Uhm, that seems like quite a big change to the default behaviour. Beamdog seems to have done few of these lately. I guess they have forsaken their own old mantra of just acting as curators.
Haven't had time to play yet and I'm bit confused about this option. Does this mean that unless you edit your ini your characters will always get max hp on level ups now?
It does sound like it, yes. But editing the .ini is very easy so it shouldn't be a problem if you don't like the option.
Haven't had time to play yet and I'm bit confused about this option. Does this mean that unless you edit your ini your characters will always get max hp on level ups now?
It does sound like it, yes. But editing the .ini is very easy so it shouldn't be a problem if you don't like the option.
Oh so if I want to I can easily edit the game back to way it was? How nice. Shouldn't that go the exact opposite way.
I don't think people really understand how massive balance change this is. As an example let's take a fighter with 18 con. Max hp roll of 14, so best you could get is 140 hp from 10 level ups. Obviously over very large number of rolls you would on average get 70 hp. Now you will get the full 140 hp every single time.
This is simply huge balance change for no apparent reason other than Beamdog deciding to change something. This should be something you have to edit/mod your game, NOT the default.
Max HP on level up forced on me. Sorry - but that is simply retarded. That is one major gamebalance-change, that I have no say on? Oh I can go and hack my own game... why thank you, that is really nice of you.
It is not only a game-changer, it is an immersion breaker. BIG TIME. Seriously BD, get you head out of your ass... some of your decisions are more than weird. I can not fathom how you can decide that such a major change gets forced on players.
I have always avoided max HP, and I am got damn angry i can't anymore. Change it back to the default setting ASAP. What were you thinking?
In terms of balance from what I recall the default difficulty for the game is normal difficulty, which already grants you it, so its only those playing core or greater (and who are unwilling or unable to change the ini file) that are affected by this. Though its not how I prefer to play a number of regulars here probably already go for max hp each level so I'm not sure how much this really changes much for most players from a balance perspective (since turning to normal difficulty on level up or before character creation was always an option).
I just checked and without it enabled (and with normal difficulty on) you still get max hp on level up. So I do agree it should be off as a default, and that it should have its own selectable button in-game, its status as being set at default is not something I'm particularly upset over given that the community has been asking for this as an option for 2 years now and you can edit it (though in the case of phones/tablets this probably requires hopefully free 3rd party software).
Just a few examples of people previously posting about this being an option.
Anyways, it could simply be an oversight on their part that it was left on by default. Particularly given that Dee has stated that if it isn't in the options screen it hasn't been tested yet, that the default in IWD is that it is on, that the cleric ranger spells is also set at 1 (when it should be at 0 to comply with previous BG2 behaviour), that it wasn't mentioned in the 1.3 release notes, and that the Sneak Attack tables aren't in-game.
An oversight - I hope so. Yes normal difficulty has always aplied the mechanic - core+ never. The choice has always been there to slide the difficulty.
I truly hope no professional company makes major product-changes based on... forum counts.
I'm pretty sure I or someone can mod in Sneaks into BGEE2 now since it seems to be working - just strings are not right.
I levelled a guy to 12, he didn't get crippling strike so that'd have to be added too however his "backstab" damage went to 4d6 on character sheet which (without table in front of me) sounds like the correct sneak progression.
Maybe @Avenger_teambg will make it an option for Rogue Rebalancing if we all ask nicely
Haven't had time to play yet and I'm bit confused about this option. Does this mean that unless you edit your ini your characters will always get max hp on level ups now?
It does sound like it, yes. But editing the .ini is very easy so it shouldn't be a problem if you don't like the option.
Oh so if I want to I can easily edit the game back to way it was? How nice. Shouldn't that go the exact opposite way.
I don't think people really understand how massive balance change this is. As an example let's take a fighter with 18 con. Max hp roll of 14, so best you could get is 140 hp from 10 level ups. Obviously over very large number of rolls you would on average get 70 hp. Now you will get the full 140 hp every single time.
This is simply huge balance change for no apparent reason other than Beamdog deciding to change something. This should be something you have to edit/mod your game, NOT the default.
Although the change is huge (and a pretty bad idea) it's not that huge. First, a max-hp-level 10-18 dex-fighter would have 129 hp, with level 10 only giving 3. Then, the average roll per level is not 7. It would be, if you rolled a number between 0 and 14, but the formula is 4 + 1d10, so the average is 9.5. Also on level 1 you get max hp (or is this only working this way in BG1?), so your level 10 average-hp-character has 14 + 8 * 9.5 + 3 = 93 hp.
Although I agree that in BG2 this particular feature won't have much influence due to somewhat high starting level of your character, I would like to pay attention to the following.
I think the thing @Messi mentions doesn't necessary involves the particular version of BG2EE. It should be decided whether this approach regarding setting Max HP as a default option is taken not only regarding BG2EE but also BGEE as there will be future patches.
I completely agree with @elminster that random HP should be a a default option and that the player could change it in the game settings. The decision on this matter that should be made on this BG2 version's setting will act towards any future development of patches for both BG1 and BG2 games.
After putting backstab.spl and cripplingstrike.2da in my override along with sneakattack.2da this is what I got. I guess crippling strike is working. It would seem only the text string are not right.
Although I agree that in BG2 this particular feature won't have much influence due to somewhat high starting level of your character, I would like to pay attention to the following.
I think the thing @Messi mentions doesn't necessary involves the particular version of BG2EE. It should be decided whether this approach regarding setting Max HP as a default option is taken not only regarding BG2EE but also BGEE as there will be future patches.
I completely agree with @elminster that random HP should be a a default option and that the player could change it in the game settings. The decision on this matter that should be made on this BG2 version's setting will act towards any future development of patches for both BG1 and BG2 games.
It seems you skimmed a bit too quickly through my post. At no point I said it hasn't much influence, I merely corrected Messis messy math.
I think it's a terrible decision, to make the correct rule implementation inaccessible from within the game. It also is very annoying for me, since I use my own ruleset, where I generally use the random rolls, but allow myself max HP for single levelups, in case that character got screwed and has HP well below the expected value at that point. While it's certainly not difficult to edit the ini-file, I would still prefer not having to switch to a text editor regularly while playing the game.
Haven't had time to play yet and I'm bit confused about this option. Does this mean that unless you edit your ini your characters will always get max hp on level ups now?
It does sound like it, yes. But editing the .ini is very easy so it shouldn't be a problem if you don't like the option.
Oh so if I want to I can easily edit the game back to way it was? How nice. Shouldn't that go the exact opposite way.
I don't think people really understand how massive balance change this is. As an example let's take a fighter with 18 con. Max hp roll of 14, so best you could get is 140 hp from 10 level ups. Obviously over very large number of rolls you would on average get 70 hp. Now you will get the full 140 hp every single time.
This is simply huge balance change for no apparent reason other than Beamdog deciding to change something. This should be something you have to edit/mod your game, NOT the default.
Although the change is huge (and a pretty bad idea) it's not that huge. First, a max-hp-level 10-18 dex-fighter would have 129 hp, with level 10 only giving 3. Then, the average roll per level is not 7. It would be, if you rolled a number between 0 and 14, but the formula is 4 + 1d10, so the average is 9.5. Also on level 1 you get max hp (or is this only working this way in BG1?), so your level 10 average-hp-character has 14 + 8 * 9.5 + 3 = 93 hp.
Yeah, I knew my math wasn't completely accurate but is really completely beside the point. It makes no difference whatsoever if on avg. you only gain 40 hp instead of 70 hp in that situation. The point is this is not a change Beamdog shouldn't have any right, or need, to make.
This change is especially baffling because as someone pointed out it only affects people playing on "Core" or higher difficulty. Ie. the people least likely to want something like this in the first place.
I also really don't like the "well you can just edit the ini" talk. This change honestly doesn't affect me at all as I always play with the NWN hp roll from mods. What annoys me the most about this change is not the inconvience, but the fact that it in major way affects the games for people who want to play it for the first time. Also I find very weird that it is completely ok to require people have the knowledge to mod their game to achieve vanilla difficulty, but apparently it is not ok for the devs to give any justification for this change.
If this is a bug, or an oversight, say so. Otherwise you should at least be able to clearly justify this change.
Phew! Okay sorry for my mistake of making an honest mistake so much more. But change it back to how it is supposed to be before christmas pretty please. Finally i will have time to play the game
There won't be any further updates to the game before the holidays; we won't have time to make changes and test them. But these things are on the radar for our next update, which (fingers crossed) won't take a full year to release.
Well, while you can't get max HP without the certain setting or only luck at your level up, you can still get 100% scroll scribing chance: just drink enough potions of Genious and/or Mind Shield to make the INT of your character reach 24 mark.
Well, while you can't get max HP without the certain setting or only luck at your level up, you can still get 100% scroll scribing chance: just drink enough potions of Genious and/or Mind Shield to make the INT of your character reach 24 mark.
Only for non-specialist mages. Specialist mages would have 85% chance for spells from outside of their specialization. At least according to @elminster
Though its not mentioned in the manual (or in-game) specialist mages get a 15% bonus to learn spells of their school and a 15% penalty at learning spells outside of their school. So for instance a conjurer would have a 30% better chance at learning a conjuration spell compared to say trying to learn an illusion spell (because there is a 30% difference because of this bonus/penalty). This was actually the case in the original games, but it was something that is often not reported (or assumed to be not true).
There are certainly some exciting things there. Just know that if it hasn't been added to the Options screen, it hasn't been fully tested yet. Nightmare Mode, for example, also affects joinable NPCs, and the sneak attack tables don't currently exist yet.
Comments
I don't think people really understand how massive balance change this is. As an example let's take a fighter with 18 con. Max hp roll of 14, so best you could get is 140 hp from 10 level ups. Obviously over very large number of rolls you would on average get 70 hp. Now you will get the full 140 hp every single time.
This is simply huge balance change for no apparent reason other than Beamdog deciding to change something. This should be something you have to edit/mod your game, NOT the default.
It is not only a game-changer, it is an immersion breaker. BIG TIME. Seriously BD, get you head out of your ass... some of your decisions are more than weird. I can not fathom how you can decide that such a major change gets forced on players.
I have always avoided max HP, and I am got damn angry i can't anymore. Change it back to the default setting ASAP. What were you thinking?
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/35008/do-you-max-your-hp-level-rolls/p1
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19408/on-core-or-higher-difficulty-do-you-cheat-when-leveling-up-or-writing-magic/p1
I just checked and without it enabled (and with normal difficulty on) you still get max hp on level up. So I do agree it should be off as a default, and that it should have its own selectable button in-game, its status as being set at default is not something I'm particularly upset over given that the community has been asking for this as an option for 2 years now and you can edit it (though in the case of phones/tablets this probably requires hopefully free 3rd party software).
Just a few examples of people previously posting about this being an option.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/21784/new-difficulty-core-rules-with-max-level-up-hp
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/230820/#Comment_230820
https://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/8495/max-hp-on-level-its-own-option
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/4660/max-hp
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/6137/check-box-for-max-hit-hp-in-config
Anyways, it could simply be an oversight on their part that it was left on by default. Particularly given that Dee has stated that if it isn't in the options screen it hasn't been tested yet, that the default in IWD is that it is on, that the cleric ranger spells is also set at 1 (when it should be at 0 to comply with previous BG2 behaviour), that it wasn't mentioned in the 1.3 release notes, and that the Sneak Attack tables aren't in-game.
I truly hope no professional company makes major product-changes based on... forum counts.
I got the following when I tried something that should be a sneak:
19 damage? I think that was a sneak even though the message text says "backstab failed"
I'm equipped with a 1d8 longsword + 1 str bonus. The char sheet says 3d6 "backstab" damage.
For comparison here's what it says in IWDEE when you sneak
Hmmm.... It might be as easy as changing the message in BG2EE to say Sneak Attack instead of Backstab failed
I levelled a guy to 12, he didn't get crippling strike so that'd have to be added too however his "backstab" damage went to 4d6 on character sheet which (without table in front of me) sounds like the correct sneak progression.
Maybe @Avenger_teambg will make it an option for Rogue Rebalancing if we all ask nicely
CrippStr.2da and BACKSTAB.SPL are the files you are looking for.
First, a max-hp-level 10-18 dex-fighter would have 129 hp, with level 10 only giving 3. Then, the average roll per level is not 7. It would be, if you rolled a number between 0 and 14, but the formula is 4 + 1d10, so the average is 9.5. Also on level 1 you get max hp (or is this only working this way in BG1?), so your level 10 average-hp-character has 14 + 8 * 9.5 + 3 = 93 hp.
Although I agree that in BG2 this particular feature won't have much influence due to somewhat high starting level of your character, I would like to pay attention to the following.
I think the thing @Messi mentions doesn't necessary involves the particular version of BG2EE. It should be decided whether this approach regarding setting Max HP as a default option is taken not only regarding BG2EE but also BGEE as there will be future patches.
I completely agree with @elminster that random HP should be a a default option and that the player could change it in the game settings. The decision on this matter that should be made on this BG2 version's setting will act towards any future development of patches for both BG1 and BG2 games.
It seems you skimmed a bit too quickly through my post. At no point I said it hasn't much influence, I merely corrected Messis messy math.
I think it's a terrible decision, to make the correct rule implementation inaccessible from within the game. It also is very annoying for me, since I use my own ruleset, where I generally use the random rolls, but allow myself max HP for single levelups, in case that character got screwed and has HP well below the expected value at that point. While it's certainly not difficult to edit the ini-file, I would still prefer not having to switch to a text editor regularly while playing the game.
Do these options work for BG:EE too?
This change is especially baffling because as someone pointed out it only affects people playing on "Core" or higher difficulty. Ie. the people least likely to want something like this in the first place.
I also really don't like the "well you can just edit the ini" talk. This change honestly doesn't affect me at all as I always play with the NWN hp roll from mods. What annoys me the most about this change is not the inconvience, but the fact that it in major way affects the games for people who want to play it for the first time. Also I find very weird that it is completely ok to require people have the knowledge to mod their game to achieve vanilla difficulty, but apparently it is not ok for the devs to give any justification for this change.
If this is a bug, or an oversight, say so. Otherwise you should at least be able to clearly justify this change.
*Anduin clenches fist and rages against the cruelty of the word*
You mean we no longer need to slide the damn slider from core to normal ever, ever again?
*Anduin prances around the crypt like a mummy two millenniums younger*
Specialist mages would have 85% chance for spells from outside of their specialization. At least according to @elminster
24 INT means 100% chance to scribe any scroll, by anyone (a bard, a specialist mage, a wild mage, a general mage)