Haerdalis attacking Amber

[Guest LoneBadger]

I don't know if it is Amber specifically that is causing this, but I'm having a problem with the theater/pocket dimension quest. I didn't take Haerdalis into my party, and now I've returned with the jewel and am helping to hold of the dimensional critters while Raelis opens the portal. During this battle, Haerdalis attacks Amber - he doesn't turn red, but he attacks her with magic missiles and swords. I reloaded but it occurred again. Any ideas?

[Meira]

Well, this has been reported so many times that I'm beginning to believe that it has have something to do with Amber, even though I can't find no logical explanation to it. Do you remember if you had party combat AI on or off?

 

Can you send me the save, since I haven't been able to reproduce this issue in my game? You can send it to <amber@welho.net>.

[Evilyn]

I've suffered similar events too many times to count - before Amber was installed.

 

The cause in every case so far has been that I left the AI on for the battle, and some nitwit party member cast an area effect spell without my approval... This affects the troupe, turning them hostile.

 

When I finally noticed this, I started switching AI off before returning the jewel, and from then on everything worked swimmingly. (Even with Amber installed.)

 

Though if LoneBadger's problem is of another sort, please ignore this.

[Guest LoneBadger]

Party AI is definitely off, and no-one in my party has cast any spells. Every time Haer'dalis casts Stoneskin, then Improved Invisibility, then Magic Missile on Amber. I've emailed you my savegame and weidu.log.

[Meira]

The thing is that Haer's little circle is reported to remain blue, not red, when he attacks Amber. That indicates that he's not an 'enemy', but still 'neutral' from party's perspective.

[Guest Lonebadger]

The thing is that Haer's little circle is reported to remain blue, not red, when he attacks Amber. That indicates that he's not an 'enemy', but still 'neutral' from party's perspective.

This is true for me. He did not turn red even when I defended Amber, and slew him.

[Meira]

Party AI is definitely off, and no-one in my party has cast any spells. Every time Haer'dalis casts Stoneskin, then Improved Invisibility, then Magic Missile on Amber. I've emailed you my savegame and weidu.log.

 

Got it! Thanks!

[Meira]

I tested the save in my game (only fixpack and Amber installed). HD still attacked Amber, so it's not a mod conflict unless it's caused by something that's saved in the savegame, but that seems unlikely.

 

I discovered that if Amber was invisible HD didn't care for other targets (real enemies or party members) until a shadow emerged from the portal and HD attacked it. If Amber stopped being invisible, HD dropped what he was doing (this included spellcasting in middle of a spell) and attacked Amber. In my test cast either Magic Missile or Blindness unless he was close enough to hit her with blades. If Amber moved away far enough HD attacked the shadow.

 

None of the scripts that HD has assigned seems to prompt this kind of behaviour.

 

This is the piece from haerdali.bcs that's relevant to the planar portal scene:

 

IF
!InParty(Myself)
Global("RaelisOpenPortal","GLOBAL",1)
GlobalLT("PortalCreatures","AR0510",4)
Allegiance(Myself,NEUTRAL)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
	ChangeAIScript("Haerdax",SPECIFICS)
	ChangeEnemyAlly(Myself,GOODBUTBLUE)
END

IF
!InParty(Myself)
Global("PortalCreatures","AR0510",4)
Allegiance(Myself,GOODBUTBLUE)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
	ChangeEnemyAlly(Myself,NEUTRAL)
END

 

The casting of Magic Missile and Blindness is triggered by these blocks in haerdax.bcs:

 

IF
See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
!HasBounceEffects(LastSeenBy(Myself))
HaveSpell(WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
	Spell(LastSeenBy(Myself),WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE)
	Continue()
END

IF
See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
!HasBounceEffects(LastSeenBy(Myself))
HaveSpell(WIZARD_BLINDNESS)
!StateCheck(LastSeenBy(Myself),STATE_BLIND)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
	Spell(LastSeenBy(Myself),WIZARD_BLINDNESS)
	Continue()
END

 

I also checked few more off the hat things:

 

I don't know if racial enemy can take (hardcoded) priority in targeting, but Haer'Dalis doesn't have tiefling (or anything else) as racial enemy. Just like he shouldn't being a bard and all.

 

Amber was wearing a Mercykiller ring (Mercykillers are mortal enemies of the Doomguard), but removing that ring didn't change anything. Just to be sure I searched for references to that ring in NearInfinity, but noting besides the shop in which it's being sold came up.

 

So at this point I can only say: 'huh?'

 

It would be interesting to know if anybody has had similar (HD attacking someone else) problem in vanilla game or with, for example, Fade who shares some similarity with Amber in regards of race and (partly) class.

[seanas]

this is an old BGII bug - which i thought was fixed by baldurdash a long time ago. i have to admit that the most recent BP release has reintroduced it, but ome other mods might have also done so - from memory, it's down to HD's basic script, which has a basic but faulty combat routine in it.

 

conceivably the fixpack no longer fixes this, but i'd be surprised. at any rate, it's not amber-related.

[Meira]

Thanks, seanas!

 

As for the fixpack, I double checked and it turned out that I had forgotten to install fixpack pack after one of my countless 'revert pack to the vanilla game' operations. With fixpack installed HD attacked only true enemies.

 

Interesting how he didn't pick up any other party members if Amber was invisible, though.

[Evilyn]

This has got nothing to do with Amber or HD or BP, but:

 

Apart from the Planar Gate thing above, I've had the party-member-turning-enemy-for-no-apparent-reason several times with mod NPCs, though never with Bioware ones.

 

Chloe and Yasraena have a penchant for turning to attack CHARNAME once they've killed their original enemy. They're still green-circled, though, so pointing them towards another enemy fixes the problem as long as you catch it in time.

 

Would that qualify as (similar to) your "old BGII bug" seanas?

[Gorilym]

This has got nothing to do with Amber or HD or BP, but:

 

Apart from the Planar Gate thing above, I've had the party-member-turning-enemy-for-no-apparent-reason several times with mod NPCs, though never with Bioware ones.

 

Chloe and Yasraena have a penchant for turning to attack CHARNAME once they've killed their original enemy. They're still green-circled, though, so pointing them towards another enemy fixes the problem as long as you catch it in time.

 

Would that qualify as (similar to) your "old BGII bug" seanas?

 

Is CHARNAME a magic user in those cases? If so, it sounds like the "normal" (ie abnormal) behaviour of the script which targets wizards especially.

[Evilyn]

Erm, yes, I do have a penchant for half-elf FMT protagonists.

 

But surely the script should check for enemy wizards, and not mages in general?

[Gorilym]

Erm, yes, I do have a penchant for half-elf FMT protagonists.

 

But surely the script should check for enemy wizards, and not mages in general?

 

It most certainly should have the sense to do so, but based on my own experience and on the amount of times I've seen such behaviour reported, I'd say it simply doesn't. In truth there are much better scripts available anyways. (eSeries, Ease-of-Use from SCS for TuTu, GBlucher's scripts.)

[Meira]

Amber uses custom script by Yovaneth, who based it on the Cirerrek's scripts (eSeries creator I believe). I've been very happy with it, even though I'm not much of a combat AI user myself. I thought that other users might like it, though, so I was more than happy to take Yovaneth's offer. So, yep, there's plenty of good combat scripts available if you find the ones your party is currently using lacking in some respect.