DavidW

Assuming you intend a refresh rate slow enough that you don't get a spell back during a battle, it doesn't really matter. The NPCs could go on using the original spells, while the player uses the clones. You'd have to pay a lot of attention to opcode 206/318/324 issues, but I guess you're used to that issue already.

It depends on the difficulty setting and your playstyle. If you're on INSANE, that's probably right. It is a very long time since I played the chess battle myself, but I don't recall needing to metagame or use the zillions-of-fireball tricks. But perhaps something has shifted that makes it harder; I'll have a look. (And I don't play on INSANE myself - more like HARDCORE).

No promises, but probably.

Yes. See the readme for details.

I've just glanced through the code of NPC Strongholds (a mod I'm not familiar with). My tentative guess is that it isn't modifying very much that SCS modifies, and you ought to be able to install them in either order without bugs. (But it's only a guess - I haven't done an install check, much less any playtesting). In general, the reason to install SCS last is that it can react to other mods' content, usually by giving smart AI to them. That applies here too - a few creatures in NPC strongholds use vanilla-game scripts, which SCS notices and uses as a cue to upgrade the AI of those creatures. So I'd lean towards saying 'install SCS last'. But it is not a big deal at all.

I'm sad to say this, but I wouldn't recommend WoP right now. There are a lot of serious bugs being reported (there have been since EE, really). It needs some sustained love; it'll get it when I have a chance.

I could do an ini override if there's demand. But yes, seriously broken! There are other mods that make HLAs innate and don't restrict to 1/day. SCS actually pays attention to that setting, so if you install that mod then enemy liches (etc) will also get to do it. Turnabout is fair play... (Fun SCS testing/debugging story: I once had someone complain that SCS liches were just permanently casting timestop and never letting them get an action in. It turns out that player had installed a mod where spells you cast returned to your memorized spell list after a few rounds. Liches were benefitting from this too! I suggested that I should probably let the lich pause for a round after, say, the thirtieth timestop to let the damage from its fifty-odd Horrid Wiltings and Dragon Breaths come in, before going around again if there were any survivors...)

Oh, great. Let me add that to the official description.

Human-readability of the file, basically. If you compile at install time, you can tweak or debug just by editing the text file; if you precompile, editing the script requires you to open it in. Ear Infinity or similar. Also, if you want to include new text strings, compiling at install time is pretty much required.

Let me know how it goes - I don’t use hot keys at all myself so I don’t have much experience of this aspect of the EE. I actually suspect that some of the higher level mage spells may be unavailable.

It should be fixed in v33 (now out).

Fair enough! But if you want the low-tech way to implement my suggestion: - open the script in near infinity - copy-paste it into a textfile, and name it myscript.baf, and put it in mymod/myscripts - include COMPILE "mymod/myscripts/myscript.baf" in your weidu I in turn find Git completely incomprehensible, so I have no idea whether that's easier or harder than persuading git to handle baf files correctly.

I'm not sure what you mean. If you download and run the Windows executable, it includes setup-iwdification.exe, same as for any other mod.

What is an example of an HLA that you ought to be able to take multiple times but only get to take once?

It's guesswork, of course, but I read a lot of bug reports over the last couple of weeks, so it's educated guesswork. Most importantly, SCS v32 had a fairly critical bug involving CTD in fights with high-level spellcasters, but very few people reported it over the eight months or so that it was in the wild. (I'll admit that EE is also much more pleasant to mod, so that skews my preferences.)

Your code is probably not working because you are removing the lines as you go along. That is: first your code finds row 167, and removes it. Then it checks row 168 - but the old row 168 is now at row 167, because it got bumped one earlier. So some rows are being missed. That said, I strongly recommend not removing those entries, as they're there for a reason: they are used by spells in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. (And so Beamdog guarantees that if they - or a modder - wants to bring a spell that uses IWD icons over to BG2, the space is there for it and all that has to be done is add the descriptive string). I'm not sure what mod you are using* but it ought to be reading statdesc.2da and adding new icons in where there's space, not just assuming that it can start at 166. * and I will look silly if it's one of mine EDIT: there is a function in SCS, add_to_statdesc, that does this automatically. It's in stratagems/sfo/general/lib_general.tpa, and anyone is welcome to borrow it.

The first isn't a component, it's just part of the default spell-system changes. It won't do anything if you install innate sequencers.

Yes, but to be honest I'm unsure when - it's fairly clear my player base is mostly EE so this is low-priority. If I do re-enable it, it'll almost certainly not be with the area map changes in the new version, just the caves from the old version.

Can reproduce; will investigate. Thanks.

1. It should be able to handle any simple mod changes, e.g. new HLAs. But this is a fairly complex and delicate area of the Infinity Engine, so I wouldn't swear that there are no problems if some other mod does something more sophisticated. 2. Yes, this should be better documented. Celestials get the same boosts to casting speed and hitpoints as fiends (i.e., instant casting at TACTICAL+, 50% hp boost at HARDCORE+). Otherwise, their abilities aren't changed from the vanilla game - they're just scripted to use them better. Compared to PnP Celestials, there's probably a worse fit to PnP spell-like abilities, but somewhat smarter AI - but I haven't looked at that mod for ages. 3. It's the Weimer approach. The tokens are coded to be usable only by druids, and the description tells you they're usable only by the creator, but that's not enforced. I view swapping the tokens between party members as an exploit, and I have a don't-block-exploits policy - if someone wants to play that way, they're welcome. The main difference with Weimer (beyond details of implementation, and the actual abilities granted) is that my tokens block spellcasting.

Any reason not to just include the scripts as BAF files and compile them at install time?

Fixed in v33.

I'm closing this thread now, as v33 is now available. (But for French players: the new translation didn't quite make it in, but I'll publish it as v33.1 or similar as soon as I get it.)

Sword Coast Stratagems is a collection of interconnected mini-mods for Baldur's Gate (on the BGT/BGTUTU/BGEE versions) and Baldur's Gate II. It is primarily a tactical and AI-enhancement mod: the idea is to make the game's combat more interesting, tactically challenging, and realistic by more effective use of, and choices of, creatures' abilities. It also contains a few rule tweaks and ease-of-use features. Version 33 is largely a bug-fixing release: it features fixes to 40-odd bugs and compatibility issues, including serious problems with the NPC customization component, the random scrolls component, and Death Spell (which was turning neutrals hostile). It also adds a small new cosmetic component (improved Tales of the Sword Coast textscreens), allows IWD spells to be tied to hotkeys, tweaks the shapeshifter tokens, and makes some slight changes to mage and priest AI. Grab it direct here. You can also visit the extensive project pages, readme, or SCS forum for more information.

Changelog: New or Substantially Modified Content Updated Russian translation (thanks to Arkie) New Enhanced-Edition-only component: improved Tales of the Sword Coast textscreens. (This spaces out the text in the go-to-island textscreen to keep pace with the spoken text, and moves the intro text when you arrive at Ulgoth's Beard into a new textscreen.) Other content changes Various tweaks to shapeshift tokens: they no longer count as daggers for proficiency purposes; they block any changes to Strength, Dexterity and (for Earth Elemental form) physical damage resistance; they now do token-appropriate damage types (instead of all doing Slashing); they are now granted direct when you level up, instead of the 'create token' spell being granted instead On EE, IWD spells (and any third-party spells you have installed) are now available for hotkeys Fiends more often avoid using attack spells against obviously-immune targets High-level wizards will try to take down antimagic shells High-level wizards carry Spell Strike slightly more often The fear auras of demons, dragons and liches no longer penetrate an antimagic field or the protection from a Scroll of Protection from Magic Bugfixes The NPC auto-leveller now works (mostly) even if party AI is turned off Added a guard into the NPC auto-leveller so that it fails more gracefully if there are any other problems (characters should level once and stop, rather than infinitely levelling) A few characters who are plausibly enemies to fight (currently Caelar (SoD) and Hexxat (BG2) ) are no longer set to level zero. (A side effect is that these characters cannot be customized.) NPC auto-leveller now more robustly ensures that NPCs who go hostile aren't invincible. "Wider range of random spell scrolls" component is recoded to work slightly differently, and to avoid (I hope) the duplicate-scrolls bug. 'Earth/Fire elemental transformation' are no longer mislabeled 'Earth/Fire elemental token' on the HLA select screen 'Ease of use AI' hotkeys can now be reallocated from stratagems.ini at install time (previously this wasn't working properly) 'Ease of use AI' no longer spams Impervious Sanctity of Mind Fine flails and composite bows now do the correct amount of damage - thanks to Merlin for catching that Entropy Shield no longer displays (harmless) cruft when cast Entropy Shield blocks Flame Strike properly Fixed glitches in the ds_make_detectable function (they were causing a couple of spell-labelling problems) Summoned lesser air elementals no longer look like myconids Cure Moderate Wounds now properly matches the other (level 1-5) healing spells Storm Shell is no longer non-functional Balor swords now grant a save vs death at -4, and kill without chunking (this had been lost at some point) Some minor fixes to 'innate triggers': triggers no longer appear on sorcerer spell-selection screens; Contingency is properly named in the quickbar and on level-up; Contingency no longer appears in sorcerer spellbooks. Baresh's lycanthropy is now less virulent: he no longer transforms into two werewolves Better journal handling in 'improved Balduran's Isle' Rogues now use the 'Evasion' HLA Bandit camp should more systematically gang up on the player if they go hostile On non-EE installs, an incompatibility between Innate HLAs and Smarter Mages was causing CTDs; it's been fixed The area-assigned scripts for Torgal's giant trolls no longer overwrite their creature-file-assigned scripts (this was largely cosmetic on EE, but made them unkillable on vanilla) Improve demilich saves, give immunity to mace of disruption Impervious Sanctity of Mind's SPELL_SHIELD splstate now removed correctly Rakshasas and demiliches no longer absorb their own Sunfire spells Truesight dispels blindness instead of just blocking it Time Stop was not properly being marked for detection The various anti-defense spells now correctly record whether they take down an Anti-Magic Shell (the only one that does is Spellstrike) The modifications to protection from normal missiles no longer prevent Physical Mirror and Entropy Shield from reflecting Flame Arrows Spellcasters do not avoid using summoning spells against foes protected by an scroll of protection from magic or an antimagic shell Summoned fiends don't attack each other Player can't target summoned fiends before they're properly gated in (hopefully actually working this time!) Vampires now use their bat cloud correctly Vampire summons turn up near the vampire, not offscreen (this was throwing bugs on EE due to the redefinition of the CreateCreatureOffscreen function in EE). Conjurers can now use the scrolls added by IWD spells Righteous Wrath of the Faithful handled correctly by DS Faldorn and Cernd fight properly when Cernd is not in the party (for real, this time). Cosmetic fix: the text on antimagic spells is better aligned Though it remains controversial that Death Spell can be used to kill insects, it no longer annoys friendly NPCs so much that they turn hostile Compatibility Fixes Item Upgrade now avoids using Contingency scrolls if Innate Contingencies is added (thanks to Cam for the code) Most of SCS's functions now throw warnings, instead of failing outright, if they run into a broken item from another mod (e.g. "cmstq04.itm" from Dark Horizons) Fixed some largely-cosmetic issues with Spell Revisions and Item Revisions compatibility, which were throwing WARNINGs at install time Guarded some more against malformed copies of the max-spell 2das Somewhat more systematically allowed for fighter/mage/thief characters in 'smarter mages'.