Just a little post to say that this mod is fucking great, had a really good time with it. Throne of Bhaal imo always lacked "linear" dungeons and big maps in general, making the combat more tedious than late SoA, forcing frequent rebuffs because you have to move to another area 8 hours away after a single fight, etc.
This is great, interesting encounters, good map design, well-sized areas, integrates seamlessly into the narrative and the general pacing of late ToB, the art is fantastic, absolutely love it, 10/10, will never play without it again. Cost me two permakilled party members right before facing SCS/Ascension Amelyssan (and lose, no reload be damned) but it was absolutely worth it.
I liked these new monsters making for interesting late game fights without having to make them spellcasters-only, great stuff. Atmosphere, characters, writing, art, music, all that stuff is top tier, this could pass up for an official addition by the original Bioware team.
Just a couple remarks to not make this post completely useless fawning:
- add some screenshots or videos to the mod presentation, not only because it looks great but because it's a very late game mod that players only get to experience after sinking a few dozen hours into a run, can be a bit discouraging to download
- there is an plot and lore exposition NPC that is severely wounded but will take time to answer any question the player has before taking his last breath: maybe either "reduce" the severity of his wounds so he doesn't die or leave all the answers in a journal lying next to his corpse? Narrative nitpicking, it doesn't really matter
Anyway, thanks for your work, hope to see more of it in the future
Just a little post to say that this mod is fucking great, had a really good time with it. Throne of Bhaal imo always lacked "linear" dungeons and big maps in general, making the combat more tedious than late SoA, forcing frequent rebuffs because you have to move to another area 8 hours away after a single fight, etc.
This is great, interesting encounters, good map design, well-sized areas, integrates seamlessly into the narrative and the general pacing of late ToB, the art is fantastic, absolutely love it, 10/10, will never play without it again. Cost me two permakilled party members right before facing SCS/Ascension Amelyssan (and lose, no reload be damned) but it was absolutely worth it.
I liked these new monsters making for interesting late game fights without having to make them spellcasters-only, great stuff. Atmosphere, characters, writing, art, music, all that stuff is top tier, this could pass up for an official addition by the original Bioware team.
Just a couple remarks to not make this post completely useless fawning:
- add some screenshots or videos to the mod presentation, not only because it looks great but because it's a very late game mod that players only get to experience after sinking a few dozen hours into a run, can be a bit discouraging to download
- there is an plot and lore exposition NPC that is severely wounded but will take time to answer any question the player has before taking his last breath: maybe either "reduce" the severity of his wounds so he doesn't die or leave all the answers in a journal lying next to his corpse? Narrative nitpicking, it doesn't really matter
Anyway, thanks for your work, hope to see more of it in the future
Thank you so much for the kind words, and I'm so happy you enjoyed the mod!
Its problems are a bit overstated. I've had multiple playthroughs without any issues and one in which I encountered some variable chaos which has since been fixed. WoP is highly modular, so it all depends on which path you take. That being said, I wouldn't install it if you don't know your way around fixing some small bugs in Near Infinity here and there, since the risk of throwing a spanner in the works of your game so close to the end in ToB is simply too great otherwise.
Thanks for the continued support. I've had problems getting to the end of TOB because BG3 seemed to increase interest in the BG mod scene and I've had a lot of mods to test. I've installed this the last 5 times I've done a mega install but I just haven't made it all the way to the end because of bugs or balance issues from other untested mods that I decided to give a shot.
I'm really looking forward to this and wanted to let you know that TOB mods are very welcome but they may cause your mod to be slow to gain a lot of public support because it's at the end and many people have restartitis or issues like I have had. I will leave a review for this one when I finally make it to the end. Hopefully my next run through the game will be one that goes all the way. The idea for this mod is great and the art work is amazing from what I have seen. I hope I will have some feedback to give in a few months from now.
@paladin84 I saw you guys over at arcancoast are working on a translation of Crucible and should be getting it over to me shortly to include, thank you! I believe posting it either here or directly to me on discord will probably be the easiest ways for me to get it added to the mod. In regards to timing, I have a number of changes waiting to go live for Crucible and should be running another test of it within the week. I will hold off releasing any updates until I get your translation.
I am waiting on an account over at arcanecoast as I was hoping to chime in around the question for translating Horkos' name. In Greek mythology, "Horkos" (Greek: ὅρκος, "oath") is the personification of the curse that befalls oath-breakers, serving as the guardian of honor and the avenger of perjury (taken verbatim from google). I chose this name on purpose for the character as he was betrayed and would ask that his name would be something similar/in-line to befit his character.
This mod is completely unbalanced and ruins the game. Either the mod is unbalanced or the combination with stratagems is like this. It's all completely over the top. I would advise against installing the mod!!!
This mod is completely unbalanced and ruins the game. Either the mod is unbalanced or the combination with stratagems is like this. It's all completely over the top. I would advise against installing the mod!!!
Thank you. Luckily, you can reduce the difficulty from insane and it becomes a much easier experience. The difficulty slider impacts A LOT in this mod.
EDIT: I do not believe SCS alters any of the enemies, scripts, or encounters. Anything less than insane difficulty will be much more manageable for players who are looking for the story elements. Insane difficulty is a different animal and brings the game difficulty up to my definition of what "difficult" and "challenging" is. If insane is too much, just drop the difficulty down and it will reduce the number of enemies, what they do, and the remaining enemies stats.
This mod is completely unbalanced and ruins the game. Either the mod is unbalanced or the combination with stratagems is like this. It's all completely over the top. I would advise against installing the mod!!!
Thank you. Luckily, you can reduce the difficulty from insane and it becomes a much easier experience. The difficulty slider impacts A LOT in this mod.
EDIT: I do not believe SCS alters any of the enemies, scripts, or encounters. Anything less than insane difficulty will be much more manageable for players who are looking for the story elements. Insane difficulty is a different animal and brings the game difficulty up to my definition of what "difficult" and "challenging" is. If insane is too much, just drop the difficulty down and it will reduce the number of enemies, what they do, and the remaining enemies stats.
I don't think something like that helps, because the mobs' immunity, damage output, and other stats are so high that almost all defensive and offensive spells and many items are simply useless, and even the strongest, best tanks and minions are quickly defeated. Furthermore, almost all mobs attack the weakest members, which negates the tactic because all your mages, etc., are quickly gone, and thus the word "tank" no longer has any meaning. Mods like this try to turn BG2 into "Path of Exile," but BG2 isn't PoE :-). But thanks for your mod; maybe it's exactly the right mod for the 2% of BG2 players who want to make REALLY crazy and impossible things possible :-).
I don't think something like that helps, because the mobs' immunity, damage output, and other stats are so high that almost all defensive and offensive spells and many items are simply useless, and even the strongest, best tanks and minions are quickly defeated. Furthermore, almost all mobs attack the weakest members, which negates the tactic because all your mages, etc., are quickly gone, and thus the word "tank" no longer has any meaning. Mods like this try to turn BG2 into "Path of Exile," but BG2 isn't PoE :-). But thanks for your mod; maybe it's exactly the right mod for the 2% of BG2 players who want to make REALLY crazy and impossible things possible :-).
The difficulty slider impacts all of that and it is a completely different experience between insane and non-insane. For example:
Enemies will have different equipment and stats/immunities
Enemies will not target weaker party members
Less or different enemies will spawn
Enemies will use different abilities
You're complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. Drop the difficulty down one or two from insane and you will have a much more enjoyable and easier experience.
EDIT: I don't mean the "you're complaining" in a negative context, and I'm keeping it up for posterity. I'm trying to highlight your perceived issue doesn't exist and that the mod accommodates more of the playstyle that you are looking for.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that I don't want to disparage your mod, but rather post my feedback here so other players can get an idea of what to expect. If someone still wants to, they'll install it. :-)
The fact that the difficulty level of the game and this mod differ drastically is the problem, in my opinion, regardless of the difficulty level.
Up to this point, I've been playing with ScS Madness. There were many very challenging (boss) fights, especially if you want to completely destroy the city of the Dark Elves in the Underdark, where there are many powerful waves of attacks. Everything wasn't as bad as your mod, because the offensive and defensive spells still worked, and mobs weren't completely immune to many things, so you could still somehow control the situation. But your mod renders almost everything ineffective. It's unacceptable that you have to change the difficulty level multiple times in one game. A good mod should have the same difficulty level as the game, unless the mod increases the difficulty of the game in general like ScS and that is different.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that I don't want to disparage your mod, but rather post my feedback here so other players can get an idea of what to expect. If someone still wants to, they'll install it. :-)
The fact that the difficulty level of the game and this mod differ drastically is the problem, in my opinion, regardless of the difficulty level.
Up to this point, I've been playing with ScS Madness. There were many very challenging (boss) fights, especially if you want to completely destroy the city of the Dark Elves in the Underdark, where there are many powerful waves of attacks. Everything wasn't as bad as your mod, because the offensive and defensive spells still worked, and mobs weren't completely immune to many things, so you could still somehow control the situation. But your mod renders almost everything ineffective. It's unacceptable that you have to change the difficulty level multiple times in one game. A good mod should have the same difficulty level as the game, unless the mod increases the difficulty of the game in general like ScS and that is different.
SCS doesn't alter mod added creatures and mod added scripts, so it becomes incumbent on the mod to ensure it can handle the breadth and range of many different playstyles. The difficulty slider is designed, surprisingly enough, to adjust the difficulty. If you want more of a Tactics Remix + Ascension styled difficulty, then play on insane. If you want something that is not that, then change the difficulty slider once and now you have the difficulty in-line with what you are looking for. As such, I can ensure via my mod that the difficulty lines up with what the player is expecting while covering all playstyles within a single mod.
Also, I will quote my mod page and readme:
Difficulty for this mod is heavily tied to the difficulty slider to include the numbers and types of enemies encountered along with the abilities they choose to use. Insane and LoB difficulties are going to be in line with Tactics/Ascension level difficulty while anything less will be much more approachable to users who avoid difficulty increasing mods.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that I don't want to disparage your mod, but rather post my feedback here so other players can get an idea of what to expect. If someone still wants to, they'll install it. :-)
This mod is completely unbalanced and ruins the game. Either the mod is unbalanced or the combination with stratagems is like this. It's all completely over the top. I would advise against installing the mod!!!
This very much feels like disparagement. Especially now in the context that the readme wasn't paid attention to and then the mod is being targeted because it offers a very fine tuned difficulty selection that you don't want to use.
I also want to add that SCS is not very difficult, especially at the endgame. Insane Crucible lines up in difficulty between Tactics Remix and the Ascension final fight. The enemies in Crucible have vulnerabilities and use the same defensive spells and abilities as would be found in the base game. I'm not sure which creatures you found were invulnerable, but the normal methods and counters you would use in SCS or non-SCS would work against them.
The fact that the difficulty level of the game and this mod differ drastically is the problem, in my opinion, regardless of the difficulty level.
Up to this point, I've been playing with ScS Madness. There were many very challenging (boss) fights, especially if you want to completely destroy the city of the Dark Elves in the Underdark, where there are many powerful waves of attacks. Everything wasn't as bad as your mod, because the offensive and defensive spells still worked, and mobs weren't completely immune to many things, so you could still somehow control the situation. But your mod renders almost everything ineffective. It's unacceptable that you have to change the difficulty level multiple times in one game..
While I agree, this mod is intended as a gauntlet mod first, then a storytelling mod second. The fights are what's important, not the story. So, does the mod do the gauntlet part well? Very much so.
Is the difficulty high? Pretty much so. The fact that you have to move the difficulty level to easy is a side-effect of the gauntlet part.
I completed Crucible on my first try on tactical difficulty in a no reload run.
I don't understand the complaint about too much difficulty when playing on INSANE mode. Insane should be well insane ?
By the way, SoD and Ascension also make use of the difficulty slider for adjusting the challenge. SCS also for what the foes will use.
Really, it's an unfair critic given the solution is easy. Do you want an average difficulty ? Use the difficulty slider.
I will also add than Morpheus562 took my feedbacks very seriously in order to balance the difficulty of his mods for the tactical setting, so notably no reload players would not be frustrated by a sudden difficulty spike.
And why would it be unacceptable to adjust the difficulty, since the game itself allows it ?
I played Crucible on “Core”, no SCS and I’d say it was not extremely difficult. It was easy to enjoy the story elements, and battle through a number of interesting fights that struck me as appropriate for a late game power level. I understand difficulty setting has a dramatic impact on this one!
I will test the mod without ScS / ASCENSION to see if there is any difference.
Edit: I just tested this mod on the "Insane" difficulty level (Fight against Belchaad the Juggernaut) but without ScS. It's very hard, but not impossible. That said most likely, ScS / ASCENSION increased the difficulty even further and made the game impossible. I hope the mod authors try testing the mod in Insane difficulty and with ScS as well. Now my tanks don't die after just a few hits.
Comments
Should be good
This is great, interesting encounters, good map design, well-sized areas, integrates seamlessly into the narrative and the general pacing of late ToB, the art is fantastic, absolutely love it, 10/10, will never play without it again. Cost me two permakilled party members right before facing SCS/Ascension Amelyssan (and lose, no reload be damned) but it was absolutely worth it.
I liked these new monsters making for interesting late game fights without having to make them spellcasters-only, great stuff. Atmosphere, characters, writing, art, music, all that stuff is top tier, this could pass up for an official addition by the original Bioware team.
Just a couple remarks to not make this post completely useless fawning:
- add some screenshots or videos to the mod presentation, not only because it looks great but because it's a very late game mod that players only get to experience after sinking a few dozen hours into a run, can be a bit discouraging to download
- there is an plot and lore exposition NPC that is severely wounded but will take time to answer any question the player has before taking his last breath: maybe either "reduce" the severity of his wounds so he doesn't die or leave all the answers in a journal lying next to his corpse? Narrative nitpicking, it doesn't really matter
Anyway, thanks for your work, hope to see more of it in the future
Thank you so much for the kind words, and I'm so happy you enjoyed the mod!
Btw, no compatibility problems with Wheels of Prophecy
I'll definitely use "Crucible" in any future game.
Wonderful to hear, thank you!
I'm really looking forward to this and wanted to let you know that TOB mods are very welcome but they may cause your mod to be slow to gain a lot of public support because it's at the end and many people have restartitis or issues like I have had. I will leave a review for this one when I finally make it to the end. Hopefully my next run through the game will be one that goes all the way. The idea for this mod is great and the art work is amazing from what I have seen. I hope I will have some feedback to give in a few months from now.
I am waiting on an account over at arcanecoast as I was hoping to chime in around the question for translating Horkos' name. In Greek mythology, "Horkos" (Greek: ὅρκος, "oath") is the personification of the curse that befalls oath-breakers, serving as the guardian of honor and the avenger of perjury (taken verbatim from google). I chose this name on purpose for the character as he was betrayed and would ask that his name would be something similar/in-line to befit his character.
Thank you! I'll take a look and let you know if I have any questions getting it added.
Thank you for making amazing mods
Thank you. Luckily, you can reduce the difficulty from insane and it becomes a much easier experience. The difficulty slider impacts A LOT in this mod.
EDIT: I do not believe SCS alters any of the enemies, scripts, or encounters. Anything less than insane difficulty will be much more manageable for players who are looking for the story elements. Insane difficulty is a different animal and brings the game difficulty up to my definition of what "difficult" and "challenging" is. If insane is too much, just drop the difficulty down and it will reduce the number of enemies, what they do, and the remaining enemies stats.
I don't think something like that helps, because the mobs' immunity, damage output, and other stats are so high that almost all defensive and offensive spells and many items are simply useless, and even the strongest, best tanks and minions are quickly defeated. Furthermore, almost all mobs attack the weakest members, which negates the tactic because all your mages, etc., are quickly gone, and thus the word "tank" no longer has any meaning. Mods like this try to turn BG2 into "Path of Exile," but BG2 isn't PoE :-). But thanks for your mod; maybe it's exactly the right mod for the 2% of BG2 players who want to make REALLY crazy and impossible things possible :-).
The difficulty slider impacts all of that and it is a completely different experience between insane and non-insane. For example:
You're complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. Drop the difficulty down one or two from insane and you will have a much more enjoyable and easier experience.
EDIT: I don't mean the "you're complaining" in a negative context, and I'm keeping it up for posterity. I'm trying to highlight your perceived issue doesn't exist and that the mod accommodates more of the playstyle that you are looking for.
The fact that the difficulty level of the game and this mod differ drastically is the problem, in my opinion, regardless of the difficulty level.
Up to this point, I've been playing with ScS Madness. There were many very challenging (boss) fights, especially if you want to completely destroy the city of the Dark Elves in the Underdark, where there are many powerful waves of attacks. Everything wasn't as bad as your mod, because the offensive and defensive spells still worked, and mobs weren't completely immune to many things, so you could still somehow control the situation. But your mod renders almost everything ineffective. It's unacceptable that you have to change the difficulty level multiple times in one game. A good mod should have the same difficulty level as the game, unless the mod increases the difficulty of the game in general like ScS and that is different.
SCS doesn't alter mod added creatures and mod added scripts, so it becomes incumbent on the mod to ensure it can handle the breadth and range of many different playstyles. The difficulty slider is designed, surprisingly enough, to adjust the difficulty. If you want more of a Tactics Remix + Ascension styled difficulty, then play on insane. If you want something that is not that, then change the difficulty slider once and now you have the difficulty in-line with what you are looking for. As such, I can ensure via my mod that the difficulty lines up with what the player is expecting while covering all playstyles within a single mod.
Also, I will quote my mod page and readme: This very much feels like disparagement. Especially now in the context that the readme wasn't paid attention to and then the mod is being targeted because it offers a very fine tuned difficulty selection that you don't want to use.
While I agree, this mod is intended as a gauntlet mod first, then a storytelling mod second. The fights are what's important, not the story. So, does the mod do the gauntlet part well? Very much so.
Is the difficulty high? Pretty much so. The fact that you have to move the difficulty level to easy is a side-effect of the gauntlet part.
I don't understand the complaint about too much difficulty when playing on INSANE mode. Insane should be well insane ?
By the way, SoD and Ascension also make use of the difficulty slider for adjusting the challenge. SCS also for what the foes will use.
Really, it's an unfair critic given the solution is easy. Do you want an average difficulty ? Use the difficulty slider.
I will also add than Morpheus562 took my feedbacks very seriously in order to balance the difficulty of his mods for the tactical setting, so notably no reload players would not be frustrated by a sudden difficulty spike.
And why would it be unacceptable to adjust the difficulty, since the game itself allows it ?
Edit: I just tested this mod on the "Insane" difficulty level (Fight against Belchaad the Juggernaut) but without ScS. It's very hard, but not impossible. That said most likely, ScS / ASCENSION increased the difficulty even further and made the game impossible. I hope the mod authors try testing the mod in Insane difficulty and with ScS as well. Now my tanks don't die after just a few hits.