New testing version of Tweaks Anthology, v10 RC1, now available

[CamDawg]

"Too much work. Let's burn it and say we dumped it in the sewer."

I've caught up on over two years of bug reports and other issues to slap together a new release candidate for Tweaks Anthology v10. It can be downloaded from Github or, if you prefer, direct links to the Windows, macOS, and Linux packages.

The Standard Blurb

The Tweaks Anthology is a WeiDU compilation of fixes, cosmetic changes, and tweaks. Some of these were fan requests, others are needed fixes, and others simply make dealing with the more irritating aspects of the game engine easier. Each component can be installed separately so the player can pick and choose only which ones they wish to install.

For the Translators

One focus was on trying to remove a lot of the cruft that had been accumulating in the various tra files, restructuring them, and trying to apply a consistent style guide to how the mod refers to things like "multiclass" vs. "multi-class". The upshot of all of this is (hopefully) a lot fewer strings to translate and the main tra file whittled down to just essentials for the install but at the cost of all sorts of minor changes to things like component names. I do not anticipate any further tra changes for the stable v10.

edit: naturally, I borked the encoding for the French and Italian tra files. They're fixed on Github, but not in RC1.

The chonk changelog

• New and/or removed components:
  • argent77 contributed Create Interval Saves and Reset UnderSigil Fog of War
  • The Make Xan a Generalist Mage [Mike1072] was generalized and made into similar components for Dynaheir, Edwin, and Xzar by Angel
  • Added Allow Monks to Wear Helmets, Enhanced Overlays for Colorblind Players [Fouinto], and Removable NPC Items
  • Remove Blur Effect from Equipped Items and Invisible Cloak of Mirroring have been merged into a new component, Remove Annoying Visual Effects from Equipped Items. The scope has been broadened to cover any item that contains annoying, persistent visual effects.
  • Description Updates for Make +x/+y Weapons Consistent Component has been deprecated; item descriptions will be updated automatically by the main component if the translation is available
  • The Exotic Items Pack has been moved permanently to The Calling mod.
  • Broke out Alter Gnome Mage Kit/Multi-Class Options as a separate component instead of making a number of exceptions and assumptions in the general components.
• Several updates to make Tweaks Anthology integrate better with Project Infinity
• The static armor lists have been expanded to cover additional mods. Also components which use the static item lists--Icon Improvements, Allow Thieving and Stealth in Heavy Armor per PnP, Allow Arcane Spellcasting in Heavy Armor, and Allow Mages to Use Bucklers and Thieves to Use Small Shields [Angel]--should be substantially faster to install.
• Recoded the Limit Ability of Storekeepers to Identify Items and the PnP restrictions option for Wear Multiple Protection Items to be faster as well.
• Updated armor lists for the Allow Thieving and Stealth in Heavy Armor per PnP and Allow Arcane Spellcasting in Heavy Armor components to cover new mods
• Added compatibility updates for Tome and Blood with the components that adjust spellcasting tables and Tweaks checking for the wrong component number in a few places
• Added compatibility updates between the components that update spell tables and the EE version of Region of Terror
• Ensure Shar-Teel Doesn't Die in the Original Challenge was not working in EET as her joining is handled by her combat script, not her normal script. Also fixed a bug where the component didn't work on oBG at all.
• Added an updated Italian translation from ilot.
• The Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table had been capping THAC0 at 1, and will now cap it at 0
• Change Korgan to Neutral Evil Alignment broke his leaving-the-party ToB dialogue as it was explicitly checking for him being CE
• Unique Containers [Miloch] has been recoded to assign icons and names as containers are found, rather than using a fixed list. This new approach also fixes a bug where the component would crash if it ran out of slots. Also fixed a potential conflict with the Secret of Bone Hill mod and a few other small errors.
• Loosen Equipment Restrictions for Cleric Multi- and Dual-Classes was still restricting many items for kitted clerics due to some redundant usability flags. The component will now check and remove these flags as appropriate.
• Friendly Random Drops was handing out items with zero charges, which is now fixed. Also fixed a bug where it would fail to install on an oIWD game with Restored Random Drops (from Unfinished Business for IWD) installed.
• As the EE supports kits for multi-classes, Multi-Class Grandmastery and Druids Use 3E Alignment Restrictions now account for them
• The non-silly version of Faster Chapter One and Two Cutscenes and Dreams could fail to match and replace all of the scripting it was supposed to
• Make Khalid a Fighter-Mage [Domi] was not covering his SoD incarnation, and its unnecessarily complex spawning script could cause multiple Khalids to appear if you didn't recruit him the first you met at the FAI
• No Traps or Locks [Weimer] was checking the wrong fields for keys, causing it to behave erratically.
• Move Boo Into Minsc's Pack is now available on BG2 games
• Courtesy of Jazira, with proofreading from Gwendolyne and Elisabeth, the French translation has been updated. Jazira also reviewed the English translation, and submitted several grammar and spelling fixes there as well.
• Fixed a bug where Increase Party Movement Speed and/or Casting Speed Outside of Combat [argent77] could add duplicate scripting to the main game script. This component now covers familiars and similar mod companions.
• Fixed a bug where Enforce PnP Proficiency Rules on Dual-Classed Characters [subtledoctor] was borking kit ability tables
• Increase Party Movement Speed and/or Casting Speed Outside of Combat [argent77] now covers casting speed and has been renamed to reflect this. It will now cover familiars and other mod companions like Grey the Dog
• Change Cloakwood Mine Chapter End Change Trigger to Non-TotSC Behavior [plainab] was using the wrong values on EET and therefore not properly removing journal entries
• Lightning Bolts Don't Bounce [Angel] needed an update to work on the 2.6 series of EE games due to some projectile format changes
• NPCs Cannot Pass Doors no longer changes the door in the Spellhold dream sequence, as an NPC passing this door is required for the 'good' outcome of the dream
• All Alter Weapon Proficiency System options will now preserve racial bonuses with weapons on EE games
• Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits will now allow for non-human monks. Since non-humans do not have specific monk animations, they will re-use their cleric animations for monks. As halflings lacked a mage animation they would default to fighter animations when choosing a mage class; these now also use cleric animations. Wild mages and barbarians are also made available.
• Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes now includes a configuration-level option (see the cdtweaks.txt file) that will adjust the half-orc intelligence penalty from -2 to -1, to allow for easier dual-classing to mages (assuming an appropriate variant of Alter Dual-Class Restrictions is installed)
• Fixed a bug with ToB-Style NPCs where NPCs could potentially show up with -1 XP
• Move NPCs to Convenient Locations now also tries to catch any area-level variables in their scripting when they're moved, hopefully resolving an odd bug or two with other mods
• Send BioWare NPCs to an Inn [DavidW/Zed Nocear] and Allow NPC Pairs to Separate were having some issues on BGT games, which should be fixed.
• Send BioWare NPCs to an Inn [DavidW/Zed Nocear] now accounts for the Endless BG1 mod, which lets you hang around after the end of the campaign. It also added some custom variables to allow for other mods to restrict the inn options for story-related purposes.
• Updated the Russian translation so that it would work on both the originals and EEs (thanks Andrey Balabokhin)
• On oBG, Two-Handed Bastard Swords was also allowing scimitars and long swords to be wielded two-handed
• Allow Yeslick to Use Axes now properly accounts for Multi-Class Grandmastery, if installed
• If Allow Mages to Use Bucklers and Thieves to Use Small Shields [Angel] and Weapon Styles for All are both installed, mages should be able to access the Sword and Shield weapon style. However, this only worked if Weapon Styles for All was installed second of the two; these will now work together regardless of install order
• The Happy Patch - Alter How Party NPCs Complain About Reputation was not quite covering all of the ways Shar-Teel could leave due to reputation if the BG1 NPC Project was installed
• Alter Multi-Class Restrictions and Alter Dual-Class Restrictions now try to edit the appropriate strings in character creation to reflect the rule changes
• Icewind Dale Casting Graphics [Andyr] and Baldur's Gate Casting Graphics [Andyr] now include casting sounds; on EE games they'll also use the nicer blended animations
• Icon Improvements now has a special ground icon for drow chain, as the bright green elven chain icon really stood out in places like the Underdark. The green elven chain has also been toned down a bit.
• Enforce PnP Proficiency Rules on Dual-Classed Characters [subtledoctor] now requires ToB due to a bug in WeiDU v247
• EET uses slightly different BG resources that were being missed in a few components: Adjust Evil Joinable NPC Reactions was missing Edwin; NPCs Don't Fight was missing several conflicts; Unique Containers [Miloch] missed a few bags; Consistent Stats could miss a copy of Edwin and Minsc; Make Xan a Generalist Mage [Mike1072] could miss a copy of Xan. Related, Give Coran a Legal Dexterity Score of 19 also missed an SoD version of Coran.
• Add Bags of Holding would fail to install on oIWD without the TotLM expansion
• Shapeshifter Rebalancing [Weimer] now tries to patch the kit ability table of the Shapeshifter rather than simply overwriting it
• Numerous typo fixes

Edited November 4, 2021 by CamDawg

[argent77]

I've noticed two issues with the "Weapon Styles for All" component:
1. Monk class doesn't get any points in the 2-weapon style.
2. Monk kits (Sun Soul, Dark Moon) get points in all weapon styles, even in those styles they can't use for technical reasons (2-handed, sword&shield).

Issue with the installation process:
When the mod is installed interactively it introduces long delays (which takes several seconds) between the individual stages of the installation process, e.g. after the prompt for displaying readme, prompts for component groups, etc. I could track it down to the heavy use of LABELs within the mod. The issue itself can probably only solved by WeiDU. However, if the delays become too annoying for the players I'd suggest to temporarily disable LABELs until the underlying issue has been solved.

[CamDawg]

Cheers! I noticed the delays, but never connected it to LABELs. I'll get the monks sorted as well.

[CamDawg]

And this is fixed for the next release.

[jastey]

Awesome! Thank you for your work on this!

[Endarire]

Alleluia!

<blows noisemaker>

[Mahatmah]

Amazing, I'll give it a good try. Thanks for the hard work !

I am however surprised by this : 

• The Exotic Items Pack has been moved permanently to The Calling mod.

This component was patching a shop / oversight issue on top of being a very good addition to BG1. I'll get it from the Calling no problem, but is there a particular reason why it would not belong here ? I mean, it is a great tweak. Not that you have to justify your design choices, it's your code, I'm just being curious.

 

[CamDawg]

The main reason is that I think it's a better fit in The Calling.

The second is that Exotic Items has always been a bit of a pain for the broader install order. Mods which make broad item changes--which these days, is every mod and its dog--need to go after Exotic Items specifically, yet the remainder of Anthology should go after those mods. You end up with a weird 'install Exotic Items from Tweaks, quit, install a bunch of other stuff, then start the Tweaks installer again' which is just a hassle.

[Mahatmah]

I did some RC1 testing on sending NPCs to Inns and Allow pairs to separate in the other thread. Looks much better : in short, everything works well except for Khalid and Jaheira still leaving the map after removal on BGT, and a couple minor issues.

However, French special characters (à é ô ... etc) are broken on RC1, at least for these components. Might be the case for all special characters / langages.
Worth looking into.

[CamDawg]

Dangit. I spent so much time trying to make sure I didn't screw up encoding for in the tra files, and I did it anyway. The good news is that it's an easy fix, and is done.

At this point, could you uninstall the separate NPC & NPCs wait at inn components and attach your jaheirap.dlg, khalip.dlg, montap.dlg, and xzarp.dlg files from your override? I suspect there's something else in the triggers that's preventing replacements.

[mickabouille]

10 hours ago, CamDawg said:

The second is that Exotic Items has always been a bit of a pain for the broader install order. Mods which make broad item changes--which these days, is every mod and its dog--need to go after Exotic Items specifically, yet the remainder of Anthology should go after those mods. You end up with a weird 'install Exotic Items from Tweaks, quit, install a bunch of other stuff, then start the Tweaks installer again' which is just a hassle.

I may misremember then, I think I saw that Calling should be installed after SCS (so pretty late, even further after Anthology).

Or maybe I mixed something (but I really noticed it because Calling being a "story" mod in my mind should have been put much earlier so that startled me)

[CamDawg]

No, definitely not. The Calling should go in about the same place you'd put any other quest mod.

[mickabouille]

Thanks, one less puzzling thing for me!

[Mahatmah]

Hello @CamDawg,

So let me explain exactly what I did, just in case :

1) Uninstall Tweaks Anthology v9.0 with setup-cdtweaks.exe --uninstall --skip-at-view
2) Install RC1 (only these two components)
3) Performed my tests
4) Uninstall RC1 with setup-cdtweaks.exe --uninstall --skip-at-view

Now that being said, I have none of these files in my override. For Montaron for example I have a MONTAR.dlg and a MONTAJ.dlg

-------

I also found another issue with Send NPCs to an inn, let me recap the issues here for you :

- When dismissed from the party, Xzar does not have his departure talk, but the dialogue to send him to any inn (I tested almost all other NPCs, they're fine)

- Khalid and Jaheira leave the map together right after one of them is dismissed (now with the same behavior) instead of standing still

- When sent to an inn, NPCs will often leave the map through the closest area transition. They can now get stuck on the other side of that area transition instead of teleporting properly to the inn.


For example, for my tests, I used to stand outside of the Nashkel inn and send them there : they now tend to get stuck behind the door (inside) like on this screenshot. If I send them to the Friendly Arm Inn from inside the Nashkel Inn, they'll get stuck outisde the door ... etc.

- Additionnaly, there is one asymetric edge-case I found with both Xzar and Minsc (but not with Dynaheir and Monty) : if you recruit Xzar or Minsc alone with "Allow NPC pairs to separate" THEN recruit the other member of that pair (Dynaheir or Monty) with the normal dialogue, then both Xzar and Minsc will leave the group alone (unintended) when fired.

I'll be around this afternoon / evening if you need my files, let me know


 

[CamDawg]

I'm beginning to suspect this may be an issue with your BGT install specifically. I was able to replicate most of the old bug reports, but RC1 has been working fine for me.

Granted, it may be my BGT install that's screwy.