Sword Coast Stratagems v34 (edit: 34.3) now available

[boof]

Anyone else notice issues with summoned demons, from the line of various gate spells?
They tend to often just do nothing, especially when summoned by enemies.
Protection from evil doesn't really do anything, as they just generally won't attack anyone. Their whole "attack anyone who isn't protected by evil" AI seems to be gone. 9/10 times an enemy summons a demon, it will just stand there, or maybe walk around a bit.
Now occasionally they will fight, making this whole issue really weird and unpredictable.
They also love to fight each other. At first I thought it was the whole tanna'ri vs baatezu thing, but same demons will fight each other.
Up until now I just didn't care enough because it really doesn't come up too much during the game (though it is sad when it does), but now I'm doing a caster run where I'm considering finally making use of the demon binding grimoires, and this behaviour is really putting me off of it.
I am running an atweaks component (~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #310 // Distinctive creature coloring: v4.53) that changes the appearance of demons slightly, among other creatures. It is installed after SCS. Could that be messing something up, assuming others haven't experienced what I described above in their games.
 

Here's a small sample of regular gating, and a bit with the grimoire learned.

Edited August 2, 2023 by boof

[boof]

No one's experienced this?

Can someone look and see what in my mod loadout could lead to something like this?

https://pastebin.com/UbUPPppQ

[Endarire]

Are you using the PnP Fiends component from aTweaks?  That may cause problems.  (I didn't see it in your PasteBin.)

Thankee!

[polytope]

The (currently) bad AI of summoned fiends is not an aTweaks bug per se, but iirc aTweaks fiends can no longer be installed smoothly over SCS.

I managed to get aTweaks fiends to install in working order over (version 34+) SCS fiends on a previous game, although I had to change so many things in the setup that while I still have the files on a USB somewhere, I couldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have exactly the same install order.

ETA: And it would be rude to publicize hacks of someone else's mods, even if they were needed for your own game.

Edited August 12, 2023 by polytope

[polytope]

On 8/11/2023 at 7:47 AM, boof said:

No one's experienced this?

Can someone look and see what in my mod loadout could lead to something like this?

I doubt it's a mod interaction. In my default SCS install DEMPITSU - the pit fiend - has these problematic blocks in its script:

Spoiler

IF
    OnCreation()
    CheckStatGT(LastSummonerOf(Myself),0,DW_POWER_UPGRADE5)
    Allegiance(LastSummonerOf(Myself),GOODCUTOFF)
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        ChangeGender(Myself,OTHER)
        ChangeAIScript("dw#hlpit",OVERRIDE)
        ChangeAIScript("",DEFAULT)
        DestroyItem("dw#sumfi")  // Ring
        ChangeEnemyAlly(Myself,ALLY)
END

IF
    OnCreation()
    OR(2)
        CheckStatGT(LastSummonerOf(Myself),0,DW_POWER_UPGRADE5)
        CheckStatGT(LastSummonerOf(Myself),0,DW_SCS_CASTER)
    Allegiance(LastSummonerOf(Myself),EVILCUTOFF)
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        ChangeGender(Myself,OTHER)
        ChangeAIScript("dw#hlpit",OVERRIDE)
        ChangeAIScript("",DEFAULT)
        DestroyItem("dw#sumfi")  // Ring
        ChangeEnemyAlly(Myself,ENEMY)
END

...at the beginning, and:

Spoiler

IF
    !AreaCheck("ar3004")
    !GlobalTimerNotExpired("castspell","LOCALS")
    HaveSpell(INNATE_FIEND_FIREBALL)  // spin129.SPL (FireBall)
    CheckStat([ANYONE],0,DO_NOT_TARGET_SPELLS)
    !StateCheck([ANYONE],STATE_DISABLED)
    !CheckStatGT([ANYONE],0,HELD)
    !CheckStatGT([ANYONE],99,RESISTMAGIC)
    !CheckStat([ANYONE],6,WIZARD_SPELL_IMMUNITY)
    !CheckStatGT([ANYONE],50,RESISTFIRE)
    See([ANYONE])
    False()
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        Continue()
END

IF
    !AreaCheck("ar3004")
    !GlobalTimerNotExpired("castspell","LOCALS")
    HaveSpell(INNATE_FIEND_FIREBALL)  // spin129.SPL (FireBall)
    CheckStat(LastSeenBy(Myself),0,DO_NOT_TARGET_SPELLS)
    !StateCheck(LastSeenBy(Myself),STATE_DISABLED)
    !CheckStatGT(LastSeenBy(Myself),0,HELD)
    !CheckStatGT(LastSeenBy(Myself),99,RESISTMAGIC)
    !CheckStat(LastSeenBy(Myself),6,WIZARD_SPELL_IMMUNITY)
    !CheckStatGT(LastSeenBy(Myself),50,RESISTFIRE)
    See(LastSeenBy(Myself))
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        SetGlobalTimer("castspell","LOCALS",ONE_ROUND)
        Spell(LastSeenBy(Myself),INNATE_FIEND_FIREBALL)  // spin129.SPL (FireBall)
    RESPONSE #100
        Continue()
END

IF
    See([ANYONE])
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        AttackOneRound(LastSeenBy(Myself))
END

...at the end.

Proceeds to absentmindedly misdescribe the problem

Edited August 13, 2023 by polytope

[Graion Dilach]

3 hours ago, polytope said:

The (currently) bad AI of summoned fiends is not an aTweaks bug per se, but iirc aTweaks fiends can no longer be installed smoothly over SCS.

I managed to get aTweaks fiends to install in working order over (version 34+) SCS fiends on a previous game, although I had to change so many things in the setup that while I still have the files on a USB somewhere, I couldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have exactly the same install order.

Yeah, I also managed to install aTweaks like that, but aTweaks fiends also overwrite and break the BGEE v2.6 Aec'Letec recode, akin to SCS pre-v34.1, regardless if SCS is actually installed or not.

[polytope]

On a closer look, I posted misinformation about the fiends yesterday though, the top blocks in their script seems to never cycle if summoned by a PC, thus not losing the "Summoned Demon" identifier nor becoming an ALLY in terms of EA.ids.

However there's definitely a problem that player-summoned fiends in the middle of a fight proceed to attack each other even if of the same type i.e. not Lawful vs Chaotic, a neutral aligned caster has a 50/50 to summon either so fiend summoning would be less useful to such a PC even if things were working as intended.

[pencey]

On a BG2:EE installation (latest version) , I'm attempting to install SCS 34.3 after Spell Revisions 4.19b. I get a number of errors installing the 'Smarter Mages' component. They look like this, relating to a different mage file each time:

 

Quote

SCS's 'mage_edits_main' function has encountered a file it doesn't know how to patch, SUJON.CRE (probably the file was broken by a previous mod). The error message was 'Not_found'. SCS has skipped it and continued with installation, but this may cause instabilities.

 

I've tried rolling Spell Revisions versions to 4.16b, but the errors are still present.

Has anyone found success resolving these? Or is anyone confident they can be safely ignored?

[pencey]

The combination of Spell Revisions and SCS's 'Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition' is giving these errors.

They can be reproduced with the following:

~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #0 // Spell Revisions: v4.19
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 34.3
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 34.3
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 34.3

[DavidW]

On 8/13/2023 at 4:41 AM, polytope said:

However there's definitely a problem that player-summoned fiends in the middle of a fight proceed to attack each other even if of the same type i.e. not Lawful vs Chaotic

Is that a bug? Player-summoned fiends are supposed to attack indiscriminately; they don’t exempt one another. Or do you mean they preferentially attack one another?

[polytope]

1 hour ago, DavidW said:

Is that a bug? Player-summoned fiends are supposed to attack indiscriminately; they don’t exempt one another. Or do you mean they preferentially attack one another?

No, not really a bug as the fiend summoning spells are explicitly described as less useful to PCs (as offensive AoE magic is to the AI). I was replying to @boof 's  complaint that it's difficult to use those spells in a caster run.

Boof has noticed a lot of bugs so far though, looking through their profile might actually be a better source of issues for fixing than this extremely long release thread, if you're planning on a new version.

[DavidW]

25 minutes ago, polytope said:

Boof has noticed a lot of bugs so far though, looking through their profile might actually be a better source of issues for fixing than this extremely long release thread, if you're planning on a new version.

Thanks - but I’ve now been through the thread (and all the other threads on this subforum) to make notes.

[Guest Haz]

Hello, I have some questions about BG1:EE with SoD and SCS - both latest versions:

1. Does SCS change the Winter Wolves quest in Nashkel so that you can only sell one of them there for 500?

2. Does it change any EE content or behavior at all? I'm asking cause Neera got backstabbed by a goblin in Adoy's cave, and I suspect that it walked invisible a long way until it could attack her (most vulnerable party member). That seemed like SCS behavior to me. But I'm wondering in general whether Enhanced Edition content has been touched by SCS (I thought no, but now I'm not sure)

3. Does the SCS script for reduced rep gains also affect the rep gained when dismissing a party member like Dorn, Viconia, Baeloth, etc?

4. Does SCS change anything in SoD?

Thanks in advance for helpful answers

[jmerry]

1. Yes, that's a change in SCS. Only one 500 gold sale at the Nashkel store. You can still sell winter wolf pelts for 250 gold (subject to the usual depreciation rules) at stores such as High Hedge and Feldepost's Inn.

2. EE content is fairly lightly touched by SCS, but it is still affected. Mages are mostly left alone, for example, because they're not using the same generic scripts as other mages. But warriors and thieves? They use standard attack scripts, so the generic upgrades happen.

Those goblins in Neera's quest are level 1 creatures; some have composite longbows and no melee alternative, while the others have axes. They're all just generic attackers with no special combat scripting or abilities. But while the melee goblins have a monster class, the ranged goblins are thieves. And SCS picks up on that. Thieves must have a melee alternative to backstab with - give them short swords. Hostile thieves get free invisibility if they start out of range of the players, even if they don't have any actual stealth skill. And thieves get a backstab script, telling them to switch to melee and use it if they're invisible. All of a sudden, what would otherwise be trivial cannon fodder becomes a dangerous gauntlet of backstabs that can easily one-shot an unsuspecting mage like Neera.

SCS really shouldn't be upgrading those goblins like that; they're not "real" thieves. It's an unfortunate confluence of automation meeting a weird but originally meaningless design quirk.

3. The reduced reputation gain component has an exception for Viconia leaving the party in BGEE and BG2EE. It does not have exceptions for Dorn in BGEE, or Dorn/M'Khiin/Baeloth in SoD. Baeloth in BGEE slips by on Viconia's exception, because his reputation changes are handled by the same script. This is an oversight, which has already been brought to DavidW's attention and should be fixed in the next version.

If you want to hotfix an existing SCS installation, open up the relevant scripts/dialogues in something like Near Infinity and replace the relevant instances of ReputationInc(1) with ReputationInc(2). That's DORNP.DLG (or _DORNP.DLG in EET) and BDBALDUR.BCS.

4. See what I said about EE content in general. SoD is not specifically targeted, and some stuff like mages won't change. But it is affected to some degree.

[Guest Haz]

@jmerry Thank you, that was insightful

I have rep gains at 2/3 I think, and dismissing Dorn gave me back 2 rep the first time, but only one the second.

Do you mind if I ask here about Near Infinity? What is the best version to download, how difficult is it to use, are there any tutorials for dumb noobs like me, and does it need any other programs in order to run?