jmerry

Don't forget all the other ways to turn people into squirrels (bolts, wands, wild surges, etc), not all of which are treated the same. They all do the same 3 strength thing, but the bolt polymorph forgets to take away all those Natural Form abilities and uses a different weapon... Actually, I'm pretty sure the solution here is to add a HOSTILE_POLYMORPH splstate. That state should block all voluntary shapeshifting spells/abilities, plus the various magic weapon creation spells. In its current state, you can transform out of the squirrel form, but you still need a dispel to get your strength, dexterity, and hit points back. Here, have this cool phantom sword. And by the way, you're not a squirrel anymore. Another loophole ... if you are transformed out of the Slayer form by a means other than "End Slayer Change" - a voluntary shapeshift, a hostile polymorph, magic weapon creation - the delayed damage effects are still there. Since we're already throwing spell states around, how about gating those damage effects by a SLAYER_FORM state? We might even be able to get rid of the temporary magic damage immunity after transforming back.

I was looking through things and running a few tests before I start tinkering with this stuff again... That "unequipped items" bug can be used to put Hexxat in a state where she dies and stays dead. Hit her with a raise spell, and she's fine. Save and reload, and she's on the party sidebar but not actually present, dead but regenerating, and still not in her coffin. Waiting won't bring her back; you have to hit her with a raise spell (which she's normally immune to when in the coffin). And then there's the Cloak of the Wolf. It's a mess. In both games, its shapeshift is an opcode 53 when the weapon is equipped, not matching either set of standards. It doesn't grant the cold and electric resistances standard to other wolf shapeshifts, though that's excusable - those resistances are standard on Dread Wolves but not other enemy wolves. In BG2EE, it grants a Natural Form ability but only removes part of the list of Natural Form abilities, so you could do something like cast Shapechange and then use the cloak to have two of them. And finally, the weapon cdwolfm? Its BG2EE version has some visual effects with timing mode 3 and a delay of 117; they're about three seconds long, and the weapon creation ability has duration 120. Those trigger repeatedly as long as the item is equipped, meaning they'll start playing about when the natural expiration point is and continue for as long as you had the ability active. Those effects have to go.

Updated to 1.1, mostly fixing issues around importing into a new campaign or starting at a higher level. The link to that isn't in the first post over there because the forum wouldn't let me edit it, so I'm adding a copy here.

Another quick one I just spotted now: the Priest of Tempus has incorrect starting equipment in ToB. The list includes entries "POTN4,2" instead of "POTN04,2" and "HAM07" instead of "HAMM07". And I'm pretty sure that means the game gives you nothing, not even a hunk of meat. (OHTEMPUS column in 25STWEAP.2DA. Should be the last nontrivial column.) And ... wait, I've known about this one for ages. Wilson's strength boost (ohrbear6.spl) uses the wrong timing mode (1 instead of 9), so it stacks every time he leaves and rejoins the party.

Current mod version: 1.1. From my deranged mind, I bring you a new kit: the Bling Fist monk. You'll be able to strike down even monsters like Karoug - and all it takes is wrapping some enchanted jewelry around your hands to use its power.Full kit description below: Q: Is this a joke? (I announced it on April 1, and the only reason I didn't release it then is because it wasn't functional yet.) A: Yes. Yes, this is absolutely a joke. But I intend it to be a playable joke. Also on this Beamdog thread: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/83838/kit-mod-bling-fist-monk bling-fist v1.1.zip

And what characters, exactly, can cast both Wondrous Recall (a priest spell) and Nahal's Reckless Dweomer (a Wild Mage spell)? Clerics do have some pretty decent level 1 and 2 spells. A few Commands, some Silences and Hold Persons, Bless/Chant/Remove Fear for the party, Armor of Faith and DUHM for the cleric themselves, or even just a pile of Cure Light Wounds ... you can get a lot of value out of those slots if you put your mind to it. Sure, they're not terribly powerful on an individual level, but you have a lot of those slots, and with this tweak you're getting all of them back.

I figured it out and made it work. It was the 178/179 effects I was calling with the 183; I didn't have parameter 3 set correctly. Because for some inexplicable reason, that's the parameter that really matters in those cases. With that issue corrected, everything worked. Opcode 183 is great for doing more complicated fist-only effects. The only blemish here is that an off-hand weapon gets the bonus if the main hand is a fist; I was able to cut that off with a flag in the 345 effects, but not the 178 and 179 effects. And that's the beauty of the 183 effect. Have the 183 call the 178/179 EFF, and you get both weapon and target filters.

As for the "getting acknowledged as a modder" part? Finish a mod, put it up somewhere, and post a thread for it. You might not be acknowledged right away, but it will happen. That's what happened for me, anyway.

I'm building a monk kit, and I tried some opcode 183 stuff; set to "hand to hand weapons", call a bunch of opcode 178/179/345 effects for fist-only bonuses. The enchantment bonuses worked exactly like I wanted - level 8 monk can hit a mustard jelly with fists, but not with an off-hand long sword. The damage and attack bonuses worked, mostly. When I tried the fists/sword dual-wield, both hands got the bonus. But worse, and weirder, the bonuses were doubled. No bonus with a main-hand sword, double bonuses with main-hand fists and nothing in the off-hand, double bonuses for both hands with main-hand fists and an off-hand sword. +2 attack and +2 damage against the targeted creature types, instead of the +1 I wanted. Just what is going on with this opcode? (Yes, I now know the appropriate black magic to set opcode 248 to fists only. That doesn't work with the 178/179/345 effects because its EFF targets the enemy; I'll have to change other things around if I make that switch.)

BG2EE already has a number of spawn points that reset, generally spawning monsters of a single type with numbers that theoretically scale with the party BGEE-style. They're just terribly broken. First, the "frequency" is usually set to zero. From my observations, they'll be ready to spawn again as soon as you leave to a new "master area" and come back, regardless of how long that is in game. I think that frequency is interpreted as a time interval; the higher it is, the longer you'll have to wait. Second, the "encounter difficulty" parameter is laughably low, usually 2 instead of the BGEE standard of 200. This affects the number of monsters spawned; the game keeps adding monsters until their total "power level" exceeds a value based on that parameter or reaches the spawn point's cap. I think that value is "Encounter Difficulty" times (sum of party member's levels) divided by 100. Here are some BGEE power levels for reference: XVART 4, BANDIT 6, SPIDHU 14 (Huge Spider) ANKHEG 25, WOLFVA 30 (Vampiric Wolf), DOPPLE 35 (Lesser Doppelganger), DOPPGR 80 (Greater Doppelganger). And yes, all of those appear at spawn points. So then, in BG2EE, you get spawn points like the one on the way to the drawbridge controls - trolls (power 28) or ice trolls (power 15), maximum 3, encounter difficulty 2. You'll only ever see one enemy at a time there. Third, many of the monsters that appear at these spawn points weren't considered for it properly, and have a "power level" of zero. For example, there's a spawn point for mind flayers near where you first enter the underdark, and a spawn point each for beholders and gauths in the beholder hive down there. All three of those monsters have "power level" zero, so the spawn points will always keep going until you hit the cap - three for the mind flayer and gauth points, two for the beholder point. Or if you meddle ... I made a tweak without properly understanding the systems, and raised those caps to 10. Scary.

One thing to note about that Morentherene idea: the "Thieving" action forces visibility. You might be stealthed before you try it, but certainly not after you grab something. Which means the dragon wakes, and you'd better have an exit strategy. Also, how did you get around the other problem with stealing from dragons - that they're just too big? I've tried before, and failed to even perform the action because my thief couldn't get close enough before being stopped by their ground circle.

Kill Mulahey before he summons anything? Oh, you can do worse than that. You can even trap him in a stutter bug, repeatedly saying his "Tazok is unfair" line every second until you get tired of it and finish him off. All you have to do to trigger that one: whack him for more than half of his health before he gets the chance to talk to you the first time. A strong backstab is the easiest way to pull this off, dealing all that damage in one hit before he even sees you. As for the SCS aspect of this: while moving the minion creation to the area script is fine, Mulahey should still give his global shout in that dialogue action, so as to consistently activate the kobolds guarding Xan.

Sounds intriguing, and definitely worth testing. I might whip something up once I'm done with my current little project. My general stance here? Shapeshifting is cool. I want it to work. And if that takes a whole lot of changes under the hood, so be it. "It never worked before, and often crashed the game" is no excuse for not at least trying.

Those are the pre-placed kobolds on the map. Creature kobold7, starting neutral and with a script that makes them essentially passive until provoked. Then, in vanilla the area gives them the specifics script HELPMUL, which makes them listen to Mulahey when he starts calling for help. SCS changes them by moving HELPMUL up to the override slot so it takes first priority, and adding generic melee combat scripts. They should get involved in the fight and go hostile when any of the enemies calls for help. But, unfortunately, SCS also changes how the minions are summoned. In vanilla, it's a dialogue action and Mulahey shouts for help - in a way that reaches everyone in the area. With SCS, it's in the area script and Mulahey doesn't get that global reach. There should be shouting anyway, including the minions, but it might not have the reach to pick up Xan's guards.

Funny. I was leaning toward the BGEE architecture myself, because of the Ust Natha problem. Adalon's transformation has to be attached to a spell for multiple reasons, and that means it effectively blocks all weapon-attached transformations because of the order things get evaluated in. The closest to a fix you can get for that in the BG2EE architecture is to make the transformations cosmetic-only, move all the creature stats over to the weapon as equip effects, and have characters that look like drow while they fight like werewolves (or whatever).

Having played SCS/Ascension myself, that final area is definitely a difficulty spike. The boss fights before that are a bit harder than what's around them. but it's well within what a bit more preparation can handle. The Throne itself is at least one to two difficulty levels tougher than anything that came before; if you're handling things on Insane, you might want to drop down to Tactical for it. This is an area where demons that gate in more demons are the breather fight between boss fights. On some of those specific abusive tactics ... with SCS (at least the settings I was using), Chain Contingency is non-combat only. Sure, you can open the battle with a triple Incendiary Cloud or whatever, but you can't make a new chain contingency until there's an actual break between battles. And using Wish outside of battle is probably more abusive than using Wish in-battle. Sure, I had fun with the party led by a Dragon Disciple using PI and Wish to keep the turn/level buffs on everybody all the time, but that was also seeking feats of strength. (Can I kill a Balor with fire? Yes! The one in Suldanesselar inexplicably lacks immunity. Can I kill Yaga-Shura with fire ... no, he still has 110% resistance even after he lowers it with Aura of Flaming Death, because he's wearing that +FR armor. Can I kill an enemy in the fire temple with fire? Yes - the clay golem. Can I kill a hundred enemies with fire in a single battle? Yes - the forces of Ust Natha. And counting that took way too long. Do SCS mages ever re-up their elemental protections after you dispel/breach them once? No, so they burn. Is magic resistance any obstacle at all? Not really, especially once I got the Chain Contingency/self-targeted Incendiary Cloud combo going. Though that one wouldn't work in 2.6.)

@Sam. Giving both powers? Doesn't seem too hard to me, if you're willing to be slightly indirect. Create new spells "Grant Bhaalspawn Powers N", and put those in the 2DAs in place of the current powers. When used, that new spell grants both powers (171) for its chapter and removes itself (172).

All right, BG1 Bhaalspawn powers ... The text and which powers you get are controlled in 2DAs DRMTEXT2 through DRMTEXT7. Progress is tracked with the global variable DREAM. Other than that, I can't find anything. No scripts and no unmodded dialogues refer to that DREAM variable at all. The process seems very hardcoded. You can change a few things around, and you can piggyback on that DREAM variable for your mod stuff, but that's about it.

I checked my old (2.5, SCS v33) modded install. In that, the SCS random potions are at the end of the inventory slots used, because that's what the functions involved do when they add items. I don't see any good reason for that to have changed, but SCS is a big project and weird stuff sneaks in sometimes. The items in that inventory before things start getting added: the key, three letters, and three specific low-level scrolls. A fourth scroll is in one of the quickslots. SCS adds a couple of no-drop items for scripting stuff, and then the random potions. The other two quickslots are used for the AC 6 bracers and archmage robes in vanilla; SCS moves those to be actually equipped by Dave and another mage earlier in the dungeon.

So, the fix here - the key should be assigned somewhere, probably one of the inventory slots. In the standard game, it's in the first inventory slot. One of your mods that added items must have bumped it - what's in that first inventory slot?

+5 to have a chance, +8 for guaranteed success. For basic turning, it's +0 for a chance, +3 for guaranteed success. The tables referenced above aren't actually correct, at least in the EE. Check the most recent posts in that thread, not just the top.

The worst areas for characters stacking up are narrow corridors - like a lot of BG1 dungeons, but also places like the entrance to the Planar Sphere. And you can reliably get out of it if you tell all characters involved to stop, then issue move commands to one at a time. They only get really stuck when more than one of them are trying to move at the same time. Still, that's the pathfinding problem people care about. And it wasn't addressed in 2.6.

And the wand of lightning. Maybe also the Avenger/Priest of Talos versions of Lightning Bolt and Web. Potion and necklace fireballs feel a bit too far from the spell, though.

And what kind of party are you running that can kill him that fast? Drizzt is nearly immune to magic and has ridiculously good AC. In my current (near-vanilla) evil run, it took about an hour (game time) of one party member running in circles while the other five used ranged attacks to bring him down. Eleven gnolls, usually two hits to kill them (maybe one on a crit, maybe three with exceptionally low damage rolls), five attacks per round ... he'll be done with the gnolls in five rounds or so. About your only option for reliably speeding things up are MR-ignoring kit abilities that deal damage (Thief/Bounty Hunter traps, Blackguard Absorb Health, Dragon Disciple Breath Weapon). And if you have enough of that stuff to kill him quickly, the gnolls are irrelevant. Or an obstacle - wouldn't want those gnolls triggering the traps you laid before Drizzt is in range. Also, if Drizzt prioritized party members over gnolls, that would open up a new cheese tactic: let him chase a party member while the gnolls continue to take potshots.

The 1-tick duration? kjeron's suggestion in this Beamdog forum post: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1178754/#Comment_1178754. It works reliably for the version with all of the 206 effects in the fireshield subspells, but apparently not with those spells themselves casting a new subspell. And I don't think that a longer duration would fix the issues. Particularly not when the fireshields do less than one complete cycle of damage. I don't know how that happens, but it does. Sometimes. Others are welcome to run their own tests, of course. If someone figures out a way to make something better work consistently, I'd love to see it.