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Thanks for the detailed answer! I'd rather go for b) or c) naturally, however I've always wondered if I could equip a F/M/T with Jansen's improved Adventurewear and other cool IA items which aren't useable with UAI. Now I have a question about option a):

 

If I, for example, just delete those lines with NI which state: If a player has item X equipped then blah blah, and create those particular items as intended in the game (by legitimately assembling components) will I still trigger that EDE cheat item check?

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There is a script controling that, it's in AR4500.baf .. However, I think that for most cases it will leave your items alone if you got them by killing enemies (i.e. Great Wyrm scale armor checks for the fact that Great Wyrm is dead).

Otoh, simply delete all checks from AR4500.baf and voila.

You seriously gonna try solo? i got to see this.

Just checked that script, it won't check for Hades Amulet.

As for your question, it will only check for relevant enemies being dead. You can equip boots of Ranger Lord, it won't matter if you're not a single-class ranger. What will matter is that Green Wyrm is dead.

And yeah, you can equip almost anything wwith UAI. Just remember, Cromwell won't offer you some upgrade options nor will you find some items if you're not single class.

That's also tweakable, however...

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Thanks for the info.

 

I will defninitely try a solo, but only after I've completed an insane no-reload without unlimited exploits. I dare say it may be the current one, however knowing how tricky Yaga-Shura, Abazigal, Sendai and the Ancient Dragon can be, probably will suffer at least a couple of defeats in one or some of these battles before devising 100% no-reload strategy. And I really am not in the mood of making a test run first. My previous test run got to Nyalee, then I got bored.

 

However my soloer would be an IA v5 imported char, one that has defeated the Prince in a solo no-reload - a F/M/T. I am unsure if he's considered to have more than 12 200 000 xp, since when I import him and start a game, visual experience total is about that, although levels are 40/40/40. But the total xp can be changed via SK to equal 12 200 000 and thus avoid scripted deaths. And I'm not really aiming to create stuff like Judgment Day sword or Memory of the Apprenti. However it would be very nice if I knew how to change this char's HLAs - he had Time Traps for example which are now transformed to the useless Magic Resistance HLA - I'd really prefer having Comet (didn't ever consider it in IA v5 to be viable) and several Hardinesses. But I cannot change the HLAs using Shadowkeeper, tried.

 

I seriously doubt that soloing would be possible even so, due to cheating enemy Lower Elemental resistance abilities (no matter how many potions/scrolls/spells I stack, the resistance is lowered or rather set to 75% at the first enemy casting) and due to cheating scripts (instakill for being solo, enemies like Orcus casting Purge Magic once every 4 rounds for being a solo char,illusions being cheatingly dispelled under SI:Div by a divine intervention of sorts, items never being dropped because of being a solo char, etc).

 

So instead, to avoid multiple game tweaking, I will attempt a duo - a Necromancer PC (I tested such a character solo with SK tweaks concerning APR and THAC0 - all items found, no bugs whatsoever, seems like Sikret really favors the Necro, even a solo one), and a F/M/T multi, imported fresh from IA v5. The necro won't fight - he will be just an insurance vs cheating scripts and creating/collecting some very important items.

 

Items I aim to create and eventually use with UAI that are unusable so far:

 

Memory of the Apprenti

Lord of the Underworld

Eternal Melody +5

Jansen's Adventurewear Enhanced (because of the 55% magic and 25% physical resistance may be valuable in some fights)

Enhanced Boots of the Ranger Lord

The Truth +5

Corthala's True Family Blade +5

True Sword of Arvoreen +4

Enhanced Oak of the High Forest +5

Golem Slayer +5

 

Also, I am wondering why my char is unable to cast RVE, despite having it in the spellbook. It just doesn't work, sadly. But with the necro backup plan, that would be irrelevant.

 

And is there a way to actually remove Nalia's improved ring after creating it, and use it myself? Or Edwin's amulet for that matter?

 

And do you know about the third Bluestone Necklace location? I know there is one in Rock/Garock, and one on Lady Galvena, but never found the third (never played with a monk NPC as well). I really want to create that Grandmaster of Flowers amulet and use it.

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I seriously doubt that soloing would be possible even so, due to cheating enemy Lower Elemental resistance abilities (no matter how many potions/scrolls/spells I stack, the resistance is lowered or rather set to 75% at the first enemy casting)

Actually, this can also be tweaked, so that your resistance stay, I believe it's scripted. Haven't tried it.

So instead, to avoid multiple game tweaking, I will attempt a duo - a Necromancer PC (I tested such a character solo with SK tweaks concerning APR and THAC0 - all items found, no bugs whatsoever, seems like Sikret really favors the Necro, even a solo one), and a F/M/T multi, imported fresh from IA v5. The necro won't fight - he will be just an insurance vs cheating scripts and creating/collecting some very important items.

Sounds good.

Eternal Melody +5

Why this!?

Also, I am wondering why my char is unable to cast RVE, despite having it in the spellbook. It just doesn't work, sadly. But with the necro backup plan, that would be irrelevant.

That's scripted I believe. If I had the mod installed I'd advise you on how to change it, but I don't.

 

And is there a way to actually remove Nalia's improved ring after creating it, and use it myself? Or Edwin's amulet for that matter?

Afiak no. Script does that (removes old nalia's ring and replaces it with upgraded one). They are imo both undroppable, but that could be changed easilly)

 

And do you know about the third Bluestone Necklace location? I know there is one in Rock/Garock, and one on Lady Galvena, but never found the third (never played with a monk NPC as well). I really want to create that Grandmaster of Flowers amulet and use it.

Never bothered with that, sorry. You can check for references to that item via NI, however.

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The Eternal Melody still grants some extra spell slots, and decreases casting speed by 2. If I don't find Vecna early (and respectively, Memory of the Apprenti) I might be forced to create Eternal Melody as an earlier inferior version of the Memory of the Apprenti.

 

Sad about RVE, then I guess I may install "the Four" mod in order to use the gauntlets of decreased casting speed.

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...... and decreases casting speed by 2.

It doesn't.

 

Hm, never actually created the item in IA v6, now looked at the description, I thought that only the permanent Alacrity was eliminated. Now I see it's absolutely useless.

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^ Items tweaks were minor in the end, very minor. Didn't use most of the stuff that I mentioned earlier. Besides Judgement Day, there is really no powerful item/weapon in the game. Foebane in certain scenarios, but it's late ToB therefore irrelevant, and slashing on top of that.

 

I believe Kreso schooled you about using the editor.

 

 

 

For my next run, I'm thinking heavy mage/arcane party. However not without some serious tweaks to offensive spells.

 

Make most area of effect spells ( Ice Storm, Chain Lightning, ADHW, Comet ) bypass magic resistance. No changes to Cloudkill, Death Fog, Incendiary Cloud, since enemies are already immune to these.

 

New Spells: Improved Magic/Acid/Flame Arrow. Bypasses Magic Resistance. Levels around 6-7-8-9. Slightly more damage for Acid Arrow maybe, and maybe Magic Missile too. Useful against Liches (?).

 

New Spells: Lower Acid/Fire/Electric Resistance. Basically same spells the enemies use right now, but nerfed. Right now they lower resistance by 50 and can go into negative. One way to this is to have it set to a certain percent, but that also means you increase it for other enemies. The other option is to lower it by maybe 5 points ( targets all in the area anyway ). This means you have to throw 5 for example to lower it by 25 points. Also put some in Triggers. The question is, what levels should these be (since some enemies are immune to spells 1-5, and some even 1-7)? Spells are level 4 right now, as implement by Sikret. There is one more option here: ( to have it lowered by a higher amount than 5, and have only one mage know this spell, the problem is it could be spamable with Improved Alacrity. Other option is to give these spells to the R/C since he has no Alacrity and maybe move them to level 6).

 

New Spells: Lower Magic Damage Resistance. Around 6-7-8 levels. Single target. Late game most have 100 Magic Damage resistance.

 

If AoE spells do not bypass magic resistance as mentioned above, then introduce a new spell that lowers magic resistance in an AoE. So you would throw 1/2/3 Mass Lower Resistance then use AoE Spells ( Chain Lightning, ADHW, Comet, etc. ). Probably also paired together with a Lower Acid/Fire/Lightning resistance spell. This sounds a bit time consuming ( also some enemies are completely immune to any magic resistance modification, therefore it would make more sense for spells to bypass magic resistance ).

 

Lower Resistance Spell ( Mage Level 5 ) changed name, since many enemies are immune to the spell. Probably moved to Level 6 as well. Another problem is, some enemies are immune to the effect of magic resistance modification, which means no way to lower their magic resistance. This is the reason I suggested to have some spells automatically bypass magic resistance.

 

Creeping Doom, bypasses magic resistance, remove spell failure, possibly changed piercing damage to something else. I have this feeling quite a few enemies are immune to piercing damage. Insect plague maybe same thing as well. Also changed spell name, since many enemies have immunity to it. A slight nerf as well, damage of 2 per second, lowered to 1. Active for 2 Rounds only, instead of 3 Rounds.

 

Unleash Energy, bypass magic resistance, have R/C "learn" this spell, possibly magic damage of 10D8 reduced a bit. This way R/C would have some offensive spells now at Level 6.

 

 

Bolt of Glory, does Missile Damage mostly, except vs Undead I believe which is Magic Damage. Change that to do maybe Crushing/Slashing/Piercing/Magic Damage vs. All. Another offensive spell for the R/C at level 6.

 

Call Lightning ( Druidic Spell ) make it to be able to cast indoors, possibly bypass magic resistance as well.

 

Few other tweaks maybe to offensive Druidic Spells. Like reduced casting speed on some single target offensive spells to be able to do some damage in the midst of combat, to a single target.

 

Basically for mages, Level 1-3 spells ( Magic, Acid, Fire Missile ) do not bypass magic resistance. I don't want to make early/mid game too easy.

However late game, spells need to bypass magic resistance for Elemental Damage Spells. On the other hand there is need of a Lower Magic Damage Resistance Spell, for ADHW or Improved Magic Missile or Bolt of Glory/Unleash Energy.

 

 

 

Basically offensive spells have to do the work. Since there will be only one riskbreaker and the ranger/cleric( which is half of a fighter ). Yes, this includes taking down golems via spells ( I'm not a big fan of summoning spells and I tire a bit of waiting games ). Now the more difficult part is balancing the lower elemental resistance spells, which will be followed by elemental damage spells.

 

Still problematic, enemies that can be debuffed in a timely manner (SI/D + Inv for example). No way to peel through skins quickly with a single Riskbreaker. So those will probably end up in waiting games.

 

Resistances to Silence. At least two items which grant immunity to silence if not 3. One is Hades on Necro. Need one more immunity to silence item on a Mage or B/M, and possibly another on the R/C. I will not have 4 characters sit idle in those 5-6 important fights. 2 at most.

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^ Items tweaks were minor in the end, very minor. Didn't use most of the stuff that I mentioned earlier. Besides Judgement Day, there is really no powerful item/weapon in the game. Foebane in certain scenarios, but it's late ToB therefore irrelevant, and slashing on top of that.

 

 

I personally find Foebane to be extremely powerful throughout early and late ToB.

 

 

 

For my next run, I'm thinking heavy mage/arcane party. However not without some serious tweaks to offensive spells.

 

Make most area of effect spells ( Ice Storm, Chain Lightning, ADHW, Comet ) bypass magic resistance. No changes to Cloudkill, Death Fog, Incendiary Cloud, since enemies are already immune to these.

 

New Spells: Improved Magic/Acid/Flame Arrow. Bypasses Magic Resistance. Levels around 6-7-8-9. Slightly more damage for Acid Arrow maybe, and maybe Magic Missile too. Useful against Liches (?).

 

 

I think that an all-arcane party (1 Necro PC and 5 sorcerers, or 4 sorcerers + Cernd) has a very decent chance even as it is. You probably would have to pick Shocking Grasp, Minor Sequencer, Polymorph Self and Tenser's Partial on all sorcerers, in order to turn them to fighters whenever needed.

 

I don't think those improved magic arrows would be very effective vs Liches, since for example Grave Liches are innately immune to all elemental + magic damage. Unless you wanna combine them with your other new spells that lower elemental/magical damage resistance.

 

 

New Spells: Lower Acid/Fire/Electric Resistance. Basically same spells the enemies use right now, but nerfed. Right now they lower resistance by 50 and can go into negative. One way to this is to have it set to a certain percent, but that also means you increase it for other enemies. The other option is to lower it by maybe 5 points ( targets all in the area anyway ). This means you have to throw 5 for example to lower it by 25 points. Also put some in Triggers. The question is, what levels should these be (since some enemies are immune to spells 1-5, and some even 1-7)? Spells are level 4 right now, as implement by Sikret. There is one more option here: ( to have it lowered by a higher amount than 5, and have only one mage know this spell, the problem is it could be spamable with Improved Alacrity. Other option is to give these spells to the R/C since he has no Alacrity and maybe move them to level 6).

 

....

 

Unleash Energy, bypass magic resistance, have R/C "learn" this spell, possibly magic damage of 10D8 reduced a bit. This way R/C would have some offensive spells now at Level 6.

 

....

 

Bolt of Glory, does Missile Damage mostly, except vs Undead I believe which is Magic Damage. Change that to do maybe Crushing/Slashing/Piercing/Magic Damage vs. All. Another offensive spell for the R/C at level 6.

 

...

 

Still problematic, enemies that can be debuffed in a timely manner (SI/D + Inv for example). No way to peel through skins quickly with a single Riskbreaker. So those will probably end up in waiting games.

 

...

 

Resistances to Silence. At least two items which grant immunity to silence if not 3. One is Hades on Necro. Need one more immunity to silence item on a Mage or B/M, and possibly another on the R/C. I will not have 4 characters sit idle in those 5-6 important fights. 2 at most.

 

Hmm, I didn't know that enemy's Lower elemental resistance spells are considered to be lvl 4. GoI doesn't block them in any way. BTW even if those are as of now, there is something bugged with them, I've seen a char's fire resistance being buffed by ProFire + ProEnergy+Resist Fire/Cold and brought to 75% with just a single Lower Fire Resistance unleashed upon him.

 

...

 

If you wanna make the R/C effective at casting spells (offensive and defensive both) don't give him Unleash Energy but rather Aura Cleansing. Or both, if you like. You could also adapt the Circlet of the Woods to be wearable by Rangers.

 

...

 

Bolt of Glory has a pretty long casting time as it is. I don't find it to be much effective.

 

...

 

showing how to deal with high-level mages that erect SI:Div and illusions. You have to be precise and quick to make it work vs most of them, you could even use the Limited Wish CC option once on such an occasion. Be warned that Khelben's Warding Whip has a short range when released from a CC and you have to close the distance much more than you would have to, for example, with triple Ruby Ray CC, otherwise you'll receive the message "spell failed" when unleashing the CC.

 

For early-game mages that erect SI:Div and illusions like the Pirate Coordinator, you may pelt their defences from afar using Melf's meteor barrage with all arcane casters until you peel all their Skins, then deploy your fighters.

 

...

 

Here is a dangerous battle vs an enemy that loves to cast Silence, yet you would notice that my mages kept casting until the very end.

 

 

If you still think of creating items that grant immunity to Silence, you could use the older version of the Amulet of the Master Harper, just make it wearable by anyone and move it to an early SoA location.

 

Edit: As a side note, I didn't quite get your testing. I don't know what Supreme golem you spawned, that may have something to do with your bad results. There are 2 I'm aware of - one's Helm's supreme golem which unleashes Purge Magic once every 5 rounds and also starts the fight with a no-save Earthquake affecting the party. The second one is much less dangerous, the Rakshasa Prince's Supreme golem, who doesn't cast Purge. Frankly I don't see how this golem or any of his minions will have any chance vs your arcane casters as long as they have their PFMW and AI spells.

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^ Items tweaks were minor in the end, very minor. Didn't use most of the stuff that I mentioned earlier. Besides Judgement Day, there is really no powerful item/weapon in the game. Foebane in certain scenarios, but it's late ToB therefore irrelevant, and slashing on top of that.

I honestly don't find this weapon so powerful.

 

Make most area of effect spells ( Ice Storm, Chain Lightning, ADHW, Comet ) bypass magic resistance. No changes to Cloudkill, Death Fog, Incendiary Cloud, since enemies are already immune to these.

Like this.

 

.....This sounds a bit time consuming ( also some enemies are completely immune to any magic resistance modification, therefore it would make more sense for spells to bypass magic resistance ).

Many enemies are immune to all kinds of stats modifications. Tweakable, ofc, but the amount of work via NI is huge. I once modified enemies' THAC0 scores (if you're a f/m multiclass you don't have a THAC0 which bypasses -24 AC, sorry. Rules are rules, and cheating is cheating), damage they do (6D10 + strenght bonus is hilarious), and resistances (you don't go around immune to missiles if you're human, and you don't regenerate 3HP/sec under permanent imp.haste. Fair is fair.)

Took almost whole afternoon. :D

 

Creeping Doom, bypasses magic resistance, remove spell failure, possibly changed piercing damage to something else. I have this feeling quite a few enemies are immune to piercing damage. Insect plague maybe same thing as well. Also changed spell name, since many enemies have immunity to it. A slight nerf as well, damage of 2 per second, lowered to 1. Active for 2 Rounds only, instead of 3 Rounds.

I found this spell to be very effective somehow.

 

Resistances to Silence. At least two items which grant immunity to silence if not 3. One is Hades on Necro. Need one more immunity to silence item on a Mage or B/M, and possibly another on the R/C. I will not have 4 characters sit idle in those 5-6 important fights. 2 at most.

Well, you can easilly make that Silence having a nice saving throw involved.

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@ Saros

 

All arcane characters as it is. That's probably gonna be painful, and not very enjoyable. Skeletons, Golems, Bosses, and others have 100% elemental resistances, magic damage, magic, and high physical resistances. ADHW? Chain Lightning? Dragons Breath? Comet? I think not. One has to be retarded to play with that much arcane. Sure you can tenser, buff/debuff, and summon of course. But who's gonna waste their time with all that, lol.

 

I think the limit for elemental resistance is capped at approx. 125 in the latest versions? So when they throw the spell, it goes to 75%. Or something among those lines. I noticed this as well.

 

Probably the Helm Golem. Anyway, was funny how he kept spawning.

 

 

Anyway the problem is a bit different, and will probably not attempt this spell modification at least not right now. You can not lower magic damage resistance apparently ( at least I couldn't find a way to do it ). Early enemies who have "native" resistance do magic damage can be lowered with a spell. However, later on, enemies have magic damage resistance from items. Since they wear it, you can't lower it, as it's permanent so to say. Magic resistance can be lowered at least on the enemies that don't have immunity to the effect of magic resistance modifications ( ex: Skeletons ). But Magic Damage Resistance doesn't seem to come down at all. Not even if you wear the Rakshasa Princes Scimitar from EDE, which has a chance to lower magic damage resistance on hit. Possibly an Engine limitation or something in the scripts that prevents it. No clue.

 

In short what that means, spells like ADHW, Magic Missle will never deal damage to those, even if the spells bypass magic resistance. Of course the other option is to change for example "Improved Magic Missile" to do Crushing Damage. That works. Disrupt Undead also does Crushing Damage for example.

 

Interestingly enough, elemental resistance can be lowered even if enemies also get their 100% resistance from items. So another option is for ADHW/Magic Missile/Unleash Energy is to have them do Elemental Damage ( of course lowering enemy elemental resistance first ).

 

Going through the enemy stats/items/abilities. there's some crazy stuff there. Late SoA/ToB most important enemies are 100% in elemental/magic/magic damage, some with immunities to spell levels 1-5/1-7. Some with immunity to remove/dispel magic/breach of course.

Elite Nushruu for example, besides the fact he has a chance to heal whenever he attacks ( like 15-20% for 20 HP or so ), he also heals when attacked by Fighters. Doesn't heal from Ranger(Vagrant), B/M, Mages, Clerics. Also doesn't seem to heal from elemental damage (or at least not all elementals ), but heals from Magic Damage ( Poseidon for example ). Doesn't seem to Heal from Skeleton Lord or naked Greater Djinni. Also takes damage from Globe of Blades whenever he fails the save.

Lots of enemies late game, immune to Creeping Doom, Dragons Breath, etc. Surprisingly nobody immune to ADHW xD. I wonder why :)

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wow...pretty impresive Ancient Dragon fight! You bypassed that cheesy silence so nicely (your own "sister" as a bait, reputaton 20!! lol) and made that annoying nishru a total moron. good stuff.

 

hmm...entire fight is based on the assumption that prot is a necromancer with immunity to silence. IA6:Necro Edition ;]

 

as for vagrant playing this "normally" - I dunno? kill minions outright (I will repeat myself but that fukking nishru is a real pain), spam him with swanmays and "wish" like a little kiddo in christmass?

 

also that spell shield inconsistency (if this spell is oh, so baaad why dragons are using it? only for spellstrike not being completely useless?? dragons with imunity:abjuration too hard?) and spellstrike usefullness (or the lack of it) slowly become a major flaws in the mod. hehe, so I heard that spell shield bug is already fixed by G3 lads..so, just "borrow" spellshield from fixpack/scs2, Sikret! they borrowed your item randomiser, make them pay!! or just ask your fellow modders for a piece of advice /trollface/

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..so, just "borrow" spellshield from fixpack/scs2, Sikret! they borrowed your item randomiser, make them pay!! or just ask your fellow modders for a piece of advice /trollface/

Wisp's randomizer is, unlike Anvils', quite complex piece of work with several options, and very user-friendly. These 2 have very little, if anything in common and placing these 2 in the same sentence is blasphemy. ;)

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wow...pretty impresive Ancient Dragon fight! You bypassed that cheesy silence so nicely (your own "sister" as a bait, reputaton 20!! lol) and made that annoying nishru a total moron. good stuff.

 

hmm...entire fight is based on the assumption that prot is a necromancer with immunity to silence. IA6:Necro Edition ;]

 

as for vagrant playing this "normally" - I dunno? kill minions outright (I will repeat myself but that fukking nishru is a real pain), spam him with swanmays and "wish" like a little kiddo in christmass?

 

also that spell shield inconsistency (if this spell is oh, so baaad why dragons are using it? only for spellstrike not being completely useless?? dragons with imunity:abjuration too hard?) and spellstrike usefullness (or the lack of it) slowly become a major flaws in the mod. hehe, so I heard that spell shield bug is already fixed by G3 lads..so, just "borrow" spellshield from fixpack/scs2, Sikret! they borrowed your item randomiser, make them pay!! or just ask your fellow modders for a piece of advice /trollface/

 

I cannot take all the credit for the tactic. Surely I cleared the rough spots to make it work 100%, but the original idea of using a sixth party member (a mage) as bait was given by another IA player, and I'd like to thank him here for that. The major advantage is that after Imoen is raised, she is not uder Silence anymore (any conditions are erased), which is logical.

 

However, the tactic wouldn't run so smoothly if both my mages weren't 1 arcane level higher than the dragon (he's 32). Based on info I received recently, it looked as if the dragon's not gonna shoot Grave Silence in 3-round interval. However I found that not to be correct since in one test attempt he shot 2 Greater Silences at 2 diferent mages in a shorter than 1 round interval. He has 7 total.

 

BTW I also noticed that until the Greater Silence takes full effect on its target, the dragon won't attempt another action, despite the fact that this ability is cast in a flash. This can be cheesed by running around with the target. But I think the target has to remain in the dragon's sight for this to work.

 

The assumption of a battle being fought "normally" is made by Sikret, perhaps? If yes, then all his"normal" strategies and assumptions are based on his Core level of play, and not very well applicaple on Insane. That's where I abandon the word "normal". Moreover, the Nishruu should heal only by magical or elemental types of damage, and perhaps on attacking - not if being attacked by fighters! Obviously it was made that way to occupy everyone's attention for 5 or more rounds = party dead on Insane.

 

Edit: The Elite Nishruu and other enemies (web golems) wielding both magical and nonmagical weapon can be fooled by attacking a party mage who's under PFMW and at the same time - immune to normal weapons, as per the Aslyferund's elven chain for a B-M or Hell trials for a Necro PC.

 

Spell Shield should be the first spell omitted from books in v6, however it stayed, despite the fact that Sikret knew it was buggy and he hasn't fixed the bug. He just made the silly "adjustment" which doesn't allow it to work in conjuction with SI:Abjuration. I really don't get his reasons for leaving it. As it is at present, it's totally useless for the party.

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