dizzyorange Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Trying to decide which Irenicus to install. Link to comment
DavidW Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Well, I couldn't possibly comment on which is better, but: - Tactics Irenicus replaces the whole encounter with something utterly different - SCS II Irenicus leaves the encounter alone structurally, but plays Irenicus as his CRE file suggests: as a L20ish fighter/mage with vicious extra abilities and tough demonic powers. Your call. With the proviso that I gather the SCS II version doesn't disappoint challenge-wise, so if you're worried on that score, go for it. Link to comment
dizzyorange Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 Well, I couldn't possibly comment on which is better, but: - Tactics Irenicus replaces the whole encounter with something utterly different - SCS II Irenicus leaves the encounter alone structurally, but plays Irenicus as his CRE file suggests: as a L20ish fighter/mage with vicious extra abilities and tough demonic powers. Your call. With the proviso that I gather the SCS II version doesn't disappoint challenge-wise, so if you're worried on that score, go for it. In the opening dungeon cutscene, the shadow thief mage kills the vampire, heh. Link to comment
DavidW Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 In the opening dungeon cutscene, the shadow thief mage kills the vampire, heh. Yes, I noticed that. I don't think it's a bug, just a consequence of the mage fighting better. I thought about telling the vampire to prioritise the mage... then I decided life was entirely too short. Link to comment
dizzyorange Posted October 14, 2007 Author Share Posted October 14, 2007 I'll use this thread to post occasional thoughts I have on playing through SCS II. Smarter Mages: really kicking my butt. I couldn't beat the Rakhasas in the Druid Grove no matter how many times I tried. Final solution was to backstab the henchmen one by one with a hidden fighter/thief, resting in between for the protections to wear off. Only with a 6 vs 1 confrontation was I able to beat Ihtafeer (sp?) Improved D'Arnise Keep: The final battle is hard!. Torgal isn't so bad, but those two Yuan-Ti are real tough. They are smart enough to stay together with the trolls and umber hulk. For a level 10 party, I'd say this is a very hard battle. Then again, I didn't have any means of breaking through mage defenses really (still haven't found that breach scroll..). In the end I got lucky and managed to separate the trolls from the mages by closing a door. Balance: SCS II really skews the power towards enemy mages in my opinion. Anti-magic capabilities are crucial for the party. Keldorn becomes perhaps the most useful NPC, and wizardslayers are now one of the best kits. Priests and fighter-type enemies are generally too easy now compared to the mages. For example, the Shadow Druids in the druid grove were a joke compared to the difficulty of yuan-ti mages. Btw, I installed all of SCS II with the instant pre-battle casting but no HLA for SOA mages and priests. Other mods installed include Rogue rebalancing, Weimer's Itemupgrade and selected components of Oversight, Tactics (Boghi and Irenicus), SimDing's experience fixer, Ascension, and theBigg's improved difficulty system (on insane). Overall: more difficult than I thought it would be. Probably more difficult than Tactics. Lots of fun to play Link to comment
DavidW Posted October 14, 2007 Share Posted October 14, 2007 Glad you're enjoying it! It's interesting that I haven't actually given the game mages any new abilities - it's just that mages need intelligent scripting to pull their weight much more than fighters etc do. So (I guess) the original designers put very powerful mages into the game so as to make them as dangerous as the fighter types. Give the mages a genuinely effective script, and suddenly they're the kings. Link to comment
dizzyorange Posted October 16, 2007 Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 Tolgerias is defeated! He fell after a 15 minute fight. He finally has the abilities and intelligence you would expect from a cowled wizard. Some interesting AI moments: - spell sequence (trigger?) of 3 magic missiles cast at near-dead characters to finish them off - blinded ranged characters so they couldn't fire at range - shot melf's meteors at anyone casting a spell This was in between casting 5 horrid wiltings (between the two mages), summoning 2 glazabrus (sp?), 2 mordys, and alternating chaos, stun, dispel, slow and other spells. He puts up enough spell/combat protections so that the only thing my level 10-12 party could do (having killed Keldorn to protect Viconia) was attack with normal weapons and take out those stoneskins one by one. The final strategy? Good old basics. Nishruus, death spell, Valygar the Wizardslayer, running around a lot, and a most timely 70 point backstab. Probably the most amazing thing was.. no lag at all. For those experience lag issues, I'd highly recommend defragging. It works. Link to comment
dizzyorange Posted October 17, 2007 Author Share Posted October 17, 2007 A couple of issues: 1. Summoned allies sometimes turn hostile without being charmed or attacked. This happens usually right after the creature is summoned. 2. I've run into a few instances where mages will cast a string of protections over and over again non-stop, as if they were stuck in a "loop". The animations are that of stoneskin, protection from evil, and possibly others. This seems to happen after you leave an area and come back to it. This happened with Tolgerias, Rayic Gethras, and a couple other instances. Link to comment
DavidW Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 A couple of issues: 1. Summoned allies sometimes turn hostile without being charmed or attacked. This happens usually right after the creature is summoned. 2. I've run into a few instances where mages will cast a string of protections over and over again non-stop, as if they were stuck in a "loop". The animations are that of stoneskin, protection from evil, and possibly others. This seems to happen after you leave an area and come back to it. This happened with Tolgerias, Rayic Gethras, and a couple other instances. thanks... okay, will chase, though I'm short of time so it won't happen immediately. With (2), there's probably a glitch in how I'm handling pre-casting, I had the first encounter in mind... What version of mage pre-buffing have you got installed? Link to comment
dizzyorange Posted October 18, 2007 Author Share Posted October 18, 2007 A couple of issues: 1. Summoned allies sometimes turn hostile without being charmed or attacked. This happens usually right after the creature is summoned. 2. I've run into a few instances where mages will cast a string of protections over and over again non-stop, as if they were stuck in a "loop". The animations are that of stoneskin, protection from evil, and possibly others. This seems to happen after you leave an area and come back to it. This happened with Tolgerias, Rayic Gethras, and a couple other instances. thanks... okay, will chase, though I'm short of time so it won't happen immediately. With (2), there's probably a glitch in how I'm handling pre-casting, I had the first encounter in mind... What version of mage pre-buffing have you got installed? Instantly pre-cast spells to simulate pre-battle buffing. Link to comment
DavidW Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 OK, I have a possible fix for the repeated-casting problem. I've no idea what's causing the summoned creatures to go hostile, though. Can you make a note of which creatures it is next time it happens? Link to comment
dizzyorange Posted October 26, 2007 Author Share Posted October 26, 2007 OK, I have a possible fix for the repeated-casting problem. I've no idea what's causing the summoned creatures to go hostile, though. Can you make a note of which creatures it is next time it happens? Sure. Good work on the Dragons by the way. Link to comment
Guest! Posted October 27, 2007 Share Posted October 27, 2007 Just defeated Irenicus... and ended with two chunked party members, so I'll have to play the battle again. I can't really tell which is harder, though Tactics II took me definitely more time to get my stuff together: SCSII II is probably more "heuristic", while Tactics II can lead to some surprisingly stupid behavior but it's amazingly difficult even so. Link to comment
DavidW Posted October 27, 2007 Share Posted October 27, 2007 Just defeated Irenicus... and ended with two chunked party members, so I'll have to play the battle again. I can't really tell which is harder, though Tactics II took me definitely more time to get my stuff together: SCSII II is probably more "heuristic", while Tactics II can lead to some surprisingly stupid behavior but it's amazingly difficult even so. Very glad to hear that: it's certainly what I was aiming for. I'm not a fan of the sort of battle where you have to try it lots of times until you find the right tactic to exploit its weakness, and some bits of Tactics sometimes felt that way. Link to comment
Guest Guest Posted October 27, 2007 Share Posted October 27, 2007 Just defeated Irenicus... and ended with two chunked party members, so I'll have to play the battle again. I can't really tell which is harder, though Tactics II took me definitely more time to get my stuff together: SCSII II is probably more "heuristic", while Tactics II can lead to some surprisingly stupid behavior but it's amazingly difficult even so. Very glad to hear that: it's certainly what I was aiming for. I'm not a fan of the sort of battle where you have to try it lots of times until you find the right tactic to exploit its weakness, and some bits of Tactics sometimes felt that way. David, what is the approximate time line for SCS II v2? The current version is fine, but just curious if you are planning on releasing an update. Link to comment
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