Coran's betrayal

[Kulyok]

When Coran's HP are low, he tends to have a very annoying habit of quitting the party and running, a text line showing over himself. I can't figure out if it is mod content or not, but the thing is, once or twice it happened right after he gave his vow to PC - be with her forever, rear their child, etc., etc. So him running away afterwards because things become dangerous doesn't make sense to me at all. Namara wasn't in the party, so it wasn't because of protecting the baby, either.

 

Can anything be done(like making it optional, or making Coran stay if he gave the vow to PC, or whatnot), or is it irrelevant? I know it is a minor matter; still, I am interested.

[cmorgan]

I'll take a look - it looks like it is the default BioWare behavior, with the morale break triggering the "forget it, party, I'm outta here", but if I remember correctly there is no DisplayStringHead associated. That almost sounds like one of the AI scripts...

[Kulyok]

Might be. By the way, I have only BG1 NPC installed, i.e. no extra scripts, except the default ones.

[Domi]

If Coran has child still with him, there is a code that makes him run away saving Namara. But that should iirc happen before Coran swore undying loyalty.

[cmorgan]

That sounds like this weekend I had better go back through the BCS triggers on Coran and find out what is not clicking into place correctly, then. I should be able to have an answer by Monday pm latest; it is registered on my desktop at home. I assume then that the code to have him run away to save the baby should only be active for a specific time while the baby is with him, and should be disabled when the lovetalk about undying loyalty is fired?

[Domi]

Yeah, I'm sure it had the PartyHasItem() in the script. He should run away then, undying loyalty or no.

[EiriktheScald]

When Coran's HP are low, he tends to have a very annoying habit of quitting the party and running, a text line showing over himself. I can't figure out if it is mod content or not, but the thing is, once or twice it happened right after he gave his vow to PC - be with her forever, rear their child, etc., etc. So him running away afterwards because things become dangerous doesn't make sense to me at all. Namara wasn't in the party, so it wasn't because of protecting the baby, either.

 

Can anything be done(like making it optional, or making Coran stay if he gave the vow to PC, or whatnot), or is it irrelevant? I know it is a minor matter; still, I am interested.

 

It doesn't seem minor to me, if he swore his undying love for the pc. Though, as some of you know, I tend to be real strict on character actions and continuity.

[Domi]

It is Coran, though, and we know that betrayal would occur sooner or later, because he dallies with Safana in BG2. The question is always who did the leaving - Coran or PC - and why? It was a big theme for me for BG2 portion.

 

At any rate, I see it perfectly in character for Coran to make a quick, basically good, but unlawful decision here: he solves the conflict of the divided loyalties by taking the decision to save his daughter. Child's life is worth more than a lover's promise. I don't think I am willing to compromise here, even if the baby subplot is tongue-in-cheek and all that.

 

It's a bit ironic, I know, since we're postulating that willingly accepting the responcibility moves Coran towards if not lawfullness, but less chaos. Coran's vow affects how Coran behaves when he takes child back to Briel - and even in this case, vow or no vow- if PC choses a particular reply he will bolt. He is essentially a good man, but he will never ever be predictable or controlled. He is not only capable, but he must break a promise or a vow in this case to stay in character.

[EiriktheScald]

<snip>It's a bit ironic, I know, since we're postulating that willingly accepting the responcibility moves Coran towards if not lawfullness, but less chaos. Coran's vow affects how Coran behaves when he takes child back to Briel - and even in this case, vow or no vow- if PC choses a particular reply he will bolt. He is essentially a good man, but he will never ever be predictable or controlled. He is not only capable, but he must break a promise or a vow in this case to stay in character.

 

Ah, well, silly me for thinking Coran would/could have a change of heart. But I suspect some like him just the way he is!

[cmorgan]

In decompiled _CORAN.BCS

IF
 Hppercentlt(Myself,20)
 Global("CoranHasBaby","GLOBAL",1)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
Displaystringhead(Myself,3828)
Shout(ASSIST)
Setglobal("X#CoranRun","GLOBAL",1)
ActionOverride("coran",Escapearea())
END

*note: do not copy syntax; DLTCEP's internal decompiler used *

Do we want to change the behavior, and add a shutdown condition? (That means - Domi, do you ant this changed? )

[Domi]

Nope, I am fine with that. If you want you can change 20 to 10% so it affects even less people, but other than that, short of second tearful reunion in Sturgeon (and it's bad because it will pre-empt the first), there is nothing to be done for it.

[cmorgan]

Just to clarify here, boss, I don't see anything else besides this that shuts down the global... the relevant code is

IF
 Global("CoranMoves","GLOBAL",4)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
SetGlobal("CoranHasBaby","GLOBAL",2)
TakePartyItem("X#CBABY")
TakePartyItem("X#CBOOK")
TakePartyItem("X#CMILK")
DestroyItem("X#CBABY")  // ~Namara~
DestroyItem("X#CBOOK")  // ~A Guide to Parenthood~
DestroyItem("X#CMILK")  // ~Everfull Milk Bottles ~
EscapeAreaMove("FW0103",368,402,2)
END

IF
 !Global("CoranRomancePath","GLOBAL",7)
 Global("CoranMoves","GLOBAL",1)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
SetGlobal("CoranRomancePath","GLOBAL",7)
SetGlobal("CoranHasBaby","GLOBAL",2)
RealSetGlobalTimer("CoranReturn","GLOBAL",1)
TakePartyItem("X#CBABY")
TakePartyItem("X#CBOOK")
TakePartyItem("X#CMILK")
DestroyItem("X#CBABY")  // ~Namara~
DestroyItem("X#CBOOK")  // ~A Guide to Parenthood~
DestroyItem("X#CMILK")  // ~Everfull Milk Bottles ~
EscapeAreaMove("FW0103",368,402,2)
END

IF
 HPPercentLT(Myself,20)
 Global("CoranHasBaby","GLOBAL",1)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
DisplayStringHead(Myself,3828)  // ~ I can't stay with this group any longer. I have to call it quits.~ [CORAN07]
Shout(ASSIST)
SetGlobal("X#CoranRun","GLOBAL",1)
ActionOverride("coran",EscapeArea())
END

 

A scan of decompiled DLG shows references to setting this global to 1, but none to 2. Only the above code sends this behavior packing. So in the currently released version, regardless of comittment status, Coran will run away if he goes below 20% HP.

 

Domi, final call on changes? (if ok with Domi we can reduce the release version to 15% or 10%; Kulyok, you can disable the behavior on your own game by editing the relevant additions to the romance BAF in Phase3 ).

[Domi]

Yep, that's the one. CoranMoves means that Coran went to return Namara back to Briel.

[cmorgan]

OK, the only change in code for the next beta is changing

 

HPPercentLT(Myself,20)

 

to

 

HPPercentLT(Myself,15)

 

with the understanding that this is author intent. Kulyok (and anyone else thread-diving for materials) - as always, you can modify your mod how you like to change this behavior. If you change it to 5 or so, or disable it, please understand that although it loks like it will skip some dialogue and intended content, it *probably* will not harm your romance ... "caveat emptor"