BETA Update v1 14JUN2013

Okie Dokie. Huge...Massive...Ginormous Update coming Friday Eve.

What has changed?

During game play with all 9 of my characters. haha!! I noticed a few things that we really useless. So...those were removed. I also noticed a few things missing that are handy...those are in. In other words...a massive change.

Helms - Removed all Helms and added 5 Leather Caps +1 to +5. These also now will provide good Cool Weather Protection. Crafting Mirror can change these to suit your personal tastes.

Armour - Turned ON the Belt Option so we may adjust the Belt on our Armour/Clothing. These also now will provide good Cool Weather Protection. Removed the Hide and Scale Armours since they are not a needed armour type. Crafting Mirror can change these to suit your personal tastes. Armour can now break once it gets below 10%.

Armour Oil will repair both Armour and Shields to like new as well as the very handy Damage Reduction property. Damage Reduction that comes with the newly purchased armour is either replaced or temporarily replenished with Armour Oil. Armour Oil can be traded for at any Armour or Shield Market Sign with your Commendations.

Boots - Converted all Boots into Well Made Boots +1 to +5. Crafting Mirror can change these to suit your personal tastes. These also now will provide good Cool Weather Protection.

Weapons - Updated some missing weapons as well as made them functional with Whetstones and Bow Wax. The weapons have been clumped all together as well in their quality tiers. A Weapon can now break once it gets below 10%.

Whetstones and Bow Wax can be traded for at any of the Weapon Market Signs with your Commendations. Whetstones repair your weapon with a keen edge as well as temporary Massive Criticals. Bow Wax repairs your Bow or Crossbow as well as the Temporary Massive Criticals.

Food and Drink - Added a lot of various foods to the Taverns. Repasts are still in the Adventuring Supplies Market Sign. Also added a horde of Beer, Wine, and Liquor. Each with unique descriptions and pricing. For now all varieties can be found at Scar or Helga in the Bannard Mare Inn.

Jewelry - Amulets and Rings both have been added. Please see the Jewelry Market Sign.


Adventuring Areas - Huge Update and Ready for Play. Let's find out together? Just a few things to wet the lips....

- Undead in the Crypt (Tier 1)
- Bandits' Rise (Tier 1 to 3)
- Threat of the Cult (Tier 2)
- Felvaash and Zevaash Incursion (Tier 1 to 4)


Enjoy!
Krixa

Got time off work again, so will jump in tonight and give you a report after i've played for a bit. 

Going to test out a mage as well and see what it's like from that perspective.

Thank You Ravan. Appreciated. Mages are quite fun. Not quite so worried about running out of spells but managing Fatigue instead. Elixirs can add up in cost. So far it is a really good 'Feel' to all the casters.

We will all need to wipe our inventory it seems for this particular update. We can of course give ourselves coin and such to replace what was lost. We will be good to go from here on out though.

Yeah, Not a huge fan of them in No.2 but with the fatigue system I think it will make them very cool. Will give the Fort Ravik dungeon a run and the new places as well, solo and with mercs.

So had a huge barf last night. No idea why but the Server (old and new) would crash to desktop when a Character Enters. Resolved that this morning. No idea why it was happening. LOL!!!

Since this was a large update for the future I have been play testing the systems and making a list of issues. The list is actually quite small. In less than 2 hours the Server shall be up and ready for play.

I shall continue to examine any issues that need fixing and resolve as spotted.

Had a read of those features you added O and that shit is awesome! I can't wait to jump in and try it! Havn't had time today/tonight but sunday tomorrow I am free so I will give you my thoughts then.

Server is up and running really well. A couple bugs but nothing ridiculous.

hehe...I was bit twice by the Gear Wear and Tear +1 stuff. The messages are in the Chat Box....but...I forgot to put in a method to Repair (Armour Oil repairs...but you need Commendations for those)....so...hehe...will add that straight away in the morning. TW was just bit by it. Even his swim trunks were torn to pieces! LOL!!! He survived though. hehe!!! OMG so funny!

I rand through with +5 stuff and L23 all the way to Varuk Vazar...the spawns did not work there the first time....now they do though. Frak what a battle! Greta had to back out as she had lost 20 Mercs and no poulstices left. lol!!!  Frak that was fun!

See ya soon!

Got frustrated playing on my own, but anyway.

Fort Ravik looks great with NPC's and all so Kudos to whomever. Secondly what level is Cormans underground place suppose to be for? Died pretty quickly in there at level 15 with +1 and a bit of +2 gear.

Any my opinion on things just in general.

Some areas/dungeons should be able to be solo'd for those lone wolf players and I mean without mercs or anything, personally I will try not to ever use them myself I dislike the AI in NWN 2 with a passion both friend and foe would rather fight with players.
Also should the dungeons have like an information broker in town and such or near the dungeon providing tips and hints on how to do the dungeon or at least suggestions of party size, level and gear etc?
Might be a bug or just me O but when I died my respawn option was in the place I died so I continued to get 1 shotted everytime I tried to respawn

Will take another crack tomorrow and dedicate more time to it.

Mercs - They are kind of a required consumable for players. Different types of characters and gear sets require them or not. More on this....

Cohorts - We will be able to have 2 cohorts we may hire and control. They are much better than Mercs with player style regen and they can be dressed up and emoted. They also have access to player purchased gear which makes them much more like a player character. They also have individual tactics chosen by the player. Not a control tool like Mercs. These are coming soon actually.

Levels - Like Old Anvarath (and LoME to some extent) levels are far ranging and really do not make that much difference. What levels do is bring to the battle a more potent skill set....this is why we start at level 10...this is where the skills of NWN1/2 make things fun for the player. More excitement. This is one half of the equation.

Gear - This is the Other half of the equation. People don't seem to understand...if you can find it you can wear it. No guided level restrictions on gearing up. This is an Old Anvarath method that has players confused on how to play. LOL!!!

Okay...so you have +1 or +2 gear? Where can you adventure? The answer is everywhere. If you are solo....better bring Mercs....with a group...if there is a solid healer...2 party works. There are simply too many variables to consider because it is so wide spread. This is why this system is so fun, so hard, and so strategic. It has it all.

Okay...more specifically. Askel is a hard hitting character from what I remember. Also can take a beating. So...hire a Melee Merc and spawn it in to help move the damage pool around. Then you cleave your way until you can fight solo. That is what I do. I have found a few proper builds that can solo well....there are more.

Champion(10)/WM(5) - 
Pernisius has this one. Easy build with heaviest armours. If other players use him has the 'Clog' the player will be damn near unbeatable.

Warrior(5)/Champion(5)/WM(5) - 
Greta has this one. Chain Shirt and Dual Wield then swtich to Bastard Sword in 2 Handed mode or Bastard Sword and Short Sword for massive damage output. So far this is the 2nd best Tank but very flexible.

Martial Artist(10)/Ranger(5) -
Altha Tinu has this one Fantastic solo. AC gets high quickly. Her issues is when she gets against opponents that can flank her and knock her down. She is done for. Battles last a lot longer because of poor damage output. Mercs last a lot longer.

Ranger(12)/Champion(3) -
Betharien has this one. Like the Martial Artist but with more Weapons and better Archer damage. Skip Archery Style and go Two Weapon Style. Archery Damage is still ridiculous while the Two Weapon Style makes her a whirling short swords of death. hehe

Mage(15) -
Belanna Torvo has this one. Very cool. Uber Damage Output. Requires Mercs to get in front. Summons suck...AI cleans them up too quickly. Poulstice healing is highly recommended.

Healer(10)/Champion(5) -
Bregil has this one. Best soloing class....period. She is higher level now but the additional levels are giving more spell selection. To keep the Concentration checks down she needs a tank in front. At that point the party is unkillable. As long as they don't do something stupid.

Notes on Casters - They will be expensive to function. Fatigue is actually balanced really well. Elixirs of Vigour are a solid economy item. Easily affordable with a sewer run or Zevaash hunting.


Okay...working on more Dungeon Tips...will be in the forums. I suppose I could send a message to the player when entering an area what Tier it is set at. Kind of misleading though since the Zevaash in a Tier 4 are not the same difficulty as Felvaash in Tier 4. So I am not sure that would be correct. Need to think about this one. Any thoughts?


The AI is actually quite a bit closer to my old AI stuff I did. It is not bad at all. I do not shy away from using the Mercs because of AI.


As for the Respawn...noticed this last night. As well as the Binding Stone jumps are not working. Basically what I am seeing is ALL jump to locations are not working at all! No code changes at all. So...having a look at this now.


Thanks Ravan for posting your thoughts.

Binding Stones, Portal, and Respawn all fixed now. That was nuts. It seems 1.5 sec for some reason was right on the border of working. Set it to 2.5 sec and it works now. Stupid game. hehe


I am Adding the Dungeon Tips to the PC Book...see the Adventuring Tips: Locations link for info.


Split the Rings into 3 flavours instead of clumped....very expensive and not worth the cost.


Just an update.

Will take another punt soon then  With your thoughts in my head and will try it all over.

So last night I went into the North Caverns with Betharien (Ranger(11)/Champion(5)) and a stack of 10 Nord Melee Mercs. I had to reset her inventory but replaced what I had and upgraded her Short Swords to +5 since I was saving for them anyhow. So basically she is almost all +5s on gear now. I was able to purchase an amulet for +2 Natural Armour and some nice DR. 3k coin left over....time to head out.

Level 16 and almost all +5....very reasonable. Pretty close to design of L15....50% of max level.

Into the North Caverns....taking a Right 1st gets me into the Mining Areas and lots of Zevaash. I summoned in 1 Nord Merc...a Guard and we went to work. A poulstice pop here and there on the Guard and Betharien 100% bow on this fight. 8 Kill shots and the Guard still alive at the end. I focused heavily on their ranged first while coming back to the poulstices for healing when the guard was at Injured status.

Moving up into the mines another straight forward fight. Up further towards the rooms I set the Guard and summoned another....the Nord male Warrior came. I set the rally point back a bit and then went forward to pull a group. Then when almost finished with that group....Follow Me! command and back down the hall to do it again. So then I said...what the heck...let's do this solo. Switch to blades and went to work. Corman Bandits were there as well....the Foreman and Slut (Minstrel) can be a handful so I rallied my Nord and they came to help. I focused on the Bandits, Shaman, and Sorcerers. The slut we left but she is a complete pain in the ass! hehe Almost lost the guard but we cleared this room then the next where I lost the Guard and almost the Warrior.

So down 1 Nord merc at this point and 75% of the area is cleared. Not bad for a Level 16 character. So off to Corman himself in the south part of this map. Same strategy as before....the art of the lure. A rough pull...8 or so. Dammit!! Rally and get to work....Corman was also pulled so I hammered him to get his attention then ran down the hall with him following. He hit me hard twice until I switched to shield which gave him some trouble. Popped a poulstice and back in the fight. Lost both Nord in that fight for sure. Summoned another....male Warrior again...nice. When Corman would switch to the Nord I would switch to Dual Wield and rip him apart...then switch to shield again when he switched focus. Eventually took him down....then summoned another Nord...Soldier this time....nice.

We cleared out Corman's area and pulled the lever to collect the loot.

Merc Lost: 6 Nord Melee for 24k coin
Poulstice: 16 Superb Poulstice for 64k coin
Gear Repair: 1k coin for the swords
Total Cost: 89k

Commendations: 8 Lt Comms (for use later for Bow Oil or Whetstones)
Trade Stones: 16 Quality (Green)...used for XP (can use for coin)
Gem Bags: 60k once traded.

So...-29k coin  but I levelled up twice (was about 50% current before going in) converting some of those Trade Stones to coin would have been a profit.

Also to note. Once the Boss Bounties are in....Corman's Brooch will give 50k coin and 10k XP. Where the boss dies is where he drops a small chest that EACH player within 30M gets a chest. So no need to figure out Splitting on Boss Loot.

With more players in a group...there is MUCH lower cost for adventuring. Same balance and challenge too but at least we have tools for Solo as well. I think it is working just fine.

Going to give this another run with Krixa....Champion(5),WM(5),Swashbuckler(10) a different style of Light Armour Melee with nice Bow adder. Dual Wield Sabres (Scims). Also going to try out the Busk, Niya (Naturalist(10), Champion(5) <= For Feats).

Healer - Easiest run so far...amazing. 2 Melee Mercs...done.
Heavy Tank - very close to Healer....but the least expensive. Highest Profit Margin.
Off Tank - same as Heavy Tank but with more options.
Ranger - If cautious....very good. Great fun!
Martial Artist - Cool looking Kama weapons...poor DPS but great Clogger for Nukes!



I really want to try out Varuk Vazar but need a player group to do it. Going to try with Greta and her Nord Mercs since I was there once before and the spawns were bugged. Would LOVE to gather a group and RP the entire thing! I can bring Bregil for  our healer.


I have to say....this is really fun.

Okay....tell ya what I am going to do. Since you ALL think it is TOO difficult I am removing a lot of the spawns.

It also seems to me from what I am seeing is that the Sewers are Old news and the New interest are the caverns and tunnels.

Look...we have 4 playable zones. Each with Progression....meaning....Sewers, Caverns, Varuk Vazar first areas then Varuk Vazar final areas. I was going to whine but deleted it all. Frak sakes. This stinks.

Server has been nuked by team members. Meaning it is how it is and is not getting updated further.

Later
Krixa