This is a review of Improved Anvil, which is a mod that I expect only a few will be fans of. Regardless, I hope Improved Anvil will be made available for the Enhanced Edition!!! Although I will be critical of this mod, please don’t mistake me - Improved Anvil is my favorite mod. Although I don’t agree with everything that Sikret (the mod author) does, I do respect him as a very competent modder and an excellent fellow to have invested so much time in making Improved Anvil. Thank you very much Sikret, and realize that I am giving constructive criticism for my favorite mod.
What is Improved Anvil? It is a “mega-mod” that changes the rules, items, and spells in the game, introduces many new monsters, and introduces some new interesting content and battles. It keeps the BG2 and ToB story line; however, there are so many significant changes that it really isn’t BG2 anymore. Furthermore, it really isn’t like the pen-and-paper edition of DnD (version 2) either. The changes that have been employed to increase challenge have led to a significant departure from the rule-base that inspired the original game. Instead, IA is simply a tactical battle-type game.
Although Improved Anvil (henceforth referred to as IA) is my favorite mod, it is not for everyone. First of all, most people don’t play Baldur’s Gate any more. The graphics are woefully outdated, and the story and play is old news. The Enhanced Edition has sparked some new interest – it did for me. However, IA doesn’t work with the Enhanced Edition. Secondly, IA is the most difficult mod out there. I play a heavily modded game with SCSII and aTweaks on the Enhanced Edition on Insane difficulty to relax from the challenge of Improved Anvil. (Unfotunately, Zyraen’s XP limiter does not work with my Enhanced Edition install. Is anyone working on this?!) Furthermore, despite my advice for Sikret to make older versions of IA available for download, he only keeps the latest (and most difficult) version available. IA is a new game. You will only get better at IA by playing IA (and learning from current players). The learning curve can be steep. Someone unfamiliar with IA may easily become frustrated with the difficulty and quit trying. If you want a taste of what IA can be like, Sikret has made a mod called The Four that you can try. Third, IA best fits melee-oriented play style (specifically ranger or fighter). If you enjoy other play styles (and many people do), then this mod may not be your favorite.
Now I would like to address three accusations concerning Improved Anvil: (1) it has bugs; (2) it cheats; and (3) it offers overpowered items and kits. IA is the most bug-free mod that I have ever played. In fact, I have never encountered a bug that was due to IA in my game. That is a great testimony to both Sikret and his play testers – job well done. I’ve seen one person refer to enemy behavior as a bug, for instance. It isn’t a bug. The game is responding exactly as Sikret wished. You may not agree with it, but it is no bug. For example, a stealthed or invisible character which approaches almost any of Sikret’s improved battles will result in the enemy casting True Seeing. I think that is inappropriate, but it isn’t a bug. Sikret intends it to escalate the difficulty. I don’t like that and will cheerfully use that behavior against his monsters. Many people say IA cheats. Well, I don’t think there are any major cheats. All his monsters can do what they do because of class or monster race. Personally, I don’t think that any ambushed group of monsters would logically have short duration buffs going pre-battle (that’s the explosion of magical buffs that goes off at the beginning of the fight). Long duration buffs are fine. However, this behavior definitely makes battles more challenging. Of course, they could use Sequencers or Triggers to get these buffs up quickly. So, I’m ambivalent about this. When the IA monsters are the ambushers, all magic is removed from the party. That’s fairly cool as it prevents the use of player knowledge to make the battle easier, but a little overboard. Long-term buffs, such as Stone Skin, should not be removed. There is no logical explanation provided for this behavior. I think Sikret is really bothered by people cheating, and he seems to define “cheat” as playing in any way he does not approve of. To me, cheating is defined as breaking the rules of the game and includes using the CLUA controls and character editors. Nothing else is a cheat to me. However, there are also game exploits. Exploits take advantage of errors in the coding that allow players to have an unintended or unfair advantage – and sometimes this is a very subjective call. User Unfriendly’s cheese manual includes a wealth of information on exploits. I generally avoid using what I consider exploits, and have no problem that Sikret has blocked so many avenues of exploitation. In regards to overpowered items and kits, power is relative. Although IA items and kits could be overpowered in the normal game, they are the only thing keeping most players’ team alive (beside your own play skill which is most important) in IA. For instance, I had an AC of -21 and mirror image up from Ilbratha and was doing well versus Sikret’s golems in Windspear Hills at L12. Then mirror image dropped followed by improved invisibility. My AC was now -17, and I was being hit. Each hit was doing around 32 points of damage! Also, be aware that great (and not so great) items in the original game have had a mighty nerf bat taken to them in IA (i.e. their effectiveness is limited). One of his mid-tier new golems has 100% resistance to everything, except physical damage (90% resistance) and magic (80% resistance); and also has 300 HP with a 25 strength. Which kit compares to that? Personally, I’d love to be able to play the riskbreaker in the Enhanced Edition, in which case I would use mods and self-imposed limitations to ramp up the difficulty.
To address an annoyance of mine – some people call specific battles of Improved Anvil easy. That opinion is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. You must look at the entire game. If every battle is extremely difficult, then the game becomes a chore and the availability of important resources will be exhausted. Furthermore, just because your team at your level finds the fight easy, doesn’t mean that other teams or other levels will have the same opinion. There exists one person that I know of (and I can imagine there may be a few more on the planet) that can beat IA version 6 on Insane difficulty. These people can call the game easy if they want, but my opinion is that no one else has earned the right.
A few things I don’t like about IA6 include:
* Any requirement for forging a specific item to be a particular type of protagonist. That’s too restrictive. I feel like I am being pushed to play something that I would rather not.
* Lack of class balance. Rangers, fighters, barbarians, and necromancer (if you aren’t looking for the most kills of the party) are good heroes. The cleric (or ranger-cleric dual class or auramaster) and sorcerer can be a great team members. Thieves, archers, bards, paladins, and monks are not as useful and can be liabilities. I wish there was a better class balance in the game. If I want to blow up things with a sorcerer, backstab things to death with a thief, or have an archer that I can depend on being valuable in every battle, I use SCSII rather than IA. One player carries around the corpse of an NPC thief to handle thieving duties in IA6, while another person suggests not using a thief at all. That’s a big indication that balance has been upset.
* I hate the nerfing of the bard and paladin. I play IA5 still, particularly when I want the bard or paladin in the group.
* This game favors you playing a vagrant (ranger) as a protagonist. A necromancer protagonist is a second option that allows powerful items and unique content. My hero won’t be a support character (melee is the most efficient means to do damage in IA). That leaves the vagrant. The vagrant is definitely one of the most powerful characters in IA6. However, a significant amount of this power comes from his summons (not him) and items that Sikret has made only available to a protagonist vagrant. If I am to have this most powerful character (which makes getting through IA a little more relaxed and enjoyable), I have to adjust my play style to that of Sikret (i.e. I don’t particularly like playing the vagrant hero). Although I have played every class as hero except monk, my favorite is the fighter (even though it is definitely not the most powerful).
* I like the risk breaker a lot as it fits my play style. However, the risk breaker is a particular hassle to play at low levels. Spirit Armor should be useable on the risk breaker or a cheap common potion (like Potion of Defense or even an AC3 potion) should be readily available to increase his AC. As it is, I had to invest more time than I desired babysitting him in battles so he would not suck up all the healing resources.
* Sikret has a copyright notice with no legal entitlement. The one thing I whole heartedly agreed with from that document is that anyone who uses code from Sikret’s mod is morally bound to give him credit for that. Give credit where it is due! Other than that, when you are playing a private game, it is YOUR private game.
* The installation directions unfortunately don’t just include the mods that will conflict (not install or create bugs) with IA, but includes mods or parts of mods that Sikret had decided you should not use. That irritates me. I don’t need someone making decisions for me, particularly in regards to my leisure time.
* The creation of the IA items is a pain in the a$$. I have to keep a long sheet of ingredients I need to save and not sell. This needs to be changed. A unique ingredient can be protected by whatever vicious monster is appropriate and then gold is adequate as the other component. I don’t want to have to keep up with a long list of scrolls and gems and gold and items.
* I hate the BG2 buff process, because I find it tedious. In the original game, I would put up long term buffs, improved haste on the hero for a few battles, and very little else. I would almost never rest. In IA, buffs are crucial to survival. Personally, I would rather the durations of so many buffs were not nerfed. I can live with it though, as after many fights you must rest, recover, and renew spell books anyway. Still, the duration nerfs are an annoyance.
* With the change of slow (I presume the flail of ages Slow is like the spell), one of the finest weapons in the game has become very marginal in my opinion. With all the nerfs, Sikret’s items are far superior to any item that you can find or upgrade from the original game. I think some of the item nerfing has went a bit far.
* There are many examples of spell nerfs or total removal which I wish was handled differently. One example is Glitterdust. I much prefer the way that Enhanced Edition handled it (no penalty to save, but a penalty of 4 to AC and to hit instead 10).
* I find the SI:D + Improved Invisibility combo (probably why Glitterdust was nerfed like it was) enemies use in the low level encounters to be more boring than anything else.
* I’ve read several times that posts on the IA site may not actually make it onto the forum. I can understand having spoilers “cloaked.” Otherwise, I love freedom of speech. I am also annoyed by the “insider’s” group of posts. Why can’t there by one IA forum accessible by all? I feel like I am missing some helpful posts.
What is Improved Anvil? It is a “mega-mod” that changes the rules, items, and spells in the game, introduces many new monsters, and introduces some new interesting content and battles. It keeps the BG2 and ToB story line; however, there are so many significant changes that it really isn’t BG2 anymore. Furthermore, it really isn’t like the pen-and-paper edition of DnD (version 2) either. The changes that have been employed to increase challenge have led to a significant departure from the rule-base that inspired the original game. Instead, IA is simply a tactical battle-type game.
Although Improved Anvil (henceforth referred to as IA) is my favorite mod, it is not for everyone. First of all, most people don’t play Baldur’s Gate any more. The graphics are woefully outdated, and the story and play is old news. The Enhanced Edition has sparked some new interest – it did for me. However, IA doesn’t work with the Enhanced Edition. Secondly, IA is the most difficult mod out there. I play a heavily modded game with SCSII and aTweaks on the Enhanced Edition on Insane difficulty to relax from the challenge of Improved Anvil. (Unfotunately, Zyraen’s XP limiter does not work with my Enhanced Edition install. Is anyone working on this?!) Furthermore, despite my advice for Sikret to make older versions of IA available for download, he only keeps the latest (and most difficult) version available. IA is a new game. You will only get better at IA by playing IA (and learning from current players). The learning curve can be steep. Someone unfamiliar with IA may easily become frustrated with the difficulty and quit trying. If you want a taste of what IA can be like, Sikret has made a mod called The Four that you can try. Third, IA best fits melee-oriented play style (specifically ranger or fighter). If you enjoy other play styles (and many people do), then this mod may not be your favorite.
Now I would like to address three accusations concerning Improved Anvil: (1) it has bugs; (2) it cheats; and (3) it offers overpowered items and kits. IA is the most bug-free mod that I have ever played. In fact, I have never encountered a bug that was due to IA in my game. That is a great testimony to both Sikret and his play testers – job well done. I’ve seen one person refer to enemy behavior as a bug, for instance. It isn’t a bug. The game is responding exactly as Sikret wished. You may not agree with it, but it is no bug. For example, a stealthed or invisible character which approaches almost any of Sikret’s improved battles will result in the enemy casting True Seeing. I think that is inappropriate, but it isn’t a bug. Sikret intends it to escalate the difficulty. I don’t like that and will cheerfully use that behavior against his monsters. Many people say IA cheats. Well, I don’t think there are any major cheats. All his monsters can do what they do because of class or monster race. Personally, I don’t think that any ambushed group of monsters would logically have short duration buffs going pre-battle (that’s the explosion of magical buffs that goes off at the beginning of the fight). Long duration buffs are fine. However, this behavior definitely makes battles more challenging. Of course, they could use Sequencers or Triggers to get these buffs up quickly. So, I’m ambivalent about this. When the IA monsters are the ambushers, all magic is removed from the party. That’s fairly cool as it prevents the use of player knowledge to make the battle easier, but a little overboard. Long-term buffs, such as Stone Skin, should not be removed. There is no logical explanation provided for this behavior. I think Sikret is really bothered by people cheating, and he seems to define “cheat” as playing in any way he does not approve of. To me, cheating is defined as breaking the rules of the game and includes using the CLUA controls and character editors. Nothing else is a cheat to me. However, there are also game exploits. Exploits take advantage of errors in the coding that allow players to have an unintended or unfair advantage – and sometimes this is a very subjective call. User Unfriendly’s cheese manual includes a wealth of information on exploits. I generally avoid using what I consider exploits, and have no problem that Sikret has blocked so many avenues of exploitation. In regards to overpowered items and kits, power is relative. Although IA items and kits could be overpowered in the normal game, they are the only thing keeping most players’ team alive (beside your own play skill which is most important) in IA. For instance, I had an AC of -21 and mirror image up from Ilbratha and was doing well versus Sikret’s golems in Windspear Hills at L12. Then mirror image dropped followed by improved invisibility. My AC was now -17, and I was being hit. Each hit was doing around 32 points of damage! Also, be aware that great (and not so great) items in the original game have had a mighty nerf bat taken to them in IA (i.e. their effectiveness is limited). One of his mid-tier new golems has 100% resistance to everything, except physical damage (90% resistance) and magic (80% resistance); and also has 300 HP with a 25 strength. Which kit compares to that? Personally, I’d love to be able to play the riskbreaker in the Enhanced Edition, in which case I would use mods and self-imposed limitations to ramp up the difficulty.
To address an annoyance of mine – some people call specific battles of Improved Anvil easy. That opinion is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. You must look at the entire game. If every battle is extremely difficult, then the game becomes a chore and the availability of important resources will be exhausted. Furthermore, just because your team at your level finds the fight easy, doesn’t mean that other teams or other levels will have the same opinion. There exists one person that I know of (and I can imagine there may be a few more on the planet) that can beat IA version 6 on Insane difficulty. These people can call the game easy if they want, but my opinion is that no one else has earned the right.
A few things I don’t like about IA6 include:
* Any requirement for forging a specific item to be a particular type of protagonist. That’s too restrictive. I feel like I am being pushed to play something that I would rather not.
* Lack of class balance. Rangers, fighters, barbarians, and necromancer (if you aren’t looking for the most kills of the party) are good heroes. The cleric (or ranger-cleric dual class or auramaster) and sorcerer can be a great team members. Thieves, archers, bards, paladins, and monks are not as useful and can be liabilities. I wish there was a better class balance in the game. If I want to blow up things with a sorcerer, backstab things to death with a thief, or have an archer that I can depend on being valuable in every battle, I use SCSII rather than IA. One player carries around the corpse of an NPC thief to handle thieving duties in IA6, while another person suggests not using a thief at all. That’s a big indication that balance has been upset.
* I hate the nerfing of the bard and paladin. I play IA5 still, particularly when I want the bard or paladin in the group.
* This game favors you playing a vagrant (ranger) as a protagonist. A necromancer protagonist is a second option that allows powerful items and unique content. My hero won’t be a support character (melee is the most efficient means to do damage in IA). That leaves the vagrant. The vagrant is definitely one of the most powerful characters in IA6. However, a significant amount of this power comes from his summons (not him) and items that Sikret has made only available to a protagonist vagrant. If I am to have this most powerful character (which makes getting through IA a little more relaxed and enjoyable), I have to adjust my play style to that of Sikret (i.e. I don’t particularly like playing the vagrant hero). Although I have played every class as hero except monk, my favorite is the fighter (even though it is definitely not the most powerful).
* I like the risk breaker a lot as it fits my play style. However, the risk breaker is a particular hassle to play at low levels. Spirit Armor should be useable on the risk breaker or a cheap common potion (like Potion of Defense or even an AC3 potion) should be readily available to increase his AC. As it is, I had to invest more time than I desired babysitting him in battles so he would not suck up all the healing resources.
* Sikret has a copyright notice with no legal entitlement. The one thing I whole heartedly agreed with from that document is that anyone who uses code from Sikret’s mod is morally bound to give him credit for that. Give credit where it is due! Other than that, when you are playing a private game, it is YOUR private game.
* The installation directions unfortunately don’t just include the mods that will conflict (not install or create bugs) with IA, but includes mods or parts of mods that Sikret had decided you should not use. That irritates me. I don’t need someone making decisions for me, particularly in regards to my leisure time.
* The creation of the IA items is a pain in the a$$. I have to keep a long sheet of ingredients I need to save and not sell. This needs to be changed. A unique ingredient can be protected by whatever vicious monster is appropriate and then gold is adequate as the other component. I don’t want to have to keep up with a long list of scrolls and gems and gold and items.
* I hate the BG2 buff process, because I find it tedious. In the original game, I would put up long term buffs, improved haste on the hero for a few battles, and very little else. I would almost never rest. In IA, buffs are crucial to survival. Personally, I would rather the durations of so many buffs were not nerfed. I can live with it though, as after many fights you must rest, recover, and renew spell books anyway. Still, the duration nerfs are an annoyance.
* With the change of slow (I presume the flail of ages Slow is like the spell), one of the finest weapons in the game has become very marginal in my opinion. With all the nerfs, Sikret’s items are far superior to any item that you can find or upgrade from the original game. I think some of the item nerfing has went a bit far.
* There are many examples of spell nerfs or total removal which I wish was handled differently. One example is Glitterdust. I much prefer the way that Enhanced Edition handled it (no penalty to save, but a penalty of 4 to AC and to hit instead 10).
* I find the SI:D + Improved Invisibility combo (probably why Glitterdust was nerfed like it was) enemies use in the low level encounters to be more boring than anything else.
* I’ve read several times that posts on the IA site may not actually make it onto the forum. I can understand having spoilers “cloaked.” Otherwise, I love freedom of speech. I am also annoyed by the “insider’s” group of posts. Why can’t there by one IA forum accessible by all? I feel like I am missing some helpful posts.