Noticed the thread calling for critisism, so here goes a little rant.
Relating to the mae'var addition:
Just tried taking the double crossing renal path, and I've got to say that I'm a bit disappointed. First, after playing a number of games with a good party, I'm now playing an evil party, and I assume this option is intended as the "evil path". Which I thought nice, since the game very much focuses on the good path, and playing evil means getting the short end of the stick a lot. (For example, why would an evil character do the Circus tent quest? No promise of reward, and it's somebody else's problem.)
From a role-playing perspective, I couldn't figure out ANY reason, for anyone, evil or good, to side with Mae'Var - when you suggest to Mae'Var that you were thinking of perhaps making a deal with him, the deal seem to be that you do all the work, and get nothing for it! Why would an evil char agree to such "altruism"? I think the point of an agreement is that both sides get something... It is illogical that Mae'Var should rather attack me than pay up, since as he says, I have the confidence of Renal, and so he can use me to plant evidence - a rather important function!
Mae'Var doesn't seem to me to be an idiot, though he is very selfish and evil; wouldn't he rather part with some gold and get rid of a a threat to his position in the guild, than kill the "goose that lays golden eggs"? Isn't getting rid of Renal, and gaining a strong position in the guild much more important than insisting on getting the task done for no reward? And surely Mae'Var has allies too - how did he manage to get in that position, if he consistently refuses any reward for helping him? In other words, Mae'Var refusing the promised reward once was believable - since he didn't need you anymore, but certainly wasn't believable the second time, when the player has given him a crucial piece of information, AND has proven to be of continuing, rather crucial, use.
It seems to me that what looked like a promissing evil path, just ends up screwing the evil party out of a significant gold reward. As if the game wasn't biased on the good side enough already. Whoopee.
It would have been good (or evil
), if, finding that Mae'Var isn't willing to reward you, you could at least screw over Mae'Var in return... and gain some profit while doing it!
Looking at other threads, it seems that the evil char won't succeed in selling Risa to slavery either... which leads me to ask - is there anything of actual benefit in the mod for a party taking the evil path? Or do all evil paths end up with the char getting frustrated with nothing to show for his efforts?
I want to avoid reloading too much, after events that don't go to plan, so I'll continue on after having betrayed Renal, with empty pockets, forgoing the significant reward (+ the loot!) you get for the "good" path. But the whole thing did leave me a bit