Salk

Okay, it should be fixed locally now. Oh yes, I understand. I still prefer the way it is now, actually... It is a valid point. I should have to test "in the field" about how a partial resistance works against a single point of poison damage. I checked NI and the spider bite is inflicting 2 or 3 points of poison damage (SPIDG1.ITM, SPIDHU.ITM). In theory, a 50% resistance here would already be useful. Here is an enlarged screenshot. I think the circle is more or less in a right position. The spider's long but almost invisible legs might give the wrong impression about how off centered the circle is.

DavidW, there is a minor incompatibility between my own mod WTP Familiars and SCS' default thac0_tolerance. What happens is that it "corrects" a legit THAC0 of 17 for the Quasit, changing it to 19. I guess it's because it is a level 1 creature. Does SCS have an exclusion list? In that case, you'd need to add "wtpquasi" to it. The default thac0_tolerance of 6 seems rather high anyway. With 2, the problem does not occur. If nothing can be done about it, I guess the only solution is to recommend installation of the WTP Familiars mod after SCS. Thanks and good luck with SCS v31!

qwerty1234567, can you elaborate what you meant above with 'has "save versus spell' when walking in his own web'? I equipped the spider with ANTIWEB.ITM which should render it immune to his own and others' webs. I have already changed the Web to be innate, casting speed 0 but I am not so sure about the single target. Poison resistance has been fixed. Now it gains 2% every level, starting with 50% at level 1. I prefer that to having a 100% immunity from the very start. It is true that poison resistance is not as important as fire or cold but it is still something. And as I mentioned, there has been some changes to improve the warrior-class based familiars. I was waiting for someone to test my last version before making it public but I never heard from him for months. That's why there is no link to version 1.8, About the selection circle being completely off position, I am baffled... I have no idea what might be causing that. Never happened to me but then again, I had done only limited testing. I like the idea of making the spider acquire the abilities of a more powerful spider. I will think about it... I will see what I can do about Mac/Linux compatibility. Thanks again for the feedback!

Thanks for the feedback and interesting suggestions! There are two familiars (Imp, Pseudodragon) that grant a small Magic Resistance to charname if within the appropriate range. That comes from PnP lore. The version you played is not the last one. 1.8 has some novelties that raise warrior class inspired familiars (Spider, Dust Mephit, Quasit) odds to survive fights. Said that, they won't ever and should never be as effective as a 7th party member in the field. They are familiars... I will take a look at the bugs you reported. I truly appreciate you took the time to inform me about them.

leat09.itm seems to have wrong usability flags (FIGHTER and FIGHTER/THIEF cannot wear it)

Also, the Obsidian Stone drains a fixed amount of HP. The character wearing it might go under 0 and still go around happily. I would change the current effect 17 with effect 12, stunning damage, with a set% of 75.

A bit unfair?

Is Item Revisions changing usability for the Shield of the Order so that only clerics and paladins can use it? The description erroneously reports it to be usable by fighters.

Lich or demilich? Not sure. I have taken note of a few .cre before installing Smarter Mages and Smarter Priests. One .cre that was not modified was Cultist (CLTCUT01) that remained 10/10 but he is a Cleric/Mage and you said that the level_scale .ini settings won't affect those. The same happened with a Fighter/Mage though: Githyanki (UDGITH02) was level 11/11 and remained so. If I can be of any help with some testing, just let me know!

Hello DavidW! First of all, welcome back to us. Since I read in the SR forum that you are going to release a new version, I take the opportunity to tell you that the mage_level_scale/mage_level_add and priest_level_scale/priest_level_add customization seem to have a few problems: for one thing, changing the value from the default will cause a few errors at installation time (Smarter Mages and Smarter Priests). In my case, these are the errors: This one happens when installing Smarter Mages: ERROR: cannot convert caster_level_to_spell_level_mage_0 or %caster_level_to_spell_level_mage_0% to an integer ERROR: [KOBSCR01.CRE] -> [override/KOBSCR01.CRE] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found) Stopping installation because of error. Failed to patch KOBSCR01.CRE; error message was Not_found Failed to patch KOBSCR01.CRE; error message was Not_found Two more similar errors happen again, this time for Smarter Priests: ERROR: cannot convert caster_level_to_spell_level_cleric_0 or %caster_level_to_spell_level_cleric_0% to an integer ERROR: [bRATHL.CRE] -> [override/BRATHL.CRE] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found) Stopping installation because of error. Failed to patch BRATHL.CRE; error message was Not_found Failed to patch BRATHL.CRE; error message was Not_found ERROR: cannot convert caster_level_to_spell_level_cleric_0 or %caster_level_to_spell_level_cleric_0% to an integer ERROR: [PRIHEL.CRE] -> [override/PRIHEL.CRE] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found) Stopping installation because of error. Failed to patch PRIHEL.CRE; error message was Not_found Failed to patch PRIHEL.CRE; error message was Not_found ERROR: cannot convert caster_level_to_spell_level_cleric_0 or %caster_level_to_spell_level_cleric_0% to an integer ERROR: [sAHPRI02.CRE] -> [override/SAHPRI02.CRE] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found) Stopping installation because of error. Failed to patch SAHPRI02.CRE; error message was Not_found Failed to patch SAHPRI02.CRE; error message was Not_found Other than that, there is a problem with multiclasses. The customization correctly changes the level of the mage and cleric class but at the same time overwrites with the same new number the second and third class as well. For example, Ribald is a Figher/Mage with originally classes 16/14/1. Afterwards, it became 10/10/10. (mage_level_scale and priest_level_scale were set to 65% and 85% respectively, if I remember correctly). I noticed that some .cre do not have their level modified at all (I can think of Kangaxx, for example) and Sendai has its level raised (!) (from 20/20 to 26/22). Is that normal? Also, one other thing: somebody in 2009 reported this BGT issue which I also experienced recently. Some creature responding to enemy shout will break their initiating the dialogue. plainab offered a code which I am testing in my current playthrough but perhaps you can do something on your end? Thanks for your attention and godspeed with V31!

Welcome back, K4thos! And good luck for further employment!

Several months passed and we can hardly see the end of the (1PP) tunnel but this solution, proposed by Bartimaeus, seems to me viable and not as time consuming. He has reported a rather detailed feedback about the graphical incompatibilities and the list was short. Demi and Mike1072 seem to have (had) very little time to dedicate to this. I might try and take a shot at it but I am not sure I could pull it off nicely and I'd need some more expert modder to check my code but so far helping hands have been scarce. The waning interest and the low modding activity level does not help either.

Today I installed the SR version of SCS and for the first time I used the auto installer. At the end of the installation I got the Smarter Mages and Smarter Priests (Option 5 for both) installed successfully but with warnings. I quickly glanced through the .debug file looking for "WARNING" but I did not seem to find anything. Anyone that has got the same feedback?

Nice! Hi demi! We need Resurrection here...

One simple question: to remove the night-time purple/blue patches should I choose option 2?

The various ETAs here have not historically been a success. You are better off not knowing...

I am not even sure I understand why you wanted to make the spell innate. How did you reason?

I will have to see if changing Find Familiar to Innate messes up compatibility with my own WTP Familiars and I am not thrilled at the idea that the mod will be further developed only for EE game but happy to see a new release and kreso's revised SCS.

I am working on the next version and I have already introduced Empowerment for thief and warrior class familiars (a boost to AC and STs for the first and AC, THAC0 and HPs for the latter, if master and familiar are close) and Spell bounce for the mage class (chance for the familiar to mirror the effects of personal protective spells, if master and familiar are close). The Quasit, Dust Mephit and Spider are also now immune to Critical Hits, to make them less fragile in combat. Initially I had removed those immunities that the familiars had in the original game (IMMCLOUD.ITM) because rather arbitrary: Level Drain, Petrification and Sleep but I am considering putting those back, especially because I am unsure whether a level drain susceptible familiar might cause problems. Thoughts?

Bartimaeus, I have gone through a number of your reports and fixed myself those that were real easy (text inconsistencies, missing saves, etc.). We'll just have to wait for Demi to return to have a proper new Beta...

Hello Mike1072! I understand that minimod is messy and it probably needs someone that knows better but at least it seemed to make things look better for me so I left it there for anyone to try (not that I think anyone has ever done it...). But the icon changes have to do with appearance... The idea was to restore the BG1 look for BG1 items when possible... Bartimaeus, if I am not mistaken it seems that the "Contagious" ability of the Spear of Withering has a 100% probability, rather than the 15% of the description? Also about your "Sling of Seeking +1" report: I do see a correct To Hit bonus of 7 in the item properties. Instead about the Spider's Boots of Stealth: Demi restored the original boots properties (I think) without reverting the item description. Personally, I instead kept the new description and lore and reintroduced the Web Immunity. The most urgent correction would be just this and Arbane's Sword. The fact that the Hastening effect is completely missing and replaced with a similar special ability (Haste) cannot be overlooked.

Bartimaeus, I reported the troubles with IR a long time ago the first time but things did not change since then. I have worked my own remedy and if you are playing BGT you may want to give it a try. By the way, great stuff with your feedback. If you have made your own fixes, would you mind sharing? Thanks!

If I may suggest another mod of mine (see signature), you might find it is a nice way to limit the number of reloads. Anyway, I will for sure implement the immunity to critical hits for the fighter class familiars, as you suggested. The other suggestion I do like is the share spell feat for specific spells but I do not know whether or not I am capable of coding it myself. What instead won't surely happen is to revert the Familiars to the original ones for BG2/ToB or the removing of the nagging (which is, in my opinion, a key point). But as I said, I will return to this eventually!

Hello Siebenfinger! Excellent feedback, as usual. And a few good suggestions, too. I did know, creating this modification, that it needed thorough testing through BG2/ToB, something that I have not truly done myself, just because, like you said, player and NPCs/Monsters become demigods. To strike a good balance between plausible survival skills for the familiars and the new familiar mechanics that would suit the enemies on steroids was going to be real hard. Especially if you use SCS' tactical challenges. I hate reloading (in fact, I play without it myself) but if you really make the game very challenging for yourself then it is pretty much normal that your familiar is not going to survive. There is only so much that I can do to not make the familiar itself ridiculously overpowered. As I said though, there are a few good ideas there. And more might come to me as well once I return to it, which is not going to happen in the very near future though. Oh and I love the details! So thanks again!

Hello Siebenfinger! Thanks for the great feedback. I will take a better look at each of your reports when I will be back to IE modding. At the moment, my focus is elsewhere.