Circle of Eight Modpack v6 / v6 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Manyshot doesn't work anymore for some reason. It's been a while since I've used it last, so not sure how long the issue's been around. Anyway, now there's absolutely no difference from checking or unchecking the "manyshot" option on the menu. The roll is the same, and the damage is only applied once. I'm shooting point-blank, so range is not an issue.

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Any chance of having Ah Fong making a masterwork Jian? Wow, what a powerful weapon that uses the siangham proficiency, so monks can flurry with them.

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

I've played almost all of the way through 6.0.0 NC now, to the point where I could finish anytime, and once again my thanks and congratulations to everybody who contributed to this fine work.

It has worked very smoothly, except that I've once again got jerkstop in Hommlet, but not so bad I can't work around it. The big Hickory Branch map was bug-free for me. The new Verbobonc is very impressive and seems to work very well.

The area that could use future improvement, IMO, is character dialogue. I gather that this is not a priority, and that most people prefer chucking fireballs to chit-chat. So do I, but some of the dialogues are confusing and lead to accidental commitments that are regrettable. I wonder how much of this could be fixed with .dlg editing. (I recall there was some interest once in rewriting all of the Hommlet dialogues.)

- Some of the dialogues are too wordy. The Mathel story, for example.

- Some of the dialogues lack a logical entry point for the player, and assume things the player shouldn't know. The intrigue between Zook, Wilfrid, and Lerrick, for example. This is improved from earlier versions, but still lacks a proper introduction to bring it to the player's attention.

- Many dialogues offer the player no options at all, or options that are confusing to the point of being bizarre. Obviously this applies to a lot of the vanilla game dialogue, too.

Here's what I would like to see:

- Introductory dialogues (like Welkwood Bog) broken up between several NPCs, so that players could gather more information if they want to. Players who don't care could skip it.

- More dialogue options, especially ones that make it clear that the player is being non-committal, or lying.

- More classic Greyhawk flavor in the dialogue. This is the only game devoted to this fine old setting.

Just my two copper pieces. Once again, thank you all and great job.

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Jian already counts as masterwork/magical. It already has a "Keen" enchantment on it.

As for the proficiency, it makes little sense to me, since jian is more similar to a short/longsword than it is to a siangham.

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

I was thinking of an option to question certain NPCs about things like Iuz, or the Circle of Eight, and maybe give clues about future story events and quests.

After all, it would reduce the boredom of "Fed Ex" quests if the NPCs were more interesting. I'm thinking of something like the old Desperate Housewives mod, but less radical. Just some more color and story background, which players who don't care can skip.

Examples:

"A fellow named Ikian stopped by the other day and mentioned your name. He had a rough-looking crew with him. Unless he's a friend of yours, I'd watch my back."

"Everybody says that old temple was destroyed, but Derrick used to say that it still stands out there, almost untouched. He took a lot of men with him to go and look at it, and they never came back."

"There used to be a Water cult in Dyvers, and a Fire cult, and a couple of others. They fought everybody, and they fought each other, too. The Lord Mayor hanged and burned them like mad, but he couldn't drive them out. Then they suddenly just disappeared."

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

I agree on that. And that's why co8 is the greatest.

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

One of the gnolls in the bottom corner of the Temple of Elemental Evil dungeon level 1 has 2 grey(?) leather armors when his corpse is looted (see screenshot below).

The last time that I did the moathouse ambush, I noticed that Turuko and Zert have FAR too few HP for their class and character level respectively! They need more HP because they die way too easily! Turuko is a level 3 monk with a Constitution modifier of 0, yet he has only 11 HP! Zert is a level 2 fighter with only 12 HP! Are these the stats that they have in the original PnP module? If not, then they could do with more HP.

wizgeorge, I've never had a problem when brawling with Tolub (admittedly, I've only done it about 3 times). My male level 6 half-orc fighter with 20 Strength encountered no abnormal behaviour when he won the brawl with Tolub in my current playthrough.

I've been experiencing some weird behaviour when looting items from the ground in my playthrough of 6.0.0 NC. I'm sure that I looted every corpse, but when I return to maps later, I see the odd pile of items here and there, left behind when a corpse disappears. The strangest behaviour was in the moathouse courtyard. I left the brigand corpses unlooted, came back later when the corpses had disappeared, dropped some items on the ground near the piles of items left behind where the corpses were, and when I tried to pick up all of the items on the ground, all of the items that I had dropped were no longer visible, but when I held the mouse pointer over where the items were, text popped up stating the name of the invisible item that the mouse pointer was hovering over. Has anybody else been experiencing any weird behaviour with items on the ground?

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

I just finished the 6.0.0… NC mod and I think it is time for a little feedback. Actually it was the first time I walked through the game and firstly I must say: great job guys! What an amazing gaming experience, thank you all!

In medias res:

Technical stuff
I was able to avoid Jerk Stop. After some two dozen runs it seems that Jerk Stop happens in Hommlet after reaching level 10 and or finishing Arena of Heroes, but only during daytime. So I made sure that I never entered Hommlet during daytime (excluding the onetime I had to meet Walden in order to get the Rescuing Paida quest), also I always entered Hommlet from North but cannot say if that is relevant in anyway. Still, this was my first time WITHOUT Jerk Stop, so I must have being doing something right, or at least being very lucky.

YES.
In Decklo Grove there appeared some coins on the ground that I could not touch. Same thing happened in Temple level 2 in the room with the Minotaur. It looks like there is some cash on the ground, but I cannot touch it.
Also weird stuff appeared in Welkwood Bog and Emridy Meadows. First I thought that it was some loot from critters killed that I forgot to pick up or from undead creatures that I had turned before they appeared, but it kept appearing and every once in awhile the game CTD (not sure, but I think that stand’s for “crash to desktop”?) if I tried to pick ‘em up, so I learned to ignore it. Lastly if I tried to access my chest in Nulb with full inventories of all my PC’s and CTD occurred. First I thought this was because I had Otis with me second time, but made no difference without him. Weird.
When I tried to enter the Nodes at first time I got crash to blue screen (unaware if there is an acronym for that). Had to deactivate and reactivate the mod to be able to continue again. Cannot say whether it was because of something I did or because of something in the mod, after all seems like the game becomes somewhat unstable after a while and saving, restarting and reloading do the charm, cannot be sure though. Also came across some lagging in the Nodes, but I think that is a known issue.

Content and new content:
There seems to be a consensus that quests in Hommlet are boring and tedious, I disagree. In my opinion it is only a good thing that there is something more in the game than just “go there and bash the bad gays” quests. Actually the only “boring” quest in Hommlet is the Cupids arrow, and only because I cannot remember who to talk with and in what order, but that is entirely on me.
Welkwood Bog is a GREAT addition. Good story and even better implementation. Shame on those who skip the description. These kinds of side plot’s just make the gaming experience so much better!
SPOILER ALERT!
The ambush of the big three and the subsequent ghost busting quest is definitely the BEST NEW CONTENT in the game! Such depth and new subplot made my jaw drop on the floor with awe. Thank you! If I may plea, more like this. Same goes with the traders. These are in no doubt the best new content in the game.

Hickory Branch is also a good and interesting addition, a bit forward maybe but with a good storyline and some real challenge. Rewards are also very useful, except the vial of orc blood, for which I have found no use for. (But that may be just my problem).

Arena of Heroes is a challenging fight though I would have expected a reward more useful. I do not use anything beyond light armor and bucklers so the reward was something of a disappointment to me, but yet again, that is just my opinion. Storyline and the subplot are just right.

Suggestions if I may:
Verbobonc is an unripe fruit if you do not mind me saying so. A lot of potential, but so much unfinished business. Excluding the ghost busting quest the city is almost sterile. So much more could be added. My main point of irritancy are the facts that you cannot play it good. You cannot rat out the hextorites to the clerics of Pelor, nor can you rat out the evil plans of scarlet brotherhood. Which makes half the quests unavailable to those parties, who try to keep up their Lawful Good appearances. (What comes to the Paladins, I have made my point known in another thread). In Nulb there is the possibility to turn against the party who hired you to do the assassination, which is something I am missing in Verbobonc.

Disclaimer:
Me Suomalaiset emme kumarra ketään. Me sanomme niin kuin asiat ovat. Ja me Etelänpohjalaiset emme kiitosta jaa. Me odotamme hyvää ja saamme priimaa. Ja kun me kiitämme, se on kuin kiitos Jumalasta seuraavalta. So that you Know!

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Just finished my first run of the game with the non-NC module. Great job guys, it was really fun ! :love:

Some small issues:

1. The installer will always place the docs folder (docs_Co8 6.0.0 or docs_Co8 6.0.0 NC) under C:\Program Files (x86)\Atari\Temple of Elemental Evil regardless of where the games/pack is actually installed

2. My 7th level monk contracted a filth disease while resting in nulb, contradicting his "purity of body" class feature

3. Scather's description states that, when wielded by a non-evil fighter, will always hit. However, my true neutral half-orc barbarian has consistently missed Zuggtomy with it (I got her in the end, though )

But really it's nothing compared to the great experience..
Time to try the NC !

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Umm, you can? And you can get the quest to kill the traitors. Although it's kinda less fun than killing the viscount.

The dialogue line is kind of unintuitive, but it's there.

 

Re: Circle of Eight Modpack 6.0.0 / 6.0.0 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Great news
Can you estimate if saves from 6.0.0 would be compatible ?