Question about Autobalancing.

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Yup another question i have been unable to find specifics for:

The game have a sort of Autobalance, that increases monsters statistics to proove a "match" or a "challenge" to your characters, based on your level i belive. I seem unable to dig up any information on exactly HOW it works in details. So Is there anyone that knows exactly how this autobalancing works ?

Also, anyone found a way to either disable, or tweak it so that it also balances Challenge Ratings ? this autobalancing has been anoying me to no end as of late (Im sick of killing 100 goblins with 100hp, +10 to hit, and 1D6 + 19 damage, for the whooping total of 0 XP, yet it takes longer time than whacking a dragon).

Thanks.

 

I will take this as a no, thanks for reading.

 

Yes i am aware of the "some xp for nothing" mods, and is capable of recreating it myself if needed be. But i was more interested in the autobalancing itself.

I would rather leave a goblin at 10hp and kill it fast with no XP, instead of spending 10 minutes slaying 10 goblins for 100 xp or some such.

Since the game does not reward you to beat up the "lowly" goblins, it anoys me that i have to beat them up and use lots of healing afterwards, against a fight i dont get any xp from becose its deemed "to easy" ?

 

I strongly second the idea. Between Dynamic XP and Dynamic Number Of Enemies, Dynamic Stats are neither needed as balancing force, nor making any sense. Goblins *are* supposed to be nothing more than just rough terrain for high lvl parties.

I think we should go to Pocket Plane with this, though...

 

I agree it is annoying. But if there were still that 10 HP (or less) goblins your high level characters would actually be bored to kill them. At least they have fun now. Though they gain absolutely nothing, but their survival. Heh.

 

Silverstar: if i removed Autobalancing system, and got goblins at 10HP they would take 5 seconds instead of 15 minutes to hack through. for the same rewards...

There are so many of those fights, that is not supposed to challenge you. and yet they do becose of the Autoblancing. and its not a fun challenge, becose its only meatshields that takes time and healing spells to wear down. they are not worth your better spells, they are barelly worth a fireball.

And yet they are considered so weak that they do not even give you experience for it, its so ... dumb.

Had they gotten classlevels and new scripts and whatnot it could at least have been a bit more interesting, but nope. +100 hp, +10 hit, +10 dmg, +5 to all saves or something like that. erfect consept for long boring haulfeasts, just sitting hacking ... waiting for them to fall down *sigh*

 

raptor, are you by any chance playing in HoF without realizing it?

 

nope. But i have several times had gamecrashed, meaning i had to restart (and exported characters instead of begining anew). The Palisad was much more difficult the 3rd time through.

 

It does indeed sound like HOF stats on those goblins what levels are you doing the prologue at now?

Just for the record if you start a HOF game and then go back and play a non-HOF saved game that game will now be set to HOF unless you go to the config menu and reset it to some other difficulty level.

EDIT: On the other hand if you were in HOF mode you would be getting some very nice exp from those goblins so thats not likely to be the case...

[ February 03, 2006, 19:54: Message edited by: wanderon ]

 

That game, the last time i went through the palisade i was at level 11 iirc. 6 person party.

I have never used HOF in IWD2, only tried it in IWD1 (and didn't like it).

Nope, no XP... *sigh* Perhaps i should have just put it to HOF heh, at least some XP.

 

Indeed at level 11 you would be getting rather massive exp in HOF since the "balance" (if you can call anything about HOF balanced) would be for a team that had finished the game (level 16-18).

I took one team I had that finished the game into HOF but got bored around the ice temple and never went much further. The battle in the courtyard of the fortress was sheer insanity tho and perhaps that alone made the effort worthwhile...

 

Wanderon, I've always found the courtyard battle in Guthma's fortress to be very challenging. It's very tough, but very fun. And I always try to do the entire courtyard without falling back to the warrens for a rest. Much more challenging and fun that way.

 

Thats what I did the one time I played it Crucis - had to reload once when our PfE ran out and our freshly summoned Elementals (4) turned on us and were not deterred by recasting the spell and took out half the party before we got them stopped. The next time we completed the entire thing in one swell foop with a LOT of help from Commander Pausekey...

 

One time I played that HOF battle, I entered the courtyard with the party covered with an Invis Sphere. I then sneaked around the right side of the upper level and cleared the right side upper level first. It is a useful strategy, since the baddies on the upper levels overlooking the courtyard are mostly archers who will pepper you. By attacking them first, it made the battle play much differently. You can clear the balcony and then YOU can pepper the baddies in the courtyard, rather than the reverse. Better yet, summon some monsters to "drop" down in the court yard while you pepper them with Everlast arrows.

After clearing the right balcony, then those enemies in the courtyard I could see, I'd summon more monsters and guide them into battle with my stealthed rogue.


Of course, as you say, PfE can be an important spell if you use elementals or summoned Demons. I had a similar experience with a summoned Pit Fiend (major ouch!).

Using elementals or demons is great in this battle, but it is entirely possible for the PfE to expire or to have the enemy hit you with a Dispel Magic. So it's probably better to just use upper level monster summons and animate undead spells, rather than risk elementals or demons. (But summoned Pit Fiends are oh so fun!!!)


This is one of my favorite HOF battles. It's strange. As a normal mode battle, it's ok, but just OK. But in HOF, it is outstandingly challenging and fun.

 

I've done that battle a few times in HoF. Warning: cheesy tactic ahead!

Have a full party. Put Prot.Evil on everyone, and M.I. with everyone possible. Then cast invisibility sphere. Go upstairs. Leave one guy in the courtyard to give you a good view of the action. He should have M.I., because he will get hit with Call Lightning a few times. Move everyone else to the fortress exit, in the southwest. Take the 3 weakest guys and use them to make an invisible wall in the gateway. The two remaining guys stand behind the invisible wall and cast Gate five or six times. A few of the closest monsters will see your casters and rush them, but be unable to get through your invisible guys. Meanwhile most of the courtyard will get tangled up with the Gate demons in a huge fight. Feel free to help the fight along with Skull Traps, M.Sword, DBF, and other spells.

When the courtyard fight starts to wind down, you can haste a guy and use him to lure monsters from the upper level down to the courtyard. Or you can make an army of shadow guys and send them upstairs with an invisible guy.

 

Sounds like a solid strategy, JT, except that IIRC enemy spellcasters in this battle may cast Dispel Magic from time to time, which will dispel your PfE. Or the battle may last long enough to cause your PfE to expire. Either way, you end up vulnerable to your own demon or elemental summons. This is why I've often been very careful about using such summons in these situations, even though Pit Fiends are sooooo fun.

This courtyard battle is so fun because there is no one set way to fight the battle and the map isn't one long snake that limits how you move from entrance to exit.

I've fought the battle in the traditional manner of bursting into the courtyard and having to deal with whatever attacks me from the start. And having to deal with the archers on the balcony. When fighting in this manner, summoning monsters up on the balcony to take the archers up close is a good tactic.

This particular manner of fighting the courtyard battle is often very difficult because you usually end up having to fight it on the enemy's terms, not your own. It can be done, but it's always seemed like one of the tougher ways of doing it.

 

Crucius, I've never had a problem with enemy spellcasters use Dispel in this battle. They aren't interested in 5 guys (three invisible) down at the bottom of the screen when there is a pack of Gelugons in their face. I expect the AI has specific conditions for casting Dispel, and won't use it just to remove a Pro:Evil.

Pro:Evil lasts one minute (10 rounds) per caster level; Gate lasts 33. Furthermore, the Gelugons don't immediately turn hostile if you don't have Pro:Evil; when the current target dies, they go after the next closest one, and unless that is you they will stay freindly. Many times in other battles I will "raw dog" the Gate spell, just casting it on the enemies without bothering to use Pro: Evil. If the Gelugon survives to the end of the battle, I run away.

 

"raw dog", huh. That's a new term to me.

 

Fixing autobalancing makes sense, to me. If you are increasing stats and adding hit points toyour enemies that would constitute, uh, increasing their hit dice. Last I checked, higher hit die enemies gave more XP in 3e.........