Praise for the mod and a question on the beta version

[Guest Callie 25]

Hi, let me just tell you that I am enjoying the mod immensely! Hands down the best NPC mod I have tried.

Can anyone tell me how many LT/FT Aran has in SOA/ToB (I mean in the current beta version)? I don't want to miss anything. I have been stuck on LT 8 for a quite a long time. Are the LTs chapter specific and when should I go to Spellhold?

[jastey]

I know this is a stupid question but did you have a look into the mod package whether there is some documentation about the LTs and their required conditions? I don't know about Aran Whitehand but some mods have quite extensive documentation buried somewhere in the package.

[Guest Callie 25]

Hi, thanks for the suggestion - I went over the dlg. files at GitHub and it sees that the sparring talk (Friend Talk 15) did not trigger for me. 

But I can't figure out from the conditions if that is supposed to happen or not (on account of not going down the friend path), and if this is intentionally replaced by LTs.

[cmorgan]

OK, taking a look - (I forgot I had so many area and conditional talks; tough to untangle now. They made sense to me when I wrote them, but I think I made a mare's nest for troubleshooting. Thank goodness I wrote lots of comments in the code...).

TL/DR - LT 15 is the first one to fire after Underdark if you are doing a long completionist play and have had 14 LTs and 8 LTs. By design, more intimacy = more content, so a Romance talk won't take the place of a friend talk, it will just add on .

If you haven't headed for Spellhold yet, that would explain the hangup.

/* Aran's FriendTalks Aim, c-aranfriendbg2, %ARAN_FTT% : delays some talks to be only available after chapter 5 is over */
/* This block takes the even variables set in dialog, and advances them to the odd */
IF
	GlobalGT("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",26)
	GlobalLT("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",39)	// shuts down sequence when finished
	RealGlobalTimerExpired("c-aranfriendtimer","GLOBAL")	// Timer Expired
	GlobalGT("Chapter","GLOBAL",%bg2_chapter_5%) // Not in Underdark, and must fire post-losing-soul
	OR(6) 
		Global("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",28) // set up SoA_FT_15
		Global("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",30) // set up SoA_FT_16
		Global("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",32) // set up SoA_FT_17
		Global("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",34) // set up SoA_FT_18
		Global("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",36) // set up SoA_FT_19
		Global("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",38) // set up SoA_FT_20
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		IncrementGlobal("c-aranfriendbg2","GLOBAL",1)	// move up from even to odd
END

I can't remember if 15 is the sparring match; I probably need to move that one to be available pre-Underdark, as it fits *my* playthrough style. I linger in the first few chapters and delay Spellhold/underdark, and the sparring talk is a nice "alpha-omega" point. It can reinforce a friendship or an adversarial relationship, turn a female PC's attentions towards or away from having a relationship, and the "morning after" three pathways of talks for female PCs makes a really strong finish to a storyline if PC is about to drop Aran W and pick up a torrid romance with another NPC.

 

For the "by the numbers", I have lost track of the gazillion places where ther are interjections and mini reaction talks (thank goodness folks who don't want the whole thing can tell him to stick to only major conversations), but here goes the breakdowns on what I can see right now:

ToB CONTENT:
7 Friend Talks including the initial recruiting talk.
7 Love talks including the 1st initial "have your feeling changed" talk that signals that the romance is seen as active and gives PC a chance to disengage unwanted flirts/lovetalks if she is romancing someone else (or not - he happily/grumpily multiromances).

No major conditions attached to any of these other than the obvious.

SoA CONTENT:

Friend talks 1 - 14 fire without Chapter conditions other than not being in Underdark; so FT 1 - 14 could show up all game until they are done. You could recruit him after underdark and still get the main sequence.

Underdark suspends the regular talks, and puts up to 5 Underdark-specific friend talks into play (depending on how long you hang around in that chapter and your timer choices).

Friend talks 15 - 20 fire after Underdark so that no matter how long PC hangs around town before starting the "end-game" there is content.

Romance talks fire independently of Friendtalks (though female PCs can influence Friedtalks into more girlfriendy versions by responses). There should currently be 8 of them in BG2, so it looks like you have hit the end of the specific lovetalks until I get off my tail and get writing again.  

SPECIFIC TO SPARRING:

Just a regular lovetalk - but tthe follow-on for female PCs can be skipped over if something doesn't fire right away.

Dude PCs don't have a followup as they don't have the opportunity to take the conversation in that direction, while Dudette PCs can get three potential "Morning After" talks:

/* Sparring, females ; Morning After talk : heavy making out or bedding */
/* Sparring, females ; Morning After talk : kissing or making out */
/* Sparring, females : Morning After : disable if it doesn't fire in the morning - identify by global set to 15 */

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

[Guest Callie 25]

Thank you! That was very helpful indeed. And again, I have to say that this is the best NPC mod that I have ever played.

 

One more question if you don't mind - should there be a reaction/talk from Aran after the first Slayer transformation in Spellhold?

[Guest Callie 25]

Because it seems wierd that he doesn't comment at all and I doć find a reference to Slayer transformation talks in the dialogue files? Is this a bug or do they trigger later?

[Guest Callie 25]

Just to report that the Underdark friend talks triggered, but no Slayer transformation talks, and it seems that some situational talks that I can find referenced in the dlg files (eg. Phaere Commentary Replies) did not trigger as well.

.