Some impressions (and bug reports)

[qwerty12345]

This is for version 28. I played a no-reload run with a human wild mage/cleric multi (chosen by roleplaying reasons). I think you can guess how it ended. I'd like to share some extracts from my journal - notable fights and bugs.

 

Southern Wastelands (exit from Mulahey's dungeon):

Killed revenant, took the dagger +2.

Killed the mage easily, but his slimes were unbeatable, retreated after losing Imoen and Khalid. Resurrected them at Nashkel.

Temple of Lathander:

2 vampiric wolves - Jaheira and Khalid dead. Resurrected them at the temple.

Beregost:

Ordered ankheg armor

Ulcaster school:

Icharid turned out to be a chore. Killed Khalid and Imoen. I retreated but had no money to resurrect them.

Fortunately, I found some cheap +2 arrows in Felderpost inn, and also stocked with +1 ones at Tairum.

Returned, buffed, attacked. Kivan disposed of him while Jaheira and I were running in circles.

 

Gullykin:

Entered Jenkal's house, sent Alora downstairs. Talked with Jenkal, run upstairs. Jenkal followed and backstabbed me. Rendered him unconcious, killed him.

Entered downstairs, and he's there alive again! Ok, killed him one more time.

 

Xvart village:

Cleared xvarts (there were few of them, unlike in my previous runs).

Fortunately, found an axe +1 for Kagain.

Remembering what Borda did to my group in the last, I hesitated to attack him, but took my chances in the end. He turned out to be much easier this time, although I still don't get his 100% magic resistance thing.

Gnoll stronghold:

The guys on the bridge seemed to be really low level. Killed either one in two hits.

Kicked out Minsc and Dynaheir after rescuing her.

Ogre's Reach: killed a mountain bear. After that, healing Korgan wild surged him into a wolf. Way better AC!

Cleared the gibberling horde, which turned out to be not a horde at all (about 20).

 

The Eastwood:

Got into nasty trouble with wraith spiders. Lost Kagain, but eventually Kivan took them all down.

Then bumped into red wizards and was reminded how dangerous the mages are. Lost Kivan and Imoen. Retreated, waited until their protection spells expire, then webbed and shot them all. Again it's time for an expensive resurrection round... Looks like I have to farm some more.

Friendly arm inn:

Resurrected all party members, spent all gold.

The Eastwood:

Returned the scroll to Fahrington. At the same time, another mage attacked me. Turned out I missed him in the last time. With the whole party, finished him off easily enough.

Got a new shiny studded leather +2 for Imoen.

Unfortunately, Farhington also turned enemy (I didn't hit him or anything). Had to kill him as well.

Healed Imoen, she turned all-red... Serves her right, for all the "pink" banters.

 

Mutamin's garden:

Entered from the north. Almost immediately stumbled upon Mutamin. Buffed Kagain with protection from petrification and send him ahead. What a failure. Mutamin dispelled it and soon Kagain was stone. Lesser basilisk was down by then. Quickly protected Viconia and sent her ahead. The greater basilisk ignored her and started gazing at other party members or even me! In a desperate attempt to stop him (and Mutamin, who was casting something nasty), I launched a fireball from a wand. That was it. I didn't realize fireballs can hurt stone.

RIP, Kagain. We'll be missing your grumpiness. I will not sell your axe.

By the time I finally killed greater basilisk, Imoen and Kivan were petrified as well. I chased after Mutamin and stumbled upon one more basilisk... Viconia goes there as well. Run away, killed Mutamin. Got gauntlets of ogre power. Not worth the trade, if you ask me.

Temple of Lathander:

Bought some stone to flesh scrolls and restore my fallen.

Mutamin's garden:

Waited for the night. Sent Alora to scout in shadows. Killed 3 more lesser basilisks, restored one statue. Picked up Korax, sent him with Alora. I decided to not even approach basilisks personally, sent the rest of the team following. Korax dispatched the rest of the basilisks (1 greater, 2 lesser) on his own, then turned on me and died.

While scouting, Alora also found a group of people that clearly weren't friendly. So I set up some traps and buffed before talking. They didn't pose much of a problem. Bracers of AC6 look nice on me.

 

Bandit camp:

Waited for the night, sent Alora scouting. She failed the check at the most unfortunate moment. I let her gulp a potion of invisibility, but it was too late. The alarm was off and they found me. The fight was tough, with lots of micromanaging, but in the end I won without losing anyone. Long bow of markmanship +2 is a welcome addition for Kivan.

 

Cloakwood nest:

Fireballed my way through spiders' nest, losing Viconia. Back to Friendly arm for resurrection.

 

Cloakwood mines:

Got ambushed in travel, killed 2 wyverns and 3 spiders without much hassle.

Drasus party was a cake. For some reason Rezdan went invisible and I could not detect him even with detect illusion (100). But in the end he tried to attack and died quickly.

Mines level 1:

Nothing worth noting.

Mines level 2:

Swapped Alora for Yeslick. It was a tough decision to make, since I really like Alora, but Kivan outperforms her in combat and I need a better tank than Viconia.

Healed. A surge! Now I'm glowing gold. Rested, casted armor. Poof - sex change! Ohh, my. I guess I'll have to go find that belt of gender change. I think I sold it in Nashkel.

Mines level 3:

Natasha somehow managed to cast 2 sunfires, although I was hitting her all the time. "Apply concentration check on damage" is disabled in Tobex config. Not sure why is that happening. Kivan went down, I decided to continue without him.

Got boots of speed from Natasha.

After resting, the gender returned to normal. What a relief. I'm still glowing gold, and Imoen is still red-skinned, though.

Mines level 4:

I expected big trouble with Davaeorn, but it turned out to be not so much. In particular, his battle horrors didn't attack me. I buffed, sent ahead some skeletons and Yeslick. Davaeorn insta-casted web and stinking cloud on him, but he saved. Yeslick ran back and Davaeorn teleported to the entrance, also teleporting 3 guards (who were slowed by Grease). I took down his protections with Secret word and after his stoneskins finished, we basically shot him to death, followed by the guards. Battle horrors never approached my group, I found their helmets later.

Loot: Full plate +1, gauntlets of dexterity - great boost for Yeslick's AC. Some nifty mage scrolls, too. Gre

The problem is that Kivan is dead and Imoen couldn't pick up half of the chests. So, I'll have to make a resurrection trip before flooding the mines.

Friendly arm inn:

Resurrected Kivan. Yeslick was bugging me about the mines all the way.

Mines level 4:

Looted all chests, found some nice potions and one more ankheg armor. Not that I need it anymore.

 

Firewine bridge:

Now, I decided to try the odds with Kahrk the ogre magi. He kept using crowd control spells, but thanks to my high level, pre-buff and micromanagement, it wasn't too effective. He still made lots of damage to Yeslick, but was outnumbered. No fancy loot, though.

After Kahrk is dead, it's time to do the rest of the ruins. Near the entrance I met a lady who turned out to be a succubus, and can only be hit with weapons +2 and better. Well, a fortunate wild surge and she is stone. Phew! Her domination ring fits Viconia nicely.

Lendarn spotted me in advance and attacked, but it seems he hadn't even stoneskins. Went down in an instance. So did the ogre magi. Got the tome of clear though from him.

 

Durlag's tower:

Decided to visit Durlag's tower. Not engaging yet, just checking the shop. Bought some darts of stunning for Imoen.

Ulcaster school:

Remembering what trouble Ulcaster wolf caused me before, I prepared for a tough fight, but was able to kill him fairly quick. Wand of monster summoning is the reward.

 

Ulgoth's beard:

Took on Shandalar's quest. Maybe on the island I'll find the much wanted scrolls.

Ice island level 1:

Killed all. The only challenge was Tellan, he was high level, but I simply outlasted him.

Ice island level 2:

Dezkiel didn't stand a chance. Got a stoneskin scroll from him, yay!

Ulgoth's beard:

Of course, I couldn't allow Shandalar to walk over me like he does in his quest. I would confront him fair and square, but he's a cheater, with all the force scripted spells and out-of-blue resistances and saves like a greater wolfwere. So I trapped the area around him, buffed and started spamming wand of paralyzation. I had a fully charged one and when it finally worked, I had only 1 left! Half of the buffs expired. I gulped lots of potions and just whacked him to death. He never knew what happened.

On the top of his cheats, it turned out that he's flagged as an innocent, so I got -10 to reputation. Really? Innocent? Sending people to a certain death for the sake of an item? Oh, nevermind. Reputation of 10 suits a True Neutral better than 20. I've been good for too long.

The bright side is that I got a robe of neutral archmagi, which removes the need for the bracers and increases all saves. Also, a few scrolls (nothing I don't know already, though) and a level up.

I also pretended that he dropped a minor sequencer scroll and cheated in one for myself. He should drop level 7-9 scrolls, if anything. And I got really tire of being the only mage who doesn't know that spell.

 

 

Baldur's Gate:

Received a quest for the thieves guild. Went to Oberon's estate, stuffed some potions to Kivan and tried to pickpocket the daughters. No success. In the end the attacked him. He gulped an invisibility potion and waited for the rest of the group. First 2 daughters fallen easily, the last one managed to get a sunfire off, which was quite unpleasant in a small room. On the top of that, a wild surge happened and I actually held myself. I really prepared for the worst, but the rest of the team finished her off quickly. Nice Necklace of missiles.

 

Werewolf island:

The only challenge was Selaad Gan himself, upon returning. And that's because he could be hit only by weapons specifically designed against shapeshifters.

 

Candlekeep:

Upon entering the area, I was ambushed by a group of ogre magi! And one of them actually managed to hold me! Things got really serious, but fortunately Yeslick managed to dispel the stun. After that, they all died quickly.

Killed the leaders of the Iron throne. Got Tome of strength.

Passed through catacombs. Easy.

 

Durlag's Tower:

Now I've decided that I'm prepared for it. Also, it makes sense to lay low until all the commotion about the Iron throne calms.

I noticed that my finances are declining and decided to sell some stuff, resulting in 30000 for jewelry and about 115000 for magical items. Rich again!

Upper floors didn't pose much of a problem: the adventurer was no problem, the ghost run out of stoneskins and died quickly, Kirinhale charmed Imoen, but Yeslick with potion of invulnerability made all saves. Kivan shot basilisks to death singlehanded.

Level 1: the wardens were tough. Love is probably the strongest warrior in BG1, even stronger than Sarevok.

Levels 2-3-4. Nothing too complicated. Even the Deathknight himself went down easily. I didn't even use the mirror.

 

Ultgoth's beard:

Aeth'letec proved himself worthy. 1-2 times there was real danger. But in the end the whole party survived.

 

Baldur's Gate:

Killed the assasins. Yeslick simply outlasted the mage one.

Infiltrated Iron throne once again. Cythandria or whatever her name was didn't give up easily. Sunfires were rather unpleasant.

Saved the Dukes rather without much hassle. Rested at a tavern and dived into the labyrinth.

Dispatched a few slimes and skeletons. Yeslick needed healing, I performed it and gate in a Nabassu instead! Just what I need... Fortunately, I was able to simply run away from it.

[qwerty12345]

In BG2 I got much more lazy with the journal.

 

Off the top of my head, I remember that when I first time encountered Bodhi on the (street fighting), she was just standing still while shadow thieves were poking her with knives. Also, hobgoblin and goblin shamans seems to be keen on casting Detect Evil a few times per fight. And, lich in the docs (from Improved Battles) uses some cheesy scripts to fight. Looks like he hasn't even been touched by SCS.

 

I wasn't able to progress much into BG2 content. One could probably expect that such character (wild mage/cleric) would ultimately find his demise in a bad wild surge. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. I did drop a cow a few times, summoned demons, lost gold, changed sex, and held myself, but all that has nothing to do with what really happened.

This was my first getting out of town. I went to Firkraag dungeon. Cleared the first area without much trouble, only the rakshasa posed some threat. Next room: killed the archers, buffed, killed golems. Then, got spotted by the vampires. Falled back to the entrance, started buffing again, they followed. When there were 3 of them in the room, I used my Spell Sequencer (malison+glitterdust+emotion)… and one of the vampires dominated me (my save vs spell: 2) _after_ the sequencer was triggered, but _before_ it hit the floor. Result? EPIC FAIL! Half of the party went blind, the other half went to sleep. Only Jaheira kept the ability to fight. Of course, against 3 vampires it was nothing. I don't even know how I'd fight them fair. They drain 4 level per hit, that's 3 hits per party member. The battle was over in 10 seconds. I just stood there dominated looking at the party being butchered. No chance to even run away.

 

I understand that this sequencer thing has nothing to do with SCS, it's arguably not even a bug. Still, I think those vampires could use some nerfing.

[qwerty12345]

weidu.log http://pastebin.com/69QgNxRY

[Ineth]

Also, hobgoblin and goblin shamans seems to be keen on casting Detect Evil a few times per fight.

 

Ha, yes, that happened to me as well, I even took a screenshot:

 

 

 

Another funny thing was when the "Shadow Thief Battlemage" on level 2 of Irenicus Dungeon cast charm on herself, and consequently got a green circle until the spell ran out:

 

 

 

One thing where I don't know if it was a bug or a deliberate "tactical improvement", was that Adamantite Golems could throw their poison clouds at my party as a ranged effect (rather than being centered on them), and similarly the Shadow Dragon could use level-drain at range rather than just against his melee targets:

 

 

^ yep, he insta-killed a perfectly healthy Jaheira across the room, using his level-drain.

 

 

One last issue, although I don't know whether it has anything to do with SCS: Very rarely (like, 3 times or so in all of SoA), an enemy would fail to drop dead after having lost all their hitpoints. Any further damage done to them in this state had no effect; the only solution was Ctrl+Y.

 

[Silverstar]

I don't think Shadow dragon's ranged level drain is a bug, it is his breath weapon attack that does the level drain, as is clearly seen from Jaheira's save vs breath weapon lines. So it is a ranged attack allright, it always has been in the vanilla game. There is no animation for this breath weapon, only for the fraction of a second there is a ghastly floruscent green breathing effect from the Shadow dragon, and it just drains too many levels, it is just that powerful. (it also blinds) However IIRC shadow dragon level drains are temporary and go away after a turn. (Unlike any other level drain)

 

Were you using a poisoned weapon or ability when giving the killing blow to those 'dead but still going' enemies? IIRC there was a bug with Tobex that caused enemies not to die properly if you give the finishing blow with a hit that would cause ongoing poison damage.

[InKal]

Also, hobgoblin and goblin shamans seems to be keen on casting Detect Evil a few times per fight.

 

Ha, yes, that happened to me as well, I even took a screenshot:

 

 

 

 

I use BG2EE from steam and I have the same bug.

 

Moreover, lich in the temple ruins is spamming dragon fear (it seems to be he's innate ability rather than spell) every turn. He's AI scripts are like... totally broken, dude, he's not casting spells just hanging around like an idiot doing that skreek skreek lich sound. WTF?? not even one timestop?? come on

funny thing, he's opening sequencer is actually working.

seriously, that dragon fear spamming is really ....strange.

[ithildurnew]

Wow, the lich script issue, if it is indeed SCS that's the culprit, that's pretty substantial as I'd imagine that might impact other liches?

 

I can confirm seeing the hobgoblin captains (and the rare kobold captains as well) cast detect evil in my install as well (BG2/ToB not EE).

 

AlsoI observed that Ilych:

 

- still occasionally has problems deciding whether to attack or not (was rather amusing as he berzerked but stayed pacifist even with Minsc pummeling his face)

- almost always strays into the library area early by himself when the party begins battle there (then wanders back to his station after a round or two) which I believe isn't intended behavior?

 

Based on a couple old threads I found ( http://forums.gibber...ych#entry174413 and http://forums.gibber...ych#entry181444 ) the first issue is something that was known to be wonky starting with vanilla, but I figured SCS would've smoothly fixed something like this by now.

 

And the illusionary werewolves in Kalah's tent seem to do full dmg; I remember vanilla occasionally had issues with this and BG2Fixpack attempted to address it (not sure whether they fixed it or not, though reading this thread http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=22223 it's unclear whether this is a SCS issue or not)

[edit] SCS seems to be the culprit; replacing the scs assigned default script DW2MS1GE.bcs with vanilla wtasight.bcsfixed the issue; I left the override script Illusion.bcs untouched.

 

 

Early in the game atm, but it seems like there's quite a few bugs already that I haven't seen back in the days I was running later versions of SCS II. I'm tempted to shelf this install and go back to an earlier version.