grynberg

there's half a dozen of them depending on what's convenient to the story.

It is not supposed to be "convenient to the story" but just uneven. She can be the silly girl when she's with Imoen and next moment she realises how much responsibility she has as a healer or by being involved with the PC, a person of great significance. She is still searching for *her* way and role in this - which is not easy with her background.

We are talking about the initial chapters in BG1 here - a period where the PC him/herself is not sure about the own role. She is supposed to grow as your character grows and as the main story starts to evolve. You will see her develop over the story the more she finds out about your and her involvement with the bigger scheme of things.

 

Sandrah makes the game easy..

Some say it is the opposite, I heard it is far too tactical. My own experience is that it largely depends on some other mods you have installed and that make her gain more abilities (I found a mod giving her 4 extra stars for weapons and use of druid items...). Maybe we should compare notes if you post your Weidu.log from your current install.

 

I'm using the BWS tactical installation and I didn't do much changes to it. Just solved a few conflicts that BWS asked me to do and left everything else as they were.

I think you should add romance checks to some of her actions.. we've been together for four chapters like love-birds. Suddenly she sees Bjorn at the Jovial Juggler and she goes to give him a "massage". I thought I was maybe reading too much into this, english is my third second language afterall. Later in the game we went into the beregost smithy and she showed the smith her "necklace" and asked it to be fixed. Smith was pretty tired from all the fixing in the back room as much as I could tell. I mean seriously, romance mod is fine but does she really have to sleep with anyone she finds remotely interesting.

 

I love the gameplay improvements you have made to some of the mods (DSotSC is MUCH more playable thanks to her explanations) and I was reallly enjoying the waterdeep area and the quests. However, the inconsistency of her actions is making the playthrough very tiresome. At one point she is rational, does some plot exposition, talks about loyalty, friendship, about his fathers friends aaaand then she drops her skirt and screws whoever comes up next. 

Or is this just your fantasy that lets you interpret it this way?

I have to keep reminding myself that perhaps this is just some fake persona she is putting up, but she is not making it easy to like her.

Spoiler

Her grandmother was a woman named Midnight, who earned her nickname -  and nevertheless she evolved to become someone quite different.

I fully agree - there  are companions that make liking them easier - or hating them.

 

No, it's not my fantasy. It's not exactly subtle when he's using his *tool* (sic!) to fix her problem. It's blatantly obvious what the writer ment. Same goes for Bjorn and some other cases I dismissed earlier because it was my second playthrough with her (first one was broken) and I just skipped dialogue to get back to the point where the game broke.

I think you misunderstood why I don't like her. The irrational sex part is not bothering me that much, we've all been young. What bothers me is the fractured personality she seems to have. At one point she is a rational adult, a figure of authority, a teacher, the next moment she's a nympho, then she changes into a water-splashing teenager, then she slips into the shoes of a loyal daughter and then she's a seduceress and so on. I just can't connect with her at all, there's no personality, there's half a dozen of them depending on what's convenient to the story.

That said, I am going to play through this and I admire the massive amount of work this must have taken. All of the new areas I've seen are comparable to the original game content (which can't be said to all mods) and the story so far has been entertaining and captivating.

EDIT: Another thing that's been really bugging me. Sandrah makes the game easy.. I'm playing at Insane with Stratagems tuned to the highest difficulty and it's just.. too easy with her. The two animal companions are really overpowered and Sandrah has so much gear and special abilities that she overshadows everyone else everywhere.. She hits like a truck, gets mass cure light heals at very early levels, gets greater restoration as an SLA at level 5, not to mention the cure diseases, poisons, true seeings, numerous heals on her SLA list. And she gets haste and dispel magic! On cleric spell list!

Just an example on the overpowered equipment. Since she's such a powerhouse and I set her to be the main tank, I gave her the best shield I had (+5 AC and something else on it) -- on comes Elminster, sees her daughter and gives her a better shield then I've seen in five chapters. 

I think you should add romance checks to some of her actions.. we've been together for four chapters like love-birds. Suddenly she sees Bjorn at the Jovial Juggler and she goes to give him a "massage". I thought I was maybe reading too much into this, english is my third second language afterall. Later in the game we went into the beregost smithy and she showed the smith her "necklace" and asked it to be fixed. Smith was pretty tired from all the fixing in the back room as much as I could tell. I mean seriously, romance mod is fine but does she really have to sleep with anyone she finds remotely interesting.

I love the gameplay improvements you have made to some of the mods (DSotSC is MUCH more playable thanks to her explanations) and I was reallly enjoying the waterdeep area and the quests. However, the inconsistency of her actions is making the playthrough very tiresome. At one point she is rational, does some plot exposition, talks about loyalty, friendship, about his fathers friends aaaand then she drops her skirt and screws whoever comes up next. 

I have to keep reminding myself that perhaps this is just some fake persona she is putting up, but she is not making it easy to like her.

No, it was really that PID problem. She is not fishing for compliments or agreement all the time, she respects your opinions even if different from her own (within reasonable range). And she is not so fragile that one wrong answer spoils the whole game.

Hopefully the repaired game will show this and correct the wrong impression.

Thank you for all the help! Starting a new game now

I grepped SandrahNPC mod files for Sanpoints to find out where they are increased and decreased. I have to say quite a lot of the options are head-scratchingly odd.

For example

 

IF~~THEN BEGIN ValiantKN2

SAY ~ The old legends say that a hero will rise and reclaim the holy weapon and this will mark a series of changes on the face of the Sword Coast unlike anything that Faerun has ever witnessed. ~

IF~~ THEN REPLY ~ And this hero is standing right in front of you now.~ DO ~ IncrementGlobal("Sanpoints","GLOBAL",-1)~ GOTO ValiantKN3

IF~~ THEN REPLY ~ Wow, another holy weapon for the hero-to-come. Just like your sword of Mystra. ~ DO~ IncrementGlobal("Sanpoints","GLOBAL",1)~  GOTO ValiantKN4

END

 

They are the exactly the same options! I could argue that she likes the compliment on the second option, but the first option? Is she really that insecure that she needs to be complimented at every sentence? (I went for the first option)

 

And then these two.. I just dont know what to think here. At one point she needs constant flattering, but here she rewards a snappy comeback?

++~You read my mind perfectly.~DO~IncrementGlobal("Sanpoints","GLOBAL",-1)~EXTERN Gazib 1

++~You know nothing about me, Sandrah.~ DO~IncrementGlobal("Sanpoints","GLOBAL",1)~EXIT

 

I have a feeling I'm not going to get through this mod without digging deep into the conversation files.

Those ares taken out of context.

 

In the valiant scene the PC is bragging to be the big hero (which is still to be proven) instead of taking the challenge to become the hero-to-be (but it is a long road at this point still).

 

The other scene is at the carneval, where that mage lets the Ogre explode for fun. When she likes to know if you want to see it again for enjoyment the first one is the negative answer (you want to see the killing again).

Aha, my mistake then. I was annoyed that i was under performing by such a large margin. Editing the DLG file now and giving it another go.