IR v3 Feedback

[Incantatar]

Is there something wrong with crossbows or bolts? A duergar in Irenicus dungeon hit Minsc on a 18 with 13 damage. They have light crossbows and normal 1d10 bolts.

[Ardanis]

One of SCS' components adds proficiency points to enemy fighters.

[Incantatar]

One of SCS' components adds proficiency points to enemy fighters.

Right, forgot about that.

 

Another thing, there are a few scrolls and gems which can be bought for 1gp.

[Ardanis]

I don't remember such in my recent playthrough. Which scrolls/gems exactly?

[Adanedhel]

Likely an issue related to TobEx "Item Recharge Mod Fix" with items put in stores with charge 0,0,0. Ascension64 is aware of it and working on it for next release AFAIK. More info about that issue, more in links provided in that thread too.

[leania]

Hello, I have a little suggestions toward BGEE.

 

I have been satisfied about most of all revisions in IR, however, I felt a little changes have to be considered.

 

1. Katana vs. Bastard Sword

Currently both swords are perfactly same though most of weapons have their own characteristics now. I'd like to suggest Katana to have 2D5 damage instead of 1D10, and Bastard Sword to have 2 melee attack range instead of 1.

 

2. Two-handed weapons

Even though IR gives unique characteristics to Staves and Spears, i.e., crushing weapon types is the most efficient type against the armored opponents and Spears have 3 melee attack range, I felt that a little bit improvements would be required because of their less damage output.

2D4/2D5 damage for Staves/Spears is reasonable respectively imo.

 

3. Weapon Styles

Honestly, I'm not sure whether the revisions of weapon styles would be doable or not in BGEE, but I hope that the developers modified the hard-coded things to be changable. If it is doable, I'd like to suggest revising the weapon styles, too. Generally Single Weapon Style and Sword and Shield Style are considered as the worst weapon styles. So I think these should be improved a little.

 

4. Item revisions in BGEE

A lot of items were added in BGEE. I think those things would be revised, too. But I guess you are really busy and have not enough time to do... I'm sorry if I bother you.

[Ardanis]

1. Katana vs. Bastard Sword

Currently both swords are perfactly same though most of weapons have their own characteristics now. I'd like to suggest Katana to have 2D5 damage instead of 1D10, and Bastard Sword to have 2 melee attack range instead of 1.

I think katana is quite fine now - it has the same speed as a long sword, but is heavier and deals extra D2 damage. Plus it can be paired up with off-hand wakizashi without spending extra proficiency points, resulting in the same offhand thaco as with dual long swords, but with greater main hand damage. The disadvantage is the rarity compared to more common weapons.

 

 

Bastard swords, otoh, indeed seem poor. I'm not in great love with such a solution, but perhaps they should be able to switch to the two-handed mode, receiving this +1 range bonus? Somewhat like the BG2Tweaks' component.

 

 

2. Two-handed weapons

Even though IR gives unique characteristics to Staves and Spears, i.e., crushing weapon types is the most efficient type against the armored opponents and Spears have 3 melee attack range, I felt that a little bit improvements would be required because of their less damage output.

2D4/2D5 damage for Staves/Spears is reasonable respectively imo.

Staves - I'd prefer either ApR or AC bonus. A staff is considered a dual weapon in some game editions, so +1/2 ApR will not be totally out of place.

 

 

Spears - unlike many martial weapons with higher damage, spears can be used by druids, and IR also introduces few thrown spears. Damage wise, a halberd deals 1D10, therefore increasing spear's damage output would call for raising halberd's too. I don't think there is any room for that, because they would match two-handed swords then, while having superior range (we've opted to remove the slashing mode from halberds and instead increase their range to 3).

 

I'd very much like to see the bonus against charging opponents, but not with this engine, it seems.

 

3. Weapon Styles

Honestly, I'm not sure whether the revisions of weapon styles would be doable or not in BGEE, but I hope that the developers modified the hard-coded things to be changable. If it is doable, I'd like to suggest revising the weapon styles, too. Generally Single Weapon Style and Sword and Shield Style are considered as the worst weapon styles. So I think these should be improved a little.

I haven't checked this in BGEE, but otherwise I fully agree.

 

 

4. Item revisions in BGEE

A lot of items were added in BGEE. I think those things would be revised, too. But I guess you are really busy and have not enough time to do... I'm sorry if I bother you.

Added they were, and a little too many, if you ask me... I've been so used to IR's stuff, I almost had a heart attack when I saw BGEE's new items. Although to be fair, they were not any worse than original BG items, just not to my taste any more

It appears IRv4 will have more new stuff than just improved Cromwell/Cespenar upgrade system.

[leania]

1. Katana vs. Bastard Sword

I think katana is quite fine now - it has the same speed as a long sword, but is heavier and deals extra D2 damage. Plus it can be paired up with off-hand wakizashi without spending extra proficiency points, resulting in the same offhand thaco as with dual long swords, but with greater main hand damage. The disadvantage is the rarity compared to more common weapons.

 

Bastard swords, otoh, indeed seem poor. I'm not in great love with such a solution, but perhaps they should be able to switch to the two-handed mode, receiving this +1 range bonus? Somewhat like the BG2Tweaks' component.

Yes, I forgot considering about the existence of Wakizashi, which was integrated into Katana's weapon proficiency, and speed factor. And your suggestion of Bastard Swords is very good I was thinking about it first though. I was just wondering such feature which can be switched between Single Weapon Style and Two-Handed Weapon Style could be implementable... Haha.

 

2. Two-handed weapons

Staves - I'd prefer either ApR or AC bonus. A staff is considered a dual weapon in some game editions, so +1/2 ApR will not be totally out of place.

 

Spears - unlike many martial weapons with higher damage, spears can be used by druids, and IR also introduces few thrown spears. Damage wise, a halberd deals 1D10, therefore increasing spear's damage output would call for raising halberd's too. I don't think there is any room for that, because they would match two-handed swords then, while having superior range (we've opted to remove the slashing mode from halberds and instead increase their range to 3).

 

I'd very much like to see the bonus against charging opponents, but not with this engine, it seems.

The reason I suggested improving the damage of Staves/Spears was based on the comparisons between Staves and several one-handed weapons, and between Spears and Halberds. Halberds can switch to slashing mode from piercing mode and vice versa, and Spears have the most longest range in the two-handed weapons. So I just thought both features could be considered as a fair trade off... Furthermore, since Halberds have much more variety of weapons, I mean there are many Halberds in BGT (honestly, Spears and Halberds can give little choices in BG1), I thought Spear might need to have some more advantages comparing with Halberds. This kind of consideration was applied into the case of Staves (one-handed weapons still can be equipped with Shields or the other weapons as Two Weapon Style so the same damage with Short Sword seemed not to be suitable).

 

However, your opinions would be right and I think the idea of Staves seems to be better than mine for the distinguishing each other weapon.

 

4. Item revisions in BGEE

Added they were, and a little too many, if you ask me... I've been so used to IR's stuff, I almost had a heart attack when I saw BGEE's new items. Although to be fair, they were not any worse than original BG items, just not to my taste any more

It appears IRv4 will have more new stuff than just improved Cromwell/Cespenar upgrade system.

I always appreciate your and Demi's great efforts indeed. I really hope that I could meet a new IR for BGEE soon...

[Jarno Mikkola]

I really hope that I could meet a new IR for BGEE soon...

Don't forget to play the original game to be able to be fully critical about the items. Say you hate the +5 items... k, but if there's a +5 only monster, don't try to remove the item and then f-everyone elses game, because you didn't know.

 

And apparently THE weidu.exe update is said to be on Tuesday. Am totally hyped about it ...

[leania]

I really hope that I could meet a new IR for BGEE soon...

Don't forget to play the original game to be able to be fully critical about the items. Say you hate the +5 items... k, but if there's a +5 only monster, don't try to remove the item and then f-everyone elses game, because you didn't know.

 

And apparently THE weidu.exe update is said to be on Tuesday. Am totally hyped about it ...

 

Of course, I'm now playing BGEE so I might post my opinions about the new items as soon as possible...

[DrAzTiK]

Drow katana +3 : it looks like you don't give to this weapon the standard +2 minimum damage and luck that you give to all drow weapons.

[10thLich]

Drow katana +3 : it looks like you don't give to this weapon the standard +2 minimum damage and luck that you give to all drow weapons.

 

That's because it's not from the original game or item revisions. It's introduced by SCS II.

 

10th

[Lawlight]

I think I've found a cool background story for Cloak of the Shield (NWN2):

 

 

It was one of the members of the Arcane Brotherhood who discovered the ability to infuse her garment with the energy of a magic missile. With unexpectedly powerful results, her garment became a popular black market commodity on the streets of Luskan. When the Brotherhood discovered that their secrets were being sold to outsiders, they had the inventor roasted slowly over an open flame.

[ancalimohtar]

Hmm, reading through the whole items index, I have a comment on the general philosophy of these revisions. For the record, I'm totally on board with almost all the general changes, just not sure about some of the changes to specific items.

 

It really seems you buffed lower-tier items, and nerfed best-in-slot items. I understand that this gives more choice, and perhaps creates more possibilities for characters, but I think this creates a couple problems. For one, it shrinks the reward for completing some of the most iconic encounters in the game. A lot of the fun, I feel, in replaying BG2 is the planning and strategizing on deciding which quest to do next, balancing what your party can handle with what gear you really need ASAP. Part of this involves doing quests that give you gold, so you can buy the items that are sold rather than looted.

 

When Daystar gets massively nerfed (not sure why you said "almost unchanged"?), or Blackrazor, or worst of all, Flail of Ages, the process of acquiring them is a lot less exciting. It feels nice to want to do a quest not simply for the XP, but for the tangible increase in power or ability your characters get from the gear. Honestly speccing in flails is kind of terrible until TOB now.

 

The other thing is, instead of having so many items give a similar bonus to something (especially magic resistance), why not make each item more specialized, and have one or two items give a significant boost to magic resistance? That way you can really feel the difference of putting on one item versus another, rather than all these items all accumulating little benefits so it's like counting beans rather than dealing with uniquely powerful magic?

 

Edit: Oh, and I think 2H weapons got seriously buffed. 2WF is kind of meh now, since the best axe got nerfed, the best flail got nerfed, all the best longswords got nerfed, etc. 2H swords, halberds, etc are way more appealing.

[Demivrgvs]

It really seems you buffed lower-tier items, and nerfed best-in-slot items. I understand that this gives more choice, and perhaps creates more possibilities for characters, but I think this creates a couple problems. For one, it shrinks the reward for completing some of the most iconic encounters in the game.

Afaik items which were among the best in their respective category are still such. They might be less outstanding because of slight nerfs or because low-tier items have been improved, but it's unlikely that a great vanilla item isn't still great within IR.

 

A lot of the fun, I feel, in replaying BG2 is the planning and strategizing on deciding which quest to do next, balancing what your party can handle with what gear you really need ASAP. Part of this involves doing quests that give you gold, so you can buy the items that are sold rather than looted.

Unless we did something wrong, I and Arda should have made this more interesting rather than less, both increasing the "value" of looted items (not in terms of gold but in terms of usefulness and variety) and the appeal of items sold by stores. Can you help me understand why do you think IR seem to do the opposite?

 

When Daystar gets massively nerfed (not sure why you said "almost unchanged"?), or Blackrazor, or worst of all, Flail of Ages, the process of acquiring them is a lot less exciting. It feels nice to want to do a quest not simply for the XP, but for the tangible increase in power or ability your characters get from the gear. Honestly speccing in flails is kind of terrible until TOB now.

Daystar is pretty much identical to vanilla's version (still +4, thac0 and damage unchanged), unless you believed at vanilla's "double damage" (it never truly inflicted 2x dmg, the description was wrong).

 

Care to explain what's wrong about Blackrazor? It might seem nerfed but it's not. Its "on hit" ability is less game-changing than it was in vanilla but the positive effects last 3x longer. The change was mostly done as an effort to avoid issues with enemies killed by level drain.

 

Flail of Ages has been nerfed yes, but by the time you get it (extremely early) it's still the best 1-handed weapon you can get, and remains so for most of SoA (within IR you don't get +4 weapons until the very end of SoA). Many players still consider it OP even in its current status, and before I nerfed it a second time (allowing a save to negate slow and similar effects) some even "accused" me of boosting it rather than nerfing it. Not sure why you consider it underwhelming.

 

The other thing is, instead of having so many items give a similar bonus to something (especially magic resistance), why not make each item more specialized, and have one or two items give a significant boost to magic resistance?

Are you thinking about Balduran set in particular or something in general? The set is imagined to become very effective when worn as a whole, while making a single item grant very high magic resistance (like vanilla's Carsomyr did) would simply make that item too effective on its own imo, and allow the use of multiple of these supposedly "specialized" items to create a character full of high resistances or immunities. Otoh, if you think I added magic resistance (or other effects) too often please indicate me which items felt "too much of the same" and I'll try to do something about it.

 

Btw, IR do have "specialized" items (e.g. Bane weapons) but these "specialized" items still need to not be OP in their particular role. I did my best to increase the overall variety of items and add as many different abilities as we could code (engine limitations often prevented the implementation of many cool ideas), but I'm always open to new ideas if you have any.

 

Oh, and I think 2H weapons got seriously buffed. 2WF is kind of meh now, since the best axe got nerfed, the best flail got nerfed, all the best longswords got nerfed, etc. 2H swords, halberds, etc are way more appealing.

This is inteded. Two weapon style was outstandingly better than any other style in vanilla, while now both 2-handed weapons and "sword & shield" style are much more viable for various reasons. That being said, I'm sure many hardcore players can tell you that even within IR dual wielding it's still the most effective style in most cases.