Not commenting on most of it, but I think the +3 weapon requirement is difficulty level dependent. As Core Rules are supposed to be close to P&P I think that one is fine.
I am more annoyed that they used a previously defeated IWD villain.
Re: +3 Weapons - Granted, but difficult doesn't have to mean "You can get yourself stuck with sub-optimal combat equipment unless you know exactly what to look for and/or cheat".
Re: Recycled Villain - I know, right? Who could have expected Yxunomei to show up again?
Yxunomei would have been a better villain for SoD than Belhifet.
Actually, I'd say Yxunomei was the second-best villain in any of the IE games, right behind Irenicus--and even then, I'd say it's pretty close.
I was actually disappointed that Yxunomei wasn't the final villain in IWD. I was sure she was going to make an epic comeback and take me on again at the end!
Why's that? Is there something particularly appealing about elaborate, flowery sentences and boasts coming out of the mouth of a goddamn brat kid voiced by Tara Strong? :P (But in all seriousness I don't know enough about her to confirm or deny that claim.)
Why's that? Is there something particularly appealing about elaborate, flowery sentences and boasts coming out of the mouth of a goddamn brat kid voiced by Tara Strong? :P (But in all seriousness I don't know enough about her to confirm or deny that claim.)
The answer is, Yes. When an 'evil' villain manages to explain themselves enough that you get an idea of their motivations it makes a huge difference to me in the believability factor. I'm quite sure that Hitler didn't think that he was evil, even though he was a despicable human being. Yxunomei had a believable justification for what she stood for. Bhelifet was evil because, well, demons are evil. That's not as realistic to me. Incidentally, that's why I like Irenicus so much more than Melisan, or even Sarevok for that matter. Irenicus was very talkative about his motivations (revenge AND power). Melisan and Sarevok are like, "I want power!", but don't really explain why. I guess wanting to be a God is believable, but at least tell me why you want to become a God...
Yxunomei gives us a hard and fair fight that demands the right strategy and a bit of luck. She uses her minions and environment very well and teases us from the moment we set foot on her den until we open the doors to her chambers.
Bhelifet is just layers over layers of stupid immunities and he gives me a feeling of "let's get this over with" instead of "I really wanna see what happens next".
Just check out how many threads are around asking how to defeat Yxunomei and how many asks how to defeat Bhelifet.
I honestly can't think of a better boss battle than Yxunomei's. And I'm not limiting myself to the IE.
I don't understand why villains always need to explain themselves. For closure to the player I suppose? I'd like some open endings. The real world pretty much only works with open endings.
Defendant, why did you do such and such?
- awkward silence
Belhifet is still better than Icasaracht imo... at least he doesn't constantly play the victim. Everything that stupid dragon is complaining about happened due to her own actions and her own prejudices.
I don't understand why villains always need to explain themselves. For closure to the player I suppose? I'd like some open endings. The real world pretty much only works with open endings.
Defendant, why did you do such and such?
- awkward silence
It's for the same reasons that people are fascinated with the motivations of serial killers. There has to be a reason or it's total chaos!
Besides, the time it takes for the evil villain to monologue gives the hero just enough time to recuperate and defeat him/her. Everybody loves tropes!
7. When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."
I'll stick to the Evil Overlord variant myself, thank you very much.
As a side note, I feel the need to point out that Yxunomei is the perfect wifey material! Those three pairs of hands really come in handy for... various... situations.
I don't understand why villains always need to explain themselves. For closure to the player I suppose? I'd like some open endings. The real world pretty much only works with open endings.
Defendant, why did you do such and such?
- awkward silence
It's for the same reasons that people are fascinated with the motivations of serial killers. There has to be a reason or it's total chaos!
Besides, the time it takes for the evil villain to monologue gives the hero just enough time to recuperate and defeat him/her. Everybody loves tropes!
You mean that the trope is that everybody likes evil to act like the mother who indulges an answer to the two year old child asking why too many times .
But fair enough. It's just not for me to like evil to be type cast all the time.
Unpopular opinion: the reputation system in Baldur's Gate, in which you can commit murder in broad daylight and still be seen as a hero simply by donating lots of money to a powerful organization (a church), is more realistic than we'd like to admit.
Being a farmer is one of the most lucrative occupations in all of Faerûn. A common misconception is that magical items are crafted by master rune smiths or wizards of legends. Truth is that they are all farmed by common folks with a hoe!
Ankheg Plate Mails? Produced by growing funghi inside Ankheg carcasses. Ring of Wizardry? Why, they naturally grow on orchards like weed!
Unpopular opinion: the reputation system in Baldur's Gate, in which you can commit murder in broad daylight and still be seen as a hero simply by donating lots of money to a powerful organization (a church), is more realistic than we'd like to admit.
To this day I'm still saddened by the lack of an Armageddon spell in Baldur's Gate.
Free Haven was never the same after my visits and Su Lang Manchu liked this very much.
@Kurona , Cool "Might and Magic 6" reference, there. I need to play that game again soon. At least up until Castle Darkmoor and/or Castle Alamar. I'm not sure when I'll be up for those nightmares of 3D maze dungeon design again.
JBARD. The answer is JBARD. That and NILBOG are burned into my memory.
And when you're finally done with the memory module dungeons you have the Tomb of VARN... crawling with genies and the magic-immune Guardians of VARN... while dragons and titans are wandering outside.
Oh yeah unpopular opinion time: Might and Magic 10 wasn't a bad game. It had its flaws, like a terrible optimization even by Unity standards and an art style that wouldn't look out of place in WoW but it was overall fairly decent.
@Kurona , I like MM10 too. I spent quite a bit of time playing it. I wish they hadn't gone with the hex grid system and had had free 3D movement like in MM6-8, and paper dolls would have been nice, but I still enjoyed it.
Neverwinter Nights 2 had the best Party Experience Points mechanic in any RPG I've ever played, i.e. everyone shares the same experience pool and all the XP you earn is cumulative instead of shared. It still let you level up party members you didn't use in a while so you weren't stuck with the same 3 or 4 people the whole game, and making sure everyone progressed at the same pace (for the most part) prevented uneven character progression in terms of baseline levelling. I'm sure anyone who's implemented separate XP bars with uneven XP distribution has at least one justification for doing so but speaking personally that system has only ever negatively affected my experience with RPGs.
Neverwinter Nights 2 had the best Party Experience Points mechanic in any , i.e. everyone shares the same experience pool and all the XP you earn is cumulative instead of shared. It still let you level up party members you didn't use in a while so you weren't stuck with the same 3 or 4 people the whole game, and making sure everyone progressed at the same pace (for the most part) prevented uneven character progression in terms of baseline levelling. I'm sure anyone who's implemented separate XP bars with uneven XP distribution has at least one justification for doing so but speaking personally that system has only ever negatively affected my experience with RPGs.
Pathfinder:Kingmaker allows you to turn XP sharing on and off at any point.
Now for an Unpopular Opinion: Beamdog should partner with Owlcat (developers behind PF:KM) to make a 5e D&D game!
haveing started replaying sod i'm just gonna say this it makes the story feel more complete then it was with out it.
I think the bare minimum is for them to close that soultaker plot first, before I can call it a proper bridge between the games.
I'm not sure where the future of Beamdogs development lies at the moment. They're better at communicating than they used to be, but a lot of the blog contents are ''we're working hard on that x thing this month as well'' Whereas any new IE content or potentially NwN modules are kept ''vague'' or outright ignored(Cough soultaker resolution cough)
I can't shake the feeling that we're going to continue to end up with things no one asked for.
haveing started replaying sod i'm just gonna say this it makes the story feel more complete then it was with out it.
I think the bare minimum is for them to close that soultaker plot first, before I can call it a proper bridge between the games.
I'm not sure where the future of Beamdogs development lies at the moment. They're better at communicating than they used to be, but a lot of the blog contents are ''we're working hard on that x thing this month as well'' Whereas any new IE content or potentially NwN modules are kept ''vague'' or outright ignored(Cough soultaker resolution cough)
I can't shake the feeling that we're going to continue to end up with things no one asked for.
well as the soul taker plot is already closed thanks to lava's price of one girl's soul mod. i kinda don't care if beamdog even does it anymore.
The OC NWN campaign is the best of the official campaigns.
Sou really isnt good, and HotU is only a bit better. I dont get the flak that the OC is getting - without the OC I wouldnt play nwn at all.
the problem with the oc is it's very bland and boring. it was made as an after thought and it shows. the nwn 2 oc in comparison while it has paceing issues i atlest like going through.
so we are going with another mod opinion. i just don't like wheel of prophecy . it just hurts the pacing imo with that little bit before the final solar sequence before the last test.
Comments
It works on MOST cutscenes. Some seem to be immune for some reason, but I think the one you mentioned can be skipped.
Re: +3 Weapons - Granted, but difficult doesn't have to mean "You can get yourself stuck with sub-optimal combat equipment unless you know exactly what to look for and/or cheat".
Re: Recycled Villain - I know, right? Who could have expected Yxunomei to show up again?
Oh, I will, don't worry. I have plenty to share. Getting them down on paper (literally or otherwise) is the hard part.
Actually, I'd say Yxunomei was the second-best villain in any of the IE games, right behind Irenicus--and even then, I'd say it's pretty close.
I was actually disappointed that Yxunomei wasn't the final villain in IWD. I was sure she was going to make an epic comeback and take me on again at the end!
The answer is, Yes. When an 'evil' villain manages to explain themselves enough that you get an idea of their motivations it makes a huge difference to me in the believability factor. I'm quite sure that Hitler didn't think that he was evil, even though he was a despicable human being. Yxunomei had a believable justification for what she stood for. Bhelifet was evil because, well, demons are evil. That's not as realistic to me. Incidentally, that's why I like Irenicus so much more than Melisan, or even Sarevok for that matter. Irenicus was very talkative about his motivations (revenge AND power). Melisan and Sarevok are like, "I want power!", but don't really explain why. I guess wanting to be a God is believable, but at least tell me why you want to become a God...
Bhelifet is just layers over layers of stupid immunities and he gives me a feeling of "let's get this over with" instead of "I really wanna see what happens next".
Just check out how many threads are around asking how to defeat Yxunomei and how many asks how to defeat Bhelifet.
I honestly can't think of a better boss battle than Yxunomei's. And I'm not limiting myself to the IE.
Defendant, why did you do such and such?
- awkward silence
It's for the same reasons that people are fascinated with the motivations of serial killers. There has to be a reason or it's total chaos!
Besides, the time it takes for the evil villain to monologue gives the hero just enough time to recuperate and defeat him/her. Everybody loves tropes!
I'll stick to the Evil Overlord variant myself, thank you very much.
As a side note, I feel the need to point out that Yxunomei is the perfect wifey material! Those three pairs of hands really come in handy for... various... situations.
Just killed Yxunomei in IWD
But fair enough. It's just not for me to like evil to be type cast all the time.
she is suffering from a slight case of dead.
Ankheg Plate Mails? Produced by growing funghi inside Ankheg carcasses. Ring of Wizardry? Why, they naturally grow on orchards like weed!
Free Haven was never the same after my visits and Su Lang Manchu liked this very much.
JBARD. The answer is JBARD. That and NILBOG are burned into my memory.
Oh yeah unpopular opinion time: Might and Magic 10 wasn't a bad game. It had its flaws, like a terrible optimization even by Unity standards and an art style that wouldn't look out of place in WoW but it was overall fairly decent.
Pathfinder:Kingmaker allows you to turn XP sharing on and off at any point.
Now for an Unpopular Opinion: Beamdog should partner with Owlcat (developers behind PF:KM) to make a 5e D&D game!
I think the bare minimum is for them to close that soultaker plot first, before I can call it a proper bridge between the games.
I'm not sure where the future of Beamdogs development lies at the moment. They're better at communicating than they used to be, but a lot of the blog contents are ''we're working hard on that x thing this month as well'' Whereas any new IE content or potentially NwN modules are kept ''vague'' or outright ignored(Cough soultaker resolution cough)
I can't shake the feeling that we're going to continue to end up with things no one asked for.
Sou really isnt good, and HotU is only a bit better. I dont get the flak that the OC is getting - without the OC I wouldnt play nwn at all.
well as the soul taker plot is already closed thanks to lava's price of one girl's soul mod. i kinda don't care if beamdog even does it anymore.
the problem with the oc is it's very bland and boring. it was made as an after thought and it shows. the nwn 2 oc in comparison while it has paceing issues i atlest like going through.