11 replies to this topic

[Usurper]

Man, I spent all weekend installing / playing the Big World Project. Installation took about 4 hours, but the rest of the time I was merrily plugging away at gibberlings and skeletons with my party's ranged weapons. Because, at level 1, the most important skill every character has is the ability to use ranged weapons. Kivan, level 1 ranger, has about 48% of the kills and I didn't even pick him up right away.

And after all that, after at least 10 hours played in real life and 29 days played in-game, I just was barely able to level up to 2 before shutting it down for the night. I'm almost done with Beregost-related quests, but I can't seem to kill Bassilus. Did he always have two flamestrikes memorized that he unfailingly targets at your main character who happens to be a weak mage? I don't know. I unfortunately resisted only one of them, and sometimes none.

I'm actually scared to go to Nashkel.

I tried picking up some Ankhegs for the platemail, but they spawn 3 or 4 at a time now and never give up.

One of the more shameful things I've been doing is using characters as cannon fodder. I don't have or don't want to spend the gold to resurrect some characters, so I've been leaving their corpses on the steps of temples. I've killed Montaron, Scarlet Will O'Hara, Xzar, Ajantis, and Gavin this way. Sorry to whoever made those mods. I'm sure I killed off tons of hours of work. Though, to be honest, Gavin did have a lot of cool banters before... the incident.

Finally achieving level 2 seemed like an epic feat of stunning proportions. This is awesome! I can't imagine how much fun I'm going to have all the way to level 50.

My party is currently myself as a Spellshaper, Imoen, Kivan, Viconia (who just replaced Tiax), Jaheira and Khalid. Actually I'm stuck with the more vanilla party here because I've managed to kill off all the extra new characters so far. But aren't there supposed to be some good ones down in the Nashkel fair? I'll probably re-do my party then. Khalid is my front line fighter. I put some platemail on him and told him to forget casting spells for now, since someone turned him into a fighter-mage. Isn't there supposed to be a dwarf in Beregost somewhere? I'll have to poke around and find him again. I don't actually like Khalid and Jaheira but I don't have much alternative.

I really like the additions of the quests to Beregost also, it makes the town feel much more alive and takes up a lot more time.

Any body else playing? How are you making out?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Isn't there supposed to be a dwarf in Beregost somewhere? I'll have to poke around and find him again. I don't actually like Khalid and Jaheira but I don't have much alternative.

The dwarf you are talking about is Kagain, he is at house above the Feldpost?s Inn. Here. Minsc is in Naskel...

Now, you get much less experience points cause of the BWP makes you take the choices it makes, but that might be a good thing.

[dreamer2007]

True it's hard... but it's great that it's that way! Finally you feel good when you defeat a tough opponent and get a nice item, although maybe you can't defeat him the first time you meet him and leave him for later when you are more powerful, but that is part of the fun And I also love the fact that there are some battles that make you think they are impossible to win, but when you try different strategies and you find the right one the battle seems easy. I love this strategy aspect that is so enhanced now. And the fact that you advance slower and you have so much content to explore makes you value every skill of you party member- now a level 1 spell really makes a difference, unlike the past when it was useless because you advanced to quickly.

[Usurper]

yah, Jaheira's Entangle is incredibly useful at level 1. I just switched Jaheira/Khalid out for Kagain/Tiax and I realized I have no way to control large crowds of monsters anymore. Well, except for my very own Grease, but I'm a wild mage and my spells never work right anyways . I've so far managed to hit my entire party with Slow, create pretty sparkles, and summon a Gnoll. But no grease yet. Maybe I should stop using that Reckless Dweomer?

[LadyRolePlay]

yah, Jaheira's Entangle is incredibly useful at level 1. I just switched Jaheira/Khalid out for Kagain/Tiax and I realized I have no way to control large crowds of monsters anymore. Well, except for my very own Grease, but I'm a wild mage and my spells never work right anyways . I've so far managed to hit my entire party with Slow, create pretty sparkles, and summon a Gnoll. But no grease yet. Maybe I should stop using that Reckless Dweomer?

By the time I got to end of BG! and killing Saervok, I was lvl nine using the mega install. Thank goodness it does slow your rate of leveling down, as all the added content will give you a lot more xp, and w/o the feature, you'd get really way to poweful for the game.

IF you have played through it before, visit the areas and take the quests that don't require a tons of encounters and can be done with little or no fighting. You can also wander the outer areas around Nashkell, and pick up the random quest, kill the stuff wandering around there as well. But overall you are going to find all encounters have been stepped up quiet a bit from the origonal, so best advice is save often, and pre plan. Surprised Will died on you, there are some good, or higher lvl npc's at Nashkill from the Dark Side of the Sword coast mod in Nashkill, which if your party is weak, could be a big help, simply because of their higher level. Never used them, but did have them join in just to take a look at them, won't talk with your party or anything. And yes, leaving ppl like Gavin, and Ajantis, and many of the vanilla game npc's dead cut out a lot of what BG 1 NPC mod had to offer heeh.

[Azazello]

...I'm a wild mage and my spells never work right anyways . I've so far managed to hit my entire party with Slow, create pretty sparkles, and summon a Gnoll. But no grease yet. Maybe I should stop using that Reckless Dweomer?

'Reckless Dweomer' is the spell-of-last-resort, used when all else seems hopeless. At the low levels of BG1, it almost never does what you want it to. Unless you just want to be chaotic--or wicked! Like my Wild Jester.

[Marvin]

I'm sorry to say so, but I don't think you'll actually reach level 50, because BiG World reduces the XP drastically by default options.
That's why you needed so long to level up. Now this has a positive and a negative side, depending on what your aim in the game is.
If you want to reach level 50, it's negative, because BiG has been designed to not make you too powerful even though there are many many mods.
It's positive if you just want a balanced game, probably a littel more challenging than the original one.

But you obviously have to decide for yourself if the game is too hard and if you agree with the reduction of XP suggested by the default option.
If you're not finde with ist, just decrease the XP reduction in your next installation and you'll level up faster and higher by the end of the game.

Marvin

[Usurper]

well getting to level 50 is not really my goal, I just assumed that i would because of the size of the big world installation. But hey, if I don't, that just makes everything more challenging.

A few levels and magic weapon really make a difference in this game. I found a bard last night, level 4, with a magical crossbow. And she is gunning down things left and right. I think I'll buy her that quiver of unlimited bolts and let her go to town on everything. She is better than Kivan!

I picked up Quayle at the Nashkel fair, and for some reason he can cast no level 1 mage spells. he is a cleric/illusionist, and he can cast priest spells, and he's got an INT of 16. But ther are no mage spells lots available for him.

And yes, I'm chaotic evil. I used to be neutral evil, but then I became a Spellshaper and changed to chaotic. Tiax approves of me, but Jaheira, Khalid, Imoen, Minsc, and Gavin are always complaining.

[Leomar]

I picked up Quayle at the Nashkel fair, and for some reason he can cast no level 1 mage spells. he is a cleric/illusionist, and he can cast priest spells, and he's got an INT of 16. But ther are no mage spells lots available for him.

Did you have spells on the right side of the spellbook and none spell slots on the left side? Or are both pages blank?

Greetings Leomar

Edited by Leomar, 20 November 2008 - 01:13 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Did you have spells on the right side of the spellbook and none spell slots on the left side? Or are both pages blank?

...Or were they darkened like non-caster classes?

[Usurper]

I had spells on the right side of the spellbook, but no slots to put them in on the left side. They were light, not darkened.

[Leomar]

Is this problem gone?

If not, can I see your WeiDU.log please?

Greetings Leomar