SCS is properly installed but I swear it isn't working

[Holden]

I've finally come to the conclusion that I've been lying to myself and SCS isn't really working.  I'm running a fairly heavily modded BG EET install (Weidu attached), and and have played through to SoD.  I had a previous install with a similar array of mods, but ran into an issue and had to reinstall.  On my second run, I've started to notice that the difficulty is way easier this time no matter what I do with my settings.

I have configured my SCS settings to "default" so they correspond to the general difficulty slider, which I have on "Insane".  I found the issues started when I'd tried to re-jig the individual settings independent of the general slider. 

SCS says it's installed, and I can adjust stuff on the menu.  But I get very little indication that it's working properly.  The game is WAY too easy.  Malahey, Davaeorn and now the even the Durlag Demon Knight and Aec'letec.  They throw up a few minor buffs like Armor or Shield or Mirror Image, which show as "cast previously" which I realize only happens with SCS.  However, none of them use Protection from Magical Weapons or Stoneskin.  In the case of the Demon Knight, he was a complete pushover without these buffs up.  Aec'Letec threw up ZERO buffs whatsoever, and seemed content to throw a Remove Magic at my party and then proceed to basically wander around attacking with melee only.  Only the mage threw up buffs, but again no PFMW or Stoneskin.

When I fought Icharyd at Ulcaster, he never went into his "second sequence" with all the Call Lightning spells.  He simply died.  I thought this was a major red flag, but I kept convincing myself SCS was working properly because mages were throwing up (lame) buffs in advance.

Is it possible that I have SCS installed, but some of its features aren't actually working?  Is this a thing?  This honestly feels no different from vanilla. 

 

WeiDU.log

[jmerry]

Aec'Letec and the Demon Knight are demons, not mages. They don't have spells like Stoneskin or PFMW. At all. They have specific spell-like abilities they use, which are often clones of mage spells, and that's it.

Now, with true mages like Tracea Carol (the one in the cult basement), you should be seeing Stoneskin if they have enough levels. And ... checks ... level 10 before any mods. Yeah, she should have Stoneskin with SCS. Unless you blast her before her prebuffs can trigger, which is certainly possible especially if you lay some traps before the cult moves in.

[Angel]

Mulahey is a cleric, he doesn't get Stoneskin or PfMW.  Davaeorn is a level 11 mage, he can't cast PfMW.  Stoneskin only holds for a few hits at that level. The only demons that can cast PfMW are mariliths.  You are having unreasonable expectations, SCS does not cheat and give enemies abilities they should not have.

[Holden]

I figured it out, my apologies.  It wasn't an SCS issue, it's actually much worse than that.  For some reason, none of the event triggers are working on my install.  This explains a lot of things:

1.  Davaeorn fight was so easy because guards do not spawn in the room.  The two Battle Horrors were present, but no extra guards.

2.  Icharyd fight is a joke because the event trigger to transition to his second form does not activate.

3.  In the Aec'letec fight, the cult guards are present but do not "activate".  So they end up just standing there waiting to get massacred.  

4.  During the Demon Knight fight in Durlag's, the mirror in the room doesn't do anything.  I'm not sure whether there is an event trigger there too that I've missed?

Those are really the only ones I've run into so far.  I tried the Davaeorn fight again and he actually did cast Stoneskin this time.  He also teleported normally and used his spell sequencer.  Seems I had jumped to conclusions in framing this as an SCS issue.

The weird thing is that I haven't had this occur during non-combat situations, at least that I can recall.  For instance, the event trigger at the very beginning where Imoen spawns and joins you works just fine.  All dialogue triggers seem to be working too.

[Graion Dilach]

Sounds like your area scripts are broken... what is your weidu.log?

[Holden]

Posted here.  I know this probably isn't an SCS issue, but for some reason I seem to remember that these issues started popping up once I messed with SCS' difficulty settings for individual components.  I can't be certain unfortunately.

WeiDU.log

[jastey]

How does the weiduBGEE.log look like?

[Holden]

I've attached it here.

WeiDU-BGEE.log

[Graion Dilach]

Weird, I don't see anything suspicious here either. My other guess would also be that the game thinks you're in story mode for some reason.

[Holden]

Just tried the Demon Knight fight again, this time going for the mirror smash.  While it did spawn duplicates of my party, the Demon Knight and his duplicate simply disappeared.  Also, if I was supposed to get an ending dialogue or some kind of acknowledgment that Durlag's Tower was completed, I didn't get that either.  

[polytope]

I've seen something like this myself on a few occasions, area script simply failing to cycle for the appearance of a creature or similar scripted event.

Each time it happened it was consistent between saves before entering an area, but not between campaigns, i.e. saved games of different origin/party. Nor was it an SCS problem, it wasn't an SCS install.

Did you begin the game in multiplayer mode?

[Holden]

Nope.  Just played normally with a created character.  

I wish there was some way to test these areas in a new campaign.  A lot of the problem is that the events that are screwed up are hours into the campaign.  I heard that the first assassin in Candlekeep is supposed to use poison blade and hide in shadows with SCS installed, but I never got that.  Not sure it's relevant though.

[Trouveur80]

1 hour ago, Holden said:

  I heard that the first assassin in Candlekeep is supposed to use poison blade and hide in shadows with SCS installed, but I never got that.  Not sure it's relevant though.

No longer since many versions.

[subtledoctor]

Maybe some mod applies EXTEND_TOP to area scripts in a way that prevents the rest of the scripts from running? 

Should be readily apparent, possibly, from a glance at the script for an affected area. 

2 hours ago, Holden said:

I heard that the first assassin in Candlekeep is supposed to use poison blade and hide in shadows with SCS installed, but I never got that.  Not sure it's relevant though.

56 minutes ago, Trouveur80 said:

No longer since many versions.

This happened to me in my recent EET game! I’m not sure why though - I don’t think it was SCS. Or, possibly, it was some other mod gave Carbos the assassin kit, and SCS simply did what it normally does with assassin scripts.  Maybe. (Shank did not use poison against me.)

Edited November 8, 2023 by subtledoctor

[Holden]

On 11/8/2023 at 9:54 AM, polytope said:

I've seen something like this myself on a few occasions, area script simply failing to cycle for the appearance of a creature or similar scripted event.

Each time it happened it was consistent between saves before entering an area, but not between campaigns, i.e. saved games of different origin/party. Nor was it an SCS problem, it wasn't an SCS install.

Did you begin the game in multiplayer mode?

I can confirm your info here.  I actually started a brand new campaign and have noticed that some of the scripts now appear to be working properly, while others are now bugged.  All magic users are now using all of their spells and are generally much harder, but for some reason bandits will not use their bows and will only use melee instead.  That one ambush where you're surrounded by bandits with bows, they all close in with their swords instead.  It's always something with this game...