KotB Suggestion Thread

Discussion in 'The Keep on the Borderlands' started by Shiningted, Jul 23, 2014.

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  1. Shiningted

    Shiningted I changed this damn title, finally! Administrator

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    Ola, folks.

    This is a thread where you can post minor suggestions that can be immediately implemented in the game to improved the playing experience. It's not for fixing bugs (there's a bug thread for that :)) and I'll also post a wish-list thread so it's not for, well, wishing ;) Ideas for future development or radical change can go there. This is for suggestions for immediate improvements, eg

    - things you looked for in your Ink Quill & Parchment set and were surprised were not there
    - moments you thought Knowledge (Nature) or Bardic Knowledge would have kicked in
    - you went to a specific NPC for input on a quest, because they seemed the most likely, and they said nothing
    - alternate methods of solving quests that made sense to you but did nothing in the game

    Please don't argue the toss, just state your idea with as much exposition as necessary. If someone puts forward an idea you vehemently disagree with, they are still entitled to their opinion: don't argue, just express your (opposite view). I will accept '+1'ing people's views (which I don't think we normally do here) so we can judge if something is popular or in high demand.
     
    Shiningted, Jul 23, 2014
    #1
  2. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    Lady Maeri CR

    In my last play-through I surrounded and killed Lady Maeri as the very first thing upon entering the keep, after refusing the dog quest and getting the location of the hermit from her. I reran the combat a bunch of times, and being alone she was taken down very easily. I only lost a character about once every 4 times I played the out combat sequence. And the party was only completely wiped out once. Instead of getting maybe a few hundred XP's each, everyone got enough XP's to make 2nd level, and the gold value of her loot was about 15,000 gold. Also, there didn't seem to be any bad repercussions from her death. This of course really throws the early game out of whack.

    In comparison, the encounter with the 5 brigands at the hermit forest is a total party death over 80% of the time at first level, and the XP awarded each character for that combat in a 5 person group is 210 each.

    I suggest her CR and treasure value is either reduced, or she is made to be impossibly deadly to attack, similar to trying to take on Terjon or Jaroo in Hommlet at first level.
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2014
    marc1967, Jul 23, 2014
    #2
  3. Pygmy

    Pygmy Established Member Supporter

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    Make mithral full plate armour available to gnome barbarians
     
    Pygmy, Jul 23, 2014
    #3
  4. Zoroastre

    Zoroastre Member

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    - moments you thought Knowledge (Nature) or Bardic Knowledge would have kicked in

    I had someone with Knowledge (Nature) through the roof and it never kicked in (or I never noticed it)


    - you went to a specific NPC for input on a quest, because they seemed the most likely, and they said nothing

    Yeah I never triggered any conversation with
    the chatelain, the Bailif sent me, when i arrived he said hello and then nothing,
    I've tried a couple of times at different points with the same result


    Still the game was absolute great fun
     
    Zoroastre, Jul 24, 2014
    #4
  5. Shiningted

    Shiningted I changed this damn title, finally! Administrator

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    Zoroastre, I wasn't able to replicate your problems with the Castellan. Could you post a save please (in the bug thread so as not to clog this one up ;))
     
    Shiningted, Jul 24, 2014
    #5
  6. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    I wish that the recruitable NPC Aareon (Ranger) was located at one of the map locations on the world map instead of only appearing in a random encounter, so that I could actually encounter him and recruit him. I believe that I only ever encountered him on my first playthrough of the KotB module. In all of my subsequent playthroughs, he never showed up in my game. I've been wanting to have him in my party for many playthroughs, and when Sitra Achara's reduced random encounter frequency mod is implemented in the game with the upcoming patch, I suspect that it will be even more unlikely that I will ever have the random encounter with Aareon ever again.

    It would be great if Aareon could be positioned near the player's party's landing point on the Swamp map. That map is brutally difficult to clear at character level 1, and Aareon would make that map considerably easier to clear if the player allowed Aareon to join the player's party.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2014
    gazra_1971, Jul 26, 2014
    #6
  7. edmortimer

    edmortimer Occupy Wall Street

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    Um . . . more small stuff, certainly. And how about all those Kobolds & Goblins (in TOEE & KotB) wearing human-size armor -- shouldn't they all be "Small"?

    Are we ever gonna have Pixies & Nixies & Sprites & other Fey for random encounters and recruitable NPCs? My evil guys would love to kick some Fey butt, and make friends with the goblioid peoples.

    Oh, I've taken Kwerd along on my latest runthrough in TOEE, and so far (level 4) everything is A-OK with him. I also added to his .dlg file so he will 'talk' if you have text floaters on with Party Banter.
     
    edmortimer, Jul 26, 2014
    #7
  8. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    On the spider forest map, in the caves, how about
    a dialog option to let you clear out the monsters before dragging the merchant along
    ? Or rather, an option that let's you do that without so much sniveling and begging?
     
    Daryk, Jul 27, 2014
    #8
  9. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    If the concern is that he will get killed in combat, just leave him 100 feet behind the party, well out of combat range. Especially when you reach those nasty acid spitting fellas.
     
    marc1967, Jul 28, 2014
    #9
  10. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    I would like to see the global lighting turned up in certain places where the characters and monsters all become silhouettes.

    I'm not sure if this is intentional, but during exploration it creates a very cool atmosphere where you are dark between the torch areas, and then as you pass the torches you light up. I think that was probably the reason for doing it. However, during combat it makes for a frustrating game play experience where it's hard to tell where everyone is on the screen.

    The two areas where this is most noticeable are the goblin caves and the shrine. I've "turned up the lights" via global.lit in those two areas, and taken a before and after pic to show the difference.

    GOBLIN CAVES currently: Goblin Unlit.jpg
    GOBLIN CAVES with lights turned on: Goblin Lit.jpg

    SHRINE currently: Shrine Unlit.jpg
    SHIRNE with lights turned on: Shrine Lit.jpg
     
    marc1967, Jul 28, 2014
    #10
  11. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    Even 100' behind the party, he still takes a share of the XP, not that he's any help in combat anyway. It would be excusable if he was recruitable, but being he
    disappears 30 seconds after you get him out of the cave
    , not so much.
     
    Daryk, Jul 28, 2014
    #11
  12. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    You can say no when he initially asks you to join up. Then you can clear the caves and find the exit without him, and then go recruit him and exit the caves.

    Just tested it.
     
    marc1967, Jul 28, 2014
    #12
  13. edmortimer

    edmortimer Occupy Wall Street

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    If you have a second rope (w/grappling hook) you can climb out the same way you fell in. He'll run off, and you can climb back down again.
     
    edmortimer, Jul 29, 2014
    #13
  14. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    Marc, yes, with all the attendant begging and whining...

    Ed, thanks! I hadn't realized that would work.
     
    Daryk, Jul 29, 2014
    #14
  15. Shiningted

    Shiningted I changed this damn title, finally! Administrator

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    Gah! I was going to tell you that, but ended up modding a whole thing where you could promise to come back and he shuts up for 60 seconds. O well :)

    @ Marc: you've hit the nail on the head re the lighting: I did lean toward exaggerated lighting (including exaggerated non-lighting in places) because, as you say, it looks cool (and I feel it amplifies the lighting effects put into the maps and thus adds to the efforts of the mapmakers), but others did point out to me it was too dark in places. Due to the lack of movable lightsources (which I have tried many times to get going) or infravision etc I have to acknowledge that monsters that can't be seen by any means has to be fixed. However, looking at the two examples you gave, they both just look badly done rather than 'dark areas' (the first particularly has dark PCs in a lit room). So what I will do is try to improve those two maps for the next patch, and if you don't like the subsequent result (and be honest by all means) I'll add the global lighting (albeit not as bright as you have there ;))

    Re small armour - the game doesn't acknowledge small armour, only small weapons. The small studded leather is an oddity. Is there any reason to go to the trouble of adding small this and small that when anyone of any size could wear it?

    Gazra: Aereon is meant to be a random encounter like Zaxis: specifically putting him somewhere completely negates that. If you need some muscle for the early encounters, I can think of at least 5 NPC followers hanging around the keep (not counting Korrac) just waiting to join your group. Better still, people should use the 3 mercenaries in the pub for early encounters, since they don't drain Xp and are completely expendable.

    I acknowledge that with less random encounters means less chance to see Aereon, so i could meet you half way and have a random chance to put him on the Spider or Lizard maps, but you won't be able to count on him to be there, which kind of negates half of what you say. But in future he will turn up as part of the wider Druid presence at the Shrine if you don't encounter him by a certain point, or if you don't take him as an NPC follower when you do meet him.
     
    Shiningted, Jul 29, 2014
    #15
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