(Excellent dungeon crawl by the way. Lots of lore and backstory gives it depth, the "twist" how the island is not just what it seems at first is cool, and the area art is nothing short of amazing. Highly recommended.)
Hi, I just played this mod and I loved it! Some of what I enjoyed:
- The area art is gorgeous
- Interesting puzzles for the player. I enjoyed the puzzle of the lighthouse - basically figuring out the way to the other side - and also completing the ritual at the end.
- Most of the enemies are new and interesting in some way or another.
- Great storytelling, from the dialogues and the overall plot to the various notes and books. Just all around very well crafted.
- Well balanced in terms of items and experience.
- The notes on this mod said the play time would be 1-2 hours but I actually spent a whole morning on this. I am not a speedy player but I do think the playtime is longer than estimated, which is a good thing.
- Lots of creativity! Won't go into specifics as not to spoil anything.
Some points for improvement:
1. The lacedons fell too easily and are basically "trash mobs" - they could be made more difficult.
2. Wrong capitalization in the dialogue with Jhanex, he says amn instead of Amn. There are other issues with this dialogue:
The response is also gramatically incorrect, it should be "We should find a way off THIS island AND back to the mainland."
Jhanex's response to this should be: "THAT shouldn't be too difficult, we found a ready-moored ship ON THE SHORE a little to the west of here." (The way the original sentence is constructed is very awkward in English)
Another one: "But from what people say about THIS island, I'm not surprised." (Since the characters are on the island, referring to it as "the island" is quite weird).
"Allow me and my men to go to THE ship and get everything prepared." (Since the ship is in a different location, he ideally shouldn't say THIS ship, although it isn't necessarily wrong)
3. I'm playing the game with SCS (double damage enabled). I missed the prebuffed enemies in this mod. The various cultists, sirines, the hag and even the main enemy fell a little too easily to my party of 5 (average level 9). I suggest that some of the enemies could start combat with at least basic protection spells to enhance their staying power.
I think Acifer mentioned somewhere, that DT has it's own scripts and isn't affected by SCS.
Yup, I'm aware, SCS doesn't touch mod characters that have their own scripts. I'm just saying, hoping for a more challenging version of this, it would be even more fun to play.
Hi @Acifer it seems there is also a bug with the Veil of Choking Darkness item. Equipping it in Athkatla causes a Cowled Wizard to appear and accuse me of casting magic. Also, even if it's already equipped on a character and I load a saved game, a Cowled Wizard instantly appears upon loading with the spellcasting accusation.
it seems there is also a bug with the Veil of Choking Darkness item. Equipping it in Athkatla causes a Cowled Wizard to appear and accuse me of casting magic. Also, even if it's already equipped on a character and I load a saved game, a Cowled Wizard instantly appears upon loading with the spellcasting accusation.
Oh my goodness, this should not happen. I know what's causing this, I’ll upload a new version soon. Thanks for reporting!
I will also fix the typos you mentioned and include harder lacedons with the next version.
Thank you for your feedback!
Regarding SCS - my main focus at the moment is releasing all my mods at a difficulty level adapted for the unmodified game. Once that's accomplished, I might look into customizations. However, this may take a long time.
Changelog:
- fixed typos, thanks @roshan !
- Lacedons have more HP, lower AC and better THAC0
- the Veil of Chocking Darkness no longer triggers the Cowled Wizards to appear in Athkatla
- removed the word "malus" from English language tra as this word doesn't exist in English AD&D terminology
I think Acifer mentioned somewhere, that DT has it's own scripts and isn't affected by SCS.
Yup, I'm aware, SCS doesn't touch mod characters that have their own scripts. I'm just saying, hoping for a more challenging version of this, it would be even more fun to play.
I reached out to @Acifer and I'll be updating Tactics Remix to include more challenging scripts for his various mods. This way, players who want a boost in difficulty can get it and those who want less difficulty can also have their needs met.
Would it be possible to re-arrange the file structure for the mod a bit?
Right now at the base directory there are ~845 files and directories such as AC#DTSBD.bam and so forth.
I tend to copy all content of a mod into the base directory of my BG2 installation; on windows typically C:\\BG2\ as
this is more convenient for me to find and navigate to. I then copy all mods into that directory. These are named by
a script automatically e. g. 01_ 02_ 03_ so I always know which install order I use. (I keep track of that in a .yml file).
So when I am about to install the Dark Tidings mod, I copy the files to the base directory at /BG2 and
end up with lots of files that are specific to Dark Tidings. Note that other mods usually have an
extra directory, and then the weidu setup- exe. For instance, call of the lost goddess has that
structure too, e. g. a directory Godcall/ and then a file called setup-godcall.exe.
Could this perhaps also be changed for Dark Tidings?
(I suppose I could create that directory and move all but the .exe inside, but I remember that sometimes
when I do things manually, the installation breaks down; I had that problem with weidu in the past,
e. g. where it refuses to install things because a text file is missing. weidu is a super-strange program.)
Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean. All my mods are packed the same way - if you unpack them, you'll get a mod folder (in that case "Tidings") and a weidu setup.exe file. I just checked the actual version of Dark Tidings, and it unpacks fine.
For reference, I cleared the mod with the difficulty updates with a level 13+ party. I did not prebuff for any of the fights except for the final fight.
Comments
Dark Tidings walkthrough
(Excellent dungeon crawl by the way. Lots of lore and backstory gives it depth, the "twist" how the island is not just what it seems at first is cool, and the area art is nothing short of amazing. Highly recommended.)
That's amazing! Thank you very much for your contribution!
And I’m glad that you enjoyed the mod.
- The area art is gorgeous
- Interesting puzzles for the player. I enjoyed the puzzle of the lighthouse - basically figuring out the way to the other side - and also completing the ritual at the end.
- Most of the enemies are new and interesting in some way or another.
- Great storytelling, from the dialogues and the overall plot to the various notes and books. Just all around very well crafted.
- Well balanced in terms of items and experience.
- The notes on this mod said the play time would be 1-2 hours but I actually spent a whole morning on this. I am not a speedy player but I do think the playtime is longer than estimated, which is a good thing.
- Lots of creativity! Won't go into specifics as not to spoil anything.
Some points for improvement:
1. The lacedons fell too easily and are basically "trash mobs" - they could be made more difficult.
2. Wrong capitalization in the dialogue with Jhanex, he says amn instead of Amn. There are other issues with this dialogue:
The response is also gramatically incorrect, it should be "We should find a way off THIS island AND back to the mainland."
Jhanex's response to this should be: "THAT shouldn't be too difficult, we found a ready-moored ship ON THE SHORE a little to the west of here." (The way the original sentence is constructed is very awkward in English)
Another one: "But from what people say about THIS island, I'm not surprised." (Since the characters are on the island, referring to it as "the island" is quite weird).
"Allow me and my men to go to THE ship and get everything prepared." (Since the ship is in a different location, he ideally shouldn't say THIS ship, although it isn't necessarily wrong)
3. I'm playing the game with SCS (double damage enabled). I missed the prebuffed enemies in this mod. The various cultists, sirines, the hag and even the main enemy fell a little too easily to my party of 5 (average level 9). I suggest that some of the enemies could start combat with at least basic protection spells to enhance their staying power.
Yup, I'm aware, SCS doesn't touch mod characters that have their own scripts. I'm just saying, hoping for a more challenging version of this, it would be even more fun to play.
I will also fix the typos you mentioned and include harder lacedons with the next version.
Thank you for your feedback!
Regarding SCS - my main focus at the moment is releasing all my mods at a difficulty level adapted for the unmodified game. Once that's accomplished, I might look into customizations. However, this may take a long time.
I understand about the difficulty - it did feel like some of the more challenging parts of the unmodded game! Hope to see all your content out soon!
Changelog:
- fixed typos, thanks @roshan !
- Lacedons have more HP, lower AC and better THAC0
- the Veil of Chocking Darkness no longer triggers the Cowled Wizards to appear in Athkatla
- removed the word "malus" from English language tra as this word doesn't exist in English AD&D terminology
I reached out to @Acifer and I'll be updating Tactics Remix to include more challenging scripts for his various mods. This way, players who want a boost in difficulty can get it and those who want less difficulty can also have their needs met.
Right now at the base directory there are ~845 files and directories such as AC#DTSBD.bam and so forth.
I tend to copy all content of a mod into the base directory of my BG2 installation; on windows typically C:\\BG2\ as
this is more convenient for me to find and navigate to. I then copy all mods into that directory. These are named by
a script automatically e. g. 01_ 02_ 03_ so I always know which install order I use. (I keep track of that in a .yml file).
So when I am about to install the Dark Tidings mod, I copy the files to the base directory at /BG2 and
end up with lots of files that are specific to Dark Tidings. Note that other mods usually have an
extra directory, and then the weidu setup- exe. For instance, call of the lost goddess has that
structure too, e. g. a directory Godcall/ and then a file called setup-godcall.exe.
Could this perhaps also be changed for Dark Tidings?
(I suppose I could create that directory and move all but the .exe inside, but I remember that sometimes
when I do things manually, the installation breaks down; I had that problem with weidu in the past,
e. g. where it refuses to install things because a text file is missing. weidu is a super-strange program.)
For reference, I cleared the mod with the difficulty updates with a level 13+ party. I did not prebuff for any of the fights except for the final fight.