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Future tweak ideas - post 'em here


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Request: Signposts (maybe tour guides) are objects or NPCs in town that list all notable locations on the game map (for single map towns like Beregost) and either notable locations in the same zone/district for big cities (Athkatla/BG city) or in all districts for these big cities.  Choosing an option from dialog warps the party there, possibly with some fade to black.  For example, in BG city, choosing the Elfsong Tavern warps the party outside the Elfsong Tavern.  (Using tour guide NPCs may have additional dialog and may also require spending a small fee to warp to the destination.)  Of course, in BGII, these fast travel options are only available starting in chapter 2 due to plot reasons.

Request: Best Party Price uses the party member with the highest CHA or/and otherwise who provides the best merchant price for trading without having to manually choose this person.  Certain other games did this, like Temple of Elemental Evil.

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Currently, NPCs who join your party get a maximum of 32,000 exp in BG1, and 1,250,000 in BG2. It would be great to have a tweak that increases the cap/keeps applying the formula as charname keeps leveling. For example, in BG1, it would extend to: 32,000; 64,000; 128,000; etc.. In BG2, it would continue to increase in 250,000 intervals, right to the level cap. Then it would still be worth picking up new NPCs late game, and you'd never have to worry about Imoen being under leveled when you rescue her.

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17 hours ago, OrlonKronsteen said:

Currently, NPCs who join your party get a maximum of 32,000 exp in BG1, and 1,250,000 in BG2. It would be great to have a tweak that increases the cap/keeps applying the formula as charname keeps leveling. For example, in BG1, it would extend to: 32,000; 64,000; 128,000; etc.. In BG2, it would continue to increase in 250,000 intervals, right to the level cap. Then it would still be worth picking up new NPCs late game, and you'd never have to worry about Imoen being under leveled when you rescue her.

SCS have a component for this.

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I have 3 feature requests:

1. Would it be possible to get a 25% version of the "move faster outside of combat", OR a "only move faster in town" version. Being able to walk the wilderness really fast is kind of a bit of overkill sometimes

2. Would it be possible to increase the size of the "exit zones" (for travelling between maps) so that characters bunch up and get stuck less? Maybe to twice their current size, so characters don't have to all bunch up in the exact position near the exit to leave.

Edited by Sarge945
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5 hours ago, Sarge945 said:

1. Would it be possible to get a 25% version of the "move faster outside of combat", OR a "only move faster in town" version. Being able to walk the wilderness really fast is kind of a bit of overkill sometimes

Auto-haste can be toggled on and off at any time. The protagonist should have a special ability for this, which is conveniently named "Disable Auto-Haste" or "Enable Auto-Haste".

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19 hours ago, argent77 said:

Auto-haste can be toggled on and off at any time. The protagonist should have a special ability for this, which is conveniently named "Disable Auto-Haste" or "Enable Auto-Haste".

Yeah I have been using this.

I am getting used to the +50% version from the 100% version, so it's not really much of an issue anymore. I rescind my suggestion.

20 hours ago, Endarire said:

@Sarge945
To expand on your exit zones, what about no longer requiring gathering our party to venture forth?  If one party member reaches a zone exit, everyone does.  Planescape: Torment does this.

That works too, as long as the other characters are still required to be somewhat nearby (maybe within 10 squares) and you're not in combat.

 

I have a few more requests. Sorry if it seems like I have a whole laundry list of requests, I just think of things over time and then dump them all at once, sorry if I seem to be asking for lots or seem ungrateful for this mod. It really is very great.

1. Can we get an option so that charged items don't destroy themselves when they run out of charges. Instead, we get an "empty" version, which can be recharged by paying (300 times the total charges) gold at any shop that sells magic items.

2. Would it be possible to make chests/containers in dungeons etc change colour (or become unusable) once they are empty? Just a small quality of life thing.

3. The bard can still elect to use items, spells etc while singing, which will end the singing. This means using a script to make the bard sing by default in combat is useful, as you can still select them and tell them to cast spells, use potions etc easily, after which they will go back to singing automatically. Shamans on the other hand disable every other action including item and spell use while dancing, which means that if you're making them dance automatically and you want to use a spell, you have to manually tell them not to dance, then wait for them to finish dancing, use the spell, then tell them to dance again. Worse, some scripts will immediately turn on dancing as soon as you turn it off, which makes it even more annoying because you don't have enough time to use whatever before the script re-enables dancing. Would it be possible to make Shamans work the same way as bards, ie not disable the rest of their kit when they are dancing? This would be perfect if actually using the action still waited until they were no longer dancing (which I assume is the reason why their abilities are disabled in the first place), to retain intended balance.

4.  I feel like with the "Gems and potions need to be identified" feature, I feel like the lore values need to be increased just a little bit. My meager basic party has been able to identify everything they have found so far, so realistically it's just an exercise in busywork having to right-click everything with no gameplay. I feel like gems especially should have their lore increased a lot, since they are just gold generators, to really make the feature worthwhile. Currently there's been absolutely no restrictions at all on what I can identify easily, which really defeats the purpose of such a gameplay change. I understand that I DO have a mage in my party, so things may change if I decide not to have one, but so far it's been mostly a non-issue, without any need at all to get any lore boosting items or anything. Additionally, I feel like gems/potions sold in stores should already be identified. I guess in the worst case there's always an Identify spell, so it's not really much of a big deal anyway.

5. Could the "Remove "+x" From Unique Item Names" feature be extended to Icewind Dale? Items like Turodahel +2 come to mind.

6. Is there a way to make the "Easy Spell Learning" component apply only to scrolls bought from merchants? So we can memorise spells from merchants always, but ones in the world will still be random.

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I also tried out the "Kuldahar Merchant" who lets you swap special items that you find in Icewind Dale. I have some feedback, namely:

  • I had to identify the items I received from him, which felt a little odd, since he tells you what the items are in the actual shop pages
  • Would it be possible for him to tell you what each item does before you buy it, like you press on it, he says "This item blahblahblah, do you still want to purchase it?". I had to go looking on the Wiki to see what half of them did
  • Can we adjust his commission? 1000 gold seems a little steep in the early game when you get a bad drop.
  • He should probably wear more unique clothing colours, the drab gray which all the other commoners wear makes him a lot harder to notice. Maybe bright red? He is a rich merchant, it makes sense that he should be wearing noble clothing.
  • I noticed he doesn't trade everything? I found the +1 chainmail in the Temple of the Forgotten God, but couldn't trade it for everything. Are there some rules for what he is and isn't willing to trade?

I have never edited the game before, but have written some player AI scripts. I wonder how hard some of these changes would be to make...

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Offtopic, would it be possible to get the W_PackMule mod to work with Icewind Dale EE? It already works for IWD-in-BG2, I think it just needs to be ported across. I asked on that forum and got no response. Sorry for asking here.

Edited by Sarge945
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10 hours ago, Sarge945 said:

4.  I feel like with the "Gems and potions need to be identified" feature, I feel like the lore values need to be increased just a little bit. My meager basic party has been able to identify everything they have found so far, so realistically it's just an exercise in busywork having to right-click everything with no gameplay. I feel like gems especially should have their lore increased a lot, since they are just gold generators, to really make the feature worthwhile. Currently there's been absolutely no restrictions at all on what I can identify easily, which really defeats the purpose of such a gameplay change. I understand that I DO have a mage in my party, so things may change if I decide not to have one, but so far it's been mostly a non-issue, without any need at all to get any lore boosting items or anything.

The current version of the component uses price-based formulas. Some benchmarks, based on numbers from the BG series:

Iol Gem: price 40, lore 4.

Pearl: price 200, lore 19.

Diamond: price 1000, lore 34.

Rogue Stone: price 5000, lore 52.

You just haven't found any of the really expensive jewelry yet. The way the component is set up, practically anyone can identify the common gems that level 1 monsters drop, but the rarer gems have a real cost. That way, you won't spend ~100 gold at a merchant to identify a gem only to find that it actually sells for less than that.

10 hours ago, Sarge945 said:

Additionally, I feel like gems/potions sold in stores should already be identified. I guess in the worst case there's always an Identify spell, so it's not really much of a big deal anyway.

Yes, items sold in stores should be identified. Unless it's a special gimmick, like that one merchant in Baldur's Gate who sells cursed items. Setting an item that previously had no lore requirement to have one means you have to add that flag in the stores.

10 hours ago, Sarge945 said:

6. Is there a way to make the "Easy Spell Learning" component apply only to scrolls bought from merchants? So we can memorise spells from merchants always, but ones in the world will still be random.

No, there isn't. This one's a matter of game mechanics; you can ignore the chance with a game setting (difficulties normal and lower do this, at least in the EEs), or you can change the table so learning is always a 100% chance (what this component does), but you can't make it depend on where you got the scroll. Especially since the scrolls are the same items regardless of where you found them.

10 hours ago, Sarge945 said:

2. Would it be possible to make chests/containers in dungeons etc change colour (or become unusable) once they are empty? Just a small quality of life thing.

Not globally. Changing appearance for individual containers can be done using "door" mechanics, and the Siege of Dragonspear campaign actually does this in a few places. It's not something you can easily extend.

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3 hours ago, jmerry said:

The current version of the component uses price-based formulas. Some benchmarks, based on numbers from the BG series:

Iol Gem: price 40, lore 4.

Pearl: price 200, lore 19.

Diamond: price 1000, lore 34.

Rogue Stone: price 5000, lore 52.

You just haven't found any of the really expensive jewelry yet. The way the component is set up, practically anyone can identify the common gems that level 1 monsters drop, but the rarer gems have a real cost. That way, you won't spend ~100 gold at a merchant to identify a gem only to find that it actually sells for less than that.

Fair enough. It might improve the gameplay if there was a minimum price requirement before gems and potions started being unidentified, to cut down on the needless right clicking in the early game on mostly worthless gems that can be identified by almost anybody.

For example, everything below ~100 gold value would not need to be identified, everything above that would require identification using the standard price formula.

This makes sense both thematically and in a gameplay sense.

Thematically, it makes sense that anyone should be able to recognise basic jewelery, much like how it is in real life. But identifying anything rare, unusual or special requires an appraiser.

Gameplay wise, it should reduce the amount of right-clicking required for commonly found, nearly worthless gems, while still restricting the more expensive ones to using the identify spell or paying a shopkeeper.

3 hours ago, jmerry said:

Yes, items sold in stores should be identified. Unless it's a special gimmick, like that one merchant in Baldur's Gate who sells cursed items. Setting an item that previously had no lore requirement to have one means you have to add that flag in the stores.

So should I consider this a bug?

I also noticed I could identify some quest items (like the strange liquid found in Icewind Dale Chapter 1 or Mirek's Family Heirloom), which gives no real advantage for doing so. There should probably be a list of excepted quest items that never require identification.

  

3 hours ago, jmerry said:

No, there isn't. This one's a matter of game mechanics; you can ignore the chance with a game setting (difficulties normal and lower do this, at least in the EEs), or you can change the table so learning is always a 100% chance (what this component does), but you can't make it depend on where you got the scroll. Especially since the scrolls are the same items regardless of where you found them.

I like the mechanic of spell learning having a chance to fail, but after buying a spell, it feels a little weird losing it immediately.

What if stores sold "Spell Tomes" alongside scrolls, which cost 2-3x as much, but which add the spell to your spellbook with 100% chance when used. So a lower-risk, higher cost way of learning spells?

I would also add a small chance of finding tomes in the world, especially for some of the rarer spells that can't be bought.

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond, and bearing with me. I'm sorry for suggesting so much. Sorry if it feels like I have a bunch of wacky suggestions. As a game designer, I have quite a lot of issues with the more badly designed aspects of AD&D, like the camping system that effectively renders the action economy meaningless. If I had some mod making skills, I would try to overhaul some of these core mechanics, but I can see how many suggestions might not fit into the design ethos of a tweaks mod, especially one that's supposed to mostly keep everything vanilla-esque. I had a look at the tp2 file for cdtweaks and it's a foreign language to me unfortunately.

Edited by Sarge945
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Decided to give WeiDU modding a try. I've been a busy boy...

On 11/25/2022 at 7:37 AM, Sarge945 said:

3. Is it possible to make resting at an inn save the game as an interval save? Optional to also rest when camping (or not). Combined with the ability to disable manual saving, this would make "hardcore mode" where we have to rely on autosaves and camping. Disable autosaving to make it even more hardcore (save only on rest). Might help with savescumming.

I've managed to mostly fix savescumming and rest abuse. I have made a simple mod where shopkeepers sell "Camping supplies" for 100 gold, and resting requires camping supplies. It's not ready for release and currently only works with IWDEE, but the core framework is there. Yes, this mechanic is blatantly stolen from Pillars of Eternity.

On 11/26/2022 at 5:46 AM, Sarge945 said:

Offtopic, would it be possible to get the W_PackMule mod to work with Icewind Dale EE? It already works for IWD-in-BG2, I think it just needs to be ported across. I asked on that forum and got no response. Sorry for asking here.

Done, it's here

Is there a way to increase the healing amount for resting in an inn? The different room options seem mostly pointless. I had a look at some of the 2DA files and couldn't find one for inn HP.

 

Also, tweak suggestion. Would it be possible to use the portraits and sound packs from BG in IWD and vice versa. Baldurs Gate has a LOT more diversity in both portraits and sound options, however I feel like both games have very good portraits (I actually prefer the IWD portraits). I wonder also if it's possible to port across some of the nice UI features from both games, such as the nice difficulty selector at the start of Baldurs Gate EE. I have also noticed Baldurs Gate has a lot more diverse and interesting sounds when selecting items in the inventory. Icewind Dale mostly everything just makes one of a handful of sounds when picked up.

Edited by Sarge945
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14 hours ago, Sarge945 said:

way to increase the healing amount for resting in an inn? The different room options seem mostly pointless. I had a look at some of the 2DA files and couldn't find one for inn HP.

I would assume you want to look at the .STO file for this… though I haven’t looked myself, I’m not sure if it can be changed. I agree it would make sense if the healing was doubled or tripled. In a world of magic, wouldn’t any competitive inn have a deal with the local temple to provide basic low-level healing to all paying occupants? Only makes sense. 

I would apply low-level healing at inns and reserve paid temple healing for Heal, Restoration, Cure Disease etc. 

Edited by subtledoctor
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