Would you ever consider a 'lite' version?

[woodbine]

I've played both tutu and BG2 with SCS installed, and am somewhat torn. I love the mod's ideas and execution but can't help but feel it's a bit much. Obviously it's a tactical mod so increased difficulty is basically the whole point, but I think that the pursuit of fiendishly clever AI drastically changes the tone of the game, forcing a lot more micromanagement, powergaming, extensive prebuffing, poring over the combat log to find out exactly what protecitons are up... which some players will find less enjoyable.

 

So I'm probably not the sort of player this mod is targeted at, fair. The reason I installed it though was the promise of less outright stupidity from the AI, and more variety in spell choices and usage. I love the combos like GOI + web, or anything involving teleport field, but the most common one I encountered was invis + SI:div, which is entertaining until you realise that every other mage will be using it. I get that it's a fairly optimal way for mages to play within the rules, I just don't enjoy dealing with it so often. Could we get an option to keep the variety at the expense of optimal tactics? I'd love to come up against spells like cone of cold, polymorph other, flesh to stone, bigby's clenched fist, earthquake etc.

 

Ditto for prebuffing - when I played I used the least amount of prebuffs possible but mages still seemed to regularly have a lot of protections up (though it was an old version and may have been borked by a reinstall, I'll check with a newer version). I'd never object to the idea of auto-cast spells, just the tedium when there are so many of them, but the mod doesn't seem to account for that middle ground?

 

Essentially, is there a chance of getting some install options that keep the fun stuff without any great increase in tactical challenge, for casuals like myself?

 

Thanks!

[InKal]

Yes

 

 

Install smarter general AI?

- yes

 

Add HLAs to SoA mages:

- no

 

Install smarter mages?

- no

or

- mages never prebuff

 

Install smarter priests?

- no

or

- priests never prebuff

 

and voila! you have SCS2 light. :]

[Ardanis]

I used to ask for a lite prebuff option couple of years ago, but in general the response was "no".

 

That said, AI scripts are heavily compressed, so if you know what you're doing it doesn't take long to modify several bits. But, as always, that is completely user's own responsibility.

[Western Paladin]

This isn't the first time I've seen this question. Seems like maybe there's space in the market for a "lite" tactical mod (maybe a different one from SCS2).

[woodbine]

Ok, I might look into adjusting the prebuffing routines. Unfortunately that's not the real problem; evne without the prebuffs the mages are still going to play the same strategies which are tailored toward being optimal rather than varied. Would I be able to disable the use of spell immunities without too many headaches? That alone would go a long way toward making things more playable.

[DavidW]

I'm not keen to make a "lite" version because it means writing creatures that are unrealistically unintelligent. You might find that a better option is to lower the level of enemy spellcasters, which you can do automatically using SCSII's scsii.ini file (see the readme for more details).

 

I do agree that variety is important. (Indeed, it's important even if the goal is being optimal, because it keeps surprises going). I use a fairly large range of variations for prebuffing and sequencers (several tens of thousands of permutations) but I agree that SI:Div+II gets a lot of love... maybe 40%-50% of high-level wizards will try it.

 

I've said before that if someone wants to do the work of working out, in detail, what a "lite" prebuff would look like, I'd consider implementing it.

[amanasleep]

I'm not keen to make a "lite" version because it means writing creatures that are unrealistically unintelligent. You might find that a better option is to lower the level of enemy spellcasters, which you can do automatically using SCSII's scsii.ini file (see the readme for more details).

 

I do agree that variety is important. (Indeed, it's important even if the goal is being optimal, because it keeps surprises going). I use a fairly large range of variations for prebuffing and sequencers (several tens of thousands of permutations) but I agree that SI:Div+II gets a lot of love... maybe 40%-50% of high-level wizards will try it.

 

I've said before that if someone wants to do the work of working out, in detail, what a "lite" prebuff would look like, I'd consider implementing it.

 

Minor Spell Deflection and/or Minor Spell Turning in place of SI:Div. All other prebuffs the same. Still requires multiple spell actions to remove or burn through, but not as airtight a defense.