Summoning Planetar/Deva - Bug?

[Topaze]

Hi!

 

I'd like to ask whether the fixpack changes this aspect of the game in some way. The problem is, I can summon planetars and devas without any limitation (and, since my party includes Imoen, Keldorn, Viconia and me as a very high-level kensai/mage, I can almost fill the screen with Planetars and Devas, should I want to). Actually, I've always thought that this is how it should be, but I've recently found that the game is supposed to limit the number of summoned planetars (and, if I'm not mistaken, devas). I'm not quite sure whether it is 1 per screen or 1 per party member, but some kind of limit is supposed to be in place, unless I'm missing something. It's not that I really need more than one planetar or deva (well, with the exception of tougher Demogorgon, where a bunch of them can be very helpful indeed) but still it bothers me. Oh, and I'm not using Project Image or other tricks. Here's what I have installed:

 

Baldur's Gate SOA with TOB (obviously)

Latest TOB Patch

BG2 Fixpack 4 (Core fixes and dialogs only)

Ascension 1.4.22 (latest release)

Happy Patch (the only part part of BG2 Tweaks I have installed)

 

I think that the most probable cause is the fixpack, but Ascension or even the TOB patch could change it as well. Whatever it is, I'd appreciate any help.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Miloch]

The Fixpack changes devas, though I'm not sure if it does so in the ways you describe. What documentation I could find on the ToB patch and Ascension don't mention any such changes so... Fixpackers?

[CamDawg]

To remove the summoning cap, you'd have to rename the creature files--which isn't done by the Fixpack.

[Nythrun]

Changing the gender field would also do this (line 6922).

 

I'm not sure how changing the general field from 255 to GIANT_HUMANOID is doing anything helpful, it might have been better to standardize on the former.

[devSin]

Devas and planetars aren't gender summoned by default. There should be a hardcoded limit of 1 per party IIRC (only one at any one time).

[Nythrun]

They're gender both by default.

 

COPY_EXISTING ~plangood.cre~ ~override~
 WRITE_BYTE 0x0275 0x2

 

Does this:

 

/edit

 

Bandwidth unwasted.

[devSin]

Coolies. Does setting 5 on any other summon allow only one copy?

[Nythrun]

I swapped over sword01.cre to five and there wasn't a limit (and it didn't count as a celestial being summoned either)

 

I don't know if it matters for sword03 or not; it's only used in the Lilarcor scene. The only other non-celestial with a five in the gender field is Some Dumb Amkethran Mook #4294967295, so maybe this type is only meaningful for the hla summons.

[Topaze]

Whoa, thanks for your replies! After two days of silence I actually thought there'd be no answers at all.

 

In any case, I'm absolutely sure I haven't messed with the setting mentioned above, nor with any other setting for that matter.

 

Miloch, I've looked at that page - it also mentions at least two changes concerning planetars, not only devas. However, those changes are not even close to the problem.

[Miloch]

Miloch, I've looked at that page - it also mentions at least two changes concerning planetars, not only devas. However, those changes are not even close to the problem.

Well the fixpackers seem to've figured out their gender change actually does cause it. (At least, I think they said that... it's kind of tough to decipher fixpacker-speak sometimes .)

[devSin]

Yar, what be the point of the gender check if you just hardcode the CRE list anyway? That's BioWEAK.

[Nythrun]

I can't even find a "plangood" string in the Win32 .exe, and there's no .2da for it. This makes very little sense.

 

/edit

 

I am a froaking idiot who was opening baldur.exe and not bgmain.exe! Gah. All four .cre resrefs are baked into this nasty fruitcake.

[devSin]

Maybe the spell resrefs? Try having the PLANGOOD spell summon SWORD01 with gender 5?

 

I doubt they'd key it off equipped items (hostile celestials would have the same items). Or maybe the animation tag (ugliest hack ever if it was). It could be part of the same code where they composite the base celestial and the celestial glow (they're both drawn IIRC).

 

But yeah, this doesn't seem kosher at all.

[Guest frabjous]

On a somewhat related, somewhat unrelated, note, Fallen Paladins can summon Devas. Should they really be able to? (Rather diminishes the sting of losing the Turn Undead ability, when the Deva can do it for them...)

[Nythrun]

Turns out to be a combination of the above:

COPY_EXISTING ~sword01.cre~  ~override/plangood.cre~
 WRITE_SHORT 0x0028 0x7f3b
 WRITE_BYTE  0x0275 0x05

results in the celestial cap being observed; changing only the gender or only the animation doesn't; renaming any of plangood.cre or spplan.eff or spwi924.spl results in no cap.

 

Eureka.*

 

It's possible to change HLA tables in midstream, but it's not possible for the new table to retroactively replace old selections. We could forcibly yank any acquired Summon Deva HLAs, but they won't thereafter grow back if paladinhood is regained at Garren Windspear's twelve-step program for jerks. I've no strong feelings one way or the other, so I'll be leaving this alone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*eu·re·ka /yʊˈrikə, yə-/

–interjection

1. (initial capital letter) What the hell is this crap?: the reputed exclamation of Archimedes when, after long study, he discovered a method of detecting the amount of alloy mixed with the gold in the crown of the king of Syracuse.

[Origin: 1560–70; < Gk heúréka, 1st person sing. perf. indic. of heurískein]