create weapon Create weapon with special conditions

[Incrementis]

Hello everyone,

At the moment I'm trying to realize an idea of mine (BG:EE).

The idea is as follows:

When the weapon hits a target, it increases its magic level by +1 until it reaches +3.

After that, it will turn to its first stage of power.

I realized this by creating 4 same items (weapons). Each item has the effect "Create weapon" (opcode 111) in its item ability. Also, each item has a different number of charges. When the charges drop to 0, the item will change its form to its first tier of power.

Everything is working fine so far, but there are some issues that bother me and I'd love to hear some ideas on how to tackle them in order to solve them as best as possible.

 

1. When the item is created, it consumes all weapon slots (see screenshot). How can we avoid this so that only a specific weapon slot is used?

2. It is not possible to drag and drop this created item and it is not visible in the inventory screen as it seems to work like the "Flame Blade" spell (see screenshot). How can we enable it to be drag and drop and visible in the inventory screen?

3.I can't find a slot in the "Create Weapon" effect (opcode 111) that allows the newly created item to exist for a specific number of turns. I tried the "Duration" slot with Near Infinity, but after changing it to the value 2, the item didn't disappear, even after resting it was still there. How can we define the number of turns an item is allowed to stay?

4. If I increase the charges of this item, e.g. up to 25 it is created with only 1 charge. I tested this by selling this particular item to a merchant. In doing so, the item will be charged up to the maximum (e.g. 25). How can it be solved that the object is created with maximum charges?

 

Thank you, for reading this comment!

[jmerry]

1. You can't. Any use of the "create weapon" opcode puts the created weapon in the "magic weapon" slot, which overrides all normal weapon slots.

2. You can't. At least, you can't unless you move to an entirely different model. Items in the "magic weapon" slot can't be manually moved around.

3. Duration does work, as long as you're using the right timing mode ("Instant/Limited", #0). Timing mode 2 generally shouldn't be used for anything other than an item's effect. From the IESDP:

Quote

• 2 ⟶ Instant/While equipped
  • As global ITM effect: Applied when item is equipped, lasts until item is unequipped (or polymorph bug).
    • “Equipping” also occurs when game loads, and for weapons whenever they are selected from quickbar (even if it’s already the active weapon). Never expires, and not considered a “Limited” effect.
  • As SPL or header ITM effect: applies instantly, lasts until game is reloaded.

4. The first parameter for the "Create Weapon" effect is "amount", which probably does what you're looking for here. At least, as long as you're using the current model for the whole setup. Those issues around the first two questions might convince you otherwise.

[jmerry]

Regarding potential alternate approaches ... do you have Siege of Dragonspear? The Gemblade (bddagg03, bddagg3a) might be something to look at. The initial +1 form has "charges", which are used up one at a time when you hit something. Those hits also have a chance of "finding" (actually, creating) random gems. Then, when all the charges are used up, the dagger is replaced with the second form - +2 with an additional +1 INT equip effect, but no free gems.

[kjeron]

4 hours ago, jmerry said:

The initial +1 form has "charges", which are used up one at a time when you hit something. 

charges are used up Hit or Miss, and when a "used up" item switches out it doesn't always work as desired for weapons, as the character may auto-switch to another quick-slotted weapon (or just "fists") when it occurs.

Edited May 10, 2023 by kjeron

[jmerry]

Yeah, it's not perfect.

That "won't automatically equip" behavior is shared with other means of creating items in equipment slots such as opcode 143 and the TakeItemReplace action. There's also an opcode to create items in the inventory, which obviously doesn't equip them. It does, however, have the advantage of allowing you to specify a number of charges.

[Incrementis]

Thank you for all the replies and information.

This is a lot for me to test and understand, so it will take some time before I can answer properly.

[Incrementis]

I have now tested and reviewed all the options mentioned and the result is that I went for this one

On 5/9/2023 at 10:18 PM, jmerry said:

3. Duration does work, as long as you're using the right timing mode ("Instant/Limited", #0). Timing mode 2 generally shouldn't be used for anything other than an item's effect. From the IESDP:

Quote

• 2 ⟶ Instant/While equipped
  • As global ITM effect: Applied when item is equipped, lasts until item is unequipped (or polymorph bug).
    • “Equipping” also occurs when game loads, and for weapons whenever they are selected from quickbar (even if it’s already the active weapon). Never expires, and not considered a “Limited” effect.
  • As SPL or header ITM effect: applies instantly, lasts until game is reloaded.

4. The first parameter for the "Create Weapon" effect is "amount", which probably does what you're looking for here. At least, as long as you're using the current model for the whole setup. Those issues around the first two questions might convince you otherwise.

If 1st and 2nd were possible it would have solved the problem of the weapon being able to be used as an offhand weapon. In the current "Create Weapon" (opcode 111) scenario, all main hand weapons are overridden even if the item is equipped in the off hand weapon slot.

I will point out in the description that the weapon is recommended as a main hand weapon.

 

17 hours ago, kjeron said:

charges are used up Hit or Miss

Thanks for the hint.

Luckily that's not a problem as it makes things harder and more exciting, but of course that's a subjective perception on my part.

 

17 hours ago, kjeron said:

when a "used up" item switches out it doesn't always work as desired for weapons, as the character may auto-switch to another quick-slotted weapon (or just "fists") when it occurs.

Interestingly, this is not the case when testing the whole thing.

[subtledoctor]

The various ‘create item’ effects ate either unfortunately limited in application, or outright buggy. 

[Incrementis]

On 5/11/2023 at 8:00 PM, subtledoctor said:

The various ‘create item’ effects ate either unfortunately limited in application, or outright buggy. 

Yes, so much so that when casting e.g. "Flame Blade" and equipping an off-hand weapon, the off-hand's hit chance increases as if it were a main-hand weapon.

Still, I'll use this as "Not a bug, but a feature", because it fits unintentionally the narrative of the item I'm creating.

If one day this bug is fixed by Beamdog, it will be easy to change the description since only one sentence needs to be deleted.