What will 2.6's release likely mean for mod compatibility?

[lynx]

subtledoctor: you just want to change the CRE bits modifying what was the previous class in a dualclass combo? That's trivial to add, considering there are similar actions for other bits in the same set.

[subtledoctor]

35 minutes ago, lynx said:

subtledoctor: you just want to change the CRE bits modifying what was the previous class in a dualclass combo? That's trivial to add, considering there are similar actions for other bits in the same set.

Yeah - the bits are right next to the “fallen paladin” and “fallen ranger” bits, and I’m pretty sure you can change those via script. I have no doubt it could be done with GemRB, or Bubb could add it to EEex. But given that I play on iOS and you really can’t mess with the iOS executable (which is Apple’s fault, not Beamdog’s), I’ve always hoped for an official change. even if it is added to EEex, I highly doubt I’ll put the effort into making a mod that doesn’t work in my own game...

As you say, it would likely be pretty easy, but in ~eight years of asking, Beamdog has never seen fit to add it. 

[Jarno Mikkola]

59 minutes ago, lynx said:

That's trivial to add

Then do it...

[Angel]

4 hours ago, StefanO said:

2.5 and 2.3 (at least) are already 64bit applications. They run without problems on MacOS 10.15. Catalina doesn't run any 32 bit apps at all.

On Linux, both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version are available.  Either one works fine.

[lynx]

3 hours ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Then do it...

I don't work for BD. But sure, added it to GemRB.

[argent77]

The current state of the beta will most likely break many mods since they removed a good number of script trigger and action definitions, and changed parameter order in another one.

[jastey]

2 minutes ago, argent77 said:

The current state of the beta will most likely break many mods since they removed a good number of script trigger and action definitions, and changed parameter order in another one.

I still recall - faint as the memory is - someone saying some time ago that the EE aim not break compatibility of old mods and will be far easier to mod in general. As it turned out, compatibility got broken for mods adapted to EE from one patch to another, and this sounds as if it won't be any different this time.

[argent77]

8 minutes ago, jastey said:

I still recall - faint as the memory is - someone saying some time ago that the EE aim not break compatibility of old mods and will be far easier to mod in general. As it turned out, compatibility got broken for mods adapted to EE from one patch to another, and this sounds as if it won't be any different this time.

As the saying goes, promises are meant to be broken.

I'm hopeful that they will at least fix this issue since it also breaks several of the vanilla game scripts (e.g. Albert's or Krumm's character scripts).

[Lava]

1 hour ago, argent77 said:

The current state of the beta will most likely break many mods since they removed a good number of script trigger and action definitions, and changed parameter order in another one.

Is there any list of action / triggers that got deleted or modified?

Was that issue reported?

Edited August 2, 2020 by Lava

[argent77]

I have already compiled a big list of issues I'll report when the bugfixing stage of the beta test is reached.

About the script issues, this is what I found so far:

Spoiler

Incompatible or missing script action definitions (2.5 => 2.6):
  - 361 DisplayStringPoint(P:Location*,I:Strref*) => 361 DisplayStringPoint(I:Strref*,P:Location*)
  - 404 BitSet(S:Name*,S:Scope*,I:Bit*Bits) => 404 reserved()
  - 405 BitClear(S:Name*,S:Scope*,I:Bit*Bits) => 405 reserved()
  - 408 DisplayStringPointLog(P:Location*,I:Strref*) => 408 DisplayStringPointLog(I:Strref*,P:Location*)
  - 446 IncrementGlobalOnce(S:Name1*,S:Area1*,S:Name2*,S:Area2*,I:Val*) => (not listed)
  - 446 IncrementGlobalOnceEx(S:Var1*,S:Var2*,I:Val*) => (not listed)
  - 457 PlaySoundNotRanged(S:Sound*) => (not listed)
  - 463 SetZoomViewport(P:Point*) => (not listed)
  - 464 StoreZoomLevel() => (not listed)
  - 465 RestoreZoomLevel() => (not listed)
  - 469 WaitSync(I:Amount*) => (not listed)
  - 470 WaitForVoiceChannel() => (not listed)
  - 471 PlaySoundThroughVoice(S:Sound*) => (not listed)
Missing script trigger definitions (2.5 => 2.6):
  - 0x40F7 BitCheck(S:Name*,S:Area*,I:Bit*Bits) => 0x40F7 reserved()
  - 0x410a Proficiency(O:Object*,I:Slot*WProf,I:Value*) => (not listed)
  - 0x410b ProficiencyGT(O:Object*,I:Slot*WProf,I:Value*) => (not listed)
  - 0x410c ProficiencyLT(O:Object*,I:Slot*WProf,I:Value*) => (not listed)

Edit: Scratch that. It looks like Steam downloaded an outdated copy of the SoD DLC on my system.

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by argent77

[DavidW]

2 hours ago, jastey said:

I still recall - faint as the memory is - someone saying some time ago that the EE aim not break compatibility of old mods and will be far easier to mod in general. As it turned out, compatibility got broken for mods adapted to EE from one patch to another, and this sounds as if it won't be any different this time.

To be fair, they delivered on the ‘far easier to mod in general’ promise, at least by the time IWDEE came out. The EE engine is way beyond classic BG2 now, even with ToBEx.

[jastey]

52 minutes ago, DavidW said:

To be fair, they delivered on the ‘far easier to mod in general’ promise, at least by the time IWDEE came out. The EE engine is way beyond classic BG2 now, even with ToBEx.

Yes, that is true. But, from the perspective of a modder who already had running mods for the classic engine, making the mods compatible with the EE was by no means "much easier". (I lost two days of my life trying to understand why I encountered hanging screens until someone shot the info about utf8 format needed for texts. I still don't understand why a game would crash on a wrong symbol instead of just displaying mangled text.) But this is probably going too much offtopic.

@argent77 thanks for having an eye on this. Since I am still scripting for both old and e-engine at once I am not using any of these, but it's important to be aware of such changes.

[CamDawg]

4 hours ago, argent77 said:

The current state of the beta will most likely break many mods since they removed a good number of script trigger and action definitions, and changed parameter order in another one.

Where are you seeing this? My trigger and action IDS files are identical between the current release and the beta.

[argent77]

29 minutes ago, CamDawg said:

Where are you seeing this? My trigger and action IDS files are identical between the current release and the beta.

This is what I see in my game installation (v2.6.0.0). I downloaded it shortly after the first announcement of the beta test.

But now that I took a closer look at the file dates in the SoD DLC, they are all from June 6, 2016. Looks like my copy of SoD DLC downloaded by Steam is outdated.

[CamDawg]

Yeah, there are no action/trigger changes.