Author Topic: Hard Times Mod  (Read 7611 times)

Offline Jaesun

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Hard Times Mod
« on: May 20, 2008, 01:31:32 PM »
I am REALLY enjoying this mod and was wondering if there is a thread somewhere where this is discussed with the author? I'm not sure what group the author is from, as no link to discussions are mentioned in his read me. Could anyone point me to it?

Thanks!

Offline jcompton

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2008, 01:35:02 PM »
I'm guessing you just made it.
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Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2008, 06:31:06 PM »
Hello -

I'm here.  Glad to hear that you are enjoying it!
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Offline Jaesun

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2008, 11:45:52 PM »
OK... taking the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise from the guy in Firewine was a tad brutal. Since you have already nerfed the party of weapons (And I have cleared out all areas South of Beregost) the ONLY weapon I have found so far was the +1 Halberd.  Having only 2 out of my 4 fighters with +1 weapons (The +1 staff from Silke and the Halberd) is incredibly difficult. I am wondering if one of the other mods I have installed is borking your balance... or is this your intended balance?

Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2008, 04:45:05 AM »
Hi -

OK... taking the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise from the guy in Firewine was a tad brutal. Since you have already nerfed the party of weapons (And I have cleared out all areas South of Beregost) the ONLY weapon I have found so far was the +1 Halberd.  Having only 2 out of my 4 fighters with +1 weapons (The +1 staff from Silke and the Halberd) is incredibly difficult. I am wondering if one of the other mods I have installed is borking your balance... or is this your intended balance?

Heh.  If it makes you feel any better, the missing gauntlets are in the "special" loot table introduced by the mod.

This is in fact my intended balance, at least for the part of the game you're in.  Except for creatures which require a magic weapon to be hit, the entire game can be played with just normal weapons.  Making magic weapons rare and solid armor expensive is the kind of difficulty that suits the low level game best, IMO.

Your outlook improves if you soldier on, of course.  By the time I finished the game, I had a party that was very nicely equipped (and I was playing with a full party).
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Offline Jaesun

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2008, 11:32:16 AM »
OK thanks Macready. You are a mean mean and brutal person  ;)

Though I have to say, this has made me change my tactics when fighting now, and looting everything that isn't nailed down just to afford armor and magic. But I am liking it.

Guess I shall continue on and pray for a lucky loot table roll.  ;D

Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2008, 05:36:52 PM »
Hello -

OK thanks Macready. You are a mean mean and brutal person  ;)

 ::)

Quote
Though I have to say, this has made me change my tactics when fighting now, and looting everything that isn't nailed down just to afford armor and magic. But I am liking it.

Yes.  I found myself working my "secondary assets" quite a bit more as well.  Khalid was my main tank, and his dexterity is passable but not great.  So, in the absence of dexterity gauntlets, I'd frequently use the potion that sets base AC to zero, and later, improved invisibility and protection from evil 10' radius, in order to give him a defense boost when needed.  Likewise, when I anticipated the need for more offense from him, a STR potion and a haste potion were in order.  And so on.

Quote
Guess I shall continue on and pray for a lucky loot table roll.  ;D

The main source of loot table drops are chapter bosses.  So, pursuing the main plot a bit will jump start your collection of higher quality items.
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Offline Jaesun

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2008, 06:41:16 PM »
Quote
I found myself working my "secondary assets" quite a bit more as well.  Khalid was my main tank, and his dexterity is passable but not great.  So, in the absence of dexterity gauntlets, I'd frequently use the potion that sets base AC to zero, and later, improved invisibility and protection from evil 10' radius, in order to give him a defense boost when needed.

Yep, I finally have a use for those potions now as well playing with Khalid. I never needed them before heh.

Quote
The main source of loot table drops are chapter bosses.  So, pursuing the main plot a bit will jump start your collection of higher quality items.

OK I was wondering who dropped from the loot tables.

Offline Sir_Carnifex

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2008, 06:53:15 PM »
As long as this thread is here, I might as well add my compliments to the maker of the Hard Times mod. 

Since I couldn't find too many +1 weapons around at first, it was a nightmare trying to keep my party equipped with anything but broken weapons.  I was forced to pick up a cleric so I wouldn't have to spend money on heal spells, etc so I could replace my weaponry.  So, all that sounds like torture.  Well, maybe for some people, but to me it's just plain entertaining.   

Congratulations on a job well done, MacReady!
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Offline cmorgan

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2008, 01:33:46 PM »
Could some of you folks who have gone through the mod (and you, Macready, when you have the time) please toss a line up on the G3 Tutu install order thread as to where in install order makes the most sense/works best/you have played through successfully and not had anything interfering with Hard Times? It would be greatly appreciated :)

Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2008, 05:04:28 PM »
Hello -

As long as this thread is here, I might as well add my compliments to the maker of the Hard Times mod. 

Thanks!  Your positive feedback is very much appreciated.

Quote
Since I couldn't find too many +1 weapons around at first, it was a nightmare trying to keep my party equipped with anything but broken weapons.  I was forced to pick up a cleric so I wouldn't have to spend money on heal spells, etc so I could replace my weaponry.  So, all that sounds like torture.  Well, maybe for some people, but to me it's just plain entertaining.   

It's probably not for everyone.  But personally, I think the experience represents the low-level game better, and certainly brings home the iron crisis to a greater extent.

Quote
Congratulations on a job well done, MacReady!

Again, thank you!
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Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2008, 05:05:52 PM »
Hello -

Could some of you folks who have gone through the mod (and you, Macready, when you have the time) please toss a line up on the G3 Tutu install order thread as to where in install order makes the most sense/works best/you have played through successfully and not had anything interfering with Hard Times? It would be greatly appreciated :)

My recommendation would be after EasyTutu add-ons (degreenifier, NPC kits) but before other mods, only because I developed it against a clean EasyTutu installation.  Practically speaking, you should be relatively safe however you fit it in.
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PetrusOctavianus

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2008, 02:09:01 PM »

How compatible is this mod with iiItem at http://www.teambg.eu/forum/index.php?topic=876.0?

Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2008, 07:33:38 PM »
From a technical perspective, probably very or completely compatible.  But if it adds a bunch of new magic items all over the place, then conceptually, the two mods don't really mesh.
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PetrusOctavianus

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2008, 07:46:16 PM »
From a technical perspective, probably very or completely compatible.  But if it adds a bunch of new magic items all over the place, then conceptually, the two mods don't really mesh.

Or one could say that your mod balances the effetcs of other mods adding items.
On the other hand with both Hard Times and iiItem I have a feeling nearly all magic items will be in the "exotic" category, which will be less immersive than the vanilla system with mostly weapons+1, shields+1 and potions...

PetrusOctavianus

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #15 on: July 18, 2008, 03:58:40 PM »

Oh well, I tried the iiItems mod and depsite the creator(s) claiming it was balanced, it was surely not. After recruiting J and K at the Friendly Arms I had 6 Necromantic potions that yielded nearly 2000 gold when sold.
After defeating six gibberlings I had 240 Arrows of Fatigue worth 2400 gold.

Needless to say I'll uninstall iiItems and install Hard Times...

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2008, 01:21:56 PM »

Oh well, I tried the iiItems mod and depsite the creator(s) claiming it was balanced, it was surely not. After recruiting J and K at the Friendly Arms I had 6 Necromantic potions that yielded nearly 2000 gold when sold.
After defeating six gibberlings I had 240 Arrows of Fatigue worth 2400 gold.

Needless to say I'll uninstall iiItems and install Hard Times...

If you want to improve the mod to increase your satisfaction (and possibly that of other games), maybe you should actually try informing the author of the mod of your opinions (rather than just posting them in a single post, in a single thread, in a single community?). Looking back at the change log for the mod, the author seems to make changes based on sensible feedback.

There's also the issue that the number of items installed by the mod appears to be completely random - you may have encountered 6 Necromatic potions at that point in the game, while another player (or yourself, if you reinstalled the mod) might encounter 0 such items. In my opinion, this adds to the replay and immersiveness of the mod - no more "I'll head to X so I can get Y, then pop along to A to get B, then I can easily defeat M who is always at N". You could edit the TP2 and reduce the amount of items the mod installs (I've done this locally, to the extend that only 1 of each item is added to the game).

Offline Macready

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2008, 06:33:00 PM »
Hello -

If you want to improve the mod to increase your satisfaction (and possibly that of other games), maybe you should actually try informing the author of the mod of your opinions (rather than just posting them in a single post, in a single thread, in a single community?). Looking back at the change log for the mod, the author seems to make changes based on sensible feedback.

There's also the issue that the number of items installed by the mod appears to be completely random - you may have encountered 6 Necromatic potions at that point in the game, while another player (or yourself, if you reinstalled the mod) might encounter 0 such items. In my opinion, this adds to the replay and immersiveness of the mod - no more "I'll head to X so I can get Y, then pop along to A to get B, then I can easily defeat M who is always at N". You could edit the TP2 and reduce the amount of items the mod installs (I've done this locally, to the extend that only 1 of each item is added to the game).

If you'd like to defend the other mod further, please relate your thoughts in a separate thread.  ::)
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PetrusOctavianus

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #18 on: July 22, 2008, 03:01:03 AM »
I think you overdid it a bit with Greysword. In my current game he dropped an Excellent Halberd. Come one, his name is GreySWORD! ;-)

passerby

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #19 on: July 22, 2008, 03:01:15 PM »
Who's Greysword? Do you mean Greywolf?

Offline DavidW

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #20 on: July 22, 2008, 03:04:53 PM »
Bring back the Wolf +2, +5 vs. gazelles, I say.

PetrusOctavianus

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Re: Hard Times Mod
« Reply #21 on: July 22, 2008, 06:23:17 PM »
Who's Greysword? Do you mean Greywolf?

Uh...let's blame it on my Alzheimer.  :-[

 

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