[SimDing0]

Originally posted by Hank Parsons: [QB]Such is life. It would be awefully linear if 1st level PC's faced 1st level monsters, and 20th level PC's faced 20th level monsters. Thankfully original BG2 was not like that, and Tactics is not like that either. Bosses are supposed to be harder -- virually all computer battle-games recognize this.

Somewhat harder. Not ridiculously harder. And of course, in a hypothetical scenario where Tactics is the only mod installed, Bodhi will be tougher than the final battle of ToB. This is horribly inconsistent.

Tactics is not designed for first-time players who have yet to experience the story. Nor is it for re-players who want to be continually immersed in the story-line (such people would do better with Banter Packs, Flirt Packs, etc.).

That doesn't justify it breaking the immersion.

Tactics is explicitly designed for people who have already beat the game, who want to go back and re-challenge the high level bosses, and actually be challenged, instead of waltzing through the entire game with your eyes closed for the 12th time. There's nothing immersive about that, unless bored=immersed.

Tactics could easily be MADE immersive. It's realistic for the encounters to be difficult. It's not realistic for them to be inconsistent or done in ridiculous ways.
So are you telling me you think a game without the immersion is better than one with it?

First, that's what the Difficulty slider already does (very poorly, I might add).

"Very poorly" says it all. And Tactics bumps everything up to difficulties so extreme that the slider becomes pretty insignificant anyway.

Doing a uniform increase in difficulty is fine if that's what you want, but that would not solve your requests for immersion or realism.

No, they're separate issues, but both worth addressing.

It's more realistic to have Bosses be challenging (Faldorn, Bodhi, Irenicus, Firkragg), and have basic monsters fall quickly to heroes. The problem was when Bodhi fell faster than a Kobold, and Tactics helps to address this.

I'm not debating this. However, it seems too exaggerated in Tactics.

Besides, you appear to misunderstand Tactics, or perhaps have not actually played it.

Even with the strange assumption that I haven't played it, it wouldn't have been hard for me to read the readme and identify more general areas of improvement. However, see below.

Surely you didn't think that Improved Druid's Grove was easy and only Faldorn was hard? Tactics does not fix only singular bosses, it fixes entire classes of creatures, and hence: the entire quests and maps they inhabit.

But only SOME classes of creatures. As a result, I breeze through some battles, then come to some really hard ones which aren't even boss battles. That kinda contradicts what you say about it being the bosses that are logically made harder.

Tactics increases difficulty of many entire-maps of BG2: Druid's Grove; D'Arnise Keep not just Torgal is enhanced, but the upstairs fight also; any map with undead such as Unseeing Eye entire quest; any map with mind flayers such as lair in sewers and lair in Underdark; any map with mages which is perhaps 1/5 of the fights in the entire game; any map with Beholders; The Ritual entire map; and more.

That's a few maps out of the whole game. There are certain areas that it's still gonna be really easy to clear out in comparison, and that's not good.

Tactics does not increase the difficulty of kobolds, and you'll be so shocked and unimmersed when you leave Druid's Grove after 20 difficult fights with Spirit Trolls, and then beat a Kobold in 2 seconds. Hey, it's better than beating Druid's Grove in 8 seconds, followed by a Kobold in 2 seconds.

I don't believe so. I'd rather both kobolds and spirit trolls were slightly stronger. Or alternatively, the player was weaker, which is why I'm making the XP rebalancing mod.

I fully respect your desire for a mod that suits you. That is your choice. I want something more challenging than you want, is that alright?

From a more subjective point of view, then: there's a difficulty slider there. Not using it to its potential is bad design on both the part of Bioware and a mod-maker.

Tactics DOES make use of the difficulty slider on some encounters (namely, Improved Bodhi.) Weimer could do this more, if he wants to, but so far everyone on this thread only complained about the difficulty slider option. I really believe most of these people complained without actually trying the slider on Imp Bodhi.

Then there are the ones that it doesn't affect at all...

Pontifex, the guy at the start of Tactics The Ritual? He was hilarious. Very well-written and funny dialog. What's the problem with this? It was great.

Pontifex has good grammar, but that's about as well-written as it gets. Within the gameworld, it's utterly inappropriate. Breaking the fourth wall doesn't seem like something that is to be encouraged. Sure, things like Bondari are OMG FUNNY first time round, but serious role-players rapidly grow tired of that sort of encounter. Pontifex is no different.

Yes, it is. You're right. I don't recall anyone claiming that Tactics is a role-immersion mod. It's a tougher battles mod. This is what it is supposed to do.

No, it doesn't claim to add to immersion. On the other hand, it doesn't mention breaking it either, which is in reality what it does.