It's a new BG2 mod advice request topic!

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I hate the invisibility thing. Its a minor annoyance when you want to backstab a mage and he starts a conversation with you despite not being able to see you because its a plot point. I can live with that.

What I hate is mages suddenly getting the urge to cast true sight whenever I sneak around. What, did they feel a breeze? If we assume invisibility covers all traces of your presence including sound and air movement, how would he know?

Even worse is when you get directly targeted with a spell.

BG2 monsters isnt as big on cheese as its players are though. Hell, I opened the soul gem in the underdark today - I had my fighter mage thief stand behind where I knew they would appear and backstab them before the dimension door animation had even finished.

Cheesy and cheap but I didnt feel like battling a lich properly. Hell I'm a child of bhaal I'm not supposed to be nice anyway.

Dont think I'll try IA, some components of Tactics I havent installed cos they just seem irritating. like improved ilyich, just seems pointless to spend all that timing escaping from the dungeon, I want out and I want out now. I dont want to battle a fallen deva summoning cleric and a demon and a golem I cant even hit.

 

Keep in mind that this can be legitimate as well as sloppy coding. Some scripts are triggered by 'someone is within 15 feet and I can't see them' as opposed to 'I can hear someone but can't see them'. The former is sloppy and cheating, whereas the latter is legitimate--there is a reason why thieves have different skills for hiding in shadows and moving silently.

 

If you fail your hide in shadows and sneaking check, then you become visible. If you dont fail those checks, we can assume you are silent enough not to be noticed.

 

That's BG2 standard, actually. Triggers and contingencies are all scripted rather than however it works for your characters. (It may not even be possible to do it the same way.)

Geez. Overkill much?

Sadly also BG2 standard. Well, really only ToB, but still.

Even with that in mind (I'm the king of il/logical justification when it comes to 2e ), it happens far too often.

 

Invisibility doesn't hide all of your presence traces. Your body odor can still be sensed, every sound you make can still be heard, air movements are still there. Moreover, highly intelligent creatures (most mages) can detect/sense your presence after an intelligence check (rolling a number equal to or lower than their intelligence on a d20) and that's why they cast true sight.

Quote from Dungeon Master's Guide:

 

You need to find and exploit the weaknesses of each member of Improved Ilych's party.

Golem can be hit easily with that quarterstaff+1 you find, or priest spell Shilellagh. It has rather poor AC, and can be killed quickly.

Neophyte Galebrezu needs +2 weapon to hit, so use MMMs, or use magic, it has very weak MR, and falls easily to barrage of magic missiles, Holy Smites, Skull Traps, etc.

You should not let Zhivago summon the Deva. Just Magic Missile him, and his spells will be disrupted! He has pretty good AC though, it is hard to hit him normally, so use your spells exclusively. Do not let him cast a spell, send another magic missile when he is chanting!

Add a Greater Malison and Dire charm Ilych! He will give a hard time to his former allies, and will get killed luckily.

Rasputin is easy pickings, just continue to run away from him as other members use ranged attacks and spells. He is easiest to crack.

Karamazov...she is hard! Go and enter melee immediately, or you will die, her ranged attacks are very deadly! Even in melee she is difficult, add Greater Malison and try your luck with Slow, Hold Person spells, if they work:horray!

Hope this helps you!

 

I'm looking for an AI mod that makes enemies more intelligent, but not on the scale of stuff like Tactics. the best example I can think of is Sword Coast Stratagems for Tutu. Basically, enemies use thier ablities intelligently, stay in groups so you can't use the fog of war to your advantage to pick of stragglers, et cetera. Essentially, an AI mod that makes enemies in BG2 non-retarded.

 

I believe DavidW has mentioned that he's currently working on an adaption of SCS for BG2. I hold high hopes for it.

 

The thing is, I dont think games should use realism where it doesnt suit the purposes of the game.

Maybe veteran BG2 players who take down improved firkraag solo with a level 1 mage wielding a quarterstaff like the challenge of improved ilyich, but I dont like that kind of difficulty too early in the game. What I would like in is a bit of change, maybe some randomness, in Chateau Irenicus.

Anyway, I played Small Teeth Pass Tactics today. I didnt really mind the purple dragon being right there, I could deal with him. What I couldnt deal with was the red dragon at the bottom of the map using his red dragon breath on me, killing me even if I could kill the purple dragon. Honestly, thats not even fun, thats just stupid. If dragons can even see that far, his breath wouldnt carry that far, and it wouldnt always hit. Want realism? Make dragon breath cool down the further it goes. Make dragons able to fly to your party. Even from wilderness to wilderness.

 

Hehehe. The Tactics mod (and especially Imp. Ilyich, which was intended as a joke) is just unfair, and can't be called "realism" by any stretch of the imagination. Realism != difficulty.

 

Then keep this is mind: difficulty!=fun.

If you want to make something more fun(as in, making it more challenging), I'm all in for making it harder. But doing so to extent that Tactics does... now that's just plain silly.

 

Wait a minute, I played the Small Teeth Pass countless times, it was the Purple Dragon's breath which usualy chunkified my characters, not the Red's.

Red can not see you, but I heard it was screaming 'CHARNAME! CHARNAME!' and it was trying to reach, in vain ofcourse. It never breathed on us across the other end of the map. Yours must be a bug, I guess.

 

Mine must be buggy too; after killing the very first one you get just entering the area, we were barbequed without knowing what was happening, so many times that I actualy quit going there.

 

Ya, my problem too. Gave up. Once I tried to run to the north forest after flooring the purple, but when I was in the map, the game wasnt paused and red dragon breath fried one or two of my characters (out of 3).

So I gave up. Are there any decent items on that map? The purple dragon dropped nothing.

Tried slightly improved ilyich, its not bad actually. challenging but not stupid. The enemies excessive use of invisibility (even duergar) is annoying though.

 

This IA testimony confuses me. After a clean install and following the read-me installation instructions to the letter, I encouter Copper Cornet mages with an infinite amount of spells, a beastmaster able to cast ironskins and heal in one round, and the cleric with Samia casting 3 level 7 buffs instantly.

Could someone tell me where they download this non-cheesy IA, because I clearly missed the link.

 

They refresh their spells if you leave the battle for a long time and return later (if this is what you mean by infinite spells); Otherwise, no, they do not have infinite number of spells. (Cheesy methods such as closing the doors on enemies and waiting for the duration of their spells to expire have been blocked. If you do not try cheesy methods, you will see that they have limited number of spells.)

And there is no cheese in casting pre-buffing spells. Enemies also can prepare themselves for the battle in the same way that players do. They prepare themselves by having cast pre-buffing spells. From a role playing point of view, They do not cast those spells all instantly, but you can learn that they have cast prebuffing spells only after you start the battle against them (hence, you see the message of the spells having been cast on the screen when you meet them at the beginning of the battle. This is the best way the game's engine allows pre-buffing spells).

The battles are difficult and definitely not for novices and inexperienced players. I have made some of the battles a bit easier in the forthcoming IA v4.0. You can wait for the new version of the mod and play it.

[ January 02, 2007, 12:56: Message edited by: Sikret ]