After getting my teeth sunk into some mods and reading the Who should I take...thread (wow didnt that one go off track), theres something that i have started to realise. Its that these mods only seem to be concerned with beefing up monters and power gaming, something that doesnt keep me entertained on its own. Things like giving monsters new abilities that make no sense, encounters that make no sense, powerful monsters in ridiculous places (lich in the docks with no explanation, 3 dragons in small teeth pass) and weapons/npcs that throw balance out the window of a 50 story building screeming and kicking all the way down to the hard adamantite blow.

Wheres the RPG mods i ask? Wheres the mods with *IMAGINATIVE* quests with branching paths to completion, wheres the finely balanced weapons, wheres the plausible monsters with some logic to their abilities, wheres the balanced NPCs where dialogue *actually* affects their developement, wheres the mods that are playable by the casual gamer and wheres the mods that are, heaven forbid, *original and creative*? Whats your opinion on the matter?

[ 05-26-2003, 08:54 AM: Message edited by: dragon_lord ]

I have to disagree. The monsters and encounters in the unmodded game are just no challenge after a few times, not even for most casual-gamers. At least with tactics installed enemies tend to act more believably.

ALthough I wish bandits would quit attacking me. They should know me by now. I have killed rather a lot.

And there are mods the aim to do what your asking for, the imoen romance for example. But its a lot harder to write dialogue than it is to script a big fight, so such mods are less common.

There are mods what are disbalancing the game. I have such troubles right now. I do relize that making a mod is not an easy task (i have some expirience making maps for Half-life and maps for Heroes of might and magic III ), but it'll be good idea someone more experienced with IE mods making to establish a list where the people can say what they think of this or that mod so the authors may read and make better mods. And so when s.o. novice like me wants to install some mods he'll be 'prepared'.

Well, you can discuss most mods at their particular forums. Most of them are here, here and here.

Ignoring the encounters and special abilities... the Solaufein Mod does does a good job in terms of the romance dialogue. The encounters, items and special abilities are of course... another matter. *cough* *cough*

Kelsey is argubly the best NPC Mod out there, with no game-breaking items and stuff, and enjoyable dialogue. There's more roleplay than powerplay in this mod. Just my opinion though. As a plus, female characters can romance him.

The Ritual is actually a very well done mod. It is difficult, but not to the point where it makes casual gamers want to slit their wrists. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I found it very enjoyable, and probably one of the better balanced Weimer-made mods.

The Improved Bandits is another balanced mod. True... their frequency is kinda unrealistically high, but unless your party is half-dead, naked and have no spells, you should be able to handle them at any time.

The Lich in the Docks is an awesome fight( very few fights instill awe in me( more so when I realise the modder did not cheat left and right), so kudos to GB for this) with one fatal flaw. Why in the 9 Hells did he choose that location? This mod would have been better named, "The Fight For The Balduran Cloak". ;) [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Improved Kangaxx finally restores some dignity to Kangaxx. It's well done, though... I have some other ideas in mind.

Improved Twisted Rune is still a joke. I still feel the difficulty can be reasonably raised without exceeding the realm of reason. People should suffer before they get rewarded with the Staff of Magi. As it is... a level 13 Kensai with some choice scrolls can slice and dice his way to victory without losing any HP.

Improved Guarded Compound, see Improved Twisted Rune, just replace SotM with CFury.

Improved Ilynich. HAHAHAHA! http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/nut.gif Okay, now that that is out of my system... while this mod is doable, it must be noted that it was done as a joke. I cannot really recommend this mod in good conscience.

Item Upgrades: I play without the Item Upgrades Mod. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Well, I got it installed so that I can see what the heck people are talking about when they discuss the items, but on principle and as a challenge, I do not use them.

Red Badge Encounter: Tough, but doable. A tad unfair in some aspects, but not toooo much. With a few little tweaks though, this mod might become widely acceptable.

Gnome Illusionist: I could rant over a year just dissing the pair of Mephits shooting out level 8 counterspells like a gatling gun, but the short version is...

... Riiggghhhhttttt

Improved Irenicus: It is doable, but the total loss of items in the second round is horrifying and kinda cheap. Monks will most probably shrug it off, but Clerics will weep. That is about the only big complaint I have about it.

Minor issues include the infinite spells that JI has. Waiting for him to deplete his spells is not an option. Not to mention his infinite contingencies.

Did I leave out any?

Although the final battle is the most oft-discussed aspect, many people find the dialogue options to be the big draw of the Ascension mod. If you like it, you may also go for Redemption. Those both give role-playing choices. Tashia doesn't come with any massive fights (that I recall), so she's mostly roleplaying. Compton has some lovely NPC flirtpacks for the canon NPCs -- that will add more roleplaying. Many people think that the Imp Thief Stronghold adds some flavor for rogues.

Indeed, though it gets sort of boring since there are about 6 or 7 groups of nearly the exact same enemies. Im not complaining though, ive tried modding(very little though), and know that it is very hard, so im in awe of how many excellent mods Weimer and co. have made!

Am I the only person who likes Improved Illych? Solo sorceror on insane, it was tough but it wasnt one of those fights that seems completely impossible. Although its definately not one for the casual gamer. The reward is nice as well, for the summon-heavy player. Although I didnt notice it until shortly before I had to give it back.

Dundee, yes, you did leave out something. Kuroisan, the Acid Kensai. [img]smile.gif[/img]

He was a real pain-in-butt for me, mostly because I was unprepared (had no spells what so ever, my fighter/tanks were half-dead already). I had to cheat to kill him but I didn't keep the Sanchooku (spelling?) because I felt I didn't deserve it.

I enjoyed the Tashia mod quite a bit.

She can lean a bit to power gaming but what I really enjoyed was the many RP options with her.

Her dialog options don’t just have a good alignment response, a neutral and an evil response but often a wide variety of responses that actually require you to think about what you are saying. And your responses to her dialogs have long term consequences to your relationship with her.

She actually role plays her good alignment and gets after you if your responses to her or to situations are too violent and while I have never tried picking her up while playing an evil character I do not believe she would go with an evil party.