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Lightbringer

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  1. Just to double check here ... I'm playing with a 7.x EET build and Imoen just chunked on me courtesy of the assassins in the Ducal Palace, as has been reported before. I had read in another post that there is no worry because the SoD Imoen will pop up where she needs to and a different Imoen (from BG1) will appear during the transition. Is that still the case, or does something need to be done to my GAM file, as above? I have save games before and after the assassination, as well as before SoD (right before Sarevok). If there's something I can do in NI to fix this before it occurs, I'm good for that, too.
  2. Well, I finally finished BG1 and just transitioned into SoD. This is my experiment with 100% xp, plus full BG2 style xp from locks, traps, and mage scrolls. I can say with fair certainty that the xp from locks, traps, and scrolls really only made a difference in the early game, where random scroll drops from gibberlings and kobolds gave me a level every now and then. No sweat. With DSotSC, NTotSC, and Stone of Askavar providing extra content, and doing everything I could find to do: Time: 102 hours (that's with knowing the vanilla game, but experiencing the content mods for the first time) XP for CHARNAME: 869,000. That makes for an 11th level monk (31k away from level 12) The pally (Isra) is level 10 (31k away form level 11) The rest of the party are multiclassed, and sitting at 9/9, 9/10, or 9/11, depending on class (ranger levels very differently than thief, of course). Not to shabby. Now to see what SoD will add to it. One interesting note on the final battle with Sarevok: Semaj or Angelo cast web on the melee with Sarevok and my fighters. We all saved. He didn't. Poor psychopath got beat on badly while web-paralysed xD The final damage which killed Sarevok -- 3 points of fire damage -- came from Angelo. That's right. Sarevok died from friendly fire. I'd even call Angelo and Semaj my MVPs of the battle. The unkindest cut of all ....
  3. I am afraid nobody will change contents or re-work dialogues for those mods. Balancing items and plot xp, yes, removing tweaks and outdated biffing technics, yes. Updating graphics, yes. But changing the story contents, most likely no. That is the same that has been done with DSotSC, so your impression more reflects how the original mods were written once upon a time (and that is true for TDDz and the under construction RoT or CtB as well.) DSotSC is a more linear sequence of quests that are clearly stated and put before you - you solve one and move on to the next. NTotSC is more *hidden* elements throughout BG1 which you find randomly - it is harder to really discover the red threads - and it has very little journal support, just cryptical scribbled messages and hints in item descriptions. This is how the original author did it, and when updating the mod technically we need to respect this. In a way this is similar to what the EE's did to original game - preserve the original contents (e.g. remove bugs and do technical enhancements but not for example remove inconsistencies in the tale itself.) Sometimes it is not easy to restrain oneself from trying to improve a mod that you just have the right to technically make compatible - speaking from experience as I tried that with a number of orphaned mods to rescue them for EET (Chloe, Longer Road, NTotSC, Extended Thief Stronghold). Fixing bugs is okay. But fixing contents which is not bugged or broken just because you do not like it, is not. And do not forget that those mods are translated into a lot of languages and you would need to do new translations if you change contents. Interesting perspective, thanks. Makes sense. Well I can at least look forward to losing some of the missing icons then. I found a few walkthroughs and was able to piece the story together. When I run my multiplayer group through it, I'll just have to narrate a little. When I get to play Sandrah solo, I'll certainly look forward to how she ties it together
  4. Having played through (all of) the placeholder NTotSC and (almost all of) DSotSC, I can really see the difference in the more polished and re-balanced Dark Side compared to the rougher Northern Tales. The story in Northern Tales has a lot of potential, but man is it in need of improved dialogue clues! I'm definitely looking forward to playing through them both again, once everything is more put together and polished up
  5. Fighter/Clerics should be able to use divine spell scrolls by vanilla default. They are clerics, after all.
  6. Thanks for the explanation, Jarno. I think I understand. Too much of a hassle for this playthough, unfortunately. Probably simpler to use NI to add the stats of a helm I like to an ioun stone for the character in question. I also seem to recall checkbox to say whether it's visible on avatar or not. Or something. Well, I have options in any case. Thanks for clarification EDIT -- Turns out bringing up the most offensive helm in question in NI and changing display appearance to 0 None was simplest.
  7. Speaking of reapplying mods midstream ... I know it's generally highly inadvisable to alter your mod setup mid-campaign. Is it viable to change a component of an already installed mod? Specifically, I want to answer "install" to the "remove helmet animations" component of a tweak mod, instead of answering "not install". I've decided that putting up with Minsc having a full lush head of brown hair is worth getting rid of the dorky helmets covering up my ladies' delicate coifs. I don't want to start having funky dialogue strings show up in odd places. I think I have bad memories of the description of a generic short sword becoming "I prithee mind thy rodent, Minsc.." and other such nonsense xD . I'll just sit tight before having that rot show up again. If it is viable, would I just run the setup.exe for that tweak mod manually? Or would I need to go through BWS again?
  8. Here is what http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=28161&page=58&do=findComment&comment=251024 this tool tells me about my current playthrough: BG1 with all the big mods >>>> 70h (70h) SoD with sidequests >>>> 16h (86h) BG2 with some big mods >>>> 70h (156h) ToB with WK + Wheeks >>>> 20h (176h) Sandrah RtF >>>> 42h (218h) Sandrah ToT >>>> just started Pits, Tutorials etc >>>> 0h Comments - Those times are from a player who pretty much knows all the quests etc and where to go and what to find etc, so there is almost no wasted time here while still including all the available episodes, - BG2 does not yet have all the big mods ready for EET, so from my own experience this is not representative, can be easily double (although I had 3 strongholds for my NPCs via a tweak) - For all original game parts I also did the extra stuff Sandrah NPC adds (hard for me to tell what that adds, after all, I know what to do and where,,,) - Time spend in RtF was for a regression playthrough (Again, this was played without wasting time exploring or seeking...) See now, those kinds of numbers put a big ole smile on my face. Add in other big mods, and IWD-EET... <sigh of contentment>.
  9. I want it. Yes. That and the Warhammer of Greater Potato, a great warrior maketh.
  10. I fully agree with that, I would even add that mod creators should try to keep as well the balance of the game they envision as their target. When I talked of some *self-discipline* I had in mind a mod like Dark Horizons, it is like it is and not under development anymore - still the story of it (Sarevok not only sends some amateurish assassins after you, but he is a real sinister guy that makes deals with the devil to hunt you down - including the aspect that even for Sarevok things can easily get out of his control) is a very good addition to the BG1 part of the game. So either you make a mod for the mod to remove the 100 or so OP items and streams of potions, or you just do not pick them up and thus have some fun with it. I know! I love the concept, but not the imbalance. I may have to try what you suggest one day. Yes, back on topic. No more de-railings into philosophical debates, you Gibberlings! (who me? Never!) I love this idea, Subtledoctor. Recurring villains are fun. Even if we don't alter the original content by adding him into WK or the Planar Sphere, chopping off the end narration sounds like a fantastic way to loop him back into the BG/SoD story.
  11. Interesting definitions. I think I mostly agree. I'd consider myself a limited #2. Don't just give me all the things like candy, but maybe have all the things available for me to earn. Sky's the limit, but I gotta earn it. Ah, there's the rest of it Merge that with #2, and I'm golden. I agree with you there. I definitely believe that a player should not have to compensate for a content creator's breach of internal consistency by denying themselves rewards that have been granted. It's a total immersion breaker. Of course whether the player is being picky or fair in such an assessment is another matter entirely. I am wary of modders too frequently excusing odd reward choices by saying, "well if they don't like it, a player can just exercise some self-discipline". I consider it a content-creator's duty to minimize the instances where a player has to consider whether or not to say that. I may not be a modder, but I have created and ran my own D&D adventures in table-top for over 15 years, across 4 editions, very frequently "modding" the D&D ruleset to increase enjoyment at my table. For you table-top players, I consider myself a power-gamer and a roleplayer, but not a munchkin -- and I run and design my adventures with that in mind. I do still expect mega-mod creators to keep some kind of internal balance. This is the problem I had with Dark Horizons -- the rewards far outstripped the challenges, and came at an inappropriate point in the story. I'm very OK with mods changing the balance of the game as originally envisioned by Bioware/Beamdog, as long as they are internally consistent. I've been doing just that with table-top for many years. Of course, mod makers do what they do as a hobby, for free, and we all get to enjoy the fruit of their labors -- and to decide what to play or not based on our own tastes. As bob_veng as stated, there are multiple ways to approach it, most of which are quite valid in their own rights
  12. I look at it like this: this trilogy is already very long (>100 hours depending on play style) and it goes from level 1 to level 30. Adding in a while other game + 2 expansions is going to add a whole lot more hours. One way the integrated game could handle that is to expand its scope - now it can go from level 1 to level 50, and you will level just as fast. This will be what happens with core IWD-in-EET. But some people like myself and bob_veng might be traditionalists, and want the game capped at level 25-30. And we can tolerate slower leveling. So what I'm discussing is how to achieve that. Gotcha, gotcha. Sorry to beat a dead horse, so to speak Honestly, I'm not sure what camp I'm in. Guess I'll find out! As an attempt to resurrect the poor horsie and give it yummy snacks, and as an aide to those who may have been confused by derailing as I was: The point of this thread is not (I believe) to debate the merits of the traditionalist or the expansive approach to level scaling for IWD-EET. Instead, this thread was to have the traditionalists discuss how their tweak should work. The rest of us can go back to enjoying our level 1-50 binge, and they can plan out their enjoyably slow walk through 1-25ish. Did I get that mostly right, bob_veng and subltedoctor? ... And sorry it took me so long?
  13. I look at it like this: this trilogy is already very long (>100 hours depending on play style) and it goes from level 1 to level 30. Adding in a while other game + 2 expansions is going to add a whole lot more hours. One way the integrated game could handle that is to expand its scope - now it can go from level 1 to level 50, and you will level just as fast. This will be what happens with core IWD-in-EET. But some people like myself and bob_veng might be traditionalists, and want the game capped at level 25-30. And we can tolerate slower leveling. So what I'm discussing is how to achieve that. Gotcha, gotcha. Sorry to beat a dead horse, so to speak Honestly, I'm not sure what camp I'm in. Guess I'll find out!
  14. I look at it like this: this trilogy is already very long (>100 hours depending on play style) and it goes from level 1 to level 30. Adding in a while other game + 2 expansions is going to add a whole lot more hours. One way the integrated game could handle that is to expand its scope - now it can go from level 1 to level 50, and you will level just as fast. This will be what happens with core IWD-in-EET. But some people like myself and bob_veng might be traditionalists, and want the game capped at level 25-30. And we can tolerate slower leveling. So what I'm discussing is how to achieve that. Exactly yes, but "expanding the scope" isn't an operation that doesn't require tweaking either so it is also required to think about how "core IWD-in-EET" would achieve that. I put the " " because it's not yet clear which one should be the default. Changing the scope isn't as simple as making the content available. Only once we have both viewpoints (and other interesting and different viewpoints maybe) working, then we should decide which one should be the default behaviour, maybe based on how well each one was achieved and how restrictive they end up. Agreed wholeheartedly. Much of our discussions (though interesting!) are somewhat academic at this point.
  15. The idea of scaling monster spawns to level across all of EET sounds fascinating. It sounds like a whole ton of work, and quite a few people would dislike possible immersion breaking (why is the sunken house S of Beregost guarded by a Lich now? What happened to the little ghouls?) Sounds like a lot of fun to me though. Goblins occupying the pass into Kuldahar? Not at level 25. Say hello to Frost Giants! I'm not a modder, so I have no idea what kind of work would go into something like this. Is it as simple as adjusting the contents of spawn tables or something? I know there is already some amount of scaling. Watcher's Keep does it. I seem to recall that sunken house S of Beregost replaces ghouls with ghasts at some point in the game. The house near Thalantyr upgrades its spiders at some point. Is a project like that feasible?
  16. I don't love this, and assuming IWD-in-EET allows it, I think an add-on mod should consider undoing it. Simply because the idea of being stuck in the North - with that big avalanche behind you cutting you off from Easthaven and keeping everyone stuck in/around Kuldahar - is such a big motivator in the IWD story. There's a bunch of dialogues that mention it. It would be cool to embrace it, rather than dismissing it These are interesting points. I understand where subtledoctor is coming from, as that is the feel and intent of vanilla IWD. Many will want to preserve that in their IWD-EET. In my view though, IWD-in-EET is not IWD vanilla. In IWD, the adventuring party who defeats the Narrator (remember that gotcha?) does so as the culmination of an adventuring career. In IWD-in-EET, the adventuring party who defeats the Narrator does so as just one part of a much larger story. Sarevok is a grand master villain. Until you meet Jon Irenicus. Jonny is a grand master villain. Until you meet Mellisan. Somewhere in there, the IWD Narrator was also a master villain. I'm in Roxanne's camp on this one. The adventurer who survives the ambush outside of Easthaven has already done things in the sword coast down south, and has other things on their plate as well. Fire Giant warlords, Vampire guilds, dragons, wolfweres, demon knights, drow cities, mind flayer cells, golden lich-lords, cults of dead gods, cults of false gods, gods of the falsely dead: they ALL want a piece of the Bhaalspawn. IWD-Narrator needs to get in line with the rest. HOWEVER, Subtledoctor's perspective is still quite valid. I can definitely see a reason for the approach he takes, though I may approach it differently myself. I image there are many players on both sides of this issue. If it is viable, I agree that there should be a way to have IWD be a separate excursion, as well as a way to integrate it into the larger BG story.
  17. Wow, ok even I would say that is rediculous It seems to me that there are two points of view when it comes to how to handle IWD's contribution to the main BG saga. 1. Make it so players can enjoy the content of IWD, while preventing it from changing their level progression through the BG saga. or 2. Reward players for taking this excursion by allowing them to become higher level when they start later content. The former appeals to those who wish to experience content while never "over leveling". The latter appeals to those who want to feel like they gain something concrete for their efforts. Incidentally, this is the approach taken by TotSC, and SoD. Both of them extend the XP cap, and allow you to import into SoA at a higher level. This creates "over leveling", but it also creates a concrete reward for those who go through extra content. My rambling thoughts spoilered out, because Roxanne just framed the argument so much better: <train of thought derails as I read Roxanne's reply, which appeared while I was typing> Ok yeah. What she said. I think Roxanne's idea would probably handle what I'm trying to say
  18. See that is too fast for me. At this point you'll be level ~11 before starting SoD, and 13 or so starting SoA. Add IWD into the mix, and increase those levels by 4. Personally I'd rather stay a bit under-leveled to get more of an organic challenge (versus the dumb artificial challenge given by the difficulty slider). But I don't think anyone's talking about doing this by default. Only as an optional tweak. And what would be an appropriate reduction for such a tweak. from what I understand such values in Lightbringer's game are mostly caused by BG2 rewards for thieving skills and spell learning (thousands per activity) which by no means are recommended for BG1 portion of the game. It's unlikely that BG1 mods changes progression so much but if that's the case it would be good to highlight which ones are most offending when it comes to XP rewards. Maximum XP values after doing everything in vanilla BG:EE with a party of 6 is about 227k per character according to this post. -------- Not sure how much XP can be acquired during SoD. This will be important to figure out suggested values for global XP reduction so if someone can provide such data (preferably separate for quests and monster kills) it would be useful. I think the overall goal when all is said and done should be not more than 500k total before starting BG2 portion of the game (vanilla SoD XP Cap) It is most definitely from the scrolls and lock/traps, primarily (plus some of the add-ons from DS and NT). Definitely an experiment and I have no earthly idea what SoD will add to it. I wouldn't consider it amiss to start SoA around level 12. 15 would be a bit much. Also, in my playthroughs, I don't really factor in character level as a power indicator very much (once I get past level 9 or so). I play a very warrior-centric party, so levels mainly just add in occasional proficiencies and a few points of THAC0 and saves. Now, the monk is very level dependent, but that gives it viability more than anything. My clerics are warriors who can heal, and my mages are fireball chuckers only when needed. Even they are multi-fighters, and swing swords and maces when they aren't called upon to heal or throw fireballs. Honestly, I'm not sure my party power level would be that much higher between level 9 and level 15 (monk aside) -- all else (gear) being equal. THAC0, saves, a few spell slots. That's about it. Admittedly, I might be completely wrong about the above paragraph -- hence the experiment Now, someone who heavily leans on spellcasting to own everything, well, yes it would make a huge difference. Yet another reason to make everything optional
  19. It'll be interesting to see how the XP issues get addressed. I can see the need to adjust quest rewards for IWD. I recall they seemed to serve the purpose of guaranteeing character levels at certain points -- a problem EET won't have. I agree whole-heartedly with the sentiment, but keep in mind that 12k is already divided by 6. That would be 72k xp as a raw total. Whether or not that is appropriate for Severed Hand is one issue, but IIRC it is far higher than the circus tent In my current playthrough of EET (which includes NTotSC, DTotSC, TDDz, FFT, and most of the quest mods), I am not only keeping XP at 100%, I am also keeping BG2 style xp for spell learning, locks and traps. It has gone exceptionally well so far. What I did to keep it from being obscene is to have almost every character multi-class. The only exceptions are my CHARNAME, who is a monk, and a paladin (because Inquisitor, ya know?). I'd make my monk a monk/thief and the pally a paladin/cleric if I could. Oh well. After a full TuTu run a while ago (with no relevant mods), my monk reached lvl 9 just before fighting Sarevok. That's 250k XP for a baseline. I just reached that in my EET game, having defeated the cloakwood mines (and everything else pre-city and non-ToTSC), and the first few quests of DSotSC. My multiclass characters are all lvl 7-8 in each of their classes. Very respectable. A few odd notes: Thanks to a created NPC picking the locks in Candlekeep inn and barracks, my monk reached level 2 before leaving Also, thanks to some scrolls dropped by some gibberlings and xvarts (and learned by Imoen the swashbuckler/mage), my monk was level 3 before the FAI, and my other two multiclassed allies were level 2 each. Very different, but quite welcome. That initial journey to FAI was a little more enjoyable than normal. From what I've experienced so far, a global reduction in XP -- monsters or otherwise -- would have been very unwelcome. I might be able to tolerate a 75% global, but only just barely. I would want to add in IWD to make up for the reduction. That may change as I continue the saga, but that's my experience so far. In any case, I'm glad these are all toggle-able options.
  20. All those locations make me eager to check out your mod even more All in good time. Still working on that baseline EET playthrough ...
  21. I for one cannot wait to get to have my Bhaalspawn go be the hero of Icewind Dale, as well as all the other stuff down south. No, really. I couldn't wait. I started up a full EET run, with plans to go do another once IWD-in-EET comes out Lovin' it so far, and it gives me a good idea as to which mods to piece together for my full "canonical" run through the massive glory that is full EET. Call it a beta run. I'm only up to the Cloakwood Mine, appreciating how DSotSC and NTotSC have upped the power curve a little, and going to see just how I'm going to be able to figure out the maze of quests for them when they activate. I turned on full BG2 style XP for traps and locks -- was a great idea to hasten those rough early levels -- and full 100% XP. Almost all of my party are multiclass characters, though, so the net result has been surprisingly balanced so far. We'll see if that trend continues, now that I'm about to start a lot of the optional content for BG1. Amazing so far. Only thing missing is a gameplay timer, so I can know just how many hundreds of hours I'm going to end up sinking into this thing
  22. Not sure if it's the same as referenced, but I've definitely noticed pathfinding issues, without boots of speed or haste. My characters have a tendency to walk directly to an enemy, and not be able to walk around their comrades in order to get in melee range. It honestly reminds me of how pathfinding was back in the days of vanilla BG1, before BG2 arrived and introduced improved pathfinding and the ability of friendly characters to quickly "shift" out of the way.
  23. Awesome work K4thos! Now for Beamdog to get crackin' on the next patch
  24. Found a bug (and a fix!) in the NTotSC implementation currently used for EET by BWS. I understand it was something like a direct port, and a full EET version is currently being worked on elsewhere. Charleston Nib didn't give me the scroll to open the extra levels of Firewine after dealing with his dig, as he was supposed to. Turns out the action to have him leave the area after the vanilla dialogue about the idol interrupted the dialogue to grant the scroll. Once I removed the EscapeArea() action from his vanilla dialogue, he proceeded to offer the quest and the scroll when next spoken to, then left normally. Should I drop a word elsewhere about this? BTW, I think it was either NToTCS or DSotSC that did it, but the Xvart village is way more impressive now. About 100 xvarts, including Protectors and Shamans casting hold person, plus about six cave bears. It was a blast, and it felt like what the village always should have been. Well done and recommended! Would pillage again.
  25. This is a help topic over a year running. Wow. Kudos to Jarno and Agb1 for perseverance! DragonRider, hope you get it all sorted soon
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