Circle of Eight Modpack 5.9.x/5.9.xNC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

As a follow-up to my #6, I reloaded my game to a point before I got to the moathouse and went there several more times and battled the frogs. The second time, I didn't see any dialog with the northern most frog. On my third trip, it yelled 'Please the pain, show mercy'. On my fourth trip, it said, 'By the gods, show me mercy'.

On my fourth trip, I thought to click on the button which lets me see my recent conversations. It said that the 'By the gods' line came from Tutorial Room1.

I did two more reloads. No conversations happened on my fifth trip but on my sixth, it said 'Oh no' and a check of my recent conversations again showed that it came from Tutorial Room1.

 

Kudos to the team for Verbobonc. It really exceeded any expectations I might have had. I was floored by how LARGE it is. I mean really large.

You weren't kidding about leveling up in Verbo. Going through clearing out the tunnels, I leveled pretty much every fight.

I really like the whole cop/criminal thing, in case you want to be evil.

 

I am noticing two things. One, the game is crashing more. I am not sure why, I will start making a diary of when it happens. Right now it is on all maps.

Otherwise, the game seems to be running faster. Saving the game seems to go quicker.

 

Also noticed that the icon for the giant crayfish in the moathouse, and in a random world encounter with them, is now a yellow/orange color instead of the blue color.

 

After I killed the dragon, I left the way I came in, through the doorway. When it was changing maps to the next room, my party was caught in the wall, all piled up on top of each other and unable to move. I could see the next room and it's doorway but couldn't move to it. I had to teleport out.

When you accept the cases of the 3 criminals, they give each party member a green cloak and a verbo shield per criminal. Each party member ends up with 3 green cloaks and 3 verbo shields.

After you kill Dalia and Lerrick, you cannot complete the quest in the questlog because as soon as you tell Willie, he starts in on the slavers.

I really loved the new cut scene describing the mercenary deviate criminal slavers. Awesome.

By the way, the super leveling that happens in the tunnels begins in the room with the first set of phase spiders and stops in the room with the 5 ice-drakes or whatever they are. Ice-wyverns or something.

Also, the extraplanar chest is still exploitable. Take it out by the blacksmith and leave it there, then go sell the chest from inventory. The chest remains useable where you set it by the blacksmith, after you sell it.

 

I have gotten further along and have a few more things to add:

7) I encountered another generic spawner. It occurs when you go into the main area of the bugbears in the basement of the moathouse. This is the area where there are 6 bugbears and you reach the cul-de-sac. I meant to write down the name that it says it comes from in the conversation history but forgot (up too late).

8) Would it be possible to lighten Brother Smyth's inventory when he starts selling masterwork items? I find that he fills up pretty quickly. I know that you can still sell items to him even after he says that he is initially full by placing items in individuals slots in his buy/sell inventory but he reaches that point fairly quickly. He also sells a lot of items like bows, arrows, and quarrels that can be attained elsewhere. Just a suggestion.


Overall, I have finished the moathouse and will be heading off to Nulb and beyond tomorrow. So far, other than those generic spawners (which I consider minor issues) I have encountered no errors and no crashes. I have had the music on and have movies enabled just to see if they would contribute to anything. I realize that others are experiencing errors but I can't say the same - and no jerkstops.

 

I don't recall where Gaear was asking it but he wanted to know if the slaver fight was tough enough. I'd personally say no. They're really kind of pushovers without the normal feats. I'd give them all the correct feats and let them have a decent chance against the party. They are equipped nicely and would give someone a tough fight if they had the same advantages as the party.

[snip] That helps some, but with the hyper-leveling in the tunnels, I'm not sure you COULD make the fight tough enough. Maybe add a 5,000 hit point iron golem that is immune to all magic, has a DR of 20/holy, 5 attacks per round at +40 for 4-24+15 and a shoulder cannon that fires 20d6 fireballs for the ranged enemies. :yes:

Also, the backround information and plot on the slavers are great.

Necro - please don't spoil. - Gaear

 

I believe I received them when accepting the the quests for Gladstone, Commonworth and Quinten from Officer Achan.

Also, I said you couldn't complete the Catching The 'cousin' quest with Wilfrick because he jumps right into the slaver dialog. This is still true if you approach him at the castle BUT I was able to complete it by visiting him at his personal house later.

I just mean the feats that you would take as a player character for maximum effect. Like a fighter would have weapon focus, weapon specialization, power attack, cleave, great cleave, combat reflexes, greater weapon focus, improved critical, etc. and not feats that they couldn't use like skill focus:appraisal or other things like that. I thought I remembered you stating that they don't have the feats, or maybe I read it wrong.

My group was 4 party members, all level 18 after the insane leveling tunnels. I leveled 5 times in 5 fights. I didn't hit Verbobonc until level 13. A fighter, rogue, cleric and wizard. My wizard casted the spell Weird twice and it was over. They lasted 2 rounds. I believe the PC wizard's spells really overpower the party unless NPC's have those same spells also, like the magnificent Weird, or perhaps Prismatic Spray, Disintegrate, Horrid Wilting. Those high level wizard spells are made for killing armies.

I've played pretty much non-stop since it came out at about 7 PM on the 29th and finished it up this morning at about 5 or 6ish. I did sleep BTW. :yes:

The Verbobonc quests are...

Hero's Prize - Completed
Robbery at the hostel - Incomplete, didn't do it, I don't roll like that
Under attack from underground - Completed
Frozen assets - Completed
Family turmoil - Failed, :blush:
Catching the 'cousin' - Completed
Wanted: Gunter Gladstone - Completed
Wanted: Quintus Corpus - Completed
Wanted: Kendrew Commonworth - Completed
The slave traders - Completed

 

Uhmm..... how do we get to Verbobonc now?

I thought when I rescued the two girls in the temple that it would open up a path, or allow me to escort them.

I bet it's staring me in the face.

On another completely different note ...

In Nulb right after I finish with buying the house from toothache boy, (as soon as the dialog window closes) he starts a new conversation and warns me about mean folks looking for me. When this conversation ends I crash to desktop.

I saved just before talking to him and have repeated it many times each time with a ctd.

Then to top things off, I started getting a securom message when starting the game.

I activated the vanilla game started it ok, then reactivated 5.9NC, rebooted the pc, (for good measure) and now it runs normal and just kicked those guys butts in my Nulb house.

Just wanted to post what worked for me.

btw ... how DO I get to Verbobonc now, yes I asked twice. heh heh

 

Is there any way they could start out pre-buffed and ready to rock and roll? I think this would change the dynamics of the fight completely and make players have to sweat a bit.

Ya, they did. My wizard had greater spell focus - illusion, specifically for that one spell.

He never got the chance. My weird spell killed 5 guys the first round and the last 2 the next round, before they could even act.

 

I found a minor bug:

9) Falrinth (the wizard on the 3rd level of the temple who is studying the Orb) carries a potion. I picked off of him. It is labeled as a 'magic potion'. When you reveal what it is, it says that it is a 'scroll of invulnerability, lesser'. It has a potion icon for it, both before and after you reveal it.