bink wrote:A lot of you have mentioned how little patience you have for the 100+ hours of fetch questing available in Baldur's Gate II and Throne of Bhaal -- well, I'm the kind of guy who loved it. In fact, I'm the kind of guy who looks to add MORE content to the game -- more difficulty, more questing, more delicious treasure. I've played through both games at least twice, once with the enhancement of several fan-created mods. One of those mods I installed back in the day was called "Tactics" and the other was "Ascension." They both increase the difficulty of nearly every encounter in the game, giving mages pre-casted defensive spells, monsters more dangerous attacks, etc. Like a fool I always played on Insane difficulty. Even so, the final battle of ToB was so difficult I had to CTRL+Y most of the three or four dozen succubi that were summoned just to get past it, although I did beat the bosses legitimately. Throughout it all, I persevered.
No more. I have been defeated by the new Tactics.
I knew something was up when, in the first dungeon, I faced down a fallen deva summoned by a 22nd level priest. When that Deva was joined by a golem and a glabrezu demon, along with a 10+ level fighter and monk, I knew I was entering a different realm of gaming entirely: The Reload Zone. Basically, the key to any battle depends on how many times you have the patience to reload it. Develop all the special techniques you want, if your Hold Person is saved against or your opponent critically backstabs you for 126 damage, there's not much you can do. So the game becomes less about "accomplishing goals" and "solving problems" than it does about "trying minor variations of the same strategy for a 20 minute battle over and over for the next six hours and hoping a spell that is saved against 95% of the time manages to go through." I eventually beat all the creatures the insane level designer threw at me in the FIRST FUCKING DUNGEON by luring them out one by one and letting them go toe to toe with the fire and ice salamanders my Improved Summons were pulling down. Did you know that those salamanders have +3 or better halberds? A useful fact when you face a demon with +2 and lower immunities while the best you have is a +1 long sword!
But it wasn't this first dungeon that defeated me, oh no. A sane man would have uninstalled at the first sight of the deva. I kept going until I got my ass handed to me by some nobody adventuring party in the top of an inn in the first city area, and then again when I snuck into the back of the Copper Coronet and the handful of guards had been changed to 12 or so high level mages chaining Stoneskin, Minor Spell Immunity and Fireshield just before casting Confusion and Summon Phase Spiders. I didn't even have access to Breach! I quickly googled "Tactics Mod" "Too Hard" and learned about the delightful addition of a Kensai wielding a sword that deals acid damage to you *every time you target him* and a random encounter of "red dragon." This is when I realized the modification community for Baldur's Gate II is less about extending the fun of the game and more about priding yourself over the handful of AI bugs you've managed to exploit over your marathon 12-hour reloading session. That's it, Baldur's Gate Community and Pocket Plane Group and WeiDU. I'm done with you. As a matter of fact, you have so offended me that I am now done with Baldur's Gate utterly, completely, and for all time.
http://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?acti ... &pid=70578
The older mods still sound good though.
