SCS fighting script makes Duke Liia use AoE magic which turns the other Dukes hostile

[jastey]

We think that it is an SCS script that lets Duke Jannath use area spells in the fight with Sarevok. I had reports for EndlessBG1, that after returning from defeating Sarevok, the Dukes turned hostile. This seems to be an instant where the impact only shows in combination with other mods (in this case, prolonged exposure to the Dukes in the palace). @jmerry identified a possible problem here (plus his following post):

 

[jmerry]

To repeat what I found, there's one particular Spell Trigger which is badly handled. Sunfire/Cloudkill/Cloudkill. Any invoker with sufficient levels can get it, and if they do there's no allegiance check for using it. If Liia rolls that and you walk up to her, she casts the Spell Trigger, hurting everyone in the vicinity including herself. Since she was attacked by someone on your side, she blames your party and goes hostile, which leads to a Game Over within a few rounds.

My recommendations:

- Restrict this particular spell trigger to liches and rakshasas only. Casting Cloudkill on oneself is suicidal for mages without immunity to the spell.

- Include an allegiance check in the script for using the trigger. Indiscriminate AoE attack spells in general should always have an allegiance check, so friendly mages don't go hostile as a direct result of their own actions.

[Salk]

I took a look at the highpowered_sequencers.ssl file and if I am not mistaken, what jmerry is suggesting could be easily done just by adding these three lines:

    OR(2)
                RequireBlock(IsLich)
                RequireBlock(IsRakshasa)

About the allegiance check, it seems like the sequencers found there do not have any (unless I'm wrong) so that check would have to be extended to several blocks.

[jmerry]

Nah. You do the lich/rakshasa restriction in caster-shared/triggers/trigger.2da.

spell1                  spell2                             spell3                           contingency                         kit                                      require_mod         exclude_mod         require_type            exclude_type       category
...
...
SUN_FIRE                CLOUDKILL                          CLOUDKILL                        *                                   invoker                                  *                   *                   *                       *                  o

(replace row with)

SUN_FIRE                CLOUDKILL                          CLOUDKILL                        *                                   invoker                                  *                   *                   lich|rakshasa           *                  o

After all, that table is where the decision for which trigger to use is made. If you put the restriction in the script, then the mage gets a spell trigger and no script to use it, which is equivalent to not having a spell trigger at all.

[Salk]

Okay, got it.

Thanks!

[polytope]

15 hours ago, jmerry said:

lich|rakshasa

If I'm not wrong that could be extended to vampires in the recent versions of EE (even the old versions of ToBEx), they won't suffer spell disruption from Cloudkill if immune to poison damage.

I don't believe SCS gives the invoker kit to any vampire, though.

[jmerry]

Yeah, vampires should be OK with their poison immunity. But neither vampire mages nor rakshasa get specialties, so in its current form that sequencer wouldn't apply to them. Might need to reconsider the "invoker" requirement there.

[DavidW]

This is absolutely a bug, yes - no idea what I was thinking. require_type should be set to lich|rakshasa and the kit should be expanded to invoker|fighter_mage. Vampires shouldn’t get it because there’s too much likelihood of friendly fire.

I also take the broader point that neutral creatures shouldn’t use party-unfriendly spells.