What happens if an old game meets a new effect?

[temnix]

Does SoA crash when trying to run opcode 365 from a newer mod, or does nothing happen at all?

[subtledoctor]

crash

[temnix]

All right, so what are the options for removing a spell's effect in an old installation? That's the one I want to know about, really. The old engine doesn't have "Remove effects by resource," so how can I clear a custom spell off a creature? I could use old Dispel, but that's not selective and won't do anything about dispel mode 0 effects anyway.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Opcode 221: Remove secondary type. Yes, the effect needs a specific secondary type, and there's only so many of them(or so I have heard), but you can add a custom one if there's space for it in the msectype.2da -file, that is 99 or less without ToBEx.

[subtledoctor]

Ya - add a custom secondary type, set your spell to be removed as that sectype, and have the removal spell use opcode 221.  There are only a couple dozen free slots for new sectypes, so this can't be done very much, and doing it for a single spell is inefficient.  But it can work.

Removing spells is fantastically useful - my mods do it probably a thousand different times using EE's opcode 321.  It just can't be done to the same degree in pre-EE games.  That's why I don't even bother with the old engine anymore.

[subtledoctor]

Edit: you could also set the effect you want to remove to be repeating instead of continuous - opcode 177 in the spell, opcode 232 in the .EFF, casting a subspell when hp < 102%, and set the subspell’s duration to 6 or 7 seconds (depending on its effect). Then the ‘effect removal’ spell can simply apply 206 immunity vs. the subspell.

Or, if the effect is in NPCs who will never join the party, you can apply the effect to be removed via an item, and have the ‘effect removal’ spell unequip that item.

Finally, you can apply the effect to be removed as a curse, and remove it with the remove curse opcode. This will have the side-effect of removing cursed items, but that’s pretty rare (curses are s joke in this game). I once toyed with this for use in psionic powers and it was nice. There is a little-used “repeating EFF as curse” opcode (283) that can work very well for stuff like cancelable auras. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by subtledoctor

[temnix]

Yes... I was looking for a way to remove my own internal spell, though, nothing so involved as all that. But it's all right, I found a workaround.