Enemy AI and difficulty, a plea for BG2EE!
RogueN
Member Posts: 10
Well, first of all i should clearly state that i'm an old school player that knows a lot about this game (and other original Black Isle products) so this probably will not apply for most. I play these games first playthrough for the RPG experience, obviously further playthroughs i play for challenge and usually with a solo FT or FM character. And this is the problem i find in this one, enemy AI is very poor so there's basically no challenge. The game is full of mages casting remove magic when you have no buffs and don't have a clue what to do when you go invisible.
That said, i am not entirely satisifed with my purchase here, i find that imo not enough was done to deserve the attribute "enchanced". Still i don't regret, but mainly due to nostalgy
Back to the topic, my plea is that people working on Bg2EE should maybe consider the following: would it not be great if difficulty slider had an effect on enemy AI and stats, instead of simply "doing that ammount of damage"? I realize it would be a lot of work, but as it is, the slider only effects the damage received, but my problem with that is that in such a setting stats and wepons kind of lose meaning, i.e. what good is my STR of 18 and +2 sword if a kobold suddenly does more damage then me, despite poor stats and worse weapons? What could be done is that difficulty slider leaves damage as it is but for example:
- affect enemy HP +-50 percent
-affect enemy stats +-20 percent
- affect enemy level (and therefore known and memorized spells, potions on hand, rogue skills)
- affect AI ( makes enemies actually use potions and scrolls, pick what spell to use based on circumstances etc.
yes i know i'm asking a lot and that this would be a lot of work, however it would have a huge impact on replayability positively.
David Gaider's did this with his Ascension mod for original BG2 and improved battles with the 5 and improved Mellisan. Slider actually affected the enemy scripts and enemies were more "clever" the higher you went!. As soon as you cast stoneskin someone would cast breach, you cast shadow door someone immediately casts true seing etc. Final fight in TOB with this mod was what i consider a real challenge, and you do not know pain if you haven't experienced this.
Anyway, i'd like to hear if there are more people that share my opinion, are the devs considering anything of what i wrote about. If someone has any info about activities of David Gaider and is he considering to do some mods for EE i'd appreciate it
That said, i am not entirely satisifed with my purchase here, i find that imo not enough was done to deserve the attribute "enchanced". Still i don't regret, but mainly due to nostalgy
Back to the topic, my plea is that people working on Bg2EE should maybe consider the following: would it not be great if difficulty slider had an effect on enemy AI and stats, instead of simply "doing that ammount of damage"? I realize it would be a lot of work, but as it is, the slider only effects the damage received, but my problem with that is that in such a setting stats and wepons kind of lose meaning, i.e. what good is my STR of 18 and +2 sword if a kobold suddenly does more damage then me, despite poor stats and worse weapons? What could be done is that difficulty slider leaves damage as it is but for example:
- affect enemy HP +-50 percent
-affect enemy stats +-20 percent
- affect enemy level (and therefore known and memorized spells, potions on hand, rogue skills)
- affect AI ( makes enemies actually use potions and scrolls, pick what spell to use based on circumstances etc.
yes i know i'm asking a lot and that this would be a lot of work, however it would have a huge impact on replayability positively.
David Gaider's did this with his Ascension mod for original BG2 and improved battles with the 5 and improved Mellisan. Slider actually affected the enemy scripts and enemies were more "clever" the higher you went!. As soon as you cast stoneskin someone would cast breach, you cast shadow door someone immediately casts true seing etc. Final fight in TOB with this mod was what i consider a real challenge, and you do not know pain if you haven't experienced this
.Anyway, i'd like to hear if there are more people that share my opinion, are the devs considering anything of what i wrote about. If someone has any info about activities of David Gaider and is he considering to do some mods for EE i'd appreciate it
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Comments
When it's nor fair, it's not funny.
When it's nor fair, it's not funny.
Sword Coast Stratagems for BG:EE (SCS:EE) is in development and the release is probably within around a month or so. That will provide the smarter enemy AI that you seek.
I'm really looking forward to it myself. SCS really does make the game more immersive for me because the enemies behave more like there's a thinking creature doing the spellcasting.
I'm also waiting for SCS to come out. Huge thanks to DavidW for his outstanding work!
"Hey @davidgaider a while ago we talked about the thing and the stuff. I'd like to follow up on that if it isn't too much trouble"
Mysterious? Yes, exciting? quite possibly