Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - Six's Review of the Tactics MOD (Tactics Spoilers Galore)

Odruith · 02-18-2004, 02:04 AM

I really enjoyed your review, Six, I myself have tried to start SoA-->ToB with my favourite evil fighter/thief char.

I have, the patches and fixpacks, Ascension, Tactics, Sola, item upgrades, Valen, Chloe, Tashia, Kelsey, Unfinished Business, the thief fix pack, the improved shadow thief hall, the banter pack, imp planar sphere and the flirt packs installed

It's alot of MODS at once. But they all add to the game. However, I have found for my starting party, I often use Shadow Keeper to edit my characters stats to mirror those I had with my Dwarf fighter at the end of Bg1 as well as Exp, Because I deleted all my bg1 saved games unfortunately. Alot of people might consider that wrong, but I did play Bg1 through and get all the tomes and increases and had a good 130k-150k exp for my main character and several others through doing as many quests in TDD+TotSC as possible.

However, EVEN with those edits to make it as though I'd just finished BG1, I did find the start of SoA with tactics excruiciating. Because I was constantly killed by Shadow Thieves and thought.. this is the heart of Irenicus' dungeon. How did the thieves get through the portal?

And Ilyich? .. Ugh. That was extremely hard. Because as a player.. I don'tlike to rest every five minutes to memorise spells. I find it silly Roleplay wise. So I like to set my spells in place and when in that particular dungeon, don't RPly say.. hey, guys, lets go to sleep for 8 hours on the off chance the shadow thieves will survive long enough to keep Jonny Busy! Because in the real situation there is no time. But with Imp Ilyich and those shadow thieves, the dungeon becomes one long line of reloads for me.

Other things in tactics have had me annoyed before as well. Such as when I get the shadow thief guild hall and go to meet Ama. What happens ? A random Ambush. Which at the level I'm usually at kills at least one of my characters and has the rest running around trying to kill both Ama *and* the ambush.

Tactics I've found to be a great MOD, but extremely overpowered on core rules as you said. Because even Mae'Var... that was hell for me. Because een with a moderately good level 11 party he presented a huge problem.

I pickpoketed ALL of the assassins of their healing potions and bows, thinking no more backstabs, no more trouble. I pickpocketed Mae'Var and the priest of Cyric, too. But what happened? The thieves ran out even without being able to go Invis and just diced me. And I couldn't run to reset my buffs, my party just crumbled before my eyes.

In short, you're full of beans. And I agree with alot of what you said. Certain areas are too overpowered. Making it less of a game and more of a chore to sit down and just enjoy it.

02-18-2004, 02:04 AM	#3
Odruith The Magister Join Date: December 27, 2003 Location: Mithril Hall Age: 37 Posts: 123	I really enjoyed your review, Six, I myself have tried to start SoA-->ToB with my favourite evil fighter/thief char. I have, the patches and fixpacks, Ascension, Tactics, Sola, item upgrades, Valen, Chloe, Tashia, Kelsey, Unfinished Business, the thief fix pack, the improved shadow thief hall, the banter pack, imp planar sphere and the flirt packs installed It's alot of MODS at once. But they all add to the game. However, I have found for my starting party, I often use Shadow Keeper to edit my characters stats to mirror those I had with my Dwarf fighter at the end of Bg1 as well as Exp, Because I deleted all my bg1 saved games unfortunately. Alot of people might consider that wrong, but I did play Bg1 through and get all the tomes and increases and had a good 130k-150k exp for my main character and several others through doing as many quests in TDD+TotSC as possible. However, EVEN with those edits to make it as though I'd just finished BG1, I did find the start of SoA with tactics excruiciating. Because I was constantly killed by Shadow Thieves and thought.. this is the heart of Irenicus' dungeon. How did the thieves get through the portal? And Ilyich? .. Ugh. That was extremely hard. Because as a player.. I don'tlike to rest every five minutes to memorise spells. I find it silly Roleplay wise. So I like to set my spells in place and when in that particular dungeon, don't RPly say.. hey, guys, lets go to sleep for 8 hours on the off chance the shadow thieves will survive long enough to keep Jonny Busy! Because in the real situation there is no time. But with Imp Ilyich and those shadow thieves, the dungeon becomes one long line of reloads for me. Other things in tactics have had me annoyed before as well. Such as when I get the shadow thief guild hall and go to meet Ama. What happens ? A random Ambush. Which at the level I'm usually at kills at least one of my characters and has the rest running around trying to kill both Ama and the ambush. Tactics I've found to be a great MOD, but extremely overpowered on core rules as you said. Because even Mae'Var... that was hell for me. Because een with a moderately good level 11 party he presented a huge problem. I pickpoketed ALL of the assassins of their healing potions and bows, thinking no more backstabs, no more trouble. I pickpocketed Mae'Var and the priest of Cyric, too. But what happened? The thieves ran out even without being able to go Invis and just diced me. And I couldn't run to reset my buffs, my party just crumbled before my eyes. In short, you're full of beans. And I agree with alot of what you said. Certain areas are too overpowered. Making it less of a game and more of a chore to sit down and just enjoy it.