Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Melcar]

What are you missing? BD did not add any real content to IWD as far as I'm aware. The in-game balance is the same as the original, except that BD added kits and other tweaks to difficulty settings which break said balance.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, it's the flavor, customization options and so forth. Kits are not supposed to be so utterly superior to the plain class, they should just provide different styles of playing that add to the variety of the game. It's basically just extra content which in principle ought to make the game more fun and instead ruins it. It's annoying. They should have upped the difficulty to make up for all this garbage.

 

[empathymachine]

I'd say that with kits + XP scaling from harder difficulties switched on the game gets way easy way too fast. In the present version of IWD EE they let you scale the XP gain while leaving dmg bonus as it should be, but if I remember correctly it hasn't always been the case

 

[laclongquan]

If you play solo it's like playing Diablo, which is icky. A tactical gamer basically HAVE TO play a full party.

 

[empathymachine]

On the other hand, solo play is more fun in self-imposed challenge modes, like solo no reload. I remember the glorious days on old Bioware forums with people posting their playthroughs, it was a good read. Basically when soloing in that way one mishap = daed game
It was more popular with BG community rather than Icewind Dale's, though

 

[Lyric Suite]

Never got the fascination of playing solo, but it seems pretty popular. Challenge wise, it makes the game super easy since eventually you'll outlevel every enemy in the game. Maybe that's the point. Having that feel of being so utterly powerful.

Also, no reload with a game like this, which has a legitimate resurrection option is a bit autistic. No rest is the best way to make any IE game fun, and no reload from the start of a dungeon until the end if you really wish. Everything beyond that is overkill.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, there seems to be a mod that makes the game harder in the work, but i don't know, i'd really wanted something like SCS instead:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/70717/mod-in-progress-improved-heart-of-fury-mode

There's also this little thing:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40026/stronger-creatures-simple-difficulty-mod

And this if you hate the fact dual wield is so utterly superior to two-handed:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/69412/mod-3-5-edition-weapon-style-rebalance

I even used DLTCEP to make Pale Justice a two-handed sword 'cause fuck you, Bioware.

Alas, it seems the modding community is almost dead and the recent 2.5 update broke a lot of them. Tried using Tweak Anthology to fix the dual class grandmastery bullshit, but it doesn't work anymore. Tried something called Scales of Balance and it was broken as well.

 

[octavius]

Never got the fascination of playing solo, but it seems pretty popular.

I think IWD is a perfect game to try various custom parties. I once completed it with a LOTR party, and it's the only CRPG I've soloed so far. I want to try a Grunker&JarlFrank Fafhrd&Grey Mouser party some time.

 

[laclongquan]

Never got the fascination of playing solo, but it seems pretty popular. Challenge wise, it makes the game super easy since eventually you'll outlevel every enemy in the game. Maybe that's the point. Having that feel of being so utterly powerful.

It's why I have my heavy doubt on Codex (nonexistent) love for tactical battle. They all sounds like a bunch of Diablo-only gamers~

SIde note: I dont object to overpowerful but I do object to seeing 1xp from killing an hostile. That sounds too much like real work.

 

[Tigranes]

Solo presents interesting tactical challenges for the first portion of the game, when you have to work with far more limited resources and a different set of thresholds for being overwhelmed, etc.

When I solo I tend to manually cut XP gain to prevent the overleveling - it's annoying how BG, IWD, even POE give you extra XP the less party members you have.

 

[Micormic]

Solo presents interesting tactical challenges for the first portion of the game, when you have to work with far more limited resources and a different set of thresholds for being overwhelmed, etc.

When I solo I tend to manually cut XP gain to prevent the overleveling - it's annoying how BG, IWD, even POE give you extra XP the less party members you have.

Tigranes makes many excellent points, killing hordes of skeletons and lizard men alone will be more difficult then killing hordes of skeletons and lizard men in a team, but it will level you up quicker!





Many tactical possibilities in the IWD games.

 

[mister_matt]

Never got the fascination of playing solo, but it seems pretty popular.

I think IWD is a perfect game to try various custom parties. I once completed it with a LOTR party, and it's the only CRPG I've soloed so far. I want to try a Grunker&JarlFrank Fafhrd&Grey Mouser party some time.

I approached it from the same direction. I played a lot of BG2 and just trying out new stuff in IWD with a light RP reason makes it a little less frustrating when your whole party wipes to a fucking beetle.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[AwesomeButton]

Interesting he is saying that. From Chris Avellone's answers I've always been left with the impression that the linear structure was caused primarily by lack of resources to make it more open.

 

[Infinitron]

No contradiction, it was a deliberate choice after they realized they lacked the resources for something grander.

 

[Chippy]

Lilura: Your blog is quite interesting, I'll bow to your overall IE knowledge if you can answer this question that nobody has successfully answered over the years - this includes the original forums, Gamebanshee, Beamdog and here on the Codex: Does stealth work in IWD2 like it does in every other IE game?. I'm assuming it doesn't, I've taken into account going over the stealth cap and enemies with infravision.

Damn - I just spent 15min capturing screenshots but I can't upload them.

What I've found/am assuming is that:
Stealth only works if you are outside enemy sight range/line of sight So:
Within their line of sight, outside of their sight range = sucess.
x2 game feet away from the enemy but behind a wall = success.
Within their line of sight = fail after x1 round

I tested this with a human Ranger with 20 ranks in stealth & hide, and with a drow Rogue with 40 ranks in both. I've got screenshots of it with x4 attempts made with each character but the Codex site doesn't want me uploading my porn screenshots. I'd be happy to upload the images if someone confirmed it can be done.

So I'm assuming this was a deliberate decision inspired by Sawyerism and my vague memory was correct. It's coming back to me a bit now - I think he said he wanted stealth to have more urgency. Which means I was right and wrong at the same time. And also means that Sawyer was a prick even before I knew Sawyer was a prick.

I could be wrong. I don't do videos, but if anyone were to test this and post it on Youtube I guarantee what I'd said above is correct. But it wasn't a big issue for people when the game was released, so...it only effects people obsessed with stealth characters like me.

I also tested everything on a human enemy to avoid confusion with enemies with infravision.

 

[hell bovine]

Solo presents interesting tactical challenges for the first portion of the game, when you have to work with far more limited resources and a different set of thresholds for being overwhelmed, etc.

When I solo I tend to manually cut XP gain to prevent the overleveling - it's annoying how BG, IWD, even POE give you extra XP the less party members you have.

There is a mod for iwd and bg (Scales of balance) that lets you change the xp gained from kills. So you can play a solo character that advances as slow as a party would. Useful for solo and running smaller parties.

(The mod itself is modular like scs, but I haven't had the time to test the other options yet.)

 

[the_shadow]

What game are you guys talking about, IWD 1 or 2?

IWD1 EE. What are the differences between 1 and 2 that make thief worth more in 2?

Thiefs have more combat utility in IWD2. Also, i don't think there are any permanent traps in IWD2, though i may be remembering wrong.

There are definitely permanent traps in IWD 2, the most notorious being the insta-kill wall crush trap in the Yuan-Ti temple.

 

[Jazz_]

I think if you want to give yourself a challenge in IWD you need to have a 5 members party and no ranged chars. Rangers/Archers are too OP.

 

[Chippy]

Just trying to upload images relating to my obsessive, compulsive, autism regarding the IWD2 stealth system.

Edit. Ah. It didn't work. Yes I should have added retarded in there.

 

[Citizen]

Just trying to upload images relating to my obsessive, compulsive, autism regarding the IWD2 stealth system.

http://file///C:/Users/a/Pictures/Rogue Attempt 2.png
http://file///C:/Users/a/Pictures/Stats Rogue.png

Good day, 'a'. It's really not how http links work. Use some image hosting.

 

[Chippy]

Some images proving that Stealth is broken in Icewind Dale 2, and you will fail within 1 round unless you are outside of (all) enemies sight range, or blocked from their line of sight.
This had better work:

Spoiler

Drow Rogue stats lvl30

Human Ranger stats lvl30

Drow Rogue success outside of enemy sight range

Drow Rogue fail after moving into enemy line of sight from wall

Drow success, then fail.

Drow success when return behind wall, fail once again when move to enemy line of sight & within sight range

Drow following round from above

Drow 3 round of success behind wall, within enemy sight range

Human Ranger success before enemies hostile

Enemies about to be hostile

Human Ranger success outside enemy sight range - enemy Passive

Human Ranger success outside enemy sight range - enemy aggressive

Human Ranger fail when enemy brought within sight range

Human Ranger x2 rounds/attempts success when enemy outside of sight range, fail when enemt lured within it

That took some doing. Shame nobody ever gave a shit over the past 16 years except me (since I still haven't got an answer) and Lilura doesn't seem to want to pick up the gauntlet?.
...Some Codexian troll will probably tell me this isn't enough evidence now...

 

[Chippy]

Just trying to upload images relating to my obsessive, compulsive, autism regarding the IWD2 stealth system.

http://file///C:/Users/a/Pictures/Rogue Attempt 2.png
http://file///C:/Users/a/Pictures/Stats Rogue.png

Good day, 'a'. It's really not how http links work. Use some image hosting.

THanks for the heads up. I don't really do this sort of thing often. Might be able to bro fist one day too.

 

[Citizen]

When I played IWD2 the sneak attacks were behaving strangely - you could only sneak attack each opponent once. That made rogues useless, so maybe just few people even bothered with them.

 

[octavius]

I only played a few chapters of IWD 2, so I'm no expert.
But do you try to Hide in Shadows, or in broad daylight?