SR V4 Open Beta (last update 25 October 2018)

[Demivrgvs]

There's some important stuff going on here. I'll try to upload a mini "new" build before going to bed.

 

Dispelling Screen

Since we apparently keep its DS stats unchanged, kill this in the main component:

LAF ds_altered_spell INT_VAR old_clone=142 new_clone=~-1~ STR_VAR file=~spwi590.spl~ END

and instead add this (once is enough):

APPEND_OUTER ~spell_rev/lib/ds_sr_extra.2da~ ~spwi510.SPL    282     1     6     142    n     A~

@Arda do you mean I don't have to replace "LAF ds_altered_spell bla bla" for spwi590? Replacing the line after spwi510 and removing the one after spwi590 does the trick?

 

Animal Summoning I

Let's give these bats a chance then and hope EE didn't fucked this animation too. I like the combo with Obscuring Mist. Good suggestion guys.

 

Death Knight vs Cacofiend

Leaving aside SCS compatibility (it checks for Death Knights when SR is installed), I do think getting DKs is way more interesting than having one more fiend summoning variant (we already have Summon Fiend and Gate). It also gives Necromancers a deserved high lvl minion, while Conjurer keeps the top tier fiends.

 

I could "restore" the lost fiend (Cornugon?) on a different spell, or use it as entry lvl summon for the 8th lvl spell, but overall I don't understand what's special about it. Conjurers already have 2 genies, the anti-spellcaster hakeashar, and soon a cool MSVII too. Do they really need one more summon in that spell slot?

[n-ghost]

Speaking of summons, I personally never ever ever ever ever EVER summon any demon, because they are evil, mean, uncontrollable, can turn on me, and would probably delete my system32 folder just for giggles if given a chance.

 

D:

[geg_Ma3gau]

There's some important stuff going on here. I'll try to upload a mini "new" build before going to bed.

 

Dispelling Screen

Since we apparently keep its DS stats unchanged, kill this in the main component:

LAF ds_altered_spell INT_VAR old_clone=142 new_clone=~-1~ STR_VAR file=~spwi590.spl~ END

and instead add this (once is enough):

APPEND_OUTER ~spell_rev/lib/ds_sr_extra.2da~ ~spwi510.SPL    282     1     6     142    n     A~

@Arda do you mean I don't have to replace "LAF ds_altered_spell bla bla" for spwi590? Replacing the line after spwi510 and removing the one after spwi590 does the trick?

 

Animal Summoning I

Let's give these bats a chance then and hope EE didn't fucked this animation too. I like the combo with Obscuring Mist. Good suggestion guys.

 

Death Knight vs Cacofiend

Leaving aside SCS compatibility (it checks for Death Knights when SR is installed), I do think getting DKs is way more interesting than having one more fiend summoning variant (we already have Summon Fiend and Gate). It also gives Necromancers a deserved high lvl minion, while Conjurer keeps the top tier fiends.

 

I could "restore" the lost fiend (Cornugon?) on a different spell, or use it as entry lvl summon for the 8th lvl spell, but overall I don't understand what's special about it. Conjurers already have 2 genies, the anti-spellcaster hakeashar, and soon a cool MSVII too. Do they really need one more summon in that spell slot?

Death knight vs cacofiend?

 

Well im fine with both but you know the nabassu(7), glabrezu(8) and pit fiend(9) were a TRIO, and now they lost nabassu

 

Summon cacofiend used to summon nabassu. Maybe just give an option to switch between the two or its just too heavy on programming?

[Demivrgvs]

I've uploaded a mini-update.

 

V4 - Beta 9.1 (16 March 2015)
- various fixes
- Animal Summoning I summons large bats instead of rats (rat animation caused ctds on EE)
- Spell Shield patching code hopefully fixed by Arda

 

I hope instead to package a real new build within a bunch of days. It will include quite a few new spells, including all Monster Summoning spells from I to IX.

[bradinmemph]

wohooo MS on the way look forward to the new build and will .. crash test the mini update.. on ee and 2ee

[n-ghost]

Great job Demi!

 

Giving those bats a try right now.

[Ardanis]

@Arda do you mean I don't have to replace "LAF ds_altered_spell bla bla" for spwi590? Replacing the line after spwi510 and removing the one after spwi590 does the trick?

 

Strictly technical explanation of how DS functions.

 

 

Both the ds_altered_spell function and the APPEND_OUTER ~spell_rev/lib/ds_sr_extra.2da~ action are not tied to the actual files being copied, hence it's not really important where they appear in TP2 (except for the purpose of being easy to comment out along with the relevant spell).

 

The standard DS code, included into AI mods, contains the in-built default table of spells and respective stats. One of the lines in the table is this:

 

SPWI590.SPL 282 1 6 142 n A // SI_ABJURATION

What this does - load the file spwi590.spl, find among its Ability headers an effect with opcode 142 (display icon) and, if found, copy it (target, duration, saves etc.) as new effect with opcode 282 and parameters 1 and 2 set to 1 and 6 respectively. The latter sets the scripting state 7 (the count starts at 0, not 1, so 6 becomes 7), also known as stat #162 to the value of 1. If opcode 142 has not been found, then nothing is copied and DS code moves to the next entry in table.

 

Now, let's assume we have tinkered with SI:Abj to the point of no recognition, e.g. turned it into Dispelling Screen, and don't want the AI to detect it as SI:Abj anymore (actually we do want now, but let's go step by step). How can we do it, if SCS ships its own copy of DS code, which can't have the slightest idea of what we changed in SR? We pass the information via custom 2da file in override folder. We add this to our TP2:

 

LAF ds_altered_spell INT_VAR old_clone=142 new_clone=~-1~ STR_VAR file=~spwi590.spl~ END

It will create in override the 2da file, which will tell any future DS installations to substitute the matching opcode 142 for the SPWI590.SPL file with opcode -1. When SCS (re-)installs DS and the standard table is loaded, it will eventually read the SI:Abj line as described above. Then it will check for modifications, stored in 2da in override.

 

The net effect will be as if we had changed the SCS' line to this:

 

SPWI590.SPL 282 1 6 -1 n A // SI_ABJURATION

 

 

Since there can be no negative opcode values, such effect will never be found and no 282 - 1 - 6 detectable stat will be added to SPWI590.SPL, making it undetectable by AI scripts.

 

That was theory, but since in practice we still want AI to detect Dispelling Screen as SI:Abj, the procedure described just above is not just unnecessary but actually harmful, and should be disabled in our tp2.

 

 

However, we're not done with DS yet, because we've changed SPWI510.SPL - it used to be merely a selection menu for SI spells, not carrying any real effect. But now we've changed that with SR and made spwi510 a real spell, same functionality that vanilla SI:Abj (spwi590, now only cast by AI) now has. This means we need to flag spwi510 with the same stat that spwi590 uses. We do it by filling and running our own DS table, in addition to the standard one:

APPEND_OUTER ~spell_rev/lib/ds_sr_extra.2da~ ~spwi510.SPL 282 1 6 142 n A~

 

The ds_sr_extra.2da is a custom name for our table, and the ~spwi510.SPL 282 1 6 142 n A~ line added to it should be already easy to understand what it does.

 

Hope I made any sense.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Ardanis

[zenblack]

So does this version include the fix to Dispelling Screen or no?

[bradinmemph]

so did timer on magic stone ever get changed to 240? i did it for own game based on the 255+= timing error.. for the opcode...

 

240 gives 4 turns instead of 5 but its better than magic stone dying in 2-4 rounds..

 

sppr106.spl

looks unchanged still at 300 duration which = 3 seconds rlt in bgee with the opcode time error..

240 durr gives me a nice min or 2 rlt..

 

testing newest build right now..on clean bgee bg2ee install(beamsoft) has got to be wondering why im re downloading the game 8 times a day LOL

Edited March 16, 2015 by bradinmemph

[bradinmemph]

bad news Bats Ctd in bg2ee

 

ToB at least

 

 

others all work fine

 

 

admitedly losing bats for tob isnt huge ..

 

but still...

 

Im dl'ing fresh bg2ee will install newest sr build and nothing else and test Soa and Tob

 

but so far not looking good for bats rats..cats or hats... in As1

 

 

also animal growth I know ive mentioned this before...

 

but either the summoned critters need to be associated to fighter class..

 

or just give a 50% hp bonus ,dble norm damage.....+ top ac.. and ...specials for the top tier AS spells....,for the bearsvi-vii chance to "maul "under animal growth.. or increased chance ..

giant snake +animal growth chance to crush...(its not venomous or there'd be a posion save )so must be constrictor... ...

Edited March 16, 2015 by bradinmemph

[n-ghost]

This EE stuff is ridiculous. Screwing not just one random animation, but two in a row?

 

Afair snakes are the only viable alternative that remains, and it was already to be implemented in some higher AS level, no ?

[Jarno Mikkola]

This EE stuff is ridiculous. Screwing not just one random animation, but two in a row?

Right, or you could use creatures that were actually originally designed to be combat creatures and have none of the crashes. Think, it's not illegal.

Besides, you can always supply your own animation resources and in EE, you don't even need to modify the .exe to use them...

Edited March 16, 2015 by Jarno Mikkola

[subtledoctor]

Death Knight vs Cacofiend

Leaving aside SCS compatibility (it checks for Death Knights when SR is installed), I do think getting DKs is way more interesting than having one more fiend summoning variant (we already have Summon Fiend and Gate). It also gives Necromancers a deserved high lvl minion, while Conjurer keeps the top tier fiends.

 

I could "restore" the lost fiend (Cornugon?) on a different spell, or use it as entry lvl summon for the 8th lvl spell, but overall I don't understand what's special about it. Conjurers already have 2 genies, the anti-spellcaster hakeashar, and soon a cool MSVII too. Do they really need one more summon in that spell slot?

I guess what I'm saying is, why does it have to be Death Knight vs. Cacofiend?

 

Conjurers have a huge glut at 6th and 7th levels...

- air elemental,

- earth elemental,

- fire elemental,

- invisible stalker,

- wyvern,

- nishruu,

- djinni,

- efreet,

- hakeashar,

- greater air elemental,

- greater earth elemental,

- greater fire elemental,

- cacofiend

 

... did I miss any?

 

Tactically speaking, what's the difference between nishruu and hakeashar? Between djinni and efreet? Between the elementals? Cacofiend is interesting and different from all the others, AND it conforms to the traditional trope of a wizard summoning a demon for dark knowledge or dark deeds. For me, it would not be the first on the chopping block.

 

Yes there are two other fiend-summoning spells, but a nabassu is reasonably different from a glabrezu or a pit fiend - more different than a djinn from an efreet, or than a nishruu from a hakeashar, or than the elementals from each other.

 

And the difference is even bigger when you add the excellent, excellent aTweaks PnP Fiends component.

 

I'm finding myself having to do some weird Weidu trickery where I copy Death Knight to another spell, pull Cacofiend out of the SR backup folder and restore it, as an intermediate step before installing aTweaks. It's convenient that my mod comes in between SR and aTweaks... but it's still a PITA and I still never ever find myself summoning djinni or hakeashars.

Edited March 16, 2015 by subtledoctor

[geg_Ma3gau]

HAving trouble defeating Torgal. Everyone else in the room is defeated, Torgal is standing and just not dying. Is there any way around this bug? I ve heard you fixed that in the newer patch, but my savegame seems to be older then your patch so i have a buggy troll. Resting and trying again helped. Thats a few bits too much bugs then desired )

Edited March 16, 2015 by geg_Ma3gau

[subtledoctor]

but my savegame seems to be older

This, I suspect. Don't use old savegames with new mod installs.