What is the general opinion of Improved Anvil?

[berelinde]

If one of your players finds a bug, more will find the bug.

 

As a modder, I'd rather people reported bugs on the forum than email me about it. For one thing, I check the forums more often than I check the email. More importantly, though, it avoids duplicated effort. Player 1 finds a bug and posts. Players 2-50 see the bug report and don't have to post another. If everyone is using private communication, that's 50 emails to read.

 

Forums are good.

[the bigg]

I'm sure that they'll avoid the e-mail loophole by

1) the tp2 directs users to the forums

2) asking for help via e-mail directs users to the forums

[Guest Guest]

I think IA will still be available free for download (along with all other mods at Dragon's Hoard). At least it will be according to this.

 

All Infinity Engine game mods are completely free for all visitors (this hasn't changed)

[temujin]

http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?...amp;#entry45024

 

 

P.S.2: I also heard that some people were disappointed that they were constant and active visitors, and just found themselves blocked out. For certain reasons (e.g. trolls -- such as temugun or whatever his name was -- quickly saving our forum content and then posting it publicly later) we did not inform members about it in advance.

 

You heard?

 

 

Are you still insisting you don't read the G3 forums, Fraudonius? Especially after you shamelessly guest-posted in this thread just two days back agreeing and fellating with yourself?

 

Idiot.

 

 

Since I am abroad and very busy, the activations may be delayed by a few days.

 

Really? There were enough donations that you even managed to buy a plane ticket?

 

 

But we thought that those who were constant visitors won't mind supporting a site they like in financial crisis.

 

But Baro, why wouldn't your site be in financial crisis when all the incoming funds are used to plan for your next vacation trip in the Bahamas?

 

Common sense says in order for your site to be financially stable, you should allot some of the money for its maintenance. Seems like a simple enough concept to me?

 

 

 

P.S. - Baro, you still conveniently dodged my question. Whatever happened to that alleged WeiDU replacement - IEMT/IEMF? Just another failed scam attempt, I take it?

[Guest Guest]

You know the biggest irony of IA6?

The person Sikret hates the most (Saros) is actually the one he should thank the most, because he pointed out more bugs than all other members of BWL put together and Sikret spent most of the time devising "Anti-cheat" (a.k.a. tactical retreat , endless Wishing, no exp cap.... ) devices so that he proves to Saros that IA cannot be won solo (actually, ia5 can, regardless of what Sikret believes in). As another point, IA is delayed for so long for the very same reason.

Therefore I wonder, if Sikret wasn't so obsessed perhaps IA 6 would be out by now and this whole thing wouldn't blow up as it did (let's face it, it's not about BWL, it's about Anvil making some money anyway).

[Guest Guest]

I think IA will still be available free for download (along with all other mods at Dragon's Hoard). At least it will be according to this.

It will. After a while. Presumably several months. So, you may as well say that BWL is charging money for their mods.

[lroumen]

Do you think Saros will play it solo once v6 comes out ? (ETA today?)

 

I know that the smaller your party is, the easier it becomes. I've done a 3 party game which was quite a bit easier than my 6-party game where party members dropped like flies, and I've heard of others doing 2 party games as well. There are good incentives to do it...

- you don't have to worry about the anti-cheat measures on cash since you'll sell more items and craft less items

- you don't have to worry about the anti-cheat measures on XP since you share less XP and thus level up faster

- as you level up fast enough you get the right spells early in the game

- you do not have to protect 6 party members but if you do memorise, the rebuffing of everybody is much faster

- if you're all part-mage you can more easily protect yourself anyway (Stoneskin/Mirror Image + PFMW + Spellturning + PFME etc)

- you need less weapons

- you need less recipes and prioritisation is easier

- the fewer party members you have, the more you can spread out your party and still be close to one another when in a pinch. IA caster AI will not behave optimally with regard to AoE spells as you're not close enough to each other

- the more mages you have with spell protection spells, the longer you live because IA caster AI often debuffs before doing else

 

What will be tough it the fact that Sikrets foes do not play with a summoning cap, whereas the party does have a cap. In that regard, less party members means you need to be sure of what you're doing... then again, fewer party members means they are more easily managed.

You have to be careful with Sikrets foes because most have low AC, extremely good thac0, good resistances, high health, do high damage and have weird innate abilities on striking etc, but that is where your mage-part with buffing spells come out to shine.

You also have to be careful picking the right quest order in the beginning of the game (which sucks) since some foes are just impossible early on with a few-man-party, but once you get higher in levels and figure out how to distract foes and prevail battles, at least I was able to do much better (since you don't have to baby-sit 6 of them).

 

Parts that will be troublesome are sections of WK and of course the EDE, but those sections were already tough in IA, so if you're with 6 that you need to baby-sit or 3, the general difficulty is little different.

[Guest Guest]

Xp cap is modified at 12 million by IA now. Of course, you may simply form your copy another xplevel.2da (from Tweak pack) over it. So, no more solo, 2, or 3 person party. You'll get banned from the forum if you play in that way. triple multiclasses gain HLAs even later (after 6million xp - if you don't like this, simply delete lunumab.2da from your Override ) They have nerfed HLAs (again, simply install Tweaks over IA to fix it like it was). So, no fmts any longer. It turns out to be "cookie cutter" parties game - ranger (vagrant or Valygar), riskbreaker, necro, sorc, some cleric type and a low-maintence berserker for halberds. Here we go again...

[lroumen]

The XPcap was never really a problem for my 3-man party.At some point you start to use wondrous-recalling, spell-trapping and finally wish-resting to revive the necessary spells or abilities relatively easily.

I always used dual and multi in my 3-man games. No point in going for triples because you slow down your leveling again. Not sure how a few-man-party will fare in IA6, but I don't think it's going to be impossible. Just undesired due to overwhelming of summons (like buffed out golems, skeletons and vampires mostly).

 

It does seem like IA encourages a gimmick party, but I think that if you're not staring at the items and the abilities (which most players do), you can do well by going with a thinking-out-of-the-box party. Nevertheless, any anti-confusion, improved-haste or +str-item is nice to keep in mind.

[Azhrei]

I can see, after reading through both IA threads, that I'm going to have to add one more Cardinal Rule to my forums credo

 

Don't discuss politics

 

Don't discuss religion

 

Don't discuss Improved Anvil

 

Seriously.....I play games to enjoy myself. After a stress-filled day of work, the last thing I need is a stressful sitting at my PC playing a GAME.

 

Honestly, folks, it isn't a life-or-death situation If you get your kicks out of hack-and-slash, then by all means indulge yourself. For me, the attraction for BG is not only the satisfaction of winning a very tough battle, but in enjoying the sights and sounds of the cybernetic world I've immersed myself into; laughing at the often hilarious banter between party members (the Edwina banter even to this day can evoke tears of laughter); and in solving problems or doing quests that do not always involve bloodshed but require thinking and tact (I guess playing NWN mods that require you to think rather than swing your sword to achieve the desired results have spoiled me in that way)

 

It's for those reasons that I will probably never play IA until I'm thoroughly bored with all other mods out there (and I expect I'll be gaming for quite some time before that happens).

 

This is, of course, not meant as criticism of IA, but a statement of what I look for in a BG mod, and the anticipated few hours of enjoyment I look forward to at the end of a hectic day.

[Guest!]

So, no more solo, 2, or 3 person party. You'll get banned from the forum if you play in that way.

Wow, this is beyond dumb. Can IA players still pee the way they like or is Sikret directing that too?

[berelinde]

That didn't need saying. Most of what's posted here didn't need saying.

 

Let this thread die.

[Guest Matti]

There is no server maintenance, there is no software maintenance, there is no need for those two crooks Sikret and Baronius to recieve a cent from anyone. Anybody who thinks they actually need money to run their stuff, is utterly retarded. The timing is right with v6 around the corner, Baronius being a little greedy old fart from Hungary (exposed a few times thru out the years), and Sikret who refuses a full time job to work on the IA mod.

 

But you go ahead and put food one some 40 year old unemployed dudes table. Support

 

I generally agree to this paywall issue being a rather distasteful move and I also am no fan of Baronius nor Sikret; but, outrage aside, I'd like to comment on how you criticize Sikret for his job decision. You make it seem like that was a bad thing, but I can see nothing wrong with it in itself. All I see there is a guy who is so enthusiastic about his hobby that he tries to live off of it - which would be great, if not for the paywall issue.

 

A counter expample (one of many, it's just one I'm more familiar with than with others) of how, IMHO at least, this can work out quite well is Dwarf Fortress by Tarn (& Zach) Adams. Tarn is a maths teacher by trade who has quit his job to work full time on his game and lives on donations, which seem to average out around $30k/year (urban US, D.C. or Seattle, IIRC). Of course, there is nothing mandatory about DF donations, although the fanbase does a great job at spreading motivation among itself to keep the money flowing.

 

Now, this, of course, is a full game I am talking about, not "just" a mod to an (well) aged one. What I want to say is just that trying to live off your hobby / dream project is a perfectly valid choice to me; nobody forces you (or me) to pay that money or even install that mod. It's the fanbase who decides success or lack thereof.

 

If only there wasn't the paywall issue...

 

 

You're wrong. I mean...this comparison of yours is inacurate. Infinity engine is not property of Sikret nor Baronass, Markizos, Pompadour or whatever. Selling IE mods is ILLEGAL. It is that simple.

 

Just look at this/those/.... guys. They are using Weidu. For free. Infinity Explorer. For free. Tons of other programs they are using for free developing their mods in a extremely distinguished way. They are using "useful idiots" for free. Actualy abusing them mercilessly during the "anti-Saros devices" distinguished development insanity. And now they are charging cash for their "mods". Motherfuckers. Milking their so called "fanbase". And I was part of it. Pathetic sheeple. "Elitist" - aahahah, have mercy baby Jesus.

 

Yeah, now I'm done with this shit.

[Guest Matti]

That didn't need saying. Most of what's posted here didn't need saying.

 

Let this thread die.

 

Thread is dead from the beginning.

[berelinde]

Alright, that's enough.

 

This thread has been locked down before to give tempers a chance to cool down, and it looks like it's more than time for this to happen again.