shortcuts (which I don't use), but I wondered if you can tell me exactly what kind of issues I'll be looking at.

Cntl+J typically cuts a good couple hours out of every run through the game, so I am loathe to leave it behind....

Hi!

Glad to hear that you liked the mod.

It seems that the problematic hot-key cheats are Ctrl-R, Ctrl-J and Ctrl-Q. Others won't cause problems. (EDIT: If you use Ctrl-J, you may jump over invisible traps which trigger certain events in the game. Don't use it.)

By the way, Improved Anvil version 3 is on the way and will be released within a few days. It contains lots of new features. Fortunately, players who are playing Improved Anvil version 2 won't need to start a new game after updating the mod to version 3.

Cheers

Thank God!

(and thanks for the quick reply).



Out of curiosity, why do the hotkey cheats cause issues? What issues do they cause?



*EDIT* also, do you have a PayPal link somewhere?

Using Ctrl-R on any character will dispell all effects (including the beneficial ones). (EDIT: Ctrl-Q is even worse. If you Ctrl-Q an enemy into your party you will mess up global variables related to that enemy and will surely face bugs in your game.)


If you intend to offer financial help, I suggest and prefer that you help BWL site. I don't accept personal donations for myself. You can find links for donation on this page. Thanks.

Ctrl-j has been known to cause issues where some game triggers get jumped over.

The usual rule with this is just to make sure you don't jump past locked doors etc just to make sure you don't miss a trigger.

A trigger is like an invisible trap that when you walk over it or come near it would set a particular game event/encounter to occur. The same kind of thing happens with the Boots of Speed sometimes.

Personally I wouldn't worry over it too much but its nice to be aware of these things as you play in case something happens that shouldn't or doesn't happen that should.

Gotcha!

Thanks for the answers guys! I was waiting all weekend to see, but the site was down...

Thanks for the link to the donation button - I have availed myself of it.



I found out the hard way that Cntl+J can skip triggers --- hopped past a group of angry Harpers once, and stymied Jahiera's quest. I usually walk a ways into an area, then hop to avoid that issue now.



Man! Those damn Greater Yuan-Ti in De'Arnise castle are fiendish! I was annoyed that they get HLAs and my poor party has to rely soley on my brains to beat them. It look a good hour with only an Auramaster, Riskbreaker, Jan Janssen and a Berserker. I really love the new powerful critters, and especially the new loot. It really makes the game feel brand new again, with the sense of anticipation and discovery. My hat is off to you all!

BTW, any chance of a slight spoiler, like knowing how many scrolls of permanance or manuals of elaboration there are in the game?

Thanks for the compliments! I'm very glad that you have liked the mod.

Is Jan the only mage you have in the party? You will have a very hard time winning the enhanced battles without a high level mage in the furture. Jan is multi-class and doesn't proceed fast enough (his XP points are divided between his two classes). I recommend that you add to your party's power.

If you find some of the battles too difficult, you can decrease the game's difficulty level and you will see some difference in the foes' power. At which difficulty level are you playing the game now? (EDIT: By the way, the Greater Yaun-Ti doesn't have HLAs at any difficulty level.)

I think that it's much more exciting if you don't know the total number of those new scrolls in the game.

I suggest that you slow down your speed of playing the game to have the mod's new version before doing many quests. It will be released within the next two or three days. You won't need to start a new game, but if you have finished a quest, it is finished and you won't see the new things added to it.

Bummer.

Yep - Jan is my only mage, and the Auramaster is the only cleric (as such).

The Greater Yuan-Ti looked like he was activating animations for HLAs - a bright, tightly focused light that looks like a high pressure water pipe burst a leak right under him? He had one other too -- maybe they were just spell animations that I don't use... whatever they were, he sure sawed through my party with them...

I play on the level just under insane, to max my XP. Maybe I'll have to start a new game when the next version comes out and run the evil super-party of Korgan, Edwin, Viconia, and a player character mage/dualled to a fighter so he can fight but still use scrolls and wands.

The bummer with that is that playing that group true to form ends up with a lot of missed quests and less XPs...

My favorite party I ever ran the game with was a LotR themed party:
1.) Elven Archer (Legolas)
2.) Dwarven Berserker (Gimli)
3.) Human Ranger (Aragorn) -- Player character
4.) Halfling Thief (Bilbo)
5.) Human Invoker (Gandalf)

Legolas had easily 70% of the party's total kills, and Gimli did the mop up.

Guess I'll make a more mage-heavy party for IA v.3

I can't thank you enough for your work on a game that is over 6 years old -- lots of games lose their modders at the 1.5 year mark.

As far as I remember, you get maximum XP on middle level (core AD&D), and XP doesn't increase above that, only the difficulty. (More accurately, you don't get XP penalty from 3rd diff. level.)

Yes, playing a good or a neutral party is more recommended (than playing an evil party) to see every new features of the game. There is also a new plot added to the game by the forthcoming IA v3.0 which can only be seen by a party who have "Judgement Day +6" sword. The sword (after being forged) can only be wielded by a non-evil warrior. Hence, even if you play an evil party, it is recommended that you have a non-evil warrior in your party.

You can forgo playing a Riskbreaker PC if you want, but I very strongly recommend that you do have an Auramaster druid in your party. Cernd is always a good choice.

Finally, if you want to play a Riskbreaker PC, make sure that you have the latest version of the kit (which is version 6). Installing Riskbreaker v.6 requires starting a new game, though.

Well, I do have v6 of the Riskbreaker. I really like the kit -- allows for a little more strategy, and not the standard "auto hack-n-slash" approach.

Did you increase Cernd's quest at all? I found him pretty boring, and I really enjoy playing Druids true to form, so if there's a Druid in my parties, it's always the player character. If you upped him a bit, I might think about adding him in.

I noticed that Shadowkeeper will show you what some of the end result items are -- yes it was a dirty cheaty way to see the goods, but I promise I only looked, not imported.

Your imagination and creativity were amply demonstrated -- Bravo, sir!