Item Usability - Monk Keldorn's Armor (Firecam Full Plate)

[erronius]

Having read the information available, I'd like to propose that the Item Usability change to make monks unable to wear Keldorn's armor (the Firecam Full-Plate Armor, NPPLAT) be removed from the fixpack. While I haven't experimented with what types of races, classes, and with what stats can wear this armor (nor delved into the game's source code), there is substantial reason to believe that this feature is working as intended. Specifically, the item description states "This suit was designed for Keldorn and few [emphasis mine] other than he can wear it." This suggests to me that the developers included the ability for monks to wear the armor on purpose.

 

Ultimately, even if I am wrong, and this is completely a bug, it has become an Easter Egg for the game (whether accidental or intentional) that I enjoy, and I others probably do as well (see DSimpson's Gamefaq walkthrough). Nothing about being able to wear this armor will break your game, either difficulty-wise or preventing you from moving forward with a corrupted save file (at least, not that I know of). By TOB, a monk's natural AC will be lower, and monks get a weaker version of Free Action anyway, along with Magic Resist and good saves. In the meantime, I'll be locating this line in the fixpack and commenting it out.

 

I don't have the "mission statement" if there is one for the fixpack, but in my mind, the fixes should make the game better/more enjoyable, and less likely to break down. I don't see how this makes the experience any better.

 

Thanks for reading, and the great work on the projects.

 

P.S.: Your documentation page is inaccessible in Chrome.

[erronius]

Quick update: for anyone else similarly inclined, I've done the digging, and here's the line you need to comment out to be able to have a monk wear Keldorn's armor once again:

 

~npplat.itm~ ~override~ // Firecam Full-Plate Armor

 

The easiest way to find this is to search the file for "adds monk". Then it's the big section above that. I used notepad but other than that, basically followed the instructions in the "I *HATE* this fix" thread.

 

Also, responding to that: I understand why you don't want to break the mod up into a million little optional pieces. That would take forever for the user to install, and you'd have to be making all these stupid boring decisions as the user. OK, I get that. But maybe there's a happy medium, where things are separated into 2-4 categories? Like, "fixes that just fix crash bugs" "fixes that just fix balance bugs". I dunno, I don't have the background of understanding with your mod to really propose intelligent categories. In short, this type of change (no longer allowing monks to wear keldorn's armor) could be separate from changes that everyone definitely wants.

[Mike1072]

It's not so easy to narrow down a list of fixes that everyone agrees on.

 

The following evidence points towards this being a bug:

1. Monk class description: Monks cannot wear armor.
   
2. Monks can't equip any of the ~60 normal armors.
   
3. Along with the line you quoted in the description, under the usability section it also says: Only wearable by Keldorn.
   
4. More items are erroneously flagged for monks than for any other class. Presumably this is because the class was added later in the development cycle.
   

I guess this is just one of those bugs that you wish wasn't a bug.

[CamDawg]

I guess this is just one of those bugs that you wish wasn't a bug.

Ding, ding, ding.

 

This is about as clear a bug as there is--it says right in the meat-and-potatoes that it's only usable by Keldorn.

[erronius]

But how does fixing this bug actually improve anyone's play experience? If you believe monks shouldn't be able to wear Keldorn's armor all you have to do is... not wear it. In fact, unless you are specifically building your monk to take advantage of this (you need 17 con, 12 int, and 18 cha, which are silly stats for a monk to try for usually) it wouldn't even come up.

[Salk]

To me, this is a clear bug as CamDawg says.

 

Monks are not allowed to wear armor and Keldorn's armor is... an armor.