BG1 Club +1, +3 vs Unnatural Creatures

[chuft]

I'd really like to know why my generalist mage is getting an extra spell slot per spell level. I don't know of any mod that advertises this as a feature. I actually like it, since it makes the mage a lot more fun to play at lower levels. But I'm not sure what made it happen.

 

One thing I did do above and beyond the normal modding was something I read in another thread here. In this post a way was listed to avoid a conflict between Unfinished Business and Auril's Bane. Namely,

 

So, what you can do to make Presio's duel compatible with AB installed is :

- go to your iwd override folder

- edit the class.ids (notepad or any editing text sofware)

- add the following lines at the end of the file before the "255 NO_CLASS" line

 

202 MAGE_ALL

203 FIGHTER_ALL

204 CLERIC_ALL

205 THIEF_ALL

206 BARD_ALL

207 PALADIN_ALL

208 DRUID_ALL

209 RANGER_ALL

 

I don't have a clue what this does. Since it is supposed to be restoring something present in the vanilla file, I didn't think it would cause any harm. Could this be giving my generalist mage the spell slots of a specialist mage?

[chuft]

I am making several IWD installs for experimenting as I type this.

 

Does anyone know what the Sword of Balduran actually does? Is it really +4 vs lycanthropes, or +4 vs everything, or something else?

 

What about the dagger Werebane?

[chuft]

Well I answered a few questions.

 

Vanilla IWD behaved pretty much as expected. No strength bonuses for thrown weapons, and mages got the normal number of spell slots.

 

Auril's Bane by itself, without the modification of the ini file I mentioned above, and no other mods, had the following behavior:

 

Extra Mage Spell Slots:

 

At game start, the following appeared in the text box:

 

 

This apparently is a set of scripts that add Cantrips to mages, add Orisons to clerics, and add extra spell slots to mages.

 

If you import a mage, or export and import a mage, they do not get the extra spell slots, even if they had them before export. So this script appears to run at game start but not when you import a character. The only exception is if you import a character which was apparently part of the Auril's Bane package, in which case the scripts do run.

 

The scripts also run if you dual class, for example from a fighter to a mage. I leveled up a fighter, then dual classed him to a mage (the dual class action does not show up in the text box) but as soon as I dual classed him, this appeared:

 

 

If the script runs for a character (either because they were present at game start, dual classed to mage or cleric, or was an imported AB character), then it also runs later every time the character levels up, adding more orisons/cantrips and in the case of mages, spell slots.

 

 

If the script did not run for a character when that character appeared (such as importing a non-AB mage character after the game has started) then it does not run when they level up either, and they never get the bonus spell slots.

 

The script also runs for bards. It is possible it runs for druids as well.

 

I do not remember this from the last time I played Auril's Bane years ago. It is possible I was playing a prior version.

 

 

Thrown Weapon Damage:

 

I tested having a character with 18/95 strength throw darts and throwing axes at other characters. The darts did not get the strength bonus; the throwing axes did.

 

In any case the extra mage spell slots and throwing axe strength bonus damage are "unadvertised features" of Auril's Bane 1.7. They don't appear in the ReadMe but obviously affect the game, and character creation choices, significantly. Not that I mind; I like these changes. At least now I know where they are coming from. No other mods were installed, so this was pure Auril's Bane stuff that did not happen in vanilla IWD/HOW/TotL.

 

I tried creating the MACEGR01 item that showed up as the "Bone Club" in the last game with the description "Haagg's Book." It showed up, with the same unusual mace graphic. However its description was blank, it had no name, and a strange bar appeared when I held the cursor over it instead of a name. Still not sure what's going on with that item, or if it interferes with the real Haagg's Book, but it seems pretty buggy.

[chuft]

It appears my Auril's Bane game has become corrupted before I even got out of the Prologue. The Robed Man's dialog in the tavern does not appear; his book explaining cantrips and orisons is blank; and my fighter did not get the extra spell slot and cantrips when dual classing to a mage, nor did my cleric get more orisons upon leveling up.

 

I went back and tried a save I made at the very start of the game, right after the forced dialog with Hrothgar, and still had the same problems (although if I used a cheat to give exps to my characters in the opening tavern and dual class/leveled them up, they did get extra spell slots and cantrips, but the robed man's dialog, and book explaining cantrips/orisons, are still messed up).

 

Maybe XP just can't handle these games. I played them all without problems, including with Auril's Bane, back on Win 98 and did not have these endless problems.

[Dakk]

Maybe XP just can't handle these games. I played them all without problems, including with Auril's Bane, back on Win 98 and did not have these endless problems.

I highly doubt it's XP, unless something wonky is going up with your version of the OS. I run all my IE-games on XP, always have more or less. Playing the modded IWD-install mentioned earlier, on two different XP-systems to boot. Do you have problems with a non Aurils Bane-install?

[chuft]

It's pretty hard to say because the things I am having problems with are specific to Auril's Bane. Here is an example.

 

At the very beginning of the game you start in the tavern. Auril's Bane puts a robed man in the tavern who sells spells, and a book explaining how orisons and cantrips work. AB also gives clerics and mages orisons/cantrips at game start, and mages get an extra level 1 spell slot.

 

All of the above worked fine on an install of AB plus the G3 UB, IU, and Tweaks mods.

 

I ran into some other weird problems so I decided to try to isolate them. I deleted IWD, reinstalled it, then copied it to other folders, one of which I installed Auril's Bane in with no other mods. It should work better, right? Well I have been trying to play the Auril's Bane version in that folder.

 

Now when I talk to the robed man, most of his dialog lines are missing or invisible, and so are many of my dialog choices. If I guess correctly and hit the right number keys (since there are no dialog lines to click on half the time) I get to see his "store" and there is the orison/cantrip book - but instead of being filled with info, it is blank.

 

Why would Auril's Bane work worse without the G3 mods installed? I can't imagine Unfinished Business or Item Upgrades would improve the dialog from an AB-added character. I tried installing Tweaks in case there was something in there that might affect it, but it made no difference. And the extra spells/cantrips thing doesn't always work now either. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

 

Now when I go back and try to play the original game with AB plus the other 3 mods installed, which I saved to an external drive, and open an old save, the robed man is now malfunctioning in that game too. So something is now messing up all my IWD installs on my computer, that wasn't before.

 

Now I am wondering about what you said earlier:

 

Indeed it is. More to the point, you don't even need it installed per se. The game I'm playing right now I started on another computer, then just copied it to an USB-stick and copied to another computer (same path, mind you) and kept going smile.gif

 

(emphasis mine) What is the significance of using the same path?

 

 

If you have a fresh totally vanilla (patched) install, you can just copy the entire directory infinite times and install mods to you liking. Like so:

c:\games\IWDclean (never mod this one)

c:\games\IWD-AurilsBane

c:\games\IWDmodded

c:\games\IWDrandomspelunki

 

Are you sure this is true? Since I did this, all my games are messing up, including the one that worked before.

 

Also, these obviously don't have the same path, so I am even more puzzled by your remark about the path.

[chuft]

After further research, you can't do what you are suggesting without modifying the ini file for each install, as discussed here:

 

I just tried it for my backup of my four-mod install and now it works.

[Dakk]

Indeed it is. More to the point, you don't even need it installed per se. The game I'm playing right now I started on another computer, then just copied it to an USB-stick and copied to another computer (same path, mind you) and kept going smile.gif

(emphasis mine) What is the significance of using the same path?

 

If you have a fresh totally vanilla (patched) install, you can just copy the entire directory infinite times and install mods to you liking. Like so:

c:\games\IWDclean (never mod this one)

c:\games\IWD-AurilsBane

c:\games\IWDmodded

c:\games\IWDrandomspelunki

Are you sure this is true? Since I did this, all my games are messing up, including the one that worked before.

 

Also, these obviously don't have the same path, so I am even more puzzled by your remark about the path.

A bit non-detailed explanation on my part perchance. What I meant is if you just copy the game to another computer, if you put it in the very same place (path) as on the computer you copied it from - it'll run without a hitch. Because the path is specified in the icewind.ini file.

 

If you make MORE copies of an original vanilla install, then you must change the icewind.ini file of all the copies to correspond to the new path. No doubt, you've already figured this out

 

 

After further research, you can't do what you are suggesting without modifying the ini file for each install [...]

I just tried it for my backup of my four-mod install and now it works.

Exactly. Good to hear you got it going, I hope it'll help you.

[chuft]

I wish I understand more about how the infinity engine works. I hacked around using Near Infinity and DLTCEP and eventually puzzled out that an area, 1006 I think, the starting tavern in Easthaven, and some spells, SPIN530.SPL through SPIN534.SPL, and a script, DPLAYER3, are responsible for adding bonus mage spells based on class and INT. Other spells add orisons and cantrips.

 

Unfortunately the exact workings were unclear to me, since I don't know what variables like CHAPTER_BREAK_0 mean and could not find references to it elsewhere. It seems like you only get awarded the bonus spells at the start of the game in that opening tavern scene. Dual classing anywhere else, or even there at a later time, does not result in you getting the bonus spells.

 

I don't know if this is a special "start of game" thing, or an "update at start of every chapter" thing. I suspect the latter for adding more cantrips and orisons but I am not sure. I could not find this variable in the IESDP database.

 

Is there a primer anywhere on how all this stuff works? The tools I was using would let me find out that these three things were associated with each other somehow, but not exactly how, or when the DPLAYER3 script is called and what triggers it. When I look at, say, area 1006, it is in ARE but not in Override so I assume it has not been changed. Yet somehow this area, at a certain time, seems to call DPLAYER3 script and give special abilities to spellcasters if they are there at game start. (Coming back to 1006 later and dual classing doesn't cut it.)

 

How do you get started learning how to do these things? I am wondering how the Auril's Bane author inserted this feature into the game. Obviously there are a lot of files calling each other and interactivity. How do I find the trigger that calls DPLAYER3? Near Infnity does not even show that script in the Override folder although DLTCEP does. But I can't see how to tell what is calling it.

[plainab]

1) NI can be adjusted to show the files that are in the override rather than listing them under their file type... options --> show override files --> choose which setting you prefer

 

2) dplayer3.bcs is (as the name explains it) default player script it is always active and is automatically assigned to every player character.

 

3) there is no primer.... none that i know of... it's been a lot of trial and error, asking in various forums, poking at other people's mods, etc...

3a) there are however specific tutorials to accomplish certain things in the modding scene like making a joinable npc for BG2

[chuft]

Is there a known issue with THAC0's being displayed improperly in IWD?

 

I have noticed a number of items I find claim to have a certain THAC0 bonus, but that is not what it shown when I equip the item. Spinesheath for example claims to have a +5 THAC0, and this is listed in DLTCEP, but when I equip it, I only get a +3 bonus.

 

Dhaliri's Scimitar claims to have a +3 THAC0, but it doesn't, and according to DLTCEP, it doesn't, so clearly the mod authors simply botched things up, although it seems so simple to add a THAC0 bonus to a weapon, I'm not sure how such a botch could occur. Why say a weapon has a +3 THAC0 bonus and then not add it?

 

What happens if you use DLTCEP or NI to change an item during a game? One of my characters has Dhaliri's Scimitar. What would happen if I actually made it +3 to hit? Would its properties in my current game change, or only in future games? Or would it cause a corruption of some kind?

 

EDIT: The problems I noticed for Spinesheath and Presio's Dagger were my fault, I just realized Daggers are a separate proficiency type than Short Swords in IWD (unlike BG1) so I thought I had the proficiency for those, but I don't.

 

At this point I am wondering why anyone ever takes short swords, since even thieves can use long swords and can backstab with them even though they aren't piercing weapons.

[plainab]

At this point I am wondering why anyone ever takes short swords, since even thieves can use long swords and can backstab with them even though they aren't piercing weapons.

for the role play... just cause you can do something doesn't mean that you'll always play that way.