Beta testing results for "Alternatives" v 0.2

[berelinde]

You can get the hotfix that fixes the bug where you can't leave the Thieves' Guild here.

[berelinde]

Haz, too, has to have his dialogue tweaked. He refers to Bodhi. Was I drinking when I coded this? How did I overlook all these obvious references to Bodhi.

 

But then again, for all Haz knows, it might very well be Bodhi making his life hell... and a lot shorter.

 

Gah. Aran, too. "I never thought the bitch Bodhi, etc.... No matter, you shall be the first to fall."

 

Still, these are cosmetic things. Dialogue is easy to fix. Getting doors open, now, that I need Sim Ding0's code to loot.

[berelinde]

If the PC has agreed to Aster's terms, Yoshimo should definitely stop bitching about going to see Renal Bloodscalp. He isn't suicidal.

 

Oh, and close and lock the doors after the PC has cleaned out the Shadow Thieves. And make the guard outside say "This building has been closed by order of theCouncil."

 

And make sure the original ST door warden has something in his script that makes him do a DestroySelf() if B!Alternatives >5.

[berelinde]

Hit another game breaker.

 

After completing the shadow thief portion, Aster has nothing to say to you. And I don't know why. The condition on the talk is Global("B!Alternatives","GLOBAL",7) and when I ask for the value of B!Alternatives, it's coming back as 7.

 

WTF?

 

I'm going to decompile the DLG and see if this is a reinstallation issue.

 

Edit: Unfortunately, I'm going out of town this weekend, so I won't be able to fix whatever I find until Monday. Sorry!

[berelinde]

Has anybody else gotten this problem?

 

It turns out that the problem was that I had uninstalled the mod while troubleshooting the door issue and had forgotten to reinstall it.

 

Aster was still there because she was in the saved game, but moron uninstalled her dialogue file, so she had nothing to say. Oops.

 

Anyway, this doesn't mean there won't be any bugs, it just means that this one was a false positive.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Has anybody else gotten this problem?

Haven't got that far... still in Irenicus Prison.

[berelinde]

Now that I reinstalled the mod, it's working just fine.

 

Got a typo to fix, writing it here so I remember.

 

Spellhold?"

Shouldn't have the terminal quote.

[berelinde]

Second task seems to be working as it should. So it's just fix the typo and a few cosmetic things and get it out.

[berelinde]

Hit a snag. I forgot to add the #8's when setting dialogues and scripts in the tp2, so I wound up with a bunch of weirdness.

 

Go to the mod folder and find setup-alternatives.tp2. Replace it with this file, and you should be good to go.

setup_alternatives.tp2

[Jarno Mikkola]

Hit a snag. I forgot to add the #8's and #32's when setting dialogues and scripts in the tp2, so I wound up with a bunch of weirdness. Replace it with this file, and you should be good to go.

So we have to reinstall that then... OK, but do we need the hot fix too?

PS, the v0.2 also says v0.1 .

[berelinde]

OK, once the tp2 is replaced, the mod runs through to the end without incident.

 

The Chapter 4 text screen's first words are "Aran Linvale has proven true to his word," so I'll need to replace that, but that, too is cosmetic.

 

Regretfully, I'm going to either have to find some way to edit the sounds so that the voice clip for the chapter screen makes no mention of Aran Linvale, I'm going to have to have the chapter screen voiced by somebody else, or I'm going to have to go with something silent.

 

I have been able to edit sound clips before on the old computer, but I seem to be unable to do it on the new one. I can play them in ACM format, but I can't decompress them and edit them.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I have been able to edit sound clips before on the old computer, but I seem to be unable to do it on the new one. I can play them in ACM format, but I can't decompress them and edit them.

You might need to use ACM2WAV.EXE for that, download one from here.

[berelinde]

Yes, I've got that program, or I wouldn't be able to export the sounds.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I don't think you actually wish to do this:

// b!alt_01.baf - cutscene that sets up PC to overhear Brega and Wessalen talking

IF
...
  JumpToPoint([4071.3195])
  MoveViewPoint([3910.3221],INSTANT)
  ActionOverride(Player2,JumpToPoint([4032.3156]))
  ActionOverride(Player3,JumpToPoint([4123.3166]))
  ActionOverride(Player4,JumpToPoint([4082.3129]))
  ActionOverride(Player5,JumpToPoint([4160.3146]))
  ActionOverride(Player6,JumpToPoint([4123.3107]))
  CreateCreature("b!brega",[3704.3189],0)
...
  ActionOverride("b!brega",StartDialogueNoSet(Player1))
 END

What you may wish to do is instead:

...
ActionOverride(Player1,ForceSpellRES("b!xyz123",[4071.3195]))
  MoveViewPoint([3910.3221],INSTANT)
  CreateCreature("b!brega",[3704.3189],0)
...

Where the b!xyz123 refers to an Innate spell version that's made of the original farsight spell(sppr415.spl, or spwi424.spl). This way, the PC and his/her company is not actually moved to the dialog screen on the Government district, but it's still see-able... of course you need to dispel the spell at the end, or make the timer fitting...

 

Now, what happens next in the mod?

[berelinde]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I do want the party to jump to the bridge. I wanted it to look like the party was walking through the government district and happened to overhear a conversation that Brega and Wessalen were having.

 

I'm not a big fan of cutscenes that show dialogues that the PC is not present to hear. I'm using that technique for the traditional cutscene where the shadow thieves get killed in Spellhold ("No! I don't want to die!" "Silence, dog, your purpose is to die by my hand."), but it's possible that the PC saw it in a dream, I suppose. Anyway, the game just wouldn't be the same without it. But I don't want to show clairvoyant cutscenes any more than absolutely necessary.

 

When the cutscene ends, the party should still be on the bridge, but Brega and Wessalen should have wandered off.