Gearing Up For My First IA Run-Through

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When a mod is very well documented, stating that its changes to the game are "undocumented" is a "lie". If you want to call it "some guy voicing his opinion" you are free to do so, but it won't change the fact that that "guy" was lying.

As for the arbitrary changes Bg2 Fixpack and the Oversight mod apply to creatures' aligments, yes I believe that they are arbitrary tweaks. Adding HLAs to high level creatures in SOA is much closer to a "fix", but I don't have issue with calling it a "tweak" as well. It's a welcome tweak, however.

EDIT: Thanks, Mongerman! We posted almost simultaneously.

[ May 29, 2007, 16:21: Message edited by: Sikret ]

 

Not another modder's flame war...must you guys turn every thread into your personal battleground? While i agree that Camdawg's statement is totally hogwash (changes are, as far as I can see, all documented), Sikret you could have restrained yourself as well. A PM would be just as effective in getting your message across.

SimDing, Camdawg states that IA changes are undocumented. Thats not an opinion. Its a plain falsehood.

[edit] lol sikret you were right before me

 

Yeah, these improvements must be really welcome. There has always been a great need from many players to get more serious items of neglected types. I remember a player who requested specifically a +1 Club to be added by (one of the earlier versions of) my Grey Clan mod.

Another good point. A good reason now to prefer NPCs that were often neglected earlier.

 

Part of what has kept me playing so long is the ability to attack different area's at different times in different playthroughs. It sounds like AI can be pretty specific on what you do when? That's how it reads to me at least.

Was this the intention in some way?

Because need for cheese tactics and special planning aside I think that would really kill my repeated play throughs all on it's own.

 

Yeah, it would be quite nice to have the option of the levels of some enemies depend on your party's experience, as this would make it posible to complete some quests in a different order. This is directed primarily at Torgal- try role-playing a character like a paladin (who, IMO, is likely to head out to the keep ASAP) and surviving! However, IA is quite a large mod in terms of affected parts of the game, so it isn't something I'd expect to see added.

 

I see what you mean, but nerfing enemy's level just because the party has a low level or making the enemy's level increase with party's level seems to be quite unrealsitic to me. If an xth-level enemy is somewhere, he is xth level regardless of when you go to face him. He is not adventuring (like you do), well, at least most of them don't. So, there is little justification for changing his level. Furthermore, if the enemy's level had been a function of your level, there would have been no point in choosing the order of the quests early in the game which is a part of the general strategy, IMO.

Moreover, I fail to see why from an RPG point of view, for example D'Arnise keep should have proirity for a paladin compared to several other quests (such as the skinner murderer, Umar Hills, Unseeing Eye, Trademeet, etc).

I think the main reason for which players give priority to D'Arnise Keep is the fact that Nalia starts to complain and they don't want her to leave the party and it's not bad of course. Postponing the keep to chapter 6 will make it too easy.

I still think that there is a good variety of options for doing the quests in many different orers. The difficult (and fun) part is mainly the early stages of the game when you have a weak party and need to pick the quests more carefully. As Marceror mentioned, it makes the world of the game a more realistic and dangerous place. As I said, in my opinion, if enemy's level was changing with your level and you could pick the quests with any arbitrary order, it would have been little fun and there would have been no point in choosing the order of quests.

 

Oh, for the most part, I agree with you Sikret. I merely thought it would be a nice option.

I see it this way: the keep is under immediate attack and is likely in danger of falling soon. Solving the skinner murders would likely be similar to a detective job- while in the game it is done very quickly, in reality it would likely have taken a day or two. Added to this, a keep has more people in need of saving- the murders were happening frequently but even over a few days would be unlikely to affect more people than the fall of the keep. The Umar Hills is much the same to me.

I could see Trademeet being hit early as it is in much the same danger as the keep (under seige), although perhaps more so due to its lack of defenses.

 

I agree with Sikret too. You need some general strategy and must learn humility in the very beginnings of an IA adventure.

 

As I said, I mostly agree. After thinking about it, I think my main problem with the keep is that the Torgal fight is too much, especially bearing in mind how I see the whole quest. There should be tough encounters, but I just don't see this as being one of the really nasty ones.

 

Interesting how everyone thinks the Torgal fight is so tough. It was, don't get me wrong, but it was the greater Yuan-ti that gave me the greatest level of challenge.

It wasn't until I went out and purchased emotion and greater malison (per Mongerman's suggestion) that I was even able to scratch that sucker.

That was the point in the game that I realized I had to be extremely proactive about getting the right spells in the hands of my arcane casters, so I blew a bunch of my very hard earned cash on spells at that point. Haven't regretted it for a second.

Haven't had time to play in a few days, so I'm looking forward to tackling the planar sphere tonight. I'm about half way through (I'm guessing that I've done the "easy" half). I still Lavok, Tolgerias, and the golem room to handle. I'm not sure what Sikret has placed in that golem room, but if we're talking hordes of gem and coin golems, that ought to be a tough one!

 

Tor'Gal is an underling and even admits to it. So making him super tough in my opinion kind of breaks the idea of him to me. I'd rather find out who he was working for and have to deal with them. A sub-plot that from what I can tell has never actually been explored in any real way either by BioWare or the Modding community. But I could of course could be wrong. His dialog is such that even a fairly strong party doesn't impress him much so whoever he's working for must have a lot of strength and clout.

The easy assumption I think has always been that it's Roenall behind it but the guy is a sniveling little worm and wouldn't be able to inspire the loyalty in the way that Tor'Gal expresses it.

 

This issue will be handled in the "Expanded Fighter Stronghold" feature of IA v5. If you have played IA v4.x, you have found the stained letter with Glaicas which gives some hints of the plot.

And no, TorGal is not super tough in IA compared to many other tough enemies.

 

I've been reading this topic from the start, and I reckon its motivated me to give IA a shot. Just wondering how 4.3 is coming along Sikret? I'm thinking I'll probably be starting the game Friday night (I have a bit of work to be done before then), but I wouldn't mind having things installed before then (unless a new version comes out real soon that is).
Anyway that been a great story so far Marceror, keep it up.

 

@Stu

It will be released soon, though not as soon as this friday.

New contents are added which are passing their testing stage.

Cheers

 

Hi,

I've been reading this post, and having IA installed myself (i've just started, I am in the midst of the slavers' quests), I have a few comments:

1- True this Mod is difficult, but then again it is specifically made for experienced players, it says so in the read me.

2- Some fights are hard, and force you to take a different path (I used to like and crush the party at the inn in the Promenade when I got out of the first Dungeon, but now they're not that easy, so I'll postpone a bit... ), but I think that's what adds to the charm of IA: you just need to take a different approach to things. Also the fact some quests you used to do in ch. 2 before IA aren't really "doable" until your party comes back in ch 6 or so is kind of cool, since it adds an extra kick (something to come back for later, much more fun than doing everything easily in ch. 2 then leaving for spellhold after a year or so... more realistic, I mean your mission is to rescue Imoen after all)

3- Finally, IA is tough, it is frustrating at times, but it keeps you going and forces you to use more realistic tactics, reduces cheese use, so it's a good thing. Just as in Pnp, sometimes you flee or avoid battles to survive!

 

I'd say this part is a bit debatable. Pre-Spellhold your party believed Jon and Imoen were safely imprisoned. While you wished to reach them, neither was going anywhere anytime soon.

After Spellhold, you are first rushing to defeat Bodhi and restore Imoen's soul and then soon after racing against time to stop Irenicus laying waste to an entire city of elves (plus to get your own soul back). How much time does Charname have for a simple bit of monster hunting in the Windspear Hills (for example) when s/he has these greater problems to contend with?

 

@Decados - I agree that doing 90 side quests in chapter 6 is tough to roleplay, since charname has lost his/her soul and will seemingly die soon. So anything other than fixing that problem is a little tough to understand. The one or two times I rushed to spellhold I regretted it later and found that this approach really tainted my enjoyment of those side quests.

That said, I'm pretty much bound and determined to do as much as I humanly can during chapter 2 and 3, so there's not much left for me to do in chapter 6 except advance the main plot.

* * * *
And with that, another quick update. I have now conquered the planar sphere, taken out the illithids in the sewer, done all of the windspear hills quests and cleared the first two levels of watcher's keep (well, I tried and failed at killing the chromatic demon, so I'll save this for a bit later).

The temple ruins was fun, though I was suprised that I actually had a harder time with the shadow jailer than I did the shadow dragon. To be fair, I had probably 4x the number of buffs and summoned allys when I fought the shadow dragon, but somehow I actually found that battle (almost disappointingly) easy. The Shade Lord gave me a run for my money though, and I wasn't able to get past the encounter without a party death (Jaheira) -- only tried twice though.

Other than finishing my stronghold quests out (fighter and mage) I don't think there's a whole lot of major side quests left to do in chapter 3. I've even had my visit from "Terminsel" and gotten Jaheira's harper pin.

I still have Samia in Firkraag's dungeon to go back and face, as well as the dragon himself. Of course there's the rest of watcher's keep, which I'm sort of thinking may need to wait until after the underdark. We'll see.

Also, I've heard that when you finish the windspear hills quest you can get an additional quest once you have a 20 reputation. I think I had 19 rep when I saved Garren's child, but I've since gotten to 20 and haven't encountered any new quest opportunities (I've visited the Radiant Heart headquarters a few times, and nothing).

I plan to finish out everything I can then I'll finally go and face Bodhi in her lair and be on to chapter 4!

Having great, great fun. I'm really glad that I settled on the party that I did (thanks to everyone who made recomendations) as they are really solid, and are beginning to truly come into their own. I think the average level is currently around 15 or so. Oh, and Nalia has her improved ring, which is a fantastic item!

 

In addition to a 20 reputation, you need to have killed Firkraag and at least one week should have passed since killing him.

Cheers

 

To take out the chromatic demon, have all your melee characters wait in a room, while nalia frees him. All of nalia's lvl 6 slots should be filled with PFMW. Once the demon is freed, use one character to attack him and lure him to the room with all your fighters and summons. Nalia, in the meantime, is completely safe from his minions.