IWD Tweaks v5

[CamDawg]

True, but I'd like to keep it somewhat close to the intent as possible.

 

For the thieves, is this a basic game or HoW or TotL or all of the above?

[Guest grogerson]

Currently the thief problem is certain in IWD only, will check the others when I finish Wyrm's Tooth, just before entering Lower Dorn's. At that point I'll be checking various things in all three installs (IWD, HoW, TotL).

[redrake]

I already said. The thieves problem is in a fully patched game (HoW&TotL). It never got fixed. It's not a tweaks problem. Checking with NI gets you nothing. The thieves shouldn't start in the same location, but for some reason they do. It is possible that some of them start in unavailable locations (walls) and the game relocates them on top of each other, although I'm not too sure the game works that way. I might try to delete some of them and see which ones are causing the problems. I'm going to try it, next time I'm in that area.

 

On my fixpack, I've added most of the items fixes on the tp2 file. I'm learning to use weidu as I go.

[Guest grogerson]

I know, redrake. I've some other things to check, not just the thieves. As for the thieves, I'll get all their coordinates from NI, then check them in the game (X and [CTRL]+X work wonders) to find if they're spawning in the walls and being moved. But I'm more concerned with the possibility of a double spawning at those locations, and what may trigger it in-game. I experienced something similar last night in Upper Dorn's that may or may not be related.

 

I've just completed Wyrm's Tooth, so I'll be checking Lower Dorn's when next I play.

[CamDawg]

I'm cutting off fixes for v5 at this point--I want to get it out, especially if yarpen wants to include it for the Polish distribution. I had started fixing power levels for items and spells (there's a lot of issues) but it's not going to be done for v5 either. Some final notes:

• Guello will now hand out the Boots of the Forgotten Ones as a reward
  
• Restructured Bandoth's dialogue--if you completed the Dorn's Deep quests and then spoke to him, he'd behave as if you've spoken before
  
• Final HoW cutscene has a minor bug in that the camera doesn't move due to bad action call
  

[Guest grogerson]

I'm cutting off fixes for v5 at this point--I want to get it out, especially if yarpen wants to include it for the Polish distribution. I had started fixing power levels for items and spells (there's a lot of issues) but it's not going to be done for v5 either. Some final notes:

• Guello will now hand out the Boots of the Forgotten Ones as a reward
  
• Restructured Bandoth's dialogue--if you completed the Dorn's Deep quests and then spoke to him, he'd behave as if you've spoken before
  
• Final HoW cutscene has a minor bug in that the camera doesn't move due to bad action call
  

 

Sounds good. At this point only the most obvious things need fixing. Power levels for items and spells aren't necessarily "obvious".

 

If I find anything with the thieves, I'll post it here unless you want a new thread started. I've still not checked the store prices tweak, so if there's any trouble there I'll also let you know.

[redrake]

Power levels for items and spells aren't necessarily "obvious".

Can you give some details about what you mean by power levels?

[CamDawg]

Sure. Every effect has a power level assigned to it (it's the byte at 0x03). When a spell like Globe of Invulnerability says that it protects against spells of levels 1-4, what it actually means is that any effect with a power level of 1-4 will be blocked by it. A power level of 0 will bypass any protections. Power levels are not as critical in IWD as they are in BG2, because there are few spells that actually have level-based protections. (In fact, I think it's only Minor Globe, Globe, and Anti-Magic Shell.)

 

In general, effects on items should be 0 (items shouldn't be subject to spell protections), and spells should have a power level on all effects equal to the spell level, except for anti-spell protection spells like dispel magic. I'd started writing patches for it; it's in v5 but commented out. I knew I wouldn't have time to check and test the fixes before release.

[Guest grogerson]

It didn't take long to check the thieves in Lower Dorn's. The first eleven near Seth are OK, but the eight spawn points along the north wall double-spawn. So instead of 19 thieves, there are 27 to deal with. I checked this with both a modded IWD and an unmodded TotL. The thieves can't move because there are two on the same spot, and the coordinates are clear of any obstructions - they're not being pushed to a new location because they're in a wall or some such.

 

The double-spawn thief coordinates are:

1485, 375

1570, 400

1915, 365

2160, 330

2320, 325

2580, 450

2660, 410

2730, 370

 

Not being a programmer I've little idea what to look for at these spawn points to explain why they're doubling up. Initially I thought it might have been because I entered the tower or the palace and returning, but I went directly from Seth's ambush to the northern section. Does this help?

 

As an aside, I didn't have the thieves armor ground icons going red this time...

 

I haven't installed the new release yet, but I noticed that the read-me still states Two-Handed Bastard Swords and Cast Spells from Scrolls (and Other Items) at Character Level still included. I thought you were going to drop them because of the problems I found.

[CamDawg]

There's clearly something going on with the un-hiding that's not well understood. It may be overkill, but an easy way to fix it would be to eliminate all of the thieves from the area file and spawn them via script.

[CamDawg]

I haven't installed the new release yet, but I noticed that the read-me still states Two-Handed Bastard Swords and Cast Spells from Scrolls (and Other Items) at Character Level still included. I thought you were going to drop them because of the problems I found.

Dammit, missed that. I'll update the readme.

[redrake]

Someone brought to my attention that elven chainmail although allows thieving skills, it decreases them. I can confirm it with my game and my mod installed, but I don't know about an unmodded game. Can someone confirm this?

[CamDawg]

A complete log is attached for your perusal, but I think these below are the cases of interest. The armors were unchanged from IWD to HoW to TotL:

 

CHAN06.ITM (Mithril Chain Mail +4)
Spellcasting: Disabled* (see below)
Thieving: Allowed
 Pickpockets: 0
 Stealth: 0
 Lock Picking: 0
 Find/Disable Traps: 0

DRAGARM.ITM (Black Dragon Scale)
Spellcasting: Disabled
Thieving: Allowed
 Pickpockets: 0
 Stealth: 0
 Lock Picking: 0
 Find/Disable Traps: 0

ELFCHAN.ITM (Elven Chainmail of the Hand +3)
Spellcasting: Allowed
Thieving: Allowed
 Pickpockets: -20
 Stealth: -10
 Lock Picking: -5
 Find/Disable Traps: -5

KAYCHAI.ITM (Chainmail Armor)
Spellcasting: Allowed
Thieving: Allowed
 Pickpockets: -20
 Stealth: -10
 Lock Picking: -5
 Find/Disable Traps: -5

PLAT05.ITM (Full Plate Mail +1)
Spellcasting: Disabled
Thieving: Partially Allowed
 Pickpockets: 0
 Stealth: 0
 Lock Picking: 0
 Find/Disable Traps: 0

 

TotL items:

 

CISPGRD.ITM (Winter King's Plate)
Spellcasting: Allowed
Thieving: Allowed
 Pickpockets: 0
 Stealth: 0
 Lock Picking: 0
 Find/Disable Traps: 0

 

The Mithril Chain Mail +4 is an anomaly all around--it prevents spellcasting via setting miscast magic to 100%, instead of the traitional 'disable spellcasting' opcode. It allows thieving for no reason I can discern (with no penalties to boot).

 

Elven chain allows thieving but with penalties. This is consistent with BG2 (BG didn't have any elven chain), which also imposes undocumented thieving penalties to elven chain.

 

The Black Dragon Scale, despite its name, is apparently being handled as leather or studded leather. This is trumped in the nonsensical department by the Winter King's Plate, which is being handled as a robe. Both of these, IMO, should be treated as their name implies and should not allow spellcasting or thieving.

 

Full Plate +1 is a bug; it disables the stealth button twice instead of disabling the stealth and thieving buttons. This is one of those fun bugs that you can track through the ages--it started in IWD, appears again in BG, and comes back for one last curtain call in BG2. The minimum strength is another bug handed down through all three games. On the upside, it means we can simply steal the fix from BG2 Fixpack:

 

// full plate +1 don't disable thieving button, has bad min str
COPY_EXISTING ~plat05.itm~ ~override~
 READ_LONG  0x6a "fx_off" ELSE 0
 READ_SHORT 0x70 "fx_num" ELSE 0
 WRITE_BYTE 0x26 15 // correct min str
 SET "count" = 0
 FOR (index = 0; index < fx_num; index = index + 1) BEGIN
READ_SHORT ("%fx_off%" +		("%index%" * 0x30)) "opcode"
READ_LONG  ("%fx_off%" + 0x08 + ("%index%" * 0x30)) "param"
PATCH_IF (("%opcode%" = 144) AND ("%param%" = 0)) BEGIN // disable stealth button
  PATCH_IF ("%count%" = 0) BEGIN // if first time, leave alone
	SET "count" = 1
  END ELSE BEGIN // if second, change to disable thieving button
	WRITE_LONG ("%fx_off%" + 0x08 + ("%index%" * 0x30)) 1 // thieving button
  END
END
 END
 BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

armor_info.rar

[Guest grogerson]

Cam, those two tweaks I mentioned are also still part of the package. After I posted last night I installed the new package to check if they were there...

 

I also checked gem stacking and the Pale Justice inventory icon. Both are good.

 

Thanks for all the work. (I'd offer a cookie but you ain't got no smilie for it here...)

[CamDawg]

Cam, those two tweaks I mentioned are also still part of the package. After I posted last night I installed the new package to check if they were there...

 

I also checked gem stacking and the Pale Justice inventory icon. Both are good.

 

Thanks for all the work. (I'd offer a cookie but you ain't got no smilie for it here...)

Are you downloading from the old beta link in your email, or the actual one from the downloads page? The scroll component was never in the v5 release, nor was it in the readme. Bastard swords I had legitimately missed.