Feature Requests for Valen Expansion

Well forgive me if I am wrong, but it seems this is the feedback for the progress, and I guess if it would be ok if I could drop my 2 cents on any probable ideas.

Well, here goes?

1) If Mazzy is tied down and shackled by the Shade Lord, wouldn't Valen see it as an ample time to feed on Mazzy, basically killing her? Would there be a dialogue interjection in which you can tell her if it?s ok or not?

2) An interjection on Yan's trouble with The Hidden

3) An interjection on Cernd?s kid: It might seem a lot but a real NPC is supposed to be like a real person and in which a real person does have preferences on almost everything, so personally I am happy for extra dialogue, for it puts more realism in the characters.

4) I almost forgot about pai-nai or something like that the spider lady in the crypts. Perhaps doing a quest or something might be plausible for an evil party.

5) Twisted Rune in the bridge district (Valen sees a powerful vampire, she somehow ignores him....?)

6) That really long annoying quest (in my opinion) from limited wish.

7) Any dialogue from the people at the guarded compound, where Celestial Fury is located?

Perhaps a new quest about Daystar- destroying it or corrupting it. You can do it to the hallowed redeemer....

9) Saemon's betrayal at sea (the Silver Sword piece)

10) The githyanki who wants to collect the sword

As far as I think those are like the only encounters/quests you have skipped in SoA or the ones that I can remember?

So far I am very impressed if Valen has that much dialogue, and if you want any ideas for ToB I'd be happy to respond.

Edited by Thorium Dragon, 03 June 2005 - 12:50 PM.

I guess I will put another comment I guess, in a form of a few questions
Have you ever thought about making an SoA version of Valen's expansion and then later making a ToB version, so one would be able to experience a portion of Valen's expansion?
Next question is...
Would you?

1) if Mazzy is tied down and shackled by the shade lord, wouldn't valen see it as an ample time to feed... (on mazzy basically killing her) but it would be a dialogue interjection in which you can tell her its ok or not?

Dialog is written when Mazzy is met by the PC. (check the Progress Report)

2) an interjection on Yan's trouble with the hidden

A new quest involving the Hidden has been written. (check the Progress Report)

3) an interjection on cernds kid

I'll get to NPC specific stuff in the future.

4) I almost forgot about pai-nai or something like that the spider lady in the crypts, perhaps doing a quest or something might be plausible for an evil party.

An extra quest for her exists in Unfinished Business, already.

5) twisted rune? in the bridge district (Valen sees a powerful vampire, she somehow ignores him....?)

Possible.

6) that really long annoying quest (Imo) from like limited wish.

I don't know what you mean.

7) any dialogue from the people at the guarded compound, where celestial fury is?

Maybe.

perhaps a new quest about daystar (destroying it or corrupting it) *you can do it to the hallowed redeemer....

A new store and forge will be added.

9) Saemon's betrayal at sea (the silver sword piece)
10) the githyanki who want to collect the sword

Maybe.

Have you ever thought about making an SoA version of Valen's expansion and then later making a ToB version, so one would be able to experience a portion of Valen's expansion?

No. It's a better use of time to get all the writing and planning done before I begin any coding. In case I have to change anything, I won't have to recode everything.

Hear is my last idea for SoA and an explaination of what I ment
Idea) the Anomen Quest for him being Chaotic Neutral, like killing Saerk, she might want to try and influence him to the dark side and make anomen CE. I would think that doing a muderous act and maybe have an extended dialogue in which it will turn anomen CE with "her help"
just a thought....

well, that long quest that is really annoying (imho) it is when you use limited wish:
1)using the 1 time wish
2) wish for an adventure that you have never seen before or some nonsense.
3) then you find a note in a bottle, reading the note you hear about some mercanaries and gong lessons
4) in the bridge district a beggar contacts you to be his muscle, against these mercanaries from riativlin(sp?)
5) you accept you follow him, to figure out the guy gipped the mercanaries and sold the gong for beer money and you either:
1) leave the dude out to dry
2) Kill the mercanaries
3) go on the gong quest
going on the gong quest you go to roger the fence and he tells you to kill a sea troll
he then tells you he sold the gong to a troll shaman in the druid grove.
then beating up the troll shaman he tells you he sold it to the ogre mage up near the raksasha hut.
the ogre mage asks for a trade: wand of frost for the gong
either kill the mage or trade up to you.
then taking the gong back, either asking for a reward or not, don't know I was always being nice and everyone leaves peacefully and they have a "happy ending"
personally it was a long and tedious quest ( I did a minimum install at the time that is why)
Personally I think that might be like an easter egg or something, because I really wonder who actually does that quest?

wow it has been a while and you are still working on the mod, it has been near a year it seems, and i still can see my posts on the valen expansion part of this forum,
ah well it seems that its all well and good I hope.
eh this is the place for Ideas and I still believe you are taking them right?
well under the progress I wonder if you took my idea about the vampire hunters, how I said not only buffy faith and van helsing will be after valen and the party.
I can just see like a level 5 group of like 6 or so Adventuring party be like...
"we can take em, just a vampire and her thralls..." and the pc could laugh maniacally(sp?) and then they figure out they are NOT thralls and they are in deep trouble, and just have points leading up to van-helsing and faith etc... have different hunters and some are weaker some are stronger, some might be smart, and some might be stupid, in which they don't use protection from undead. the strong one might figure they are so strong they don't need it, while a small weak group might be like yah I like being invisible to the undead. Valen might give dialogue accordingly on how "threatening" the battle was.
I hope it isn't too late for this idea to be under consideration, for I thought it was a fairly good idea, because from being a nobody to the best of the best to come after you is quite a large step in notoriety.
Have something like the Radiant Heart sent Buffy,Faith etc... and lets say about 5 other vamp hunting parties after you, and after the death of the last of the hunters, Valen would figure out the Radiant Heart did this and they need to pay, having like a revenge quest
I thought something like this would be alright.
1) this group of hunters are in a pack of 4-6 ranging from levels 5-9 they don't have protection from undead
2) this group of hunters are in a pack of 12 ranging from levels 6-10 the leader is level 10 and has protection from undead up
3) This group of hunters are in a pack of 4-8 ranging from levels 12-15 and they have protection from evil up as the spell (no protection from undead)
4) standard van-helsing
5) this battle is done by the radiant heart themselves and they are in around 40 so guys, as valen has proven to be quite the adversary (taking out the best merc. vamp hunters around), class levels...don't know... out of Paladins and Undead Hunters and Perhaps Clerics of Lathandar to make it more interesting.
6) Valen goes for Revenge.
I thought this is a good idea just it might be too late.
I have to play ToB again because any ideas I can think up, they are comming up like this....

I've written a new subplot along with some new encounters that are not far afield from what you suggested.

I'm going to keep the details to myself, but suffice to say, Valen has (and will make) many enemies.

I thought up a nifty Idea, for a specific hell trial, wrath...
where you meet the wraith sarevok, if you turn into the slayer she might praise you for it, believing in kindred spirits.
I wouldn't know from where the others might be unless greed
and have Valen want blackrazor for herself and so it is another part in the game which she could "force or "presuade" in a more evil path.
I mean if she wants you to be evil, and you want to be with her, what would be better than corrupting the Pc inside their own soul?

Well why I suggested BlackRazor the blade is because it gives a potential to level drain, and it is also a powerful sword in which it might not be uncommon for vampires to use a vampiric like weapons can it?
what could be so bad as Valen adopting BlackRazor as her own blade? So she isn't so overpowered in ToB and maybe have BlackRazor be upgradeable
So Cespanar(or something akin to it) might make Valens' Soul Razor +4 so it can harm the demongorgon, and up the hp and str gain and make the haste a bit longer, but keep the level draining and % chance to do so the same and we have a weapon worthy of ToB and keeps Valen a bit more balanced, instead of her draining 5 levels a hit on every hit.

Edited by LordKableNikon, 30 September 2004 - 08:57 PM.

One question: Will Valen be able to recruited only through the Bodhi alliance or can she be found elsewhere? Perhaps, by surviving the first cleansing of Bodhi's Lair and appearing later with her proposition.

Edited by Thorium Dragon, 29 June 2005 - 12:18 PM.

One question: will Valen be able to recruit only through Bodhi Alliance or she can be able to get elsewhere. Surviving the first cleansing of Bodhi's Lair and appearing later with proposition.

Bodhi, and the war on the Shadow Thieves is an important part of Valen's story, as it stands now, so I don't see how she could be subtracted from the plot that easily.

It's a good idea, though. I'll consider it for a future version of the Valen Expansion, after the initial release.

One question: will Valen be able to recruit only through Bodhi Alliance or she can be able to get elsewhere. Surviving the first cleansing of Bodhi's Lair and appearing later with proposition.

Bodhi, and the war on the Shadow Thieves is an important part of Valen's story, as it stands now, so I don't see how she could be subtracted from the plot that easily.

It's a good idea, though. I'll consider it for a future version of the Valen Expansion, after the initial release.

OK, man. I'm glad I could propose this. Good riddance, and good luck... :thumb:

Edited by Thorium Dragon, 29 June 2005 - 12:17 PM.

I thought up a nifty Idea, for a specific hell trial, wrath...
where you meet the wraith sarevok, if you turn into the slayer she might praise you for it, believing in kindred spirits.
I wouldn't know from where the others might be unless greed
and have Valen want blackrazor for herself and so it is another part in the game which she could "force or "presuade"  in a more evil path.
I mean if she wants you to be evil, and you want to be with her, what would be better than corrupting the Pc inside their own soul?

Valen's dialog in the Hell trials is one of the major sticking points for me to write. The Hell trials are the climax of the plot of Shadows of Amn, so I place a high priority on this portion of the game. There are a number of possibilities here and I want to keep it interesting.

I do have a few ideas that look good on paper, I think.

Well why I suggested BlackRazor the blade is because it gives a potential to level drain, and it is also a powerful sword in which it might not be uncommon for vampires to use a vampiric like weapons can it?
what could be so bad as Valen adopting BlackRazor as her own blade? So she isn't so overpowered in ToB and maybe have BlackRazor be upgradeable
So Cespanar(or something akin to it) might make Valens' Soul Razor +4 so it can harm the demongorgon, and up the hp and str gain and make the haste a bit longer, but keep the level draining and % chance to do so the same and we have a weapon worthy of ToB and keeps Valen a bit more balanced, instead of her draining 5 levels a hit on every hit.

I have a some ideas about Blackrazor and a few other items in the game. One thing I've discovered through playing Valen is that I really hate level drain. It seems to unbalace the game dramatically as well as destroy items on the target, which really stinks and doesn't make a lot of sense, as far as I'm concerned.

Generally I arm Valen with a knife or longsword to balance her out a bit.

The one thing I like to see most in any Valen expansion is her confrontation with Bodhi.

She has seen what Bodhi can and will do to other vampires. She was abandoned by Bodhi and was ordered to fight with the PC against her in Spellhold. Dace warned her what happens to vampires who fell out of favor with Bodhi.

Yet in the final confrontation she still try to get herself back into Bodhi's good book which doesn't make sense. She is a CE vampire. CE characters controls their subordinates through fear. They progress up their ranks by killing their superiors.

I think Valen should have realises siding with the PC is now the only option. Helping him/her to destroy Bodhi would present Valen with the opportunity to become leader of a vampire clan.

So the dialog between Valen and Bodhi should reflect this with Valen vowing to destroy Bodhi for casting her aside and take over her clan. Bodhi would response in kind.

This could lead to a possible interesting expansion of controlling a vampire clan, similar to owning a thieves guildhouse. With Valen in it, there could be a small limited number of vampire quests.

~drools over the idea~
vampire clan good....

To kinneer.

Was Bodhi not the 'maker' of Valen - the one, who made her a vampire? If so, shouldn't Valen, according to mythology, have a certain obedience to Bodhi regardless of her wishes? I've heard that when a vampire turns a human into another of her kind, a physical pact comes into force. A bond that in some ways resembles slavery. I'm not sure if that's how it is though.

Request:
More reasonable townsfolk reactions

Yep, currently, if your party of 6 heavies (Korgan, Minsc, Kendrek etc) enters a humble temple of Illmater, the priest will hostile.

You back out, the cleric (frothing at the mouth) will CHASE you out for a deadly 6 v 1 fight to the death. believable for a humble 'feed the poor' type of priest?

Pardon me, humans are opportunistic and mostly jelly spined.

Shouldn't most of the anti-vamp reactions be just yelling of abuse and refusal to trade?

It's a cynical world, where cowled enforcers of dubious laws and where the citizens have come to accept that the docks are run by thugs. Is the common man so hard up on vamps he will fight 6 v 1 to the death, chasing em out the door?

Come now, reasonable responses humans are NOT drow, they are jelly.

One of the things that has allows bugged me about the original Valen expansion were the random fights with ordinary NPCs. I understand that she is a vampire and likes to kill, but it is very disturbing when she is attacking a trader who would have paid good money for the party's loot.

Would it be possible to adjust this behaviour a bit? I am thinking of a way to tell her to calm down or so maybe promising her to let her kill somebody at a better time or so.



And in respect to the post above:
I doubt that most ordinary people would recognise a vampire unless they being attacked by one. Priests and paladins could be an exception from the rule but Valen should be nothing but a rather pale woman for most people. Maybe one could even exploit that. One could let her talk with an ordinary citizen and then there could be a short dialogue with the CHARNAME where she is asking for the permission to bite her victim ("Valen gives you a inquisive glance" Reply: 1: "You nod and watch how Valen is enjoying her meal" 2: "You shake her head and notice the disappointment on Valen's face".)

The player should be forced to feed her well of course, but there should definetly be a certain flexibility.

*Casts ressurect topic spell*

Since this seems to be the request thread, I'll post here.

What about having Bodhi join the group? I mean, an evil party that is quickly becoming powerful in both influence and strength would draw her attention. Imagine the banters between Bodhi and Valen, or any NPC for that matter! The dialogues with the elves in Sul. would be something interesting, I bet.

Now, for this to happen, you have to screw Immy over. (Evil parties shouldn't have a problem, they go to spellhold for the mage that tortured CHARNAME, not for helpless Imoen)

Now, I know having two vamps in the party will turn the game into an easy ride. Even in ToB, if Bodhi never levels up, she's still able to kick enough butt to be useful. But I find that after playing the game at least twenty million times, I'm not looking for more tactical challenges, just more roleplay oppertunities. I don't think I'm alone in this, or at least I hope not.

I know that doing something like this would involve just as much as much work as the Valen mod itself, so I'm just throwing out there hoping for something to come of it.

I think that would probably screw up the story too much. Besides, isn't Bodhi like super loyal to Irenicus? Having Bodhi joins seems about as likely as having Irenicus join.

Now having Irenicus join..

Heh, that's already happened. It's a mod called "The longer road", where you have the chance at the beginning of ToB to take Iren. into the group and even redeem him. It's a good mod, I'd reccomend it for anyone with an evil party or who wants to see Iren. turned back into a good elf.

As for loyalty...They are bro and sis, I know. But as we see, Bodhi has different goals than her brother. Iren is going for revenge, Bodhi just wants blood and carnage. Wouldn't she get that in an evil party?

*Bumps again*

I was going to post this on the Pocket Plane forums, but then I found out from Kulyok's link that the expansion was being developed here.

First some bugs to report:

1) Would it be possible to fix it so that the healing orb in Spellhold, the one right before the Bodhi fight, no longer counts as a non-evil priest? When Valen is in sight, it keeps saying, "What is this? You support this fiend?" Not being able to use it to heal while this is going on is only a minor annoyance, but still, furniture shouldn't get mad at Valen.

2) Why do the drow guards in the Temple of Lloth attack Valen on sight the same way non-evil clerics would? I wouldn't assume them to be neutral or good aligned.

3) Not necessarily a bug, but an exploit. You can prevent the sun from blighting Valen by using a Protection from Undead scroll on HER. The reason this works is because the "Blighted" status is actually self-inflicted. This lets you use her in combat in broad daylight. However, it also prevents Valen from using any of her quick items or other abilities until the protection is dispelled, so healing her is a problem.

4) The game seems to treat Valen as a player-created NPC, as per a multiplayer game, not an in-game NPC. In other words, her biography, voice set, etc. are all customizable. It just seems a bit clumsy in terms of implementation.


And now some feature requests of my own:

1) It's been said before, but Valen seems to be missing certain interjections where it would be appropriate. She says nothing when you fight Bodhi in Spellhold (unless I installed something wrong). She has nothing to say when Bodhi is killed. She's missing a line when you enter Hell for the endgame of SoA. She also doesn't say anything when you meet Bodhi at the end of ToB in Ascension. You'd think she'd react to seeing her old mistress again, especially if the PC convinces Bodhi to join! It's pretty strange, since she's fairly talkative the rest of the time.

2) I know this is in the works, but I can't wait to hear a custom voice set for Valen. She should certainly have more than two unique lines. (Plus I hate the default Female1 set.)

3) There should be a Valen specific quest that turns her into a "daywalker." Mind you, I'm not saying this should remove all penalties during daytime, but rather she'd have more of a tolerance for sunlight so that her powers are only reduced to that of a normal human. Powerful vampires like Bram Stoker's Dracula, or Kain from Legacy of Kain, could walk around in the daylight without being vaporized or crippled. It simply weakened their immortal powers. For Valen, this would also mean she can't use her claws during the day. I was thinking this could be done by giving her claws high STR and DEX requirements and having them drop into her inventory when the "Blighted" effect occurs.

This quest could be contingent on her becoming a Vampire Matriarch, or upon Bodhi's defeat in chapter 6. I was thinking it could involve traveling to the old Temple of Amunator (which you have to do to resurrect your romantic interest anyway) and a series of difficult battles or trials. You'd summon the avatar of the dead god, like the one we saw in the Unseeing Eye quest, and Valen would promptly pounce and drink his blood. As a result, she'd have an increased tolerance to sunlight. This would plunge Valen further down the path of evil, and is consistent with her personality and motives.

I know it's not very detailed, but it was pulled off the top of my head.