823 respuestas en este tema

[rjshae]

But he can be handy when you get in a pickle.

[kamal_]

Jan should be a black market merchant. You encounter him selling illicit wares in the government district, right? So why won't he buy anything during your travels?

The mobile vegetable peddling business is less lucrative than you might believe.

[PJ156]

These are just thoughts on Jan Jansen. Bioware's portrayal did not fall far from the stereotypical tree

 

PJ

[Tchos]

So Jan Jansen's a character is he ? I just thought kamal had completely lost it ! Or have you all ?

 

He's just a long-winded gnome companion from Baldur's Gate 2, who speaks often of turnips.

[drechner]

I'm so glad that Jan will turnip in the game. I'll show myself out now...

[Dann-J]

Let's hope he seeked medical advice about that bad case of turnip reflux. It has the potential to completely ruin stealth mode.

[Eguintir Eligard]

I hit Jan so hard he exploded and I never had to hear his stupid voice ever again. I could have just let the cops take him like they wanted to but what's the point of that.

[rjshae]

Oh, peas... perhaps he's not the cream of the crop, but lettuce not forget his corny dialog can't be beet. So rather than squash him, relish the fact that he never took a leek in the middle of a fight.

[IAmDeathComeForThee]

Oh, peas... perhaps he's not the cream of the crop, but lettuce not forget his corny dialog can't be beet. So rather than squash him, relish the fact that he never took a leek in the middle of a fight.

I took the time to sign in just to like this post.

[drechner]

A few more WIP NPC heads:

 

 

Aerie

 

Viconia

 

I should also have some new screenshots of the Athkatla Docks in the upcoming weeks

[rjshae]

Might I ask whether there is a way to make the top of Aerie's ears look more like in the portraits? Or is that a limitation of the tool?

 

[drechner]

Might I ask whether there is a way to make the top of Aerie's ears look more like in the portraits? Or is that a limitation of the tool?

 

The ears are a bit tough; if they're too big, they won't fit under helmets and hair, so I was playing it a bit safe. I can maybe look into altering them a bit, though I'm a bit worried already about their size. Hopefully the ears still come across as pretty elven though. 

[Dann-J]

You could make the ears part of the hair model, instead of part of the head. That way they'll disappear if she wears a helmet that completely eclipses the hair.

[kamal_]

Her eyes need more of an angle and the top of her head is too large I think. Also, I think her face is flatter in the drawing.

 

If you straighten out the drawing, her eyes aren't at the same angle either. But with texture mapping and such I'm not sure asymmetrical like that is doable.

[rjshae]

I know she's elven, but, by way of comparison, human eyes don't slant that way. It's just an artistic interpretation, I think.

[drechner]

You could make the ears part of the hair model, instead of part of the head. That way they'll disappear if she wears a helmet that completely eclipses the hair.

That's a really good idea; thanks!

 

Her eyes need more of an angle and the top of her head is too large I think. Also, I think her face is flatter in the drawing.

 

If you straighten out the drawing, her eyes aren't at the same angle either. But with texture mapping and such I'm not sure asymmetrical like that is doable.

 

Her alien eyes are a bit weird in the portrait and they're terribly asymmetrical (which would make her look pretty horrific in 3D). Of course, I'm treating it as a concept and working from there, so not everything is 1:1, which is part intention and part limitation of my skills There's also helmets, hair, etc. to keep in mind, which means that the head shapes of all the NPCs have to be fairly uniform. 

[Luminus]

Personally, I wouldn't go too crazy with what the characters look on the portraits. They should be used as a base.
I mean, in BG1 Viconia was chubby, had brown skin, a hooked nose almost, large eyebrows and purple hair.

The portraits are also the artist's interpretation's of general guidelines and lore material. The games are not official Wizards of the Coast material. (Hell, even those contradict themselves)

Also people are judging them like this because they see them from close up with no textures or hair.
Personally, I am happy that they are using custom models for the heads at all. In BG1 they were basically retextured Xaltar's heads and they still looked awesome and I really wouldn't mind if they did the same with SOAR.



By the way, I want to express my personal humble opinion on a few stuff as advice from the things I've seen and I also posted those on the Nexus posts.

1) The latest Kaedrin's pack should be used from his site or the Nexus, not the ones from BGR. Many stuff conflicted and bugged out, like the Earth Elemental being tiny instead of medium sized. That was an issue with an older version of K's pack.

2) Shadows of Amn should end at level 20, like BGR stopped at level 10 exactly. No more, no less.
The reason for that is because many epic abilities or epic spells can destroy some of the end fights, especially with Irenicus.

Examples: Vampiric Feast. That spell (epic spell feat) is available to all casters and at minimum it brings the target's health at 50% or kills them instantly. It bypasses immunities to death magic and has no Spell Resistance. On top of that, it heals the caster and it's an area of effect for multiple enemies!

So, can you imagine how the last fight would be? It can possible end in a single round. "Vampiric Feast, Vampiric Feast, Vampiric Feast, Power Word: Kill".

Or for example a Rogue getting Epic Precision early and destroying with ease the various golems in Suldanesselar that you fight, almost solo. Since Epic Precision ignores all immunities to Sneak Attack but does 50% the damage.

Or getting Epic Divine Might or Eldritch Master or other stuff. You get the idea.

It's also much more... symmetrical to have SoA end at level 20 and ToB at level 30. After all, all the epic stuff was added with ToB like High Level Abilities.
The epic abilities and spells are best left for ToB. SoA should be capped at level 20.

And I would actually consider disabling Vampiric Feast since it's really a broken spell, balance-wise. It's a win button even when the enemies make the save.

3) Consider starting the NPCs with the appropriate Prestige Classes.
For example,

Aerie should be a Cleric/Wizard/Mystic Theurge. The class exists in the files but it's not enabled.

Jan should be an Arcane Trickster.

Imoen should probably be a Rogue/Wizard with Able Learner to simulate a dual-classed character with a focus on magic than sneak attack and not as many skill points as a pure Rogue but still enough for the basic stuff.

Valygar really seems like a Scout/Ranger with the Swift Ambusher feat to simulate the advancing Sneak Attack (Stalker backstab) as a Ranger.
STR-based, Two-Weapon Style, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Katanas) and Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting.

Mazzy seams like a Dex-based Fighter/Divine Champion (some Paladin stuff but no spells).

Nalia seems like a Sorcerer, than a Mage. Similarly to Dynaheir. With Invisibility and Knock as spells for her background.

Viconia should have her BG2 stats. I really disagreed with her having 18 CHA in BGR.
Her stats are best translated as: 10 STR, 18 DEX, 10 CON (no penalty in both games) 14 INT, 17 WIS (+2 from level up from 15) and 14 CHA.

Sorry for the ginarmous post but I think it's better to have most of it in one post than multiple ones.
Also I posted it here as it can be forgotten on the Nexus and people here know better about NwN2 in general.

[Shallina]

Mystic theurg needs an overall of the GUI to works propelly, especially of the Lvling UI. In 8 years no one has done it, and it won 't be done for SOAR.

[Arkalezth]

And I would actually consider disabling Vampiric Feast since it's really a broken spell, balance-wise. It's a win button even when the enemies make the save.

Who cares? Are single player modules going to be nerfed now too (especially after including Kaedrin's cheese)? Just don't take that feat (or many other things) if you want it to be more challenging.

Regarding Kaedrin's pack, I agree that it should be updated to the latest version if implemented. It'd be best if it was optional, but I think it had to be done that way in the first module for some things to work properly.

Is BGR capped at level 10? I know it's supposed to finish around that level, but I thought 11 or 12 was technically possible.

[Shallina]

Kaedrin has taken out the source code of his work... Which mean I can't do more than what was done with BGR P4 as long as he doesn 't share the source.

[Luminus]

The Mystic Theurge works just fine vanilla with Cleric and Wizard, from what I remember. The Cleric gets it's spell automatically and the Wizard gets new spells, or they can be added with scrolls, like in the original.
The problems arise when you try to make it work with Sorcerer or Favored Soul levels.

Aerie is a Cleric/Mage. That is best represented with Mystic Theurge, which already exists in the original game. It is just disabled.

And I think Drew and Shallina want to keep some kind of challenge like in the originals. With Vampiric Feast included every single boss in ToB game becomes a cakewalk.
The least they can do is simply capping the level to 20, so the final battle with Irenicus doesn't become a cakewalk.

None of K's stuff holds a candle to Vampiric Feast by the way. Not Emberguard, or Swiftblade or Glaive or whatever.

And I once cheat leveled up a character for testing purposes in BGR and it capped at level 10, not sure if that was changed.

[Shallina]

SOAR is programmed to end at 22, 23 and TOB at 30.

 

For Vampiric feast thanks for the tips, if it 's really too strong I might nerf it on boss encounters for game difficulties set above normal.

 

But for SOA, and TOB reloaded the combats won't be made as in BGR where they were alomost carbon copy of the original.

 

The easy difficulty will be very easy, like a story mode with only the key NPC and ennemy.

 

The normal Difficulty will be based on the original game, a carbon copy.

 

Above normal difficulty, "majors encounters" are completed and complexified to offer a challenge for powerfull 3ed DnD eddition rules characters. Vampiric feast might not be overpowered in those difficulties.

[Luminus]

I would prefer if SOA ended at level 20, actually.
For example, Mask of the Betrayer is also an expansion but it starts you at level 18 and finishes at level 30.

In ToB, the bosses and quests could easily be adjusted to be give you more xp to reach level 30 from level 20.

For example in the original games, you ended the game at around 18-20 level too and you could go over level 30 in ToB.

I know the rules are not the same but getting only 6-7 levels through all of ToB is a bit disappointing.
That way they are more symmetrically balanced.
Just like BGR was capped at level 10 and didn't allow you to get to level 15 for example.

In short, I think it's best to leave all the epic levels and stuff for ToB as it fits the campaign more.

[Arkalezth]

None of K's stuff holds a candle to Vampiric Feast by the way. Not Emberguard, or Swiftblade or Glaive or whatever.

Depends on how you look at it. VF is a once/day spell, but many abilities introduced or improved in Kaedrin's pack are infinite or usable many times per day, and sooner than level 21.

Anyway, I'm not comparing this to that, but I've always found it rather amusing to add Kaedrin's stuff and the like first and then talk about "balance" and "nerfs". If you worry about balance, perhaps you shouldn't have added that mod in the first place, or allowed epic levels. Nothing personal, but I've just seen it a lot on some PWs' forums and it's a pretty silly logic to me.

I'm not arguing what's strong and what isn't, and I'm not saying that balance irrelevant in single player (far from it). I simply find it unnecessary to start nerfing things because there's a chance that some player, somewhere, happens to be playing a team of casters with several VFs that might make the end boss a cakewalk. And even if s/he does, who cares? Just don't do that yourself and everyone will be happy. It's not like VF is going to make every other ability/class/whatever redundant or pointless. Besides, if I'm feeling really cheesy, I can always spawn a supersword with the console and obliterate everything, boss or otherwise.