Bartimaeus

Hey, not nothing...just almost nothing: it basically acts as a bad Spell Shield that won't have priority over other, higher level spell protections. Super useful! It's too bad we don't have the ability to test Lord_Tansheron's install again: if Dispel Magic did have its power level set to e.g. 3, then I would think that the lich's natural immunity to <5th level spells would already cover that and the globe wouldn't be accomplishing anything itself, even if that was what appeared to be the case at a glance. And if Dispel Magic didn't have a power level of 3...well, I'm not entirely certain how what Lord_Tansheron experienced could have happened. Oh well.

Is the U.S. actually there yet with legality regarding deepfakes? As much as I unabashedly hope Donald Trump gets the guillotine, I must confess some concerns with regards to a future where major political figures such as he can be made to dance and say anything via deepfakes and synthesized voices that swathes of the populace easily believe. From what I've seen of such efforts, they're currently not totally convincing, particularly when it comes to anything beyond potato quality, but again, that may well not hold true in the future - and clearly "not totally convincing" to me can be "very convincing" to some, as their use for defamation and disinformation has already been attempted in several cases for recent elections. What's the line between the depiction of a "person" and a "character", anyways? Either way, if we start protecting individuals' likeness (be it their face, words, or even ascribed words) on that particular basis, I think that starts to be a much more cohesive argument for me. Yeah, no kidding, but I'm still of the opinion that even if this sort of derived audiovisual synthesis becomes illegal...the law largely just isn't going to care due to how difficult it is to track down where it originated from. Civil suits exist for collecting damages, of course, but without clear targets, that's similarly difficult to pursue. Though if it's actually illegal, at least semi-respectable online platforms (e.g. Facebook) would probably have to make an effort to try to suppress and remove it, which could be helpful.

Moderation usually only comes in if it proves to be disruptive to an active discussion. If everyone ignores all the extracurricular crap someone in particular is throwing out, moderation will probably let it go (unless it's literally completely unrelated to the topic at hand) - if, on the other hand, people start responding in kind and it threatens to wreck the discussion, that's probably where you're more likely to see some action. I am personally not really a fan of engaging at all with those whom I consider to be difficult to talk to, as it just feels like entirely wasted time and effort on my part, so I usually just throw them on my ignore list and try to forget that they exist...at least for a time. As far as what Graion has said in relation to this particular discussion, I feel the most useful thing he mentioned was being obviously biased having done voice-acting himself. Mind you, bias isn't necessarily a bad thing, particularly not for something like this where it's clearly necessary to hear out the different sides and take into account the thoughts/feelings of the people who are the ones being directly affected by whatever is being discussed...but it is critically important to know when someone is biased so you can consider whether or not that's reflected in what they're saying. It's also important to mention that, as far as we know, this kind of technology is still in its infancy. Graion mentioned image "AI" synthesization currently being rather weak and requiring effort to fix, but that may not always be the case in the future. I'm really just not super confident about certain types of art and performances being protected where others are not: either way I see it is people pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into their work and then having some kind of computer program mindlessly derive from those efforts, so why should one type be privileged over the other?

I once saw art of a favorite character of mine turned into a literal genocide-supporting nazi. I certainly found it reprehensible, but should it be illegal to transform someone else's ideas and work? It was basically fan art, no matter how despicable I personally found it. Someone thought up and poured themselves into that character and their concept/personality, someone visually designed that character, someone wrote their dialogue, someone directed how that character should act and speak, and then someone actually acted out that character. Is that final part so sacred compared to the rest that only their creative work should be protected while the rest is perfectly fine for everyone to transform however they please? There are literally BG mods that wholesale take art and animations from other games (and artists?) while implementing them into the BG games that I've heard nary a complaint about, and never mind similar uses that happen outside of the IE games for much more questionable aims. I would be utterly disgusted if a character that I made was transformed by degenerates for pornographic purposes, but...is it illegal, is there anything I can do about it, is there anything that I should be able to do about it? Because that's the reality artists face any time they make basically anything. Again, I am very curious to see how all of this shakes out, and I am still very much open to arguments (though not pointless ad hominem attacks that elucidate nothing) around the subject. Right now, my personal feeling is that this will all eventually become protected when it comes to monetary gain...but I just don't see the law caring about it outside of that, which would mean that nobody is going to be able to do anything about it when such transformative work comes to personal use, fan art, modding et al., no matter how objectionable the original artists and performers may find it. But perhaps I'm looking at all of this way too much from a "this is currently widely considered legal and acceptable" perspective instead of a "what do I personally think is right and should be legal" perspective - the latter would take a lot more thought and consideration on my part, and I'm not sure where I would ultimately land. (e): Literally right now, I am (and for decades have been) using someone else's art to visually represent myself online. Just that is a transformative work in of itself that the artist could find utterly loathsome. What many horrible things have people like me said and done that people will unconsciously associate with the art they use to represent themselves that had absolutely nothing to do with what it was originally intended for? Crap all they can do about it, though.

Alternatively, you could just protect against the projectile used for the basilisk gaze. But I think basilisks are scripted to only ever attack with their gaze attacks, so they just keep pointlessly trying to turn an immune creature to stone (or maybe that's only the case in BGT games - it'd be nice if their AI could be fixed to actually use their melee attack!).

The ethical quandaries of "AI" currently being used to generate "new" content when their "creations" are, in fact, 100% derived from the lives and work of others is indeed massive. We're not talking about a matter of inspiration, homage, or even simple imitation, but rather computer algorithms mindlessly gobbling up, aggregating, and smashing together the greatest of our artists, writers, performers et al. into these gobbledygook monstrosities - in the matter of somewhere between just minutes and hours! I am personally hoping that the law will very fiercely make any monetization of such unlicensed efforts prohibitively illegal. I am also hoping that nobody will be able to give away the "rights" to somebody that has already passed away: David Warner can't agree to have his voice used for this sort of thing, and I would personally find it gross if his family could possibly sell the rights to his voice without the man himself having ever been able to weigh in on the decision. This is very much a new and rather frightening frontier. But for fun? For personal use? For anything that's not monetized in any way? And if it's clearly marked as "THIS IS AN IMITATION GENERATED BY A COMPUTER"? That I am not so sure about, though I am certain that there will be many great debates about it as this technology continues to mature and become more commonplace - for better or for worse.

Liches are immune to 5th level spells and lower, but I'm fairly certain that should not apply to Dispel Magic, not unless the power levels of your Dispel Magic somehow got set to a non-zero number. The only way that should be able to happen through SRR is if you set spell_protections=1, but you said you hadn't, so I'm not sure. Well, it's no longer really possible to investigate if you nuked that install, so I guess it is what it is.

I wouldn't read an audio book of an autobiography or something more serious, but for more silly reading that's just supposed to be entertaining, why not? The person who reads for you can inject some much needed style and energy to the increasingly repetitive and mundane that's missing from my own internal voice after having read a million books. I can barely read any sci-fi or fantasy at this point due to how tired it's gotten for me after many years of over-reading those two genres, so if someone recommends such to me, I'm certain to check out if there's an audiobook I can try instead. Though a bad reader just as often lessens the experience of a book rather than adding to it, which is why it's important for me to find readers that I actively like. There's also the fact that some people are simply better with their imagination when being read to rather than reading themselves and find the former a richer experience than the latter, but given your...attitude about it, I imagine that's not the case for you. I am less concerned with people's methods of reading and more with that people make an attempt to read at all.

I'm fairly sure I've run into that particular error before and I feel as though it requires wiping the entire item_rev folder - swear that it's the result of a partial/failed/aborted install and weidu getting confused by the necessary EE-specific character set conversions having already happened, but I'm not sure how that would figure into your Project Infinity method of installation. Assuming you haven't installed any components, I would delete the entire item_rev folder in your game directory and use this pre-combined .zip I just made for you: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/legeebej9uo7fp5ynep0u/IRR.zip?rlkey=eefe1ym5treolggb20huksmuu&dl=0

The character with the globe cast upon them was dispelled multiple times by a higher level spellcaster without anything being dispelled? "dispel_globes" being set to 1 is the default option, and that means that neither alternative files or patches are used unlike the other two options, so it would seem to be the least likely option to have any problems. You can give me your Minor Globe (spwi406.spl from override) to look at if you're certain.

Thanks. I do have it written down in my to-do list.txt along with a few other items, so it should eventually get done...eventually. End of summer is a busy time of year for me.

Also, most of the Infinity Engine file types are relatively simple but proprietary: files taken from other games, even if they have the same file extension (e.g. ".eff") are not actually going to be the same file type or be in any way compatible with the Infinity Engine games (or vice versa). File extensions are helpful indicators of what a file is supposed to do, but they do not have anything directly to do with what the file actually is or its intended use. I could change a .jpg to a .txt and opening it up with an image editor would still open it as a .jpg image file because that's what it is regardless of what the file extension says, and so you can see how many different file types formatted in completely different ways for distinct intended purposes can use the same file extensions.

I don't play on the EEs, but noted, will remove (though that abbreviated install list is really just more meant to be examples of different kinds of mods and where they should be placed and not any kind of definitive list or anything). I personally still use the following components and don't feel as though I've run into substantial issues with oBG2: ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #85 // Corrected Vampire Stats: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #100 // Anomen: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #150 // Cernd: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #202 // Jaheira -> dual wielding: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #300 // Keldorn: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #401 // Minsc -> Keep Minsc as ranger: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #500 // Nalia: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #600 // Valygar: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #700 // Viconia: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #60 // Improved (less buggy) trolls: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #70 // Improved Umberhulks: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #80 // Improved Yuan-Ti: v2.00 BWP Fix ~POLYTWEAK/POLYTWEAK.TP2~ #0 #83 // Improved Minotaurs: v2.00 BWP Fix Regarding the topic at hand, I really don't think IR or IU should ever be used together in the first place due to some pretty grave conceptual incompatibilities. Not really terribly different from using IR and Improved Anvil together - they just don't mix and you're going to get some pretty wacky results if you nevertheless try to do so.

From what I can see, SCS more or less implemented the fixes I suggested, it's just that the component is still disabled in setup-stratagems.tp2. While I haven't had issues with it in my setup, DavidW clearly thought there still were and which that needed to be ironed out first, so I make no guarantees of its efficacy if you re-enable it.

Eh, not really - it's kind of a useless warning, to be honest. If a user can't combine the folders, they'll have to post in the thread for help; if a user doesn't realize the folders didn't combine correctly, they'll have to post in the thread for help. Pretty much the same result either way, and it's usually pretty obvious what the issue is as soon as I see the actual error that some essential file is missing entirely. Still, I figure the warning there is good to have nevertheless. Oh, cool, glad to know there is a way to do it. I know Luke here at G3 at one point ran into the same issue but was able to start solving it themselves, perhaps they figured it out the same trick. Thanks, I'll provide a link to your comment in the original post.

Yeah, it's why the original post has this warning near the top: "If you are on a non-Windows OS, make sure that the two folders are combined: if the "change-log.txt" file still exists in "(game directory)\item_rev\", then you should be good - if it doesn't, post in the thread for help." I am kind of against having a pre-combined folder easily downloadable as the default option, as there have already been issues of users mistakenly posting issues about IRR/SRR in regular IR/SR threads and not realizing there's any difference between the two; a pre-combined folder that doesn't make users go through this annoying process of downloading both and combining them would only make that worse. I am okay with mildly annoying users and manually providing combined folders when needed if it means a higher likelihood of IRR/SRR-related discussion staying localized to these threads and the relevant GitHub pages. I realize that's a bit of an odd stance, since usually you want to make ease of installation as easy as you can for both current and prospective users, but in this particular case where my mods unofficially "hijack" the official versions, I think it's appropriate and necessary.

The file "item_rev\lib\descriptions.tpa" does not come with IRR, but rather the base IR package. That file being missing would probably suggest that your IR and IRR folders were not combined correctly, but rather the IRR folder completely overwrote the IR folder. Here's a pre-combined folder that should solve the issue: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/jrv5ufx44mk7gsq/IRR for MacOS.zip

@pochesun Yes, probably, but I'll need to put aside some time for testing myself at some point.

Here's what I have: https://www.mediafire.com/file/g19jt89vxo62z52/infinityanimations-b5.7z/file It comes with the animations I use already in the correct folders (hence why it's so big), but if you use options that I don't, then it may be missing something and I'm not certain where to get them. The options that I use...

@pochesun My understanding of curses is that they are supposed to be relatively immutable (i.e. their effects are not able to be overridden). So while I don't disagree that this should be implemented differently, I unfortunately don't believe that there's really any avenue for doing so. I can have drinking the goblet "protect" the character from the various sources of Resist/Remove Fear, but I can't do anything about a Cavalier's immunity to fear, or immunity to fear given by an item, or about a character having cast Remove/Resist Fear before even using the goblet. Full immunity to the opcode used for morale break is given out by many sources, and there's not really anything you can do to get around it. Also, I find it a bit odd that this "curse" only lasts for 12 hours instead of being active until broken by Remove Curse, though admittedly, if I were changing how this goblet works, I would ideally want to make it so that the effect matches the description: instead of simply being "your character runs around in circles the moment you use the goblet", it would be "you have control of your character...until they get into a fight and then they go run around in circles until the fight is over". With regards to Melf's Acid Arrow, in my opinion, Protection from Acid should not protect against the physical damage of the arrow. That is, after all, the point of including a physical damage component and treating the spell as if it were a real projectile shot at the target (even subject to the effects of Protection from Missiles and other sources of missile deflection). I wonder if the same issue applies to Flame Arrow and Protection from Fire? Given that Melf's Acid Arrow is a single target spell, it is not really necessary for Protection from Acid to explicitly protect against it in the first place - providing immunity to the acid damage via acid resistance is adequate. Most likely simply an oversight on the part of IR if this issue only applies to the green scrolls that IR modifies. With regards to where bugs are reported, I do not mind if bugs that are actually IRR's fault are reported in the SRR thread or vice versa, especially if it's not immediately clear which one is at fault, and this was obviously one such case. Really, all I ask is that people report them here in one of my threads so that I can actually see it in a timely manner, as opposed to e.g. GitHub, where if someone makes a proper Issue thread for something, it might take me weeks or even months to notice it. Thanks, about fully back now. It's been a while since I got a booster, but it ended up being less worse (although still pretty unpleasant) relative to the first time I got it which was shortly after having received a booster. Viruses be wack, yo.

This is more or less what the process should look like on Windows: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ei6s6w4v88tw1hm/firefox_dBdZ4pjqvb.mp4 Some .exes can be opened as archives (as they are actually just archives themselves with some embedded self-extracting executable), and that includes the (majority of) .exe downloads from G3 and Spellhold Studios. However, you can substitute that with just "installing" the .exe normally if you wish.

I am currently dying of covid, I'll return to this in the days to come (or if I forget, go ahead and re-ping me).

Yeah, for IR items that already started with damage reduction before installing Revised Armors (e.g. Orc Leather), I specifically made hacky workarounds for them, but if using Revised Armors with other mod-added armors installed that do the same, I wasn't sure how to fix it. @Alywena I tested it out while removing my hacky workaround stuff and it seems like Orc Leather and the Drow armor now correctly update, though there's still the peculiarity of the descriptions double-stating their distinct physical resistance bonus. That could probably be fixed by some regular expression hackery after the fact for at least items installed by the main component, though... Thank you for identifying and fixing the core issue!

Thanks! I apparently fixed this on June 4th, so luckily it's already taken care of. The spell was getting its string updated, but it had been set to update to the wrong .tra string (23002 instead of 23004). As for Melf's Acid Arrow, I can't confirm what you're experiencing on BG2EE: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/43ud5yzzs35pgol/Baldur_ZHz2JblnR6.mp4 Not pictured here, but I also set it to max (instead of just 101) and had Jan Jansen cast it as well, same result.

Assuming you have ToBEx installed, it works the same way as it does in the EEs. Helmets always grant critical hit protection, unless they have the critical hit protection toggle flag enabled; other item types never grant critical hit protection, unless they have the critical hit protection toggle flag enabled. In other words, if you want an ioun stone or the Mask of King Strohm to protect against critical hits, make sure the toggle flag is disabled.