Mask of the Betrayer Redux

[SteveThaiBinh]

Anyone else have the game crash on quit? Wasn't having this problem playing the OC, but now that I'm playing the expansion campaign everytime I quit, it quits, but then windows tells me it crashed.

Yes. I thought it was because of Vista, but maybe not? Oblivion always used to crash on exit for me as well. The error message does make me smile though: 'Neverwinter Nights 2 has stopped working' - err, yes, that's good since I just closed it...

 

I've just finished Mask of the Betrayer. I loved it - loved the writing, the story, the voice acting, everything. In an age of lowest common denominators, Obsidian still believes in bringing imagination and interesting ideas into their games.

[Cantousent]

Well, Xard, imagine playing a barbarian. :Cant's smiling with one eye-brow raised but telling no stories icon:

[Tale]

What the ****.

 

I'm LAWFUL GOOD! GAH!

 

I swear, only aligment I play less is Chaotic Evil. Grr.

 

I started neutral, ended up Neutral Good (fitted in character development so I let it happen - yeah, I tend to make overly complex characters for mere CRPG's ) which was fine but lawful good. Never.

 

Yeah yeah, I know it's purely cosmetic but it still annoys. Reason, of course, is

suppressing your hunger. That sucker gives you 2 point shift towards lawful every time you use it - and sometimes I had to use it since there wasn't any spirits nearby. Meh, what's so lawful about suppressing your hunger...

. And I hadn't had much chances (or will since that doesn't even fit in character most of the time) for lying lately either. *sigh*

 

Now I ended up with most generic possible aligment/race combo, LG/Aasimar

Uh...

isn't suppressing your hunger only supposed to be useful if there are spirits actually around? Otherwise there'd be no point to Satiate. That's the point of it from what I've gathered, that you're suppressing the desire to eat the delicious spirits in plain sight.

 

Edited October 21, 2007 by Tale

[Cantousent]

Suppression works quite well for folks who think ahead. Unless they changed it between my exit and shipping, it is easily quite powerful. You just have to think ahead, plan, and stick to your routine. Sorry, Xard, that's lawful behavior.

[Pop]

Suppress is necessary to reduce craving. I'm not aware of any other way to do that besides satiation. So being LG is the easiest way to play the game, since especially given Okku's blessings (which you should have as a matter of course if you're LG, unless you're stupid or crazy enough to not use him or use OoM) will make it such that after suppressing your craving to nil, you only lose 1 or 2 points of spirit every 8 hours given you suppress every time.

[Dark_Raven]

Now that I have the expansion fianlly do you need to install the patches or does MotB already have this?

[Tale]

Suppress is necessary to reduce craving. I'm not aware of any other way to do that besides satiation. So being LG is the easiest way to play the game, since especially given Okku's blessings (which you should have as a matter of course if you're LG, unless you're stupid or crazy enough to not use him or use OoM) will make it such that after suppressing your craving to nil, you only lose 1 or 2 points of spirit every 8 hours given you suppress every time.

But Suppress reduces so little craving and can only be used once per day that it's [st]practically[/st] literally useless to me.

 

So, those respawning spirit Wolverines are being put on the endangered species list.

Edited October 21, 2007 by Tale

[Pop]

It's best to use it after eternal resting / devouring / bestowing life on someone in conversation, since those cases always seem to yield the most spirit, and the cravings go way down.

Around the Wood Man part of the game I ended up having 100 spirit, no craving, I'd lose 8 spirit every 8 hours, and gain 7 every suppress, so it never again became necessary to feed and raise the craving level because any undead could easily fill the bar, and undead are common enough.[

 

Being a Warlock is harder than I thought it would be. The 4th-level draining blast is awful given all the undead (it sucks even more in the OC), the word of changing's horned devil doesn't have claws that can hurt a good number of damage resistant foes, and the invisibility only lasts three rounds. And at this point none of my spell DCs are high enough to be a real threat to anyone. I'm relying on eldritch chain, for crying out loud.

 

[Kelverin]

Now that I have the expansion fianlly do you need to install the patches or does MotB already have this?

 

Rob McGinnis

Obsidian Community Coordinator says

 

 

"Hello everyone,

 

These are the updated instructions for installing MoTB. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion you might have.

 

Fresh Install

(no previous installation of NWN2)

1. Install NWN2 (do not patch yet)

2. Install MoTB

3. Run the Autoupdater to patch

 

Installing MoTB with a previous install of NWN2

(regardless of NWN2 version)

1. Install MoTB

2. Run the Autoupdater to patch

 

If you are having problems using the autoupdater, such as receiving corrupt file messages, you may need to turn off your Antivrus programs and/or firewall temporarily.

 

Antivirus and software-based firewalls are known to cause some problems with the autoupdater and with game saves from time to time, as they interfere with writing to the hard drive once in a while.

 

Further, if you already have NWN2 installed and patched up to the latest version, simply install"

 

Link

[Tale]

It's best to use it after eternal resting / devouring / bestowing life on someone in conversation, since those cases always seem to yield the most spirit, and the cravings go way down.

Around the Wood Man part of the game I ended up having 100 spirit, no craving, I'd lose 8 spirit every 8 hours, and gain 7 every suppress, so it never again became necessary to feed and raise the craving level because any undead could easily fill the bar, and undead are common enough.[

 

Being a Warlock is harder than I thought it would be. The 4th-level draining blast is awful given all the undead (it sucks even more in the OC), the word of changing's horned devil doesn't have claws that can hurt a good number of damage resistant foes, and the invisibility only lasts three rounds. And at this point none of my spell DCs are high enough to be a real threat to anyone. I'm relying on eldritch chain, for crying out loud.

See, I lose 6 spirit every hour or two (not sure how often) and only can gain 7 from that once every day. Renewing the suppress with rest or travel is right out of the question. The craving goes down barely from full. Maybe it goes down a lot more with less craving, but once you have full craving, you're pretty much stuck there unless there's some event later that'll get rid of it.

 

It's not so bad when you're in an area with spirits, elementals, or shadows. But travelling? GAH! Travelling can take 30-40 for just 4 days travel. Heck, I went from 98 to 0 with one place that claims it's only 4 days travel.

Edited October 21, 2007 by Tale

[jaguars4ever]

Also, you lose less spirit from 2 days of traveling than 8 hours of rest. Go figure. That, coupled with the fact that your spells are RESTORED from traveling means that making a quick pop from point A to point B is the way to go. Suppress before and after and you'll be maxed out after 2-3 round trips.

[Pop]

So when are we going to get a patch up in heah?

[Cantousent]

Suppression is even more effective than Pop describes. I've included my remarks in the spoiler thread. I had running arguments regarding the Spirit Eater affliction from fairly early in my time on the project until I left.

[Tale]

It's not very effective

if you don't have Okku, it seems

. I read your suggestion of going back and forth 2-3 roundtrips for a 2 day trip and it doesn't work. 2-3 roundtrips I was at 45 spirit energy and 90% craving still.

 

What's really funny is with full craving there's a supposed "2 day trip" that will kill me if I have less than 96 energy. It leaves me with 4 when I arrive if I'm full when I leave. It's actually immensely aggravating. I feel like my character is trapped. 4 energy when you lose 6 every few minutes is not workable.

Edited October 21, 2007 by Tale

[Tigranes]

Satiate reduces Craving to zero, potentially allowing you to control it indefinitely.

[Pop]

At the cost of 25% of a level, but for Tale it might be his only real option.

[Tale]

Screw that! I found some elementals and chowed!

 

Also, evil path spoiler:

if you kill Okku, you can talk to some people, kill a family, and then gain the ability to devour souls of humans, not just spirits. That should come in handy, I think.

 

 

Oh, and side note for badger fans:

I noticed someone wanted to do this, but evil path? Badger tasted goooood

 

[jaguars4ever]

At the cost of 25% of a level, but for Tale it might be his only real option.

Satiate is awesome when used right after a level up. You lose like 100 XP or less and all you need to do afterwards is down a greater restoration for the level drain.

[Tigranes]

Which is what I did in my evil playthrough. I mean, seriously. Ordinary level drain. That's absolutely nothing right there.

 

Tale, so I gather that's the ability you get from

giving the Lurue Well gumps their meat

? That's pretty cool.

[Xard]

Question on OC:

 

Where do you find belt of storm giant (+10 strenght) in it? It is appropriate equipment for level 18-epic levels character and since I could buy it in Volo's hero creation I thought you would get in campaign anyway. Besides, with crafting you could create even more ridiculous

[jaguars4ever]

You know, I didn't actually get to loot a Storm Giant belt until assaulting the

City of Judgment

, which does seem rather late.

[Xard]

**** I'm idiot. I should've known that was MotB spoiler

 

Well, I was sure before I would ultimately end up there too so I guess it didn't matter...

 

 

I was talking about OC, can you get it in it? I'm asking since some of you've been playing OC too You see, I used Volo's hero creator pre-MotB version which didn't have any MotB equipment but it had that belt, so I figured out you could get it somewhere in OC...

Edited October 21, 2007 by Xard

[Spider]

In the OC, the highest you can get is +8 and only through crafting afaik.

[Xard]

Oh, you can only get Cloud Giant's belt with crafting? Hmm... IIRC I did get it with my first campaign and I didn't do any crafting during it.

 

I guess Storm Giant's Belt of strenght was one of those items that Obz made but didn't put in OC or didn't intend players to get. For example, you could buy "Kana's armor" and such npc items in VHC.

[Tale]

You can get a belt of storm giant strength in an evil game.

The Shaman at Ice Temple lodge has an offer for you. Bring two brilliant spirit essences and One of Many.