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.

Thank you very much for the kind words and compliments, Patrick_hindman!



Yes, it's certainly in my to-do list. It's just a matter of time when I will add some new content for evil parties. It just doesn't have a very high prority for me, perhaps because I'm not a big fan of playing evil parties, but I assure you that I have it in my to-do list.

Cheers

I have one general comment also regarding IA.

I see one problem with this mod. It ruins the role play behavior of BG2. The vanilla game was a super RPG with some problems (sometimes stupid enemies, bugs, ...). But as a realistic world it is fantastic. Monsters are believable, neutral or enemy NPCs are realistics, spells are good and the story is very good. The game is maybe a bit too easy but on the other hand you feel that you are a real hero, son/daughter of a God, one who really is a main character in the world.

In IA that feeling is completely ruined. The enemies are really not realistics anymore and therefore you do not have the same feeling that you had in the vanilla game. You are not a hero anymore, you can think even than you are one of the weakest creatures in the world. One example is the already mentioned adventurer party on the second floor in the Seven Veils. Teoretically there is nothing special in them: they are high level adventurers. But they have a good amount of magic damage resistance, resistance against normal damage, unlimited stonskin and so on... You are son/daughter of a God and your special abilities are 2 Cure Lights Wounds and some other minor spells and on the same time the opponent spellcaster(!) has appr. 50% of damage resistance and a nice amount of regeneration. How the hell was he able to acquire such nice abilities? And the same is almost true for all the NPCs (like Haegan, the Beastmaster, and so on...). It is highly unrealistic and really ruin the game feeling.

I know you has written previously that IA is a strategic game and not an RPG anymore but I still think it is a drawback. Also in lot of other strategic games the oppenents are not overpowered compared to you (exapmles: StrCraf, WarCraft, Heroes of Might and Magic, ...). I am absolutely not against that a monster could have nice and really strong special abilities but it is not really realistic when normal NPCs have it.

The other problem that affect the realism of the game is the missing mage and priest spells. In IA it is really common that an opponent have elemental or damage resistance. Almost all of them have it. In such a world the mages and priests for sure develop their own weapons (I mean spells) against these abilities. There is the 4th level Lower Resistance spell against MR but no such a spell against other types of resistences. It makes the world plastic, a world that is not a living one.

I am sure that you are aware of that issues already. I know you made the changes to make the game more challenges but on the other hand you lost something that is also very important in my opinion. I am not a mod maker and I have no idea if it is possible to make the game harder but on the same time solve these problems also. But definitely would be really nice. In V7 for example.

You need to read IA's F.A.Q.; most of the things you mentioned are aleady replied there.

As for 'realism', my opinion is quite opposite of yours; it is actually very unrealistic that the protagonist as a youngster and low level character at the beginning of the game feels to be son of a god in the way you see in the vanilla game. You progress during the game and you eventually reach that status of feeling you are looking for, but not from the start of the game for sure.

It's also IA's realism that the world is a dangerous place and you can't just walk and kill people. The way those enemies have acquired those abilities will become clear as you proceed in the game; I think you have played only a small portion of the mod and have hurriedly made some opinion about the mod before gathering enough information of what is going on in the game's world.

My definition of role playing is also very different than yours for sure; I can't see how a mod which adds so many quests to th game can ruin the role playing spect of the game. Some players define role playing as "Being able to walk carelessly in the city without needing to worry about powerful enemies around" or something similar to that. I don't see it that way.

Also, the progress report topic is not for this kind of discussions. Only comments about the added new content mentioned in the initial post of this thread or suggestions for additional new content are welcome in this topic. If you have issues with my general view point about the game or IA's general approach, you can send them in a separate topic in the forum; such comments are not suggestions of new content for the mod's next version. I don't want to see this topic trolled or spammed with such posts. Thanks in advance.

This is my last post about it. Sorry for being offtopic. I will continue in the "Opinion on the mod so far" topic.

This entry is the answer to the started thread in V6 topic.

I did not want to be harsh, so sorry if you maybe fill that way. I have read the FAQ and also lot of topics here and the documents in IA folder but you are right I am not advanced in the game. So, I will see how they gathered those special abilities.

I agree with you that an RPG world could be dangerous. Just remember Dark Sun or Call of Cthulhu. So, I have no problem with the difficulties of the mod: the plan was to create the toughest mod and mission was completed. As I have mentioned in my post, I have no problem with monsters: you can find out any special abilities for them, they are monsters and they can have really special and tough abilities. My problems are the following two issues:

- unrealistic NPCs - ok, you told in your last post that I will see how they gathered those abilities. I saw only items that could give such a special abilities (except of course hardiness and barbarian special abilities) and not innate abilities but we will see.
- no real answer to those special abilities opf the monsters that seems to be really common

Examples to the second points:
- no spell to reduce damage reduction (both weapon and magical) of the enemies
- no spell to reduce elemental resistance (ok, maybe such a spell could not exist but if there is LR then such an effect is also imaginable)
- no weapon or item to reduce the resistance mentioned above - it should be really interesting: for example an axe that ignore 25% of slashing resistance, so it does not inflict more damage to normal enemies (without damage resistance) but inflict more to those whom have DR.

I like the situation when there is a defense to every attack and when there is an effective attack against any defense. More possibilities are for the player more enjoyable is the game.

Please do not take it as an offense! This is not my intent, it is just a conversation about game philosophy.

I was thinking about the unrealistic NPC problem. Just to light my opinion: I am not against a solution when after the battle you find on the corpse of Amon a Robe with the following abilities:
- 50% physical damage reduction
- 5 HP regeneration per round
- unlimited contingencied stoneskin
- usable only by Sorcerous Amon

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

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.

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.


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.

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).

I think the MR original purpose was the same: the specific puprose was to make the monster less vulnerable for magic. I think the solution what you suggested would be the best: add those special spells and abilities but make some specific monster immune to them. I did not think that there will be complaints about it, there are such a cases already in the game and nobody complaints about them (like liches and their spell resistance).

I still think it would give the player more possibilities and it would make the game more interesting and flexible. But of course it is your mod and just improve it as you wish.

There are other reasons against adding such spells to the game. If I add spells which lower damage resistances, then I also should script enemy spellcasters to use the spell against you as well. Now, if both sides have access to such a spell, there will be two very unwelcome consequences. I'll try to elaborate these two possible consequences in two examples:

1- As an example, consider the battle with Improved Yagashura. At the point you reach that battle your party has siginificant damage resistances as do the enemies. The battle is currently one of the most exciting battles in the game and requires the player to think very well at every stage. Now, just assume that both sides (your mages and Yaga's lieutenants) have access to such a spell and use it. Both sides will lose their resistances; consequently, the result of the battle will depend on sheer chance (who hits whom first and faster)! The battle will turn to be too short and pointless. Either your protagonist will die fast or Yagashura will be killed quickly depending on who hits sooner and better. The battle will be far from a typical IA chess match.

2- Interestingly, there are also examples in which if both sides have access to such a hypothetical spell, the result will be considerably in enemy's favor. An example of this type is the battle against rune assassins in post-firkraag adventures. The numbers of enemies in that battle are many but they don't have very significant resistances. It is actually the party of players who rely on their resistances to survive in this battle. Now, if both sides can cast such a hypothetical spell, the chance that you will lose the battle will increase dramatically.

I remember that Raven had also made this point in one of his posts when he was arguing against adding such spells to the game (his point was that such spells will eventually work in enemies' favor in the long term, which was a correct consideration).

I still think that the main problem is that you have not played the mod long and far enough to be able to have a reliable perspective of what is going on. You are at early stages of the game and are currently frustrated by some damage resistances you see on some enemies. You have not yet reached those stages of the game at which you also have such resistances and find out that it is actualy *you* who rely on those resistances to survive more than the enemies do. When you reach that point, you will find your resistance far more precious than you want them to be easily lowered by some enemy spellcasters.


General note:

I strongly recommend that players who have not completed the entire mod for at least a couple of times, really refrain from making radical suggestions for changes or to make strict opinions about the mod. Play it for one or two times completely to have a better idea of everything.

Thank you for these examples! They are really nice and make the whole issue understandable!

I still think that for role playing those spells are missing but I agree that because of tactical and game playable reasons they should not be implemented. So, finally I agre with you evn if it is required some time.


I am working on it.

Thank you, Vuki!

hello everybody! I am playing IA5 for some time now, love it. Compered to other tactical mods, IA is waaay ahead, by any and all means. New battles are great, enemies as crafty as you, new items are also great - very powerful (that +5 halberd with dragon breath ability is awsome). But what I liked the most was the battle with twisted rune. AMAZING. Wish I could upload a video of it, it was very long lasting, took about two hours of real time to finish it and I really felt great after finishing it without loosing any of my npc, took me 7 reloads due to that big floating blob Vax who killed my pc's buffs (he was a gnome f/i) and that lady Layenne... AMAZING. Great AI in IA, really.
I've read a lot of posts about the difficulty, how enemies are very strong and your npc get slaughered easilly and all that - that's not true. I had similar toughts about IA when I first played it and tried to backstab that guard in copper coronet, got killed 1 minute later. First time in Planar Prison, with Elite Bounty Hunter? Don't ask. Got so frustrated I deleted the mod. Now, after playing IA some time, it's a breeze. I played a lot of different mods, so I got used to using some "never-fail" strategies, but they just don't work here. For example, ever tried dualing a figher to a mage and casting "mislead"? You could easilly clean up whole game using that and imp.hate .Is that fun? No. IA forces you to think what all of your characters do in a round. It's the only mod I know of which IMO must be played with a full 6 person all-time-active party. Maybe 5 would work also, but I never tried it because there are so many exellent items that it's a waste not to use them.
I am currently playing 2 games, started one with a gnome fighter/illiusionist multi and am currenty stuck with Yaga-Shura but he will go down, trust me. I finished WK and after getting all the cool stuff there my little guy fears nothing. In this run I took Valygar, cause you must have a ranger IMO for those boots and the flail, Anomen, Imoen, HaerDalis - also a must, his armor is the best item in the game and his remove magic is very powerful and a custom dwarf berserker for 2-h weapons. I'd actually suggest this kind of party for anybody new to IA.
In my second game I'm playing as a Vagrant. I don't think he is as nearly as powerful as my gnome but it will be doable, I'm sure. With him I took a custom figher/thief multi (again, dwarf - you'll need good saving throws in IA far more than 19 dex), Anomen, HaerDalis (LOVE this guy, just LOVE him - do take him!!), Cernd (duel with Faldorn is a very good example of how to survive some battles in IA - if you don't disrupt spells those mages/clerics/druids cast at you - your're dead) and Immy, who is also a must take for me. This party will probably require much more micromanaging but I'm currenty at the end of SoA, with only the best battle ever (twisted rune) left and then off to tree of life.
I wouldn't reccomend this mod for players who like to "fly" through the game, and if you don't like verrry tough battles with lots of reloading and thinking. For example, in my first try with twisted rune happened something like this (note- I finished WK before tis battle). My pc had these buffs along with ALL clerical
(prot evil, fear, chaotic commands, resist fir, fire/cold, def harmony...) - stoneskin, blur, mirror image, shield, armor, ghost armor, prot energy, acid, magic energy spell deflection, spell turning, prot elements, and what I tought it would really be a winner - spell shield . EVERYTHING but spell trap. Ok, Shangalar shows up. Yadda, yadda - up comes Vaxall, fires some ray at me and destroys every single buff I had. That vamp goes after me. I cast prot magic weapons - spell failure. If you don't like that kind of stuff (e.g.enemies killing your buffs, getting mallisoned in every battle, enemies using the most powerful combos such as wish/time stop/alcatry there are, you won't like this mod. If you are bored with vannila game, and (IMO) vannila mods such as Tactisc or SCS, you'll love IA. Consider it as a candy. The more you play it - the more flavour you'll recieve.
There is still something I wish for for the future versions - 1) improved Bodhi would be great. That one from Tactics was a lot of fun, and if you had Solaufein NPC it was brilliant. Cheesy, but still much better than Bodhi in IA. She should be much more powerful IMO.
One other thing from Tactis was also made better than in IA - 2)Irenicus in hell battle. They are both hard, in a way, but Tactis versiond had a much more roleplaying flavour than IA, and for me, it was more fun. NOT that I'd like to see those Tactics monsters with IA scripts.
And a final word on IA - scripting is phenomenal. Great work!! If you want to feel like your're playing BG against a very good player and not a buged up computer, download this mod. You will regret it, but you'll soon learn to love it.

Thank you very much for the kind words, Kerkes!

Bodhi is improved in IA v6. Revisit the progress report topic frequently.

Nice review. IA is very special.

thank you for your time and effort in making this mod

And a note about various weapons and resistaces your enemies have - in IA, you can have 85 percent resistace to ALL physical damage if you're playing a Vagrant. you can wield some of the most powerful weapons any mod ever introduced to BG. You can take Valygar and upgrade his katana to something insanely powerful. So, if you think something like stonskined mages with 50 percent damage reduction are a problem I would't reccomend to play this mod. I personaly killed that mage in one round, far before he could do anything and recast any more protections. By the way, you can also have (ok, not "unlimited", but still plenty) of stoneskins, just collect those scrolls. I now carry around 13 spellstrikes, 17 ruby rays, 14 apsolute immunities etc. That's far more than any enemy in IA has on him or can cast.

I guess it was addressed to me.

Yes, of course this mage can be killed in one round. It all depends on the levels of your characters. But if your party has a quite low level when you try then he could be a problem.

But to be honest I was at that time a real beginner in IA. And IA should be learnt, no one is born as a master in it. I think every newcomer has the same problem but I definitely speak much more than others and that is the reason why I have written such a comments. Sometimes(?) I speak too much (for example in the Minor Globe case). I would definitely not complain about Sorcerous Amon nowadays. I have to still learn a lot because I am still really far away to be an expert in IA.

Very true.

No Vuki! For everyone who judges IA before giving yourself some time to learn how to play it. I think it would be much easier if you had never played vanilla BG, cause IA is much different, practically a whole new game. So some re-learning (is that a valid word at all?! I'm from Croatia, English is not my native language ) is a must for IA. The game itself tends to get MUCH easier (for me at least) once your characters start gaining some good scrolls to use and you get those +2, +3 rings to improve your saving throws. In the beggining, having a custom berserker to fight while your protagonist and other NPCs (Valygar, for instance) are confused/held/dead REALLY helped me a lot. Berserkers are great in vanilla game, in IA they're perfect for some nasty early encounters.

I am sorry but I do not get what you are opposed to. What was excatly wrong in my post in your opinion?

Yes, I think it is an ok phrase (maybe is should be written as relearning). But I am from Hungary, so of course English is not my native language. BTW, I will go to Croatia within 3 weeks.


Yes, but I am very greedy and I do not use my scrolls and potions I always try to save them to later occasion. I keep them until they become useless.

And yes, berserkers are cool. I have a barbarian and he is also cool.

No hard feeling Vuki! just wanted to point out that some things in IA are so much different than vanilla game. Perhaps IA would be easier if we NEVER played vanilla game ?? you somehow get quite addicted to using some tactics which no longer work, at least I did (what can I say? imp inv, SI:div, SI:Abj, imphaste and hack your way to fortune!!!). Reading what your enemies do in battle is a great way to learn what your own mages should do. I remember Undead Solaufein buffing up with something like this: fireshield blu, red, imp.hate, imp,inv, SI:DIV, SI:abj, SI:evoc, protmw. Didn't ever used that combo until he tought me. Same goes for IA, cause in vannila game mislead whas all you need, so I never took the time to try other stuff - I never bothered casting spell shield in my experience with any mod.

nothing was wrong in your post didn't say that am opposed to anything no Vuki is that was not ment for you
btw enjoy your holidays in Croatia very nice country it is

No problem it. But just to point out: when I did the battle against Sorcerous Amon I was not able to cast Impr. Haste. I bluff up my characters whatever I have and I started the battle with a Greater Mallison+Emotion+Greater Command combo. I think my tactics was not bad, maybe I should have used more potions and scrolls.


Theoretically it is not possible to do. You can only cast one SI spell on your character. Were you been able to repeat it yourself?

Your tactic was imo very good, but generally you should put a remove/dispel first and then malison etc cause enemy fighters are fond of using potions.try using potions AFTER mages cast remove magic on you (saved my ass against troll queen). imp haste can be bought in trademeet after finishing those druids in a tent below genie tent e.g.very early in the game. as for multiple SIs of course not in IA. In other mods, I used them a lot, a real LOT.

Improved Haste is also part of the the merchant's offer who can be found in the bridge district (he's standing near Neb's house, iirc). I don't remember if that's true for IA though.

I do not have Improved Haste spell because I was too low level and I was not able to cast it. Cast it from a scroll is too expensive and as I mentined I am really greedy.

It is. I love that guy .

Never bother with him, trademeet sells SI also..

i really cant understand how u can compare vanila game and IA. because i my vanilla game it was enought for my fighter/mage or for my kensai/mage to cast only impr.haste and many prot. from magical weapons and it was enough for every battle except from the battle for the throne for IA is much thinking required and many reloads doesnt spoil the fun , on the contruary it increases the value of your win

It does, I agree. Met Yaga Shura yet?

nope didnt met him yet , i have few more quest , watchers keep and elven city;] to end SoA sadly not enough time for BG

You'll rethink about your last post when you do:)

if you mean this when you are wrong because im kind of tactic thinker and dont mind reloads which make u think and learn new tactics and ways of winning the fight

I like it too.But with Yaga I had a frame rate of 10 or so during that fight...soooo slow. People screaming, and picture frozen..