Bartimaeus

Negative Plane Protection: Very problematic to implement in a way that doesn't create all sorts of inconsistencies and annoyances. Additionally, it's difficult to tie to the spell's concept. Dispelling Screen: The classic Cloak of Mirroring graphics, isn't it? It is quite obnoxious, and I'd prefer a different graphic altogether, but I really don't enjoy messy around with animations (also, because of the pixel-based nature of IE graphics, while doing multiplicative resizes are no big deal - say, if you wanted a bigger Globe of Invulnerabilty for Firkraag, you might just do a straight 3x increase - doing non-multiplicative size changes, like decreasing by 15%, tends to create ugly, pixely graphics unless you do a lot of work to smooth them over). Invisibility: It absolutely 'should' - but it doesn't in the vanilla games, and I don't think new slots can be added to non-EE games, and it's a little bit of a pain to implement even in EE games. The worst part is trying to design the tiny little portrait icons that are very particularly stylized to fit in with the rest. While I do have some proficiency in Photoshop and such, art is simply not my forte. Another thing to do with art if I could is design some "Elemental Conjuring" spell icons, so that the different elemental conjuring spells could go under unified select-a-spells a la Protection from Elemental Energy as was originally planned, but alas, those icons were never finished. Periapt: At one point, I actually had it exactly like that, but....I felt as though, sometimes less is more. It is not always necessary to conflate protection from death effects as being the exact spell "Death Ward" - not everything needs to fall so neatly into that sort of box. Additionally, the other two periapts are "Protects Against: [status]", and I realized that making Life Protection instead "Spell: Death Ward and Negative Level Protection" kind of seemed weird and out of place, so I decided to nix the whole thing. Staff of Curing: Huh, didn't know that. Good to know. Launchers have that weirdity in that you can't equip two at the same time, wonder if that's at all related in an under-the-hood sense.

I think I said once upon a time that -4 may be too severe for Banishment, though from my tests, it's never been nearly as reliable as what you experienced, haha. It's such a particular case-use spell that I don't really want to nerf it even so. And now, we finally have the root problem - both IR and SR (including the non-Revised versions) install a file called "dvbanish" which differ in implementation. IR's grants a saving throw in the .spl of the effect itself, SR's does it before that - in other words, by installing IR after, SR's Banishment is subject to a double saving throw. This is a problem inherited from IR, as IRR has never made any modification to it. However, it's easily fixed...and this mess has now been officially solved. Thanks for your patience and cooperation! Special Abilities: Yeah, it's an engine thing, nothing I can do about it. Although...I don't know what you mean regarding Staff of Curing, I just put it in my second slot, then Staff or Rynn in my first, and I was able to use the Mass Cure ability (after identifying Staff of Curing, of course).

Ah, I see - presumably trying to get Contingency to be at the end of the innate abilities with Chain Contingency (i.e. in blue to white to red order - although innates get so hopelessly muddled over the course of a game it's probably a lost cause anyways). Can fix it by changing the two "resource=>%WIZARD_CONTINGENCY%" to "resource=>dw#cnss", as the Contingency innate is through a shell spell, not what the IDS entry refers to (you have it specially noted at the top of the file that unlike the rest, the Contingency innate should *not* be its base spell SPWI617, apparently for multiclass/dualclass compatibility purposes?). Now I can continue my install, yay.

What fortune that nobody ever uses Nishruus or Hakeashars to be able to notice to begin with! I took another look at your Google Drive files, and I'm happy to say that I finally, finally noticed the issue - or at least the critical part of the issue. Is there any way you could do a changelog on DVBANISH.spl? Your copy of it uses the "DESTSELF" effect which basically tells a creature to disappear/delete itself from the gamewith a plain save vs. spell saving throw. This is very odd, because I went back and checked github, before I just very recently made the "no fake saving throw messages" fix (which happened after your installation), github says this file had not been modified for over two years...and I downloaded that 2 year-old version, and it does not grant a saving throw. So what gave it one? Here's a video of me successfully and unsuccessfully banishing a bunch of crap (again, having made no changes except for the projectile working on friendlies): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ftuusxjlnhjbjzd/c2APVlXMHL.mp4

It is possible you have already solved my previously reported bug regarding Contingency and innate component, but just in case you haven't, it is the block starting at line 87 in "innate_triggers.tpa" that is the cause of the issue - disabling the block entirely prevents the problem from occurring, though I'm unable to figure out what this block is supposed to accomplish in the first place. Why are the Spell Sequencer and Spell Trigger-adding class spells (applied at character-creation/level-up) also adding and then removing Contingency (or rather, failing to remove Contingency because this block has actually made it so it's first removed and then added afterwards, leading it to simply be added)? The comment says "for aesthetic purposes", but I'm not sure what adding and removing a spell has to do with aesthetics. Additionally, the way the Contingency innate is set up right now at lines 14 and 15 makes it so that it double-casts - when you use the Contingency innate, you first cast the 1-length innate, which then leads to you casting the 9-length real spell. Why not just have the innate have a casting length of 9 and then use a timing mode of 1 (instant) to cast the real spell? It's currently inconsistent with the others.

If you open up the spell in Near Infinity, it is under "Spell Ability 0" at the bottom, then "Projectile" near the bottom of that window. Select anything that is marked as "Party Only" (e.g. a few places above the normal projectile is SPARGRPA, or 168).

I do not, but it's a possibility. The reason there's a separate "dvgateba".eff/spl" now is because you reported that the saving throw message could sometimes appear on regular, non-gateable summonables. It is similar to if you used "Hold Person" on a non-human (e.g. a wolf) and they can also display a save vs. spell message - the saving throw happens before it actually checks if they're an eligible target, creating false saving throw messages. That's what I was fixing by doing that (and also, I did a similar thing for the Hold series of spells to make sure they don't display false saving throw messages as well) - it is possible that doing so also fixed the problem, but I tested out Banishment pre-doing that and it seemed to work fine then as well (also, I can't figure out what's wrong with your SPWI605 and DVBANISH even after having you upload them, they look just as they should). The lack of an SPWI605D file is because the Spell Deflections Block AoE Spells component creates that upon installation, it's not a pre-made file. ...Actually, should Banishment be protected against by Spell Deflection in the first place? Like, if a summonable happened to have a Spell Deflection running, should their Spell Deflection block it and prevent them from being dismissed? ...I'm not sure - current behavior is a "yes". Anyways, here's Banishment with the "only enemies" projectile: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/yuasj8iolvvn30q/spwi605.spl

Okay, my findings: 1. Though it was a good idea, it's nothing to do with "too many items on the ground before the game starts purging them" as suggested above. 2. Instead, it's simply "have you been gone from the area for a consecutive 24 hours?". That's all. No matter how much you rest in the area, whether it's a week or a year, it does not matter for the purpose of purging items in that area - you must leave the area for 24 hours, without coming back or being present at any point during that period, before items are purged. Even MoveToArea-ing between areas still triggers it. 3. That means if you leave the area, rest for 16 hours, come back to the area, leave and rest for another 8 hours again, it will only be at 8 hours for the purpose of the purge - every time you come back before items have been purged, the purge timer gets reset back to 24 hours. This is actually a lot simpler than I expected (and explains why it seems like items can disappear so fast and easily if you ever travel from an area). So if you have important items on the ground that you can't pick up without leaving, you pretty much should always stick them in a container.

Hmm, that's an idea. Game might only allow for so many items on the ground before it starts purging stuff.

Well...everything looks right to me. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/we3dmbg5et6rig7/Banishment.zip This is a copy of the required files for Banishment from the latest SRR repository, except it's set to target friendlies. Create a sorcerer in ToB and see what it works on. I would also open up spwi605.spl and take note of its string references (name and description) so that you can set them to the correct ones again (although there's no need to do so with this test spwi605, since it only targets friendlies and you obviously don't want that).

How does this work? I put an unenchanted long sword on the ground in Umar Hills, left the area, and rested for weeks, come back, and it's still there. I know items disappear from the ground periodically, but I'm confused as to how often, what triggers it, and whether it's universal or an area-by-area basis.

@Sorcerer-only items: I don't *think* you can, I think sorcerers always count as base-class mages for the purpose of usabilities? Although maybe that's only true for non-EE games? I'm not a hundred percent certain, someone like @subtledoctor would probably know more concretely. @Banishment: No graphical effect? The graphical effect is built into the same spell as that which does the delayed slaying - no graphical effect means...well, it means something is wrong, that's for sure, but we already knew that! Also, alas, I actually need SPWI605D.spl, as you have the Spell Deflection Blocks AoE Spells component installed, which turns the base spells of AoE spells into shells that don't actually contain any of its original effects. And while we're at it, can I get a copy of your DVBANISH.spl? Might as well make sure here. @Melf's: Ahah, yes. An understandable mistake - I thought it might be the initial acid/missile damage rolls are separate, but that makes sense too. @Charisma: I forgot that the EEs actually make Charisma do something for sorcerers - I don't remember exactly what, but something! Charisma does absolutely nothing for sorcerer class abilities in vanilla games, and this mod was designed, content-wise, around a non-EE BG2, so that's why there's nothing for it. I'm not even sure how you would conceptually tie an item to charisma requirements, to be honest.

Lay off the liquor, laddie.

Still need a copy of your Banishment. I'm 99% certain I tested the Nishruu (and Hakeashar), but okay, let's try it again. Fresh SRR on a fresh BG2EE installation not having made any changes except for making the projectile of Banishment target friendlies: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/iv55wjdq08ouak7/sa6x5TFxQ6.mp4 No saving throws, does have a superfluous "healed" message but not really a big deal, all Banished as they should be. Looks to be pretty definitively working to me. I don't know what's happened in your install that it won't.

@Djinni & Efreeti: Did not ever remember reading that in its description. ...Aaaaand I'm removing it - however, I will continue to mention that it's a gated creature, which means Banishment can be used on them but will grant a saving throw. @Hakeashar: Probably an oversight from when I restored this spell. These spells have like 95% the same description in vanilla except for the swapped out name, too. Fixed. @Elementals: I guess I'm going to make all elementals gated, especially since their descriptions literally mentions them being gated in, and not simply conjured. @Weapon Mastery: I kiiind of had a similar idea, but not quite so extreme. Vanilla BG2 proficiencies didn't do what they said they did at all, and so I attempted to devise an alternative system without going as overboard as something like True Grandmastery did. However, while I am writing up a description for it, it does not matter for you because this component is actually dependent upon a ToBEx proficiency modification/function that the EEs do not have (and actually, it's further dependent on another component from an entirely different mod which I did not realize - in other words, it should not be used by probably anyone but me, ). @Flesh to Stone: Flesh to Stone is spwi604.spl if you want to do a changelog on it. (e): I finished writing the description for the Weapon Mastery component, but again, sadly of no use to you. (e): Actually, based on what Subtledoctor wrote above about his proficiency system, it probably would work - but differently than how it does in non-EE games and I'd have to look into how he does it to make it work. So let me know if you're actually interested in it, and I'll actually figure it out and code up a proper replacement, . Based on what you wrote, though, I think you'll *probably* prefer your own set of changes.

I can only assume that he means he "installed" the .exe that SCS comes in to his game folder, because magically setting up weidu to install from a remote location sounds a bit too complicated to just casually happen to me.

That's an interesting idea - basically a minor Breach, as opposed to the "maybe it's a Breach, maybe it's not" that it currently is. Maybe even tie it to level, like at level 5, it does one of each, but then for every...2 or 3 additional levels, it does one more. Not as chance-derived, but still recognizing the fact that as you get higher level, there's more and more crap to dispel that would make just one not particularly useful. (e): ...Though that would mean, at a certain level, it basically becomes an automatic mass Breach, which is the problem we're having with superleveled AI spellcasters right now anyways. Hm. Maybe not a good idea to tie it to level like that after all, . I guess the one benefit of tying it to level in this manner is is that it can still remain useful for lower-leveled casters unlike the totally chance-derived approach where it very often does nothing at all - so if you wanted a mild rebalancing of the spell without totally redoing the concept entirely, this might not be a bad idea.

It's the other way around - older versions (up to a point) are compatible, new versions aren't and won't be. IIRC, there is a way to get it working, but it takes a lot of work and I don't remember the details - DavidW, the mod-creator, might be able to point you in the direction of the person who laid out how to do it, but I don't think he's going to try to add support for it in new versions at this point into Windows 7 x86's life.

I would not favor it, personally. It's not a bad idea, per se, but my issue with it is that the original concept is actually a pretty neat idea/concept (even if it's just a simple AC bonus) and it's quite hands-off, which I like. I don't much like the idea of having yet another minor ability that you're supposed to manually apply, especially because it *is* simply an AC bonus and there's no way to conceptually tie it to proximity after it's been applied (I seriously can't see myself ever remembering to apply such a minor ability). For the time being, I've applied my fix to it and increased the range up to 7.5' - it's not ideal, but at least you should see it working without major issue when a character wielding the shield is fighting next to one or two of your other characters (...and without having to be literally as close as the game engine will allow you to be to see it applied). If I ever get rid of of 5' radii entirely (which I'm still considering - I might do that in my upcoming run after a bad sorcerer bug with SCS has been fixed to test out how it affects the Hold series of spells), I'll probably just bite the bullet and increase it up to 10' likewise...but for the time being, at least it works.

@NdranC Can't confirm Stone to Flesh description bug - seems perfectly fine to me. Would have to changelog it to get an idea of what set it incorrectly. Melf's Acid Arrow: Also can't confirm, everything looks to be in order to me. Does the initial 1D6+2 missile + 2D4 acid damage at the very beginning (separate rolls, both would appear separately in the chat log at the start), then another 2D4 times 4 rounds, for a total of 6 different messages. 3rd Edition-style Stats: There is a mod called "TB#Tweaks" that I use for 3rd Edition-style stats, though I have my own mildly modified version of it to...either to fix something with a couple of them or solve what I felt were inconsistencies - can't remember the exact details. That Constitution tweak in my tweakpack is just an additional modification on top of that. IR seemed to be clearly designed around 3rd-edition style stats with it switching all "set [stat] to 18-24" items to simple bonuses instead - simple bonuses being either virtually useless in half cases or ridiculously overpowered in the other half depending on where the given character is, with not much in between. Alternative Weapon Mastery: I'll write up a description for that. I don't remember exactly what it does which is why I haven't, all I know is that I liked it better, . Banishment: So the creatures are now set to the correct gender, but Banishment still isn't banishing them? Can I get a copy of your Banishment (spwi605)? I have no idea what's going on there, especially since my Banishment seems to always work when I test it. And wait, what, Efreet are immune to Banishment? Since when, where are you reading that? What's going on with summonables and banishment in your game? Random Treasures; If it's a randomly generated treasure on a creature, it's gonezo, doesn't matter what kind. If it's a set treasure that the creature always spawns with, then it remains (...with one exception - I get rid of a few gold pieces from...I want to say some kind of mass-produced hobgoblin that *looked* like a random treasure and might as well have been, but technically wasn't). I don't like having to bother to examine every single creature body and pick up 95% what is 2 gold or silver rings throughout the game. This also means you won't see random but rare 7th level spells on peasants in Shadows of Amn, either - but honestly, I find that's for the best in order to figure out what might need more representation in the game and what doesn't - relying on randomly generated treasure on peasants and such just seems like a bad idea to me.

@NdranChttps://github.com/BartyMae/Bart_Tweaks The fifth component, "Set Summonable Flag", sets the gender to the correct value for all vanilla, SR/R, and atweaks summonables. I discovered that atweaks erroneously resets the genders of a number of summonable creatures to non-summonable values, and since atweaks is installed long after SR (and in fact SCS), the only thing I can do is patch it after the fact. May be worth installing to see if it solves your problems with Banishment.

Isn't it just determined by priest type? You can test it out by adding an old spell with a general or druid priest type to an empty slot (e.g. in a non-modded BG2EE game, make a copy of Bless to empty sppr115 and watch it immediately show up in a newly generated shaman's spellbook, same as a druid or cleric).

I was under the impression that the range field was purely for character-initiated targeting purposes (i.e. having a character cast a spell). If you cast a long-ranged (30) spell that casts a subspell that has a range of 0, I'm pretty sure the subspell will still fire at them even though it would be out of range - otherwise all sorts of spells with delayed subspell casts (e.g. Vitriolic Sphere) would break if characters started going out of range. Of course, there's nothing like actually testing to make sure...and yep, I set Charm Person to recast itself with a range of 0 and casting it makes it keep casting at the original target no matter how far away I get. Also, I'm rather confused, even ignoring the range problem, as to how you would get the aura to target everyone without a projectile. The aura casts itself when you equip it...with what targeting do you use to get it to apply to party members and summonables and such? About all I can think of is to set it to "everyone" and then control it via EA-targeted EFF opcodes, but that seems kind of miserable.

Most likely a timing issue with the disease effect itself. It's set to do 1 damage every 6 seconds, with a duration of 30 seconds - it may be that it needs one extra second to apply the last damage tick.

Opcode 232 instead of 272: Can't use that in non-EE games (well, I mean, you can, but you can't select the condition type you mentioned, it's EE-only). No projectile: Don't...use a projectile? How would you select the area of effect size without a projectile entirely? Or do you mean don't use a secondary projectile? Thanks for the information. Don't think I'll ever like auras, though, .