IWD Tweaks v5

[CamDawg]

- Seth's thieves north of Marketh's Palace entrance are difficult to deal with because they, though hidden in shadows, are also frozen in place until you walk up to them and they have a chance to attack. I noticed this in previous games with the old Tweak Pack.

We don't change anything directly here, but it could be one of those unforeseen consequences of some random tweak.

Investigated this a bit further without anything installed--the issue here is really that the thieves break morale fairly quickly. I turned them visible so I could test this, and after killing ~8 of them (there are 19 total) the rest panicked. As there are about 10 surrounding Seth, what's probably happening is that fighting off the initial wave causes the morale break in the remainder (who are all hiding out near the boarded-up doorways nearby).

 

Thanks for the code plainab--it looks like I'm being a bit stricter with my checks which is why it fails on the gems. Basically, the stack amount doesn't get increased if the items have actual abilities, i.e. something like a Ring of Animal Friendship is ignored by design. Looking at the gems in the game, it seems like most of them have extraneous headers which is currently fooling my code.

Gem stacking is now sorted as well.

[Guest grogerson]

Don't worry too much about the ground icons, Cam. They're there, at least, even if it does catch the watching eye. It's like the added "beetle" item in Conlan's Smithy (another item I've not mentioned before )

 

Seth's thieves, on the other hand... Guess I'll have to check the tweaks one at a time to see if I can find the offender...

 

Dirty Llew and Nym - are you going to tweak IWD to come in line with HoW/TotL then?

 

Valestis - I thought it might be a bad trigger or bad dialog. I didn't expect you to have to add to the dialog. Thanks for the fix.

 

Temples - I've no idea how to activate the donations function, if it can even be done. All I have to work with is NI, and my skills are still limited (old dogs, new tricks, not easy). Do you know if it can be done?

 

Gaspar's Dialog - Thanks to plainab for putting me on to this one, I'm glad to have been of help narrowing it down for you.

 

Roboghosts Random Treasures - I'm afraid I have to class his placings/replacings as his own tweaks. Having thoroughly looked over the RNDTRES.2da and related .itm files, I can find no justification for his changes. They could make for an interesting tweak, however, randomizing the randoms even more, if he'd like to make one. The several extra lines in the .2da may be related to Unfinished Business.

 

No Traps or Locks - Thanks for the update. I expected this, especially after I found so many doors that couldn't be forced because of facing conditions or other problems.

 

I've also posted on your thread at CoM some of the fixes from this thread that he might want to look into, either because we disagreed or were still looking for resolution. Either way, you've put a lot of work into this and I'm glad to have been of help.

 

Still have a couple of bugs to check, as well as one component, but with the saves I've been collecting it won't take long to check the price changing options.

[Guest grogerson]

And again I'm too slow (too much thinking in my reply)... Think you can fix their morale so they'll either attack or "escape area"? They're a nuisance the way it is right now...

[CamDawg]

Seth's thieves, on the other hand... Guess I'll have to check the tweaks one at a time to see if I can find the offender...

I did notice the panicking thieves would try to run away--unless I trapped them against the door it did seem they were more likely to switch to morale failure:berserk and actually attack. If this is actually a consistent happening and not a fluke (ye olde 'anecdote != data') it would jive with having to run up to them to force them into combat.

 

We could either increase the level at which their morale breaks or lower their recovery time from broken morale. Of the two, I'd favor the latter--it does seem like they run around for some time with yellow circles. Now I just need to dust off my old notes on how the hell the morale fields work.

 

Dirty Llew and Nym - are you going to tweak IWD to come in line with HoW/TotL then?

I've changed Nym's string in HoW games to say three days instead of 10. The base IWD timers are intentional and consistent, so I don't think it's a fix to change them.

[Guest grogerson]

How do the thieves in Marketh's palace work? They attack one at a time with no morale break. Otherwise, I agree with lowering their recovery time. Having them come back when you're not expecting it...

[CamDawg]

How do the thieves in Marketh's palace work? They attack one at a time with no morale break. Otherwise, I agree with lowering their recovery time. Having them come back when you're not expecting it...

They're the same exact creatures. I think I remember reading morale is also affected by how quickly you kill/damage a group--so in the manor itself, the fact that you're fighting them piecemeal probably helps prevent the morale break, whereas outside you kill ~10 in a relatively short time frame.

 

'Course, I could also be remembering this from the rectal database.

[Guest grogerson]

But the idea of a second ambush does have some appeal...

 

Ah, well. If I ever work up the courage to mod anything, it'll probably be for this game. Lots of unused random treasures, a few UB items, things that could be fixed and fitted better... (This from a lazy cowardly dreamer...)

[Guest grogerson]

I checked plainab's problem with AR3201.

 

Using Infinity Explorer I found two skeletons (at 870, 840 and 917, 831) that cannot be reached in IWD. They were moved in HoW/TotL (to 858, 806 and 920,795). Definitely a fix for basic IWD. I'll post this over at CoM for Redrake as well.

 

Locations were found using NI...

[Guest grogerson]

There may yet be a need for a fix-pack component in the tweak pack. I was just over at CoM. Seems Redrake is pretty much set on fixes for HoW/TotL only, not vanilla IWD. Grog's Auril's Bane compatibility is the issue...

[CamDawg]

I checked plainab's problem with AR3201.

 

Using Infinity Explorer I found two skeletons (at 870, 840 and 917, 831) that cannot be reached in IWD. They were moved in HoW/TotL (to 858, 806 and 920,795). Definitely a fix for basic IWD. I'll post this over at CoM for Redrake as well.

Aha! I went looking for these, but in a TotL, so naturally I didn't find them. Thanks, and fixed:

 

// skellies trapped in wall
COPY_EXISTING ~ar3201.are~ ~override~
 READ_LONG  0x54 "actor_off"
 READ_SHORT 0x58 "actor_num"
 FOR (index = 0; index < actor_num; index = index + 1) BEGIN
READ_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x20 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) "x_coord"
READ_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x22 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) "y_coord"
PATCH_IF (("%x_coord%" = 870) AND ("%y_coord%" = 840)) BEGIN // move if in wall
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x20 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 858
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x22 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 806
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x24 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 858
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x26 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 806
END ELSE
PATCH_IF (("%x_coord%" = 917) AND ("%y_coord%" = 831)) BEGIN // move if in wall
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x20 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 920
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x22 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 795
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x24 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 920
  WRITE_SHORT ("%actor_off%" + 0x26 + ("%index%" * 0x110)) 795
END
 END
 BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

 

Also, there's something I noticed a while ago but haven't been able to fix yet: Guello. After you save the gnomes, he says "You have saved us, and for this, we are eternally grateful. Please accept this small gift as a token of our appreciation." which you can accept or decline. The item reference, however, is the non-existent "GnomArm" so you get squat either way (and you get less XP for accepting the item). There are no items close to this spelling and nothing else looks appropriate. I thought helmdef (Helm of the Trusted Defender) would be a good fit here, but it's already in Conlan's store. Based on the file name it's armor (duh), should be in basic IWD, and unused/unavailable elsewhere. Any item suggestions?

 

edit: Looking for unused files, I can't find any good armor candidates. Broadening the search to armor-ish items gives some candidates which are present and could be used: Barrier Amulet (amulbar), Boots of the Forgotten Ones (bootfor), Illian's Hunting Helm (helmhun), Silver Braces of Kedl (kedl), and Sune's Laurel of Favor (helmsun).

[Guest Guest]

Also, there's something I noticed a while ago but haven't been able to fix yet: Guello. After you save the gnomes, he says "You have saved us, and for this, we are eternally grateful. Please accept this small gift as a token of our appreciation." which you can accept or decline. The item reference, however, is the non-existent "GnomArm" so you get squat either way (and you get less XP for accepting the item). There are no items close to this spelling and nothing else looks appropriate. I thought helmdef (Helm of the Trusted Defender) would be a good fit here, but it's already in Conlan's store. Based on the file name it's armor (duh), should be in basic IWD, and unused/unavailable elsewhere. Any item suggestions?

 

edit: Looking for unused files, I can't find any good armor candidates. Broadening the search to armor-ish items gives some candidates which are present and could be used: Barrier Amulet (amulbar), Boots of the Forgotten Ones (bootfor), Illian's Hunting Helm (helmhun), Silver Braces of Kedl (kedl), and Sune's Laurel of Favor (helmsun).

 

Sune's Laurel of Favor is given by Denani for completing one of her quests, not sure which one (the barrel of Holy Water or putting the remaining priests spirits to rest). The others appear to be unused.

 

As for armors, there's always the unused Ankheg Plate (plat06), as well as Unfinished Business' Penitent's Armor (armpen) and Glory of Suffering (glory). Unless some UB mod (restoring the voice's bones) for IWD appears, these last two should work.

 

As for the thieves problem in Lower Dorn's, Redrake noted that two thieves appear at the same spot, at each place they're found, and are frozen in place as a result. I don't know if he is correct about the result, but there are two thieves at each location. Checked in IE, except for the entrance to the Artisan District there should be only one thief at each northern location. Is the program doubling up the thieves at these locations?

[CamDawg]

Sune's Laurel of Favor is given by Denani for completing one of her quests, not sure which one (the barrel of Holy Water or putting the remaining priests spirits to rest). The others appear to be unused.

 

As for armors, there's always the unused Ankheg Plate (plat06), as well as Unfinished Business' Penitent's Armor (armpen) and Glory of Suffering (glory). Unless some UB mod (restoring the voice's bones) for IWD appears, these last two should work.

Auril's Bane restores the Voice quest though I don't know if it uses the original reward items (glory, armpen). Razfallow is, I believe, working on a UB mod for IWD over on Sigil, the Czech modding community. Ankheg armor just seems... really inappropriate here. Are there even any ankhegs close to the SotW?

 

Seth's thieves all have unique spawn points; none of them are spawned in walls or on top of each other. You can verify it by adding this to the top of the ldthief.bcs script:

 

IF
 CreatureHidden(Myself)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
HideCreature(Myself,FALSE)
END

IF
 Global("CDNoAction","GLOBAL",0)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
NoAction()
END

 

This will force them all to turn visible and stand still so you can see where they start. To let them do their normal scripted actions, set the CDNoAction GLOBAL to 1 and you can see they can all move freely.

[redrake]

Auril's Bane restores the Voice quest though I don't know if it uses the original reward items (glory, armpen). Razfallow is, I believe, working on a UB mod for IWD over on Sigil, the Czech modding community. Ankheg armor just seems... really inappropriate here. Are there even any ankhegs close to the SotW?

Auril's Bane restores Voice quest and rewards. Rewards are different depending on the class of the character that goes to Sister Calliana. Rogues (bard&thief) get the leather armor, warriors (paladin, fighter, ranger) get the plate armor, while spellcasters (mage, cleric, druid) get the cloak.

 

As for the respective dialogue, I never noticed it (which is not surprising since I almost never checked them with NI). Boots of the Forgotten Ones might be an appropriate reward, although I already added it in my Fixpack to Orrick's first store.

[CamDawg]

Spent some time playing around with the morale paramters of the OoK thieves. If the morale break is lowered from 5 to 3 it seems a lot more reasonable.

[Guest grogerson]

Cam, I can attest to the thieves on top of each other. Hidden or not, I have to walk up to the spot and force them to attack, breaking stealth and becoming targets. When the first drops, the second does the same thing. Whether it's normal game or a bug from a tweak pack component I cannot say. I'll check it out when I get there in the current game.

 

Too bad about armpen and glory armors. As for the ankheg armor, who says it had to be made in the SotW? It could have been brought in from a gnome community to the south, and a small change to the item description can state this. And, though the item given is "GnomArm", if the seen dialog doesn't state a specific type of item, then anything, armor, weapons, scrolls, potions, even tomes, are possible. If this is the case, then you've got a lot of freedom.