Plans to remix components from Tactics?

[Guest Guest]

Hi David, I really enjoy SCSII and was wondering if there are any plans to update some other components from Tactics like Improved Ilych, The Ritual, Tougher Druid Grove, Improved Sahuagin City and the Red Badge Poison Encounter (I must be the only person who actually liked it...). Thanks!

[Ilyich]

The Druid Grove is improved by SCS II. As for the others, Ritual is fine as is and Imp. Ilyich is just broken beyond repair and stupid. Red Badge and Sahaugin just need to be toned down a little bit.

[Guest Guest]

SCSII improves on Faldorn alone, iirc. II isn't broken at all: it's damn hard - which is why I liked it in the first place.

[coaster]

Slightly improved Ilyich is a nicely balanced piece of work. OTOH Improved Ilyich I found rather tedious, as well as breaking the fourth wall.

 

I think most of the remaining bits of Tactics should probably stay there. Red Badge, 3 dragon ambush in the Small Teeth pass, acid Kensai...these are not really the most fun I've had with BG2. I quite liked the Improved Golems & Improved Undead components though.

[DavidW]

v6 of SCS II will have a Sahuagin component, though it's not very closely related to Tactics.

 

As for the other bits: I don't see much need to tinker with the Ritual; I don't recall the Red Badge but I'm not much inclined to fiddle with it; Improved Ilyich is a deliberate joke and isn't funny twice. I'll do an SCSII version of Golems when I get the chance.

[Ilyich]

If there was anything I could change in The Ritual, it would be the fight with the dragon if you fail to stop the woman dying. Time Stop in a Chain Contingency and 1 Dimension Door per second are both cheesy and annoying. I also think he has too many spells, but I'm not totally sure on that.

[viperdan]

Strange,am i the only one who loves improved ilyich?Think about who irenicus is.Of course he's going to have powerful servants gaurding his stronghold.Escape from his lair shouldn't be easy,it should be super difficult.Of course,it all depends on your taste.Yeah,pontifex is a dirty cheater,what with the mutlple timestops and all but i actually liked the fight.The other dragons i fought before him where so weak and pitiful(even with tactics smarter drangons installed)that it was fun to face a REAL dragon.Again though,it's a matter of taste.

[DavidW]

Strange,am i the only one who loves improved ilyich?Think about who irenicus is.Of course he's going to have powerful servants gaurding his stronghold.Escape from his lair shouldn't be easy,it should be super difficult.

 

My point is: Improved Ilyich is an intentional joke; it's deliberately written as a satire of improved-difficulty mods. (Look at the documentation if you want the details). That doesn't preclude anyone from genuinely enjoying it as a tactical challenge, of course.

[Salk]

Your plans suit me so good, DavidW.

 

And there are - in my opinon - several components of Tactics that are (intentionally or not) real jokes.

 

Not only Improved Ilych but all a series of components like: Kuroisan the Acid Kensai, Red Badge, Kensai Ryu's Gnome Fighter/Illusionist and Random Wilderness Encounters, Improved Small Teeth Pass and Improved Undead.

 

If there is something I hate in games is to force you to continuous reloads to pass a challenge (heavy metagaming).

 

From Tactics I install some quality components that should complete SCS II: Improved Golems, Improved Crypt King, Improved Copper Coronet and Improved Nymphs.

 

I would recommend these four components to make their appearance in SCS II for the future.

 

I had not a chance to test SCS II's Improved Bodhi but I definitely hope it is not as overpowered as the Tactic version is.

 

Keep it up, DavidW!

[DavidW]

Okay, a few points:

 

1) There may be some linguistic confusions going on here. When I say "Improved Ilyich is a joke" I mean it quite literally: it's an intentional satire. That's independent of whether it's a tactically interesting mod or metaphorically speaking a joke.

 

2) The reason I've borrowed occasional components of Tactics for SCS II is that sometimes there's been a core-game area that I wanted to improve on, and I couldn't think of a better way than building on existing bits of Tactics. (So Torgal, for instance, is heavily influenced by Tactics).

 

3) On the other hand, I think where Tactics introduces a genuinely new encounter, I'm inclined to leave that to Tactics rather than do my own version of it (examples: Red Badge, Ritual)

 

4) The "toned-down" version of Bodhi is indeed toned down compared with Tactics: she gets slightly weaker stats and less crippling saving throw penalties on her special abilities. The "Tactics" version has all Tactics Bodhi's abilities, with SCSII AI (for better or worse).

 

5) As a point of interest, I agree with you about some components of Tactics; others I haven't tried. I thought Red Badge and Improved Undead were basically fine, though (they won't be appearing in SCS II, however). Tactics has the great virtue of a customisable install system, of course, so users can pick and choose.

[the bigg]

Since we're talking about mergers, feel free to do a SCSII-style version of MProlla or Large Scale Battle (not Underground Mage Duel though - I have different plans for that one, sorry).

[viperdan]

Since we're talking about mergers, feel free to do a SCSII-style version of MProlla or Large Scale Battle (not Underground Mage Duel though - I have different plans for that one, sorry).

 

I haven't played your Mprolla mod but i have heard of Mprilla.Where you around during his supposed reign of terror.Was he really that bad?

[viperdan]

Strange,am i the only one who loves improved ilyich?Think about who irenicus is.Of course he's going to have powerful servants gaurding his stronghold.Escape from his lair shouldn't be easy,it should be super difficult.

 

My point is: Improved Ilyich is an intentional joke; it's deliberately written as a satire of improved-difficulty mods. (Look at the documentation if you want the details). That doesn't preclude anyone from genuinely enjoying it as a tactical challenge, of course.

 

Your right of course.Improved Ilyich is meant as a joke.For me,that's part of the charm though.I luvvvv ilyich's dialog.Priceless!

[the bigg]

I haven't played your Mprolla mod but i have heard of Mprilla.Where you around during his supposed reign of terror.Was he really that bad?

Yes, yes.

 

MProlla is probably the most cheating and stupid battle around (except maybe the party from Improved Asylum, the final battle of the Planar Sphere Mod, or some of the stuff from IA), so you likely haven't lost anything... unless you consider fighting a dude who uses ReallyForceCastSpell() on Greater Malison + Finger Of Death interesting.

[viperdan]

I haven't played your Mprolla mod but i have heard of Mprilla.Where you around during his supposed reign of terror.Was he really that bad?

Yes, yes.

 

MProlla is probably the most cheating and stupid battle around (except maybe the party from Improved Asylum, the final battle of the Planar Sphere Mod, or some of the stuff from IA), so you likely haven't lost anything... unless you consider fighting a dude who uses ReallyForceCastSpell() on Greater Malison + Finger Of Death interesting.

Wow,that's extreme cheating.I like the sound of it though.I'll try it out on my next playthrough.