Weird vampire behaviour

[scorpio]

Lured one of the Elder vampires in the windspear dungeon to me, and this is what happens:

 

Link to gallery, with descriptions to follow what is happening below.

 

http://postimg.org/g...uha74/86d2f231/

 

027: The sparks are still coming off Yasraena from being Level drained and yet look where the vampire has teleported too, also notice the combat log with the vampire swearing allegiance to the Roenalls!

 

028: So, she's there right?

 

029: Nope, she's back here. This screen follows 28 by about a second, if that.

 

030-031: She's here right, going manic invis as usual...still got her positio...

 

032: Within a second, i.e. too little time to walk there, she has appeared by Tyris, shouting the glorious name of Roenal! Her animation for invis was still not finished as you can see from 031 and 032.

 

033: We killed here there

 

034: and...the dead body teleports to Yoshimo...I'm half surprised she didn't shout out for Lord Roenal with her dying breath.

 

General comments:

 

She kept going invis, non-stop, to the point I can do nothing, even invis purge (SR version that keeps ticking every round for a turn) reveals her for a second and her auto-invis kicks back in.

 

She seems to teleport around at will too, I took her down eventually by getting some shots in, but she was mostly running around, hitting me once or twice maybe, but generally just acting confused.

 

Even on death the BODY once gone, with no red circle underneath her, gets teleported to a new location. It did stop after that though, i.e. body didn't keep teleporting or anything, I guess the script just running its last crazy loop on the cusp of the death.

 

Also, it keeps saying Elder Vampire - Lord Farthington Roenal in the combat logs as you can see.

 

I searched for Elder vampies in NI, and there are only 2:

 

VAMOLD01.CRE

 

VAMVER01.CRE

 

VAMVER has an exp value of 12500 and VAMOLD of 10500, the latter is what I got (screenie 034) so I assume that's the one in play.

 

Here is VAMOLD.cre and you can see the scripts assinged and perhaps work out what's up?

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wcwu9j

 

As usual, I recognise this mod may not be the issue, but if anyone can help out with weird AI, i'm hoping DW or someone else here could. Seemed the most obvious place to post.

 

Edit: Just more info to add: I fought the rest of the enemies, they could not be lured back one at a time, and everything went fine, no teleportations, no auto-constant-invis, just normal invis every now and then from an ancient vamp.

 

The elder vamps that went down did provide 12500 xp, so I guess they were VAMPVER01, the "right" one, it seems. Not sure what went wrong in the first place, both .CREs have the same .BCS etc for their scripts so I'm confused about that.

 

I'll just pretend it was a vampire gone insane.

 

In addition, on a brighter note for AI, it's the best fight I've had in the game yet. There was an Ancient vampire, 3-4 Elder Vampires, 3-4 Vampires, and some mummies. I had great fun and did it with no negative plane protection amazingly. Yoshimo died, Viconia died, Jaheira was a 3/2 and Yasraena was down to level 3 (party average level is probably 12, Yoshi is highest at 14, charname lowest at 11) but I restored her before Viconia went down. I thought it was too much to take on, but it worked well.

 

I love SCS because I always end up having to position tactically, blocking corridors with people, and generally end up having running battles throughout a dungeon at times, which is truly awesome.

 

Oh, and what is mesmerise? It took away control of my characters for a long time, and seems really powerful. Is there a run-down of abilities you've added somewhere, like how atweaks explains all the new mephit etc abilities in a readme online.

 

It's tough to plan any counter when you see a new ability name in the combat log and can only guess what it does and how to cure/counter it.

[polytope]

I think DavidW once asked me (on the Bioware forums) to give a bug report on the vampires. I never got around to it, but your post would've been my report in essence (although the strings relating to vampire abilities weren't messed up in my install).

 

Oh, and what is mesmerise? It took away control of my characters for a long time, and seems really powerful. Is there a run-down of abilities you've added somewhere, like how atweaks explains all the new mephit etc abilities in a readme online.

 

It's tough to plan any counter when you see a new ability name in the combat log and can only guess what it does and how to cure/counter it.

 

Mesmerize = short duration feeblemindedness (as per the feeblemind spell), Chaotic Commands should protect from it.

[scorpio]

Well, the mesmerise was pretty long in my opinion, at least a turn. That's a death sentence really. Battles don't typically last that long for one side or another, it removes someone from the combat completely.

 

As some general tactical adivice, what is the best counter to confusion, chaos, feeblemind, mesmer etc. These are the spells that really throw me off mid-battle.

 

I mean, other than pre-emptive chaotic commands of course; my only guess is dispel magic, which I always pack, but inevitably the levels of the magic I'm trying to remove (beneficial to enemies, or detrimental to me) means I likely have a 1% chance, maybe 10 or 20 if lucky. Point is, in practice, I've yet to successfully dispel anyone!

 

My style of play is not heavy at all on pre-buffing, and I often go long periods without rest (btw, one of the most aggravating things in BG2 is the rest mechanic, from a tactics point of view it means the difficulty is totally arbitrary most of the time depending on your own rest preferences/roleplay restrictions...) and also much prefer the back and forth of an engagement where you actively counter enemies with dispels and such, except there is no easy counter to these spells that I can see, whereas things like paralysis has the handy remove paralysis spell.

 

Am I missing something or is dispel magic the only way in that vein?

 

Also, sad to hear the vampire experiences you had; does that mean I can expect similar behaviour in other vampires? I've yet to face Bodhi's coven of vampires so that would ruin the experience completely.

 

I was rather hoping it was just VAMPOLD.CRE gone wild in what seems to be a pseudo-random/scaled spawn in Firkragg's lair and that other vampires are not affected.

[kreso]

Well, the mesmerise was pretty long in my opinion, at least a turn. That's a death sentence really.

Afaik, a decent AC still protects you against vamps even if mesmerized. You still got options like invisibility, Maze, Otiluke sphere and similar.

 

As some general tactical adivice, what is the best counter to confusion, chaos, feeblemind, mesmer etc. These are the spells that really throw me off mid-battle.

I have always feared Charm spells the most.

 

 

much prefer the back and forth of an engagement where you actively counter enemies with dispels and such, except there is no easy counter to these spells that I can see, whereas things like paralysis has the handy remove paralysis spell.

Iirc, in vanilla game the only counter to confusion-type spells is Greater Restoration. Heal should deal with Feeblemind...I think, since I never bothered with it. Dispel is an obvious choice, and it's the only way to dispel Charm unfortunately.

I play with SR, which introduce more efficient methods of removing annoying negative status effects.

 

Also, sad to hear the vampire experiences you had; does that mean I can expect similar behaviour in other vampires? I've yet to face Bodhi's coven of vampires so that would ruin the experience completely.

Last time I played vs Bodhi (unnerfed Tactics version) it was a fairly difficult endeavor.

 

I was rather hoping it was just VAMPOLD.CRE gone wild in what seems to be a pseudo-random/scaled spawn in Firkragg's lair and that other vampires are not affected.

They are.

[scorpio]

Well, the mesmerise was pretty long in my opinion, at least a turn. That's a death sentence really.

Afaik, a decent AC still protects you against vamps even if mesmerized. You still got options like invisibility, Maze, Otiluke sphere and similar.

 

Yes, but Tyris and charname were both put out of action for a turn or so each, and were both thusly incapacitated simultaneously for the majority of the battle. Tyris had otiluke's and invis both! No other mages unfortunately so, yeah, no angel to save anyone.

 

Like I say, it was an amazing battle for that reason amongst others that I won it.

 

I play with SR, which introduce more efficient methods of removing annoying negative status effects.

 

I have SR too, not seeing anything special for confusion/charm removal though? Or were you speaking generally about SR and what it introduces? If so, yes, but still nothing for guaranteed/high chance removal of these effects it seems.

 

I was rather hoping it was just VAMPOLD.CRE gone wild in what seems to be a pseudo-random/scaled spawn in Firkragg's lair and that other vampires are not affected.

They are.

 

Really? That sucks. It's pretty silly behaviour, and if you've both seen this I'm sort of surprised there hasn't been a fix/no other threads about it really. Vampires are a huge part of the game, obviously!

 

Still, I'm hopeful for the next version and it might benefit others.

[kreso]

SR "Remove Curse" deals with confusion/chaos type spells. Charm is not curable yet, I'm afraid, making it the arguably the most devestating disable in game.

[scorpio]

Interesting, never knew.

 

Although, you mean the spell named "Break Enchantment" right? I don't believe I've come across one called "Remove Curse".

 

Also, one quick question about SR and SCS meshed together - when enemies cast "Spell shield", are they casting the 5th level version as in vanilla? Or can they ever cast the 8th level one, also called "Spell shield" by SR (this is VERY confusing when it comes to combat log deciphering attempts at what the hell to respond with).

 

For the 5th level spell shield, I believe it was bugged in vanilla, is the one in my game a fixed version (from SR i would think, I don't think SCS touches it within any of its spell components? Even if it does, SR probably overwrites it/SCS ignores it?) and how does it work - I don't have a copy yet, and am more interested in how it ACTUALLY works than to read the description or anything.

[Demivrgvs]

Interesting, never knew.

 

Although, you mean the spell named "Break Enchantment" right? I don't believe I've come across one called "Remove Curse".

Yes, Kreso was speaking of Break Enchantment indeed, which "replaces" vanilla's Remove Curse within SR. The spell still breaks curses, but it also "cures" confusion, sleep, and feeblemind effects.

 

Also, one quick question about SR and SCS meshed together - when enemies cast "Spell shield", are they casting the 5th level version as in vanilla? Or can they ever cast the 8th level one, also called "Spell shield" by SR (this is VERY confusing when it comes to combat log deciphering attempts at what the hell to respond with).

I was sure I renamed SR's 8th level spell into Greater Globe of Invulnerability ages ago, but it ssounds like I did it only on my internal v4 version. I'll do something about it either today or tomorrow, if anything I will upload a hotfix just to handle this because I admit it can be really confusing.

 

For the 5th level spell shield, I believe it was bugged in vanilla, is the one in my game a fixed version (from SR i would think, I don't think SCS touches it within any of its spell components? Even if it does, SR probably overwrites it/SCS ignores it?) and how does it work - I don't have a copy yet, and am more interested in how it ACTUALLY works than to read the description or anything.

It's a long story. Vanilla's Spell Shield was indeed bugged, so much that SCS correctly reused to use it and SR disabled it. Then I come up with a solution to make it work, and Arda coded it. In the end, with SR new version never managing to be released, SCS ended up using our fix before ourselves. I'm truly sorry for the confusion I caused.

[kreso]

Also, one quick question about SR and SCS meshed together - when enemies cast "Spell shield", are they casting the 5th level version as in vanilla?

SCS uses fixed version of vanilla Spell Shield. It's a slight inconsistency in SR/SCS install, but at least it's fully fixed, and always gets removed with first antimagic attack.

[scorpio]

Ok, thanks for the clarifications.

 

These vampires are truly bugged and it's spoiling my enjoyment now.

 

Here's Tanova, she just stood there and took the hits till she died, I moved in and everything to try and make her "realise" I'm there, but no dice.

 

 

Anyone have some working .BCS scripts I can put into override or something? Or even vanilla scripts, because it's better than these broken vamps, whatever mod is the cause.

[kryptix]

No answer for vampires they weren't bugged for me, but I do have an answer for charm. If you successfully dominate the character they will be uncharmed, which is where most of hexxat's uses of domination have come from in my last run.