Top 15 annoyances in ToEE

First off, this thread was opened to post what people find annoying (included hard-coded issues) and you're basically saying that people shouldn't post hard-coded issues because these weren't incorporated with the original game.

Secondly, why do you care what other people find annoying?

 

It's hard to read the tone of a forum post, so a reader could read a post in many ways. For example, your post could be read as an inquiry or as a retort. I took as an inquiry, and clearly Gaear seems to have interpreted it differently. Anyhow, all that to say- wait I remember more than one post about level >5 spells (hence why I started with "people").

I must have been confused with something else. Anywhow, my intent was to have people watch how their posts could be written, since we are on the forums of the makers of the level >5 spells after all. Sorry if you took my post wrongly and about this block of text.


On the topic, I want to add the inconsistency of Combat Expertise. Just earlier, my Paladin's had an AC 39 with Expertise 5, AC 30 with Expertise off, AC 34 with Expertise 2. No charging, no spell wearing off.

 

Recently dusted off (literally) my copy of ToEE, and forgot how much I LOVE it. Like many others, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Circle of Eight team for all their hard work making a great base game even better. You guys truly are awesome, much gratitude.

On to my annoyances, in no particular order:

1. Counter and Dispel effects on diametrically opposed spells not functioning (Desecrate/Consecrate probably being the most notable example.)
2. General movement. From pathfinding to back-and-forthing to members left behind, moving your team over any but the shortest distances reliably is effectively impossible. The series of short hops from place to place gets really old, really fast.
3. Inventory management. Pretty much everyone else has covered the issues, but I concurr.
4. Arcing arrows (and certain spell effects.) Makes sense in the wider, outdoors areas, but in the tight confines of most dungeons, my arches and casters are shooting at the ceiling. Most annoying, it doesn't affect their accuracy at all. Just fire straight, or with more shallow arcs.
5. Radial Menu. Nice most of the time, but some deeper branches (like Cleric Spells and Doman Spells) make selecting the correct option a bit more challenging than it needs to be.
6. Animal Companions. Pointless.
7. View Manipulation. The inability to zoom in and out of your game view or rotate the map makes being aware of your surroundings very difficult, especially in the tight confines of most dungeons.
8. Useless Useful Spells. First, I appreciate that the game's tactical focus makes me reconsider many of what I used to consider "skip-over" spells. Having an aggressive playstyle and having most of my early RPG video game experience formed by Final Fantasy, where casting anything that isn't a direct-damage, damage-over-time, or heal is a waste of time, I tend to "skip over" spells like Web, Sleep, and Glitterdust, only to find them to be gamechangers in ToEE. However, many other spells and abilities that are considered must-haves in "classic" D&D games are largely useless, like Detect Anything.
9. Enemy Spawning. Really annoying when you have several enemies in a combat who are "undetected" because they haven't "spawned" yet, such as the undead coming out of the ground in Emridy Meadows. Kill one, combat ends, the next one spawns, whole new combat starts. . . which means my team is all flat-footed again and my cleric is probably, yet again, dead-last in Intiative.
10. Non-Random Random Number Generator. The Blind Troll hits my AC twenty-something Monk twice out of three attacks, and out of her three attacks, my Rogue's two attacks, and my Paladin and Cleric's one attack each, only two hit. Riiiiiiiiiiiight.
11. Unclear in-combat movement. That setpiece is actually an obstacle it'll take me two turns to move around? Getting to this position provokes four attacks of opportunity? What do you mean I can't charge because it's not a straight line?!? Six inches is the difference between having and losing my standard action?!?!
12. Poor in-game map designators. While it my provide a more authentic old-school D&D experience, don't you think it's easier to just bloody tell us whose house is who's?
13. Poor Voice Acting. May Beory protect you if you don't shut up, Melany.
14. Dumbest Smart AI Ever. Knowing who to most effectively clobber into oblivion, even though my Paladin with a Holy Axiomatic Bastard Sword is about to stick it where the sun don't shine.
15. AoE Boarders. Posted before, but re-iterating. The effects of some spells, notably Entangle, proceeding five to ten feet beyond both the "cast here" shadow and the visible border of the spell. Can actually be useful, but can also be a royal pain in the tuchas.

 

1. You can intimidate/negotiate/bluff only a very limited amount of NPCs. So your "party face" is a great intimidator? Too bad, you can't intimidate that many people! I'd like a few more chances to use social skills. I'm not talking about anything drastic or convoluted. Some NPCs should give you money, hints or help through a successful use of social skills, that's all.
2. You should be able to give simple commands to your minions, summoned monsters and commanded undead. I'm talking about no-brainer commands that require nothing more than handsigns, if necessary. E.g. "Come", "Heel" Wait" "Attack THIS opponent". Even Nethack and Dungeon Crawl have some of these.
3. Dialogue options that cause a paladin to fall should have a warning sign. Red color would be the best.
4. Monster spawning. Monsters should approach you. They should be required to open doors (if capable) and actually go through the trouble to get you. They should NOT spawn right among your characters!
5. You should be able to just click a building on the local map and get to it instantly. No running around required.
6. Attacking from prone should be allowed (don't add graphics for it if it's too hard!) and have the option to stay prone if you wish.
7.

8. Listen checks. Enemies should be allowed to hear you and approach you (if appropriate) when they do (instead of you just approaching while they stand still). There should also be some sort of graphics for points where sounds are eminating from.
9. Where is grappling? I want to grapple!

I will edit this post later on and add items 10 to 15.

 

You deserve the Nobel Danger Prize..... wth happened to Bigby, thats like 4 spells right of the bat. And dragging and dropping that much can be more than a little tedious

 

I barely played the game but here are my annoyances with it:

1) The pathfinding is ludicrous. When I click on some parts of the map, the "go there" action won't apply to all characters despite having chosen all of them! Can hardly think of anything worse

2) There are still random CtDs when using the latest Co8 modpack

3) The low quality of the music and - mostly - the very low quality of the voice overs

4) The inability of learning the items properties before they are in your inventory

5) All the bugs left in the game