Clintone

This is a really great, mod. Thanks. I like the weapons versatility. The attachment of battle disciplines to things like quick action and other skills make them a lot more interesting and useful. I particularly liked the attachment of gymnastics to adrenaline rush. I've long thought adrenaline rush was overpowered, and this makes it more difficult for mages to get access to it. What I like the most is armor being so much heavier, which gives strength-based characters defensive advantages from strength...because pretty much only them can wear heavy armor, which I think makes the game a lot better, because outside of this mod, melee and spear users are just kind of worse than everything else (because they were close-ranged and had weak defense) so they definitely needed that extra defensive bonus. It's been quite awhile since you made this, but it does seem like you've put a lot of thought and care into this mod. Thanks!

This is, seemingly, designed to irritate the player as much as possible. That said, it's unique, creative, and a deep puzzle. It's irritating, but it's such a rarity that I think it deserves a good rating for the uniqueness alone...just as as you realize you might be tearing your hair out by the end of it. Save before you go in and don't save over that save so that if you get too frustrated you have a way of backing out of the scenario without using the editor.

This is definitely my least favorite scenario. I'm giving it a poor rating. Other not-that-good scenarios I've noticed were "stairway" and "Turn that Frown Upside Down". This scenario does everything better than both those scenarios...except for having an interesting plot. The combat is pretty good for the level requirement. There are three very creative wands. There are some interesting mechanics too...but none of that matters to me because the plot is so incredibly bland. "Stairway" seems specifically designed to irritate the player as much as possible, but it has a very interesting plot. "Turn that Frown Upside Down." is pretty simple and kind of dumb, but it too has a somewhat comparatively interesting plot. I wish there were better attempts at humor, and some more areas to explore, and a back story in which more of the events were relevant. Unlike most of these scenarios, There's no story.

I'm tempted to give this a "best" rating. The combat was pretty decent. I appreciated how there were different types, and that sometimes running away was the best move. I think the main appeal is just how beautiful some of the scenery was later into the game. I'm giving it a "good" rating rather than a "best" rating, because navigating through some areas was rather irritating, when you'd get blocked by your allies. I wish some of those spaces were a little wider. Also, it's a shame that this is inaccessible to so many people because it requires a 4 slith party of fairly high levels. This is a good scenario though.

I'm rating this poor. There's not much too it, and knowing how to complete it is confusing...and not in a good way...more like a "what the heck is going on?" sort of way. That said, on a more personal level I give it a substandard rating in the sense that, it's fairly short, and mildly entertaining if you look at the confusingness of it as aspects of being in this warped, nonsensical, universe of madness the scenario resides within. You probably won't lose anything important from playing it. You might even enjoy it a little. At worst, you'll find it mildly irritating, though playable. Nobody's going to find this spectacularly impressive though. To it's credit, there's something kind of fun about the madness that adds something to this. I think I'd have given this a much higher rating if they'd, just, emphasized the madness. Nobody makes these anymore, but I, for one, would appreciate a "turn that frown upside down" part 3 that just involves random images of celebrities turning into goldfish for absolutely no reason. Do that, and i would have to give then next of these a bare minimum of an average score.

I thought the original "turn that frown upside-down" was substandard. That was odd and glitch-laden. I like that this has a couple different options, and a secret area, and a few different things to do. The plat makes no sense...but then this is supposed to be absurd to I don't count that against it. I give it an average rating.

I'm giving this a rating of good. I would have liked there to be more to it. The combat was pretty strait-forward. You get a couple good, but not overpowered weapons (You'll find better in later scenarios probably...but they're good for low-level parties) I did like how it lets you know if you had no casualties.

I give this a rating of "good." Some of the combat is pretty hard for a low level party, and you may just be screwed if your party is particularly low and not built right. That said, it involves a little experimentation to do things best (wipe out the vampires real quick), and I like having to figure that out. Also, you may be in a lot more trouble with low lockpicking skill, or no lockpicks. I like the storyline. There are a few secrets. I liked the thiev.es guild (you can find it. It took me a little while). I would have given it a best rating, if not for how easy it is for some parties to just be screwed, with no way of exiting the scenario, if they're not competent enough. Keep a back-up save if your party is particularly low level before you get very far into this.

So...I enjoyed this scenario. I liked that it was a non-combat scenario. I like the idea of your characters having ultimately zero impact on anything. What I would have liked, though, would have been some sort of non-combat sidequests that didn't really ultimately change much...but maybe you found a survivor, or discovered something that gets you some reward, or have to engage in dialogue and if you don't answer correctly you get eaten...or something to make this less of a passive experience. You can find at least one secret...which I like, and I like the backstory, and the story in general, but it would be great if there were more to do. I give it an average. It's well done for what it is. I would have liked there to have been more in it though...maybe even just more secrets that, if you uncover them it reveals more backstory but changes nothing.

I'm giving it the best rating. Finally...one of these scenarios gives you a good polearm. A lot of emphasis was spent on mood-building. I enjoyed that. I liked some of the unusual nature of a boss fight, and there's one encounter that you can deal with in an unusual way. I enjoyed that. I liked how you got to determine the fate of a certain person too.

I'm giving this a best rating. Multiple possible endings, and I always like secrets. I think there was a decent storyline. That said, anything with secrets and multiple possible endings and halfway decently done combat and a halfway decently done storyline, I'm probably going to give a best rating on unless it's loaded with glitches. I could understand this being average for some people. It took multiple playthroughs to find out how to get the best ending. Once I did, that felt pretty good though.

The only thing I disliked about this scenario was that all your items on you vanish after you're captured. They even have places where stolen items are stored...and yet you can't get your original items back. I have a feeling a few people have had high level parties go into this scenario and come out cursing. I've never played this on level 1...and yet I've routinely had characters die to all the poison arrows. I think. It's one of the more difficult beginner scenarios. I liked it. I liked the storyline. There is a secret I won't reveal that I enjoyed. There's also a sort of pleasantly spooky atmosphere. I give it a good rating, only because I usually only rank scenarios best if they're both designed well and appeal to me a lot on a subjective level, and I think the permanent deletion of all your items is an irritating little gag.

What's KPPP? Thanks in advance. This was kind of a fun little scenario.

So...I guess this scenario no longer exists? It appears not to. I can't download it from either here or the scenario database.

A few more thoughts. *I'm not actually sure whether or not cryodemons can give you a 20 or so turn battle frenzy blessing. At some point I replaced mine with cryodrakes. I don't know if they can either, but they weren't doing it after a little bit if time which, by which time Haakai and eyebeasts have usually done it. *Actually, I could see giving 2 characters sniper. Sniper, really will almost always be better than gymnastics at getting extra turns, unless you really pile on a lot of equipment onto the gymnastics user...like all possible gymnastics increasing equipment you have, as well as an action-point increasing item. Without the action point increasing item, you're probably not going to get much better than a 50% chance of getting an extra action, and even with the action-point increasing item, you will fail to get an extra action a noticeable number of times. Sniper, on the other hand, just with ten skill points and 2 bought can automatically reach a 60% chance of getting an extra shot, and go up to 100% chance, or a pretty reliable 80% chance not too far into the game, with items *Regarding sniper versus haste...after haste level 3 has been gotten so that it can provide battle fury: for characters without sniper or gymnastics who don't use the battle fury battle discipline, and who don't have 2 action-point increasing items, haste is going to be a great idea. However, not all threats are those big threats you can prepare for in advance. Sometimes, the little un-intimidating buggers will seem to not be a big deal at fist, but you'll find yourself overwhelmed. Passive skills like sniper and gymnastics can naturally whittle them down early without any energy cost or cost to you to help keep from being surprised by them...and that's why I love those types of things that don't require a cost, because you'll feel less hesitant about using them. I prefer sniper over frequently using haste for the same reason my favorite weapon in the old retro avernum games was the sling. It did less damage than everything else. They also had crossbows...but the sling took no ammo, so you'd never hesitate to use it. Also, because my party seldom uses blessings, unless I know there's something big coming, after every fight I can exit combat and quickly get back my battle discliplines. Were I frequently using the haste spell, I'd have to choose between remaining in combat to keep the haste spell going, and having those battle disciplines possibly not ready to use in the next fight, or letting the haste spell wither away and having to re-cast it before every new fight. Sniper and Gymnastics let me both get 2 shots frequently, and get back my battle disciplines before every fight. Also, because of how fast my party is, I prefer to wander around mostly in the non-combat state. In the combat state, things can rush right up to me without me noticing. In the non-combat state, I can more easily see opponents, hit the combat button, and knock them off from a distance before they come near me. Were I using blessings frequently, they'll all have faded away by the time I get into each new fight. (that won't work as well if you have a slower party...slower parties are often better off moving around in combat mode, because when their new turn begins they might not go first, so it's best for them to scout in combat mode so as to see their enemies and get a shot off before their turn ends.) For those reasons, while sniper is not objectively better than lethal blow or sharpshooter (which just increase damage in a strait-forward sort of way) I personally prefer it over either skill. Sniper is probably my fourth favorite combat skill...right after mage skill, priest skill, and hardiness. Everybody thinks it's trash. If I could only choose one archer skill, it would probably be sniper.