Opcode 301: Critical Hit modifier

[phordicus]

Isn't this going to let crits get through stoneskin yet the base attack does nothing? Used to be a header effect would go through that and ironskins, which seems weird/cheesy. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

[kreso]

Isn't this going to let crits get through stoneskin yet the base attack does nothing? Used to be a header effect would go through that and ironskins, which seems weird/cheesy. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

Base attack won't do "nothing", it will eat one skin if it hits, extra effects will go through if they happen, yes.

It's not like I'm re-inventing the wheel here, Stoneskin never stopped secondary effects (you could always vorpalize through it, Slow with Ages, Ghasts would paralyze you etc.)

Tbh, I consider such things a "bonus" in this system.

Stoneskin is one of the most OP spells in the game, and it really shouldn't stop such effects (i.e. knockdown). It already does far more than it should.

The fact that a freakin dragon/Iron Golem can't punch through more than one skin per hit is enough brokeness.

Finally, mages may now consider AC to be a (much) better protection than it was. Critical Strike will no longer make AC scores moot.

[kreso]

Things done today: effs (that lasted a while.....), slight revamp of spells and probablities. That eff targeting is a blast. All incorporal and illusionary creatures will be immune to virtually all ill effects. Others are more-less race-specific. Armor Dent won't affect Basilisks, Ankhegs, animals and similar since they have no armor to dent in the first plae, Flay won't affect skeletons since they have no skin, undead won't be disembowled etc. Common sense prevails (I hope!).

List of effects used:

 

large swords - 10%, Flay - 1D6 slashing damage, -2 to damage rolls, stacks with itself, lasts 1 round

bows - 5%, Arm Hit - -10THAC0, does not stack, 1 round (generally, creatures which don't use weapons or don't need arms to attack you are immune)

daggers - 10% Daze - 3 seconds Feeblemind, duration can be refreshed on consecutive hits

axes - 10% Wide Open - -10 AC penalty, 1 round, doesn't stack with itself

crossbows - 15% Nailed - Movement disabled (only movement!) for 1 round, consecutive hits refresh duration

short swords - 15% Piercing Strike - +6 piercing damage, bypasses damage resistance. This is one of the very few effects that work vs Golems.

staffs - 10% Cracked Rib - -4DEX, -4STR, Movement Speed halved, lasts two rounds, doesn't stack

halberd - 10% Disembowel - -4CON, 2D6 slashing damage, lasts two rounds, doesn't stack (affects those with *some* kind of living anatomy)

flails - 10% Armor Dent - -4AC for three rounds, doesn't stack with itself (pretty much only affects creatures which can wear armor)

fists - 10% Terrible Bruise - 2D6 non-lethal damage

mace/club - 10% Low Blow - -2 penalty to *all* rolls, three rounds, doesn't stack with itself

sling - 10% Nerve Cluster - 1 round Stun, consecutive hits refresh duration (affects those with nerve system only)

dart - 5% Bleeder - 1D6 damage delayed for 1 second after hit lands (affects those with...blood to spill )

hammer - 10% knockback - pushed away for a small lenght (large & incorporal excluded)

spear - 15% Leg Swipe - knockdown (2 seconds) followed by two rounds of slower movement (75% of base) and -2 penalty to DEX. Doesn't stack with itself, creatures who don't depend on legs to move are immune (Dragons included).

On a sidenote, this will affect Mellisan's spear in ToB finale.

morning stars - 10% Solid Blow - 1d6 blunt + 1d6 piercing damage (affects almost all creatures, only illusionary and incorporal are generally immune to this damage)

 

Thrown versions:

axe - 5% Flat Blade Hit - 3D6 non-lethal damage (this, like Solid Blow, affects almost everyone)

hammer - 5% Rattled - 1 round confusion

spear - 10% Puncture - 1 round 100% spell failure (creatures who don't breathe are immune to this, so no Lich spell failure and similar).

dagger - 10% Eye Wound - 1 round Blindness (creatures who don't rely on sight or are immune to Blindness won't be affected).

 

Anyways, now I'd like to patch 206 vs respecive spells on a few items (those IR uses for critical hit protection). It's not crucial, bit I'd like to do it anyway.

Is there a "short" way to do it or am I stuck with this

 

ACTION_FOR_EACH (a dozen .itm files)

COPY_EXISTING ~criticalhitprotectionitem.ITM~ override // Helmet of Defense, Ring of Phantom Wraith, Mail of Dead etc.

PATCH_IF (%SOURCE_SIZE% > 0x71) BEGIN

LPF ADD_ITEM_EQEFFECT

INT_VAR

opcode = 206 // pro spell

I

I

I

I

STR_VAR resource = ~K1CL804~ // rinse and repeat for no less than 20 spells.

END

END

BUT_ONLY

 

 

Can I add more than one spell in *resource* line or do I need to repeat all this for all spells?

[Cahir]

O hell, this is cool. Will it work with EE's?

[phordicus]

 

Isn't this going to let crits get through stoneskin yet the base attack does nothing? Used to be a header effect would go through that and ironskins, which seems weird/cheesy. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

Base attack won't do "nothing", it will eat one skin if it hits, extra effects will go through if they happen, yes.

It's not like I'm re-inventing the wheel here, Stoneskin never stopped secondary effects (you could always vorpalize through it, Slow with Ages, Ghasts would paralyze you etc.)

Tbh, I consider such things a "bonus" in this system.

Stoneskin is one of the most OP spells in the game, and it really shouldn't stop such effects (i.e. knockdown). It already does far more than it should.

The fact that a freakin dragon/Iron Golem can't punch through more than one skin per hit is enough brokeness.

Finally, mages may now consider AC to be a (much) better protection than it was. Critical Strike will no longer make AC scores moot.

 

I was just curious if a way had been found to stop the header effect if the skin negated the parent attack. Bug. Feature. We're all used to it.

[kreso]

O hell, this is cool. Will it work with EE's?

I don't see why it wouldn't, other than EE setting some new hardcoded "natural 20" critical roll.

 

 

I was just curious if a way had been found to stop the header effect if the skin negated the parent attack. Bug. Feature. We're all used to it.

There may be one, patching stoneskin/ironskin to have a 206 opcode vs relevant spell cast from weappon header.

Vanilla game effects generally aren't used via spells but effects (example: Flail of Ages has 33% chance Slow effect.

If it used a seperate spell - say ageslow.spl with no-save slow instead one could easilly make an item/spell which protects one vs it but not any other resource that Slows you - ditto stoneskin could have protection from spell : ageslow.spl)

In short - not possible w/o converting vanilla effects to be used as spells .

Here, stoneskin will prevent the damage (where applicable), secondary effects (if they exist) go through.

[kreso]

 

O hell, this is cool. Will it work with EE's?

I don't see why it wouldn't, other than EE setting some new hardcoded "natural 20" critical roll.

Well, I tried it out, it works.

 

Conviniently enough, it also revealed a few (very ugly) bugs. I have to do EXTEND_TOP otherwise script won't work. That's ok, easilly fixable. Also, some effects (notably, Flay, Piercing Strike) don't work properly yet, I don't know why....meh.

[Shaitan]

You don't by any chance plan on release some of your mods in a package or something similar? It sounds interesting.

 

Cheers

[kreso]

Of course I'll release it. I wouln't bother learning Weidu code if I didn't. I need to finish it before however.

Shouldn't take more than a day or two to release the first "beta" version.

To do:

- add Item Revisions check

- Refinements check (has a HLA to grant +1 to critical hit chance, it should be replaced with something else I guess)

- add specific BGEE (1) checks since areas are named differently and some strings can't be set (Critical Strike HLA, most notably)

- write the code to patch IR items which give protection from criticals (not crucial however, IR is still beta and I don't yet know the full list of items which will use this feature), so I'll probably skip it for the first release. Besides, getting hit with Armor Dent/Leg Swipe and similar is cool ).

- check for gamebreaking bugs (none for now, just few effects don't work at all; EXTEND_TOP is already fixed and works properly) - this needs to be done first and foremost; others won't take more than 10 minutes (or less)

- and that's about it.

[kreso]

Also, some effects (notably, Flay, Piercing Strike) don't work properly yet, I don't know why....meh.

This is crazy. I used eff targeting with "No race". It appears a number of game creatures have no race at all! At least it's easilly fixable.

[Shaitan]

Thanks

[subtledoctor]

There may be one, patching stoneskin/ironskin to have a 206 opcode vs relevant spell cast from weappon header.

Vanilla game effects generally aren't used via spells but effects (example: Flail of Ages has 33% chance Slow effect.

If it used a seperate spell - say ageslow.spl with no-save slow instead one could easilly make an item/spell which protects one vs it but not any other resource that Slows you - ditto stoneskin could have protection from spell : ageslow.spl)

Problem is, I think that protection would be controlled by the duration of the Stoneskin spell,not by the skins themselves. So you would be protected from FoA's Slow effect all day, even though your skins only lasted one battle.

 

I'm pretty sure the effects of the skins are hard-coded. Consider that removing the gray color from them takes an .exe patch...

[kreso]

Yeah, you'd be protected even if skins were depleted. Breach/Dispel would work to remove protection, but peeling skins off wouldn't. Ah well, I wouldn't do it anyway.

[kreso]

Small update:

I've slightly re-areanged the mod structure. It's no longer a huge .tp2; now it's done "per modern standards" by use of .tpa files.

I've also made IR-specific component (yey! ) which *requires* base IR component to be installed; it's skipped on non-IR installs. Took a while to figure how, even if I only needed to add two code lines .

Seperating the main tp2 from the rest of the code will make it easier to add additional components to the mod.

Per first public upload, I'll also include a set of "house rules" I use in my game (modified 2da files, exp tables, strenght bonuses, etcetc - quite a bit of stuff designed to make the game (imo) better and/or more "realistic" - if such a thing can be said for BG anyway);and my swashbuckler kit modification (fwiw, that was my very first coding effort. Never got it to work.....it will be done however ).

Ofc, it will be optional; not everyone is a masochist who plays No-Reloads with nerfed XP gain.

Finally, I've fixed the eff targeting for Race:No Race which made effects not trigger properly on numerous creatures who shouldn't be immune to them; fixed a few errors with spells themseves I found (Disembowel actually added +4 CON for example ), slightly tightened race-targeting; and something else I forgot what.

 

To Do before release:

- BG:EE (1) compatibility (I'll add a seperate tpa file for it - shouldn't be too hard since I already hot-wired the mod on EE1 by removing error blocks);

- replace the damn Smite HLA with something else (I keep postponing this). +8 damage + knockback, that way it will be coherent with Critical Strike rework I already have made. Not perfect, but...

 

- replace Refinements "Improved Critical" with something else; iirc Archers also gain some kind of Critical Hit altering ability. Now thinking of it, Rogue Rebalancing Swashbuckler also has a +5 to critical chance HLA...... I'll likely simply replace bonus to critical chance with bonus to damage roll.

Thus:

- Refinements HLA will net you permanent +2 damage (it can only be picked once)

- Refinements Archer will get whatever bonus to critical chance as bonus to damage roll

- RR Swashbuckler HLA will add +5 to damage for the duration

 

- IR "Gloves of the Rogue" need some new ability; I can't leave +5% to critical hit there

- readme

[kreso]

I'll also include a set of "house rules" I use in my game (modified 2da files, exp tables, strenght bonuses, etcetc - quite a bit of stuff designed to make the game (imo) better and/or more "realistic" - if such a thing can be said for BG anyway);

To Do before release:

- BG:EE (1) compatibility (I'll add a seperate tpa file for it - shouldn't be too hard since I already hot-wired the mod on EE1 by removing error blocks);

- replace the damn Smite HLA with something else (I keep postponing this). +8 damage + knockback, that way it will be coherent with Critical Strike rework I already have made. Not perfect, but...

Done.

EE1 compatibilty done; .2da's are wrapped up and install fine on all three test games. Smite reworked. I'll upload it tomorrow. May not include Refinements/RR compatibilty; but it shouldn't matter much.