jmerry

27 minutes ago, Thacobell said:

A god of passings, or passings denied. Things like comfort for the dying, even the saving of a life from said passing.

So now you're competing with Kelemvor.

Note that those in the "modder" category get a larger limit, so they can attach their stuff. I've got 22 MB free, for example.

But ... well, hosting-intensive stuff like posting a run with screenshots isn't supported here. We have other forums for that sort of thing.

There's a function that converts between backslashes and forward slashes in paths; it was broken in the earliest versions of v35, but has been fixed for some time. That shouldn't be the problem now.

The way I see it, a lot of portfolios are intrinsically aligned. Murder is one of those; it's intrinsically evil. If you separate out some sort of non-evil killing - hunting down and executing offenders, for example - that's not murder anymore. If you're a non-evil character ascending, you have to reject Murder and align with a different portfolio (which will, of course, depend on your role-playing choices). The last time I did this was in my "Kill It With Fire" run; that protagonist became a chaotic neutral god of Fire. Of course, I had to write that epilogue myself.

And at that point, you're not competing with Cyric anymore - he gets to keep his hold on Murder. He might cause trouble for you, but he won't have it out for you specifically.

Well, now. That's something completely different.

Option 1: apply effects (opcode 180) that prevent your item from being used to every other character. You can apply this to joinable characters in their CRE files, or to created PCs other than player 1 by a script.

Option 2: Put an effect (opcode 319) on the item so that it can only be used by creatures with no name, or only by creatures with no script name. That means only player-created characters will be able to use it. Well, normally, anyway. EE-only.

I might go with a hybrid approach; the opcode 319 effect to restrict it to player characters only, and a script that runs once in campaign start areas to apply the opcode 180 effect to players 2 through 6 so that created PCs other than the protagonist can't use it..

Well. If it's being assigned by an ini, it might not have an associated string. That can happen too.

(Also, there's no such thing as a .waw file. Persistent error there, and the letters aren't even keyboard-adjacent or anything in the usual layout.)

And if you know a creature it's associated with, you can look at that CRE file - the relevant fields are string references, after all.

Hmm. I don't see a clean way to search for the string reference associated with a sound in Near Infinity. Feature request? Seems like something to add to the "StringRef" search panel.

If you know the text associated with the sound, you can search for that text in the StringRef panel. For example, AJANT01.WAV in BGEE is "Halt! Be you friend or foe?" Searching for that text finds #421 (without the sound) and #3502 (with the sound).

Nothing, really. I've even seen a fanfic with a drow as the Bhaalspawn protagonist.

But. Every other drow character we meet in the series was raised in the Underdark, as part of that evil drow culture. Some embraced it and some rejected it, but all were shaped by it. A surface-raised drow would be something entirely different. And if you want to do justice to a character concept like that in the leading role, a game like this just isn't flexible enough to satisfy.

17 hours ago, Morgoth said:

4) I bought a Sword of Flame from Ribald. For some strange reason, equipping it makes my armor shine red. Could it be a strange interaction between the mods I’m using? I have very few mods, but I’m still totally clueless about what could be happening.

This is a vanilla bug - the Sword of Flame and the two versions of Angurvadal each have an opcode 9 glow effect with the wrong parameters, applying a red glow to the armor trim instead of anything associated with the weapon. And the EE Fixpack is already on it.

https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/35669-blinking-armour-when-firesword-is-wielding/?do=findComment&comment=311202

As you've stated? Not really possible at all; I just don't see any mechanism to graft a save onto incoming effects.

But. If you're willing to loosen things a bit, there's an alternative.

- Step 1. Create a spell that grants immunity to all of the projectiles you want this effect to apply to. Lots of opcode 83 effects. Unconditional, with a long enough duration.

- Step 2. Append two opcode 321 effects to the spell from step 1. The first one goes first and is a standard anti-stacking use of that effect; remove the effects of the spell (any previous castings) before applying the spell. The second one goes last and is decidedly non-standard; remove the effects of the spell after applying the spell if a save is failed.

- Step 3. Create an EFF that casts the spell (opcode 146) from step 1 and 2.

- Step 4. Create a spell that applies the EFF from step 3 repeatedly (opcode 272). Frequency is up to you, but faster rates like "once per second" have been known to cause problems with saving.

- Step 5. Apply the spell from step 4 to monks at an appropriate level, by putting it in the kit CLABs. This applies to PC monks only; if you want this to work for non-party monks, you need to either apply the spell with scripts or put that opcode 272 effect in their CRE files.

So, what does this scheme do? First, a monk of sufficient level gets a spell applied to them that applies a permanent op272 effect. That effect then repeatedly casts a spell on that monk. If they make their save, the spell removes any previous instances of itself and applies immunity to a bunch of projectiles. This lasts until the next time that op272 effect triggers, at which point a new instance of the spell is cast. If they fail their save, the spell removes itself immediately, resulting in a state of vulnerability that lasts until the next time the op272 effect triggers.

Instead of a save for each individual projectile, a monk gets a save that applies to an interval of time; either all projectiles are blocked in that interval, or none are.

Both the extra "hard to find" scrolls and the Freedom scrolls in Ribald's basic shop are in the "spell tweaks" group. The tweaks in that group don't appear to be available as stand-alone components anymore, so you'll have to install a package that includes them if you want those scrolls. Which ... wait, they aren't in the spelltweaks.2da table that defines those packages? Even "all" won't install the extra scrolls? Huh. Looks like the v35 reorganization orphaned these two extra scroll components.

1 minute ago, Morgoth said:

The issue if I don't remember wrong is that they use Death spell and are likely to kill your sent in skeletons. But I could remembering wrong

Vanilla beholders have exactly one use of Death Spell each, which they will use as soon as they see a summon. It's not something they can spam, so the second wave does the job.

Depreciation varies from merchant to merchant, and it just happens that the most accessible shop for "miscellaneous" items has unusually fast depreciation. If you're selling at Feldepost's Inn (buy markup 50, depreciation 20), he'll give you 50% of the list price if he doesn't have any of that item in stock, 30% if he has one, and the floor 20% if he has two or more. Go to High Hedge instead (buy markup 50, depreciation 5), and the prices are 50%, 45%, 40%, 35%, 30%, 25%, and it only hits the floor of 20% when Thalantyr has six or more of the item in stock. But of course, batch selling gives you the whole batch at the price of the first, so you can get some nice hauls if you save a large batch. (Side note: gems and jewelry are exempt from depreciation. No worries about shopping those around.)

As for the bandit scalp bounty, Officer Vai's shop has buy markup 100 and no depreciation. She's paying the full list price for those scalps, for as long as she sticks around. And once the way back to the big city is clear (or maybe even earlier in chapter 4), she leaves for Baldur's Gate and you never see her again. Unless you exploit the loophole and never talk to her without scalps in your inventory, bypassing that bit of dialogue.

I think some versions of the game have had other stores that bought scalps. In the current EE, no other store in the game buys "tattoos" (the item type the scalps use) so the scalps are worthless once she leaves..

The original "limit" on the wolf pelts at Nashkel wasn't any intended feature; it was just a consequence of inventory mechanics that the developers probably didn't even think about. Give an item to a character, and it goes into the three quick slots, the sixteen inventory slots, and finally the magic weapon slot before running out of space so any further items added drop something on the ground. Letting things get to the point that the magic item slot fills up without an opcode 111 effect is just asking for bugs, so this was something that needed a fix. We just don't necessarily agree on what the right fix is. (Ever see a ferret with a quarterstaff icon for their attack instead of the paws? Yeah, that can happen if you let them pickpocket twenty things and then save and load. It doesn't change their actual attack, though - just the graphics.)

23 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Failing that... don't fight elder orbs? I'm pretty sure they are all optional...

Let's see, the elder orbs in the game ...

- Underdark beholder lair. One generic, one that drops the eyestalk. Can be skipped if you go for one of the other ritual ingredients.

- Fear trial. You get a choice: go through a no-save fear trap to reach the tear, or fight two beholders and an elder orb to reach it. (Those two beholders are named "Elder Orb", but they don't have the spells.)

- Watcher's Keep final seal level. The final green globe fight is an elder orb, a hive mother, and a death tyrant. Not required to complete the dungeon, because the first green globe is the one you need to progress.

- Abazigal's lair. Fight three elder orbs for the gauth eyestalk, or hire a few low-level adventurers for it.

Yeah, they're all optional.

The "elder orb" in the Planar Sphere that the golem fights is functionally just a beholder that's not even focused on you. The beholder in the Twisted Rune hideout doesn't have spells in vanilla, though the SCS component for that fight upgrades it to an elder orb. And finally, the Unseeing Eye is definitely a spellcasting beholder, though it has a different list of spells and doesn't use the same script. Plus you get the artifact to nearly win the fight in one stroke.

Elder Orbs have the ability to cast spells, up to 9th level. One of the spell choices for a vanilla Elder Orb is Imprisonment.

Normal beholders, gauths, and even Hive Mothers do not have the ability to cast Imprisonment. Which means that, in the big beholder lairs, there's never more than one or two of them that are capable of the spell, and those are only going to have at most one instance each.

So, then, how to counter that spell? Putting up protections like you would against a normal mage ... not great, because beholders are very good at taking that stuff down. On the flip side, because they have a ton of other stuff they can do, elder orbs are less likely to use Imprisonment at any given moment. Also, it's a melee-range spell, so they can't cast it on you unless you get up in their face first. If your only anti-beholder tactic is to send in one character protected by something like the Shield of Balduran, they'll be trouble. But that shouldn't be your only tactic. There are lots of ways to fight beholders. Maybe you could send in magic-resistant skeletons or bombard them with AoE ranged damage like Cloudkill and Incendiary Cloud. Or protect more people and rush in against smaller groups, trusting you can take them down before they wear through your protections and make it truly dangerous.

3 hours ago, pathetic said:

Using Language [Polski (Yarpen) - last updated version 34.3]

And you're installing a component that's entirely new in v35 - it hasn't been translated yet. SCS is supposed to use English as a fallback in cases like that, but that's never a guarantee things will work, and this component needs some tricky UI hacking to work right - that also might need language-specific bits to function.

With the vanilla treasure tables, a ghoul or ghast will drop a level 2 scroll about one in every ten times. That's quite reasonable.

With those same vanilla treasure tables, a ghoul or ghast will drop a level 3 scroll about one in every four hundred times. That's not. I tracked my kills one time, in a completionist run - everything cleared, areas generally not revisited. In all of BGEE, that came to 59 ghasts and 46 ghouls. Or, about one quarter of a level 3 scroll if I hadn't done this run with SCS. Yes, it's theoretically possible to get level 3 scrolls that way, but it's not practical by any means. This is not the sort of game that rewards extended, dull grinding.

(Where do those numbers come from? The table for RNDTRE04 (ghouls, ghasts, etc.) has twenty entries. Two of those are RNDSCR02 (level 2 scroll). None of them are RNDSCR03 (level 3 scroll). But one of the RNDTRE04 entries is RNDMAG02, directing you to a "random magic junk" table. Most of the entries there are stuff like potions or magic ammo, but one of them is RNDSCR03. So if you hit that one in twenty chance, twice, you get the level 3 scroll.)

Also: no, I didn't say anything about the overall scroll drop rates.

While you might be able to add the skills without too much trouble, adding the ability to use them requires modifying the executable (i.e EEEx) and is not otherwise accessible to ordinary modding.

3 hours ago, ktchong said:

After removing the SCS compoent, my party went back to some previously-cleared areas for random encounters to farm scrolls.  My mages have been able to (mostly) fill up all three spell books with levels 1, 2 and 3 spells from random monsters and scroll drops — including the important ones like Dispel Magic, Fireball, Haste, Invisibility 10' Radius, Protection from Normal Missiles, Web, etc.

This? This is unbelievable. I don't believe you. Random scroll drops in the normal game don't work that way. Sure, you can pretty reliably get the level 1 scrolls from random drops by respawning monsters (except for the few that aren't on the table). Just kill a few hundred gnolls and xvarts and kobolds and hobgoblins and the like. And you'll get some level 2 scrolls, though you'll have to supplement those with fixed drops (i.e, Web from Narcillicus and Borda) and store purchases if you want to fill out spellbooks properly - there aren't nearly as many monsters like ghouls and ogres that drop those. But level 3 scrolls? The only respawning monsters that ever drop level 3 scrolls at all are the travel encounter ogre mage in the southwest, the travel encounter greater basilisk in the east, and the doppelgangers outside Durlag's Tower. You'll get about one level 3 scroll for every ten treasures those monsters drop - three from an ogre mage, one from a basilisk or doppelganger.

While you'll typically find a few random level 3 scrolls over the course of a run, you will absolutely not be able to fill up even one mage's spellbook with them. And they're really not amenable to farming. If you have your heart set on Invisibility 10' Radius ... no guarantees, that scroll might just not ever drop for you. In fact, checking ... my last full run, clearing everything in a largely unmodded game, had party mage Xzar without that spell when I reached the end. Because its scroll just plain never dropped. [Edit: oh, right, he's a necromancer that can't learn that spell. Well, I looked at the scroll case - no Invisibility 10' there either. And I would have kept it, because I had Baeloth in the party as well who could use it.]

Moving things in and out of the override can't completely break a save in the way other mods do. At worst, you might run into a missing resource situation. For example, if your save had a character with that item and you removed it from your override, that inventory slot would become an undroppable "invalid item".

Some resources become embedded in saves once they come up; if you removed an ARE from your override after visiting the area, that save wouldn't even notice the change.

28 minutes ago, Morgoth said:

Another request: may sound stupid but I think it's cool.

When you do the riddles where you're supposed to put your hand inside the masks in Spellhold, once you've solved the riddle, you are put top, rather than in front of the mask you've chosen. Would it be possible to change this?

Possible, because the riddles are tied to specific faces. Difficult, because it would require reworking the dialogue structure so the different right answers don't converge on the same exit states. Not fixpack material, because it's not a bug.

NI can get at engine.lua; it's just under the "Special" tab instead of "LUA". Here's the entire (vanilla) content of engine.lua for BG2EE:

engine_name = "Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition"
engine_mode = 1 -- 0 = BGEE, 1 = BG2EE, 2 = IWDEE

Belated response ...

Your problem with that function call is the first parameter. You only use the resource reference ~MISC60~, as that's what goes in the field in the CRE file. Adding the .itm ... well, either it tries to append that and runs into the problem that there's no resource "MISC60.I.itm", or there's an error check that notices that the parameter is either too long or contains a character . that can't be in a valid resource reference.

On 2/20/2024 at 1:47 PM, subtledoctor said:

Or maybe it is gated behind a druid class check, and my class is logged as fighter/druid because I am an incomplete dual-class? We'll see.

Regarding class checks, you can check for DRUID, FIGHTER_DRUID, or DRUID_ALL which is true for either of the previous two. On dual classes, this is what the IESDP has to say:

Quote

Dual-classed characters will detect only as their new class until their original class is re-activated, then they will detect as a multi-classed character.

So an incomplete F -> D dual will be detected by DRUID_ALL, but not FIGHTER_DRUID. And I'm not sure about DRUID; I'd have to test that.

On 2/20/2024 at 6:24 PM, subtledoctor said:

Meantime, slight hiccup: every time I kill Llyrk in the Black Pits, my game freezes up. I can’t tell why. There’s nothing odd about his .CRE file. No lingering effects or anything. Maybe it’s something in the arena area script? 

Are you still on game version 2.5? I'm not sure exactly what the bug was there, but it's fixed in patch 2.6. If you can't update the game ... my experience was that pausing a whole lot increased the chance of getting through without the crash. Also, don't repeat the fight, as the skeletons instantly die and the fight is trivialized if you repeat it in 2.5.