Seems patch is released. Some toughts on it:
(going through releasenotes, not all of them)
- new class - Shaman. Seems interesting (sorcerer-type spellcasting of druid spells + some unique + dance to summon spirits at will). Does this dance have an animation? Can't say how this works in practice. Franky, I think something like this is more in Diablo line than BG2 but....I'd need to try it out before saying more.
Priest of Tyr- same as in IWD EE. Not much to say, it's a priest of Tyr.
Balance:
Poision weapon rebalance - good. The ability is instakill in BG1. Does it still bypass stoneskin, which is (imo) a big oversight?
Stupefier - nerfed. I don't know the percentages, but the weapon had no place anywhere in BG world prior to ToB so this looks good. However, with Darts of Stunning available (yes, it's a save allowed, but with BG1 saves and 3 base APR.....) things don't look good for AI still.
Enchanted weapon -
The Enchanted Weapon spell, instead of creating a magical weapon that the caster can wield, now alters the target creature’s currently equipped weapon to increase its effective enchantment level to +3. The spell’s description has been updated to reflect this change.
Fantastic! T-up for this.
Bard song protects from fear - bleh.
Since you have Skald kit avaliable (better than vanilla trueclass in every-single-aspect) this is pointless, bar some RP reasons.
Cloak of Fear
The Cloak of Fear spell no longer causes targets to drop inventory items on the ground, in order to avoid situations where a player might lose an item without realizing it until it’s too late.
This is good ofc. Frankly, I'd remove the idiotic "drop effects in panic" opcode from the game. It's beyond bad.
Ioun stones
Ioun Stones now universally have a weight of 0, and no longer protect the wearer from critical hits
Demi's on a payroll here. This is more PnP than BG-like. Bit hardcore I guess, since thieves/monks now really get the s**t end of the stick.
Thowing Daggers
Throwing Daggers now universally have a weight of 0.
If I ever created a character with dagger spec in BG1, I'd tweak this myself to work like this. Ok I guess, probably throwing axes should get the same treatment (if one can wear 4xplate armor he can wear few hundred axes )
Advanced AI
New characters now come enabled with advanced scripting that makes intelligent tactical decisions without the need for micromanagement. This behavior can be fine-tuned by toggling options that appear on the Scripts screen
This I have to see. I can't believe that "intelligent tactical decisions" stands in same line with BG AI behaviour scripting.
Difficulty settings
Two additions -
1) Story mode:
With Story Mode, the player’s characters cannot be killed (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)in combat and are gifted with Strength scores of 25. This difficulty mode is designed to facilitate a stress-free experience for those players who are not interested in plumbing the tactical depths of Infinity Engine combat.
" plumbing the tactical depths of Infinity Engine combat."
That 25 STR may be an overkill, no?
2) Legacy of Bhaal
With Legacy of Bhaal, the creatures that are faced in combat will be given additional hit points, deal more damage, and generally be scarier. This difficulty option is designed for seasoned veterans who are looking for truly unethical levels of challenge.
"truly unethical levels of challenge."
This, this I have to see. I hope it's a tiny bit more than a function like DiffTweak mod where creeps get illegal THAC0/HP/saves etc. If it's not, I'd say this is rather dissapointing. You already got HArd/Insane for illegal damage, while ToBex allows for extrnalization (i.e. all scripted events work like Insane but damage is not doubled). I really hope this is more than pure cheating enemies.
When starting a new game, players can now opt to create up to six characters to take with them. This functionality previously existed through the Multiplayer menus, but now players can create a party of player-created characters within Single Player as well.
I'm kind of keen on MP parties. Don't really feel as if this was neccecary (save in mp, cut/paste in sp, play in sp). Saves 30 seconds of your life per game started. Meh.
New Portraits
Cool.
ENGINE stuff
• Metal weapons will no longer risk breaking once the iron crisis has been resolved (BG:EE)
Nice I guess. By the time you're done with crisis you should really have a few +1 weapons, however.
• Party members won’t all comment at once on every reputation change
..........see why I like MP parties? They don't talk crap.
• Opcode 232 (Cast Spell On Condition) now supports spell states as conditions
FANTASTIC, if it works properly.
• Ability scores that receive a bonus are now tinted green instead of red on the Record screen
Ok, a lot of people complained about this on old engine.
• Players may now equip an off-hand weapon while a ranged weapon is present in a quick weapon slot
!!!!!!!!!! Does this mean I can *finally* play a proper ranger who dual-wields and has a bow, w/o going in inventory screen?!
• Players can now advance dialogue (as if pressing Continue or End Dialogue) by pressing the spacebar on a keyboard
Exellent. Seems this also works on cutscenes, great!!!
• When an item is selected on the Inventory screen, the portrait of the character best suited to that item will now be highlighted in yellow
I just can't believe this will work properly.
BuGFiXes
Franky, most of these should have been fixed *at latest* 2 weeks after EE2 was last patched, if not before ever released. Example:
• The Stalker version of the Haste spell is no longer affected by magic resistance
• The Berserk ability now prevents combat log text from appearing with regard to effects to which the berserk character is immune
• Hardiness from the Wish spell will no longer stack with the Hardiness HLA
• White Dragon Scale will now be usable by Stalkers, as intended by Bioware
For the love of Bhaal....
MODDING FEATURES
Saving Throw vs. School (346)
Applies a selective modifier to the target’s saving throws against a specific spell school (i.e. Necromancy).
Now we're talking. Great.
Make Unselectable (365)
This opcode renders the creature unselectable, making it impossible for the player to give it orders even if it is green circled.
I don't really see use for it, but I may be wrong. Maybe, maybe, some friendly berserking effect could be inserted here somehow??
Enchantment Bonus (344)
This effect changes the enchantment level of the target’s attacks to the value of the ‘Enchantment’ field. The affected creatures are determined by the usual IDS targeting method.
Again, great. This I think will see good use.
Externalizations
Spellcasting Failure (16669)
The way that spellcasters fail after taking damage has been externalized to CONCENTR.2da. By default, any damage a spellcaster takes will cause them to fail their spellcasting.
0 Any damage
1 (1d20 + luck) vs. (spell level + damage taken)
2 (1d20 + Concentration ) vs. (15 + spell level)
I was kind of hoping for more here (you get one extra option from what you get with ToBex alone).
Now, if a kind soul would explain what is "luck" here (as per mage spell? just a random roll? Bollocks?) and what "Concentration" stands for (is it moddable? Can it be attached to a spell/kit/item? What is it?)
Bard song
The effects of the default bard song ability have been externalized to BARDSONG.spl. You can make changes to this spell to alter the bard song's default effects.
Fine, but nothing really new from what ToBex has for years now.
The notes end with User Interface changes. Seems that one can now tweak fonts etc. by delving into some lua stuff + you get an auto-roller feat if you're lazy to CTRL+8 your stats. At first glance, doesn't look to user-friendly and I don't care much about fonts (there are a few awesome available at SHS).
Overall, I'm kind of reluctant to try this out just yet. I expected bit more externalizations, bit less on bugfixing (I haven't played EE in a long time, I tought that most of these issues were fixed already, or never existed in EE) and far less GUI things, which seems to be "the thing" for this patch. Along with a bunch of quest fixes for EE NPCs which I can't really digest.
