IA v6 Final

[DavidW]

And there is always the possibility that someone would at least give the mod a try in the future (for example, if someone's already bored with Ascension + SCS II, might wanna try a new challenge).

 

How could that possibly happen? My SCS mod is flawless

[geh4th]

And there is always the possibility that someone would at least give the mod a try in the future (for example, if someone's already bored with Ascension + SCS II, might wanna try a new challenge).

 

How could that possibly happen? My SCS mod is flawless

 

Ah, DavidW...but in Sikret's own words, you are merely an amateur while he is a "professional" at creating mods. Take a look:

 

**Note: The quotes below are from an Improved Anvil Workroom discussion dated Feb 14, 2010. The first quote is from another IA tester in response to a statement Sikret made in a different (formerly public BWL) topic, about how all other modders are amateurs while he (and only he) is a professional at it.

 

 

Critto: Plus, to be fair, Sikret, I think you were a little too harsh in your statements in that topic. Calling everyone else an amateur is a bit too much, don't you think?

 

Sikret: I didn't call them amateurs; I called their works amateur works. When a work is done only in leisure time, without adequate dedication and without proper testing, it's an amateur work even if the person who does it is a professionally expert man.

 

 

Critto: There is a lot of great and competent modders (writers, artists, engineers) out there who make mods of great quality.

 

Sikret: Really?!! Befor creating IA, I was a professional full time BG2 player. I played pretty much every mod which existed under the sun and never found a quality mod among them.

[lroumen]

Foes refreshing buffs like spell imunity? I like that. I used to throw down a Ruby Ray to remove Spell Immunity and then a Khelben's Warding Whip to remove other spell protections every round, but I guess that I may have to reconsider that if Spell Immunity is refreshed.

 

I do not like all those skeleton (grand)lords that come in packs of 4-6 though, except for their scrolls.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

professional full time BG2 player

 

lol, thats just retarded.

 

JMason79 did you take part in the special Baldurs Gate 2 World Cup as well ?

 

Epic statement, lmao.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

Distinguished Developer

Posts: 4848

Joined: 1-December 05

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

I am pleased to inform you that I have got some free time to work on IA v7 much sooner than I was expecting. IA v7 will be hopefully prepared much faster than the time we spent on v6 (in about one year or so). I say this for a few reasons:

 

1- IA v6 contains a complete reworked (and new) combat system compared to v5 (as some of you have noticed the increased level of intelligence in enemies); implementing this new system was time-consuming. We won't need to do a silimlar large-scale rework for v7.

 

2- A large portion of the extended druid stronghold is already done and ready. It will save us a lot of time.

 

3- I will be using a better, faster and stronger testing team for v7. The best members of the testing team who worked on v6 will continue to work on IA v7; more strong testers will be added as well. This will increase our speed as well.

 

4- We will no longer need to care about blocking exploits and cheats, because most of those exploits and cheats are already blocked in v6 and the cheaters will not register to the site anyway. This will also add to our speed to prepare the mod.

 

I hope that the first beta version of IA v7 will be ready for testing in about 2 months from now.

 

Premium and gold members who are interested in joining the testing team can send me e-mails to register their names in the testing team.

 

I vote for Saros to join the testing team.

 

Statement dated 4 months ago btw.

[geh4th]

I do not like all those skeleton (grand)lords that come in packs of 4-6 though, except for their scrolls.

 

I loved fighting Grandlords (and their lesser brethren). Easy to kill, pretty good loot, and TONS of experience. Yes, they do damage, but they have very little in the way of physical resistances. Just distract a couple with summons and gang up on them with the fighters one at a time...

 

Edit: Oops, now Sikret is probably going to decide that they are too weak and apply an armor coating of invincible Sikret-odinium (tm*) to them for v7.

[Saros]

From my solo perspective point of view, Skeleton Lords, Warlords and Grandlords are nothing to sneer at. Any four of those can rip you to shreds in a couple of rounds even with all illusion buffs + Stoneskin active. Especially Grandlords have hilarious immunities to all types of magical and elemental damage and are also under permanent Improved Mantle effect. In addition, Skeleton Lords/Warlords/Grandlords are simply minions - they always accompany a more powerful enemy, which makes them tough enough IMO.

 

I am unsure if Khelben's Warding Whip is negated by a refreshed Spell Immunity Abjuration, since I can't spare a slot for this spell like never. Lvl 7 is tightly packed with Spell Turning and RRR, and it's usually 6-7 spell turnings vs 3 RRR. I am barely able to make room for one copy of another important spell, ProElements. With enemies refreshing SI:A however, 3 RRR are not sufficient anymore.

 

Oh, and if by any chance Sikret comes to his senses and starts assembling players with a different than his usual tester group's playstyle, I'd be the first to refuse. Call me an egoist, but I play this game for fun and for myself, although I'm always open to share what I've learned with any player willing to listen.

 

Just as a side note, I polished the newly-found exploit and was able to accumulate items worth 60k gp and to raise 3 levels in about 1.5 hour, which is not so bad, despite doing only one thing over and over again. Mage level currently 15, probably will start the real game tonight, after hitting lvl 18 and regaining Berserker levels.

 

Also, pickpocketing is indeed useless, since after robbing the whole Athkatla, all that was really gained was some gold after selling the not-so-amazing items. Random item slots have been revised, and in the place of once-good random spell scrolls like ProEnergy, Spell Sequencer, Mordy Sword, PW:Stun, etc, etc, now are scrolls like Friends, Color Spray and MM. Most notable good random scrolls I've found so far were Invisible Stalker, True Sight and Fireshield Red. No more free Permanency scrolls...

[Mohina]

Sikret won't come to his senses, not ever. A pity, really. I played IA5 and i thought several of the battles were really well designed, among the best i've seen. Of course, some other battles were tedious rather than challenging and others were downright frustrating (the Drow ambush in the Underdark still figures prominently in my nightmares).

Having said that, IA is not everyone's cup of tea. I for one wouldn't want to play it on every run of BG2 (i far prefer SCS, for a challenging but balanced game). But beating IA is immensely satisfying, more so than any other game i've played.

If the guy would just shed his arrogance and elitism...

[temujin]

Hey. I've taken a look at BWL (from what is still available on its fora) and also what's readable on other fora about them. Honestly, they don't look as bad guys

 

 

you're right, Sikky, I guess they're good guys after all

 

 

How are you, Sikky?

 

(I'm fine, btw, thanx for asking)

 

 

Did you ask permission from Weimer whether you could make money using his modding tool? After all, without WeiDU, obviously Improved Anvil wouldn't exist. Common courtesy and all that...

 

 

And btw, Sikky, I've been meaning to ask this for a while...

 

How can a remarkable genius, a distinguished developer like yourself not tell the difference between Weidu syntax and Infinity engine scripting code (i'm talking about StartDialogueNoSet()) ?

 

I mean, even a comatose, braindead chimpanzee with basic WeiDU training would easily spot the difference. So how can someone of your stature make such an embarrassing blunder? Were you just joking back then? Please tell me you were...

[lroumen]

I am unsure if Khelben's Warding Whip is negated by a refreshed Spell Immunity Abjuration, since I can't spare a slot for this spell like never. Lvl 7 is tightly packed with Spell Turning and RRR, and it's usually 6-7 spell turnings vs 3 RRR. I am barely able to make room for one copy of another important spell, ProElements. With enemies refreshing SI:A however, 3 RRR are not sufficient anymore.

Khelben's Warding Whip is abjuration magic so it should be blocked by Spell Immunity: Abjuration. I just found that according to Xyx' Spell Reference it should, but I never really tested whether it would be blocked and always assumed that it would fail, so I always stubbornly put a Ruby Ray of Reversal onto my foes before a Khelben's Warding Whip.

 

If you solo, I think Khelben is a good method to get rid of Spell Turning/Deflection and Globe of Invulnerability over time, unless you put three Ruby Rays in a Chain Continguency.

[DavidW]

Ah, DavidW...but in Sikret's own words, you are merely an amateur while he is a "professional" at creating mods. Take a look:

 

**Note: The quotes below are from an Improved Anvil Workroom discussion dated Feb 14, 2010. The first quote is from another IA tester in response to a statement Sikret made in a different (formerly public BWL) topic, about how all other modders are amateurs while he (and only he) is a professional at it.

 

 

Critto: Plus, to be fair, Sikret, I think you were a little too harsh in your statements in that topic. Calling everyone else an amateur is a bit too much, don't you think?

 

Sikret: I didn't call them amateurs; I called their works amateur works. When a work is done only in leisure time, without adequate dedication and without proper testing, it's an amateur work even if the person who does it is a professionally expert man.

 

Guilty as charged. Blatantly SCS is an amateur product, and blatantly I'm an amateur writer, both in the technical sense that I don't make a living from this and the more significant sense that I'm not producing products of systematically professional quality. SCS does things that (I hope) improve the original game in lots of ways, but I'm sure its current version is much rougher around the edges than any professional product would be. Very few mods, and no really large game-changing mods, would pass Bioware QA. I seriously doubt that SCS would; I'd be amazed if IA would.

[Saros]

The fact you're missing is that if an Anvil foe is protected by several spell protections (now those are limited to only Spell Shield, GoI, Spell Turning, MGoI and Spell Immunity) and SI: Abjuration, no spell removal other than RRR would have any effect on the target. Hence, the only way to remove SI:A is to practically 'peel' the rest of the spell protections of the target: first Spell Shield, next Spell Turning, third GoI, and finally SI:A. At this moment, in IA 5.0 would be pointless to cast Khelben's Warding Whip, since the enemy has no protections except maybe MGoI. However, I was wondering (and will test shortly) if the Warding Whip, successfully cast, will remove the afterwards-refreshed SI:A or will be stopped by it with the message 'spell ineffective'.

 

There is another relatively quick way to get rid of at least Spell Turning - shower the enemy with either Energy Blades or MMM's, and those will absorb the Turning in 1 round or even faster.

 

Edit: I very much enjoyed playing solo no-reload BG1+TOTSC modded with SCS. Maybe even more than IA 5.0.

[temujin]

Very few mods, and no really large game-changing mods, would pass Bioware QA.

 

avenger_RR's work would.

[DavidW]

Very few mods, and no really large game-changing mods, would pass Bioware QA.

 

avenger_RR's work would.

 

Yeah, possibly. I was writing in a bit of a hurry and I'm probably oversimplifying. I guess my point is just that the kind of testing cycle used in genuinely professional computer-game design is just not something that's realistically accessible for most mod-making. I actually think IA does have something close to that level of testing (it would fail a professional QA for being much too easy to break if you deviate from designer's intent). SCS certainly doesn't, and never claims to. There have been some embarassingly serious bugs in several of its releases.

[Saros]

Another examples how Sikret's getting rid of stuff he doesn't like:

 

Remember that nice house in the Bridge District with Valeria and her group? Guess what. The house in unaccessible any more.

 

The screaming statue in temple sewers lvl 3 with spiders and Wandering horrors? No longer works.

 

Boots of Speed on Renal? - No more.

 

Ring of Wizardry on Nardinal - not only gone, but also no xp for killing Nardinal or any other mage in further Harper encounters.