Anybody else find the Shadow Cursed Lands tedious?

[Gooseman]

Not a fan of this type of mechanic in general (I hated the swamp levels in Dark Souls for example) but if they're going to have it a debuff would make more sense and be way less disruptive to gameplay IMO.

Forcing you into turn based mode every time a character lags is crazy since sometimes the AI waits to catch up and in multiplayer it forces everyone to huddle while exploring.

Love the game and having a great time with it but this has been my least favorite part by far.

[Kernest]

You could just release the Pixie from the lamp, get the buff and it would solve this issue as long as you remember to keep the bell that the pixie gives you.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Gooseman:

Anybody else find the Shadow Cursed Lands tedious?
Not a fan of this type of mechanic in general (I hated the swamp levels in Dark Souls for example) but if they're going to have it a debuff would make more sense and be way less disruptive to gameplay IMO.

Forcing you into turn based mode every time a character lags is crazy since sometimes the AI waits to catch up and in multiplayer it forces everyone to huddle while exploring.

Love the game and having a great time with it but this has been my least favorite part by far.

The issues you describing are foreign to me.

[Okanuk Vinn]

It's not so bad if you give everyone torches or use the Light cantrip on each of your companions since Light isn't concentration based and you can therefore apply it to everyone in your party. Hope that helps!

[Pestilence]

Originally posted by Gooseman:

Not a fan of this type of mechanic in general (I hated the swamp levels in Dark Souls for example) but if they're going to have it a debuff would make more sense and be way less disruptive to gameplay IMO.

Forcing you into turn based mode every time a character lags is crazy since sometimes the AI waits to catch up and in multiplayer it forces everyone to huddle while exploring.

Love the game and having a great time with it but this has been my least favorite part by far.

have everyone in your party use a torch, or the create flame spell. if you got that legendary mace from the gith creche, it casts light in a 6m radius. and that's just until you get the moon lantern from the spider guy. after that, you shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

[Muhspaceaids]

I had the spider lead me to moonrise so I was locked out of the pixie. I had to carry the stupid lantern with me during all the times in heavy darkness. It was terrible. If I ever do the story again, Im 100% always siding with harper ambush. Being locked out of using the Pixie was absolutely dreadful.

And I even killed spider dude to try to get the pixie lamp later on but nope. If you side with him and help him during the ambush, you lock yourself out of the pixie bell and cannot use it because you just don't get the lantern dialogue in act 2.

[LordOfTheBread]

Once you have a certain lantern it is just like any other place and theres tons of interesting stuff to discover there.

[Beast of War]

In the less dense fog i ran around with Shadowheart carrying the Lathander mace ( from below the Githynaki creche/monestary ) that emits light. That was enough light for the whole party already, no torches necessary and it does not replace a weapon but is a weapon so that is at the ready for fighting. I did that during 3 playthroughs on all difficulty levels now.

And for some reason after i got blessed by Isobel ( on tactician difficulty ) i didnt need any light or lantern at all, not even in the dense fog. While on previous playthrough that was not the case. But i had a working lantern and a released pixie at the ready. Never needed those, at least not 3rd playthrough on tactician.

I don't know what i did different 3rd playthrough for that blessing to be good for all shadow fog. I did attack that winged flaming fist before meeting Isobel though, as in a failed previous attempt it killed Jaheira, lol. And i ran along with Minthara, not Halsin.

In general i do not like nightmare-ish levels, hells ( such as catacombs under Moonrise ) or nightmare dreams ( such as in Dragon Age Origins ) but you have to play through them anyway. I dislike that you cannot revisit a proper transformed Act 2 as well, if you did things the Halsin way.

[Johnny Hazard]

The only thing wrong about the shadow cursed lands, in my opinion, are the scripted ambushes. There are no checks done to prevent them. They happen, period, and always to the player's disadvantage. So players have to cheese all the way, to avoid being placed in the middle of an ambush, and loosing 2 rounds due to surprise.
(cheese, as in, put the rogue in hiding at the front, and even without red sigh lines, he looses hiding when near the ambush place). Then, alchemical fire to lure them out.

I dealt with the moonlantern on the harper ambush to the spider drow, when he guides us to the towers. I sided with the spider, but used hunger of Hadar to f*ck them all. In the end, the drow spider was alone, and was quickly done by explosives, a sleep spell, and a deadly backstab. Then, it was just a matter of freeing the pixie.

[bzz]

Originally posted by Johnny Hazard:

So players have to cheese all the way, to avoid being placed in the middle of an ambush, and loosing 2 rounds due to surprise.
(cheese, as in, put the rogue in hiding at the front, and even without red sigh lines, he looses hiding when near the ambush place). Then, alchemical fire to lure them out

No, the player doesn't have to cheese anything. You're just bad and are coping right now.

There isn't a single fight even on on tactician diff that needs to be cheesed. Also, there is a feat called Alert, not sure if you heard of it

[berrako]

There's also an elixir that prevents being ambushed, if you don't want to take the feat.

And noone of them are "scripted" your characters still take perception checks, so they are totally regular ambush

[dolby]

no cos i wouldn't touch multiplayer with a long stick and it's fine for me at least.

[Okanuk Vinn]

Originally posted by bzz:

Originally posted by Johnny Hazard:

So players have to cheese all the way, to avoid being placed in the middle of an ambush, and loosing 2 rounds due to surprise.
(cheese, as in, put the rogue in hiding at the front, and even without red sigh lines, he looses hiding when near the ambush place). Then, alchemical fire to lure them out

No, the player doesn't have to cheese anything. You're just bad and are coping right now.

There isn't a single fight even on on tactician diff that needs to be cheesed. Also, there is a feat called Alert, not sure if you heard of it

I generally agree that even on Tactician most fights can be reasonably beaten with skill, but have you reached the Steel Watch Foundry? I swear, that place is just hellish unless you cheese it with all the Dominate Person/Goading Attack spam the enemies there pull. Just mentioning it because, while 99% of the time I'd agree, there are definitely some places where I really do think cheese is the only way to beat a fight without it becoming a real headache. Also heard that it gets worse once you get to the boss of the dungeon, but I can't confirm it. I've been stuck on this fight for about a week now, and even with cheese strats still haven't gotten past the second floor. Maybe because I'm bad, maybe because the fight is dumb, I can't even tell tbh. All I know is that it's frustrating.

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by Kernest:

You could just release the Pixie from the lamp, get the buff and it would solve this issue as long as you remember to keep the bell that the pixie gives you.

This. Also make Astarion do it if he's in your party so he doesn't act like a dumbass about it. xD

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by Muhspaceaids:

I had the spider lead me to moonrise so I was locked out of the pixie. I had to carry the stupid lantern with me during all the times in heavy darkness. It was terrible. If I ever do the story again, Im 100% always siding with harper ambush. Being locked out of using the Pixie was absolutely dreadful.

And I even killed spider dude to try to get the pixie lamp later on but nope. If you side with him and help him during the ambush, you lock yourself out of the pixie bell and cannot use it because you just don't get the lantern dialogue in act 2.

Well I did this too because I thought releasing the pixie meant no lantern, and spent the entire act looking for the person yelling LET ME OUT. I thought it was Mol xD

[Dragonirian]

Most of it is pretty good. It's lacking in writing heavily though.