Some more experience of certain foes would be cool too

[Zamael]

Like many other foes, especially at the late game, Drasus and his bunch have transformed from rather weak pansies into total nigh-unstoppable killing machines. However, after finally taking them down, I discovered that I got no more experience from them than normally. After such long and painstaking battle, not to mention all those numerous failures against them, I kinda feel betrayed about this.

 

I assume none of the other enchanced enemies give any more experience than they normally would, right? But I think they should, because a), the tougher the enemies, the more they should give experience, b), if the game's going to be even tougher than this, I need all the help I can get, and c), I've never reached the normal exp cap of vanilla ToSC without cheating anyway.

[Icendoan]

Well, this is the thing. They don't actually get any buffs, merely a more effective brain.

 

Tougher AI shouldn't make the game much, much harder, unless you are expecting to overpower idiots.

 

Therefore, the fault is always with the player, not the creatures, because like all AI, it can be beaten through intelligence. If you are not using your brain in response to brains, you shouldn't get any more experience for it.

 

Icen

[Zamael]

I am pretty certain he couldn't massacre Kagain in seconds the last time I met him.

 

And... Still. I think some more exp would be nice, if only because I've now decided that I actually suck in this game pretty bad. I mean, that should give me some experience, shouldn't it, being that I'm now a bit smarter and all?

[Icendoan]

He can massacre Kagain that fast with what he had before, should he have used it.

 

Icen

[Zamael]

Oh. Anyway...

 

...and mild increases in the abilities of various creatures (many named enemies gain a couple of levels, mid- and high-level creatures often start with a potion or two, and so on.)

 

They have more levels, ergo, they should give more experience.

[Icendoan]

Go into NI and change them...

 

Icen

[Zamael]

Okay, now I'm just going to sound like a n00b, but... NI?

[Icendoan]

NI = Near Infinity.

 

Or, you could run this, which is a little cheesy, it just doubles your exp gain...

 

BACKUP ~#!XPTweak/Backup~
AUTHOR ~Icendoan, G3~

BEGIN ~Customized~
SUBCOMPONENT ~#!XP Tweaks~
PRINT ~Would you like to choose a global amount? Y/N~
ACTION_READLN custom1
ACTION_IF ~custom1~ STRING_COMPARE ~Y~ BEGIN
PRINT ~Global Amount selected.~
PRINT ~Enter the desired amount.~
ACTION_READLN custom2~
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*.cre~ ~override~
WRITE_LONG 0x14 ~custom2~
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES
END
ELSE BEGIN
PRINT ~Enter your multiplier~
PRINT ~NOTE: INTEGER ONLY!~
ACTION_READLN customMultiplier
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*.cre~ ~override~
READ_LONG 0x14 exp
WRITE_LONG 0x14 (%exp% * %customMultiplier%)
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES
END
BEGIN ~x2~
SUBCOMPONENT ~#!XP Tweaks~
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*.cre~ ~override~
READ_LONG 0x14 exp
WRITE_LONG 0x14 (%exp% * 2)
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

 

You should know the drill by now. Save it as "setup-#!XPTweaks.tp2" and then run WeiDU called "Setup-#!XPTweaks.exe".

 

As always, completely untested.

 

Icen

[Zamael]

Here's another idea, though, to make it a bit more fair: Don't give every single mage the exact friggin' same spell selection, i.e. Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Chaos. Because there are loads of other spells around, and they managed to give them some differences in BGII as well, so why not here?

 

Make them summon million monsters at me for a change, like I keep doing to them.

[Icendoan]

Well, if you want to write individual intelligent scripts for every mage in the game be my guest. (some scripts are >10000 lines)

 

Icen

[Zamael]

Me? No, no no no, I'm just the complaining guy, who bugs everyone but does nothing himself. I'm like, level 6 in that, if I multiclassed now it'd take years before I could do that.

[Guest!]

Well, if you want to write individual intelligent scripts for every mage in the game be my guest. (some scripts are >10000 lines)

 

Icen

You wouldn't need to write individual scripts, just a few ones randomly assigned.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Here's another idea, though, to make it a bit more fair: Don't give every single mage the exact friggin' same spell selection, i.e. Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Chaos. Because there are loads of other spells around, and they managed to give them some differences in BGII as well, so why not here?

Well, if you want to write individual intelligent scripts for every mage in the game be my guest. (some scripts are >10000 lines)

You wouldn't need to write individual scripts, just a few ones randomly assigned.

To my knowledge, the learned spells is the factor that says what the mage casts(in SCS), unfortunatly the mages in BG1 all have almost the same spell selection and use just different spell selections... as they have memorized different things. -it may have something to do with autoleveling the opponents, for the whole game to create a standard mage which to modify a bit and you'll get individuals by memorizing spells-

 

So the solution is/would be indeed to erase the unneeded spells and limiting the enemy spell selection greatly, for different individuals.

[Zamael]

Battling the Prat's bunch in the Candlekeep dungeons (a fight that was pretty tough even in the vanilla), I've decided that Inquisitors have become awesome. I'm going to bring Ajantis around next time (whom I level1npc'd an Inquisitor, to mimic his mentor Keldorn).

[DavidW]

Keeping the XP gain fixed is deliberate: otherwise, you create an arms-race effect. If all the creatures are more powerful but they give appropriate experience, then the game doesn't get any more difficult, it's just that your character is higher level during it. I don't think that's really the point.