Mike1072

Hey guys. Any news on a release date? Last I heard was on or before the release of BG2:EE but that was a month ago. I know its just a hobby, but I really want to play EE with spell revisions!

For Item Revisions Arda uploaded his final version more or less a week ago and we only needed to prepare the readme, package everything and upload it, but this time around it was Mike's turn to be uber busy with RL stuff.

Keep in mind there are some other things I need to look at as well - providing a recommendation on 1PPv4 compatibility will probably require investigating the code in 1PP.

SCS (not sure about RR) actually takes into account SR's Glitterdust using a local variable

Both do.

I think the standard behaviour of rods should be that they are activated from the quick item slots like wands. It doesn't seem like rods are intended to function as a weapon type: the majority of them cannot be equipped as weapons. So, it doesn't seem like we could reasonably extrapolate weapon characteristics from their shared qualities.

Out of the two rods that can be wielded as weapons, the Rod of Terror's description says "When activated this rod may be used as a staff +3". This activation step seems like something they glossed over to save trouble. The Rod of Smiting description states that it is a long rod which can be used as a staff.

In 4th edition, the Rod of Smiting is a rod that can also be wielded as a mace. I think the concept is that it's a unique rod whose special property is that it can be wielded as a weapon. I'd prefer that the Rod of Terror be changed to function like the other rods so this uniqueness is highlighted. I don't think either rod needs to be changed into a club based on these descriptions.

Opcode 319 is a new opcode used to restrict items to specific IDS values:

 

Opcode #319 Usability
Spell level set to 1 means only usable by
Parameter #1: IDS Entry
Parameter #2: IDS File
Special: STRREF displayed in the item description.

 

It also has a secondary use where it can be used to restrict items to a specific NPC--using the name STRREF in parameter1, death variable in the resource field, and parameter2 to 10.

Does the "Special" parameter for opcode 319 refer to the field at 0x2c Avenger described as Param 2.5?

Is the list of IDS files that can be referenced by this and other opcodes increased at all? Referencing kit.ids would be nice.

2 EA.ids

3 General.ids

4 Race.ids

5 Class.ids

6 Specific.ids

7 Gender.ids

8 Align.ids

To make sure I understand "Spell level set to 1 means only usable by", let's say there was an effect that specified Param2=7 (GENDER.IDS) and Param1=2 (FEMALE). With spell level set to 1, it would prevent non-female characters from using the item, but with spell level set to something else, it would prevent female characters from using it?

Is there anything that could make an item usable by a kit but not its parent class?

Between tonight, and tomorrow I'll work on the hardest part, merging the re-done BG2 animations which, just to make my life worse, have got their animation references re-assigned (e.g. old 1PP BGII style large shields were c4 back then, now with 1PPv4 they use c2, while c4 is used by bucklers).

That is the part that can be easily automated. This code copies all shields that use the c4 animation from the item_rev/itm folder into an item_rev/output folder, giving them the c2 animation.

MKDIR ~item_rev/output~ // create a new folder called output

ACTION_BASH_FOR ~item_rev/itm~ ~.+\.itm~ BEGIN // for every .itm file in the item_rev/itm folder...
 COPY ~%BASH_FOR_FILESPEC%~ ~item_rev/output~ // copy that file to the output folder
PATCH_IF (SHORT_AT 0x1c == 0x0c) BEGIN // if item is a shield
  READ_ASCII 0x22 animation (2)
  PATCH_IF (~%animation%~ STRING_EQUAL_CASE ~c4~) BEGIN // if animation was "c4"
	WRITE_ASCII 0x22 ~c2~ #2 // make it "c2"
  END
END
BUT_ONLY // only copy the files that changed as a result
END

You throw this in a standalone mod, install it, then copy the files it outputs before uninstalling it.

casting time 0

Heh, talk about OP.

Got a compatibility question (issue?) regarding the now EFF'd up DVCL111.SPL (1 star in all profs at lvl 5 for fighters) - again.

 

What about mods that change the weapon restrictions for divine casters (like a component in IR ^^)?

The list of all proficiencies shouldn't be affected by which proficiencies are available to divine casters.

If you're concerned about the component in BG2 Tweaks that groups multiple proficiencies into BG1 weapon groupings, I just tested it. That component doesn't create new proficiencies; it renames old ones. Fighters gain proficiency in categories that no longer exist, but these don't even show up on the character sheet, so it seems to work fine.

@Mike, does the Monk description string reference need special attention for BGEE? I guess it does...

Yeah. Replace this:

/* LAF ~GET_KIT_STRREF~ STR_VAR kit_name = ~monk~ RET kit_strref END
STRING_SET_EVALUATE kit_strref @6 // Monk description */
STRING_SET ~45867~ @6 // Fighter description

With this:

OUTER_SET monk_strref = 45867
ACTION_IF (GAME_IS ~bgee~) BEGIN
 OUTER_SET monk_strref = 24234
END
STRING_SET_EVALUATE monk_strref @6 // Monk description

Thus I downloaded the latest Kit Revisions beta (11) yesterday and tried it out. Unfortunately, both the Ki Pool and Called Shot abilities made my game crash to desktop with a Windows Seven "This program has stopped working" kind of error. Today I checked in and downloaded the hotfix. I believe I applied it (replaced the file of the same name in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\kit_rev\data\fighters\kensai" and re-applied the mod via the WEIDU setup) but it didn't change anything.

So I started NI up and checked the items involved. And I found out that the Ki Pool ability was referencing DVCL112.2DA instead of DVCL144.2DA, so I made it reference DVCL144.2DA instead and it works fine now.

The Called Shot ability still doesn't though. I tried everything in my abilities to make sense of what could possibly be the cause of the problem (comparing the two spells' inner working and the two 2DA files mostly) and haven't found anything of interest. Am I the only person with this issue?

I can't comment on this specific issue, but in general, if your game is installed in the Program Files directory (and your OS is Windows Vista or newer), mod installations are a lot less reliable. The OS sometimes (silently) redirects changed files to a different directory, leaving the ones used by the game unmodified. There might be a setting that disables this behaviour, but it's easiest just to advise installing the game somewhere else.

By the way, since I'm here and I've already written a wall of text (2 actually, if you're counting the one which got lost into the depths of the internet), I might as well ask you something that's been on my mind for these last few weeks since I learned that you were still modding. You see, I've been working quite a bit with near Infinity for some time and have made quite a lot of re-revisions of your mods' spells and items (for instance to solve the shortbows/longbows discrepancy) in a way to balance some more what I felt wasn't just there yet.

 

So I was thinking of creating a thread within the Spell Revisions forums called something like "Andimar's Spell re-Revisions" where I'd share some of my modest work and maybe get some feedback, advice and help. Maybe even see some people be happy with the changes I've made.

Many of the changes in mods like SR and IR are based on community feedback. I know Demi would appreciate hearing your ideas.

PS : ONE LAST THING, I swear. Since I'm relatively new to all this, and my coding ability is pretty much non-existent besides extremely basic stuff (I did some HTML 7 years ago or so, does that count?), I might find myself in a position to ask for some tips. Would that be okay? I haven't really dabbled into the WEIDU-ing of my "mod" yet for instance.

We have a Modding Q&A forum designed just for this sort of thing. Ask away.

-Barbarian description is still the old one with BG:EE and beta 5.

-Called Shot is referred to in-game as "Called Hit".

Fixed for the next beta.

-Fighter kits do not become proficient with every weapon at level 5. This is not stated in the disadvantages section of the kit descriptions.

Perhaps because it's a true fighter's advantage. You won't see "cannot use scrolls, scribe spells, Turn Undead etc." here also.

Once in-game, you can only see your kit's description, not the description of the base class. Consider adding the 1/2 attack per round gained at level 7 (etc.) to the individual kits' descriptions. You are basically forced to choose between potential confusion on character generation ("I get this twice?") or during gameplay ("Why do I have an extra 1/2 attack?"). I suppose an alternative would be to add it to the kits' descriptions but append something like "as a fighter."

I don't think this is needed.

It is a problem that some abilities given to kits are only described in the true fighter section, and it seems we need to make it more clear which base class features are inherited and which are not. The current descriptions are nearing the character limit allowed, so unfortunately there is not a lot of wiggle room to paste lots of text in.

-Bad news: all of the weapon proficiency text seems to include the descriptions of mastery, grandmastery, etc. You may need to change all of them.

Not a problem.

Mike has fixed the BGEE-only issue with the Barbarian description not getting updated, and we're heavily working on descriptions.

 

Barbarian's Cleave doesn't seem to work properly. in BG2. No extra attack is added.

If you mean it gets no 9th level upgrade I fixed it early this morning sorry. The 3rd Cleave should work instead, Arda tested it in-game and it worked. I'll double check.

 

Edit: found the problem in the clab file. Fixed. I'll probably upload a new beta after lunch.

Yeah, this was one of the wonky things I noticed in the CLAB files. I'd recommend double-checking all of them at some point.

My Berserker takes a few seconds to use offensive stance. Looks like he's casting a spell.

Not on my install.

Barbarian

Enrange doesn't seem to affect off-hand THAC0

Very strange, I'll make sure it will.

 

P.S We should probably split the discussion and keep here just bug/issue reports, with a separate topic for feedback.

Quoted for preservation after split.

Try now. Also, I did some stuff that might have solved the BGEE problem that was reported, so let me know if it worked.

Kensai description doesn't show in-game.

Seems to work here.

Question, if I don't put them in the same file location, how do I get them to run properly? Do I transfer the EP files to the default game files once I install them?

The base game should not be installed within Program Files. The expansion should be installed wherever the base game is.

If you installed the games to their default location, Program Files (x86)\Black Isle\, you should uninstall them and reinstall them in a directory outside of Program Files. Newer versions of Windows interfere with files stored in the Program Files directories.

RIP.

But the point is, that if we want to install the main Item Revision component before the BGT, the BGT will overwrite the items in that areas located in BG1, and then there's no recourse.

Yeah, we're aware of this.

One possibility would be for BGT to include a check to skip those items if IR was installed beforehand. Likewise, we could include the breakable weapon patch from BGT to account for people installing IR after BGT. We haven't brought this up with Ascension64 because we haven't worked out the details.

Keep in mind that the main thing that requires people to install IR before BGT is the BWP and its megamods. We could assume and recommend that most users install IR after BGT and any modifications required to suit the opposite install order could be handled in the Big World Fixpack.

No! There's no possibility!

Actually, it's pretty safe to assume the majority of popular mods will eventually be made compatible.

Component 0 is the main component and we'll try to have it install BG1 and BG2 items as appropriate to the platform. It's not really clear how you would separate them in BGT, considering it uses the same resources in both halves of the game. However, we can make it possible for you to mod the installer to make component 0 exclude items specific to BG1 or to BG2 if you so desire.

For BGT, I'm not sure that anyone would want revised items in one half of the game and not the other*, so we'll do our best to keep it in one component. The component can figure out what platform is being used and determine what resources need to be installed.

*If anyone did want this behaviour, we could make it easy to mod the installer to achieve it without forcing everyone else to say yes/no to 2 components.

No.

Most mods that add items and spells don't add random ones. From what I've seen, the vast majority of mods that add new resources attempt to keep them in line with the stuff in the original game. It's just that over time, the community has become better at determining what is appropriate, and we are now critically examining how the original game was balanced.

Well-supported mods are usually very responsive to player feedback. When playing mods, I report things that concern me, like bugs, typos, compatibility issues, balance issues, and conceptual issues. A lot of the time the mod author will take note and determine whether there is something to change that would improve their mod.

There's also the spanish tra stuff from Lord Psion (which may have acquired charset issues during a board update).

Yeah, it did.

Somehow the forum database switched encodings a while back, so old posts are stored in the UTF-8 format and new posts are stored in the ISO-8859-1 format. All pages are displayed in the ISO-8859-1 format, so international characters in new posts look okay, while those in old posts do not. We didn't catch this problem right off the bat, so it might never be fixed, but there is a way to view these old posts the way they are supposed to look.

Your browser should have a way to display a page using a different encoding. In Firefox and IE this can be found in the View -> (Character) Encoding menu. Selecting UTF-8 will allow old posts to be displayed properly (but international characters in new posts will not look right). The change is temporary and won't persist if you navigate to another page.

You can manage it with only one summon. Simply put both blocks in its script and put a check for the class in there as well as a DestroySelf() to stop it from executing the other block. Of course different spells and different summons works too.

Right you are.

It's easier to not use a summoned creature and go fully with locals. I haven't decided yet for my bardthief mod because I do intend to keep the patching on baldur(25).bcs to a minimum as Jarno and thebigg suggested to me before in June.

Since player scripts don't function when party AI is turned off and we've established variables aren't needed when using a summoned creature, what's left to decide?

I am still looking into the summoned creature adaptation of the class changing in my mod, but I'm kind of stuck trying to figure out on how to read and transfer local variables from playerX to the summoned creature and back again (onto playerX). This seems impossible to implement without defining (temporary) globals again.

I think a creature's local variables can only be retrieved when running that creature's scripts or dialogues. You can set local variables on other creatures via ActionOverride or spell.

Why don't you have each spell summon a different creature? One would have a script to change the summoner to a sorcerer, and the other would have a script to change the summoner to a thief.

Wow thanks a lot for writing that snippet of code! So if I that code block as a tp2 file and run it with WeiDU.exe it should replace all the relevant lines in the dialog.tlk? I'm guessing thats much cleaner than going into the dialog.tlk directly. Thanks a lot Mike!

Yeah, you'd stick this in the .tp2 of your own minimod. Technically, the code leaves the existing strings in dialog.tlk as they are (it's possible something like Gladiator could be used elsewhere in the game, so you wouldn't want to make it lowercase everywhere), but it adds new strings and updates the kits to use the new ones. This method is portable and can easily be changed or uninstalled as well.