Sword Coast Stratagems II

Edar Macilrille · Post by **Edar Macilrille** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:14 am

One of my current mods this runthrough is SCSII. I used to use Tactics but after trouble with some NPC Mods and generally being fed up with its cheesyness I had a look at my mods and instead installed SCSII.

My Party is now at 600-800.000 XP and I love SCSII, I cannot recommend it enough. Battles are challenging, without being cheesy and impossible; your opponents rarely uses abilities that you do not have.

And even more, they act intelligently!!! The low-life thugs who sometimes waylay you run away when you get powerful and/or high rep! That is one thing that has always bothered me in BGII that lowlife lvl 1-3 thieves/fighters would confront a party of lvl 15 heroes in dragonscale armour and with Illithis heads as trophies etc, the Vanilla game thugs go, "Oh they are really powerful, let us attack them and get squashed", and Tactics just added a bunch of hard-nosed bountyhunters (which I really like, and later like "milking" for potions and gear as I grow in power), but retained the idiotic lowlifes. SCSII makes them think, just as any other opponent I have met have been much smarter and thus harder.

Good job!

My only slight quibble is that at start when you have no way of seeing invisibility the thugs that assault you (sometimes several groups every night) have too many potions of invisibility so you notice them when they backstab your weakest member. That is somewhat unfair, but compared to Tactics' cheesyness it is nothing at all.

For SCSIII I would suggest that as you get your own guildhouse, the thugs stops assaulting you. It is my distinct impression that it is unwise for the average criminal to work independently or against The Shadow Thieves, so attacking a guildmaster is not a good idea. Instead, specialist assassins from rival guilds, etc would be interesting.

Anyway, awesome mod (till now) and very good job on it.

Try it!!

prune1 · Post by **prune1** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:52 pm

Edar Macilrille wrote: For SCSIII I would suggest that as you get your own guildhouse, the thugs stops assaulting you. It is my distinct impression that it is unwise for the average criminal to work independently or against The Shadow Thieves, so attacking a guildmaster is not a good idea. Instead, specialist assassins from rival guilds, etc would be interesting.

Anyway, awesome mod (till now) and very good job on it.

Huh? SCSII refers not to the SCS mod being version 2, which is what I guess you are implying with SCSIII being the next version or something?

SCS is for baldur's gate 1 with the tutu mod/BGT.

SCSII is for baldur's gate 2/BGT.

The guildhouse you mention is only for the thief class, and sub-classes thereof. So, firstly, it would only affect a portion of games, namely those in which the main player character both is such a class, and decides to/ is eligible take the guildhouse.

This mod is mainly concerned with wide changes to tactical gameplay and general AI improvements so i wouldn't hold my breath for such an add-in in this mod. Though I could be wrong, as there are all sorts of mini tweaks and components that come with it as optional parts.

The 'Rogue rebalancing' mod or some other standalone one might be more in line to do that sort of thing though is the point, it certainly fits thematically for RR, say.

Edar Macilrille · Post by **Edar Macilrille** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:04 am

Ah my bad, I am more used to Europa barbarorum where the community holds it breath (and has for a year at least) waiting for EBII, version 2 of the mod, this time for MTWII instead of RTW.

Though SCSII is mainly tactically minded, it is also consistent, and it is like that I was thinking about it.

Schugger · Post by **Schugger** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 2:51 am

Hello Ladies and Gents

As this is my first post on this forum, a small introduction seems to be appropriate.
I have lurked here for some time before I finally managed to register (or better, to get my buttus anticus in motion). I've played through the BG series just twice, thus being as far away from pro status as one can possibly be and have just recently started a new game with BG1 and Expansion plain vanilla version.
In the end I was a bit disappointed with the AI behavior and it was hardly a challenge. So, to get back to the topic, before I imported my PC into SoA I decided to try out some modifications from the Gibberling 3 site. Not much, just the Fixpack, Tweakpack, Banter Pack and finally SwordCoastStratagemsII.
All I can say it is awesome! I really feared that modding the game could ruine it in terms of stability and/or creating bugs, but it runs like a charm. From the tactical point of view, it is really a challenge be it those early random encounters in Athkatla or any engagements with those real big baddies. I've lost count how many times a certain Gentleman in the Windspear Hills wiped the floor with my puny hero-wannabees. Oh boy!
What I really liked about the Tweak Pack and SCSII is being able to customize the game how you really would like to have it. Be it those cosmetic changes all the way up to fine tuning the tactical challenges:
Should your enemies all have maximum HPs or would you like to keep the random factor? Should enemy spell casters raise their magical defenses as soon as the became aware of adventurer stench or would you like to keep your (back stabbing) element of surprise it is up to you.
I am really, really enjoying it. A game that is almost ten years old - go figure.

Edar Macilrille · Post by **Edar Macilrille** » Fri Dec 25, 2009 6:02 am

Welcome to the forum and Merry XMas to you and everybody.

BG, especially BG II as I understand it is a modder's dream. There is nothing like some new mods to liven up your game. Check how to keep them unbuggy (I have recently recieved good advice on that that worked), and enjoy. It is like playing a new game every time.

Unfortunately my BGII gaming PC burned off its harddisc in the middle of my campaign, not just wiped but burned off- it no longer exists :-(

Edar Macilrille · Post by **Edar Macilrille** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:17 am

Bug/glitch in SCS II

I noticed one thing though. And as I knoe there are G3 members here I report here, not where I am not a member.

When using the "Kidnapping of Boo" the scraps Boo leaves in Minsc's quickslots are still there after he is kidnapped and after he is retrieved. It is easy to remove it with Shadowkeeper, but still. You may want to change that.

Daynov · Post by **Daynov** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 8:08 am

That component is part of Unfinished Business, no ?
Though i guess if you use "Move Boo into Minsc's backpack" some problems may arise.

Edar Macilrille · Post by **Edar Macilrille** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:24 pm

It is indeed, but SCS II is listed as fully compatible with it. Everything runs fine anyway, Boo's scraps just stay.