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Sacred 2 Enhanced Edition


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OK, I couldn't stand it any more; deleted my old characters (again), and installed EE 2.1. Maybe one day I'll get a toon up to gold.. :P That being said, everything looks good so far. Gotta love the original ragdoll physics. Knocking enemies off bridges or high cliffs never gets old.. :)

 

 

 

 

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Changes in v2.1 - Enhanced Spells

The first set of changes in the 2.1 update I'l talk about are ones specific to the Enhanced Spells module.

  • Seraphim's Sublime Guardian no longer uses Instill Belief without taking a modification first.  Gold mods are changed to: Instill Belief (Guardian converts enemies) or Guardian's Wrath (Guardian uses Archangel's Wrath).
    • After a lot of complaints about the Guardian using Instill Belief, I opted to make it a modification instead.  You can choose between that spell or Archangel's Wrath.  These will be used in addition to Assailing Somersault and normal melee attacks.
  • Dragon Mage's Draconic Ally now has a smaller collision box so it should not obstruct the player in narrow corridors and other tight spaces.
    • There were more than a few complaints about the new larger dragon summon getting the way.  It's now much easier to walk through it.
  • All Divine Gift cooldowns increased from 450s to 750s.  In return, Divine Gift durations now slowly increase as they level up.
    • In the initial release I decreased cooldowns from 900s to 300s, and I've been steadily increasing them ever since.  At 750s, they're pretty high, but you also get a new duration scaling effect.  Both are incentives to invest in the Divine Devotion skill.
  • All characters get new aspect backgrounds in the combat arts window.
    • I featured these in an earlier post, and the pics on the file page and elsewhere have been updated to show them.
  • Repackaged "Classic Icons" as an optional module that can be installed on top of Enhanced Spells. Aspect backgrounds and vanilla CA icons will be restored to default. New CAs will have icons in the classic style.
    • The classic icons package has returned and easier to install now.  Just use the mod enabler.  It also includes the vanilla aspect backgrounds since those are now changed.
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Changes in 2.1 - General and Spells

The following changes all affect both versions of the mod, Original and Enhanced Spells.

  • Gold and XP quest rewards are now reduced to be closer to vanilla values.  Rewards are still 1.5-2x higher in Challenge Mode.
    • Had some feedback indicating that I had gone way overboard with boosting XP and gold rewards.  Now gold amount is almost vanilla, while quest XP is still higher but not sky-high.
  • Enemies now respawn more slowly (roughly 2x longer delay before respawn).
    • This is pure personal preference.  I like the feeling of clearing an area.
  • Corrected numerous typos and adjusted several modifier names/descriptions/flavor text for clarity and consistency.
    • This has always been part of the mod, but this time I ran a spell-check on the entire game texts and busted hundreds of typos.
  • Dragon Mage can now use the Protector buff while shapeshifted without crashing the game.
    • This was a bug introduced in CM 1.60 by allowing buff-casting while shapeshifted. It is now corrected.
  • Dragon Mage dual wielding special move animations are now more appropriately matched to his combat arts.
    • When I ported the SW's dual wield animations to the DM, I didn't really check to see if they matched the CA's they were assigned to.  This resulted in some ridiculous stuff like long buff casting animations for attack spells, quick gestures for casting buffs, and the DM doing the Frenzied Rampage animations to cast Tornado.  This is all now corrected.
  • Temple Guardian's Battle Extension SFX now better matches the new animation speed introduced in CM 1.60.
    • CM 1.60 quickened Battle Extension animations dramatically, meaning the SFX continued on with loud clonking sounds long after the attack was finished.
  • A few enemy CAs (freezing hard hit, freezing aura) can no longer permanently slow and debuff the player until reload.
    • As far as I can tell only a couple enemies in the Crystal Plane could cause this bug, which is probably why it was never noticed.  It's now fixed.
  • Divine Gift durations now slowly increase as they level up.
    • I left the cooldowns alone in the Original Spells version of the mod, but I thought the scaling duration that I mentioned in the previous post would be a good fit for both versions of the mod.
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Changes in 2.1 - Items

  • Warding Energy related modifiers will no longer spawn on the equipment of characters who cannot obtain the "Warding Energy" skill.
  • Item modifier "Combat Trance +X" should no longer spawn on non-Dragon Mage equipment.
  • All characters may now find bonuses to Enhanced Perception and Bargaining on their items.
  • Due to "Chance for Double Hit" modifier not being checked for ranged attacks, it has been replaced with "Opponent Health for Deathblow" on legendaries: Essence of Dark Matters and Aarnum's Pathfinder.
  • Due to the Pacifism skill being removed, bonuses to Pacifism have been removed from all items. Replaced with "Survival Bonus" on uniques.
  • Modifiers unlocked by the Magic Staves skill now function correctly.
  • "Chance for Secondary Effect" modifiers unlocked by Ranged Weapons skill now function correctly.
  •  New high-level Blacksmith Art bonuses are changed as follows: Whet - Opponent's Chance to Evade | Anneal - Chance to Evade | Enhance - Hitpoint Regeneration
    • My implementation of these new bonuses in the last version were by all accounts a flop.  The new modifiers should be better balanced now.   They don't require Blacksmith mastery.  They will simply appear when the Blacksmith skill is over level 75.
  •  Ellen's Commitment and Benny's Promise (Epic Office Quest rewards) now drop at the end of the quest with the rest of the loot.
    • These changes were made and somehow didn't make it into the CM Patch.  If you have CM Patch 1.60, then you need either Enhanced Edition or Dimitrius's Addendum to get these two rewards.
  •  Ogre Warrior shield is no longer swapped with the smaller, player version.
    • It boggles my mind how I messed this up.  I made this change in CM 1.60, documented the two versions, and yet somehow still managed to swap them in EE. It's now fixed.
    • tFCbNdet.jpg   TTY34bMt.jpg

Most of these changes come courtesy of bug reports in Dimitrius's CM Patch Addendum, and were ported over from that mod.  Aside from the Pacifism and Blacksmith changes, the changes above are legitimate fixes to the game that really ought to be in the CM Patch itself.

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8 hours ago, Flix said:

Ogre Warrior shield is no longer swapped with the smaller, player version.

Hmm, looking at the CM Patch scripts I see, that the ogre shield is not assigned by the equipset id 247, but there's no error in either blueprint.txt(id 932 is assigned the itemtype id 7739), or itemtype.txt(id 7739 is assigned the "models/weaponsnpc/ogre/n_oger-shield.GR2")

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It must just be something in my own mods then.  Both EE and D2F needed this change.

The error is in blueprint.txt.  The itemtypes are swapped between the ogre NPC shield and the player roundshield blueprint.  Ogre should have 7739, "Shield_round_normal" should have the other, newer itemtype (13917,).  This happened because at one point they were both just using one shield (original ogre shield is actually quite tiny).  After they were split into two different models I must have mixed up the itemtypes in blueprint.txt.

Best way to check is to go to Entruag.  There's an Ogre standing right by the portal.  If his shield is tiny and backwards it's wrong.

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1 hour ago, dimitrius154 said:

Just checked - looks like the one on the ogre screenshot from your previous post. 

Thanks that's a relief.  I must have swapped them when updated my mods for 1.60.  Edited the post to indicate it's a mod fix and not a patch fix.

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Changes in 2.1 - NPC and Creatures

  • Elite skeletons in the Undead Legion all have reduced weapon damage and chance to hit.
    • Feedback indicated that these early encounters were too punishing in Act I.  They should no longer one-shot you if you're properly equipped and leveled.
  • Minor fix for textures of NPC robes and capes that appeared to be transparent from one side.
    • Mostly capes of human officers and robes of High Elf priests and Human Cult Shamans.
  • The player can now kill Grand Inquisitor Nimonuil at the end of the main quest line.
    • After his final speech, he reverts to a killable enemy again instead of being killed by a script.  This means he now shows up in the "Last Opponent Window".
  • Various NPCs have had their equipment corrected.
    • For the most part, these are little miscellaneous items that NPC's use.  Runemasters use magic wands and handle runes and spell scrolls, barkeeps wipe down the counter with rags, Orc clan leaders have banners.  There are also restored shields for Goblin Leaders and Kobold Wolf Riders.
    • yqIck2St.jpg   F4ZNIywt.jpg   KsJKlETt.jpg   LDzGC9Wt.jpg   M89dXV2t.jpg   urwIAnxt.jpg   bvivfCjt.jpg   BHU3rnqt.jpg   rtD7B96t.jpg
  • Several boss AI discrepancies and faulty CAs have been corrected. Occurrences of bosses stopping in their tracks or wandering aimlessly during combat should no longer happen.
    • The impact of this is huge.  I'd always thought it bewildering how bad the campaign boss AI was.  Half the time they never even did anything.  Now bosses are scary.  I mean it, even the Gar'Colossus is terrifying with the speed boost he's always had in the mod.  They actually use all the CA's in their repertoire, and they don't give you that downtime anymore while they are "thinking" about what to do next.  Big thanks for Dmitriy for doing the legwork with rescripting the AI.
  • Damage between NPC's is reduced by 85%. Escort quests should no longer be a potion-spamming frustration.
    • Many, many complaints about escort quests being impossible in this mod led to the implementation of this change.  Bear in mind this is a two-way street.  Your hired help won't inflict much damage anymore either.  Minions summoned through your combat arts are NOT affected by this change.

That concludes the list of changes that I've rolled in v2.1 of Sacred 2 Enhanced Edition.

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I don't know if this is peculiar to the EE 2.1 (never tried the earlier ones), but the High Elf's summoned familiars will not follow her underground. Once in a cave, crypt etc I have to un-summon them, then re-summon them to get them to reappear. And then again once I leave the underground area. Will have to make some other characters to see if the same thing happens with them..

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hey guys. So I finally got some spare time on my hands and as such I decided to download this mod. Thing is after activating Original Spells/Challenge Mode/Superspawn once I start the game I get the game back to Windows and sacred2.exe moved to quaratine due to IDP.ALEXA.51, as so Avast likes to say. I move it back to where it belongs, but then if I want to start the game again Steam will auto-update it and I then need to reinstall CM Patch 1.60 because otherwise it'll start with the vanilla 2.65 version.

So what gives? Is the download infected/corrupted, is my AV software tripping, what?!

PS: Yeah, I can't even get the game to start with just Original Spells active via JSGME. The file sacred2.exe goes to quarantine each and every time I try to run the game.

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I ran a full system scan with both Avast and Malwarebytes, nothing out of the ordinary to be found, so I just added the whole Steam directory as an exception and it loads without an issue. Still, it's bloody weird! Even more so because I checked the Mods' folders and none of them has a different sacred2.exe file, they just change s2gs.exe and s2logic.dll. So yeah, it's super weird!

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OK so now that I'm able to play it I can say, holy smokes Challenge Mode is punishing as hell on early game! I mean, I died to Kobolds. In Bronze. Kobolds! :twitch:

Sure, I was asking for it running around with a fragile High Elf getting criticals from Kobold elites but still, wow. I guess that Flix made this optional module with heavy questing in mind instead of just jumping the gun on power grinding the Kobold Chieftan. But then again I can feel my blood rushing because I can't just smash everything without consequences, which is cool. But then again I died to freakin Kobolds in Bronze, and who dies in Bronze to begin with?! :D

Any advice on early game big chief? Keep it safe, quest a lot, stay away from bad companies until you're geared up and skilled up? I dread the thought of Niobium with this mode... It's kill (quickly) or be killed I guess.

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So I've been going at EE with Original Spells, Challenge Mode and Superspawn together for a few days. While I enjoy the added challenge, the added blood rush that I feel from the always present danger and the possibility of impending death, I can't seem but feel like something is off with the balancing. Yes it has been explained that Challenge Mode is a though one in terms of added difficulty and that softer toons will be mowed down, and yes Superspawn will only make things worse since more enemies will spawn with added capabilities. So in short I should be getting my toon's tush handed out to me in a Bronze or Silver platter any way you look at it.

So here's what I don't get. Gahanka can't kill me in seconds but a single non-elite Kobold can? That boss causes little more damage than a non-elite Kobold from the last opponent's window, but it's the little one that kills me? I mean, Gahanka being a boss (even though an easy one) should be a bit harder than a regular Kobold no?! And yet if I stop for a second I get two criticals from a tiny Kobold and bye bye, whereas I can stand in front of Gahanka and be hit without half the hassle and without spamming my space bar constantly. I'm not even going to say how ridiculously tough the Elite mobs are because they always hit for 50% or more of my HP. Have you ever ran out of healing potions in early game when you're carrying like 30 or so? I have, I actually needed to buy more because with each critical from mobs I needed to gobble one down because the next hit would be lethal. But that doesn't happen with a boss, strangely enough.

I've tried several variations of the same build, starting out with a few defensive skills to keep myself alive and then start working around my Ice magic. I could stay alive for a while, but as soon as I thought I had the necessary survival skills a simple Kobold goes bam bam, bye bye. OK let's try it the other way around and start off with pumping Ice magic for extra killing power and then start improving the defensive capabilities. And yet again as soon as I get towards higher density bam bam, bye bye. The hilarious thing about it is that I can get redlined by a single Kobold at the doorstep of Sloeford, in seconds. Yet a boss doesn't do it. So imagine the route from Sloeford to Gahanka! It's like I'm walking in the Swamp getting aggroed from all directions! And more often than not it feels like regular mobs hit almost as badly as Elite units. And the problem with that is that no matter how you play a build and how you act towards mobs they'll still mow you down in the same inconspicuous way, like you loose one second of attention and bam bam, bye bye.

I get it, it's supposed to be hard. But isn't it also supposed to be playable from level 1? Because Challenge Mode feels more and more like a creepfest made for full-blown toons with mastered skills and top gear. It really doesn't feel like a "challenge" for starting at level 1 and going from there, it feels more like you're constantly pulling mobs and trying to pick them apart piece by piece because they're always incredibly strong. And that's because they are, always incredibly strong, no matter how your skills are and at what level of difficulty you are and what gear you're carrying and what level your toon is. I mean come on, this isn't feasible when you need to be constantly pulling mobs and getting to choke points just to stay alive... If Kobolds are this deadly everything else in the game should be pretty much as lethal as a Swamp Demon. Oh wait, Swamp Demons should be as though as Nameless Guardians. Oh wait, Nameless Guardians...

This is my oficial feedback, I want to like it but at the end of the day it's just incredibly frustrating to see no evolution in the gameplay regardless of build, skill choice, toon level and difficulty level. You're always outnumbered and outgunned no matter what you do.

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14 hours ago, Androdion said:

Because Challenge Mode feels more and more like a creepfest made for full-blown toons with mastered skills and top gear.

Bingo.  I never really intended it for any but the most ultra powerful of characters.  It was a direct response to criticisms that the mod was too easy.  I wanted to leave something out there, entirely optional, that no one could ever call easy.

BUT

The mod is not supposed to have such discrepancy between boss/elite/normal type enemies like you're describing.  If it's there in Challenge Mode then it's there in the "balanced" version too (just less noticeable) because both versions use the same creatures.txt.  I suspect the normal and elite kobolds got somewhat buffed but I never touched Gahanka.  I'll review the creature bonuses.  In the early days of the mod some bonuses were copied over whole cloth from Survival Mod and that mod accidentally doubled or even tripled the amount of creature bonuses.  I think I caught them all in the revising process but there may be some remaining.

In the meantime I'd recommend just playing it without Challenge Mode.  The base mod itself has the difficulty increased a good bit, and it should feel much better balanced.

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Thanks for replying, I know I can be a bit of a nag sometimes. Blame Christmas music everyday at work for the last 35 days (and counting!). :D

Yeah, Challenge Mode is anything but easy. But the thing that I've noticed is that you always get kicked hard regardless of your choices, and therein lies the problem. I can live with the expectancy of elites and bosses being much harder and super tough, but when regular Kobolds in Bronze can actually kill you... The one time I was actually killed by a Kobold was when I was trying one of my level 75 blank toons in Niob, so they were almost 40 levels above. But being killed in Bronze, and in Silver in the same way since I progressed a few toons there from scratch, is too much. Oh another thing I noticed is that Kobold mages also hit way too hard, as well as any DOT for that matter. A regular Kobold mage also hits nearly as hard an Elite one in terms of HP, and getting hit by toxic elementals or rats outside Thylisium makes you redline very very easily due to poison DOT. Just an added thought. ;)

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Yeah... I'm trying to muster up some sympathy but the Challenge patch is supposed to be insane like that.  Did you find the normal mod too easy?  The one instruction for Challenge mode is and always has been, "for characters who are too powerful for the standard mod".

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I played for a few hours last night, standard EE with Superspawn, and I made the same exact build with the same exact progression. Ice elf with the focus on both Ice skills and everything else down to one point, apart from Delphic Focus at 9 for GI gold mod. I went up to level 19 and I can say that both Bronze and Silver aren't that much harder than the regular game. Sure an elite can take a better dent at your HP, but after a few levels I could get ganged up by Bronze mobs without fearing for my death, whereas with Challenge Mode even that was a nightmare. By Silver, which I started around level 10, I couldn't really care if enemies would hit me or not since the time between two or three hits and Glacial Thorns/Raging Nimbus killing them wasn't really enough to be hit for more than 15-25% of my total HP. Apart from elite skellies and the occasional elite boar nothing made my blood rush. Over the course of 19 levels I was readlined maybe twice, and if you want to put health potion numbers to the equation then I can say that its quantity never went down, and I actually went over 100 early on in Silver, all from loot.

You see, I don't really have an issue with Challenge Mode being insane. The problem I see in it is that its only purpose is to do trial runs on "can I kill these fast enough?", because it rejects any kind of character progression. It just punishes you no matter what. So grab your best ultimate toon, activate Challenge Mode and see how well it goes basically equates to having enough firepower or not. Defensive skills don't count for squat, character build doesn't either since all you need is firepower, and actual gaming skill is nowhere to be found since all you'll do is mash your ultimate CAs in order to kill everything on screen before they can hit you. Because if you're hit you're dead.

So yeah, insane is quite adequate. I just thought that Challenge Mode would be more of a "challenge mode" to veteran players who know their way around the game. Because if you've played this game for long enough you'll know how to build a toon, and that is enough to stay alive in Standard EE right now. I mean, I run an Ice elf and I have 3 points in Armor Lore and 1 point in Constitution plus all attribute points in Intelligence, and mobs just don't hit that hard. With Challenge Mode on I was running that build backwards with several skill points in Armor Lore/Constitution/Toughness and still I'd be constantly readlining. What's the point of Challenge Mode then if you can't play it from level 1, other than (like I said above) test your ultimate firepower?

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I don't know, I actually really prefer challenge mode the way it is, for the simple reason that I view it as a perfect post-niob difficulty option to extend gameplay with a character that has achieved extreme high level power. This is obviously not going to work for playing from level 1 all the way up to 200, but personally I really like that it adds an insanely difficult endgame possibility.

I know you made the point that it only equates to enough firepower to kill quick enough because you can't survive hits, but that could be viewed as playing with so much skill that you are careful enough to avoid hits in endgame play. I don't know, different ways to look at I guess.

Edited by Zallk
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2 minutes ago, Zallk said:

I don't know, I actually really prefer challenge mode the way it is, for the simple reason that I view it as a perfect post-niob difficulty option to extend gameplay with a character that has achieved extreme high level power. This is obviously not going to work for playing from level 1 all the way up to 200, but personally I really like that it adds an insanely difficult endgame possibility.

That's actually an excellent point you made right there. ;)

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Thanks Andro yeah I don't know, I think I just love the game so much that I want to feel like a character can be played near infinitely or something. Your point about not being able to survive hits is very valid for progression from the very beginning though, all in what you're looking for I guess.

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Sure, I guess it's a matter of expectations. I "expected" it to be an added challenge all the way from 1-200, but given your point of view I can say that maybe it's not at all like that. I'd very much enjoy something like a "very hard mode" that would allow for the usual gameplay but with enough balancing that would make you still be able to progress and try to get ahead of the curve of the mobs' power, and I thought that Challenge Mode would be something like that. I've seen that it isn't and your point is so right on the money that maybe I should just let it go and see it for what it is.

The drawback of the slightly added difficulty on EE is that I can still just storm the main quest with a decent build, even with Supperspawn active. The difficulty curve is not that more pronounced (at least so far).

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On 12/16/2018 at 6:46 PM, Androdion said:

Sure, I guess it's a matter of expectations. I "expected" it to be an added challenge all the way from 1-200, but given your point of view I can say that maybe it's not at all like that. I'd very much enjoy something like a "very hard mode" that would allow for the usual gameplay but with enough balancing that would make you still be able to progress and try to get ahead of the curve of the mobs' power, and I thought that Challenge Mode would be something like that. I've seen that it isn't and your point is so right on the money that maybe I should just let it go and see it for what it is.

The drawback of the slightly added difficulty on EE is that I can still just storm the main quest with a decent build, even with Supperspawn active. The difficulty curve is not that more pronounced (at least so far).

I can put something together more like what you're describing. Will just require a lighter touch with the balance numbers.

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Howdy. That T-Mutated Dragon east of Bluestone Lake in Tyr Lysia was not attacking me during fight. He just follows me and stands next to me. I got only "Sacred 2 EE 2.1 - Enhanced Spells" and nothing else, no other modules or mods (well ofc also got community patch 1.60 installed).

Edit: Ah, never mind. He attacks me normally now after restart. He almost insta killed me x_x

Edited by Stemajzl
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