Subtledoc's Random Tweaks

[Endarire]

@subtledoctor
Maybe I missed something when playing BGII(EE) off and on for about 16 years, but I only recall relying on Dispel Magic/Remove Magic and Breach to undo spell protections, even with SCS (all smarter/tougher components enabled), and doing well overall.  Using your tweaks, if we stick with this trend of only learning/using Dispel/Remove and Breach, how similar to vanilla or SCS behavior should we expect?

Thankee!

[Guest Bgt]

Will revised battles work in bgt?

[subtledoctor]

On 6/19/2020 at 3:56 AM, Guest Bgt said:

Will revised battles work in bgt?

Nope, sorry, it relies on some of the newer modding capabilities of the EEs.

On 6/19/2020 at 3:02 AM, Endarire said:

Using your tweaks, if we stick with this trend of only learning/using Dispel/Remove and Breach, how similar to vanilla or SCS behavior should we expect?

Well, with this mod Globes of Invulnerability could block Dispel Magic, depending on the options you use to install it, but you can make that not happen, in which case DM should behave the same. 

This mod doesn’t change how Breach interacts with spell protections... but be aware, SCS does. (And maybe SR does too - I forget.) With SCS, Breach will be blocked by Spell Deflections and Spell Trap. And IMHO SCS gets that right. If you can just Breach a mage and then stab them, what’s the point of spell protections?

But again, this mod doesn’t change it one way or the other. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by subtledoctor

[Guest bgt]

Thank you for answering my query

[Bartimaeus]

"Component 4020: Tweak Monster Stats

Adds a saving throw vs. Death to all weapon-delivered level drain effects."

 

What is this component? May have described it elsewhere in the thread, but it's description in your readme is just a copy+paste of the level drain component, .

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

"Component 4020: Tweak Monster Stats

Adds a saving throw vs. Death to all weapon-delivered level drain effects."

 

What is this component? May have described it elsewhere in the thread, but it's description in your readme is just a copy+paste of the level drain component, .

Whoops. I was always annoyed to see yeti in IWD doing 1 damage... they should probably be about as strong as ogres, meaning 1dx+3, if not 1dx+6. So their minimum damage should be between 4 and 7 - not 1. This component gives all yeti 18/00 strength. That’s all it does right now... if I or anyone else sees some creatures that need stats boosted, I’ll add them to this component. 

[Bartimaeus]

Gotcha, . Is there any way you could split off the cure power level setter into its own self-contained component? Everything being lumped into a single component is becoming a bit unwieldy, and the rest of the component doesn't have much too much to do with curing working through deflections/immunity.

[subtledoctor]

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Is there any way you could split off the cure power level setter into its own self-contained component? Everything being lumped into a single component is becoming a bit unwieldy, and the rest of the component doesn't have much too much to do with curing working through deflections/immunity.

Could... but I'm not sure it's worth the component bloat.  That component is all about changing the way spell protections and magic attacks work... on a technical level it makes changes to the Cure spells, but the changes are really geared to how Deflection spells behave.  (It makes Deflections behave like magic resistance.)

If it's just for your own use, then take a look at the .tp2 file.  Component 5000 uses "LAF" to run four different functions:

• LAF mbr
• LAF dispel_globes
• LAF breach_what
• LAF cure_power

You can simply add a " // " in front of the first three, and then it will only make the changes to the Cure spells.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Could... but I'm not sure it's worth the component bloat.  That component is all about changing the way spell protections and magic attacks work... on a technical level it makes changes to the Cure spells, but the changes are really geared to how Deflection spells behave.  (It makes Deflections behave like magic resistance.)

If it's just for your own use, then take a look at the .tp2 file.  Component 5000 uses "LAF" to run four different functions:

• LAF mbr
• LAF dispel_globes
• LAF breach_what
• LAF cure_power

You can simply add a " // " in front of the first three, and then it will only make the changes to the Cure spells.

Fair enough, . I was just remembering that someone else(s?) had requested this way sometime ago for SRR, and I had said "probably not gonna happen in SRR" - it'd be nice to have a specific component to point to in case it comes up again for someone to install without other changes. I'm still not a hundred percent sure I want this for myself, but I'm leaning towards yes - although I'm also wondering about the merits of putting all other friendly spells in it as well.

[subtledoctor]

It just seems silly to me that if, say, your mage gets poisoned by a spider, the mage has to die because they have Spell Deflection active. Even worse, what about trying to heal them or remove a curse or disease when you’re not even in combat... you have to stand around waiting for the timer to expire? It’s super annoying. This is basically a convenience tweak. (The spell duration is quite long, several turns I think...I suppose we could also reduce it to 10 rounds or something...)

[Bartimaeus]

19 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

It just seems silly to me that if, say, your mage gets poisoned by a spider, the mage has to die because they have Spell Deflection active. Even worse, what about trying to heal them or remove a curse or disease when you’re not even in combat... you have to stand around waiting for the timer to expire? It’s super annoying. This is basically a convenience tweak. (The spell duration is quite long, several turns I think...I suppose we could also reduce it to 10 rounds or something...)

I agree, but I also usually adopt a pretty originalist attitude towards mechanics when it comes to SRR and IRR, which is why I wouldn't put it in SRR and would prefer to have it as an additional tweak people can install if they want. And since you've already made it and have additional tweaks for SR in this mod, it'd be nice to just be able to have it be totally self-contained rather than tied to an experimental set of other anti-magic/Spell Deflection changes (which I'll be curious to hear any feedback on since it's a bit wacky by BG standards, ).

[Jarno Mikkola]

11 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

(It makes Deflections behave like magic resistance.)

Thing is, the Magic Resistance worked differently in BG1 than it does in BG2... yes, originally MR blocked healing spells too. Say like the drow one, that Viconia has: From here.

Quote

Her magic resistance just can't be overlooked (assuming you are playing in Tutu, or using fixpacks that make it so it doesn't accidentally negate your own spells!)

 

[Luke]

Another tweak about healing spells:

On IWD:EE, they are coded to be ineffective against unnatural creatures (i.e., undead, fiends, golems, elementals and the like): you might want to do the same for BG games (I mean, it does make sense...)

[subtledoctor]

Thinking about modding Planetars:

I have always hated that devout priests can only summon lowly devas, while heretical and potentially atheistic wizards can somehow convince planetars to aid them.  I also always hated the idea of the "evil planetar."  While there surely are a few such things out there in the multiverse, their existence could fuel a whole D&D campaign - they shouldn't be used for ten rounds of hack and slash on behalf of some dumb prime mage.  There are actually plenty of incredibly powerful extraplanar beings that an evil wizard might want to summon to to do evil things - they're called fiends!  There are all sorts of them!  Why are evil wizards summoning a twisted version of an upper-planar angelic warrior??

I've long considered how to replace them.  Just recently I had a bit of an epiphany, for a less-is-more approach.  Here's the idea: replace them with some version of Noble Genies.  Binding genies to their will is much more in keeping with the stories of the kinds of things that wizards do.  But, I'm no scripter.  How can one such as I make awesome HLA-power genies, with HLA-power abilities, and good scripts to use them?

Easy - I'll leave them alone.

The idea is, I won't actually change the planetars - I'll just change their names and animations, and maybe make a few other small changes.  There will still be a good version and an evil version: PLANGOOD.CRE will be a "Noble Djinn," chaotic good, a fighter/cleric with the same spells and scripting as the original planetar.  100% Electricity resistance, instead of fire/cold.  PLANEVIL.CRE will be a "Noble Efreet," Neutral Evil, a fighter/cleric with the same spells and scripting as the original fallen planetar.  100% fire resistance, instead of cold.  I'll probably also change their weapons too, instead of a vorpal sword the efreet will get a flaming sword and the djinn will get... something.  I'll figure out a cool weapon.  Oh, and they will not longer be mutually exclusive - all good/neutral/evil players will be able to choose either one, or both.

But in general, they will have the same abilities, the same in-game role and effectiveness, as the original dumb planetar summons.  So you, the player, won't have to change how you play.  You can still expect that HLA to summon a badass extraplanar warrior who kicks ass in largely the same way that planetars do.  It just won't be as conceptually silly.

Thoughts?

Edited January 20, 2021 by subtledoctor

[Jarno Mikkola]

9 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Just recently I had a bit of an epiphany, for a less-is-more approach.  Here's the idea: replace them with some version of Noble Genies. 

Erhm, this is not less... so add a little more of "the less" and skip the deleteation of the original Planetars and just make a HLA that allows a Noble Genie for good, and Villanious Efreet as an option. That's a proper less-is-more -approach.

 

13 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

"Noble Efreet,"

Ha... no, there's no such things.