Sword Coast Stratagems v34 (edit: 34.3) now available

[Trouveur80]

On 4/13/2023 at 8:55 AM, Sight said:

Glad it helped a bit!
 

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Running into an odd issue.

First, here's my whole setup:

- DLC Merger

- BG1 Unfinished Business

- EET Core

- Dragonspear UI ++

- BG2Fixpack(I think it didn't install because it detected I was on EE, but mentioning just in case)

- Ascension

- Wheel of Prophecy

- BG2 Unfinished Business

- BG Mini Quests and Encounters

- The Calling

- Cowled Menace

- Alternatives

- BG1NPC Project

- NPCTweak

- SoD2BG2: Item Upgrades

- item revisions revised

- IWDification

- Spell Revisions Revised

- Jastey Tweaks for SoD and EET

- Tweaks Anthology

- Road to Discovery for SoD

- Sword Coast Stratagems

- EET End

Written in install order.

I am a short way away from Nashkel in Chapter 1. Finishing up in Beregost/Friendly Arm. Experimented with removing all party members and turning in some final quests to get main PC to level 2 because I wanted to see if it would result in everyone else reaching 2 as well due to Improved NPC's Customization, to confirm everything was in working order.

I installed SCS's "improved npc customization component" but it only seems to work for Imoen, Neera, Garrick and Kagain so far, the level up component that is. Montaron, Xzar, Khalid and Jaheira do not level up when re-added to party, they get no XP added to them whatsoever. Seeing that Neera needed to be re-added twice to reach level 2, I thought I would try removing and re-adding the rest who had issues but it didn't work, not even if I added them alone. 

I noticed I erroneously added ToB style NPC's from Anthology so I removed that but that hasn't fixed the issue, although I tried it on the same save game. Could this be caused by the Anthology tweak that allows one NPC from NPC pairs to be re-added after removal? Load order looks fine to me so I don't think its that. 

Any ideas?

That's because you installed EET End after SCS.

SCS should be installed after EET End. Otherwise, the improved NPC management component doesn't work well.

[boof]

May not be the correct place to post this but, has anyone noticed that the priest Poison spell and druid Dolorous Decay spell never actually do the damage over time effect when applied to enemy mages? (maybe even priests, can't remember)

For the Poison spell, the initial damage will land when the caster doesn't save and from then on it doesn't apply any poison damage.
Dolorous decay I've never, ever seen apply its poison damage vs casters, even when they fail their saves.

The damage over time works fine vs other, non caster enemies and party members including casters.

Could someone else check in their game if the behaviour is similar?

[jmerry]

Engine issue. Stoneskin and mirror images block poison over time. Or at least they do when it's a weapon's on-hit effect; probably also when it's a spell. In the case of mirror images, the poison is blocked even when the hit's physical part goes through the image.

(OK, tested it. Stoneskins and mirror images definitely block Dolorous Decay poison. And in the latter case, it doesn't even do you the courtesy of killing an image.)

On the flip side, instant poison always behaves as if it has the "ignore mirror images" flag, passing through to hit the caster even if other parts of the hit are absorbed.

So, if you get a mage shields down, with no mirror images or stoneskin active, you shouldn't have any trouble landing that Dolorous Decay poison. But at that point, you could just hit them in melee.

Edited May 6, 2023 by jmerry

[Guest Ieldra]

I have an issue with the Easy-of-use AI script: Every time I set a character to "ranged preference", this setting gets reset to "melee preference" almost immediately. Which means I can't use it for my backline casters. Is there a way to get around this behaviour. I like the script for its auto-buff functionality, but can't use it if it means I have to tell my casters to switch to ranged weapons every round again.

[boof]

On 5/5/2023 at 3:46 AM, jmerry said:

Engine issue. Stoneskin and mirror images block poison over time. Or at least they do when it's a weapon's on-hit effect; probably also when it's a spell. In the case of mirror images, the poison is blocked even when the hit's physical part goes through the image.

(OK, tested it. Stoneskins and mirror images definitely block Dolorous Decay poison. And in the latter case, it doesn't even do you the courtesy of killing an image.)

On the flip side, instant poison always behaves as if it has the "ignore mirror images" flag, passing through to hit the caster even if other parts of the hit are absorbed.

So, if you get a mage shields down, with no mirror images or stoneskin active, you shouldn't have any trouble landing that Dolorous Decay poison. But at that point, you could just hit them in melee.

Completely forgot I made this post. Thanks for the info and testing it out. Shame that's how it works.

[DrAzTiK]

any hope to get a fix release ? seems like David has dissapears again.

[Christian]

There seems to be an inconsistency with many projectiles and the spells protection from normal missiles, protection from normal weapons and protection from magic weapons. Fire arrows for example get blocked by PFNM and PFMW. On the other hand fire arrows won't hurt monsters that are immune to normal weapons. 

Same holds true for several other projectiles.

Also on a sidenote: the component that makes +1 arrows into fine ones boosts their damage since +1 arrows in BG2EE get no bonus damage but the fine ones do. Though admittedly this might be only cosmetic in the item description. I didn't actually test it.

[jmerry]

An incompatibility bug with Spell Revisions: The component "Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls" adds scrolls from a list to a randomly chosen store in the SoA campaign. One of those scrolls added is for arcane Stone to Flesh. SR removes the spell and corresponding scroll entirely, absorbing its function into the lower-level Break Enchantment spell.

So, what happens if you try to install this component with SR already present? SCS tries to add %WIZARD_STONE_TO_FLESH_SCROLL% to the store, can't evaluate the variable because the resource it's supposed to reference doesn't exist, and ends up putting an invalid item WIZARD_S in the store. It doesn't crash things, but buying that invalid item is a bad idea.

A compatibility patch is needed here, either for the specific interaction (SCS supports SR in its caster AI, after all) or for the more general possibility that a spell and its scroll might not exist due to other mods.

Originally reported here: https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/28894-ir-revised-v13800-2022-january-11th/?do=findComment&comment=323706. Discussion continues onto the next page of the thread.

 

[Alywena]

A patch was created recently: https://github.com/Gibberlings3/SwordCoastStratagems/pull/54/files

[jmerry]

Yep, that's a fix for this one. Another one for the pile of fixes that'll go into the next release, whenever that is.

[zelazko]

On 6/28/2022 at 11:22 PM, pochesun said:

I been installing SCS and some sections were installed with warnings: priests and druids are known issues but in "Initialise AI components" i noticed this 

[./override/sppr313.spl] loaded, 202 bytes

WARNING: no effects altered on sppr313.spl
Copying and patching 1 file ...
[./override/spcaco.eff] loaded, 272 bytes

What could this be about? I believe sppr313.spl is Holy Smite spell. I have Spell Revision Revised and Item Revision Revised installed before SCS. Can it be a conflict with SRR or is it just SCS issue?

The specific solution to this harmless warning is to go back to Spell Revision spell_rev-v4-beta18.exe\spell_rev\ and copy sppr313.spl into your override folder. Or copy sppr313.spl from whichever Spell Revision version (not Spell Revised) you installed by looking over which version you have in your weidu log.

///

The more comprehensive answer

Edited June 2, 2023 by zelazko

[jmerry]

Here's the code block that's throwing that warning:

   // a couple of problems in SR v4
   
   ACTION_IF demivrgvs BEGIN
   
      // Holy Smite blindness has the wrong duration

      ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME "sppr313e.spl" BEGIN
         OUTER_SPRINT file sppr313e
      END ELSE BEGIN
         OUTER_SPRINT file sppr313
      END
      COPY_EXISTING "%file%.spl" override
         LPF ALTER_EFFECT INT_VAR match_opcode=74 duration=6 END
      BUT_ONLY

It's a patch for an error in older versions of SR. "No effects altered" just means that you're using a newer version of SR that fixed the error. Harmless.

[Axatax]

I can't install the 'Smarter Beholders' component.  Any ideas?

ERROR Installing [Smarter beholders], rolling back to previous state
Will uninstall 132 files for [./stratagems/setup-stratagems.tp2] component 6550.
Uninstalled    132 files for [./stratagems/setup-stratagems.tp2] component 6550.
ERROR: Unix.Unix_error(Unix.ENOENT, "stat", "stratagems/../weidu_external/workspace/ssl_out/global_steal.baf")
Please make a backup of the file: WSETUP.DEBUG and look for support at: For help troubleshooting installation problems, go to the Sword Coast Stratagems forum at forums.gibberlings3.net.
Automatically Skipping [Smarter beholders] because of error.
Using Language [English]

 

wsetup_debug.zip weidu.log

[Axatax]

One other problem I've observed, and I'm not sure this is SCS-related - On tactical, when getting into the Bandit Camp by talking your way in, completing the fight in Tazok's tent doesn't cause the camp to become hostile, In fact, leaving the tent, I can sit there and pummel Taurgosz Khosann to death and he never becomes hostile (blue circle) and other enemies don't react to the attack.  The camp used to become hostile after leaving the fight in the tent.

[jmerry]

Back in the 2.5/v33 days, I did a fire-themed run and discovered that the SCS/Ascension finale version of Yaga-Shura is vulnerable to fire. Wait, what?

As it turns out, this is a change specifically made by the SCS component that modifies Ascension. Both original Yaga-Shura and the clone in the finale initially have over 100% fire resistance. He also wears Shurrupak's Plate (undroppable in the finale version) for +20%, and the SCS-altered version of Yaga-Shura in both fights casts Aura of Flaming Death if anyone vulnerable to fire is close to him; that sets his base resistance to 90%, which is still immunity when combined with his armor.

And then we have this change:

Spoiler

DEFINE_ACTION_FUNCTION yaga_shura_finale BEGIN

     LAF include STR_VAR file=ascension_shared.tpa END
     LAF update_vanilla_ascension END     
     LAF ascension_to_scs END
     LAF define_difficulty STR_VAR type=ascension RET difficulty_variable END

      MAKE_PATCH
          resist_fire=>60
          resist_acid=>60
          resist_electricity=>60
          resist_cold=>20
          resist_slashing=>60
          resist_piercing=>60
          resist_crushing=>60
          resist_missile=>60
      END
      LAF edit_creature STR_VAR creature=finyaga edits=patch_data END
      LAF ssl_to_bcs STR_VAR script=finyaga location=~ssl~ END
END

 

SCS reduces finale Yaga-Shura's base resistances; 20% to cold, 60% to others. Basically, take that "weakening" mechanic from the original fight, and have the finale version start fully weakened already, regardless of difficulty. But there are two differences.

- Finale Yaga-Shura still has 99% magic damage resistance, and that won't go down at all.

- Finale Yaga-Shura only has 60% base fire resistance (80% with his armor). Fire is less effective than most damage types, but it does hurt him.

Is this really intended? Shouldn't all versions of this fire giant be immune to fire?