Legacy of Bhaal bugged in v2.5?
Grond0
Member Posts: 7,320
After playing the unmodded game on Core for a while I thought I would update my SCS modded version to 2.5 and have a go at LoB in that. It quickly became apparent that I was having difficulty hitting things and recruiting a few enemies into my party showed why - hobgoblins, ogres and xvarts all had an AC of -6, while diseased gibberlings had to do with a mere -1. At a guess, what has happened is that the +12 adjustment to levels has also been applied as a negative adjustment to AC.
Checking in the unmodded game, that seems to be the case there as well - but I can't see anything in the patch notes suggesting this was intended. While I enjoy kiting more than most people, an hours work to kill a single hobgoblin strikes me as a bit too extreme
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Has anyone else noticed this?
Checking in the unmodded game, that seems to be the case there as well - but I can't see anything in the patch notes suggesting this was intended. While I enjoy kiting more than most people, an hours work to kill a single hobgoblin strikes me as a bit too extreme
.Has anyone else noticed this?
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Comments
"Heart of Fury/Legacy of Bhaal should provide AC bonuses to enemies"
I know a lot of people thought that LoB was previously too unbalanced - particularly if playing solo fighter types. I didn't think so myself before as it was possible for a decent level fighter to successfully melee most enemies. However, it looks like things got a whole lot more challenging, so I might need to reconsider my views on balance ...
So I assume all enemies get -5 AC bonus now. This will have huge impact on BGEE early game.
So (nearly) all solo chars without Enchanted Weapon + Martyrs Morningstar will now suffer "a bit more" against Big B - no?
It would be nice if they added a tick box to "enable -11 AC bonus for enemies in LOB mode" beneath the option to enable "bonus XP in LOB mode". Again, to balance the original HOW settings for LOB mode in Baldurs Gate. I doubt there are many people who want to rely on luck to beat enemies in LOB mode instead of skill. It kind of defeats the purpose. Having the option to enable it would satisfy the few people who want it and would allow Beamdog to say that HOW was converted into Baldur's gate in it's entirety without ignoring the purpose of the game mode itself.
This way Beamdog wouldn't have to spend time and resources on an unnecessary mod that most people won't even be aware of and it would make everyone happy.
Bonus XP makes the game too easy and bonus -11AC for enemies makes the game too hard because it requires luck in order to progress through the game. In my opinion both of these options should be off by default in LOB mode in order to balance it. LOB is not intended to be played like HOW was originally and BG is not Icewind Dale. These would be very basic options that would at least attempt to balance the mode toward serving it's intended purpose within the Baldur's Gate series.
I think Beamdog should really just spend some time balancing it and leave it at that. Adding tick options for every little thing is a slippery slope and I would rather them just slam the gauntlet down and tell us how it is. If @JuliusBorisov plays LOB mode and he and other members of Beamdog can honestly tell me that they think LOB mode in it's current form is the most balanced, polished and fun it can be then I will live with it and admit that it's just not for me.
Some people think double damage on insane mode is silly but that is the way it is and we all have to deal with it. I think LOB mode should be the same way. The difference is I truly don't feel that Beamdog has put the time in to polish LOB mode. I think they just had the goal of importing it in from Icewind dale and once that was completed they were content to leave it that way. I'm hoping they will spend a little more time to make LOB mode worth while and cater it toward Baldur's Gate. I'm saying this as a fan of the EE games and the original implantation of LOB. Not trying to be disrespectful or a loud mouthed complainer. Just voicing my opinion.
If they do balance it, they should say so in the patch notes and make it clear what the intended changes are so we know if it is working as intended and then we can all just deal with it and decide if we want to use it or not. @CamDawg and @JuliusBorisov have been playing the game as long as I have and many of the development team are probably as good or better than I am. I will respect their honest opinions regarding game balance and I believe the majority of the community will as well. I hope that Beamdog attempts to further balance it for Baldur's Gate rather than simply port the original settings from Icewind Dale. The games are different and the difficulty settings don't transfer between the games smoothly. That is why the bonus XP was disabled in the first place.
I know that this will take time and money to do if you are paying guys to play it and configure it on the clock. If it's too costly then maybe they should just leave LOB mode as a direct port from HOW like it is and actually make a DLC difficulty mode that is true quality. I would gladly pay Beamdog for a DLC to add a quality difficulty mode that basically adds SOD level AI with balanced LOB difficulty for the whole trilogy. It would require the EE version of the infinity engine and it would be a separate DLC so I doubt it would cause any contractual problems. Or if it's not too costly to modify LOB then simply balance the current LOB mode a little tighter. I would be happy with either one.
I have a feeling there isn't a single veteran player that thinks LOB mode in it's current state is balanced but maybe I'm mistaken. I hope other players of this mode will chime in a leave an opinion as to weather they are happy with it and what they think could improve it if they are not. I feel like these tick boxes will actually take away from the mode because there will be no established level of difficulty for those of us that choose to play it.
Externalisation of the values to a tp2 could make it more easily moddable.
That would be quite an achievement. Fighting three Gibberlings in the opening woods felt like the end game battle for me
Look at this thread for more info : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/62202/the-lob-scs-solo-challenge-proudly-presents-the-crusaders-of-blades-and-stars/p1
The fight against Belhifet is already incredibly highly dependent on maximizing THAC0, and while the Martyr's Morningstar can win the fight regardless of THAC0 since it relies on landing critical hits, you need the Enchanted Weapon spell to use it against Belhifet as of v2.5 (or one of the other post-v2.0 updates). Cavaliers and rangers with Demon as a racial enemy should still be able to tackle him, but other classes just won't be able to overcome Belhifet's regeneration with the reliability needed for a no-reload run.