Give us a hand, will ya?

[Grunker]

Just going to treat myself to a playthrough of IWD again after a while. Probably Heart of Fury, since I've never played that. So I have a couple of questions:

 

1) Do you start at level 1 in Heart of Fury, and just get extra XP, or should you start with characters of a higher level?

 

2) Is Auril's Bane any good? All the extra stuff looks cool, but I'm worried of the quality, since I've never tried the mod.

 

3) This installation order should be alright, right?:

 

1) IWD

 

2) IWD: HoW

 

3) IWD: HoW: TotL

 

4) Auril's Bane (TotL-version)

 

5) IWD UB

 

6) IWD NPC

 

7) IWD Tweaks

 

Anything I've missed or that I should know about?

 

Thanks in advance

[Jarno Mikkola]

3) IWD: HoW: TotL

X

4) Auril's Bane (TotL-version)

X = Try to start the game, see if you need to fix something like the GPU making the nice black blocks which can easily fixed with proper settings.

Then you might wish to make a backup of the game by copying the entire game folder to somewhere else, and perhaps put it in to a .rar archive(as you then can delete, and extract the folder to the same place and have a clean install each time, and the extraction process is faster than copy-paste or reinstall).

 

After the 7), you probably should install the Widescreen mod, and try several resolutions(by running the setup-widescreen.exe each time... after the first) before desiding to go with the most visually pleasing one and then start a new game.

[Grunker]

3) IWD: HoW: TotL

X

4) Auril's Bane (TotL-version)

X = Try to start the game, see if you need to fix something like the GPU making the nice black blocks which can easily fixed with proper settings.

Then you might wish to make a backup of the game by copying the entire game folder to somewhere else, and perhaps put it in to a .rar archive(as you then can delete, and extract the folder to the same place and have a clean install each time, and the extraction process is faster than copy-paste or reinstall).

 

After the 7), you probably should install the Widescreen mod, and try several resolutions(by running the setup-widescreen.exe each time... after the first) before desiding to go with the most visually pleasing one and then start a new game.

 

Super. Thanks!

 

Can you answer 1 and 2?

 

EDIT: Oookay, I'm getting a runtime error. Damn. Gonna try a quick reinstall, post results here.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Can you answer 1 and 2?

This(search for [WNNHFW]) should help you with the 1): It basically says that you should try it with a party that has already goone through the campain ones, as it tripples the Hit points of the monsters and gives them +80 hitpoints in addition.

 

I don't remember playing the Auril's Bane that much, what I kinda remember is that it doesn't change the game play very significantly, or at least much more than the IWD Tweakpack can so it will probably go with everything else too.

 

Hmm, if you have a Vista or W7 as your Operation System, you should avoid installing the game into the C:\Program Files sub-folders, and turn off the UAC while installing the mods, as always with the Infinity Engine games.

[Grunker]

Can you answer 1 and 2?

This(search for [WNNHFW]) should help you with the 1): It basically says that you should try it with a party that has already goone through the campain ones, as it tripples the Hit points of the monsters and gives them +80 hitpoints in addition.

 

I don't remember playing the Auril's Bane that much, what I kinda remember is that it doesn't change the game play very significantly, or at least much more than the IWD Tweakpack can so it will probably go with everything else too.

 

 

Great. As for 1) I don't really have the stamina to go through IWD1 two times, so I'll probably just use the CLUA. What would an appropriate level range be? In the walkthrough it says 11+ for hard, 15+ for insane and 21+ for Heart of Fury. Is it really that high? 21+?

[the bigg]

Is is possible to play HoF as a level 1 (depending on your definition of possible), since you'll be earning so much XP that you'll quickly recover the gap. Takes a lot of reloading, though (especially in the beginning). Lots of micromanaging and ranged weapons is needed for your first kills; after that, summons are as buffed up as your enemies.

 

Auril's Bane is as old as the game itself and hosted on CoM. Statistically speaking, it must suck a lot.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Great. As for 1) I don't really have the stamina to go through IWD1 two times, so I'll probably just use the CLUA. What would an appropriate level range be? In the walkthrough it says 11+ for hard, 15+ for insane and 21+ for Heart of Fury. Is it really that high? 21+?

Well, the game has a level XP cap set to 8 000 000, so if you go with the 21, you'll have 3 250 000 of the XP(acording to the fighter table), which to me is a bit too much... but if you go with the 16th level(2 000 000xp), you'll 3/4 of the possible XP to gain, and you should never actually get that much... of course it all depends on the party composition, as I am thinking at 6 party member group...

 

Is is possible to play HoF as a level 1 (depending on your definition of possible), since you'll be earning so much XP that you'll quickly recover the gap. Takes a lot of reloading, though (especially in the beginning). Lots of micromanaging and ranged weapons is needed for your first kills; after that, summons are as buffed up as your enemies.

I'll just ask, how are you going to defeat the 6 goblin party at the first map... without the 6 pairs of boots of speeds, as they have ranged weapons too?

[Grunker]

Is is possible to play HoF as a level 1 (depending on your definition of possible), since you'll be earning so much XP that you'll quickly recover the gap. Takes a lot of reloading, though (especially in the beginning). Lots of micromanaging and ranged weapons is needed for your first kills; after that, summons are as buffed up as your enemies.

 

Auril's Bane is as old as the game itself and hosted on CoM. Statistically speaking, it must suck a lot.

 

Well, the game is working now, and I've installed Auril's Bane. If it really does suck, I'll uninstall it. I'm still not sure what I'm gonna do about the HoF-thing. Will probably start with a level 1 party, see how it goes. Perhaps level up my guys if I'm

 

Thanks for the help guys.

 

By the way, I'm going to use DaleKeeper to remove the suck from the IWD NPCs (to have a party with a fighting chance, instead of stuff like bards). Any known caveats?

[Grunker]

Damn. I get the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Error. It happens when I've created a party - it almost finishes loading the game, then crashes.

 

I'm running it on an XP SP2 computer.

 

Halp?

 

EDIT: When I try to uninstall mods, weidu gives me this message:

 

ERROR: error loading [dialog.tlk]

FATAL ERROR: Unix.Unix_error(1, "read", "")

 

 

// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods

// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod

// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]

~AB.TP2~ #0 #0 // Auril's Bane Core Files

~UB_IWD/SETUP-UB_IWD.TP2~ #0 #100 // Malavon's Golems: v3

~UB_IWD/SETUP-UB_IWD.TP2~ #0 #200 // Expanded Guello/Beorn Quest: v3

~UB_IWD/SETUP-UB_IWD.TP2~ #0 #300 // Marketh's Ring: v3

~UB_IWD/SETUP-UB_IWD.TP2~ #0 #400 // Presio's Duel: v3

~UB_IWD/SETUP-UB_IWD.TP2~ #0 #500 // Orrick's Rhino Beetle Shield: v3

~IWDNPC/SETUP-IWDNPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // IWD NPC, v2

~IWDNPC/SETUP-IWDNPC.TP2~ #0 #5 // Alternate class for Severn -> Severn, mage

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1 // Assorted Fixes: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #20 // Weapon Animation Tweaks: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #40 // Restore IWD Loading Screens: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #60 // Icon Improvements: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #70 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1020 // Stores Sell Higher Stacks of Items: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2100 // Change Magically Created Weapons to Zero Weight: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2110 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Druids Use 3e Alignment Restrictions (NG, LN, TN, CN, NE): v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3001 // Higher HP on Level Up -> NWN Style: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3030 // Easy Spell Learning -> 100% Learn Spells: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Unlimited Ammo Stacking: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3070 // Unlimited Gem and Jewelry Stacking: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Unlimited Potion Stacking: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3090 // Unlimited Scroll Stacking: v11

~G3DALETWEAKS/SETUP-G3DALETWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3120 // Sellable Staffs, Clubs, and Slings (Icelus): v11

[CoM_Solaufein]

...

[Azazello]

I've a lot to say here...

 

01) Why is this thread in Noobermeet? It's directly talking about IwD. In fact, you would then see in that forum there's an install order thread near the top of the stack.

 

02) Grunker, didn't you already post this kind of thread at PPG (and SHS)? It would be nice if you can kept the topic self-contained at one source.

 

03)

Auril's Bane is as old as the game itself and hosted on CoM. Statistically speaking, it must suck a lot.

Perhaps. But AB is a cool add-on. I know, have used it thru several iterations.

 

Personally, I think IwD bites a big one all by itself, which is why I wouldn't play it without AB and other mods.

 

04)

Great. As for 1) I don't really have the stamina to go through IWD1 two times, so I'll probably just use the CLUA. What would an appropriate level range be? In the walkthrough it says 11+ for hard, 15+ for insane and 21+ for Heart of Fury. Is it really that high? 21+?

Well, the game has a level XP cap set to 8 000 000, so if you go with the 21, you'll have 3 250 000 of the XP(acording to the fighter table), which to me is a bit too much... but if you go with the 16th level(2 000 000xp), you'll 3/4 of the possible XP to gain, and you should never actually get that much... of course it all depends on the party composition, as I am thinking at 6 party member group...

My view is you can never have too much XP in IwD as it won't make any difference anyway in how often enemies will be able to hit you, and magic-users' spells bypass your saving throws -- which is to say, ' very often'. You'ld be surprised (well, in fact, you won't, that's how sucky IwD is) how often you can get beat up by creatures even when you're 20th level.

 

05)

Is is possible to play HoF as a level 1 (depending on your definition of possible), since you'll be earning so much XP that you'll quickly recover the gap. Takes a lot of reloading, though (especially in the beginning). Lots of micromanaging and ranged weapons is needed for your first kills; after that, summons are as buffed up as your enemies.

I'll just ask, how are you going to defeat the 6 goblin party at the first map... without the 6 pairs of boots of speeds, as they have ranged weapons too?

I have no idea how to beat those goblins w/o cheating on HoF.

 

How I'm playing now...

- stay on Normal until I got either Invisibility...

- move the slide to Hard, now use the thief to scout, then set up my party in the optimal battle arrangement, then wail on the enemies with no mercy, unloading even my most powerful spells/items/etc. If you're not gonna cheat, this tactic means you're gonna have to rest a lot. Oh well, luckily there're no timer limits on quests and stuff.

- stay on Hard until I got my first summons spell...

- repeat wail-on tactics, using the summons as cannon fodder, just like the walk-thru recommends, until...

- you get the bestest armor in the game IF you have AB installed--BUT you need to have a Paladin in the party...

- then move slider to Insane AND turn on HoF

[Grunker]

1) Because I can't find an Icewind Dale forum at G3? Might be I'm just straight out blind, but I can't.

 

2) Because, as you see, answers take time, and not only that; a lot of people mostly only frequent one site. Can't see why it's wrong to look for help in different places. And by the way; only the "fuck, game isn't working at all"-part is posted on more than one forum. Besides: The run-time error problem is only posted here and at PPG. The thread at Spellhold concerns grandmastery in IWD.

 

Being beat up easily is part of what makes IWD an alright Dungeon Crawl by the way. Game doesn't hold your hand.

[Jarno Mikkola]

The run-time error problem is only posted here and at PPG. The thread at Spellhold concerns grandmastery in IWD.

You did know that people like myself use indexes like this to go to the sites... if they really wish to know what's up in the IE forums... and then learning to quickly get to the 'Active content' index in each site... one get the 'Keys to the Realms'.

 

I am sure people wouldn't mind knowing that the same discussion is in many forums, and the best way to do that is to provide active links to them... and see where it takes the people to... as many members can gather around to a single site, even if they come from one to another they prefer.

And what comes to the thread in SHS, you can always change the topic, by renaming it by editing the first post in... usually. And if you wish to keep people informed, you'll actually edit your post to account the current situation.

[Mike1072]

Besides: The run-time error problem is only posted here and at PPG.

Everyone's always forgetting about CoM... or their posts there.

 

This sort of thing is a jerk move. You disrespect the people who try to assist you by having them waste their time, not knowing that somebody on another forum has already answered your questions or probed for further information.

 

So, when people who might normally be inclined to offer help in these situations notice this sort of thing, they'll be likely to ignore you completely or post a message like this one.

 

If you're going to ask for help on multiple forums, have the decency to include the links to your other threads. You might get a more positive response.

[Azazello]

Despite the comments above and below, we still haven't been able to help you yet, although I made a suggestion on a possible cause in the PPG thread.

 

1) Because I can't find an Icewind Dale forum at G3? Might be I'm just straight out blind, but I can't.

 

2) Because, as you see, answers take time, and not only that; a lot of people mostly only frequent one site. Can't see why it's wrong to look for help in different places. And by the way; only the "fuck, game isn't working at all"-part is posted on more than one forum. Besides: The run-time error problem is only posted here and at PPG. The thread at Spellhold concerns grandmastery in IWD.

If fact, I didn't mean for this discussion to break down on just one practice of cross-posting. But I do have to agree w/ the statements above, it makes it very difficult to fully help if answers are spread over several forums.

 

I like the idea of picking one forum to expand of the request (it's your own choice), and using other forums to linkback to the main thread.

 

BTW tis true "a lot of people mostly only frequent one site" but most people frequent several, even if just in lurker mode.

 

Being beat up easily is part of what makes IWD an alright Dungeon Crawl by the way. Game doesn't hold your hand.

A dungeon crawl never holds your hand; instead, it pulls you by the nose.

 

Trouble with IwD (and I've heard also IwD2) is that you can't even use good battle strategy or tactics to make an interesting game, the fights & enemies (game engine? code?) doesn't scale to the level/experience of the players; and the AI is really not 'I' at all. That's why the wail-on-them method is the way to go. You're wasting your time trying to play chess with the game, this is simply Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.