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Vecna

Started by jube, Jan 05 2010 12:59 AM

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#241 -Illustair-

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Posted 18 August 2011 - 11:50 PM

Please tell me I have this Vecna mod installed in my game. I already got myself as far as chapter 5 and only did I actually take notice. I didn't see any cowled wizard in the Council of Six building that jumpstarts this quest, neither did I get a ring in the twisted rune, only the same usual stuff like the staff. Here's my weidu log.
Spoiler

Damn it. If it isn't installed, I might consider reinstalling the whole damn thing and start all over again.

#242 -Illustair-

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 12:09 AM

I can't remember whether I ran setup-vecna.exe after the extraction. I have v15 at the moment,if it is proven that I don't have Vecna installed, I will more than willingly and definitely start all over again. This is by far the most intriguing mod I've ever seen or read based on the descriptions, plus out of all the D&D characters, I find Vecna the most interesting. But if that's the case, then can I just use the latest version (v23, is it?), install that on top of the other weidu mods as shown in my previous post?

#243 Morianthi

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 12:31 AM

Holy shit! Combine that pirate mod (http://weiducommando...s-of-the-realms) and this vecna mod, you'll get a totally new game. This is Illustair by the way, sorry for triple posting. I get lazy sometimes on signing in.hehe

I'm not sure on what you intend to do with the spelljammer something, another mod? or just an addition to this Vecna mod? Maybe I should just wait up till it comes out then?

EDIT: How very stupid of me. I'm certain, I didn't install the Vecna mod before. Probably because I knew at the time more versions are being produced, and I was still in my BG1 game, so I didn't bother installing it just yet. Doh!

WEIDU LOG:
Spoiler

Now that I did. A question: would it matter if the BGT Worldmap and Generalized Biffing came before the 3 vecna components? Because if I remember correctly, any map modifications/add-ons should be placed BEFORE the BGT Worldmap.

I also remember seeing "could not find C:Program Files\...etc\tisunbat" during Vecna installation, does it have any major implications ingame?

Edited by Morianthi, 19 August 2011 - 08:39 AM.

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#244 jube

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Posted 31 August 2011 - 01:03 PM

Holy shit! Combine that pirate mod (http://weiducommando...s-of-the-realms) and this vecna mod, you'll get a totally new game. This is Illustair by the way, sorry for triple posting. I get lazy sometimes on signing in.hehe

I'm not sure on what you intend to do with the spelljammer something, another mod? or just an addition to this Vecna mod? Maybe I should just wait up till it comes out then?

EDIT: How very stupid of me. I'm certain, I didn't install the Vecna mod before. Probably because I knew at the time more versions are being produced, and I was still in my BG1 game, so I didn't bother installing it just yet. Doh!

WEIDU LOG:

Spoiler

Now that I did. A question: would it matter if the BGT Worldmap and Generalized Biffing came before the 3 vecna components? Because if I remember correctly, any map modifications/add-ons should be placed BEFORE the BGT Worldmap.

I also remember seeing "could not find C:Program Files\...etc\tisunbat" during Vecna installation, does it have any major implications ingame?




Hi mate, first dont wait for any further versions of Vecna, i would play the most recent version now, i am currently on contract and there will be no further vecna work till i get back. ( about 2 months this time round ).
Yes the SJ ships/ combat etc will be part of the Vecna mod, i have no idea if there will be tie-in to the french mod but doubt it, cos Vecna players are GOD-KILLERS and that sort of raw unbridled power i doubt will fit in any other setting, there is not much fun in the game if you can kill everything on screeen with just a whim, and outside the Vecna setting thats exacly what really powerfull and experienced players can do, so yes doubt the french guys will want 30+ lv destroyers stomping on their pretty dungeon :)

#245 Morianthi

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Posted 04 September 2011 - 06:46 AM

Thanks, jube. Good to know that you have plans of coming back, after your work. I haven't played your mod just yet; judging from the concept, my plan is to finish the ToB first before I import my character to continue with the Vecna story - I thought to myself that there is more sense of continuity in that. I'm waiting in anticipation for the mod. Hope you can create more high-level mods like this (after ToB setting).
Morianthi (FR: Baldur's Gate Series)
Illustair (Greyhawk: ToEE)
Ornasis (FR: NWN2)
Keldeus (FR: NWN1)
Avieorg (Alternate Reality: Lionheart)
Rhaldriv (Lore: AQ haha)

#246 jube

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Posted 07 September 2011 - 03:34 AM

back for a bit.
The next stage of Vecna is on its way, rendering areas etc, But have decided on no more part releases, the original reason for releasing the adventure in bits ( as i write it almost ) was to allow other modders into the adventure and to give a chance for player feedback to affect future revisions, on both counts it seems a tad barren :) so no point :) .
Thus the next release will be a while away but will have the hunt for the Rod of Seven Parts included.

Miloch am creating some new futuristic creature anims, A tank/cyborg type thing from Fallout2 , some robots and Flying Plasma Cannons etc from Starcraft, should i aim to make em fully IA compatible and publish them there or keep them within the vecna mod ? I doubt anyone else would ever use futuristic stuff in their mods? And if kept them within vecna would allow me more flexibility as regards anim slot types, and also is there a IA B6 in the pipeline, should i wait for that ?

#247 Miloch

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Posted 07 September 2011 - 10:24 AM

Miloch am creating some new futuristic creature anims, A tank/cyborg type thing from Fallout2 , some robots and Flying Plasma Cannons etc from Starcraft, should i aim to make em fully IA compatible and publish them there or keep them within the vecna mod ? I doubt anyone else would ever use futuristic stuff in their mods? And if kept them within vecna would allow me more flexibility as regards anim slot types, and also is there a IA B6 in the pipeline, should i wait for that ?

You'll have to use the IA scheme anyway to get all those animations in your game (since otherwise the game only has hard-coded slots) so you may as well publish them there. Eventually, we have to overhaul IA so it uses only ANSI prefixes, not all the weird characters that throw Russian and other OSes for a nutty. But that will be a while unfortunately, unless Erephine or someone else gets to it first - I'll be bogged down with thesis work for some time. When we do that, we'll have to also change the patch in all the mods that use IA (so far, that's only your mod, Aurora and Pack Mule I think... hopefully not too many others).

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#248 jube

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Posted 07 September 2011 - 03:18 PM

Miloch am creating some new futuristic creature anims, A tank/cyborg type thing from Fallout2 , some robots and Flying Plasma Cannons etc from Starcraft, should i aim to make em fully IA compatible and publish them there or keep them within the vecna mod ? I doubt anyone else would ever use futuristic stuff in their mods? And if kept them within vecna would allow me more flexibility as regards anim slot types, and also is there a IA B6 in the pipeline, should i wait for that ?

You'll have to use the IA scheme anyway to get all those animations in your game (since otherwise the game only has hard-coded slots) so you may as well publish them there. Eventually, we have to overhaul IA so it uses only ANSI prefixes, not all the weird characters that throw Russian and other OSes for a nutty. But that will be a while unfortunately, unless Erephine or someone else gets to it first - I'll be bogged down with thesis work for some time. When we do that, we'll have to also change the patch in all the mods that use IA (so far, that's only your mod, Aurora and Pack Mule I think... hopefully not too many others).

Cool then will publish em at the IA thread when finished, obviously was going to stick to IA convention and suppose since am doing the bam compiling i can chose a slot-type to fit rather than trying to make an existing bam fit a prescribed slot-type. I like BIG graphics ( never forget meeting a cyclops for first time the bam really blew me away ) so plan most as 4 parters. Vecna already contains a 9 part ( 9x255x255 ) anim of the pheonix which fills the WHOLE screen when it goes off, through a shed load of experimenting i found thats the biggest graphic you can get into a VVC and display completely on screen, resizing, cutting and scaling can all be done in GIMP as long as its a single bam sequence.
Hey good luck on your thesis, should we call you doctor soon :)

#249 -Jax-

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Posted 15 September 2011 - 08:48 AM

Hey there Jube,

I've play tested a whole bunch of this mod and I think it's a stellar idea! I have a bunch of feedback from crashes to play-ability, but I'm not sure if you want it all posted in this particular spot. Is this the best place for all of that, or would you prefer an e-mail back and forth?

-Jax

#250 jube

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Posted 15 September 2011 - 09:02 AM

Hey there Jube,

I've play tested a whole bunch of this mod and I think it's a stellar idea! I have a bunch of feedback from crashes to play-ability, but I'm not sure if you want it all posted in this particular spot. Is this the best place for all of that, or would you prefer an e-mail back and forth?

-Jax


Excellent mate, here would be fine, there is a separate thread i set up for bugs etc, but since your the only playtester at the moment, here seems more convenient. Yes any and all bugs, crashes etc, also a bit of detail on your installation, and which other mods your playing with. All the bugs will be simple ( they usually are ) but its your comments on difficulty, gameplay that are vital, as they will influence the vacna mod a LOT, remember that music/sound is not yet done, also part2 with all the sci-fi stuff is not started in v23

#251 -Jax-

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Posted 15 September 2011 - 12:27 PM

Allright then let's get to it!

First thing's first, you've created a really neat mod here! My hat's already off to ya for adding so much content. I had a bunch of other mods installed on my first run but because of the crashes I'm starting a fresh planar stride today. Just Vecna and Teleport are added, so any glitches will be easier to deal with (full bg2 install, patched, yada yada). I had plenty of ideas and questions about mod compatibility, (like how Valen's level drain would affect the run, or merging the Mortis undead transformations) but that's down the road.

-Party I'm running with for the fresh run: Main (Fighter/Mage Duel), Keldorn, Mazzy, Jan, Nalia, Anomen

Ok, a few observational notes from my first run-

-This would be really really hard with an evil party, as I had to rely pretty darn heavily on Keldorn's super dispels (mostly because of it's area of affect...) On that note, the mods I usually run nerf the Inquisitor's dispel, so if you want to keep things die-hard difficult you could consider doing something similar. (I find it still quite challenging with it at full strength, however.)

-As it currently plays, the sheer number of bad guys that are stacked (and that have true seeing) means that rogues, bards, and just about anything other than a pally, warrior, or mage with weapon protections will do down in a flash. Some modders don't mind this, (a la improved anvil) and others do. Just an observation.

-The Staff of the Ram+6, Full Plate +2, and Darksteel Shield all dropped a whole whole bunch off bad guys. While it did seem a little like Christmas come early, for the items to remain special and truly "unique" the bad guys (mostly the fodder mages and fighters I think) need to keep these items on death. (I'll make a note of the .CRE files on this next run)

-You've added some freaking amazing bad guys! That being said, I think some of the finesse and wonder of these beasties was lost due to a semi-common tendency of "mass groupings". Ex. I was really excited to see a Demon Hulk, but not so much when there were 8 of them in a "Demon Hulk Ball." On this fresh run-through I'm about to start I'll try and give a more play-by-play of the encounters to help hone-in on specifics of fight gameplay.

-Without Timestop (A lot...lot..lot of Timestop) I don't think I could have done my first run. Just a tactical note I made on the first run, but I relied on it pretty heavily. Also, I thought it would be a nice touch for some of the more powerful cadre of the plains to be immune to Time-Stop (I can't imagine some of the gods and demi-gods to be hampered too much by a wizard's little time bubble).

Now about the crashes, I made a note of the 2 places the game crashed in the Twisted Rune complex, but I'm sure you'll want to see the log files when I run this fresh run. I don't remember the specifics of documenting crashes in the BG2 directory, so if you could give me a refresher on that I'll be able to shoot you the logs for any crashes I run into.

Ok, with all that out of the way, I'm planning on heading down to the edited planar sphere map tonight (sorry, couldn't remember the plane off-hand <_< ), so I'll have some fight feedback sometime tomorrow! =)


Hope some of this will be helpful to ya!
-Jax

#252 jube

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Posted 16 September 2011 - 02:15 AM

Allright then let's get to it!

First thing's first, you've created a really neat mod here! My hat's already off to ya for adding so much content. I had a bunch of other mods installed on my first run but because of the crashes I'm starting a fresh planar stride today. Just Vecna and Teleport are added, so any glitches will be easier to deal with (full bg2 install, patched, yada yada). I had plenty of ideas and questions about mod compatibility, (like how Valen's level drain would affect the run, or merging the Mortis undead transformations) but that's down the road.

-Party I'm running with for the fresh run: Main (Fighter/Mage Duel), Keldorn, Mazzy, Jan, Nalia, Anomen

Ok, a few observational notes from my first run-

-This would be really really hard with an evil party, as I had to rely pretty darn heavily on Keldorn's super dispels (mostly because of it's area of affect...) On that note, the mods I usually run nerf the Inquisitor's dispel, so if you want to keep things die-hard difficult you could consider doing something similar. (I find it still quite challenging with it at full strength, however.)

-As it currently plays, the sheer number of bad guys that are stacked (and that have true seeing) means that rogues, bards, and just about anything other than a pally, warrior, or mage with weapon protections will do down in a flash. Some modders don't mind this, (a la improved anvil) and others do. Just an observation.

-The Staff of the Ram+6, Full Plate +2, and Darksteel Shield all dropped a whole whole bunch off bad guys. While it did seem a little like Christmas come early, for the items to remain special and truly "unique" the bad guys (mostly the fodder mages and fighters I think) need to keep these items on death. (I'll make a note of the .CRE files on this next run)

-You've added some freaking amazing bad guys! That being said, I think some of the finesse and wonder of these beasties was lost due to a semi-common tendency of "mass groupings". Ex. I was really excited to see a Demon Hulk, but not so much when there were 8 of them in a "Demon Hulk Ball." On this fresh run-through I'm about to start I'll try and give a more play-by-play of the encounters to help hone-in on specifics of fight gameplay.

-Without Timestop (A lot...lot..lot of Timestop) I don't think I could have done my first run. Just a tactical note I made on the first run, but I relied on it pretty heavily. Also, I thought it would be a nice touch for some of the more powerful cadre of the plains to be immune to Time-Stop (I can't imagine some of the gods and demi-gods to be hampered too much by a wizard's little time bubble).

Now about the crashes, I made a note of the 2 places the game crashed in the Twisted Rune complex, but I'm sure you'll want to see the log files when I run this fresh run. I don't remember the specifics of documenting crashes in the BG2 directory, so if you could give me a refresher on that I'll be able to shoot you the logs for any crashes I run into.

Ok, with all that out of the way, I'm planning on heading down to the edited planar sphere map tonight (sorry, couldn't remember the plane off-hand <_< ), so I'll have some fight feedback sometime tomorrow! =)


Hope some of this will be helpful to ya!
-Jax


excellent!!!! It plays just about as i had envisioned it.
The grouping of monsters is a damn good point, looking to sort that by more intelligent scripts that handle group attacks/defense better and a little better placement, will wait for your full comments before committing changes to specific areas.
If i remember correctly ctrl X ( or alt x ) will show you the area name while in game, as well as coordinates, all the areas have the AAR prefix ie AAR001, so thats an easy method of locating the point where bugs/crashes hit.
Did you get all the way to the end ? Ie the final battle with Loloth etc and get the hand/eye, did you do all of the TR complex? What did you think of the android1 encounter and the dialogue with Hastur ?
Also make sure you are playing V23, you will not need teleport for that since its been integrated since v20 odd.
When get back tonight will dig up all the data we will need for crash dumps etc,

Once again thanks mate, your comments have galvanized me to polish the hand/eye quest and really push forward on the Rod of seven parts quest.

#253 -Jax-

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Posted 16 September 2011 - 05:45 AM

Unfortunately the game crashes before I can ever meet Lolth to get the eye/hand. Similarly, I can get to the map with Android 1 and then it crashes immediately, so feedback for end-fights will hopefully be coming once we get those bugs sorted. =)

OK!! Feedback from AAR017:

-The Nambassu "Welcoming Committee" is perfect, just enough princes to keep you interested, not so many demons you feel claustrophobic. Just right for the introductory fight.

- The Marilith Prince (AACRE066) needs a bit of a weapron tweak, as it can't take down a summoned skeleton lord right now...doesn't make much sense as a normal Marilith can (and it makes the fight too easy)

-The group of Mariliths outside the sphere are almost too easy (due to mass dispell of their stoneskin and protections). Solutions I thought would bring the heat a bit more: Group the a.i. so if you pull one, you pull them ALL (though this zerging doesn't scream "inspired tactical solution," it sure would make it harder. OR if the Marilith Prince was a caster and you felt the NEED to get through the marilith horde to kill him quick. If the Prince is re-made to a caster you could thin out the reg. Marilith mob a bit, as killing 3 or 4 while taking down a special "Prince" casting character sounds pretty tough...

Feedback from AAR043 (inside sphere, Hand of Evil encounter)

-You might want to prevent exiting the area once the fight begins (just noticed that I could leave, which would enable cross area pulling which is cheesy. Anvil had lots of inhibitors like that which made sure you took the fight at face value, not sure if you want to, just posting the observation.

-The game really would benefit from a pause when the Hand of Evil is talking to you...it's hard to focus on text when the cambions are mincing your mages.

-Ok the two main fights here had a few loopholes, but taken face-on they were pretty darn tough. I've been trying to come up with ideas but I'm kinda stumped on solutions so I'll just comment on the dynamics:

1) Cambion Rush was hard as heck on my first try, but after a second go I found a pretty big tactical loophole: I could just throw my fighter/mage up front with Prot. from Magical Weps. and Immunity: Abjuration and just whittle the cambions down in the choke. I thought that perhaps fewer cambions and harder displacer beasts might make the fight a bit more dynamic, but that would depend on the displacers.

2) I was scared like heck when I saw those displacer beasts (AACRE079) because I didn't know what to expect, but since they have no magic resistance my first 2 horrid wiltings very quickly cleared the room of them. For such an engaging and new creature I was almost sad to see them go so easily, so maybe some tweaking or magic resist?

3) Ok, the night-hag fight went much like the Cambion fight, crazy hard at first, then swung to too easy upon further exploration. I found it pretty odd that they just stood there neutrally once the Hand of Evil left, but I also can't see anyone being able to clear the area with both the hags and cambions going at you in such a tight space, so I dunno :/ . Anyway, having the chance to summon a horde and spread my party out just about nullified the whole fight. I think Keldorn took 10 dmg total, but that was it for the party. I just kept summons up while the hags burned down their entire spell roster, then waltzed in for an easy kill. Their spell rosters were wicked hard when I tried the fight without summons however, and found the fight to be much more engaging and timing-sensitive (almost overwhelming with so many hags, especially the mass creeping doom, but do-able with 5 or 6 reloads and the right party/spells).


Ok I'm about out of time for now, but I've cleared 2 of the first areas of the Twisted Rune Complex as well, so I'll throw up the notes some time this evening. (I did make a note of the area one of the crashes occurs in though, AAR031, as soon as the load screen finishes I see my party and a room of skeletons and the game crashes. Might be an animation thing, I really don't know). I'll be keeping count of reloads for the tough fights as well so you can get a sense for the learning curve (or at least my learning curve, heh). Feel free to let me know if this is the type of thing you're looking for, if not I can try and focus the feedback differently =).

All the Best,

-Jax

#254 jube

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Posted 16 September 2011 - 01:05 PM

Unfortunately the game crashes before I can ever meet Lolth to get the eye/hand. Similarly, I can get to the map with Android 1 and then it crashes immediately, so feedback for end-fights will hopefully be coming once we get those bugs sorted. =)

OK!! Feedback from AAR017:

-The Nambassu "Welcoming Committee" is perfect, just enough princes to keep you interested, not so many demons you feel claustrophobic. Just right for the introductory fight.

- The Marilith Prince (AACRE066) needs a bit of a weapron tweak, as it can't take down a summoned skeleton lord right now...doesn't make much sense as a normal Marilith can (and it makes the fight too easy)

-The group of Mariliths outside the sphere are almost too easy (due to mass dispell of their stoneskin and protections). Solutions I thought would bring the heat a bit more: Group the a.i. so if you pull one, you pull them ALL (though this zerging doesn't scream "inspired tactical solution," it sure would make it harder. OR if the Marilith Prince was a caster and you felt the NEED to get through the marilith horde to kill him quick. If the Prince is re-made to a caster you could thin out the reg. Marilith mob a bit, as killing 3 or 4 while taking down a special "Prince" casting character sounds pretty tough...

Feedback from AAR043 (inside sphere, Hand of Evil encounter)

-You might want to prevent exiting the area once the fight begins (just noticed that I could leave, which would enable cross area pulling which is cheesy. Anvil had lots of inhibitors like that which made sure you took the fight at face value, not sure if you want to, just posting the observation.

-The game really would benefit from a pause when the Hand of Evil is talking to you...it's hard to focus on text when the cambions are mincing your mages.

-Ok the two main fights here had a few loopholes, but taken face-on they were pretty darn tough. I've been trying to come up with ideas but I'm kinda stumped on solutions so I'll just comment on the dynamics:

1) Cambion Rush was hard as heck on my first try, but after a second go I found a pretty big tactical loophole: I could just throw my fighter/mage up front with Prot. from Magical Weps. and Immunity: Abjuration and just whittle the cambions down in the choke. I thought that perhaps fewer cambions and harder displacer beasts might make the fight a bit more dynamic, but that would depend on the displacers.

2) I was scared like heck when I saw those displacer beasts (AACRE079) because I didn't know what to expect, but since they have no magic resistance my first 2 horrid wiltings very quickly cleared the room of them. For such an engaging and new creature I was almost sad to see them go so easily, so maybe some tweaking or magic resist?

3) Ok, the night-hag fight went much like the Cambion fight, crazy hard at first, then swung to too easy upon further exploration. I found it pretty odd that they just stood there neutrally once the Hand of Evil left, but I also can't see anyone being able to clear the area with both the hags and cambions going at you in such a tight space, so I dunno :/ . Anyway, having the chance to summon a horde and spread my party out just about nullified the whole fight. I think Keldorn took 10 dmg total, but that was it for the party. I just kept summons up while the hags burned down their entire spell roster, then waltzed in for an easy kill. Their spell rosters were wicked hard when I tried the fight without summons however, and found the fight to be much more engaging and timing-sensitive (almost overwhelming with so many hags, especially the mass creeping doom, but do-able with 5 or 6 reloads and the right party/spells).


Ok I'm about out of time for now, but I've cleared 2 of the first areas of the Twisted Rune Complex as well, so I'll throw up the notes some time this evening. (I did make a note of the area one of the crashes occurs in though, AAR031, as soon as the load screen finishes I see my party and a room of skeletons and the game crashes. Might be an animation thing, I really don't know). I'll be keeping count of reloads for the tough fights as well so you can get a sense for the learning curve (or at least my learning curve, heh). Feel free to let me know if this is the type of thing you're looking for, if not I can try and focus the feedback differently =).

All the Best,

-Jax



Doing AACRE066, thanks

Mariliths outside the sphere--- yes will give em a group shout, so no pulling one at a time. Will do that for some other encounters as well,

Hand of evil talking to you ????? Will check but on my game when the PC gets near enough a dialog initiates and thats an automatic pause, hmm maybe there is something going on with your installation, especially since i have never had a crash at AAR031, with my single character it plays fine.
Can you please post your Weidu.log and SETUP-VECNA.DEBUG and your saved game, and details of you OS ( windows type ) and computer, i will set up a duplicate installation on a spare similar pc and try to recreate the crash, diagnose and fix, if i cant then we have to go into your game crash dump and work from there.

AAR043

Yep left the cross area pulling in there deliberatly on this area, am lulling the player into false sense of security, later that tactic will backfire big-time :)

1,2) I think giving the displacers 50 magic res should do the trick what do you think ? I cant get away with making them a lot harder, they are originally 5hd monsters and making them super powerful is stretching the P+P core to far ( they are already way beefed up from their P+P base ), but yes agree a shame since their anims are so damn good !

3) Hmm damn ! they should have cleared the summons with death spells, i pulled the mu scrips from tactics2, will check their spell lists have enough Dspells and that the script is functioning proper.

YES this is perfect perfect !!!! :) do not change anything about your commenting style

you are in for a real ride ! by sounds of things you have only done 15% of the mod you wait till you get to loloths complex on the astral plane ! Do you want me to post a list of treasure and locations so you can try all the cool kit or is it better that i give no hints and you play through "blind" so to speak ?

#255 -Jax-

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Posted 16 September 2011 - 04:56 PM

Sure I can shoot ya the log, debug, and save. The logs and debug are pretty long though, so would you rather me just e-mail them to ya instead of gumming up the forum? I'm on the road right now so I'm playing when I get the chance from my business PC, so I guess the crashes could somehow come as a result of that. Running Windows 7 64-bit Sony "E Series" laptop, but it runs Starcraft 2 and WoW just fine (on the low graphics setting, heh) despite the shabby Intel Graphics Media Accelerator, so I'd be surprised if some part of the BG2 graphics were incompatible as I have done a successful and crash-free runthrough with lots of other mods installed.

As far as hints and tips go I'd rather get a feel for the mod with fresh eyes, but I certainly won't hesitate to ask for a helpful hint if I get lost, or am missing a key item somewhere ^_^

SO without further ado, I'll get started on some of my Twisted Rune report!

AAR011 - Arrellax Fight

-The only speedbump I had here was that I simply could not kill the lava golem. I cast just about every spell I could think of, hit him with every weapon type, and came up with bumpkin. Immune to crushing, slashing, piercing, missile, etc, and from the .cre I see he is lvl 1-9 spell immune, so I'm at a loss for him and just ctrl-y'd to get on with the fight. So I guess a hint here would be nice, that or he accidentally got an item he shouldn't have, I dunno... ANYWAY the rest of the fight is just fine, nothing too difficult about the dragon or golems after a reload or 2 to figure out best group positions etc. So A+ on this level from me (with exception of Mr. Lava)

AAR040 - Chromatic Dragon's Lair (Lots of Stuff for this One!)

- Now this map was an odd mix of very fun and very tedious for me. I loved the plated armor rush at the beginning, there were just enough to feel the heat, and not too many as to be unmanageable, so that was awesome! The part I didn't take a shining to came right after with all the adamantine golems (sapphire golem included, though I love the idea!). I'll preface this comment by saying adamantine golems were probably my least favorite baddie in all the BG2 experience, (so this is probably just a small minority opinion here) but I found the golem line up to the staircase more tiresome than engaging.

- As far as gameplay dynamics is concerned, the golem's difficulty was negated by being able to pull just 1 or 2, as well as their clumsiness around a map with so many small spaces they can't reach easily. I enjoyed seeing the magic golems, and was doubly surprised to find no regular item drops around or near them. I know seasoned players keep a few reg weapons in their bag for just such occasions, but I just made a note of it in case you wanted to include some somewhere. (since you can port in and out of the dungeon it really shouldn't be an issue either way)

- I loved the raised skeletons guarding the chest to the north! This was a very fun little skirmish. With no exploits I resorted to lots of kiting and using the space, but found it do-able (especially with the help of time-stop). An exploit I found was another choke point at the top of the stairs. Positioned correctly, my main could just stand there with immune magic wep. and whittle them down almost too easily, so heads up that there is a super-easy tactic if you want to weed out stuff like that. As a side note here, I thought it would be even cooler if those guards spawned as soon as you open the chest (like the lever in the main room). This would not only emphasize their role as guardians of said awesome treasure, but also force at least ONE char to be knee-deep in skeletons, and might completely negate the above easy tactic. (just an idea, but I'm sure you don't want to do the "push button spawn baddies" thing too often) =)

- Got a crash here (only once) while fighting the skellies mid-fight (sigh). It Read: ChvidImage.cpp line #1921 .bam corrupted (GetFrame() Failed). If this helps, there it is. If not, I don't know if I could repeat it as it only happened on one of the attempts. Just documenting what comes along...

- Chromatic Dragon and Friends: Ok, this was another odd mix of feelings here. I LOVED the Ancient Half-Dragons and Chimera, as characters they are wonderfully fun to fight and succeed in feeling like upper-tier planar badguys. EXCEPT: I found the frequency of their wing-buffet to be first very very frustrating and then just comical, and my entire party was flung in different directions across the room so often I couldn't help from laughing. Despite this, I was able to bring the half-dragons down successfully after a couple of reloads and a very precise positioning so they swatted my tank into an appropriate corner, but I found the fight dynamics to be a bit silly here. Now I did consider that you might have hidden some nifty item around somewhere that prevents the buffet effect (I've played mods which add such items, and if compatible they would make this particular fight much much easier) but if you didn't then my first impression is that the buffet effect needs to be reduced in its frequency, at least by half. I don't think any of the fight's fun would be lost if the buffet effect was reduced, as the half-dragons and chimera still kick toosh, but without playing it I just don't know for sure.

- The last note for this map is that I was surprised to see another dragon pop up right after Arrellax. As I don't know what's beyond the door in AAR031 I can't know for sure if there are any more dragons, but having 2 dragons on sequential maps seems like a bit of an overdose to me. Just my knee-jerk reaction, not a big deal either way. =)

Ok well I'm off to have a good time it being Friday night and all, but wanted to toss this to ya since I promised some more feedback today! I've cleared AAR012 as well and have notes, and will post those up tomorrow as well as the logs and debug if you would prefer that to e-mail.

Happy Friday!

-Jax

#256 jube

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 12:38 PM

Hi mate, just finished a long work stint so sorry for the delay.
All excellent stuff am implementing most of your suggestions, except 2 dragons sequentially is not too much, its just a start, at one point you will be fighting 3 dragons simultaneously :).
Am very keen to get you through AAR031 since you will find a master key there to unlock most of the treasure in the complex, not sure we are allowed to post email addresses here, its a bit of a no-no on other sites have been on, and cant PM you cos your a guest, so post your saved game here just before the crash and i will take it from there, if i cant re-create the crash then post the other stuff, that way at least the big experts on this site can lend a hand ( i hope ).
The other crash i had once as well, and could not re-create , i think it could be cos i am pushing the engine quite hard, since it feels very different from when an area is missing resources etc, anyway a reboot seemed to help loads.

#257 Jax

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 06:52 PM

Hey there, no prob man no pressure from my side, this is for fun afterall =)

Ok just a quick thing before the review of AAR012 and AAR042, I became a member so I could PM ya, and just realized now that I'm a member I can attach and upload files directly, so pretty much disregard that message. And without further Ado.....

AAR012 - Thieves Galore!

-This was the first map I REALLY felt the crunch, so two thumbs way up here as it's a doozie(6 reloads). My best run of this had me still losing 1 of my npc's, so I never was able to crack it to easy-mode; just the right number of thieves, fodder, mages, and priests. That said, you might want to just omit the beholder's here. Because of the way the fight dynamics unfolded I never went down the stairs until the very end of the fight, and that basically nullified the beholders as they can't go up the stairs. Without the beholder's (I just picked them off after the main fight was won) the fight balance was perfect, so my two cents would be to omit them from that map. Besides, there's a really sweet beholder welcome on AAR042 so it's not like they don't have their day in the sun!

-A comment on Volcano Blade: Very well placed! It's hard but possible to get to this stage with only the Ring of Virtue, and past this map I've really needed to have both my main and Keldorn free to roam during Time Stop, so perfect placement from where I'm sitting. Not overpowered by any degree for this kind of thing, so kudos!


AAR042- Beholders and Chests and Golems oh my!

-Beholder's Corner: This I enjoyed. With both the ring of valor and volcano longsword (these were pretty much crucial for me on this one) tactics have really started to open up. I enjoyed the Hive Father, having to strip his magic res. on time-stop and then have a bunch of wiltings/fogs going to down him at the exact right moment was a fun nut to crack. Just enough baddies,any more and it would be unbalanced, any less and it would be too easy, so perfect on that fight. 4 reloads to perfect, but very fun.

-Diamond Golem Row: Here again I found these type of enemies to be more of a drain on the clock than a tactical challange. I had to burn down all my time-stops and Mordakin swords JUST get 1 diamond golem down...so my party had to run away and rest on EVERY golem in that hallway. Unless there is a specific resistance that I didn't notice this might be enough to make an average player just ctrl-y. I got pretty bored clearing every single one, so as far as gameplay goes I'd say the hall needs some attention. Most golems in the original game had some sort of weakness you had to find, andit made them more interesting (adamantine golem aside in my opinon...) I don't know if adding something (a spell weakness or whatnot to the diamond and saphire golems) would be possible, but I know I would enjoy and appreciate the creatures more...

-The 4 Chest fights were fine, but any more difficulty from a chest that contains pretty standard loot (at this level) would be almost too much in my opinion. When I see a Cornugon "Prince" I think of him being special and an overlord, not someone who would be guarding a chest with the Rod of Absorption in it...

-I was suprised that Jan could unlock the door at the end of the hallway with a standard'open lock'. I was expecting the key I found in the bottom right chest to be the one I needed, or that I had to open all 4 chests (I vaguely seem to recall that was the dynamic in the original IWD map...)

-I get a full game crash whenever I try and rest on this map. Not sure if it's a glitch and it's trying to load some IWD baddie that's not available, but I've been able to rest (without a crash) on every map except this one so I don't know what's going on there.


Ok I think that's enough for now. I've also "cleared" AAR013 and gotten one of the keys to Loloth's Lab, but I have so much feedback on the fight it deserves a post of its own, so that will be coming in a day or two. I'm starting to get a general feeling about reload times for each map, and it's averaging 6+, so heads up there. Some ppl want a mod which takes a long long time to complete (if ever, and only for die-hards), others want more accessibility with the heavy reloads only coming on the big boss fights. It's starting to feel a bit like Improved Anvil, not in gameplay per-se, but rather just high on the re-loads. Some people love it, some don't, but that's the feeling I'm starting to get just so ya know.

All the Best,

- Jax

(Save-Game and logs attached, once I go through the door I get 1 second of the new map and then full crash)Attached File  WeiDU.log   869bytes   270 downloads ;Attached File  SETUP-VECNA.DEBUG   895.68K   486 downloads ; Attached File  000000000-Auto-Save.rar   395.12K   255 downloads

#258 jube

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Posted 21 September 2011 - 08:25 AM

Hi mate,yep definatly a crash in area 31, really wierd, does not crash in a Big World setup,but does crash in a vanilla setup, anyway after much work found it was due to AACRE038, could NOT fix the creature no matter what i did so had to replce it, the hotfix is pasted below, extract it into your overide directory. Should clear the crash in 2 areas where AAcre038 appears.

Doing the rest of the areas as per your observations, when sould i post the updated areas ? say when you have finished the TR complex?

Attached Files


#259 jube

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Posted 21 September 2011 - 11:26 AM

I noticed while play testing with your party that you are way underpowered comming into Vecna, big congrats for having done so well!!! I think thats at the heart of the number of reloads, within a BW setup you can get really uber kitted out before getting to Vecna, making the TR complex a lot easier ( less reloads ) and Loloths complex do-able. If you get pissed off with the difficulty, post a saved game and i will kit your party out with some choice items from a BW install and see how you do? But if you enjoy the slog, have a damn good search round the TR complex after getting the TR master key in AAR031, you will find a hint of the kit to come and some very usefull stuff, also check the bodies.

#260 Jax

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Posted 21 September 2011 - 11:59 AM

Ok great, copied that patch and will take a look. I cleared every section that I could barring the crash areas (astral planes included) so I have just oodles of feedback. Go ahead and shoot me those fixes if you have a bunch done and I'll be able to tell ya how they play with a fresh runthrough! I'm going to take 2 parties through this time just to give a bit more perspective on gameplay, one will be the one I've already been playing with, the other will be an evil party to see how it goes without keldorn's dispells. I suited my guys up last runthrough off an old group I had towards the end of SoA once, but realized that with the twisted rune changed I imagine there won't be a 'staff of magi' for the main char to use initially, so I kinda want to play through again anyway to adjust for that. I'll post feedback for Bytopia/ AAR012 (one of the bigger ones).

AAR013- Lord Marrel and The Greater Lich...

OK, I think this was a bit too much bad-guy here.

-Loved the ranged bad-guy dynamic with the fallen deva's, the ranged element has been somewhat missing from the previous fights. On my first 10+ reloads I burned through 4 time-stops and still didn't have even 1/6 of the bad guys down that simply HAD to be down before being able to clear the room, so I was really overwhelemed on this one.

I must have played this map 10+ times experimenting with all kinds of tactics, then played it another 7+ trying to determine what creatures could be taken out (ctrl +y) and still maintain the unique feel and balance of the fight. So I have a bunch of options I was able to find in terms of successful fight. You might like one more than the other, you might also have an idea with new or different enemies, or you might want to leave it as is, just throwing out what I found! =)

V1) -Lose All Mariliths (execption of Lord Marrle)
-Lose All Armors
(Not my favorite, but with the saphire up there is just
no way to crowd control all of these)

V2) -No Saphire Golem (this opens up a lot)
-No Normal Mariliths, just Lord Marrle and his Princes
-Keep 5 of the plates (the ones positioned in the middle of map)
(Much more fun than V1, more baddies, and still tough)

Pure fight dynamic note- the 2 or 3 of the armors along the left side can't move, they're stuck

From what I saw I think my dream fight here would look something like this: Saphire Golem and 3 armors up front (or exchange that with 5 armors and 2 steel golems), 2 fallen solars behind them (these would be linked). Lord Marrle and his 2 princes where they are now (linked to the lich),
Lich where he is now guarded on either side by the alu-fiends and demon hulks (2 each).

The Huge Marlith mob was just too much any way I attempted it, as when the lich pulls everyone to the center of the room there is almost no way to maneuvor away from them in time to save most of your party. With just Marrle and the princes I found it hard, but manageable.

-Spelling Correction: Did you mean to make it "Lord Marrle" instead of "Lard Marrle"? I only ask because when I saw "Lard Marrle" I got a bit of a chuckle as lard is usually something I associate with cooking...

Other small little spelling stuff I've Noticed: Astral Assasin"s" might want to turn to the singular 'Asassin'...unless they have multiple personality disorder. And Saphire golems to Sapphire...

Ok that's all for now, I'll post some more tomorrow, but no worries, most of the other stuff I have is pretty small stuff. A few glitches (such as Ustrain not talking to me) but most of the areas were solid. So I'm off to crack AAR031!! :D

-Jax
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