Wheels of prophecy

[Guest Shagar]

Just reading the SCS II v8's readme and... surprise, surprise. First SCS, then SCS II... and now this upcoming new mod for ToB by you, Wheels of prophecy. Man, you are really great. Of course, given the high quality of your previous mods, I'm looking forward to see this release because I'll install it for sure. Do you have an ETA for it?

[DavidW]

Just reading the SCS II v8's readme and... surprise, surprise. First SCS, then SCS II... and now this upcoming new mod for ToB by you, Wheels of prophecy. Man, you are really great. Of course, given the high quality of your previous mods, I'm looking forward to see this release because I'll install it for sure. Do you have an ETA for it?

 

Sometime next week, probably.

[coaster]

Ooh, sounds intriguing. Are you able to give any details about what the mod does? eg new quests etc?

[DavidW]

From the readme:

 

It always bothered me that Melissan was so damn obvious. The fact that - duh - she was going to betray you got in the way of the genuinely surprising fact that she was trying to become a god, not to resurrect Bhaal.

 

Wheels of Prophecy began as a fairly limited mod designed to give the player the chance to register his/her distrust of Melissan. It grew into a project to add a bit of non-linearity to the "lead-em-by-the-nose" 9th chapter of Throne of Bhaal, and to add a bit of unfinished-business content along the way.

 

In summary, Wheels of Prophecy doesn't change the events of Throne of Bhaal (not much, anyway), but it does allow the player to interact with them in a much more flexible way.

 

In more detail: the main change made is that the player can attempt to enter Balthazar's monastery whenever s/he likes, instead of waiting until after Sendai and Abazigal are dead. It's entirely up to you what order you do it in. If you decide to wait until Abazigal and Sendai are dead before confronting Balthazar, you won't notice much change from the vanilla game; if you decide to encounter Balthazar earlier, things may play out rather differently from what you remember. (Getting into the monastery early in the game isn't completely trivial, but it can be done (ask the smugglers, or listen for rumours in the tavern).

 

The mod also features:

 

-Greatly expanded dialogue with Balthazar, Melissan, Sendai, Abazigal, and Elminster.

-Modifications to dialogue with Carras, Saemon, Faheed, Zahee, and the Solar.

-Minor unfinished-business content with the smugglers that didn't quite make it into Throne of Bhaal.

-Extra encounters part-way through dealing with the Five (depending which route you take) and just before confronting Melissan.

-An expanded conversation with the stone heads featuring voicing cut from the released version of Throne of Bhaal, but unearthed recently by K'aeloree of Spellhold Studios.

-And more!

 

 

If you hate Throne of Bhaal with a passion, this mod isn't for you. If you have a soft spot for it, but feel it's flawed, this mod just might give the last stage in the Bhaalspawn's journey a new lease of life.

 

For those who've played my other mods, a word of reassurance: Wheels of Prophecy is not a tactical mod. It does introduce one or two new combat encounters (depending on the route you take) but they're not particularly difficult by the standards of Throne of Bhaal.

[Guest Guest]

In more detail: the main change made is that the player can attempt to enter Balthazar's monastery whenever s/he likes, instead of waiting until after Sendai and Abazigal are dead. It's entirely up to you what order you do it in. If you decide to wait until Abazigal and Sendai are dead before confronting Balthazar, you won't notice much change from the vanilla game; if you decide to encounter Balthazar earlier, things may play out rather differently from what you remember. (Getting into the monastery early in the game isn't completely trivial, but it can be done (ask the smugglers, or listen for rumours in the tavern).

 

But given that the battles' difficulty should be calibrated to fight them in the pre-established order, wouldn't this change in linearity make some battles too easy and others too hard if you fight them in a different order? (I'm afraid I'm speculating here because I've never played ToB in its entirety, so I could perfectly be wrong.)

[Demivrgvs]

DavidW...you're my superhero!

 

Quick question: is it compatibile with Ascension or it's a completely overhaul of it?

 

But given that the battles' difficulty should be calibrated to fight them in the pre-established order, wouldn't this change in linearity make some battles too easy and others too hard if you fight them in a different order? (I'm afraid I'm speculating here because I've never played ToB in its entirety, so I could perfectly be wrong.)

I don't think it would be much of a problem. By the time you've defeated Yaga Shura your party probably has reached 99% of its potential. Furthmore vanilla's Abazigail and Sendai were already supposed to be calibrated for something like this, and Balthazar was even weaker than them imo.

[DavidW]

In more detail: the main change made is that the player can attempt to enter Balthazar's monastery whenever s/he likes, instead of waiting until after Sendai and Abazigal are dead. It's entirely up to you what order you do it in. If you decide to wait until Abazigal and Sendai are dead before confronting Balthazar, you won't notice much change from the vanilla game; if you decide to encounter Balthazar earlier, things may play out rather differently from what you remember. (Getting into the monastery early in the game isn't completely trivial, but it can be done (ask the smugglers, or listen for rumours in the tavern).

 

But given that the battles' difficulty should be calibrated to fight them in the pre-established order, wouldn't this change in linearity make some battles too easy and others too hard if you fight them in a different order? (I'm afraid I'm speculating here because I've never played ToB in its entirety, so I could perfectly be wrong.)

 

It shouldn't make a huge difference. By chapter 9 of ToB you're normally gaining power fairly shallowly anyway.

[DavidW]

DavidW...you're my superhero!

 

Quick question: is it compatibile with Ascension or it's a completely overhaul of it?

 

It's Ascension-compatible.

 

In fact, it actually incorporates fragments of Ascension even if you haven't got Ascension installed (by kind permission of Cuv and David Gaider).

[Demivrgvs]

It shouldn't make a huge difference. By chapter 9 of ToB you're normally gaining power fairly shallowly anyway.

You've anticipated me!

It's Ascension-compatible.

 

In fact, it actually incorporates fragments of Ascension even if you haven't got Ascension installed (by kind permission of Cuv and David Gaider).

Does this mean it won't be necesary to install Ascension, or installing it still have some benefits?

[Salk]

It sounds cool, David!

 

But... when did you have time to work on this new mod?

 

You're full of surprises...

[coaster]

This sounds excellent, thanks for the extra details. I do generally enjoy ToB (on the occasion that my obsessive restarting allows me to get that far!) and anything to flesh it out is good news in my book. I've always thought that the ratio of ToB to SoA content is a bit low (both vanilla and mod-wise) and Ascension and this mod together should help in this respect.

 

Finally, given the high quality of your previous mods I'm expecting this to be pretty good (no pressure )

[Garza]

Could it be installed after SCS2?

Can i start game now and install your new mod later, but before i reach ToB?

[Daulmakan]

Sounds very nice.

 

Care to spoil what fragments of Ascension it'll include?

[DavidW]

Sounds very nice.

 

Care to spoil what fragments of Ascension it'll include?

Balthazar's redemption.

 

& in answer to the earlier questions: it needs to be installed before SCS2 (though obviously you can uninstall SCS2, install WoP, and then reinstall SCS2); and it needs to be installed before you start ToB.

[Guest Guest]

Sounds very nice.

 

Care to spoil what fragments of Ascension it'll include?

Balthazar's redemption.

 

& in answer to the earlier questions: it needs to be installed before SCS2 (though obviously you can uninstall SCS2, install WoP, and then reinstall SCS2); and it needs to be installed before you start ToB.

 

Looking forward to this!