(IWD2) A New Adventure
 

So yeah... my foray into this final IE-Engine based game is probably looong overdue. So long in fact, I have completely forgotten what was the reason that held me back from getting this game in the first place, when it first came out.

Regardless of the reason(s), I recently spied a bundle package of the IWD-series in a bookstore going for the neat price of S$19.90 (that's US$14.67). This was a good deal because my IWD CDs were damaged beyond repair anyway, so I get to replace my IWD CDs with a DVD-version, AND get IWD2 at the same time.

Bin bargains however, have their cons; namely, the lack of material manuals. Oh, for sure they include a .pdf file of the game manual, but I am lacking the Spells & Tables manual, and as a person who thrives on nitpicking over every single detail, the lack of this reference is driving me up the wall. I would greatly appreciate it if anybody can send me the .pdf version of the Spells & Tables manual.

Going to start the game soon, as soon as I get my mitts on some images that I need to make my custom portraits. The 3rd-Ed rules are also something foreign to me, but I take comfort in seeing how they are similar to the SPECIAL system used in the Fallout series. I fully expect to pick skills and feats that are deemed worthless by the general populace, but I also hope to discover new combinations that nobody else has ever thought of yet (such as the cases of PRATI, Bunny-nuke, etc... in BG2).

Cheers.

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

Check your PM

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

Ah good. New/old blood. Long time no see, Slaytern. ;)

You're not really missing anything but frustration by not having a material manual. It's poorly written and sometimes inaccurate, and was clearly thrown together at the last minute.

A note on feats: Improved Initiative is "broken" and has no in-game effect other than to make one waste a feat on something that is truly and utterly worthless.

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

Flawed as the manuals may be (in a time-honoured gaming tradition), they are still useful as a base of reference. I am not of course, going to quote it as THE Holy Writ.

I mean, we have to start from somewhere, and I would rather not start from scratch. I could in theory, extract all the spell files using NearInfinity and examine the values, but I would probably go mental before I reach the 100th spell. Even the extensive BG2 Spell Reference (may it rest in peace) uses the manual descriptions as a base, only modifying the inaccuracies and adding/amending as when needed.

Many thanks to ZFR again for the .pdf file. It was very helpful.

As for the game at hand, my first run is going to be a themed-run on Core Difficulty (and a self-study on how the AI Scripts work). Once I get a feel of the game, the second run will most likely be a powered-run on Core Difficulty (with actual implementation of self-created AI Scripts).

HoF-mode can wait... for now. ;) My ultimate goal is to achieve what I managed to achieve in the original IWD. AI Scripts that can beat the game on HoF-mode without cheating. I still find it very satisfying that my IWD-party managed to defeat the final HoW Boss on HoF-mode without any intervention on my part. It was like watching my very own epic 2D-sprites action-movie (what would he/she do next?)

AI Scripts would make all the repetitive spell buffing less of a chore too. :heh:

Cheers.

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

Examining the AI has been very interesting thus far, and the programming language has really matured since the days of BG1. :) It is going to be so much fun and far easier to code my AI scripts for spellcasters. :) I may even attempt to make an exhaustive AI Script that covers from 10th-nearest to nearest enemies. ^^; The ones in my IWD were only from 4th-nearest to nearest in comparison.

Still blindly picking skills at this point. I'm basically picking based on the theme of my party, and not on game efficiency. ^^;

Cheers.

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

That's what I did on my first game too. For BG as well....

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

Currently slaughtering my way through the Citadel of Mind-Flayers. I really, really DESPISE the reduced XP factor, and to earn only 300+ XP from killing each Mind-Flayer is... disappointing, to put it mildly. I still remember the WTF-moment when I killed a White Dragon and received a "whopping" 400 XP. Bloody heck! From a base value of 10000 XP, they chopped it down by 9600 XP?!?! That's bloody absurd!

Other than that major grievance, my play-through has been rather satisfying. I did encounter a major stumbling block in the 8-Chambers through, as the final chamber necessitated a highly specialised character to achieve success. It gave me bad recollections of poorly thought-out mods where the solution did not lend itself to creative role-play and demanded a narrow-minded path.

On the AI-front, work has been progressing fairly rapidly on the AI-Scripts. There has been several obstacles however, as some of the identifiers simply do not work at all; making it necessary to formulate loopholes in order for the script to work. MarkSpellAndObject() has unfortunately been discarded, as it is simply not specific enough for my standards. I also really wish there was a patched version of the SplState.ids as only 69 of the listed 130+ effects actually work. It would greatly reduced the checks needed in my code-blocks.

Cheers.

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

I thought you read the manual... ;)

In any case, there is no base value of 10000 XP. Most you could earn for one encounter in 3rd ed. is one level. XP rewards usually range from 100 to 2000 XP per encounter. Yet, unlike 2nd ed., levels only require currentlevel*1000 XP. There is no more exponential scale like in BG.

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

2nd ed progression is not spure exponential, in fact at higher levels it gets LINEAR.

3rd ed progression is QUADRATIC, which is quite steep...

And I find the "less XP as you level up" the most moronic rule in 3rd ed. That is already taken care of by the fact that as you become of higher level you need more xp to level up. Yes it is true that a 20th level character shouldn't learn as much from killing a goblin as a 1st level character, but that's why a 20th level character needs 20 times more xp to level up... Having him require more xp to level up and giving him less xp is just plain stupid.

By the way, this very much discourages soloing. The advantage of not having to split xp 6-ways completely disappears when you get 10 times less xp...

Re: (IWD2) A New Adventure
 

http://content.imagesocket.com/thumb...board017d1.jpg
Near Infinity states otherwise. If these XP values never existed, my scripts would be completely broken by now, since a lot of my code blocks depend on these values to justify a course of action.

Cheers.