ERROR: illegal 2-byte read from offset 1380995155 of 538-byte file SPIN920.spl
ERROR: [SPIN920.spl] -> [override/SPIN920.spl] Patching Failed (COPY) (Failure("SPIN920.spl: read out of bounds"))
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
ERROR: [.../ds-inline/ds_other_clone.2da] -> [override/ds_other_clone.2da] Patching Failed (COPY) (Failure("SPIN920.spl: read out of bounds"))
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
ERROR Installing [Install Crucible -> Fully Voiced NPCs using AI], rolling back to previous state
Will uninstall 383 files for [CRUCIBLE/CRUCIBLE.TP2] component 1.
Uninstalled 383 files for [CRUCIBLE/CRUCIBLE.TP2] component 1.
ERROR: Failure("SPIN920.spl: read out of bounds")
Please make a backup of the file: SETUP-CRUCIBLE.DEBUG and look for support at: Acifer and morpheus562
Using Language [English]
I get this problem while trying to install it on a new instalation of bg2ee.
I have somewhat recently played another large run-through. I'll give a bit of feedback; I'll try to make this constructive too.
1) The initial area appears to have been worked through? Or perhaps I misremember. At any rate, the necromancers summoning skeletons was quite a challenging intro. Even at high level it was quite tough. Many skeletons would hamper movement. I eventually had Viconia deal with most undead and finished the necromancers off. The fire dragon was funny - he looks a bit chubby. On initial encounter he obliterated my party, e. g. +200 area damage fire (think this was the stronger dragons add-on too?). After the initial burst though, and a bit better prepared, he was finished off.
2) The second (or third, not sure) area was also quite decent. The deva-ambush was a bit annoying since it was unexpected and Jan was chopped in four parts by them in a round or two. Upon trying it again, the stronger party members triggered the devas and then they stood little chance as my party focus-killed them. The fight against Mary or what was her name was pretty tough, most of my party members chickened out, Mary chased the party angrily and about halfway the party re-formed, placed some summons etc... and Mary eventually succumbed. So far so good.
3) There was then the infamous bridge again where like 20 of those advanced succubi were standing behind, and the big four armed snake women with swords in the arm were standing, and about 4 demon knights. I think I had some issues with that map in the past. The bridge gets blocked both by the enemies and also my own summons. Anyway, after a lot of back and forth, I cleared that level eventually. But this is a map I'd love to see get a slight re-design. Not sure if Acifer and Morpheus agree with this; I think the map should be a tiny bit bigger, say +10% or +20%, give or take; and more importantly the bridge head should be a bit wider to the sides, and the bridge itself can also be a bit longer, that is fine. As it is, I kind of get choke-blocked here, which is not a lot of fun; and also I remember Dusk running it and then suddenly like four glabruzu or what's those names popped up right next to him, handicapping the path. Not sure I am a fan of this ... so perhaps the initial part of map can be a bit larger, and rather than ambush-summons, perhaps they could be placed at the far end, and then they could walk towards the party. The problem with ambush summons is that they are quite unpredictable. I tried it twice, first Dusk was choke-blocked by them close to the end of the bridge; on second try I rushed in with Dusk again and this time they teleported next to him but he was already beyond the end of the bridge, thus making it easier to move again. The thing that I dislike here is that this depends a LOT on how the player moves, e. g. slower players who try to be more careful, may be more likely to get blocked by those ambush-summons, whereas players who gamify and micro-manage just push forward quickly, and are rewarded by the AI just auto-placing the ambush-summons farther away. Actually, I ended up winning that simply by also blocking the bridge, and finishing off the enemies. The demon knighs were the most annoying since they pack a punch and take a lot of damage without caring. Dusk had to chicken away a few times. (I had more archers than normal, as I did no have Korgan this time, so this also made it harder.)
4) Then came those teleporting spiders. Here, two things I disliked a little bit.
First: wild magic areas are a bit annoying, in particular when you wish to prepare for the next level. I had to retreat to the prior level, to prepare. One idea I have here is that the wild magic in the place could perhaps be destroyed. Perhaps there could be a few cocoons or something that power the wild magic. And the player could destroy it, leading to the collapse of the wild magic. Or if all spiders are dead, a message could be aded that the wild magic is now gone. Anyway it's very minor; the other part I disliked slightly was that the spiders teleported to some of the party members that seemed weak, in particular Viconia, then bit her almost to insta-death. I found a recipe against this: Viconia was then just running around like an idiot. This idiot behaviour then led to the spiders also teleporting like idiots but missing because Viconia was already moving to another place. Meanwhile Dusk chopped the spiders down. Quite minor, but this level was semi-ok only, but at the least they were not super-strong so this is ok-ish.
5) Then came the challenge against multiple strong enemies. Here, i was a bit annoyed already that I had to run out, sleep/rest and buff up; that took about 30 seconds or so. That is not much, but I kind of want to try to make better use of the time. The enemies were pretty strong and map layout was also a problem since it was fairly small. I tried this for a few times but then decided it's a bit too difficult for me (party level was ~8 million XP, so the party was quite strong).
Making this map larger may also be nice. Confined map layout is not a whole lot of fun.
I stopped trying though and called it a day. This is not solely due to crucible, mind you. That late in the game I kind of am less motivated to continue, as I feel SoA is much better than ToB. And, actually, the fights in crucible are, although some are very hard, more fun than the final fight against Miss M. Actually that final fight should be included into Crucible as I don't quite feel very motivated that late in the game. Some of the items I acquired, also from other mods, are a bit too overpowered too, e. g. Region of Terror in particular. Kind of unfortunate we don't have a big balance person who would try to balance all mods.
Anyway. Crucible is kind of an improved tactics remix variant in regards to areas, IMO. The areas are quite cool from the design, so other than making them a bit larger I don't really have any complaint about them as such). One thing to perhaps consider for Crucible may also be a simple difficulty slider. For instance, vanilla (no change), medium difficulty and the current one (hard fights). I kind of prefer medium difficulty but people are different, I guess others may prefer more challenging fights.
@shevy123456 out of curiosity, what difficulty did you play on? core or insane? SCS yes or no? (note: i'm not sure SCS AI even affects the Crucible enemies at all, but the base difficulty slider does for sure)
The areas are quite cool from the design, so other than making them a bit larger I don't really have any complaint about them as such.
Sorry, but I won’t be making the areas larger. The dimensions are tied to the ARE files, so changing them would mean scrapping all existing areas and starting completely from scratch.
Above stream starts at about 31:40. He must use some strange mods as his
characters appear to have an insane amount of hp. I think this makes balancing
also super-hard. Minsc at almost 300hp? No wonder tactics remix and crucible
may need to put up challenges with such strong characters.
I know these kind of anticipatory compatibility questions can be annoying, but do you have a specific reason for “guessing that there will be an incompatibility” with Wheels of Prophecy (beyond the general issues plaguing WoP, that is)? From a cursory glance, it seems that all of the Crucible’s content takes place in new areas, so all that should be affected would be the initial transition to the Throne of Blood, correct?
That's great to have - you kind of get "behind the scenes" insight into how people work when designing mods.
I guess people with a design-centric (e. g. art, visuals) focus have a different approach when compared to, say, programming/logic centric approach, or storyline-centric approach. (I'll omit grouping here or mentioning any names - people have different approaches and I think others can learn from these approaches too.)
I like how Acifer approached it via a top-down question, aka:
"What does the realm of the Lord of Murder actually look like?"
I wonder whether he has a similar question for other mods, e. g. lost goddess or the mad god or the silverreams (and the light tower, that seems to be an older mod compared to the other mods).
It's also interesting that Acifer goes from a certain theme:
"When I first started thinking about Bhaal's realm, I had a very clear image in mind: A cold, dark wasteland, shrouded in blue-grey mist."
I did not give it any thought but I think I would, if I would have designed it, went for black + red. I guess I was a bit spoiled by the old diablo games and similar other genres where demons or evil are usually associated with black and red and perhaps a bit of sulfur (which I suppose can be yellowish?).
Acifer mentions blue-grey; this kind of reminds me actually of the visual effect he did for the poisonous path. The first time I saw the main building, I thought a ghost dragon appeared. Well it was just some animated green-blueish thingy. That colour combination appears to be liked by Acifer.
> According to Forgotten Realms lore, Bhaal's realm lies in Khalas, the first layer of Gehenna: A volcanic plane of fire, steep slopes, and red mist.
Well, I did not read that before actually. But I also don't think this is a big issue either way. There could be many entrances to Bhaal's lair right? And different ones, older hidden ones.
I think the official lore is only to some degree relevant to the whole games. I remember people not liking the HLAs, in part because they were overpowered but in part because they did not seem to be a good fit within AD&D mechanics.
> I wanted the players to discover the source of that beam far below and then use it as a kind of teleporter, travelling upwards along the beam until they finally reached the Manaforge.
Makes sense, but I always found the initial visual in ToB kind of lacking. In fact, ToB can be fun, but I actually started to hate the build-up towards the final fight, after I managed to beat it a few times. Crucible was kind of useful here since it took up from there; while I also find it a quite difficult mod, and I actually started to omit playing it recently (I just close after half of ToB because I totally fatigue after having done all 5 challenges in the planar sphere or pocket sphere), Crucible has some nice fights too. My favourite one is still the one with the many human enemies or whatever it was, the big party. Some other fights were a bit tedious, like those necromancers.
"An idea can work perfectly well as a concept or even in a 3D render, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will survive being reduced to the scale and perspective of the actual game."
This is nice to know because it gives an insight in the design parts. The visual animations are quite nice. I wonder if that could be like a sub-mod where other modders could cherry-pick some animations, smaller ones perhaps, for some effects. Like that ghostly glow. I think Lava also has something like that in the Bavaria mod? But I may misremember. I recall that when I first played the mod, I more thought of Ravenloft, though I recall that Ravenloft a bit different in setting, more misty fogs and what not. (Though, one can say the mod was only inspired by Ravenloft as a theme, but not really lore-wise. Lore-wise we'd probably have to change all mods and the core game too. But I don't even remember a lot of the mod I used to read when I was younger; I barely remember much from Drizzt, despite having read the whole saga back then.)
"When I looked at everything I had created, I realized that the very first playable area no longer quite worked for me. It felt too small."
I had something like that when I played it again after having amassed a golem army from Argent77's mods. The fatso golems coul not pass the bridges to the right. Then I realised they have that teleport-like ability and that worked, which was kind of fun. The small bridge is indeed preventing an invasion from golems! Clever of Bhaal to think about it. (Well ... teleport-ability is IMO more like a work around than a real ability that should be intrinsic to golems. But otherwise they get so easily stuck. I also had this with the Aura NPC mod, where her animaton thingy gets stuck in certain areas, like on Watcher's keep. It kind of teleports to the north and then remains stuck. I did not know why it could not go to Aura, until I realised this eventually that the automaton was on the same map, but could not move south. I noticed this again in the docks area or so, no ... bridge district, where the automaton somehow ended on a balcony and could not leave. Kind of hilarious though. Imagine you have an apartment there and watn to look at the sun as you step on the balcony and there is this huge fat metal automaton there, trying to get out ...)
"This time I could make full use of the visual language that had gradually developed while working on the other areas: volcanic terrain, blood, red mist and grotesque statues."
Interesting to read that. So that area came after the other area. I also found that later area to be a bit more fitting to Bhaal; bit I just started to be too annoyed at the necromancers. Or liches rather I guess.
Anyway, nice read on the rest.
One quick question: could crucible kind of integrate the Melissa fight? Like as an option? That is, I would be fine if Crucible would be the real final saga including some Melissa fight (could also feature a larger manaflow area, the old one seems boring now compared to the art work from Crucible). My biggest problem with ToB still is that it is so linear, in comparison to SoA. ToB is not bad at all, I still like it, but it seems that people rarely want to extend it with mods. Most seem to prefer SoA and I can kind of understand that.
Also the comment by Rzabon makes sense:
"After playing Crucible, I found myself questioning, for the first time in over 20 years, whether my character would truly choose the cosmic horror of the planes over a happy life on the Sword Coast."
Sword Coast seems a lot nicer than the Bhaal realm.
Comments
ERROR: [SPIN920.spl] -> [override/SPIN920.spl] Patching Failed (COPY) (Failure("SPIN920.spl: read out of bounds"))
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
ERROR: [.../ds-inline/ds_other_clone.2da] -> [override/ds_other_clone.2da] Patching Failed (COPY) (Failure("SPIN920.spl: read out of bounds"))
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
ERROR Installing [Install Crucible -> Fully Voiced NPCs using AI], rolling back to previous state
Will uninstall 383 files for [CRUCIBLE/CRUCIBLE.TP2] component 1.
Uninstalled 383 files for [CRUCIBLE/CRUCIBLE.TP2] component 1.
ERROR: Failure("SPIN920.spl: read out of bounds")
Please make a backup of the file: SETUP-CRUCIBLE.DEBUG and look for support at: Acifer and morpheus562
Using Language [English]
I get this problem while trying to install it on a new instalation of bg2ee.
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~A7-TESTYOURMETTLE/A7-TESTYOURMETTLE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Test Your Mettle!: 1.6
~AC_QUEST/AC_QUEST.TP2~ #1 #12 // A Halfling among the Eyeless: 6.1
~ALABASTERSANDS/ALABASTERSANDS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Alabaster Sands: the new area of Athkatla -> Yes, but don't patch existing save games: v1.8.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #0 // Restored Locations: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #1 // Restored Characters and Dialogs: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #2 // Restored Sounds: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #3 // Restored Items: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #4 // Restored Wish Options: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #5 // Restored XP for Minor Things: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #6 // Lich Deril: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #7 // Restored Random Encounters: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #8 // Minor Restorations: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #11 // Restored Final Slayer Dream: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #12 // Alternate Slayer Change: v10.1
~ARESTORATIONP/ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #13 // Restored Waukeen's Promenade Cutscene: v10.1
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #0 // Ascension v1.51 BETA (requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1 // Tougher Abazigal (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #2 // Original Tougher Demogorgon (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #3 // Tougher Gromnir (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #4 // Tougher Illasera (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #5 // Tougher Yaga-Shura (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #101 // Ascension Portraits - Bodhi: v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #102 // Ascension Portraits - Original Balthazar by Cuv: v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #103 // Restored Bhaalspawn Powers by David Gaider: v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #104 // Extended Epilogues by shawne: v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #105 // Extended EE Epilogues by shawne: v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #999 // Remove Anyone Identifier in EA.ids: v1.5 BETA_20160601
~ASSASSINATIONS/ASSASSINATIONS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Assassinations mod for Baldur's Gate II: v19
~BACKBRYNNLAW/BACKBRYNNLAW.TP2~ #0 #0 // Back to Brynnlaw mod for Baldur's Gate II: v9
~BLOODIEDSTINGSOFBAROVIA/BLOODIEDSTINGSOFBAROVIA.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Bloodied Stings of Barovia - a dark Ravenloft adventure for Baldur's Gate 2 EE: v2.5
~BRIDGESBLOCK/BRIDGESBLOCK.TP2~ #0 #0 // Athkatlan Grounds: The Bridge's Block: v2.01
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #10 // DrAzTiK's revisited fight against Tazok and DigDag [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #11 // Rebalancing some generic creatures [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #12 // Rebalancing Tazok and DigDag [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #20 // Groumf and Bourrinos Encounter at Firkraag's Hideout entrance [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #21 // Groumf and Bourrinos Encounter at Brynnlaw [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #22 // Groumf and Bourrinos Encounter in the Underdark [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #30 // Revisited fight against Wraith Sarevok in the Abyss [install before Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #32 // Add battle songs in some areas that do not have any [install before or after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #40 // DrAzTiK's Creatures [install before Stratagems, some following components need it]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #41 // Butchery in Irenicus Dungeon (Dwarves) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #43 // Butchery in the Forest of Tethyr (Animals and Druids) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #44 // Butchery in the planar sphere (Demonic creatures) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #45 // 3 butcheries in Spellhold (Golems, Vampires and Trolls) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #46 // Butchery outside de'Arnise Keep (Trolls) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #47 // Butchery in Windspear Hills (Orcs) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #48 // Butchery in Umar Hills (Wolves) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #49 // 2 butcheries in Trademeet and outside Watcher's Keep (Animals) [install) after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #50 // 2 butcheries of Golems in Suldanessellar and Watcher's Keep (Machine of Lum the Mad floor) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #51 // Butchery of Yaga-Shura revisited [install after Ascension and Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #52 // Butchery in the Druid Grove area (Animals and Druids) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #53 // Butchery in the Beholder Hideout (Fanatics) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #54 // Butchery in Bodhi's Hideout (chapter 2, before Underdark) - Vampires [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #55 // Butchery in Bodhi's Hideout (chapter 6, after Underdark) - Vampires [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #56 // 2 butcheries of Sahuagins in Sahuagin City and Watcher's Keep (Githyanki Encampment) [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #57 // 4 butcheries of spiders in Pai'Na's Hideout entrance, Temple City (Unseeing Eye Plot), Watcher's Keep first floor (Altar level) and in the area outside Sendai's Hideout [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #58 // 6 butcheries of skeletons in the lower tombs of Athkatla, Shadow Temple Land, Spellhold, Watcher's Keep (Last Seals), and 2 in Nyalee's Hideout [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #80 // More enemies scattered throughout the game [install after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
~BUTCHERY/BUTCHERY.TP2~ #0 #90 // Cosmetic component [install before or after Stratagems]: v5.0.0
I just downloaded the first link I've found and that's what i've got, now with the latested version it works flawlessly.
Thank you for your speedy support!
1) The initial area appears to have been worked through? Or perhaps I misremember. At any rate, the necromancers summoning skeletons was quite a challenging intro. Even at high level it was quite tough. Many skeletons would hamper movement. I eventually had Viconia deal with most undead and finished the necromancers off. The fire dragon was funny - he looks a bit chubby. On initial encounter he obliterated my party, e. g. +200 area damage fire (think this was the stronger dragons add-on too?). After the initial burst though, and a bit better prepared, he was finished off.
2) The second (or third, not sure) area was also quite decent. The deva-ambush was a bit annoying since it was unexpected and Jan was chopped in four parts by them in a round or two. Upon trying it again, the stronger party members triggered the devas and then they stood little chance as my party focus-killed them. The fight against Mary or what was her name was pretty tough, most of my party members chickened out, Mary chased the party angrily and about halfway the party re-formed, placed some summons etc... and Mary eventually succumbed. So far so good.
3) There was then the infamous bridge again where like 20 of those advanced succubi were standing behind, and the big four armed snake women with swords in the arm were standing, and about 4 demon knights. I think I had some issues with that map in the past. The bridge gets blocked both by the enemies and also my own summons. Anyway, after a lot of back and forth, I cleared that level eventually. But this is a map I'd love to see get a slight re-design. Not sure if Acifer and Morpheus agree with this; I think the map should be a tiny bit bigger, say +10% or +20%, give or take; and more importantly the bridge head should be a bit wider to the sides, and the bridge itself can also be a bit longer, that is fine. As it is, I kind of get choke-blocked here, which is not a lot of fun; and also I remember Dusk running it and then suddenly like four glabruzu or what's those names popped up right next to him, handicapping the path. Not sure I am a fan of this ... so perhaps the initial part of map can be a bit larger, and rather than ambush-summons, perhaps they could be placed at the far end, and then they could walk towards the party. The problem with ambush summons is that they are quite unpredictable. I tried it twice, first Dusk was choke-blocked by them close to the end of the bridge; on second try I rushed in with Dusk again and this time they teleported next to him but he was already beyond the end of the bridge, thus making it easier to move again. The thing that I dislike here is that this depends a LOT on how the player moves, e. g. slower players who try to be more careful, may be more likely to get blocked by those ambush-summons, whereas players who gamify and micro-manage just push forward quickly, and are rewarded by the AI just auto-placing the ambush-summons farther away. Actually, I ended up winning that simply by also blocking the bridge, and finishing off the enemies. The demon knighs were the most annoying since they pack a punch and take a lot of damage without caring. Dusk had to chicken away a few times. (I had more archers than normal, as I did no have Korgan this time, so this also made it harder.)
4) Then came those teleporting spiders. Here, two things I disliked a little bit.
First: wild magic areas are a bit annoying, in particular when you wish to prepare for the next level. I had to retreat to the prior level, to prepare. One idea I have here is that the wild magic in the place could perhaps be destroyed. Perhaps there could be a few cocoons or something that power the wild magic. And the player could destroy it, leading to the collapse of the wild magic. Or if all spiders are dead, a message could be aded that the wild magic is now gone. Anyway it's very minor; the other part I disliked slightly was that the spiders teleported to some of the party members that seemed weak, in particular Viconia, then bit her almost to insta-death. I found a recipe against this: Viconia was then just running around like an idiot. This idiot behaviour then led to the spiders also teleporting like idiots but missing because Viconia was already moving to another place. Meanwhile Dusk chopped the spiders down. Quite minor, but this level was semi-ok only, but at the least they were not super-strong so this is ok-ish.
5) Then came the challenge against multiple strong enemies. Here, i was a bit annoyed already that I had to run out, sleep/rest and buff up; that took about 30 seconds or so. That is not much, but I kind of want to try to make better use of the time. The enemies were pretty strong and map layout was also a problem since it was fairly small. I tried this for a few times but then decided it's a bit too difficult for me (party level was ~8 million XP, so the party was quite strong).
Making this map larger may also be nice. Confined map layout is not a whole lot of fun.
I stopped trying though and called it a day. This is not solely due to crucible, mind you. That late in the game I kind of am less motivated to continue, as I feel SoA is much better than ToB. And, actually, the fights in crucible are, although some are very hard, more fun than the final fight against Miss M. Actually that final fight should be included into Crucible as I don't quite feel very motivated that late in the game. Some of the items I acquired, also from other mods, are a bit too overpowered too, e. g. Region of Terror in particular. Kind of unfortunate we don't have a big balance person who would try to balance all mods.
Anyway. Crucible is kind of an improved tactics remix variant in regards to areas, IMO. The areas are quite cool from the design, so other than making them a bit larger I don't really have any complaint about them as such). One thing to perhaps consider for Crucible may also be a simple difficulty slider. For instance, vanilla (no change), medium difficulty and the current one (hard fights). I kind of prefer medium difficulty but people are different, I guess others may prefer more challenging fights.
Sorry, but I won’t be making the areas larger. The dimensions are tied to the ARE files, so changing them would mean scrapping all existing areas and starting completely from scratch.
characters appear to have an insane amount of hp. I think this makes balancing
also super-hard. Minsc at almost 300hp? No wonder tactics remix and crucible
may need to put up challenges with such strong characters.
I guess people with a design-centric (e. g. art, visuals) focus have a different approach when compared to, say, programming/logic centric approach, or storyline-centric approach. (I'll omit grouping here or mentioning any names - people have different approaches and I think others can learn from these approaches too.)
I like how Acifer approached it via a top-down question, aka:
"What does the realm of the Lord of Murder actually look like?"
I wonder whether he has a similar question for other mods, e. g. lost goddess or the mad god or the silverreams (and the light tower, that seems to be an older mod compared to the other mods).
It's also interesting that Acifer goes from a certain theme:
"When I first started thinking about Bhaal's realm, I had a very clear image in mind: A cold, dark wasteland, shrouded in blue-grey mist."
I did not give it any thought but I think I would, if I would have designed it, went for black + red. I guess I was a bit spoiled by the old diablo games and similar other genres where demons or evil are usually associated with black and red and perhaps a bit of sulfur (which I suppose can be yellowish?).
Acifer mentions blue-grey; this kind of reminds me actually of the visual effect he did for the poisonous path. The first time I saw the main building, I thought a ghost dragon appeared. Well it was just some animated green-blueish thingy. That colour combination appears to be liked by Acifer.
> According to Forgotten Realms lore, Bhaal's realm lies in Khalas, the first layer of Gehenna: A volcanic plane of fire, steep slopes, and red mist.
Well, I did not read that before actually. But I also don't think this is a big issue either way. There could be many entrances to Bhaal's lair right? And different ones, older hidden ones.
I think the official lore is only to some degree relevant to the whole games. I remember people not liking the HLAs, in part because they were overpowered but in part because they did not seem to be a good fit within AD&D mechanics.
> I wanted the players to discover the source of that beam far below and then use it as a kind of teleporter, travelling upwards along the beam until they finally reached the Manaforge.
Makes sense, but I always found the initial visual in ToB kind of lacking. In fact, ToB can be fun, but I actually started to hate the build-up towards the final fight, after I managed to beat it a few times. Crucible was kind of useful here since it took up from there; while I also find it a quite difficult mod, and I actually started to omit playing it recently (I just close after half of ToB because I totally fatigue after having done all 5 challenges in the planar sphere or pocket sphere), Crucible has some nice fights too. My favourite one is still the one with the many human enemies or whatever it was, the big party. Some other fights were a bit tedious, like those necromancers.
"An idea can work perfectly well as a concept or even in a 3D render, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will survive being reduced to the scale and perspective of the actual game."
This is nice to know because it gives an insight in the design parts. The visual animations are quite nice. I wonder if that could be like a sub-mod where other modders could cherry-pick some animations, smaller ones perhaps, for some effects. Like that ghostly glow. I think Lava also has something like that in the Bavaria mod? But I may misremember. I recall that when I first played the mod, I more thought of Ravenloft, though I recall that Ravenloft a bit different in setting, more misty fogs and what not. (Though, one can say the mod was only inspired by Ravenloft as a theme, but not really lore-wise. Lore-wise we'd probably have to change all mods and the core game too. But I don't even remember a lot of the mod I used to read when I was younger; I barely remember much from Drizzt, despite having read the whole saga back then.)
"When I looked at everything I had created, I realized that the very first playable area no longer quite worked for me. It felt too small."
I had something like that when I played it again after having amassed a golem army from Argent77's mods. The fatso golems coul not pass the bridges to the right. Then I realised they have that teleport-like ability and that worked, which was kind of fun. The small bridge is indeed preventing an invasion from golems! Clever of Bhaal to think about it. (Well ... teleport-ability is IMO more like a work around than a real ability that should be intrinsic to golems. But otherwise they get so easily stuck. I also had this with the Aura NPC mod, where her animaton thingy gets stuck in certain areas, like on Watcher's keep. It kind of teleports to the north and then remains stuck. I did not know why it could not go to Aura, until I realised this eventually that the automaton was on the same map, but could not move south. I noticed this again in the docks area or so, no ... bridge district, where the automaton somehow ended on a balcony and could not leave. Kind of hilarious though. Imagine you have an apartment there and watn to look at the sun as you step on the balcony and there is this huge fat metal automaton there, trying to get out ...)
"This time I could make full use of the visual language that had gradually developed while working on the other areas: volcanic terrain, blood, red mist and grotesque statues."
Interesting to read that. So that area came after the other area. I also found that later area to be a bit more fitting to Bhaal; bit I just started to be too annoyed at the necromancers. Or liches rather I guess.
Anyway, nice read on the rest.
One quick question: could crucible kind of integrate the Melissa fight? Like as an option? That is, I would be fine if Crucible would be the real final saga including some Melissa fight (could also feature a larger manaflow area, the old one seems boring now compared to the art work from Crucible). My biggest problem with ToB still is that it is so linear, in comparison to SoA. ToB is not bad at all, I still like it, but it seems that people rarely want to extend it with mods. Most seem to prefer SoA and I can kind of understand that.
Also the comment by Rzabon makes sense:
"After playing Crucible, I found myself questioning, for the first time in over 20 years, whether my character would truly choose the cosmic horror of the planes over a happy life on the Sword Coast."
Sword Coast seems a lot nicer than the Bhaal realm.