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Request for feedback


DavidW

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I'm very interested in any and all feedback, especially on content (though obviously report bugs too!) I'm particularly interested in how people find the AI: a trivial enhancement? Unnoticeable? Cheesy? Ridiculously difficult?

 

If anyone's played through a significant part of the mod, let me know how you've found it.

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I think the AI is sensible and enhances the enjoyment of the game.

 

Before SCS: lots of gibberlings by the ruins in Larswood. If you've played through before, you know they're there, so you approach gradually, picking them off one at a time as they are revealed by the fog of war. Now, they all rush you at once. It makes a big difference! And the Drizzt's gnolls are also challenging.

 

But my favorite feature is how npc spellcasters are now a lot tougher.

 

The biggest challenge of this or any other RPG, CRPG or PnP, is that the players gain experience, too. So, even when they're running a low-level party, they blow through anything the game can throw at them. Adding tactical enhancements for the game is great.

 

The enhancements are well balanced. You don't get 500 gibberlings instead of 15. The spellcasters don't use spells inaccessible to the party. If you could beat it before, you can beat it now, but you're going to have to work harder and think more to make it happen.

 

About the only complaint I have is that the bears are still a tad too slow. IRL, bears lumber along most of the time, but they are capable of tremdous and surprising speed when provoked.

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I'm very interested in any and all feedback, especially on content (though obviously report bugs too!) I'm particularly interested in how people find the AI: a trivial enhancement? Unnoticeable? Cheesy? Ridiculously difficult?

 

If anyone's played through a significant part of the mod, let me know how you've found it.

 

I really liked a lot of the components.

 

Skip Candlekeep: Yes plz. I really like Dungeon-be-Gone, and the guard sounds like he'd add a bit of nice comedy to it.

 

NPC Management: Again, yes plz. It's nice to be able to tweak little things like that to how you picture them to be.

 

I'd pick it up, but alas, I am BGT-ified. :(

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I really liked a lot of the components.

 

Skip Candlekeep: Yes plz. I really like Dungeon-be-Gone, and the guard sounds like he'd add a bit of nice comedy to it.

 

NPC Management: Again, yes plz. It's nice to be able to tweak little things like that to how you picture them to be.

 

I'd pick it up, but alas, I am BGT-ified. :(

 

I am working on a conversion for BGT, if all works out with my Real Life I should have it done by mid september.

 

ronin

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It's early yet, but I'm loving how difficult it just was for me to defeat Zordal at the Nashkel Fair with

 

wild mage (WM3)

Imoen (T4)

Xzar (N3)

Monty F2/T3)

Finch (C2)

 

Damn, Zordal is tough! It actually took a wild surge to win, heh! I reloaded easily two dozen times. It was fun. :(

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It's early yet, but I'm loving how difficult it just was for me to defeat Zordal at the Nashkel Fair

 

Entirely by accident, Zordral wound up being one of the hardest fights in the game. Sleep is absolutely lethal against low-level parties and there's very little space to scatter.

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I just fought Sendai and her two goons and that battle was noticeably tougher. I'm playing an offbeat party, but I think even had I had a more standard party I'm sure I would have felt the difference. I dropped Monty, added Minsc, and added Tiax to fill the sixth slot. Tiax's ability to summon a ghast made all the difference in this fight.

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I am working on a conversion for BGT, if all works out with my Real Life I should have it done by mid september.

 

ronin

 

Great new Ronin and thanks for the conversion, look forward to see it playable with BGT. Please do u think it could be compatible with BP as well?

 

I can post a thread eventually if u want in SHS forum :p

 

Many thanks,

 

mm75

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I am working on a conversion for BGT, if all works out with my Real Life I should have it done by mid september.

 

ronin

 

Great new Ronin and thanks for the conversion, look forward to see it playable with BGT. Please do u think it could be compatible with BP as well?

 

I can post a thread eventually if u want in SHS forum :p

 

Many thanks,

 

mm75

 

I am testing it right now for a possible beta release. Works fine with BGT alone and I am now testing it with the mega install and it appears to also be working fine. When its ready for a beta release it will be in the BGT forums so as not to confuse anyone about which version is which.

 

ronin

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But my favorite feature is how npc spellcasters are now a lot tougher.

 

I'll say. I've been battling the four Zhentarim wizards on the second floor of Sorcerous Sundries for the better part of an hour. I've lost count of the reloads. I'm using an offbeat party that has only one tank (wild mage, Minsc as Berserker, Imoen undualed, Xzar, Tiax, and Finch) and I assume the entire game has been substantially more difficult than it would be with a more conventional party. But still.

 

Every battle I have fought throughout the game has been appreciably more difficult. Some tremendously so. At least with the above party, for any key battle the chance of victory is much less than 50%. Which I'm lovin', because it's exactly that sort of strategic challenge that I seek. I appreciate working hard to get the win.

 

The most noticeable changes that I can detect--enemies calling for help, targeting party members more intelligently, using potions and scrolls, and enemy mages using smarter spell selections--are all outstanding improvements.

 

I feel like I cannot praise SCS highly enough. It revitalizes the gameplay experience at about the same magnitude as the Banter Pack. It's a pretty giant leap from enemies stupidly never using the same resources that are at the party's disposal (potions, wands, and a wide variety of spells) at all, to their using it--and using it smartly!

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I second Lemernis -- absolutely an instant "canon" install mod. Logical encounters; gone are the days of "ahh, it's just a magic user - interupt him, and then push him over and stomp 'til he's wine". most of all, it is done without accessing anything a PC doesn't have (and still even less, as no BG2 spells are used). Nothing so far has been impossible to win (although I haven't gotten to the final 2 battles), and no-one gets an Uber-Weapon that instantly transforms the PC into an unstoppable killing machine once the "monster' has been looted.

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Another thing I'm liking is that the mages on Ice Island, for example, use globes of invulnerability and protection for normal missiles and weapons.

 

Near as I can tell, the AI for SCS is far superior to vanilla BG2. Mages in BG2 are nowhere near this cunning. In BG2 you simply cast Breach and a number of other protection removing spells on them, and poof it's over. But BG2's wizards with all the spells at their disposal and behaving like this? :blush: I would love to see SCS's AI applied to BG2/ToB.

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