subtledoctor

Sorry to belabor this, but which SCS component is the problem? Is it between aTweaks PnP Elementals/PnP Fiends and SCS General AI? Or is it to fo with the more specialized SCS componebts like “Smarter Fiends” etc.? SCS has a lot of components so it is worth being specific.

looks like it.

I hear you @suy. And I’m not sure we really disagree very much. I mostly do tweak modding and I have very much felt the sting of inadequate ALTER_/CLONE_EFFECT functions, and I try to stay away from GET_OFFSET_ARRAY as much as possible because it is annoying. So I do not mean to defend Weidu as a designed solution for this work. The biggest difference between you and me is that I have no programming background, so it doesn’t occur to me to think “X is better than Weidu.” And I fully understand that informs my bias. But I (naively, perhaps) don’t think that means we are “stuck with” Weidu. Seems to me, if there were Infinity Engine libraries in… Python or Ruby or whatever the kids use these days - maybe a modder could perform file manipulations in Python and drop the files in a temp directory. Then wrap that in a Weidu installation script that copies the files from /temp to /override. Now newer mods could be made with better/easier tools, old mods would still work, Weidu itself could be used for DLG patching, and install logs and backups/uninstallation would still work.

This is a problem with a secondary function, not with the language itself. GET_OFFSET_ARRAY was designed for just this kind of example. It seems you are trying to use a hammer to drive in a screw. Considering you admittedly don’t have experience with this, and the language is literally called Weimer’s Dialogue Utility (IIRC) I’m not sure what the source of your skepticism is. The file formats of IE assets are well-mapped; I feel like you could use any language to do basic file patching. But what language is equipped to create dialogue interjections in a quest or NPC mod? Or modify cut-scene scripts?

You could try this, it has user-configurable settings to set up armor exactly how you want.

Yeah dude this is definitely one of the best mods out there for BGEE. And I must say, I SO appreciate that you don't flood the game with OP equipment. My current game is at the end of BG1 right now (about to go finish Black Hearts ) and I have a bunch of wildly strong stuff -- it is actually harming game balance and making it less fun. Some of the more popular modders out there really cannot control themselves when it comes to weapons... but Black Hearts has been great.

Honestly, I question the premise. I don’t know that Weidu really needs a “successor.” Weidu started very simply: allow multiple mods to patch dialog.tlk sequentially. Tack on some basic file-editing operations and you have a mod installer. Any replacement would still need to have sequential .tlk changes and sequential file patches/overwrites, and would need to parse existing .tp2 scripts. So the replacement, under the hood, would need to look a lot like Weidu. And I don’t see a ton of daylight between a nice GUI that looks like Weidu under the hood, and a nice GUI mod manager front-end that actually uses Weidu under the hood. Like PI or Argent77’s Weidu Installer. These tools already exist and have a head start; seems more productive to put effort into perfecting them, rather than creating a ground-up replacement.

I have updated the mod to version 2.8, with two changes: First, a small compatibility fix for the Magic Bolt cantrip. Second and more substantially, I have added an experimental capability to the Revised Invisibility component. Now, when invisible, you will be able to perform a backstab on your next attack without needing to position yourself behind the target - you can "backstab" from in front of your target. It is magical invisibility, after all! (Note, when merely hiding using the nonmagical thief skill, you will still only be able to backstab from behind your target. You need to, in fact, be hidden from their awareness.) Anyone with magical invisibility detection (e.g. op193 from the Detect Invisible and True Seeing spells) will be immune to backstabs. Cheers!

Maybe... "Sohei Warrior?" That was an actual term for Buddhist warrior-monks of the Kamakura era in Japan. Realistically, the vanilla Kensai should have been called "Sohei" and a kit like this should be called "Kensei." (Or, quite possibly, I should have had this kit replace the vanilla Kensai instead of being an alternative to it. Believe me, I wanted to do that. I think this is a better Kensai. But, oh my lord, could you imagine the howling if I took away the unarmored "just-getting-ready-to-dual-to-mage" kit with its cheesy AC and attack bonuses? My ears hurt just thinking about it.) Thank you, I see what this issue is (they changed the way deflection spells work in patch 2.5 or so) and it will be fixed in the next release. Speaking of the Weaponmaster/Samurai/Sohei, maybe instead of the Mage Hunter getting Breaching Touch and Minor Deflection as individual per-day innates, maybe I should set up a suite of anti-mage abilities and let them use a ki point pool as well. I'm sure I can come up with a couple other cool anti-caster abilities that would be useful. Something causing temporary silence or deafness, probably. (Make it a touch-range spell, like you box their ears or attack their throat, or something.) Maybe something to see through invisibility?

Yeah, totally. I think what I am going to do is: I already have a mod that changes the mechanics of invisibility, to make it a bit more straightforward. I will set it such that when hiding a thief or ranger will have to position behind someone to backstab (as usual). But when invisible you can facestab i.e. backstab from any angle. Because invisibility should be better than just hiding!

Yes, use SpellRES() and ForceSpellRES() for nonjoinable creatures. You really only should use ADD_SPELL for spells that you want player-character sorcerers to have access to.

Thanks for the heads-up! I’ll look into these. Thanks. I also don’t love the “Samurai” name, it is too culturally specific to me. OTOH it is clearly the inspiration for this kit, which is meant to show off my ‘ki pool’ function. The “Weaponmaster” name addresses the kit’s focus on a single weapon, but is extremely generic and doesn’t imply anything about ki powers. I am really struggling to come up with a name that is descriptive but not cringy.

Conversations about kitting NPCs seem so weird to me… there is obviously no right answer. Why lock something in ahead of time when SCS/NPC_EE allow you to choose according to your whim in each game? EDIT - since when did Artemius vic my kit name?? Not cool…

Good catch, thanks!

Excellent.

Interesting. Never used it. But, if it only needs to be detected by scripts, why not just use a local variable?

Oh, I didn’t think above Vocalize failing. Was really thinking about a round of deafness after Vocalize. Welp, that rules this idea out.

Good points about that extra Brandock component, I will install it later in my next game. In the meantime, there does not (yet?) seem to be any harm done. Brandock can properly create scrolls at Firehose Elvenknuckles' house, everything seems to be working fine. Update: I think the issue here is, you will only run into the bad guys at night. I went to the Drakon Tavern during the day and there was no sign of anyone, making me think there was a bug. I happened to go later and it all progressed properly. So no bugs there, just maybe wants a better journal entry. I flew through Candlekeep, didn't bother fighting Rieltar, then veered to Durlag's Tower on the way out. Seems like a good time. As usual, while passing through Ulgoth's Beard I thought about going to Balduran's Dog Run Island, but then I was like heck no, not doing that. I was pleased to see Brandock still has some content happening at this late stage. Breagar left some things in a dramatic state - his rival was moving to complete the task he had failed at, and steal his beloved! But I have not see anything progress. Dunno if that is something that gets resolved in BG1, or is setting up the SoD/BG2 content. I have half a mind to bring Jaheira and Khalid back on board for the end of BG1 and the final confrontation with Sarevok, just for story reasons. But I'm not sure who they would replace. Sirene and... Breagar? Neera? I kind of want to see all of Breagar and Neera's content. So maybe not - figure, J&K are off doing their own investigating, and I will see them later on in SoD. So, on to confront the many, many figurative and literal ghosts of Durlag Trollkiller. Then I'll wrap up BG1 pretty quick (barring intervention by Illasera - I expect there are one or two more things to be done for Black Hearts)

How crazy would it be to let 'Remove Paralysis' counter Slow, as well as actual paralysis? Slow is super strong: saving throw penalty unusual for this level combat penalties plus slower attacks slower casting speed plus reduced mobility is crippling for casters The only counters for it, if I'm not mistaken, are: Haste (only available to mages) Dispel Magic (not certainly to be successful) Free Action (higher level, single-target) EDIT - actually Break Enchantment does as well (also higher level, single-target) Admittedly in my game I have replaced Dispel Magic so I have fewer counters for Slow. So that may be coloring my thinking. Still, this doesn't seem unreasonable to me? Remove Paralysis brings some utility that Haste doesn't (counters Hold) but also lacks some major utility that Haste brings (pound for pound maybe the best buff in the game).

I have made a pull request for version 4b19, with three fixes: changed the op232 terms in Sleep so the wake-on-hit works reliably changed the op232 terms in the AS1 bat weapons when enhanced by Magic Fang, so it doe not crash the game added an IF_EXISTS condition to the Mirror Image Fix component, so that it will install even if it does not find SPPR951D.itm I think those are the only three outstanding issues I can find mention of around here. I am technically a maintainer of the Github repo, but it seems kind of crass to accept ones' own pull request? Maybe. @Mike1072 @Bartimaeus @grodrigues if you want to take a look at it feel free. The changes are really extremely small. If everything looks good, and if there are not any other major issues to sort out, my inclination is to put this out as 4b19 RC5, and maybe even as the official 4b19. And maaaybe even as a proper v4.0? I see so many people using 4b18 (or even 3.1, the "official" version) and there have been sooo many fixes. Player should get the benefit of those fixes.

I know this is a year old but I happened upon it and it struck me: PW:Silence really is a bit underpowered against mages - specifically against SCS mages who almost always have Vocalize at the ready. Would it be crazy to attach something like a 2- or 3-round Deafness effect in addition to the 1-turn Silence effect? The idea being, PW:Silence assaults your senses with magical silence, and even if you counter it immediately it still leaves you a bit unbalanced for another 1-2 rounds. (If you don't counter it immediately, then this is irrelevant because the effects of Deafness are completely subsumed by the effects of Silence.) Would that be wildly unbalancing? Yes, I believe so. All missiles. I have played through the game with SR 4b19 installed and did not get such a crash. SR doesn't really do enough, to my knowledge, to cause a crash upon loading an area. That sounds like on of the creatures present in the area has something illegal going on. Or else something about the area script. Hard to troubleshoot... though uninstalling/reinstalling the mod mid-game to test the area is not ideal. EDIT - I just CLUA jumped to those two areas in my current game with SR 4b19 installed, and no crashes. I see it, an off-by-one error with the Animal Summoning 1 bats when affected by Magic Fang.

Does anyone know whether these opcodes can be stacked or applied multiple times? If I have a melee hit effect from a spell with opcode 248 that applies Panic with each hit, and then I put on a helm that applies opcode 248 with extra fire damage against trolls, or something... does the latter one invalidate the earlier one? When I attack a troll, will the troll be subject to both panic and fire damage? Or just fire damage? Ditto for op340 backstab effects and op183 item-dependent effects, if anyone has any clue about the answer...

Cripes, I never thought of this, it's genius!. I never really put much thought at all into backstabs, because I barely ever bother to backstab, because... well you get it. I put a small amount of effort into this in one mod, adding custom op340 backstab effects for select kits. But a larger overhaul of the whole system may be worth doing. In fact, my current 'Revised Invisibility' mod has a slight problem with backstabbing, due to a bit of swapping between proper invisibility and the Sanctuary state (and IIRC Sanctuary does not allow backstabs). This facestab mechanism is just the thing to fix it! I miiight have to borrow this concept...

UI first. Ascension early. I know nothing about EEex, it doesn't work on my platforms. In other news: I just did a quick install of EET, IWD1_EET, IWD2_EET, and NWNforBG. And it turns out that, while the NWN mod is like 3 or 4 GB large, it only adds a about 12,000 files to /override. That would take my install from ~120,000 files to ~132,000 files. And the override folder from ~6.5 GB to 9.5 GB. On the mobile platform, I'm not sure which of those things hit performance hardest. If file count matters more, then adding the NWN campaign should be pretty much fine on my platfom. If total size of the override folder matters more, then a 40% increase will probably make the game unplayable. Hmmm,,, Well, it's worth a try at least. I was thinking about making this install my "final BG2 install" and just leaving it on the iPad. But it looks like I've got one more try ahead of me in 2024... Not til after this game is over though. Then maybe I'll make that connective mod bridging the IWD and NWN campaigns, and make that the next one I play.

Admittedly I play the game with the sound off... are inventory sounds tied to item type?? Non-joinable NPCS and other creatures are modified to make sure their proficiencies account for these changes. So that is not an issue. There is an option to not change any weapon item types... near the top of d5_fnp_settings.ini. Change it to 1, and all clerics will be able to equip and use all weapons, and only their proficiency options will be determined by kit. (This is like the old "Ashes of Embers" change, if you remember that... it simplifies things on a technical level, though of course it can have balance repercussions unless you exercise self-control...) You can modify that document and put it in your override folder before installing anything, and your settings will work even with mod managers that may re-download or overwrite mod folders.