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[Aasim]

Karthis, 2nd BG2 update

 

Did Shade Lord. I wanted to do this quickly since I get a lot of money from that quest.

 

Reported our success back, traveled to city to do thieves' quests. No problem with either Suna ambush or Mae'var.

[Aasim]

 

 

Ended the session by doing the Harpers quest. Now we're expolring graveyard.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Aphril's Game:

 

Bad new everyone. The answer is no: Aphril has fallen.

 

The Mariliths proved to be a problem, since they cast True Sight and consequently make it more difficult to get a PI up and running, but ultimately the outcome hinged on a critical error. Since Aphril's PI had been disabled by a Yaga-Shura Lava Bomb at the moment when Melissan summoned her Fallen Solars, Aerie was tasked with destroying them. In the chaos of the battle, one of the two Fallen Solars had snuck away from Aerie. I thought they had both been destroyed. Later, that Fallen Solar ambushed Aphril while she was casting Projected Image in a seemingly secluded part of the Throne. One arrow removed Aphril's protections. Dispelled, with her aura clouded, and with Creeping Doom en route, targeted with vorpal arrows, Aphril has no hope. Melissan, smelling blood Dimension Doored to Aphril and finished her.

 

Had the Mariliths not been present, I the outcome would have been different. Perhaps the Mariliths weren't intended to be in this fight, as Grim Jim contends? No matter. I had chosen to accept them as part of my install, and in that install Aphril has fallen. May she rest in peace.

 

Aphril, Aerie, Imoen, and Adara had a fine run. I'm proud of them- even if they won't enter the Hall of Heroes. 

 

I'll post a proper final update relatively soon. Thanks for your interest, everyone!

 

Best,

 

A. 

[Aasim]

Alesia, wtf? How? How many of those freakin Solars are in this battle?   I'm afraid in my install this won't be doable at all...

[Grond0]

Sorry to see that Alesia, but thanks for all the entertainment on the journey .

[Aasim]

Sorry to see that Alesia, but thanks for all the entertainment on the journey .

Seconded.

[Aasim]

3rd Karthis' update

 

Did a lot of city stuff like Fallen Paladins, Skinner etc.

Also fought Mencar. My thief died there - do note that Mencar's axe with IR has a dispel-on-hit property, which led to her quick demise. She did nail the mage instantly, thou.

 

 

Following that, sewers gang. Pretty similar, but no dispelling axe this time.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Bad news indeed, Alesia...

I'm glad, you enjoyed the run as we all do. If not in Hall of Heroes the girls will always stay in our memory. They took a rightful place in Halls of Valhalla as well, I'm sure.

[Aasim]

Karthis, 4th update

 

Went to Trademeet. I had little difficutly with various spiders/trolls/druids, but the Rakshasa there were almost the death of us all. My sorceress had no spells left, but I decided to fight them anyway. I'm ashamed of how this battle turned out after a failed backstab.

(one of the best things when playing a cleric protagonist is you can raise the dead easilly )

 

Druids were much easier; and buffed Cernd had no problems dealing with Faldorn.

 

I should now pay 15k to someone, and I'm kind of leening towards paying Bodhi this time. Out of all oponnents, Tanova ended the most of my runs.

[Alesia_BH]

Alesia, wtf? How? How many of those freakin Solars are in this battle?   I'm afraid in my install this won't be doable at all...

 

 

On Core, there are no Fallen Solars in the final battle. On Insane there are two. Alone, the Fallen Solars wouldn't be terribly difficult, but they present challenges in the context of this fight.

 

In v30, on Insane, you end up fighting Melissan, the Five (minus one), two Fallen Solars, four Mariliths, and a smattering of Alu-Fiends and Succubi all at the same time. It's a lot to handle- even for Aerie.

 

The fight is far more manageable on Core. It's also significantly more manageable on Insane sans-Mariliths.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Sorry to see that Alesia, but thanks for all the entertainment on the journey .

 

That's kind of you to say. The sense that I was getting was that there wasn't much interest in this run. I'm glad that you enjoyed it at least, Grond0.

 

FWIW, I had fun. I enjoyed playing with a party, and I especially enjoyed playing with Aerie and Imoen. It was a good time, even if the ending was less than fulfilling.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

 but there is no check for whether or not Ascension is installed.

 

Got it. So it sounds like you were right. And it sounds like we did get screwed, basically. 

 

Thanks for letting me know.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Aphril's Game:

 

I've been trying to complete the battle to give Aphril's run a fitting epilogue, but it seems like that won't be possible. We're capable of defeating Mel, I think, even with the Mariliths, but we cannot overcome hard crashes to the desktop.

 

 

I was afraid this would happen. I had been experiencing crashes throughout the run. The crashes became increasingly common as the complexity of battles increased. I was afraid that the battle at the Throne would be unplayable in this install. As it turns out, it is.

 

I suppose I'm glad that Aphril fell to the Fallen Solar/Marilith spawn as she did. Otherwise, this run would have had an even more anti-climactic ending. All of my other attempts have ended in crashes to the desktop.

 

As for what's next, I'm not sure. One thing is for certain: I'm definitely ditching this install. I want a version of SCS that will play nice with Ascension, and I want the stability I'm accustomed to. I may revert to my old install. In the alternative, I may try v21. We'll see.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

[Aasim]

On Core, there are no Fallen Solars in the final battle. On Insane there are two. Alone, the Fallen Solars wouldn't be terribly difficult, but there present challenges in the context of this fight.

 

In v30, on Insane, you end up fighting Melissan, the Five (minus one), two Fallen Solars, four Mariliths, and a smattering of Alu-Fiends and Succubi all at the same time. It's a lot to handle- even for Aerie.

 

The fight is far more manageable on Core. It's also significantly more manageable on Insane sans-Mariliths.

Oh my...in your experience, is this battle at all doable w/o Wish or PI?

As I see it now, my party arcanists will be toasted quickly; I simply won't have spells to cast.

P.S. 

It was a great run - regret nothing. 

[Aasim]

As per crashes to desktop - I've had my share of those in Asc as well (even if years ago). 

Things that help somewhat:

- computer running too long makes it prone to overheating (play Asc after sleep) so it can crash more frequently

- turn off all background programs, anti-virus etc.

- clean your fan

- don't use Telly Field/Sphere of Chaos/Web and similar 

- quick-save whenever you can

- in BG options, disable most sound effects

 

I also need to turn on 3D acceleration for some reason.

[Alesia_BH]

Oh my...in your experience, is this battle at all doable w/o Wish or PI?

 

I can't imagine a pure caster finishing the insane battle without Wish or PI.

 

I can imagine an F/M doing it, using the Death's Door method.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

As per crashes to desktop - I've had my share of those in Asc as well (even if years ago). 

 

This is different. It's not like Ascension crashes I've experienced in the past.

 

It's far, far worse. It's something specific to this install.

 

best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Wow Alesia, I really didn't see this coming. On the other hand, unexpected game behavior at the final battle, which is such a hard battle, can easily get you into trouble. I'm of course sorry Aprhil and co didn't last a bit longer. It was a very impressive run nonetheless.

Hopefully you won't disappear for another year. Your runs and you cheerfulness really make the forum a nicer place.

[Blackraven]

I can't imagine a pure caster finishing the insane battle without Wish or PI.

 

I can imagine an F/M doing it, using the Death's Door method.

 

Best,

 

A.

Death's Door? Could you give me a reminder of what that is professor?

[Aasim]

Get all of the Five to Near Death status but don't kill anyone, avoiding Mel as long as possible (she spawns the moment one of them dies). 

[Aasim]

Karthis, 5th BG2 update

 

I forgot to mention we had losses in Pai-na battle. Barby died to poisoning  - one more reminder never to tackle those w/o sorcerer having a full spell assortiment at her disposal.

 

We won with no more casualties, but had to micro around the spiders. Karthis is still pretty weak in melee- she only has 3/2 apr and the lack of power is noticable if barbarian is dead.

 

Anyhow, after Trademeet, returned to WK and finished level 1 and level 2. Not much trouble.

 

I waited for Chromatic to get into Air shape, since it's keen on using Dispels. (I had bad experiences with 50+ damage Fireballs so Fire form is to be avoided at all cost).

We ran out safely, and won't be returning there for a while. Bought Fortress Shield for Karthis (+6 AC, -2 THAC0, +10% physical resist - this will help vs Slayer Irenici should we get that far....)

 

With that done, it was time to finish our mission at De'Arnise keep. Nalia was adopted (only for money) temporary.

Not too great (bad spell selection on illus/thief, too little summons on field, no Imp.Invis on Khartis meant she'd be Breached asap); but it's done. I didn't take the keep ownership and won't be going back there.

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear about Aphril, Alesia. She had a great run though. Reminds me of one of my paladin runs, the one that lost everything in their battle with Firkraag, yet still made it to Melissan, but could't beat Melissan herself with the 4 paladin survivors.

[Alesia_BH]

Wow Alesia, I really didn't see this coming. On the other hand, unexpected game behavior at the final battle, which is such a hard battle, can easily get you into trouble. 

 

I can't say I'm surprised. It's a difficult fight on insane. The tiniest details matter. Even subtle scripting changes can mandate significant changes in battle strategy. New tactical hurdles, such as four additional Mariliths and a host of other demons in an already crowded battle field, can require substantial changes.

 

The battle plan had, in essence, been built for a different fight. It could have succeeded in the environment we encountered, but not without tweaking.

 

I do think Grim Jim is correct: the Mariliths shouldn't have been there. That's a bug. The Ascension Fallen Solars have never spawned with Mariliths, and the SCS documentation indicates that the v25-v30 tweak which causes the Mariliths to spawn was intended to effect non-Ascension Fallen Solars only. In v30, there are other instances where vanilla creatures spawn where they shouldn't, and Ascension creatures are missing, such as in Abazigal's Lair. 

 

I think we would have been fine, had it not been for the Mariliths. We definitely would have been fine on Core. On Core, there would have been no Fallen Solars at all: cake walk.

 

 

 It was a very impressive run nonetheless.

 

 

That's kind of you to say. The only thing I regret is that I didn't run Aphril in a tested install. This run had the potential to be one of those magical play-throughs where everything feels right: where you're thoroughly enjoying your characters and your style of play, where your party feels alive. Unfortunately, my install was not up to the challenge of providing a suitable game world. The Fallen Solar/Marilith issue was but one of many that I encountered during this run. Crashes, script anomalies, and wonky spell behavior all detracted from the gaming experience. I kept that struggle private, for the most part, since I didn't want it to compromise the run, but, truth be told, I considered retiring Aphril on multiple occasions.

 

Perhaps some day in the not too distant future I'll do an insane run with a party similar to Aphril's, using a tested install with the Improved Enclaves installed. That should hit the sweet spot.

Hopefully you won't disappear for another year. Your runs and you cheerfulness really make the forum a nicer place.

 

Again, that's kind of you to say. I hope you'll stick around, too.

 

Best,

 

A. 

 

[Alesia_BH]

Get all of the Five to Near Death status but don't kill anyone, avoiding Mel as long as possible (she spawns the moment one of them dies). 

 

Yuppers.

 

Best,

 

A.