What are you playing now?

[213374U]

I've never used the Chosen of Cyric Encounter component. I should probably check that out sometime, but I dislike in general how Rogue Rebalancing adds content that wasn't there originally - like the additional weapons the Shadow Thieves get, or the random portraits it gives to certain characters, or... It's a more hamfisted approach than I like. I edited the mod install files to have that stuff cut out, and so that if I need to reinstall further down the line, I have the files already ready. I spent like three to four hours editing Item Revisions to be completely compatible with 1pp...gosh, what a travesty that was. I would cry if I lost my edited install files for that,

 

Is it Rogue Rebalancing that makes AI backstabbing so friggan' annoying? I figured it was SCS, but maybe not. Need like two or three different casters having True Sight/Detect Invisibility active on them to counteract that crap...so annoying. They're just constantly guzzling potions of invisibility, too.

 

Haha, I know that feel. I tried not to cry when I finally broke my BGT installation after trying to change something related to the 1pp paperdolls or something mid-game. Then I cried a lot.

 

RR does add some obvious stuff and it may or may not be up your alley. I usually don't have a problem with fan content provided it's well done and I think aVENGER's is some of the best out there, but that's evidently just my opinion. For instance, I especially liked the spin on Arledrian (Gaelan Bayle's fence). The CoC encounter is difficult even for someone used to SCS, and it can feel out of place because of that, and because of how the dialogue leading up to it is structured. On the other hand, that same dialogue allows for at least 3 different outcomes that I remember, which is also unusual in BG2 encounters. After beating it, it's plain that a huge amount of work and care went into crafting the encounter, and I wouldn't be surprised if aVENGER considers it the centerpiece of the mod.

 

As for AI backstab abuse and serial potion chugging, is that different from SCS behavior? I don't remember... but I do remember that having both mods installed suddenly meant that the absolute most valuable rogue skill turned out to be "Detect Illusion". Heh.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I believe that backstabbing is part of SCS, not RR. Since most of my recent playing has been with both installed, I may be mistaken though.

 

At any rate, I enjoy it when your enemies use their abilities in the most effective manner. Part of my issue with vanilla BG is that enemies are really stupid.

 

Anyways, played more PoE. Managed to finish all personal quests, and am now using a custom party of Cipher, Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, Wizard, and Priest. It is a lot easier with the custom party, and severe balance issues become apparent in later levels. Not sure if I'm going to finish Od Nua or just make a dash to the finish yet, but I don't see myself jumping in again until the game gets balanced a bit more and the expansion is released.

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, that was actually a reason I abandoned using BGT - because the game just became too unmanageable every time I wanted to fix something, and I want to fix stuff...a lot. Like...I see that the Ice Star mace in Item Revisions gives 50% fire resistance, and I can't help but think...why? Like the only cold-theme weapon in the game, and it's...gonna give fire resistance just like all the fire weapons instead of cold resistance? Why? I'll just patch that up right now...except with BGT and all the BG1 mods I would have installed in addition to the BG2 stuff, it's gonna take forever to load any of my game editors up, it'll make the game run slower each thing I edit (as files will be put into override instead of the .bif files), I'm probably gonna break stuff at some point and need to reinstall and I REALLY do not want to have to reinstall everything, especially seeing as how I install every manually as opposed to BWS or BWP. PLUS, it's Shadows of Amn that I like best about the BG series, anyways, so really, why bother?

 

I do like aVENGER's stuff...just...don't care for things that seem out of place for no reason. Like...using IWD weapon icons for mod-added weapons. Please don't do that: they look completely wrong compared to BG's icons. Or using random portraits for random NPCs for little reason...I just don't like those kinds of changes - feel immersion-breaking, haha. In that sense, I'm a much bigger fan of his atweaks than RR.

 

What changes did RR make to Arledrian? I don't remember anything special about him besides being a fence and having an Amulet of Protection +1 and the Glasses of Identification in the vanilla game - all of which is in the vanilla game, too, IIRC.

[Bartimaeus]

I believe that backstabbing is part of SCS, not RR. Since most of my recent playing has been with both installed, I may be mistaken though.

 

At any rate, I enjoy it when your enemies use their abilities in the most effective manner. Part of my issue with vanilla BG is that enemies are really stupid.

 

Yeah, definitely. It's just...rather extreme in some aspects for SCS. But that's fine: there are many strategies you can use to counter what they do if you care to, which is exactly how it should be.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[213374U]

What changes did RR make to Arledrian? I don't remember anything special about him besides being a fence and having an Amulet of Protection +1 and the Glasses of Identification in the vanilla game - all of which is in the vanilla game, too, IIRC.

 

 

Arledrian has been turned into an agent of Suldanessellar. His job at Gaelan's being just a cover to make his real mission of keeping an eye on Bodhi easier. At some point he gets in over his head — you can help him out or not, both choices having different consequences.

 

 

Nothing major, but it was nice.

Edited April 27, 2015 by 213374U

[Oner]

It's also really annoying that your casters in PoE don't have hardly any magic to protect themselves, and that the oft-annoying (dis)engagement mechanics are basically your only method of actively protecting them. No Stoneskin, no Mirror Image, no Invisibility...get your fighters to intercept every enemy, or enjoy having your casters more or less insta-gibbed.

Aloth is full of close range protective-ish spell choices. A weaker mirror image is a level 1-2 spell, he has a spell to damage everyone around him and restore that damage as endurance, and a few more I don't remember.

 

Also apparently Broken Age part 2 is out, but upon loading up my old save, I got the same ending scene-Act2comingsoon-credits-mainmenu cycle.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Oner

[Bartimaeus]

 

 

Arledrian has been turned into an agent of Suldanessellar. His job at Gaelan's being just a cover to make his real mission of keeping an eye on Bodhi easier. At some point he gets in over his head — you can help him out or not, both choices having different consequences.

 

 

Nothing major, but it was nice.

 

 

Ah...I see. Interesting. I never picked that up because...uh, probably because I usually join Bodhi for optimal massacring (and also getting Aran's Elven Chain +1 for my Mage-Cleric, as well as the Ring of Djinni Summoning and whatever else you don't get if you join with the Shadow Thieves instead, ), which means I usually end up murdering the poor fellow.

 

"Ahhh, I know a discerning eye when I see one!"

 

Yeah, whatever you say, buddy - just give me your dumb glasses so I never have to memorize identify spells and you can die.

 

@Oner: fair enough. Still not nearly the same as BG, though, haha.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Nonek]

Decisions, decisions, reached the third chapter of the Witcher and am currently waiting to storm the bank, have crept in through the Fleder infested attic as my Geralt works alone by instinct. Am in two minds on the choice I am approaching between the Order and Scoiatael as I always am. On one hand my Geralt has suspicions about the Order staging a coup and using Adda as a catspaw, on the other the Squirrels are terrorists whom commited horrible atrocities against men, women and children in the war and I obviously wish to stop a repeat of that.

 

Do I go with the individuals themselves? Siegfried is brave and honourable, he does the right thing and has been reasonable throughout, I sided with him in the swamp because he was trying to stop Haev Carren delivering weapons and escalating the conflict. He is however working for what may be an enemy, my Geralt suspects, whom may be behind Salamandra, so can I trust him. Then again using ones enemies strength against them is a good strategy.

 

For all of the Knights virtues however he does not strike me as effective, whereas Yaevinn does appear clever, self motivated and ruthless enough to be a fine asset. That ruthlessness may go too far however, in the bank I remember from my last playthrough his ode to Aelerinn and martyrdom, a stupid and shortsighted view for a people dwindling away into extinction. Plus as an outcast freak I have some empathy with the terrorists, but I know that to them I am just another dhoinne when my usefulness ends, Yaevinn makes this very clear.

 

I'm really of two minds.

[Humanoid]

Far from backstabs being mechanically exploitative, more games need to have an assassination feature not necessarily tied to the combat system. When people talk about 'exploiting' multiple backstabs, I don't see the cheat as being that you can get off multiple backstabs, the cheat is that the target is somehow still alive after the first one. There's no need to do a damage calculation if you're attacking someone sound asleep, there are few worse gameplay experiences than shooting a sleeping guy, having him say something, slowly go through the waking-up animation, then proceed to fight you as if it was any other fight except that he starts with 80% hp.

 

The poison apple was the only good thing in the entire design of Oblivion. Target eats it, target dies, no need for any more complexity than that.

[Hurlshort]

So I decided to drop a buck on The Binding of Isaac.  Yikes, that's a disturbing game.  

[Humanoid]

Sounds kinky.

 

---

 

I hadn't played D:OS for over a year now, but my sister had recently finished playing Fantasy Life on 3DS and was asking for suggestions on what to play next. So now we've played the game just about every day for a week so far.

[marelooke]

Finished up Saints Row 3 and I had a blast. Seems I haven't car-jacked a lot since I don't even have that achievement. Heh, I must be getting soft.

 

Decided I might as well plunge into SR IV when I remembered this "share your character feature" that I got bothered about on more than one occasion in the game, so rather than recreate my character I tried to export her. Well, no such luck, seems that feature has been down for two years (according to Volition forums) and all I can find about it is a standard cut and paste mod message saying they "are working on it". Yeah, guess if it' s been down that long I'll be recreating my character after all, "whatevs". Pretty gruesome way to treat your fans though.

[SadExchange]

Sounds kinky.

 

---

 

I hadn't played D:OS for over a year now, but my sister had recently finished playing Fantasy Life on 3DS and was asking for suggestions on what to play next. So now we've played the game just about every day for a week so far.

I just loaded up D:OS recently from a few months off and spent the first 30 minutes reading through my questlog trying to figure out where I'm at in the game and were I need to go next lol

[Tale]

Finally attempted to play Pillars of Eternity. Framerate is unplayable, so it was a failed effort.

[mkreku]

I found the original Tomb Raider on the Play store. Bought it for less than a bag of candy and am now playing it with ridiculous frame-rates on my Tegra K1 equipped Mi Pad. Oh, and it controls really well with my Xiaomi game pad too. No more of those annoying tank controls.

 

I never played Tomb Raider much when it was released. I remember trying it on a school PC and thought it looked spectacular, but I never got a chance to play it for real. I will do that now.

 

I love my Mi Pad sometimes.

[waiveddreams]

I've just found some time to play games again and enjoyed Alpha Protocol for the first time this week. My perception of games has changed, haven't played for two years at all. I think it is a great interactive narrative, I enjoy the way the story is being told.
It is not easy to quit gaming after such a long time without videogames. Installed Banner Saga today.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Aramil

[Keyrock]

I finished Act 3 in Pillars and I think I'm pretty close to the end.  Good thing too, as I'm really tired of the game.  If you want to hear me swearing, then watch the latter LPs I am doing for this game, as I get progressively more and more salty.  Trying to do all the side quests and complete the Paths of Od Nua was a mistake on my part.  Had I not let my compulsion toward completing everything possible in single playthrough keep hold of me so long, I could have finished the game much earlier, before it had outstayed its welcome, while I was still enjoying it.  At this point, 88+ hours in, the only thing keeping me going is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and just wanting to get it over with.  The only joy I have left in playing the game at all is any story bits I get to listen to/read.  Every single battle at this point is excruciating.  Were I not this close to the end, I would take a good long break from the game and maybe finish it some months from now.  Since I'm so close, I'll just power through it.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Keyrock

[WDeranged]

I finished Act 3 in Pillars and I think I'm pretty close to the end.  Good thing too, as I'm really tired of the game.  Trying to do all the side quests and complete the Paths of Od Nua was a mistake on my part.  Had I not let my compulsion toward completing everything possible in single playthrough keep hold of me so long, I could have finished the game much earlier, before it had outstayed its welcome, while I was still enjoying it.  At this point, 88+ hours in, the only thing keeping me going is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and just wanting to get it over with.  The only joy I have left in playing the game at all is any story bits I get to listen to/read.  Every single battle at this point is excruciating.  Were I not this close to the end, I would take a good long break from the game and maybe finish it some months from now.  Since I'm so close, I'll just power through it.

 

Ditto, though I dare say you've done more than me

[Bartimaeus]

What difficulty are you playing on, Keyrock, out of curiosity?

[Keyrock]

What difficulty are you playing on, Keyrock, out of curiosity?

Hard, expert mode.  I always played Infinity Engine games on Hardcore D&D difficulty and Hard seemed like the closest approximation to that.  Combat isn't difficult at this point in the game, with a few exceptions, most encounters are relatively easy (I'm level 11), they're just tedious.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

Ah...yes, if I started up again, there's no way I'd try anything harder than normal. Hard is doable, no doubt about it, but such a chore. I don't envy anyone who played through on PotD. *shudder*

[Keyrock]

Ah...yes, if I started up again, there's no way I'd try anything harder than normal. Hard is doable, no doubt about it, but such a chore. I don't envy anyone who played through on PotD. *shudder*

If I do another playthrough at some point, I'll probably try a solo run.  I've grown to despise the pathfinding in the game with every fiber of my being.  With a solo run at least I'd only have to deal with holding the hand of one imbecile instead of six.  Also, a solo, high stealth build would give me the best chance at bypassing as much combat as possible, and the less combat I have to do the better.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

Not a bad idea. What class would be best for it, do you think?

[Keyrock]

I'm thinking either Druid or Cipher.

[SadExchange]

I will vouch for the cipher as a pretty decent class to play. Good "spell" user and a good tank at the same time.