* Open Beta Comments Here

[Zamael]

For the record, if this thing was playable to the finish, Arundel working and all, I'd've beaten it at least twice by now.

 

No pressure, take your time, etcetera. It's not like I'm bored out of my skull or anything.

[FredSRichardson]

Well, right now I'm a one man team. Progress will be slow I'm afraid. I unfortunately can't do automatic conversions the way BG1tutu can.

 

Now, perhaps your interested in helping on the development end? I can give you some tips on how to tweak things if you want to try them.

 

The problem I have is that I've played through the first part of IWD1 too many times, and it's just painful to do it again. I'm hoping I'll be able to tweak the experience levels and get it right for one last time through. Kresselak's Tomb is where the work is needed now.

[Zamael]

I'd love to help, but I can't do programming: Beta testing and hopefully helpful advice and feedback is just about as far as my abilities can stretch. Sorry.

[FredSRichardson]

I'd love to help, but I can't do programming: Beta testing and hopefully helpful advice and feedback is just about as far as my abilities can stretch. Sorry.

Okay, I just thought I'd ask

[FredSRichardson]

I'm working on the XP balancing. It's very easy to overdo it. It's also kind of odd to get a lot of XP from killing skeletons. The IWD2 approach was to send horde after horde of low levels things for you to kill and do most of the XP pumping through quest rewards. At least that's what it seems like.

 

I have to choices: pump up the XP reward for quests or pump up the per creature XP (but keep the rest spawns low XP to avoid easy exploiting). I have to do one or the other, or maybe a little of both.

 

The other odd thing I'm noticing is that the monsters in IWD2 seem to have a longer range of awareness. I'm not sure if this is because "random walk" is letting them walk further or because they can see the PC's from further away. I just noticed that I get swarmed from time to time in places I don't expect to.

[Zamael]

I'm working on the XP balancing. It's very easy to overdo it. It's also kind of odd to get a lot of XP from killing skeletons. The IWD2 approach was to send horde after horde of low levels things for you to kill and do most of the XP pumping through quest rewards. At least that's what it seems like.

 

I have to choices: pump up the XP reward for quests or pump up the per creature XP (but keep the rest spawns low XP to avoid easy exploiting). I have to do one or the other, or maybe a little of both.

 

There should be a massive increase to the quest rewards: I agree that the original 13k I got from Kresselack is a bit too much now that my bunch gets levels faster, but 700 is nothing short of an insult for all the hard work and slaughter my team went through. Somewhere in between would be good, maybe 9k or something, and a similar approach to the other quests.

 

As for the creatures, the experience I get from them is a bit too small as well. The 600 of imbued wights is just about right, but mummies and Myrkul's Sending give way too little. As for their toughness, it should be reduced, and a lot.

 

The other odd thing I'm noticing is that the monsters in IWD2 seem to have a longer range of awareness. I'm not sure if this is because "random walk" is letting them walk further or because they can see the PC's from further away. I just noticed that I get swarmed from time to time in places I don't expect to.

 

I noticed this too. It seemed for me like they would hear the sounds of fighting from afar: They'd be like "Hey, it sounds like my buddies over there, that I can't exactly see, are facing with some badass adventures! Better go and help!". As long as I don't engage in combat, however, I'm left relatively alone.

 

One other thing, though: There would still seem to be a lore value on some items. I don't recall how this was in IWD2, but shouldn't lore be made obsolete with all those new skills and stuff?

[FredSRichardson]

There should be a massive increase to the quest rewards: I agree that the original 13k I got from Kresselack is a bit too much now that my bunch gets levels faster, but 700 is nothing short of an insult for all the hard work and slaughter my team went through. Somewhere in between would be good, maybe 9k or something, and a similar approach to the other quests.

 

As for the creatures, the experience I get from them is a bit too small as well. The 600 of imbued wights is just about right, but mummies and Myrkul's Sending give way too little. As for their toughness, it should be reduced, and a lot.

Well, I'm amazed you went that far. I gave up at Myrkul and stopped there, but I know this is where the conversion breaks down. I'm going to see if I can do something a bit more reasonable with the autoconverter. Otherwise I have to do everything by hand.

 

Quest experience will go up, and though tough guys will give a lot more. I wish I had the lesser shadows cursing on hit, this doesn't seem to happen. Also, the weights should petrify and the ghouls should do something (disease?). I'll look into it.

 

I noticed this too. It seemed for me like they would hear the sounds of fighting from afar: They'd be like "Hey, it sounds like my buddies over there, that I can't exactly see, are facing with some badass adventures! Better go and help!". As long as I don't engage in combat, however, I'm left relatively alone.

 

One other thing, though: There would still seem to be a lore value on some items. I don't recall how this was in IWD2, but shouldn't lore be made obsolete with all those new skills and stuff?

It might be the listen skill that gives the monsters more awareness. I'm not sure skeletons should hear much. They can certainly see. I didn't notice any "help me" scripting (IWD2 has this all over the place).

 

I think lore is still there, but I'll check and make sure. Some items are still being autoconverted which can produce odd results. It could also be that lore is used against the skill check (arcane something).

[Zamael]

Shadows curse me, occasionally. Far less than they used to in the original, but still. Also blunt weapons work relatively well, in case you get stuck. Not well enough, though: I can still remember how well maces and axes used to crush undead in Diablo.

[Guest Druid]

Thanks for the release, I will definitely give a try in the Christmas.

[Zamael]

So there are a few spells in IWD1 that aren't in IWD2, which are probably going to be removed by this project. I'm not going to miss them, really, but I'm concerned about one of those spells, mainly Contact Other Plane, because at one point in HoW, it's essential in acquiring a powerful armor. How are you going to resolve this matter?

[Guest Druid]

I don't see any changes after running iw12.exe, only some portraits change to icewind1 style.

I have check the iwd2 folder, the contents in override was updated, but the CHITIN.KEY and dialog.tlk are the original one.

Is something goes wrong in the installation? Here is the beginning of the log.

 

		IW12 (version 10, weidu 192)

*** Reading Global Configuration ***
[iw12/configuration] parsed (12 rules)
[C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale/CHITIN.KEY] 268 BIFFs, 19992 resources
[C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale/dialog.tlk] 34502 string entries
[C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II/CHITIN.KEY] 206 BIFFs, 27923 resources
[C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II/dialog.tlk] 45299 string entries
[C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II/data/CRE.bif] 4002262 bytes, 1625 files, 0 tilesets
WARNING: [iw12/iwd2-override/CVS] is a 0 byte file
ERROR: error loading [iw12/iwd2-override/CVS]
WARNING: [iw12/iwd1-override/CVS] is a 0 byte file
ERROR: error loading [iw12/iwd1-override/CVS]
*** Reading Conversion Rules in [iw12/rules] ***
[iw12/rules/animate] parsed (50 rules)

[Guest Druid]

Sorry I think I found the problem.

It is because some files in the override folder was set to read-only which cause the installation process stop at the middle.

Problem is fixed after did a normal installation.

[FredSRichardson]

So there are a few spells in IWD1 that aren't in IWD2, which are probably going to be removed by this project. I'm not going to miss them, really, but I'm concerned about one of those spells, mainly Contact Other Plane, because at one point in HoW, it's essential in acquiring a powerful armor. How are you going to resolve this matter?

Yes, you bring up a good point. I was going to try and stick to 3E spells as per IWD2, but contact other plane is a little different. I forget how that one works into the plot, but doesn't it give you some useful information? I'll look into it, it's probably a good idea to keep it as a spell or make some special scrolls.

[Zamael]

I forget how that one works into the plot, but doesn't it give you some useful information?

 

Yeah, it lets you know the demon's true name to control the armor he's inhabiting. The only way to get the armor, at least without dying and unleashing a powerful killing machine to the rest of the party.

 

I'll look into it, it's probably a good idea to keep it as a spell or make some special scrolls.

 

The ideal solution would be to do some arrangements in the plot itself to change it, or switch the spell to something more appropriate or something, but that's probably asking too much as long as you're a one-man team.

[kenteam]

Hi! I just started to play a new game, everything seems ok except that black screen appear whenever going to a particular house, it didn't have any responses and I needed to close the main program in task manager. Other things seem fine and it is pretty easy though my journey is at the very beginning.

 

Problem house