Tactics Mod

[weimer]

I am planning on biting the bullet and restructuring my mod offerings.  

Proposal:

Solaufein will now contain *just the Solaufein romance*. In addition, you may talk to Solaufein in-game (or perhaps at install-time) and disable (1) the Bodhi abduction and (2) the Eclipse fight [which is already avoidable, but hey] if you really want to.

A new "Tactics" mod will be introduced, containing: (1) Ilyich, (2) Ritual, (3) all tactical components from Solaufein, individually selectable at install-time. Previously "lumped together" components like the infamous "additional tactical encounters" will now be split apart.

WeiDU's interface will change minorly for mods with more than, say, five components: you will have the options like "upgrade all installed components" or "install all uninstalled components" or "uninstall all installed components" or "ask me individually about everything". This will make installing this new tactics mod take less than an hour. :-)

Comments? Suggestions? Does anyone actually care?                    

[alustriel]

Oh oh oh... I care.     Yes please to all of the above.  I always forget which mod contains what.  Grouping the stuff like that would help greatly.  

Thank you very much.                      

[Michel]

Will you add Valen also? Optional of course.

I like the idea of all the mods in one file. It beats downloading all the mods seperatly
                   

[Domi]

I think that would be wonderful... At least then you know what to prepare for after taking that Celestial Fury blade...                    

[jcompton]

Solaufein will now contain *just the Solaufein romance*.

I don't know, Wes. I think as a "marketing" move, putting a ton of stuff inside Solaufein HAS been a good thing, and exposed people to components from "lesser-known" mod authors, who might have had trouble convincing lots of people to download a "relatively minor" addition to the game (or one that certain mod site webmasters might decree is "not a mod" at all and not link to.)

I think I was recently campaigning for you to lump MORE in, for an UberWesMod. BG2 According to Weimer. Whatever.

In addition, you may talk to Solaufein in-game (or perhaps at install-time) and disable (1) the Bodhi abduction and (2) the Eclipse fight [which is already avoidable, but hey] if you really want to.

Blah blah fourth wall blah blah don't do this. I may have argued with the always-abduct policy, but I'd rather that be something YOU control, not that the player controls. (See "Screw you, you can't shut off the Kelsey/Imoen romance, not really" for more on Compton's view of how much the player/PC should be able to control things that they have no business controlling in the gameworld.)

A new "Tactics" mod will be introduced, containing: (1) Ilyich, (2) Ritual, (3) all tactical components from Solaufein, individually selectable at install-time. Previously "lumped together" components like the infamous "additional tactical encounters" will now be split apart.

This makes good sense.

WeiDU's interface will change minorly for mods with more than, say, five components: you will have the options like "upgrade all installed components" or "install all uninstalled components" or "uninstall all installed components" or "ask me individually about everything". This will make installing this new tactics mod take less than an hour. :-)

With the Bioware Flirt Pack installer likely to have 16 components minimum, yes, I'd love to see "install/deinstall all."                    



[!--EDIT|jcompton|Oct 14 2002, 07:14 PM--]

[Kish]

I think this is a good idea, Wes.   Putting everything together in one "BG2 according to Weimer" mod would work too...but as long as the mod is named Solaufein Romance, I'd much rather see the Solaufein Romance Mod actually be entirely about Solaufein, if not entirely about romance.                    

[Mike B.]

Wes, I like the way things are now.  I don't mind change, but this seems like a lot of work for you with very little difference to the end user.  I think most people download all your mods, try them out, keep what they like and unistall the rest.  As a point of reference, I don't like the Imp. Ilyich or Spell 50 mods.  However, I live and die for Sola, Ease of Use, Item Upgrade and Ascension.  I been using Sola since version 13 or 14, why the big change now?  I can dowload all four mods and install them in less than 30 minutes now.  How much time will this new proposed method save?

Also, I disagree with breaking out the tactical encounters. I cursed your name many a time until my tactics simply got better.  I learned to buff up and prepare for combat.  There must be almost two dozen different additional tactical encounters by various authors, more if you count the imp. guarded compound, twisted rune, etc.  Honestly, I doubt I would have installed a third of them if given a choice.  Looking at the list now, I wouldn't remove a single one.  Every encounter has its own unique challenge and stategy.  Don't forget your classic response to users struggling with a certain encounter:  lower the difficulty and don't be afraid to use Ctl-Y.

I would much rather see you focus your talent on finishing the Ritual and adding a few choice items to Item Upgrade.                    

[Althernai]

Yes, I care and yes, please do what you are planning. Most of what is currently in 'the Solafein mod' has absolutely nothing to do with Solafein.                    

[Aubrey]

Solaufein's abduction by Bodhi (even if PC wasn't romantically involved with Solaufein) was realised under the idea that Solaufein is really something (if memory serves me right). Why should this be changed?

Generally, I agree with jcompton's comments.  Though I have been selfish myself in the past asking for something to change, I do think that the creator is the only one to decide what his work would or wouldn't involve, and how this can be done.






                   

[Daemon]

YES ,split the additionell encounters into little pieces that would be perfect                    

[Piker]

I like your mods.  I have them all installed with the exception of Spell50.  Either way you decide to go with this, I am probably going to keep them all installed.  It would be convenient when updating versions to only have to do it twice instead of 6 or 7 times, but it's not a huge big deal to me, personally, either way.                    

[Guest]

Would it be too much to ask for a tweak in one the of the encounters. I like the way the beholders are made harder, or rather more intelligence. This made the both beholder's lair quite a challenge.

How about removing the elder's orb ? The whole reason the beholder's lair was easy was due to that cloak. Without that cloak, it is quite a challenge. Add more regular beholders, but no elder's orb.

Just my opinion.                    

[Meaningless]

Thats great, but if its not to ask too much could you also include a list of the files that are altered by each mod and also a compatibility list like: also works well with this mod, seems to have problems like x and y with that one".


That IMHO would be perfect.                    

[Auvrin]

                                   



                                  "Don't fix what isn't broken."



I would say keep what you have, and move on to create more.  As long as people can get their hands on the goods, why complain about 'how' they get their hands on it?                    

[L_Jonté]

Blah blah fourth wall blah blah don't do this. I may have argued with the always-abduct policy, but I'd rather that be something YOU control, not that the player controls.

Jason, you mentioned Solaufein's breaking of the fourth wall before, and I'm confused.  Do you see the mod breaking that wall by allowing the player control over certain elements of the game?  Because I certainly don't recall any more obvious instances.  It's not as if Sola walks around blathering, "Yeeees o' omnipresent authority figure?"  :rolleyes:                    

[jcompton]

Jason, you mentioned Solaufein's breaking of the fourth wall before, and I'm confused.  Do you see the mod breaking that wall by allowing the player control over certain elements of the game?  Because I certainly don't recall any more obvious instances.  It's not as if Sola walks around blathering, "Yeeees o' omnipresent authority figure?"  :rolleyes:

The old Solaufein board was pretty well chock full of the list of my objections tacked to the Temple of Rillifane's door. I have since forgotten many of them, I think.

Note that in this case, though, I'm saying it's fourth-wall breaking to (hypothetically, what Wes is proposing) be able to initiate dialogue with Solaufein and say

PC: "Gosh, Solaufein, I hope Bodhi doesn't abduct you."
S: "Then I shall endeavor to duck when she comes for me. I appreciate the concern you have shown for me in this matter, (CHARNAME). It reminds me of a poem..." (Solaufein sets DontAbductMePleaseBodhi flag.)

The obvious target is the significant use of non-Realms literature, from poetry to the Princess Bride. Now, mind you, I understand that some people are very very happy about this (someone on Usenet was just praising Wes for ascending to great-writerhood by knowing what to appropriate), but I notice it, that's all.

And you're quite right in that simply clicking on an NPC in BG1 could be far far more dramatically disruptive than just about anything Solaufein says or does.                    



[!--EDIT|jcompton|Oct 20 2002, 04:54 PM--]

[klaussner]

Errr, what is fourth wall breaking?

I think making a tactical mod is a good idea, as some components  of ascencion/ solaufein seem somewhat misplaced.

                   

[L_Jonté]

PC: "Gosh, Solaufein, I hope Bodhi doesn't abduct you."
S: "Then I shall endeavor to duck when she comes for me. I appreciate the concern you have shown for me in this matter, (CHARNAME). It reminds me of a poem..."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!  :lol:

The obvious target is the significant use of non-Realms literature, from poetry to the Princess Bride. Now, mind you, I understand that some people are very very happy about this (someone on Usenet was just praising Wes for ascending to great-writerhood by knowing what to appropriate), but I notice it, that's all.

Ah, I understand the objection.  Though the appropriation of great literary material doesn't bother me, I can see how you might find it annoying.  I would have been far more offended if Solaufein spouted lousy original poetry than the classics.                      



[!--EDIT|jcompton|Oct 20 2002, 04:55 PM--]

[jcompton]

Errr, what is fourth wall breaking?

                   Simply put, it's when the game/the game's characters tell you or reveal to you that they are clearly not part of the fantasy world, but YOUR world. Things like:

"omnipresent authority figure" and in fact MANY BG1 select/confirm sounds, that are more addressed to you the PLAYER (the omnipresent authority figure) than you the PRIMARY PC.

"Bondari reloads" (this tells us that Bondari is, in fact, a video game character.)

"You can't handle the truth!" (and other movie quotes, obvious.)

                   

[Entreri]

They've only been put in to lighten the mood methinks.                    

[jcompton]

They've only been put in to lighten the mood methinks.

                   That's quite right, that's why they were put in.

But if you lighten the mood by taking what I consider an immersive game and making it non-immersive, I get irritated.

It's amazing how much Bioware CHANGED from BG1 to SOA to improve immersion, both big things and little things... and then how systematically they destroyed immersion again in TOB.                    

[klaussner]

Fallout2 was Arch-full of easter eggs, (the bridge keeper.......) yet I think the universe was catching and immersive.
                   

[L_Jonté]

It's amazing how much Bioware CHANGED from BG1 to SOA to improve immersion, both big things and little things... and then how systematically they destroyed immersion again in TOB.

I agree.  While a bit of fourth wall breakage is fine by me, that whole scene with "Bondari reloads" really bothered me.  
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It caught me  completely off guard when my PC turned into the Slayer and hacked him to bits.  It was startling and irritating, as I had been very carful not to use the Slayer state.  (I was running a Paladin after all.  Dropping into Slayer mode would be unseemly for a lawful good charcter.)  Then the "Bondari reloads" bit just added to the irritation.  Yes, it was just a joke to lighten the mood.   But I certainly didn't feel in on it, but rather that they were laughing at me, not with me.  [_[                    

[alustriel]

Heh!  That part really shocked me, so much in fact that I actually restarted from my last quick-save because I thought something had gone horribly wrong in my game!  :lol:

I actually thought it was quite funny, but yes, it is a bit disruptive of the flow of the game.                      

[L_Jonté]

Yeah, I did a reload too and just went got the eyestalk myself.  :rolleyes: