Ascension 2.0.8 out; report bugs here

[DavidW]

That's interesting; thanks. This is my relative inexperience with NPC mods showing up - I guess what makes sense for the banter file isn't what makes sense for the main NPC dialog file. And I didn't know that about Interact() being interruptible.

But wouldn't it make sense, in that case, to set the Interact() to repeat on (say) a 12-second timer until the dialog fires, rather than just having it trigger constantly? Stutter bugs are quite serious, after all - I'd rather code in a way that's properly proofed against it.

(EDIT: and no, it doesn't come across as patronizing.)

[jastey]

I wrote a long answer in PM which basically states "I'm not sure a timer would really help much".

[vanatos]

Hi, for this compatibility bug i am going to make some changes.

I believe the best way to make everything work is to remove checks introduced in BIMOEN25.dlg, that way the talk will trigger from any of our timers (or the games own banter engine).

Let me know what you think.

[Austin]

tipun from the Russian forum about Baldur's Gate asked to write the following (he is not registered here): 

"Local variables can also cause problems with starting dialogs. According to my observations, they work in B * .dlg, in other dialogs not always. In my IWD2 port, in the Oswald dialog, there were local timers (timers are the same variables), and for a few checks the necessary dialogue never started. And after changing the type of variables to global, everything worked."

[jastey]

I don't think it's also dependent whether we talk about a joinable or non-joinable NPC. As far as I know, local variables are not stored in the savegame for non-joinable characters, which makes their use for quests unreliable.

[DavidW]

I think I have it fixed on my side; no need to do anything on yours.

The problem with removing the checks entirely is that (since banters are called randomly from time to time) you might by chance get the banter implausibly early. I assume that's why Imoen Romance's original writer added them, and it's why I put them into Ascension. They just need to be coordinated - but I've done that (locally) in Ascension now, so I think you can leave Imoen alone for this one.

[DavidW]

2 hours ago, jastey said:

I don't think it's also dependent whether we talk about a joinable or non-joinable NPC. As far as I know, local variables are not stored in the savegame for non-joinable characters, which makes their use for quests unreliable.

Local variables are stored for non-joinables. (The engine represents them as an opcode-187 effect attached to the CRE file.)

[DavidW]

On 2/15/2020 at 1:54 AM, Bartimaeus said:

I wish weidu didn't spit out "INSTALLED WITH WARNINGS" for this, since it can be a bit misleading. Basically, the mod expected to modify a file (specifically an item), but didn't end up doing so. That's all the warning is there for. It is almost 99% sure to be inconsequential.

I'm glad it does; otherwise the modder doesn't notice bugs. In this case, it was a clash between the beta fix component of BG2 Fixpack and Ascension - not game-breaking, but Melissan's spear ends up more powerful than it's supposed to be. Now fixed, but I'd probably never have known about it without that warning.

[jastey]

1 hour ago, DavidW said:

Local variables are stored for non-joinables. (The engine represents them as an opcode-187 effect attached to the CRE file.)

Thanks!

[DavidW]

Locking this, now that 2.0.11 is out.