Sigh. I took a look back at the .bcs files for SoD talks and it was scripted poorly and will cause the talks to never fire. It seems like no one has played the SoD content or else it would've been noticed sooner. I'm extremely behind schedule on my mods but this is such a major issue that I did a priority update. Thanks for bringing this up.
I admittedly designed the kit to be intentionally strong with levels, but if it's too strong even during early BG1 there's a problem.
The kit's strengths are amplified if you spam rest and abuse the ability to stockpile resources like potions or arrows. I could make the items disappear with time, but that's still subject to exploits (dropping the items before their expiry date) and makes it more tedious than actually balanced. Imagine being a mage and having to re-scribe your entire spellbook every time you rest. Yes, it's possible to get a ridiculous amount of items by resting a lot. Don't do it. I can't really give any advice beyond that.
I will definitely rework the runecrafting ability some time in the future though as I hate the way it's currently implemented.
Thanks for this! I'm sorry to hear that I'm the first one who's gotten back to you since this has been a problem. It's quality content and deserves to be played. I'll be sure to leave you some feedback once I'm through with SoD and I'm very much looking forward to the BG2 portion!
You're awesome Hugo. I've not played past chapter 8 with Aura so never noticed that. I still haven't played chapter 10 yet with a general party. I really want to finish modding so I can enjoy others work more rather than just the technical stuff behind it.
You're awesome Hugo. I've not played past chapter 8 with Aura so never noticed that. I still haven't played chapter 10 yet with a general party. I really want to finish modding so I can enjoy others work more rather than just the technical stuff behind it.
There's no such thing.
Once you start modding you're doomed to do it forever.
You'll never play the games again - just for alpha tests.
I admittedly designed the kit to be intentionally strong with levels, but if it's too strong even during early BG1 there's a problem.
The kit's strengths are amplified if you spam rest and abuse the ability to stockpile resources like potions or arrows. I could make the items disappear with time, but that's still subject to exploits (dropping the items before their expiry date) and makes it more tedious than actually balanced. Imagine being a mage and having to re-scribe your entire spellbook every time you rest. Yes, it's possible to get a ridiculous amount of items by resting a lot. Don't do it. I can't really give any advice beyond that.
I will definitely rework the runecrafting ability some time in the future though as I hate the way it's currently implemented.
From my perspective, it would be better if it were a choice of arrows OR runes after sleeping. Of course players could still abuse sleeping to get more runes, but it wouldn't happen as a matter of course in the game.
The reason that she is overpowered may be due to the fact that she and Hope went hunting Ankhegs and Basilisks early in the game when there were few in the party. If the experience had been shared amongst 6 then she would have been much less powerful.
Hope (Inquisitor) is level 7, Auren Artificer/Priestess is Level 6/Level 6. Gavin (cleric of Lathander) is Level 7, Indira (Fighter/Mage) is Level 5/Level 5, and Dynaheir (Invoker) is Level 5. And the party hasn't even entered Nashkel mines yet!!
In my next run I think that I will voluntarily choose between runes and arrows after sleeping.
I plan on running an Artificer as the PC one day.
It would have been good if you could have made the kit so that it could have been used separate from Aura. I have been able to create such a character, but it took an exceedingly long time to work out how to do it.
One of these days Aura is going to solo through BG1 in the no reloads thread, but for the moment she will just accompany the party.
From my perspective, it would be better if it were a choice of arrows OR runes after sleeping. Of course players could still abuse sleeping to get more runes, but it wouldn't happen as a matter of course in the game.
I fail to see how this solves anything. The people who want to abuse still get the option and it just adds another layer of frustration overall. I also just remade the arrow creation spell in a way that’s probably a nerf overall, as you can only make one type of arrow per day now.
The reason that she is overpowered may be due to the fact that she and Hope went hunting Ankhegs and Basilisks early in the game when there were few in the party. If the experience had been shared amongst 6 then she would have been much less powerful.
Hope (Inquisitor) is level 7, Auren Artificer/Priestess is Level 6/Level 6. Gavin (cleric of Lathander) is Level 7, Indira (Fighter/Mage) is Level 5/Level 5, and Dynaheir (Invoker) is Level 5. And the party hasn't even entered Nashkel mines yet.
I mean... yeah. I just said I designed the kit to have a high level fantasy, whereas thieves normally suffer. If you’re that far ahead of where you should be at that stage that’s really not a good indicator of strength at all.
It would have been good if you could have made the kit so that it could have been used separate from Aura.
This is not going to become an option. As self-serving as it is, when I make an NPC mod I want people to play it for the NPC. There is unique scripting for abilities that have to be implemented directly into the NPC AI for the spells to work. If you don’t forgoing the alchemy and golem you can edit it onto a PC but I do not officially support it.
Normally I will play with Aura as an NPC, but once in a while I may see how playing as an artificer works in a solo run. I am well aware that the run could be buggy and not work as I would want it to.
I can well understand why you want people to play with Aura as an NPC, after all, you have spent a lot of time and trouble developing her as a character, and that will certainly be the main way in which I use your material.
I mean... yeah. I just said I designed the kit to have a high level fantasy, whereas thieves normally suffer. If you’re that far ahead of where you should be at that stage that’s really not a good indicator of strength at all.
This makes me happy. High level thieves (pure class) are always weaker, and it's depressing. Having a worthwhile thief- even more so in the BG2 version- will be very, very nice.
I mean... yeah. I just said I designed the kit to have a high level fantasy, whereas thieves normally suffer. If you’re that far ahead of where you should be at that stage that’s really not a good indicator of strength at all.
This makes me happy. High level thieves (pure class) are always weaker, and it's depressing. Having a worthwhile thief- even more so in the BG2 version- will be very, very nice.
Eh, disagree. Timestop traps and spike traps are stupid powerful.
Don't know if this has been covered by someone else or if you discussed this in an earlier comment, but I have a quick question:
According to the readme, there is crossmod content between Aura and Sirene. My question is, how man convo's are there between them, and how long do they have to travel together before the first one starts.
Loving her by the way, her voice is just the cutest.
but then they don't show up as often as you want to. until i got a banter accelerator i barely ever got any banters in tob.
The problem then, is not when they occur, but the number of them. The number of banters is of course limited by the amount of work that those writing them is willing or able to do. We should be very thankful for all those modders who create the mods for our benefit. In particular I would like to the thank the writer of this mod. At the moment I am playing it with Aura as a single class artificer.
This is so minor, but in your section for character and personality, you have her listed in her mid-seventies. During her sixth talk though in BG:EE(1), she specifically states fifty-two (Of course, she could be lying for some reason, to appear younger, but that seems off.)
A ha ha. I knew I’d screw up somewhere between the references to her age. The one she states in-game is her correct age. Mid-70s is an early drafting error, as afaik that’s past the young adult stage for a gnome (maturity is around the 40s).
I’m glad someone picked that up. There’ll be a dialogue in BG2 where she mentions being roughly the same biological age as Keldorn and I don’t think he’s quite reached the 70s yet.
Aura got chunked by those ninjas. I'll have to wait for another run to see how the mod pans out.
I like the mod very much. She is a bit fragile though, particularly against those ninjas that attck before you get a chance to buff.
There's a potion Aura can make that gives backstab immunity.
I deliberately gave the artificer a mage's hit points table and bad Constitution to make sure she would be one of the frailest party members in the game. I think it stands to reason an artificer with limited battle experience should be very, very weak in direct combat.
There's a potion Aura can make that gives backstab immunity.
I deliberately gave the artificer a mage's hit points table and bad Constitution to make sure she would be one of the frailest party members in the game. I think it stands to reason an artificer with limited battle experience should be very, very weak in direct combat.
I was not complaining about her low constitution. That is all part of the game. I'm just sorry that she has died in this run. She has been replaced by Vynd who is also a newbie as far as my games are concerned. Thanks for telling me about the potion. Her potions are something that I haven't studied in detail yet.
I am currently playing BG with Aura as a artificer-priestess(cleric) because I want to try both new kits (I found funny when you ask her and she states that she will never be a mage)
Now I am in ch5 with no power leveling and I can say she is not overpowered at all. She is very useful with buffs, traps and healing but has a lousy hit rate and fairly low hit points. Right now Aura is barely competent as a thief, only thanks to the equipment. So, in the end, I found her to be very balanced as a multiclass character, in par with a cler-thief character with no-maxed stats but with the addition of a very very useful skillset that made her a build fun to play.
You can think that daily arrow creation can be too much but in fact Eldoth and Jan also manufacture arrows/day so I think it is BG standard. Also the traps are fantastic, you have several types to use for any situation, but as a cler-thief she fails a lot (wich is good). She can be killed with a strong sneeze of a nearby enemy, wich is also good.
I suppose if you use multiple rests to fill your pockets with arrows and runes, have some powerlevel in the wyvern cave or with anklegs and max out "set traps" you can have a powerhouse, but If you play the usual way she is definitely not.
As a character she has a pretty voice. She has a bright personality that I found soothing and a interesting backstory. Despite her youthful looks and personality, she seems to be a world-class traveler (Well, she is a septuagenary gnome so human rules do not apply) but she does not seem very seasoned.
The things I find more enjoyable about this character are the details: the arkoudaphobia and the bear encounters, that made her run in fear. The alchemy recipes and trap-making. the bow and the healing arrows.
With her you have lots of options outside and in combat, so she stands as a unique character, different from any other build you played until now.
In my run I had some banters ( I have banter accelerator) and I have to thank you because the dialogs that add information about her background do not end the dialogue, so you can ask all the questions you want Gavin-style. I am currently playing with Sirene ( You reaaaaally like to hamper your characters taco, do you?) and I do not remember them to talk to each other so I cannot say anything about them but she has plenty of things to say when in dialog, normally gnome stuff, and banters with other npc.
I am eager to go to bg and take her to the hall of wonders.
@PsicoVic I have found the same. At one stage she is uber powerful but later on that is not the case.
I really like her as a character too.
I will be playing her in a variety of ways depending on which version of Aura I use.
Wow. Okay... that’s the opposite of the power curve she’s supposed to have. Although if you haven’t completed her quest yet then you may not have tried the extra resource she gets afterward.
That may be true. She had automatons when she died in my last game, which made her very powerful, but like mages she was still squishy. In the scenario that I was in when she died, she didn't get a chance to use her strengths. Don't take that as a negative. I certainly don't. All characters should have a weak point otherwise the game would be too easy.
I do have mods installed to make the game harder which is quite deliberate. I often beat BG1 but at the cost of one or two party members. Perhaps it is the way that I play.
When sh died last time, we could have fled, healed buffed and returned. We didn't. They had arrived after a long journey, tired and in no fit state to fight, yet they fought. That is my style of play and is a weakness in my style, but it also makes the game more enjoyable.
When I first came up with the idea for Aura the major gameplay theme I wanted was a potentially powerful character who was tricky to use. From my own test runs I found that she’s an extremely versatile that can heal, cause and prevent status, and eventually become an offensive powerhouse but if you don’t take advantage of every tool she has she does even less than a standard thief and dies a lot. Originally her magatama gave +2 Luck in addition to the saving throws which meant she took less damage from dice rolls but that was counterproductive with the point of giving her a low HP stat.
Despite her fragility I’ve found she’s among the stronger party members in BG1. She’ll get even more crazy tools in BG2.
Edit: I’d just like to also add that I wouldn’t mind if she were theoretically a little overpowered. Unlike my other NPCs I did intentionally throw in a few tools that I hoped would make someone think ‘wow, that was nuts’ once or twice.
Hey @AionZ ! I just finished my runthrough of BGEE using both Aura and your Arcane Archer kit as my PC and I'm having a blast. I've always loved Artificers and I am enjoying the tremendous amount of versatility the class brings and it provides a good place to dump the money I would otherwise be hoarding for no reason. Since Good Old Games had a sale of 75% off, I decided to buy SoD as well and then transfer the save file. I technically had to repurchase BGEE from GOG because I originally got it through Beamdog. I tried putting both mods on this download and I seem to be having issues.
1. The game won't launch when I have the Aura mod installed. I'm not sure why, and I was hoping you could help or have an inkling as to what may be going on.
2. The Arcane Archer mod says it install successfully but when I load the game, it doesn't detect my PC as an Arcane Archer. When I loaded EEKeeper to manually change it, I tried to set the Kit value but the Arcane Archer option doesn't appear as it did in my original BGEE game directory.
Anyway, thanks for the mods and hopefully you can give some insight as to how to resolve the issue! I definitely want to continue Aura's story into SoD and I am eagerly awaiting the BG2EE mod. Please let me know if you can help!
I believe this issue has come up once before but since I have no way of reproducing it especially without owning the GOG version I can't give you any assured solutions, so I can only give suggestions on what might work. First off, make sure it's the latest version because I use a ton of resources from the most recent updates in my mods. Also, if I'm not mistaken the GOG version requires modmerge/DLC Merger before installing any mods. Try starting with those solutions.
Comments
Sigh. I took a look back at the .bcs files for SoD talks and it was scripted poorly and will cause the talks to never fire. It seems like no one has played the SoD content or else it would've been noticed sooner. I'm extremely behind schedule on my mods but this is such a major issue that I did a priority update. Thanks for bringing this up.
@Wise_Grimwald
There's no such thing.
Once you start modding you're doomed to do it forever.
You'll never play the games again - just for alpha tests.
Never.
You're trapped.
Try being a dedicated NPC modder. You'll absolutely want to retire.
It's not a matter of wanting.
Nobody wants to wander through hell, nonetheless thousands of souls are roaming in there as we speak.
I'll retreat to darkness now. Master DoF commands.
From my perspective, it would be better if it were a choice of arrows OR runes after sleeping. Of course players could still abuse sleeping to get more runes, but it wouldn't happen as a matter of course in the game.
The reason that she is overpowered may be due to the fact that she and Hope went hunting Ankhegs and Basilisks early in the game when there were few in the party. If the experience had been shared amongst 6 then she would have been much less powerful.
Hope (Inquisitor) is level 7, Auren Artificer/Priestess is Level 6/Level 6. Gavin (cleric of Lathander) is Level 7, Indira (Fighter/Mage) is Level 5/Level 5, and Dynaheir (Invoker) is Level 5. And the party hasn't even entered Nashkel mines yet!!
In my next run I think that I will voluntarily choose between runes and arrows after sleeping.
I plan on running an Artificer as the PC one day.
It would have been good if you could have made the kit so that it could have been used separate from Aura. I have been able to create such a character, but it took an exceedingly long time to work out how to do it.
One of these days Aura is going to solo through BG1 in the no reloads thread, but for the moment she will just accompany the party.
I mean... yeah. I just said I designed the kit to have a high level fantasy, whereas thieves normally suffer. If you’re that far ahead of where you should be at that stage that’s really not a good indicator of strength at all.
This is not going to become an option. As self-serving as it is, when I make an NPC mod I want people to play it for the NPC. There is unique scripting for abilities that have to be implemented directly into the NPC AI for the spells to work. If you don’t forgoing the alchemy and golem you can edit it onto a PC but I do not officially support it.
I can well understand why you want people to play with Aura as an NPC, after all, you have spent a lot of time and trouble developing her as a character, and that will certainly be the main way in which I use your material.
This makes me happy. High level thieves (pure class) are always weaker, and it's depressing. Having a worthwhile thief- even more so in the BG2 version- will be very, very nice.
Eh, disagree. Timestop traps and spike traps are stupid powerful.
According to the readme, there is crossmod content between Aura and Sirene. My question is, how man convo's are there between them, and how long do they have to travel together before the first one starts.
Loving her by the way, her voice is just the cutest.
There's two in BG1 and two in SoD, when they trigger in BG1 is pretty unpredictable though since banter timers are a little weird.
The problem then, is not when they occur, but the number of them. The number of banters is of course limited by the amount of work that those writing them is willing or able to do. We should be very thankful for all those modders who create the mods for our benefit. In particular I would like to the thank the writer of this mod. At the moment I am playing it with Aura as a single class artificer.
I’m glad someone picked that up. There’ll be a dialogue in BG2 where she mentions being roughly the same biological age as Keldorn and I don’t think he’s quite reached the 70s yet.
I like the mod very much. She is a bit fragile though, particularly against those ninjas that attck before you get a chance to buff.
There's a potion Aura can make that gives backstab immunity.
I deliberately gave the artificer a mage's hit points table and bad Constitution to make sure she would be one of the frailest party members in the game. I think it stands to reason an artificer with limited battle experience should be very, very weak in direct combat.
I was not complaining about her low constitution. That is all part of the game.
Now I am in ch5 with no power leveling and I can say she is not overpowered at all. She is very useful with buffs, traps and healing but has a lousy hit rate and fairly low hit points. Right now Aura is barely competent as a thief, only thanks to the equipment. So, in the end, I found her to be very balanced as a multiclass character, in par with a cler-thief character with no-maxed stats but with the addition of a very very useful skillset that made her a build fun to play.
You can think that daily arrow creation can be too much but in fact Eldoth and Jan also manufacture arrows/day so I think it is BG standard. Also the traps are fantastic, you have several types to use for any situation, but as a cler-thief she fails a lot (wich is good). She can be killed with a strong sneeze of a nearby enemy, wich is also good.
I suppose if you use multiple rests to fill your pockets with arrows and runes, have some powerlevel in the wyvern cave or with anklegs and max out "set traps" you can have a powerhouse, but If you play the usual way she is definitely not.
As a character she has a pretty voice. She has a bright personality that I found soothing and a interesting backstory. Despite her youthful looks and personality, she seems to be a world-class traveler (Well, she is a septuagenary gnome so human rules do not apply) but she does not seem very seasoned.
The things I find more enjoyable about this character are the details: the arkoudaphobia and the bear encounters, that made her run in fear. The alchemy recipes and trap-making. the bow and the healing arrows.
With her you have lots of options outside and in combat, so she stands as a unique character, different from any other build you played until now.
In my run I had some banters ( I have banter accelerator) and I have to thank you because the dialogs that add information about her background do not end the dialogue, so you can ask all the questions you want Gavin-style. I am currently playing with Sirene ( You reaaaaally like to hamper your characters taco, do you?) and I do not remember them to talk to each other so I cannot say anything about them but she has plenty of things to say when in dialog, normally gnome stuff, and banters with other npc.
I am eager to go to bg and take her to the hall of wonders.
I really like her as a character too.
I will be playing her in a variety of ways depending on which version of Aura I use.
Wow. Okay... that’s the opposite of the power curve she’s supposed to have. Although if you haven’t completed her quest yet then you may not have tried the extra resource she gets afterward.
I do have mods installed to make the game harder which is quite deliberate. I often beat BG1 but at the cost of one or two party members. Perhaps it is the way that I play.
When sh died last time, we could have fled, healed buffed and returned. We didn't. They had arrived after a long journey, tired and in no fit state to fight, yet they fought. That is my style of play and is a weakness in my style, but it also makes the game more enjoyable.
Despite her fragility I’ve found she’s among the stronger party members in BG1. She’ll get even more crazy tools in BG2.
Edit: I’d just like to also add that I wouldn’t mind if she were theoretically a little overpowered. Unlike my other NPCs I did intentionally throw in a few tools that I hoped would make someone think ‘wow, that was nuts’ once or twice.
1. The game won't launch when I have the Aura mod installed. I'm not sure why, and I was hoping you could help or have an inkling as to what may be going on.
2. The Arcane Archer mod says it install successfully but when I load the game, it doesn't detect my PC as an Arcane Archer. When I loaded EEKeeper to manually change it, I tried to set the Kit value but the Arcane Archer option doesn't appear as it did in my original BGEE game directory.
Anyway, thanks for the mods and hopefully you can give some insight as to how to resolve the issue! I definitely want to continue Aura's story into SoD and I am eagerly awaiting the BG2EE mod. Please let me know if you can help!
I believe this issue has come up once before but since I have no way of reproducing it especially without owning the GOG version I can't give you any assured solutions, so I can only give suggestions on what might work. First off, make sure it's the latest version because I use a ton of resources from the most recent updates in my mods. Also, if I'm not mistaken the GOG version requires modmerge/DLC Merger before installing any mods. Try starting with those solutions.