1. There are no conversation skills or attributes checks (there was a single "hidden cache" using Search), so no reason to invest in those. 2. You can have PC+4 companions (5 if you get Leadership). 3. There is OC crafting and you have lots of essences and some gems can be found/bought. The hardest part for me was the fact that the Wizard had crafting feats but not the needed spells! And for some reason you can't buy scrolls with things like Eagle's Splendour or Bear's Endurance. 4. Starting from lvl 10 you get about 2 levels (2.5 but the last 0.5 is for handing in the main quest), but depending on how much fishing you do, you actually might get the second level while fighting the final boss (probably before that if you do the Halloween extension before going for the dive) 5. You can find treasure chests when fishing. 6. The blacksmith has the best prices (but is capped at 15k)
What I liked:
1. Decent story. 2. Nice locations, I didn't even realize the engine supported diving and swimming! 3. Somewhat limited resting options, so you have to strategise.
Bugs I've experienced:
1. Resting in the Inn required resting "twice" to actually work, first time it would show the "cutscene" but not heal you or load spell slots. 2. Resting in some locations simply didn't trigger at all.
Regarding people complaining it's too hard:
Apart from exiting the lighthouse I didn't notice any really difficult encounters (but I might be biased, because Hellfire/Warlock is brokenly powerful ;) ) The lighthouse itself was a breeze because you can easily block enemies in the doors. Exiting was indeed tricky. I personally would recommend taking mostly melee companions if you're playing on hardcore rules, and if you have a caster try to drop something like Grease, Web, Entangle to disable some opponents. One thing worth considering is the fact that you can buy a bunch of "summon" items - spider, black knight, bags of tricks, and you also get Ogre summon item from the lighthouse itself. So everyone can get a summon for this fight.
so i am playing at d&d hardcore with 5 chars that started on level 10 and I have to drop this mod. It is challenging a lot, yes, but at the same time its extremely frustrating. at some point design flaws of these encounters become too influential. the game announces itself as challenging - encounters with goblins are difficult, yet manageable. a fair fights between your team and their forces. you can try different tactics, approaches etc. and most likely your second, third try will be the successful one. but then lighthouse... oh god. its simply not fun to have 5 characters fighting large monsters in such tiny spaces... full of explosives. you just cant fuken move. its unbearable - or at least very frustrating, but, again, it is manageable. but the worst offence was the fight when exiting the lighthouse. your team is squished on a staircase, ganged up by dozen of ogres and a water elemental. it took me at least 10 tries and a lot of swearing to beat them. i was just hopeless, my casters failing every second spell unable to run away... absolute hell. i forced myself to reach the caves full of lizard and fish folks, but this effort drained my remaining energy
so far ive seen beatiful areas. aesthetically its very well done. story is servicable - but not enough for me to be willing to go deeper into this mod.
im uninterested in carrying on normal though. i think "balance" problems are rather related to encounters design, not rolls and damage modifiers (however, not being hit by own AoE may make some fights too easy). i am afraid the same design flaws may be a recurring issue in this mod. i dont want to find it out though.
still, i will endorse it. but let it be said for folks used to d&d hardcore (who arent into extreme optimization and cheesing out every fight): play this on normal/easy unless you drive pleasure from frustration and/or anger
I don't know what you mean exactly by "cheesing", but I explicitly tested the encounters using nothing but the provided companions with no additional equipment, using only gear that I could buy at level 10 with the provided gold, a good supply of healing kits, and the game set at the highest difficulty level. I play strategically, with careful pulls and companion management, though granted the bosses and mini-bosses are tuned to be significantly harder. These are not flaws, they're just designed for players like me.
This was the most rewarding thing I played for a long time, immersion is immense. I would love to see more expansions made to this since this town feel like a home. The way inland navigation is handled is excellent, just tell the guard at the city gates where you want to go and you get sent there. This system allow for in theory a multitude of locations to be added without bloating a map.
Ever thought of turning Candle Cove to a questhub? There are plenty of small module adventures that could be dusted off, spiced up a bit and then appended to something like this.
Yes, I designed it for expandability, and made it so that new modules can be added to it without requiring a player to start over, and I more or less successfully implemented it with the Halloween expansion, but if you use custom tokens for some entries in the quest log (like I did) you have to do some extra scripting in the "module enter" script to preserve the tokens, and to keep the scripting on the special items, too (like the hearthstone). Extra trouble, but it can be done. I also set up plenty of doors in the town area that can be activated through scripts at any time to link to new interiors for new modules.
Tchos enjoying the mod so far Not sure if I'm being dense or got a bug or what but the vampire under the magic shop will not bloody die even with a full party of 6. I can get him down to near death but he just stays there and doesn't kick the bucket. Really getting annoying.
Just dusted off NWN 2 again. Loving this mod, but NOT loving all the junk items my party picks up, in a game with a horrid item management system, the last thing I need is more junk items. I've been prowling the folders, but can't seem to locate where they are. Can you point me to where the files for "color" items like rope and sacks and ragged goblin boots are? I'm spending more time dropping these out of my inventory than adventuring. Other than that, I'm loving your campaign. Also, I'm confused, are both OC and MOTB crafting in the game, because the essence types are a mixture of the two, but the readme states OC crafting, and the essences aren't compatible.
Well, you're right that I included those just for colour. But I did include trash bins all over town to make it easy to dispose of unwanted items!
Most of the custom items (.UTI files) are in Campaigns\The Black Scourge of Candle Cove\v1\. The junk items have file names beginning with "jnk_", but the goblin boots you mention are tch_goblin_boots_hide.UTI. However, I don't remember if deleting these item files will prevent the game from trying to give you something that might become an "unknown item". I think it might work, though. Just be sure not to delete any of the custom items that are necessary for the plot.
As for crafting, if I recall correctly, I made the crafting tables work with both systems if you have the necessary items, but I only actively supported one. Or maybe I'm thinking of the SoZ system. It's been too long to recall.
I have to be honest and say this mod was too frustrating and not enjoyable. not much of a story, and there was just not enough time and space for good tactics. the vampire fight in a closet was no fun. the light house wasn't much better and trying to leave the place and getting mauled was the last straw. to each his own i guess, but i prefer a mod with a more engrossing story and large varied layouts for fun tactical play. i suppose i would call this a "battle" mod which is fine for many of you. I prefer a "story" mod that draws you in and makes you care and think, thats all.
Decided to take the dust off my NWN2 (again) and played your module, recommended by a friend. I had to thank him for the tip, and to thank YOU a LOT for the great work. I still haven't finished it (damn, the water elementals gave me much more trouble than I bargained for!), however, just had to come here to say how story-wise is great, enough to dwelve into the lore without too much unnecessary stuff. Also, the attention to details is great. A pity I am playing with a female character; the party at the temple of the Lady Firehair, later, sure is promissing...
I've had some trouble with this mod. It has a lot of great ideas and the designer makes great use of everything the toolkit has to offer. I hate to give it a thumbs down.
- I think there needs to be something like an intro to pull you into the story. The beginning plops you into an inn and you kind of go from there. Playing Fate of a City mod right now and it has a nice intro, that's kinda what I'm talking about here.
- The first mission you get is to go clear out the lighthouse of monsters and the first two levels are painfully small with tiny rooms which makes tactical combat impossible, I'm probably being too kind here, it was a cluster TBH. The third level was fine and I eventually completed it and carried on.
- The pirate ship was cool and well designed.
- The underwater dive tour was cool and very creative. Although other than collecting pearls it didn't serve much purpose.
- Then came this underwater area with a cool temple but pathfinding in this area was absolutely atrocious, my party was all over the place and because the topography and weird ceilings and narrow areas, using the exploration camera or the strategy camera leaves a lot to be desired. I also had a bug where my character's weapons were disappearing. At first I thought the monsters in the area had the disarm ability and it had been dropped. But when I pulled up my inventory it was showing that they still had it equipped.
I may eventually finish but for now I'm putting it aside, just too frustrating.
Can't believe I missed this campaign in the past! I played only 7-8hours (and most time I was just looking around and doing minigames) but the story seems nice already, plus there are so many things I like to see implemented in more adventures. Congrats Tchos, you made a GREAT job
I have a hard time estimating. I'm an exploring type of player, and I always take longer than other people to finish other games, but in this one I know exactly what to do, and I could finish it in one sitting, but the previous poster mentioned he was playing 7-8 hours and was still early in. I need more people to report how long they spent playing it so I can give an estimate.
90 comments
Some useful play-through details:
1. There are no conversation skills or attributes checks (there was a single "hidden cache" using Search), so no reason to invest in those.
2. You can have PC+4 companions (5 if you get Leadership).
3. There is OC crafting and you have lots of essences and some gems can be found/bought. The hardest part for me was the fact that the Wizard had crafting feats but not the needed spells! And for some reason you can't buy scrolls with things like Eagle's Splendour or Bear's Endurance.
4. Starting from lvl 10 you get about 2 levels (2.5 but the last 0.5 is for handing in the main quest), but depending on how much fishing you do, you actually might get the second level while fighting the final boss (probably before that if you do the Halloween extension before going for the dive)
5. You can find treasure chests when fishing.
6. The blacksmith has the best prices (but is capped at 15k)
What I liked:
1. Decent story.
2. Nice locations, I didn't even realize the engine supported diving and swimming!
3. Somewhat limited resting options, so you have to strategise.
Bugs I've experienced:
1. Resting in the Inn required resting "twice" to actually work, first time it would show the "cutscene" but not heal you or load spell slots.
2. Resting in some locations simply didn't trigger at all.
Regarding people complaining it's too hard:
Apart from exiting the lighthouse I didn't notice any really difficult encounters (but I might be biased, because Hellfire/Warlock is brokenly powerful ;) )
The lighthouse itself was a breeze because you can easily block enemies in the doors.
Exiting was indeed tricky. I personally would recommend taking mostly melee companions if you're playing on hardcore rules, and if you have a caster try to drop something like Grease, Web, Entangle to disable some opponents.
One thing worth considering is the fact that you can buy a bunch of "summon" items - spider, black knight, bags of tricks, and you also get Ogre summon item from the lighthouse itself. So everyone can get a summon for this fight.
but the worst offence was the fight when exiting the lighthouse. your team is squished on a staircase, ganged up by dozen of ogres and a water elemental. it took me at least 10 tries and a lot of swearing to beat them. i was just hopeless, my casters failing every second spell unable to run away... absolute hell. i forced myself to reach the caves full of lizard and fish folks, but this effort drained my remaining energy
so far ive seen beatiful areas. aesthetically its very well done. story is servicable - but not enough for me to be willing to go deeper into this mod.
im uninterested in carrying on normal though. i think "balance" problems are rather related to encounters design, not rolls and damage modifiers (however, not being hit by own AoE may make some fights too easy). i am afraid the same design flaws may be a recurring issue in this mod. i dont want to find it out though.
still, i will endorse it. but let it be said for folks used to d&d hardcore (who arent into extreme optimization and cheesing out every fight):
play this on normal/easy unless you drive pleasure from frustration and/or anger
Ever thought of turning Candle Cove to a questhub? There are plenty of small module adventures that could be dusted off, spiced up a bit and then appended to something like this.
Most of the custom items (.UTI files) are in Campaigns\The Black Scourge of Candle Cove\v1\. The junk items have file names beginning with "jnk_", but the goblin boots you mention are tch_goblin_boots_hide.UTI. However, I don't remember if deleting these item files will prevent the game from trying to give you something that might become an "unknown item". I think it might work, though. Just be sure not to delete any of the custom items that are necessary for the plot.
As for crafting, if I recall correctly, I made the crafting tables work with both systems if you have the necessary items, but I only actively supported one. Or maybe I'm thinking of the SoZ system. It's been too long to recall.
I had to thank him for the tip, and to thank YOU a LOT for the great work.
I still haven't finished it (damn, the water elementals gave me much more trouble than I bargained for!), however, just had to come here to say how story-wise is great, enough to dwelve into the lore without too much unnecessary stuff. Also, the attention to details is great. A pity I am playing with a female character; the party at the temple of the Lady Firehair, later, sure is promissing...
- I think there needs to be something like an intro to pull you into the story. The beginning plops you into an inn and you kind of go from there. Playing Fate of a City mod right now and it has a nice intro, that's kinda what I'm talking about here.
- The first mission you get is to go clear out the lighthouse of monsters and the first two levels are painfully small with tiny rooms which makes tactical combat impossible, I'm probably being too kind here, it was a cluster TBH. The third level was fine and I eventually completed it and carried on.
- The pirate ship was cool and well designed.
- The underwater dive tour was cool and very creative. Although other than collecting pearls it didn't serve much purpose.
- Then came this underwater area with a cool temple but pathfinding in this area was absolutely atrocious, my party was all over the place and because the topography and weird ceilings and narrow areas, using the exploration camera or the strategy camera leaves a lot to be desired. I also had a bug where my character's weapons were disappearing. At first I thought the monsters in the area had the disarm ability and it had been dropped. But when I pulled up my inventory it was showing that they still had it equipped.
I may eventually finish but for now I'm putting it aside, just too frustrating.