EET playthrough with 200+ mods

[Quester]

2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

@Quester If you want to check the CLAB table of the cleric of Talos (b_ctal.2da) you should see a d5_U### being applied. Find that spell, and look at the opcode 181 effects. Tell me if it has a 181 effect for type 22 and/or type 69. Then we can write a little hotfix to convert bastard swords to the proper item type.

Despite not really knowing what you're saying, I did find both 22 and 69 as disallowed item types (181) there.

[Quester]

I mean, I can't see that any mod would intentionally set Bastard Swords to item type 0 (Miscellaneous). So how the heck would that happen?

 

[subtledoctor]

11 hours ago, Quester said:

Despite not really knowing what you're saying, I did find both 22 and 69 as disallowed item types (181) there.

Okay if I'm reading the code right that means that bastard swords and halberds are precluded from that kit. So take a look at the item type of halberds, and then bastard swords would need to be changed to the other one. (I.e. if halberds are type 22 in your game then bastard swords should be type 69, and vice versa.)

[Quester]

I'm sorry but this is really confusing to me. When I look at HALB01.itm, as well as the various other unique or mastercraft halberds, they are set to item type Clubs (44). However there is an item type in the list actually called Halberds (30). Why aren't they set to that?

Item types 22 and 69 as mentioned above are Morning Stars and Bastard Swords, respectively. Normally it would *seem* to make sense to set Bastard Swords to their own type, then. However there is also item type Large Swords (20). That's what all the long swords are set to.

What to do?

Edited November 4, 2022 by Quester

[Graion Dilach]

@Quester weidu --log nul --change-log HALB01.itm > halberd-changelog.txt, and zip the changelog together with the revisions from the main folder along.

19 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Not sure what the link to Scales of Balance is supposed to show.

Was intended for @jmerry because it sums up a lot of how it works but I got ninjad.

[Quester]

@Graion DilachHere it is

halb01.7z

[subtledoctor]

3 hours ago, Quester said:

sorry but this is really confusing to me. When I look at HALB01.itm, as well as the various other unique or mastercraft halberds, they are set to item type Clubs (44). However there is an item type in the list actually called Halberds (30). Why aren't they set to that?

So, first thing to understand is that the names are totally meaningless. Item type is just a number - armor is 2, rings are 10, scrolls are 11, etc. Some weapons have their own number - spears are 29 - while some share a number - bastard swords, long swords, 2-handed swords, and scimitars are all 20. There are unused item type numbers: 57 is labeled "greatswords" and 69 is labeled "bastard swords," but both of those weapons are lumped into type 20. (This is because that is how the original BG1 weapon proficiency grouping worked.) Types 60 to 68 are for all different kinds of armor - leather, studded leather, chain, splint, plate, etc. But armors don't use them, they are all lumped into type 2.

Why? Who knows. Maybe the devs in 2000 had cool features planned for item types, but they got left on the cutting room floor.

Anyway, say you want to give different cleric kits different weapon usability - let clerics of helm use bastard swords, Helm's favorite weapon? Well, we have an opcode to prevent the use of an item type, so if item types lined up with proficiency categories, then we could simply make all weapons usable by the cleric class, and then look at their proficiency and say "if you can't be proficient with this weapon, you can't equip it." (Proficiencies generally align with usability for everyone else.) But that stupid "large swords" item type is problematic. So we have to break it up. Not hard: move 2-handed swords to type 57 (already labeled "greatswords"), move bastard swords to type 69 (already labeled "bastard swords"), and move scimitars... well, to type 44 ("clubs") for no reason other than it is unused and it works in weapon slots.

But there is one final wrinkle: for some unknown hard-coded engine reason, item types above 30 cannot be dual-wielded. We don't want to give Belm an item type that prevents it going in the shield slot, right?    So, we make some switches. Two-handed weapons can't be dual-wielded anyway, so we can move bastard swords to type 29 and move spears to type 57; and we can move scimitars to type 30 and move halberds to type 44.

Voila: now we can have near-unlimited variability in cleric kit weapon use. And that's why halberds have type 44.

I don't know what caused them to be changed to item type 0. But the code to fix them is fairly simple. Something like:

COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~^.+\.itm$~ ~override~
  READ_SHORT 0x1c type
  READ_SHORT 0x22 anim
  READ_BYTE 0x18 handed
  PATCH_IF ((%handed% BOR 0b11111101) = 0b11111101) BEGIN   //	1-handed
    PATCH_IF (%type% = 0) BEGIN                             // type = currently 0
      PATCH_IF (%anim% = 12371) BEGIN                       // bastard sword animation
        WRITE_SHORT 0x1c 69
      END
    END
  END
BUT_ONLY	  

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by subtledoctor

[Quester]

Okay, then I understand a little bit more. But I need to point out that all of that is very far from obvious if you're not a modder.

So, how can I apply that fix?

[subtledoctor]

28 minutes ago, Quester said:

But I need to point out that all of that is very far from obvious if you're not a modder.

None of it should matter if your not a modder. For a player, it should all just work.

33 minutes ago, Quester said:

how can I apply that fix?

Here you go.

[Quester]

17 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

None of it should matter if your not a modder. For a player, it should all just work.

Here you go.

By Moradin's hammer! Thank you so much.

P.S. The link is wrong but I found it on your github. Applied, and all is well with my swords!

 

[subtledoctor]

FYI @Quester this has spurred me to notice something else here... take a look at blun02.itm (flail), blun04.itm (mace), and blun06.itm (morning star). For each one, look at their item type at 0x1c, and their proficiency at 0x31. It looks like FnP has a small bug when IR Weapons Changes are installed first, which can lead to a mismatch in morning stars' type and proficiency.

You've got a lot of other stuff installed so it may not be relevant, and the in-game effects might be small anyway. But if there is a mismatch, it is fixable, so it's worth checking.

[Quester]

On 11/6/2022 at 3:27 PM, subtledoctor said:

FYI @Quester this has spurred me to notice something else here... take a look at blun02.itm (flail), blun04.itm (mace), and blun06.itm (morning star). For each one, look at their item type at 0x1c, and their proficiency at 0x31. It looks like FnP has a small bug when IR Weapons Changes are installed first, which can lead to a mismatch in morning stars' type and proficiency.

You've got a lot of other stuff installed so it may not be relevant, and the in-game effects might be small anyway. But if there is a mismatch, it is fixable, so it's worth checking.

Once again I am confused. Flails, maces and morning stars all share the category Flails (23). I'm assuming that's the same thing as Item Type. Maces and morning stars have proficiency set as PROFICENCYHALBERD - 99. Is that right?

[Quester]

Something completely different: in my current game, kits from the Artisan's kitpack have somehow had their descriptions deleted:

Spoiler

I don't know why.

I wanted to fix this with NI, but I don't know what I'm doing basically. Any guidance?

[subtledoctor]

2 hours ago, Quester said:

kits from the Artisan's kitpack have somehow had their descriptions deleted:

It looks like the UI is should the actual string number in dialog.tlk ("656772")  rather than the text inside that string number. There could be a number of reasons why: the mod might be setting it incorrectly, or the UI might be looking at the wrong thing. First and easiest thing to try is to look at the various .2da files that show kit descriptions:  kitlist.2da, clastext.2da, sodcltxt.2da, and bgclatxt.2da. Make sure the "DESC" or "HELP" string number for these kits are correct. If there are any deviations in one or more of those files, fixing them should fix the problem in-game. If those files are all correct, then the problem is likely in the kit mod or the UI and I wouldn't know how to fix it.

2 hours ago, Quester said:

Maces and morning stars have proficiency set as PROFICENCYHALBERD - 99. Is that right?

Yes, that is correct. Clubs should have the same proficiency.

2 hours ago, Quester said:

Flails, maces and morning stars all share the category Flails (23)

That is not correct, and quite weird. I was expecting something to be wrong here, but... not this. I'll lay out what the mods do and what you should expect:

1. IR Weapon Changes sets morning stars to use the Maces proficiency (101)
2. If IR WC is installed, FnP changes morning stars form type 22 to type 23 (flail)  <--- this is a mistake in FnP 0.85sd4, should be type 17 (mace)
3. FnP changes clubs to type 26 (staff)
4. SoB Combat Skills sets clubs to type 17 (mace)
5. SoB Combat Skills sets anything with the club or mace proficiency (115 or 101) to halberd proficiency (99) <--- with IR WC, this should include morning stars

So the final situation should be:

• clubs are type 17 and prof 99
• maces are type 17 and prof 99
• morning stars are type 17 and prof 99
• flails are type 23 and prof 100

What I would expect from your install is:

• clubs are type 17 and prof 99
• maces are type 17 and prof 99
• morning stars are type 23 and prof 99
• flails are type 23 and prof 100

That bold part is the mismatch I expected to see. With this set of mods item type and proficiency should align - type 17 with prof 99, and type 23 with prof 100. I was figuring on writing a little hotfix to change morning stars' item type from 23 to 17, easy-peasy.  But if you're telling me maces have type 23 then something has gone awry. And I wonder what clubs look like in your game?

I've just installed these same mods - IR #17, FnP #75, and SoB #123 - and everything looks as expected on my end. So, given that bastard swords were also different in your game, I can only guess that some other mod is jumping in somewhere and changing item types. Would need a change-log to know for sure. In the meantime, it might be worth checking the same four weapons listed above - a club, a mace, a morning star, and a flail - and post each one's item type and proficiency. The item type is at 0x1c when looking in Near Infinity, and the proficiency is at 0x31. When looking at all four categories, it should be relatively easy to devise a fix if needed.

Edited November 10, 2022 by subtledoctor

[Quester]

On 11/10/2022 at 4:08 PM, subtledoctor said:

I've just installed these same mods - IR #17, FnP #75, and SoB #123 - and everything looks as expected on my end. So, given that bastard swords were also different in your game, I can only guess that some other mod is jumping in somewhere and changing item types. Would need a change-log to know for sure. In the meantime, it might be worth checking the same four weapons listed above - a club, a mace, a morning star, and a flail - and post each one's item type and proficiency. The item type is at 0x1c when looking in Near Infinity, and the proficiency is at 0x31. When looking at all four categories, it should be relatively easy to devise a fix if needed.

I'm sorry but I am not familiar enough with the workings of NI. This is how it looks when I look at an item:

Spoiler

 

When you say the item type is at 0x1c, I figured I was meant to look it up in the 'Raw' tab with the matrix. Can't find it there though. Clearly I'm missing something.