Random feedback from an old player/modder

[Littiz]

Hi DavidW (and any other reader out here)!

Checking in after several years of "absence" from the game. An almost surreal experience, to be sure.

Those were great times, I miss them somewhat.

Anyway, I'm glad to find that the community is still alive and well (if less "frantic", understandably).

 

I'm going through the game and I'm making a heavy use of your mod this time around (I removed basically everything from Tactics and Improved Battles, which used to be part of my standard installation back then... some uhm, ten years ago?! )

So I feel compelled to drop by and leave some random feedback, as the mod makes really relevant and extensive changes to the game.

 

I have a 3-man party: Main char Dual-Class Fighter/Mage (never played anything else), Jaheira, Imoen (after losing Yoshimo of course).

Levelling is fast but, the party being small, many encounters prove ultra-difficult anyway: there are only so many things you can do in a given round after all, and enemies like to appear in huge crowds.

Mostly I'm impressed by what I see. Mages are really smart and incredibly challenging. I've selected the limited pre-buffing option and I think I'm regretting it: facing mages does get a little tiresome after a while. Still, it's refreshing to see them so alert and aware of their arsenal. The game feels really different... it used to be extra-hard in selected places (because of Tactics and Improved Battles), now everything feels more coherent and organic.

Still, there are places that prove extra-hard even now, at least for my style of play. Granted, I'm not the player I used to be, at the moment.

A few cases worth mentioning:

• One of the first ambushes in the wilderness, with LOTS of ogre-like creatures who immediately get strenght enhanced. At that point in the game, my party of 3 can barely cast a Chaos spell: not enough to stop that many enemies from killing me in seconds. I'm not sure if you changed something here, actually.. Anyway, I cheated my way out of this encounter (while I could survive all the other ones, though some just barely).
  
• The Shade Lord. I had to flat-uninstall this component. That was my first major quest, and I was too low-leveled to face such a battle with my small party (even the vanilla version proved still difficult).
  
• The Harper Ambush. Very, very hard, since, again, it's early in the game, and I don't like pre-buffing if my chars have no reason to do it. But I beat it at last (it was kind of epic).
  
• Perth the Adept! O my!! This one was "infuriating". My level 12 mage could do little against his defenses, Jaheira's insects simply died on the encircling flames, and as soon as he cast Pit Fiend, it was game over every time (no +3 weapons since I always rescue Imoen ASAP, also Protection from Evil doesn't work here, so I could only scream in fear and die. Maybe summon an elemental, give it magical strength and manage to inflict A FEW wounds before that). Sometimes he summoned MORE than one demon... funny. Backstabbing him was an option of course, but it didn't feel right. In the end I "settled" for an almost cheesy tactic: Yoshimo enters while hiding, places a trap at his feet, then the other 2 enter the room and everyone goes at him at the same time with fast attacks as soon as he turns hostile (magic missile, bullets etc.) With some luck this combo brings him down. I could honestly never beat him in a fair fight.
  

I'm going through Spellhold right now, so many challenges I have yet to meet. Yet I can already say that the mod makes for a hard, at times frustrating and slow game, but I'm having fun, and I'm finding myself using potions, wands, summoning dolls, and anything I can think of to survive. So I guess it's mission accomplished!

Now a few notes on specific spells and rule changes:

• Individual Spell Immunity versions: oh my great, thanks for this!
  
• Extra spell scrolls for hard to find spells: could you add Spell Trigger? Still avaible only as drop in SoA, AFAIK
  
• Prevent Clones from using magic items: I removed this one. I know it makes sense because of the possible abuses, but items that can be used once/day should remain accessible, just like spells. I guess I'll exercise some old fashioned self-restraint for everything else
  
• Removed Invisibility from the Staff of Magi. Yeah it's overpowered but also iconic. A few items are supposed to be overpowered, and it really is no easy task getting them (especially with SCS!)
  
• I'm using SCS with Refinements, a mod I co-created with 2 fine modders eons ago and barely had the chance to use myself so far. I assume it won't conflict, other than NPCs still using the vanilla HLAs ? I'd consider this a very minor issue, and you could always consider your party somewhat "special" and deserving of a more specific selection.
  

Ok, that's all for now! Summarizing, great work.

Thank you for the great mod, and for the insane level of possible customization.

Also thank you if you made it this far

[InKal]

hmm...Baldur's Game 2 Spell Reference by Xyx, Alson and Littiz?

 

I kinda learned how to play this game thanks to you, guys.

 

"The game feels really different... it used to be extra-hard in selected places (because of Tactics and Improved Battles), now everything feels more coherent and organic."

 

Yes. More coherent and organic. Well said. In my opinion this is overall the most important change. In Tactics, game is like jumping from one tactics event to another with black holes in between. SCS makes the game whole again. Tactics is also quite cheesy, easy to beat with counter-cheese and, at places, just plain stupid (sorry Improved Faldorn). But most of all, Tactics, not to mention Imp. Battles, is very..hmm.. unequal. The Ritual is great, one of the best BG2 mods imo, Imp. Irenicus is also fantastic, first part that is, not the second when Jon Bon is picking spells randomly from a pool, cheesing you with teleporting or just standing like a retard doing nothing ( coz Weimer is lazy as he used to say). Yeah, my point. SCS 2 is equal and consistent. Improving entire game.

 

/ehhh... sorry for my english, really/

 

"One of the first ambushes in the wilderness, with LOTS of ogre-like creatures who immediately get strenght enhanced. At that point in the game, my party of 3 can barely cast a Chaos spell: not enough to stop that many enemies from killing me in seconds. I'm not sure if you changed something here, actually.. Anyway, I cheated my way out of this encounter (while I could survive all the other ones, though some just barely)."

 

Invisibility potion. Seriously. Then pelt them with emotion, chaos, confusion, hold person, fireball etc. or just...walk away.

 

"The Shade Lord. I had to flat-uninstall this component. That was my first major quest, and I was too low-leveled to face such a battle with my small party (even the vanilla version proved still difficult)."

 

hehe

party lvl must be at least 10. you need at least 4 good fighters protected from level drain (permanently if possilble). hasted (imp. hasted if possible), potion of invulnerability, fire giant strenght or better, clarity, regeneration, magic resistance. one mage and one cleric or two mages. most of all you need pierce magic scroll - without this, he will kill you no matter what, and of course, breach. and some luck. always kill shadow patrick as quickly as possible, nasty punkt wielding duskblade.

 

"The Harper Ambush. Very, very hard, since, again, it's early in the game, and I don't like pre-buffing if my chars have no reason to do it. But I beat it at last (it was kind of epic)."

 

You killed them with low level party of 3 without prebuffing? not bad, sir, not bad at all. kinda impressive actually.

 

"Perth the Adept! O my!! This one was "infuriating". My level 12 mage could do little against his defenses, Jaheira's insects simply died on the encircling flames, and as soon as he cast Pit Fiend, it was game over every time (no +3 weapons since I always rescue Imoen ASAP, also Protection from Evil doesn't work here, so I could only scream in fear and die. Maybe summon an elemental, give it magical strength and manage to inflict A FEW wounds before that). Sometimes he summoned MORE than one demon... funny. Backstabbing him was an option of course, but it didn't feel right. In the end I "settled" for an almost cheesy tactic: Yoshimo enters while hiding, places a trap at his feet, then the other 2 enter the room and everyone goes at him at the same time with fast attacks as soon as he turns hostile (magic missile, bullets etc.) With some luck this combo brings him down. I could honestly never beat him in a fair fight."

 

Perth the who? My lvl 17 party probably didn't even noticed when they killed him.

 

"Ok, that's all for now! Summarizing, great work.

Thank you for the great mod, and for the insane level of possible customization.

Also thank you if you made it this far"

 

True. last part very true. ;]

[DavidW]

Belated thanks for the feedback!

 

Refinements should run fine with SCS - you need to install SCS second, and then it should be allowed for normally. I make use of about six or seven Refinements HLAs as far as I recall.