20 replies to this topic

[Salk]

Hello, jastey!

I have played and been through some of the encounters introduced by your Mod and I am here to give some feedback.

First and most important: I would remove most of the instances where the party is given a reputation bonus because I realized my reputation was heroic too soon. I'd go through your encounters and see where a reputation reward seems really indispensable.

Also, I noticed that sometimes the text expresses money values in numbers and sometimes in words. The general idea is to always express money using numbers and not words.

Overall speaking, the encounters have been rather good and they were smartly placed in the towns.

My only remark is that perhaps a even better idea was to use the NPCs that are already there and that are kept at most shallow levels (example: Mr. Coquette in Beregost - Beregost is a town with great potential for NPCs developing) instead of creating new ones.

Said that, I congratulate you for your nice Mod and I thank you for letting us play it.

[jastey]

Thank you for your feed back! There had been the request of removing some rep points before, so if you list which ones you think are removable I'd be interested to see.

About money sums: I trust my (native) proof readers, so if you have a special text in mind just post it here and we will see.

As for using existing non-joinable NPCs: It sounds like a good idea if you hear it, but there are good reasons not to: compatibility and freedom of point of installing, mainly. In BG1, most comoners, also those who have names, don't have death variables, so it's kind of hard to do anything with them. If I start giving them death variables, the player would need to start a new game, and compatibility with other mod is less.

[Mahokenshi]

Can I weigh on on this, late as I am?

As to the reputation rewards for the various quests. I'm not sure if they are such a big deal. If this were BG2, where people seem much harder to please and reputation rewards are harder to come by, it might be too much. But in the basic BG1 game, there are tons of reputation rewards for little things, like

- saving a dead cat from a waterfall
- saving one, entire tree
- kicking down a gnome woman's front door, and agreeing to bring her son a necklace
- kicking down a gome man's front door, and bringing him his deceased friend's dagger
- bringing one lazy old guy a book for sale (for 2 gold) across the street
etc

Maybe the reputation reward for the quest in candlekeep is a bit much, seeing as how a lawful good character can then hit popular before they even leave their home, which does seem weird. But the others I thought fit well enough.

Edited by Mahokenshi, 25 December 2008 - 04:46 AM.

[jastey]

Thank you, Mahokenshi, this is exactly what I thought when designing the quest rewards. But there had been the request of removing some of the reputation point rewards from more than one player, so I guess I will take out some of them, even if they fit into the scheme nicely imho.

[Leomar]

Quote

There had been the request of removing some rep points before, so if you list which ones you think are removable I'd be interested to see.

Yes, one request came from me.

Jastey, I can't find my PM which I've send to you. There was listed which reputation points you could remove. Could it be, that you have stored the PM? If yes, please reply on it, so I can post the content here in this topic (the PM was in German and I'll translate it then).

If not, hmmm I remember to remove the reputation point from Candlekeep (it is to early to get one in the prologue) and from the mother with the childrens (not really needed, your reward is this nice funny mini-quest).

Greetings Leomar

[jastey]

I'll have a look, Leomar. I don't think I deleted it, but I can't say right now where it is, either. So much to my credibility!
Feel free to post suggestions.

[Leomar]

I think this two changes would be ok:

1.) Remove the reputation point from Candlekeep (it is to early to get one in the prologue)
2.) From the mother with the childrens in Nashkell (not really needed, your reward is this nice funny mini-quest).

Greetings Leomar

[Dakk]

Leomar, on Mar 2 2009, 09:25 AM, said:

2.) From the mother with the childrens in Nashkell (not really needed, your reward is this nice funny mini-quest).

I'd actually vote for keeping that rep point and removing the one for slime quest.

Reasons:

• The children quest is extremely annoying (but funny)
  
• The mother, IIRC, explicitly states she's going to travel and will spread the good word about you
  
• The slime guy is obviously very embarrassed and is not going to tell anyone he turned into slime for wanting to impress his girl (I think this have been stated before in a thread here somewhere)
  
• The slime couple seems to be content with mostly staying indoors for the foreseeable future enjoying each others company
  
• And lastly, I like getting a rep point for being a nice guy and helping out with something as mundane as guarding a poor woman's children, as opposed to doing a fetch quest or something heroic.

Edited by Dakk, 02 March 2009 - 02:26 AM.

[Daulmakan]

I like it just fine the way it is. No need to change anything IMO.

[jastey]

Thank you for your feed back, Dakk. And thank you for your suggestions Leomar and Daulmakan.
That is exactly the problem: Some like it, some don't. I put the rep points in when I thought it is consistent with the original game (there you get a rep increase for returning a dead cat, for example). But it is the problem with mods: They have added content, so all added item, XP and rep points sum up to be too much.
That is why I will take some of the rep points out of BGQE (sincerely hoping that it won't lead to complaints afterwards).

I do agree that the slime quest might be a good one to take out, as Dakk suggested.
But for the babysitting quest: Say the mother that she shouldn't talk about it, and there won't be a rep increase, so actually I would like to keep teh one the PC gets there.

The rep point if the PC gives the necklace to Annie might be taken out (she is only a girl, so her word might not spread around, if she ever talks about it).

But I will miss the warm fuzzy feeling that comes along with rep increases. Ah, it's difficult.

[Dakk]

jastey, on Mar 2 2009, 07:19 PM, said:

Thank you for your feed back, Dakk.

You're most welcome, I enjoy your work.

jastey, on Mar 2 2009, 07:19 PM, said:

But it is the problem with mods: They have added content, so all added item, XP and rep points sum up to be too much. That is why I will take some of the rep points out of BGQE (sincerely hoping that it won't lead to complaints afterwards).

I think you pretty much sums it up with that! Any given mod taken alone is probably more or less balanced concerning reputation, but bundle up few mods and you're a goody-two-shoes rep 20 in no time. So I applaud your decision

jastey, on Mar 2 2009, 07:19 PM, said:

I do agree that the slime quest might be a good one to take out, as Dakk suggested.
But for the babysitting quest: Say the mother that she shouldn't talk about it, and there won't be a rep increase, so actually I would like to keep the one the PC gets there.

I think the one for babysitting should be kept, that's what I tried to argue above but maybe it looked like I wanted both rep points out... And as you say, you've very nicely left the option of NOT getting +rep (for evil players) so that one should really stay.

jastey, on Mar 2 2009, 07:19 PM, said:

The rep point if the PC gives the necklace to Annie might be taken out (she is only a girl, so her word might not spread around, if she ever talks about it).
But I will miss the warm fuzzy feeling that comes along with rep increases. Ah, it's difficult.

Here I'm torn also. I can feel the rep is a bit too much, seeing as it's "only a girl" and I can't really see her word of mouth getting around. Possibly the parents will tell, or not, seeing as they're very proud and most likely not of a mind to talk about their money problems... But I agree, rep gives a fuzzy feeling!
With that said I'm inclined to depreciate the rep point for the necklace quest, but.. I don't know.. have Annie look up the PC next time he visits Beregost and to give him/her a [insert cheap item, like healing potion or candy] and a hug? That'd make me fuzzy!

So, to sum up:

• Slime quest, no rep
  
• Children quest, rep
  
• Necklace quest, ambivalent leaning towards no rep

Edited by Dakk, 03 March 2009 - 03:42 AM.

[jastey]

Dakk, on Mar 3 2009, 12:41 PM, said:

I think the one for babysitting should be kept, that's what I tried to argue above but maybe it looked like I wanted both rep points out...

No, I understood you right there, I was replying to Leomar.
Thank you for your thoughts, don't hesitate to post more. I am not sure when I will come to updating and expanding this mod contentwise, but once I will work on it again the rep point rewards will be reworked.

[Leomar]

Quote

So, to sum up:

- Slime quest, no rep
- Children quest, rep
- Necklace quest, ambivalent leaning towards no rep

Good explanations for that. It looks fine for me.

Greetings Leomar