I had to reinstall IWDEE on my Windows machine and have been getting parse errors with some of the modules, specifically the improved generic enemies, smarter mages and smarter divine caster. It installs fine and the installer puts all components as successfully installed, so I guess it simply skipped that or resolved the issue somehow. Attached the debug and weidu logs.
I'm thinking the fixpack. It's the only thing that has been updated (using the latest master). Are those errors serious? The installer did not fail or anything and apparently installed the modules in the end. Can I just ignore them?
Edit: Yes, apparently it's the fixpack. Errors don't show up on a fresh install.
I'm using last weeks github master release, so probably something funky with that articular snapshot. Going to try on my Linux machine. The modules install and I can perceive no errors in game, so I don't know.
I spoke with @CamDawg and the EE Fixpack beta is causing a conflict in TR with the NearSavedLocation() trigger. Should expect an update for the EE Fixpack in the next day or so which will correct it.
I think I ran into a "compound effect" with regard to Tactics Remix.
Let me explain what I mean with this.
First - I installed various mods, including the golem mod from Argent77.
I believe I also used the smarter AI component from Argent77.
I also use several tweak mods, e. g. the tweak mod.
From Tactics remix, I think I checked on smarter or stronger yuan ti,
smarter mages and stronger undead. Something along those
lines, perhaps a bit more.
So here I already saw a few, to me, confusing things. The golems all
look differently. This is, I assume, a desired changed by the mod
author, but one thing I noticed is that the iron golem is smaller.
It now fits through the door in Nalia's keep; normally it gets
stuck there. I am not certain if this is a good change or not, but
anyway, let me continue the problem description.
I was surprised that golems can throw stones or so, as ranged
attack. When the Dusk NPC was hit for one (!) strike of 40 hp
loss, I noticed that golems were kind of ... really strong.
It also keeps on using a poison, which I guess is the default
behaviour but that poison is really effective. Could the damage
output for throwing stones (remote damage) be looked into though?
It seems to do insane damage on ranged. Normally moving about
can help, but not when a golem throws stuff. But this is not the
main issue.
I noticed that the iron golem even gives chase to different levels.
I was surprised when it suddenly appeared when my party fought
that Tor something boss troll in the keep. I could avoid the golem
and hand over the keep to Nalia, but I was surprised it not
only fits through the door, but also follows across different map.
This may all not be a bug (if the golem is smaller then perhaps
it can now indeed fit through the door), but I was surprised
about it.
Now I come to the real problem though.
Upon engaging enemy liches, they insta-summon about 4
companions. When I leave the area, those companions
remain, e. . bone golems, demon knights; I just got a fiend
too. But when I then rest outside, and enter back, a new
batch arrival comes in. So now I am in the fallen ruins a
bit west of umar hills. And as I re-enter, now I have as
enemy group:
- 1 lich using time stop
- about 4 bone golems
- about 5 or so skeletons
- about 2 mummy liches
- and a pit fiend
Something along those lines. So about 13 enemies. Was that
really a desired change? The damage output is pretty insane.
I can probably handle this at a higher level, but from past
play-throughs I often end up facing a situation where the
add-on bodyguards also scale upwards. What I am specifically
surprised was that the initial four bodyguards perma-stay there;
this also happens in other areas where liches are.
With the yuan-ti it is not quite as serve; only one strong golem
appears. But there is still a scaling effect, e. g. when there are
more yuani ti mages, then I also have to fave all their golems.
In particular the clay golems are annoying to no ends, they
are insanely fast and Dusk died after three hits. That's an
auto-death; one can heal up a bit but a single golem kind of
nuking the party.
Could the scaling-up factor be reconsidered? I think the AI
behaviour changes are sort of improvements in general, but
some of the other changes are just making some fights
needlessly harder. I'll still give it a try but I think it requires too
much effort. Perhaps there could be more options, e. g.
default/vanilla, medium and hard difficulty. Right now it seems
that some components are more specific for players who want
the highest difficulty, which is fine for these players but I think
it may be nice to have some less severe upscaling. Anyway, I'll
keep on playing, some of the challenge has to do with low
party level and not the best equipment, but in particular when
there are liches, it seems I can't beat them due to so many
supporting undead. I think the issue is mostly a scaling issue
though - if liches would only have one ally, then this would be
much easier still than four default allies + like 6 more that get
summoned in. But perhaps that is a bug, I don't know right now.
I did some more testing. For instance, I noticed that the whole lich army is following me, so I kited them to the outside.
My next plan was to kite them even further away.
Unfortunately the lich teleports in most party members and then chain-spells mass confusion, sleep and other things, so some of my party members die either instantly or get disabled and then die. At that point I interrupted my current run; I may do my next run some time lateron.
In my opinion improves liches have some scaling issue here, at the least in combination with some settings such as stronger undead. For my next run I'll settle for less difficulty - having a lich army with ~13 strong undead to then close-in teleport the party, is a bit too much IMO. (The pit fiend appears to have turned on the other undead though, I think due to a fireball or so - that part was at the least entertaining.)
As another suggestion, perhaps there could be a bit more randomness, e. g. rather than always have the highest difficulty, to have like a 1D4 of summons, or 1D3+1 or something like that. Many changes are individually quite fine, IMO; it's only as combination where some of those effects become more "compounded" and then difficult.
Now there may be too many options to consider, but what if there would be some "batch installation" question early on, where the user could pick a specific template? Like, a template to specify which playing style may be preferred. I am not sure whether it is worth to add this, but people could then pick different difficulty levels perhaps. Say, 5-7 or so and have things be installed in that way. Though this also sounds a bit complicated to add or enable, so I am not sure if this would be a good addition; just mentioning in case someone has an idea how to simplify handling Tactics Remix as a strategy upgrade, without necessarily incurring scaling difficulties that make some fights very, very difficult. Anyway, this was not the only reason I stopped; I failed to install the most recent Dusk NPC mod (there were recent patches though, so it should work again) and I also ran into another issue with Aura NPC (a cut scene that would never resolve), so I'll do my next run probably at a later time again, probably in about two months earliest. Meanwhile anyone happy beta-testing is appreciated - you guys iron out bugs or issues while some of us replenish during our down time here! (I'll also try to find out how to do easy batch-installations via weidu, that should simplify updating mods anew too.)
The Golem changes are explained rather briefly in the website. The sprite changes surprised me too, but I can see the reason and they don't bother me in BG2. It does bother me in IWD, mainly because the Iron Golem sprite is cool and unique, but that's just a personal preference of mine. They can be annoying in a fight and it takes using different tactics to deal with them (no more stuck Golems at door ways). SCS does something similar, just not as extreme.
The extra summons in fights I do agree can be a bit too much. They scale with difficulty setting. I very much doubt they are strictly summons, but rather extra opponents gated in as bodyguards. In BG1EE this can get a bit troublesome as sometimes you get enemies gating in powerful elementals.
I do agree that a more granular difficulty setting can be useful. Something like SCS. I do rather enjoy the overall difficulty spike at Insane (particularly for trash mobs), but the mage/cleric pre-casting is crazy nuts (and the summoning of extra enemies).
One of the reasons for the extra animations is to better visually distinguish different types of enemies. Nabassu and Balor, for example, are vastly different creature types and now the player has a visual indicator as to what they are fighting. With golems it's partly for the visual indicator (and to keep them graphically aligned to DnD visual depictions of these creatures). It's also largely because the original animation does not have an animation for throwing a projectile. Without the new animations, golems would be standing still appearing to be doing nothing when they are attacking. Now the player can actually see an animation for them throwing a projectile.
Planning to try this in alternative to SCS. For the new added challenges, may I ask which of these add new items that gets dropped, apart from Kuroisan?
Comments
BGEE and BG2EE install go without issues.
Edit: Yes, apparently it's the fixpack. Errors don't show up on a fresh install.
Better use the release and not the latest master.
Let me explain what I mean with this.
First - I installed various mods, including the golem mod from Argent77.
I believe I also used the smarter AI component from Argent77.
I also use several tweak mods, e. g. the tweak mod.
From Tactics remix, I think I checked on smarter or stronger yuan ti,
smarter mages and stronger undead. Something along those
lines, perhaps a bit more.
So here I already saw a few, to me, confusing things. The golems all
look differently. This is, I assume, a desired changed by the mod
author, but one thing I noticed is that the iron golem is smaller.
It now fits through the door in Nalia's keep; normally it gets
stuck there. I am not certain if this is a good change or not, but
anyway, let me continue the problem description.
I was surprised that golems can throw stones or so, as ranged
attack. When the Dusk NPC was hit for one (!) strike of 40 hp
loss, I noticed that golems were kind of ... really strong.
It also keeps on using a poison, which I guess is the default
behaviour but that poison is really effective. Could the damage
output for throwing stones (remote damage) be looked into though?
It seems to do insane damage on ranged. Normally moving about
can help, but not when a golem throws stuff. But this is not the
main issue.
I noticed that the iron golem even gives chase to different levels.
I was surprised when it suddenly appeared when my party fought
that Tor something boss troll in the keep. I could avoid the golem
and hand over the keep to Nalia, but I was surprised it not
only fits through the door, but also follows across different map.
This may all not be a bug (if the golem is smaller then perhaps
it can now indeed fit through the door), but I was surprised
about it.
Now I come to the real problem though.
Upon engaging enemy liches, they insta-summon about 4
companions. When I leave the area, those companions
remain, e. . bone golems, demon knights; I just got a fiend
too. But when I then rest outside, and enter back, a new
batch arrival comes in. So now I am in the fallen ruins a
bit west of umar hills. And as I re-enter, now I have as
enemy group:
- 1 lich using time stop
- about 4 bone golems
- about 5 or so skeletons
- about 2 mummy liches
- and a pit fiend
Something along those lines. So about 13 enemies. Was that
really a desired change? The damage output is pretty insane.
I can probably handle this at a higher level, but from past
play-throughs I often end up facing a situation where the
add-on bodyguards also scale upwards. What I am specifically
surprised was that the initial four bodyguards perma-stay there;
this also happens in other areas where liches are.
With the yuan-ti it is not quite as serve; only one strong golem
appears. But there is still a scaling effect, e. g. when there are
more yuani ti mages, then I also have to fave all their golems.
In particular the clay golems are annoying to no ends, they
are insanely fast and Dusk died after three hits. That's an
auto-death; one can heal up a bit but a single golem kind of
nuking the party.
Could the scaling-up factor be reconsidered? I think the AI
behaviour changes are sort of improvements in general, but
some of the other changes are just making some fights
needlessly harder. I'll still give it a try but I think it requires too
much effort. Perhaps there could be more options, e. g.
default/vanilla, medium and hard difficulty. Right now it seems
that some components are more specific for players who want
the highest difficulty, which is fine for these players but I think
it may be nice to have some less severe upscaling. Anyway, I'll
keep on playing, some of the challenge has to do with low
party level and not the best equipment, but in particular when
there are liches, it seems I can't beat them due to so many
supporting undead. I think the issue is mostly a scaling issue
though - if liches would only have one ally, then this would be
much easier still than four default allies + like 6 more that get
summoned in. But perhaps that is a bug, I don't know right now.
My next plan was to kite them even further away.
Unfortunately the lich teleports in most party members and then chain-spells mass confusion, sleep and other things, so some of my party members die either instantly or get disabled and then die. At that point I interrupted my current run; I may do my next run some time lateron.
In my opinion improves liches have some scaling issue here, at the least in combination with some settings such as stronger undead. For my next run I'll settle for less difficulty - having a lich army with ~13 strong undead to then close-in teleport the party, is a bit too much IMO. (The pit fiend appears to have turned on the other undead though, I think due to a fireball or so - that part was at the least entertaining.)
As another suggestion, perhaps there could be a bit more randomness, e. g. rather than always have the highest difficulty, to have like a 1D4 of summons, or 1D3+1 or something like that. Many changes are individually quite fine, IMO; it's only as combination where some of those effects become more "compounded" and then difficult.
Now there may be too many options to consider, but what if there would be some "batch installation" question early on, where the user could pick a specific template? Like, a template to specify which playing style may be preferred. I am not sure whether it is worth to add this, but people could then pick different difficulty levels perhaps. Say, 5-7 or so and have things be installed in that way. Though this also sounds a bit complicated to add or enable, so I am not sure if this would be a good addition; just mentioning in case someone has an idea how to simplify handling Tactics Remix as a strategy upgrade, without necessarily incurring scaling difficulties that make some fights very, very difficult. Anyway, this was not the only reason I stopped; I failed to install the most recent Dusk NPC mod (there were recent patches though, so it should work again) and I also ran into another issue with Aura NPC (a cut scene that would never resolve), so I'll do my next run probably at a later time again, probably in about two months earliest. Meanwhile anyone happy beta-testing is appreciated - you guys iron out bugs or issues while some of us replenish during our down time here! (I'll also try to find out how to do easy batch-installations via weidu, that should simplify updating mods anew too.)
See you folks in about two months or so.
The Golem changes are explained rather briefly in the website. The sprite changes surprised me too, but I can see the reason and they don't bother me in BG2. It does bother me in IWD, mainly because the Iron Golem sprite is cool and unique, but that's just a personal preference of mine. They can be annoying in a fight and it takes using different tactics to deal with them (no more stuck Golems at door ways). SCS does something similar, just not as extreme.
The extra summons in fights I do agree can be a bit too much. They scale with difficulty setting. I very much doubt they are strictly summons, but rather extra opponents gated in as bodyguards. In BG1EE this can get a bit troublesome as sometimes you get enemies gating in powerful elementals.
I do agree that a more granular difficulty setting can be useful. Something like SCS. I do rather enjoy the overall difficulty spike at Insane (particularly for trash mobs), but the mage/cleric pre-casting is crazy nuts (and the summoning of extra enemies).