Improving IWD2 -- is there an AI mod like SCS?
Ygramul
Member Posts: 1,060
IWD2 is the single best Infinity Engine game when it comes to refined tactical combat. (Though BG/BG2 is still a greater favorite of mine due to story.)
Opening of IWD2, especially feats like trying to save the Shanegarn Bridge are fine fine examples of D&D combat at its best.
Unfortunately, after mid-way the game goes downhill as there is no challenge:
One single front liner tank loaded with defensive buffs and a good mix of casters will faceroll all challenges of the game.
Notably, enemy *mages* are push-overs in IWD2 - even though they are game-enders in BG2.
I wondered why mages were a pushover:
1. no contingencies/immunities -- they can be interrupted easily
2. their scripting (though better than vanilla BG) is far behind SCS level intelligence.
Is there a mod at all that makes late IWD2 fights difficult (via good AI, not cheap cheese)?
Is there an SCS-like enhancement of IWD2?
Opening of IWD2, especially feats like trying to save the Shanegarn Bridge are fine fine examples of D&D combat at its best.
Unfortunately, after mid-way the game goes downhill as there is no challenge:
One single front liner tank loaded with defensive buffs and a good mix of casters will faceroll all challenges of the game.
Notably, enemy *mages* are push-overs in IWD2 - even though they are game-enders in BG2.
I wondered why mages were a pushover:
1. no contingencies/immunities -- they can be interrupted easily
2. their scripting (though better than vanilla BG) is far behind SCS level intelligence.
Is there a mod at all that makes late IWD2 fights difficult (via good AI, not cheap cheese)?
Is there an SCS-like enhancement of IWD2?
Post edited by Ygramul on
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You might want to check out: http://www.gog.com/forum/icewind_dale It's not as busy as here, but the people there know IWD inside-out.
Though I had managed to play it once upon a time, I once spent nearly 20 hours trying to get ToEE+Co8 to work in a newer rig. It's a pain.
I wish new D&D games were all the turn-based masterpiece that ToEE wanted to be.
Instead we get the kind of turdmound that Neverwinter is (meaning not NWN but the new MMORPG).
You also might want to keep an eye on Wasteland 2, Torment and Project:Eternity. They are all spiritual successors to some of the greatest games ever made, IMO (Wasteland/Fallout, Planescape: Torment, and of course, Baldur's gate, in that order). Wastleland 2 is on the verge of going beta, which means a proper release should be within the next few months.
I am particularly hopeful about the new Torment.
The Holy Grail of RPGs would be an isometric game with combat depth of ToEE and the story depth of Torment...
I wonder if @DavidW ever pondered porting the SCS AI routines to IWD2?
IWD and IWD2 have very differently structured AI from BG2 - there's much more individual scripting and a much lower focus on spellcasters. So it's nothing like as simple as porting it over - although a lot of the technology I ended up writing to build SCS (function libraries, automated scripting) is portable. I have about 2/3 of an IWD AI mod written (but at present only for IWD-in-BG2, not IWD proper) but I don't have the faintest idea of a release date. Years, probably. IWD2, even more so.
The only thing better would be if you and the fine folks at Beamdog end up developing a NEW IE-like game. (Perhaps, NOT BG3, but a new, original IP.)
I have a funny feeling that Torment is going to be the least tactical of the three. For them, it's really about the story and the mechanics are just a vehicle. Of course, I'm still planning on getting it.