Is Detect Illusion ever useful? I never put any points into it. No, seriously--never.
It can be ridiculously useful in BG2, able to strip a mage of all his Illusion based defences in an instant (Mislead, Shadow Door, Mirror Image etc...)
@decado I concur, detect illusion in BG is immensely useful. It makes about half of the protection spells mage enemies commonly use completely useless.
It's been a while since I've played IWD, but don't mage enemies use spells like Mirror Image and (Improved) Invisibility there? If they do, detect illusion is indeed at least somewhat useful.
It really depends on if the AI is updated to allow mages to use more useful spells.
Detect Illusion is one of those skills that you always neglect and never miss it - until you've pumped it up on a playthrough and realise exactly how powerful it really is.
Not sure whether to be happy or sad about this announcement. happy cos ID is an awesome game and we now get to play it with kits and full EE awesomeness, but sad because I would like to see beamdog make their own original Infinity engine style rpg. anyways looking forward to this release
There are Custom T-Shirt companies all over the world, I'm sure you can send the design to some small local t-shirt company and get one. It's probably not a big deal for just one shirt to one guy for like $5 or whatever the cost to make a t-shirt is where you are. But just in case don't boast to Beamdog.
" Oh man, I sure wish I could have few more kits!!!" < - Has anyone ever even felt this way in any IE game ever?
I can never get enough option bro The more character creation options (no matter what they are) the better. But in truth in a game like this I would prefer additional races/subraces or something over additional character classes.
Also did not know about detect illusion...how high do you have to get it for it to become useful?
The higher you have it the faster it succeeds. Aim for 100.
Thief skills are like a percentage, so at 100 many of them are as good as they will ever be. Thief skills that don't benefit from points over 100 are Find/Disarm Traps, Set Traps, Open Locks, and Detect Illusion. A single Thief can max all 4 in time (Around L14), but 2 thieves with different specialties would be faster.
The reason that Hide in Shadow, Move Silently, and Pick Pockets benefit from numbers higher than 100 is because the skills of the person you're using them against are factored in and reduce your chance of success (id est if you have 140% chance of success -60% you have 80%). I believe the reason its slower with lower scores of Detect Illusion is because your chance of success is somewhat random and its checking for success continually, so the lower your chance the longer it takes to get lucky enough to succeed the roll. If its too low it could be impossible to succeed. One of the programmers of the game may be able to give a more precise technical answer, but this is what I've noticed from my years of observation playing the games.
Thief skills are like a percentage, so at 100 many of them are as good as they will ever be. Thief skills that don't benefit from points over 100 are Find/Disarm Traps, Set Traps, Open Locks, and Detect Illusion.
Interesting. I looked at the article you've linked, and while it states that there, I still can't believe 100 open locks and 100 disarm traps are the highest possible skill required for any lock/trap in any BG/IWD game. In my experience places like Durlag's Tower contain several traps that can't be reliably disarmed with a skill of 100 but easily give in to a skill of 150. I've always raised these two skills on my thieves up to 130 or higher. Could I've been wrong to do this throughout all these years? I'll be sure to try and test this on my next playthrough.
It can be ridiculously useful in BG2, able to strip a mage of all his Illusion based defences in an instant (Mislead, Shadow Door, Mirror Image etc...)
I always used True Seeing for that. *shrug* Different play style.
@Adul 100 isn't the highest possible score. Hard traps and locks will give you a penalty when you try to disable them.
For instance if you have 100% open locks and try to open a lock that gives you a 40% penalty you only have a 60% chance of opening that lock.
If my memory is not failing you need around 160 to never fail those checks in BG2.
Which traps are these? because as far as I know every trap has basically only two things when it comes to checks (outside of some sort of critical failure on your roll).
They have a detection difficulty (the value you need in find traps in order to see them) and a removal difficulty (the value you need in Find traps in order to remove them). Nothing about penalties or anything like that.
You can increase past 100, but all the locks, traps, et cetera are not programmed to require higher than 100. That doesn't mean they are all easy at 100 just that adding more won't effect the difficulty.
If you want to test it @Adul you don't have to do a full play through, use the pregen Thief, then the SetCurrentXP cheat code, then use the go to area cheat code (I remember there being one but can't find it) or use ctrl+J with EnableCheatKeys code to teleport to the end of areas to get there right away, and use CreateItem code if you need it. Save before attempting the trap/lock then Level Up and set the skills to 100 and save a different file try it a few times with them set there then Load the first Save and set them higher than 100 and test it a few times and record the result of each test.
Almost all traps and locks will open at 100. Use potions of perception for the one(s?) that don't and put those extra skill points into set traps or detect illusion. AFAIK those skills can only be increased by levelling up or some rare/NPC specific gear.
I just tested it myself, here's the steps I took; 1) I made a new game using Halen 2) Gave him 880,000 XP (The XP required to reach L14) 3) Turned cheat commands on 4) Created Item Boots of Speed 5) Turned on autopause at enemy sight 6) Talked to Gorion so I could leave Candlekeep 7) After Gorions death narration, strl+j to end of field and kept going till I get to entrance of Durlag's Tower 8) Saved, Thief Skill Test 10) Level Up, Set Open Locks, Find Traps, Detect Illusions, and Set Traps to 100.
Result: (Ctrl+Y on all enemies) Every single locked box opened in the first try. Found every trap, only a slight delay for the round to end so that it can run first success check after entering a room, every disarm trap successful in the first try. Don't know how to test Detect Illusions here... Set Snare successful every single time.
11) Reloaded Thief Skill Test 12) Level Up, Maxed Find Traps (Wouldn't go higher than 265) and remaining on Open Locks.
Result: Goal here was just to see if Finding Traps would be faster, it was not. In fact there was instances that it took longer, however that's coincidence because I must've entered the room right after a round started and had to wait the whole round for it to run the Find Trap. So I'm positive points over 100 do not make a difference. The saved game is attached, so feel free to try it yourselves.
While we have gotten a kind of confirmation that the 1.3 patch for BG2:EE and the Android version can be released before Christmas, it's another story with IWD:EE:
Quick question: I've just pre-ordered IWD and got an email telling me to download the Beamdog client. But I already have BGEE. Will downloading the Beamdog client for IWD mess up my BGEE install?
Well, if you look at it this way, that "likely within a month" release estimate that's up on the IWD website means that every single day when they don't update that piece of text the prediction at the time is that the game should come out in one month from that day. Essentially it's a self-updating time estimate. So even if the game comes out in 2018, that estimate technically remains relevant all the way up to a month before release.
Hmm does @TrentOster mean he isn't proud of IWD as it is now ?? I wonder
@Adul I'm sure it will be out way before 2018 but not sure about within a month of the announcement I bet it will take them longer but how much longer who knows
Quick question: I've just pre-ordered IWD and got an email telling me to download the Beamdog client. But I already have BGEE. Will downloading the Beamdog client for IWD mess up my BGEE install?
No, if you've already installed BG:EE, then the Beamdog client won't touch your installation; it installs the games in a separate directory inside Program Files / Beamdog / Games, though, so if you don't see the game listed as "ready to play" in the client, that's why.
I'm kinda hoping the Grizzly-kit gets to be in the game files... I want to take Wilson's ancestor through the game.
While the Grizzly kit looks promising, it may be not that well equiped for Icewind Dale's climate. However, I wouldn't be against having an Polar Bear kit though. Or an Short-Faced Bear kit for that matter.
I'm kinda hoping the Grizzly-kit gets to be in the game files... I want to take Wilson's ancestor through the game.
While the Grizzly kit looks promising, it may be not that well equiped for Icewind Dale's climate. However, I wouldn't be against having an Polar Bear kit though. Or an Short-Faced Bear kit for that matter.
I'm sure someone can re-color the bear sprite white.
Comments
It's been a while since I've played IWD, but don't mage enemies use spells like Mirror Image and (Improved) Invisibility there? If they do, detect illusion is indeed at least somewhat useful.
Detect Illusion is one of those skills that you always neglect and never miss it - until you've pumped it up on a playthrough and realise exactly how powerful it really is.
Also did not know about detect illusion...how high do you have to get it for it to become useful?
anyways looking forward to this release
The reason that Hide in Shadow, Move Silently, and Pick Pockets benefit from numbers higher than 100 is because the skills of the person you're using them against are factored in and reduce your chance of success (id est if you have 140% chance of success -60% you have 80%). I believe the reason its slower with lower scores of Detect Illusion is because your chance of success is somewhat random and its checking for success continually, so the lower your chance the longer it takes to get lucky enough to succeed the roll. If its too low it could be impossible to succeed. One of the programmers of the game may be able to give a more precise technical answer, but this is what I've noticed from my years of observation playing the games.
Aside from my own experience I also used http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Thief as a reference.
For instance if you have 100% open locks and try to open a lock that gives you a 40% penalty you only have a 60% chance of opening that lock.
If my memory is not failing you need around 160 to never fail those checks in BG2.
They have a detection difficulty (the value you need in find traps in order to see them) and a removal difficulty (the value you need in Find traps in order to remove them). Nothing about penalties or anything like that.
If you want to test it @Adul you don't have to do a full play through, use the pregen Thief, then the SetCurrentXP cheat code, then use the go to area cheat code (I remember there being one but can't find it) or use ctrl+J with EnableCheatKeys code to teleport to the end of areas to get there right away, and use CreateItem code if you need it. Save before attempting the trap/lock then Level Up and set the skills to 100 and save a different file try it a few times with them set there then Load the first Save and set them higher than 100 and test it a few times and record the result of each test.
For the cheat codes check Cheat Code Central or anywhere else on the internet.
http://www.cheatcc.com/pc/baldursgate.html
1) I made a new game using Halen
2) Gave him 880,000 XP (The XP required to reach L14)
3) Turned cheat commands on
4) Created Item Boots of Speed
5) Turned on autopause at enemy sight
6) Talked to Gorion so I could leave Candlekeep
7) After Gorions death narration, strl+j to end of field and kept going till I get to entrance of Durlag's Tower
8) Saved, Thief Skill Test
10) Level Up, Set Open Locks, Find Traps, Detect Illusions, and Set Traps to 100.
Result: (Ctrl+Y on all enemies) Every single locked box opened in the first try. Found every trap, only a slight delay for the round to end so that it can run first success check after entering a room, every disarm trap successful in the first try. Don't know how to test Detect Illusions here... Set Snare successful every single time.
11) Reloaded Thief Skill Test
12) Level Up, Maxed Find Traps (Wouldn't go higher than 265) and remaining on Open Locks.
Result: Goal here was just to see if Finding Traps would be faster, it was not. In fact there was instances that it took longer, however that's coincidence because I must've entered the room right after a round started and had to wait the whole round for it to run the Find Trap. So I'm positive points over 100 do not make a difference. The saved game is attached, so feel free to try it yourselves.
P.S. Imoen is also in the party with her XP at 880,000.
P.P.S.S. I have this mod installed: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/10900/xp-mod-teambgs-level-40-rule-set-high-level-abilities/p1
I will pre-order this jewel as soon as came back home. Thanks beamdog, you're the bests.
I already have bg:ee and bg2:ee on pc and on ipad, can't wait to have iwd:ee and (maybe one day?) iwd2:ee also on pc and ipad. Keep up the good work!
So, may IWD:EE have as little bugs as possible, we'll wait
Well, if you look at it this way, that "likely within a month" release estimate that's up on the IWD website means that every single day when they don't update that piece of text the prediction at the time is that the game should come out in one month from that day. Essentially it's a self-updating time estimate. So even if the game comes out in 2018, that estimate technically remains relevant all the way up to a month before release.
[/snark]
@Adul I'm sure it will be out way before 2018