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[Ahrimal]

Hi,

 

Is it intended behaviour that the activation of spell triggers and sequencers is interruptable? A casting time of 1 makes them fizzle way too often if the character is, say, poisoned or being attacked by an enemy with 4+ apr. It's bad enough that AI script-based sequencers aren't subject to apr constraints while the player's are, but having them be prone to failure too is gratuitously aggravating. Fixing this is trivial (speed 0 for SPWI420D, SPWI710D and SPWI809D) so I'm guessing this is by design for some reason? The change wouldn't affect combat balance much as activating a trigger still seems to take up your action for the round even if it's instant, and again, it's an advantage the AI already has.

 

Cheers!

[Jarno Mikkola]

Is it intended behaviour that the activation of spell triggers and sequencers is interruptable?

Kinda yes, as they should be casted before the battle, not during them... as their effects last considerable time, and they allow the caster then cast instantly x amount of spells, so the only way to balance that is to set a requirement that their casting is interruptible.

For the player.

The spell can and needs to be casted before you see any enemies...

The reason why the AI enemy can insta cast these spells is that they simulate the effect of having casted the spells before they saw you, say at the start of each day. The BG2 games world is not good enough to simulate that realistically, so the insta cast is kinda the only way to walk abouts the curves thrown at it.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Jarno Mikkola

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

The point is that they're not really "cast" in the normal sense, and it's simply inconsistent for them to be interruptable. Also, there are many scripts where triggers/sequencers aren't there to replicate pre-battle prep. I don't think Ahrimal is complaining about the ones that do so, but the ones that fire when, for example, an AI mage has run out of stoneskins or spell protections somewhere during the battle.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Fiann of the Silver Hand

[Ahrimal]

I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't clear what I was exactly referring to. I don't mean the actual casting of spell trigger/sequencer which you do to prepare and then you rest. I mean the activation of the innate to release the stored spells. The former have long casting times, with good reason. The latter all have a casting time of 1, which makes sense as they are clearly meant to be used in battle. However a casting time of 1 as opposed to 0 still means that the spell will fail if you try to fire it after you have been hit with, for example, a Cornugon's bleed effect, which completely defeats its purpose. It makes very little difference tactically to reduce it from 1 to 0 speed, it simply makes it uninterruptable.

 

edit: yes, that's exactly what I mean, Fiann.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Ahrimal

[Jarno Mikkola]

Ahh you mean the trigger spells actual effects casting time... which should be instant (0/10) and not 1/10 of a 6 second period(in 30fps)... yeah, there you are correct.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Jarno Mikkola

[Hicuty]

Guys prismatic Mantle is too powerful. I killed 3 glabrezu and many fiends in the room at watchers keep just casting it with prot from mag weapons and everything attacking died. Some nerf maybe? or cant cast with prot from mag weapons?

[Andimar]

Hello !

 

I wonder if it would be possible for me to join the closed Betas of IR V4 and SR V4.

Since I'm starting a new "campaign", I'll probably be able to give some feedback.

 

Thanks.

[n-ghost]

Demi, is everything all right out there ? Just finished BG1 part of BGT, seems smooth enough, save for the things mentioned above and some minor typos (like a few ranger spells describing caster as druid, or ASIII mentioning war dog packs rather than wolf packs).

 

Also, Shillelagh is awesome, I wanna take it home.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Demi, is everything all right out there ?

It's likely that yes, from looking backwards, Demi might not be reacting to each individual post in a timely fashion as apparently he has something called Real Life, I personally don't know what that is or what it even consists of, but it's good to consider it as a part of him. But you should also know that when the time comes, eventually as he resurfaces that each post will likely be considered even if they are not directly replied to, so keep on posting if you find stuff. And in the mean time, if you have questions, you are welcome to ask them from the forum, and hopefully you get a helpful answer.

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

I would like to propose at this time that the various *Revision mods might be hosted at a place like GitHub, where the blatantly uncontroversial corrections can be uploaded for all to continue testing with. These mods are constantly in flux, and as such, are much better suited to this schema than individual PMs and biannual updates.

[Andimar]

Strangely enough, I find myself agreeing with you on this idea.

 

But I'm sure the place's owner must have his reasons for not doing so in the first place.

[JediMindTrix]

Stinking Cloud - I find myself avoiding this spell after trying to adapt it into a workable strategy. It was more useful when it knocked the afflicted unconscious, but I like the concept the change to it is trying to take. A.I. creatures affected by the spell scatter in all directions unable to attack but for the most part stay away from you. You can't send any melee'rs in without subjecting them to the effects as well- archers can only pick off one or two creatures (this is goblins, I imagine this is more pronounced at higher levels) before the effects wear off, and low-level mages can't really get a spell in because of range/mobile target issues. Not sure what role this spell was supposed to fill. My suggestion would be to have the number of rounds the spell affects a creature increase with levels over time, maybe one round every 5 or 6 levels, and possibly implement a save penalty. Or add a Druid or Cleric spell that allows your party members to become immune, temporarily, to cloudlike effects, sort of like a Magic Rebreather.

 

True Strike - Just wanted to say I really like this spell and have found tremendous use for it, especially when using it with IR's darts. And obviously, fighter/mages benefit as well.

 

Shield of Faith from KR - Would be fantastic to see this as a Paladin only spell in SR. In fact, it would be fantastic to see a revised Paladin Spellbook and some Paladin Only spells to be implemented.

[subtledoctor]

Here's a thought:

 

1) Make Dispel Magic only affect party/friendly creatures. Now you have a choice between curing allies of magical ailments, and removing buffs from enemies with Remove Magic. Now,

 

2) Combine them into a single spell and let the player choose which to use when casting. Now,

 

3) Use the Remove Magic spell slot for something else.

[Salk]

There is a typo in the Halt Undead spell description: unable move -> unable to move

[Demivrgvs]

@Salk, fixed thanks.

 

Stinking Cloud

I find myself avoiding this spell after trying to adapt it into a workable strategy. It was more useful when it knocked the afflicted unconscious, but I like the concept the change to it is trying to take. A.I. creatures affected by the spell scatter in all directions unable to attack but for the most part stay away from you. You can't send any melee'rs in without subjecting them to the effects as well- archers can only pick off one or two creatures (this is goblins, I imagine this is more pronounced at higher levels) before the effects wear off, and low-level mages can't really get a spell in because of range/mobile target issues. Not sure what role this spell was supposed to fill. My suggestion would be to have the number of rounds the spell affects a creature increase with levels over time, maybe one round every 5 or 6 levels, and possibly implement a save penalty. Or add a Druid or Cleric spell that allows your party members to become immune, temporarily, to cloudlike effects, sort of like a Magic Rebreather.

Well, in theory I actually hoped to keep Gust of Wind as Druid-only, and bring back Zone of Sweet Air to Clerics to keep differentiating them more. I was daring to suggest making the latter work as a party friendly immunity to cloud based spells.

 

My 2 cents on further tweaking Stinking Cloud:

- spell duration is tied on the projectile and using multiple projectiles just for that is not worth the effort imo

- a save penalty on a cheap 2nd lvl, large AoE, almost fully disabling spell would be too much imo (Web was borderline OP for that)

- I would suggest a slightly smaller AoE, 20' instead of 30'. With proper placement this should allow your party to perform ranged attacks from a safe zone more easily.

 

True Strike

Just wanted to say I really like this spell and have found tremendous use for it, especially when using it with IR's darts. And obviously, fighter/mages benefit as well.

 

Shield of Faith from KR

Would be fantastic to see this as a Paladin only spell in SR. In fact, it would be fantastic to see a revised Paladin Spellbook and some Paladin Only spells to be implemented.

Hopefully KR will handle this, but it doesn't belong to SR imo.

 

Dispel Magic

Here's a thought:

1) Make Dispel Magic only affect party/friendly creatures. Now you have a choice between curing allies of magical ailments, and removing buffs from enemies with Remove Magic. Now,

2) Combine them into a single spell and let the player choose which to use when casting. Now,

3) Use the Remove Magic spell slot for something else.

I need to think about it, but I feel it doesn't convince me.