Issues with scrolls and potions drops

[Guest private]

Hello,

I am pretty new with this mod and currently on my test run I see that this module "Wider selection of random scrolls" seems to not work as intended and in result I see almost no random scroll drops from enemies, instead of variety of them. In vanilla, I would have many spare lvl 1 scrolls by chapter 3, but currently I have almost zero. Also there is this line in ini file which is not included in readme file:

Scroll_Drop_Fraction = 10

Could this be the cuplrit, or am I just reeealy unlucky with random drops? I also tested this by spawning mass random creatures from the console and only once i got one scroll of protection, but no standard arcane scrolls. 

Another problem I saw was with potions - I also got much fewer of them than nomal with "Potions of NPC" enabled, but I suspect that algoritm for destruction of 75% of them seems to affect ALL potions in enemies inventory, even those in vanilla version of the game. I saw this when I did not get potion of Hill Giant Strength from Brage, even though I turned him in peacefully.

[Delior]

I'm inclined to say that you're likely just experiencing bad luck from the RNG gods, but now that you mention this, I have noticed in my current playthrough of BG1 with 35.9 that I'm not getting many scroll drops either.  

[Guest private]

I will try to start a new run without this module to confirm if drops increase again.

One more question - SCS introduces new difficulty settings and names for them, but I noticed that when difficulty slider is set to Basic or Improved, they behave just like Easy and Normal in vanilla - party get +6 luck and maximum damage rolls every time, which honestly not feel very good and take much fun from the game. I wanted to test out easiest difficulty before I slowly make my way up, but would rather do it without those buffs. Is this intended behaviour, or is there any way to turn it off?

[CrevsDaak]

You should go into the Fine-tune settings menu and manually set the components you want to their lower difficulties, and then set your game's difficulty to Core Rules, as I think that low game difficulty giving you those buffs is hardcoded behavior and partly why it's been implemented this way (the other one is double damage from Insane on oBG2 since there's no way to turn that off I think? Don't think ToBEx covers that but I might be misremembering it).

[jmerry]

SCS doesn't create new difficulty levels; it merely renames the existing difficulty levels. And the old bonuses/penalties for those difficulties remain in place. The damage scaling can be disabled in the options menu, but everything else sticks around because it's hardcoded.

Easy/Basic: Party gets +6 luck, hit die rolls are maximized, spell learning rolls automatically succeed.

Normal/Improved: Hit die rolls are maximized, spell learning rolls automatically succeed.

Core Rules/Tactical: Nothing.

Hard/Hardcore: Nothing.

Insane/Insane: Nothing.

Legacy of Bhaal: Insane, plus everyone outside the party gets massive boosts to level, HP, saves, THAC0, and AC. Cannot be switched to or switched away from in gameplay.

Story Mode: Easy/Basic, plus the party gets 25 STR, their attacks hit as +5 and deal additional acid damage, and they're immortal with a bunch of immunities. These bonuses actually aren't hardcoded; they're applied in scripts through the use of the "OHSMODE" family of spells.

If you want some level of SCS difficulty without the accompanying hardcoded difficulty effects, you can use the fine-tuning option for that.

[Guest private]

Thank you for detailed explanation. Right now diffculty on Tactical (Core) and fine tuning on Basic is just what i need to get adjusted and maybe crank something up in the future. I also noticed that those extra tactical challanges modules can be brutal (Nashkel Mines), but also fun and it is something new, after facerolling mines with level 2 party as usual.

As for the scrolls - I have started a new game, I am not very far yet, just doing sidequests around Beregost, but I disabled "Wider selection of random scrolls" this time and scrolls from drops seems to behave as they should be now (here and there some lvl 1 arcane scroll from gibberling or xvart). As for potions I set in ini file that no potion is destroyed now, so I see that NPC's drop what they should have (vanilla potions + extra provided by mod). For example Silke dropped 2 potions of extra healing, 2 of invisibility and maybe 1 of invulnerability, or something close to that.

In conclusion, "Wider selection of random scrolls" is behaving odd and almost no random scrolls drop, where "Potions for NPC's" seems to destroy set percentage of all potions on NPC's even those that were on them in vanilla. Of course I will need to test some more to be sure. Anyway, thanks for the great mod!

[DavidW]

On 2/4/2024 at 11:10 AM, Delior said:

I'm inclined to say that you're likely just experiencing bad luck from the RNG gods, but now that you mention this, I have noticed in my current playthrough of BG1 with 35.9 that I'm not getting many scroll drops either.  

Looking at the code, while I think some of this is just bad luck, there are places where it's being quite stingy relative to vanilla. I'll tweak it for the next release.

[DavidW]

Scrolls should be more generous as of 35.10.

[Guest private]

That is good to hear. Thank you for your fast response and dedication in developing this mod.