Classic Adventures VS. Sword Coast Statagems

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Which of these should I play? If anybody has experience with either (or both) mods, please share your thoughts about them.

Thanks!

CA link: http://ca.spellholdstudios.net/

SCS link: http://www.gibberlings3.net/scs/

 

SCS does not add new content - it provides significantly more intelligent AI to a Tutu/BGT version of Baldur's Gate (SCSII is the equivalent mod for the BG2/BGT BG2 - SoA). It kicks my bottom. Hard. Then stomps on my head. There is a ton of discussion out there on various forums about what makes it so enjoyable. One significant advantage for folks like me, who want tight control over what they add and how they add it, is that it is entirely modular - you can add some, all, or next to nothing to your game, depending on if you agree with what DavidW did or not.

Classic Adventures is a TC where you get to play through a series of, well, Classic Adventures You know, the stuff from back in the day when modules came as small booklets with maps, we sat around tables, ate junk food, rolled up characters with funny shaped plastic things they called "dice", wrote character sheets on flimsy sheets of woodpulp using sticks of lead (I think they called them "pencils"), loked forward to getting the next issue of Dragon magazine so there would be a new module to mess around with, talked garbage to eachother, conjured +3 platinum rods into paladin's backsides, dropped bags of flour on dragons, had detailed discussions on exactly how hawt a charisma of 12 really is, and said things like "Hey, that's not fair - that just *HAS* to be against the rules"!

If you want to play a great modded regular run of BG1, I'd go for SCS (and many other mods) on Tutu or BGT.

If you want a fun fling on some favorites (man, these bring back good memories), then try out CA, which isn't playing BG2, it is really playing AD&D using the BG2 egine. Some mods that deal with tweaks or fixes might work on it, but in general it is not set up to use existing BG2 mods - it is its own game. If you try to add a regular NPC mod, well, they won't show up, because thier joining area doesn't ever exist in the TC game, so don't bother!

Classic adventures is at SHS - from the docs,

I have not completed a game due to time constraints (attempting modding, an OC NWN2 game in progress, an OC NWN game in progreess, a massively modded Morrowind game in progress, a BG2 lightly modded game in progress, a Tutu game in progress, a BGT game in the first chapter, the final stages of a Rome: Total War campaign, a just-about-to-get-interesting hack n' slash Mount & Blade game going, and those silly pesky things called "work" and "spouse".... very silly of me. Have to chose one and finish). But I played several hours of an earlier version, and it was alot of fun.

 

I can't disagree with cmorgan (ofcourse ) and I warmly recommend SCS. That and BG1NPC project really kicked life back into BG1 - for me.

 

Oooops. I meant to contrast Classic Adventures to Sword Coast Stratagems II.

For some reason, my BG1 discs won't install. I guess they've scratched after all these years.



EDIT1: I'd also like to add the mod Improved Anvil to the mix, as an alternative to SCS2

EDIT2: And Tactics.

 

Well... It really depends on what you're looking for. SCS2 adds greatly to the difficulty on a very large scale (a lot of enemies have had their scripts altered). Tactics also alters the difficulty, possibly even more so than SCS2, but it does so through the use of cheesy tactics (basically, the tougher enemies use the same cheesy tactics that you do); it also tampers a little bit with the story, adding some dialogue here and there.
IA on the other hand completely transforms your game. Difficulty is pushed through the roof (imho it's A LOT harder than both SCS2 and tactics, and the learning curve is very steep ), new monster are added, various tweaks are applied to prevent cheesy tactics, and the list goes on.

To put it short, it greatly depends on what kind of a game you wish to play. Tactics for a cheese fest (albeit a difficult one), SCS2 if you just want to push the difficulty significantly within the limits of what's legal, but otherwise wants to keep the game as close to the original. IA for a very difficult and completely different experience. IIRC it's possible to make a SCS2/IA hybrid, but I'm not sure how advisable it is. Tactics and SCS2 is also partly compatible.

 

Not as far as I know. (I mean, feel free to try, as far as I'm concerned, but I suspect it'll be a mess.)

I wrote an essay on the differences between various styles of difficulty-enhancing mods a year or so ago - that might be worth a look. (I wasn't trying to recommend any mod in particular, more just pointing out that different people want different things from their difficulty enhancement.)

 

Is CA done? Last time I downloaded it I got just far enough that I was having loads of fun and then it ended. Wonderful job on what was completed, though. Real loving care was put into that mod.

 

SCS II and IA aren’t really comaparable. IA is much more ambitious in its scope (SCS II is bascally just AI enhancements).

cmorgan described SCS II very well. Customizable, improved AI, lots of fun. Not much in the way of new content (although the Abazigal section has some - very nicely done, too). Basically, you can tailor-make your install. A word of warning, though – as it says in the readme, due to the long scripts employed, and depending on your computer, you might see some slow-downs. I have seen comments ranging from no issues, all the way to being unplayable. My rig is about 5 years old, and I only noticed it when transitioning between areas or when scripts initially loaded; in-battle wasn’t a problem.

As far as IA goes, my experience is with an earlier version (v4.2), and I can’t say I really enjoyed it all that much, mainly due to the difficulty (more on that later). Version 5 is apparently even harder. General comments (in no particular order):
- IA has some nice features - it adds new content, new items to forge, a nice item location randomizer, and new kits.
- IA revises some spells, removes others, and adds new ones.
- Sikret has implemented a lot of changes to block what he considers cheesy tactics.
- IA doesn’t get along with a lot of other mods.
- IA isn’t customizable.
- The difficulty is brutal – it does this by a combination of having you face lots of enemies, giving high enemy resistances/immunities to all sorts of damage, and improving AI. Be ready for lots of pausing to figure out what enemies are doing (by reading the info at the bottom of the screen), lots of reloads, and lots of hair-pulling. The difficulty is IMO what keeps IA from being more popular; fans of the mod speak of the great feeling of satisfaction you get from finally winning a battle, but most other people (myself included) just don't see the time investment needed to get there as being worth it. To each his/her own, however.
- Thieves are less useful in IA due to the limited opportunities for stealing (can’t steal from stores) and backstabbing (anyone who you’d want to backstab seems to be immune), and traps are nerfed.
- I found my mages occupied mostly with bringing down enemy defenses; that, combined with enemy resistances to magic and elemental damage, made mages less useful offensively (not useless, just not as powerful as in a non-IA game).
- I'm not saying IA is a bad mod; it just isn't to a lot of people's taste.

Tactics for me is hit-and-miss. Some of the components I enjoy, others not so much. Where there is an SCS II equivalent to a Tactics component, I take SCS II.

 

Some of the things written about IA in that essay are simply false (of course, I'm not saying that the author has intentionally written them; I presume that they had just been caused by lack of information about IA).

One of IA-testers who is a very competent tactician and has played all of the existing tactical mods is currently writing a comprehensive essay on the same topic with a more realistic approach to the question. It will be published in the Academy of Tactics in IA's official forum as soon as it is completed and proof-read.

And yes, I agree that IA can't be installed together with any other tactical mod simultaneously.

v4.2 is an outdated version of the mod. The difference between v5 and v4.2 is huge; and the difference between v5 and v6 is immense.

So, I don't think that information based on such old versions of the mod can be of much help to new players.

In general, I advise the OP and every other player to ask their questions about IA from IA experts who can be found in the mod's official forum (if they want to receive the most updated and reliable answers to their questions).

 

My comments were of a general nature. While I acknowledge that 4.2 is older, I also pop in to IA's forums from time to time, and from what I've seen, there is nothing in my comments above which are generally inconsistent with v5. Basically, someone who didn't like v4.2 because of the difficulty is unlikely to enjoy v5. And with all due respect, Sikret, from what I've seen, someone asking questions about IA on IA's forums is likely to get responses focused on the positives while downplaying the negatives. Asking a question about whether a mod is any good on that mod's own forum is unlikely to get unbiased opinions. Which isn't to say that other forums are necessarily any better (G3 is a prime example of going too far the other way); I think SP is probably a place where people are likely to get balanced opinions; this is due in no small part to Tal's low tolerance for some of the crap seen elsewhere.

Of course, you're absolutely correct that anyone who knows what IA is about and has questions about its specific features is better off posting their questions on IA's forums.

 

I'd be happy to make corrections to any factual errors if you want to suggest them; and you're right, I'm only semi-informed about IA (and was mostly using it for illustrative purposes in any case).