My thoughts about Divine Remix

[subtledoctor]

Regarding FnP:

• The documentation you found is out of date. Check the recent posts in the FnP thread, I think there’s a link to a more recent work-in-progress Readme. (But)
• Champions are just paladins. But we have neutral and evil paladins, so it doesn’t make sense to call them paladins. (But)
• The mod is split in two for convenience. Instead of instructing players “install some components of the mod here, and other components later,” we just split the two groups of components into two different mods. So we can say “install this mod here, and install this other mod later.” That’s all. (But)
• BUT! 
• FnP is EE-only. Sorry. We would just have to give up way too much to support the old engine. On BGT, your option is DR. 

As far as balancing DR’s spheres, it could be done. First off, install IWDification, and have the DR sphere system account for it. SCS will take IWD spells into account so the game won’t be unbalanced. Second, move away from devout adherence to PnP. Have fewer spheres maybe. Have one very large “All” or “Universal” sphere, so most kits get access to most spells, and then use the other spheres for smaller changes at the margins. Whatever.

One of FnP’s recent innovations is to support multiple different sphere systems. The system is laid out - all the spheres and the spells in each one - in a human-readable text document. The mod reads the chosen document and sets up spheres accordingly. So anyone can change things to their liking before installing. (If you wanted, you could perfectly replicate the DR sphere system within FnP!)

DR could do something like that - it does not require the EE engine. With maybe a couple options, players could decide whether they want a hardcore PnP sphere system, or a more balanced system, or a “lite” version with most spells in the All sphere, or something. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by subtledoctor

[CamDawg]

23 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

DR could do something like that - it does not require the EE engine. With maybe a couple options, players could decide whether they want a hardcore PnP sphere system, or a more balanced system, or a “lite” version with most spells in the All sphere, or something. 

It could, if the two authors who lived and breathed balance discussions were still active and making decisions instead of the tech guy who leaves chat at the first utterance of the b-word.

So, no, you're not going to see me implementing further sphere variants--and that would apply even if it didn't go against the original visions of my fellow authors.

[Nox]

This b-word... Is it... Balance maybe?

Quote

FnP is EE-only. Sorry. We would just have to give up way too much to support the old engine. On BGT, your option is DR.

I had finally found a readme, which seemed a bit outdated. It answered a few of my questions. The scope is much more ambitious than i thought, and everything i saw seemed interesting AND somewhat balanced/believable. The design view for 'Faiths and Powers' looks to be solid. On the other hand, the modifications are pretty deep and will undoubtedly change the whole feel for divine casters, gameplay-wise, making BG2 a mix of BG2 and something new. Some will love it, some will need to try it to get a feeling of how it plays, and some will look for a more DnD 2-like approach. Still, i believe the mod will be widely successful.

These informations you just gave here. I believe you should add them in the readme AND in the Beamdog forums post, at the top. As it is now, this post looks like a version history, with credits. At first, i never imagined this post was the actual frontpage for 'Faiths and Powers'. The compatibility thing (with dead link in the middle, needing the reader to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the actual link) is misleading, since it is actually modder resources for kit implementation. More basic informations about the mod should be presented right away, as in any G3 readme. The Google sheet is NOT self explanatory if you don't already know what this is all about. I don't need to know about Zealots' HP Dices, proficiencies, races, if i don't know what a zealot is to begin with. Even if the details about kits are in the readme, the post should sum-up the basics first and foremost, and warn the reader that the readme is in the far bottom, after the credits part (i missed it complety at least thrice). Non EE players will need to go watch Beamdog forums for informations. They need to know that 'Faiths and Powers' is EE only. I would write this on the very first line, with ginormous, flashing white, sparkling letters, so that even Ray Charles could see it .

I say that just so that people who may be interested in your mod have a way to get important informations about it right away, rather than wasting hours to look in every nook and cranny of the net. I believe that would be great for further spreading the word about your mod. Well, that is just a suggestion Thanks for your answers anyway. As i thought, it is not a mod for me, old fashioned BGT (non EE) user. This is a confirmation of what i thought: DR is a much needed mod, even 15 years after it got first published.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Nox