My latest super-modded EET game - with more IWD

[subtledoctor]

Huh. The only things off I see about RNDTRES.2da are:

1. some rows don't have enough columns - seems like the default version in IWDEE has 20 columns, but my copy in EET has 40 columns. Mot sure if this actually harms anything, but it's an easy fix if so.
2. Some entries look like: "dw#ptn52*2" ...I assume that means the creature gets two potions, but I don't see anything about that notation in the IESDP. Again, not sure if it causes any problems, but easy fix if so.
3. Some entries look like: "DW#BLANK" ...and there is no DW#BLANK.itm in the game. Not sure if this is a placeholder entry for SCS that is supposed to be scrubbed or replaced, or what. It doesn't seem like a great thing to have in the table. Unless pointers to nonexistent files are intentional and are designed to represent a creature that has no item in that slot? Which is fine and fits with the design intent. Even if this was problematic, I'm not sure why it would only cause problems when the creature dies.

In fact the more I think about it, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. What I'm seeing is:

• middle of a fight, a creature dies, the game freezes
• I reload to just before the fight: I try again, maybe the game freezes again
• I reload to just before the fight: this time I get through the fight, all the enemies die, but the game does not freeze

If the problem had to do with RNDTRES.2da, why would reloading make any difference? I loaded a game in the same area, the creatures were already loaded into my savegame, the RNDTRES substitutions should have already happened and reloading the save should make no difference.

Hmm. I'll fix those three things in the 2da table, but maybe it's time to look at the area and creature scripts.

[DavidW]

Put it this way: features (2) and (3) are still present on the current version of SCS and I'm not being inundated with reports of crash bugs on EE installs, so I doubt this can be the issue you're having.

[jmerry]

If it's happening when the creature dies, it's not the random treasures. Random treasure tokens are resolved (or fail to resolve) when the item is created; either the creature holding it spawns in, or the area with the container is first entered.

[CrevsDaak]

From my experience, the base item has to exist for the random items to actually do anything, at least under ToBEx, since I've been interested in writing an alternative to this system by auto-generating an abstract layer over vanilla tables to make them work like in the EE. It's done at install time too, just has a lower item cap I think.

[subtledoctor]

9 hours ago, CrevsDaak said:

From my experience, the base item has to exist for the random items to actually do anything,

Yeah, several other other mods also use nonexistent items as table entries to create the possibility that the creature will have nothing. So I don’t think it’s that. 

At any rate, I have cleaned up the RNDTRES table, and removed the repeating .EFFs from 13,000 CRE files (the .EFFs were having no effect in 98.5% of cases anyway), transferred everything over to the iPad, and I am moving on. 

I also disentangled the combination of druid shapeshifts, spirit animal summons, and Samurai ki abilities. It’s a bit if a mess, but only because I am developing the character in such a weird way, and I think it is fixed locally. At some point I will do a major revamp of the ki points system to cover edge cases like this.

I’ve got Safana in the party while Imoen shelters with Firenose Elvenknees through this dangerous bandit-hunting stretch. Charname hit level 4 as a druid, and we are now going east, to Gullykin to find Thantyr’s bracers and to Adoy’s Enclave for Neera. Will stop by the Ulcaster and Firewine ruins as well. Then on to the Bandit Camp. 

[subtledoctor]

Isn’t there supposed to be an inn in Gullykin? I distinctly recall someone in Alvanhendar’s place who would let us sleep there. But in this game I have to sleep outdoors in the middle of the village. Am I misremembering? 

[Connelly]

Pretty sure one of the minor clerics at the temple act as an innkeeper.

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, Connelly said:

Pretty sure one of the minor clerics at the temple act as an innkeeper.

Yeah that person isn’t there! It’s just Alvanhendar and two “halfling men.” No innkeeper cleric!

[jmerry]

Some mod probably adds something, but there's no innkeeper in Gullykin in vanilla.

[Connelly]

Whoops, then I have no idea what mod if any does that. :s

[subtledoctor]

Huh. Must have been BGT thing, maybe?

At any rate I decided to pick up someone who can use longswords. Littlun's been pretty quiet so I dropped her and picked up Ajantis for some classic sword/shield tanking. He was hunting bandits; I was hunting bandits. Perfect. We went searching for the Tazok, clearing most of the Spider Forest, Basilisk Town, Larswood, and Peldvale. Then we tried to infiltrate the Bandit Camp but failed? Which is weird because earlier in this same game, with the other set of saves, I did so successfully. Maybe the presence of a paladin makes them attack me? At any rate that's fine because getting jumped by all the bandits at once when I have no time to prep is the most fun way to do this map. It got a little hairy but I prevailed. Then went back to Beregost.

For weeks now I've been waiting for Brandock to join up with Fireface Elvenfart to fix his book. I know this is supposed to happen, I've seen it before in an abandoned EET run. But something seemed wrong. Only by chance I looked at my journal - not in the 'Quests' section but the actual 'Journal' section - and it says I should talk to Brandock about it. So I manually talked to him and, voilà - the dialogue triggered and he made a plan with Firehair. Weird. TBH I don't love this. It comes across as a ham-fisted way to force the player to get into PIDs with an NPC. But I'm sorry, I'm never going to do PIDs with an NPC, any time an NPC mods asks me to install PIDs I decline to do so. It's just not something that interests me - but it seemingly almost caused me to short-circuit Brandock's whole character arc. This earns a solid "meh."

Job done with regard to the bandits, I dropped Ajantis and he was like "Aw, I thought we were a team!" - giving big Anomen energy. Good riddance. I picked up Sirene instead, changing her sword from a greatsword into a bastard sword (sorry not sorry) and speccing her for sword-and-board. Into the Cloakwood! I sided with Aldeth Sashenstar because, even though I am a druid, those druids there are dicks. Safana, sensing I am on more of a quest than a gallivant and increasing danger, hiked back to civilization, and I picked up Coran instead. I made Coran a fighter/thief with the Rake kit for single-class thieves... specialization with bows and longswords and single-weapon style, some ranks in the Dodge feat, and... holy cow, this guy smokes! 2+ APR, thac0 well into the single digits, AC -5 or something... he's a monster, and he's not even on my front line!

Of course, the question I will soon face is, do I take on Eldoth? I would have to lose someone from the party, which probably means Coran. Which I would prefer not to do,, at least until I get back to Beregost, because Eldoth is a wanker... but I need Eldoth in order to get Skie, and I need Skie in the party for at least some time in order for SoD to make any sense at all.

Here's a mod that would be cool:

Set a variable when Skie joins the party in BG1. Then in SoD, whether imported or continued via a unified BGEE/SoD game or EET, check the variable in the opening dungeon and if the variable is not >0, remove Skie entirely from all of SoD. Just snip that whole plot and every cut-scene and leave them on the editing room floor. Rewrite the entire last chapter to make Charname's perception as a villain more sensible. I would suggest, maybe, causing one or many important people from the BG coalition to be stranded in Avernus. Maybe when you go into the room, instead of having the door shut, leave the door open so your allied soldiers can witness Charname, however unwillingly, open the portal to hell. And have, like, everyone that whole floor of the castle get pulled in. And instead of the first scene in Avernus when you see about five soldiers being killed by fiends, make it more like 20 or 30. This way even if Charname later establishes his goodness at the trial, people will still fear and hate him just for what his Bhaalspawn essence can do.

Just a thought.

Edited February 13 by subtledoctor

[Connelly]

34 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Littlun's been pretty quiet

Glam's NPCs mostly have banters with themselves and the Bioware characters. Also with Artemius' NPCs, but because Sirene and Drake aren't adapted for EET yet, their crossmod only happens in BG1 alone. Any combination of those gets you plenty of banter, and even PIDs to talk about what Glam's spoke with others, so that's weird.

Also, her next event after rescuing Dynaheir happens when you first meet Sashenstar, so huh...

Edited February 13 by Connelly

[mickabouille]

Quote

Whoops, then I have no idea what mod if any does that. :s

Ntotsc I think

[subtledoctor]

A few somewhat random observations on a re-play after more than a year:

1) There are no good scimitars. My Charname specialized in scimitars as a 1-handed weapon before dual-classing to druid, but as yet I have only seen a single magical scimitar - Rashad’s Talon, a sad example that with Item Revisions has a Cleave effect that… makes it less than one fifth of a Belm. And without Item Revisions is an even bigger nothing-burger, a plus-two enchantment with absolutely no bonus effects. Meanwhile, I’ve seen gobs and gobs of katanas, for which I have no use. The katana fetish is truly strong in the modding community. 

2) The mobs in the Cloakwood Mine are oddly weak? I waded through a ton of Black Talon Elites on the way, with magical arrows and decent thac0 and hit points. But in the mine itself, Davaeorn has surrounded himself with guards and hobgoblins who go down in 1-2 hits. It’s a bit weird. 

2-a) Hobgoblins in general could stand to be buffed in this game. 

3) I had forgotten that at the end of the Cloakwood Mine, there only way forward is through a secret door. Even with Coran standing next to it with Find Traps on, it took like 30 seconds to appear. What happens if you come here with no thieves/elves/dwarves in your party? Does the door just appear automatically after a while? What an idd design choice. I mean I totally get it from Davaeorn’s perspective, but from a narrative or game-design standpoint… like, gamify it! Have a guard drop a verbal hint, maje it require a special sigil, something like that. It’s especially odd in contrast with all the useless fake dwarven runestones for Durlag’s that just litter your inventory - which are so confusing that after 25 years I’ve still never fully grasped which are supposed to be useful and which are garbage. 

Edited February 16 by subtledoctor

[Connelly]

I always suspected the BG community of committing the most heinous crime of being a bunch of dweebs. :V

Aren't the runestones supposed to allow you pass through different sections, or simply act as sorta door keys? I just throw them away once I'm done with the demon knight and have the ghost beam me up.