BG1 Fixpack ?

[plainab]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. But I still think it's a bug. Why would there be three different looking mundane large shields for sale, with different colored interior panels on the inventory art, when all of them change to your character's color when you equip them? That doesn't make any sense. Why not just have one mundane large shield if you are going to have it become the character's color?

 

If the tan magic shield thing was deliberate, then I think it was a terrible design decision. More likely, they forgot to color in the three mundane shields so they match their inventory appearance, but as it happens this results in better looking shields in-game.

 

I guess I will make a Tweak request for this if you don't regard it as a bug. If you can tell me how to mod the magic shield file myself to make it take on the character's color, though, I would be happy with that.

 

Not sure what tools you are using to look at these fields and values for items. I am familiar with hex editors. Can you tell me how to make magic shields change colors like mundane shields?

I used DLTCEP & NearInfinity to take a look at the files. Both of them examine the files and displays the data in a user friendly format. Tho NearInfinity takes it a step further and allows you to see the data in a readable physical order. Both are good and both have their flaws. Changes can be made using either one of those programs, BUT only for your game. Any modifications you wish to make available to other players needs to be done using WeiDU as that program is designed to pin point the specific spot and make only that change without overwriting any changes made by any other mod.

 

Talk to grogerson over in the bg1 tweaks thread about having a color changing tweak component for the shields and/or other items you wish. It would be a simple matter of having the appropriate equipping effects removed from the item(s). Or for having the appropriate equipping effect colorings added to the plain shields.

 

in the long run, it is not a game breaking bug to be fixed, but rather an optional tweak adjustment....

[chuft]

Awesome, just tried it and it worked! Now I have nice colorful magic shields. Thanks!

[chuft]

I've noticed an oddity. Sometimes when I kill something, the experience shown is not the full amount. For example it might say "The party gains experience 9" when it means "95"

 

At other times, it's not just a display issue. It's an actual XP issue. For example, in the quest to get the skyship components from Oberon's house. If you sneak up on a neutral Oberon and backstab him to death, you get 90 experience. If you talk to him, attack him without killing him and let him turn red, and THEN kill him, you get 900 experience. This is not just a display typo - I checked the party experience both times and they did indeed get 90 one time and 900 the other. It seems that killing neutral characters with the first attack yields hardly any experience compared to having them turn red and then killing them.

[plainab]

so it sounds like under certain conditions that the party only gets 10% of the given creature's assigned experience points.... certain conditions being when the attacked character is killed while the circle is not red?

 

This may be hard coded behavior for some reason. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look to see how to correct such behavior or even if it should be corrected...

 

Oberan/Oberon however you want to call him has 900 experience points assigned to him and you get that if you play the game in typical manner. i.e. being the adventurer who talks to everyone cause you don't know who will give you a quest or who will try to kill you

[chuft]

His name does say "Oberan" on the screen during the combat and dialogs, but his house is always referred to as "Oberon's estate", see

 

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/8/89880...aldurs_gate.gif

http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/maps/x_0700.jpg

 

etc and the journal entry clearly says "Oberon" for the Alatos thief mission. Maybe this is a spelling inconsistency that should be fixed?

 

Anyway keep an eye out when you have battles, I bet you will notice that sometimes it seems the experience is getting truncated. The "kill Oberan when he's still blue circle, only get 90 exp" is reproducible in my game.

 

If I talk to Oberan over and over, he never turns red. If I open his bookcase, Flaming Fists are summoned and eventually attack me, but he still never turns red. He only turns red if you attack him first. So if you want max exps (and there is no reputation hit for this either) you have to attack him but be careful not to kill him (or let him kill himself, as he has the amusing habit of throwing lightning bolts around and killing himself and the Flaming Fists in the area). Once he is red you can kill him for 900 exps.

 

Since I have been using my thief to sneak around and take out enemies (like the various groups that are waiting to attack you on the wilderness maps) with backstabs before they even know I'm there, not getting the exps for them is rather a startling discovery. I thought it was just a display issue till Oberan where I checked and sure enough I was getting 90 not 900 when he was chunked while blue. I will have to see if it happens every time that way. If it does, it has implications, especially for a solo game where you want to get the jump on enemies before they know you are there by killing one or more of them while their circles are still blue. In such a case you can't talk to them and make them turn red without coming out of shadows/breaking invisibility.

 

Also, in groups of enemies, sometimes they don't all turn red at once, but light up in some kind of sequence as the combat gets going. I will have to be careful not to have a prepared fireball or whatever kill any before they get to turn red.

[chuft]

I noticed another weird behavior. I went in an inn and Phandalyn got in my face due to me having evil party members. I noticed if I talk to the innkeeper and rest there, Phandalyn is gone when I wake up. I wonder if that is intended. Also he stays blue while attacking you. He also keeps attacking you even if you Charm him and he has a green circle. You can order him away, but he comes back and keeps attacking. Very odd for a Charmed creature.

 

Speaking of vanishing acts, in Oberan's house I did some burglaring and Flaming Fists appeared. I was in the mood for some fun so I charmed some with the cloak and made them fight each other. It was an amusing scene as at one point there were around 9 of them fighting each other in a big mob.

 

Anyway eventually there were only two left, fighting each other in the southwest room on the top floor. I went into the northeast room to hide in shadows. When I came back out a few moments later, the Flaming Fists were gone without a trace. It seemed that the minute I lost sight of them, they disappeared.

[plainab]

the Oberon/Oberan text thing is known and Salk took care of that in his examinations of the dialog.tlk. I just don't remember which way it went

 

he doesn't go hostile because 1) his dialog file doesn't turn him hostile when he calls the guards and 2) he doesn't have any shout/heard blocks in any of his scripts.

 

There might be enough to suggest that he should go hostile when he calls the guards, but if I recall correctly there isn't anyone else on that floor to respond to him (unless you've already talked to him and he summoned the guards) if he shouts for help and since he'd only respond to the guards shouts it would be better sense to just have him turn hostile via the dialog since that is where they are spawned anyway.

 

phandalyn attacks because he has this specific script block

IF
NumTimesTalkedToGT(0)
See([PC.0.0.0.0.0.MASK_EVIL])
THEN
RESPONSE #100
	Attack([0.0.0.0.0.0.MASK_EVIL])
END

note that it doesn't do any checks for any other statuses perhaps a !StateCheck(Myself,8192)could be added to prevent attacking when charmed. Yet he has no dialog options for being in a charmed state.

 

as far as him disappearing if you've talked to the barkeep... he is only set to be active in the inn during the game hours of 4:30 am to 8:30 pm perhaps when you woke up it was outside of those hours

 

as far as the guards disappearing they have a script that sets a timer and if they can't find something else to do in the higher level scripts then they get destroyed after 300 or 200 seconds has passed (depends on which of the two script block responses is randomly chosen) so that would be as much as 5 minutes to as little as 3 minutes. which unless you got max stats in stealth it will take you several tries to get hidden so yeah given the moving time + trying to hide time + moving back to check on them they could have ran out of time and went poof...

 

so a state check for charmed status added to phandalyn and a change to enemy when calling the guards as most other characters do...

[chuft]

Interesting stuff.

 

Oberan actually doesn't ever call the guards as a result of dialog, no matter how many times you try to talk to him. If you attack him, he fights alone as well. That seems to be standard behavior; Flaming Fist appear when you open a container, but not if you attack somebody...

 

If you open the bookcase the Flaming Fist appear but I don't know if that's because Oberan is there, or whether it's just one of those "silent alarm" containers that seem to be able to call the Flaming Fist even in an empty house....

[plainab]

the containers are trapped and are set at 100 required to detect and to remove them, in essence the traps are unavoidable and their script calls the guards.

 

well he does have two dialog options which call the guards but DLTCEP reports them as coming from external references. NI did not... Not sure what those are for then... maybe some scenario that didn't pan out so they scrapped the other actor completely...

[chuft]

By the way, what is the deal with the Ring of Energy? The order in which I do things usually results in me getting this ring late enough that my characters usually have better options than to use it. But if you got it early on, it seems very powerful. It seems to have no charge limit, unlimited range, always hits, and does 2d6 damage of an unspecified type although it looks like fire. It's hard to see a reason to use anything else if you are a low level character.

 

Is it as good as it seems, or does it really have limited charges? I just tried going on a rampage with it in Baldur's Gate, frying civilians, and never ran out of charges by the time the Flaming Fist enforcers got me.

[plainab]

ring of energy

does 2d6 or between 2 to 12 points of magic damage with no saving rolls against it guess that means it always hits it's target. it has 50 charges which means it can last a good while till it runs out. has a range of 100 which is the max range possible (arrows cap at 100 too). uses the projectile animation for Agannazar's scorcher thus it looks like fire. does piercing damage so treat it like an arrow (i.e. prolly not as effective against a skeleton as a good ol' hammer). it's location on Denak in ar3000 means that it could be gotten as early as chapter 2 or chapter 3 if the player is roaming the area looking for bandits, brage, bassilus, or any other quest thing...

 

that's what is up with it and i suppose it could be a pretty good tool to use. tho given how hard the last battle is, might wanna save those 50 charges for then

[chuft]

Thanks. So it does have a limit, interesting, it doesn't say that in the description and with 50, I have never actually used it up in a game.

 

Note if you have Edwin in your party, the owner of the ring (one of the Red Wizards group) won't attack you, so you might be able to get it from pickpocketing him. I have gotten it by killing him after he greeted/threatened Edwin, before he could disappear. The other three Red Wizards disappear after the Edwin dialog so they don't help defend their leader if you kill him before he can walk off. This is probably the safest way to get the ring (taking a cheap shot at the leader before he can leave) unless pickpocketing works against him.

 

Without Edwin (or if you detach him from the party first because you are in the mood for an epic mage battle) of course you are in for a tough fight against 4 mages at once if you are a low level party, which would make getting it early on something of a challenge.

[Dakk]

IR has this to say about the ring:

Ring of Energy

Special Abilities (once per day):

Energy Blast: inflicts 2D6 points of magic damage to one target

Equipped Abilities:

Magic Damage Resistance: +25% bonus

 

Notes: I've only added the energy resistance.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Dakk

[plainab]

IR has this to say about the ring:

Ring of Energy

Special Abilities (once per day):

Energy Blast: inflicts 2D6 points of magic damage to one target

Equipped Abilities:

Magic Damage Resistance: +25% bonus

 

Notes: I've only added the energy resistance.

Item Revisions changes the item from the original and as such can not and should not be used to describe the item in question when talking about an unmodified (barely modified) game that does not include the mod which this information comes from.

[chuft]

I did not think "once a day" was even implementable in BG1 for items.