IA v6 Final

[Nominar]

PS: just wtf is a PROFESSIONAL BG2 PLAYER?

He meant he's a pro. And we're noobs.

 

Nahh, I don't know what he meant by it.

Somebody like this guy, except without the groupies and sponsorship deals.

I know what professional gamers are , South Korea has a lot of StarCraft professional gamers f.i. I was just joking and I highly doubt Sikret is an actual professional gamer by the definition.

 

EDIT: I actually think he's just being arrogant.

[Saros]

Starting the real test. Solo. Levels are 17 (Berserker) -> 18 (Mage).

 

Edit: Test continuing. Level almost 19. Did Improved Crypt King (which was quite a challenge even for this char - accompanied by a lvl draining Crypt Queen, both have very good AC and combat capabilities, and adequate physical and magical resistances). Also, did the improved Pai-na guards, and also Pai-Na herself (but reloaded afterwards, because WK lvl 1 will be hell with the Spider Queen activated after this encounter). Hoped for a Spell Immunity scroll. Nope.

 

Edit: Have been informed that part of Pai-Na's loot has to be a SI scroll. However, geh4th, who informed me, said that he played with a Necromancer protagonist and a full party. Maybe, there are precautions vs a soloer in this place. So I did an additional test, and assembled a 6-person party. While everyone else died in the fight, PC survived, and again - no SI scroll drop. Bad. Very bad.

 

Improved Pai-Na guardians: the most annoying are Sikret's new pets, the Mutated spiders you all know from vanilla. Those now fully deserve the 9k xp they're worth. They are immune to all types of magical/elemental damage, regenerate fast, have very good melee damage resistances (PC was doing averagely 11-12 per hit to the mutated spiders and 24-28, even more, to the rest of the spiders), and also great amount of HP (100, 150 or even more, dunno). And in each group there are 2 of those. Oh did I forget to mention their chance to hold their target on each strike? They are also immune to piercing damage (melee and missile).

 

Edit: Earlier mentioned Noble trolls (immune to weapons +2 and less) can be dispatched without Improved Haste. Met some of those on lvl 1 WK, probably due to high level. Enchanted weapon is still a very powerful spell (especially for a soloer) in the start of the game despite the nerfing.

 

Edit: Valygar can be turned in (actually, the reputation loss is not only 18, but 2*18) and reputation restored afterwards with donations. However, due to still present vanilla game bug, after lowering reputation to 1, the game automatically assumes as if the character has paid his 'magic license' and no more cowled enforcers appear on spell cast on streets, thus disabling Improved Cowled Wizards + Zallanora encounter. So no turning Valygar to Tolgeras, but no thanx to Sikret's efforts - the damage in this case is done by a vanilla game bug.

 

Edit: Refined a solo no-reload tactic with such a character in the Slaver compound. The most essential thing isn't winning - this can be done much easier. But speed is of the essence, since the enemy mage has 1 Improved Haste scroll and will read it in a couple of rounds. In the replays of this battle, he has to save vs 4 Symbol, Stun spells shot under Alacrity. Most probably, the tactic can be refined even further, by calculating the exact time of his arrival and managing to shoot a Greater mailson before his initial buffs kick in and after Improved Alacrity. But even if he manages to save vs all symbol spells, PC just has to shoot him with Darts of Stunning for 1-2 rounds. Those can be found in De'Arnise hold.

 

Illusion buffs are helpful as always, but their timing is essential. When battling the enemy cleric (en masse with assassins and slaver guards) PC had to be without illusions, still managed. AC modifiers set by Shield and Armor spells are very good, probably they helped a lot. And proMW of course.

 

BTW FoA is further nerfed. Doesn't apply its elemental damage on successful hit, but instead has a 5% chance (per strike) of inflicting 10 of each type. I'm starting to think that this change applies to all elemental-damaging weapons, except maybe the more expensive upgrades.

[geh4th]

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.

 

This hits the nail on the head. It's why Khelben's Whip is a dead spell in v6 - you can't use it on anyone because they're either 1) Under Improved Invisiblity and SI: Divination (and thus can't be targeted) or 2) Under Spell Immunity: Abjuration. Since most other protections have to be removed BEFORE the Spell Immunity, you do have to "peel the onion" to get rid of it.

 

And yes, hitting someone with an damaging spell is an effective (if dangerous) tactic for removing a Spell Turning. I didn't really bother with that much, though. Easier to just peel away...

 

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.

 

1) Bridge District house: That encounter is still there, but not for everyone. This is now part of one of Sikret's new quests, only available to single-class Mages, Druids, and Rangers. The quest is called "sqirreled away", and involves having to speak with several squirrels (the first of which is found in a cage in Waukeen's Promenade.) The house in question is a Chapter 6 event that occurs later in that quest. Because of the tight quarters and some Sikret cheesiness, the encounter can be quite difficult.

 

2) Screaming Statue: I saw Nominar post this info already, but the Screaming Statue is experience-dependent in IA v6. Your solo character is probably too high to enable the encounter. It involves 3 waves of powerful undead nasties that have to be fought without any rest to gain the reward. Note that the experience requirements mean that a normal party has to tackle the statue battles BEFORE leaving for spellhold.

 

3) Boots on Renal: Never bothered with pickpocketing (never had a thief) but I'd been told that all useful items were removed from potential pickpocket targets. Hence the lack of importance for a thief (amongst other reasons, of course.)

 

Furthermore, although I never investigated, I'll bet you money that if you attack Renal he'll sure as hell still be hasted (probably improved hasted, undispellable.)

 

4) Nadinal's Ring of Wizardry: It was specifically removed and replaced by a Ring of Protection +1. (Entry #203 in the "Fixes and Tweaks" document.) Sikret decided that only one Ring of Wizardry should exist, that being forged by the apprentices in the Mage stronghold.

 

Other items...

 

Pai'na and Scroll of Spell Immunity: Sikret never shared all of his Anti-Saros safeguards with the testing team. However, I'm pretty sure you're encountering one such obsessive safeguard in this situation. Your full 6-person party didn't find the scroll because your test probably didn't involve completely starting a new game. My bet is, that would be necessary. At the VERY least, you would need to go back to a save before you'd first entered the Graveyard district and enter with a full party, but even this might not be enough.

 

Mutated Spiders: Just another ridiculously cheesy monster created by Sikret. They have no AD&D counterpart and their resistances/hit points/abilities make no sense whatsoever. Par for the course in Improved Anvil. Temujin made references once to Adamantium Rats; this is only one of many such creatures.

 

Nerfed weapons that deal Elemental Damage: You're right, Saros. This was a late-in-testing brainchild of the Disturbed Developer.

 

As I remember it, Sikret went through all of the weapons that did +x elemental damage and changed them all to having an x% chance of dealing 10-20 or so HP of that damage. This is because he considered it "unfair" to his enemy spellcasters that their spells might be disrupted by a piddly little point of cold damage from Frostreaver.

 

You'll find that this was applied to Frostreaver, Stonefire, Flail of Ages, and most (if not all) other weapons that in vanilla do +x elemental damage on a hit.

[Saros]

Thanx for the input. Will continue my search for a Spell Immunity scroll and if there is none to be found, will start a new game and cheat one in. But first will look around a lot more, and will try to win a hard battle without SI. Problem is, I don't quite remember which monsters had SI scroll in IA 5.0 to begin with.

 

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that now Bernard sells a RRR scroll after freeing Hendak.

 

Boots of Speed on Renal Bloodscalp were never pickpocketable. You had to kill him to get them. Which is fine, if afterwards your party joins Bodhi. In vanilla game, the boots are protected by Arkanis Gath and his Killsword. However, this is disabled in IA 5.0, which made it quite possible to obtain a pair in the early chapter 2. This, of course, is invaluable for a soloer.

 

Edit: Made a quick run of the Planar Prison. Not with the B->M, of course, he's too weak without SI and at present levels. No SI scroll

 

Edit: Does the Improved Screaming Statue encounter reward (barring xp and sellable items) include some rare items (scrolls, upgrade ingredients, rare potions or other)?

[Ardanis]

Nerfed weapons that deal Elemental Damage: You're right, Saros. This was a late-in-testing brainchild of the Disturbed Developer.

 

As I remember it, Sikret went through all of the weapons that did +x elemental damage and changed them all to having an x% chance of dealing 10-20 or so HP of that damage. This is because he considered it "unfair" to his enemy spellcasters that their spells might be disrupted by a piddly little point of cold damage from Frostreaver.

This actually is a very intelligent move imo. Because elemental weapons ARE overpowered when it comes to disrupting spellcasting.

[JMason79]

Whatever Sikret does is bad, overpowered, "brainchild" etc.

Whatever Geh4th suggests or thinks is reasonable, good, etc.

 

Does it still hurt so much to your little sensitive soul, George, that you were fired?

[InKal]

Nerfed weapons that deal Elemental Damage: You're right, Saros. This was a late-in-testing brainchild of the Disturbed Developer.

 

As I remember it, Sikret went through all of the weapons that did +x elemental damage and changed them all to having an x% chance of dealing 10-20 or so HP of that damage. This is because he considered it "unfair" to his enemy spellcasters that their spells might be disrupted by a piddly little point of cold damage from Frostreaver.

This actually is a very intelligent move imo. Because elemental weapons ARE overpowered when it comes to disrupting spellcasting.

 

No, not IA spellcasters. But the real point is that in IA only vangrat or another pet class is able to disrupt enemy spellcasting (see Lakesider's Axe + 20 cold damage extra - sorta vorpal hit).

[geh4th]

You're such a comedian, JMason79 Sikret!

 

How could I ever hope to compete with your wit and charm? Gosh, I'm so outclassed.

 

Just for the record, JMason79 Sikret a.k.a the "Disturbed Developer" and his love slave Baronius have used this "hurt child" analogy before, back when they were berating me for having the nerve to tell Baronius to "fuck off" (in size 7 bold red letters) in his own ever-shrinking little kingdom that is BWL.

 

Of course, they conveniently overlooked the fact that it was their own personal attacks that led to my having said such a thing in the first place, but why would people like this let anything so insigificant as "truth" or "morality" stand in their way?

 

As of that moment, I'd effectively quit Sikret's testing team, until I receive the apology I demanded from Sikret. Of course, Hell will freeze over before JMason79 Sikret (much less Baronius) admits to a personal failing, so I'd quit the team as of the moment those bold red words were written.

 

Most amusingly, I wasn't even actually banned from BWL until just a couple of days ago. I guess everyone's favorite Little Hitler over in BWL-land wasn't paying very much attention to his kingdom.

 

As for the quality of JMason79's Sikret's work, I think I've been more than fair in assessing the pro's (of which there's quite a few) and con's (of which there's equally as many) of Improved Anvil v6. It's just that Mr Professional Disturbed Developer cannot comprehend that there even are flaws in his perfection.

 

You might want to start by asking the shattered remains of your own testing team, Bozo. At least, those you haven't run off yet. There's still people on that team (Shadan, Critto, Raven) that are painfully aware of the shortcomings of both you and your mod.

 

Sit and spin, big fella.

[Saros]

More testing:

 

It seems that different cleric's Champion Strength buff stacks. Which practically means, that if three temporarily hired clerics of lvl 18 cast their CS buff on PC, he will have a THAC0 bonus of 18 (6*3) for the duration, which is more than 5 turns. Might prove to be very powerful later in the game. Of course, clerics will be useless without their spellcasting, so they may as well be ditched or simply left to die in battle.

 

This is probably a vanilla game issue, untouched in IA 6.0.

 

As for Sikret's inability to admit his own mistakes, I've been aware of that fact for a couple of years now, but I am also convinced that he will never learn. Probably he's missing some early years of his life.

[Mohina]

There's no need to defend yourself, geh4th. Everyone here knows JMorgan79/Sikret is a sociopath. Just ignore him and he'll go away. Or let Temujin deal with him:P You've been more than fair in your appraisal of IA, as has Saros.

 

On a side note: just started an IA6 run with a full party, cleared Chateau Irenicus and the Circus. The only thing that's new is the addition of two Lesser Spirit Spiders to Chateau Irenicus. They're fast and can hold your characters, but aren't any problem for a full party. They might cause a problem for a solo-player who can't disable them, though. Emotion works like a charm on them.

 

Once things get more serious, i'll open a thread on the Bioware forums.

[JMason79]

*blatantly enjoys to be [respected as] Sikret*

 

...WoT...

 

poor frustrated noob wasting his time

 

temujin rather makes me laugh (he isn't annoying, his comedian behaviour is more funny and pathetic than insulting), and I'm sure it's no different for Sikret/Baronius (if they're reading these topics here)

[geh4th]

Wasting my time on what? I rather enjoy helping people to play a mod that you're...(oh, sorry, I mean the "Disturbed Developer")...charging those other poor sods money to play. I have to apologize to them for having waited this long to release v6 to the public. At least then they would have saved their wasted money.

 

I also rather enjoy your pitiful attempts to win respect with your inane posts. Do you actually think that anyone takes you seriously, much less believes a word you say?

 

At least you're good for laughs. I particularly enjoyed those posts of yours in Saros' thread over on the Bioware forums. (Edit: forgot to give a link to allow others to share in the fun. JMason79's Sikret's first post is about halfway down the page.)

 

Keep on posting, funny boy.

[the bigg]

Saros:

 

- all stores, creatures etc. lose their Scroll(s) of SI (as far as I can tell), unless noted below.

- The pirate coordinator gets one if CHARNAME isn't a fighter/mage/*.

- Pai'na loses it if you are a fighter/mage/*.

- Elemental golems drop one if you aren't going solo.

- One of the altars in Bodhi's tomb gets one after you kill her in CH6 (even if you are solo and/or a F/M).

 

In general, there's a huge number of checks that prevent parties of 1~4 from getting a number of items. In places, checks are made on the number of Alive party members, so you can't use Solo in a Party to work around those restrictions.

[Saros]

Saros:

 

- all stores, creatures etc. lose their Scroll(s) of SI (as far as I can tell), unless noted below.

- The pirate coordinator gets one if CHARNAME isn't a fighter/mage/*.

- Pai'na loses it if you are a fighter/mage/*.

 

In general, there's a huge number of checks that prevent parties of 1~4 from getting a number of items. In places, checks are made on the number of Alive party members, so you can't use Solo in a Party to work around those restrictions.

 

Ahahahaha. That's lame. I mean, improving enemies by adding anti-solo abilities (like golems' dispel illusions on hit), increasing enemy numbers, that's one thing. But installing checks which PREVENT a character from getting an item if he is a F/M - well that's lame. How about if anyone would like to play by Sikret's rules, with a full party, but a F/M protagonist? Way to go! Sikret is apparently afraid that even with all limitations put so far (xp cap, cut HLA table for multiclasses, melee immunity to enemies under TS, Wish nerfing etc etc) still won't stop me to succeed in a solo Anvil 6.0 and had left a numerous absolutely irrational precautions to ensure that people play the game 'his way'. Thanx for the info, though. Just defeated an Elemental Golem, and among the nice loot, there was no SI scroll. Will try with a party now. At least, THIS golem I can battle while party stays safe in next room.

[JMason79]

mini-WoT

Yep, I enjoyed the Bioware topics too, especially because your ass got closed out of it BWL policy reaching Bioware? BW and BW. Hehe.

 

Good that you're enjoying helping online. Just don't neglect your family, man. Or is someone else the boss over there?