Bartimaeus

Well, I usually wait until I have at least a few things to fix or add to make a new patch. Right now, I have just the bug fix from April (...and I've been thinking about making a new icon for Dagger of the Star). Eventually, I'll add the BG2:EE items, but I have not started them yet...and considering how badly designed the majority of the new EE items are, I'm not in a terrible rush to start.

Yikes - ridiculously powerful in BG1 like that. Thanks! I also checked all other missile-throwing weapons not named Sling of Force to see if they also had it marked, and it seemed like they did not.

Thanks! I'm surprised I never noticed the Werebane issue - thought I had all those ironed out.

(edit): 1.13a released:

1. Fixed the above two problems with Werebane.

2. Fixed Cloak of the Wolf for BG1EE games.

3. Fixed Karajah's not actually having the +3 bonus to vs. breath saving throws (thanks Luke).

V.1.13 released:

1. Dwarven Shield's AC bonus was 1 less than it should be.

​2. Strong Arm's damage was 1 less than what it should be (tentative fix).

​3. Removed greater than and less than symbols for the Purifier +4/+5 for EE compatibility.

4. Throwing Axe +2's icon was misaligned.

​5. Mithral Full Plate Mail +2 (not Bruenor's) had 1 more AC than it should've.

​6. Rod of the Apprenti now has the correct amount of charges when initially given.

​7. Staff of the Ram +4 was previously saying it did an extra 1D8 crushing damage - now says 5.

​8. Harmonium Halberd had a wrongly colored blade.

​9. Changed the prices of a few items a little like Harbinger, Harmonium Halberd, Joril's Dagger, and Sling of Everard to make them more in line with items of similar power.

​10. Makes "on strike" effects (specifically Cloak of Nature's Vengeance, Keldorn's armor, Casiel's Soul, and Shield of Dawn) affect only enemies (to prevent misfires against your own characters and against neutral AI that shouldn't really happen - tentative fix, haven't had time to test it, but it should work...and hopefully doesn't completely break these items).

​11. Fixes Store Revisions from creating duplicate Bracers of Defense AC 4.

​12. Stole subtledoctor's code for fixing Shaman usabilities (only applies to EE games).

​13. BG1:EE items now handled (only applies to EE-games - revisions at this time are very minor and likely to stay that way, though most items did have their prices and lores fixed - I can't believe they bothered making so many bad items...). BG2:EE items to be done at some later date.

​I'm pretty sure it's not possible to give clerics and mages access to 8th/10th level spells - engine limitation. I think the current implementation is the best that's really possible.

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I'd already implemented your Chill Touch (more or less) in my version of SR, as I too thought it was very odd that it wasn't more similar to Shocking Grasp.

I'm not sure what SR's current version of Haste/Improved Haste are, but mine is 30' AoE +1/2 ApR and the normal movement bonus for Haste (with a duration that scales on level, but with a short fatigue effect after the spell ends) vs. AoE +1 ApR and the other bonuses for Improved Haste (but no scaling duration and no fatigue, because +1 ApR for everyone is very strong).

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​I actually had noticed pretty much the same thing about Disintegration, but that's...pretty much how the spell is supposed to work. If you want to use it more consistently on tougher enemies, Greater Malison is a must.

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Energy Drain is pretty bad. Definitely more geared towards a fighter or swashbuckler-mage, but still kind of awful for a 9th level spell.

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​Death effects are very strong - there's a reason they have weaker saves, though yes, later game, most special monsters seem to be immune to them. My Finger of Death's save damage is actually somewhat buffed up compared to normal SR's (the description of which does NOT reflect what it actually does when the save succeeds/the creature is immune to effects, IIRC), but again, if you want to use it on tougher enemies with any great amount of success, Greater Malison is a must.

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I'm not sure I get the complaint with Spellstrike. Does Pierce Shield compare to Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting?

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Comet and Dragon's Breath are, I feel, very powerful already. Huge amount of damage, large AoE, no magic resistance or save check, knockback + unconscious effect. Not sure how you think those need to be more powerful. Energy Blades I'm not as sure about. Let's see here...a Mage has about 14 base THAC0 by the time they get this spell, which is set to about 4 (with no other modifiers) with Energy Blades. Not fantastic THAC0, but decent. Assuming every single one hit, it'd be 20D4 + 20*5 missile damage + 20D10 electrical damage, with no saves and no magical resistance to reduce it (though any missile and electrical resistance would obviously factor in). That's an insane amount of damage...even going down to only half hitting, that's still a huge amount. Do you find that not enough actually hit, or..?

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​Sunfire probably sounded too close to "Sunray", if I had to guess (and I think Fireburst is the name of a similarly functioning spell in NWN?).

I don't really like the idea of ettins, just because they simply flat out don't work in some areas due to being too large, and ettins are really a rather weak and vanilla fighter on top of it IIRC. Difficult to imagine wanting a couple of ettins over 3 umber hulks in most any situation except literally using the ettins to block movement.

LPF ~ADD_SPELL_EFFECT~ INT_VAR opcode = 319 target = 1 timing = 2 duration = 0 parameter1 = 11 parameter2 = 5 resist_dispel = 0 probability1 = 100 insert_point = 0

I presume this is the "add usability for class/kit" opcode in the EEs? IR already has an item type identifier, thankfully, so it would be very easy to integrate for only EE games if that's the case.

(e): Ah, I see that subtledoctor whipped up something similar. Yes, I'll fix this for the next version.

A salamander is an elemental type, so I'd opt for greater werewolf. However, it would not be the end of the world to ignore that if salamanders seem like the better choice. I did not think of the troll fire/acid thing - they would definitely need to not have that property for it to be fair to the AI.

Is kreso's variant SCS causing AI mages to auto-summon basilisks? That could be problematic. But at least it would be super easy to make a hotfix to patch the game once a suitable replacement spell is devised.

 

(There are ways to counter petrification: IR has several potions and scrolls that would make sure you don't get petrified. And they shouldn't be able to target you if you are invisible. SR should introduce a Form Stabilization spell that replaces the missing SI:Alteration... somebody put that on the to-do list.)

 

Greater Wolfweres would wreck the game, I think. There's no way the AI could put together the proper tactics or short-term coordinated damage maximization required to put them down.

 

Spectral trolls might work. Giant trolls or something like that would be simpler to implement and could also work.

 

But I've said it before and I'll say it again: the crowning glory of monster summoning spells for a Conjurer should be one that brings forth a fiend from the lower planes, bound to the caster's will. Just use Summon Fiend* here.

 

* (Suitably improved, of course. And Gate should be an HLA, with Pit Fiends, also suitably improved, replacing the abomination that is Summon Planetar.)

Yes, SCS auto-summons basilisks. Tolgerias, Deril, and I think the Bridge painting lich have done this for me so far in my current game.

Yeah, Protection from Alterations (...but I'm not sure if any of these exist in BG2, even with IR? Maybe a couple on some temple stores?), Periapt of Form Stability, and Potion of Mirrored Eyes. All very limited use items, and because of SCS targeting, you will generally have to affect the entire party with the protections - especially the Bridge painting lich where there's literally no room to hide any of your characters out of range from the basilisks. So...yeah, not ideal. The final way that I can think of is Ghostform...but you can only cast that at the very tail end of Shadows of Amn, if at all, and it only affects the mage casting it.

Hmm, good point on greater werewolves. I think they have...4hp/sec regeneration, I want to say? Not a terrible problem for the player, but rather difficult for the AI if there are multiple of them (presumably 2) along with the player characters and possibly other summons.

The top-end summoning spells are a bit of a mess, and I personally don't care for SR's fiend summoning spells (indeed, I prefer atweaks').

@Jarno: I somewhat agree. Planetars already fulfill that role, and people complain about them, too (as subtledoctor just did!). I don't think fiends should be directly controllable as a trade-off for being quite powerful compared to all the other summoning spells around their level.

​I am looking for ideas for an alternative monster to basilisks for this spell. One, they have a tendency to crash some games. Two, they just repeatedly ruin fights over and over for the player. SR removed the Protection from Petrification spell, so any lich that casts this pretty much instantly ruins your party unless you have a bunch of Fireballs on a spell sequencer (unless there is some other way of protecting against this that I don't know about). Three, they have the tendency to either be OP in a fight, or completely useless. So I am looking to replace them entirely - does anyone have any ideas? Umber Hulks are MS8, in comparison. Should be a natural abberation: i.e. non-elemental, non-demonic, non-undead, non-construct. Current possibilities I can think of are: greater wolfweres, and spirit or spectral trolls.

I often have trouble understanding what you're saying, Jarno, but I think you and Luke are talking about two separate issues. What Luke is taking issue with is unmagical items, such as HALB01 or SW1H01, having both their identified and unidentified names and descriptions filled with the same referenced strings. e.g., my HALB01 has 31123 for both name fields, and 91435 for both description fields. In vanilla, however, unmagical items (or items that don't need to be identified) usually have only the unidentified fields filled, not the identified. I don't think it makes any difference, but I'd have to make sure (perhaps the description update macro needs both of them filled? I am not certain) before changing something like that. I'll put it on my to-do list backburner.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking of that, too. But I also thought of items like the Ravager that are specifically *not* usable by paladins, that probably should be usable by Blackguards, and those should be fixed as well...and you can't necessarily use the alignment restrictions to do that, because it would start restricting other classes (and I personally think at the very least chaotic good characters should be able to use virtually any items except the most absurdly evil/cruel like Human Flesh, with the justification being that they're trying to use it for good).

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​Now that I think of it, how are anti-paladins' restrictions handled? Are they just considered a Paladin? Can they continue to use Carsomyr, for example?

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In other news, a new version with a few bug fixes and minor item cost changes (mostly relating to price oddities of some the prices of the Joluv special items) will probably be coming out within the next couple of weeks. Nothing major, but I am working on it.

Could you also fix the issue that some descriptions state "Damage: 2D4" (note the CAPITAL D) instead of "Damage: 2d4" (note the lower case d)?

 

​All items use the capital D for dice rolls. It was the style in vanilla, and I always thought it looked better than the lowercase style (and as a sort of semi-abbreviation, it makes sense that it's uppercase). As for the ordinary items having descriptions, I think that's inherited from vanilla IR. Is there any reason to change it?

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​@Arthas: I mean, I've put a lot of work into it, but Demi et. al. have put much more into the mod than I have. IRR is more a giant collection of fixes, tweaks, and small additions - probably around 95-96% of the mod is still work that the original creators, not I, did. Anyways, it's not really my decision...and also, there are people (likely the majority, in fact!) that are sticking by normal IR for various reasons. However, I am happy you feel that way nonetheless!

For those playing on BG(2):EE, please let me know if any usabilities are wrong for any of the new classes/kits. I think there's a new Blackguard paladin kit or something, right? They probably shouldn't be able to use items that are usable by other paladins, and I think they probably currently can, so that should be fixed.

​Sorry! Because I only have semi-permission to distribute it (and only the files that I changed - not the entirety of IR), and because it requires a changed install order in regards to 1pp, I'm not really sure that it can be made to work with the BWS in the normal sense. Unfortunately, I can only recommend my instructions in the original post for installing it with the BWS as of this time.

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​In other news, a new version with a few bug fixes and minor item cost changes (mostly relating to price oddities of some the prices of the Joluv special items) will probably be coming out within the next couple of weeks. Nothing major, but I am working on it.

Yeah, it wasn't like it was in the primary component as part of the spell changes ... ouh cheese, it was. Yes, it's not a secret that the Spell Rev does spell changes where the saves more reflect the 5ed D&D rules rather than the 2ed's... where thieves can dodge fireballs more easily, with higher saves vs breath. Yeah, it's no longer save vs. spell, but a save vs breath. If memory serves.

​I did not know they were changed for a very long time. The changes are not mentioned - nevermind fully described - in the readme. I only knew because I went through all of main_component.tpa and noticed them rather inconspicuously sitting at the bottom.

​Hmm. I guess anything using the greater than or less than symbol will have to be replaced, then. Thanks for letting me know.

SR "silently" (i.e. without documentation, last I checked) installs revised saves tables for all classes as well as Gnomes and Dwarves. I have implemented an .ini option to disable that in my own version of SR, but if you want to disable it yourself and prevent them from being installed, navigate to your spell_rev\components\main_component.tpa, go down to the bottom of the file to "REVISED SAVES", and delete the "COPY ~spell_rev_revised_saves[...]" lines, and then (re)install SR's main component.

No version of IRR is in the BWS AFAIK, since it's not a normal mod package. The latest version of my 1pp fixes should be included in the BWS through the Fixpack, though.

​Lightning Bolt should be 1D6 per level, not 1D8, so it would seem to be correct.

​EE or non-EE? I do not have this problem on non-EE.

The spells themselves exist, but the scrolls do not - ergo, the only way to get them in-game without additional modding is to cheat them into your spellbook.

​I think it blocking the entire spell is a bad idea unless you make the AI realize that a caster has Fire Shield and that it's an obviously bad idea to target them with an insect spell. Additionally, I like the organic component of the insects being able to recognize that maybe going straight into a giant wall of flame isn't really the best idea, so instead Fire Shield protects the person with Fire Shield, but not anyone else the two higher level spells might have otherwise spread to.

​The problem is that Fire Shield protects from the primary spell (i.e. if you cast an insects spell directly on the Fire Shielded character, it blocks the entire spell), but it doesn't block the secondary spell (i.e. if it's cast on another character and it spreads to the Fire Shielded character), when it PROBABLY should do the latter instead of the former.

Vanilla Deva: 3D6 +3 crushing weapon with an undead-slaying that occurred 100% of the time at a -4 saving throw vs. death, along with some deafness, feeblemindedness, and stunning effects

Vanilla Fallen Deva: 2D10 + 3 slashing weapon that had a 25% chance of causing instant death to anyone at a -2 saving throw vs. death (along with the deafness and feeblemindedness effects)

SR Deva: 1D10 + 3 crushing weapon that has an undead-slaying effect that occurs 100% of the time but with a vs. spells at no penalty saving throw, and a 50% 2 round stun effect at 0 penalty vs. spell saving throw.

SR Fallen Deva: 1D8 + 3 slashing weapon that also has a 1D6 fire and 1 damage per round for 5 rounds poison effect.

Definitely a big nerf in terms of weaponry.

Vanilla Planetars: 2D10 + 3 slashing weapon that had a 25% chance of a no-save dispel effect, and a instant-slaying effect that occurs 25% at a -2 death penalty.

SR Planetars: 2D6 + 3 slashing weapon with an instant-slaying effect that occurs 15% at a -2 death penalty.

So also a nerf in terms of weaponry. It wouldn't be too hard to create a switch in settings.ini that has alternative weapons that swap out the vorpal effect for something else, though, for those who really hate a bunch of vorpal effects being around all of the time.

No, your case is correct, Daxtreme - they are supposed to be using the dv- weapons. The two weapons you're looking for are DVPLANGW and DVPLANEW, and you want to remove all extended effects on the item ability (as all three for both are to do with the Vorpal property). You open up the item, you go to edit (to the right of "view" at the top), then you go down to the "item ability", and then you can delete the three "Effect"s at the very bottom.