What Would You Like from a Tweaks Mod?
semiticgoddess
Member Posts: 14,903
There are a bunch of tweak mods around, and they cover all kinds of bases. But there are still a few things I think could be improved even on a heavily tweaked install, and I've been considering combining my existing mods into one package for user convenience. I wanted to ask around to see what kind of minor tweaks people would like to see, things that aren't already covered by other tweak mods.
Currently, I only have a few existing mods and ideas for new tweaks:
1. Make wands usable once per day and rebalance their strength, OR make wands usable infinitely and make them much weaker
2. Let the Enchanted Weapon spell scale from +1 up to +5, instead of being a flat +3
3. Make IWD Belhifet's immunities more similar to SoD's
4. For SoD,
6. Make potions shorter-lasting but undispellable, like in Item Revisions
7. Let certain spells reach around corners when appropriate (a non-physical spell like Confusion shouldn't be so limited by walls and corners)
8. Bundle in my other mods, like the Korax and Lilarcor NPC mods and the Seducer and War Hulk kit mods.
What are the little things that you think could be slightly improved, even in a heavily-modded game?
Currently, I only have a few existing mods and ideas for new tweaks:
1. Make wands usable once per day and rebalance their strength, OR make wands usable infinitely and make them much weaker
2. Let the Enchanted Weapon spell scale from +1 up to +5, instead of being a flat +3
3. Make IWD Belhifet's immunities more similar to SoD's
4. For SoD,
let Caelar stay outside the party if she's helping you against Belhifet, even if the player doesn't have a full party, mostly to make the fight a bit more concept-friendly for solo runs
5. Rebalance XP rewards in BG1, giving better scaling for trap/lock/scroll scribing XP, making ordinary enemies like kobolds give more XP while stuff like sirines and basilisks give somewhat less6. Make potions shorter-lasting but undispellable, like in Item Revisions
7. Let certain spells reach around corners when appropriate (a non-physical spell like Confusion shouldn't be so limited by walls and corners)
8. Bundle in my other mods, like the Korax and Lilarcor NPC mods and the Seducer and War Hulk kit mods.
What are the little things that you think could be slightly improved, even in a heavily-modded game?
2
Comments
Great ideas. I would love to see your instant buffing script as an innate ability.
I'd like my mod to be focused on dealing with stuff that isn't handled elsewhere (I don't want to replicate the work of already-excellent mods), so I might leave wands alone and let your mod fill that role instead.
I’m actually thinking of starting my own P&P tweaks mod, though there’s a ton of learning between me and actually releasing anything of the sort.
And I agree with your idea, the closer to PnP, the better. That's one of the reasons why I prefer IWD over BG - the spells there usually are closer to PnP behavior.
a more pnp like game is a good idea, but i don't see it as a tweak mod that usually address multiple things that can annoy the player or fix some bugs.
is something with a much greater impact on the game, like playing with scs or item revision, instead of tweaking some aspect of the game changes the whole gameplay feeling.
unlimited use with weak effect or strong effect that consumes charges. i would like also the latter as charges/day instead of in the present way. why not also the MMM, now they scale only as number, but not as thac0 and damage.
imo both enchanted weapon and mm should scale up to lev 20 like skull trap, making them viable even in late game, without being op at the beginning. thank you so much for the spoiler, i really appreciate it as i put particular care in not being spoiled about that game! about that i don't know...
probably also other spells with a physical or elemental component should not be limited by corners, stuff like fogs or a web, while walls blocking the explosion of a fireball, or a skull trap, that having magical damage has not physical or elemental component, makes more sense.
still i think that like it is now there is more tactical value as terrain characteristics can be used defensively and must be considered when the spells are used offensively.
an other tweak i would really appreciate is to widen the aoe of the enhanced bard song, imo has to be possible to have all the party under its effect. something like all the party members in the sight of the bard affected would be great, making impossible to hide the bard in some place and sing or have a thief backstabbing under the song half area far from the bard like in the original game, but having both mlee and ranged toons getting the song benefit.
at now only tactics where all the mlee fighters are packed in a small area and the bard is very near are possible, and this don't lead to interesting tactical playing.
i really don't like the " take all or nothing" approach of some mods, improved anvil is a good example of that approach.
but what i mean is is that a PnPzation of the games is a work that deserves a whole mod just for itself.
Unless @subtledoctor knows how to create a whole bunch of spell-specific SI spells via a bunch of WeiDU commands. Then, for SCS purposes, we could replace vanilla SI: Divination with SI: True Seeing and SI: Abjuration with SI: something else.
Or just tack on an SR-style Dispelling Screen, which could also arguably provide a more balanced solution.
IE's SI is bad - as is TS - but it is the best thing we can have.
The way I see it would be, at the same time, way weaker and way stronger than both spells.
And in PnP (IIRC) you can only immunize yourself against a spells that has affected you earlier. So no protection against Wail of Banshee unless you survived it someday.
Also, my issue with SI is not the spell itself, but the fact that it blocks traps and monsters' special abilities. Those should be classified as schooless, IMHO.
This spell protects an invisible or hidden (via Hide in Shadows) character from some low-level divination spells:
Clairvoyance
Detect Invisibility
Invisibility Purge
It does not protect against:
True Seeing
True Sight
Oracle
Detect Illusion
if it is correct si divination is a much better protection, but non detection is lev 3, last 4 hours and can be cast on other characters so both the spells are useful depending on the situation.
You assumed correctly. ND however only works if Invisibility source is technically coded as "non-magical", like stealth. If you're stealthed, you'll remain unseen even if enemy casts True Sight. Wiki is wrong there.
P&P SI only makes you immune to a single spell at a time, to which you must have already been subjected at least once. It would be way too situational and weak for a 5th-level slot, and I would personally never end up using it.
If I ever got around to making a P&P mod (with of course the exception of what has already been P&P-ized by aTWEAKS and Rogue Rebalancing), I would probably shy away from modifying many spells in a significant manner as that may not play well with SCS.
1) remove fatigue from restoration scrolls or spells - because why?
2) remove fatigue from haste and RWotF in IWD - they can be dispelled before they run out any way?
Edit:
Give Algernons cloak 100 charges
Further edit:
Let Zaviaks goggles have 10 charges
If @semiticgod is ok with me hijacking the idea from his thread, of course.
@Raduziel: Sure; it's not even my idea to begin with.
What do you guys think about Spell Immunity being granted to druids and clerics, possibly as a level 6 spell?
still the original question "Why would you need SI:Div when you have Non-Detection?" is answered.
there are many spells that reveal invisibility and illusions, of different levels.
detect illusions cancel any illusion spell of lev 3 or lower, oracle of lev5 or lower, so improved invisibility is not cancelled by the first, but is killed by the second, that can not kill a projected image, that needs true sight. si:div protects from every spell that reveals invisibility but glitterdust that is not a divination spell.
my problem about it is not only that, as with meta knowledge we can know what the ai enemy will do so in many situations we have anyway to protect ourselves from a single particular spell in a certain situation. is also that it lead the player to the use of that meta knowledge instead of giving versatility and more tactical options. the player must know that the next day he will fight that battle, that the enemy will cast that spell and will have to memorize the right si spell to counter it, is not the way i like to play the game.
(but is my opinion, if for some others a pnpized spell immunity brings fun i am fine with it...).