New to TOEE

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I've just ordered the game over the weekend and it should arrive by Friday. So, here's your chance - what would advice would you give to a new TOEE player who's very familiar with the Infinity Engine games and somewhat familiar with NWN?

I know there's the Co8 mod - is there any documentation available on what it fixes/adds? I assume there's a readme with the download, but I can't find any specific information online.

Also, are there any other mods I should look into as well (and are multiple mods compatible)? Or character editors? I'd especially love to play the game as a Duskblade - does the Co8 mod add any expanded base classes (or prestige classes?

Thanks!

 

Infinity Engine and ToEE don't have much in common, but I bet you'll like ToEE anyhow .Try the vanilla game (w/ patches) first, and add Co8 after that..it's like a different game.

 

ToEE is the CRPG that most resembles 3.5 Ed. pen 'n' paper D&D. If you're familiar with 3.5 Ed D&D, the game's combat mechanics will come much easier to you. If you need to, and can get them easily, I'd recommend going over the combat rules from the 3.5 Ed D&D Player's Handbook. Combat in ToEE is true turn-based, unlike the real-time with pausing for pseudo turn-based combat like you find in the Infinity Engine games and NWN. You have as much time to choose how your characters will act as you need, basically micro-managing the combat round by round.

The Co8 Release Notes can be found >>here<<

As far as I know, Co8 is the only active modding group for ToEE, and their mod will almost certainly be incompatible with any other mod you may find out there. But don't worry, it's also likely the best and most complete mod anyways.
Sorcerer's Place hosts several editors/tools including a character editor. Unfortunately, the source code for ToEE was never released, and without such a tool, no new classes/prestige classes have been added. Co8 does add the proper feats and extra abilities including high-level spells to allow classes to advance up to 20th level (the Atari level limit was 10.)

Overall, I would recommend trying the game without the Co8 mod once through (patch to Atari patch 3 if your game doesn't ship prepatched,) then reinstall with the Co8 mod (follow install instructions carefully) so you can appreciate all the bug-fixes and added content the Co8 mod gives you.

 

Ah, excellent, thanks very much. Yeah, I figured that there would be advice to play without the mods first. Pretty standard around these boards. So, it's stable enough with the patches that you can actually play through? From what I'd been reading it sounded as if Co8 was necessary to play.

I am definitely looking forward to "true" turn-based rules. Also - if the mod ups the level cap to 20, does mean there are many more encounters as well? i.e. I could have a "normal" end-to-end game?

 

I can't answer all your questions because the last time I played ToEE the Co8 mod was still on version 4. However IIRC the level cap is optional, so you can switch that option off and play the game "regularly". It might be worth looking at how modular it is - if you can pick and choose, then even on a first playthrough you could install only bug fixes without any of the extra quests and increased level cap, so you end up with the original game but more stable. ToEE is stable enough with the official patch 2, at least there are no game-breaking bugs, but there's lots of little irritating bugs, especially in the temple itself, that could prevent you from doing some of the optional quests.

 

The Co8 mod is not modular in the sense that you can separate new content from the bug-fixes. The current version of the mod (5.5) adds a lot of new content. The good news is, the new Front-End (TFE-X) that ships with Co8 5.5 can let you install multiple versions of the game at the same time. The closest thing to a bug-fix only version of the Co8 mod is the 3.0.4 version of the mod, which can be downloaded as a TFE-X module. There is also a "new content removal mod" by Sitra Achara which is based on the Co8 5.0 mod, IIRC. So you have a couple of options if you want the bug-fixes from Co8 but not the new/added content.

 

I haven't played with any of the Co8 mods. I only played with the patches. You need the patches as there are really annoying bugs you will want to fix before playing.

Without the Co8 mods, you'll only get up to level 10. With a party of 5 and no NPC henchmen, you'll get to level 10 before the end of the game and will get enough opportunity to play at level 10 for a while before completing the game. You should still be able to enjoy the game without the mods. I've completed the game several times already and still enjoy playing from time to time.