Akhari Blaze

Updated to version 2.6, details in the opening post.

 Changes in 2.6

Thanks. Apparently, loading and saving the file with IrfanView fixes the issues, so I'm using Gimp + IrfanView.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0zernlnqz0u1m9s/G1_normal_floor.zip

For Geneforge 1, this is the floor from v2 (from ModDB), but to use with v1 (the link in this page).

It changes the paved floor (upper left corner), from this

to this

found on ModDB thanks

42 minutes ago, alhoon said:

I tried to find the mod I talk about but I failed. Someone has recommended it to me I think. I also remember I manually changed some things.

I found it on ModDB thanks. The second version looks much worse than the first one though (imo)... 

1 hour ago, alhoon said:

Eh... I certainly used this mod or a mod similar to this one for GF2.

I can't find any graphics mod for G2. Do you have a link, please? Thanks. This one can work (unmodified) for some interface art, but not for terrains and buttons.

I've been trying to port this to G2, but some changes are needed for some pics. The problem is that whenever I change a bmp for G2 (using Gimp), the in-game pic is corrupted. This didn't happen with G1, where I also changed some pics. I'm not even changing the palette in the files I'm trying to edit. Does anybody have a suggestion on how to do this, or the best program to use?

I agree, but a mandatory -5% penalty in parry messed things up. Change short swords to have a 5% parry bonus instead, so we can have a lot more build options.

From most offensive to most defensive:

Two-handed, dual wielding, dual short swords, spear and shield, long sword and shield, short sword and shield

Sounds good...

I find that in this remix (v2.5), battle discipline does 0 damage if you do not have the required skill. (like blademaster, sharp shooter)

This is bad. If you do not have the required skill, it is acceptable the battle discipline does nothing (allowing you to damage monsters normally). But preventing you harming monsters?

It's a long time now I don't touch the mod, but I remember this behaviour, the discipline replaces the normal attack in many cases (and the tooltip shows no damage if you have 0 in the governing skill), in some others it is applied on top of the normal attack. It's impossible to prevent from performing the discipline if you have enough melee/polearm/missile skills, but the tooltip says if you do damage, if it says nothing, it means you'll waste the attack. For disciplines like sharpshooter spray/blade sweep I think it's better that you just can't perform them (no damage). There was a problem if I used the discipline on top of the normal attack (like the character running towards the target or asking for a target when it shouldn't have had). Just read the tooltip and you know if you'll do damage or not, when in doubt...

Thanks for the pointers.

Before playing A2:CS, I'm giving the original a shot. I like it a lot but I was a bit annoyed by some old graphics, so I changed some. Many new graphics come from A2:CS, mostly recoloured and modified to fit the original ones. Mainly:

- Interface (a bit cleaner and smoother), Avernum 2 logo on top redone

- Intro & main menu screens, plus chapters

- Some floor tiles (lava & some paved floors)

- Trees and mushrooms

- A green table

A warning: use only if you don't run A2 in 256 colours, or it may look weird

Downloads (extract in your A2 folder and overwrite, make a backup copy of the original folder if you want to revert changes later):

Full (with new tiles)

Interface only (only interface elements and menu screens)

Screenshots and comparisons:

A2CS definitely brings up a different set of balance (and interest) considerations than AEFTP did -- which are themselves substantially different from the ones AB dealt with, since he started with my game balance mod rather than the base game.

Ok thanks, definitely I'd have to play the game first (and I'd have to buy it first ), in reality I was thinking about the general text file system, between Avadon and EFTP some effects and stats changed their reference numbers but mostly they were the same, so I was hoping they are similar also in A2CS because otherwise it would mean guessing again which effect is which number.

Anyway I wasn't really planning to do this soon, to be honest.. probably when I'll buy the game, and I don't know when it will be.

I couldn't really answer at the moment because I'm playing through your mod on an easier difficulty and I'm doing a horribly inefficient builds for the sake of role playing characters. (for example; I'm mixing pole weapons and thrown weapons on one character) I'm tempted to start a second run to help you out but I'm heading back into classes soon and not sure I'll have the spare time.

No problem, I didn't really ask you to 'help me out' , mod is more or less finished (could use some weapon balance), I finished it on torment once and just asked for an opinion about difficulty if you tried both vanilla and modded on same difficulty level. Thanks anyway

If the system hasn't changed radically (I'm sure it didn't) it should be possible but I don't have A2:CS... Also it would take some time anyway, and I'd have to play the vanilla game or at least gather info about what's unbalanced and so on, so right now it isn't in the plans.. Did you finish A1 with the mod? Did you play A1 vanilla? If yes to both, how do you think they compare difficulty-wise? Just to know, it could be useful for 'future plans'.. Thanks

Short comment on melee/pole balance in this remix:

 

You can only use short swords as off weapon, and short swords have a penalty of -5% parry. Dual wielding is a lot weaker.

Long swords are about as good as the vanilla game.

Spears are about 1/4 stronger than vanilla, making them as strong as vanilla halberd. They are single handed, allow you to wear a shield, though they have a penalty of -5% parry.

Two-handed weapons are more than 50% stronger than the spears in this remix, with halberd better in offense and swords better in defense

 

Conclusion:

Two-handed weapons are the best in the remix, about as strong as dual wield without dual wield penalty in vanilla. But considering you can dual wield powerful combo like spectral Falchion and flaming sword in vanilla, two-handed weapons in the remix are about as good as dual wield in vanilla. Dual wielding in this remix are made worthless, though a little better than two-handed weapon in vanilla.

Thanks all for the feedback. I couldn't work much on balancing weapons, I just thought that in vanilla 2H was pointless and DW the only way to go, and I wanted to change that. So what would you suggest, reduce 2H power or beef up a bit DW (maybe allowing more weapons to be used as off-hand)? In theory, I think it would be best to use DW for more stat and resistance bonuses, and 2H for raw power.

Ok sorry it would be annoying

Oh god, please no. I hate games with rotatable camera. It's so annoying~

Not that you would be able to rotate freely, 180° would be enough, so only two possible views (it wouldn't even need different graphics). Anyway it's not that important, maybe it would be annoying, but it wouldn't damage the immersion I think.

I did not wanted to open a new topic, as someone else had roughly the same opinion as me.

 

...

 

- Bows do not have ammunition, yet javelins do. Really? This also means there are no different ammunitions for bows. This does not seem to be well thought out.

 

- Some battle disciplines do not make sense: I have put all my efforts in developing my melee skills. Why can I suddenly do something only trained marksmen can?

 

- The spells: no more "repel spirit" or similar anti-undead/demon spells but 3 or more healing spells?

No more "firewalk", "unlock" and "move mountains" exploration spells. In a game where a large part of the fun comes from exploration, this is a huge letdown.

 

- In general, the spell selection seems to be a bit "dumbed down".

 

- Cannot rest party. Food serves almost no purpose, although still available to buy. Please work on this a little more.

There are 2 mods that solve or change this, Slartibus' remix and mine, you may want to check them out. Slartibus' is better tested I guess, I added some changes (class-based disciplines, no minor heal and worse healing spells, better food, useful for healing at first).

- When I launch a ranged attack, sometimes my character feels the need to rush to forward. No thanks, I do not want to move my mage to the front! Can't this be turned off? Ranged attacks should display the range or at least should have an option to stay in place.

 

- Searching for secret doors isn't any more about bumping every possible corner. Nice, but it makes the search a little predictable, since I just have check the NE & NW walls. Can there be any more variaties?

 

Nice points, I'd also add the thing that bothers me the most: in dungeons you can see everything you've discovered, only occasionally you can't see what's around you (Spiral Pit, Erika's Tower...), and this makes also light sources useless. There should be a limited sight range in dungeons, that increases with a light source, in my opinion, like in old Averum.

About secret buttons, I think it would be nice if you were able to rotate the isometric view, so that buttons could be placed on all walls and you could still see them.

- The interface has devolved. What is my character's chance to hit? How encumbered is my character? Can I still cast mage spells? There is no easy way to find out...

 

- In battle, when I want to wait for the enemy to close in, I cannot delay a character's action till the end of the turn.

Sure, I can pass the turn. This will spend all my remaining APs, but to what end? Do I get a free attack againts the approaching enemy? No. Do I get a temporary defense bonus? No. This is dumb.

 

- Now projectile spells can miss. Why? When I am spending my precious spell energy I want to make it count. Again, this does not seem to be very well thought out.

 

- The "junk bag" is a good idea, but please make the interface button at least look like a button.

 

- Outdoors: hey, are those tiny critters friendly or hostile? The only way to find out is to meet them. Please, you could do this more sensibly in the previous games.

 

- Cannot cast spells outdoors. Not even healing spells. Avernum must be a really harsh place.

These aren't a big deal, imo. Why should you know in advance if critters are hostile before you get near them, anyway?

Version 2.5 with some fixes

Changes in 2.5

If you've got the habit of playing RPGs on the hardest difficulty level, I don't see why you should play it on hard, and maybe repent later. I played it on torment from the start and I won every fight, also killed Redbeard, and one (optional) dragon fight was insanely difficult, but most of the game wasn't, just the right difficulty if you have some RPG experience. Just read some tips for character building (with 4 stats there isn't much room for confusion) and go for torment I'd say... at least you'll have some fun in the tough fights.

By the way I did it on torment (with my Remix though) without invulnerability potions (I had bladeshield), but it should be doable also in normal game. I reached Hawthorne with teleport spells, resurrecting my fighters when they died along the way, then kept doing some damage to one golem so that Hawthorne shield went down as he healed it. You have to resist just a few rounds, spread your party so that at least one priest isn't hit by the area spells, or only once. Reusurrect and energy elixirs were necessary. The last rounds (when golems go melee) were actually easier. I was level 35 (2 fighter/priests, 1 archer/mage/priest and 1 mage/priest).

This kind of things make me hate people and the world. I have some experience of bullies and there should be death penalty for them, they don't deserve to live. If there were a God these things wouldn't happen. And since God doesn't care about justice, people should exact it. They should all die in the most painful and horrible way, in front of their relatives. Speeches and words are useless, bullies will laugh about it because they're still alive and well. Only the hard ways can teach them something... to the rest of them that is.

New (and maybe final) version 2.4.

Lots of important changes so I hope there won't be bugs (I didn't see any and I finally finished the game...). I was level 35 when I finished, so I'll maybe see how these changes affect low-level characters.

Changes in 2.4

Have you radically reduced the energy costs of high revel spells? It is always irksome to spend such huge percentage of spell energy on a single spell only to see it fizzle. Divine fire springs to mind here.

...

Does Circle of Madness keep the teleport of Blink Burst?

I didn't reduce them, I actually increased the cost for Lightning Spray (was too convenient and almost the only spell a mage needed) and Icy Rain (can be used to 'cheat' hitting enemies you can't see).

Circle of Madness doesn't have teleport but it's a good idea since I'm finding it a bit weak right now.

My fresh start 2.2 mod party is now 12th level. Caster and Archer still using leather type armors while the Paladin and Priest are wearing chain and carrying the steel breast plates around in their luggage. Definitely more tradeoffs to work through regarding encumbrance v protection.

 

You're certainly moving aggressively with regard to armor weight increases. Have you considered modifying other traits besides Strong Back to balance this a bit?

 

For example, Good, Robust and Perfect health seem tailor made to add a few pounds of armor capacity per each upgrade in addition to the HP bonus.

 

Looking forward to 2.3.

In my game I used chainmail for a long while; consider that the highest protection value is the most important, because the system works so that other protection items only use a fraction of their value. Since fighters raise strength naturally, it's usually worth to add some more strength for some more protection, and it's mostly a question of when to allow them to wear the best armors, and to prevent non-fighters from wearing them. I think they're fine as they are right now (one of my fighters has strength 30+bonuses, strong back trait and wears the heaviest possible armor+heavy shield).

I don't think it's possible to modify traits, they should be hardcoded, I'm only modifying the text files.

And btw 2.3 is already there download link in the first post.

PS: bandages are still weak, I'll have to correct them in next version.

Version 2.3 (close to final)

I just fought Adze-Haakai, nobody ever died (at the second attempt). Make sure all your chars are inside the right circle when three pilons are lit. Actually move your archer/mage there asap, that is when they receive enlightment in one circle, move in the other one (with one AP left to attack), in the farthest tiles so the tanks can position themselves in the front tiles, near the center of the room. Move the tanks in the circle when all pylons are lit, when 2 pylons are lit position them in a way that you're sure they'll get in the circle in time. I found spells that deal energy damage are very effective. Use the discipline battle frenzy if you have it, or scrolls, so that you have more freedom of movement when you need it.

I kept that in mind while making the last changes (that is, not forcing chars to put all points in one stat). With 25 strength you should be able to wear decent armor (steel breastplate or similar, iron greaves or shield, bracers..), for the best armors (consecrated BP or similar, plus shield and greaves) you'd need definitely more, a strength-dedicated char or use the Strong Back trait that gives 20 lbs.

You don't really need to start all over, armor changes concerned mostly weights/parry, you can find chainmails all over the place and that will be the maximum you'll be able to wear until 20 strength or so. Moreover, I'm not finished yet with the changes and even if you start from scratch I'll be modifying again stuff in the next update (I already increased even more the weight of breastplates in my files).

The missing files are files that I never modified, I included them because they were in the remix by Slartibus, that I used as a basis when I first started making my changes. After I'm done with the gameplay changes, I'll have to review also those files and clean up things a bit.

I've noticed that increases to gymnastics from items do not lead to additional Action points in the adrenaline rush discipline.

For example, my mage has 2 pints of actual Gymnastics plus the flowing metal greave (+3 to Gym) yet only gets 15 AP from Adrenaline rush instead of 20.

Was this intended?

I noticed that too, it isn't intended but I don't think it can be changed, I'll try. I was even thinking about raising the requirement for the second step (from 2 to 4 Gym), since it's easy to train and so it would require some more effort to bring it to 15. If I'm not mistaken 15 + haste gives you still the chance of 3 actions per round, but I still have to test it.

Wasn't sure if the new version was save game compatible.

It should be 100% compatible, but there are a lot of changes to the equipment (armors and swords mainly) so your characters may not like the changes (like not being able to wear anymore the armor they were wearing without being over-encumbered). The link for the old version is still there, if you need, it anyway.

Thanks for the appreciation