It's usually because under the default magic system, if the choice is between a Maximised Firebrand spell vs a Horrid Wilting spell, and considering that, by that stage, you're likely to be facing foes who have various elemental resistances/immunities, Horrid Wilting is still the superior choice in the majority of situations. So, I still wound up mostly just using HWs, Fingers of Death, Wail of the Banshee etc.
There are monsters with Magical damage resistance in the Aielund Saga though! :P I was miffed during Nature Abhors a Vacuum when I got up to the final battle against a certain mercenary captain and my ILMS just did 0 damage to him thanks to his cheater shield. XD
Under normal circumstances, companions usually get nudged out of the way when a PC tries to walk through them, yeah. I'm not sure why, but in this cutscene my familiar would "teleport" in front of me in little jumps and eventually wound up standing in the spot where I was supposed to stand, thereby blocking the cutscene from progressing. It's easily bypassed by just dismissing the familiar before talking to Terinus to start the cutscene (and you'd probably want to do that anyway so you can get back all of the equipment you equipped your familiar with prior to starting the next module), but yeah, it can be an unpleasant surprise if you weren't expecting it.
Oh! And one more question about EMS I had. What about Extend Spell? Is that also automatically applied to cast spells past a certain level? And what about Silent/Still/Quicken Spell, considering that these ones actually have appropriate feats to have them automatically applied?
It's usually because under the default magic system, if the choice is between a Maximised Firebrand spell vs a Horrid Wilting spell, and considering that, by that stage, you're likely to be facing foes who have various elemental resistances/immunities, Horrid Wilting is still the superior choice in the majority of situations. So, I still wound up mostly just using HWs, Fingers of Death, Wail of the Banshee etc.
Eh. Constructs. Undead. Anything with good Fort and bad Reflex.
Oh! And one more question about EMS I had. What about Extend Spell? Is that also automatically applied to cast spells past a certain level? And what about Silent/Still/Quicken Spell, considering that these ones actually have appropriate feats to have them automatically applied?
Extend yes, either 21 or 23. I don't know about Silent/Still/Quicken offhand.
Eh. Constructs. Undead. Anything with good Fort and bad Reflex.
All true, but in those situations I usually let my Fighters or Clerics do the heavy lifting. I still support with Fireballs, Firebrands, Chain Lightning etc., but I just use the regular level spells rather than my higher level slots. Then again, my playstyle is such that I usually pack along a wide variety of both elemental and magical spells, along with the odd CC or insta-death spell. (For instance, my 3rd level spells is usually like 3 Fireballs, 3 Scintilating Spheres and 3 MestiI's Acid Breaths.) I like being prepared for just about any combat situation my Mage might find himself in.
Absolutely one of the best series of modules on NWN. If you're looking for recommendations I can't praise it highly enough. It's up there with Swordflight and the Prophet series.
Ran into a strange bug today! After taking the portal to the Saqaarin Citadel, my Pixie familiar mysteriously changed into a Dryad. She still operated perfectly fine (was able to fight, open locks etc.), it's just that she had an entirely different model. This bug persisted even through saving and loading the game, although dismissing and resummoning the familiar turned her back into her usual shape. Was kinda hilarious actually; my little pixie grew up! XD
Well, my adventures in Aielund have concluded. As bob above says, this was one of the best NWN series I've ever had the privilege of playing. It definitely deserves to be in the Top 3 owing to its creativity, memorable companions, polish, and a fantastic story! I heartily recommend it to anybody who's finished the OC campaigns and Premium Modules and is looking for further adventures. Following are a few of my final thoughts in spoilers for the benefit of any latecomers to this thread who may not have experienced this gem for themselves yet.
1. I was a tad disappointed that Criosa couldn't accompany me as a henchman for the final module, although her absence was perfectly logical. After everything we've been through together, I just felt a bit sad that she couldn't be part of the journey all the way to its end.
2. Thanks to Lilura's walkthrough, I know that the Saqaarin used to be illithids in an earlier build. While I'm sure that Savant had his reasons for turning them (along with the Dracari) into another race, I think the story might have been better served by keeping them as mind flayers. The revelation of Terinus being a githzerai, and the "Mindless Slaves" aboard the Saqaarin citadel lose some of their impact by the Saqaarin becoming an otherwise unknown race. There's not enough time to really build up the kind of heavy backstory that the illithids come with for the Saqaarin, which runs the risk of them turning into a "Hey, here's a Surprise Bad Baddie behind the Big Bad!" plot device without sufficient build-up.
3. One niggling question I have after everything is said and done. What exactly about the Ironlord armor caused Alaric and Seamus to go off the deep end? Was it some sort of curse on the armor? (Meaning that Terinus gifted the armor to Seamus knowing full well he would also slide into evil and depravity.) Or, as I originally presumed based on the Saqaarin being illithids, the Saqaarin were able to mentally influence whoever was wearing the armor and slowly corrupt them?
4. Terinus' final sacrifice feels a teeeeeny bit contrived. XD I could think of several solutions to ensure that no Technicians could get into the room to stop the self-destruct. Firstly, any Rogue character (or a Mage with the Pixie familiar) could simply lock, jam and trap the door to stop anybody from getting in. Trust me, if an epic-level Rogue doesn't want you to get through a door, NOBODY'S getting through that door. XD
"What if somebody teleports in?" OK, then Terinus, you stay at the console until there's only 18 seconds (3 rounds) to go, Terinus, then teleport back to the exit chamber.
"But what if I get overwhelmed?" Then... *proceeds to summon a Red Dragon, a Balor and a Death Slaad* "Assist Terinus and stop all enemies from using this console at all costs, my minions!" I also leave my Pixie familiar behind with instructions to support the summoned monsters (with the amount of superpowered gear she was wearing, she was easily the equal of Robert or Nellise in a fight!). Even if she dies in the fight, I can re-summon her again! :P (Some of the familiars' dialogue suggests that this is a commonplace tactic!)
I say this because I thought part 5 was better than 6.
5 had interaction with all the story characters; 6 was just a ton of dimensions.
It would be nice if in a part 7, the characters back on planet Earth, or wherever, had final interactions (still upset no interaction from the female Barbarian from part 2 was in any of the parts 4 to 6, if I remember right. I mean, it tells her tale at the end of 6, but no interaction otherwise.)
Was Nellise's location changed in Act 3? She's not in the church when you enter the town after Stoneguard. I'm playing a LE wizard, if that has anything to do with it.
It would be nice if in a part 7, the characters back on planet Earth, or wherever, had final interactions (still upset no interaction from the female Barbarian from part 2 was in any of the parts 4 to 6, if I remember right. I mean, it tells her tale at the end of 6, but no interaction otherwise.)
You can meet and talk with her in Act 4 Part 2 (aka part 5 by your counting) at the Barbarian camp.
So, there's another issue; was the maximum amount of party members downgraded back to 3 in Act 4? I can only take Croise and Nel; Robert just says I have a full party after Bracksford.
Try talking to him again. After the Battle of Bracksford, Robert initially wouldn't join my party, but talking to him a second time brought up the usual "Would you like me to join up again?" conversation which worked. It's probably the result of an older conversation party limit check that was missed when the modules got overhauled.
Yet another bug; late game robes have the sequencer power, except that Aielund uses EMS, which disables sequencers. Orville's robe comes to mind; it's an entirely wasted property.
Another minor gripe is that mage robes all look the same. Only Terinus's robe and the Robe of the Dragon look different, which is odd considering that Aielund uses the CEP. I had to use customize character override to switch the robes' looks. A lot of mage gear seems to be geared towards sorcerers too, compared to wizards.
Ahhh, so that's why the Sequencer effect didn't work in Aielund! I'd never played around with the Sequencer ability very much in other campaigns, but due to Aielund's lengthy epic level campaign, I figured I'd give it a try, but it didn't seem to work. I thought maybe something was broken with the item and left it, then forgot about it. Anyone know why sequencers are disabled in EMS? Is there any way to turn them back on?
IRC, EMS also disables the immunity to spells property, so Terinus's belt doesn't work.
There's quite the issue with itemization as you progress through the later act. I haven't seen anything good for a wizard thus far; Marcus's robes and the banshee robes enhance sorcerer spells, and you're generally reduced to lugging around the staff of the archmagi or orville's staff (Why is Auberon, the primer evil wizard in the setting, carrying a Staff of Thunder and Lightning instead of something more powerful or macabre, especially at the level you fight him?). Aielund could really do with a script that lets staff caster level scale with their wielder's as per PnP, or as per the PRC pack. I don't have the same issue with Bob or Nel; in Bob's case there are just too many good weapons for him.
Yes, I did notice that as a wizard too. There are quite a few extra goodies for Wizards in the early Aielund modules, although in the later modules Sorcerers get quite a lot of lovely items, but there are no equivalent boosters for Wizards. I don't really remember many interesting two-handed weapons either, although I wasn't really looking out for them since I think Dante and Valennia are the only henchmen that wield two-handed weapons, and they're only present for the first two modules.
Not sure if this thread is still active but I've been playing through the Aielund saga with some friends during lockdown and we have run into a technical issue that is preventing us from progressing any further.
We are currently in act 3, about to enter Cairnwood forest. When any of the player characters try to enter the area, the loading bar reaches the end and then the game crashes with the "fatal error" message.
We are playing the most recent version of the Aielund saga on steam, and downloaded it around the end of March.
I just tried to open up the module for the first time in a year. I don't know what Beamdog did, but apparently there's a ton of issues that have been introduced. I can't even get it open in the toolset. My advice is to play it on diamond at this point
Oh no! I'm kinda glad that I played through the series when I did, and hopefully the issues get addressed at some point. It would be a great shame if newer players never got to experience the wonder of the Aielund Saga.
Yeah I was pulling my hair out in frustration trying to fix these bugs as they were popping a year or so back. Very random, not able to duplicate them at my end etc.
I've had to reinstall nwn, and while I've signed up for all the aielund mods and such, they're not in the place the toolset needs to get to them. I've had a couple of people having issues with the Cairnwood section in act 3 though, so what I can suggest is to skip that part, as its optional anyway. Annoying, but you should be able to get past it. I've also read that the golems in the final battle have healing potions now?? I never gave them those, so it's like the scripts behind them were changed or something. So weird. Be prepared for a tough fight there
An observation, i don't know if this is related to the reported crash or not, but I can't jump to the Cairnwood forest because it shares the same Tag (Area001) as Hocarum Desert - Ancient Cave (as well as Cairnwood Forest - Southern Slope)
Edit: No problems jumping about with the DM client, and as a player, I can start from the Southern foothills and continue through Cairnwood no problem.
I can't speak for the files (module or haks) served by Steam, however.
I was unable to get Aielund to work via the Steam workshop as of Beamdog's last two updates, but I was able to download it manually using the Neverwinter Nights Installer Tool mod utility. I can start a new game now and load old saves, but I don't know about how well the complicated scripting works or doesn't work later in the series, as I haven't playtested past "Nature Abhors a Vacuum".
It's sad the Beamdog devs keep mucking about with the program and breaking custom content, since so many creators spent so much time and effort updating their work for EE, and then Beamdog "pulls a Beamdog" and breaks everything.
That would seem to indicate something wrong with the files in Steam Workshop, rather than something Beamdog broke. I can very well appreciate the ... frustration of having go go back and update/maintain old projects, but so far, especially with Aielund, NNW:EE seems to be working better than ever.
Thanks for the replies guys, good to know the section is optional so we can skip it if need be but I'll keep persevering to get it to work in the mean time.
I tried moving all the module (and required add on) files from the steam workshop folders to the seperate neverwinter nights game folders but the issue was still there - both with the current save we were playing and a new game where I started act 3 fresh and ran straight to the forest.
I am going to try deleting all the files for aielund, the CEP etc. and then re-downloading them from the neverwinter vault.
After I have done this will it make a difference whether I test if it has worked on a new save, or one of the older saves that had been started with the steam workshop downloaded version of aielund?
Finally finished Chapter 3. I could find no faults or glitches whatsoever, and no golems with mysterious healing powers, (though it was, indeed, a brutal battle, and one my character would normally be well optimized for.)
Hopefully, we can figure out what is causing Zazu's game crash, because Aielund actually benefited greatly from the performance improvements of the latest update, (final battle and 2nd level of Stonehaven were much smoother to play through.)
This is what I'm talking about - some people are getting crazy bugs, others are having a smooth experience That's not the mod, that's something else at work. Very glad to hear you got through it without issues!
I'm not having any bugs, and am enjoying it very much. This is clearly a campaign that was given a lot of time and attention to detail.
I have to thank you for continuing to update it until now. Somehow this slipped my notice when I was playing through modules often way back in the early 2000's, but I am glad I found it now, with all the new features a fully-modded NWN has today.
I posted the bug on the beamdog bug reporting site and received this response:
"Hello,
You are crashing from drawing triangles, for some reason.
I see you are on Mojave. I am also on Mojave, so, I would assume you have some sort of Metal graphics processor, but, these kinds of crashes are very typical of Intel integrated GPU’s on Windows PC’s.
Can you tell me which Mac you have? Preferably, everything in the Overview of the About this Mac window you can open from the Apple menu in the top left corner."
So hopefully he'll be able to resolve it.
If not, would it possibly work if another of my friends (with a different GPU) was to host the game/server?
I really dont wanna miss out on this secret elven city, looks so cool
Comments
There are monsters with Magical damage resistance in the Aielund Saga though! :P I was miffed during Nature Abhors a Vacuum when I got up to the final battle against a certain mercenary captain and my ILMS just did 0 damage to him thanks to his cheater shield. XD
Under normal circumstances, companions usually get nudged out of the way when a PC tries to walk through them, yeah. I'm not sure why, but in this cutscene my familiar would "teleport" in front of me in little jumps and eventually wound up standing in the spot where I was supposed to stand, thereby blocking the cutscene from progressing. It's easily bypassed by just dismissing the familiar before talking to Terinus to start the cutscene (and you'd probably want to do that anyway so you can get back all of the equipment you equipped your familiar with prior to starting the next module), but yeah, it can be an unpleasant surprise if you weren't expecting it.
Oh! And one more question about EMS I had. What about Extend Spell? Is that also automatically applied to cast spells past a certain level? And what about Silent/Still/Quicken Spell, considering that these ones actually have appropriate feats to have them automatically applied?
Eh. Constructs. Undead. Anything with good Fort and bad Reflex.
Extend yes, either 21 or 23. I don't know about Silent/Still/Quicken offhand.
All true, but in those situations I usually let my Fighters or Clerics do the heavy lifting.
2. Thanks to Lilura's walkthrough, I know that the Saqaarin used to be illithids in an earlier build. While I'm sure that Savant had his reasons for turning them (along with the Dracari) into another race, I think the story might have been better served by keeping them as mind flayers. The revelation of Terinus being a githzerai, and the "Mindless Slaves" aboard the Saqaarin citadel lose some of their impact by the Saqaarin becoming an otherwise unknown race. There's not enough time to really build up the kind of heavy backstory that the illithids come with for the Saqaarin, which runs the risk of them turning into a "Hey, here's a Surprise Bad Baddie behind the Big Bad!" plot device without sufficient build-up.
3. One niggling question I have after everything is said and done. What exactly about the Ironlord armor caused Alaric and Seamus to go off the deep end? Was it some sort of curse on the armor? (Meaning that Terinus gifted the armor to Seamus knowing full well he would also slide into evil and depravity.) Or, as I originally presumed based on the Saqaarin being illithids, the Saqaarin were able to mentally influence whoever was wearing the armor and slowly corrupt them?
4. Terinus' final sacrifice feels a teeeeeny bit contrived. XD I could think of several solutions to ensure that no Technicians could get into the room to stop the self-destruct. Firstly, any Rogue character (or a Mage with the Pixie familiar) could simply lock, jam and trap the door to stop anybody from getting in. Trust me, if an epic-level Rogue doesn't want you to get through a door, NOBODY'S getting through that door. XD
"What if somebody teleports in?" OK, then Terinus, you stay at the console until there's only 18 seconds (3 rounds) to go, Terinus, then teleport back to the exit chamber.
"But what if I get overwhelmed?" Then... *proceeds to summon a Red Dragon, a Balor and a Death Slaad* "Assist Terinus and stop all enemies from using this console at all costs, my minions!" I also leave my Pixie familiar behind with instructions to support the summoned monsters (with the amount of superpowered gear she was wearing, she was easily the equal of Robert or Nellise in a fight!). Even if she dies in the fight, I can re-summon her again! :P (Some of the familiars' dialogue suggests that this is a commonplace tactic!)
I say this because I thought part 5 was better than 6.
5 had interaction with all the story characters; 6 was just a ton of dimensions.
It would be nice if in a part 7, the characters back on planet Earth, or wherever, had final interactions (still upset no interaction from the female Barbarian from part 2 was in any of the parts 4 to 6, if I remember right. I mean, it tells her tale at the end of 6, but no interaction otherwise.)
You can meet and talk with her in Act 4 Part 2 (aka part 5 by your counting) at the Barbarian camp.
Yet another bug; late game robes have the sequencer power, except that Aielund uses EMS, which disables sequencers. Orville's robe comes to mind; it's an entirely wasted property.
Another minor gripe is that mage robes all look the same. Only Terinus's robe and the Robe of the Dragon look different, which is odd considering that Aielund uses the CEP. I had to use customize character override to switch the robes' looks. A lot of mage gear seems to be geared towards sorcerers too, compared to wizards.
There's quite the issue with itemization as you progress through the later act. I haven't seen anything good for a wizard thus far; Marcus's robes and the banshee robes enhance sorcerer spells, and you're generally reduced to lugging around the staff of the archmagi or orville's staff (Why is Auberon, the primer evil wizard in the setting, carrying a Staff of Thunder and Lightning instead of something more powerful or macabre, especially at the level you fight him?). Aielund could really do with a script that lets staff caster level scale with their wielder's as per PnP, or as per the PRC pack. I don't have the same issue with Bob or Nel; in Bob's case there are just too many good weapons for him.
There aren't very many unique 2-handers either.
Not sure if this thread is still active but I've been playing through the Aielund saga with some friends during lockdown and we have run into a technical issue that is preventing us from progressing any further.
We are currently in act 3, about to enter Cairnwood forest. When any of the player characters try to enter the area, the loading bar reaches the end and then the game crashes with the "fatal error" message.
We are playing the most recent version of the Aielund saga on steam, and downloaded it around the end of March.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Edit: No problems jumping about with the DM client, and as a player, I can start from the Southern foothills and continue through Cairnwood no problem.
I can't speak for the files (module or haks) served by Steam, however.
It's sad the Beamdog devs keep mucking about with the program and breaking custom content, since so many creators spent so much time and effort updating their work for EE, and then Beamdog "pulls a Beamdog" and breaks everything.
I tried moving all the module (and required add on) files from the steam workshop folders to the seperate neverwinter nights game folders but the issue was still there - both with the current save we were playing and a new game where I started act 3 fresh and ran straight to the forest.
I am going to try deleting all the files for aielund, the CEP etc. and then re-downloading them from the neverwinter vault.
After I have done this will it make a difference whether I test if it has worked on a new save, or one of the older saves that had been started with the steam workshop downloaded version of aielund?
Thanks for the help!
Hopefully, we can figure out what is causing Zazu's game crash, because Aielund actually benefited greatly from the performance improvements of the latest update, (final battle and 2nd level of Stonehaven were much smoother to play through.)
I have to thank you for continuing to update it until now. Somehow this slipped my notice when I was playing through modules often way back in the early 2000's, but I am glad I found it now, with all the new features a fully-modded NWN has today.
I posted the bug on the beamdog bug reporting site and received this response:
"Hello,
You are crashing from drawing triangles, for some reason.
I see you are on Mojave. I am also on Mojave, so, I would assume you have some sort of Metal graphics processor, but, these kinds of crashes are very typical of Intel integrated GPU’s on Windows PC’s.
Can you tell me which Mac you have? Preferably, everything in the Overview of the About this Mac window you can open from the Apple menu in the top left corner."
So hopefully he'll be able to resolve it.
If not, would it possibly work if another of my friends (with a different GPU) was to host the game/server?
I really dont wanna miss out on this secret elven city, looks so cool