85 replies to this topic

[aVENGER]

Well frankly, v3.00 of this mod has been put 'on hold until further notice' for various reasons, the main one being my acute lack of free time. No worries though, as soon as I have something new to show I'll let you all know B)

BTW, note that I have already included some of those 'planned features' in revisions 2.3x - 2.4x

[mitchmc]

aVENGER,

Sorry to hear that you are running into time issues

I use the elven fix and have the rogue reballanceing mod tho to be honest have yet to try it out (that time ting)

I have played the beta of Cyric's Chosen numerous times.....I did not see a thread on this battle in the forum but have seen a couple of comments in this thread so I posted here

Anyhow I am know you are aware of the devistating effect of a player casting a con 3x AZHW that targets closest enemy on sight.one suggestion why don't you just losen up your formation at the outset of the battle so that the losses to the chosen are limited to perhaps one npc, move mage back and move out flanks. You have put a lot of work into this battle and it shows quite enjoyable. seems a shame to be able to hurt them so badly with a chain contengency spell

Fallen devias are very hard on Cyrics boys.

lots of loot, B)

the boots from the ritual mod are very usefull

cheers
MitchMc

[aVENGER]

Hey there Mitch, first of all I'm glad you enjoyed my Chosen of Cyric mod Now, about that ADHW issue, well it has been addressed before and as I see it, that combination would be quite deadly in 90% of the combat situations from BG2 with the possible exception of some magic resistant/immune characters. But since the Chosen party are just 'normal' characters in core, they have no innate resistances or immunities that could possibly protect them from this spell besides a few buff spells from their prep sequence.

So, the way I wanted to address this was to implement different battle scripts for higher difficulty levels starting from 'Core Rules'. The prep sequence and the spell usage of the Chosen Party would improve greatly on those levels and they would also use some more powerful summons and spells while still remaining true to my 'no cheese' policy (no forced spells, no cheating scripts, no unexplainable uber stats/resistances/abilities etc). The tipple ADHW contingency would not present such a big problem if the Chosen party would cast 'Protection From Magic Energy' and/or 'Magic Resistance' on each of their members before the battle. Also, the group fighters would become much more of a threat if they were all Improved Hasted at the beginning. Naturally, a successful dispel/remove magic would be able to counter this but that's fair game IMO. Anyway, I don't plan to improve the combat part of this encounter much further, I'd rather focus on the long due dialogue/mini-quest component. BTW, if anyone's interested, here is a summary of my current plans for the future revisions of this mod:

• Adding the dialogue component and the accompanying mini-quest of finding the Chosen of Cyric in the first place
  
• A non-violent resolution of the encounter (this would require some pretty high mental stats and might not be available to certain racial/class/alignment combinations)
  
• An ability to turn some of the Chosens against each other through dialogue and thus weaken them (^similar conditions as mentioned above will apply)
  
• The usage of class/race/skill/spell specific features throughout the dialogue in the Chosen mini-quest (i.e. Dwarven Stonecutting/Detect Slope, Elven racial language, Thieve's Cant, Find Traps skill, Pickpocket skill, Lore skill, Detect Evil spell, Know Alignment Spell, Charm Person spell, various CHA/INT/WIS based Bluff and Insight checks, various STR/DEX/CON Intimidate and Threaten checks...etc)
  
• Alignment specific dialogue options that will actually have some meaning and gameplay impact
  
• Improving the character's Pickpocket skill by observing other pickpockets at work and learning their techniques (as seen in PST)
  
• Adding another encounter with the Chosen party in ToB when the player is visited by Cyric
  
• A greater role for Marina (my NPC merchant from the Rogue ReBalancing mod)
  
• A few small mini-quest related dialogue interactions for the standard Bioware NPCs

[drae]

That sounds really great aVENGER! I'm looking forward to it! Couldn't the Chosen get some cooler portraits though? Haven't played the encounter in awhile but from what I remember Venduris wasn't all that great, hmm, have to check that one up. Well well, keep up the good work!

[aVENGER]

Heh, thanks drae just don't expect any of this to be finished too soon, for the reasons I already mentioned above. BTW, about the portraits, well I admitt that they were picked rather hastily from the only BG2 portrait site which I had bookmarked at that time. This and the incredible scarcity of decent rogue portraits which made that decision so rash. Oh and, if you wish to look them up, all of the current portraits are linked to the character names in my very first post on this thread.

Also, I'll gladly accept any new portrait suggestions although with two exceptions: first, I won't change Marina's portrait because it's my personal favorite for a female rogue and it reminds me a bit of one of my ex-girlfriends Second, please don't suggest Garrett (from the Thief games) portraits for Venduris. Garrett's a great guy, and the Thief series is definitively among my favorite games (I can barely wait for T3!) but IMO, it just wouldn't be fitting to associate his image with my Venduris character. Find me another cold, menacing, hooded rogue and I'll definitively check it out.

[mitchmc]

aVENGER leaving town for a week in an hour or so will get back to you next week thx mitch

[drae]

Heh, thanks drae just don't expect any of this to be finished too soon, for the reasons I already mentioned above. BTW, about the portraits, well I admitt that they were picked rather hastily from the only BG2 portrait site which I had bookmarked at that time. This and the incredible scarcity of decent rogue portraits which made that decision so rash. Oh and, if you wish to look them up, all of the current portraits are linked to the character names in my very first post on this thread.

Also, I'll gladly accept any new portrait suggestions although with two exceptions: first, I won't change Marina's portrait because it's my personal favorite for a female rogue and it reminds me a bit of one of my ex-girlfriends Second, please don't suggest Garrett (from the Thief games) portraits for Venduris. Garrett's a great guy, and the Thief series is definitively among my favorite games (I can barely wait for T3!) but IMO, it just wouldn't be fitting to associate his image with my Venduris character. Find me another cold, menacing, hooded rogue and I'll definitively check it out.

1. I'll do that!
2. That coldblooded murder look eeh?
3. Sure, if I happen to stumble on some neat portraits I'll let you know,

[Longinus]

There's a thief merchant outside of the Harper hold you could bolster. First add a few more "exotic" items to his shop, and then improve the assassins he sics on you if you threaten him. He's not a Shadow Thief per se, but you get the feeling he's associated with them.

[aVENGER]

That's an interesting idea Sandman!

Although I'm not 100% sure exactly how the Lingering Song feat works in IWD2 (as the IE has been heavily modified for that game) I think I could 'fake it' and make it into a HLA. I'll certainly put it on my to-do list for rev 3.0 B)

[Schatten]

and a option for shorting the cutszene from the encounter would great. after reading it for the fifth time it was very annoying and to not read it the xth time (because too many members died [great battle, hard battle, very great ai]) i had to resort to cheese what i dont like.

[aVENGER]

You mean the cutscene in the Chosen of Cyric encounter right ? Well, I see two options here...I could create a smaller script which would automatically prebuff the Chosen party and start the battle immediately (which would look a bit lame though) or I could force the game to make an Autosave right after Venduris finishes his little speech. I'm not quite sure about the second option, as saving in the middle of a battle could possibly cause game instability. I guess I'll have to test that.

BTW, I'm glad you like the battle! If you are having trouble check out the 'Hints' section in the mod readme (aCyric.txt).

[Schatten]

yep, an autosave after the cutscene would be great. i dont think it will cause trouble because nothing actually has happened besides going hostile.

yep, the battle was great. even after i killed half of the party with chain contigency tripple adhw (thats the cheese i mean. its legit but i hate it) i had a hard time.
so i need that autosave to fully enjoy it.

[aVENGER]

canterbrigian wrote:

Thanks for your posts at Interplay (especially as we had derailed that thread a bit)... it was very cool to have the mod creator actually respond to one of my posts!

Heh, we're just normal people too, with a lot of free time though

Perhaps instead of the Lanthorn itself as the trigger, can you mod the Lanthorn to require its lens (item "C6lens") and have the CoC keep the lens as part of your enhancement?

No worries icelus, I'll leave it at the Lanthorn as the Chosens have actually stolen the real item and replaced it with an exact replica which the player will find, but this will be completely transparent for him. Anyway, the real Lanthorn will be returned once the Chosen party is defeated, so I don't need to use any of the lenses.

[T.G.Maestro]

A question: just how is it possible that the Chosen party manages to steal the real Lanthorn from the very claws of that Vampire Matriarch? Remember, she can see the invisible, and her lair is full of vampires and other undead horrors...

And a note: the picture you would like to use for Marina is already used by Silver Star, the assassin NPC.

[aVENGER]

A question: just how is it possible that the Chosen party manages to steal the real Lanthorn from the very claws of that Vampire Matriarch? Remember, she can see the invisible, and her lair is full of vampires and other undead horrors...

Remember, the CoC are no ordinary band of thieves They could have done it secretly, while she was transporting, and anyway, they have replaced it with an exact replica so Bodhi probably never knew the difference.

And a note: the picture you would like to use for Marina is already used by Silver Star, the assassin NPC.

Damn, I didn't see that.

I'm sure I spotted it first though, as it was my default female avatar since I learned abut BG2 custom portraits Oh well, she's not going to get that extended role anyway so I might as well change that too. BTW, she was originally going to be Selina's older sister and Venduris' ex lover She would tie into the larger CoC quest which I had originally planned and help the party track down and discover the Chosen's hideout. If the player had accepted her help it would add an additional twist in the encounter but...

[T.G.Maestro]

Remember, the CoC are no ordinary band of thieves

Eeeh, now that still sounds fishy to me, since I hardly believe Bodhi released that item even for a second. And thinking about taking it from her crypt without she noticing anything...hehhee.. But I think this is the typical "Do not ask any more questions!" part, so I'll stop myself from being a pain in the ass and leave the matter as it is:lol: !

but...

Yes, I know.. but-but-but...