[Hard mode is too easy (part 2)]

 

Number one want: Give me Sword Coast Stratagems level AI.

 

I know nothing of programming AI. Is something like this really complicated and difficult to do? Does it demand too much time and resources from the developers? I'm playing through SCS for the first time and loving the AI. 

 

I don't know enough to give you an honest answer other than I *think* for someone who understands how to program a video game, it's probably not that hard as fan modders have improved the AI of many video games, so I would think people actually making the games would have the same experience/talents at the very least.

 

For time/cost, I dunno. If they are making expansions, it seems like something they could easily roll into one of them and be the perfect time to do so. A 'tactical' difficulty setting or some such, so people who just want the story or do not want to micro-manage at the level SCS requires could simply avoid.

[has anyone tried to do only crit path to gauge how much xp we get?]

 

Doing every single thing I could in acts 1 and 2 got my player character to level 9, and I'm still in the last glanfarthan ruin NE of Dryford village.

 

Yay for 6 chill fogs, slickens or fan of flames per encounter.

 

I'm level 12 and I don't have 6 first level spells... was that changed in the patch or something?

 

I think on my next playthrough I'm going to go hardcore mode and only do critical stuff... we'll have to see how far it gets me! 

 

My guess is Selanon and Teldas' rings.

[Hard mode is too easy (part 2)]

Number one want: Give me Sword Coast Stratagems level AI.

A few other things I'd like:

 

* Smaller groups of highly skilled opponents, compared to zerg waves.

 

* More complex/flexible magic/chant/focus/etc.. system. (DLC requirement I'm sure.) Bring the spell duels of BG/IWD back. We have firearms in this game to keep it from being oppressive to people who dislike that.

* Single user stealth options, and more hidden-type ambushing enemies.

* I hate to use the term mini-boss as it brings up the wrong idea for some people, but I want to see those creatures that aren't quite a Dragon fight, but it takes your entire party to deal with just one of them.

* ACTUAL traps/puzzles. I didn't run into anything that didn't seem like a-b-c-solve. I want something (probably best used as an optional zone) that is more puzzle-solving and thinking things out that popping aoe's into the hordes of critters.

* A big threat that makes upgrading the keep and hiring defenders have a payoff. A really good end of 'quest-line' fight for the upgraded Keep, not counting Od Nua (which I loved).

[Let's talk class balance....]

Cipher would be garbage tier if starting at 0 focus. He's mostly just good at demonstrating how much better spellcasters are to those who aren't good at managing their spells per rest usage. Most of his spells are weaker than druid/priest/wizard. He has a few OP spells though.

They wouldn't be anywhere near garbage tier. It would just require a little ramp up which sounds much healthier, instead of having the ability to unleash several potent spells at the start of combat, every combat.

[Weapon Choices for Cipher]

 

So far, I don't really get hit. I play my Cipher more like a rogue in that I use my resources to help and I go into melee when the time is right. With this in mind, I don't really need any heavy armor because he's not a traditional front line brute. 

I just stuck with padded armor for my Cipher. Just enough protection I didn't have to worry about being insta-gibbed, but not so much that my guy felt like he was moving in molasses. 

 

I did see a youtuber (via Reddit) that was running an Amuamua-thingie Cipher in plate mail dual wielding a flail and something else. It wasn't a low difficulty run either, and he was doing exceptionally well with it. That kind of Brute Cipher idea seems like it may be interesting to play.

[Let's talk class balance....]

Continuation from race balance. And here let me piss people off by hyperbolizing the tier titles again:

 

God Tier

 

Cipher

 

I've played a lot of Cipher and I think the Focus mechanic is really what brings the class into crazy-town. I think if they started combat at 0 focus and had to work their way up, while fixing some of the crazy ways a Cipher can gain a quick pool of focus (ala Blunderbuss), then the class would be much more in line with the other strong choices.

 

Mental Binding should also be moved up a tier (or three) and cost more focus. That is probably the best and most efficient ability in the entire game.

[Weapon Choices for Cipher]

I actually love using a pike on the Cipher. To be fair, the Blunderbuss is far and away the best weapon for the Cipher (and the focus generation on it for Ciphers should honestly be changed), but I just personally enjoy mixing it up (safely behind my meatshields :D  ) much more than using a gun. Which is strange because I was so sure I was going to go the Pistol Prof X route because of my love of Arcanum Gun Mages.

I've had zero issues about focus with the Pike, and I like that I'm still in a safe spot behind the front line yet still in range for some of the Ciphers closer ranged powers, and I've run it in Hard and POTD. Plus, as a Hearth Orlan who sided with the Doemenel's, the damage you can do with a good supporting pike hit is fantastic. I've never tried to use him as a tank or a pure front-liner, but he's proven durable enough that he can hold off enemies that make it (usually via teleport) into my squish backline.

[How to pronounce Ixamitl]

 

Is this a backer NPC name?

 

 

 

It's a field or something where a bunch of Orlans and humans dance around naked, farming and ****.

 

So it's basically the music video to Safety Dance?

 

My next character is so from there.

[BG1(Enhanced, BG2(Enhanced), or Pillars?]

I really enjoy the technical upgrades of EE, but I found almost all the new content in the game pretty horrible, imbalanced (The Stupifier, seriously.), missing a lot of the charm of the original games (the dialogues and the item descriptions are all inferior to many fan made mods, which I found fit into the game seamlessly - like Item Revisions, BGNPC Project, etc..) and better off skipping over.

 

I actually had to stop the game because I was laughing so hard at how bad the voice acting was in the Wild Mage scene in the Bridge District in BG2. I felt a little crummy too as it was obviously employee's doing the voice acting, and it made me feel like a little bit of a **** laughing at their efforts. But it still was bad. So very bad.

[Feedback from a non-backer (lengthy)]

I'm honestly wondering if Pillars load times issue is because of it's pretty badly organized merchant system. Much like NWN2, the game would bog down in certain points because it was trying to  track too much information at once. Pillars seems like it has this problem since there doesn't seem to be any item stacking for the merchants, and it's keeping individual lists of all your trash loot inside each one.

The camping system I wasn't very keen on at the start, but I've grown to really like it. Higher difficulties mean that dungeon crawls really can feel like you have to manage resources a bit better, and I like that some places you simply cannot camp in/at. I can see why people wouldn't like it, but I guess I'm just cool with it because I've played a lot of games that did it so badly that it either destroyed the games challenge, or was complexity for complexities sake.

 

For companions, I actually enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. My only real gripe is I dislike how the random interjection barks can sometimes be taken over by 1-2 party members. Like in my current game, Eder and Kana are almost always the ones who break into the conversation to say something, while the rest of the party just sits there. I don't know if it's a priority system, so Companion A always speaks instead of Companion B at Location X, or if I was just unlucky. 

I totally get your 'bumbling through the plot thing'. Hell, the games triggers for the plot seemed to be as confused as well. The very first time I played, Sagani was talking about the Big Bad in the game and about Defiance Bay before I had even been to DB, and I was just sitting there like 'Wait, who the f is this guy you are talking about?' Then there are many other instances where they just dump something on you and expect you to know it. The very first run I did, I thought Dunryd Row was a person. Either I missed a conversation because I didn't do it in the right order, or they expected me to have found and read the book by that point, but I had no clue it was an Order and not a person. But yeah, totally agree. It makes sense on new playthroughs because it's familiar now, but on OG runs it can be very confusing with all the new terminology and the lack of clarity in presenting some of it to the player. 

I actually love the huge dialogue chunks though, but the V.O. drives me crazy. I read much more quickly than they talk, so it's almost always an annoyance for me when they start talking during a conversation. However, the voice acting was really good. 

[Custom Parties and PotD]

But why would you ever want a wizard or any other DPS / AoE character with less than 18 might, int and dex?

 

WHY?

It makes it more fun/challenging. 

 

I'm currently doing a POTD run using nothing but NPC's and my PC character, and equipping and building them in a sort of sensible fashion for each character. It's way more fun than when I just bought a bunch of adventurers and tried to break the game. Well, way more fun for me anyway, there's nothing wrong with people who like playing the games that way, I just personally enjoy making the game more challenging, while having a bit of lol-RP elements.

 

YMMV of course.

[Hard mode is too easy.]

 

Metsu - go off and get another level elsewhere first?

 

But even when I reached Caed Nua, I was still getting owned on Hard. Abilities would always miss or resist, especially Mental Binding, and my party was all around Level 4.

 

See, that doesn't sound right. Not like you are lying, but like something is bugged. I've done CN on Hard mode before with the same set-up at the same levels and was not having any issues hitting the creeps. Hell, I don't even min/max really, (16/8/16/10/18/10 usually for Cipher.) and run as a pike Cipher, so I wasn't even gun-cheesing it.

[Which Classes and Races new portraits would you like to see next?]

 

Amumaumumumu's.

 

 

how did you know what I call them ?!?!

 

Bothans.

[Racial Villification, did you feel any?]

Playing as an Orlan I really didn't see too much of that. Or maybe I'm just dense and missed it.

I remember the Crucible Knight giving me some static for being an Orlan and a Cipher, and I remember the Orlan hiding out because he was guilty of 'hitting someone as an Orlan' basically, but that's all that really sticks out.

It sounds horrible, but I would have liked to have seen it more. 

[Hard mode is too easy.]

You guys must be pretty beast at this game because I completed every side quest I could find before Cad Nua and I kept getting owned by the ghost mobs. They randomly teleport to the DPS in my party and start wailing on them. After just a few hits, they're dead and Eder is standing around with his balls in his hand and no idea what to do.

 

I started the game on Hard and wimped out and knocked it down to Normal. After that, the game was much more manageable but also way too easy. Tabletop-derived RPGs are much more mechanics-based than they are strategic so I dunno what the deal was. My characters constantly kept missing their attacks even with buffs and targeting weaknesses. Aloth couldn't get any fire casts off on the ghost mobs cause he'd get ganged up as soon as he started casting.

 

My party is level 3-4. PC is Cipher with Eder, Aloth, Durance, and Kana.

 

That's the party I usually run with at that point, and it's really good for dealing with those shadows.

 

*The Cipher should Mental Binding anything that hops on anyone that's not your frontline. Mind Blades will also ruin the shadows at that level.

*Eder's knockdown is really helpful in those fights.

*Kana has Reny Daret's Ghost and/or Bones Under The Hill to bring the odds more into your favor. Also, if you picked any of the Cipher foe beam spells, you can link with one of

 Kana's summons (placed in the enemies backline), or a Ranger's pet, and basically solo the packs by running them around like fools.

*Durance really does well with Iconic Projection, Repulsing Seal, and healing during these fights.

[Paths of Cad Nua Level 3 - Ogre Trouble]

So... I'm level 6, decided to take a look in the Paths, Level 2 was really easy and then I immediately got stomped by the Ogres on the 3rd level.

 

Ordinary ones are no trouble, can handle a couple at a time without any effort, could probably take on 3-4 of those if I had to.

 

But the fight with the Ogre leader, Druid and their Ogre mook seems impossible. They do tons of damage, I just can't heal and hit back fast enough, and no combination of debuffs I found so far seems to do anything meaningful.

 

Is this something I should skip for now, and continue to level 4? Will exploration reveal some secret that will make this easier? Or are the Paths best tackled at a higher level?

 

(My party consists of my Barbarian main, not min-maxed, Eder, Aloth, Sagani, Kana and Durnace)

The ogre level really isn't bad at all as long as you have a Cipher (You can just create one to replace Sagani with for this level if you need/don't have GM, then just have the Cipher spend the rest of his or her days running errands in the keep for you.). Mental Binding taking the Ogre Druids out of the fights really changes the difficulty for the whole level. Kana actually did a lot of work for me in that level as well by summoning Reny Daret's Ghost. 

 

You can actually pull the second pack in the leaders room without pulling the leader. I usually set up in the corner outside the southern entrance, and then have Aloth drop a low level aoe at one Ogres feet, and then wipe the pack out after it crosses the door. After that you can engage the leader and her bodyguards and it's really not that horrible of a fight anymore.

 

I'll do the first five levels of Nua before stopping and heading back to the main quest without too much hassle so you shouldn't worry about needing to overlevel it, but seven levels is really doable as long as you are good with Aloth's placement, have a decent meatshield, and have some sort of hard CC. 

[Small variety of weapons - Your thoughts?]

I haven't had time to complete PoE yet, however i'm still excited to progress further into the game as it's still captivating, however I came to realize after a short amount of time (22 hours of playtime), that the variety of weapons is kinda dull, and i would have loved for a bigger variety of weapons despite keeping the same model of a weapon, and then only change the name and stats. 

 

While this is not an extremely crucial part for the game, then I would just have loved for a wider selection of both armors and weapons. 

 

What are your thoughts on this?

Is the selection of weapons plentiful for you, or?

Well, I will never say no to more stuff, but I didn't feel like the game was super lacking in itemization. Having weapon set feats, I usually had two weapons to alternate between on my character, plus class abilities, so I felt that was more than enough. The actual item graphics seemed to progress at a decent rate as well, so it did feel like I was slowly become cooler even though the sprite selection did seem a bit limited. I just wish crafting had more options of things to throw on weapons, while still retaining 'base' weapons having some unique enchants so they are still valid equips. If they did that, I would have zero issues to nitpick.

[Which Classes and Races new portraits would you like to see next?]

Orlans ofcourse. I have even searched hours for custom portaits, but i haven't found any. So if any race deserves and needs more portraits its the little folk

My issue is I HATE mixing art styles for portraits. I want them to all look unified, which is really difficult with the almost oil painting quality the game portraits were done in. So I want tons of official portraits :D   Gimme humans, Godlike, Orlans, Amumaumumumu's. The whole lot.

 

And several of them with undercuts, because I love that hairstyle in the game engine, and I want my portraits to match

[Sick Goblin in Endless Paths]

Not sure if this counts as spoilers but is there anything you can do with him besides slitting his throat?

I'm not sure, I think that the 'good' outcome is killing him as it's a mercy killing. 

 

Pillars twists the whole idea of RPG goodness from time to time which messes with my pavlovian training from the original IE games.

[Regarding why 2D CRPGs died out in the first place]

Wasn't the biggest reason because Wotsc / Atari pushed for newer DnD games to be 3D only, and wouldn't license the DnD franchise for more 2D IE style games?

I would think the failure (sales wise, not content wise for all of them) post-BG probably had a big hand in it.

 

I remember Ruins of Myth Drannor came out and didn't light the world on fire. Temple of Elemental Evil and Arcanum came out and fell flat on it's face (even though I thought they were fantastic, Troika made superb games), and I want to say there was one more that came out and bombed. Lionheart I think?

[Who would you remove in this group for Hiravias?]

Thanks for all the comments folks, I knew I had to ditch the dwarf, I guess I just had to get over how much I liked her interactions vs how much dead weight she seemed to be.

[Hard mode is too easy.]

All I really want is a sword coast stratagems version for Pillars.

 

Give me that evil, evil AI powered by Skynet. It's so fun.

[Who would you remove in this group for Hiravias?]

I honestly cannot decide.

PC Cipher: Plot armor.

Eder: The tank. Also fantasy version of Sydow may be my favorite companion. He goes nowhere.

Aloth: Went through the growing pains, now finally getting the spells letting him really do work in fights.

Kana Rua: I love his chants, especially rapid reload.

Sagani: Not a huge fan of the Ranger class, but really like her character.

Durance: His character is such a great change of pace from Bioware's Cleric=Elf Priestess formula. Plus, his spells are such a game-changer.

 

I'm torn. I want to include Hirav on this run, but I can't decide who to let go. I suppose Sagani would make the most sense, but I just don't know. I really like her interactions and character.

[What race/class did you pick?]

Hearth Orlan Cipher (Mystic) from The White That Wends. He's doing fantastic damage and control with his powers, and has been rather safe using a pike. Have had no issues gaining focus with the pike either, was worried I might have been forced into dual-wield.

[Which Classes and Races new portraits would you like to see next?]

 

I would like some more Orlan portraits, and I would like all the races/sexes to get portraits with the hairstyle that has both sides shaved. I'm not sure what you call that cut, but it's odd they don't have a single portrait with that style.

 

Undercut! So stylish~

 

I painted a female dwarf with an undercut. That scarred looking one with the green background, red cape and armor.

 

Ah that's right, I forgot about that one. We need some male versions though! :D