The Gate Project

[Graion Dilach]

Sounds like a feature for an optional component to me. If JohnBob doesn't find time/gets stuck with it, I'll take a look.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Connelly said:

I guess this is beyond the purview of your efforts, but would it be possible to in some way edit the Ishlilka script that fires when you first see her? At least with the original mod it became a bit of a bother that every time that she enters your line of sight, the game forces your party to move to her and start talking, which could be fine if it wasn't for it to decide then and there if you want her to join the tenth time you start a game with no spot for her. I can disable it myself so that I can initiate the conversation myself, but I imagine I wouldn't be the only one bothered, specially when she's there just as you enter the FAInn courtyard and nearby other few modded NPCs. A bit awkward.

That aside, thanks for updating these old mods. BG1 Aerie playing nice with EET alone is a neat convenience.

I propose to add a reply option, for the first meeting, that allows you to come back later and talk to her again...

But it's a one-shot option, if you didn't take her this time, she will remain silent as originally intended...

1 hour ago, Graion Dilach said:

Sounds like a feature for an optional component to me. If JohnBob doesn't find time/gets stuck with it, I'll take a look.

@WarChiefZeke the author gave me permission to update the mod, so some changes are possible, but I think the first cutscene is part of the design and should be kept as is.

This way I use some first meeting dialogue already here but unused and add two sentences myself to the mod.

---

So, @Connelly do you think it's enough for you ? ( you can try it with this branch )

And @Graion Dilach if you want to take a look at the proposed change on the second branch, that would be great !

Edited June 15, 2023 by JohnBob

[Connelly]

I'd prefer not being forced to approach to begin with*, but I'm not against that. Sure, go ahead.

*My nitpick (I wouldn't call it even a real problem) is that it forcing the player to interact with something that isn't really calling attention to itself feels odd. For example, I know people don't like Neera's scenes at Beregost and Amn's bridge district, but her approaching you for help, or seeing her make a scene (spells included) in plain daylight would make her harder to be unnoticed, even if you ignore her. It makes some sense then to force things on the player. Ishlilka instead is just a girl practicing with her weapon alone in a corner. One creates a situation where circumstances directly tackle the player character down to the ground, the other mindcontrols Charname into paying attention despite involving something relatively mundane. Both may be inconvenient but only one of them takes me out of the immersion.

Another thing that comes to mind. Something that I've been noticing with some mods is that they introduce personal items flagged as critical item, like Ishlilka's starting spear here. I think the intention is that these items are supposed to not be lost to the character, but all I can see the flag achieves is dropping them in my inventory when the character leaves the party for whatever reason, sometimes forcing me to not ever leaving them behind. This is specially weird when the item can only be used by their assigned character. Wouldn't there be a better way to achieve the intended goal?

Last one. There's another Coutelier mod besides Aerie BG1, Tenya Thermidor. Do you plan to touch it in some way, out of curiosity?

Edited June 16, 2023 by Connelly

[Connelly]

On 6/15/2023 at 9:42 PM, JohnBob said:

So, @Connelly do you think it's enough for you ? ( you can try it with this branch )

Aight, was able to try it now. I see you also added an option to disable the scene, and both it and your added dialogue reply look good.

[Guest]

Yes, and the spear is not  flagged as critical item anymore.

I think I'll be releasing a version soon, other fixes will require a complete playthrough.

20 hours ago, Connelly said:

Last one. There's another Coutelier mod besides Aerie BG1, Tenya Thermidor. Do you plan to touch it in some way, out of curiosity?

It's possible, but I'm not promising anything, there are lots of other stuff to finish first.

Edited June 17, 2023 by JohnBob

[Endarire]

Greetings, JohnBob!

Today I tested the latest master version on EET and found these bugs:

-Drain Spell: There is no noticeable visual feedback nor text message when a spell is successfully drained.  The spell's idea is interesting but I need to know what spell level(s) were drained for it to be useful.

-Gravitational Field: Cast in the Friendly Arm Inn on a patron.  The spell finished casting then nothing happened.  It's like there's no spell effect attached.

-Lashing Wind: Cast in the Friendly Arm Inn on a patron.  The spell finished casting then nothing happened.  It's like there's no spell effect attached.

The mod's documentation talks about "epic spells" - Deathly Hallows, etc. - but how to get them in-game?

Thankee!

Edited July 8, 2023 by Endarire

[Guest]

- Epic spells are available through dialog after the Cloakwood Mines, but only one is accessible depending on the character's class.

9 hours ago, Endarire said:

It's like there's no spell effect attached.

Quick look at the Items / spells and effects are attached, so everything look okay.

- I agree that some spell effects could be clearer, but when I had done my tests, they seem to work correctly, but I'll look again, as soon as I have some time.

I'm not sure I remember correctly, but it's possible that some of them require the target to be hostile to be effective.

Edited July 8, 2023 by JohnBob

[Endarire]

Allowing me to target a creature with a spell, casting it, and providing no spell effect and no explanation is just bad game design.  (I don't blame you, JohnBob.)  Even if these spells only affect enemies, there should be more info about how these work.

<Proceeds to update the English spell descriptions.>

[Guest]

I don't think you should blame anybody and don't understand how players can allow themselves to talk about bad game design, for a mod offered by a person who does it for fun and owes nothing to anyone. If you don't like it, don't use it !

 

Anyway, I am gonna review them and provide a fix.

[Guest]

Little correction for Lashing Wind and Drain spell, thanks to Saradas magic 2 !

 

Gravitational Field and Lashing Wind are spells with an area of effect and affect enemies like mentionned in their descriptions...

Gravitational Field don't mention enemies but it seem logical.

 

Drain spell work only on mage character single / dual / multi class... (either enemie or else)

Spoiler

EFFECT : The caster attacks the opponent's mind to make him forget two memorized spell if he fails a saving throw vs. spells ( -5), restoring one of his own. It affects spells from level 1 to 9, but it will try to start from the highest level available. NOTE: This spell affects only sorcerers and wizards (including dual-class and multiclass). If the target is not a magician, nothing would happen and the spell would be wasted.

 

So everything is already here in description and some message are displayed when spells are cast like they should be...

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by JohnBob

[Graion Dilach]

I've uploaded klatu to The Gate earlier today, due to two reasons:

 - I had a Manual of War bugfix posted to the klatu topic two years ago on SHS.

 - I also figured out why it's sanitizer threw errors on so many files other mods and NI's own sanitizer are fine with.

@skellytz I think JohnBob or you could transfer over the repos you deem necessary.

[Connelly]

2 hours ago, Graion Dilach said:

 - I also figured out why it's sanitizer threw errors on so many files other mods and NI's own sanitizer are fine with.

This seems to have fixed the DELETE_BYTES out of bounds errors with at least Golem Construction installed.

[Graion Dilach]

Yes, that was one of my testcases.

[tigeruppercut]

Hello, on github the download for Ishlilka is for the 1.3 version. Is the updated 1.4 version unavailable to dowload and still being worked on?

[Guest]

Hello !

You can download the 1.4 version using this direct link or the green bouton "Code" on github then Download ZIP.

Let me know if you encountered any issue.

Edited August 9, 2023 by JohnBob