The Four!

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Yes, but IA v5 will be released within a few hours.

 

Wow, congrats Sikret. IA 5 sounds like it's really quite an accomplishment, just based on the feature list. Perhaps I need to consider another BG2 runthrough sometime in the not too distant future!

 

GAH! I'll have to start all over then .

 

Yes, but it is worth it. Think of your v4.2 run-through as a warming practice before getting into the real work. I strongly recommend to play your first v5 run-through with a vagrant protagonist to have access to the maximum possible number of new quests.

@Marceror

Thank you very much.

 

That and that I had already begun working on the outlines of a possible review, which would be pointless if I kept playing v4.2.

 

Awesome - I was very much hoping your response would be something like that!!!
Great work - now I just have to toss up as to whether I finish my current 4.2 game for completions sake or start afresh with 5.2. I'm kind of leaning towards the latter (for the quests, the four and Rogue Rebalancing compatibility) but it seems a waste to leave my current game.

 

Hey Sikret, just curious whether or not you plan to update the item descriptions in the original post of this thread. Might be helpful for those who are contemplating whether or not to install this with their IA games. Just a thought, or perhaps you're keeping the changes under wraps for a reason, I suppose is fine too.

 

=============================
Description of the four items:
=============================

1- The robe

Robe of Eloquence

This ancient and extraordinary robe has led all of its previous owners to death. While it boosts spellcasting abilities to a considerable extent, It has devastating disadvantages. Once a mage wears it even for a moment, he or she will be subject to most of the item's disadvantages for the rest of his or her life.

Advantages:

- Wearer's aura is cleansed
- Wearer can memorize one additional daily spell per spell level

Equipped disadvantages:

- Immunity to all methods of healing
- Incurs -3 Penalty to all saves

Permanent disadvantages:

- Immunity to all healing spells
- Immunity to Regeneration

Usable By:
Evil Mages (not multi class)

2- The Ring

Melodic fury

Zafir was a knowledgeable bard in Calimshan. However, When he was waylaid by a brigade of kobolds, his lore didn't help him much. When he was near to death, he wished that he was less knowledgeable but had better fighting abilities. It is said that this last request was fulfilled and Zafir killed a good number of kobolds before his heroic death. His fury transferred into his
ring when he died.

*Cursed Item*

Equipped abilities:
+5 to hit bonus
Permanent Improved Haste
+15 HP bonus

Disadvantages:
Lore: -40 Penalty
Intelligence: -6 Penalty
Disables thieving skills button

Usable By:
Bard

3- The gloves

Gloves of Spell Weaving

Aswad was a high level mage known for his extraordinary experminets on animals. Druids were angry with him and prepared a large army to destory his stronghold. Aswad who had anticipated such an assault had already prepared this magnificent artefact for a possible confrontation. His gloves gave him considerable immunity against druids and he truly surprised them in the battle. However, the side effect of the very same item was the cause of his death when he failed to make an important save vs. death.

*Cursed Item*

Equipped abilities:
+1 Bonus to casting speed
Immunity to Creeping Doom, Insect Plague and Summon insects
Immunity to Miscast Magic

Disadvantage:
-4 penalty to save vs. death

Usable By:
Mage
Bard

4- The helmet

Sunlight

While worn by a druid, this shiny golden helmet reflects the slimmest lights of any environment directly to the eyes of the enemy as if they are struck by sunlight, incurring penalties to their THAC0s and Armor classes. But due to its high conductivity, it also incurs 20% penalties to the wearer's resistance to electricity and Fire. Only druid's are so attuned with nature to have
such a low penalty. Others would have burnt immediately had they worn the helmet. The wearer also requires to have a minimum of 12 intelligence to know how to adjust the angle of the light's reflections on the targets.

*Cursed Item*

Equipped abilities:
Protection against critical hits
Armor Class: +4 Bonus
THAC0: +4 Bonus
-20% Penalty to Fire and Lightning resistance

Requires 12 intelligence

Usable By:
Druid

 

I'd start afresh.

 

Interesting. Does this mean it is still mostly usuable without Improved Anvil, or is IA necessary for it to work at all?

If the latter is the case, why?

 

Yes, it's the latter.

The reason is that the battles in "The Four" mod were previously of much lower quality than those of IA. I was not satisfied with the enemies' combat scripts in The Four. But on the other hand, if I wanted to revise the scripts and improve them to my desired level of quality, I would also need to extend The Four's second component (the tweakpack) to cover many necessary prerequisites for writing complex and advanced scripts. This was not an elegant solution, because with that change, The Four's second component (the tweakpack) would have become much bigger than its first component. Imagine that you would have needed to install a huge tweakpack just in order to play a small mod which adds 4 battles and 4 items to the game!

I decided to go for a second and alternate solution. I omitted The Four's small tweakpack altogether and made the mod require IA. Now, I was able to write complex and advanced scripts for The Four's battles relying on the fact that all the necessary prerequisites (tweaks) are already there in the player's game.

In short, I made 'The Four' require IA, because I wanted the enemies in 'The Four' to be capable of running advanced scripts similar to those used in IA.

 

Sikret, appreciate the item descriptions! I just noticed that you posted these after I asked about their updated stats.

 

Weclome .

 

A fair enough reason. Will you still keep an older version available for people uninterested in playing IA? Unlikely, I know, but I thought it would be best to ask.