8 replies to this topic

[Master Po]

The author certainly put a lot of time and effort into this mod and I bow down to his work and his creativity.  That said, there are many things in this mod which frankly did not make any sense at all and some things that honesty were irritating as H***.  If you haven't played this mod yet, don't even think about playing it without reading the entire walkthrough first.

The Drow area in the graveyard had to be the coolest part of the mod, with the exception of the million-plus spawning Mind-Flayers in the Lolth area.  IMO, that was just plain stupid.  Besides the idiocy of an unending tide of Mind Flayers assaulting your party, aren't the Drow and Lolth enemies of the Mind Flayers?  Would it not have made more sense for Lolth to summon Driders, Handmaidens of Lolth, demons, or just plain Drow instead of Mind Flayers?

The main section of the mod where Selence recruits the players is silly.  Why would a town's Mayor, in need of skilled fighters to kill rebels, ask a thief to recruit a party based on its thieving skills? I suppose the Mayor wanted a skilled group of thieves to come to his town and loot all of its citizens? Anyway, after you steal the stuff for Selence, I offered all ten items to her, but the game wouldn't allow me to select the items to transfer them to Selence.  Big bug here.  I simply slaughtered Selence and took her key which you need to advance in the mod (see walkthrough).  When you finallly get to the town of Soubar, and accept the Mayor's proposal to join his town's militia, they strip you of all of your equipment.  Are these townfolk idiots, inbred bumpkins,  or just ungrateful as H***?  Why would these townfolk who have requested the aid of powerful people (your party), ask these same people to aid them in defending their townspeople without the use of their best gear?  The whole deal of removing all of your character's gear and placing it in the footlocker, or placing it where you choose to stash it, was a big waste of the player's time.  How fun that was.    What was even more ridiculous, after you give the Major the footlocker(which in my case was empty!), was the way your mages, clerics, etc., where then auto-equipped with long swords.  I simply took the advice of the walkthrough and stashed all my party's stuff on the table in the house next to the barracks.  After I gave the Major the empty footlocker, then saved the game and reloaded, a glitch allowed my party to equip its regular weapons.  You can also re-equip the rest of the stuff you stashed on the table with the exception of your armor and helms, which you can't use again until you become officers.  Of course modern day armies require certain weapons to be used by their recruits, but in the medieval era, knights and soldiers used whatever weapons they happened to have, some passed down from their ancestors.  This "equipment stripping" part of the mod was not only unneccessary, it was a pain in the rear end for this player.  Why couldn't the author just make the bandits more powerful so they would be more of a challenge to the player instead of stripping the player's equipment?????  The part where your party trains the brawlers to fight is just a bore.  The search for the spy, while a good idea for a mod turned out to be really stupid, IMO.  Asking one question too many about a single suspect makes the quest unsolveable and the mod unfinishable.  That's just stupid, IMO.  Aren't investigators supposed to ask lots of questions?  Don't investigators ask several people about the same individual to get an idea who is telling the truth?  Oh well, my SOS quests ended after I solved the spy quest, as the Major would not talk with me again (as the game said he would) to give me my next orders.  Another bug here?  

BTW, I returned to the poisoned river with Charlotte and the game said her Ranger status was restored.  Checked her stats and she was still "Fallen".  Charlotte was a pretty cool NPC, except as a Ranger she was just a wimp and her unkillable animal was just silly.  If you can't harm the darn creature, why does she get so pissed if you scratch it?

My rating for this mod (from 1 to 10) is a 5.  It could have easily been much better by getting rid of the worthless Selence, the equipment stripping garbage, the training fiasco and by bumping up Charlotte's stats a bit and getting rid of her unkillable animal.  I know everyone appreciates different things in a mod, and these are only my opinions.

[Shed]

Thank you for your review . Unfortunately CBisson hasn't been online in a while, otherwise he might be able to address your concerns.

[TheWizard]

My two cents...

The training in the Soubar Militia was quite realistic. Rather than letting you gain free reign of the militia the second you step foot in the town, they make you earn your rank.

If you realized how much thought and effort went into making the Spy Quest, then you would surely have more respect for it. Rather than allowing one candidate to be the spy each and every run through the game, all seven (I believe it was seven) candidates have the chance of being the spy. The outcome of that quest is ever-changing, and it all hinges on your dialog choices. It's like the game of Clue...Colonel Mustard with the revolver in the study isn't always the answer.

I actually liked Charlotte and her animals. Remember, she is a ranger, so she has the ability to charm animals. If you think about it logically, the bear and lion that follow her are not the same each and every time. The bear and lion can die, and when they do die, a new bear and lion are spawned in their place. Think of it as Charlotte charming two new animals when her two old ones die. I think the fact that the choice of charmed animals is always a bear and a lion is a limitation of the engine, or coding. Don't blame the author if he was unable to have the charmed animals be a random selection; it may not have been possible from the start. I honestly don't know why you are complaining about the animals anyway...they are on your side! At the very least, they provide good fodder for the enemies.

It's true, if you like powergaming, then SOS is not for you. However, if you enjoy getting back to the roots of roleplaying, SOS is the way to go.

[ronin]

I have to agree with TheWizard. SOS was a welcomed change of pace from the rest of the game. I enjoyed it from a role playing point of view. The mod is huge and the author put alot of thought and effort into it and some bugs are to be expected. Remember the mod is free and the author sacrificed his own time and energy to do this for us. I just have to say: "thanks for all the hard work CBisson"

R

[Sir BillyBob]

Seeing as how this is basically a retired, unupdated mod, you are beating a dead horse. CBisson doesn't support this mod anymore and none of us have time to go back and clean it up.

If you want to fix the problems and publish a patch, go for it.

[zachD]

You cant compare a mod to the official game.

PS see SBB's post above.

And believe me I know what SoS is like.