Some questions about SCSII

[Guest jchboy]

Hi guys. I'm a returning player to BG2, and have some questions about SCSII. I've looked around for a difficulty enhancing mod. Of cos, the top 2 contenders are IA and SCSII. But after much research, I feel IA is too restrictive in terms of forcing you to play the game the way the creator wants to.

 

On the other hand, there are reports of people soloing SCSII.

 

Now, I want a challenging experience, but not one that will make me gnash my teeth out unless I play the mod creator's way. I'm leaning toward SCSII now, but what I would like to ask is, if it can be soloed, is it that difficult, or did the players resort to cheese, or easiest setting etc etc

 

TIA for any feedback

[razlyubleno]

I'm leaning toward SCSII now, but what I would like to ask is, if it can be soloed, is it that difficult, or did the players resort to cheese, or easiest setting etc etc

I can't see how they could have done it any other way. SCSII is harder to cheese than vanilla, but if you're soloing, expect to do a lot of running up and down staircases to avoid spells and the like. And abusing clones to get free 9th level spells, semipermanent invisibility, etc.

 

razly

[Jarno Mikkola]

And one thing that the SCS'es do great is that it allows you to make your own desitions on the difficulty level, without the need to adjust the .tp2 file by hand, as the installer gives you options, unlike in the IA.

 

Other point is that the SCSII's AI enhances almost every characters AI, a mod characters too, as long as they use some default AI builds... this makes SCSII compatible with almost all quest and AI enhancing mod out there.

[DrAzTiK]

Just a question : is it possible to change option prebuff (choose 1 instead 2) without reeinstalling SCS II ?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Just a question : is it possible to change option prebuff (choose 1 instead 2) without reeinstalling SCS II ?

I would say yes-... but it's much easier to uninstall the prebuff component and reinstall it using the option 1... than actually go and alter the scripts -manually.

[DavidW]

Just a question : is it possible to change option prebuff (choose 1 instead 2) without reeinstalling SCS II ?

 

Um... not sure I've understood this, but basically, no by definition: they're different components, so changing automatically means uninstalling one and installing the other. You don't need to reinstall the whole mod, though - just that component (though that means WEIDU will also reinstall all later components.

 

Is SCSII solo-able? I gather so (I've had a couple of reports from people who've done it, on Core difficulty iirc). I've never soloed, and SCSII is certainly designed with full-party play in mind, but it doesn't deliberately do anything to prevent soloing.

[coaster]

Yes it's possible to solo SCSII. I've done it with a Fighter/Mage (minus level cap) and a Barbarian (with level cap). I don't really buy the idea that it's harder to solo than play with a party generally - it requires less micromanagement and you get HLAs early (unless you have an XP-reducing mod installed as well).

 

Having said that, I would say Improved Anvil is incredibly difficult - possibly impossible - to solo (there are reports of someone soloing it but they are disputed by the mod's author). So if you do want to play solo, SCSII is the more suitable mod.

[razlyubleno]

Yes it's possible to solo SCSII. I've done it with a Fighter/Mage (minus level cap) and a Barbarian (with level cap). I don't really buy the idea that it's harder to solo than play with a party generally - it requires less micromanagement and you get HLAs early (unless you have an XP-reducing mod installed as well).

Are there any battles that you skip when you solo? Especially early in the game, you'd have to pick them wisely, right? At higher levels it's okay, but early on you'd be shark-bait.

 

razly

[coaster]

I've not skipped battles, but yes you probably want to think about the order in which you do things. eg. often I'll go to the Keep just to pick up the Flail of Ages, but then not take on Torgal until later. Or I'll go through the druid grove invisible to take on Faldorn, then return to clear out the rest of the grove later (although be careful of druids dispelling your invisibility... )

 

The general point is that if you play SCSII with all options on - in particular, full pre-buffing, HLAs for SoA enemies and maximum difficulty level scaling - spellcasters, especially arcane, become very, very difficult. To give an example - the 3 options I've referred to, if turned on, will result in 2 lichs being spawned in the shadow lord's dungeon, fully buffed up, and chances are they'll cast Time Stop and summon Planetars, or chuck a Dragon's Breath at you, etc. If you're high enough level to take them on, fine - otherwise your options are:

 

-run or sneak past

-wait until their summons and buffs expire and then attack them (though they won't by any means have run out of spells - so you still need to be very careful...)

 

So (if you know the game fairly well) this gives you a guide to which quests to do early and which to avoid. Circus is usually easy if done early; as are any graveyard quests; the Harper quests aren't too bad; Maevar's quests are OK. And so on.

[Lemernis]

I'm not so sure if the OP is intending to solo. My impression is he is using soloing as a yardstick to measure difficulty. In other words, it sounds like he's simply wondering how difficult can SCSII be if people can solo it? Etc.

 

If you install all SCSII's features, SCSII is ballbustingly difficult imho. I think soloing the game would be hugely difficult with enemy spellcasters using HLAs. I would never even attempt it. But then again I'm not into soloing. I prefer a full party. I enjoy managing all the characters skills.

 

OP, I've never tried Improved Anvil, so I can't really compare the two mods. But I'm confident that you will enjoy SCSII. I would recommend you give it a go.

[Guest jchboy]

Yes, lemernis got what I meant. I'm using solo as a yardstick. But if SCSII is still very difficuly without cheese, then I'm gonna go for it

[Ardanis]

But if SCSII is still very difficuly without cheese

Sometimes it's too smart. To the point of being very annoying, when enemy archers shoot at the wizard, who just wants not to be a part of a fight, while at the same time party's tanks are hacking archers' friends. Same goes to melee, when they prioritized my F/M to fully armored Korgan every time the two were within their weapon range.

 

Still, I'd say that SCS2 is the less flawed AI mod out there.

[DavidW]

But if SCSII is still very difficuly without cheese

Sometimes it's too smart. To the point of being very annoying, when enemy archers shoot at the wizard, who just wants not to be a part of a fight, while at the same time party's tanks are hacking archers' friends.

I agree that's a failure of intelligence. A real AI system would do some kind of threat-assessment-versus-vulnerability calculation, but that's way beyond the infinity engine (and largely beyond the state of the art of artificial intelligence more generally). SCS is just assuming that generally all party members are a threat, and so tries to kill all of them, starting with the most vulnerable (i.e., usually the wizards).

 

Same goes to melee, when they prioritized my F/M to fully armored Korgan every time the two were within their weapon range.

 

Isn't that sensible strategy?

[Lemernis]

Yes, lemernis got what I meant. I'm using solo as a yardstick. But if SCSII is still very difficuly without cheese, then I'm gonna go for it

 

There is no question that it is extremely difficult--and winnable win without resorting to cheese tactics.

 

FWIW, Here's how I would break down the components and the difficulty they provide:

 

The following components for me are always core. They make the game much tougher. You can have a very satisfying experience of difficulty from just these:

 

Smarter General AI

Better Calls for Help

Potions for NPCs

Smarter Mages

Smarter Priests

 

The next set of components add to the difficulty, although not hugely (although the random encounters early in the game, before you have raised enough cash to get a magic license, are almost annoyingly hard):

 

various spell tweaks

Increase difficulty of level-lependent monster groupings

Improved random encounters

 

You can kick the difficulty up a notch with the following:

 

various smarter creatures (species)

various smarter specific encounters (mob bosses)

 

And the hardest feature of all:

 

HLAs for mages and priests

 

 

 

I actually found that I did not enjoy the game with enemy HLAs installed. I could eventually get the wins. But gameplay required far too much reloading for way too many battles, for my taste. That, for me personally, decreases the fun value to the point of diminishing returns. I'm not sure what is the ideal percentage of battles to have to reload many times to get a win, but for my taste it should not be over fifty percent. And that's what it felt like.

 

Other players who are probably better tacticians than me may not have to reload so often when facing enemy spellcasters who are using HLAs. So take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, as your mileage may vary here.

[razlyubleno]

I actually found that I did not enjoy the game with enemy HLAs installed. I could eventually get the wins. But gameplay required far too much reloading for way too many battles, for my taste.

Are you talking about the ToB portion of the game, or SoA? I've never played with that component. I was wondering, in practice, how many opponents end up with HLAs in SoA? Are they overpowered for that point in the game?

 

razly