You have to be careful with spreading out enemies though ... if you do that too much, some of them won't get involved in combat until you get closer to them. I wanted to have it so each 'unit' engaged you in its entirety when you encountered them. Not sure what you mean about hiding the ripple effect. Skels coming out of the ground is just their version of being concealed.
i think it would be cool if you had some of the goblins leap out from concealment, so even if you scout ahead, you still get a little surprised by numbers. i liked the way that happened in the Welkwood Bog encounter! I totally understand what Gaear is saying here though. that was what my previous post was kind of referring to, having slightly larger concentrations of the "horde" forces arrayed against you. I get that people are satisfied with the current threat and challenge level, though... that's cool.
While wandering the world map looking for randoms, I headed back to a completed HB, and was immediately attacked by the ghost. Couldn't target him, but my bear companion could and killed him in 2 rounds. He is there every time I come back. Also the "resting random encounter" wolf I dominated at the moathouse was waiting for me when I returned and immediately attacked me when I can on screen. I knew it was him because after I dominated him and completed the original fight with his group, his team member portrait had the level up +, so I gave him a level in barbarian to give him some HPs, not to many 34hp wolves out there, and one less now.
So, I was wondering - what exactly triggers the different HB final battle? This playthrough I left to nulb right after reaching the cave, but w/o entering, rested for 3-4 days, but when I came back the encounter was the same as when I stayed in HB. What did I do wrong?
Had you spoken to all the lieutenants initially? They way it's supposed to go: You talk to them: they run off You go straight to cave: they are not there You come out of cave: they are there You talk to them: they run off You leave HB and come back to cave: they are there You come out of cave: they are not there If you don't talk to them at all, they will probably just remain where they were initially and will be neither inside the cave nor outside it. The one exception is Krunch - he always goes into the cave. This obviously means there could be a wide variety of outcomes, depending on who you talk to and whether you leave or not.
The way I got the cthulhu wall is this... I cleared the whole map except for the cave. I was loaded down and low on spells and whatnot so I decided to head back to town. I sold stuff, rested and regained all my spells and everything. I went back to HB and the cthulhu wall was blocking the cave entrance. After swearing, cursing god and Co8, I figured out to initiate combat with the wall and totally spanked it badly. It didn't even hit me once. It took me a few rounds to kill it. I went into the cave and everybody and their mother was there. I killed Humongous first because you can't let him run wild. After he was dead, the rest was cleanup. Just like in town, I think you have to make the map change in order for map changes to come into effect, like the wall or certain characters in Omlette going in and out of the house.
To get the wall you have to leave HB before entering the cave and land on a worldmap location. (Any of them will do.) If you leave HB and get into a RE, then go straight back to HB, you won't get the wall because you won't have landed on a worldmap location. Also, I think you have to talk to someone other than Noblig (and possibly Dokolb), because you have to get a ways into HB before they start preparing their worst case scenario defenses. So if you talked to Noblig, then left HB, then came back and snuck around the bottom to the cave, the wall would not be there.
quick question. is there another way to get this quest? i talked to brother smythe and he sends me to talk to the Hommlett village elder (which I killed as part of the assassin's quest from the 2 vendors near the north church). well thats basically it. pd: awesome mod btw, gratz on everything, my TOEE experience is now quite enjoyable instead of being annoying and frustrating (vanilla days uugh).
If you're familiar with using the console, you can just input Code: game.areas[9] = 1 That will put HB on your worldmap.
Just a heads-up - looking for feedback on the new spellcasting AI of the orc witch and orc shaman in the Hickory Branch cave. They were both pretty borked before, especially the shaman, who is a level 6 cleric buty who would only cast 2 or 3 spells before going to melee. Maybe next we can look at the ogre shaman AI outside. I believe the complaint was that he wasted his time casting cure light wounds? Also, does Noblig stay gone now?
just finished up HB and the shaman and witch cast spells and didn't go to melee at all except for the shaman when i closed to melee him. I give him credit too he pulled his weapon out and hit me with a 30 point crit, didn't expect that from a caster. Also i got the wall and all of the commanders in the cave even though i did not leave HB at all. I did rest out in the open twice i think to regain spells but never left the map.