353 replies to this topic

[Jax]

P.S.

Yeah I got the feeling just the vanilla SoA items were really not making muster. I threw on a few item packs today just to see the difference, and it's huge. With the RTT item pack alone (overpowered normally, just fine here) I was able to do loads more. Tell ya what, before I start this fresh run post a list of mods you envision Vecna running with and I'll be able to play-test a little more accurately for ya (unless you want more vanilla runthough just so these bugs with vanilla get hammered out). =D

Side note, I did try and get Vecna installed on the Big World Project but every install was unsuccessful when grouped even with the most basic of other mods. If you know the exact group that's compatible then feel free to shoot it my way!

[jube]

Alex Macintosh Trader is a`must, also unusual oddities shop, Alex Mac's items are just stupid! overpowered and should be totally banned in any other mod or campaign, in Vecna you are wishing you had 2 of everything likewise for unusual shop but you need plenty of money for that shop, i would suggest install the mods the`n cheat the items onto the party with shadowkeeper or equivalent.
As an example vecna is expecting a main character with 24 strength/dex/con lv 25+ MU Lv25+ Fighter ( dual kensia or something ) 8+ attacks per round AC -12 or lower and stacked with magic. like i said you are doing extremely well with the people you had, properly equipped i think you wont need any ctrY.

[Jax]

Well OK then! I'm not going to go full blown Big World Project because of the biffing it does at the end, but I'll throw on a whole bunch of goodies. Unfortunatly Alex Macintosh has pretty much disappeared from the web as far as I can tell, so if you have the .zip or .rar of it handy that would we great! Otherwise a fresh run will be ensuing tomorrow or the next day with my party packing the big guns! A plus with that is that I can start to hone in on some of the smaller stuff such as text etc, but I think at least some of the notes I have from my last run might be helpful.

Can't wait for the next update!

-Jax

[jube]

Well OK then! I'm not going to go full blown Big World Project because of the biffing it does at the end, but I'll throw on a whole bunch of goodies. Unfortunatly Alex Macintosh has pretty much disappeared from the web as far as I can tell, so if you have the .zip or .rar of it handy that would we great! Otherwise a fresh run will be ensuing tomorrow or the next day with my party packing the big guns!    A plus with that is that I can start to hone in on some of the smaller stuff such as text etc, but I think at least some of the notes I have from my last run might be helpful.

   Can't wait for the next update!
    
      -Jax

here you go mate

Attached Files

•  am-v5.rar   690.35K   377 downloads

[Morianthi]

Since you recommended it, I'm considering on adding the Alex mod. But just like every other mods, I'm always having hesitations on adding new ones in the fear of ruining my current run through. Would you be so kind on posting sample items of this mod, to see if it really is worth adding given the risk?

I apologize if I might seem too demanding - just a suggestion: are you familiar with Larloch the 46th level Netherese Ultra-lich? Many argue him to be the most powerful in Faerun; he who also commands 60 liches (which includes 3 demiliches, formerly archwizards). Should this Vecna develop even further, don't you think it would be a good idea to have an encounter with Larloch first as sort of like a prep stage for the protagonist before he commits himself on something as grand as the upcoming adventures? IMHO, I believe it is very interesting - when it comes to badassery, Larloch truly is at the top (Vecna exluded). It would be nice if he makes an appearance in this mod; a fight would be even nicer. Just my two cents.

[Jax]

OOOOK, I've played around on a few levels with a whole cadre of different item packs and this is my personal taste in terms of their relationship to the mod:

1)Mods (and Item Packs) that still leave the run engaging and enjoyable (2 to 3 reloads tops for most maps so far). These on top of the sweet items introduced in the mod seem to be closest to an even feeling game for me, especially with the added spells.

-Weimer's Item Upgrade
-Ruad
-Aurora
-Rolles (a streach but still within the upper limits)
-TDD
-Check the Bodies
-Planar Sphere

2) Mods that break the current balance (when you can string 10+ Time-Stops from 1 mage and freeze the whole room I start to feel the game-balance has departed...)

-RTT Item Pack
-Alex Macintosh (holy moley!)
-Magnificent Magic Shop
-Unusual Oddities Shop
-Stuff of the Magi

(These break balance if you have access to MOST of the items in them, if you installed a pretty harsh money restriction on Aurora so that you had to choose only 1 or 2 of these, then I imagine things would still be fine (although any item that pretty much doubles lvl 9 spells is going to be a bit cheesy simply because of the time-stop abuse in my opinion)

Now this is personal preference here, but so ya know my ideal so far has been a group decked out with the items from the group 1 mods. Check the Bodies, TDD, and Planar Sphere all drop really good items by the end of them, but nothing so out of this world that you can just steamroll. If you really want Vecna to require items like the ones in Alex Mac. I can make a runthrough with a party fully munchkined out, but from the first few sections I cleared of the Twisted Rune I can say it felt either too easy or not engaging because of all the time-stop available. I feel like the Fights with Tiamat, Arrellax, Ustrain, and Lord Marrel would be drastically improved in lieu of Macintosh with a well balanced section of bad guys immune to time-stop, so that the fights would require the tactical balance of kiting/ dealing with the main boss (or add) who isn't affected with time-stop, while still HAVING to get down some of the lesser spawns before the time stop wore off. I'm happy with either, but those are going to be two VERY different types of feedback so let me know which one you're interested in and I'll go from there! =)

(Another side note: I ran through with Valen and her +5 claws wiped out a bunch of the bad-guys almost too easily with that level drain, just a heads up for that particular cross-mod gameplay)

Anyway just let me know what kind of run (items and all) you're looking for and I'll be able to start sending some feedback again!

All the Best,

-Jax

[Morianthi]

Sweet, thanks a lot. Where can I find Alex Macintosh NPC by the way? So I can give it a shot myself; I'm intrigued on whatelse it has in store, aside from the cheesy L9 doubling.

*spoilers for other mods*
True, I have TDD installed in mine as well. No balance breaking items; the spells however is a bit off e.g. Winds of Pandemonium wherein you can toss around non-giant enemies much like a dragon's wing buffet (it isn't very damaging, but the prep time for the party it offers is just too much), Daer'Ragh's Aura Cleaning wherein you can cast spells in rapid succession much like Improved Alacrity but for a very long duration AND it's a level 4 spell, or Mystra's Unravelling wherein you can strip off all defense spells for a single target. You can also mass produce Amulet of Power at 24k each for your party members. There's also a head item with +1 to all stats.

You might also be interested with Diablo 2 Item Pack. I once bought a mage staff with an aura for your party that for every round IN BATTLE there's an 18% to restore used spells; it also has a poison attrib, 45% crit, +7 THAc0, +7 dmg IIRC. I'm breezing through ToB with them (very balance breaking actually even at highest difficulty. Demogorgon for instance was a walk in the park.), I'm excited to test these items and spells in Vecna Mod and see how well would they fair. Question: what's the expected hours of gameplay for Vecna Mod?

[Jax]

Oh geeze I forgot about the diablo pack, yeah those items are just crazy I haven't ran with it in ages. Macintosh is in the Copper Coronet, so if you're already on ToB I'm afraid you've missed him (I don't think he's in ToB, so you might have to CLUA them in). As far as I know the ballpark of total hrs. is something close to 40+ of fully finished work, though I think (Jube will correct me if I'm wrong here) that he's gunning for much much more. Anyway I'm looking forward to having another tester to kick feedback around with, so cheers and welcome! =)

ADDENDUM: My previous post about game balance was before I cleared Area AAR031. You had 2 of them Jube, and it was magnificent! The Isair Princes being immune to time-stop was wonderful! I ran it with my group geared out the wazoo (both pack 1 and 2 that I have listed above) and though I was able to clear it with no problems (my main and Keldorn took a hit or 2 from the Isair Princes) there is plenty of potential in the fight dynamics to justify the usually OP weapons (in fact without enough time-stop immunity I'd venture to say it can't be done). Now that said, more aspects like the Isair Princes would truly bring the difficulty up to epic here. I'm going to sift through my old notes of some of the bigger Twisted Rune fights like Tiamat and see if I can give any useful feedback on time-stop dynamics for them. I'm thinking of clearing up to the other 2 main crash points that I was stuck on last time in the Twisted Rune, but without updated fights I won't be posting much feedback on the run until I actually get to the crash points. I also do have 2 questions for you Jube:

1) Where is Lolth's Lab in the planes? I've explored it thoroughly as I know how to and I can't find it. Is it through the AAR000 Keep and I just need the key to get in? Also is Loloth's lab similar in scope to AAR031, because if it is I'll send my boys over there to test the harder play-dynamics while the twisted rune stuff gets played around with.

2) Did that hotfix you made take into account the Android 1 (AAR020) and the northwest door of AAR045 crashes? If it did I'll also swing my boys down there to test that fight out! If not I can post another save game so you can check on those as well...


AAR031- Demi-Lich Alley

Ok this was by far my favorite map so far! Like I said above I think some more complex time-stop dynamics would really make this shine, but for now I'll just post a few of the purely core dynamics that I thought you'd be interested in regardless of anything else.

-The diamond golems in the west (or lower) tomb cleared out all the skellies with their gas cloud, so those two creatures don't go too well together. Similarly on the same western tomb, the night hags target the pit fiends as "enemy" and burn out their spells on them. (This problem also occurs in AAR048).

Take care,

-Jax

[jube]

Hi guys, first welcome onboard Morianthi Am at work and on a bloody tablet ( who the hell said on screen keyboards were cool !!!, this whole tablet craze comes from a conspiracy of star wars fans , am sure ) so keep this short.

TR areas

11...Dragon Corridor
42...Undead Lab
13...Main Lab
12...Furnace Room
45...Meeting Room
20...Android 0 Cell
39...Horse temple
48...Liabrary 1
49...Liabry 1 Level 1
50...Liabry 1 Level 2
04...Liabrary 2
40...Pre throne
31...Throne


To get to loloths complex , first get the TR master key from 31, then get to 13, in the picture on the wall there is container with an " Astral map " this is a very special scroll which reveals the location of Loloths complex on the Astral, without it getting there is impossible.

Ok, please go and have a quick go and see what the bitch queen is up to, that will give you a flavour of what the REAL mod plays like, remember the TR complex is an INTRODUCTION, Loloths complex is 5 times as big and at least twice as tough. And that is itself also an introduction, the quest for the rod of seven parts will be 3-4 times the size of the entire mod so far and obviously tougher. I am actually rendering new area graphics for the rod quest with brand new character animations, by the time i am finished ( next year some time ) i plan it to be at least as big as SOA.

Will post a whole bunch of changes in a day or so as another hotfix ( that will cover all the observations so far ), and then if possible` you guys can play TR through again up to Launching after Loloth ?

Yes AAR020 is done and would be usefull to do since it gives some plot background.

There is a WHOLE bunch of music, sound effects, and text screens to do to give atmosphere and a bit of diversion from the carnage, only some will be in the hotfix.

Am creating script to detect if party has key Mega powered kit and bump up difficulty in key places to suite, after TR it should not matter what kit you have, if not so will adjust loloth complex accordingly,

Got to admit plain forgot to copy the timestop resistance strings into a lot of creatures, doing that now

Once again thank thanks thanks  

[Jax]

Ok, got a lot of feedback here...there were a bunch of areas on Lolth's Lab. So far I'd say if I had 2 absolute MAIN pieces of feedback it would be the Time-Stop aspect (of which you're already aware) and the need for more dialogue/ plot direction. After getting through the entire Twisted Rune and Lolth's Lab I think I have a good idea of how the plot pieces fit together, but it's really disjointed right now and I think some of the existing dialogue (such as with Android 0 and Shade of Hastur) could do with some fine-tuning.  

    Allrighty, feedback from Lolth's Lab...

       Most of the fights were lacking the time-stop balance (already being fixed) but a few had it like AAR036 and it was freaking great! Until that gets implemented however all fight-dynamic feedback is kinda mute. The only fight I'll specifically give feedback on is the showdown of Lolth, Orcus, and Demo a little later in the report. Mostly I'm just giving a heads up on glitches so far...

   AAR041- Sleeping here causes permanent game freeze
   AAR027, 024, 021, and 025 were all empty for me...
   AAR003 *Ice Maze with Abashi* (or 030, didn't write down the last digit :/) I couldn't reach the gear suspended in those craters..
   AAR002 *Sendai fight* (or 020, again forgot last digit...sigh) Full Crash: Chvidpoly.cpp line #523, after killing sendai and waling east a bit
   AAR044 Is this supposed to dead-end or am I missing something here? Also there is a loop error here and you can't get back down the stairs...
   AAR036 -something appears on the raised area once the succubus' go down, but it is frozen and I wasn't sure what that was for...also on this      
   map, I couldn't reach the loot in the top middle statue...

I didn't try and sleep on every level, but there was at least 1 more that I tried and it froze, so I'll make a full list of that on my next fresh runthrough (Twisted Rune and Lolth's Complex).

I was unable to find the 3rd rune piece (aaitm006) and just assumed it was in one of the chests/item stores I couldn't reach. Mind spilling the beans on that one?

    Final Showdown:

      (It might not be possible, but is there a way to stop Mellisan from floating in the middle of the map...it kinda breaks plot for me)

         OK, had to do this one 3 times before I got it down pat. I wasn't quite sure what the trigger was for Lolth and friends spawning, but they popped up with a map still brimming with bad guys so that was a bit freaking crazy, especially when demogorgon spawned something like 8 more demons on top of his entourage.

      -When the Time-Stop immunity gets added I don't think you'll need nearly as many bad guys here...I burned down all 20 Time-Stops I had and I still couldn't get all of the main bad-guys down before I ran out, so with some of them being immune it might be a bit much. I enjoyed having all 3 gods to go against, but I was surprised not to see web spells all around Lolth (akin to the nightmare spiders in the Solafein Mod). On that note, as Lolth has the power to call both Orcus and Demogorgon to her aid I think of her as being more powerful than either of them, but in the fight she was always the first one to go down. I thought it would be really cool if she had a demi-lich aspect to her, so her first form being a drow priestess, then when she gets down to Near Death she morphs into the drider form. I dunno, just an idea...

      -The items after the fight rock (with the exception of the exo-armor, heh) and instead of my main character it's Jan that has ascended to Godhood! Robe of Mystra, Hand and Eye of Vecna, Book of the Dead, Cyber J Manuel, man he's a 1 man army! Anyway I'm looking forward to the next update, and I'll start a fresh run-though of the Twisted Rune as soon as it's ready!

        Again, hats off to ya for making so much content man, this is epic!

                -Jax

[Jax]

Ok, went back through and found the 3 maps that resting crashes the game

AAR042: ObjCreature.cpp line #12162

AAR045: Game Permanently Freezes (doesn't even make it to the sleep screen)

AAR041: ObjCreature.cpp line #12162

  
   Feedback on the new spells:

  -Otiluke's Force Helm: works great (used often)!
  -Animate Golem: works great!
  -Krasus Crimson Flame: -works great!
  -Dimension Door: works great (used often)!
  -Life Warp: works great!
  -Soul Rot: works great!
  -Hero: full game crash (I really want to use this one)
  -Instant Army: full game crash
  -Whilwind of Steel: full game crash
  -Vecna's Star Portal: Holy Moley awesome image, but no actual effect (I REALLY would like to use this one )
  -Golden Cloud: no effect
  -Wall of Force: no effect
  -Prismatic Sphere: no effect
  

       -Jax

[jube]

thanks again mate no kbd so keep it short this update covers the fights in tr complex
have a look and see if timestop immunity makes lot difference might need to put in more ts immune done for other areas but other bugs in progress

Attached Files

•  VecnaV23Hotfix2.rar   204.04K   326 downloads

[Jax]

Hrm... well I started a new game and fresh run-through after adding the 2nd hotfix (straight to the override like the 1st), and all of the creatures names were off and turned to phrases like "I can't believe it's not butter" or other dialogue from the game. Looks like I'm going to have to do a fresh install to get things working...guess i'll go vanilla plus a few item mods to start off, then add on again from there. Kinda weird that the first hotfix was no problem and the 2nd had that effect...anyway feedback pending a fully operational install. I'll have time to tinker with it a bit tomorrow so I'll hopefully have more for ya then!

         -Jax

[Jax]

Well shoot, started a game from a fresh install that looked like this:

1. BG2 & ToB (patched)
2. Vecna v23
3. Vecna hotfix 1 (straight to override)
4. Vecna hotfix 2 (straight to override)

    Now I was pretty sure you would include the 1st hotfix in the with the 2nd, but just in case I threw it on first. Anyway I'm still getting Juggernaut Golems named Garrax, an Arrellax named "Teleport Spell" and a lava golem named "Dead Body" as soon as I put on the 2nd hotfix. Anything you know of that would solve the problem? Do some parts of the 2nd hotfix need to go somewhere other than straight to override?

      -Jax

[Morianthi]

Thanks for the welcome. Geez, I only got to finish the game today; I've been bloody busy with other things lately. Just when I thought I could already play the mod, I realized you can't use BGT multiplayer and land on SoA, as it starts in BG1. Sarevok all over again? Damn it! Do you guys know any work around for that? I've always had a plan of having 3 custom characters for Vecna mod: a "converted" version of my NWN1 protagonist, another for the NWN2 soul eater guy, and my BG character as the leader. RP-wise, I thought to myself that something as big as this would require the combined might of my other main characters. Sounds childish I know!

Anyway, hi Jax, most of the spells you mentioned (e.g. Instant Army) are from TDD, and they worked perfectly on my game.

EDIT: Nvm, I think I found a solution. Load a BG2-SoA single player game, move the single player saved file to multiplayer saves folder, load the game, and create the rest of the characters from there.

Edited by Morianthi, 03 October 2011 - 03:54 AM.

[Jax]

Glad you found a way around that Morianthi! Yeah I haven't played with TDD for so long I really couldn't remember where some of the spells were from, but I imported just about every scroll item with the Vecna Mod reference code into one of my finished games just to test the unknown ones out and some of those popped up. Anyway I'm still waiting to hear from Jube about this most recent hotfix as it throws off all the string references (think that's what it's called). If you're just starting SoA you have plenty of time to build up your guys before startin Vecna, so hopefully if there is a problem it will be panned out before your run! As a side note, a multi-player viewpoint will be great to have, (and will certainly open up gameplay a bit more) so good thinkin!

        All the Best,

              Jax

[Morianthi]

*spoilers*
Good heavens! It is indeed extremely challenging. Is the lava golem immediately right after you get in Lolth's laboratory supposed to be that tough? The dragon and the rest of adamantium golems were just about right, but the lava golem was a bastard - no spell at all from any level of any class can hit him; its not just about its high magic resistance, he's like a demilich made worse that not even level 9 spells are effective against him. My sole fighter with his cheesy weapon can hardly put a scratch on him as well. Luckily, I had a Wyrm Staff of Ages from another mod, that can cast ice dragon's breath. But ofcourse since it has a daily usage limit, so I had to use simulacrum and project image just to cast it multiple times and kill the game's hardest creature (so far). Is he really supposed to be that all-powerful?

But for the rest, so far so good. Not that good to be honest.haha Even with the simple baddies, I already know how much of a challenge can I expect from their big bosses. In one fight with several animated adamantiums and a few batch of beholders and hive fathers, man, that was a bloody fight. I already lost count on how many project image, comets, dragon's breath, time stop, wish spells from 2 of my arcanists was I able to cast; several dozens maybe. The fight took me an hour, only to accidentally cast chain contingency from my PROJECTED IMAGE when there were only 2 hive fathers left. Damn that was a game breaker. I had to forcefully close BG. Anyway, what I'm saying is that you did a good job with the difficulty. I'm already tempted to lower my game difficulty just to even the odds on my next reload.

Thanks Jax, you should try it out too. It's good to have new character faces. Having the usual NPCs around was fun, but as with all things, after some time, it gets boring. New ones are refreshing.

Edited by Morianthi, 07 October 2011 - 08:56 AM.

[Lollorian]

There's a small fix for Vecna here The first attachment in that post (spell_fixes.txt) has details of exactly what got modified and why... please feel free to bash for any wrong changes

[billy3]

There's a small fix for Vecna here The first attachment in that post (spell_fixes.txt) has details of exactly what got modified and why... please feel free to bash for any wrong changes

Thanks Lollorian.

Dumb question - if we have a BWP install (I did the Tactics install), should we just dump the contents of all of those .7s files from that post into our Override folder?

Thanks!

[Vazeron1]

Just installed this, noticed something. What on earth is an updated version of Teleport? I've never heard of a mod like that xD. Also, I'm using a standard install. I don't trust BiG World Project after the amount of times it's f**ked up my game.