Demivrgvs

Out of curiosity, where are the new spells? (That's not a demand for more spells, I'm literally asking where they are in the game files.)

 

I've gone through NI looking for all wizard spells to make a list, for a specialist school re-allocation mod. I see the SR spells that have directly replaced vanilla ones (Obscuring Mist, Sound Burst, Dispelling Screen etc.) but I don't see new ones like Icelance, Weird, etc.

 

I've basically just looked at spells starting with "spwi" and spells starting with "dv". Are there more files somewhere else? Are we waiting on icons/BAMs for the new stuff?

As you guessed, I'm waiting for icons/BAMs. There was some promising progress lately thanks to leania but it's halted for now.

 

The spells you are looking for can only be found on my personal install, but many are incomplete, and some might never be released for various reasons.

 

The problem with adding spells is twofold:

1) AI must specifically be scripted to use them

2) I think there's too much spells as it is

 

Hence, it's easier to replace the existing spells with new ones.

Yep, replacing old spells with new ones (e.g. Deafness->Sound Burst, Knock->Battering Ram, etc.) is the best way to ensure the AI will make use of them without the need of new scripts. Obviously care must be taken for new spells to behave properly when used by the AI.

Faerie Fire doesn't seem to do anything. Cause uknown to me.

WTF?!? Is the projectile ok? Please don't tell me it's another issue like Cavalier's Shield Other (I still don't know why that spell or its projectile aren't working as intended).

I don't know. Everything seems fine, but it doesn't work at all, none of the effects (glows, penalties, nothing). I'll check it out again, will let you know tomorrow.

Re this - the problem is in .pro file it seems. I changed it to one Glitterdust uses, now it works.

It doesn't make any sense but at least we know what to do to fix it, a new projectile. The more I look the current one the more it looks fine though. Btw, could it be the AoE is too small? What Shield Other and FF have in common is an extremely small party friendly AoE.

Faerie Fire doesn't seem to do anything. Cause uknown to me.

WTF?!? Is the projectile ok? Please don't tell me it's another issue like Cavalier's Shield Other (I still don't know why that spell or its projectile aren't working as intended).

I could help with the code a bit (or a byte ).

Cool! I'll let you know what needs to be done then!

 

I'm working on the readme this afternoon but it's extremely time consuming and I get frustrated/annoyed every 5 minutes.

I can do what I did with the armor (did I do that for a reason? I seem to recall something like better animation) but it would ne an accurate 200% mov rate for certain characters (e.g. barbarians).

Yeah, the animation looks more "fluid" or "normal", if you want.

I'll try it myself asap. If it indeed looks more fluid I think we can ignore the "issue" I mentioned. Even for a Barbarian the difference between +9 and set 200% is probably almost impossible to notice.

 

Btw, the re-uploaded build also fixed the "self targeting".

@n-ghost as Dakk says you should already have the links to the latest builds, don't you?

 

@zenblack, Obscuring Mist still needs a lot of feedback. The nerf to -2/-6 has been done because they made me notice -4/-8 was making it work as an Improved Defensive Harmony (which is a 4th lvl spell) and the spell doesn't obscure close range vision too much (line of sight is only halved). I'm also still not sold on the "party friendly" state, albeit it makes AI life waay better.

 

@kreso, I'm an idiot, I fixed scrolls targeting (which requires more changes) but not the spl ones (which takes like 1 second). Anyway, fixed and already re-uploaded.

 

What do you mean with "set 200% doesn't do squat"? I can do what I did with the armor (did I do that for a reason? I seem to recall something like better animation) but it would ne an accurate 200% mov rate for certain characters (e.g. barbarians).

@Salk, short story: CrevsDaak already answered your question before you made it, look up.

 

Long story: having a portrait icon for "an incomplete protection" is generally not much useful (you generally remember what you character is wearing, don't you?) while being able to quickly now if a buff has expired is much more important. When you have a permanent portrait icon on you char because of item granting partial protection (e.g. a Ring of Fire Res) you cannot know when a buff runs out (e.g. ProFire spell expires but ProFire icon is still there because of the ring's 50% res).

 

On a side note, may I also ask what is left to do for IR before an official v4 version is out?

My wildest guess - Readme file + some polish.

Sort of yes. Readme file is crucial. Add to that a few coding stuff here and there (e.g. xbows patching need to be changed) that either Arda or Mike need to do because I'm terrible at that. Unfortunately I've no news from Arda since like 2-3 months, while Mike is around but not really modding.

 

It's a real shame because I think the current build would already be fine for an official release. The only thing that truly needs to be added imo is coding for BG1 part of Store Revision. Small stuff like changing a few specific items within the Main Component can always be done later via hotfixes without interfering.

I like the general approach to stat-boosing items. Replacing "Set Attribute to X" with "Attribute +X" means that you can't massively boost a character's effectiveness with a single item, eg by giving Aerie the vanilla Crom Faeyr.

 

However, the Champion's Girdle (+3 Strength, immunity to fear) that replaces the Girdle of Fire Giant Strength (set STR to 22) is a bit underwhelming. By that point in the game, permanent immunity to fear doesn't mean that much as everyone has low saving throws plus there's probably several characters in the party that can cast long-lasting spells that make you immune.to fear. Why not keep things simple and make it a +4 Strength item? Not every item needs to be all that special.

I kinda agree the belt could be made more interesting, but +4 STR is a bit problematic when it comes to game balance imo unless coupled with a revised STR table.

 

- Demi, may you add another option to IR's .ini file so that the new icons (from the main component) aren't installed?

 

- Also, the Robe of Acid Resistance seems to be lacking the Protection from Acid icon on the portrait.

- I probably can, but may I ask why? Without all the new icons many items will have at least incorret colors, if not wrong item type.

 

- within IR items have a portrait icon only if they completely match a spell (that's the compromise I accepted, because if it was for me items would not have portrait icons at all). That robe doesn't grant 100% acid res like ProAcid spell, nor it prevent you from casting ProAcid on yourself. Examples of where an icon should be displayed now are Ring of Free Action (grants you full FA and makes it irrelevant casting the spell on the wearer) or Skin of the Forest (grants you +4 AC but cannot be stacked with SR's Barkskin, thus the portrait icon is there).

Mestil (spwi403) still has wrong animation, Mestil (spwi526) is set to play the animation that doesn't exist (it should be mestsh.bam).

Kill me please. Fixed. I'll re-upload in a minute. (Edit: done)

 

Imp.Haste cast from Wish (spwish36, spwish37, spwish40) is still vanilla, as is Stalker version of it.

Thinking of it, this Wish spell should probably be reworked slightly...

I willingly left them out for now because I thought it was a waste of time until we are 100% sure of how we want Haste and Improved Haste to perform but I can include them for the next build.

 

Yeah man, I agree Wish should be tweaked but I'm scared to tackle it. For example I don't even remember why it has 3 different versions of Improved Haste...

 

 

Fire Shield (Blue) temporarily disabled

Wai ):? I've probably missed a discussion somewhere.

 

For various reasons:

- it's the quickest way to make the AI automatically use the new spell against you

- I needed an in-game scroll to make the spell available to players without manually adding it somewhere

- I needed space for 4th lvl spells (I still assume 24 spells limit) and removing one which already has a twin spell at the same lvl seemed the best pick

- I never liked FS(Blue) obscuring FS(Red) because of its "better dmg type"

 

That being said, the spell may be restored sooner or later IF the two Fire Shields can be merged into a single spell, but I think the Spell Immunity like menu still has a few unresolved bugs/issues.

 

Also, can you dodge spells or projectiles with DD?

 

What happens if mage DDs away when spell is:

 

1) being cast at him?

 

2) the cast was finished and mage uses DD the moment spell is about to hit him?

 

This can open a very interesting new layer of mechanics.

It depends on the spell projectile, but when I tested V3 DD I do remember I could dodge a few spells and/or foil enemy casting (I specifically added an opcode to make the caster temporarily "not targetable" when he cast DD).

The new build is up. There's quite a few "prototype stuff" there to test, thus I hope to get some feedback. The next build shout not take long, it will contain A LOT of stuff for druid lovers.

 

V4 - Beta 8 (9 February 2015)

 

Demi, here's the bugs:

- Mestil's won't play animation due to 0 probability chance (the animation it should be playing is fairly odd btw. Sure you chose the right one?)

- That 1st level jump spell is very cool. This is not a bug.

- Mind Blank - should this protect one from Oracle? AI uses Oracle far more than TS to counter invisibility. It's detectable by 2 states - Chaotic Commands + Deflection. Imo, it would be better off as SI:Enchantment, making it detectable as Deflection way it will keep you safe from things that it shouldn't (Flame Arrows, Lighting, Magic missile - all targeted spells actually).

- LOL it's using Ball Lightning's animation (aka the old SR's Storm Shield). Fixed.

- D&D 5th edition put it at lvl 2, but I think lvl 1 suits it even more and I have much more space there too anyway.

- well, conceptually Mind Blank should work against Oracle, making it a sort of Chaotic Command + Non-detection. Considering its spell lvl I didn't thought it could be a balance problem, was I wrong? Making DS detect is as SI:Ench makes sense considering we wanted it to "secretly" replace that for AI use.

 

Btw, I'll quickly fix a couple of things, add a few more things and re-upload it asap during the evening.

@matronicus, I told you to wait exactly because I knew the usual link was not a safe download as before Anyway, I fixed the typo (punlst should have been punlst.pro) but wait a bit more before I re-upload the build.

@beta testers, a new build is up but wait for tomorrow when I post the new change-log before using the usual link again. I need kreso to check a few things first.

 

Any room for more beta testers? I wouldn't mind trying out the beta version for myself and helping out

Sure, I'll send you a PM.

@subtledoctor thanks for reporting, even minor things like this are important imo.

 

- Contagion is a Necromancy spell, but it is set to the Enchantment casting animation.

- Farsight has the Invocation casting animation.

- Shadow Door has the Alteration CA

- Oracle has the Abjuration CA

- Death Spell has the Abjuration CA

- Incendiary Cloud has the Conjuration CA

- Bigby's Icy Grasp has the Enchantment CA

- strangely priest version is correct despite having replaced Rigid Thinking, only mage one had wrong casting animation

- fixed

- fixed

- Death Spell has been "replaced" by Banishment so Abjuration is correct here

- cloud spells belong to Conjuration within SR

- fixed

- Mace of Disruption string "Undead destroyed" will never get displayed, eff with the string should go before the one that kills them

- gauntlets of parry description is wrong (per old version with +1 to AC)

- both Nalia's ring and Stone of Luck are described as having luck bonus, only the stone adds saving throws

- I can fix it in a sec, but now that I think about it, is such string necessary in the first place? Does it display correctly on EE?

- fixed. It was already fine in my install, I guess I forgot to update dropbox tra file

- strange, it looks fine. I'll double check asap.

 

- Cloak of Vengeance spell bypasses both MR and spell protections. If fine with MR, but I'd prefer it has a power level of 3 like it's namesake spell. Other than that, the Cloak is great, one of my favourite items.

- Hindo's doom is pretty much unusable by evil characters due to Holy Smite castings. Any chance this would be changed into something more user/party friendly considering it's the only +4 katana in the game?

- mmm...I guess you suggest it so that spell protections can deflect it, but do we want it to consume 3 spell lvls of protection? Regarding MR I'm torn but pretty much all item abilities bypass it. Anyway, really glad you like it.

- yes, I already thought about it. Speaking of which, Holy Smite and Unholy Blight are changed for the upcoming SR build (still scheduled for this weekend). Let's just say that part of the tweak is on the same direction: "user friendliness".

 

I can't think of anything else right now.

Well, I hope it's a good sign.

MAy I ask what happened? The last eta was given three weeks ago

RL happened. But it will be out either saturday or sunday. I've used this time to squeeze in a few more things.

@Subtledoctor, I can partially agree on some of your changes, but there are a lot of suggested changes which look kinda arbitrary imo, and some that makes absolutely no sense imo.

 

I think an important part of his suggestion is collapsing StF and FtS into s single spell, which gives it great utility. ...

Mmm ok, point taken. The problem is that afaik even if ToBEx now allow us to put sub-spells a la Spell Immunity into contingencies/triggers it still isn't flawless (I'm not sure, but I think it has issues with the pause mechanic and/or potential infinite spell loop?). Overall, even if it looks nice on paper it's just not going to be worth the effort imo.

The general idea for Flesh to Stone is to make it work more like Aec'Letec's Death Gaze. (which is also a special ability of all aTweaks' Nabassus)

Silverstar suggested something like this more than 2 years ago.

Isn't it more or less how it's already working within V4? Death Gaze instantly paralize, and then kills you on 5th round unless dispelled in the meanwhile. With SR's FtS you get instantly slowed and then petrified on the following round. I do said I'm open to tweak it (e.g. petrified on 3rd round? save vs death after petrification or die? etc.) but I think we are pretty much doing what you are asking for.

 

Stone to Flesh definitely should remove Stoneskin (no save) on any target not immune to petrification/polymorph, whether hostile, neutral or friendly.

There aren't many creatures immune to one but not both, are there?

Kinda pointless imo. If you can target a mage or druid (aka they don't have spell protections up) then using a 6th lvl spell to remove Stoneskin is likely the least efficient move possible. Just cast Disintegrate and obliterate it, even Hold Person is better then your suggested Stone to Flesh.

 

Otoh, your ideas on StF affecting golems are nice, but I did suggested to make this spell affect golems ages ago and very few players seemed to like it, or care about it. Furthermore, I'm always reluctant to do something with absolutely no connection to PnP (Demi waits for Jarno to say this is not PnP but a videogame).

Here's some bugs:

- Arbane has 100% chance to trigger it's Hastening effect. It also has it's Haste spell usable.

- Valygar's Armor still makes him charm immune (fwiw, I'd keep it).

- Claw of Kazgaroth has very ugly and wrong description for it's effects

- fixed

- Mmm...I did that only because many players consider the armor almost OP, but it can restored depending on feedback as I liked it.

- ops, +3 saves vs. death has to go yes. The description is ugly because the effects are ugly Jokes aside, you think 5 separate Save lines would be better?

Improved Slow

I'm not sure I got what the problem is with the proposed Improved Slow (Mass Slow)? Is it that it's AOE, that the effects are too severe, or something else? Because if it's not the mass part per se, then surely it can be tweaked?

Because of the hardcoded "2x casting time penalty" even the 3rd lvl Slow is devastating against mages, but at least it's a low lvl spell "easily" blocked by MGoI. Improved Slow would have an even harsher save penalty (impossible to resist for mages), bypass even the best GoI, affect liches and rakshasas, etc.

 

The "mass" part cannot be changed imo, not only because it's as per PnP, but mostly because as a single target spell would almost fully overlap with Flesh to Stone.

 

Flesh to Stone

Btw, does anyone know if it is possible to tweak petrification (which sets stoned_death state or whatever) in a way so it doesn't also set HP to 1?

I already tweaked FtS to not use petrification opcode making it much more "user friendly". I did not received much feedback on its new implementation though.

I must've been away for too long a time. Since when haste/slow spells influence casting speed? Or are 'improved' versions the only ones that do this?

Slow opcode doubles casting time, Haste does not affect it. It has always been like that, Spell Revisions just made it clear in the description.

 

I do not like it (as well as I don't like that Slow doesn't halves apr 1 to 1/2, or that Haste doubles the frequency of repeating EFFs, etc.) but I cannot do anything because those opcodes are hardcoded. IF DavidW could make SCS detect Slow/Haste status in a different way I would gladly fix/tweak the spells.

 

Btw, when it comes to Improved Slow, it's a "mass spell" in AD&D and that's the only thing that would differentiate its role from Petrification, but if you notice it's the last one on my list of suggested spells for the 6th lvl. That's because I was not convinced of it myself.

@leania yep, without forgetting to report eventual bugs and that feedback on everything is always welcome. Btw, Store Revision doesn't touch BG1 at all right now, I think Arda was working on it but I am a complete noob on that.

Greater Spell Deflection

Xan can't write this spell to his spellbook, the message tells him, he allready has said spell in his book.

 

This is what I have in my book at level 7: GreaterSpellDeflection.jpg

I found the error. There are two different GSD scrolls, but one of the two (which was the disabled 6th lvl variant) is using the 5th lvl SD resource instead of the 7th lvl GSD. I'll fix it right away.

@Darkersun, I just sent you the PM.

 

To show my interest here a list of BG 1 shops I can think of...

Thanks. I need to associate to each shop its .sto name but that's a good start.